Live from the Winter Olympics opening ceremony (Part 2)

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7:53: They are now tap dancing, and some of the tap dancers have sparklers on their feet. Apparently they blew their entire special effects budget on the fancy floor light show.

Note: You can read Part 3 of our live coverage here .

7:47: You guessed it. More dancing. This time accompanied by multiple fiddlers.

7:44: We are at the ‘Rhythms of the Fall’ segment. A blue and white canoe slowly lowers from the ceiling with a man playing a fiddle. A shadow of the fiddler is projected on a moon in the arena. The fiddler tosses his cape from the canoe, and it triggers a cascade of maple leafs, falling to the arena floor.

7:40: More dancing. If Kenny Loggins comes out and start singing ‘Footloose’, I’m leaving.

7:37: Sarah MacLachlan comes out to sing. And all the momentum built up from the great floor light show dissipates into nothingness.

7:33: A giant spirit bear rises from the arena floor, and in the best special effect of the evening. It looks like the entire arena is breaking apart like a giant glacier. Really beautiful. Whoever designed the floor effects earned his money. Now it looks like whales are swimming across the floor. If the rest of the show is like this, it will make it worth the ticket price.

7:29: Energy rings (light show on the arena floor, nicely done) ignite the Aurora Borealis. Unfortunately the Aurora Borealis look more like three paper streamers hanging in the sky, as that effect didn’t come across well at all.

7:27: It is now snowing in the arena. Well, they are actually soap bubbles and bits of paper, but it’s still a pretty nifty effect.The ceremony will now celebrate Canada’s amazing and diverse geography.

7:23: More dancing as the singing ends. There has been A LOT of dancing at this opening ceremony. I’m expecting Len Goodman, Bruno Tonioli and Carrie Ann Inaba to come out at any time now with their scores.

7:21: If you listen closely, you can hear many people in the arena wondering ‘Isn’t he going to sing ‘Summer of ‘69’?’

7:19 p.m.: The parade of nations is over. Out comes Nelly Furtado and Bryan Adams to sing ‘Bang the Drum’.

7:15: Canada enters the arena, and the crowd almost tears the roof off the joint. The response should be good enough to give them a couple extra gold medals. It must be an amazing feeling to have thousands of people cheering for you.

7:12 p.m.: The U.S. enters, and the Americans in the crowd go crazy. Lindsey Jacobellis is there, but she tried a hot-dog move and fell just before the camera got to her. NBC also showed Shaun White about two dozen times, as the rest of the athletes marched in obscurity.

7 p.m.: We are up to Romania now. All the countries sort of begin to blend into one after a while.

By the way, tickets to the opening ceremony were going for about $5,000 Friday. And the streets of Vancouver were packed with athletes, coaches and visitors.

It’s like the ‘It’s A Small World’ ride at Disneyland come to life, and is an amazing cultural experience to be a part of.

Photo: The delegation fron Georgia enters the arena. Credit: