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I think that Beijing must use the traditional english order for the Parade of Athletes, but, on the signs on front of the delegations, they could write the country name on both chinese (pin or yin) & english (on Seoul 88, they did the same thing, putting the name on Hangul & English) About the time that takes the parade, i readed some months ago that Samaranch, on his visit to China, recomended to the Organizers that they must learn to use wisely the time on the ceremonies, specially on the parade, that he sayed it was too long. Yeah, the Atlanta closing put the athletes on the seats, this gaved more freedom on the stage for the performances (like the Sydney handover segment with the giant Sydney Opera house icon, or the extreme sports performances with the ramps and that sort of things).

The second batch of culture and art consultants for the creation of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games was announced at a ceremony held here Monday afternoon. Among others were Honorary President of the Chinese Olympic Committee and IOC member He Zhenliang, renounced composer and educator Wu Zuqiang, and Academy Award winning filmmaker Ang Lee. Zeng Qinghuai, honorary director of China Cultural City Limited, was appointed special assistant to the preparatory group of the ceremonies' operational department. BOCOG President Liu Qi extended his congratulations to the new members of the consultant team and expressed hopes that every consultant, with rich experience and far-reaching vision, will provide precious suggestions and advice to the organizing team. After the ceremony, consultants of both batches were briefed by Zhang Yimou, chief director for the opening and closing ceremonies, on the progress of the creative scheme for the opening ceremony and gave their opinions. Present at the ceremony were Cai Fuchao, member of the standing committee of the Beijing Municipal CPC Committee and director general of the commitee's publicity department, Jiang Xiaoyu, BOCOG executive vice-president, Zhang Heping, vice chairman of CCPCC Beijing Committee and chief of the preparatory group of the ceremonies' operational department. Members of the creation team for the ceremonies also attended the ceremony. Taiwanese director Ang Lee, better know for his movies ''Crouching Tiger, Hidding Dragon'' & ''Brokeback Mountain'', will be the new advisor for the Beijing 2008 Opening & Closing ceremonies. According to BOGOC, he will join the team leadered by Zhang Yimou, and composed of other famous directors, like Steven Spielberg and Chen Kaige. ''I feel honoured to be named advisor for the olympic ceremonies, & i will make all posible to complete this mission'', he said. This is also a politic hit for Beijing on the conflict between China & Taiwan since half century. There's a conflict with the torch relay, that is not guaranteed it's pass throught the island. Lee, very apreciatted by the taiwanese, is also a bridge between this countries, always moderated on his opinions and acttitude.

Not so new...they were knowed also as Fuwa. Anyway i think the name change will make it more easy to pronounce to the occident. Hope to don't see more change of names like Whatizit - Izzy

I recomend that you save the Water Cube images on your PC, then upload them to www.imageshack.us. Or much better, create a Photobucket account www.photobucket.com , you can upload a LOT of images and take a look at them later, you have arround 1 Giga of space (although there's a limit of 1 mega for the images you upload, don't forget that). By the way, nice blog you have there, keep it up. Try to promote more your site and make more friends on Blogger, so you will get a lot of comments. If it don't work up, try using Livejournal.

A question about the Beijing 2008 Theme Song video. Is that the official theme? there was a competition to choose the official song of the games, but i never knowed who winned the contest. Great vids, the Athens 2004 emblem presentation was the only thing the greeks showed at the handover ceremony of Sydney 2000 closing (instead of that stereotypical thing made on Atlanta's closing ceremony during the Sydney presentation). Whathever, they don't really needed to do a cultural representation, the vid was powerful & amazing (again, a great job for Vangelis) & most of the people liked it.

