London Olympics 2012

against the odds I find myself HYPED for this. because once you get past the surrounding nonsense the sport is going to be brilliant.

there's already a thread for the negativity but serious side-eye at anyone who can't separate the justified political complaints from appreciation of the amazing athletes; this thread is for the good shit.

i am a dilettante when it comes to non-tennis sports but this changes at every olympics, i get wholly into everything. what particular athletes and narratives are people most excited about following?

personally, i've just read this article on indian boxer mary kom and i can't say how amazing she is ENOUGH.

http://moreintelligentlife.com/content/lifestyle/India%27s-shot-gold?page=full

Anticipating the hell out of the athletics and all the cycling events. Not too hyped about the rest of it at the moment, but will no doubt be watching a whole shit ton of that too. Anyone actually going to watch anything? Think we might have blagged some tickets for the women's football semifinal at Wembley.

I saw the OLYMPIC FLAME yesterday evening in Walthamstow. That's probably as much as I'm going to see - couldn't get hold of any tickets and I didn't anticipate just how much interest there would be in the (cycling) road race. I might try and get down to Hampton Court to watch the (cycling) time trial instead.

Had planned on going to Box Hill to see the men's road race but the crowds will likely be chaos. Would ride up there but who wants to be stuck looking after a bike? Maybe the women's race will be better... what's the situation with Armitstead/Cooke in that now anyhow?

You can't get onto Box Hill without a ticket, btw. Re: Cooke & Armitstead - I don't know, there's a lot of bad feeling there.

Ticket schmicket, wtf's up with that?

I have tickets for two pool swimming sessions (Monday heats and Wednesday finals) and the women's marathon swim in Hyde Park. SO. STOKED.

Swimming-wise the spectator-friendly events to look out for are:
- women's 200m freestyle (Missy Franklin, Camille Muffat, Federica Pellegrini, Kylie Palmer, Allison Schmitt)
- women's 100m butterfly (Sarah Sjostrom, Dana Vollmer, Ellen Gandy, Jiao Liuyang, Fran Halsall),
- men's 200m medley (Phelps v Lochte v World Record)
- men's 4x100 free relay (AUS v USA v FRA - shaping up to be the closest race in years).
- women's 10k in the Serpentine OMG 2 hours of head-kicking algae punch-up amazingness etc

British medal hopes are reasonable, if everyone's on top form then 8 medals is possible but 3-4 is more likely.

Also batshit mentalist French lass Laure Manaudou is BACK hurrah. Her potted history:
- first won Olympic gold over 400m free in Athens plus a bunch of world championships, super successful etc
- switched coaches and buggered off to Turin in 2007 to be with her Italian medley swimmer fiancee
- who then broke up with her a few months later
- and then posted naked pics of her on the internet (!)
- and then ran off and got engaged to her main rival (F Pellegrini)
- who then won 200m free in Beijing while Laure came LAST in the 400
- Laure 'quits' swimming for two years, moves to the US, has a kid and gets engaged to a top French sprinter
- who doesn't make the French team for London but Laure DOES in the backstroke
- and her little brother Florent gets on the team too, taking his bro-in-law's 50m free sprint place

<3<3<3

Going to watch the tennis on Saturday (first time to Wimbledon as well as watching any tennis in person!) and Volleyball on Sunday (I've no idea about the rules apart from the obvious).

But also looking forward to watching as much of it as possible on telly (joys of working from home for the fortnight!)

- men's 4x100 free relay (AUS v USA v FRA - shaping up to be the closest race in years).

^^^ This sounds like it could be madly exciting.

stoked for USA hoops
also local (San Antonio, TX, USA) ppl in the games, one of the ladies indoor volleyball team members, twin fencers, some swimmers I think

I managed to fuck up our football application so while all my pals get to see Spain, we're going to see Egypt v Belarus :(

Ha! Just looked at the Belarus squad on wikipedia expecting to see at least one or two familiar names and um...

as much as i'm prepared to be annoyed by the tourist influx, i'm also prepared to be annoyed by the odd feeling of watching dodgy streams of stuff that's happening a matter of minutes away. what events will be good for the ticketless? is there anything that still has cheap tickets available?

Have tickets to the athletics on August 7th, which appears to involve:

Women's 100m Hurdles Semi-final
Men's 800m Semi-finals
Women's Long Jump Qualification
Men's Discus Throw Final Medal event
Men's High Jump Final Medal event
Women's 200m Semi-finals
Men's 1500m Final Medal event
Women's 100m Hurdles Final

Awesome! Sally Pearson is the favourite for 100m Hurdles I guess?

Underworld douing the music for the opening ceremony - could be okay
Chemical Brothers have done the music for the velodrome - have heard it and this is legit great
Oasis & the Spice Grills rumoured to be reuniting for the closing ceremony - die die die die die die die

Oasis & the Spice Grills rumoured to be reuniting for the closing ceremony - die die die die die die die

Calling bullshit on this. It'll be something like Weller + Gallagher + Macca plus Joss Stone or someone doing 'Come Together'. And Adele doing something else.

Not sure Macca would do a John Lennon song

... tho it does mention football in the lyrics

... and, something more closely associated with the London Olympics, Coca Cola

another interesting read about an athlete competing in london under the olympic flag !
http://espn.go.com/olympics/summer/2012/trackandfield/story/_/id/8186507/2012-olympics-runner-country-compete-olympics

I'm stoked for all this, I'm always stoked for the Olympics despite how evil some aspects are. Stoked for everything, from Handball to Dressage.

Probably helps that I don't live in London, through.

tickets may or may not be coming my way, depends on an uncle of mine really. not bothered about watching most of it on tv if it comes to that. mdc you have prime tickets though!

whoa @ the south sudan guy.

the open water swim is the most hardcore thing.

i'm looking fwd to seeing the athletes parading into the stadium in the opening ceremony (and a few of my fav tennis players are flag-bearers! Tsvetana Pironkova, Li Na, a few others maybe?), apart from that though i largely file the opening & closing ceremonies under "extraneous nonsense" ESPECIALLY any "let's show britain" off element.

Kinda hope the opening ceremony itself is nothing but rain and shitting sheep.

I have two friends who are in the opening ceremony. I think one of them is a shitting cow though.

^ I really don't know what to make of that.

