Sunday, August 12, 2012

THE YOUTH OF THE WORLD: When they ended the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, unsurprisingly no one from Los Angeles was there. President Carter insisted that the IOC not even raise the United States flag in Moscow; instead, the Los Angeles city flag was raised, with IOC chair Lord Killanin urging the "sportsmen of the world to unite in peace before a holocaust descends." While the Moscow closing ceremonies does have its charms, things have improved.

I can't find the handover from Los Angeles to Seoul from 1984, but a UFO flew over the stadium and Lionel Richie and the Non-Threatening Breakdancers of the World partied significantly into the night.  But we can observe how Barcelona introduced itself at the end of the Seoul Games (flamenco-rific!), Atlanta at the end of the Barcelona Games (more non-threatening breakdancing, and Izzy!), Sydney at the end of Atlanta, Athens at the end of Sydney, and London at the end of Beijing.

The Sydney 2000 Closing Ceremonies are a favorite of mine because they let Midnight Oil argue in favor of reparations to the country's aboriginal peoples, had songs of vegemite sandwiches (and pilfered flute melody), and Kylie Minogue singing ABBA. From the Idle rumors I've seen, London might just be spicy enough top it, and we'll see what Rio promises for 2016.

14 comments:

  1. Joseph J. Finn5:01 PM

    And now to hand over the torch to Chicago.

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  2. Watts5:22 PM

    So far, not impressed with the London effort. 

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  3. bill.6:41 PM

    Thanks to Watts' very entertaining twitter commentating, I can skip watching the closing ceremonies. One question though, why was Madonna there?

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  4. Watts6:48 PM

    She wasn't - I was referring to her Super Bowl halftime performance. 

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  5. Watts6:49 PM

    And thank you for the compliment. :)

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  6. biil.7:29 PM

    ahh, thanks. For a couple hours there, half my twitter feed was about the closing ceremonies, 1% boring stuff, and 49% Norm MacDonald covering the PGA championship. Stuff started to merge together.

    My favorite tweet:
    Elaine <span>‏</span><span>@Sundancer</span>
    If the Olympic Closing Ceremony doesn't end with a gigantic Monty Python foot extinguishing the flame then we have failed as a nation.

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  7. D'Arcy8:14 PM

    Idle rumours... I see what you did there!

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  8. D'Arcy8:14 PM

    Idle rumours... I see what you did there!

    ReplyDelete
  9. D'Arcy8:14 PM

    Idle rumours... I see what you did there!

    ReplyDelete
  10. D'Arcy8:15 PM

    Idle rumours... I see what you did there!

    ReplyDelete
  11. D'Arcy8:15 PM

    Idle rumours... I see what you did there!

    ReplyDelete
  12. D'Arcy8:15 PM

    Idle rumours... I see what you did there!

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  13. Annie Lennox still has it.
    Also, I think it's nice that they made the main stage on a Spin Art machine.

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  14. The Pathetic Earthling6:01 PM

    I'm sorry Chicago didn't get them because it keeps San Francisco and, worse still, Reno-Tahoe in the crosshairs for future Olympics.  I support any US Olympic bid other than those as if it wins, it keeps the Olympics away for another 12 or so years.

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