London 2012 Olympics: Opening Ceremonies

I feel so fortunate and blessed to be in the city hosting a summer Olympics games, and not just because I’m a fanatical runner and exercise scientist by trade, but because it's such an amazing legacy and such a rare thing to experience. I've been given a real gift.

I’m writing this while the London 2012 Opening Ceremonies take place, as the athletes take the stage, and it's off to a spectacular start. If you remember, I wrote about the Stratford Mall a while back which was erected for the purpose of hosting all the needy shoppers during the Olympics. Well, that's where it's all at tonight. Construction in preparation for the Games has involved considerable redevelopment, particularly themed towards sustainability. The main focus of this is a new 200 hectare Olympic Park, constructed on a former industrial site at Stratford in the east of London. The 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games will use a mixture of new venues, existing and historic facilities, and temporary facilities, some of them in well-known locations such as Hyde Park and Horse Guards Parade. Some of the new facilities will be reused in their Olympic form, while others will be resized or relocated. 

In a way, this Olympic season began during the closing ceremony of the 2008 Olympics, the Olympic Flag was formally handed over from the Mayor of Beijing to the Mayor of London. Later, a countdown clock in Trafalgar Square was unveiled, 500 days before the games. The countdown to the start of the Olympics began with a ceremony for the lighting of the Olympic flame in Olympia, Greece. Approximately 4,700 Olympic and Paralympic medals have been produced by the Royal Mint. Many test events were held throughout 2011 and 2012, either through an existing championship such as 2012 Wimbledon Championships. Basketball and BMX were the first events to be tested within the Olympic Park.

2012 Olympic Gold Medal

The Olympics torch relay ran from 19 May to 27 July 2012, before the games. The relay was focused on National Heritage Sites, locations and venues with sporting significance, key sporting events, schools registered with the Get Set School Network, green spaces and biodiversity, Live Sites (city locations with large screens), festivals and other events. 8,000 inspirational people carried the Olympic Flame as it journeyed across the UK. They had to be nominated by someone they know; it was their moment to shine, inspiring millions of people watching in their community, in the UK and worldwide. The Torch each one carried is made up of an inner and an outer aluminum skin and perforated by 8,000 circles representing the inspirational stories of the 8,000 Torchbearers. The circles which run the length of the body of the Torch also offer a unique level of transparency so you can see right to the heart of the Torch and view the burner system which will kept the Olympic Flame alive on its journey around the UK. The Torch was tested in BMW’s climatic testing facility in Munich to make sure it can withstand all weather conditions, which it did. Yesterday, I was lucky enough to see one of those runner on her course as part of the team carrying the Flame to Startford. We, along with thousands of others, lined the streets in Fulham to see the procession that had traveled all the way from Greece. 

David Beckham brings the torch to the stadium on it's final leg of the journey

So tonight, east London is awash with people from all over the world. In Great Britain, ticket prices range from £20 for many events to £2,012 for the most expensive seats at the opening ceremony. The three-hour spectacle, capturing the best of Britain, is set to be viewed by a TV audience of one billion people. A target of 70,000 volunteers was set as early as 2004 to make this possible. When recruitment took place in 2010, over 240,000 applications were received!

National icons including James Bond, David Beckham and Beatle Sir Paul McCartney will all feature with the Old Baked Bean — cockney slang for the Queen. The Royal Family was also present, as was the President of the United States and First Lady, Michelle Obama. Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle has masterminded the show tonight, which is costing £27 million to stage, less than half the cost of the Beijing extravaganza, but in my opinion, as a true lover of this wonderful, culturally and historically rich country, it's twice as fantastic. This dramatic spectacular that encompassed all thing beautifully British began on BBC with a beautifully crafted video showing what it is to be in London. The virtual tour of the city finishes at Stratford, where the real ceremony began.

Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins, the first British winner who completed the race just days earlier, rang out the largest harmonically tuned bell in the world to set things off. Then, as costumed Brits marched in, Sir Kenneth Branagh, dressed as industrial pioneer Brunel, delivered a speech from Shakespeare's The Tempest. Crowds were rewarded with a startling spectacle covering all aspects of British social, political, industrial and creative history. The field at the stadium in Stratford in east London was turned into a green meadow, with a cast of 10,000 volunteers taking roles from British history. Real farmyard animals were grazing in the country scene, with a menagerie including 30 sheep, 12 horses, three cows, two goats and 10 chickens, plus three sheepdogs. The show took the watching world through "great revolutions in British society", from an agricultural setting through to the Industrial Revolution itself. Steelworkers began forging material that transformed into golden Olympic rings, which lifted into the air to be suspended above the performers.

That was the signal for a ceremony featuring began with children's choirs signing Jerusalem, Oh Danny Boy, Flower of Scotland and Bread of Heaven, and went on to include a dance routine by staff and patients from Great Ormond Street Hospital, which was incredibly touching. Their routine was on trampoline hospital beds that glowed a bright white on the darkened stage. Meanwhile, JK Rowling read an excerpt from JM Barry's 'Peter Pan'. Other moments of note included a celebration of Great Britain's widely diverse musical heritage with a glowing, flashing choreographed dance number which finished with an appearance by Sir Tim Berners Lee, the British creator of the world wide web. 

 

Stunningly, in her first acting role, the Queen stars in a four-and-a-half minute film set in her private study at Buckingham Palace. "Good evening Mr Bond," the Queen said in the clip, where she briefed Daniel Craig, acting in his 007 role, on a "secret" mission ahead of the Olympic Games. She was seen to leave Buckingham Palace with Bond, and clambered aboard a helicopter, leaving behind her corgis Monty, Willow and Holly behind. A helicopter then flew over the stadium to the sound of the Bond theme tune, as two figures parachuted down, one dressed as the monarch. As if by magic, the Queen appeared in the stands at the stadium - part of a crowd of about 80,000 - amid cheers. Click the photo to watch it on youtube:

James Bond Escorts the Queen to the Plympics

The final act of the entertainment was a rendition of Abide with Me by Emeli Sande, before the start of the parade of the competing teams - as always, led by the team from Greece, the home of the ancient Olympic Games.

As the sports persons continue to march in it's wonderful to see so many people glowing and smiling. The Olympics are special because they bring people together from all over the world, as if all the hate and segregation and fighting between peoples pauses for just a moment in time. But that one moment is the relief we need to keep us going and rejuvenate our confidence in the goodness of people. The simple brilliance behind using a common love of games and sport to bring people together in a contest that celebrates hard work and dedication is awe-inspiring. 

As Great Britain, the hosts, arrive in the stadium the sense of joy and celebration as 7 billion bits of biodegradable paper are released into the air, representing each person on the planet. It will be the first year GB is entering each of the 26 summer sports. To bring things to a close at the end of the night The Arctic Monkey's (from South Yorkshire, where I was just a few weeks ago) perform live while guys on bikes in the dark quietly coast in with glowing wings flapping.

 

The Queen has declared the London Olympics officially open, before seven young athletes were given the honour of lighting the ceremonial flame. And now London is the only city to host the Olympics 3 times. This year, every country competing will have female athletes, a major boost for gender equality. One of the greatest marathoners with two Olympic Golds, Haile Gebrselassie, helped to carry in the Olympic Flag with other promoters of human rights.

After speeches by the heads of the Olympic Committee, the identity of who was to light the symbolic flame had been shrouded in secrecy ahead of the ceremony. Opting for young athletes over one of Britain's sporting greats, the group of seven circled teh stadium, each with their own flag alight, and each lit a single tiny flame on the ground, which triggered the ignition of more than 200 copper petals, each representing a competing country. Long stems on the cauldron then rose towards each other to signify their unity. With the torch fully lit, Sir Paul McCartney lead the final song, Hey Jude. A staggering production and an immense performance.

David Beckham summed it up best. He said exactly what I want to say: It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. I know I am biased but, what the rest of the world will see, I don’t think any other country in the world could do it better. No other country could offer an opening ceremony which includes The Queen, our royal family, James Bond, Shakespeare, The Beatles, country villages, NHS nurses, centuries of history and some of the greatest music ever produced. It is an amazing mix that represents exactly what makes Britain so great.