After watching the Olympic flame make its brief appearance in Walthamstow on Saturday I had The Bangles - Eternal Flame stuck in my head for about 48 hours.

one of my colleagues will be one of the cricket players i think

BBC has a great documentary on Track cycling sprinter Victoria Pendleton on the iPlayer right now. Great little Documentary and if that doesn't get you psyched for a Pendleton vs Anna Maeres Sprint Final I don't know what will.

Sadly can't come home for this due to the vagaries of US immigration (Woah-oh I'm an Alien, I'm a legal Alien but only if I don't try to re-enter the country before September 21st (Sting had it easy))

Seriously looking forward to the cycling events. Sadly though they took out my favourite event, the Madison, to equalise the number of events between Men and Women and the IOC wouldn't allow the total number of events to rise.

Other than that it's a case of tune in and see what's going on.

Say my name
Sun shines through the rain
A whole life so lonely
And then come and ease the pain
I don't want to lose this feeling

my sister got tickets to the boxing. trying hard not to let on i'm mad jealous, but i don't think it's working.

Okay so I shared this on FB more as a laugh:

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/olympics-fourth-place-medal/mary-poppins-fight-voldemort-olympic-opening-ceremony-170354031--oly.html

Only to have writer David Stubbs confirm:

I saw the rehearsal last night. This does happen. It is very confusing.

All to an Underworld soundtrack.

supercalifragilisticexpialilagerlagerlager

OMG you're right!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jul/24/olympics-changed-lower-lea-valley
Might be of interest to some

Quite a noticeable party atmosphere in London as I walked along the thronging South Bank this evening.

I was on the South Bank this evening too. Actually made me feel really excited about the next few weeks. Not sure if it's more because it's London in beautiful sunshine or if it's the Olympic effect.

Tickets for the tennis (court #1, though we'll spend the day doing the grounds) Monday 30/7 and then again for the men's bronze medal match on the same court Sun 5/8. Which I'm hoping finishes before the gold medal match which I'd like to watch on the big telly (or just barge into Centre). Pam & the girls are off to see some table tennis at ExCel.

How did I just learn about race-walking?

http://blog.sportticketexchange.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/olympic-test-eevent-road-uka-race-walking-championship-london_710663.jpg

so wrong

I know it has a venerable history in the Olympics and everything but i refuse to accept it as a proper sport

It is, frankly, the stupidest thing since synchronized swimming. I also just learned that tug-of-war used to be an Olympic sport. It should be reinstated.

I also feel that contortionism should be added as an Olympic sport. If a bendy-person could fit the entire surface of their body on the medal, they could just keep it.

there used to be solo synchronized swimming

i read 'contortionism' as 'contrarianism' there. c'mon ilx, let's aim for a clean sweep of the medals.

So this actually kicks off today with GB vs New Zealand in women's football. May catch the USA vs France match later.

The sun is shining in Glasgow today, host of some women's football later. This Olympic fever is catching!

(OK, I'm 10 miles out of Glasgow, but I assume the sun's shining there too)

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/olympics-fourth-place-medal/mary-poppins-fight-voldemort-olympic-opening-ceremony-170354031--oly.html

Only to have writer David Stubbs confirm

Which makes Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century 2009 UTTERLY HILARIOUS. Can you say zeitgeist?

Lol @ Hot Chip doing the music for the table tennis.

Shame it wasn't Hot Butter

http://paddypowerblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/poster-close-up.jpg

Paddy Power is seeking a court order against London 2012 organisers LOCOG after they ordered the removal of Paddy’s latest cheeky adverts.

The Paddy Power billboards in question promote their sponsorship of the largest athletics event in London this year (London, France of course!) It takes place on 01 August 2012 and is part of Paddy’s on-going “We Hear You” marketing campaign.

LOCOG instructed outdoor advertising company JCDecaux to remove all the posters from high-profile poster sites around the capital.

Paddy Power engaged leading London law firm Charles Russell to seek a court order on the grounds that their campaign does not breach LOCOG legislation on advertising around the 2012 Games.

A spokesperson from Paddy Power said “We pride ourselves on listening to our customers and what we’ve heard loud and clear is that LOCOG have got their priorities upside-down. It’s a pity they didn’t put the same energy into the ticketing and security arrangements for the Games that they put into protecting their sponsorship revenue streams. We’re taking this fight to the High Court in the interest of our customers and of common sense”

http://www.london2012.com/documents/brand-guidelines/guidelines-for-non-commercial-use.pdf

page 8 indicates that LOCOG have copyrighted the term '2012'. Welp I guess it's now the Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment.

i know i love football and it ain't exactly corinthian but fuck LOCOG with a big fucking mcdonald's flavoured stick

yeah, FIFA pull all the same shit at the World Cup. It's just the way these things are done now

5 secs in and GBR aimlessly knock the ball out of play. It's just like watching England!

A Malaysian shooter will become the most heavily pregnant Olympic competitor this year!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/news/9426433/London-2012-Olympics-pregnant-Malaysian-shooter-Nur-Suryani-Mohamad-Taibi-aiming-for-historic-gold.html

Yep she's making a lot of headlines here at home. Pretty badass.

Why is Roz not representing joint team Malaysia-ILX

MSNBC already dropping the ball on programming -- they're supposed to have GBR-NZ soccer right now, but it's the usual daytime junk.

xpost defaulted for not fancying a pint

xp WmC it's at the half iirc, USA game just started on NBC sports network

xpost -- WELL JEEZ

Yeah, I was watching it online briefly, just noting that NBC's already in Programming Failure Mode on day 1.

ooh dodgy keepin' from hope solo. 1-0 France

BOOM! 2-0

ladies! Jesus!

WAMBACH

wow, slugfest

Jesus she's the best player in the air like ever

this is gonna end like 10-6 isn't it

Ha, what's going on? Following some 0-0 GBR-NZ bullshit here

Oh man that's her 138th International goal! 138. Monstrous.

France 2-0 up after 15 mins. 25 yarder the keeper should've saved and a blast from 12 yards. Wambach towering header pulls one back.
xp

Appropriately the French right winger is named Franco.

^^ was lolling at that during the women's world cup last summer XD

Was offered free tickets this afternoon for USA v France, but too short notice to get out of work and get there for 5pm :-(

USA
USA
USA

2-2

Offside

Neat finish though. Aw man I like this French team, Necib needs to wake up and get involved.

