News: Berke in London for Olympics: Opening a Disappointment
Last week’s opening ceremonies of the Summer Olympics were a “colossal disappointment” to at least one Miami Beach resident who was in London to see the Games begin.
Steve Berke, tweeting and Facebooking his impressions of the festivities in London, was initially excited about his trip to the Olympics, tweeting early last week that he was heading to London to “support TEAM USA!”
“In London! Anyone watching the Opening Ceremonies tonight?” the 2011 Beach mayoral candidate and comedian posted last Friday morning. “Gonna be tough to follow the amazing show the Chinese put on four years ago, but I think it’s going to be worth watching.
“Look for the lanky Jew streaking on the track with ‘Steve Berke for Mayor’ written on his ass!” he jokingly added.
But that evening, his excitement had soured: “My honest opinion so far about the London Olympics: This is my 12th Olympic Games (Both Winter and Summer), and I have never seen a city so poorly prepared for the Games in my life,” he wrote.
“From the conveyer belts at the airport not working, to roads being closed because they didn’t finish them in time, to volunteers and employees not knowing anything about anything, to security being in total disarray, to total disorganization on multiple levels, and to a pretty disappointing Opening Ceremonies where people who paid over 1,000 pounds were furious – I am pretty surprised that even the Greeks had it together more than the Brits. Let’s hope they pull it together quickly.”
His assessment of Friday evening’s opening ceremonies: a “colossal disappointment.”
“For the amount of money that the tickets cost (1K-3K FACE VALUE), I was expecting The Rolling Stones, Elton John, Radiohead, Oasis, Eric Clapton AND Paul McCartney to perform,” Berke posted over the weekend. “All they got was McCartney and a few cover bands?!? I knew their budget wasn’t big like the Beijing Olympics, so I figured they would at least get the big/famous British musicians to perform. After all, it would be a big honor, and what band wouldn’t want the publicity and honor of playing in front of the hundreds of millions of people watching from all around the world?”
“At the very least,” Berke continued, “they could have convinced Muse, Coldplay, or Adele, right? The Brits have the biggest and best musicians of all time – and they couldn’t get ANY of them to perform? I was shocked at the lack of big acts performing. They only had a few cool performances, mixed in with a bunch of cover bands and performances by people no one has ever heard of. The lighting and LEDs weren’t as cool as Ultra Music Festival, and then they ended with some fireworks. Overall, I give it a D-.
“Maybe it was a made-for-TV event, but to charge astronomically absurd prices for a couple sh-tty performances, and then athletes marching around for 2 and a half hours is highway robbery.”
