London - 1949 (West End, Piccadilly Circus looking up Shaftsbury Avenue) (Source: retronaut.com)
Charlton Brooker on The Olympics
Opening Ceremony
The parade of nations goes on a bit, although NBC gave it some additional bite thanks to commentator Bob Costas, who sat in his box pissing on every country passing beneath him. From him, I learned that Bangladesh is the most heavily populated country to have never won a medal, that Madagascar’s achievements pale into insignificance compared to its indirect association with Madagascar the CGI cartoon, and that Kiribati has no regularly scheduled flights to Honolulu. He greeted Pakistan and Iran like suspected paedophiles arriving at a barbecue, and as the Egyptian team strode into the stadium, waving and smiling, he dissed the Arab spring. “From military dictatorship to Jeffersonian democracy? Not exactly.”
Yet despite this layer of bullshit (which seems to have irritated US viewers as much as it did me), enough of the ceremony leaked through to make me feel a tad sniffly and homesick. I flew home the following day. The mood when I landed was markedly different from when I left. Was the nation pleased to see me? No. It was indoors, watching sport. And soon, I was joining them.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/05/olympics-better-than-looked-on-tin