Solo doin aight right now

<3 Morgan srsly

so glad I have the whole summer off

I saw plenty of race-walking when my dad took me to track meets.

Would rather peep the sex marathon in the Olympic Village.

have the Olympics BEGUN?

oof Morgan went down hard

morbs, prelim soccer is on now

LLOYYYYYYYYD

rapinoe has been awesome this half

one mo'gan

did he really just say "the fox in the box"?

I wasn't listening, wouldn't surprise me, men are scum etc

you can blame Arsene Wenger for that one

good recovery, usa

cameroon's kits are amaaaaaazing

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/jul/25/london-2012-north-korea-south-flag

So a friend on Twitter just said something about how the opening ceremony might not even approach the Pan Arab Games opening ceremony and then posted this:

http://livedoor.blogimg.jp/jin115/imgs/1/7/1729fb43.jpg

No Olympic coverage on MSNBC all day here. Could other folks near their TVs check that channel in the next 35 minutes? I'm curious whether this is nationwide or just happening on the feed that the channel sends my cable provider (who say they're just putting out the feed they're getting from the network).

I'm watching msnbcHD on time warner in Texas, communist Korea vs cocaineland ladies soccer is in!

on, not in.
checked the standard def chan, too, also soccering

Spent the early evening on the South Bank and yeah there's a definite festival atmosphere down there. It might just be the sunshine, but there's a feeling of anticipation in the air.

For now at least, I'm enjoying the Lex having inadvertently started a football thread.

So, North Korea almost refused to play due to the South Korean flag being displayed alongside the team lines on the big screen at Hampden. Good stuff, organiser dudes.

brazil killed it today. my fav thing on fem football is buns

LONDON (AFP) - Britain considered denying visas to the North Korean soccer team to attend the 1966 World Cup finals over fears their presence could spark an international storm, official documents showed.

London was concerned the hardline communist state -- which it did not recognise at the time -- might cause tension at the tournament, according to documents released from government archives Sunday.

The 1966 World Cup came 13 years the Korean War and in the midst of the Cold War.

I love the fact that there are Olympic related things dotted around London. Stumbled across the House of Switzerland near London Bridge (no wonder I almost walked right into 3 members of the Swiss Olympic team coming out of work yesterday) and the Czech push up bus in Angel (outside the Business Design Centre).

Are there other decent ones worth checking out?

There's a Trinidad and Tobago one in Kilburn that might be good.

I'm quite keen on seeing the Czech band Charlie Straight at the Business Design Centre on Friday or Saturday.

"Japan have been really crafty," he explained on Wednesday. "They've played no hockey since the qualifiers, against anybody. Normally I'd like to go in to a match well-armed and have done a lot of work on them, but they've been very sneaky and not played anybody. So I think that's very unsportsmanlike of the Japanese and I think somebody needs to have a word with them."

Talking about the Japanese table tennis team there.

How does that work? Has each country adopted a bit of London for the fortnight (like the Czechs in Islington) or is it just a coincidence or marketing thing to get the international tourists in?

btw guys our "skiffle" band will be on radio 5 live this Saturday 11pm :D

I am fairly psyched for the opening ceremony, mainly because a friend is in charge of the costumes and production design (she's worked with Danny Boyle for years) so it'll be like 'so this is what Anne's been crazy-busy doing for the past two years'. The rest of it is still making me go PFFFFFFFT because, as a central London resident, it's hard not to think 'don't mind me, I only LIVE HERE.'

xxp

here's a list of hospitality houses. According to this, the Swiss one is free + loaded + near me, may drop in, eat cheese.

Hahaha good work Ireland sticking theirs in a pub.

Russia spent £16m on theirs!

loud medal ceremony rehearsal for the cycling road race as I was riding by Buckingham Palace this morning. Then Chariots of Fire started playing. I want more of this hallucinatory olympic commuting.

Spain playing in blue even though there opponents are also playing in blue albeit a lighter shade.

sorry darker shade

Japan take the lead!

not sure who to blame there

danny mills putting some of it on de gea but don't think he could have really come for that tbh

judging by the v v small sample size of watching one half of Brazil the other night and the 1st half of the Spanish today Spain are quite a bit behind Brazil.

harsh red there

clear goalscoring opportunity?? The ref is the only one denying the goalscoring chance by not letting Japan take the quick free kick!

I have a Spanish-Italian friend who is fully on the Italian side when it comes to sporting allegiances, and is still butthurt about the Euros, to the extent that he's planning on sending his Spanish friends smug texts every time they fuck up an Olympic event. I've tried explaining that "aaaah you are shit at synchronised swimming!!!" is unlikely to bother them too much but it's not sinking in.

Turns out there's an MSNBC feed that goes out internationally, different from the US feed at least during the Olympics, and that's what my cable provider is showing. They still haven't fixed it.

sweet goal by Morocco there

A unanimous decision has been made over who will light the Olympic Stadium's cauldron, Games organisers say, but it will be kept secret until the ceremony

If I was Steve Redgrave I'd be pretty fucked off when they give it to Beckham.

oh man, i hope he kicks a flaming football to light it

I realise this is at best only tenuously Olympics related, but I went on that new cable car thing over the Thames yesterday:
http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r299/crunchydog_2006/DSC01849small.jpg
http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r299/crunchydog_2006/DSC01844small.jpg
http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r299/crunchydog_2006/DSC01843small.jpg

rad

oh man, i hope he kicks a flaming football to light it

Man, Cantona already did that:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdhvp-iYR3s

reenacted that ad many times as a kid ;)

Uruguay are now 2-1 up against the UAE. Missed the first half but the Emiratis were apparently pretty good.

yeah, they were excellent in the first half

yes, they were rly controlling the pace and their goal was an awesome psych out of the goalie

I want them to win bc Suarez looks like a chode

He's a massive chode

Japan played rly well against espana, only a goal, but they had about five other chances

God they've wheeled Lawro out for The Olympic Football, apparently "The players who will start the match are all top Premier League stars."

ORLY???

Great Britain: Butland, Richards, Caulker, Taylor, Bertrand, Cleverley, Allen, Giggs, Bellamy, Sturridge, Rose.

Crooks is all over this shit too

3 leftbacks?

