TOKYO 2020 – The Closing

And after 17 days, it's all over. Tonight the Games of the XXXII Olympiad conclude, and all things considered, it seems to have gone very well. Obviously the roar of the crowd is integral to an Olympic final, but there have been plenty of memorable moments without it. The Games hit an emotional note that has been missing from many peoples' lives.

I'm not a sporty guy – you'll never see me sweating it out in a field. But I do enjoy watching the Olympic Games, and not just to see GOLD GOLD GOLD FOR 'STRAYA either. Couldn't give a toss about that. Take yer medal tally and shove it up yer catflap, matey. No, I watch it for the drama, and the raw human emotion, not just the joy but the defeat, the adversity and the heartbreak. The upsets, the records being broken, and the medal winners appearing in breakfast cereal ads for the next three years.

The theme of the closing ceremony is 'Worlds We Share' which feels more optimistic than the opening ceremony. The theme for that was 'United By Emotions', which deals with people sharing moments they cannot be physically together for. The opening on July 23 was more about history and tradition; it acknowledged the impact of COVID, the role of essential workers, and the fact that 30 year old tunes from Sonic games still warm the cockles of my shrivelled joyless soul. So! How will the closing differ from this? Will it be more celebratory than its precursor? Come and join me, and let's find out. Ha~i, sutaato!

 

August 8, 8:03pm (Japan time). And we're off. Please stand for some random salaryman Prince Akihino. The music playing in the background is from Tokyo Story. I've never seen that film. I know, I know – I have no right to call myself Japanese, right? The melancholy music reinforces the sad sight of the empty stadium seats.

8:08. Kimigayo time. Then the flag-bearers enter. As stated at the opening ceremony, the Olympic motto has been modified to "Faster, higher, stronger, together". Hopefully the Canadians won't mistake the male Australian flag-bearer for a woman this time, the wallies.

8:21. The athletes now enter. Hey, there's the flag of the Philippines, who won their first gold medal at Tokyo 2020 after competing in the Olympics since 1924. In womens' weightlifting, no less. There were three countries who won their first ever Olympic medal at these games: Burkina Faso, San Marino, and Turkmenistan. People of all nations intermingling in Tokyo, relaxed and having fun — it reminds me of my JET Programme orientation 20 years ago! Except these guys will be heading off to quarantine and not to distribute Mr. Sparkle in their home prefecture.

8:43. All is quiet in the stadium as particles of light cascade from the stadium roof to form the Olympic rings. I have no idea how they did that. Good stuff.

8:46. A band starts playing, and hey! It's the Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra! I remember them from my days living in Japan. Someone made a great call in getting these guys to play. Their upbeat, high-energy set is perfect for this atmosphere. One of the songs in their medley is Kyu Sakamoto's "Ue O Muite Arukou", and it's the band playing, but with Sakamoto's original vocals. Very cool.

Later note: I've since seen comments criticizing this choice of music, saying it "wasn't Japanese enough". What would they have preferred? Enka?

9:05. The medal presentation ceremonies for the womens' and mens' marathons, both won by Kenya. Good on yer, Eliud Kipchoge.

9:33. Wait — did I hear my former home prefecture Gifu mentioned?! Well, yes actually. There's a snippet of video showing the Gujo-odori, accompanied by a song called "Harukoma" which I still remember even now. Cutting back to the stadium, a live singer performs a song for the O-Bon festival dance. I didn't think the Sonic song could be topped, but my former home town region of Gujo being part of the ceremony is the definite highlight of the night.

9:44. The Olympic flag is handed over from Tokyo to Paris. Bonne chance, Parisiennes. Better get those rioters sorted out in the next 3 years, eh? And give those anti-vaxxers a dose of the old water cannon while you're at it.

10:18. The segments of the cauldron close up as the flame goes out, followed by a final blast of fireworks and the word 'ARIGATO' lit up on a dot matrix-style LED screen. It would be nice if the screen also included a picture of the coronavirus with the 'middle finger' emoji next to it, but I can see why that idea wouldn't be popular.

And now, it's all over. Go home. Do something else with your lives. Be great. Eat your vegetables. Brush your teeth. Arigato.

Thanks to Mai for the first two photos.

TOKYO 2020 Opening Ceremony

The Tokyo Olympics. Remember it? It was going to get cancelled. But it wasn't. It's going ahead after all. And for some reason they are still being called the 2020 Olympics, not the 2021 Olympics. Don't ask me why.

Of course, tonight's opening will not be typical, but is still eagerly anticipated. So, just what has Japan done? Let's go see. I'm going to watch the opening ceremony of the Games of the XXXII Olympiad – so you don't have to! Ikuze!

 

July 23, 8:00pm [Japan time]. The stadium looks very strange with no crowds, and no noise either.

