I watched the Olympic Closing Ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics tonight, and WOW, it lived up to the promise of the opening...  really cool!  By this time I guess we're all a bit inured to the spectacle of the bird's nest stadium, and the fireworks, and the pageantry, but when you step back it really is amazing.  My favorite part of the closing was Jimmy Page of Led Zep playing whole lot of love (as part of a show within the show, introducing London as the hosts for the 2012 Olympics); one can only think that the London organizers are scrutinizing these Olympics carefully and wondering how they're ever going to live up to this.  I guess they can't, really; the best they can do is to do their best, and that will probably be pretty good (2012 will be London's third time as host, the first city to have that honor).

I actually think based on my limited knowledge of China that these Olympics did a faithful job of presenting China as China, for better or worse.  They are the largest country on Earth, with an ancient and venerable culture, in the midst of change, and the ceremonies reflected that...  pretty cool.  It was noticeable and probably not accidental that the ceremony begin well organized and structured, as the opening, but then devolved into a wilder somewhat disorganized "party"; an interesting metaphor for what is happening to China as a whole.

In case you missed it, here are some pictures taken of my TV screen, as recorded by my Tivo...  (click each to enlarge)

I guess my reaction after two weeks of watching the Opening Ceremony, all day / all night competition, and Closing Ceremony is...  WOW!