Feb
26
2010
Mon Feb 22 – Another Day in Paradise
Author: supsonDespite the entire country still being in a post-USA defeat hangover, it’s another flawless day in the mountains. It’s 6 degrees but expected to revert back to cloudy, cool and rainy tomorrow so I’ll savour this.
First thing I spotted when I arrived in Whistler today is the landing of this helicopter. I didn’t have any video camera at the ready, and I also don’t know what this is used for but it was pretty cool to watch it land. Maybe they were flying in some VIPs, maybe Devo?
One of the first calls we had today was down to the medical centre where they also do sample collection for anti-doping testing. No, we weren’t collecting specimens but I did notice something equally curious. You may have heard things from previous Olympics speculating about the free-trade-like promiscuous “international relations” of athletes. Well I’m here to tell you there must be something to that rumour because the medical staff said they have replenished this rather substantial supply more than once.
No word on if these are officially branded IOC sponsor product, or what role the Glamour magazine plays in all this.
Before heading over to do a “site visit” to Medals Plaza for the evening’s festivities we grabbed dinner. Right from my first day I noticed an admirable effort to fulfill the mandate of this being the most sustainable, greenest games of all time. This is BC after all, but aside from the usual recycling initiatives I wanted to highlight the compostable disposables specifically.
Of course, I thought of our pal Aron the moment I saw this. No idea who the supplier is, but it should have been Good Times brand!
There’s a great page on their website about all the great initiatives underway, and it’s not just VANOC tooting their own horn either, check out this article.
VANOC really are setting an example for future games by doing some good things for the region and province. Which makes it all the more perplexing why there were so many protests…we’ll just chalk it up to being another quirky trait of BC 
OK, that’s our public service announcement out of the way, onto the evening’s entertainment. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you…Devo! They actually handed out these awesome hats to some of the audience to ensure that mandatory Devo fashion accessory was well represented. Although likely not intentional, it sure coordinated nicely with our smurf jackets. If they’d have had white it really would have completed the smurf look (or original Devo red for Papa Smurf)
However, as you’ll hear them say in the intro to “Whip It”, red is dead -- blue is new baby!
As entertaining as Devo was, I’ll never be able to hear them perform without thinking of Weird Al Yankovic’s timeless 1985 classic “Dare To Be Stupid”:
Although not technically a “cover” there’s no denying the lineage and DNA of this great song is pure Devo.
Then on our way back after the show we were treated to a performance (can you call blowing a horn a performance?) in front of the Swiss House from the Ricola guy. And I do mean the actual Ricola guy, they were handing out samples. Ah, stereotypes.
To close out the night I was excited to capture this awesome pic of all the mascots together with their biggest fan. I was working on an entire post just on them since I’ve learned some of the “Olympic mascot protocols” but it would probably not of interest to anyone but me. If you feel otherwise, let me know and I’ll share their secrets!
