Netflix Scores w/Olympic Doc "The Redeem Team"

Telling it like it is: this blogger has very little interest in the NBA. 

Curiosity in this area is consistently so low, I was oblivious to the 2008 Olympic basketball competition and its professional players for its entire two-year lead up to Beijing, the Games that inspired launch of this site.

Not once in China -- nor during three Olympiads and two years since -- has the five-ringed hoops competition of Beijing crossed my mind until this weekend while reading the Oct. 6 New York Times review of the new documentary "The Redeem Team" now streaming on Netflix. 

Screening the film -- combined with recent enjoyment of HBO's excellent drama-comedy series "Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty" -- might have finally sparked more curiosity about the NBA and its reach within the International Basketball Federation (FIBA). I definitely have a lot to learn.

Like the next person,1992's Dream Team did pique my interest, as did the '96 version, though most Atlanta team members came to my attention only through attending the unveiling of an oil painting by Bart Forbes held in a Buckhead gallery (now a Men's Wearhouse) a few weeks before the Games. 

Since that event, I've paid money only once or twice to see star players, specifically a "retiring" Michael Jordan in the late '90s, and a couple of stars from the OKC Thunder in town just after Rio 2016. And though it was personally thrilling to work with the Atlanta Hawks through PR client Philips Arena from 1999 to 2002, and exciting to stand courtside during LA's Olympic bid press events at Staples Center in 2017, professional hoops just haven't captivated me. 

Around town in Atlanta, it's fun to spot Charles Barkley dining at Nan, pass the Dominique Wilkins sculpture downtown, or read about Magic Johnson's or Shaquille O'Neal's business interests in town. Lots of Midtown residents remain eager for Shaq to fulfill his promise to rebuild the popular Ponce Krispy Kreme he owns, which was gutted by fire 18 months ago. 

Each of these NBA touch points were dusted off as "The Redeem Team" got rolling with its streaming recap of Team USA's historic dominance of Olympic basketball shut down at Athens 2004, where an unprepared assemblage of U.S. players lost a playoff round to the ultimate gold medalists from Argentina. 

Viewers learn of "Coach K" Mike Krzyzewski's recruitment to rebuild Team USA starting in 2006, as well as the public perceptions and private personas of most of the stars who signed on for the Road to Beijing, with first-time Olympian Kobe Bryant joining returning Athens 2004 Bronze Medalists LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Carmelo Anthony and Carlos Boozer on the quest. 

Things sort of plod along during two years of prep, but filmmaker Jon Weinbach's team does a masterful job translating tensions of the court for viewers of the doc. Consider this writer now eager to view this director's treatment of previous Olympic matters via "The Nagano Tapes" or "The Other Dream Team" populating Weinbach's IMDB profile. 

I enjoyed the last 20-30 minutes of "The Redeem Team" for the crescendo of drama it delivers. Bryant's on-court action and pre- and post-Games interview footage really drew me in and helped me "get it" how much he evolved as a player and person before his tragic death. 

Munich '72 Olympian Doug Collins' visit to the team -- to share his vantage as a would-be-gold medalist robbed by history -- juxtaposed with Coach K inviting wounded or blinded soldiers as another teambuilding action, poignantly hammered home one of the bottom lines for the 2008 U.S. squad: You had better not f*ck this up, not so much because gold is on the line, but because untold millions of patriotic fans are drawing inspiration from the team factor above any individual glory for its players. 

One of the journalists tapped for commentary eventually states of "The Redeem Team" players that, "... they're the biggest, greatest team arguably in the history of the Olympics." For some viewers this may ring true. 

For all of this film's strengths, it did not establish for this viewer enough inspiration to earn GOAT status. Not even close. 

This is no scrappy "Miracle" team of Lake Placid nor Soviet gold medal basketball team of 1972 (for better or worse, "the greatest" hoop dreamers for some Olympic fans on the other side of the world). I won't be alone in thinking of other top teams that rallied at the Games -- off the top of my head, how about the "Magnificent Seven" gymnasts, the 1996 and 2000 women's soccer teams and/or the undefeated-since-1996 U.S. women's basketball teams?

The NBA-infused 2008 team's only "Goliath" was overcoming self and pride for the sake of the team, which they did admirably. Watching this team get their act together is a fun ride. 

Image credits: Coach K in Beijing via UPI; '96 team painting by Bart Forbes, Redeem Team photo w/Statue of Liberty via USA Basketball, "The Redeem Team" promo still via Netflix and IMDB. 

Beijing Welcomes Few

In a few hours, the XXIV Winter Olympic Games officially open in Beijing. 

I hope it is a great success, and suspect it will be on several fronts, though its high points will likely be drowned out by an array of tethered topics in the news.

One perplexing topic is Russia's president attending the Opening Ceremony at which his nation's athletes may only compete under the Olympic Committee (ROC) banner. 

Maybe if viewers look closely enough they'll see the testicles or spines of various IOC members (opting not to enforce doping-related bans nor acknowledge human rights issues during host nation selection) in the back pockets or VIP gift bags of Vladimir Putin and PRC President Xi Jinping. 

Of the two cities that presented final bids to the IOC, my vote was for Almaty. How cool it would have been -- very nice! -- to visit a new corner of the world, Kazakhstan. I'd like to think some of the recent protests in that nation preventable had the city been on its home stretch in Games preparation. 

I was also passionate about Munich's potential bid -- converted briefly from their failed 2018 quest -- regrettably withdrawn after close municipal votes showed lack of Bavarian public support due to soaring costs of hosting. 

Boo, Bavarians!

Even on the July 2015 day with Beijing secured the Games, my thought was, "Meh, potentially one Games to skip." Working and residing in China for a month in 2008 was enough for this lifetime, it then seemed.

But I started warming up to the 2022 Games after seeing some of the new venues, notably The Ice Ribbon speed skating oval (left) and the ski jump complex. It's also good to see the iconic Bird's Nest and Water Cube (now Ice Cube) getting more use as both structures are spectacular. The mascot Bing Dwen Dwen makes me smile, as did the abbreviated Olympic Torch Relay underway for just three days. 

