When I sat down to watch the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics from Torino on Friday, I wasn't planning to watch every second of it. Yet I did. It's not something I'm necessarily proud of, but it's a fact I can't deny. I'm a sucker for the Olympic Games. Be they summer or winter, I'm one to be easily caught up in them. Not only do I find the athletic excellence and competition captivating, but I also find the spirit of the Olympic movement appealing. Pessimists and protestors might deride it as the "Olympic Illusion", but I would like to believe that the ideals of peace promoted by the event and organization are a reality, if only for two weeks every two years.

From what little I've seen from camera flyovers, the city of Torino (Turin?) and its surrounding areas are beautiful. Admittedly, I'm easily taken by cityscapes, nightscapes and landscapes, which may partly explain my fascination with SimCity (besides the aspects of urban design and planning that I just know everybody finds so intriguing). According to the Today Show's sixty-second geography lesson, the city is located in the northwest region of Italy and has approximately 11 miles of porticos. It was also the home of Fiat and was once Italy's capital.

• The inline skaters dressed in red tights with flames shooting from their backs representing the spark of life or passion, which is only appropriate since the theme of the Torino games is "Passion Lives Here".
• A hundred or so performers in blue, red, green, peach and black capes clustered to form a giant ski jumper (when viewed from above). They then staged a routine that simulated the ski jumper making his run and landing successfully. It was awesome.
• The transformation of the stage from fire to snow and the appearance of the seven giant horns to represent the seven Alpine countries (Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Slovenia and Liechtenstein)
• The stadium filled with 70,000 spectators all dressed in white.
• The Parade of Nations set to dance music from the 70s and 80s, the type of music often heard at karaoke bars and generic wedding receptions.
• The huge number of one-athlete countries (Kenya, Madagascar and Venezuela come quickly to mind).
• More and more athletes brought digital cameras and camcorders in with them during the parade to capture the moment from their unique perspectives, which was cool. Only one athlete was caught on television talking on a cell phone while she marched in, which wasn't so cool. She was an American.
• Yoko Ono's call for peace, which primarily consisted of lyrics from her late husband's song, "Imagine", and mixing in the word peace with a random assortment of nouns and verbs. Peter Gabriel then performed the quoted song.
• Luciano Pavarotti singing "Nessun Dorma" magnificently, bringing the roaring crowd of spectators and athletes to their feet.

I believe Torino pulled off a good opening celebration, but if I were to rank it amongst all of the other opening ceremonies I can remember, dating back to Los Angeles and Sarajevo in 1984, it would fall somewhere in the middle.

Counting yesterday, there have been four days of competition, which means plenty to write about, if I can find the time and energy. I'll be missing most of the action tonight and tomorrow night because of classes I'm taking (which I'll also elaborate on in another post), but I'm tempted to tape the encore airings (shown in the middle of the night) and catch up on it this weekend.