Backstage pass: Closing Ceremonies

Yeah, yeah, the Olympics have been over for a week now. But I can't help it, I'm suffering from Olympic/Vancouver withdrawal. I yoinked a few photos from a friend who played in the Vancouver Youth Symphony Orchestra as part of the Closing Ceremonies. I promise this will be the last Olympic related thing I will post......for a while.

View from the VYSO

Cue inflatable beavers

Russian space zorb

Photos by Sally Kim

Monday Mix #30: Oh Canadia, redux

In honour of the Olympics and it being my thirtieth Monday Mix I've got an extended list of songs from some of my favourite Canadian artists both past and present. I posted a couple of mixes last year (here and here). The above photo of the cauldron is from here (sans chainlink fence....) Have a good Monday everyone!

Google doodles

These google doodles celebrating the 2010 Olympics are everything I love: gorgeous textures, subtle colours, quirky elements and clever type. I tried to find out who designed them but no dice, so if anyone knows anything more about them please let me know!

(For a look at past Olympic doodles from Google check here. These are by far my favourite)

I spy Australian Adrien Brody

Multicultural celebrity doppelganger I Spy is the best part about the Parade of Nations. (I also spied Polish Bruce Willis and French Patrick Dempsey).

(P.S. I'm trying to stagger my Olympic related posts since I know not everyone is as gung-ho about the Olympics as I am haha)

Holy opening ceremonies, Batman!

Seriously, highlight of the entire thing.

Swingin', swayin', and records playin'

An impromptu dance session broke out on Robson in Vancouver today. Spurred by the charity Imagine 1-Day, 2000 people were dancing in the street.

I want to go gondola-surfing

Seriously, if they let people do this for reals at Grouse, I would do it. It's sad that the weather is so crappy in this photo and you can't see the city (which, for those unfamiliar with Vancouver, would show how terrifying this must be). I still want to, though. I'm telling you, gondola surfing will be the new zipline. I'm gonna make it happen.

That is Michael Buble on the left fyi

More torch relay pictures here

So it's finally here! The Olympics! And while I am bummed to not be at home in Vancouver I am still super pumped that I get to see home 24/7 on the tv for the next two weeks. You can forward all mail for the next two weeks to Marisa, the chair in front of the tv.

(And if you could arrange for an owl to deliver my mail directly into my lap that would be great, too, thanks.)

2010 Olympic Medals

The designs for the 2010 Olympic winter games were revealed today and I am liking them for the most part. Designed by BC aboriginal artist Corrine Hunt and Vancouver designer Omer Arbel, the image on each medal is a cropping of a master image featuring an orca and a raven. I love the idea of the cropping being different on each medal so that each is truly one of a kind.

The only thing I am still not totally sold on is the wavy pattern. While I like the idea behind it (it represents the waves, mountains, and drifting snow), I still feel like it kind of looks like they kind of screwed up making one and decided to run with it.

119 days!

Yesterday I watched people chase a roll of cheese down a hill....

....among other things.

Yesterday was the Second Annual Canadian Cheese Rolling Festival. It sounded absolutely absurd (so, of course, I had to go). I figured that everyone would have their own roll of cheese and try and roll it down the hill. It turned out to be even better.

All the contestants, many of them dressed up in appropriately silly costumes, lined up at the top of the hill (it was a pretty mean hill, too) and there was one roll of cheese. The horn blew, the cheese was released and then the contestants followed running madly down the hill. There were big hay bails and some rugby players they had recruited to stand with padded blockers at the bottom to stop the momentum. It was ridiculously awesome. Many grassburns were garnered in the process.

(See that little white dot ahead of the pack? That's the cheese!)

Design redemption

I had pretty much given up on the Olympic promotional team for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. My reasons were three-fold:

Strike one: the horrendously hackneyed presentation at the closing ceremonies in Torino (seriously, they might as well have just had a moose walk across the stage).

Strike two: those disgusting uniforms for the Beijing games (I don't know if that had anything to do with the winter games but as they were also ambassadors for our country, I am pinning it on you guys anyways). Seriously, they looked like elaborate pyjamas.

Strike three: those mascots! As one friend put it when he first saw the mascots: "Oh, I thought those were leftover from Nagano."

However, I am a huge fan of the new Olympic posters for the Vancouver 2010 games and I have to say that they pretty much eradicate all previous design-wrongs committed by the promotional team. The colour scheme and patterning are beautiful and I hope that future Olympic promotional products are just as lovely.

(I am still peeved that I will be at school in Milwaukee while the games are here. Seriously, I am never in the right place at the right time!)