Winter Olympics Closing Ceremonies in Vancouver

Another Olympics comes to a close - and quite a close it was. The ceremonies, as always, have been meeting with mixed reviews. My own opinion is that David Atkins delivered an eclectic mixture of comedy and music that I am not totally convinced did too much to advance anyone's understanding of our country. They were, however, extremely well executed.

For me, the short comedic opening was the highlight of the entire show. To "fix" the technical glitch from the opening in such a creative manner was brilliant. It's always nice when one can capitalize on a second chance. The oversized Canadian symbols (e.g. blow-up beavers, huge hockey board game, dancing maple leaves, etc) were certainly humourous but not too creative. Atkins relied on the old event producer's trick of going oversize to impress, but that part of the show lacked substance. The Sochi presentation was very creative and bodes well for their games.

The second half - the party half - of the ceremonies was a little disappointing. Yes, great music from some well-known Canadian musicians. However, the input of Canadian entertainment moguls Bruce Allen and Sam Feldman, who together basically control the star machinery in our country and were "advisors" for all the ceremonies, was far too obvious. I will hazard a guess that the lion's share of the funds for the Closing Ceremonies went to their stars and their pocketbooks, but then that is only speculation. I wonder how many arguments went on behind the scenes about creativity vs star drawing power. Hmmmmm!!??

Technically the ceremonies were basic compared to the opening, with not a lot to "wow" me.

Overall, a decent effort, coming off successfully thanks to the overwhelming success of our Canadian athletes and two weeks of "treacly" emotion.