Granville Street during the Olympics

Vancouverites, I think we can be proud of ourselves for successfully throwing a pretty seriously good party. There were a few hiccups early, such as the morons who broke the windows of The Bay during their protest, but thankfully there was no hooliganism let alone a riot like in 1994 the last time there was a hockey game of such importance in this city. Normally there is a pretty big yahoo quotient in this city during big events. Maybe the yahoos were still all downtown but they weren’t as concentrated, they were diluted because of all the tourists who were respectful of the city and made for a good vibe rather than a shit-show like Granville Street often is on any weekend evening.

There was worry, a niggling doubt, that it would be a little too Canadian, which is to say not nearly sophisticated or worldly enough to be as memorable and critically acclaimed as its Olympic predecessor in Beijing in 2008.

But it became clear, from the first few seconds of Friday’s 2010 Olympic Winter Games opening ceremony in Vancouver’s BC Place Stadium, that we needn’t have worried.

Turns out, Canada knows how to strut its stuff, from the glass, fire and ice and rain and thunder to a magnificent flaming cauldron, a stunning thematic spectacle that transformed BC Place Stadium into a winter wonderland to the superstar performers, like Bryan Adams and Sarah McLachlan and k.d. lang, to the ballet and tap dancers, to the aerialists to the brash young snowboarders who kicked off the event to the icebergs and fantastic fiddlers, to the moving aboriginal dancers in their glorious traditional costumes and falling snow.

Source ↑ www.vancouversun.com/…

V.c » The 2010 Olympic opening ceremony may have been a half hour too long, but it was pretty darn good. Many a great moment filled with lots of Canadians to be proud of. I would have to say that k.d. Lang singing Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah was the highlight of the night. My seven year old daughter sings that song so it has a special place in the family. Also, today we were driving down Davie Street and she was wondering why the garbage cans were painted pink so I tried to explain to her that sometimes boys like boys instead of girls and sometimes that colour represents … Then along came k.d. in her white suit and  having to explain that sometimes girls wear suits like boys and then again the questions and explanations about who likes who. I should have just said that fairies (no pun intended, she still believes in the fairy world) came along and magically turned the garbage cans pink just for the Olympics.

Anyway, the opening ceremony production crew must have been shitting their pants when the hydraulics on the cauldron apparatus started malfunctioning with Rick, Nancy, Catriona, Steve and Wayne all standing there with their torches ready to make a fire. Who wants perfection, from our flaws comes character.

Just like there was no stopping the torch relay there is no stopping the Olympics. Opening Ceremony goes tonight. Might as well enjoy the party, the bitching can commence when it’s time to clean up and pay the bill.

This was the scene at Broadway and MacDonald. I am guessing the bearer of the torch was Tracy Wilson, a former figure skater. It would have been fun to carry the torch, but I am glad wasn’t one of the people in the entourage who had to dance like a fool on a Coke truck trying to stoke the crowd.

Vancouver Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo will play for Canada at the 2010 Winter Olympics, it was announced this morning.

And Cranbrook native Scott Niedermayer of the Anaheim Ducks is the team’s captain. He is one of four B.C.-based blueliners on Team Canada, the others being Shea Weber (Sicamous), Brent Seabrook (Tsawwassen) and Duncan Keith (Penticton).

New Jersey Devils goalie Martin Brodeur and Pttsburgh Penguins netminder Marc-Andre Fleury are the other two goalies selected by executive director Steve Yzerman and his staff.

“We feel we have a team that will make Canadians proud,” Yzerman said at a news conference for the team’s unveiling.

Source ↑ www.vancouversun.com/…

V.c » Oh yeah, bring on the Olympic Ice Hockey. As Luongo is our local representative on the Canadian team they better play him in more than one token game against some lesser opponent or worse make him the third stringer as some of our eastern media have suggested. Guess they don’t ever stay up late enough to watch the western games. Sure he isn’t always perfect, but when he is on, he is seriously on. And need we remind  you of Luongo beating Brodeur 5-2 in New Jersey at the beginning of December.

Of course we will be cheering for the Canadian team the loudest, but it will also be great to see some of the other Canuck representatives; the Sedins who should have a prominent role with the Swedes, the pesky Kesler with the Americans, Salo and Erhoff with the Finns and Germans and of course Demitra, remember him, with the Slovaks. I wonder if Hansen will play for the Danes, do they even have a team at the Olympics?

The Official Theme song of the Vancouver Whistler 2010 Olympic Games

Geoff Berner sings a swan song for the under-represented at the future site of the 2010 olympic village in Vancouver, British-Columbia. A small featurette excerpted from a film I’m working on that will boast a cameo from our favourite Klezmer revivalist.

Watch ↑ www.youtube.com/…

V.c » Okay, I don’t think this is the real official theme song of the Vancouver Whistler 2010 Olympic Games, but I’m sure some of you will appreciate it if you have a wry sense of humour and don’t work for Vanoc.

Some people in Vancouver are wondering, as the marijuana capital of Canada gears up to host the 2010 Winter Games. The silver and white torch, when lit, reminds them of a marijuana cigarette, giving new meaning to the games’ motto of aiming “higher.”

“It’s white, there’s the fire, and there’s its irregular size that’s wide in the middle and thin on both ends,” said Jonathan Mercier, 27, a tourist from Montreal. He’s not surprised that the torch is being dubbed the “Olympic toke.”

…

Comedian Jimmy Kimmel, on his late-night television program May 21, poked fun with a doctored photograph purportedly showing gold-medal swimmer Michael Phelps smoking the torch. Jim Rome lampooned the torch in a commentary on ESPN television May 21.

Source ↑ www.bloomberg.com/…

More Info ↑ www.vancouver2010.com/…

V.c » I missed this one when it first came out, but it is too good for me not to post here. Apparently 80 people at Bombardier worked on this thing and not one of them realized that this torch design was more representative of the Marijuana Olympics than the Winter Olympic Games. Ouch. Anyway, if you are an entrepreneurial pot-smoker (or is that an oxymoron?) then perhaps you can come up with a product that ties in the olympic torch and pot smoking paraphernalia and sell it here on the black market. You could probably even come up with some sort of cross-promotional strategy with your local pot dealer who will undoubtedly be extra busy during the Olympics.

In case you hadn’t seen this depiction of the Vancouver Olympic iconography that has been making the rounds I thought I would put it up here. We don’t want to scare off any would-be tourists who want to come here and spend their money and help pay for the Games by buying t-shirts and stuffies and crap with the Vancouver 2010 iconography emblazoned on it, but maybe this will give us some street cred with residents of other large cities that have gang issues. A little turf war or whatever it is that has been going on here for the past few months shouldn’t scare people off from visiting during the Olympics but maybe it will give them second thoughts about moving here and that is a good thing. Vancouver is like a teenager that has grown way too fast and now needs to mature and get used to its new frame and regain its coordination.