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London 2012 Olympic Cauldron...


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the opening ceremony focused on Britain....but forgot the athletes.....

remind yourself who were the cauldron lighters?...not famous athletes....

who carried the Olympic flag?.....not the athletes....

did they remember the sport Heroes? did they focus any part of the ceremony to world peace and unity? i feel they didn't.

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the opening ceremony focused on Britain....but forgot the athletes.....

remind yourself who were the cauldron lighters?...not famous athletes....

who carried the Olympic flag?.....not the athletes....

did they remember the sport Heroes? did they focus any part of the ceremony to world peace and unity? i feel they didn't.

I gotta disagree.

I think having Nobel peace prize winners and UN and charity reps carrying the flag was a tribute to peace and unity.

And the cauldron lighters were athletes, young athletes, nominated by famous athletes who all participated in the show. We saw the likes of Beckham, Redgrave, Holmes, Wiggins and more at many times throughout it.

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I gotta disagree.

I think having Nobel peace prize winners and UN and charity reps carrying the flag was a tribute to peace and unity.

And the cauldron lighters were athletes, young athletes, nominated by famous athletes who all participated in the show. We saw the likes of Beckham, Redgrave, Holmes, Wiggins and more at many times throughout it.

Sydney did it much better......final torch relay completed by famous athletes...who would inspire young Australians to become Olympians.....cauldron lit by an Aborigine who would inspire.....

Tina Arena sang a song in tribute to the flame, Vanessa Amarosi sang in tribute to the heroes of the Olympic Games, John Farham and Olivia Newton John sang in tribute to the Athletes, and Nicki Webster invited the world in unity with "Under the Southern Sky"

if London wanted the Opening ceremony to be compared to Sydney's (which was Danny Boyle's aim) he didn't seem to do that very well....

none of the songs were written specially for the opening, from a country with a "strong music industry"

:(:unsure::wacko:

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if London wanted the Opening ceremony to be compared to Sydney's (which was Danny Boyle's aim) he didn't seem to do that very well....

Did Danny Boyle say that? I don't feel you can compare one OC to another. Each one is unique and it has to be otherwise they all become meaningless IMO.

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I just read this online...

"The Cauldron will be moved to take pride of place in the Olympic Stadium within the eyeline of competing athletes - echoes of its location at Wembley for the London 1948 Games.

At the end of the Games, each team will take their petal home and the London 2012 Cauldron will cease to exist. Like a flower that only blooms for the during the competition, it's a temporary representation of the extraordinary transitory community that is the Olympic Games. "

I can imagine some of these pieces ending up in a back alley like the cauldron from Moscow <_<

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Just back home from Olympic Park. I've not had a chance to see the TV broadcast of the ceremony yet; for me, the opening industrial revolution sequence and transition was one of the most exciting things I have ever seen, the scale of action on the stage was incredible. Edge of the seat stuff. So thrilling. The music segment, well, I hope it came across better on TV. Fun nonetheless, and great to have a narrative.

Honest question: will many international audiences 'get' signficant parts of the ceremony?

Ah, the cauldron, it was there in plain sight (on the tickets) all along! I'm going to say that I 'called' part of the lighting correct, being unnamed youth, and I think it fitted rather well into the theme of London 2012 as a whole 'inspire a generation'. I did get the rest of it very wrong though; I knew about the 'aerial dove' and had presumed that it would be carrying the torch to the platform above the Tor, and from there to an external cauldron. Myself and my father (who does not spend any part of his life in forums such as this!) spent a lot of time thinking about the 'cones' that were carried by children with each nation - binoculars out, trying to Google previous ceremonies and protocols - and we ended up concluding that they may be part of the cauldron.

The lighting was unexpected, and in sharp contrast to most of the night the crowd were very quiet until the cauldron was nearly vertical. I think this was a combination of wonder, and uncertainty about when the lighting was 'complete'.

I have to say I absolutely love it. Wonderful design, with meaning too. I avoided reading this thread for the past day or two to avoid spoilers - any idea yet where it goes now? It's going to get in the way of the javelin competition! (Joke.)

Here's a pic. Bless Heatherwick. Great work.

347i2ag.jpg

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I can easily see most NOC's throwing theirs in the trash. After all, you got to walk (in the ceremony) with a shiny bronze (I assume) petal. Only to have it burning for 16 days and at the closing ceremony come out blackened.

Also, this begs the question, will the same presentation occur in the Paralympics? Only to have wheelchair bound kids light the cauldron?

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I can easily see most NOC's throwing theirs in the trash. After all, you got to walk (in the ceremony) with a shiny bronze (I assume) petal. Only to have it burning for 16 days and at the closing ceremony come out blackened.

Also, this begs the question, will the same presentation occur in the Paralympics? Only to have wheelchair bound kids light the cauldron?

Your right about them turning black after burning for days.

Here are my top places where you are most likely to find a petal after the London Olympics:

1. eBay

2. Moscow back alley

3. lost in customs on the flight back to its home country

4. on the tv show Pawn Stars

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Why yes, come back in a couple of days time after hearing news reports of children all over the world burning flowers. ;)

Better than lighting up joints, racing down to McDonalds or trying to jump off a roof trying to fly with a flaming paper cone.

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So does each petal have each nations name on it so they know whose-is-whose or are they just given away at random.

I imagine if they had the county on each one then it would look nicer in whatever museum each one ends up in.

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But most countries have some sort of an Olympic museum or sports hall of fame. They could easily go there. Or stay in the NOC headquarters. Or be given as a trophy to their most celebrated athlete of the London Games.

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Yeh each country must have either a sporting museum or at least a national museum.

Does the IOC have their own museum for that united team (South Sudan folks ect..)?

New Zealand has an olympic mueseum in Wellington

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So who claims prediction honour? RobH and Paul were pretty spot on. Anyone else? (I'm not going back over 250-odd pages!)

I called it, also. Back in the 160s when I last posted anything in this thread.

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Shoutout to everyone who screamed, "ticket = cauldron!"

You guys were right, etc.

It's a nice cauldron. Looked stunning from underneath when it was coming together. But the actual lighting was underwhelming.

I mean, 5 "pedals" are lit and suddenly the other 199 are ignited as well?

How does that work?

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