POST-MORDEM: Beijing Summer Olympics

Okay, I said I would do this sometimes ths week, but seeing as how the final night of the Olympics delayed broadcast is being repeated on the local NBC station, I figured I would write this up now while my girl Kylie is singing her sing, "On a Night Like This," which somehow seems appropriate.

First, the requisite gushing over the production values of the closing ceremonies, which by now have become part rave party, part state funeral with the extinguishing of the Olympic flame and part preview of the next City to host the Games. Noted Chinese Filmmaker Zhang Yimou not only set the bar impossibly high for subsequent Opening Ceremonies after his astounding production that opened the Olympics on August 8.

For the Closing Ceremonies, the same type of unbelievably impressive production values that marked the Opening Ceremonies were evident in the closing ceremonies, although there wasn't the pomp of the Parade of Nations. As has become the tradition since the Summer Games in Melbourne more than 50 years ago, the athletes and members of the Olympics delegations all enter as one gigantic group into the Stadium. The night, which included the traditional passing of the "Antwerp Flag" from Guo Jinlong, the Mayor of Beijing to the new Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, went pretty quickly as clsing ceremonies go.

Now for the criticism, one of the really annoying problems with the Ceremonies was the really bad audio provided by NBC to those of us not fortunate enough to have cable or satellite hookups. It was glaringly evident during the London preview of the 2012 Summer Olympics. Leona Lewis is a talented and incredible singer and Jimmy Paige needs no help in his place in the music world, a guitarist extraordinaire with Led Zepplin.

However, unless you had really good speakers or have the musical knowledge of Brock Sampson, you wouldn't have known that "Whole Lotta Love" was playing until you heard Paige's guiter licks. It sounded like NBC had placed a microphone halfway from the speaker systems in the Bird's Nest. You couldn't make out a signle word she was singing. Well, at least it wasn't lip-synched, I think.

Overall, the spectacle was unforgettable, the execution flawless, the NBC presentation? Sucked worse than a pool hose. I mean Really? You couldn't invest in a pair of patch cables to hook into the sound system at the Stadium? what happened, NBC? you spend too much on Costas' hair gel?

Well, now we count down the some 535+ days until the winter Olympics kick off in Vancouver. I know I will be there in some capacity.