Thoughts on the Winter Olympic opening ceremony
Live-blogged so please forgive any errors. (I'm going to have a quick glance over and try to remove the worst.)
Is it really called the Fish Stadium? It sounds like it's called the Fish Stadium.
We seem to be having some sound problems, which is a shame. (Note from the future - this continued throughout the ceremony, thankfully fairly sporadically. No idea if it was due to mixing in the feed being sent internationally, the sound in the stadium itself, or just a problem with the BBC.)
I like this Russian Alphabet section. It's interesting to hear the actual names of these letters too - I just made up my own in the summer when we were there. For example Ю, Yu, was "Enterprise". And cool hearing the Russian pronunciation of the names I know in Anglicised form like Sputnik, Chekhov, Eisenstein. actually, I changed my pronunciation of Chekhov after I studied him whilst in Finland, as their transliteration was Tšehov and I figured that was probably a more accurate way to pronounce it.
I don't know why they had Я for Россия. Well, except it mean the alphabet ended with Russia. It's a bit of a cheat though. Like alphabet posters which have "fox" for X.
Haha. "Adin" is Russian for one - except Russian has three different forms of the word one. And two of two. I think from then on it was only one each.
Our commentator has pointed out that whilst a Russian was one of the pioneers of television, it *was* a Scot who transmitted the first pictures. (Guess the nationality of our commentator ;0)
I predict that this ceremony will have really, really beautiful music. If there's one thing Russian culture has given to the world, it's some really rather magical classical music.
This is beautiful, her flying through the air. I love the way the land is floating by her too, that's very clever.
"And as the snow whirls all around, keep your eyes on the big flakes". Why? Are.... oh! Those big flakes. The ones becoming the Olympic rings. Except the fifth one which has got stuck, oops. (I thought she meant the flakes that were falling and was quite confused.) "In London we forged the Olympic rings, I think that's what you call a fast freeze weld."
I feel sorry for them about that fifth snowflake not opening properly. When I think about how often we used that image of the glowing hot rings. (Oooh. Interesting.)
Putin, boooooooo. (I'm slightly disappointed that there weren't boos for Putin but I suppose the audience are probably mostly Russian.)
I love the Russian national anthem, musically. And why am I not surprised to learn it was Putin who restored the Soviet anthem to them.
Oooh, I like this pretty light bit to make the flag. I mean, you can't help but feel a bit nervous by such overt displays of Russian patriotism - but I do think it's allowed at the opening ceremony to their own Olympic Games.
Aah, maybe the reason there's no booing is because the stadium is half empty? I thought I'd seen empty seats earlier.
Oooh, I LOVE the waving flag. That's really cool.
So it was cosmonauts who raised the flag, that makes sense. I wondered about the patches on their arms - I presume that was the Russian (or CCCP) space programme logo on the right arm. I thought the patch might show which (modern) country they were from, because I'm not convinced they were all Russian flags. But I wasn't looking that closely, and really it would make more sense to use actual Russians.
I do think the torch is pretty. And the tracksuits for torchbearers is actually prettier than the ones we used.
How did they keep the torch alight underwater? Wtf? Although this torch really was SUCH a display to the world of Russian might. Look how strong we are - we can take the flame to the top of the world, the bottom of the deepest lake and even into space.
Oooooh, now THIS is pretty. What a beautiful way to introduce the nations with outlines of the countries. (Although again, I can't help but read it politically as a reminder of which nation is still going into space. Not that I can begrudge them that, as it does make me sad that in the west we're abandoning manned space exploration. (See this highly relevant XKCD strip.)
So it *is* called the Fish stadium. Well, Fisht. Fish stadium!
Only 88 nations? This should be quicker.
That's a larger Aussie team than I'd have expected. 60 - I think that's two more than we have. I guess that like us they'll be more about ice sports than snow sports?
One of the things I find interesting in the Winter Olympics is the strength of nations not traditionally associated with strength in sport. Austria being a case in point. (But then I would think that, because they're not good at sports we're good at - because we're rubbish at winter sports. And we've never owned them, so they haven't learnt cricket and rugby.)
I'm surprised Azerbaijan has such a small team. I suppose it is quite far south.
Albania's black scarves are nice.
See, this is my point about non-traditional nations. Andorra (oooh, I like your jumpers Andorra! Nice Scandi knits.) have, what, 6? 8 people? That's about a tenth of the population.
Argentina appear to have gone all out on their uniforms. Looks like they went to Millets and picked up a few black jackets then shoved some patches on.
5 from the British Virgin Islands!? Oh, I see. It looks like only one of them is actually an athlete.
I wanted to go down to the Belarussian border when we were in Lithuania in the summer - we were *so close* to the the bit where Poland, Belarus and Lithuania meet. But it wasn't practical.
Ha. So Belgium has loads of skiing trails in the Ardennes (who knew?) and yet none of their 7 athletes are cross country skiers.
Bermuda shorts :0D That's brave in February. (It was brave in London, to be honest. I still can't believe it didn't rain on the opening ceremony.)
I wonder which host country has had the most "we used to rule you" countries appearing. I suppose we're pretty guilty of that. But in a rather different way to all the different Soviet countries
I'll bet eyes in Brazil are very much on Sochi and its unpreparedness, in a "ok, we're not quite ready for the World Cup yet, but we just have to do better than Russia and we'll be fine" way. (Erm, I made this comment earlier in the day before the news broke that a stadium worker in Brazil died today. :0/ )
Great Britain! Yay! Our outfits are boring and sort of ugly (ugh, shiny fabric), but I like the shade of red on the hoods. Go us! 56 athletes and lets be honest, I'll be happy if we can manage 3 medals. A gold would be nice.
