mr.x

Fingers crossed.

Well done Sochi! Hands down the best Closing Ceremony yet, if not the best.

Nah, the ballet was entirely different... and ballet is totally expected considering this is Russia.

Mr. X is back momentarily after a long absence from here. Overall, it was a spectacular ceremony - nothing we wouldn't expect from Russia and the most expensive Olympic Games ever. But disappointingly it lacked originality, a lot of the concepts or even the narrative were glaringly 'borrowed' from Vancouver. I don't think we've ever seen Ceremonies that practically use the same concepts. 1. The cultural segment that followed the Parade of Nations began with ice breaking, revealing the ocean and a whale formed by props and performers. Vancouver also began its cultural segment in the same way: ice breaking leading to projected orca whales. This was my biggest beef with Sochi's Opening. 2. Sochi's projected cannon with the smoke effects for firing. Vancouver had that for the orca whale spouts. 3. Vancouver had ceiling suspended constellations. Sochi used the same type of lights to represent winter sport icons just before the lighting of the cauldron. 4. Inline skaters skating in opposing circles concluded Vancouver's cultural segment. Sochi did the same thing towards the end of its Ceremony. Granted, Beijing 2008's Closing Ceremony also had inline skaters but they were doing something completely different. 5. Both Vancouver and Sochi had their malfunctions.

Not sure why Lord Coe wouldn't want the Olympic Cauldron to become London's mecca for 17-days....unless, he knows they screwed up and is trying to grasp at straws for an excuse.

Yet if they had also built the Orbit to double as a secondary permanent cauldron, it would be even more of a "tourist attraction!"

Wow, that media seating section in the stadium is huge. If the stadium normally sits 80,000, then what is the current seating capacity with the media stands?

Vancouver's secondary permanent outdoor cauldron wasn't an expense of VANOC, rather it was built and donated by the local natural gas company at a cost of $5-million. Maybe LOCOG could have done something creatively or cut back elsewhere...

Apples and oranges, Vancouver may have been extinguished but it was relit at the permanent cauldron outside minutes later.

Extinguishing the cauldron, with no replacement other than putting it back into the lantern in which it came from.....simply, scandalous.

An event I organized earlier this year...

Yes.

It certainly isn't as black and white as you make it out to be.

Nobody has to go to any Olympic event, but who pays to put on these Olympic events? Taxpayers.

Well, here in Vancouver the public was complaining about the ticket costs for Games events. But there was so much to do in Vancouver during the Olympics, that those who didn't have any tickets and were complaining were also part of the whole "Olympic experience." So all in all, those Live Sites and whatever public celebrations London has planned is quite vital for satisfying the greater public and also for building the Games atmosphere London organizers are yearning for. I'm sure it'll be fantastic, I don't think Brits are the stiff/conservative type? That would be the Russians two years later. http://www.globaltvbc.com/vancouver+to+host+international+sustainable+business+summit/6442538051/story.html