Blink 182 in Brixton

It's become the annual tradition for me to go see Blink 182 perform just days before I move out of one house and into another. What a better way to set off on the right foot than to listen to what I would classify as the best m0th3rfxck!n band out there, the one I listen to for hours and hours on repeat during every run in the morning, who's work I have memorized in its entirety, are the only 3 celebrities I've ever paid attention to with any interest, and the one and only band so much I've seen them 3 years in a row now. Because naturally when I hear they were touring Europe I had to go. Not optional. Heck, I would've gone to every show they did in London this summer if I had the cash.

After selling out every show on the tour they tacked two London shows at a smaller venue at the end. And according to the seller's website it was an open floor plan inside this venue, the O2 Academy Brixton. The Academy is one of London's leading music venues, nightclubs and theater and has hosted a range of leading rock acts since becoming a music venue in 1983. Wondering if last year's show in Detroit could possibly be beatable in terms of awesomeness, since we'd been handed two random tickets from people who couldn't use them to move to the front of the giant amphitheater and be within rows from the stage, I booked two tickets planning on being able to bash our way to the front of a small venue with no seating and REALLY be up close.

Brixton Academy

So two months after I booked the day finally arrived. We cut across south London on the wonderfully air-conditioned Overground on one of the remotely few hot, hot, hot sunny days we'd had this summer. It was so hot I had to abandon my black skinny jeans and Chucks for stupid shorts and slip-ons. But not to be discouraged, we arrived in Brixton with hours to spare. Dank, dirty, oily Brixton. I had no idea it was so much like inner-city Cleveland, meaning a dreadful place where I was, in fact, the minority by far. There are few spots in London I've found, in all my wanderings, that I really didn't like and mostly it was just for the fact it was too dirty and sleazy to be tolerable. I mean, ANYWHERE I go I avoid touching anything – London is just a dirty, crowded city where everything has a film of grime that's been accumulating since the beginning of time – but this place, Brixton, I didn't even want to let my feet touch the ground, it was that filthy. 

When my phone refused to connect to the internet we scoped out a scalper to ask for directions to the Academy. Two blocks away from the station, this place was sort of down a side street and, like most theaters, looks smaller from the outside than it does inside. Since this is Britain there was, as expected, a giant queue already with most people sitting on that filthy ground alongside the wall of the venue that ran down a back street alley. I had to force myself not to think about the nastiness accumulating on their collective trousers and palms and purses as they lackadaisically sat about. *It was at this moment I realized I’m fully an adult. In fact, I no longer even wanted to be part of the little emo crowd I'd once belonged to any more. Transcendence in the weirdest of circumstances.* Every so often the line would condense unexpectedly during the following two hours. Meanwhile, people walked past handing out event fliers or asked for donations to charities or for spare change for the homeless.

Blink 182 Europe 2012 Tour Trailer

7PM the doors opened and I had my camera confiscated at the door. The first time I’ve never been allowed a camera at a concert. God forbid we take photos. If that's the problem they'd need to confiscate every cell phone, as well. Then two things happened. I realized the site I'd used for booking was garbage, as was the event website, because there most certainly WAS theater seating (From Wikipedia, it says RIGHT THERE: "As one of the biggest non-arena venues in London"...dammit) AND half up it was up on a frickin' balcony! And naturally, having tried to avoid that very thing, ended up sitting up there anyway. The second thing was that plenty of people had giant cameras and all around us they were flashing photos. Admittedly, I sulked for a while. Through the whole opening act, actually. Lower Than Atlantis, that's who opened. British boy band that I’d never heard of; all their stuff sounded the same. In a huff, I was at least able to console myself with the knowledge that I'd be hearing rock gods in just a few more minutes...even if it wasn't going to be from the front row, smashed into the barricade at the edge of the stage.

They opened with 'Feelin' This' and despite the fact the people in the balcony had to remain seated it was pretty intense...well, as intense as it can be while you're sitting. Normally it's physiologically impossible to be excited while sitting but they always explode with energy, those Blink guys. So even though I wasn't close enough to catch another drum stick I was able to sing along without feeling the need to take photos of every event on stage. I was able to literally sit back and enjoy the entertainment without a single distraction.