It also made me grin to receive a Beijing Olympic media accreditation last month. Unfortunately, limited and over-priced seats on the small batches of international charter flights to China -- combined with my current client responsibilities and the nebulous complexities of the COVID clearances to get inside the Olympic bubble -- led me to stay put in Atlanta. Kudos and best wishes to the team from Keep The Flame Alive podcast for successfully navigating the system and making it to China!

Breathing easy without the stresses of travel, designing a new blog pin (at right) for this Olympiad proved relaxing and fun. 

And it's exciting to see several athletes getting their shot at Olympic glory. After her successful gold mining in PyeongChang, I enjoyed an opportunity to ask Mikaela Shiffrin her goals on her journey to Beijing. Can hardly wait to see her successes at her third Games. 

It will be fun to see what other surprises emerge from Beijing. Predictions: Sarah Brightman performs at the Opening or Closing (as in 2008); the final torchbearer will be a child (or group of kids) or a robot; and we'll all learn some new sports-centric vocabulary akin to "the twisties" of Tokyo. 

We can also look forward and continue counting the days to Milano-Cortina 2026!

Image credits: Beijing 2022's Instagram; AFP and EPA from this site.

Graphic Novel Illustrates Tragic Somali Olympian's Untimely Demise Adrift In Mediterranean Sea

During recent Los Angeles travels, I stumbled in to Meltdown Comics on Sunset Boulevard in search of a new five-ringed graphic novel, "An Olympic Dream: The Story of Samia Yusuf Omar" by Reinhard Kleist.

The store did not yet have this title in stock, but thanks to a review copy from the publishing house, Self Made Hero, and its domestic distributor, Abrams, I did get to read this recent release on the heels of reviewing "Trashed" by John Backderf.

In about 150 pages, Kleist illustrates the too-short and true life of a Beijing 2008 Olympian who competed in athletics, specifically the 200m sprint. "An Olympic Dream" opens on an upbeat note as Yusuf Omar appears on the small screen in her family's Mogadishu living room with relatives and friends gathered to cheer for Samia.

While the Beijing experience inspires the stadium crowd and Yusuf Omar's new dream to return to the Olympic stage at London 2012, her Somali homecoming quickly evolves into a years-long marathon of increasingly awful challenges including gender and faith bias in her war-torn home town. 

Forced to flee Somalia to find safety with family in Europe, and still clinging to her London Olympic dream, Yusuf Omar embarks on an international journey through Ethiopia, Sudan and Libya in search of sea passage to Italy. One can only imagine how much worse her final weeks must have been before boarding an overloaded watercraft akin to those in use today by Syrian refugees fleeing to Greece. 

Kleist's illustrations in black pen and/or India ink bring to the page a life that is both hopeful and heartbroken. Yusuf Omar's POV is sometimes portrayed through Facebook posts or texts to family anxiously awaiting updates. Readers may almost smell the burning trash or taste the gritty dust kicked up by African winds and warlords clouding Omar's chances for a happier conclusion.

According to the book's Preface by Kleist, the author learned about Omar's fate as much of the world did following London's Games. 

"Thanks to the help of journalist Teresa Krug, who had befriended [Yusuf Omar], I was able to speak personally with [Samia's] sister Hodan Yusuf Omar, who in 2006 had fled to Helsinki," wrote Kleist.

Kleist also mentioned the Olympian's actual Facebook posts provided content and context, though most of the posts in the book are fictionalized except for Yusuf Omar's plea for help while stranded in Tripoli. Krug provides a detailed Afterword for the text as well.

Though "An Olympic Dream" provides the antithesis of a happy ending for five-ringed-hopefuls, the book does provide inspiration and a look at the struggles tens of thousands still face today in Africa and Asia. Kudos to Kleist for shedding more light on this contemporary Olympic story. "An Olympic Dream" will hit Meltdown Comics and bookstores everywhere starting April 12 (pre-sales available here).

Images via SelfMadeHero.com

Celeste & Jesse Forever Includes Olympic Laughs

"Space Olympics" remains one of my all-time favorite Saturday Night Live spoofs. Andy Samburg nailed it as an otherworldly IOC member (that's intergalactic Olympic committee) welcoming Michael Phelps and others to the Games of the future.

Back on earth this weekend, I enjoyed screening the new romantic comedy "Celeste & Jesse Forever" which features Samburg opposite Rashida Jones (of "The Social Network" and "Parks & Recreation" fame), who wrote this clever little picture.

What drew me to view this film: An Atlanta Journal-Constitution-published reprint of a San Francisco Chronicle review, which gave "Celeste & Jesse Forever" an "A" grade. More importantly, the review briefly mentioned that Samburg's slacker character takes a few hits from overachiever Celeste since he spends a lot of his free time watching reruns of the Beijing Olympics -- specifically an emotional weightlifting competition -- in lieu of gainful employment.

Five-ringed connections aside, this film is quirky, fun, funny and touching ... one of the best-written films I've seen of late (though I did enjoy "Frenzy" on the big screen at an Alfred Hitchcock feature screening as part of the Cultural Olympiad in London last week).

Check out the trailer and more details here.

Photo via Sony Picture Classics

POM Wonderful Presents The Greatest Blog Post Yet Cajoled

The Atlanta Film Festival is underway. Until this week, my last visit to the Festival was a few years back (to see one of the all-time greats, "American Splendor.")

One title in the 2011 Atlanta Film Festival included an Olympic theme, while I also found several other documentary films of interest, starting with the wonderfully funny "POM Wonderful Presents The Greatest Movie Ever Sold."

More on this tall drink of a movie later in this post.

But first, the Olympic connection: "Beijing Taxi" is a new documentary shadowing three cabbies in China during the months (or even years) leading up to the 2008 Olympic Games. I went into the screening (with thanks to the AFF for the blogger tickets) anticipating a trip down memory lane and up the labyrinth of highways and side streets experienced in taxis during my month in Beijing three summers ago.

