2008 Olympic Closing Ceremonies from Beijing

Time to pass the torch on another Olympic Games. After watching most of the nationally broadcast events into the wee hours of the morning, I would give Beijing a score of 14.72. Of course that is on the Women's Gymnastics scale, good luck figuring that out. The torch has been successfully passed to London, England for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games.

The actual Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics were incredible. Yes, they were a bit long winded, but the human flowers on the pyramid....awesome. The music is so dramatic, too.

The passing of the torch and introduction to England was a little weird for me. Rock legend Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin led Whole Lotta Love like it was 1972. Leona Lewis did a vocal that rivaled Robert Plant's. Some words were changed and the third verse was dropped from the sex dripping anthem to drugs, sex and rock & roll so as not to offend the Chinese audience. Lewis, winner on the talent show The X-Factor, still looked a little uncomfortable.

Then it got strange. During the song David Beckham came rising out of the floor of the giant double-decker bus the band was playing on. Beckham kicked one soccer ball into the crowd. A few Chinese Olympic volunteers went after it and were greeted by stiff armed guards in red T-shirts lining the venue everywhere. One volunteer got the ball and brought it back and the crowd cheered.

Beijing did have an advantage during the ceremonies, people. Let's face it everything looks very cool when hundreds of thousands of people are doing it in unison. I still choke up at the Budweiser commercial... when that glass of beer forms and then empties out, it's like magic!

Jackie Chan even gave us a singing solo, he looked like he was having a great time. When doesn't Jackie Chan look like he's having a great time? It was nice to see a familiar face on the stage.

One thing is almost a sure bet. These Olympic venues built in Beijing will not sit empty and decimated by 2012. A look back at the venues for Olympic games in Greece is truly a sad sight. Empty and littered, covered in graffiti.

With all of these state of the art training facilities in China, look out London 2012.