Author Topic: Paralympics  (Read 26489 times)

mattc

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Re: Paralympics
« Reply #200 on: 10 September, 2012, 06:55:39 pm »
I've heard "... drummer Mat Fraser ..." a dozen times or more over the weekend, but until Jurek's post I had no idea who he was!
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andygates

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Re: Paralympics
« Reply #201 on: 10 September, 2012, 06:56:13 pm »
I've wanted to do a firebike (or a skeletandem) since for ever, I am so jealous!
It takes blood and guts to be this cool but I'm still just a cliché.
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Re: Paralympics
« Reply #202 on: 10 September, 2012, 07:04:18 pm »
It wasn't that there was a single band, nor even that it was Coldplay that caused me to switch off in a similar way to EG. It was that it was a single band that dominated the ceremony. It then became about them rather than the games. I thought the dancers, the vehicles, the flames, the lighting, the high wire stuff were excellent. But when a band uses it to do a sing-along to their greatest hits much as they might for any of their other stadium gigs, they steal 'our' games from us.

Utterly not what I think!

I know bog all about Coldplay, except that people like to diss them. I couldn't have identified or named one of their songs before last night, and I've pretty much forgotten them now. They were just background music for the cool stuff going on.

As for 'using it', did they ask for the gig, or were they asked? 

Also, were the Paraorchestra 'using' it too, or is it alright because they are disabled?
If I had a baby elephant, it could help me wash the car. If I had a car.

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Re: Paralympics
« Reply #203 on: 10 September, 2012, 07:12:30 pm »
I've wanted to do a firebike (or a skeletandem) since for ever, I am so jealous!
YHPM

red marley

Re: Paralympics
« Reply #204 on: 10 September, 2012, 07:48:15 pm »
Utterly not what I think!

I know bog all about Coldplay, except that people like to diss them. I couldn't have identified or named one of their songs before last night, and I've pretty much forgotten them now. They were just background music for the cool stuff going on.

As for 'using it', did they ask for the gig, or were they asked? 

Also, were the Paraorchestra 'using' it too, or is it alright because they are disabled?

Sorry if I touched a nerve. As I said, it wasn't because they were Coldplay, but because they dominated proceedings (most of the background music before they came on as well as their own live performance lasting a couple of hours). I've no idea who was responsible for the programming, but I'd guess it wasn't Coldplay themselves. But the point is that it was a pity that one band came to dominate proceedings given the wonderful other things going on. This is in contrast to all the other music at both opening ceremonies and the Olympic closing ceremony which seemed to be about bringing together all sorts of artists, performers and styles.


Re: Paralympics
« Reply #205 on: 10 September, 2012, 08:11:14 pm »
Not a nerve especially, I just didn't have a problem with it. I see the point about having lots of artists, but thinking back to the closing of the Olympics, there were a lot of artists who just showed the perils of ageing! I heard it suggested that the best performances were from a couple of dead singers!

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Jaded

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Re: Paralympics
« Reply #206 on: 10 September, 2012, 08:21:45 pm »
I believe the drummer was the warm-up act for the Opening Ceremony?

Which explains why he said "I'll be drumming later" but then didn't drum. He also said that he wasn't too good at sign language and he'd let someone else do that.

Amongst the music at events there were a number of Coldplay tracks. Not played as much as some, Queen for example, but more than others. Leftfield at the Murderball was magnificent!

My main beef with watching it last night at home was not being there the fact that the director quite often forgot that this wasn't a Coldplay gig, but a closing ceremony. I didn't really mind there being Coldplay music, although the first track they play was a damp squid. ;)
It is simpler than it looks.

gordon taylor

Re: Paralympics
« Reply #207 on: 10 September, 2012, 08:23:51 pm »
The Coldplay comments above are interesting. From inside the stadium, it was impossible to see who was playing the music, unless you made a conscious effort to watch the big screens - and there was way, way too much going on to bother with a video screen. The music was just a background to the show... a soundtrack. The recorded bits of the TV show that I've seen today bear no resemblance whatsoever to the show we experienced as spectators (and, I assume, the athletes) in the stadium.

It certainly didn't seem like a Coldplay concert from row 68. I still want to know how on earth they found 20 aerial chicks** to nonchalantly step off the stadium roof, strapped to a bundle of pyrotechnic balloons and a single fucking* trapeze hoop.  :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o

*Apologies. The swearing is essential. The two blue-rinsed ladies next to me were muttering "Sweet Jesus" and "Fuck" repeatedly and randomly at that point too. They lent me their binoculars so I could (verbally) join in.

** I am uncomfortable with the term "chicks," but the fact that these incredible acrobats were pixie-sized and female made the spectacle all the more extraordinary. A limbless, male ex-para on a zip wire is one thing... a proper ballet dancer pirouetting on a flying horse at breathtaking heights is quite another.

Coldplay were about tenth on the list of "interesting things to watch" in the stadium...

Re: Paralympics
« Reply #208 on: 10 September, 2012, 08:28:30 pm »
Although I only saw it on telly, I kind of assumed it was a vastly different experience if you were there, and that you would be able to take much more in and that the music would be even more incidental.

I loved the lightbulb/balloons/chicks floating in.

Also, the highwire motorbike!

I think I want a DVD that has the Olympic Opening, and the Paralympic Closing!
If I had a baby elephant, it could help me wash the car. If I had a car.