"Beijing Taxi" did deliver in terms of memory lane. You can almost tasted the grit and smog during some of the in-taxi interviews across the city. If you've been to Beijing you'll recognize the Ring Roads and towering new buildings juxtaposed with ancient neighborhood dwellings. It was refreshing to see some of the countryside the drivers enjoyed in their leisure time, and to gain a fresh perspective on reality faced by the taxi drivers we encountered in 2008.

For those who did not yet experience Beijing, this film does provide a decent slice of life for the recent Olympic city during its pre-Games prep. Watching the film, though, I realized that for at least two of the three profiled drivers, it was a bummer of a tale as they managed health issues, family dramas, entrepreneurial dreams sans support structure to bring them to fruition, unemployment, corruption and terrible car trouble (I've experienced car trouble, but nothing compared to what being stranded on an eight-lane superhighway in a stalled Beijing taxi).

One other highlight of "Beijing Taxi" is the film's portrayal of the Olympic hype, and how at least one of the drivers felt duped by the Olympic machine. In spite of strong anti-Games feedback, she was strangely drawn to one of the official Beijing Olympic theme songs. I wondered what Travis Bickle (who also showed up at AFF) or cabbies of one popular show might have to say about the theme.

Speaking of hype, I was taken hook, line and sinker by the previews for "POM Wonderful Presents The Greatest Movie Ever Sold" (it was a huge bummer when this film did not open in ATL as in other markets two weeks ago, and a big relief to find it on the AFF schedule in advance of wider release).

Morgan Spurlock nailed it with his exploration of paid product placement. I can't write here my favorite line of the film (as it involves a client of the communications agency where I work), but I can write that Spurlock left out an obvious pun for the official gas station beverage cups, which is my suggestion: "This Sheetz's for Reel!"

Four words: Go see this movie. Then talk about it with your friends. It's a good one to discuss and think about while developing a critical eye for product placement.

Is POM Wonderful still sponsoring blogs?

One film screened at the AFF that is worthy of a "pass" is the documentary "Miss Representation."

While I agree with the messages the film seeks to present, and concur that women in the media are not treated fairly nor with respect in a male-dominated industry and world, and I side with some of the points made by Geena Davis, Margaret Cho and even the creator of "Miss Information" Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the topic presented was nothing new, and it was presented in an uncompelling manner.

People should be talking about the topics in this film, mind you, but there are other sources of similar information presented in a better way elsewhere.

The film got off to a slow start and showed promise, but the jumping of the shark was the reveal of a new movement created by Siebel Newsom, leaving me with the question "why not drive viewers to give financial support to existing, meaningful and successful women's organizations portrayed in the film in lieu of creating another expensive-to-operate nonprofit?"

If the filmmakers are so passionate about this movement, why have they posted no discussions on their blog since March? Where is the momentum? Who is driving it? Five blog posts and give up? C'mon?!

Sidebar: If you want to see a film on the topics of "Miss Representation" done with some punch, and a film that touches on some of the marketing topics covered by "POM Wonderful Presents The Greatest Movie Ever Sold" then check out the 1991 documentary "Dreamworlds" and its sequels by creator Sut Jhally (who, strangely, was not reference by either of the recent films ... were the current documentary filmmakers doing homework on their topics, and did they know of Jhally, I wonder ...)

There were plenty of other films at the AFF that caught my eye -- it was disappointing to miss "Page One" due to a work deadline, and tonight's screening of "Africa United" looked interesting.
Will look forward to the 2012 Atlanta Film Festival when it arrives next spring.

Photos via the "Beijing Taxi" website and this site which cites AP/Victoria Will

Better Know An N.O.C -- Paraguay

It's been too long since the last post of a "B.K.A.N.O.C." -- Better Know An N.O.C.

This entry is for South America's national Olympic committee for landlocked Paraguay, which is nestled amid Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia.

A few years ago I experienced Paraguay first hand, first entering from Brazil via Ciudad del Este, terrified because our taxi did not stop at the border crossing on the Paraguay side of a large arch bridge (some travel books warn that Ciudad del Este is about the least-safe city in South America). Fortunately when we finally stopped the cab and walked back to the bridge, the crossing guard laughed and instructed us to "just go back" to Brazil. Whew! We carried our backpacks while some of the locals carried parcels of goodness knows what.

At any rate, a few days later, had a more relaxed entry into Paraguay at the southern border town Encarnacion, which is a fun little metropolis. It was interesting to see an early 1900s locomotive -- a real one -- in operation (on about a quarter mile of track) on one corner of town. Our "downtown" Encarnacion hotel was $4 per night. Great food at the town square, and the sushi restaurant beside the bus depot!

But back to Paraguay's N.O.C. and Olympic connections.

Paraguay entered the Olympic Family in 1968 with a single foil Olympic fencing competitor at Mexico City, and Paraguay fielded a team at each summer Olympiad since (except 1980 as the nation joined the U.S.-led boycott of Moscow's Games). Paraguay has just one medal -- silver in the 2004 Athens football (soccer) finals against Argentina.

I won't soon forget Paraguay's track and field entrant at Athens and Beijing (and I hope London): Olympic javelin would not be the same without Paraguay's Leryn Franco hurling Paraguay's Olympic dreams across the Olympic Stadium grounds every four years.

After a night in Encarnacion, my girlfriend, her sister and I took a jalopy bus to Asuncion, which is also an interesting metropolis and home to the Paraguay Olympic Committee. Some of the friendliest people in South America are in Asuncion, and we were impressed with the historic architecture.

I'll be rooting for Paraguay at London 2012 (their team at the 2010 World Cup did well; expect good things in the U.K. competition.

Photo via this Flickr account

"The Snakehead"

Driving home this evening, it hit me that this Saturday, 08-08-09 marks just one year since the 2008 Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremony. Whew! What a year!

And during the drive home, on the NPR and WHYY program "Fresh Air With Terry Gross" (aired in Atlanta on WABE-FM) the program featured an interview with Patrick Radden Keefe, author of a new book titled "The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream."

