Watch the entire 2012 Paralympic Games Closing Ceremony now.

Update for October - The DVD and Blu-ray releases are out now :


If you missed last nights 2012 Paralympic Games Closing Ceremony, don't worry as you can watch it now on the 4oD service. You will need broadband of course.

The 2012 Paralympic Games Closing Ceremony

You have to watch 6 small adverts before you can start to watch the Paralympic Games Closing Ceremony.
Each advert is around 20 to 30 seconds long. There are 11 other sections of adverts throughout the program which you also have to watch (in sets of 5 adverts), these will interrupt if you try and fast forward too ! Very annoying but it is free so I guess you can't complain.

You can re-live all those amazing moments from the Olympic games on DVD and BluRay from Amazon :



Watch it here
Watch the entire Paralympic Games Closing Ceremony on the 4oD service.
That's the all 3 Hours 41 minutes of it including the amzing performance by Coldplay.

The 2012 Paralympic Games Closing Ceremony

Colplay performing at the 2012 Paralympic Games Closing Ceremony

The 2012 Paralympic Games Closing Ceremony

DVD of the 2012 Paralympic Games?
The question that has to be asked here is will the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2012 Paralympic Games be made available on DVD? These were not broadcast by the BBC so I don't think they will make it onto the London 2012 Olympic Games DVD.
Perhaps Channel 4 will have their own DVD of this?
We should start a campaign to get the Paralympic opening and closing ceremony released on DVD.

You may be interested in my other blog post on the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games.

Hope you found this of interest.
Andy

The Olympic Opening Ceremonies for London 2012.

The Music used, The DVD Release and technology used for the London 2012 Opening Ceremony.

The DVD of the  2012 London Olympics is now available to pre-order. It includes the opening ceremony, key Olympic highlights and the closing ceremony, Available on both DVD or Blu-ray and £10 cheaper here on Amazon than from the BBC shop :
Released on 29th October 2012 :

Love it or hate it or just not bothered you can't escape it. After all the preparation the London Olympics have arrived. The Olympic Opening Ceremonies for the London 2012 Olympics are absolutely amazing.

Amazing firework show during the opening Ceremonies London 2012.

You can't help but be impressed by them. If you missed them then don't worry as you can now watch them in full right here:

CD of the music

I absolutely loved the music that was written for the Olympic Opening Ceremonies and nice to see that you can buy it on CD now. Its called Isles of Wonder - Music For The Opening Ceremony Of The London 2012 Olympic Games

The best bit of music was Underworld - Caliban's Dream with superb vocals from Alex Trimble and the choir. That's the one that starts with the children's choir singing.



Here is the complete track listing for the CD - Isles of Wonder - Music For The Opening Ceremony Of The London 2012 Olympic Games.

CD1 Isles of Wonder
Frank Turner - I Still Believe
Four Nations Choirs - Jerusalem, Flower of Scotland, Danny Boy, Bread of Heaven
LSO On Track Orchestra & Francois-Xavier Roth - Nimrod
Underworld feat. Dame Evelyn Glennie and the Pandemonium Drummers - And I Will Kiss
Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells / In Dulci Jubilo
LSO - Chariots of Fire
Blanck Mass & LSO - Sundowner
Dizzee Rascal - Bonkers - Radio Edit
A.R. Rahman feat. Jaspreet Jasz - Nimma Nimma
Emeli Sande - Heaven
Emeli Sande - Abide With Me
Arctic Monkeys - I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor (Live)
Arctic Monkeys - Come Together (Live)
Underworld feat. Dockhead Choir, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Only Men Aloud, Elizabeth Roberts, Esme Smith and Alex Trimble - Caliban's Dream

