Comments Add a public comment

intensebreeze

Something sneaky will happen and somone will try something and no one will hear from them again...

2 months, 3 weeks ago

tommyinbeijing

OK, so this is my proposal, slightly inspired by my 10+ years living in Beijing: * I would make sure that I would have 5000 or so opening ceremony tickets , not for sale, but for equal distribution amongst the city according to postal code or so, and make sure that there are some grannies, and children, your ayi, some construction workers and your local expat (especially those on F visas ) there, just to make sure people feel it is an event FOR and BY Beijingers.

*distribute millions of T shirts with "I am a Beijinger" , 我是北京人 - make sure anyone of any colour can wear them, just coz they live in this city. So tourists know they can ask Beijingers for any help or direction.

No need to have the dumb ass volunteers who do nothing anyway but wear their cute uniform and stand idly at the side of the street, chatting and waiting for things to happen and not helping any of the Beijingers if they need it.

Note: The t shirt is not to be combined with sexy red hot pants with 5 yellow stars on the ass coz that would be just too much.

• invite performers from all over the world, programming in random order:

• Goran Bregovic (from the movie Underground) with his Weddings & Funeral Band (from eastern europe), just to get everybody to wake up and get the party going, together with the PLA brass band and Du Yingjiao (if you dont know the music, make sure to listen to some of it before you judge)

• then have a live performance by Ai Weiwei with him not being there in the stadium, where he just shouts postmodern comments through the speakers at the stadium about the meaning of life as a Beijinger and the meaning of the birds nest and the world in general (like he did through the mobile phone on speaker setting in 798 when he didnt want to set one footstep in 798, but was present as a speaker in the Dashanzi International Art Festival 2005 forum on art/architecture in BJ)

• Wang Yong on gu zheng in combination with Liu Sola (China/NYC) and Dutch jazz drummer Han Bennink for Chinese world music (like that night when Wang Yong still had "Keep in Touch" bar opposite the Kempinski like in 1996), Han Bennink using everything that is physically near him to drum, which may include huge chopsticks

• have Cui Jian perform with Wang Lei for Chinese rock goes electronic (like that night in the Yan Club when I was flying)

• Wu Wenguang with Wen Hui and the Living Dance Studio in their performance "Dancing with migrant workers" only in a production 10 times bigger, with projections of the dancers all over the stadium, and professional dancers dancing together with all the construction workers who built the stadium (like that night in Today Art Museum building before it was ready)

• have Justin Timberlake or even better, Eminem rap together with Zhou Jielun -have old fashioned Shanxi drummers with big red drums perform with Youssoun d'Our from Senegal

• have Qiu Zhijie to make an in situ performance in the stadium with his "light calligraphy" , and write the calligraphy text with a huge light spot in the air to announce the Olympic Games are officially opened (he does performances where he uses a lantern to write calligraphy but with digital cameras you can get its permanent image projected) (just like that night he did in the 24 hours exhibition at the Beijing Film Studio)

Proposal for text "everyone is a Beijinger" / 大家是北京人 While he writes calligraphy with light, Li Xiangting or Zheng Minzhong (director of Forbidden City but also renown musician) perform on guqin, making people quiet and listen to music from the times of Confucius

• have Ashgar from Xinjiang sing together with Cheb Khaled from Algeria with his top hit "Didi" easiest to sing along to "didi, didi, dididididi oooh"

• have all the cute Beijing girls with red hot pants do street dance/hiphop performance with ISH (from Holland but actually from all over the world), also makes everyone flyyyyyyy

• have Shakira perform together with S.H.E. and do some hot belly dancing while they're at it, blearing "Beijing is my superstar"

• have all the thousands of Beijing ladies who do the street dancing at 1800 hrs at night, to come into the stadium and dance synchronically to Brenda Fassie's top hit (South Africa's Madonna, unfortunately passed away) "Vulindlela" (just like in the salsa club Salsa Cabana), very easy to dance to, easy to make the same movements.

• keep Cai Guoqiang (China / NYC) as the Chinese fireworks artist to top it off at the end with 10 minutes of fireworks blowing everybodys money into the air. Can be in combination with Superduber Dutch DJ Tiesto. Do I need to explain this?

Of course, if i would be hired as programmer, I 'll think about what order to put it in

2 months, 3 weeks ago

toosexy

1. Seats in The Bird's Nest go first to the workers who built it.
2. Open D-22, 2 Kolegas, Yugong, Stone Boat, and Obiwan for all night parties featuring local bands, free-entrance to all!
3. Carsick Cars play "Zhongnanhai" in the Bird's Nest for the opening.
4. Government subsidized yangrou chuan and Yangjing Beer all day and night long.
5. All public transportation is free
6. No vehicles inside the Second Ring Road. Everyone rides bikes and every local fan dance and music troupe performs in their own block party.
7. Not only are Beijing dudes encouraged to lift their shirts up and belly flash everyone, but so are women. Free love for Beijingers! Take back your city and take back the night!

