
Madscouser
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Posts posted by Madscouser
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Anyway... back to putting this episode in amnesia mode.
Easier just to put the whole '96 games in amnesia mode in my opinion.
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Here are the bits I remember from Summer Ceremonies, prior to London
LA 84 - bloke with a jetpack, lots of white pianos, lots of steps up to rings, fire going round rings to light torch
Seoul 88 - err, nothing
Barcelona 92 - para archer lighting the flame (and the flame lighting a fraction before the arrow got there)
Atlanta 96 - err, nothing
Sydney 2000 - Cathy Freeman waterfall torch lighting
Athens 2004 - err, nothing
Beijing 2008 - fake firework feet, fake singer, very co-ordinated mass people, gymnast running round stadium prior to torch lighting
Although I did here recently that one of the buses carrying athletes in Atlanta has finally found its way to the venues recently after the bus driver finally asked for directions
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like a butcher taking a piece of meat from the same cow. if you cut it well, you get a great steak. if not, you get what appears to be beefy cardboard.
That is a good analogy. But if you have paid for Chateaubriand steak - would you not be annoyed if they served up chuck steak instead ?
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Well, some have asked; and then you BUTTED in. But no, people can ignore them and that's fine with me. Just as I can similarly ignore your rather belligerent, provocative and condescending remarks.
And u know what? If you put something out there as public as a a global telecast, be prepared for a billion+ reactions to it. If you don't like how others have reacted to it ....and invaded your "fragile ego;" then either tough it out or don't even show it. Duh.
I guess we're even now.
BUTTED in... a very interesting choice of phrase given your latter comments.
It would seem that you wish to 'hold court' with your views and your views alone - and woe betide anyone who is willing to offer a different view - whilst peddling a book that is already out of date. A global audience will naturally have many opinions based on national identity, expectations etc and not every view will coalesce.
BUT you seem to think that your an expert on ceremonies because you were 'involved' backstage at LA and a performer in Atlanta... Atlanta being widely regarded as one of the more inferior Olympics of recent years - and made a decision that you would rather view the 2012 edition via the prism of television, BUT turn down the volume as you the audio 'doesn't do it' for you
BUT hey, I'm just a fan of the Olympics who shelled out money to actual be part of the experience - as opposed to someone trying to make money on the back of their opinion of the games
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BBC did a great job on the coverage, Just a shame they have had to take down the links to every session from the main website
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As for the rest of your comments, bitter drivel...not worth responding to.
And yet you expect people to listen to your pontifications on the subject ?
I obviously hit more than a few home truths on my post, which your fragile ego is unable to cope with
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What do u want me to say? So what then? Do you want me to do cartwheels, or lose sleep over it? It was noted and I moved on. I mean, like everyone else, I can pick and choose what I would consider a 'wow' moment or not, don't I?
But since you pressed me, coming at the end of the absolutely uninspired, WTF? Frankie-June sequence, his unveiling was so post-climatic. It was like...who cares if he's Sir Ralph Waldo Emerson?
Also I think u're saying about the 'exports'? I am sure Boyle wanted to avoid that because then his show would come out as direct comparison to Beijing (which blatantly exploited China's 4 BIG contributions to world civilization), which I think he tried to avoid. So I didn't think including TBL (What's with the 3 names???) was anything significant or jaw-dropping. And it was confusing because he was mixing real-live people with roles played: Kenneth Branagh playing Islamabad Brunei Kingdom (yeah.yeah)...then Daniel Craig playing James Bond...but a stuntman playing QE2; then Rowan Atkinson playing Mr. Bean imagining himself as Harold Abrahams; then Voldemort and the hydrocephalic baby, and then the F-J travesty unfolded, it was like...how cares about the unknown man at the end of that number? Maybe only the appearance of ALice in her Upsidedown World would have validated the sheer confusion that Boyle had unreeled for the world.
He's responded. Well allow me to retort
I apologise on behalf of Danny Boyle for an assumed level of intelligence in the viewing audience. I mean, it must be so difficult without the audio to be able to distinguish between the dramatic representation of an historical figure, a dramatic representation of a fictional character and the recognition of a figure who has changed recent history - whose invention - be it solely or together with others allows us to communicate on this very medium. We really - as some bloke in US politics said 'misunderestimated' that one
As to why the 3 names, maybe it represents a level of class and intelligence - as opposed to say the 3 names of Mary Decker-Slaney or Florence Griffith-Joyner which represents tears when you dont the medal you were 2promised", or the drugs you took to get them. Which reminds - why the IV - a reminder that de Coubertain was the fourth child of his parents ?, or that you missed out on the medal race of life, and use it to remind yourself that one really must do better.
