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Sochi 2014 Opening Ceremony


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Interesting to compare it to this report we had here back in October 2012

http://blogs.wsj.com/emergingeurope/2012/10/18/russia-to-wow-with-olympic-opening-ceremony/

Thanks 4 that link, Matt. So shortly after that, Ernst took over; did an overhaul and then decided on having the roof and the hangars built. Then they had to present the revised ideas to the IOC; so, they really had only about a year to work with the refashioned concept of the show. Which is why as late as October 2013 -- one year after that WSJ report -- Fisht was supposedly very delayed when the main stadium shell was on schedule; but it was just the ceremonial add-ons that were unfinished so close to the February 2014 deadline.

They did a good job. My even harder-to-please brother was very impressed with last night's show.

Edited by baron-pierreIV
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Don't know if this has already been mentioned, but that ring that didn't open up was the upper right one - the one that is supposed to be red. The red ring is supposed to represent the Americas, so perhaps it wasn't a "malfunction"? Perhaps Putin was sending a message?

You're delusional... No city would embarass itself depicting a flawed version of the Olympic Rings just to send a political message. And contrary to popular belief, no continent is represented by any specific ring. Plus, why would them target the whole group of nations supposedly represented by the red ring? Not every nation has such bitter foreign relations with Russia or any other country for that record.

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You're delusional... No city would embarass itself depicting a flawed version of the Olympic Rings just to send a political message. And contrary to popular belief, no continent is represented by any specific ring. Plus, why would them target the whole group of nations supposedly represented by the red ring? Not every nation has such bitter foreign relations with Russia or any other country for that record.

It's the conspiracy theory at work. And why would they single out the "RED" circle??

1. Red has been such a strong part of Russian history.

2. The next big IOC party is in the "red" zone - 2016. So why would they sabotage that?? :blink:

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I just noticed Prometheus and the flame at the very start of the show in the cyrilic alphabet video. It comes when the little girl announces "Fisht". Too bad the Prometheus and Firebird references were so subtle though... Both stories would be epic opening ceremony narratives.

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Two glaring omissions from the line-up of honored and great Russian writers:

1. Boris Paternak ("Dr. ZHIVAGO"); and

2. Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

Both anti-communist writers. Perhaps the organizers are in tune with their communist past after all, not celebrating those who the commies didn't celebrate (and banned actually) either. ;)

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Both anti-communist writers. Perhaps the organizers are in tune with their communist past after all, not celebrating those who the commies didn't celebrate (and banned actually) either. ;)

I kinda thought that had something to do with it. But they should NOT have left them out. And just for that, I am putting Dr. Zhivago next on my reading list!!

Edited by baron-pierreIV
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I loved the many pieces to the ceremonies, but I am very disappointed in NBC's coverage. They cut out so many parts and the commentary was just so bad. I'm waiting until the Olympic Channel or Sochi channels on YouTube release the full version and hopefully with a working rings part. Had the rings worked, it would have beat Beijing's in my mind.

Something I kept feeling while watching was that everything was about St. Petersburg, was this Putin trying to reconnect to 'Old Russia' or the ceremony they would have planned if St. Petersburg ever hosted?

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I loved the many pieces to the ceremonies, but I am very disappointed in NBC's coverage. They cut out so many parts and the commentary was just so bad. I'm waiting until the Olympic Channel or Sochi channels on YouTube release the full version and hopefully with a working rings part. Had the rings worked, it would have beat Beijing's in my mind.

Something I kept feeling while watching was that everything was about St. Petersburg, was this Putin trying to reconnect to 'Old Russia' or the ceremony they would have planned if St. Petersburg ever hosted?

FGS, eternal b*tcher!! They only cut out the oaths of Russian official & judges you don't know. They had a respected New York Times columnist, David Remnick there to provide commentary with substance -- to schmooze with Lauer, Vieira and Costas. What are you talking about??

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FGS, eternal b*tcher!! They only cut out the oaths of Russian official & judges you don't know. They had a respected New York Times columnist, David Remnick there to provide commentary with substance -- to schmooze with Lauer, Vieira and Costas. What are you talking about??

They cut out many portions of the event; the 'dance party' after the rings were hoisted and Lauer was making extremely crude comments the entire time. And yes it was interesting here about Remnicks life in Soviet Russia, but please can he shut up! I do not remember this bad of coverage during London's games. The commentary was the worst though, they acted like Americans knew nothing about Russia (then why the h*ll do we take one year of Russian history in school, yeah not a lot but at least it's something.)

I was really looking forward to this ceremony and have loved everything Sochi has offered so far, I'm just disappointed in NBC's terrible coverage of the OC and hope that i can have a better more uninterrupted version when it goes up online.

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So everyone was wearing a light around their neck? How were these controlled?

