Beijing Olympics though 10: Someone call programming
For each of the 88 days until the 2008 Olympics, I will strip-mine my brain to unearth a thought related to Beijing and The Games. That’s one thought per brain cell. It’s called teamwork, people!
Someone call programming
Ranking among my top 20 tourist sites in Beijing: the massive Sky Screen suspended the length of The Place. It offers thousands of square meters of mind-numbing drool-inspiring visual delight for those easily mesmerized by shiny objects.
The problem: the powers-that-be keep playing the equivalent of screen savers on it. Surely, given the amount of energy that thing vacuums up, there are better things to watch.
I’m not talking about anything risky like Edison Chen or Debbie Does Dalian videos. I’m talking about letting people rent yoga mats, lie on their backs, and watch the NBA finals or The Olympics. Or holding a massive Rocky Horror Picture Show event. Or screening repeats of Korean soap operas classic movies, such as Raise the Red Lantern, Citizen Kane, and Mars Attacks (seriously, who doesn’t want to watch aliens watching The Dukes of Hazard - see 2:47?).
Related post:
Look skyward ayi: The mother of all monitors
Previously
Thought 1: If they build it, we may come
Thought 2: “Whether or not” in Sanlitun
Thought 3: Living the lowlife on Lotus Lane
Thought 4: The F&B scene takes a pre-Olympics breather?
Thought 5: Flaming Fuwa
Thought 6: Continental drink
Thought 7: The Parallel Bars?
Thought 8: No kangaroos, and other guidelines
Thought 9: A few good men
2 Comments so far
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“No kangaroos”? Were you fishing for a bite from your Aussie readers? Don’t you know that in Australia the kangaroo is considered a pest. It’s only tourists to our fair shores down under that think they are cute.
But I can tell you from experience, it’s a problem taking an Australian flag into an Olympics venue. I took an Aussie flag to Wukesong a few weeks ago to support the Aussie Womens Basketball team. I had to fight 5 security guys for the right to bring the flag in. The goons at the gate not only didn’t know what flag it was, but didn’t know that Australia was playing there that day. All was not lost though. Not only did I eventually get the flag in, but the Aussies beat the American team, so it was a happy ending.
8 Songs,
I think the kangaroo blockade is due to the Olympics rule that allows “one pet” per visitor, but concerns that the Aussies might try to get rid of their outback pests, one at a time, by redeploying them in China.
Cheers, Boyce