In Other World Cup Action....

... no one is more surprised than me
to find me giving a damn
about another sporting event. 

nonetheless, the World Cup
has turned up big in my mirror.
i even bet $10 on proline
and lost badly.

it's nice to have a thing outside
the day-to-day with my crazy
old man we can both just swear
at and have a beer to...

it's pretty interesting, really. 

i had no idea there was
so much opera in it.

and when you've grown up
trying to score on a net
that's 4 feet high and six feet wide,
it takes a while to appreciate how someone could miss a net
that's 24 feet wide
and 8 feet high.

it's great to see so many people in Africa, and all over the world, rejoicing every day.

it beats thinking about the fait accompli of the G8/G20 billion dollar weekend too...especially when it's just up the road from here, and just down the road from here...


and the Gusher in the Gulf
BP situation was kind of eating
my brain. and it will still
be happening after
the World Cup.

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.

meanwhile, back at the academy...

many people would agree with the idea
of a healthy mind in a healthy body,
but the valuation here seems
a little out of whack to me...

... maybe it's just the meds.

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My Little Gold Olympic Scrapbook

 the 2010 Winter Olympics

STFU!

you know what i wish? i wish there was a way to mute out any given bunch of commentators and just hear the sound one would hear in that rink, or on that hill- the edges of the skis on the snow, skates on ice, picks hitting the boards...

i wish the commentators would shut up once in a while. it's like the ancient fear from the early days of radio about 'dead air' and people touching that dial have become embedded in the DNA of media culture... 

but perhaps now that people are watching colour images on giant screens in HD, it's possible that people might not change the channel because they don't hear someone talking for 10 seconds.

... especially when the odds are that voice is repeating something that's already been said 6 or 7 times in the last half hour.

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My Little Gold Olympic Scrapbook

the 2010 Winter Olympic Games

as seen from a distance

Tonight's episode-
Meditations on Ice & Hockey

as i write this, there are some kind of intimidated as in psyched-out Finnish* women on the ice with Canadian women playing hockey.
 

the first goal is scored by the Canadians and it is beautiful hockey. around the back, perfect backhand pass right on the tape and it's done like dinner.

these women have a good understanding of that Olympic fundamental- we are here to know the best.



_________________________

did i say Euro-rules out loud? was i supposed to mean Olympic Rules? it's one of those great divides. Europeans seem to feel the way we play hockey is closer to barbarism than the Marquis of Queensbury.

To many Canadians, EuroHockey Rules read like something that bubbled up from some EEC sub-committee on Sport in a basement in Belgium somewhere.
 

EuroRules, seen from this end of the kaleidoscope, can be filed under The UnNeccessary, The Aggressively Lame and How Much of That Did You Drink?


___________________

IT may or may not be OUR GAME, and I don't know which is worse. THIS - these Olympic games - is not our game, and no one should be surprised if from time to time, something is lost in translation.

It was good to hear the Great One today, as opposed to seeing him in a million cutaway shots. he was on CTV, sitting in that beauty room down by the bay and the Wayner is reminding me of that Aislin cartoon- the one that ran after Rene Levesque and the PQ were elected

where Rene's standing there with a coffee and a smoke looking right at you and saying "OK- everybody take a valium".

more aislin

__________________________


so how much do-re-mi does Sam the Sham
see when they play Wooly Bully
for 20 seconds before
the next face-off?

______________________________

it's a real relief to have the logo situation on the boards
and in the ice sorted, however briefly.

i can't help it. i grew up playing hockey when boards were white. logos were found by the scoreboard, around the pay phone and in the dressing rooms, not on the boards, and not in the ice.

is Olympic life what it used to be like in the Soviet?

one big logo?


________________________________________



so where did this "Own the Podium" crap come from?

was it the same past-their-prime vunderkinder
who came up"the Best Place on Earth"
for British Columbia?

it smells like the same team spirit to me.

perhaps we can dial the whole thing down
a little for the next one?

"Time-Share the Podium"

you heard it here first. 

dibs.

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My Little Gold Olympic Scrapbook

The 2010 Winter Olympics 

we may have found a cure for 'Annoying Olympic Announcer Syndrome!

 

APTN rules! 
we are watching cross-country and the announcer is speaking Dene. i have never listened to someone speak in Dene for half an hour. it reminds me of sitting at a sunny cafe, drinking espresso and ouzo in Spetse watching the fishermen get ready to put their boats out at dawn. 

there is something very relaxing to me about listening to people speaking together in a language you don't really understand. the disappearance of words as information makes language into music, and lets you dial up another sense or two.