Blink goes acoustic!!

blink-182 'Going Away to College' & 'Dick Lips' Acoustic Live Brixton Academy 25-07-2012

The concert was divided into three segments. The first one was the longest with all the songs you'd expect, plus three off their newest album. Then – and this was insanely fantastic – they reassembled the stage to do an acoustic set of songs which they apparently did not do at any other gig (which I know because people were all a-Twitter-ing), and which haven't been recorded, as far as I’m aware, ever before as acoustics. So it was like this middle segment was an entirely novel bit of musical magic! The third set began with Travis's one-off drum solo, Can The Drummer Get Some, which is always pure energy and borderline mental.

We got lucky, too, because they had to cancel the final show the following night because Mark was diagnosed with an all-consuming, phlemmed-up sinus condition. So we literally caught the last show on the tour. Afterward, they were basically giving t-shirts and merch away out on the street so I coughed up a tenner for a black, logo-emblazoned tour T. Exhausted, but smiling, I made the ride home singing the songs over in my head to the beat of the bass that still pounded in my eardrums.

Literary Genius

In case it wasn't made clear by the fact I write this blog, I'll spell it out for you: I love to write. Sounds like my way of introducing myself at an AA meeting..."Hi, I’m Emily," (the small crowd responds with the appropriate, if not lackadaisical, 'Hi Emily'), "And for the last 6 years I've been addicted to writing. I write down everything. I write stories and blogs and lists and comics and long letters. I keep journals and diaries and notebook after notebook of quotes and ideas and inspirations." And then I exhale an entirely audible sigh of relief, glad to get that off my chest.

Meeeee!!

But honestly, I do really love writing and while this blog is merely an informal list in itself, if you will, and more a way for me to keep track of everything I do in order to justify my existence in some manner, I do get a kick out of writing it; it's more for me than for you, readers. The point of me saying this, however, is not to minimize the importance of a reader. After all, what good is a book that no one reads? This is, in fact, the true point of this post. Literature and books and authors, that is. 

Today I had the opportunity to meet two published authors on two entirely separate occasions. Ok, ok, that's a bit misleading because technically the first is a friend of mine whom I see nearly every day at my favorite local coffee shop. That information shouldn't lead you to assume he's “nothing special”, though. He's so advanced in his field that Oxford University just hired him into a professorship position three days ago, on Friday the 13^th, nonetheless. And in the spirit of this blog, not only is he a published author he's also meant to be tutoring literature students. French literature, if I’m not mistaken. No one can deny that that isn't a great job: professor of literature at Oxford, in one of the schools dating back to the 1600s. Besides, anyone who reads more than I do (as he obviously does) gets my full respect because such a one is hard to come by.

The Oxford skyline

Secondly, and thanks to Facebook and its targeted ad campaigns - which are typically failures if we're completely honest with ourselves - I happened upon an advertisement that was actually right up my alley. I discovered only a day in advance, just in time, that one of my favorite authors was going to be in London one day only at a talk/book signing at the Waterstone's book shop on Piccadilly, whose five stories of wall space are lined with photos of famous authors who have talks there. Knowing full well this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, most likely, I abandoned (and recklessly, if you like) my dissertation writing for the afternoon to make the trek through the puddles and sludge into Central.

Waterstone's

But alas, to my great dismay and disappointment the event was sold out. Sold out? I asked. The website said nothing about 'bookings required'. Frustrated, I managed to sneak a peak behind the magic “curtain” into the staging area for the talk and noticed at least half the seats were still empty. With only a few minutes left before show time I assumed they would want to fill those seats if no one arrived to claim them with a ticket in hand. So on this whim, I waited. And my patience paid off because they allowed several of us waiting to purchase a ticket at the last minute and fill the empty seats. I managed to grab one three rows from the front, dead center.

Then with a round of applause Harlan Coben made his entrance. It was refreshing to be in the presence of such an American guy; 6'4” (he announced before anyone asked), bald, and chalk-full of loud abrasive humor. I loved it. He was so down to earth and naturally funny, a characteristic which is reflected in all his books, famously in his lead guy 'Myron Bolitar'. The best part, and the main reason I wanted to attend, was the fact he spoke about the writing process and his background as an author. As an aspiring author, myself, it was incredibly motivating, as you can imagine these types of things are, as well as informational. 

