Olympics 2012

[gbird]

So after so many years of planning the Olympics are nearly here. I really hope that after all the hard work that has gone into it that the games go smoothly and people that have paid lots of money to see events have a great time.

Details of the opening ceremony have been closely guarded so I really do not know what to expect , fingers crossed that the weather is kind.

[sunnyirish08]

hard to believe that this Olympics was announced in 2005. so this build up is going on and on. just looking forward to getting it started.

[margarine]

sunny, that's the way it's done. It takes a LOT to put on an Olympics - a lot of time and a lot of money. You have to put together support in your community many years ahead just to get agreement on whether it can even be done, and how much commitment you can get to get in it for the long run. Then, just to get approved to bid for a particular year, you have to prove that you can (potentially) afford it, you have a substantial plan in place, you have acceptable locations for all the activities, and resources for all the various efforts it will take. You can't expect to put on a Winter Olympics if you have no snow, and you can't expect to hold it in the middle of West Texas, where there's no city big enough or rich enough to provide athletic venues and accommodations for thousands of athletes, let alone hundreds of thousands of visitors. And this is only gonna take you to your National Committee. There was competition between Houston and Dallas, as well as San Francisco, Chicago, and New York for the US bid. That was in 2003, for this year's Games.

Having gotten that far, you'll be competing with maybe dozens of other cities all trying to get that slot. The IOC (International Olympic Committee) will have meetings - and remember they're from a bunch of different countries - and sort through a shitload of information, they'll have to go visit the sites, and there will be a whole lot of lobbying, if not outright bribery - see Salt Lake City, 2002 - before they make any decisions. The field gets whittled down on several rounds of voting. If you hang on, there will be more rounds of deliberations, and by now it's been a couple of years before they declare you the winner. The winner is announced, yes, 7 years ahead of time. And you need every minute of it because now you've got to build venues - many from scratch - and organize many thousands of people to put the thing on, not even counting the money (no pun intended.) It mushrooms from a committee to an entire major metropolitan area, to a state (think Atlanta/Georgia) to a country. The 2008 Games weren't just Beijing's, it was China's.

I suspect there are people in London and environs right now nearly ready to lay down on the Underground tracks because they're so far behind it will collapse the whole affair. Which it won't, it never does, but you hear all kinds of stories. There are probably thousands of nice people who are gettin' the hell outta Dodge because of the overwhelming number of visitors arriving by the minute, and they didn't realize it was going to be such a nightmare. I know London, it's many many miles of Downtown, and I can't imagine how people will be able to stand being elbow to elbow for 2-3 weeks. How will there be any air left? On the other hand, it's a once in a lifetime experience. London's having it for the 3rd time, and there may be some folks still alive who remember 1948 well enough, but you know what I mean.

[gbird]

You are right margarine at the moment there seems to be a lot of trepidation about , traffic problems, security and all sorts. Hopefully once it gets going these problems will iron themselves or be overcome and people will hopefully remember it for being a good games .

[nycgal]

I for one, am truly looking forward to these London Olympics and watching the drama unfold each night for 2 weeks from the comfort of my living room. What a nice diversion from all the re-runs, stupid reality shows and depressing news that seems to proliferate TV in the summer.

As a added bonus for me, a dear friend of mine from college who is a newscaster for NBC in LA was given the Olympic coverage assignment this go around. He is posting pics and stories daily documenting his Olympic experience. He's currently on day 3 of his prep work....yesterday he commented that he could hear Paul McCartney rehearsing while standing outside the stadium - how cool would that be???. I just hope my friend's pieces get broadcast nationally and not just back to the NBC affiliate in LA.

At any rate, I can't wait for the opening ceremonies on Friday and then my favorite sports begin in week one....namely gymnastics and swimming. Oh and also tennis.....being played at Wimbledon, no less!! Really hope Roger wins the gold medal - I just love him

Enjoy the Olympics everyone!!

[gbird]

A friend of a friend was at the very secret dry run for the openeing ceremony and said it is spectacular so look forward to watching it tomorrow.

[margarine]

This just appeared in my email. Amy Martin is a local (Dallas) host of Moonlady News and related email list, and journalist and author. She knows what she's talking about here. Read and enjoy!