Wow, he's very bouncey, carrying the... something flag.
Haha, US Virgin Islands have fewer people than the British. (Although, I think both only have one competitor.)
Yay Germany! "Faster, higher, gaudier" the Olympic motto being rewritten tonight. And a suggestion that the colours are to represent the Olympic rings. Yeeeeah, that's totally why they're walking around in rainbow coats. They're actually kind of pretty. I like them with the white trousers a lot more than with the red.
I do love the Hong Kong flag, it's pretty.
I'm genuinely slightly surprised that Georgia have sent a team to the games.
(The Danish flag carrier is really pretty. Lene Nielsen.) What, Denmark have only ever won one medal? I mean, I know that they're the flat, non-snowy Scandiwegian country but still. Even we have more medals than that. Even Dutchieland has more medals than that. Our commentator suggested that she had hoped they'd come out in Sarah Lund jumpers. I'm disappointed too.
Dominca's jackets are nice. I can imagine those being sold in shops.
Lol! I bet Zimbabwe have never been so early in before. Oh Cyrillic alphabet, you so wacky.
Wow, Ireland's outfits are HIDEOUS. Vomit-green.
Iceland also have a surprisingly small team (wow, no medals at all). I suppose it is a very small nation.
By the usual pattern, this should be the year Italy's medals drop off - you're meant to be good the year before and year after you host the games. So in theory, Italy should be slipping down a bit now. (Note that I have no idea how well they did in Turin, but I'm assuming it was better than usual.)
I like the traditional outfit being worn by Kazakhstan's flagbearer.
Wow, Cayman islands in shorts and sandals. That's properly hardcore.
Canada - biggest team so far? I think it looks bigger than Germany's. I like their jackets.
I don't like the outfits worn by the women escorting the teams. They're weird. The circles around their torsos look very odd.
Kyrgyzstan, my favourite former Soviet Republic just because it's a great Pointless answer. (I've used it for "countries with only one vowel in their name" as well as "countries ending in -stan". Everyone always forgets Kyrgyzstan.
Who's this? I like their scarves. Oooh, Latvia. (I was on the phone.)
Countries you didn't expect to see at the Winter Olympics #27: Lebanon. (Mmm, Lebanese food.)
Wow, Lithuania have gone very neon. "That probably is the brightest outfit we're going to see tonight." What? Where were you when Germany came out? You could see those from Moscow. You could probably see them from Mir.
Did you know that the other Baltic states tease Lithuania by calling it "Africa". The country is sort of the same shape as Africa, but more to the point their flag is yellow-green-red, colours usually seen in African flags.
Liechtenstein (another great Pointless answer) have very 90s tracksuit tops.
4 African countries compete here. Interesting.
Oh, I forgot India was suspended. So all the independent athletes are Indian. (I liiiiike her fluffy waistcoat. Want!)
Nepal need to be at every event ever, just to have a reason to fly their awesome flag.
Hi Dutchies! Your outfits would make you fit in nicely in this orange-and-black city. (One of the cities with the closest Anglo-Dutch ties and we have a football team who play in orange. Coincidence?)
Wowww, 1/3 of Norway's medals have been golds? Also wow, your hats are ugly. Flat caps made of silver pleather? Who thought that was a good idea. (Our commentator said that Norway have won the most medals ever but Guido thinks it's Germany. We checked and it's sort of both. United Germany is a few places down the table, but if you include East and West Germany they're right at the top both on overall tally and on golds.)
We have a new nephew due in March and Annette has suggested he'll probably end up with a Scandiwegian name like Henrik or Matti, because she'll have them all on her mind after watching the Olympics in the last weeks of pregnancy. (Actually, she then revealed they have a name in mind - and it'll be hard for English people to pronounce. Oh dear.)
I wish I had thought to look more earlier at how the Russian country names map to the English ones. I can still sort of read the Cyrillic alphabet, so it would have been interesting. I must remember to do it from now on. Would be interesting to see
San Marino the world's oldest republic? That's interesting. I was asking Guido on Saturday what the world's oldest republic was and I'm sure he said Iceland. (Though I was thinking the oldest modern republic - we decided USA for that.) (Note from the future - I just asked again and he said "San Marino? Or Iceland?")
So, who knows where the world's oldest (continuous) parliament is?
I want Slovakia's scarf! That's really cute. Big team, I'm sure someone would let me have one.
Slovenia's outfits co-ordinate nicely with Germany's.
Hmm, this is quite a big cheer... who could be that popular - and it's a big team - and be sorted after Slov*ia. Aaaah, USA. That'll be why. Looks like it begins with C in Russian. (Oh of course, the US have never been to a Russian games before.) I know opinion is divided over the jacket, but I think it's great. (Erm, someone coming in on crutches there. I suspect she might not be going to win a medal.)
Vanessa Mae is representing Thailand in Alpine skiiing? Wtf?
It's never snowed in East Timor. (I like their flag.)
Wait, where was that? Before Turkey with some very vibrant outfits. They'd have fit right in with Germany. *Looks up the Russian alphabetical order of countries* Tonga?
I'll bet the Ukrainian team have some very mixed feelings to be here right now. Also, they have really ugly jackets. (Hmm, Lviv bidding to host 2022 right now? I suspect that's not going to happen as long as there's this unrest - same as the trouble in Turkey killing any chance they had of hosting 2020.)
