Flash-mob Morris dancers at Olympics ?

Subject: Flash-mob Morris dancers at Olymoics ?
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Dec 11 - 01:21 PM

Flash-mob Morris dancers to disrupt Olympics ?

Daily Mail Morris Dancing Protest Olympics

Subject: RE: Flash-mob Morris dancers at Olympics ?
From: Arthur_itus
Date: 11 Dec 11 - 04:23 PM

Some of the comments do not seem very freindly and the BBC this morning on the politics show too the piss out of Morris Dancing.

Well, a few of them are here red-arrowing, aren't they?. Poor deluded Susan of London describes Morris dancing as sexy. I don't think so. She also bleats on about us not honouring our traditions. Well, this is a tradition that most of us don't want. If you want to prance about in your caps and bells looking like idiots that is up to you but don't try and foist it on the rest of us I read somewhere that there are only about 14,000 of them in the country so another minority trying to punch above its weight and demanding special treatment. Go away.

Red arrow away, but I for one find morris dancing acutely embarassing, and I think they should stay away from the Olympics, and not hold our country up to ridicule.

The problem is if all these groups nominate themselves to take part - we will just end up with the same catastrophe there was with the dome- where they tried to please everyone. Seems like that the morris lot have shot themselves in the foot - perhaps if they weren't throwing a tantrum about not being part - they might have been involved. But then again Seb Coe shouldn't have said they would be there - I mean - think about it - 5,000 morris men - not exactly the most spectacular thing I would like to see as part of the ceremony.

Subject: RE: Flash-mob Morris dancers at Olympics ?
From: bubblyrat
Date: 11 Dec 11 - 04:47 PM

I think that it would be a wonderful idea to involve Morris Men ( and women !) in the Olympics ; in fact , Morris dancing should be an actual event ; it couldn't possibly be any dafter than synchronised swimming , or hurtling down hill on a tea-tray ,could it ? Besides , given our expertise and experience , we should have a natural advantage in our favour ; and it would certainly brighten up the usual boring old opening ceremony and parade of all those lean , fit , healthy people with impossibly nice teeth.

Subject: RE: Flash-mob Morris dancers at Olympics ?
From: Bainbo
Date: 11 Dec 11 - 04:50 PM

Definitely it should be a competitive sport. Here's the evidence.

Subject: RE: Flash-mob Morris dancers at Olympics ?
From: Arthur_itus
Date: 11 Dec 11 - 05:10 PM

There is the caber toss, so why not the Morris Stick Toss

Subject: RE: Flash-mob Morris dancers at Olympics ?
From: Tradsinger
Date: 11 Dec 11 - 06:14 PM

To Arthus itis

I know how you feel about Morris Dancing. I feel the same cringe factor about Scottish bagpipes, Country and Western, Rap, Techno, Celtic Shmeltic etc. However, the latter are not my heritage and Morris Dancing is, so there is every reason to include it in the opening ceremony.

Tradsinger

Subject: RE: Flash-mob Morris dancers at Olympics ?
From: Arthur_itus
Date: 11 Dec 11 - 07:14 PM

Ah Tradsinger, you are so wrong.

I do like Morris Dancing and have paid for Morris Dancers to come to my town and the Village where I run my folk concert venue.

I was just posting how the other half percieve it all.

Subject: RE: Flash-mob Morris dancers at Olympics ?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 11 Dec 11 - 07:18 PM

I've no idea what "red-arrowing" is.

Seems to me that trying anything disruptive during the London Olympics would get you the Mexico 1968 treatment (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tlatelolco_massacre), given that Boris is going for better security than the Nuremberg Rallies.

Subject: RE: Flash-mob Morris dancers at Olympics ?
From: Arthur_itus
Date: 11 Dec 11 - 07:21 PM

Or should I say Tradsinger the majority on the other side of the fence :-)

For me it gets worse as our English traditions are being swept aside just to be PC and trendy.

Subject: RE: Flash-mob Morris dancers at Olympics ?
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 11 Dec 11 - 07:34 PM

(as a matter of fact, Arthur_itis was directly quoting three of the commenters on the article, starting with Mary,, Kent, 11/12/2011 20:47)

(using quotation marks of some sort would help us out, Arthur_itis...)