CD2 Welcome
Chemical Brothers - Galvanize
High Contrast - Moon Watcher
Underworld - Always Loved A Film – Instrumental
Underworld - Dark & Long (Dark Train) (Remix)
Pet Shop Boys - West End Girls
Underworld - Minneapolis (High Contrast Remix)
High Contrast - Reach
High Contrast - Ghost Dance
Underworld - Confusion The Waitress (Darren Price & High Contrast Remix)
Wretch 32 feat. L - Traktor
F Buttons - Olympians (High Contrast Remix)
High Contrast - Can't Stop This Fire
Underworld - Moon In Water (Instrumental Remix)
Underworld - Crocodile (High Contrast Remix)
U2 - Where the Streets Have No Name (High Contrast Remix)
High Contrast - For Years
Underworld - Dirty Epic (Darren Price & High Contrast Remix)
High Contrast - The Long Way Home
Underworld - Dark & Long (Darren Price & High Contrast Remix)
Underworld - Rez (High Contrast Remix)
David Bowie - Heroes
Chemical Brothers - Galvanize

Mr Bean playing his part in the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremonies (Chariots of Fire).

Watch the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremonies in full on the BBC iPlayer here :
Watch the opening ceremonies here.
That's almost 4 hours of it ! Best to watch it in fullscreen mode, You can fast forward to any part.

Will there be a DVD of the 2012 London Olympics Opening Ceremony?
The most popular question asked at the moment seems to be "will there be a dvd of the 2012 olympic opening ceremony?"

Update 12th for August :
The DVD of the  2012 London Olympics is now available to pre-order. It includes the opening ceremony, key Olympic highlights and the closing ceremony:



Its even available in glorious HD via the Blu-ray version, also available to pre-order now :

Another I would love to see is a "building of the 2012 Olympics", like they do on the Discovery Channel. I've not seen anything like that yet but hopefully they will make one.



These opening ceremonies should make Danny Boyle more of a household name now. If you have never seen trainspotting then you should watch it, this was directed by Danny Boyle and stars Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd, Robert Carlyle. Can't believe this film was from way back in 1996. Another classic film by him was Shallow Grave :


Here are some direct links to certain parts of the show :

The Industrial Revolution :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b01l4ldk/?t=13m04s

Watch Paul Mccartney perform Hey Jude:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b01l4ldk/

The arrival of the torch at the stadium and hand over to Sir Steve Redgrave:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b01l4ldk/?t=3h24m52s

There are some amazing musical and theatrical performances you WILL love it!

You can also watch all of the Olympics LIVE every day here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/live-video

The Olympic torch came through Derby, watch my video of it here :
http://derbyphotoscouk.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/video-of-olympic-torch-relay-in-derby.html

Here are some screen grabs from the Olympic Opening Ceremonies in London :

There was some amazing technology used in this stadium.
Here is one of the led panels that you may have seen between every seat in the stadium. Each panel has 9 individual LEDs in equal rows of 3. There are over 70,799 seats in the Olympic Stadium, which means the total LED count is  637,191 pixels ! The panels were controlled by a Avolites Media Server.
These were used to display some amazing visual effects.

One of the LED panels that are located between every seat in the stadium.

And finally did you know you can own your very own 2012 Olympic torch for a fraction of the cost of the genuine article?...



We can ALL be winners of a Gold Medal too...


The Olympics don't last that long. The Closing Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games is on Sunday 12th August 2012 at 9pm. It will last for over 3 hours and should be quite impressive going by the opening of the games. I wonder if that will be released on DVD too?

The musical director for the closing ceremony is David Arnold, which is expected to be watched by millions, will reflect the nation as a whole. Among the performers tipped are The Who, Paul McCartney, Elton John, the Rolling Stones, George Michael, Paul Weller, the Spice Girls, Adele, Ray Davies, Liam Gallagher, Annie Lennox, Madness, the Pet Shop Boys, Take That, Muse, One Direction and members of Queen. Over 10,000 athletes and flagbearers are expected to march with the men’s marathon medal ceremony a feature
There are rumours that Kate Bush could perform, after a remixed version of Running Up That Hill (a deal with God) 2012 remix appeared on Amazon !