Hi Finland! Terve! (Huh, two games running without winning any medals. That's not surprising when we do it, but it is for Finland.) (Note from the future - Guido expressed disbelief when reading this so I went to check. Turns out out it was misleading commentary, or I misheard. It's two games without any golds - but they got 9 medals in Turin and 5 in Vancouver.)
France look classy, naturally. As classy as you can look in a ski jacket. Though I don't like those trousers. But the smart grey jackets (they're cut like suit jackets) are quite nice, and I love the scarves. Very smart.
I do like that every Crotian sports kit ever has the red/white checks.
I wonder if this is going to be like the 2012 Paralympic Opening Ceremony and there's still going to be lots more ceremony after the athletes' parade? Because what we've seen so far is very short. (Compared to the London 2012 Olympic ceremony where the bulk of it was before the parade.)
44 heads of state from 88 teams participating. I wonder how many of those are from the west.
Aaah yes, the mahoosive Swiss team. See my previous comments about small nations which punch above their weight in winter sports. (I like their jackets. I need a new winter jacket, but I don't think I'm brave enough for red. I do love red coats though, they're so smart.)
Hi Sveeeden! You look like you're wearing Ikea bags. (Oh, that's interesting. They're from H&M. That's cool.)
Hi Estonia, you have one of my favourite flags in Europe. And I really like your country. Wait, what? The blue is sky, the black for their suffering in history (and my god have they suffered) and the white is for snow? I thought the white was for peace! (That'll be me mixing it up with Ireland, I suppose.)
Estonia has a road with a minimum speed limit. Trufax. It's because it's over ice which, in the winter, connects an island to the mainland (or another island?) So there's a minimum speed limit.
Biggest cheer so far? Jamaica. Even more than cheered for USA.
And now huge cheers. I'm guessing Russia on their way? So Japan is alphabetically last in Russian.
Oh I LIKE their coats. ("And they crank the music up for Russia. Just as team GB had the same treatment in London." Yes, but we had Heroes - what better music for a home team to enter to - and they have Daft Punk. And don't get me wrong, I like Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. But Daft Punk are French so it does feel a bit random. It's an interesting remix of the song though.)
Their coats look so cozy. Shame they're that ugly shiny material like so many ski jackets. I like their hats too.
I predict, by the way, that by the end of these Olympics we'll have seen at least one montage cut to Daft Punk's Get Lucky.
Haha. So Putin's made it clear that Russia needs to win gold in the men's hockey. We'll see what USA/Canada/Sweden/Finland have to say about that.
In casting around for something positive to say about Putin, I have discovered that he can clap in time. Though I've got to say "sense of rhythm" isn't top on my list of desires in a world leader.
Oh god, attempted hijacking of a plane from Ukraine to Turkey to try to bring it to Sochi :0( I can't help but feel something terrible is going to happen before the end of these games.
Have all the athletes gone into those empty seats. Is that why they were empty? That makes sense then.
Wowww, that's a big firework.
I'm not sure about these mascots. They're a bit... hmm. The eyes are a bit come hither. But then, most mascots from most sporting events look pretty daft. (I know people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, but actually I was genuinely kind of fond of Wenlock and Mandeville.)
Hmm, the story of Russia through the ages. This could be interesting to see how they represent their history.
Deforestation yay?
This looks a bit like a beer advert.
I like this little bit from the age of enlightenment/exploraton.
Ahaha. Yes, I think that's a very romanticised view of late Tsarist Russia, and of Soviet Russia.
Nice bait and switch there - the marching legs which turn out to be men in suits. I think that's the closest they came to admitting to the darker side of Russian history.
(I know, it's not like I can expect them to admit to 50 million dead under Stalin.)
The Troika is really beautiful. You can't fault them for the artistry of this opening ceremony. (Wow, Troika + the sun they're pulling are 65m long in total. That's pretty huge.)
Ooh, the sun is melting the ice. Nooo, don't run across the melting ice little people! You'll drown.
Mmm, Rite of Spring. I like the cartoony city though. It looks like Agrabah in Aladdin.
Russia really is as full of onion domes as you'd expect, by the way. One of the weirdest things about St Petersburg, where the east-meets-west showed most clearly, was a church near our hotel. In form and decoration it looked very Dutch, you could easily have convinced me we were in Amsterdam. But then it had onion domes on top.
It's funny that St Basil's cathedral is so iconic, because I actually thought the Church on Spilled Blood in St Petersburg is prettier.
Oooh, this is pretty. I like this. It looks like a mandala.
Those bouncy horsehoes look like fun! Hard work, but fun.
Nice Russian dancing. (I forget the real name. Edit from the future: Guido tells me it's Kozachok. Yeah, I'll stick with Russian dancing.) When are we going to see some ballet though?
Wow, I'll bet she's a bit nervous walking up all those hands. She's not got a harness on now. And now they're carrying her along like that. She must have an impressive sense of balance.
Gold hammer pants. Stay classy, Russia.
I like the dreamlike quality of the floating onion domes.
Water - this'll be Peter the Great then? Wow, this is beautiful. Like an animated woodcut. (It actually reminds me of the BBC's branding from the Vancouver games.) Nice choreography with the sailors on deck as the ship sails along, that's really clever.
This animation is SO clever. It absolutely looks like papermation.
Yay, hi St Petersburg! You're awesome and fascinating and way better than Moscow.
Ooh, I like the drawn cannons firing. (Pointless expressions of penis sizepower by the Tsars #225 - The Tsar Cannon.)
St Petersburg being built on a marsh is why, incidentally, it has such a rubbish metro system. The tunnels just kept flooding.
