A lame closing ceremonies

February 28th, 2010 · 21 Comments

Now, now, the headline is deliberately provocative, and a play on what I wrote for the Opening Ceremonies, which got our friends in the North so indignant.

I have them on tape, so haven’t started watching, but I did see that they spoofed the torch malfunction. Use this as your Closing Ceremonies thread, and I await to see what Jimmy D. says, that scurvy-riddled weasel.©

I loved these Olympics, despite their glitches, especially the cross-country events, the biathlon and hockey. And even men’s skating was interesting for once.

By Jim Buzinski

Tags: Opening Ceremonies

21 responses so far ↓

1 lacharlie13 // Feb 28, 2010 at 9:59 pm

I enjoyed the Olympics, which I usually ignore,not being into winter sports myself. Ieven liked the Opening Ceremonies, although it had its hokey non- Cirque momenis
2 lacharlie13 // Feb 28, 2010 at 10:01 pm

enjoyed the Olympics, which I usually ignore,not being into winter sports myself. I even liked the Opening Ceremonies, although it had its hokey non- Cirque momenis
3 lacharlie13 // Feb 28, 2010 at 10:08 pm

I enjoyed the Olympics, which I usually ignore,not being into winter sports myself. I even liked the Opening Ceremonies, although it had its hokey non- Cirque momenis
4 Jim Buzinski // Feb 28, 2010 at 10:11 pm

It was cool to see US goalie Ryan Miller at the closing, taking cellphone pics and wearing his silver medal. He has the best smile. Glad the ending didn’t ruin his Olympic experience.
5 Jimmy // Feb 28, 2010 at 10:15 pm

@ Jim B ~ Perfect clip-art. We are watching you!

My attorney’s will be in touch regarding the lame attempt at copyrighting my weasel.

Hear me n hear me loud n clear Mr. Buzinski

My name is Jimmy and I AM CANADIAN
6 Jimmy // Feb 28, 2010 at 10:18 pm

@ Jim B. ~ I meant to add, of course you’re taping the CC’s…

Aren’t the entire Olympics tape-delayed down there?
7 Madeleine // Feb 28, 2010 at 11:36 pm

I thought it was a nice way to redeem ourselves by poking fun at our technical difficulties and letting Katrina Lemay Doan light it.
8 Cyd Zeigler jr. // Mar 1, 2010 at 1:45 am

The closing ceremony is an impossible task. This one was fine - didn’t fail or inspire. But, um, William Shatner?

Question for everybody. Are the opening and closing ceremonies always this jingoistic? It was wall-to-wall Canada. I just don’t remember that from past games.
9 Enigma // Mar 1, 2010 at 1:54 am

I loved our Closing Ceremony!

I thought it was great that we were able to laugh at the torch malfunction and give Catriona Le May Doan her “moment” by lighting the torch.

I also thought it was great that we were able to poke fun at our stereotypes and celebrate the fact that we’re laid back and just like to have fun.

Wasn’t a fan of Nickelback - I honestly think more Canadians dislike them rather than like them haha
10 Jimmy // Mar 1, 2010 at 2:10 am

If I coulda beaten Nickelback to death with the mime, these woulda been the greatest Olympics ever!
11 Patricia Nell Warren // Mar 1, 2010 at 3:02 am

@ Cyd — The Beijing ceremonies were wall-to-wall “greatness of China.” The Athens ceremonies were all about “the greatness of Greece.” So Olympic ceremony tradition pretty much favors the jingo approach, I think.

The Beijing ceremonies were awesomely polished and high tech, with thousands of Chinese moving in perfect synch. The Chinese have been putting on big shows like that for many centuries in the Forbidden City. But I kinda preferred the more homespun qualities of the Vancouver ceremonies.
12 Madeleine // Mar 1, 2010 at 3:08 am

I think the point of the ceremonies is to celebrate the host nation along with the inspiring nature of the games.
And my apologies for spelling Catriona’s name wrong!!
As for Nickelback, count me in as someone who likes them.
13 Jimmy // Mar 1, 2010 at 3:17 am

@Madeleine ~ OK, I’ll count you in. You love Chad. I can see that. Which is your favorite song? Impossible to pick just one? I KNOW! That’s because you only need to hear one Nickelback song - then you’ve heard them all

Regardless, somebody shoulda killed the mime.
14 Chad // Mar 1, 2010 at 3:53 am

Yeah but Avril sucked.
15 Enigma // Mar 1, 2010 at 11:05 am

HAHAHAHAHAAHAHA I think I love you Jimmy… seriously, so true about Nickelback
16 Madeleine // Mar 1, 2010 at 11:07 am

Ewww no, I don’t like Chad Kroeger, I just like his music. Favourite song? Oh that’s hard when you have so many great ones like Photograph, If Today Was Your Last Day, If Everyone Cared, Far Away, Someday, How You Remind Me, Animals, Rockstar…
17 Jim Allen // Mar 1, 2010 at 11:43 am

I FF’d through the whole thing just to get to Neil Young. Nice performance but not one of my favorite songs of his–he should have done Rockin’ in the Free World.

I had a great time watching these games and the hockey game and cross-country skiing close finish on Sunday were perfect caps to the two weeks.
18 Charlie Carson // Mar 1, 2010 at 1:07 pm

Some friends and I joked a couple of weeks ago that the opening had pretty much exhausted Canada’s celebrities except for Celine Dion, William Shatner, and the cast of Degrassi: Next Gen, so who would they have for closing?
And sure enough good old Bill got the call!!

I enjoyed the Canadian kitsch, but I agree Rockin’ in the Free World would have been a nice follow-up to Long May You Run.

Since Celine had already sung in Atlanta in ‘96, nice of her to give up her spot to Hedley!
19 Pat // Mar 1, 2010 at 6:09 pm

I could be wrong here - but one of the best moments of the Closing Ceremonies didn’t make it - on the live coverage at least - on NBC. They took a long commercial break and a profile of an athlete and then more commercials and got back to the cereminies when the head of Vanoc was well into his speech.

The part missed was him saluting Alexandre Bilodeau for winning our first gold. That generated a few seconds of loud applause. Furlong then said ‘And we will remember our last one (gold medal) - for generations’. There was a huge roar from the crowd - that just kept building and building until eventually the entire crowd were on their feet roaring for over two minutes. A wonderful spontaneous moment that NBC missed.
20 Joe Guckin // Mar 2, 2010 at 1:08 am

Since NBC is a commercial network and, as such, they were showing commercials, what part of the ceremonies should they have missed in its place? The singing of O Canada? The torch going out? Just wondering.

I recorded it all in the late-night replay and fast-forwarded through lots of it. The sound effects and animated bits during the celebrities’ comments was just bizarre. That’s the kind of tacky cheap stuff that should be left to the Internet. Having said that, the clear highlight was Catherine O’Hara. She ROCKS!

Oh, and message to Alexander Ovechkin: how about some better-fitting clothes so that when you raise your arms, we don’t see the top of your underwear (to my non-HD TV it appeared to be Dolce & Gabbana)?
21 Jimmy // Mar 2, 2010 at 1:59 am

@Joe ~ Please see previous rebuttal on other post…Thank you. I’m lazy…