Danny Rose played LM vs Brazil I think.

ah. would've liked to see a lopsided, er, 6-2-2 kinda thing.

those gbr kits are dope imo

how come Muniain didn't play for spain? is that some sort of sick sick joke?

Injured iirc

ah.

i like how the one chant is almost a guided by voices chant.

Fuckin' BBC commentator doing the Brazil-Egypt game talking about Neymar "might be one of those players who has peaked already."

Mark Lawrenson is doing a decent job of sounding like he doesn't think this game is completely pointless. Well done BBC producers

brazil totally outclassing egypt

oops, spoke too soon. Egypt just scored

Brazil shook. Egypt pull it back to 3-2

senegolllllll

lovely pass and finish

gbr off the crossbar

Lawro and Pearce moaning about Senegal being "over physical"

hey they got a goal

If I can get onto Court 2 on Saturday at Wimbledon I think I'll just stay there all day. (I have a ground pass for that day)

Kim Clijsters vs Roberta Vinci
John Isner vs Oliver Rochus
Li Na vs Daniela Hantuchova
Melzer/Peya vs Murray/Murray

go clijsters
fucking love the olympicsssssss
USA v France bball on Sunday morning, I'm gonna feel bad rooting against three spurs, but USA USAUSA

today's Google doodle is a group of five athletes with the "o"s in "google" and a football and basketball arranged to vaguely resemble the Olympic logo, but when you mouse over it, it just says "Hooray for sports!". Like many other companies, Google has figured out they can tie themselves to the Olympics without having to pay to be an actual sponsor. (Google UK does have an Olympic link, but it won't let me access it from the US).

my sentimental favourite for the gold in women's tennis is Li Na, who lost the bronze medal play-off at her home Olympics four years ago. would be pretty special for Tsvetana Pironkova too.

predictions - gold Serena Williams, silver Maria Sharapova, bronze Zheng Jie // gold Roger Federer, silver Novak Djokovic, bronze Andy Murray, who is VERY LUCKY that Nadal pulled out so he doesn't have to add the trauma of 4th place a month after losing the Wimbledon final

My brother just won a £1000 ticket for the opening ceremony. Annoyed now.

i'm really not that excited about the ceremonies compared to the actual sports

Like many other companies, Google has figured out they can tie themselves to the Olympics without having to pay to be an actual sponsor.

Or google is so terrifyingly powerful that even the IOC won't step to them.

Jeremy Hunt attempting to ring a bell is essential Olympic viewing.

That bell-end almost hit someone

Someone must deliberately loosened that. Whoever did it deserves a knighthood.

http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/infocus/olytorch072712/s_t06_28174431.jpg

SUDDEN TICKET!!!!! Thought I'd missed out but my uncle has sorted me with one for the swimming on 1 Aug. OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG

nice one. early or late session?

dunno, Kat just asked me on twitter - had no idea how tkt sessions worked and my aunt was er a bit rushed on the phone just now. she said something about "7.30" but I didn't get a chance to ask "am or pm" - I assume that's the evening session unless the day one starts ridiculously early?

Oh wow, you jammy bastard:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/schedule-results/list/swimming/20120801

It could get noisy

I'm down for getting noisy

nic earticle by someone i follow on twitter about tennis's "unknown" olympians from liechtenstein, tunisia etc http://www.10sworld.com/tennis/blog/these-are-people-your-village-tennis-unknown-olympians

Some dude I know got this done earlier: http://www.mintmagazine.co.uk/general/my-friend-got-london-2012-inked-inked-into-his-leg/

http://www.mintmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/olympics-tattoo.jpg

Greg Henderson tweeted a photo from the German camp of cyclists Andre Greipel and Robert Forstermann comparing quads. Prepare to weep.

Yikes. Think those even make Chris Hoy's legs look sticklike.

My eeeeyes

Think I'll stick to brisk walking.

The celebrations begin!

http://gawker.com/5929616/maybe-mitt-was-right-uk-culture-secretary-nearly-kills-bystander-when-official-olympics-opening-bell-breaks

http://deadspin.com/5928972/the-haters-guide-to-the-2012-london-summer-olympics

lol @ the gawker link

Annnnnnd...huzzah.

http://deadspin.com/5929639/we-now-know-what-the-london-olympics-opening-ceremonies-will-look-like

They've just shown that on BBC1.

Looking forward to the olympic wicker man ritual

Christ, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

If Boris Johnson doesn't come out of that little cottage in the middle dressed as a hobbit, I will be bitterly disappointed.

Czech House is good fun. Probably best when there's a band playing, or something similar taking place, rather than as a stand-alone attraction. Charlie Straight were excellent this afternoon. They're on again at 6pm tomorrow.

http://veja4.abrilm.com.br/assets/images/2012/7/87690/Im-Dong-Hyun-size-598.jpg?1343389965

i am mega hyped for the opening ceremony. from everything i've heard from people at the rehearsals/involved it's going to be pretty impressive.

how long is it going to be? i've got to be at work for 10, can stay if i must till like 9.50

Lineker just said "about an hour" til it starts.

first thing I see when I turn on the opening ceremony = Emmeline Pankhurst's 17yo granddaughter speaking about the importance of the suffragette movement. a positive sign!

think its 2-3 hours

Okay so how the hell can those of us over here livestream this thanks to NBC's dick move

frank turner is on. FUCK.

Feeling totally uncynical then frank turner ffs.

wtf is this wank?

Um, never mind.

this busker on my screen needs his throat slit. reeling from the shitness

Frank Turner, you have got to be kidding me.

hope noodle vague is enjoying this

i think that was genuinely the worst thing i have ever seen in my life?

i feel like apologising to the rest of the world.

just turned on. seems to be some sort of civilisation v scene with some dick in a checked shirt singing an awful awful song.

Rockist Git Frank Turner and the horror of the live version of "I Still Believe"

‏@oneofthosefaces
Eternal shame. RT @princess393: what are you doing Britain? Amerricuh is watching this

Ned, did you find a source or decide not to get near it?

Now we are getting he showreel of DOOM from Andrew Marr.

i feel like when I saw frank turner play to 30 people in some shit southampton club, it was somehow similar to those people who knew hitler as a young man and wondered what the world would be like if they'd killed him then.

I turned it back on and saw black and white explosions. It is totally acceptable if they decided to bomb Frank Turner.

