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Closing Ceremony Live Chat


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Shame you all can't join us watching the 2012 handover party in the mall. ah makes you all warm and fuzzy inside lol!!

I noticed old queenie is not in residence though.

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It seems that the French did something to their sound feed and managed to make the London handover song sound much better.

Leona and Jimmy

They also show Buckingham palace and the crowd at the end. Be quick...youtube are taking these videos down quickly.

Edited by Lee
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I think I have an Olympic hangover....

I absolutely loved the closing ceremony. Sure, they weren't as visually stunning as the opening ceremonies but I thought for a change that it really showcased the humanistic qualities of the ceremonies, the fact that they're a celebration of achievement.....and especially for the closing ceremonies. I loved how simple these ceremonies were, a contrast to the opening. And they usually end of in a concert format, as we have seen this morning.

The closing ceremonies are always modest and low key compared to the opening ceremonies. It may not beat the opening ceremony, but it certainly does beat previous closing ceremonies in Athens and especially Torino.

This was a great way to end one of the best Olympic Games in history.

As for the London 2012 segment, that was beautifully done. Really, really well done. I loved the rendition of God Save The Queen.

The folks that created the Vancouver 2010 segment at Torino two years ago should be ashamed....what the hell were they thinking???? Every part of our handover in Torino was terrible....even the Canadian anthem. How can you even screw up the anthem? You'd have to try hard to do that.

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Closing ceremony was .......................... a school tablooo. Closing ceremony of Doha 2006 Asian games was far better than this folk dance. Completely out of concept ceremony, boring songs and nonsense performances. EXCEPT FIREWORKS.

Handover presentation from London was good, energetic, completely western look and made for youth of the world.

Extinguishing of Flame was boring too, there was no emotional touch in that segment.

Even I didn't find any sad emotion in any part of the ceremony except in Olympic anthem.

They were just jumping and jumping and jumping and dancing ................senseless event.

what the hell they were preparing since 2005? They used all they budget and creativity just to buy big projectors and that busy bird's sh*t.

I was feeling emotional instead of them , I was think how fast time goes, some time ago I was watching the presentation of Beijing from Athens and today I witnessed the presentation of London from Beijing.

A chapter has finished, world will turn towards London. Wow......... new countdown, new stadium, new torch and new celebrations...............see you in London.

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The BBC already have a countdown clock in the corner already! 1433 4hrs 12mins 10secs aparently

I'm knackered i need a lie down, great chatting to you all during the closing ceremony.

speak to you all soon

Rich x

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It seems that the French did something to their sound feed and managed to make the London handover song sound much better.

Leona and Jimmy

They also show Buckingham palace and the crowd at the end. Be quick...youtube are taking these videos down quickly.

it sounded much better than the feed I could hear on BBCHD. Love the fact that the French fed into the crowds on the Mall too. Nice one.

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Ok after taking a deep breath, i have to conclude that the closing ceremony was very simple, but at least, well done. The fireworks, once again, were the main attractions of the show 8D, and that giant Tower of Memories was cool. Even if they didnt had much segments like the Athens 2004 closing, i think it was better.

About the extinguishing of the cauldron, it wasnt so much uninspiring, it clearly reflects a simulation of athletes leaving Beijing to an airplane and looking at the cauldron with the memories of the 16 days of competition coming to their minds. The London 2012 handover was nice, i think i put it on the same level like Beijing 2008 handover. Altough Beckham dissapointed me, ths handover didnt need him for anything.

Anyway, the games were pretty awesome, but not perfect. Cant say the chinese didnt gave their best effort on those games, and the pollution problems werent so terrible as expected (altough the rain kinda killed the mood).

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eastern culture is so different from western.... the ceremonies can be so emotional for a eastern while a western finds its funny.... like color white means death in china while we named is the purity innocence... i think Chinese did a great job but yes song parts kills me too :) ... by the way i dont like the London's show in closing ceremony...

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About the extinguishing of the cauldron, it wasnt so much uninspiring, it clearly reflects a simulation of athletes leaving Beijing to an airplane and looking at the cauldron with the memories of the 16 days of competition coming to their minds.

Like many folks here, I was slightly underwhelmed as well. This was especially so the moment the flame was extinguished, for there were media reports quoting the organisers saying it will be spectacular.

But on reflection, that simulation of athletes on the verge of leaving Beijing and reflecting on the 16 days of competition as they gaze at the scroll (the contents of which are supposedly flashed on the roof rim), the flame going out just as they close the scroll was actually the most moving part of all for me.