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: Flash-mob Morris dancers at Olympics ?
From: Arthur_itus
Date: 11 Dec 11 - 07:40 PM

OMG Becky, yes you are right. Sorry I forgot to do the quotes. It certainly is not my viewpoint.

Subject: RE: Flash-mob Morris dancers at Olympics ?
From: Leadfingers
Date: 11 Dec 11 - 07:47 PM

Flash Morris woukd meet with my approval , provided it WAS just a side show and NOT Disruptive of 'Official' Olympic activities .

Subject: RE: Flash-mob Morris dancers at Olympics ?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 11 Dec 11 - 08:10 PM

If there was any chance of it bringing the whole bloody Olympics to a dead stop once and for all, I'd be all for it.

Subject: RE: Flash-mob Morris dancers at Olympics ?
From: Manitas_at_home
Date: 12 Dec 11 - 03:09 AM

Let's face it Guys, Morris is not suited to an event the size of the opening ceremony. Getting 50 dancers to agree on a suitable dance and attend all the rehearsals isn't going to happen, let alone 5000. Where Morris would be best appreciated is outside the stadia, entertaining the passing crowds.

Subject: RE: Flash-mob Morris dancers at Olympics ?
From: GUEST,Mike Rogers
Date: 12 Dec 11 - 03:25 AM

If there was any chance of it bringing the whole bloody Olympics to a dead stop once and for all, I'd be all for it. - Jack Campin

Amen to that.

Subject: RE: Flash-mob Morris dancers at Olympics ?
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 12 Dec 11 - 03:41 AM

Amen from me as well. It's going to cost trillions, cause enormous disruption and fill our TV screens until we scream for release.
And Morris dancing (of all types) is excellent, superb, wonderful and addictive, I can never get enough of it! I'd travel any distance to watch it, it makes my heart sing.

Subject: RE: Flash-mob Morris dancers at Olympics ?
From: Arthur_itus
Date: 12 Dec 11 - 04:09 AM

"it makes my heart sing" Doesn't it make you want to dance Eliza :-)

Subject: RE: Flash-mob Morris dancers at Olympics ?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 12 Dec 11 - 04:38 AM

Far too much prescriptive and malapropos 'either/or'-ery in life - and on this forum. Arthur, Jack, Eliza, darlings ~~

Plenty of room on this poor ole Earth of ours for enjoyment of the London Olympic Games of 2012 AND of Morris Dancing, either severally or jointly, surely? Why do you have to make it all a matter of "you can only have one or the other but not both or you will turn us all into a lot of self-righteous old crosspatches?"

And I know the games will cost. But what doesn't? And would you care to attempt to quantify which of these two options you postulate, Games or Morris, will bring pleasure to more people? Go on. Produce your figures. And then cost out the pleasure quotient per capita of each ...

Subject: RE: Flash-mob Morris dancers at Olympics ?
From: Arthur_itus
Date: 12 Dec 11 - 05:02 AM

Well I think the olympics no longer are the Olympics. People getting loads of money when it used ro be amateur. Big example Football teams - who are the players likely to be in those teams. The Olympics sucks now. It's all about greed now.

I always feel Morris Dancers at events always add to it.They do a grand job.

However, I feel that if Morris Dancing is to be seen favourably, then flah mobbing is not the answer.

Subject: RE: Flash-mob Morris dancers at Olympics ?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 12 Dec 11 - 05:22 AM

Take your point, Arthur. I am old enough to remember when the Football League set a standard wage of £8 per week for all players in any League team: from Alex James & Clifford Bastin & Ted Drake & Stanley Matthews & Tommy Lawton downwards, every player earned the same. Big concession when a £1 per player match-winning bonus was intro'd.

And only amateurs were allowed in the Olympics; & in Wimbledon [which is why Pancho Gonzales, best player of the period, never won].

But, times move on; and alack&alas·the·day you reply.

And I will agree.

But there it is. Millions will nevertheless derive much delight from the Games for all the animadversions of BoringOldFarts like thee & me...

~Michael~

Subject: RE: Flash-mob Morris dancers at Olympics ?
From: GUEST,Enfield/Swindon Pete
Date: 12 Dec 11 - 05:38 AM

Lets face it the Olympics is just about corporate greed and excess (no change there then!). I don't really want the 'Morris' to debase itself and add encouragement to these costly games which have little to do with sport at all. The Morris has a long proud tradition which offers an alternative to the 'me me' greed society we live in. Lets not taint ourselves with this event and just carry on regardless with what we do best.