Ned, did you find a source or decide not to get near it?

The Frank Turnerness rightfully scared me away. Perhaps I need to wait.

it starts 4 real in 7 mins

yes thank god hopefully some tv broadcasts would not have shown that bit

lol all of this made me investigate Frank Turner, now I am very mad at all of you

teletubbie land doesn't look appropriate for sprinters.

I see they're repeating Midsomer Murders again.

don't be mad at us; just agree to never see another danny boyle film

Screw the haters this is going to be great

aw my friend eve once got sexually harassed on that london bridge bus. london!

absolutely xpost. although seeing those people filing in just now was giving me flashbacks of awkward school plays.

I'm going to be watching this through my fingers.

Fuck Buttons! Yes! So proud!

this video is headache inducing

feeling slightly panicky.

couple of more quid for muse.

can that plz be the only time i hear 'keep calm and carry on' plz bbc k thnkz

wiggins back off home now to bed

shit how nervous must he be.

can that plz be the only time i hear 'keep calm and carry on' plz bbc k thnkz

srsly

jerusalem >>>>>>>>>>> british history as done by a mash-up dj from the early 00s

was that Branagh?

I hope that a Martian War Machine erupts out of that fake hill.

i dont wanna be a dick about it or start an ilx race debate but it does seem totally awkward having black and asian people representing a time when we had no problem doing obscene and horrible things to them

wtf is this bilge

is that Riverdance dude? Oh, it's Branagh :-/

xxp That's so that you can tell it's not an episode of Midsomer.

this is not good so far :/

what are these awful rural idyll bumpkin toss stereotypes we are presenting to the world >>:(

DRUMS!!!

evelyn glennie y?

foreigners: this is actually what england is like everyday. its pretty awesome over here.

just chillin with some noise music and some old beardy dudes and drums and shit like that in a field.

did anyone else think evelyn glennie was totally lady gaga at first?

http://www.itsaknockouthire.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/bbc-its-a-knockout-video.jpg

It's not as bad as I expected after that atrocious little preview thing in China four years ago (red bus, umbrellas, bowler hats)

it's grim up north

flying smoking tree always fun

got to love the celebration of a time when we truly oppressed the working class

It'll be interesting to see if colonialism is addressed at all.

Can't wait for the bit where the actors recreate last year's riots.

deaf noise gaga drummer is p sweet actually

I'm sure all those at the back of the stadium are pleased with all the minute detail gone into the cogs and machinery.

It'll be interesting to see if colonialism is addressed at all.

― Temporarily Famous In The Czech Republic (ShariVari), Friday, 27 July 2012 21:14 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you'd think they could at least throw in a small wilberforce ref like the suffragettes

doubt they can see through the smoke

carsmile's boat

a+ old guy casting

Dancing Isembards ftw.

underworld music p good

fucking pearly kings

giant orange sperm of industry

where's Jessie J?

"Look, we've totally buggered up the environment. Hooray!"

Pretty rings :/

yeah the rings thing was rad

I can imagine Boris going "China had drummers, can we get some? Also, dress them up to look like the poor."

obviously he'd say it like a ponce tho

oh no.

is that the actual queen??

It is!

BBC edits the Queen badly again.

yes i think so.

it is. good placement for an ad for the next bond film. and on the bbc too!

xxxp oh, they'll do anything for a bit of cash these days

that was great!!!

some british stuff is pretty cool. i've almost forgotten about frank turner. almost.

no wonder the economy is in the shitter, everyone's too busy waving at helicopters

chinese premier never did this

probably not actual queen, no

oh god!

her hair does look like she jumped from a chopper

First Boris siting of the evening.

Too bad Mitt wasn't burned in effigy.

Or not in effigy, I'm not picky.

Wicker Man this bitch.

i was hoping we'd see the queen actually land with her actual parachute :(

Where's the bit where they acknowledge G4S?

Frank Turner + A deaf drummer + A deaf choir

Danny Boyle is making a point about modern music then

so much better than lesley garrett at the tour de france.

Kids miming like Beijing!

bloody hell liz, crack a smile once in 2012, go on, i dare ya

Have I missed any fox hunting yet?

nhs and the exorcist theme. what does it all mean?

Who's tending to the sick tonight?

These people aren't sick, bloody malingerers!

tubular bells: this time we're swinging

nhs being dismantled in front of our eyes

NHS turning blood red with privatisation...

two to a hospital bed. nhs cuts.

Light blanket's are pretty cool.

Crazy horses! Wargh! Wargh!

JM Barrie is dead, so at the last minute the organisers had to substitute another children's author whose first name began with a J.

lol

can anyone explain frank turner being there? has he suddenly started selling records or something? i thought he was a decent sized touring indie act to first year university students and there are about 4000 more appropriate acts to open this.

oh shit this just turned into some freaky nightmare.

For non-UK types...

http://www.thefirstrow.eu/watch/132385/1/watch-london-olympic-games-2012,-opening-ceremony.html

Mike Oldfield Guitar Face

26 million in actors fees, and a million to get queeny to jump out of a helicopter.

frank headlines wembley now.

Any minute now Dick Van Dyke's going to turn up dressed as a Cock-er-knee chimney sweep.

Trevor Nelson talking about how scary hospital can be for kids. I'm sure it won't be much easier after this!

"It can't be that easy for people without natural rhythm" lolz trev.

oldfield medley

Oldfield: the man who's done bugger all successful since Tubular Bells and the Blue Peter theme.

frank headlines wembley now.

― Jamie_ATP, Friday, 27 July 2012 21:42 (30 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol wtf?

this seems like a 'obama gets re-elected im moving to canada' type sentence to me

Kids, "my in ear monitor's not working"

i demand moonlight shadow

loving the beeb talking up the nhs during this.

giant child has gone to hospital for crazy farting in bed

Mr. Bean. Of course.

Rowan Atkinson/Mr Bean, really? We've sunk this low?

thought the NHS tribute followed by NHS being dismantled by children's story baddies who looked a bit like george osborne was kind of genius

xp It's an unbelievably famous character, in fairness. Probably second only to Harry Potter in the last thirty years of British culture internationally.

that entire sequence was almost taken out by THE MAN. good work boyle.

