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Opening Ceremony


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Right mouse on the .epub link and 'save as'?

You can view .epub files with Adobe Digital Editions 2.0 http://www.adobe.com/nl/products/digital-editions/download.html [free]

@JMarkSnow2012 Thnx!

I did that. My Windows 7 (and I use Chrome browser) does NOT recognize any of these versions. Is it even worth looking at, JMark?

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I did that. My Windows 7 (and I use Chrome browser) does NOT recognize any of these versions. Is it even worth looking at, JMark?

These aren't Web documents, these are reader documents- to view them via an internet browser you'll need some appropriate add-ons/ extensions.

And yes, it is.

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Hmmm, Just watched the opening ceremony for the first time since the Olympics,
And my opinion hasn’t changed.

Greats meadow and industrial revolution sequence.

But everything after the Queens arrival and before Abide by me which were good,

Looked like an amateurish shambles to me.

No problem with the Athletes parade,
Or cauldron,



The ceremony of International stature worth waiting six years for was the Closing.

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The closing was a fun, cheesy party (with a playlist of four songs on a loop) and not much more - with Eric Idle at least providing some comedy (love the fact Life of Brian got in there). Would've been a total embarrassment as an Opening Ceremony but was just fine for the closing party.

Watching the Opening again as well and thoroughly enjoying it. Found Tim Berners Lee's 'Live Tweet' from a year ago and have been reading people's reactions on Twitter too (https://twitter.com/timberners_lee/status/228960085672599552)! So proud we showed the world a ceremony so life affirming, open, and brave in its themes, even if it wasn't as tight as some people would've liked. Smiling watching all this over again. Couldn't care less about the last 248 pages dissecting it.

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Just watched the BBC3 broadcast- pretty neat editing down to 2½ hours (mostly parade, but also notably tightened the oaths). I'm more with RobH than Fox- amateurish it may have been, but it still had an authenticity which was notably missing from the Closing Ceremony..

I remember the Beatles when they were an actual group. They were fab, and their influence made a great many things possible. It's a pity things went wrong for Macca at the OC, but he still deserves the greatest respect.



PS: excellent Tweet:

@jamiesont : Trevor Nelson's Opening Ceremony commentary really split opinion between those saying it was atrocious and those saying it was bloody awful.

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Ooh look! Here's a plagiarism claim we missed:
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/architecture-design-blog/2013/jul/11/danny-boyle-olympic-ceremony-design-copyright

This, about the glowing beds in the NHS/kids' literature sequence, is the first where we know that Danny Boyle actually saw the design in question (as, presumably, did his two lead designers for the OC, who were also the lead designers on "Sunshine" for which the Rachel Wingfield bed was acquired).

From the designer's point-of-view there are just a couple of flies in the ointment. She's an artist, who seemingly hasn't fully grasped that she is also an inventor. I think her original (c2001) idea could have been patented and marketed. In fact, another company, Lumigram, has been selling illuminated bedding in recent years, almost certainly without any payment or acknowledgement to Wingfield.

Boyle's claim of "coincidence" could even be true, up to a point, if the OC "glowing beds" concept originated with the story element of the girl reading under the bedclothes by torchlight. That said, though, developing from there to the performance set-up seems very likely to have involved at least subconscious memory of the Wingfield design.

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never did trust Danny Boyle. He looked too sleazy and smarmy for me. But I guess we'll have to wait for his memoirs and what won't be in it!

I had a dream last year of a reigning royal jumping out of a helicopter w/ a parachute to open the Commonwealth Games or something like that...!

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Frankie and June seems to be the only segment not marred by controversy. Perhaps no one wants to claim credit for that one. I don't blame 'em.

It's not so much that nobody wants to claim credit, more that if you were in the British creative industries from about 1960 onward and you WEREN'T referenced in F&J, you were either Sir Elton John or you were a five-minute wonder.*

* Or possibly a heavy metal act. Not a lot of love for Black Sabbath, Leyton's own Iron Maiden, etc. in the London OC.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Not sure if anyone has posted/ seen this before, but a brilliant behind-the-scene show day video from the artistic director of Athens 2004 opening ceremony. Still my all time fave opening ceremony!!