8:03. An opening video montage shows the athletes' training and development, going back to 2013 when Tokyo was announced as the host for 2020. I was surprised the chronology didn't really reference the COVID-19 pandemic at all, aside from two brief shots of a deserted Tokyo intersection. But they're going to have to address this issue at some point during the next 4 hours, I'd say.

8:04. The countdown ends with an aerial shot of the stadium lit up, looking like a zero. Neat.

8:08. A dance routine involving red ropes, representing the human body's circulatory system. I'm sure all of this was drastically scaled back; we can only wonder what was originally planned for this performance.

8:14. Introduction of the Emperor. But instead of showing him, they just cut to some random dude in a suit, with a mask on.
Wait – that IS the Emperor. My mistake. Gomennasai. Please do not have me exiled to Kyushu for my insolence.

8:20. Tempting though it is to make a joke about how Morning Musume or Godiego should have sung the Japanese national anthem, I'll...completely fail to resist the temptation, apparently. The singer MISIA does the honours here, and I vaguely remember her name from my days living in Japan 20 years ago (it's actually 20 years exactly on August 5, if you care to know).

8:25. The moment of silence shows that there are people in the audience (most likely officials), but they have remained largely silent. Apparently TV1 in New Zealand saw fit to run an ad during the brief silence. C'mon Kiwis, just because you did so well during this pandemic doesn't mean you can disrespect the dead. You used to be cool, 'bro'!

8:26. The next routine consists of Edo-jidai carpenters and some rhythmic drumming. This is another bit that has had its effect dulled by the lack of audience, but the performers gave it their all.

8:29. A male tap-dancer does a solo dance, eliciting the first polite applause so far. I guess that's what the youth™ are into these days.

8:33. The five Olympic rings, made of wood, are moved into position on a large mechanical frame. The wood was from trees planted by athletes at the Tokyo games in 1964. The rings have been rendered in different ways over the years, so this bare-wood Muji-esque iteration seems to demonstrate the concept of wabi-sabi, which is highly treasured and sought for in the Japanese Arts.

8:41. The orchestra starts up, and now the athletes enter in the Parade of Nations. Dare I sit through the whole thing? Greece enters first as per usual, and then the Refugee Olympic Team, and then the rest of them in katakana order.

8:43. Nice to see the Irish team bow in unison to the line of Japanese dancers as they entered – and the greeting was returned.

8:46. The signs bearing the countries' names in romaji and katakana look like manga speech balloons.

8:53. Italy look pretty hyped – well, they did win Euro 2020 twelve days ago and Eurovision two months ago...

9:08. The orchestra is playing the Star Light Zone theme from the very first Sonic the Hedgehog game (which came out 30 years ago!), a.k.a. the Dreams Come True song "Kusuriyubi no Kesshin". Ace! This snippet of music, probably my favourite Sonic level theme, almost did the job of an actual Sonic appearance here. Well, he is one of Japan's most famous modern cultural exports, after all.

9:30. Because Russia was banned for doping, the Russian Olympic Committee enter with the Olympic flag. If any of them win a gold medal, Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 will play instead of the Russian national anthem. It now occurs to me that there is a list somewhere of songs played in lieu of the anthem of banned nations, and I must see this list. Australia's replacement song just has to be this.

9:44. I still can't figure out why the Japanese names for Switzerland and Thailand are Suisu and Tai, respectively. They included the '-land' in the katakana renderings of Iceland, Ireland and Finland, so what gives? Can you figure it out, multiple question marks???

9:48. Star Light Zone music again! Ah, the nostalgia. If they could now crank out "Zankoku na Tenshi no Teize", they will have made my night. (Later note: As it turns out, all the music being played in this medley is from video games! Apart from Sonic, there's also music from such games as Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts and Chrono Trigger. So there you go.)

10:36. The Japanese athletes enter. Kudos to the organizers, they have achieved a lot in a time of immense adversity. And that's all 205 nations. No sign of North Korea at all.

10:50. 1,824 drones form the chequered Tokyo 2020 emblem in lights in the night sky, and they then form a globe of the world, as John Lennon's "Imagine" is sung for the 5th time at an Olympic opening ceremony. (I'd suggest they give this song a go.) Amazing use of drones there – the globe in the sky was beautifully done.

(As an aside: I had hoped that the zeroes and O's in the logo would appear as red circles like on the Japanese flag, as they were shown at the end of the 2016 Rio games. But it seems they changed their mind about that.)

11:19. I'm getting tired...it's now after midnight in Melbourne. The Olympic flag is now being brought in...but who will light the flame? Naomi Osaka? Osamu Tezuka? Doraemon?? I told my old uni mate Ben that I'll be disappointed if Pikachu doesn't appear in this ceremony, and he said "And if the Olympic flame isn't lit by a Charizard, I'm out."