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i think Chinese did a great job but yes song parts kills me too :)

I may understand Chinese and I am familiar with the singers who performed in the last song "Hard to say Goodbye", but I too found that part particularly irritating. Thank God it morphed into the fireworks display not too long after.

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does every else in the world see the live link to london or is it just on the bbc?

Here in Brazil we saw a few images of Trafalgar Square.

About the ceremony: quite underwhelming. I was expecting the chinese to innovate in their closing as they did in the opening ceremonies.

The extinguishing of the flame was kinda pointless. They should project the scroll closing in the roof and than turn off the cauldron as the scroll images touches it. For such a romantic and inspiring lighting sequence, the extinguishing was a let down. But closings are closings after all. We never can expect too much.

The handover was much better than what I expected. The song by Leona and Jimmy was a very nice contrast to the rest of the show. I thought the space was just too little for a better presentation but in the end it was just fine. BTW, if I was Beckham I'd be really pissed off if they called me to travel half the world to Beijing just to kick some football.

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The BBC already have a countdown clock in the corner already! 1433 4hrs 12mins 10secs aparently

I wonder if I should sit here, do nothing and count down every one of those seconds until 2012?

On second thoughts....

I liked the 'Memory Tower' but it was all a bit underwhelming.

The London's 2012 Handover was okay, but nothing ground breaking. However, I do feel the atmoshpere will be electric come 2012, and it will be a more festive occasion. However Beijing did an amazing job of hosting the 2008 Olympics, but some were saying the food on offfer to the spectators wasn't the best.

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It was spectacularly boring. Since I was watching the telecast over at CCTV (it's still the first group of singers here) a few hours ago, I had no idea the meaning of the first number. It was boring and been done before. The bikes were fascinating though but it reminded me of Southpark's Mr. Garrison's invention. The music wasn't fascinating either.

I did like the fast way they did with the compulsory (for a lack of a better word) elements of the CC. Like the athletes entrance, where volunteers effectively cordoned off the athletes from the stage. The speeches, flag ceremonies, and athems were done very straightforward. Unlike other Games, this was the coldest extinguising of the Flame. It wasn't emotional. I usually felt sad when the flame dies. What the heck was that airplane staircase doing there? The gesture didn't work.

The handover was also boring. It tried to be weird like Athens in 2000 but it was so not unexpected. Then Leona Lewis singing and some guitarist playing. It doesn't say much of what we can expect from Britain, even culturally. Maybe that's why I would like to have an OG done in Paris. France does show off and this occasion it would have been a good one. The bus opening up as a stage reminds me of Barcelona's galleon. I just hope the lucky guy who got the football had it autographed by Beckham.

A lucky tree was presented in the centre of the field. Some difficult but already done routines. Boring. Then a concert w/ terrible pop music with equally terrible clothes. Can't London do away w/ concerts for a CC? We want a real show, LOCOG. Seoul at least had traditional dances en masse and a magical bridge (mess of a handover though). Barcelona was spectacular if you ask me. Sydney boring. Athens boring except for the harvesting part and the first song number. The banners were a nice idea though. I liked how it looked in the stadium. The final number with dancers dancing around the tower was very Moscow. Athletes weren't dancing like in previous CCs. It was more like of the Chinese celebrating. But who cares? They're tired and want to sleep and catch their flight tomorrow. They were also watching the performers. At least the concert and this CC was shorter than most. Athletes didn't have to stand long and televiewers didn't have to be bored longer than they can endure.

The fireworks were stars by themselves. It had to, for the nation that invented them. It was the best so far in any OG. I guess the letdown was because of the lack of visual attractiveness of the OC. Maybe on a replay w/c I'll download later, I may get a more favorable opinion, like i did in Athens.

But right now, there's still the Paralympic OC and CC to watch. So there's more to come until 2010. The year after the OG is always boring. No big events. 2010 there's the YOG, WOG, FIFA WC, and FIVB WCh. Until then.

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Good catch with the galleon in Seoul, I didn't remember it.

My favourite ceremony closing was Albertville closing ceremony, first of all because I was there.

At the end of the show they asked to the spectators to get down on the stage and mix with the athletes. I got to dance with Chinese skiers for the end of the ceremony ...

Well you would not do these kind of thing these days, too many security concerns.

I think the main problem with handovers is that the Organizing Committees haven't completely made their minds with the topics, looks, graphic rules, sound, etc... of their Games. So this always look disconnected from the future Games. I remember for instance the short-lived mascot of Albertville which was seen in Calgary and never seen again.

Edited by hektor
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