Public Address | Cafe | Field Theory: In closing

Bevan Shortridge

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 15:07:22 +1200

I belatedly discovered the brick-by-brick series from The Guardian. Presumably being unable to host any actual Olympics highlights footage on their site, they made their own – using lego. Legolympics, anyone?

Brick-by-brick series

Jonty

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 12:29:50 +1200

I think when we in Godzone can produce a spectacle half as good, maybe we'll have the right to crticise?

Hannah

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 09:34:14 +1200

Did he sing the bit of 'Always look on the bright side' that goes 'Life's a piece of shit/ When you look at it'?

Why yes he did. Comes in around 6:05 over at youtube

The verse he changed, which I liked, goes something like "When you're stuck on…

Ross Mason

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 15:46:25 +1200

Valleri..........ever since recent announcemrnt .....ear worm....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWTa9CE51sA

So so bad.

Kyle Matthews

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 15:34:05 +1200

The slightly humdrum closing ceremony really only underlined how extraordinary Boyle's great expression to open the party had been.

Interesting. I found the opening ceremony rather boring, particularly the first half which I really disliked.

The closing was OK. Who knows why George Michael got to promote his new song,…

Hadyn Green

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 14:26:32 +1200

So it seems NBC cut nearly an hour out of the ceremony. Prime doesn't seem so bad now.

Jonty

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 11:57:24 +1200

We must have been watching something else. Check this:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2187413/London-2012-Closing-Ceremony-Feeling-sad-end-Games-Eric-Idle-leads-80-000-crowd-rendition-Always-Look-Bright-Side-Life.html

Megan Wegan

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 10:43:05 +1200

One quick quibble: Sky put the men's basketball gold medal match on the MySky HD channels. I paid money to get Sky for the games, and I had to watch a fucking replay on Prime. Bastards.

But yeah. Much crying, much smiling ridiculously at stupidly happy athletes, and a lot…

Ross Mason

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 09:32:11 +1200

Val: Gold

NZOC: Phew...again. We can hide the administrative blunder a wee bit better now.

Simon Chamberlain

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 00:13:30 +1200

So I was at the closing party in Hyde Park (Blur headlining with the Specials and New Order and Bombay Bicycle Club). Figured they'd have the closing ceremony on the big screen but it mostly clashed with Blur.

But they had a screen round the back of the main stage…

DexterX

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 00:10:17 +1200

Well

The Curiosity probe so unsettled the Martians – they mucked it up and hired the Spice Girls rather than the Mysterons to deal to the city of London.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV8YbLvGrb0&feature=fvwrel

Lilith __

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 00:07:37 +1200

So happy for Valerie Adams. How must she feel, though? It’s not snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, it’s forcing defeat to regurgitate victory after it’s been eaten and partly digested….phthhhhh….

Um. I hope they can give Val some kind of fancy ceremony to make things right.

Rachel Prosser

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 23:37:53 +1200

Why didn't Annie Lennox sing 'Sweet Dreams Are Made of This'?

Perhaps the lyrics

"Some of them want to use you. Some of them want to get used by you. Some of them want to abuse you? Some of them want to be abused" weren't quite the vibe they were…

Chris Waugh

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 23:35:37 +1200

Wow, brilliant! Doesn't seem to have been the best of situations for Adams, great to see it all works out.

Tristan

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 23:09:43 +1200

Fuck you Valarie Adams for making me cry all over my iPad :~~~)

Phil fryer

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 22:50:01 +1200

I confess, I bubbled for 3 hours of the closing ceromony,
t'was rich,emotionally & in oh so many ways, simply marvalous,

Russell Brown

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 22:49:37 +1200

WOAH.

Nadzeya Ostapchuk has failed a drug test and been stripped of her medal.

Valerie Adams is now the gold medalist.

Sacha

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 20:52:50 +1200

and tweeted it for good measure :)

Russell Brown

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 20:17:40 +1200

No idea if it’s possible to display an image on this hurrr message board

Yes, it's very easy. Just click the "choose file" button and select your image from your computer. It will slot in above your text.

I popped in and did this one for you :-)

hot_grits

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 19:59:01 +1200

I feel this sums it up well:

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/200643_10151994725075596_341083951_n.jpg

(No idea if it’s possible to display an image on this hurrr message board)

Sacha

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 18:52:12 +1200

My generation had 'Stars on 45'

enough counter-proof, I'd say

Russell Brown

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 18:36:34 +1200

Jodi Ihaka reckons we’re just codgers, and cites interesting ‘proof’.

