Olympics Closing Ceremony - Carnevale!
Saturday February 25, 2006
Carnival will come to the Olympic Stadium tomorrow--meaning lots of Fellini (including original costumes from the film "I Clowns"), pyrotechnics by Christophe Berthonneau, who last was seen setting the Eiffel tower on fire in a hot open air theater performance in Paris, and featuring 2000 costumes by Giovanna Buzzi, who has certainly been busy on the sewing machine.
The Carnevale de Viareggio Foundation was called in to lend a hand. Viareggio, on the Tuscan coast, hosts 800,000 for their carnevale, visitors who come to see huge paper mache floats 20 meters high and 14 meters long paraded down the Viali a Mare, the street along the beach.
Should be fun. Tickets start at 200 Euros. Don't be late.
Comments
I just wanted to comment on Sasha Cohen’s interview Friday nite with Bob Costas on NBC. “Good for you Sasha in how you turned all of Bob Costa’s negative comments and questions into positives. You are gifted, intelligent, and have a bright future ahead of you…I don’t know why the press are reluctant to compliment you on what your positives instead of continually ‘picking the scabs’ whenever someone falls or slips up. I’d like to see Bob Costas perform on the ice so we can nagatively comment on his performance. You are an elegant, best in clase skater who will achieve more than the scab pickers ever will…..you go girl!!!”
If Costas was to skate in a rink , by himself, you’d need a telescope to see the little weasel.
Can’t wait to hear him make stupid comments all night tomorrow. No matter, the Italians have put on a great games, and I expect the ceremony to be cool, no matter what he and whatever other idiot they have in the ‘booth’ say.
Concerning Bode Miller -
‘0 for Everything’
Usually it does not matter if an athlete competes in multiple events without winning a medal - most athletes try very hard without ending up on the podium. However, Miller’s case is different. An athlete simply needs to tread lightly if he/she knows that the attention of his/her country is focused on the performance. Having an attitude that screams ‘arrogance’ and ‘I don’t care what you think’ and ‘I will do whatever I want’ only will be tolerated if such attitude i backed-up by performance. Crashing during a run while trying hard to win is one thing - running over gates (ie, straddling the gates) and being disqualified for such is quite another. It simply shows a lack of concentration. Maybe Miller should have studied the course better beforehand (see the story ” Miller staked out the course before the giant slalom for only 30 min.), or maybe he needed more sleep before the events (rather than spending his time in all-night clubs with playboy bunnies).
Is NBC so desparate that they wnat to play matchmaker between 2 athletes (ie, Cohen and White). What in the world is Costas thinking these days?
I personally did not think Costas was out of line or negative when interviewing Cohen. I thought he was inquisitive, nothing more or less. I thought he balanced the disappointment of missing out on the gold (she WAS in first place for a time, after all) with the accomplishment of still winning a medal nicely.
I have no problem with some of these athletes at times being asked why they did not meet expectations. If an Olympic athlete is a true contender for the gold, or to finish on the podium (examples: is the current world record holder, finished in the top 3 at the last world championships, is leading after the short dance program, first of two runs down the mountain, etc.) and ends up slipping out of first place or the medals entirely, is it really that horrible to ask them for their thoughts on why it happened?
Sasha Cohen was in first place going into the final night of competition. She had won the US championships. She was thought by many to challenge for the gold. She ended up with the silver. That is outstanding and I’m extremely proud of her. But, I have no problem with her being asked why, after having led the competition, she ended up in second. It’s a simple question, and not at all disrespectful. When people like Bode Miller, who are ranked as one of the top skiers in numerous alpine events, do not sniff the podium when given 5, yes 5 opportunities in downhill events, I think many of us want to know why, in their eyes, it turned out that way. When the US men’s ski team proclaims itself “the best in the world” heading into the Olympics, and proceeds to fall flat on its face in all but one event, they should be held accountable for their words, and should now have to answer why they choked under the Olympic pressure.
Now, if an athlete is not expected to finish in the medals, or isn’t ranked very high going into the competition, I think asking them “why they didn’t medal” or “are you disappointed with the bronze” is ridiculous. This is when I have a serious problem with some of our interviewers. If an athlete is ranked #28 going into their event, then ends up with a personal best and/or finishes seventh, they shouldn’t be asked “what went wrong.”
Bravo to NBC & yet another marvelous documentary. Certainly, today’s athletes can learn much from the sportsmanship of Eugenio Monti!
