Wow! A few projectors, lots of confetti, and fabric sheets…done in a stunning number of brilliant combinations. Simply the best opening ceremony in the last few Olympics. The lighting effects—especially when the stadium flooded and was visited by whales swimming through it—should definitely win some awards. The fabric drapes of Native Canadian constellations that shot fire down to the actors? No clue how they did it so perfectly, and no interest in knowing for fear of spoiling the magic. It was really, really good. Seriously, how cool were the whales that turned into salmon who turned into icicles that turned into trees?

The music, however, was hit and miss. Bryan Adams and Nelly Furtado were awful. But the young lady who sang the Canadian national anthem, though she started out a bit nervous, ended strong. “O Canada” ranks as the second-best national anthem, just ahead of Russia’s and just behind “The Star Spangled Banner”. Yeah, yeah, it’s an old drinking tune, but the theme is about us kicking a**. As wonderful as America the Beautiful is, it noticeably fails to mention bombs bursting in air.

Hey, Bob Costas: when the First Nations were speaking their blessing in their native languages, would be possible for you to put a sock in it? I don’t need you to read stats of Wikipedia; I’m fully capable of doing that all by myself.

Smart move by the organizers to put a gap in front of and behind the Georgian entourage. It added a chance for the applause to die down, a more emotional applause to begin, and a chance to breathe before welcoming in the next team. Really, that simple gesture to the Georgians showed enormous respect for their fallen teammate.

And I noticed, about the time Pakistan was marching in, that the First Nations dancers were still dancing. Holy crap, that was about 90 straight minutes of energetic dancing. And it went for another 30 minutes. God knows what happened to the Grandma Addams lady; she is in vastly better shape than I am!

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.