Last time that I was excited about the Olympics was the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary. ‘Cause I was working for ABC Sports PR, so I was being paid to be excited. Though working at ABC Sports that year was one of the best years. We promoted the 1987 World Series, Super Bowl XXII and the Winter Olympics, all in just 6 months. That was the last great year of ABC Sports and quite a learning experience for me.
I can’t contain my curiosity for the Beijing Olympics. Today is the day for the opening ceremonies with director Zhang Yimou. His early films released in the U.S. Red Sorghum, Ju Dou to the tragic Raise the Red Lantern were just preludes to what I feel is his best work, “To Live.” Though the family in that story (its tragedies and small joys) are so foreign from my cosseted existence, the intensity of the emotions and atmosphere portrayed by Zhang still brings tears to my eyes.
Now Zhang is the orchestrator of probably the most important cultural and political, though the Olympics are not political 
event of 21st century Chinese history. Yes, it is that big a deal to the Chinese that all the eyes of the world have now “turned to the East.” (To paraphrase Mao.) Check out the report of the dress rehearsal the the official Olympic website.
And if you don’t think this is such a big deal, when was the last time that you remember that a U.S. President went to the opening ceremonies of an Olympics outside of the U.S. Of course, GW thinks he’s been on vacation since the spring so this is just one more stop on his ’round the world while it’s on the taxpayer’s dime tour.
Though today’s NY Times article on Zhang Yimou is accusing him of toadying to the “Party,” I don’t think that Zhang with his family history and the story that he told in “To Live” could have sold out just to direct the Olympics.
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