http://vimeo.com/72146418

Interesting, kevzz. Good find. Yes, it captures all the behind-the-scene excitement of putting on a big show. Still, the big imponderable in my mind is: wow, all those hours sitting around, getting psyched and smeared with full body make-up...only to go out...not as one "statue"...but as a whole phalanx of statues? :blink: That's just like having on your acting resume...played a corpse in "Night of the Living Dead." Okey...but which one?? :wacko: It was just all so cold, cerebral, static and joyless. There was more excitement in the control booth than there was in the Klepsydra on the stadium floor! And you could feel the total change in energy when the on-screen monitor showed the guy running with the 2004 flag!! Like...wow the corpse came to life! ;)

A really wasted opportunity. It had so much promise of greatness...but ultimately a failed experiment. And DP (he's the thin guy chain-smoking throughout) himself admitted later on...he could've made it tighter and more dramatic! Yup, this was the show that launched a thousand debts!!

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I can watch this for hours. Amazed with the complexity, scale, number of people and intricacy of the production. Every single piece of costumes are all worthy of museum collection. I am surprised to see Dimitri not doing anything at all that night, just watching from a distance whilst smoking. I guess he's done what he can and leave the rest to his staff.

This is really the best there has been, and the best it ever will be.

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August 15 - British stuntman Mark Sutton, who wowed the crowds by parachuting into the Olympic Stadium dressed as James Bond during the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics Games, has died following a skydiving accident in the Swiss Alps.

The former army officer (pictured top) got into difficulty during a jump from a helicopter whilst wearing an aerodynamic wingsuit and crashed into a mountain ridge near the Swiss town of Martigny, suffering fatal injuries.

It is believed that Sutton, 42, was intending to land in a village just across the border in France when he got into difficulties during a three-day wingsuiting event which was being attended by a number of experienced wingsuit pilots.

Wing-diving is an extreme sport which involves using a special jumpsuit with wings that allow the wearer to glide and usually ends with the divers using a parachute to land.

Local police have revealed that a formal identification of the body is underway and an investigation into the tragic incident has been opened.

Sutton, who was from Surrey, rose to international prominence last year as he and stunt partner Gary Connery - who was dressed as the Queen - jumped from a helicopter hovering over the Olympic Stadium wearing Union Jack emblazoned parachutes as part of the spectacular Opening Ceremony to the Games.

A distraught Connery said he had lost a close friend."In any sport where you share a common bond you can make friends in a heartbeat that last a lifetime," he said.

"My relationship with Mark was like that."

Danny Boyle who directed the 2012 Opening Ceremony claimed that Sutton was "gentle and thoughtful" and that the stunt profession had lost a "fine" and "brave" man.

"The show was built from so many contributions from so many people, none finer and braver than Mark Sutton's," said Boyle.

"On behalf of everyone in the show we were all honoured to have worked with him and to have known him as a friend and a professional.

"All our thoughts are with his family, friends and colleagues."

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Interesting, kevzz. Good find. Yes, it captures all the behind-the-scene excitement of putting on a big show. Still, the big imponderable in my mind is: wow, all those hours sitting around, getting psyched and smeared with full body make-up...only to go out...not as one "statue"...but as a whole phalanx of statues? :blink: That's just like having on your acting resume...played a corpse in "Night of the Living Dead." Okey...but which one?? :wacko: It was just all so cold, cerebral, static and joyless. There was more excitement in the control booth than there was in the Klepsydra on the stadium floor! And you could feel the total change in energy when the on-screen monitor showed the guy running with the 2004 flag!! Like...wow the corpse came to life! ;)

A really wasted opportunity. It had so much promise of greatness...but ultimately a failed experiment. And DP (he's the thin guy chain-smoking throughout) himself admitted later on...he could've made it tighter and more dramatic! Yup, this was the show that launched a thousand debts!!

So disagree in every possible way.

The Athens ceremony was warm, joyful and emotionally vibrant. It is easily, the most perfectly paced and most theatrical OC I've seen. Of course, DP sees opportunities for improvement. He's an artist and will never be totally satisfied. That doesn't mean his work wasn't exceptional.

Finally, as has been noted MANY times, the Greek debt was not driven by the Games, but by the "buy now, pay later" mentality of the government. The total cost of the Games was less than two percent of the total Greek debt at its height. The Olympics just became a symbol of the Greeks' fiscal irresponsibility because they were such a concrete, visible manifestation of it. The Games were not, however, the engine that drove Greek debt.

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