Aaah, here comes the ballet? Yeah, she's totally a ballet dancer - you can see by the way she's walking.
And amongst all the glamour being portrayed here, you can see the main lesson we took away from Russia. Namely, "you can see why they had a revolution". The glamour and excess of the Tsars in Russia continued much later and much more deeply than it did in the Western European monarchies. Whereas parliaments had gradually been curbing powers here, in Russia they continued to treat the public purse and the monarchy's purse as one and the same. I always thought "the Tsar's putting gold on his bread" was meant to mean "he has so much money he can afford to eat gold". But after visting Russia I realised it's probably intended less metaphorically than that. They put gold on everything. Whilst the people were starving, St Petersburg was gilded into a shining city.
I wonder how they will represent the revolution. Maybe this is this bit? Or are we going to do the abolition of serfdom first? Ah, yes. So we're in the mid 19th century now. (Considering I studied Russian history for my A-Level, I'm a bit fuzzy on the latter half of the 19th century. I remember the emancipation of serfs and the next thing I remember is 1905 ;0)
Aaaaah, here comes the revolution. I've seen that train! Well, I meant he real one. The one Lenin came into St Petersburg one. It's parked at Finlandia station, which is the one we came into from Finland. Unfortunately we were guided straight to our car so we didn't get to look at it. And when we went back another day, we couldn't work out how to get onto the platforms to see it without buying a train ticket.
I knoooow the intertwined politics were not good, but from a purely aesthetic point of view I love socialist realism and the avant garde art of early Soviet Russia.
Our commentators adding the context here about the huge numbers who died (collective farming, industrialisation, Stalin's purges) during this era. Since somehow I suspect that's not going to come up in the ceremony itself ;0) (Which again, I think is fair enough. It's not like we mentioned how many people died in the Industrial Revolution.)
I do love the way so much of this had been staged in the air. It's very clever.
What a beautiful and moving way to acknowledge WWII. And I love the way they're now showing the reconstruction and moving into the mid 20th century.
Again, the politics were not good but by god I LOVE the aesthetics of this section! Gorgeous. I think this is my favourite bit of the ceremony so far. Tongue firmly in cheek. "you feel the fondness for CERTAIN PARTS of those times".
Moscow's skyscrapers are really weird. They're beautiful but they just... they're out of context. It's not like Manhattan or Shanghai or anywhere like that, where there are skyscrapers upon skyscrapers, side by side with each other. In Moscow the half dozen skyscrapers are scattered somewhat randomly around the city. (Perhaps the most imposing - a university building - is on top of a hill overlooking the city. It's certainly impressive.)
(And now a brief interruption to fill us in with a news update about he plane.)
And now I presume we have perestroika, glasnost and the fall of communism? Will again be interesting to see how it's represented.
It's interesting how this is kind of opposite to the London 2012 ceremony - we did the history first, before the parade, they're doing it after.
"But what is the character of that new Russia". Mmm, bit worried about how... Putiny this is going to be.
Another torch montage. It really is such a beautiful and fascinating nation. It's just a shame it's such a fundamentally screwed up country.
Oh that's cool, the torch which went into space is the one being used to light the cauldron. (I like their gloves with the coloured fingers. Now I know what they meant when they said the German uniforms were designed to match the gloves (they're totally not a protest about gay rights, no, no, not at all).
Oh thank goodness, the speeches at last. I needed a break to get up from the computer!
Haha. Acknowledgement of the "sometimes difficult circumstances". "Thank you for your patience" and if you could just wait another month so we can get this place ready, that would be great.
Mmmm, Tchaikovsky. Less mmm, women wearing luminous fringed lampshades. They look more like jellyfish than swans. The flapping effect they're managing to create is clever though.
They might have looked like jellyfish, but that's still better than a dove release. (I'm not a fan of dove releases.)
Ok, so it was kind of annoying (and funny) at our games that French always went first, English second. And I know that's because tradition dictates it's that way. But I do feel a bit for the Russians that it's in French, then English, then Russian.
I can't believe Olympism is a word. It sounds like an un-PC term for some sort of medical condition where people don't stop growing.
Oooh, Rollerbladers®. But without flaming jetpacks on their backs :0(
I hadn't thought of that, that there are only actually 7 sports at the Winter Olympics. Lets see... skiing, snowboarding, ice skating, ice hockey, curling, icey track sports (I have no idea what the collective name is for bob, luge etc) Aaaah. Bobsleigh and skeleton bob are one sport, luge is its own. And the final sport is biathlon - which I had assumed was part of skiing. (And snowboarding is part of skiing. Interesting.)
Ooh, this bit's pretty, With the figures in lights in the air, representing the sports.
I hope the figure skating and ice dancing will make good use of all the Russian music which is available to them.
Aaaaah, Maria Sharapova, that makes sense. Although tennis is hardly a winter sport. (Oh, she's from Sochi. That explains that then.)
I see they're copying our "well we can't pick just one great athlete to carry the flame into the stadium" trick. It's interesting how many of these former athletes are now politicians.
The effect of lighting the cauldron was really cool. Just as faked as ours, I'm sure, but at least it looked more plausible ;0) And I love that their cauldron is the same shape as the torch.
The Olympic park looks very pretty lit with all the different colours like that.
Mmm, Nutcracker suite.
Incidentally, our guide in St Petersburg said that Russians find it hilarious that Sochi is hosting the winter games, given that it's a coastal resort with a Mediterranean climate which is where they all think to go for their summer holidays.
And this is where it either ended, or I got bored.
They could have saved a lot of money and just played that.