11:30. The way the graphic symbols of the 50 events were acted out with actors, props and camera angles was really cool!

11:38. Pianist Hiromi plays super fast while a kabuki actor strides the stage, at the base of a stepped pyramid-thingy. It finished with the kabuki guy giving a demented stare right at the camera. What's going on here? I have no idea, but it's great.

11:42. The Olympic flame enters into the stadium (hey, that's a pleonasm), soundtracked by Maurice Ravel's "Boléro".

11:47. A doctor and a nurse do one leg of the final torch run. Hooray for frontline medical workers everywhere!

11:53. Tennis player Naomi Osaka lights the cauldron, which sits at the top of the aforementioned pyramid (later note: I think it's meant to represent Mt. Fuji). The cauldron resembles a chrysanthemum (or is it an orchid?).

Midnight. And that's it! The flame is lit, the flags are flying, the fireworks have gone off. The majority of athletes have been bussed back to the Olympic Village, where the tatami have been swept clean, the plates of fresh takoyaki and cups of hot amazake have been laid out on the dining tables, and the relentless parapara J-Pop is being pumped out over the speakers in tentative anticipation of 16 days of the pursuit of Olympic glory.

I've already been hearing the inevitable whinging about how the ceremony was too sombre, too minimal, and not a single mention of Doctor Slump or Catbus. But really, what more could they have done? Ever since that archer shot a flaming arrow to light the cauldron at Barcelona 1992, opening ceremonies have been getting more and more extravagant to the point where they have become, in the main, a tourism promotion for the host nation. As well as promoting sporting ideals they also take the chance to showcase the iconography and emblems of their country.

Of course, the Tokyo organizers were severely limited in the scope of what they could do. I'm sure from the moment they won the hosting rights 8 years ago, they would've had all sorts of extravagant and wacky ideas. Such as sushi rolls being shot out of the exhaust pipe of a Nissan Fairlady Z being driven by Mario, a kappa, and the cast of Monkey to the strains of Shonen Knife's "Watchin' Girl". Well, it would have been like that if I had been on the planning committee, anyway.

Old And New

Above is a photo of my workspace. Where I create comics. Where the 'magic happens', etc.

Truth to tell, it doesn't normally look like this. The desk is usually cluttered with papers, and there normally aren't two iMacs. I just took this photo for posterity since the older Mac (that's the one on the left, obviously) is going to get chucked out soon.

I got it in June 2007 as a present for my 29th birthday. I owned on that thing, dude. I did TAFE work, composed music, made podcasts, laid out magazine pages, edited home movies and drew comics with a tablet. It served me well until May 2013 when the hard drive gave up the ghost. Nearly six years of service ain't bad.

In June 2013 I bought the new Mac, on the right. Comparing the two, it seems hard to believe the 2007 Mac had the largest screen I ever used. But it's true.

Oh well, everything must be disposed of, in the end.

100,000

Hey there! My car's odometer hit 100,000 km today. Just thought you'd like to know.

Japanese Video Tapes

I lived in Japan from 2001–2002, and in that time, I purchased a lot of VHS videos to watch at home. I got a lot of them cheap from ex-rental shops. But they do take up a lot of space, and I'm thinking of getting rid of most of them as I already have pretty much all the programmes on DVD now, or digital files. But here's a look at some of what I amassed. Some VHS sets come in different coloured cassettes:

The videos above are the set of 7 that make up the British comedy series The Thin Blue Line, from 1995–1996, starring Rowan Atkinson. The video covers are below. (By the way, the series was subtitled, not dubbed.)

Here's the set of 6 videos of the early 2000s anime series Burn-Up X. 

And finally the Mr. Bean series, with identical cover art to the original.

Now, git outta 'ere!

Scenes From Hong Kong I

I'm back from Hong Kong and have some things to share with you. It was a really enjoyable trip, and there were very few things about the country I didn't like. If the people are friendly (which they are in this case) then the trip is generally off to a good start. I was particularly interested in electronics, architecture, T-shirt designs and just general visuals in public places. Anyway, instead of lumping all the stuff in one post, I'll do a series of posts which should hopefully show you some interesting things.

A staggering array of magazines, many of which are devoted to technology. There are several about the iPhone 4 alone.

This installation is at Times Square, a huge shopping centre. You can't tell too easily but that's a black steam train. It's got Hogwarts Express written on it, whatever that is. The blue sign says London, Kings Cross. Beats me. Every teenage girl in HK was there that day, though.


The Hang Seng index, prominently displayed out front of the eponymous bank. Many people deal in stocks, so this info is critical. Looks like it's taken a hit here...

