On the eve of the Beijing Olympics, I can’t help but trip over all of the mass media coverage from China and remember the sights and sounds of what I saw last October when I accompanied Cal Ripken to the Far East.
I could write for days about all of the unique sights and sounds of Beijing and the Chinese culture. It was a trip of a lifetime for me and I’m so glad I captured virtually every inch of it on video.
Right now, those videos are too long for my current wnsTV platform here, but I thought I’d provide you links. There are 10 videos (all between 7 and 10 minutes) in the platforn on YOU TUBE. And you can just type in CHINA and WNST into the search bar and you’ll find them quite easily.
I’m very proud of these videos and they capture all sorts of weird, peculiar things from baseball to the Great Wall to the houtongs of Beijing to the religious temples to the strange hawkers around Tiananmen Square selling Mao watches for $3. The Forbidden City was unforgettable and the luge at the end of the Great Wall video is something to see.
The videos of Cal Ripken teaching Chinese kids how to play baseball don’t suck either.
I hope you enjoy and feel free to drop me a line with feedback. I also have a few tickets for Friday night lying around as well for the asking.
Making all of the movies I do is a labor of love. I’ve been feeling a little nostalgic this week as WNST turns 10 years old and we’re doing our big celebration on Friday night at Sports Legends Museum.
The videos from China were some of the coolest work I’ve ever done in almost 25 years of doing journalism in Baltimore. My wife and John Maroon are in a lot of them. And really, Cal Ripken is the star of most of them. And of course, there’s Rick Maese from The Sun, who provided a ton of comedic relief on the trip. And the guys from Cal’s video crew were great to hang out with.
I’ve emailed Rick Maese a couple of times this week. He’s back in Beijing without me this time covering the Games for The Sun. I hope he has a great time!
And I hope you enjoy the videos I made almost nine months ago.
We’re going to really enjoy these Olympics because we saw most of the sights and sounds of Beijing.
I hope they have a safe set of games and I hope Michael Phelps and Katie Hoff do well representing my county and my city.
In between busting out my purple tomorrow night, I’ll also break out some red, white and blue over the next few weeks as well.
This is the most excited I’ve been for the Olympics in a long time…