He actually had great tips to writing a great book and for the sake of committing them to my own memory as well as for sharing the wealth of wisdom I'll record, here, what I can remember of it. The first bit that struck me was in the form of a simple quote which came from another author (but could be applied to life as well), and in context of his talk referred to long-winded descriptions and how to keep a book interesting and moving right along; “Don't write anything you wouldn't want to read, yourself.” He also talked about the “creative process” and how he comes up with plots. And idea from a book can come from anything. The worst thing you could do at the start is try to follow in the footsteps of another author by continuing a trend in literature, like how everyone started writing religious conspiracy books after Dan Brown published 'The DaVinci Code”. Write was you want to write and the niche will form itself. He said it's split in half; 50% of authors use an outline for a book but he's not one of them. He compared writing the plot to driving at night in a fog. You start somewhere familiar (with the idea of the book) and then just go a little a time as you're only able to see what's right in front of you on the metaphorical road to book-completion. 

Most profoundly, perhaps, though not an original thought by any means, was his view on work ethic. Basically, anyone who REALLY wants to do something will never use “I don't have the time” as an excuse to NOT do something. He used the example of a famous female author, Mary Higgins Clark. She had 5 kids, her husband had died, and at least one, if not both, of her parents died. She worked full time to support her family while going to school for a Bachelor's degree but woke at 5AM every morning and wrote until 7AM, at which time she woke the children and went to work, herself, at a self-run company for which she made literally no profit for the first 8 months, pawning her engagement ring to stay afloat financially. Long story short, she's now listed as one of Forbe's Top 10 most influential female authors. The point to drive home is that every single person has the same number of hours a day as the likes of Higgins Clark, DaVinci, the President of the United States, Gandhi, Mozart, etc etc etc...the list goes on and on. So don't use your stupid trivialities as excuses to not DO something. Turn off the damn television and DO something with your life. After all, it's pretty pathetic to think that watching someone else's life on TV is more interesting than living your own. It doesn't have to and shouldn't be that way.

After the talk Coben, of course, did a book signing. So naturally, I was obliged to purchase his newest thriller and stand in line to get it signed. Despite the fact a nasty, impatient lady at the end of the line kept whining rather loudly that the queue was moving too slowly, Coben took his time to chat to each person and take photos and joke about a bit. I bought the book for one my best friends here in the UK and had Coben sign the book to him. We talked briefly about the ridiculousness of British food after I commented on the fact I needed to introduce said friend to the wonders of American literature, because some things we have to offer in the USofA really ARE just the awesome.

So that is my day in a nutshell, as the cliché goes. A day of literary genius. 

 

Yorkshire

It's been nearly a year since I came to the UK and since then I've been lucky enough to make a few really close friends who've been nice enough to bring me home with them and show me around their hometowns and surrounding bits of England. Yeah, maybe the other non-UK-ers in London don't particularly care about the rest of the country and would rather shove off to mainland Europe, etc., for a holiday, but honestly I came to live in England because I love it HERE and prefer to see more of IT than travel on to somewhere foreign/abroad if I’m given the choice right now.

The last four days I've been touring Yorkshire, a county in Northern England and the biggest in the UK. But not only is Yorkshire a territorial region, it also has a very strong cultural identity and the people have their own distinct dialect. You know, like how there's that posh British English that the Oxfordians speak, there's Cockney English, English accents distinctly from Liverpool and Essex, etc...same with Yorkshire and to me, with an uneducated ear that can't distinguish between them all with any hint at accuracy, the Yorkshire kids all sound a bit Scottish. Maybe it's because they ARE fairly far north and thus have Scottish influence. Again, I don't know. According to the always-reliable Wikipedia: Yorkshire is generally not as stigmatized as other dialects, and has been used in classic works of literature such as Wuthering Heights. 