Are you a racecar nerd who's also into classical music? Then this piano design is for you. The car-like leather seat and aerodynamic bodywork will be perfect as you perform Beethoven's "Ecossaise" while fanging it around Causeway Bay. You'll need some bulldog clips for your sheet music though.

Bape (A Bathing Ape) is a Japanese clothing line and here is the front of HK's Bape store, with its three hooded pocketed-handed silverclones. What does it all mean?

Apartment blocks are a curious geometric patchwork, studded with air conditioners and draped with drying clothes.

More to come next time, you bet.

Got The Time, Mister?

Is this the coolest watch ever designed?

Why yes it is as a matter of fact.

I came across the 4N ("Four Numbers") MVT01 watch in this month's Virgin Blue in-flight magazine. The product of French watch designer François Quentin, the rotating discs of jumping numerals and their workings are displayed beneath the sapphire glass front.

Below, you can see the disc configuration and its mechanical housing. Whether you're in the habit of wearing watches or not, you'd soil yourself if someone gave you one of these – and don't try telling me otherwise!

And for those of you who like to have the time of day literally spelled out, here's the Qlocktwo wall clock by Biegert & Funk, which has been around for a couple of years. Its backlit stainless steel colour plate can be changed for another colour and is also available in five other European languages. It synchronizes itself by receiving atomic clock signals and adjusts its brightness according to the ambient light.

Polaroid Camera

A couple of people wanna see it, so here goes.

When I started using my first Lomography camera on my 31st birthday, I began to enjoy the reputation as that guy who carries around a weird-looking analogue camera.

Actually, it wasn't all that recent. I first had that reputation much earlier than that. 25 years earlier, to be exact. I received a Polaroid camera for my 6th birthday. I used to carry it around taking photos of any old rubbish until all the film was used up.

I was disappointed, as I'm sure you were, when Polaroid went bankrupt two years ago and ceased production of SX-70 film. Hopefully Polaroid revivalists The Impossible Project will toss a few of their stocks down to Van Diemen's Land, and the little grey box below will rise again. Retro? Don't insult my intelligence. Let us now. In return we offer a little incentive.

Pete's Polaroid Land Camera, manufactured 1983 (final year)

Screen Worlds (Part Deux)

More images from my visit to Screen Worlds. Be awed. Awed, I tell you!

A Commodore 64 computer (1982), with joystick, game on cassette, and tape loader. It could also run software on ROM carts. I'll see anyone outside who doesn't think this is awesome!

A blurry screenshot of Tempest (1981), with simple circular-scroll and fire controls. I hadn't played it originally, but there was some ownage here. The concept is very simplistic but a bunch of dumb kids with skateboards who had a go couldn't figure it out.

The IBM PC version of Tetris (1984). Regularly mentioned as one of the best video games of all time and voted in some online poll as the greatest thing to come out of Russia.

Lego Star Wars: The Video Game (2005). Haven't they milked enough money out of this franchise? Amazing graphics and brilliant concept, though.

This is what you see when you complete Sonic The Hedgehog (1991) – goes without saying I've seen it hundreds of times. On my birthday in 2005, I drew a small crowd of kids playing it on the big screen at the ACMI. In 2008 I had the pleasure of owning some dork at it at ACMI's Game On. Back at ACMI in 2010 and the shine hasn't gone off this classic one bit.

Screen Worlds

Before I begin, I'd like to point out that it's now ten years since the events in the 'drug house scene' in Constantinople (see May 1 post) took place! Anyway, the renovations at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image are finally done and my friend Yoji and I went to see the permanent exhibition Screen Worlds, which charts the rise of moving images through history. Here are a few still images of said moving images.

A beautifully-rendered world of possibility.

Pong vs. Tennis – a floorscreen.

The light at the end of the tunnel.

Visitors are asked to predict the future of our digital world, which is difficult, but I managed it (see below). My prediction may seem fatuous and flippant to you, but then the fact that I have a blog earns me the right to be as fatuous and flippant as I like, wouldn't you say?

Storefront Bigscreen

While I was on holiday in Malaysia a few months ago, I noticed something unusual. Every evening, a crowd of twenty or so men would gather around the entrance of an electrical store near the hotel where I was staying and watch TV. There were at least ten TVs at the front of that store, all tuned to different channels. It took a few days of passing by these guys before I realized it was the TV showing American wrestling that they were staring at.

Of course, the TV set in question wasn't all that big, which gave me an idea.

Wouldn't it be great if, to cater to this group of idlers, the store owner wired up several TV sets in grid formation to make one large mega-screen? In case this might be hard to visualize, I took 13 seconds to do a quick Photoshop hashout:

As you can see, the TVs are in a 4x3 grid for a 4:3 ratio, but it could be anything you like. Except 1.33:1, obviously.