Update for 13th August :
You can now watch the Closing Ceremony in full for free on the BBC iPlayer here :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b01m1l2q/

Its only available to view for 7 days so if you miss it, you can always see it on the DVD release
London 2012 Olympic Games [DVD]

Of course don't forget the Paralympics near the end of August. The Opening ceremony for the 2012 paralympics is on Wednesday 29th August 2012 starting at 8pm UK time.
The Paralympics continues until 9th September 2012.
For full details about these games see www.london2012.com/paralympics

Thanks
Andy

Video : Derby Hippodrome Theatre "Rescue Me", What will become of this treasure ?

I created the original "Hippodrome then and now" photograph back in 2003 see it here.
I decided that it would be a good idea to remake this then and now as the Derby Hippodrome building has suffered quite a bit in recent years and I thought it would be good to do make a video too.
Below is the video I have created.
I have rendered it at 1080p HD so please view in fullscreen mode by clicking the Full screen icon in the bottom right corner of the player window. My then and nows look amazing on a large HD TV.

Feel free to use this video on Facebook, Twitter etc.

My video : Derby Hippodrome Theatre "Rescue Me".

I hope you enjoy my video, please rate and comment.

Views of this building :
Birds Eye view on Bing Maps - Derby Hippodrome. In this you can see the extent of the damage caused by the "roof repairs" in March 2008.

Google Streetview - Derby Hippodrome. Google captured this area at the time the roof was being repaired!

An online survey has now been launched to gather residents' views on the future of the building and it raises questions about the overall theatre provision in Derby.

Derby Hippodrome Restoration Trust is a building preservation trust that operates in Derby with the purpose of preserving buildings of particular beauty, historical, architectural or constructional interest in or around Derby, in particular the building known as the Hippodrome Theatre, Derby.

Derby Hippodrome was built in 1914 as a purpose built 2,300 seat theatre for the city. Over the ensuing years it has played a key part in Derby’s entertainment and cultural provision, being a variety theatre, cinema, and in more recent years a bingo hall. When the building closed in 2007 it was purchased by a London developer and has been standing empty since that time.

The building suffered extensive damage when the owner attempted to repair the roof of the auditorium in March 2008, demolishing the auditorium roof and part of one main wall as well as a substantial part of the stage house. Further damage has subsequently occurred to the interior of the building through two fires.

There was also another fire on November 26th 2011 which casued even more damage. Read HERE.

Latham Architects and PHT Consultants have been engaged by the DHRT to compile an independent “Options Appraisal” report to help decide the future of this building. Consultation is an important part of this work and we would like to hear your views.
We would be grateful therefore if you could spare a few moments to complete the questionnaire survey by clicking on the link below :

The future of Derby Hippodrome Theatre. <-- Click the link to fill in the survey.

The above survey is conducted on the SurveyMonkey website.

Please note your survey responses should be received no later than 1st February 2012

Thanks
Andy

Derby Cathedral Green, 360 degree then and now (night and day) photograph.

Try it:
Derby Cathedral Green 360 Degree night and day photograph.

If you are familure with my Derby then and now collection of fading images then you may like something I have created.

This Derby “then and now” is a bit special as its actually an interactive spherical (360x180 degree) virtual reality then and now photograph.
You will need a broadband internet connection and a web browser with version 8 or greater of Adobe Flash player (i.e. any pc that works with YouTube will work ok.)

The initial view that you will see when it loads in is of the Industrial Museum in daylight. If you move around you can also see the Cathedral Swing Bridge and Derby Cathedral.
You can drag the view around using the mouse, simply click and drag the view in the direction you want it to move (the same as Google Streetview).
You can look in every direction including up and down.
You will notice in the top left of the view are two red buttons, if you click the NIGHT button after a few seconds the view will swap to the same view but at night.
The viewpoint you will be shown will be the exact same view that you had before in daylight.
At the bottom of the photo are some icon buttons, these allow you to control the view as well. If you click the right icon (fullscreen toggle) this will make the viewer fill the entire screen to give you a better view. Simply press escape to exit the fullscreen mode (same as the Youtube fullscreen player).

Give it a go by clicking here...
Derby Cathedral Green 360 Degree night and day photograph.

The two 360 degree images were taken on the 3rd April 2009 when this was all brand new.

Please leave comments if you liked it.