Great minds thinking alike for Beijing 08082008

For months I've been toying with the idea of creating a blog that would take advantage of my having so many friends who live abroad or who are constantly moving around the globe one hotel at a time for business reasons, as well as my own longtime fascination with China, and examine how China chooses to deal with the social and political ramifications of hosting tens of thousands of visitors for next year's Olympics, both in theory, and the messy reality which will likely be very different from their plans.
I think Bob Costas will have a lot to talk about that is not particular pleasant or pleasing to the Chinese Communist party and their govt. functionaries.

Just as I came up with the blog name SouthBeachHoosier for reasons that should strike you as perfectly self-evident if you've read any of my my past entries, and know that I grew-up in South Florida and went to college at Indiana University during one of the great eras of IU history, by looking at some of my foreign policy and advertising blog links, you'll also have a hint of an idea that I've long been fascinated by the intersection of commerce, sports and politics, which will be Beijing writ large starting this fall, as we become evermore aware of advertising campaigns that have both official corporate sponsorships and those that try to hug the line for next summers two-week Olympics in Beijing, which, if you hadn't thought about it yet, will be the lead in to the two national political conventions:

August 25th-28th, 2008: Democratic National Convention in Denver, CO
September 1st-4th, 2008: Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN

I had planned on creating a site called Beijing08082008, the starting date of the Games.

But as it got closer and closer to August 8th, and my, in hindsight, very stupid idea for inaugurating it exactly one year prior, naturally, someone beat me to the punch.
Fortunately, it's not one of those godawful siteholder sites, full of ads or junk that makes you think what a great waste of a name.
Instead, the person at http://beijing08082008.blogspot.com/ has at least some ideas similar to mine, with a focus on covering aspects of the architecture of the stadia.

Haven't read enough of their posts so far to be sure how serious it will be in terms of the specific issues I'm interested in, per se, as it affects the Games, but for now at least, it's a building block for you to be aware of -and has some great photos!
When I come up with my second-best name for a Beijing 2008 blog name, I'll let you know here.
The official English language website for the Beijing Olympics is located at
http://en.beijing2008.cn/

I've been receiving the email newsletters from the London 2012 Olympic organizers for a few months now, so if you'd like to see some of the really fascinating things they're doing -soon to be redoing their website- go to http://main.london2012.com/

I definitely plan on being in London for that, perhaps, even to watch my very talented nieces compete.