(Another must watch, which hopefully isn't geolocked. The BBC's round-up of Classic Winter Olympic moments.)
Is it really called the Fish Stadium? It sounds like it's called the Fish Stadium.
We seem to be having some sound problems, which is a shame. (Note from the future - this continued throughout the ceremony, thankfully fairly sporadically. No idea if it was due to mixing in the feed being sent internationally, the sound in the stadium itself, or just a problem with the BBC.)
I like this Russian Alphabet section. It's interesting to hear the actual names of these letters too - I just made up my own in the summer when we were there. For example Ю, Yu, was "Enterprise". And cool hearing the Russian pronunciation of the names I know in Anglicised form like Sputnik, Chekhov, Eisenstein. actually, I changed my pronunciation of Chekhov after I studied him whilst in Finland, as their transliteration was Tšehov and I figured that was probably a more accurate way to pronounce it.
I don't know why they had Я for Россия. Well, except it mean the alphabet ended with Russia. It's a bit of a cheat though. Like alphabet posters which have "fox" for X.
Haha. "Adin" is Russian for one - except Russian has three different forms of the word one. And two of two. I think from then on it was only one each.
Our commentator has pointed out that whilst a Russian was one of the pioneers of television, it *was* a Scot who transmitted the first pictures. (Guess the nationality of our commentator ;0)
I predict that this ceremony will have really, really beautiful music. If there's one thing Russian culture has given to the world, it's some really rather magical classical music.
This is beautiful, her flying through the air. I love the way the land is floating by her too, that's very clever.
"And as the snow whirls all around, keep your eyes on the big flakes". Why? Are.... oh! Those big flakes. The ones becoming the Olympic rings. Except the fifth one which has got stuck, oops. (I thought she meant the flakes that were falling and was quite confused.) "In London we forged the Olympic rings, I think that's what you call a fast freeze weld."
I feel sorry for them about that fifth snowflake not opening properly. When I think about how often we used that image of the glowing hot rings. (Oooh. Interesting.)
Putin, boooooooo. (I'm slightly disappointed that there weren't boos for Putin but I suppose the audience are probably mostly Russian.)
I love the Russian national anthem, musically. And why am I not surprised to learn it was Putin who restored the Soviet anthem to them.
Oooh, I like this pretty light bit to make the flag. I mean, you can't help but feel a bit nervous by such overt displays of Russian patriotism - but I do think it's allowed at the opening ceremony to their own Olympic Games.
Aah, maybe the reason there's no booing is because the stadium is half empty? I thought I'd seen empty seats earlier.
Oooh, I LOVE the waving flag. That's really cool.
So it was cosmonauts who raised the flag, that makes sense. I wondered about the patches on their arms - I presume that was the Russian (or CCCP) space programme logo on the right arm. I thought the patch might show which (modern) country they were from, because I'm not convinced they were all Russian flags. But I wasn't looking that closely, and really it would make more sense to use actual Russians.
I do think the torch is pretty. And the tracksuits for torchbearers is actually prettier than the ones we used.
How did they keep the torch alight underwater? Wtf? Although this torch really was SUCH a display to the world of Russian might. Look how strong we are - we can take the flame to the top of the world, the bottom of the deepest lake and even into space.
Oooooh, now THIS is pretty. What a beautiful way to introduce the nations with outlines of the countries. (Although again, I can't help but read it politically as a reminder of which nation is still going into space. Not that I can begrudge them that, as it does make me sad that in the west we're abandoning manned space exploration. (See this highly relevant XKCD strip.)
So it *is* called the Fish stadium. Well, Fisht. Fish stadium!
Only 88 nations? This should be quicker.
That's a larger Aussie team than I'd have expected. 60 - I think that's two more than we have. I guess that like us they'll be more about ice sports than snow sports?
One of the things I find interesting in the Winter Olympics is the strength of nations not traditionally associated with strength in sport. Austria being a case in point. (But then I would think that, because they're not good at sports we're good at - because we're rubbish at winter sports. And we've never owned them, so they haven't learnt cricket and rugby.)
I'm surprised Azerbaijan has such a small team. I suppose it is quite far south.
Albania's black scarves are nice.
See, this is my point about non-traditional nations. Andorra (oooh, I like your jumpers Andorra! Nice Scandi knits.) have, what, 6? 8 people? That's about a tenth of the population.
Argentina appear to have gone all out on their uniforms. Looks like they went to Millets and picked up a few black jackets then shoved some patches on.
5 from the British Virgin Islands!? Oh, I see. It looks like only one of them is actually an athlete.
I wanted to go down to the Belarussian border when we were in Lithuania in the summer - we were *so close* to the the bit where Poland, Belarus and Lithuania meet. But it wasn't practical.
Ha. So Belgium has loads of skiing trails in the Ardennes (who knew?) and yet none of their 7 athletes are cross country skiers.
Bermuda shorts :0D That's brave in February. (It was brave in London, to be honest. I still can't believe it didn't rain on the opening ceremony.)
I wonder which host country has had the most "we used to rule you" countries appearing. I suppose we're pretty guilty of that. But in a rather different way to all the different Soviet countries
I'll bet eyes in Brazil are very much on Sochi and its unpreparedness, in a "ok, we're not quite ready for the World Cup yet, but we just have to do better than Russia and we'll be fine" way. (Erm, I made this comment earlier in the day before the news broke that a stadium worker in Brazil died today. :0/ )
Great Britain! Yay! Our outfits are boring and sort of ugly (ugh, shiny fabric), but I like the shade of red on the hoods. Go us! 56 athletes and lets be honest, I'll be happy if we can manage 3 medals. A gold would be nice.