Subject: RE: Flash-mob Morris dancers at Olympics ?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 12 Dec 11 - 06:11 AM

I don't think we should be over-condemnatory of the Games. For all I said two posts back, I would not support the contention that they are 'JUST about corporate greed & excess'. Surely more to them than implied by that "just"? I think there is still as much praiseworthy sporting content, as much encouragement to young athletes, swimmers, players, to excel as ever there was. Do not let our disappointment at the way they have developed rob us of all appreciation of the manifold beneficial aspects of the exercise.

~M~

Subject: RE: Flash-mob Morris dancers at Olympics ?
From: Chris Partington
Date: 12 Dec 11 - 09:36 AM

We should shut up about getting Morris into the Olympics, or The Daily Mail might force it to happen. Its participants may turn out to be be minors chosen from Derek and Doris's Tap and X-Factor School, with principals from the Royal Ballet, and it will be choreographed up to its neck to put on as good a "spectacle" as Riverdance.
We will be left wishing that Dick Van Dyke had been the choreographer (see the Morris Dance scene in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I've always thought we could have a bit more of that).
This may raise the profile of Morris and encourage millions to take part but it won't any more be Morris as we know it, Jim. This may or may not be a good thing.
Be careful what you wish for or it may come true.

Subject: RE: Flash-mob Morris dancers at Olympics ?
From: ChrisJBrady
Date: 13 Dec 11 - 07:40 AM

In West London and for pensioners on restricted incomes the Olympics is such a NON-event. I even created a petition on Care2 about the less well-off being totally ignored. The ticketing was a fiasco (a scam?) and priced most (all?) pensioners out of the market. Corporate greed ensured many tickets went to the sponsors and their cohorts.

Obese promoting McDonalds is an official caterer for goodness sake.

Dow Chemicals which has links to the firm behind the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster is a major sponsor.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-15928767

Zil lanes will force normal traffic incl. black cabs off the superhighways, the limos using them even being fitted with radio devices to switch traffic lights to green.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14053010
http://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/16/zil-lanes/

The sop to pi$$ing off so many Londoners is the offer to become a volunteer. Hmm - but that still doesn't get you into any of the events though. And for those in West London transportation to wherever it is necessary to be a volunteer will be impossible - oh and you don't get any expenses paid either.

And the other fiasco / sop was the so-called Cultural Olympiad events over the last few years. Er - what events? None that I heard of even living in London. And none involving the folk scene.

The sooner this whole bl**dy fiasco is over the better. Had they made provision for pensioners I might have felt otherwise, but right now millions of us oldsters are well pi$$ed off with the whole shebang due to a feeling of total exclusion.

Subject: RE: Flash-mob Morris dancers at Olympics ?
From: Manitas_at_home
Date: 13 Dec 11 - 07:52 AM

I was in an event sponsored ny the Cultural Olympiad. It was a Tai Chi taster session so wasn't that cultural but should have been covered by a sports budget. Reading the local papers these things are bulding up.

Subject: RE: Flash-mob Morris dancers at Olympics ?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 13 Dec 11 - 10:53 AM

I believe that article is an attempt at humor. As an organization whose main activities are scaring people, ridiculing people and digging up scandal, they lack the deft touch needed for humor.

The editors prohibited the fart jokes which would have made all clear.

Subject: RE: Flash-mob Morris dancers at Olympics ?
From: Old Grizzly
Date: 13 Dec 11 - 01:02 PM

What olympics ??

have I missed something ??

Dave

Subject: RE: Flash-mob Morris dancers at Olympics ?
From: SteveMansfield
Date: 14 Dec 11 - 08:55 AM

Be careful what you wish for or it may come true.

Damn right. Morris needs involvement in the Olympics like a hole in the head.

I'm quite looking forward to watching some of the actual, you know, sport, that occasionally breaks out at Olympics in between all the commercial hawking and mendacious twaddle about 'legacy'; but I'd no more expect or desire Morris to get a decent airing at the Olympics than I would expect it to get on the X Factor or The Only Way Is Essex.

Subject: RE: Flash-mob Morris dancers at Olympics ?
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 14 Dec 11 - 08:11 PM

Flash mobs are not disruptive activities. Don't know where you get that idea.