Yeah, but Turin was different. The stadium don't have that height or roof as the Beijing Nest. If we built a cauldron tower outside the Bird Nest, it probably wont be visible. And is not just the height, but also the roof of the stadium (if the stadium were not totally covered (on the seats of course) i would support your idea). They could learn a little of the Doha 2006 Asian Games Cauldron (300 m) Im fearing that it will happen something like the Atlanta 'French Fries'

Finally, some good news from the Dehli Organizing Comitte. Hope we receive news soon about the logo (they are so lazy, even to build a decent website)

I agree. The spirit bear is perfect to be the mascot. But as i said above, Calgary 88 had bears as their mascots (Hidy & Howdy). Besides, one of the mascots of SLC 2002 was a bear too (along with a hare & a coyote). Had a little error on my post. I forgot that Montreal 76 already used a Beaver. I don't know about you guys, but i think that some people would say that using a bear again is a little boring and monotone. VANOC must innovate with something new, but GOOD & ACCEPTABLE (not some cr@p like the late mascots except, maybe, for the Friendlies). I put all my hopes on Vancouver mascot so they could bring a new gold era of olympic mascots (like the 80's mascots: Misha, Hodori, Cobi...) There must be some other popular animals beside the Spirit Bear on British Columbia. Does somebody know one?

Yeah, that's old news. Anyway thanks for posting it.

I'm praying for god sake they don't use again the inukshuk Hope they choose something that represents well Canada or the north. I doubt that they use a bear (see Calgary 88). I would like the mascot would be a racoon or a beaver (and this time, a GOOD design of the mascot & not a crappy torino-like ones). Oh, & the deadline for the mascot contest is on november 2006. The mascot will be released at 2007 (i predict it will be at February 12, the day of the opening ceremony on 2006)

Surely the stadium will make history. Imagine the panorama of the athletics, football & ceremonies with this great venue. Some pics of the inside:

Zhang Yimou, the renowed chinesse director, who will lead the making of the Opening & Closing ceremonies, have worked too with other outdoors spectacles, such as his series called ''Impressions'' This year, at the end of July, he realized the show ''Impressions Lijiang''. Divided into two parts, "Snow Mountain Impression" and "AncientCity Impression", the production, which has cost 31 million U.S. dollars to make, have been staged at the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and Dayan Ancient Town, two famous scenic spots in Lijiang, a scenic dity in southwestern China. The production provided an insight into the lives of the region's ethnic groups through song and dance, Zhang's assistant Fan Yue told Xinhua. The actors, including 400 local folks in various costumes of 10 ethnic groups and 100 horses, performed in a theater at the foot of the mountain, which is shrouded in mist. Here, some pics of the show: In 2003, Zhang, Wang and Fan created the first installment of their out-door "Impression" series, "Impression Liu Sanjie," in the mountain and river scenery of Yangshuo, a world-renowned scenic resort in south China, which proved a hit at the box officeand won praises from the government. On Dec. 21 this year, Zhang's high-profile opera "The First Emperor" will premiere at the New York Metropolitan Opera House. The opera will be composed by Oscar winner Tan Dun and feature tenor Placido Domingo. This shows are a great oportunity to see the capacity of Yimou of directing this outdoors shows. As i can see, he will make undoubtly an excellent job for the Beijing olympic ceremonies. A little vid of Impressions (not too much, sorry) Official Site (Liu Sanjie) http://www.yxlsj.com/ Pics of ''Impression Liu Sanjie''

A little gift for all gamebidders: The COMPLETE OST of Sydney 2000 opening ceremony: http://www.filefactory.com/file/62aedd/ Does someone have the Melbourne 2006 OC Soundtrack or a link to download it?. I remember someone posted the version of The Church ''Under the Milky Way'' played at the opening ceremony and ''Dont dream it's over'' on the closing, but i can't found the tracks anymore. If someone have the OST please upload it to www.filefactory.com. Thanks

I liked the paralympic mascot, on the same cute line used for the olympic ones (but not that weird). Some photos of the unveiling ceremony, behind of the Great Wall Vids from the launch ceremony http://en.beijing2008.com/21/20/article212042021.shtml Promotional film of the mascot http://en.beijing2008.com/24/20/article212042024.shtml Note: As i can see this videos don't reproduce on Firefox, better use IExplorer 6. The Nagano paralympics had somekind of a weird rabbit as their mascot. I still don't understand why the Nagano comittee changed their original bid mascot (Snowple) for that deformed owls (one of the worst olympic mascots in history, something that surprise me knowing the fame that the japanese designers and animators have)

Very huge, undoubtly Beijing will have a cool landmark after the games.