Wow, he's very bouncey, carrying the... something flag.
Haha, US Virgin Islands have fewer people than the British. (Although, I think both only have one competitor.)
Yay Germany! "Faster, higher, gaudier" the Olympic motto being rewritten tonight. And a suggestion that the colours are to represent the Olympic rings. Yeeeeah, that's totally why they're walking around in rainbow coats. They're actually kind of pretty. I like them with the white trousers a lot more than with the red.
I do love the Hong Kong flag, it's pretty.
I'm genuinely slightly surprised that Georgia have sent a team to the games.
(The Danish flag carrier is really pretty. Lene Nielsen.) What, Denmark have only ever won one medal? I mean, I know that they're the flat, non-snowy Scandiwegian country but still. Even we have more medals than that. Even Dutchieland has more medals than that. Our commentator suggested that she had hoped they'd come out in Sarah Lund jumpers. I'm disappointed too.
Dominca's jackets are nice. I can imagine those being sold in shops.
Lol! I bet Zimbabwe have never been so early in before. Oh Cyrillic alphabet, you so wacky.
Wow, Ireland's outfits are HIDEOUS. Vomit-green.
Iceland also have a surprisingly small team (wow, no medals at all). I suppose it is a very small nation.
By the usual pattern, this should be the year Italy's medals drop off - you're meant to be good the year before and year after you host the games. So in theory, Italy should be slipping down a bit now. (Note that I have no idea how well they did in Turin, but I'm assuming it was better than usual.)
I like the traditional outfit being worn by Kazakhstan's flagbearer.
Wow, Cayman islands in shorts and sandals. That's properly hardcore.
Canada - biggest team so far? I think it looks bigger than Germany's. I like their jackets.
I don't like the outfits worn by the women escorting the teams. They're weird. The circles around their torsos look very odd.
Kyrgyzstan, my favourite former Soviet Republic just because it's a great Pointless answer. (I've used it for "countries with only one vowel in their name" as well as "countries ending in -stan". Everyone always forgets Kyrgyzstan.
Who's this? I like their scarves. Oooh, Latvia. (I was on the phone.)
Countries you didn't expect to see at the Winter Olympics #27: Lebanon. (Mmm, Lebanese food.)
Wow, Lithuania have gone very neon. "That probably is the brightest outfit we're going to see tonight." What? Where were you when Germany came out? You could see those from Moscow. You could probably see them from Mir.
Did you know that the other Baltic states tease Lithuania by calling it "Africa". The country is sort of the same shape as Africa, but more to the point their flag is yellow-green-red, colours usually seen in African flags.
Liechtenstein (another great Pointless answer) have very 90s tracksuit tops.
4 African countries compete here. Interesting.
Oh, I forgot India was suspended. So all the independent athletes are Indian. (I liiiiike her fluffy waistcoat. Want!)
Nepal need to be at every event ever, just to have a reason to fly their awesome flag.
Hi Dutchies! Your outfits would make you fit in nicely in this orange-and-black city. (One of the cities with the closest Anglo-Dutch ties and we have a football team who play in orange. Coincidence?)
Wowww, 1/3 of Norway's medals have been golds? Also wow, your hats are ugly. Flat caps made of silver pleather? Who thought that was a good idea. (Our commentator said that Norway have won the most medals ever but Guido thinks it's Germany. We checked and it's sort of both. United Germany is a few places down the table, but if you include East and West Germany they're right at the top both on overall tally and on golds.)
We have a new nephew due in March and Annette has suggested he'll probably end up with a Scandiwegian name like Henrik or Matti, because she'll have them all on her mind after watching the Olympics in the last weeks of pregnancy. (Actually, she then revealed they have a name in mind - and it'll be hard for English people to pronounce. Oh dear.)
I wish I had thought to look more earlier at how the Russian country names map to the English ones. I can still sort of read the Cyrillic alphabet, so it would have been interesting. I must remember to do it from now on. Would be interesting to see
San Marino the world's oldest republic? That's interesting. I was asking Guido on Saturday what the world's oldest republic was and I'm sure he said Iceland. (Though I was thinking the oldest modern republic - we decided USA for that.) (Note from the future - I just asked again and he said "San Marino? Or Iceland?")
So, who knows where the world's oldest (continuous) parliament is?
I want Slovakia's scarf! That's really cute. Big team, I'm sure someone would let me have one.
Slovenia's outfits co-ordinate nicely with Germany's.
Hmm, this is quite a big cheer... who could be that popular - and it's a big team - and be sorted after Slov*ia. Aaaah, USA. That'll be why. Looks like it begins with C in Russian. (Oh of course, the US have never been to a Russian games before.) I know opinion is divided over the jacket, but I think it's great. (Erm, someone coming in on crutches there. I suspect she might not be going to win a medal.)
Vanessa Mae is representing Thailand in Alpine skiiing? Wtf?
It's never snowed in East Timor. (I like their flag.)
Wait, where was that? Before Turkey with some very vibrant outfits. They'd have fit right in with Germany. *Looks up the Russian alphabetical order of countries* Tonga?
I'll bet the Ukrainian team have some very mixed feelings to be here right now. Also, they have really ugly jackets. (Hmm, Lviv bidding to host 2022 right now? I suspect that's not going to happen as long as there's this unrest - same as the trouble in Turkey killing any chance they had of hosting 2020.)
Hi Finland! Terve! (Huh, two games running without winning any medals. That's not surprising when we do it, but it is for Finland.) (Note from the future - Guido expressed disbelief when reading this so I went to check. Turns out out it was misleading commentary, or I misheard. It's two games without any golds - but they got 9 medals in Turin and 5 in Vancouver.)
