Behind the Scenes: Rio 2016

Read through my trip to Brazil and the 2016 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony in Rio!

Olympic Dreams in South America
Behind the Scenes: Brazilian Music
Bossa Nova, Wine, and Swag
The World's Pilgrimage
The Simple Pyramid 
Blue Earth
Native Empire, Diverse Creativity
City of God and Favela Kings
Cauldron Lighting 101
Shock and Awe
Symbols of Peace
Brazil is Loud
3 Days to Go: Feijoada and Favelas
2 Days to Go: Behind the Curtain
1 Day to Go: Rio Welcomes the World
2016 Summer Olympic Opening Ceremony - Rio de Janeiro (entire ceremony)

All Access Pass: Rehearsal Life

20 days to go!

14 days until our first complete dress rehearsal (with audience!)

Police Horses walk along the beach outside of the Olympic Stadium

After an early morning, I ventured to the Olympic Credentials Center, and received my new all access pass!  At the same time, my own rehearsal was running - with me absent obviously.  I caught up to my rehearsal, and was there for the next 9 hours.  By the end of my rehearsal, I was told that for the entire preparation of the games, it was the first and only rehearsal to begin and end exactly on time!  I was proud of that, but it is a cultural anomaly here in Russia to have anything on time.

My credentials - I had to cover up some sensitive (secret) info about my position 

I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!

To give you an idea of the organization, this is by far the most complicated and most massive and most secretive organizational structure with which I have been consumed.  I will give you an aerial shot of the complex.  Below, there are enormous garages that house many of our props and special equipment, tents that are specially designed and the exact size of the stadium floor, dining rooms, and security checkpoints.

The Olympic Stadium is the upper left corner, the large boxes are enormous.  They surround the stadium and off to the far top left is a field of 10 tents each the same size of the stadium field so we can rehears all the segments simultaneously.

Just to give you some historical perspective of this event, it unequivocally will be the most technical event in Olympic history.  Being a true historian of the Olympic Ceremonies, I will be able to make a better judgement on its place in Olympic history as we lead up to the opening night - many aspects are bound to change.  But secretly, our budget is about 4 times larger than the second most expensive Opening Ceremony (Beijing) and about 10 times larger than the third most expensive (London).  In addition, our audience base has escalated to over 4 billion people!!!  There is a lot on the line!

The garages to help move our technical equipment throughout the ceremony are ENORMOUS.  They move pieces in and out just like the Space Shuttle complex - and are similarly large.

The rehearsing tents are the exact size of the stadium floor.  They are gridded like a graphing field in mathematics, each line receiving a different letter of the Cyrillic Alphabet on the x axis, and numbers across the y axis.  We skipped the Cyrillic letters that were too similar for us English speakers, since most of the organizers are fluent in English.  Even though I won't be participating, I learned choreography with everyone and participated in the rehearsals as much as I could...before I twisted my knee!

These lunches are evidently adequate for Russians, but for Westerners they are a challenge.  Too small of portions, nearly no vegetables, high in fat, and usually over-processed.  Imagine instant turkey gravy on top of Vienna sausages, with a salad of pickled beets, pickled root of some sort, pickled peas, and hard bread.  They consume a dangerously small amount of water as well!

The rehearsal went very well, I was so curious to check out all of the other simultaneously run rehearsals, but I will have time for that at a later date.  I will also be able to divulge more information about my exact roles in the ceremony soon.  I found out yesterday some amazing news, that I am one of 9 members of the organizing committee to have a seat for a portion of the ceremony with the invited dignitaries!  Much more exciting news to come!

The best part of my day though was a full 8 hour sleep, with the balcony door open.  I haven't had to close it once since I've arrived; the temperature has been too perfect.

Sickly Ritornello

21 days to go!

15 days until our first complete dress rehearsal!

KSU! With a Ukranian, American, and Canadian!

Plan for the day: Get my Olympic credentials
Status: pending...

I am extremely frustrated.  I do not have my Olympic credentials because someone didn't translate my middle name into Cyrillic characters on an important document.  I spent hours of waiting at the Olympic Credentials Center, and I have nothing to show for it.  I also have a cold.

Accreditation Center 

Waiting...