Maybe if you had watched the BBC coverage of ZO01 as I like to call it, you would have seen my fathers picture on that memorial wall - which NBC decided to not show it to its audience in the US but rather an interview of Michael Phelps - I guess one can never get tired of interviewing someone they will interview again multiple times during the games
As for the childrens literature / NHS section - well, given the US contribution to childrens literature is a cat in a hat, I'll take Voldermort and the Queen of Hearts any day of the week - but then again, I guess if one does look at the literary output nations, it will always pale into significance versus Great Britain's Shakespeare, Blake, Chaucer on the adult side to modern day Julia Donaldson, JK Rowling et al on the childrens side.
As for Beijing showing four things they gave to the world - you see, us Brits have given so much to the worldfor so long, we had to leave most of the stuff out. But on this point, some assistance please from a US perspective. I've got 3 things youve given us - Gun Culture, Obesity and Celebrity Obsession - can you help me with the fourth ?
For those of us lucky to be in the stadium on Friday 27th July - the day after what would have been my fathers 64th birthday - we witnessed a ceremony that touched all five senses - the visual beauty of the stadia, the pulsating & varied soundtrack, the smell of cordite in Pandemonium, the touch of the pixels in our hand as we interacted en masse, and yes the taste of expectation that these were to be special games
For those watching the ceremony on TV (oh yes, another British invention) - you only had access to two of those senses - the visual and the audio. I can only assume as I stated earlier, that you can only cope with 50% of what was available to you.
One last thing on NBC coverage.. The day after the closing - which again I was in the stadium for - I flew to the US on business. The next day they showed an interview with David Boudia on breakfast TV - the 10m Platform diving Gold medallist. The strapline was that he had 'crushed' the opposition to win this. Now, this seemed a little strange - as you see, 3 days earlier, I was in the acquatics centre, sitting in AA seats for DV016 - which if you are unfamiliar with LOCOG ticket codes, was the best seats you could get for the 10m diving final. Now, Boudia had an incredible set of 6 dives. But he won for 2 other reasons - firstly, that Tom Daley (who was leading after 5 dives) had a lower tarriff dive compared to the others for dive 6 - and more importantly, Qui Bo - the best diver in the world - inexplicably, stuffed up an earlier dive. The winning margin was a mere 1.8 points - a mere fraction in the world of 10m platform diving - so he hardly crushed the opposition. That is just one illustration as to why the NBC coverage was so flawed. Yes they give big money to the IOC, but it doesnt mean that they deliver a quality product
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Curiously the Baron has yet to add his 2 cent worth on my Sir Tim Berners Lee reference
Maybe he is looking for a ZX Spectrum to access an internet search engine to find
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@baron-pierreIV
Havent got time to read all the posts. but re some of your comments about your lack of knowledge of the characters in the OC- I was wondering, have you manged to figure out yet who Sir Tim Berners-Lee is yet - as I seem to recall NBC (staggeringly) asking the US audience to google him ....
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I hope he doesn't mind me answering on his behalf but he got them through Stars and Friends i.e. Slovakia reseller (I know because I followed his Twitter feed). There will be none left unless you managed to successfully sent your application on 1st Aug at midnight, in which case you have a very very slight chance (but most didn't submit successfully, including myself).
Quite correct !!! It was more than a hassle, but when that envelope hits next Summer, it will be worth it !
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After much struggle and a couple of phonecalls, picked up 3 AT003 tix and 2 AT007. Chuffed to bits that a) have got a finals AT ticket and
get to take my son (who will be 4 next summer) to a daytime AT session as well - and with Jess Ennis in the Hepthalon and Usain in the 100m heats !!!!
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Didnt get my 2 Cycling tickets from Switzerland. Gutted,
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Just had an email back and forth conversation with Slovak seller.
You are limited to 8 tickets per application - so that could be 1 session, 8 tickets or 8 sessions with a ticket in each one.
Worth knowing as they may reject your application otherwise (for not reading the T & C's...)