Forget everything else, is this piece of music actually based around one note?

don't kill me but you could say in modern day times rowan atkinson is comparable to chaplin in that most of his comedy transcends language barriers and the films make huuuuuge amounts worldwide

Tubular Bells and Mr Bean, oh my.

er who or what is frankie & june

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ad/Blackadder_Goes_Forth.jpg
"Take a telegram, Baldrick. To Mr. R. Atkinson, Olympic Stadium, London. Message reads: Please please please stop."

Is this the end of mr. Boyle's career then? After this, it's all downhill, no?

tune!

Holy shit. What is going on? So outta here.

Okay what IS going on. Love the OMD though.

And the Sugababes and Jam and etc.

YOU WANT MORE MONEY OF COURSE I DON'T MIND

yes Gregory's Girl!

and Kes. and Powell and Pressburger. fuck.

My mere mortal brain can't handle this, wtf is going on

This is leading up to Muse, isn't it?

PUNK DOLLS?

Only using "Pretty Vacant"? You whimps.

Gorillaz more likely, via hologram

Spice Girls, Smiths and Bananarama reunions coming up in a couple of minutes

Mike Reid will be having a thromby

not sure i should be admitting this, but it's like a greatest hits i would want.

I'm sure it'll probably all be released on a tie-in compilation CD.

REMEMBER THE 90s?????

i never say this but the 'amount of shit i love' level is pretty high and has me feeling strangely patriotic.

cute big hair girl!

Aw, they find each other.

need i say ws?

chas n dave written out of history again

i hear you jamie

this is great

xxp Lucky it wasn't Black Lace.

chas n dave written out of history again

ou est le quo?

MUSE!!!!!!!!!!

Are mobile phone couple going to snog + woody allen/everything you always wanted to know type giant sperms + peter gabriel millennium dome ovo thing?

Big Hair Girl nation's new sweet heart <3

Looking at this you obv always wonder what is going through the Queen's mind right now, specially at that bit from the Pistols.

That's why my internet connection is so slow - it's being piped through Tim Berners-LEe's NextCube.

no berners-lee - no ilx

thanks to this man, pron is available to everyone.

I imagine the duke is explaining the context to her xxp

cmon david

xxp TB-L taught me all I know about shoplifting from newsagents.

Okay the stream is giving me a bunch of ads, what's happening?

give the torch to george osborne to light the flame please.

or just use a lighter instead for austerity's sake.

costas is so gonna talk over this part later, if they even show it

Okay the stream is giving me a bunch of ads, what's happening?

― Ned Raggett, Friday, July 27, 2012 9:11 PM (4 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this bit isn't sponsored in the usa obvs

Ned, it's a video montage of torch relay stuff.

ned, there is now video footage of the torch's journey through this isle

david beckham driving a speedboat, that sort of thing

"downtown London"

what is this music?

becks surely not driving it. must be an autopilot somewhere.

Pulp

"david beckham: former eastender"

beckham looking smug, wouldn't anyone doing that.

I'm betting on Brian Cox (D:Ream reunion, obv) lighting the flame using a scale model of the hadron collider.

beckham looking impossibly smug

music from the end of another db film there..

why do the announcers announce in french first then english?

i mean, this isn't eurovision

It's a Canadian broadcast

Can barely hear the music...wait there we are.

Beckham had the "drink spiker's grin" for some reason.

or france.

shit - critical mass made it to Stratford... now they're being kettled and pepper-sprayed

x-post French is the official language of the olympic movement

Ohh, well I think it has to do with the official Olympic Languages?

abide with me is just amazing.

xxxpost

thanks porkpie.

whatever this song is, it sucks. they shouldve replaced this part with a bunch of busty babes being chased around onstage by a benny hill impersonator

Needed more Akram Khan.

iirc french is also the language of diplomacy too

always get a chill when abide with me is sung at a sports event

haven't seen anything since wiggo, stupid work, this was a good moment to come back in.

whatever this song is, it sucks. they shouldve replaced this part with a bunch of busty babes being chased around onstage by a benny hill impersonator

Boris?

at least HRH is still awake

why do the announcers announce in french first then english?

We do this with everything in Britain every day

brussels eurocrats innit

they def need to benny hill up this thing now

don't mention the Falklands.

Blubbed like a baby at 'Abide with me'.

Australian woman is going to take someone's eye out with that flag.

Montage music was by Warm Digits I think.

gets me every cup final - got me then - xp

Wait...we're still just on the "A" countries...?

Come back in an hour.

more underworld

underworld

cultural ambassadors

What track is this?

Rez.

some weird downtempo version?

Ta. Got a bit of an underworld blind spot tbh.

The Olympics opening ceremony. Country after country come marching in behind their flags. Bahrain enter, behind their flag. "Bahrain!" says the stadium announcer. A pause. "The Bahrain flag there," says the BBC commentator, really earning his money.

sounds like a slowed down digital "where the streets have no name" rip off.

i am watching this an hour late, just got to the bit with the windrush

Is someone carrying a copper urinal with each team?

frankly i consider my cynicism thoroughly defeated

i feel emotional

why?

they're for drug testing ed

ok...what's this track?

xxpost -- Because it's the fucking Olympics.

it's a sign of weakness

having athletes from all these nations in one place is genuinely fantastic. it's hard not to feel moved! xpost

west end...

yeahhhh!

This is by far the best Olympics opening ceremony I've seen in the last four years.

a song from my childhood

I think Team USA should come in to Ace Of Spades

Re: Rez, I'm sure when it started up Hazel Irvine said "we all know this one, sing along at home" (or similar). It doesn't have any words and isn't very well-known. Did she mistake it for something else or does she genuinely think millions of British families were enthusiastically humming along?

apparently Syria will be coming on to Barbarism begins at home

xp I think she was referring to Barbados by Typically Tropical as it was their team she had just announced.

Cook Islands = trashbat.co.ck

drummer people look like they're flagging already

Is it me or are the mascots not really featuring in this very much? (the two aliens, what were they, gog and magog or wenlock and mandeville or something)

cuba waving flag with one hand. no messing.

czech wearing wellies? taking the piss?

More like expecting it to piss down.

Wellies and brollies, taking no chances

South Korea! No, wait...

DPRK brought a spare flag just in case

They could easily solve all these flag mistakes by just invading South Korea.

