How I saw it:

They started with a Shakespeare quotation referring to the Isles of wonder (aka England and neighboring countries) then they showed some of England's history by transitioning into the industrial revolution, also trying to show how the world has changed with construction and such. They also had a group out there to pay tribute to the women's suffrage movement. Then, representing the metalworking era, came hundreds of workers next to a flowing river of molten metal (possibly a reference to the famous River Thames), which they forged into one of the Olympic rings. The other Olympic rings then came suspended on wires to join the center one in the middle of the stadium, then proceeding to shoot a rain of sparks (not sure about the reference here). 

The Queen then made her grand entrance with James Bond, skydiving in. 

Children are wheeled out on hospital beds as a tribute to all the doctors and nurses who devote their lives to helping others. The beds then formed the name and logo of a childrens' hospital, then going into organized chaos with the children jumping on the beds to show that usually when a parent tells a child that it is time to go to sleep, anything but sleep goes on. 

They then go on to show the nightmares of the children, (with JKR reading a quote from Peter Pan), so out come the baddies from childrens' literature, including Cruella De Vil, Captain Hook, and of course a giant Voldy without his nose. And out comes Mary Poppins to vanquish the villains and help the children sleep.

I have no idea what "Frankie and June say Thanks, Tim" meant.

Moving on from the childrens' nightmares, they have the parents' nightmares: the time when those innocent children become rowdy teenagers (the era being represented moves on to the digital age). They represented the beginning of dating with the 'love story' thing, then proceeded to take the performance from the 50's all the way through the 80's and 90's.

All in all, this was a really good performance, using a lot of symbolism to show England's history leading up to this time.

Thanks, Blue Moon, for this very good review.

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We don't have TV but my family went to a sushi resturant last night, so we kind of got to see it. Except there was no sound or subtitles. So my sister and I started commentating and making obscure Tolkien references. It was the "Battle of Middle-Earth....Kind of". My sister said it looked like they were doing the safety dance...

The Captcha says wibi. 

I think the "Death Eaters that looked like monkeys" were supposed to be Sand People. ;) 'Cause why not, right? We've got the Industrial Revolution, (btw did anyone see that one guy toward the end of the Revolution scene [he was one of the guys in top hats] he was holding his coat and had this smug grin on his face it made my family laugh so hard. We were all coming up with like what he would be saying: "Yes, yes. Power, bwahahahaha!") xD and then we had refrences of Mary Poppins, Peter Pan, Harry Potter, and 101 Dalmations, plus some crazy hospital with trampoline beds, modern club dancing teenagers in hilarious 70's jumpsuits, AND the grand finale was doves on bicycles!!!!! So why not throw some Star Wars sand people in there? lolololololol

I loved it, but it was also quite frankly the STRANGEST thing I have ever seen. I actually liked how it began though; staring at the spring where the Thames comes from and traveling down the river like that to the stadium. That was cool. =)

I liked it, even though the giant baby was really the weirdest thing. Plus there was a HUNDRED FOOT VOLDEMORT!!!

Did anybody else hear a TARDIS noise? I swear I heard it, and my sister does too. It was right before a commercial break (if you watched NBC, which I think is everybody) and around the time with the giant Voldemort.

I thought it was really cool, except I didn't like the Frankie and June say thanks Tim part. My favorite part was Mr. Bean. I love Mr. Bean.

Oh my gosh.... I wish I'd seen it. My family doesn't watch much TV, so.. Yeah. I need to look it up somewhere. Someday. 

First they start with the whole in between medieval and Ind. Rev. Time.

Then the Industrial Revolution

Then a tribute to children's lit and British Health Care

A tribute to the www.

Slapstick in bad taste

The parade of nations up to the Fs

Then I fell asleep.

GO SWEDEN!!!!!!!!!  

Over all, a very succesful Olympic opening.  *realizes the last sentence sounds like Effie Trinket*

Before I get carried away, I will exit. *Effie Trinket again* 

Okay, so I didn't see the beginning very well or hear it because I was at a restaurant in Maine then driving back to what I refer to as 'the ski lodge'.  Even though I've never been skiing.

I loved the Mary Poppins part b/c of all the Disney references.  It seems like you all misunderstood the "Frankie and June says Thanks, Tim" part, which is the part I understood best, so here it goes.

A mother and son are walking home, where the boy sits on the stairs and plays on his DS.  Inside the house, one girl updates her profile on a website saying she's single, but her sister isn't.  They go outside and dance, where the sister, "June" loses her phone.  "Frankie" finds the phone.  They dance through the 70s with all different songs I knew, but had to ask my parents for the names.  Then they dance into the 80s (again with the song thing).  At one point during this, Frankie contacts June using June's own phone telling her he has her phone.  They meet, and it's love at first sight.  What my dad describes as a "wedding song" plays, then the party moves into the house.  Frankie and June dance in the attic, while a huge group has one of those parties I'll never be invited to downstairs. Oh, the party in the house starts when June updates her status as "In a Relationship" and calls for a party to celebrate.  I'm assuming the house is evacuated, then the house lifts up to show the real Tim, the inventor of the www, who types, into the seats, "This is For Everyone".  The title is what it is because without the Internet, June and Frankie would never have met.  I am assuming Tim types this to dedicate both the Internet and the sketch to the world.

I was determined to stay awake during the whole Parade of the Nations.  I actually had to wake up my dad right before the US went on.  I swear, if someone made up a fake country to put in the parade, no one would have noticed.  

I was sadly not awake to see Sir Paul McCartney sing "Hey Jude", which stinks, because I just put Beatles albums on my iPad.  I had just gone to the Santa's Village theme park in New Hampshire, so I was exhausted.  That also means I missed the torch.  And apparently I was in the car when the "Queen" skydived.

Gah, that is such a serious post.  ASPARAGUS DOMINATION.  Much better. 

I loved the part when the guy fell asleep playing the piano and dreamt he was running but took a car to win!

I actually haven't seen the ceremony yet, as we don't have a TV, and I haven't gotten around to finding it on the Internet yet.  Yet!  But I've heard it was very cool.  I didn't know that it involved Muse though!  Interesting, given that some interpret Uprising as referring to the riots in Britain- what was it?  Last spring?  If you really want to know, I've got Uprising playing right now.  Predictably.

But no, I will watch the ceremony as soon as possible and ley you know what I think.