The Upsons

As a local paper here reported after day 1 of competition: “Monkey 1, Canada 0”, but no more.  The monkey is off our collective backs, the dragon has been slain and every other metaphor has been put to bed because Canada has won a Gold Medal on home soil!  Now that’s behind us we can continue racking up the victories.  More on the actual medal presentation but first some more scenes from another crazy day in Vancouver.

First order of business for me was to check out the cauldron.  If you haven’t heard, there’s quite a bit of controversy about the quantity and distance of protective fencing.

You would think they would at least put a “viewing window” in the fence and let people get some good pictures,.  However, given the level of violence that has occurred (if you haven’t seen the protesters smash the windows at said Bay, check it out here) but still, it’s not like there’s a shortage of police or security around that could guard the thing and let people get a little bit closer.  There are lots of rumblings that this will be changing in the coming days so stay tuned.  I found it interesting that I could smell the torch before I saw it.  Also note some my fellow smurf-jackets lingering under the torch, that’s a pretty good gig (but still not as good as being the personal Quatchi escort).

The other story getting huge press is The Bay.  Downtown Van was less busy on Monday than it was on Sunday but still a many hours long lineup to get into the souvenir shop.  Here’s the view from the outside, and the view from the inside where they’ve partitioned off the war-zone that is the Olympic shop.  I confirmed with them that the “Official” shop in Whistler has all the same exclusive things, let’s hope in the few days I’ve been away they’re not lined up out the door and cleaned out of stock up there as well.

From there I headed down to LiveCity in Yaletown which is a venue with a wide range of performers & exhibits.  The first thing I encountered right out front was the “human curling team”.  Possible future Halloween costume?  Classic.

After heading inside we were treated to a set from DJ Spooky.  He described how he was using all the flags of the world in his effects, here’s a clip I took while in line for the Panasonic pavilion.

In the Panasonic pavilion they were featuring a 3D home theatre system which was completely mind blowing.  I sort of thought this was just a bunch of hype but after seeing Avatar a while back and now witnessing this technology first hand on a home TV, this is definitely coming soon to a family room near you.  In fact, Panasonic said they’re releasing a 3D TV & 3D Bluray package in April, price TBD.  Lots of great content on display, but even better than seeing the Toy Story 3 trailer and Olympic highlights in 3D was a new Mascot video on the 103 inch screen, which is seen here in plain old 2D

The LiveCity venue also contained a “foods of the world” section, but I was amused at how similar they all looked except for their flags – more Olympic brand control at work.  Unfortunately they didn’t have a “World Tour” combo option.

Then the pinnacle of the day – the awarding of Canada’s first Gold medal to Alex Bilodeau.  Unfortunately I couldn’t attend in person this time but I did get to watch it with the masses out in the plaza right down the street which was really cool.

A few other minor curiosities I encountered along the way to note as well.  First, why are trailers all the way from Florida being used as souvenir stands for officially licensed Olympic merchandise?  I do like that pic of poor Quatchi carrying all Miga’s stuff though with him frowning and sweating.

And secondly, when did Tim Horton’s get coffee cup sleeves?  Are these special just for the Olympics or are these now available everywhere?  Furthermore, isn’t Roll Up The Rim to Win starting any day?  Now there’s a celebration!  And speaking of Tim Hortons, you’ve got to play Donut Sodoku, one of the greatest marketing promos I’ve ever witnessed.

So to recap…I’ve now observed first hand the first medals presented of the entire games, Canada’s first medals, and our first Gold.  That’s pretty impressive.

Then the day ended with my first disappointment of the games.  I headed over to Granville Island on the new Olympic LRT, which is on loan from Belgium and is effectively a moving advertisement for Bombardier.

Sadly, even though I showed up more than 2 hours before the doors were scheduled to open for Sloan the line was already beyond the 200 person capacity of the very small, intimate venue of the Atlantic House.  It would have been great to get in, but after seeing the crowds in the city the last few days I should have known better!  At least I had some Granville Island brew to keep my spirits up.

Final stop of the day – The Bay.  One would think that at 10 pm there couldn’t possibly still be lineups, right?  Wrong.  They’re open till midnight every day and there were still hundreds of people waiting to get in.  Time to open up a second “exclusive” location perhaps?  The entire city is rabid with Olympic fever, and it’s fantastic.

Tags: Medals, Vancouver
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Sunday we spent the entire day in downtown Vancouver taking in the madness.  I really think the whole world arrived this weekend, I’ve never seen anything like it.  I’ve been to Bangkok, Hong Kong and I’ve never seen the density of people like this.

There is so much to take in I could explore the city 12 hours a day and still not cover everything.  I’ve just resigned myself to the fact that no matter how hard I try I’m not going to see it all.  Some highlights from the city include:

An updated visit to the countdown clock.  This answers the question: “once the games begin, will it countdown to Closing Ceremonies or count up the number of days?”

There’s a free Zipline over one of the downtown parks where the skating rink is that I was hoping to do, but the lineup was over 5 hours yesterday so that may not be happening.  I’ll be checking back on this in the coming weeks though because it would make a really great video.

Also in the same park was a “ride to Sochi” tent where they are accumulating the miles on two stationary bikes so the 2010 games can “bike” to Russia for the 2014 games.  Here’s Zoe and Matilda doing their part:

Keeping with the theme of crowds and mobs, there is also a 3-4 hour lineup to get into the new Canadian Mint building.  This actually looks pretty cool since you get to see (and touch?) the actual medals, as well as something called “the Million Dollar coin”.  Didn’t Mr. Burns have one of those?  This is something else we’ll be coming back to try with hopefully less people.

After fighting through the crowds all day we needed to seek a refuge (and find a public washroom) so we retreated to the Vancouver Sun/Province building where Martin & Nikki work.  We popped upstairs to the 7^th floor to check out the view, and I’m happy to report that this shows Vancouver without clouds, rain or fog!

Then onto the highlight of the night…the Victory Ceremony.  As I mentioned, this is the nightly presentation of medals at Whistler and Vancouver, followed by some pretty impressive performers (Nelly Furtado on this night).  We had tickets to the event on Sunday which meant that not only was I fortunate enough to witness the first medals present for the entire games up at Whistler on Saturday, I now get to witness the first medals presented in Vancouver…and best of all, to Canada (Silver and Bronze).  Ideally this would have been a Gold Medal presentation, but still pretty awesome.

This first video shows some of the opening performances at the ceremony with some bollywood infused international flair

Followed by the presentation of our first medal to Jennifer Heil…and the camera battery died just in time!

And finally, in addition to seeing Stockwell Day in Starbucks, I also met some of Team Russia.

Another incredible day in the books.

Tags: Medals, Vancouver, Victory Ceremony
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Saturday night I had the very exclusive privilege of attending the first Victory Ceremony at Whistler Medals Plaza.  Every night of the games there are these “Victory Ceremonies” at Whistler and in Vancouver at BC Place where the medals for the day are awarded and some pretty impressive musical acts perform.  The one in Whistler Saturday night was extra special for a few reasons.  Not only was it was the initial ceremony that so it was the first medals presented of the games, it also featured the lighting of the Olympic cauldron up here at Whistler.  And I had a pretty impressive perspective, check it out.

First of all, the security is escalated big time now that things are officially underway.  This video shows the RCMP checking under cars coming into the village at certain checkpoints, and the next one is the VIP entrance to Medals Plaza that I get access to

Once inside, I was taking in some of the rehearsal of All-American-Rejects.  Recall that my video from the other day shows this stage still under construction so things have been moving at an insane pace.

That was before my shift started over in the International Media Centre (down at the other end of the village), but I made sure to head over for the start of the festivities.  As soon as I got inside I positioned myself right where I knew the action was going to happen.  Here’s the RCMP coming out to raise the flags for the medals ceremony and a self portrait of me with them

The first order of business was to light the torch at Whistler, with a good intro from John Furlong, VANOC CEO.  I was asleep at the wheel and missed the actual ignition of it – they lit a fuse from the stage that shot across the plaza and lit the torch right above me – d’oh.

Then it was time to raise the Olympic flag.  Again, I’m standing right with the RCMP on this one.

Then the main course, the presentation of the first medals of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games!!!  Sadly I only had the video from our camera and not the actual good video camera (double d’oh).  The only way this could have been better is if there was a Canadian medal…

Then the pinnacle of the evening.  Just look at the picture to see who else was right with me at the ceremony!  Cross the #1 priority off my list, but this will not be the last time I hang with Miga and Quatchi I can assure you.  Then I followed them backstage to the staff exit and headed back for my shift.

All in all an amazing night and an incredible experience.

Tags: Behind the scenes, Medals, Victory Ceremony, Whistler
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