Olympic flame procession shuts down thought processes of town

You heard it right, the collective brains of Salmon Arm appear to have been shut off for today, with all the hype and marketing happening which surrounds this:

You can see the top half of the Olympic torch just to the right of the tall blond girls head (right hand side of the picture).
Here is a better shot of it.  See the tiny flame thing in the front of the stage, probably not. It's ok, it took me five minutes to find the flame in this picture as well.

And of course there's all the hype and energy they're trying to get happening surrounding the lighting ceremony,  Hell, after they had the lighting ceremony, I gave up and came back here. The crowd's insanely packed there, see?  >>>

Oh and the music is painfully loud.  So here I sit, with a pair of tylenol in me, hoping that the headache will recede soon so I can function normally again.

What did I personally get from this ceremony?  Well, it's loud, and it is good for civic pride and spirit, but ultimately it's a colossal waste of resources and money on something that benefits only a few at the cost of the many, and all for this little ceremony?  See him light the cauldron, yay.

I am not going to preach about this.  I feel only a slight irritation about this whole process, it's an hour of wasted time in my life.  I know it's a once in a lifetime occurrence, but I just don't care.  I'm hungry, I think I'll go for lunch.