It was last week Friday, the day the Olympics began. Having forgotten about the time difference, I was panicked when I received a news alert about the opening ceremony when I still had an hour at the office to go. A crazed google search yielded the information that the event would be time delayed but would be shown in its entirety. Whew.
I was ready with dinner and drinks when the Danny Boyle extravaganza began. It was lights, music and dance all the way. I have enjoyed Danny's films and so I was looking forward to seeing what he would do with this event that brings the world together. Yet, as I sat in front of my television, I found myself a touch confused. Why?
Well, you know how sometimes you go to the movies and there people sitting near you and they talk throughout the show. They give spoilers, explain the most self-explanatory moments, and make you miss things because they speak over dialogue. You know those people and how you just want to hit them and tell them to shut up? Well, that was the NBC TV staff. I didn't get it. Being that the Olympics were being held in the England, home of English, and being that the event had narrators, I don't know why NBC felt the overwhelming need to explain everything, often drowning out what was going on at the ceremony. And the "information" that the TV station people shared with us served only to rile me up. As the parade of nations happened, the American commentators felt it was their duty to share information on each announced nation. As Uganda came into the stadium the commentator remarked that Winston Churchill called Uganda the pearl of Africa. Then, "of course Churchill never met Idi Amin." WHAT? Put aside the fact that the Olympics are hardly the place for such negative talk, obviously this guy has never heard the saying, 'judge not lest ye be judged' or the thing in the bible about removing the log from ones eye before trying to get a speck out of someone else's. I mean, forget the UK, is the US the sinless beacon of sunshine and butterflies in the grand history of the world?
For all the things I did see, what I discovered the following morning about what we were not given the opportunity to see really got my goat. It turns out that NBC decided to cut an entire segment out of the opening ceremony. It was a segment dedicated to those who were no longer with us and included a photo memorial of people who had passed away (7/7 victims and others) and a dance routine. It was a touching segment and we did not get to see it. When asked NBC came up with many excuses, none of which passed muster. One was that they felt it was not relevant to the American viewing public. We had been promised ALL the Olympics, who were they to decide what we did or didn't want to watch? Another excuse was that the segment had been edited out for time. Turns out that was not true. For, during the time that the segment was on, we were subjected to a terrible interview of Michael Phelps that was a total non sequitur to everything else going on. Not only that but the interview was longer than the segment that we did not get to see.
So for all the promises that were made, I found myself wanting to throw things at my television. Instead of coming home to watch the opening ceremony as Danny Boyle intended it, I had worst Big Brother in the world showing me that this is not at all the Land of the Free.
GRRRR!!!!
