Now that the political commentary has subsided after the parade of nations, I'm finally starting to enjoy the ceremony. The only real drama remaining will be the lighting of the cauldron... who will do it?

As I expected, it was a Greek I've never heard of and his name is Nicholas... uh, couldn't pronounce or spell his last name if my life depended on it. Apparently, he's famous in Greece.

He climbed the stairs and lit the most innovative looking cauldron I've seen. The "cauldron" actually seemed to be a huge replica of the sleek metallic torch that they've been carrying all over the world. When the torch bearer lit the tip of the long thin cauldron it began rotating around it's base as if being raised by a hand. Halfway up it burst into a brighter flame and continued up until it was raised high above the stadium. Nice.

Update: Apparently I can't spell the guy's name at all. It is Kaklamanakis Nikolaos. I found this and the list of other stadium torch bearers on the opening ceremony portion of the Athens2004.com web site.