Guerilla Ritual: Olympics Ceremony
Essay: How are the opening ceremonies of the Olympic games like theater, aside from origins in Greece? Amy Martin on spectacle, performance and keeping the flame alive.
by Amy Martin
published Wednesday, July 25, 2012

photo: WikiMedia Commons
The 2008 Beijing opening ceremony

I am a spectacle junkie - just mainline me some Cirque - and the Olympics' opening ceremony every two years is my major fix. Bring it on! It really is the biggest show on Earth, a beyond-Broadway production that fills an immense stadium for a solid four hours, a national audition with an entire citizenry presenting an idealized version of themselves. Small cities of people participate and that doesn't even include the professional performers. The props alone fill warehouses. Huge displays of synchronized movement and dance, music music music, emotional ceremony and pageantry, sports prowess, and, if you know how to look for it, lots of ritual.

The Olympics' opening ceremony of today is a far cry from its at-times jingoistic forebears. Now it's all about the showbiz. Each year the host country has done their best to one-up the previous host's efforts. More performers! More fireworks! More special effects! The epic extravaganza in 2008 Beijing ended all that: thousands of drummers, skyscrapers made from people covered in LEDs, a giant suspended globe with skaters defying gravity, staggering amounts of eye candy costing upward of $100 million. Had there not been 30 minutes of formalities in the middle as a break, I'd have died from the excess of excess. But the end result was to level the playing field for future ceremony hosts who could never have a chance of one-upping Beijng.



London 2012

The Olympic games arose in Greece in 776 B.C., not long after the rise of classical theater. Both are fused in the opening ceremony. While 2008 Beijing was corpulent pageantry, 2010 Vancouver was funny and athletic. The Greeks astounded in 2004 with profound art and culture on humanity. Japan 1998 just dripped with elegance and ceremony. Australia 2000 was exuberant and witty with the greatest torch-lighting ever. London 2012 promises to be more cinematic with this year's artistic director Danny Boyle, Oscar-winning director of Slumdog Millionaire and Trainspotting, and of the National Theatre of London's production of Frankenstein last year. Boyle's romanticism and endearing passion for his homeland shows in his choice of theme: Isles of Wonder. It's drawn from Caliban's monologue in The Tempest declaring his deep devotion to the magical wonder of his island home with the line: "Be not afeared. The isle is full of noises."

This historical narrative of Great Britain set to music will feature great dollops of British humor, wistful mysticism of legendary days, a surprising amount of bucolic endearment about the British countryside, and (of course) a tribute to immigrants from the Indian subcontinent. Pop music fans will revel in the variety with it all capped off by a Beatles number. The extravaganza of £27 million and cast and crew of 12,000 will be plenty flashy thanks to Mark Fisher, designer of the 2006 Turin and 2008 Beijing ceremonies. Fisher cut his spectacle teeth as creator of The Wall for Pink Floyd, along with staging a multitude of Rolling Stones and U2 concerts. For the past couple of decades, audience participation has become a big part of the ceremony: flashlight waving, bell ringing, placard flipping and general noisemaking. All in all, this year's ceremony provides the flipside to the recent and oh-so-refined Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

Wrangle up some fish and chips, bangers and mash, shepherd's pie and plenty of whisky and ale. Tune in to NBC on Friday July 27 at 6:30 p.m. our time (Central), and settle in for four hours of ceremony along with 80,000 ticket holders (paying up to £2,012!) and around one billion fellow global television viewers. Prepare to stay until the end when the gigantic Olympic cauldron is lit. If you don't tear up then, you should just resign from humanity. Take a break during the mid-ceremony formalities and stage your own Olympic games. My rules are looser, drinking games are perfectly acceptable.



Guerrilla Ritual

Most see the Olympics' opening ceremony as all showbiz. But to anthropologists it's a huge guerrilla ritual, promising entertainment, sure, but delivering all kinds of messages deep into the subconscious. Every two years we celebrate our epic human journey, allowing us to remember where we came from and who we are.

Consider the opening ceremony's typical core elements, approaches that remain unchanged after thousands of years. Dancing and moving in unison to the sound of thunderous rhythms. Gathering in circles and invoking greater powers. Ordinary individuals being asked to play symbolic roles. Making pilgrimages and moving masses of people in labyrinthine motions.

