News again from St Mo-Rich

[White Fox]

St Moritz is back again.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/player/nol/newsid_7220000/newsid_7221400

 

Some pretty neat photos in there.

 

W

 

Edit: Worker 11811 -- Shortened link.

[auzmink]

WF, notice how dressed down the reporter is, and how some of her conversation is almost anti-money. I personally think this is a classic BBC anti-class report that does nothing for reporting but is more 'stirring'.

 

Nice images, shame we had to have the reporters negative blurb.

 

Auzmink

[Guest]

it sucks that they don't have a quicktime media player option... I can't view the video!!! darn.....

[Worker 11811]

There are SO many other video options besides WMV and Real! And not just QuickTime either!

 

They could have chosen MPEG, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.263, H.264, Sorensen or about a half-dozen others. ALL of which would be cross-compatible with both Real Player and Windoze Media Slayer, PLUS any other media player you can throw at it!

 

Simply by using only WMV, they literally cut off about 20-30 percent of their available market!

 

Stupidity!

 

[Joe]

I think they hired some intern to do it, an intern who had limited knowledge of what was available. They probably used PCs in their offices, and spent less than an hour on it. That's what happens when you delegate. Quality suffers.

 

Interesting scene at St. Moritz. The word is that it's not truly this big mass of "super-rich" at all, just regular somewhat affluent people who have always wanted to put on a big fur, drink champagne and hob-knob around in flashy clothes! The true elite, you've got to remember, avoid big, showy public events like the plague if they're not in showbiz or promoting some product. A lot of them consider things like this 'tacky', or 'nouveau-riche'. Many of them consider it the domain of American hip-hop stars or Russian oligarchs.

 

Speaking of which. The new crowd of wealthy folks that have been reported to move in are mainly new billionaires from Russia. And what's synonymous with rich Russians in the winter? Big furs, of course! St. Moritz and its winter goings-on are right up their alley...this means big fur sightings for us, but an imbalance of the traditional and the 'bizarre' in St. Moritz.

 

I believe that the true St. Moritz elite is hidden from view, possibly still wrapped in sables and chinchillas...but behind closed doors guarded by former martial arts instructors. I think a lot of the regular year-round residents are moving out because 'Old St. Moritz' is changing, holding its appeal of 30-50 years ago only for a dwindling few. The rest are upper-middle class people who really couldn't care less if they're published in 'society'.

 

The actual races, believe it or not, are quite affordable. I almost went last year, but had to fly to the States instead for work.

 

One of these days...

[Worker 11811]

Never let it be said that I bitch about something without offerning a solution!

 

Try this direct link to the video:

mms://a1317.v373742.c37374.g.vm.akamaistream.net

 

It is still in WMV format. Sorry, I can't convert it without spending a fair bit of time on it. HOWEVER, you can now access the video directly with the media player of your choice.

 

If you have the "Flip4Mac" video codecs installed in your computer, QuickTime should play it without problems.

 

http://www.flip4mac.com/

 

You can also play the video with VideoLAN player. It is available for FREE at:

 

http://www.videolan.org/

 

Hope this works out better!

 

P.S.: Some nice furs in that video!