Welcome, World - What A Ceremony!

I can't remember the last time I sat in front of the TV for three hours - perhaps watching one of the Lord of the Rings movies - but I did it tonight, and was captivated. Along with my 14-year-old son, Peter, we watched entranced as the amazing, and sometimes breathtaking, Opening Ceremony unfolded. From Greece to Canada, we watched as the athletes and coaches paraded through BC Place (which was transformed from a concrete balloon into an amazing chameleon throughout).

I'm no longer much of a TV watcher and haven't watched an Olympic opening for a long time; that said, tonight's was quite possibly the most amazing piece of theatre it's been my pleasure to watch - ever. From the first moments, watching the snowboarder carve his way down the mountain and into the stadium through the Olympic rings, to Rick Hansen and his cohorts lighting the cauldron, we sat ooh-ing and aah-ing.

The march of the athletes was fun, and turned into a geography lesson for a Grade 9 student who didn't know what the Soviet Union used to be (it's hard to believe it didn't exist any longer when he was born). We cheered when the huge Canadian team finally made their entrance, a proud Canadian and his immigrant dad, just as proud of the country I now call home.

The cultural segment in the middle was a real eye-opener - knowing how cheesy and kitschy these events can sometimes (often?) be, I had low expectations... Wow, were they blown away or what? Quite amazing lights and graphics led us through from the North to the Prairies (underpinned by Joni Mitchell's ageless talent). The punk fiddlers and the punk poet (Shane Koyczan) whose creation was just so Canadian; the peerless Sarah McLachlan and the quite amazing rendition of Hallelujah by kd lang, who has one of the greatest singing voices ever. It's so hard to recall the details, there was so much to see.

The Olympic flag ceremony and the minute's silence for Nodar Kumaritashvili were emotional moments handled with tact and grace. It was great to see Betty Fox alongside Senator Romeo Dallaire and Bobby Orr. I loved Donald Sutherland's voiceovers during the cultural segment.

Finally, the flame arrived and the only hiccough of the evening when one of the crystal pillars failed to rise, causing a short delay and unfortunately preventing Rick Hansen from taking part in lighting the cauldron alongside Catriona Le May Doan, Steve Nash, Senator Nancy Greene Raine and Wayne Gretzky. Overall, though, a quite stunning demonstration of the great talent and skill we have in this country.

And then I got back to my trusty MacBook to find 200 tweets - some of my co-bloggers really do need to get a life!!!

It's clear that my amazement at the quality and sheer energy exhibited by the performers, and the talent who designed the event, is fairly universal from all the tweets I read. Let's hope, Canada, that the rest of the world recognizes what great talent we have here. And that we Canadians, from wherever we have come, open our hearts and offer our hands to the thousands of visitors to our country and our city.

Originally posted February 12, 2010