The 2010 Winter Olympics 

STFU

you know what i wish?
 

i wish there was a way to mute out any given bunch of comentators and just hear the sound one would hear in that rink, or on that hill- the edges of the skis on the snow, skates on ice, pucks hitting the boards...

i wish the commentators would shut up once in a while.
it's like the ancient fear from the early days of radio about 'dead air' and people touching that dial have become embedded in the DNA of media culture...

but perhaps now that people are watching colour images on giant screens in HD, it's possible that people might not change the channel because they don't hear someone talking for 10 seconds.

especially when the odds are that voice is repeating something that's already been said 6 or 7 times in the last half hour.

The 2010 Winter Olympics 

DAY 5

 

finally curling!

Russia and the USA, women's teams, and it comes down to the last rock on the last end. wow!
after the frenetic over-medicated commentaries of some of the other sports, it's a pleasure to hear quiet, under-stated intelligent voices.

the pace of the game is steady and the intensity is a slow burn that builds end by end. there are also, suddenly, more brunettes than there were on the ski hills.

*** 

hockey! switzerland! shoot-out!

 

it was a great game. what a pleasure to watch people play hockey like it matters again. what a pleasure to see teams play very different styles instead of usual NHL generic whatever...

one of the big advantages the Swiss brought to the ice was their ability to play the rules and the refs.  their sense of how far they could push that edge and when was much keener than anyone's on Team Canada. sure, the Swiss took more penalties, but they should have had 3 times as many.
did they know all along they had little to fear from the Canadian power play?

the Canadian team stayed pro, and refused to be baited, but the Swiss played their edge well and stayed competitive despite their B level offense. 

both goalies were brilliant, but Hiller was half the reason it wasn't a Canadian cakewalk. he was hot all night long, and the Swiss got a couple of lucky bounces - like a slapshot that was going way wide until it hit a Canadian skate and turned into the tying goal. 

the shoot-outs were weird... none of the shooters seemed to have clue one about what they were doing before they got to the crease at either end, until Crosby's second try...

even before that pretty shot, though, the controversy was already underway.

why weren't we creaming these guys?

what the hell?

- hmmmm... maybe the 'experts' have their heads stuffed so far up their own podiums that they had no idea how good the Swiss team actually is?
- maybe the fact that the US team only beat them 3-1 should have been a wake-up call?
- maybe... just maybe, if we didn't start from the idea that Gold is 'ours' by some divine right, and chauvinist crap like "It's Our Game" and "Own the Podium", it might be easier to imagine someone else playing well and/or getting a lucky bounce (like Swiss goal #2)?

when you start by assuming we're number one, there's no way to win. the best one can do is a tie, and the odds of a Major Fail go through the roof.

you're also more likely to miss the fact that you got to see a great game of hockey last night, with more excitement in a period than you'll get in month of Saturday nights during the regular season and hey... Canada won.

***

Canada, hockey, Swiss, Switzerland, Olympics, 2010, curling, skating, gold, bronze, silver, Vancouver,

My Little Gold Olympic Scrapbook 3

The 2010 Winter Olympics 

DAY 3

it's a good thing there were helicopters available and money was no object this month or we might have been doing these games in the mud. 
coming as these games do - in the wake of Canada welching out on Kyoto, and our shameful performance in Copenhagen -

am i the only one who thinks there's something funky in the fact that we are now hosting a winter Olympics in the spring? 

 ***

who's got game?
if you're talking to me, i'm saying Latvia. holy doodle - watching their men's hockey team go head to head with Russia was one of those sports moments that redeems the olympics for me.
i don't think there was ever any question about who was going to win, but the Latvians just kept coming, and coming and coming.
and they kept coming back all the way to the end of the game- never giving an inch and making the Russians earn every step.
thanks for a great game, guys. you rock!

 ***

and talking about game...

 

why are people getting on the case of the Canadian women's hockey team?
it seems some people have an issue with them winning big... what in my youth we would have called 'creaming' their opponents so far.

meanwhile, the US women's team say right out loud that they deliberately turned down their game so they wouldn't score so many goals in a similar situation.

when did it turn into 'a bad' to work hard
and build a great team?

a great team should play their best every time they step on the ice. if they do that, then win or lose, they're still a great team. it is not "more sporting" to hold back - it is the antithesis of 'sporting'. 
it is not a kindness- it is condescending and patronizing, a pink warm and fuzzy kind of contempt. 

i'd rather get creamed than be an object
of pity. at least when you get creamed,
it's honest.

 ***

what is up with those Royal Bank ads? why is a company who has actually supported Canadian Olympians for so running such incredibly lame ads?

they look like the sort of thing you'd see between the whistle and the face-off on a scoreboard, not in HD... a Smurfy Tribute to Magritte.
 