See my recycled crafts at www.wastenotwantit.co.uk

Re: Paralympics
« Reply #209 on: 10 September, 2012, 08:42:21 pm »
I still want to know how on earth they found 20 aerial chicks** to nonchalantly step off the stadium roof, strapped to a bundle of pyrotechnic balloons and a single fucking* trapeze hoop.  :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o

Anecdote time.
You have been warned....

Way, way back in 1999/2000 I was 'steppin' out'  (there's an old-fashioned expression, for you) with Emily, an aerial acrobat who was dropped on wires from the roof of The Dome/O2/etc whilst wearing 4 metre stilts which were subsequently deployed.

Emily was (and I suspect, still is) quite an exceptional chick* aerial or otherwise.

*Equally uncomfortable with the 'chick' expression thang - Emily was just, well... exceptional - I think that's what it takes for a person to take the leap.....


Kim

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Re: Paralympics
« Reply #210 on: 10 September, 2012, 08:58:26 pm »
The Coldplay comments above are interesting. From inside the stadium, it was impossible to see who was playing the music, unless you made a conscious effort to watch the big screens - and there was way, way too much going on to bother with a video screen. The music was just a background to the show... a soundtrack. The recorded bits of the TV show that I've seen today bear no resemblance whatsoever to the show we experienced as spectators (and, I assume, the athletes) in the stadium.

As with the other ceremonies, I saw almost no BSL content on the telly.  I'm fairly sure this wasn't the case in real life, so that doesn't surprise me either.

Actually, I'm wondering whether the TV coverage didn't suffer from a general lack of cameras.  The music stage seemed to be the only thing that was reliably covered in any detail...

Re: Paralympics
« Reply #211 on: 10 September, 2012, 09:17:59 pm »
Anyone else getting sick of the glorification of the LONDON Olympics/Paralympics?  I can't deny that they mostly took place in that city but to have Boris Johnson et al cashing in they way they are trying to disgusts me.  They were made possible by athletes, coaches, performers and volunteers and spectators from all over Britain (and the world, for that matter) and paid for by tax-payers from all over the kingdom.  Oh, and they were brought to this country when a different government was in power and that government was continually sniped at over cost and so on.  I understand it came in under budget?  As far as I can tell, this lot's only contribution to what has been a wonderful few weeks of pageantry was to spoil a couple of medal ceremonies for the athletes concerned.

If we end up with Johnson as prime minister (how can people refer to him simply as "Boris", as if he was a chum?) then we will finally have become America.

Re: Paralympics
« Reply #212 on: 10 September, 2012, 09:22:14 pm »
Anyone else getting sick of the glorification of the LONDON Olympics/Paralympics?

Not really. It happened in London, hence it was the London Olympics.

If I got het all the time up over London thinking it's the most important place in the country, I'd be having a permanent apoplectic fit.
If I had a baby elephant, it could help me wash the car. If I had a car.

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red marley

Re: Paralympics
« Reply #213 on: 10 September, 2012, 09:27:25 pm »
Beijing, Athens, Sydney, Atlanta etc.  Nothing different this time.

I'd agree with the sour taste left by Boris (it was Boris vs Ken in the mayoral elections down here) and Cameron trying to bask in reflected glory though.

Re: Paralympics
« Reply #214 on: 10 September, 2012, 09:32:10 pm »
Jo, Arch, obviously I know why London is the name of the olympics but I can see by your replies that you understand what I'm getting at!  Perhaps I should have said torification instead of glorification!  Although, to be fair (to do which I am loth), I think the government has been more muted in its claims since the Osborne experience.

Jaded

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Re: Paralympics
« Reply #215 on: 10 September, 2012, 09:40:53 pm »
From what I remember, there was a lot of BSL on the big screens at the top of the stadium for the opening ceremony. In fact that answers my question to the family I asked last night: "There are showing the camera feeds on the big screens - they didn't do that at the opening ceremony, did they?"
It is simpler than it looks.

Re: Paralympics
« Reply #216 on: 11 September, 2012, 01:08:25 pm »
I've wanted to do a firebike (or a skeletandem) since for ever, I am so jealous!

You could have a firetandem. But in this case it would be the stoker who would have to wear the asbestos suit!

Jurek - were you in the colsing ceremony?

Re: Paralympics
« Reply #217 on: 11 September, 2012, 02:34:55 pm »
Jurek - were you in the colsing ceremony?

Nope.

Re: Paralympics
« Reply #218 on: 31 October, 2012, 04:43:10 pm »
John Inverdale on  Radio 5 live said that the Paralymics had left a legacy in the UK and that disabled
people are benefiting from it (paraphrased slightly). He obviously hadn't been watching Channel 4 news,
which had a series of news items about the problems disabled people were still having in the UK.

Kim

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Re: Paralympics
« Reply #219 on: 31 October, 2012, 06:11:47 pm »
I think it's fair to say that there is a paralympic legacy, at least within the field of disability sport and making sport accessible.

It's just that its wider effects are being drowned out by the cuts and general 'disability = theft' rhetoric that's being churned out by the government and media.

Jaded

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Re: Paralympics
« Reply #220 on: 31 October, 2012, 07:59:42 pm »
To an extent it is good that there is the Paralympic noise. Else the Govt's stuff would be bouncing off all the walls and getting more 'likes'.
It is simpler than it looks.