I was excited that I made the cut to purchase Olympic tickets. I was studying the website, trying to get up to speed so I wasn’t fumbling around on my day to buy.
Where was track and field? Oh, they refer that as athletics. Weird. What’s the difference between artistic gymnastics and rhythmic gymnastics. I just knew I wanted to watch regular gymnastics, not the kind with balls and flags.
Team sports. That was a tricky one. There was no way to tell what country you’d be watching. I’m a big fan of basketball and volleyball, but no offense to Albania or Kiribati, but I have no desire to drop money on tickets to watch you guys play. Team sports were out.
When my time arrived, I was a little disappointed at the selection and prices. The sports I wanted to watch were slim pickens. The only tickets that were available were over $250 for preliminary completion. Finals, forget about it. Some were easily over a thousand bucks.
There were other random sports where tickets were more reasonable, but not reasonable enough to drop a hundred bucks (minimum) to watch. Actually, make that two hundred for an additional ticket for my wife. Do I really want to watch water polo or judo for $200 – $300? Not really. But I did want to see something. I decided to pick up a few tickets to handball and field hockey for 30 bucks a ticket. It’s random, I know. But why the hell not. It’s the Olympics. And who knows, it just might be fun.
The last time the summer Olympics was in Los Angeles was 1984. I looked up the top 100 songs for that year. Turns out this was from a limited informal survey with no credible data or science to back up the results. I did find many of the songs already made my playlist and found one song I hadn’t heard in ages. Here is Eighties by Killing Joke.
Nirvana copied the guitar riff on their 1991 hit “Come As You Are.” It’s a pretty blatant rip-off and Killing Joke considered legal action, but after Kurt Cobain died, they dispensed with any thoughts of a lawsuit. Dave Grohl and Jaz Coleman later became good friends, and Grohl played drums on the 2003 self-titled Killing Joke album.
Yeah, I hear the similarities between the two. Before we cry foul, it turns out Killing Joke may have ripped off the riff from the Damned’s Life Goes On. I’m sure the Damned also stole it from someone else. But to us non-musician normal folk, we really don’t care. A good song is a good song.
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For a complete playlist, please click here.
For the Spotify playlist, please click here.
Eighties - I'm living in the eighties
Eighties - I have to push, I have to struggle
Eighties - get out of my way, I'm not for sale no more
Eighties - let's kamikaze 'til we get there
And we sang
You do it this way
Eighties - by day we run by night we dance, we do
Eighties - I'm in love with the coming race
Eighties - I've got the best, I'll take all I can get
Eighties - I'm living for the eighties
Eighties - I'm living in the eighties - I push
Eighties - I'm living
Eighties - I'm living in the eighties - I struggle
Eighties - I'm living
Eighties - I'm living
Eighties - I'm living in the eighties
Eighties - I'm living in the eighties - I push
Eighties - push, push, struggle
Eighties - I'm living
Eighties - eighties - I'm living
Eighties - I'm living in the eighties - I push
MyGenXerLife 
Congratulations on scoring Olympic tickets! As you said, I think it’s cool that you’re just going to any Olympic event.
Personally, I was excited that I got picked for the Savannah Bananas ticket lottery for when they come to Detroit 😆
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I had no idea who they were and had to look them up. That looks pretty entertaining.
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It’s pretty crazy how popular their tickets are. I’m a MLB fan myself, so I don’t really need the extra “bells and whistles“ but I know that a lot of people find baseball boring.
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I used to think baseball was slow until I figured out the game better. I like small ball. Manufacturing runs is pretty fun to watch.
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Random, but actually fun choices! Congrats. Also at first I read “water polo judo” as one event. hehee
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I’ve loved this song forever. I never heard the Nirvana thing. I never really got the Boston ‘Teen Spirit or the Green Day Dillinger Four thing either. There’s only so many chords. Still. Killing joke. WHAT A FRIKKIN’ BAND!
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I listened to the Boston overlay. I thought it was pretty fun, but maybe a stretch. When I listened to Boston alone, I couldn’t really hear it.
I found this YouTube video about Green Day. There seems to be a lot of similarities with a bunch of songs. Personally, I think it’s interesting, but don’t really care much. I still like Green Day.
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Love that list of 1984 hits—I have so many memories with that soundtrack. I can hear the Nirvana thing for sure. I think LA 1984 was the Mary Lou Retton Olympics. Too bad you couldn’t land gymnastic tickets, but I’m glad you’re going. So cool!
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Mary Lou! I was gunning for track & field, swimming and gymnastics. But do was everybody else! I think there may be another round for tickets. Let’s see if i make the cut again.
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At least some tickets aren’t outrageous
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The random events. But that’s ok. It’ll be fun.
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You will enjoy watching the handball. It’s so much fun! Congrats on buying the Olympics tickets! My son wants to go to the World Cup. I looked up the tickets and OMG! They’re $900 for best seats and over $300 for the furthest seats. And it adds up with flight, hotel, Uber, etc.
So I’ve decided to throw a pizza party for him and his friends to watch his favorite matches at home.
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Pizza party should be fun! Great thinking!
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I remember the ’84 Olympics. I can’t believe we’re that old! Best to watch it from home, you get the best seats in the house 😁
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We are old! I almost bought cricket tickets until I found out it is played in Pomona, mid day in July. I think I’ll melt. No thank you!
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Yeah, I’m with you on that. You would definitely melt in Pomona.
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“Riffs ‘R Us” 😂 Funny how much lifting… or “inspiration” goes around.
I once watched Jack Nicklaus hit a golf ball. It went about 150 yards and I thought it would descend. Instead, it got a second wind and rose higher. A third time, a third lift. Probably 400 yards. I was reading about similarities between the Beach Boys “In my room” and the Beatles “This boy”… that ascending harmony… and how the borrowee was irritated yet flattered by the borrower. It reminded me somehow of Jack’s drive. These kinds of things to me are so interesting 😎🎶
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Ah, I like that comparison – the extra lifts. And yeah, there should also be a little flattery to ease the other side, especially if it’s a good song.
I’m not a golfer, but grew up hearing about “the bear” on Sunday sports tv. Very cool you saw him play. I always thought of him as a class act.
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Your comments remind me of the last Olympics in Paris, just across the Channel.
I was inspired to write a couple of posts the second of which directly relates to the dilemma you have found yourself in entitled “Should The Olympic Games Be Open To All Spectators?“Its still an ambition of mine to view the Olympics live but whether I’ll ever get the opportunity is yet to be seen.
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I’m getting up there in years and figure this may be my last chance to see the Olympics. Even through we got random events, I’m still looking forward to it. There’s going to be a second round for tickets, hopefully I’ll get in earlier and more affordable tickets will be available.
I clicked the link and it was having a difficult time loading. I’ll have to go direct to your blog to read it!
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I hope you have better success second time around with tickets. It still annoys be that public ballots are not made available fro the key events. With the next Olympics in Brisbane I think its highly unlikely now that I’ll ever get there!
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