The text is centered around an entrepreneurial woman who made millions smuggling people into the U.S. during the 1980s and 1990s. My interest was piqued while listening, and will have to check it out soon.

Meanwhile, the AFP today ran an update on the Beijing Olympic venues and how they are being put to use (or not) in the 2008 Olympic city.

I think the one-year mark is premature to nickname the Bird's Nest Olympic Stadium a "white elephant." It is going to take time to determine the right mix of events to host there, but eventually these decisions will be made and the stadium will be put to good use.

For comparison, look at the 1972 Munich Olympic stadium, the architectural wonder of its time (and of all time). This time next week, I aim to tour this 37 year old stadium, which now features a rooftop walking tour, a regular mix of sport and cultural events and other gatherings (in two weeks, Madonna will perform there -- perhaps she may add Beijing to the tour schedule).


Book image via www.patrickraddenkeefe.com.

IOC Member Anita DeFrantz & Olympic Villages

Since the 1996 Olympic Games, I've crossed paths with International Olympic Committee Member Anita DeFrantz a few times: During the Atlanta Games and their "one year later" celebrations, at Olympic media events, USOC or Olympic bid functions and most recently at the LA84 XXV celebration in Los Angeles.

DeFrantz shared a few minutes to describe her part in shaping the Olympic Villages of the LA Games (see video), and some of her remarks in California relate back to her answers at an Around The Rings Newsmaker Breakfast event in Beijing last summer (also on the video) held at the McDonald's on the Olympic Green.

During the Q&A with Around The Rings publisher Ed Hula and U.S. Olympians chief Willie Banks (a three-time Olympian and part of the Atlanta Olympic Village leadership team), DeFrantz answered questions about how each Olympic organizing committee can succeed by creating a pro-athlete environment at their Olympic Villages and venues.

Her work on the Villages for 1984 definitely remains part of the Olympic Village experience for each Games since.

Headshot photo via International Olympic Committee / Olympics.org bio for Anita DeFrantz

So Money, Baby!

Though their website does not seem to have it archived, NPR aired a "Morning Edition" report this week during which they reported news from BOCOG (Beijing's Olympic organizing committee) -- in spite of their carmine-hued national flag and gargantuan spending/budgets, China's Games emerged in the black with a whopping $176 million profit.

According to the Associated Press, some of this profit is to be attributed to hefty sales of souvenirs, coins and stamps.

Stamps?

Reading that stamps helped clear BOCOG of decades of debt made me chuckle as it was like searching for a needle in a haystack to find a post office, let alone collectible philatelic items, in Beijing!

During my month-long Games assignment last year, we encountered only two post offices -- both temporary counters set up for international visitors -- with one each at the Beijing International Media Center (BIMC ... short for "you couldn't get IOC accreditation consolation destination") and one in the massive Main Press Center/International Broadcast Center (MPC/IBC). They did have some interesting postal collectibles. But not enough stamps were moving to explain even a small percentage of Beijing's reported Games profit (thinking there was one person in line mailing a post card -- everyone else was e-mailing home, methinks).

Speaking of their profits, Beijing's results are right up there with another most profitable Olympic enterprise: The Games of the XXIIIrd Olympiad at Los Angeles. Almost 25 years ago the City of Angels welcomed the world with tremendous success, to the tune of a $235 million profit, according to the Southern California Committee for the Olympic Games (SCCOG).

Their site details how this tremendous financial windfall created a vast Olympic legacy enjoyed over the last 25 years (and for the foreseeable future).

In just a few weeks, SCCOG and the L.A. Sports Council are throwing a party to celebrate "LA84-XXV" -- the 25th anniversary of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games.

It hardly seems possible it's been a quarter of a century since the grand Opening Ceremonies, and this celebration on the floor of Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. David Wolper (the man who brought dozens of grand pianos out of nowhere into the stadium -- the single moment that got me hooked on the Games) is the producer of the evening's festivities to commence July 18. They even got the Millennium Biltmore Hotel to roll back prices to $84 per night for the weekend!

My hope is that timing will permit travel to the LA84-XXV gathering, and will certainly blog about it more. Anyone else going? If so, drop me a line and we'll get toast the Games inside the 1932 and 1984 Olympic palace.

We'll also have to do the same at the Bird's Nest in 2033 -- marking calendar now to dust off Olympic stamp collection then, too.

Credit: Bird's Nest photo via Olympics.org; LA Memorial Coliseum photo via SCCOG; Monopoly card via Parker Brothers and Bankrate.com

More from Dara Torres

As noted in previous post, during the Dara Torres book signing in Atlanta, she answered a few questions inspired by her new book "Age Is Just A Number." In one chapter she wrote a fairly vivid description of her pre-race routine, including moments in the Beijing Olympic Village and other Olympic Villages from her career, so I took the opportunity to ask whether she had any favorite Village experience.

Dara Torres Hits Jimmy Carter (Library and Museum)

A couple of weeks back, while surfing the Atlanta Journal-Constitution event calendar, it was fun to discover that five-time Olympian Dara Torres is visiting our fair city -- specifically The Jimmy Carter Library and Museum -- to showcase her new post-Beijing-penned book "Age Is Just A Number -- Achieve Your Dreams at Any Stage in Your Life" published by Broadway Books.

If you are in town on Wednesday evening, Torres will take questions and sign copies on site during the evening event.

So far, there was only time in my calendar to read the first couple of chapters of "Age Is Just A Number," but I'm liking what was written so far.

It's been fun to get the back story on some of Torres' prep for her final races in China, especially since my own Beijing experiences at the swimming venue included spotting Torres behind-the-scenes at The Water Cube during part of the training routine -- on-table stretches with her trainer -- described on the early pages of her book:

"... My plan for the remaining two hours before my race was to have my stretchers, Anne and Steve, mash -- or massage -- me with their feet, then swim again, then have Anne and Steve stretch me, and the put on the bottom half of my racing suit, with plenty of time remaining to lie on a massage table in the team area and listen to a bunch of rockers half my age sing a song called 'Kick Some Ass.' The mashing and the stretching were critical to my performance. All the other kids in the Olympics might have thought they could do their best by just swimming a little warm-up, pinwheeling their arms a few times and diving in. But not me. I was the same age as a lot of those athletes' mothers. Michael Phelps hand started calling me 'Mom" eight years earlier. I needed every advantage."