2 months, 2 weeks ago

townchi

step 1: free our old friends from pure girl and have them run the concessions

once everyone is feeling alright, proceed to step 2: performances from all the artists who were supposed to play at Midi

step 3: bring out the booze (Okhotsk beer and Q Bar cocktails) and prepare for the steel cage match: Bjork versus one of the Olympic volunteers...

step 3: next, allow a much shorter version of the original program to go on--it would be a shame to let all the performers' hard work go to waste

step 4: via text messaging, announce to everyone in the stadium and the city that a gold, silver, and bronze medal have been hidden somewhere in the city...the clues for this treasure hunt will be sent in a variety of randomly selected languages so people from around the world will need to work together to find them (and then, inevitably, fight among themselves once they're found) FYI- the bronze will be hidden in the spicy side of a yuanyang hot pot at a gui jie restaurant. the silver will be in one of the public toilets in the partially destroyed hutongs southeast of qianmen, and the gold will be hidden inside the guitar of one of the members of the Uighur band perfoming at Cheers

and finally step 5: invite all the world leaders from warring countries to white rabbit in order to settle their disputes through a dance off.

(oh and after that, after party at my place, its byob y'all--except for the editors of cityweekend, i got you covered!)

2 months, 2 weeks ago

lukema

Leave the politicians out of it. Give the bird's nest to the birds and organize the opening ceremony throughout the city, for example with a parade (whoever wants to parade just joins in), and lively activities (representing local live, chinese culture and the spirit of the olympics) on each community corner.

2 months, 2 weeks ago

forest

If I ruled the world everyday would be the first day of spring.

If I was in charge of the Opening Ceremony it would not be limited to one venue but would be a coordinated simultaneous event at a number of the main venues.

They managed to up the number of mascots to five (and thus more revenue streams) so why not more Opening Ceremony Venues. Imagine the additional possibilities you could gain (both artistic and commercial) from additional venues.

2 months, 1 week ago

leemack

We announce a winner on Friday! Last chances make your Olympic case!

2 months, 1 week ago

michaeldmanning

I think there should be fireworks running the entire length of the Great Wall, from Shanhaiguan to Jiayuguan in Gansu. Who cares how they get started? But for my money, it should be connected to the Olympic torch. That is, when the torch gets lit and Beijing starts exploding with fireworks (as we know will happen), the TV networks should then pull back to some wide shots from space showing the fireworks spreading all over China! Then we could truly see the Great Wall from space, and it would be the most awesome thing ever.

2 months, 1 week ago

smileybella

Hang on... I thought I already saw the Opening Ceremony on CNN this morning...

2 months, 1 week ago

stalefortunecookie

If I were in charge of the Opening Ceremonies and wanted to make it most memorable in history, here is what I would do. Most of all, feasibility aside, let's go for some creativity...

First, the event would not be at a static location but more like a journey or parade or moving carnival that is an experience for all participants. I would color the 5 ring roads around Beijing (2nd ring through 6th ring) the Olympic ring colors. Then I would send the torch through a path that leads participants through some of Beijing's must-sees. The torch would lead the carnival or journey and would start early in the morning on the south side of Beijing perhaps at the Temple of Heaven which would take us through the park where we see all the morning activity typical of the parks around Beijing. Then after entering Qianmen, would proceed along the North-South Axis through Tiananmen Square to witness the flag raising ceremony and then the Imperial Palace, then through the Hutongs just north of there, and then Beihai Park where guests can listen to the traditional Chinese music band that draws such a crowd there regularly.

All along the way, and particularly through Hou Hai, there would be a catered Food Festival from the favorite restaurants around the city which feature food not only from all parts of China, but the world as Beijing is an international city. I'd move the Wangfujing Food Street to someplace along this path, too.

The goal is to create a Beijing/China experience for the 5 senses to represent the 5 rings. And this North-South path would be decorated with iconic items from all over China, from smooth silk banners, to minority tapestries and Tibetan prayer flags; from terracotta soldiers to mini Great Walls. Chinese acrobats and performers would have stages all along the way. Fragrant teas from all over China can be sampled along the way, as well.

The path would proceed northward, going through the Bell and Drum Tower, and then on to the Olympic Village on this axis.

I would have moved the date of the Opening Ceremony to August 1 so that the event would culminate with a spectacular fireworks display during the solar eclipse at about 6:30pm.

Thus, the event would be an all-day celebration that gives participants a true taste of China in one sensational day, kicking off the most unique Middle-Kingdom Olympic experience in history.

2 months, 1 week ago

leemack

Guys, this is a tough one to call.

I mean tommyinbeijing with his pairing of Goran Bregovic’s outta control Weddings & Funeral Band (from the movie Underground) with the PLA brass band PLUS Shakira and S.H.E doing “Beijing Is My Superstar”—amazing. Then there’s toosexy’s suggestion to have Carsick Cars playing “Zhongnanhai” in the Bird’s Nest. Townchi has a cage match to the death between Bjork and those (useless) Olympic volunteers plus Q Bar cocktails free all around capped by a treasure hunt for a hidden gold medal. But what about michaeldmanning’s idea to get fireworks to go off the entire length of the Great Wall with a shot from a satellite showing all the action? We agree that may be the coolest thing ever. Last but not least we like stalefortunecookie’s suggestion to light up the five ring roads the colors of the Olympic rings.

We’re going with Townchi, though for the White Rabbit dance off for world piece. And for being generous enough to have an after party for EVERYONE. Congrats, townchi! All the rest of you should enter to win soccer tickets

Contact Lee Mack at leemack@cityweekend.com.cn to collect your three tickets to see Olympic baseball!

2 months ago