Timeless stuff. Mexico's Teotihuacan, its immense plaza flanked by huge pyramids, was especially known for its elaborate processionals of human masses. Giant torches and incense cauldrons blazed along the sides, with thousands of people on the pyramids chanting and throwing streamers. Whether in modern or ancient times, while it may feel like entertainment the brain recognizes the embodied metaphor and soaks it all in.

Every athlete who competes in the Olympics makes a pilgrimage to the site, leaving home and taking a journey in which they hope to transcend all personal limitations, much as the classic hero. The lengthy - and at times boring - country-by-country parade of athletes, so often seen as a display of national and ethnic pride, is actually the last leg of the athletes' journey prior to the extreme test that marks the apex of the heroic pilgrimage. These athletes' paths converging to a central place weaves a web that, although unseen, is deeply felt.

Igniting the Olympic cauldron, formerly a simple act, has swelled into a relay featuring the torch of civilization that now roams many thousands of miles. It involves legions of people and lots of celebrities, with attempts made to keep secret the identity of the final runner, the highly significant lighter of the cauldron. But again, look past the flash and see the embodied metaphor that makes for powerful ritual: that keeping a vital part of our human spirit alive can come down to just one person willing to reach out to another.



2012 Opening Ceremony Highlights

Boyle and Fisher have blessedly decided to set aside British understatement and tastefulness. We're grateful. Some highlights:

Boyle is bell-obsessed and he's carted in the largest harmonically tuned bell in Europe and possibly the world, produced by the Whitechapel Foundry. The ringing of this metal monster kicks off the main televised part of the opening ceremony.
The entrance of the Olympic torch, which will arrive by boat, is used to ignite the cauldron at the opening ceremony's conclusion and signals the ceremonial start of the sports games. This year's cauldron is quite psychedelic, very loopy and looking much a like a vertical roller coaster.
An 80-foot-tall figure, possibly representing the sorcerer Prospero from The Tempest, will oversee the proceedings from a prominent spot in the arena.
A centerpiece of the ceremony will be the creation of a rural British countryside featuring a meadow of real grass, complete with two goats, three cows, nine geese, 10 chickens, 10 ducks, 12 horses and 70 sheep herded by three sheep dogs.
Village life will be showcased via four Maypoles representing England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, along with two cricket teams in competition.
On the off chance that British weather doesn't supply precipitation that night, "real" rain will be made by synthetic clouds suspended by wires over the stadium.
Another scene has an outline of the River Thames taking up most of the arena floor.
Capping off this gauzy way Brits wish to be remembered will be a massive recreation of Glastonbury Tor, the holy hill so entwined with the romance of Arthurian legends, complete with the towering St. Michael's church. Glastonbury Tor is also considered by Celtic pagans to be the home of the fairy folk.
But no doubt the Trainspotting side of Boyle will also be present in celebrations of modern day Britain. The Industrial Revolution will be highlighted with factory chimneys rising dramatically from the ground. Two mod-punk mosh pits will cap either end of the arena.
A tribute to Britain's armed forces will, quite weirdly, feature soldiers pouring forth from Glastonbury Tor, which I imagine would piss off the faeries mightily. Thousands of employees from the National Health Service will participate in a number. Go figure.
The British electronic band Underworld act as musical directors and plan to serve up a plethora music groups plus a bit of Bollywood. Sir Paul McCartney will perform at the ceremony's close, complete with 50 dancers wearing Sergeant Pepper-style costumes and a "Hey Jude" sing-a-long. (It will be one of the few Olympic opening ceremonies in which drums are not centrally featured.)



Closing Ceremony

Unfortunately, Boyle's not promising much metaphor in the closing ceremony, instead presenting a standard, albeit flashy, showcase of British music. Hopefully it will be less of a snoozefest than the 2010 Vancouver musical finale, which went on so long that people fled the stadium.

But any way it's done, the closing ceremony begins and ends with ritual. Look for the metaphor of how the athletes, now on the first leg of their return pilgrimage home, walk as one unit rather than by nation. As the cauldron is extinguished, notice how flashlights and lighters held by thousands and thousands of attendees turn on at the same time, symbolizing how individuals keep the communal flame alive.

[margarine]

I do not adore all Olympics mascots alike, but I do adore Wenlock and Mandeville. Just found this. Love it. (Brit ohana probably have already seen it.) Will have to check out the sequel next.