-- Dara Torres with Elizabeth Weil

"Age Is Just A Number" Prologue

I can't wait to speak with Torres about her Olympic experiences, and later this week will be sure to post video from The Jimmy Carter Library and Museum event experience.

In the meantime, enjoy the photos and video with this post, featuring Torres "mashing and stretching" with trainers (Anne and Steve?) in the "mixed zone" of The Water Cube (an area between the main pool and training pool where credentialed Olympic Family members could meet aquatics athletes during or after competition).

Stream of Consciousness

A few hours ago on "The Writer's Almanac" site I read that Jan. 11 is the birthday of William James, the philosopher and psychologist who coined the phrase "stream of consciousness" (my boss would no doubt find this amusing as these are words that often apply to my offbeat and often ill-timed comments at meetings).

So, for a "stream of consciousness" post -- tying an evening online music search to the Olympics -- here goes:

A few weeks ago I read in a back issue of The New Yorker an article about Chinese pianist Lang Lang and his preparations for performances related to the Beijing Olympic Games. GRAMMY winner Herbie Hancock was mentioned in the article (apparently the two played together at the GRAMMY Awards ceremony last year). (disclosure: The Recording Academy Atlanta Chapter is a client of Edelman, the P.R. firm where I work)

Recollections of this article lead me to search online for music by Mr. Hancock, and I stumbled upon one of his older tunes, "Watermelon Man," which was new for me in spite of its tenure in the music world (first released in the early 1960s, I learned). Something about the tune was familiar.

It took a few minutes to recognize the groove, but then it hit me that Madonna sampled "Watermelon Man" in her 1994 release "Sanctuary" on "Bedtime Stories," a cassette I purchased on a Chicago/Milwaukee road trip during my last year of college at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Before the long track was over I had that cassette's liner notes out and sure enough Herbie Hancock was cited.

This activity all got me started on searching for an Olympic connection both to Hancock and to Madonna. All through work at the Torino 2006 Winter Olympic Games, after all, there was speculation whether Madonna would perform "Hung Up" at the Opening or Closing Ceremonies, given her Italian roots and the fact the song was topping the charts around the time Italy was welcoming the world ("Hung Up" was one of the few English songs we could get on the radio there).

Though Madonna was a no show for Torino, there IS at least one connection for Herbie Hancock and the Olympics (the pop diva, Ms. Ciccone, must have some Olympic ties, too, but will have to locate and post those later).

Turns out his aforementioned GRAMMY performance with Hancock and Lang Lang lead U.S. Olympic sponsor United Airlines to hire the piano playing duo to reprise their "Rhapsody In Blue" performance for their 2008 commercials that debuted on 8 August 2008, just in time for the Olympic Games.

The public relations team for United Airlines apparently did a blast of outreach to publicize the commercials, and there are some interesting videos from that announcement still up on YouTube, along with YouTube's posting for "Watermelon Man" and "Sanctuary."

Thanks, Mr. James. This stream of consciousness thing makes me want to "Rock It!"

Anything Is Possible

While researching Alabama media websites for work, a recent report popped up regarding the USA's lone boxing medalist (a bronze, as reported here) from the Beijing Olympic Games. Looks like Deontay Wilder shared a story of inspiration for a school group in his hometown of Talladega, Ala. Good stuff!

Fun With Nick & Jane

Georgia Tech's Ferst Center for the Arts (disclosure: an Edelman client) was the funniest place in Atlanta last night, with Mark Twain Prize (and Emmy, and Tony, and GRAMMY) winning comedienne Lily Tomlin playing to a standing room audience.

As a special treat (though not surprising), local star resident Jane Fonda -- Tomlin's co-star from one of the first Beta-tape home video cassettes I ever viewed: Nine To Five -- was in the audience. Jane was seated on the center aisle, on about row 15. My seat was on the front row (purchased online at 12:01 a.m. ET/12:01 p.m. Beijing time, as I was working in China during the on-sale moment, determined to have an excellent seat, and it was, as we could practically see Tomlin's nose hairs whenever she strolled stage left!).

During her 90 minutes of monologue, in-character sketches and even some pantomime and dancing, Tomlin delivered and outstanding array of laughs. Given this week's election news, perhaps Tomlin's best pseudo-impromptu line was her lamentations on how she is "now deeply worried about the future of comedy" in a post-W. presidency. She also described how graffiti in her hometown of Detroit sold thousands of cars:

"Teenagers used to spray paint that four-letter word that started with 'F' on bridges, and overnight the adults would repaint it to read 'BUICK'!"

Tomlin also touched on Hollywood, family and sexuality several times, noting that in her youth, family and society, "no one was gay -- they were only shy."

Following a sustained standing ovation, a couple hundred "VIP" ticket holders joined Tomlin and Fonda on stage for a delightfully informal meet-and-greet session. Everyone got as much time as they wanted to snap photos, ask questions or seek autographs from both stars.

For the sake of this blog, when it was my turn to chat with Tomlin, I decided to reprise my "reporter" role in an Olympic version of "The Chris Farley Show" and ask whether Lily had a favorite Olympic moment, athlete or experience (Tomlin is now the fifth celebrity to indulge my Olympic curiosity after Ennio Morricone, Kelly Clarkson, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and most recently Garrison Keillor).

Tomlin took a minute to think about it, and eventually replied (see the video) that she was amazed by the opening ceremonies in Athens and Beijing, in particular the giant LED "scroll" in the Bird's Nest. A bit later, off camera, Tomlin introduced the topic to her stage manager while we were exchanged e-mail information (Tomlin missed Fonda's departure from the event, and I offered Fonda's G-CAPP manager's e-mail to Tomlin & Co. -- thanks, Ms. Tomlin, for answering my questions and for signing my ticket).

