EveryJoe » opening_ceremony

Baton’s Journey Highlights

Sasha Manuel — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 23:34:10 +0000

Here are some images of where the Baton has been around Australia for the last 50 days.

Various people from Sports stars and legends, TV and Movie personalities, to Notable townfolk, Australians came together to participate in this extra-ordinary event.

Images: prpix.com.au

Those in the images are: [beginning from top left]

Champion jockey, Darren Beadman, aboard Stoway at Royal Randwick.

Peter Roberts at the breathe-taking Twelve Apostles on the Great Ocean Road.

Sir Jack Brabham takes the Queen’s Baton around the Albert Park Grand Prix track in a 1956 Formula 1 car.

Troy Corser at the Phillip Island Grand Prix track.

Prime Minister John Howard with Australia’s Carly Rodger and Sophie Healey from New Zealand at the launch of the Queen’s Baton at Sydney airport.

Sonny Secombe holds the Baton during a smoking ceremony at Brambuk Aboriginal Cultural Centre at Halls Gap.

Marathon swimmer, Susie Maroney OAM and former Commonwealth and Olympic decathlete, Peter Hadfield, in front of the Sydney Opera House.

Kyle Van Der-Kuyp carries the baton through Nunawading.

Gary Oldham on a giant seat in Broken Hill.

Post from: EveryJoe

Baton’s Journey Highlights

Baton’s Journey Ends Today

Sasha Manuel — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 22:35:40 +0000

The Queen’s Baton Relay is one of the great traditions of the Commonwealth Games. The relay symbolises the gathering of people from across the Commonwealth during the festival of sport and culture. It concludes at the Opening Ceremony, where it is rumored that Sprinter Lauren Hewitt has been given the honour to be one of the four final runners delivering the Queen’s Baton.

It has been an amazing 180,000 km journey across the 71 Commonwealth nations, with even some nations, like Saint Helena and Niue, hosting the Relay for the first time.

Now, the Baton’s in Melbourne on it’s 50th Day, with the runners scheduled to take it through a number of cities in the state of Victoria. It approximately started around 7:22 a.m. and ends around 8:00 p.m. at the Melbourne Cricket Grounds.

You can check where the Baton is. It gives you snapshots of where the Baton is using the Baton cam mounted in the baton, which transmits video footage of key relay moments. It also Baton tracker, the latest global positioning system technology, the online tracking device pinpoints the exact location of the baton at anytime and indicates this on an online map of the world which zooms to the actual location.

It’s one heck of a Baton, huh?

Post from: EveryJoe

Baton’s Journey Ends Today

Olympic Events @ Google Video

admin — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 18:45:31 +0000

Like what I predicted on the day of the Winter Olympic Opening Ceremony, recorded videos of various Olympic events are now available at Google Video.

Olympic Videos at Google Video (Source: Google)

You can watch events ranging from Alpine Skiing to Figure Skating to Snowboarding to Speed Skating.

Post from: EveryJoe

Olympic Events @ Google Video

The 2006 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony Picture Gallery

admin — Sat, 11 Feb 2006 06:19:00 +0000

The 2006 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony is over.

The following are highlights from the opening ceremony, click on the pictures to enlarge (pictures courtesy of NBC):

A view of Stadio Olimpico from the sky

The first act of the Opening Ceremony

Sparks of Passion – The theme of the 2006 Winter Olympics

7 Alpine Horns representing the Alpine Nations

Beautiful Italian Model, Carla Bruni, carrying the Italian Flag

The Olympic Rings ablazed

Human formation of a ski jumper

Beautiful Czech Model, Eva Herzigova, re-enacts the Birth of Venus

Giant balloon representing the sun floats over the athletes

The Ferrari Formula 1 Race Car making its presence known

The Olympic flag being carried into the stadium

The opening ceremony comes to a close with a stunning performance by Luciano Pavarotti performing “Nessun Dorma” (”No one is sleeping” by Puccini).

Post from: EveryJoe

The 2006 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony Picture Gallery

Live Blogging the Opening Ceremonies (ongoing)

admin — Sat, 11 Feb 2006 01:03:43 +0000

From the United States, I will attempt to braindump my thoughts as the ceremonies progress (long after they actually finished). Refresh often.