I keep on thinking the kids are cuddling wombats instead of those copper things.

Egyptians, tired from raising the pyramids to the ground.

Each country's spittoon combined together with the others to form... Metaspittoon!

Estonia's national costume is the macintosh.

Superb work, banging on the Bee Gees precisely as Fiji made its entrance

It looks like Gambia have gone for a waterproof Dashiki

For a second it looked like Georgia's uniforms had 'GTFO' written on the front.

wtf nazi salute

Cameron reading some magazines to pass the time.

lol yes wtf was that??

wtf nazi salute

thought i was seeing things...

How come the Dutch Antilles athletes get shafted?

Queen and archbishop not impressed

If there were medals for looking grumpy as fuck, Queen and Philip would be in with a shot.

In fairness it's probably past her bedtime.

Netherlands Antilles dissolved as a country in 2010? But they still get to compete, so not shafted at all really. I
think.

jordan look like they've all just been to a Ren fayre...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIyCoBB5Aas

they're making up countries now

What is Netherlands Antilles then?

Be quicker for you to Wikipedia it than for me to retype what I just read 5 mins ago tbh.

It's like that is it?

"she grew up in the kitchen watching her father shadow box" ---australian commentator discussing irish flag bearer

Huw Edwards in charge of 'depressing facts' clearly - if there's a civil war or natural disaster he'll be the one bringing it up.

I kind of wish we had Shearer doing the commentary tonight. "Micronesia...never heard of them"

more fuck buttons :-)

The new zealand team came dressed as darts players

Some quality tunes here. Appreciated Wretch 32 earlier, for the Jeremy Kyle lyric if nothing else.

C'mon bring on the FSOL

Mr Blue Sky. But am I going to get to hear Eternal Flame?

Hurrah, I see the Saudis finally caved in and allowed women in their team

https://twitter.com/AidanBurleyMP/status/228963706665574400

If I was a dictator of a country I would make sure the national flag that DIDN'T have any of the colors of the Olympic rings.

the Spanish flagbearer is terrifying

xxp MP-who-was-sacked-for-wearing-a-Nazi-uniform-at-a-stag-party in 'not a fan of multi-culturalism' shocka

i hope aidan burley enjoyed his time as an mp

fucking hell that tweet

wd support a country with lavender and hot pink flag colors

those famed touchstones of anglo-saxon culture shakespeare the rolling stones and the red arrows

the copper urinals are changing shape slowly

gtf this irish music

props to hazel irvine for calling the iaaf gender investigation re semeya DISGRACEFUL

i have to say i didn't realise when i set out watching this quite how multicultural the olympics were.

...

Go T&T! We have a runner called Sparkle McKnight.

leftie

Toryboy MPs don't like all that 'leftie crap' like celebrating the NHS.

These bronze 'petals' are really urinals, aren't they?

seb coe and his lefty agenda

Skip Tuvalu my darling

US came dressed as soldiers

what the hell are those paramilitary berets?

US Olympic team paramilitary militia

lmfao someone just yelled out bababooey

Hmm...

https://twitter.com/PaulMcCartney/status/228982610834116609/photo/1

No Ringo no credibility...

WHAT WHAT

WAKE UP QUEENIE

Queen doesn't give a fuck.

Okay WHAT the hell with your uniforms over there.

blingin' tracksuits

real british people being really tacky. love it.

very Hunger Games, isn't it?

not really

oh ok

I am a bit peckish.

arctic monkeys? oh noooooo

yikes.

This is the first time I have ever heard Arctic Monkeys music.

their bassist is a disgrace to Britain

we start with a deaf woman who can still lead a thousand drummers and we reach three hours and now we have someone with the use of both ears who is just about capable of holding down a backbeat if he concentrates

man, i was at a point of cynicism ~utterly defused~ and it's all come crashing down now

no no no no ffs

jesus christ lmao

it was kind of rocky and fun I guess

;_;

this should be Spiritualized

aw, I still like them (when the camera pans right)

I guess when they started planning this four or five years ago the Arctic Monkeys were still a thing.

OK this is awesome

they sure trolled us, decent tunes most of the night and then ~this~

We've now reached the 'crazy idea that we had to put in because the person who thought it up wouldn't stop going on about it' part of the evening.

no i mean that was kind of the whole thing though

whoa E.T. is there

I guess when they started planning this four or five years ago the Arctic Monkeys were still a thing.

haha yes, and the bands were the first thing they decided on

first we get Arctic Monkeys and Kasabian...then we build some stadiums and a village

hearty lols

president rog

i am a bit hammaered

It'd be kind of awesome if Coe went up and lit the flame himself

with a fart amirite

Lit himself on fire, threw himself in the cauldron.

only for Ovett to overtake him at the last

lol

Haha

Coe would just claim it was down to a speech-giving related injury, rather than Ovett actually being better than him.

big up the roggedog

"so generous with their time, their energy, and their welcoming smiles" ??

yes

Must be talking about some other city.

http://cadfael.tv/image/src/1343429914115.gif

"reject doping" - real athletes booze it up like Oliver Reed in a brewery...

Nice speech Liz.

Write it in the car on the way here?

nailed it

aidan burley must be pissing himself with rage at this

Yay shami

haile g is my sports hero tbh

ALI

tryna recreate that 96 magic... it aint happenin england!!!!

He looks in bad shape, that woman is literally holding him upright.

the flag has been militarised

poor Ali

the tableau of those nine in white with him, central, seated, is a fantastic one

i sort of hate that they (literally) drag him out to things like this. reminds me of brian wilson.

who are all the other people on the beckham boat now

Beckham looks so good

do you think he can actually pilot a speedboat or was someone hiding earlier

from the shot of the back of his head, btw, for a second i thought redgrave was ken livingstone

i sort of hate that they (literally) drag him out to things like this. reminds me of brian wilson.

I agree, it depresses me.

Wasn't Paul McCartney due to get wheeled out too?

you just know his younger self would hate to see it.

I think he has very little idea of what is going on, it's sad.

what is this song?

evelyn glennie still going

two door cinema club i think

I hope the tube is on late tonight

"literally passing the torch" followed by coincidental gong

Looks like we'll be importing more gas from Gazprom.

complex, obtuse symbolism. I'm frankly lost

Keep expecting to see an "ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED" message in the top right corner of the screen.