Either everyone is to blame, no one is to blame, or I am to blame - as has been the refrain all day.  Of course none are true, and yet the truth can't be found evidently.  And this stupid cold won't go away as well!
After a very difficult day of managing my own temper and pushing aside the many "that's Russia" phrases - I still don't have my credentials.  I have been assured that they will be available for me at 9 am tomorrow though!  AND IT BETTER BE!  I can't even attend my own first rehearsal at 7:30am because I can't enter the Olympic Park.

From left to right: my interpreter from Canada - Alena, the person helping me with my accreditation problem from Russia - Misha, and a dancer of ours with the same problem as I am having from Hong Kong - Elmo

Thankfully, once I receive my credentials, I will have a tour of the stadium and an overview of the on-site production.  And, I am so thankful for one of the producers for the Closing Ceremony, an Australian, who will help me sort through this bureaucracy.

After a nightmare of a day, I went into Sochi.  The Olympic Games are held in Adler, not Sochi, by the way.  So this was the first time I have been to the actual city of Sochi.  It is beautiful.  It is wealthy.  And frankly, it looks exactly like Los Angeles.

Some international members of the ceremonies team on the train to Sochi

Train Station at Sochi

Walking in rainy Sochi

It just reminds me of LA...except rainier...

On top of everything, I discovered that my bank won't let me use my bank card.  They received a nice email from me and it was fixed this morning.  Although I'm expecting the unexpected (since we're in Russia...as the locals say), I will surely have a better day tomorrow and FINALLY be inside the venue.  Even though it may seem like a small part of this venture, it will be one of the most exciting moments of my life.

UGH! Stupid cold...

Hello from Sochi!

22 days to go!

Give me a 'C'...

Give me an 'O'...

Give me a 'four'...

Give me a 'backwards N'...

What does that spell?

Сочи!!!

On Wednesday morning, I left my suite at Herald Square, bought a bus ticket from Grand Central to JFK, hopped on a Airbus bound for Moscow, and landed in the middle of a blizzard.  Not only was it a blizzard in the pitch black of night, but the TV screen on the seat in front of me had our altitude and the view from the pilot's seat.  I was also sitting next to the window.  I couldn't see anything...until... *SMASH*!  We landed hard onto a snow-packed runway.  It was terrifying!

I also forgot to mention that this was my second overseas flight on an Airbus, and the seats are so uncomfortably tiny. 

The airport in Moscow was so confusing and no one spoke English it seemed, but I miraculously made it to my intended gate just in time to see this giant dog sitting in front of the line.   He flew with us to Sochi, sitting up like a person, looking out of the window like a person.

We left an arctic storm bound for the sub-tropics of Sochi.  Our landing was likely the most beautiful I have ever seen.  In the near distance were snow-capped mountains, we flew along the coast of the Black Sea beaches, and the runway was adjacent to the Olympic Stadium, so I got a National Geographic-esque flyby view of the stadium on our approach!  Our plane, filled with Olympians, NBC and BBC folks, and Olympic officials, was easily the fanciest I have ever been aboard.  We were served meals and drinks, it was a brand new plane, painted in the Sochi branding - and if I forgot to mention, had a giant dog aboard.

Here is where life got a bit stranger.

We exited the plane and walked to "Terminal D" which is a hanger, filled with armed guards, police men, and Cossack Imperial soldiers.  There were more of them than us.  Outside of this measurable percentage of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, we were the only ones in the hanger, and we were filmed by the guards with hand-held cameras as we claimed our luggage!  Strict security indeed!   Naturally, I waited to leave with the giant dog, who bolted out of the hangar to chase a bomb-sniffing German Shepherd who was scared to death.  They ran away with the big dog's owner chasing behind them - they never came back - and everyone, including the several Russian cops on break, laughed.

I arrived at our resort, which is not as...well, resort-like as you would expect in the US.  Essentially, most of Russia here hasn't recovered from the Soviet era, so everything from the economy to architecture still reminds me of the Social Realism art of that time.  Still, it is a BEAUTIFUL city and an even more beautiful climate.  It is mild in the day and cool in the evening.  Essentially Sochi has the glamour of Hollywood with the urban decay of Detroit.

I walked down to the sea and captured a photo of a young couple kissing on a concrete dock. 

There are many stray dogs, and these two puppies were play fighting over a peacock feather.

I laughed at my first meal.  When I walked in to the restaurant area, the air slapped you in the face with the smell of onions and herring.  They tastefully paired these offensive smells with an adequate companion, sugar beets.