Telepathecally; from Putin's joystick!! DId you see the blankets? What do you think was under those?? :lol::ph34r:

They cut out many portions of the event; the 'dance party' after the rings were hoisted and Lauer was making extremely crude comments the entire time. And yes it was interesting here about Remnicks life in Soviet Russia, but please can he shut up! I do not remember this bad of coverage during London's games. The commentary was the worst though, they acted like Americans knew nothing about Russia (then why the h*ll do we take one year of Russian history in school, yeah not a lot but at least it's something.)

I was really looking forward to this ceremony and have loved everything Sochi has offered so far, I'm just disappointed in NBC's terrible coverage of the OC and hope that i can have a better more uninterrupted version when it goes up online.

It was fine for me. I can't pine for other versions that I didn't see. Gosh, why don't you move to Scandinavia or Canada if you want their coverages?? :rolleyes:

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Just for those thinking the failed ring was a purposely done as a middle finger to the us this is how I view the rings.

sp7k.png

It's not accurate exactly to the continents but you get the idea.

In it red equals asia (which by some accounts russia sits mostly in) so by this most logical definition its not a FU to the US.

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FGS, eternal b*tcher!! They only cut out the oaths of Russian official & judges you don't know. They had a respected New York Times columnist, David Remnick there to provide commentary with substance -- to schmooze with Lauer, Vieira and Costas. What are you talking about??

Here's Deadspin's full summary of what NBC cut from the OC:

http://deadspin.com/heres-everything-else-nbc-edited-out-of-the-opening-ce-1518875818/@bubbaprog

but their butchering of Bach's speech (yes censorship of the first OC speech by the new head of the IOC) gets a page to itself:

http://deadspin.com/nbc-edits-out-ioc-anti-discrimination-statement-from-op-1518727938

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Here's Deadspin's full summary of what NBC cut from the OC:

http://deadspin.com/heres-everything-else-nbc-edited-out-of-the-opening-ce-1518875818/@bubbaprog

but their butchering of Bach's speech (yes censorship of the first OC speech by the new head of the IOC) gets a page to itself:

http://deadspin.com/nbc-edits-out-ioc-anti-discrimination-statement-from-op-1518727938

This makes me very angry. I hope that the IOC never renews their rights to broadcasting the games as they have no respect to them what-so-ever.

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I've been thinking about the Parade of Nations. I suspect that they were only allowed to try the "half-lap" because the Fisht Stadium is so compact (thanks to the lack of a running track, the audience were all at least 18 metres / 60 feet closer to the action than in 2012).

I think they also did some good calculations of the optimum number of performers for the OC, again based on the compact layout. No scenes with thousands of performers, but plenty with hundreds of performers.

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^^ Or it could have been a deliberate attempt to make the parade shorter than it needs to be. Especially where the athletes were coming out from the center.

If a team from the right for example had a pause to cheer to the crowd, there's always the focus on the left. I think it was just an attempt to make the parade more smoother.

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^^ Or it could have been a deliberate attempt to make the parade shorter than it needs to be. Especially where the athletes were coming out from the center.

If a team from the right for example had a pause to cheer to the crowd, there's always the focus on the left. I think it was just an attempt to make the parade more smoother.

It most certainly was an attempt to make the parade shorter and smoother. My suspicion, however, is that the Official Report will indicate that the half-lap trick should not become the norm, because in a larger Summer stadium, the sight distances are too great.

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Just for those thinking the failed ring was a purposely done as a middle finger to the us this is how I view the rings.

It's not accurate exactly to the continents but you get the idea.

In it red equals asia (which by some accounts russia sits mostly in) so by this most logical definition its not a FU to the US.

Again, this is only your personal interpretation - but it's official that the Olympic Rings do not represent any specific continent. So this speculation is useless, I have to say.

Marts (or anyone else). I noticed during the live chat there was wide recognition here of the wacky dance they did during the Soviet segment - Trololol or something. The tune seemed vaguely familiar, but it's not something I know about. What is it? A Eurovision entry? Some 1960's Soviet-pop kitsch that leaked over the Iron Curtain?

You don't know the Trololo man? It was a huge global internet meme in 2010. Here's the video:

And here's the story behind it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Khil#Internet_meme

That's why we already speculated back then that the "Trololo man" (or Eduard Khil, his actual name) should and maybe also would appear in the Sochi ceremonies. Sadly, Eduard Khil died in 2012, so they could only use a slight melodic reference to his song in the space age segment in the OC. But we'll see whether they pay a bigger tribute to Khil in the closing ceremony, since the closings always tend to be more musical and fun ceremonies.

And here's an (in my opinion) even better and funnier live performance by Eduard Khil in 1984. Note the reaction of the tambourine man at minute 1:28 - shows that even in Soviet Russia, they were able to let their hair down and have fun.

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This makes me very angry. I hope that the IOC never renews their rights to broadcasting the games as they have no respect to them what-so-ever.

That's kinda silly.

#1 - The IOC would fold up without NBC (the USA's) TV rights.

#2 - It is within their contract to edit content for their particular dissemination, as they see fit. They are in this to make $$; not to glorify whomever is the IOC president, poobah or emperor.

Grow up, kid.

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