Excellent feature on Eugenio Monti! A quick thought though on your host’s comment that his sportsmanship is virtually extinct: not only did the great majority of US athletes from Apollo to Jennifer R to Shani display great sportsmanship, humility and a sense of greater community with fellow athletes, ask any Canadian what they think of Norway, since it was a Norwegian coache who handed one of our C-C skiers a pole when hers broke - even though it jeapordized his team’s medal placement! Turns out the Canadians hung on for silver, the Norwegians were fourth. Canadians have since been sending thousands of “thank yous” and gifts to Norway and its offices in Canada.
Final note, despite Bode’s misfortunes - I must compliment his advert advocating youth sports participation for its own sake, not just to win. I was quite amazed when Nike’s logo appeared at the end - that’s a heck of an improvement over “first place is first loser”. I might just relax my Nike boycott since the latter appeared several Olympiads ago! (Overall a very good evenhanded job NBC.)
I am offended by Bob Costas’s total disrespect for the efforts of our Olympians who don’t score a gold. NBC assures poor rating by characterizing them as losers. I can’t think of a better reason to turn him off. I appreciate their dedication and efforts and don’t need to listen to someone who dosen’t.
We will never see likes again of such sports casters and commentators as Curt Gowdy, Jim McKay, Chris Shenkel and even Howard Cosell. We are now stuck with the likes of Bob Costas who would be hard pressed to find a kind word to say to his own mother. His cold and detached manner left us with hopes that Costas and NBC do not have exclusive coverage of future Olympic Games.
News reader Tom brockoff need to be in the limelight, matched by the dwarfs ‘insights’ represent another low point in NBC’s broad casting. What do African American hero’s have to do with the winter olympics????? italy??? please…this is pathetic
can NBC not find a true athlete instead of going to the golden, not so good, in fact bad, non athlete mouth organs, in need of attaching themselves to great human events, so they can elevate themselves?
shame on you NBC
ES
From looking at the slide shows that Yahoo had online, NBC did not show a good portion of the closing ceremonies. SHAME on them. These olympics come around 2/4 years and the least can do is cover the ENTIRE opening and closing ceremonies. Just as much work goes into putting these shows together. The volunteers of the games that put on the shows were short-changed in coverage. THAT IS A DISGRACE IN AMOUNG ITSELF!
Thank You NBC for televising the games. If How do you email the executive producers?
I’m glad some other people noticed the lame commentary by Bob Costas. I watched his “opinion” the other night about Bode Miller. It seemed to me that the weakness of his criticism revealed the real source of his displeasure: The lack of medals made the NBC coverage have lower ratings, and without hype, they could have nothing but sour grapes.
I think what is truly different about these Olympics is that representing the United States of America just ain’t what it used to be. With our strange little adventure in Iraq, our pending bombing of Iran, and our stubborn insistence on destroying the ecosphere, Olympic athletes are more likely to keep the nationalism on the back burner.
Bode Miller is a man of his time, as are Shani Davis, Joey Cheek, Shaun White, Lindsey Jacobellis, Seth Wescott, Anton Ohno, and Sasha Cohen. Some won, some didn’t. What showed about all of them was their individuality, their effort, and their joy in what they did. I didn’t hear any of them advocating destruction and killing as a way of international understanding. The country should be proud.
I forgot to mention Jeret “Speedy” Peterson. What a team of people!
Well, NBC may like to blame the ‘lack of medals’ as the reason for their ratings plummet, they certainly wouldn’t want to admit it’s because they’re a bunch of numbskull sports programmers. We did place second in the medal count, which is a great showing in a Winter Games, so it has to be another reason.
We don’t do well in
Biathlon,
Cross Country
Hockey, bronze for us would be great!
Ski jumping
we do well in a lot of the ‘New” sports, and without them , we would not have done well this time.
It’s about showing up, competing, supporting the Olympics, and if we win, great, but it should not be the end all to any Olympics. The point is supposed be to celebrate sports and athletes of THE WORLD, not just the US, something that the media, and, I have to say, to the millions who would rather watch American Idol, the American public seems to have forgotten.
Too bad. I’d rather sit and cheer on an Italian who won the 50K cross country for his home country fans, than whine about why we don’t do well in the sport. We just don’t, get over it! You should rather be relishing in ‘the moment’ of the event, no matter who it is that’s winning.
What happened to the promised appearance of Paolo Conte???
He is an Italian icon. Bocelli, yes he is more mainstream across the world, but Ricky Martin?
Give me a break. The only reason I watched the ceremony was to see Paolo Conte. On the whole, I thought all the commentators were a bore and trying to stir the pot for hopeful ratings. Those toads who commented on the figure skating made me us my “mute” button. All commentators were so biased toward the USA it was pathetic. Sasha Cohen is a lovely skater, but does falling twice merit a silver? Please. Finally I stopped watching altogether and looked in the news for results. Badly done in general, And badly done, NBC.