8:03PM EST – If NBC does anything well, they can sure make some drama swirl around an introduction.
8:11PM EST – Highlights from Team USA are Bode Miller (Alpine), Shaun White (Snowboarding) and Michelle Kwan (Hot as ever!)
8:13PM EST – Commercial break.
8:23PM EST – Alpine trials and practice. Good stuff, but not the ceremonies.
8:53PM EST – NBC announces that this is the first Olympics broadcast in history simulcast in HDTV
8:57PM EST – Ugh. Flipped to NBC-HD. Do I really have to put up with Brian Williams????
9:05PM EST – We’re finally underway with the ceremonies. Right out of the gate are the overused steotypical dancers and tribal drums that are at every Olympic ceremony.
9:09PM EST – I find it interesting that inline skates are being used instead of ice skates. Apparently, it’s not cold enough in Italy! Did someone take the weatherman off the payroll?
9:11PM EST – Hey, there’s a gypsy! A gypsy! I always wanted to see a gypsy!
9:13PM EST – My times will be off. I’m TiVOing and am putting it on pause for a minute
9:22PM EST – Why the hell does NBC have to bring Italian Iraqi war involvement into the Olympics?
9:29PM EST – I’m not much on the theatrics generally, but that ski jump image made of performers rocked!
9:37PM EST – The Parade of Nations begin
9:39PM EST – KC and the Sunshine Band playing over the Stadium speaker system cracks me up.
9:41PM EST – Alisa Camplin has convinced m to become Australian. I remember why I enjoy the winter games! ;)
9:47PM EST – The Canadian delegation enteres and the whole stadium shouted “Hockey, eh!”
Just realized this has been listed as “Private” Sorry…
9:54PM EST – So much politics. I should blog all this stuff at Technosailor.com. Korea, China. and on… Plenty of stuff to talk about.
10:20PM EST – Yeah. Commentary by the talking heads about the odd selection of 80s pop tunes. They forgot all the 70s music too.
10:31PM EST – Y-M-C-A, It’s fun to go to the Y-M-C-A
10:32PM EST – Team USA! Team USA! Team USA!
10:46PM EST – Italia enters with pomp and circumstance. Gotta pause for the host nation. Always. Congratulations, Italy, on getting these games.
10:56PM EST – Did I mention I could do without all the theatrics? I could be blogging. Oh… wait… I am blogging.
11:03PM EST – WHOA! Never thought I’d see Auto racing honored at the Games! That’s the best thing I’ve seen all night!
11:08PM EST – Speeches.
11:13PM EST – The Games are officially open.
11:32PM EST – Peace, peace, peace. Bleh. Boooooring. And a John Lennon quote to boot. Are we watching the Miss USA contest?
11:35PM EST – Peter Gabriel pretty much rocked with his rendition of “Imagine”, by the Beatles.
11:40PM EST – The Torch Bearer 1: Alberto Tomba
11:40PM EST – TTB2: 1994 Italian Cross Country Team
11:41PM EST – TTB3: 1976 Slalom Winner (Didn’t catch his name)
11:42PM EST – TTB4: Debra something. Skiier
11:43PM EST – The Torch LIGHTER: Stefania Belamondio
11:56PM EST – It’s over. Now, let the games begin.

Post from: EveryJoe

Live Blogging the Opening Ceremonies (ongoing)

No ice at the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony

admin — Fri, 10 Feb 2006 22:41:10 +0000

According to CNN, there is no ice at the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony. This is because the city of Torino is too warm.

To remedy that, the performers at the Opening Ceremony had to wear inline skates to simulate skating on ice.

Sparks of Passion (Source: International Olympics Committee)

It is unfortunate that the Network Channels (e.g. ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX) are not broadcasting the opening ceremony live (it will be shown on NBC at 7pm EST). The opening ceremony is watched by 35 thousand spectators at the Stadio Olimpico and about 2 billion TV viewers worldwide.

For more interesting information and statistics on the opening ceremony, please visit the Official Winter Olympics Web Site.

Update (6:10pm PST): No wonder there was no ice. There was so much fire during the opening performance.

Post from: EveryJoe

No ice at the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony

Winter Olympics at Google Video

admin — Fri, 10 Feb 2006 21:56:43 +0000

The Opening Ceremony for 2006 Winter Olympics (Torino, Italy) is officially underway.

Hi! My name is YC. I am the Chief Resident Technocrat from the Technocrat Soapbox. I would like to thank Mr. Jeremy Wright for the opportunity to blog on the 2006 Winter Olympics.

An avid Snowboarder myself living in California, I will definitely be keeping my eyes glued to the TV for Snowboarding and Skiing events. I am also very interested in Bobsleding and Figure Skating.

Incidentally, I found some very interesting pre-Olympics videos at Google Video. I have no doubt that, in the days to come, we will get to see some recorded events as well.

Post from: EveryJoe

Winter Olympics at Google Video