*Previously recorded*
Official American broadcast starting now

<3 Heatherwick

Best Cauldron Ever

Pink Floyd DSotM WTF?!

oh good pink floyd again. this seems sort of off message

FLOYD RULES THE OLYMPICS

so how much of the whole thing was pre-empted/foreshadowed in the pre-recorded thames bit at the beginning, then

i bet it's going to be fucking hey jude

there's nothing i hate more than a singalong hey jude at a big outdoor event

This is going to be big

Can't believe they didn't show us the fireworks finale.

i bet it's going to be fucking hey jude

― Jamie_ATP, Saturday, 28 July 2012 00:38 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh damn.

i bet it's going to be fucking hey jude

― Jamie_ATP, Friday, July 27, 2012 7:38 PM (32 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

there's nothing i hate more than a singalong hey jude at a big outdoor event

― Jamie_ATP, Friday, July 27, 2012 7:39 PM (10 seconds ago) Bookmark

lol.

idk why the BBC didn't show the fireworks properly. They were stunning from out my window and i'm about six miles away.

props for at least starting with 'the end', i guess? :/

ok I'm off home chaps

chas n dave shunned for this scouse chancer

Big flame cauldron thing is excellent.

This sounds terrible

It should be Billy Childish or Definition Of Sound

do you think paul maccartney is aware of how many people belong to an anti-hey jude party? do you think it runs through his mind on these occasions?

he fucking rickrolled that shit. i thought 'oh cool, he's just done The End and that's it - that's remarkably restrained for you, well done macca. good man.'

:-(

i am glad he is urging the crowd to join in, otherwise they might have suffered from that terrible british restraint

someone pull the plug, please.

play gertcha

Was it my imagination or did we start off hearing two Hey Jude's about 5 seconds out of synch with each other?

It seemed like it.

we did, yes. there's been a lot of odd things with the mix tonight on the bbc version but that was way pronounced.

Bonkers >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Hey Jude

and yes they really screwed up the beginning; sounded like they were trying to sing it in rounds

this is unspeakable.

Does that autocue next to MAcca's piano actually have the words to 'Hey Jude' on it?

oh god, macca is really putting the eyebrows on this

There's only one guy enjoyed that

STOP SAYING VIBRANT

an 'immensely funny evening'

I'm glad I watched that, thought it would be awful but it was fantastic (NB I have already switched off, Macca you can let rip)

that was fun. let's do it all again tomorrow

yep - cauldron was amazing.

Looking forward to Matt Lauer having to explain who Isambard Kingdom Brunel is.

thought it was wonderful though a shame it was bookended by shit rock

Yeah, feared the worst at the start but it picked up enormously. Very well done.

http://i.imgur.com/YqUZW.png

that was remarkable, the rest of it didn't quite reach the opening stadium house pageant of british history but still

anyway night all, off to wimbledon tomorrow. excited.

it wouldve been cool if macca played the opening notes to hey jude and suddenly the band goes flying as the stage opens up like a clamshell and Slayer emerges from a stage-beneath-the-stage and they rock thge house down

http://i.imgur.com/YqUZW.png

― Matt Armstrong, Friday, July 27, 2012 7:51 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

UGH and Meredith Viera.

yeah i wish she'd shut it

"'Jerusalem' is the unofficial British anthem"

"here's a bunch of children singing in different parts of the UK" NO SHIT MEREDITH, THX

vieira is still hot though

And who was Kenneth Branagh? Eh, just some guy in top hat and tails. Who cares.

shire horses, nhs, www, blake, milton, dizzee, heatherwick cauldron, fuck buttons, i mean yes I had a brilliant time watching that. v moved at regular intervals - children! worthwhile idea of britain/london! gathering of nations!

is this the guy who directed Thor?

man the 20th century was pretty awful huh

SHUT UP LAUER

Branagh is such a pro. The camera would cut back to him twenty minutes later and he's still acting his heart out, a mere dot in a crowd.

"the one time you want smell-o-vision"

Commercial breaks a bit irritating.

Branagh was Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

Bob Costas and Matt Lauer should both be banished from the US, let alone network television.

Branagh was Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

Yeah, I know. Shame that they didn't explain that.

corgi butts

I expect there are gazillions of ungotten references throughout. Good luck, USA.

haha, that was glorious

tks to the new yorker and others it is everything i expected. What a giant train wreck. (the NYorker actually called it community theater in advance) but i kept saying as watching oh now industrialization and then they had it, with the cigar smoking boss and then black invasion of britain w/suitcases! and the BEDS! and Mary Poppins, and the hobbit reciting Shakespeare before the 'green & pleasant isle' gets smoke stacked.

Also loved how how all the Brits with me kept leaving the room as finding themselves unable to watch the whole spectacle from hobbit on till scandalization by the Queen w/Daniel Craig where I was arguing for her jumping out a plane.

cherry on the cake was the arguments for danny boyle being made before watching the show and how all that was swallowed

was highly entertaining as a hot mess

who is this james bond bro, seems p chill

aaaannd walmart steaks

i read the nyt liveblog this afternoon and the whole thing sounded delightfully ridiculous so figured i should watch

if only the nbc anchors would stop talking

"What? People LIKE socialized medicine?"

Captions would have made too much sense. It's worse than parade coverage.

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/599556_10151086059854273_387811398_n.jpg

Seems my tweet has been misunderstood. I was talking about the way it was handled in the show, not multiculturalism itself

This was largely amazing, I have to say.

The scrap of God Save the Queen at the start (during the travel up the Thames, at around the same time as the Have I Got News For You theme (!)) was great, as was Pretty Vacant.

Magnus Formerly Of This Parish nailed it when he said that there wasn't anything in the pageantry from the long list of pleasant lies that British people say about themselves but don't really believe.

I flagged a bit during the 500 countries, but on the other hand one of the (few) things that I genuinely love about the Olympics is the opportunity for every single country to go "Hey guess what we're a country"

Perked up at triple hit of the BBC coverage of the USA being largely uninterested in the concept of there being a Mitt Romney, the footage of the Queen upthread (I initially thought she was texting) and megaguffaws at the startingly unconvincing waving from Cam & Sam.

Also! We fled during Hey Jude (for that is surely its purpose), but I was pleased that we avoided speeches from either David Cameron or Boris Johnson.