Did anyone watch the services live?

[Princess Turandot]

I did, although I also taped it. I wound up watching CNN altho CSpan, which is repeating the services tonight, also ran it with limited commentary. (I think CNN is running it tonight as well, beginning at 7PM.)

There were only limited remarks on CNN, such as translations of prayers etc and an occasional identification of a person or explanation of what some activity meant. Christiane Ammanpour did part of the commentary. They made no snarky comments and in fact, seemed stunned by the amount of people who had appeared.
Despite the bold face article on the NYT and a few other places abt Law, I didn't see him. I assume he was there, but if he did anything important, they didn't show it. It wasn't a typical con-celebrated Mass from my viewpoint, where you see a line of priests doing various parts of the service. Ratzinger did almost all of the important parts himself. He looked pretty shaken, IMO.

All in all, it was beautiful. I love the litany of the saints.

CSpan had a brief call in period, with callers from a wide variety of ethnicities, judging by their accents. Someone even called in from Western Samoa. I only heard 2 negative comments but I won't sully my post with their content.

[CBHagman]

1. Mostly I taped it.

I looked at the names of the commentators and figured the most dignified bunch would be at CNN. Ms. Amanpour is always solid.

The mere prospect of Chris Matthews being allowed to cover this sent me screaming back to CNN. If Peter Jennings had been scheduled at ABC, I might have taped that instead.

I only saw about an hour following the actual funeral, plus some clips from the funeral. The real service took place while I was attempting yet again to sleep before going back to work. :-(

[Tinoire]

2. In and out while trying to sleep.

Hopefully they'll rebroadcast this week-end on the more obscure channels. What I saw was beautiful and a fitting tribute.

[DemBones DemBones]

3. I was up a lot during the night so I had to get some sleep and TiVo'ed it.

I've only watched a little of it so far, knowing how it ends and all that. I TiVoed the EWTN broadcast and I guess I'll put the whole funeral on DVD. I have made several DVDs this week, recording news footage, documentaries, prayers, etc. This was John Paul the Great, after all. On Olberman now, they're talking about how applause broke out ten times during the funeral, plus the cries of "Magnus! Magnus!" and "Santo Subito!"

[meow2u3]

4. I woke up at 4AM

I woke up at 4 in the morning yesterday, tuned into EWTN, and recorded it on my WinTV (TV program you can watch on your computer). I just put it on a DVD this morning.