France look classy, naturally. As classy as you can look in a ski jacket. Though I don't like those trousers. But the smart grey jackets (they're cut like suit jackets) are quite nice, and I love the scarves. Very smart.
I do like that every Crotian sports kit ever has the red/white checks.
I wonder if this is going to be like the 2012 Paralympic Opening Ceremony and there's still going to be lots more ceremony after the athletes' parade? Because what we've seen so far is very short. (Compared to the London 2012 Olympic ceremony where the bulk of it was before the parade.)
44 heads of state from 88 teams participating. I wonder how many of those are from the west.
Aaah yes, the mahoosive Swiss team. See my previous comments about small nations which punch above their weight in winter sports. (I like their jackets. I need a new winter jacket, but I don't think I'm brave enough for red. I do love red coats though, they're so smart.)
Hi Sveeeden! You look like you're wearing Ikea bags. (Oh, that's interesting. They're from H&M. That's cool.)
Hi Estonia, you have one of my favourite flags in Europe. And I really like your country. Wait, what? The blue is sky, the black for their suffering in history (and my god have they suffered) and the white is for snow? I thought the white was for peace! (That'll be me mixing it up with Ireland, I suppose.)
Estonia has a road with a minimum speed limit. Trufax. It's because it's over ice which, in the winter, connects an island to the mainland (or another island?) So there's a minimum speed limit.
Biggest cheer so far? Jamaica. Even more than cheered for USA.
And now huge cheers. I'm guessing Russia on their way? So Japan is alphabetically last in Russian.
Oh I LIKE their coats. ("And they crank the music up for Russia. Just as team GB had the same treatment in London." Yes, but we had Heroes - what better music for a home team to enter to - and they have Daft Punk. And don't get me wrong, I like Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. But Daft Punk are French so it does feel a bit random. It's an interesting remix of the song though.)
Their coats look so cozy. Shame they're that ugly shiny material like so many ski jackets. I like their hats too.
I predict, by the way, that by the end of these Olympics we'll have seen at least one montage cut to Daft Punk's Get Lucky.
Haha. So Putin's made it clear that Russia needs to win gold in the men's hockey. We'll see what USA/Canada/Sweden/Finland have to say about that.
In casting around for something positive to say about Putin, I have discovered that he can clap in time. Though I've got to say "sense of rhythm" isn't top on my list of desires in a world leader.
Oh god, attempted hijacking of a plane from Ukraine to Turkey to try to bring it to Sochi :0( I can't help but feel something terrible is going to happen before the end of these games.
Have all the athletes gone into those empty seats. Is that why they were empty? That makes sense then.
Wowww, that's a big firework.
I'm not sure about these mascots. They're a bit... hmm. The eyes are a bit come hither. But then, most mascots from most sporting events look pretty daft. (I know people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, but actually I was genuinely kind of fond of Wenlock and Mandeville.)
Hmm, the story of Russia through the ages. This could be interesting to see how they represent their history.
Deforestation yay?
This looks a bit like a beer advert.
I like this little bit from the age of enlightenment/exploraton.
Ahaha. Yes, I think that's a very romanticised view of late Tsarist Russia, and of Soviet Russia.
Nice bait and switch there - the marching legs which turn out to be men in suits. I think that's the closest they came to admitting to the darker side of Russian history.
(I know, it's not like I can expect them to admit to 50 million dead under Stalin.)
The Troika is really beautiful. You can't fault them for the artistry of this opening ceremony. (Wow, Troika + the sun they're pulling are 65m long in total. That's pretty huge.)
Ooh, the sun is melting the ice. Nooo, don't run across the melting ice little people! You'll drown.
Mmm, Rite of Spring. I like the cartoony city though. It looks like Agrabah in Aladdin.
Russia really is as full of onion domes as you'd expect, by the way. One of the weirdest things about St Petersburg, where the east-meets-west showed most clearly, was a church near our hotel. In form and decoration it looked very Dutch, you could easily have convinced me we were in Amsterdam. But then it had onion domes on top.
It's funny that St Basil's cathedral is so iconic, because I actually thought the Church on Spilled Blood in St Petersburg is prettier.
Oooh, this is pretty. I like this. It looks like a mandala.
Those bouncy horsehoes look like fun! Hard work, but fun.
Nice Russian dancing. (I forget the real name. Edit from the future: Guido tells me it's Kozachok. Yeah, I'll stick with Russian dancing.) When are we going to see some ballet though?
Wow, I'll bet she's a bit nervous walking up all those hands. She's not got a harness on now. And now they're carrying her along like that. She must have an impressive sense of balance.
Gold hammer pants. Stay classy, Russia.
I like the dreamlike quality of the floating onion domes.
Water - this'll be Peter the Great then? Wow, this is beautiful. Like an animated woodcut. (It actually reminds me of the BBC's branding from the Vancouver games.) Nice choreography with the sailors on deck as the ship sails along, that's really clever.
This animation is SO clever. It absolutely looks like papermation.
Yay, hi St Petersburg! You're awesome and fascinating and way better than Moscow.
Ooh, I like the drawn cannons firing. (Pointless expressions of penis sizepower by the Tsars #225 - The Tsar Cannon.)
St Petersburg being built on a marsh is why, incidentally, it has such a rubbish metro system. The tunnels just kept flooding.
Aaah, here comes the ballet? Yeah, she's totally a ballet dancer - you can see by the way she's walking.