What I DO know, though, is that Yorkshire is very much the English equivalent of Ohio, particularly Cleveland. Similarly, most of is rural but what isn't is formerly steel and coal mining towns (especially Sheffield) which all deteriorated after these products were no longer in such high demand. However, Unlike Cleveland, I don't think their rivers were polluted enough from it to light on fire. Both places have rough, but proud, residents that work hard and often grungy, tough jobs, but it's still a tightly knit community of people, nonetheless. Both are consumed by rain and rarely see the sun, minus the rare peek though the overwhelming cloud cover. But as a result, Yorkshire is one of the greenest counties in England. Vast stretches of unspoiled countryside in the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors are perfect examples. We both have similar music styles; basically, rock and punk. Def Leppard was from there, as was Pulp, Kaiser Chiefs, and the Arctic Monkeys. To go off on a tangent, other famous people from Yorkshire (and I only included the ones I think Americans will easily recognize, because the list was actually quite long) include: Dame Judi Dench, the Bronte sisters, Sir Patrick Stewart, Sir Ben Kingsly, Guy Fawkes, two Prime Ministers,

My journey took me first to Sheffield, where my connecting train was canceled due to flooding. I won't deny I was warned about the infamous crap transport outside London which makes traveling not only intolerable but literally impossible on occasion. Like I said, Sheffield traditionally has had heavy industrial manufacturing such as coal mining and the steel industry but since the decline of such industries Sheffield has attracted tertiary and administrative businesses including a growing retail trade, particularly with the development of Meadowhall. Meadowhall was our Day #2 excursion, so I'll come back to that. Thankfully, after a 2-ish hour delay connecting trains began running again from Sheffield and I was able to get on my way to Wombwell, final stop en route to my final destination: Hemingfield, a village in the metropolitan borough of Barnsley, South Yorkshire. We spent the first afternoon touring the localized area and taking photos.

The second day we took the train back they way I'd arrived the day before, but stopped before Sheffield, at Meadowhall. This is one of the Westfield shopping malls, I think, and is the largest one in Yorkshire. Built on top a of an old steelworks site with over 280 stores, Meadowhall was actually blamed for the closure of many shops in Sheffield City Centre and in Rotherham. The River Don runs alongside it and overflows from time to time, inundating the mall. Thankfully, despite the floods in the area the day before, the mall itself hadn't been submerged.

The next day we wandered around Elsecar, a coal mining village next to the villages of Hoyland and Jump, going through old antiques, drinking proper Yorkshire tea, and having a walk around the nature reserve where they apparently keep sheep at the bottom of a hill.

Monday we went to York, a first for us both. "York is unusual among English cities for at least two reasons. First, the industrial revolution largely passed it by. York did not undergo the massive economic upheaval (population growth, re-building etc.) found in other English cities. Second, the predominant in-migrations in the 19th century were from local (Northeastern and Yorkshire) dialects…. For these reasons, York has retained a somewhat conservative character." (Tagliamonte, 1998: 158). York is a walled city founded by the Romans in 71 AD. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence. In the Middle Ages, York grew as a major wool trading centre and became the capital of the northern ecclesiastical province of the Church of England, a role it has retained. In the 19^th century York became a hub of the railway network and a confectionery manufacturing centre. The city offers a wealth of historic attractions, of which York Minster Cathedral is the most prominent. It is the largest Gothic cathedral in northern Europe and since it seemed completely awesome we chose to spend the £5 to climb up to the roof. Afterward, we spent the rest of the day safely on the ground.

The cutest little street in York is called The Shambles. It is a very old street with overhanging timber-framed buildings, some dating back as far as the fourteenth century. It was once known as The Great Flesh Shambles. (During that period there were no sanitary facilities or hygiene laws as exist today, and guts and blood were thrown into a runnel down the middle of the street or open space where the butchering was carried out. By extension, any scene of total disorganization and mess is now referred to as "a shambles"). As recently as 1872 there were twenty-five butchers' shops in the street but now there are none. Although the butchers have now vanished, a number of the shops on the street still have meat-hooks hanging outside and, below them, shelves on which meat would have been displayed. The shops currently comprise a mixture of eateries and souvenir shops, but there is also a bookshop and a baker. 

 

After three days of essentially non-stop walking, we took the morning off before I had to leave for London, a five hour journey in itself. That's the problem when you don't own your own car any more, you have to rely on other people (or trains) to get you from A to B and, thus, are at the mercy of their time-tables. But, alas, I made it back safe and sound to my big city where another week of data analysis for my dissertation awaits.