Before she left the venue, I also asked Fonda whether she had ever seen Tomlin perform live on stage. The answer was, "No. No, not ever in Atlanta. And this venue [The Ferst Center and Atlanta] was a great place for this."

On the advice of Fonda's team from G-CAPP, I did not go down the Olympic path of questions, which I now regret. One of Fonda's G-CAPP colleagues said that she did not believe Jane had attended an Olympics, and unsure about the Goodwill Games with Fonda's then-husband Ted Turner.

Today, the morning after, the Web yielded that Fonda DID have at least one five-ringed connection as host of some sort of 1984 televised "Olympic Gala" (with Neil Diamond, The Beach Boys, James Stewart, Paul Hogan, Olivia Newton-John, Christoper Reeve, Dizzy Gillespie, Brooke Shields, Bruce Jenner, Peggy Flemming, John Houseman, Robert Wagner, Placido Domingo, Johnny Mathis, Henry Mancini, Barbara Walters, Andy Williams, Gregory Peck, Gene Kelly, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jack Lemmon, Burt Lancaster and even Prince Charles and Princess Diana -- man, I need to find a tape of this) which presumably took place in Los Angeles before or during the Games of the XXIIIrd Olympiad.

Oh, well -- guess I'll have to ask Jane the next time we cross paths at the Midtown Whole Foods Market.

But back to Tomlin. Of several dozen celebrity introductions over the years, Tomlin was one of the most gracious, friendly and genuine. I appreciated her time to talk with so many people and her thoughtful answer to my questions -- some of the best 1x1 celebrity time since working with Benazir Bhutto's media tour at CNN. To paraphrase the interviewer Chris Farley, "That was AWESOME!"

And that's the truth.

What I'll Miss About ...

During the home stretch days to the election, Atlanta's Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Mike Luckovich came to mind thanks to The New Yorker magazine's two-page spread titled "What I'll Miss About George W." Hilarious! (and fitting!)

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has a great gallery of Luckovich's work for the 1996 Olympics and each Games since. Some remain as true (if not more so) now more than 12 years later. Enjoy!

Coke Is It!

For one of my early posts, the topic of The Coca-Cola Company and its longstanding support of the Olympic Movement was briefly detailed. In the months since that post, several new Coca-Cola Olympic experiences came into view both in Beijing and stateside.

It came as no surprise, Coke's pavilion on the Olympic Green was magnificent. Luck and timing took me to the site on three occasions during the Games.

First, our crew for B.C. Canada Pavilion visited Coke Olympic Central with the Premier of British Columbia (a VIP guest early during the Games). This afforded a few of us the opportunity to pose with a Beijing Olympic Torch at a photo- or postcard-ready window looking out to the Bird's Nest.

A few nights later, en route to retrieve photos taken on site (a generous gift for visitors to that makeshift photo-opp-spot), I ran into several Atlanta-based reporters in China to cover the Games, including Jennifer Brett from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and a crew from WXIA-TV, Atlanta's NBC affiliate. They were wrapping up reports from a Coke-hosted evening media event at which I learned about a special film project of Coca-Cola.

I was also slated to visit the Coke pavilion -- which will become a new World of Coca-Cola Museum for China (like the original in Atlanta) -- for a media event involving VIP Olympic Family members chosen for a special award presented to them by Coca-Cola (unfortunately, my arrival was late due to taxi snafu, but the venue staff gave me a refreshing beverage in spite of my tardiness). Of all the grand pavilions on the Olympic Green, the Coca-Cola experience was in the tops list (right up there with GE and Johnson & Johnson, two clients of the p.r. firm where I work).

Back in Atlanta a few weeks ago, The Coca-Cola Company's senior manager of marketing communications, Petro, shared the stage with other Olympic sponsor representatives at the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Georgia Chapter luncheon on Olympic P.R. His presentation filled in a few blanks on how Coca-Cola executed some of their highly visible Olympic activities -- such as the Torch Relay and pin trading centers -- before and during the Beijing experience. We learned the company brought several employees to Beijing, and in spite of many challenges they apparently generated gazillions of media "hits" that were 96 percent positive. I was glad to learn of their commitment to the Games extended to at least 2020.

Coke also hosted a recent photo opp at the Atlanta World of Coca-Cola destination during which IOC Member and pole vaulting gold medalist Sergey Bubka joined Coke's archivist to install an official Beijing Torch into their vast collection of Olympic memorabilia (thanks, Petro, for the photo with this post).

All this Coke Olympic activity serves as a reminder of one of my earliest exposures to the public relations industry.

During the summer of 1993, while volunteering at the U.S. Olympic Festival in San Antonio, Texas, I spent two of the hottest summer weeks ever as a driver on the Festival's Texas Torch Relay around the city. On our last day of the relay, the crew chief assigned the primo driving assignment -- lead car ... a convertible -- as the team hosted three VIP guests from The Coca-Cola Company who were visiting as observers of the Torch Relay process (and more specifically how media were part of this Olympic Movement public relations tradition started in 1936).

Spending the day visiting with those Coke P.R. executives in the car convinced me to take a closer look at the P.R. track at college (to that point, I was undecided between newspaper journalism and P.R. -- thanks, Joan, Carlton and the other guest whose name escapes me while typing this post). And many of the elements they observed later became part of Coke's participation in the 1996 Olympic Torch Relay from L.A. to Atlanta.

I'll be sure to keep drinking in Coke's many Olympic touch points -- can hardly wait to see what they unfold for Vancouver, London, Sochi and beyond.

Red Dawn

A wonderful surprise was in my mailbox last night. Right behind my 401K $tatement was this week's New Yorker, with their best cover art since Javier Mariscal put the Barcelona Olympic mascot, Cobi, in a convertible driving along the Pacific Coast Highway (sometime in the 1990s).

“Red Death on Wall Street” by Robert Risko is just hilarious to me. Although the upended world economy is no laughing matter, something about the cover artwork tickled me (at least to smile for a few minutes before opening that 401K envelope). Maybe it's the bleeding eye sockets in crimson ink, or the pinstripe suits. Or the clinched fists and expressions that seem to scream out, "Noooooooo!"