Sorry,i forgot to put the link to the Mediterrean Sea, here it is: http://www.filefactory.com/file/ddbfc2/

Barcelona 1992 Mediterrean Sea (El Mar Mediterrani), by Ryuichi Sakamoto (also composer of the OST for the movie ''The Last Emperor''), during the sea battle segment. This is a collection of the Olympic anthems played at the ceremonies Sydney 2000 http://210.218.40.142/~gwakdh/music/mu40.mp3 Nagano 1998 http://dbaalss.nationalanthems.us/anthems/...c_Hymn_v_jp.zip Salt Lake City 2002 http://users.atw.hu/szbszig/olympics%20(english).mp3 Lillehammer 1994 http://www.nationalanthems.us/anthems/Olym...m-Norwegian.zip Albertville 1992 (a video that shows the version of the anthem played at a medal ceremony) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxxP9zGs6eQ...edal%20ceremony Moscow 1980 http://users.atw.hu/szbszig/olympics%20(russian).mp3 I'm now downloading the song used for the Sydney 2000 cauldron lighting. When i finally have it i'll post a link to download it =P

This is a thread to post the musics played on the opening & closing ceremonies of the olympic games (and another games like the Pan Am or Commonwealth). For all the fans of the OC and CC. Upload your music files on this page: www.filefactory.com Moscow 1980 A lot of songs played on the ceremonies. http://anp.lib.ru/songs/l_m_sprt.shtml Los Angeles 1984 The song ''The Olympian'' (lighting of the olympic cauldron by Rafer Johnson) http://www.filefactory.com/file/6f5eb9/ Indianapolis 1987 (Pan Am Games) Official Fanfare http://www.filefactory.com/file/67d8ed/ Barcelona 1992 ALL of the olympic fanfares of Carles Santos, played on the Opening and closing of the games. Click the music icon on the right side of the names to play them (the Bienvenidos song is a sample and not the complete song, sorry) http://www.starzik.com/mp3/produits/Musica...icas-39669.html El Cant dels Ocells, by Pau Casals (at the closing ceremony, during the extinction of the olympic flame) http://www.filefactory.com/file/6071ff/ Atlanta 1996 The Power of the Dream, by Celine Dion (opening ceremony) http://www.filefactory.com/file/45b297/ Call To All Nations, by Mickey Hart, played at the beggining of the Opening Ceremony (and on other parts of the OC, if i remember).Just a sample, sorry, if someone have the complete song please contact me or post it here http://www.filefactory.com/file/eeed34/ Reach, by Gloria Estefan (closing ceremony & official theme). http://www.filefactory.com/file/3d9ff3/ Summon the Heroes, by John Williams http://www.filefactory.com/file/130f30/ Georgia on my mind (not the version played on the OC, but the one singed by Ray Charles) http://www.filefactory.com/file/0bfd69/ Sydney 2000 The Man from Snowy River (at the beggining of the Opening Ceremony) http://www.filefactory.com/file/1294f7/ Olympic Fanfare performed by Swing City, at the entrance of Samaranch & the General Gouvernor of Australia. http://www.filefactory.com/file/3d50d9/ Salt Lake 2002 Fragile, by Sting (without the violin guy) http://www.filefactory.com/file/c62d24/ Manchester 2002 (Commonwealth Games) Dont Stop Movin', by S Club 7 (opening ceremony) http://www.filefactory.com/file/131971/ Athens 2004 Adagio for Strings, by DJ Tiesto (Parade of the Athletes) http://www.filefactory.com/file/ee7059/ I didn't post Oceania of Bjork for obvious reasons xD PD: If the files appears without extension, rename them and write, at the end of the name, ''.mp3''

If I'm right, the Torch design Contest had already ended. How much time they usually take to choose the final design of the torch. Good to see that Beijing repeats the steps of Athens (although is a little repetitive). Maybe this torch world relay thing will become a new tradition for the future olympics.