And amongst all the glamour being portrayed here, you can see the main lesson we took away from Russia. Namely, "you can see why they had a revolution". The glamour and excess of the Tsars in Russia continued much later and much more deeply than it did in the Western European monarchies. Whereas parliaments had gradually been curbing powers here, in Russia they continued to treat the public purse and the monarchy's purse as one and the same. I always thought "the Tsar's putting gold on his bread" was meant to mean "he has so much money he can afford to eat gold". But after visting Russia I realised it's probably intended less metaphorically than that. They put gold on everything. Whilst the people were starving, St Petersburg was gilded into a shining city.
I wonder how they will represent the revolution. Maybe this is this bit? Or are we going to do the abolition of serfdom first? Ah, yes. So we're in the mid 19th century now. (Considering I studied Russian history for my A-Level, I'm a bit fuzzy on the latter half of the 19th century. I remember the emancipation of serfs and the next thing I remember is 1905 ;0)
Aaaaah, here comes the revolution. I've seen that train! Well, I meant he real one. The one Lenin came into St Petersburg one. It's parked at Finlandia station, which is the one we came into from Finland. Unfortunately we were guided straight to our car so we didn't get to look at it. And when we went back another day, we couldn't work out how to get onto the platforms to see it without buying a train ticket.
I knoooow the intertwined politics were not good, but from a purely aesthetic point of view I love socialist realism and the avant garde art of early Soviet Russia.
Our commentators adding the context here about the huge numbers who died (collective farming, industrialisation, Stalin's purges) during this era. Since somehow I suspect that's not going to come up in the ceremony itself ;0) (Which again, I think is fair enough. It's not like we mentioned how many people died in the Industrial Revolution.)
I do love the way so much of this had been staged in the air. It's very clever.
What a beautiful and moving way to acknowledge WWII. And I love the way they're now showing the reconstruction and moving into the mid 20th century.
Again, the politics were not good but by god I LOVE the aesthetics of this section! Gorgeous. I think this is my favourite bit of the ceremony so far. Tongue firmly in cheek. "you feel the fondness for CERTAIN PARTS of those times".
Moscow's skyscrapers are really weird. They're beautiful but they just... they're out of context. It's not like Manhattan or Shanghai or anywhere like that, where there are skyscrapers upon skyscrapers, side by side with each other. In Moscow the half dozen skyscrapers are scattered somewhat randomly around the city. (Perhaps the most imposing - a university building - is on top of a hill overlooking the city. It's certainly impressive.)
(And now a brief interruption to fill us in with a news update about he plane.)
And now I presume we have perestroika, glasnost and the fall of communism? Will again be interesting to see how it's represented.
It's interesting how this is kind of opposite to the London 2012 ceremony - we did the history first, before the parade, they're doing it after.
"But what is the character of that new Russia". Mmm, bit worried about how... Putiny this is going to be.
Another torch montage. It really is such a beautiful and fascinating nation. It's just a shame it's such a fundamentally screwed up country.
Oh that's cool, the torch which went into space is the one being used to light the cauldron. (I like their gloves with the coloured fingers. Now I know what they meant when they said the German uniforms were designed to match the gloves (they're totally not a protest about gay rights, no, no, not at all).
Oh thank goodness, the speeches at last. I needed a break to get up from the computer!
Haha. Acknowledgement of the "sometimes difficult circumstances". "Thank you for your patience" and if you could just wait another month so we can get this place ready, that would be great.
Mmmm, Tchaikovsky. Less mmm, women wearing luminous fringed lampshades. They look more like jellyfish than swans. The flapping effect they're managing to create is clever though.
They might have looked like jellyfish, but that's still better than a dove release. (I'm not a fan of dove releases.)
Ok, so it was kind of annoying (and funny) at our games that French always went first, English second. And I know that's because tradition dictates it's that way. But I do feel a bit for the Russians that it's in French, then English, then Russian.
I can't believe Olympism is a word. It sounds like an un-PC term for some sort of medical condition where people don't stop growing.
Oooh, Rollerbladers®. But without flaming jetpacks on their backs :0(
I hadn't thought of that, that there are only actually 7 sports at the Winter Olympics. Lets see... skiing, snowboarding, ice skating, ice hockey, curling, icey track sports (I have no idea what the collective name is for bob, luge etc) Aaaah. Bobsleigh and skeleton bob are one sport, luge is its own. And the final sport is biathlon - which I had assumed was part of skiing. (And snowboarding is part of skiing. Interesting.)
Ooh, this bit's pretty, With the figures in lights in the air, representing the sports.
I hope the figure skating and ice dancing will make good use of all the Russian music which is available to them.
Aaaaah, Maria Sharapova, that makes sense. Although tennis is hardly a winter sport. (Oh, she's from Sochi. That explains that then.)
I see they're copying our "well we can't pick just one great athlete to carry the flame into the stadium" trick. It's interesting how many of these former athletes are now politicians.
The effect of lighting the cauldron was really cool. Just as faked as ours, I'm sure, but at least it looked more plausible ;0) And I love that their cauldron is the same shape as the torch.
The Olympic park looks very pretty lit with all the different colours like that.
Mmm, Nutcracker suite.
Incidentally, our guide in St Petersburg said that Russians find it hilarious that Sochi is hosting the winter games, given that it's a coastal resort with a Mediterranean climate which is where they all think to go for their summer holidays.
And this is where it either ended, or I got bored.
They could have saved a lot of money and just played that.
(Another must watch, which hopefully isn't geolocked. The BBC's round-up of Classic Winter Olympic moments.)