And we danced

I caught a bit of the afternoon replay of the Paralympics opening ceremony, most of which I unfortunately missed but I did get to see the rather extraordinary “Bolero” segment:

Here’s the flame being brought to the Place de la Concorde, whereupon those other flame-bearing folks go into this epic choreography around the Luxor Obelisk as the torch is passed on until the cauldron is lit. It was really interesting seeing this after all the moral panic about the Olympics ceremony, cos something about this felt somehow far more “pagan” than anything I saw from the big event. I can’t quite explain why, but I think it was down to the fact that, quite frankly, there’s this big fuck-off obelisk from ancient Egypt in the middle of the P. de la C., and the dancers are all grooving around it with their torches. And that obelisk is old, goes back to about 1400 BC or so which makes it even older than Graeco-Roman paganism as we know, and it originated as part of an actual temple too. So perhaps that’s why I felt something “pagan” about the whole affair, it definitely felt like some very old ritual taking place. However, I don’t believe I’ve seen anyone complain about it mocking Christianity somehow or being satanic or whatever. So maybe it’s just me getting a “pagan” vibe… or, more likely, the sort of people who would complain about this sort of thing just don’t give a fuck about the Paralympics.