Ah Paris, the City of Light or Love (take your pick) has starred as much as the sports during the Games of the 33rd Olympiad. If you’ve got it, why not flaunt it? The next Summer Olympic instalment will be held in LA, so at the closing ceremony Hollywood royalty Tom Cruise fittingly flew into the Stade de France to symbolise the handover, later cutting to the Red Hot Chilli Peppers playing in front of Venice Beach. A sign of the glitz and glam to come.
And post LA28, the world will excitedly cast its eyes to ...
my hometown, Brisbane. Yep, Paris, LA, Brisbane. Hmm, doesn’t quite have the same je ne sais quoi but what it lacks in iconography it more than makes up for in spirit, and I’m not talking about Bundaberg Rum.
I love Brisbane. I’m from Brisbane, some of my best friends are from Brisbane. Admittedly, I don’t live there any more, but I’ll be there to celebrate when my home city is up in lights and perhaps, finally, worthy of its nickname, Brisvegas.
Now we just need to work out what are we going to showcase that compares to Paris. Our own mini Eiffel Tower on Park Road outside La Dolce Vita restaurant? Should we fire up the Stefan sky needle ? Give the CityCats a buff and polish? I think any Brisbane Olympics organiser watching Paris is shaking in their RMs. Can we really compete on the world stage? “Nah, yeah?” reckons my mum.
Brisbane is a city of 2.3 million people, but that’s increasing every year because of “all the bloody southerners moving here.