OhboyOhboyOhboyOhboyOhboyOhboyOhboyOhboy!!! Why did I wait so long to find these?!!



Squeeeeeeeeeeee! Only one more day!

[gbird]

Thanks for all the information margarine , Mandevill and Wenlock have been quite popular over here. Mandeville is named after Stoke Mandeville Hospital which is near where I live.

I was chatting to a guy who works in London and he said there is a real buzz up there now and that it is nice to be a part of it. There is a lot of guessing going on as to who will actually carry the torch for the final time. The favourite at the moment is Sir Steve Redgrave one of our great Olympians.
Not long now until we find out .

[sunnyirish08]

judging by the noise i just heard from the crowd when ireland team arrived into the stadium it appears we have plenty of support. bring it on!!!!

btw, any one have a moment seeing the queen walking next to Daniel Craig aka the current james bond?? i personally had a moment. *blush*

[sunnyirish08]

already some controversy. *facepalm*

camilla's face in the background is one of absolute shock. so not the case of bad camera angle

[biochemgeek]

Loved the early part of the ceremony with Branagh quoting Shakespeare, up through the section on children's literature. Also really like the cauldron design and lighting. Very beautiful and unique.

Let the Games begin!

[debraluv50]

I enjoyed the opening ceremony so much! Congratulations to London!

[margarine]

I confess I was baffled in a few places. I never saw the oath being taken, or the kid singing the song solo, like they usually do, and the cauldron - huh? Isn't it supposed to be up high where people can see it? That was weird. And as for the drama leading up to who was going to light it, well...um...it was nice but an anticlimax, especially with it not being high up. And how did it get so rushed when it still took 4 hours? Poor Matt Lauer and Bob Costas were having to play catchup after every commercial to tell what country went by.

But I adored the opening program. Fascinating, beautifully done. And I bet we saw it better than the people in the stadium. I'm always in awe of the people who perform. It's magical how they do such an amazing job. One thing I thought, yeah, the Beijing program was stunning because of all those masses of people doing all the stuff they did, but it was like ants a lot of the time, all in unison, whereas here it was as if you could were watching a movie where you identify with all the actors at once.

Except for the Tony and Tina's Wedding thing - I can't remember what they were calling it, with the girl and boy and all their dancing friends. I could barely follow that even with the announcers telling you what was going on.

Just the same, COOL!!!

[chazak]

Jul 27, 2012 23:37:08 GMT -5 margarine said:

I confess I was baffled in a few places. I never saw the oath being taken, or the kid singing the song solo, like they usually do, and the cauldron - huh? Isn't it supposed to be up high where people can see it? That was weird. And as for the drama leading up to who was going to light it, well...um...it was nice but an anticlimax, especially with it not being high up. And how did it get so rushed when it still took 4 hours? Poor Matt Lauer and Bob Costas were having to play catchup after every commercial to tell what country went by.

But I adored the opening program. Fascinating, beautifully done. And I bet we saw it better than the people in the stadium. I'm always in awe of the people who perform. It's magical how they do such an amazing job. One thing I thought, yeah, the Beijing program was stunning because of all those masses of people doing all the stuff they did, but it was like ants a lot of the time, all in unison, whereas here it was as if you could were watching a movie where you identify with all the actors at once.

Except for the Tony and Tina's Wedding thing - I can't remember what they were calling it, with the girl and boy and all their dancing friends. I could barely follow that even with the announcers telling you what was going on.

Just the same, COOL!!!

They always do that with the Parade of Nations, because NBC is always showing it to us on tape delay. So they use the entrances of the "boring" countries that they think Americans don't know or care about in order to show us commercials, then do a quick run-through of all of them to make us feel like it's live. You noticed that they went to commercial right before the UAE entered, and then conveniently 2 minutes later after the ads had run, the UAE was still entering and then the US came in? They could just pause the whole thing for the ads and pick up where they left off but won't, for some reason.

Taking it as a given that every Olympic opening ceremony will contain something bizarre and trippy (I think it's like an IOC rule), I thought this one was very good. I loved the Queen and Daniel Craig and the Rowan Atkinson bit. And the way they did the torch and the cauldron was extremely clever. I got kind of lost and confused in the middle of the Peter Pan/NHS/music video stuff in the second half, but that's okay. Overall, it was a really impressive spectacle. I can't wait for the sports!