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SO, I had a look on the website from the Swiss Olympic's ATR.
And apparently, it is DERTOUR... so may be why they are selling tickets... the final invoice will be from Germany and not Swiss !
As, I confirmed what I wrote, according to IOC rules, the Swiss ATR is not allowed to sell outside Switzerland !
This was globetrotter, not Dertour this time. Very limited availability.
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Regarding the Swiss tickets, normally, they are not allowed to sell to non Switzerland's residents....
Folllowed James Pearce (BBC Sport) for this one - reckons no issues
"Applied" for 2x C Cat CT002 tickets (hopefully 'Queen' Victoria Pendelton in the Kieran and Mens Pursuit final) - 410 CHF's, so roughly £155 for a £95 ticket, but if it gets me in....
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Anyone get any joy out of the swiss tickets this morning ?
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Can't wait to see the finishing touches on the stadium.
BTW, I showed my 6 year old nephew the mascot videos, and he loved them. He wanted to watch it again the next day. It was a nice introduction to him about the Olympics.
Bought my 3yr old son a 'Wenlock' mascot. At the time he was 'reading / being read' an alien story book. Wenlock has become 'ugly bugly alien' - and my son adores him !
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Sorry, not good enough.
I've been to one. Worth every penny.
Much better than on TV.
Beggars cant be choosers Sports Addicts
Think you will find most people will say that, for example, an opening ceremony ticket is worth a lot more than say a ticket to other events. There is a also the Cat of ticket to take into account.
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Hi,
I'm new to this forum, but I'm a veteran at sports traveling.
London 2012 will be my 3rd summer Olympics, and I can't wait.
In 2004 & 2008 I went to around 25 events, most of them finals.
2012, as you all know, isn't easy, but I already got 19 events from various source - the 2012 lottery, DerTour, SportsWorld & CoSport.
I got some nice tickets including closing ceremony, 2 swimming finals, women's tennis final, 2 athletics finals, football final and lots of semis and 1/4s.
Though I feel lucky, I'm still not satisfied.
I bought 2 tickets for some of these events and I'd like to swap them since I'll only need one.
If someone is interested in swimming, tennis, football I got an extra ticket.
For the Judo on 2.8, men's soccer final and for semifinal handball & volleyball sessions for both men and women I got 2 tickets each to swap!
I'm looking for opening ceremony ticket (aren't we all..), other tennis & swimming sessions, gymnastics & athletics.
Let me know if you're interested.
Would only like to swap, not sell.
I've got a spare Beach Volleyball ticket for session BV1 - swap it for a swimming !
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Apparently current sales are only for tickets sold as part of a package. The Slovak reseller is apparently only selling 'tickets only' from 1st August. I learnt this by following @volshy on Twitter - he personally range the Slovakian reseller. It is worth following him on Twitter, as well as @pearcesport - they have all the EU reseller activity covered.
Thanks for that ! Not on twitter, but good to know. Will the 1st Aug be by application form or by internet ? at least my form is in !!!
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Can you explain how did you do this?, I can't see anything on their website other than a link to LOCOG
thanks
www.vstupenky.biz/vstupenky.aspx
Filled out a form, after checking their spreadsheet. Google translate helped on most of it - only one area not sure about which was the second 'type ' column - which i am guessing is level of availability at a particular seat category !
Was in and out by 6.02. 6 Mens Volleyball Cat B tickets applied for...
Hopefull.
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Just applied for some slovakian tickets.
No idea if i will be successfull or not though
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Do we know at what time will start the Locog second phase tomorrow ? 8am or 9am GMT ?
SIX am memorabilia. unless you want football, in that case, anytime !
Wanted some Equine tix, gymnastics (artistic or trampolining), athletics, cycling and swimming
No joy on that one. Any other sites still selling ?
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I might have spares to Mens Basketball Bronze Medal game, Womens Hockey Gold Medal game, Mens Hockey Bronze Medal game, and Taekwondo Mens +80kg Womens +67kg Finals. I'm still figuring out my trip details.
What category tickets and how many ? I could well be able to help !!
Wrestling dropped from the Olympics
in General Olympics Discussion
Posted
It is not fully over for Wrestling yet. They could still technically win the 'sport to be included' ballot
The other sports must be dreading coming up against such a classical Olympic sport now - am sure they would have much preferred Badminton or Taekwando