Blue Music To My Eyes

I am so pleased the powers that be at Tokyo 2020 went with my first choice for their new and improved official logo.

The fresh and geometric design was unveiled this week from a field of nearly 15,000 entries and four finalists shared earlier this year.

According to the organizing committee's official statement, the design is from a former architecture student turned artist, Asao Tokolo, whose website Tokolo.com features some pretty cool other works and designs.

I dig some of the back story to the design as well -- it's simple and clean, and should translate well when transformed into vibrant "look of the Games" pieces.

My expectation is that the indigo blue -- a sign of "refined elegance and sophistication," may eventually be turned into an array of other color schemes and even presented in a three-dimensional form, as the rectangles of varying sizes may be easily assembled like LEGO pieces.

Those three different shapes, by the way, are indicative of "different countries, cultures and ways of thinking."

Indigo and midnight blue are longtime personal favorites of the color wheel, and for unknown reasons the logo instantly brought to mind music blue references starting with Madonna's 'True Blue" and Joni Mitchell's "Blue" album. If you want to get technical with Japanese color traditions, check out this document and this site for a rainbow -- that's 虹 in Japan -- of history.

Nothing but love for Mr. Tokolo's great work. Paraphrasing Ms. Mitchell's lyrics to "All I Want," ... Applause - Applause!

Photo via TheBlaze.comhttp://www.theblaze.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/AP16116327260411.jpg and Channel News Asia

C'est Magnifique, Both Sides Now, Hallelujah

What a day! Oh, what a night!

A couple of years ago it seemed Beijing delivered an untoppable Olympic Opening Ceremony. Tonight, Vancouver answered with a magnificent, moving evening, the memories of which I will always cherish.

So many moments. So much poetry, via spoken word and in motion.

And, what music! Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now" brought tears to those in my party. Bryan Adams and Nelly Furtado. The Aboriginal dance and Four Host Nations drumbeat. Nikki Yanofsky's rendition of "O Canada." Sara McLachlan -- brilliant! And finally k.d. lang singing Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" -- an astounding encore Olympic performance.

I am most grateful that my assigned seat (absolutely devine intervention and/or sheer luck) was in the section immediately to the right of the snowboarder, and later the Olympians', grand entrance, affording me numerous stops on the lower corner of the seating area, often staring up the tunnel at legends of the past and legends in the making.

Singer Anne Murray high-fived me with one hand while carrying the Olympic Flag with the other.

Donald Sutherland, who narrated much of the voice overs for the grand Canadian showcase was steps away, too.

Felt like I was walking into the stadium with Team USA (more high-fives, this time from Olympians marching to competition). Thought I was full-blood Canadian when their flag entered the arena.

In China's Opening Ceremony, a few thousand assigned drummers brought down the house. In Vancouver, more than 50,000 audience members got the pleasure of beating to their own drum (the audience participation kit itself was a clever cardboard drum set)

There have been plenty of "big moments" of pride working at Edelman, and witnessing our client, a Paralympic gold medalist who spent the last 25 years as the "Man In Motion" raising more than $200 million for spinal cord injury research, carrying the Olympic flame -- WOW -- to be even remotely connected to that and have the opportunity to work again at the Olympics is just unbelievable! I am so proud and thankful to be part of the Edelman team.

So happy to be at the Olympics again.

Living the dream. Go Canada Go!

Beautiful Winners

Now back in Atlanta from the Chicago volunteer gig and weekend in arctic Milwaukee, I've been busy in training classes while defrosting.

Perhaps it is just quirky Canadian coincidence, but within a couple of hours today at least three references to the Great White North arrived via e-mail or NPR broadcasts.

First, one of our recent Edelman client contacts at the Province of British Columbia sent a couple of fun updates on how things are going in Vancouver. Then there was an update on the U.S. curling team in the Rocky Mountain News (OK, technically this was not Canadian, but the sport of curling always will remind me first of the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics).

And tonight, driving to dinner, Terry Gross of NPR's "Fresh Air" was talking with someone (I did not catch the name) about an article in this week's New Yorker, so upon arriving home and turning the pages of the magazine I found some words scribed by Canadian poet Leonard Cohen.

Man, I think it would be really cool (though unlikely) for Cohen to pop up in Olympic circles in Vancouver next February. A brief Internet search yielded only one Cohen and Olympic connection (a brief reference to the Los Angeles street, Olympic Blvd., which apparently was near his home/studio during the 1990s).

I thought for sure Leonard the Great must have been engaged somehow with the 1976 Summer Olympic Games of Montreal, Cohen's home town -- VANOC has a golden opportunity to bring this Grammy winner to the Olympic stage this time next year.

If the 2010 Cultural Olympiad folks are reading, consider this my vote for Cohen to do a dramatic oratory from "Beautiful Losers" or to sing us a song at the Opening Ceremony -- or better yet, he could sing "Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye" at the Closing Ceremony, methinks. A duet with fellow Canadian crooner Joni Mitchell would be tops, too (imagine Cohen and Mitchell remarking on how they've "Seen the Olympics ... from Both Sides Now ...").

Until then, here's another link to one of my favorite Leonard Cohen tunes. And one from Joni for good measure (this tune could be the most appropriate for a five-ringed festival).