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Are you watching The olympics?

I think 1984 was the year the olympics changed into something more big time than the already big time they were. Peter Ueberroth running it all -- making a 200 million profit. There's a whole dissertation worth of stuff to go through on those games.
 
The BBC's coverage of the olympics has been pretty depressing & poor (I'm in Scotland now), can't imagine what the Australian coverage would be like...... probably 30mins each day :lol
 
I guess one other thing re my '84 Olympics observations is that Andy Warhol was still alive--and if anyone would have dug that cornball ceremony on my grounds, it would have been him.

It was, really, the Indian summer for Mass Pop Americana--and somehow, it seems that Warhol's passing coincided when said mass really started to decompose...
 
Did anyone catch the bit during the closing ceremonies yesterday, where a (presumably) protester somehow went onto the podium while the head honcho was having his speech, screamed a few words and tore away one of the two microphones before being hauled off by the security?

Talk about lapses. Made for a few dramatic moments though.

Oh, and the Vancouver 2010 program is awful - I just hope they can whoever was responsible for it. An absolutely incoherent presentation, screaming tackiness (styrofoam innushuk being built by a bunch of smurfs/7 drawfs), with Avril to add to the mess. Yuck. Contrast with the grace exhibited by the mayor of Vancouver when he gotten the flag.

AoD
 
Cirque du Soleil, Eskimos, and a token First Nations tribute involving an actual First Nations token...charming. The NBC commentator said "I guess Canada has acrobats, too." After Pavarotti, Ben Heppner seemed very amateur...NBC edited him out of their coverage. The best part was the bizarre procession of brides forming the obligatory outline of a dove (did they ask volunteers to bring their own dresses?) and after Isolde Kostner willed the torch to go out (lame ending to the torch at least went with the even lamer lighting of the torch) one corpse bride didn't turn her electric lily off, ruining the Olympic experience of everyone in Italy and of all 500 million people watching - yes, 'Bride #72', it was that obvious. Was the entire sequence thought up after Kostner announced she was pregnant and would retire? I stopped watching when Ricky Martin appeared.

"An absolutely incoherent presentation, screaming tackiness"

It wasn't nearly tacky enough. I wanted giant inflated inukshuks, beavers dancing to the Guess Who, with lasers and Mounties on horseback.

"Contrast with the grace exhibited by the mayor of Vancouver when he gotten the flag."

Whoever was co-hosting it with Ron MacLean (forget her name...she was interviewing Clara Hughes the day before - Karen something?) said (rough quote) "It's ironic that the flag is being passed to the worst skier in Vancouver. Sam Sullivan was paralyzed in a skiing accident."

Kind of glad CTV won the rights to cover the 2010 and 2012 games. CBC's coverage of these Olympics sucked, blew, and sucked a second time.
 
"It's ironic that the flag is being passed to the worst skier in Vancouver. Sam Sullivan was paralyzed in a skiing accident."
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This was a direct reference to a quote the mayor made himself that they were sending the worst skier in Canada to Turin. A rather funny remark when the mayor himself said it but sounds as the commentator didnt quite phrase herself in a great way.
 
"After Pavarotti, Ben Heppner seemed very amateur..."

Ben Heppner along with Mayor Sullivan were the highlights IMO. Mr. Heppner's rendition of Oh Canada sent chills down my spine.
 
I also thought Ben Heppner was outstanding, though I noticed a few creaks. As for the rest of it...well, I have a taste for cheese.
 
Kind of glad CTV won the rights to cover the 2010 and 2012 games. CBC's coverage of these Olympics sucked, blew, and sucked a second time.
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I didn't watch enough of these games to really comment on CBC's coverage extensively, but I wouldn't assume CTV is going to be any better. In fact, people (and critics) were in unison about getting the games back to CBC last time CTV had the contract in the late '80s / early '90s.

I do however think that CBC Sports made a huge mistake in keeping the studios in Toronto (for the first time ever). TV can be a convincing medium, but it was still obvious that the excitement level was down a notch watching Brian Williams from Toronto instead of Turino.

Chris Zelkovich's view of CBC's coverage is here.

It'll also be interesting to see if CTV markets the next games as "CTV Sports presents..." (as CTV Sports hasn't existed in about five years) or if they will just insert both the TSN and CTV logos into all coverage. Sort of like "TSN's coverage of the Summer Games on CTV is presented by..."
 
You know you've been too steeped in Modernist architectural historiography when all those references to the Lingotto skating oval leaves you thinking Cindy Klassen was winning her medals here
fiat1.jpg
 
"I didn't watch enough of these games to really comment on CBC's coverage extensively, but I wouldn't assume CTV is going to be any better."

Oh, I didn't say that because I think CTV would be great, I just said it because CBC this time around was so awful.

I found myself watching some events on the French channel (they would show biathlon and cross country live and uninterrupted most mornings), and at night I'd choose NBC over Brian Williams. I don't mind Ron MacLean but since I hate hockey I couldn't stand watching him for more than two seconds. Terry Liebel was obsessed with medal count predictions - was she even reporting from Italy? There was an almost complete lack of interviews with medallists, unless Brian Williams was monopolizing them during prime time. The actual coverage of the events was all good, though. Good thing it takes so little effort to make most winter sports appealing to TV audiences, because it seemed like CBC wasn't trying - why put effort into the broadcast when they've already lost the fight to air the next few games?
 
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