Earlier this year, the magazine also had some outstanding features on the Beijing Games, including an online audio report featuring architecture critic Paul Goldberger (fantastic!). The New Yorker also has some interesting archives from Olympic reports all the way back to London in 1948.

IOC: I Want A New Drug (Tested)

Ripped from the lyrics by Huey Lewis and the News, today the International Olympic Committee announced (reported by the Associated Press and other outlets) they will review up to 5,000 Beijing drug tests for a new pharma item recently detected at other world sports events. Apparently this is to make good on the IOC's strengthening stance about doping -- I concur. It's simple -- athletes need to Just Say No (to polluting their bodies, or the Games, or the sporting world) and lay off the doping. Fight the Madness, IOC!

Phelps Phan, in conclusion

(continued from previous post)

... And there we were. Bound for the Water Cube, but stuck in a taxi halted by Beijing traffic police. Women's marathon, god bless it, was keeping us from our destination (the runner route crossed over the highway where we were stopped, and vehicles could not proceed until a break in the runner pack). The skies were not as sunny by this point.

From our vantage point at that moment (see photos), we thought out loud "it can only be half a mile or so" and pondered Murphy's Law, which -- applied in this case -- meant no doubt that if we sat in the cab, we would miss Phelps, and if we got out to hike, inevitably the traffic would be released (this happened to me when President Bush's 80-plus vehicle motorcade ground highway traffic to a halt on Aug. 11) and we would regret our premature hoofing it.

We went with the latter option, and started running up the highway, and actually made it a few hundred yards before looking back. That's when Murphy came through with what I swear was our "Lucky Eight" cab driver waving back to us as his vehicle got back up to highway speed (passing us several lanes out of reach of hailing him again).

The next part of our trek could be set to several favorite songs. Flock of Seagulls' "I Ran" or perhaps Van Halen's great running tune, or even the Kate Bush song (it was, after all, up hill much of the way to The Cube). But we weren't really thinking about music. We were just running. Running through what seemed to be, at first hundreds, then thousands, then tens of thousands of Chinese Olympic fans heading in the direction opposite our own. Heading to Olympic aquatics we were swimming against the current ... (O.K., okay, no salmon metaphors ... on with the story).

After the first 2/3 of a mile, we were drenched in sweat. Paul is in good shape. I am not. And Brian was weighed down down with a bit of stuff, so the gaps between us, and our strides, were starting to spread out. But we kept in ear and eye contact yelling above the throngs of spectators who were all gathered 20 deep around the Olympic Green perimeter fence. The highway formed the south border of the green, and we had just crossed most of it on foot. We were yelling directions to gaps in the crowd. We were yelling the time 10:15, 10:20, etc., so we could keep our pace on track to get into The Cube before Phelps' starting gun around 11 a.m.. We bit our tongues on countless expletives. Rain started to sprinkle.

At last, we caught site of the first goal -- a security entrance for the Green.

Access denied. "Staff and volunteers only -- go to next gate."

Another half mile. Another 5,000 people. Another gate.

"This one staff only -- go to next one," said the too-chipper Olympic volunteer, pointing to a tent another half-mile away. At least it was a level road.

"Stop freakin' smiling, volunteer!," was one thought to myself. I had shin-splints by this part of the unplanned jog. We lumbered along. Rain a bit more steady now.

Security gate in sight. Lungs heaving. Steps away. "They better not even THINK about sending us to another gate! Made it.

Finally a break -- thanks to our credentials, Paul and I were IN (sorry, Brian, another half-mile for you as he was with ticket but without a Games credential).

No ... air ... in ... lungs ...

Heart ... and ... legs ... malfunction ... ing ...

But from the security checkpoint to what we thought was salvation (the door to The Cube), only 100 meters! Euphoria. Relief. Rest soon. We had time to catch our breaths and high-five each other. See you at the seats, Brian.

Heavier rain. But that was O.K. as we were about to be seated, we thought.

We got to the door of The Cube. The volunteers and security smiled and checked our tickets. So close!

"This athlete entrance only -- go around," said the volunteer, smiling.

This is the part of the story when Paul and I lost it. I mean, lost it in the Cameron Fry going berserk in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and Steve Martin at the car rental parking lot sense of it all. Every word in the book was unloaded on those poor volunteers (believe me, we tried the 'nice' approach, then whining, then begging first, to no avail -- cussing did not work either, and we cussed often some more while stomping through tall grass and making ANOTHER half-mile stroll to get around the massive Water Cube footpath to the spectator entrance).

I think word of our athlete entrance outburst must have reached the spectator entrance volunteers before us, because they were even more enthusiastic than normal to welcome us to show our tickets for scanning.

"So glad you made it!" I felt large drops of perspiration and rain draining down my saturated outfit and did not respond as my hand snatched the "lucky ticket" from her hand.

We were there. Only one hour, 1.75 miles, thousands of personified hurdles and three gates later. We were there. Mercy!

We collapsed into our seats, completely spent, as the medal ceremony including Dara Torres' silver medal was presented.

Things started to get normal again. Brian made it to the seats a few minutes later. Smiles. We continued to catch our breath during the second to last race of the day, which also gave us time to unfurl the flags we brought with us. Time to cheer, at last.

I honestly barely remember the actual race for Phelps and team. The venue was (as shown on the Flipcam video of the race) somewhat subdued compared to other major sporting milestones attended in the past. But it was amazing to witness it all, including Phelps' later hand off of flowers to his mom, and the U.S. flag being raised with the national anthem (if memory serves me, Paul left the building to go find a taxi to head to the airport about this time).

Brian and I took some time to wander behind the scenes in the venue, where we witnessed Bob Costas' post race interview with Phelps, met Bela Karolyi (there for the big event, sweatless, sans harrowing run across town), and even snapped a shot or two of Phelps leaving the building.