Ahem. My generation had 'Stars on 45'.

All right then: why were the medleys such shite? Seriously. They weren't even good medleys.

Otoh, this, the Team GB medallists miming to Queen's 'Don't Stop me Now', this is good.

Danielle

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 18:31:51 +1200

But the Spice Girls were fabulous.

+1. People of the world, spice up your life.

Sacha

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 18:30:31 +1200

What was with all the fucking medleys?

Jodi Ihaka reckons we're just codgers, and cites interesting 'proof'.

Medleys are about this generation old people. Thank Glee. That rocked.

Danielle

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 18:28:12 +1200

I'm watching the repeat now and must note that the profoundly weird unappealingness of Annie Lennox's Ship of Vivienne Westwood Viking Death was kinda great. When it first started I said 'is this a tribute to the "Wild Boys" video?'

Russell Brown

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 18:15:48 +1200

The most cringy moment for me was the use of Bowie’s “Fashion” during the fashion section. Ugh.

And they couldn't even let that stand on its own without a bloody medley intro.

Russell Brown

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 18:14:09 +1200

Gary Barlow, who this week has been privately dealing with a family tragedy, was incredible. That performance almost made up for all the previous quibbles.

Yes. That and, as you say, the Spice Girls. They did what they were there to do.

Robyn Gallagher

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 18:06:17 +1200

The highlight for me was probably Take That. And I don’t really like Take That. They are tolerable.

Gary Barlow, who this week has been privately dealing with a family tragedy, was incredible. That performance almost made up for all the previous quibbles.

Robyn Gallagher

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 18:01:11 +1200

I really thought it was a production shambles, programmed by someone who just had no feel for music.

The most cringy moment for me was the use of Bowie's "Fashion" during the fashion section. Ugh. Because for the last 30 years, that song has been the uninspired soundtrack for fashion…

JacksonP

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 17:53:40 +1200

Why wasn’t [George Michael] forced to share a stage with Andrew Ridgely?

Or what's left of Queen. At least his Freddy would be better than Jessie J. He could have sung 'Somebody to love'. It would have had high ironic value, if nothing else.

I've only actually seen the abbreviated…

vangam

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 17:42:08 +1200

Did no one point out to Brian May that no one wanted to hear him noodling on the guitar for ages?
I think it needed more screeching guitar and distorted feedback, after all, Lou Reed was in town...

Judi Lapsley Miller

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 17:40:26 +1200

Did no one point out to Brian May that no one wanted to hear him noodling on the guitar for ages? Why didn't they play 'We Are the Champions'?

Hee – to see Brian May noodling was the only reason I bothered to watch :-D. But yes, peculiar that they…

Samuel Scott

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 17:38:44 +1200

I agree with Russell 100%. That was awful. UK is the spiritual home of live music TV how could they fail so badly?

The highlight for me was probably Take That. And I don't really like Take That. They are tolerable.

Also I got confused and thought Blur were supposed…

Russell Brown

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 17:30:41 +1200

See I didn’t really mind the closing ceremony (beyond the poor sound). It’s meant to be a “just play your hits” kind of event. The idea is it’s meant to be a sing-along for the athletes to get out and have fun, rather than the opening which is meant to…

Sacha

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 16:39:30 +1200

(half-cut) and dancing

surely Prodigy, Chemical Bros, etc would have made more sense than pap, then?

Hadyn Green

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 16:01:45 +1200

The slightly humdrum closing ceremony
See I didn't really mind the closing ceremony (beyond the poor sound). It's meant to be a "just play your hits" kind of event. The idea is it's meant to be a sing-along for the athletes to get out and have fun, rather than the…

Russell Brown

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 14:49:47 +1200

I don't think anyone expected the way the games would become such a showcase for the best of British aspirations — it turned out that Danny Boyle's opening ceremony was perfectly pitched for what followed. It set out what Britons want to feel about themselves.

The slightly humdrum closing ceremony…

kiwicafe

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 13:53:36 +1200

Choose Life
126th on the CIA list for population
16th on the Medal list . . . :)

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o’er life’s solemn…

Sacha

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 13:39:01 +1200

choose sport?

Richard Irvine

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 13:26:59 +1200

Fuck it was quite good to see Field Theory back in action. Cheers!

Public Address

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 13:26:59 +1200

Discussion from blog post.