One apparent difference between Americans and Russians is that Russians seem unequivocally ok with the trial and error method.  A common saying that I have been told at least 5 times today is, "What else do you expect in Russia?"  They are proud of it too, but I shouldn't be surprised.  Many highly gifted and intelligent people are unafraid of failure, because they want no boundary between effort and the goal.  This actually accomplishes a lot!  And they have accomplished a lot!

Unfortunately for me, I have been thrown into a bureaucratic and organizational hurricane of trial and error!!!   ...or at least that is how I felt.

Even at the best resort in the region, I only have WiFi on the ground floor, hilariously - a vegetarian meal at dinner for one of my colleagues comprised of mashed potatoes and fish, and there are nearly no translators to any language.

So, going to one of my 3 hour long organization meetings with cast members becomes greatly complicated when I am one of only 20 English speakers out of the 300 people in the room.  Even more complicated is the working culture.  I expect one thing, but everyone working for and around me have other expectations.  I am frantically trying to learn as fast as I can.  There are only 16 foreigners in my entire Ceremonies Staging Agency subsection of performers!  I have a lot to learn very fast.

Also I was upset to learn that my accreditation time was accidentally cancelled tomorrow.  To add even more to that, three others in my group will be meeting with a certain bald president (believe it or not).   So, guess who will be the fool performing a hunger strike in front of the Olympic headquarters until he gets his badges instead of getting some Facebook worthy photo?

Still, I am so overwhelmingly excited to be here.  If you are worried, please know it is very safe.  There are many people watching out for us all.  Runs, briefings, and tours begin Saturday!

Cyrillic Emails

25 days to go!

Olympic Center in Adler

Every day, usually every morning, I receive any number of emails for the Olympics.  Unfortunately, this is the fastest communication between the US and Russia outside of middle-of-the-night Skyping as there is an awkward 9 hour difference.  I am used to hearing the language but reading the Cyrillic Alphabet is quite a challenge at times.  This email came this morning:

Внимание изменился адрес вашего размещения в Сочи

I was not happy to see this.

Essentially what the email says is that they have made a change to my accommodations due to travel and security reasons.   Originally, I was planning to stay at the Tsar Nicholas II era palace, but that has unfortunately been changed.  It's not all that bad, I will be staying in a new beach-side 5 star resort instead.  Essentially, it an hour closer to my work site than the previous location would be, which means it will also cut two hours of daily driving out of my already extensive 15 hour work day.  I will have lots of pictures after I check-in later this week.

Back in New York City, I went to see Phantom of the Opera.

If you know anything about me, even remotely, you would know my opinion about Andrew Lloyd Webber and Mozart.  And what do they have in common?  I don't like to sing their music!  I'm afraid of Mozart - it is very exposed, but Lloyd Webber just flat out annoys me.  And I especially don't like pipe organ and trap set overtures.  As fate would have it, I have spent a lot of time in New York City over the last five years but I have never seen a musical on Broadway (I saw Avenue Q off Broadway, which was excellent).  I usually go to the Met, because they are the true Olympians of singing.

So, I bought 50% off tickets from the TKTS stand at Times Square to see Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera.  The tickets were originally $150, so at $75 they were still relatively expensive, but the show was a spectacle.

Policeman and horse, keeping us in line at the Phantom of the Opera

The view from my seat before the show begins

Majestic Theater

Majestic Theater

I have only wonderful things to say about the production.  The visual effects were exciting and stunning.  The leads had technical vocal troubles, and at times some very annoying troubles, but I was able to forget about that for awhile and enjoy what is the longest running show on Broadway. Technically, the singers in the cast are miles away from, let's say, the winners of the NOA competition last Saturday.  I have received a Susan Boyle CD, Phantom of the Opera DVD, and the NBC made-for-TV fiasco of The Sound of Music DVD, purely due to my public ridicule of those travesties.  So I have learned my lesson.  I won't speak so harshly of shows anymore.  Instead, I will speak harshly about the things that I like, so that people will give me those things!

Do you know what I really hate?  Chocolate chip cookies that are still gooey in the middle...

Lastly, I got the lens of my camera cleaned today so my pictures and videos should be flawless in the future.  Tomorrow is my penultimate day Stateside.  I plan to go to a Vietnamese restaurant, wash my clothes, and pack for my LONG flight.  More stories will follow soon!