We also got to shake hands with a few other Olympic medalists from Australia and even Tunisia's first gold medal swimmer (from the early races we missed while on the streets of Beijing). We started to feel guilt about screaming at those volunteers (eventually I returned to their post and gave them some Atlanta Olympic pins with an apology and thanks for directing us to the correct Water Cube door -- funny how they reacted when I walked OUT of The Cube through the door where they previously denied access).

Now it is easy to laugh about it all. The morning was punctuated one last time by another funny moment, which takes me back to the Atlanta Olympic Village in 1996, site of my first Olympic job.

In the Water Cube, just before leaving, I spotted a German TV station doing their wrap-up report from the venue and recognized one of the commentators as the great German Olympic medalist, Franzi Van Almsick. Franzi took home medals from four Olympiads: Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney and Athens.

Long story short: I previously met Franzi in Atlanta's Olympic Village (after plunging her roommate's Olympic Village toilet on the night of the Olympic Park Bombing in 1996), and I was curious whether she would remember that introduction.

Alas, in the Water Cube now 12 years later, she did not recall our introduction (no big surprise, though I did think she would remember me holding a plunger back in ATL). But Van Almsick was friendly and willing to sign an autograph and walk out of the Water Cube with me, and she asked me THE BEST question ever.

Like Dave Barry, I swear, I am NOT making this up:

"Is it difficult to take a taxi in Beijing?" asked Van Almsick. "I just got here and have not yet taken one, but now I need one for another event that starts in an hour."

"If the women's marathon is over now," I replied, "Today, Franzi, is your lucky day!"

Phelps Phans, part one

During the first few days of the Beijing Games, tickets were really, really tough to score. Everything was officially "sold out" and even Ebay had a scarce supply (and the few tickets there had hefty prices). Well in advance of heading to China, I did invest more than $150 to experience the women's beach volleyball gold medal game (an event my good friend, Brian, and I attended at Athens in 2004).

But as I mentioned in the post for Sunday, Aug. 10 (archived here with Annie Lennox's famed Eurhythmics photo), a special ticket source entered our Olympic world at just the right place and time.

Now that all is said and done, there's no longer a need to keep it a secret.

The ticket source we (and eventually many others) found was in Novotel (the hotel where I stayed the first three nights in Beijing -- across the street from our B.C. Canada Pavilion team corporate apartment/hotel, Lee Gardens). Co-Sport had a special office there, and for the first five or six days of the Games, few people seemed to know of its existence (which helped me help more than a few friends to get some primo tickets). A colleague told me a reporter friend from Canada was trying to help the family of an Olympian who had been scammed by the online ticket fraud that made headlines, and we helped that reporter to get some tickets in that family's deserving hands.

Tickets, tickets, tickets. If I had 20 hours a day to deal in tickets, I'd be a rich man about now. But we had many official duties to tend to that first week of the Games. So I limited my purchases only to friends in need, as well as to score a few cake seats at evening events inside the magnificent Water Cube. It was a morning ritual that first week -- get up, get coffee, get breakfast (at Novotel's Western food buffet, my saviour), then get tickets -- all by 8:45.

Who knew the special ticket source would come through when it mattered most?

They sure did.

The night of August 16, my colleague/roommate Paul, and newly arriving to Beijing friend Brian, and I each closed out the evening (and Paul's last night in China) with dinner and drinks. I think Paul's expectation for the following morning (Aug. 17) was that he would pack for the flight back to Canada at a leisurely pace, do some last minute shopping, and head to the airport.

Brian's plan for Aug. 17 included an attempt to hit a few late morning events, or something along those lines. Or hit the pin trading circuit. A calm morning.

My plan: Score a ticket (one ticket) for Michael Phelps' final race. The big race. Numero Ocho -- Lucky Race Eight.

On the morning of August 17, I was up at 5:30, showered, and first in line at Co-Sport's temporary office. I read a few newspapers, drank juice and canned Nescafe coffee, and cleaned up my FlipCam and digital camera files while patiently waiting for the office to open at 8:30 a.m. Made new friends of a couple of former California cops, the first duo to join me in line (they arrived at 7:30-ish). By 8 a.m., the line was several dozen people deep and out to the hotel lobby -- the word was definitely 'out there' on the recently unknown ticket source.

The early bird gets the worm. This early bird got one-two-three -- that's THREE -- tickets to Phelps 11 a.m. race!

I don't know whether the former cops got the other (last two) tickets I left behind, because in spite of my newly emptied wallet, I was beaming and flying out of that office to get to Paul and Brian with the good news!

Back at the apartment, Paul was speechless. So much for shopping.

Brian, by phone, I think was hyperventilating. So much for pin trading.

It was SO ... ON! We were going to see the GREATEST OLYMPIAN of ALL TIME swim in his final Beijing race!

We calmly and collectively agreed to meet in the lobby of Lee Gardens for a 9:30 a.m. taxi ride to the Olympic Green. We figured this gave us time to spare -- arrive at the Water Cube security entrance around 9:50 a.m., in advance of the 10 a.m. session start time (which we later learned included Dara Torres in her final race as well).

9:15 -- Nick completes post ticket purchase shower and shave. Check.
9:20 -- Paul completes packing. Check.
9:25 -- Brian arrives from morning walk from his hotel. Check.
9:28 -- Bellman hails taxi. Check.

We are Water Cube bound! No traffic! The sun is shining! It is our LUCKY DAY!

Even the Chinese-speaking taxi driver, upon learning of our destination and seeing our tickets, made a huge "LUCKY EIGHT" figure eight on the dashboard! He was beaming. We were beside ourselves at our good fortune.

And then the radio reminded us ... women's marathon ... just started ... route ends at Bird's Nest (next door to Water Cube) ... roads are ... OPEN! We were sailing toward our destination. Traffic never was so easy. We toasted our good fortune with a round of Nescafe canned coffee. TO THE WATER CUBE!

And with the Water Cube in sight, just one exit away from the 10-lane expressway, everything stopped. Well, at least every car -- including our taxi, ground to a halt.

To be continued ...

(PS: The photos with this particular post, and the video, are from Aug. 14 and Aug. 15 visits to The Cube -- Phelps photos and video to follow next post)