***

what comes between me and figure skating i think is that it's so Euro-classical. i know this is a lot of people's cup of tea, and i'm not suggesting that i want it off earth now, but i'm also not going to get into it anytime soon.

that Euro-classical thing is locked into a definition of excellence that doesn't elude me so much as vex me.

it comes out in high relief when in the context of downhill skiing - every bit as competitive, but not nearly so much about a belief in both the possibility and the desirability of control as it is about flying... pushing closer to where the edge might be, closer to it than anyone else. 

snowboarding requires every bit as much consciousness of one's body and of space as figure skating, but all the competitors look like they are having fun. i think they are, and it makes boarders fun to watch, regardless of their nationality.

in that, it's the antithesis of the Euro-classical tradition. it's a new world sport.
a new world attitude.

and the beat goes on....

Latvia, Russia, hockey, Olympics, Canada, women, sportsmanship, win, lose, gold, silver, bronze, podium, Kyoto, snow, Vancouver, BC, Olympics, 2010

My Little Gold Olympic Scrapbook 2

The 2010 Winter Olympics 

DAY 2

if Day 1 was all about 'expectations', on Day 2 there seems to be a course correction.  the word today seems to be something like  "goodie-goodie". there are so many Moms onscreen and so much "gee whiz, you know everyone's a winner if they try their best" from the commentators that i have to switch over to The First 48 for 2 hours to keep from going into a diabetic coma.


 

i miss the cbc, but i think letting CTV bid them out on these games was a good call. 

as Fortuna would have it, these games are now a party we can't afford happening while millions of people in Haiti need water and food and shelter desperately. when they are over in 10 days or so, the BC government's recent cultural clearcut will go into full effect and the hangover begins. doing a good job on these games would be putting a spit shine on the ones who did this in BC, our president-for-life and their fellow travellers.
 
CTV's coverage is already making me cross and it's only day two. it's like watching actors do Canadian reality TV - too high-pitched or way too Nice, and nothing in the middle but damp air. except for the guys who sound like they've been seconded from the wrestling channel. they just always sound the same.

 

part what's making me cranky is Too Much Skating. prime time seems like nothing but skating. figure pairs, figure solo, speed skating 5 metres, speed skating 100 metres. skates, skates, skates. whatever. 

stay tuned...

My Little Gold Olympic Scrapbook

The 2010 Winter Olympics
are finally here!

after so many years of planning and waiting
and spending and hype, the Games have begun! 

it seems like a dream... and though I'm no fan of corporate culture, I am a big fan of people who work hard and try hard and so I'm watching more TV in a day than I usually do in a week... fascinated by the passion and energy of the athletes competing, and notably less impressed by the presentation...

these events always go by so quickly, I wanted to keep my own journal of observations and special memories... there have already been so many!

DAY 1

well thank god buddy won that frickin' gold, eh? i thought the whole country was going to pop a blood vessel if it didn't happen PDQ. he seems like a good man, and his love for his brother is really inspiring. i'm glad the rest of the athletes in red and white can now play their own game without that hanging over them all.

but i sure would have appreciated having The Moment last a little longer it did before VISA was running The Moment as a feel good commercial moment, putting themselves between The Moment and i. unseemly haste. sometimes, just because we have the technology doesn't mean we should...

 ***

it seemed Day 1's word was "expectations". i'm not sure if that was or is the mood of the country, or if it's only the commentators who are suddenly so shallow.

Vancouver, Olympics, winter, 2010, Canada, sports, gold, silver, bronze,
skiing, hockey, luge, downhill, skating

- and on to DAY 2! -

The 2010 Olympics in Vancouver

 ... I used to live in Canada's Olympic City,
but I don't anymore.
I made this graphic and wrote the guide
while construction fever was at its zenith...

Guide to 2010 graphique

The Blue Dollar

“Them that’s got shall get, them that’s not shall lose,
So the Bible said, and it still is news”
Billie Holiday - God Bless The Child

This is the Blue Money. They are always first at the table.
It’s their table. Way out in front on this since pre-get-go.
Before you knew there might be a bid, they had revenue
projections to 2012.

Is that a problem?


The Golden Dollar
The new tigers. A Rainbow Coalition of finance.
Gen X inheristinas,  who golf with DVBIA up-and-comers
and other pick of the peak achievers from hoods to hell
and gone all over the GVRD.
They’ve already made whatever Real Money was
actually around outside the Blue zone.

What debt?

Nice logo. Nice box. Great view from here.


The Black Dollar
The Bureaucracy, private and public.
Media.
Civic workers.
Local business people.
That which was here before The Games,
which will be at the Games and which
will remain when the Games are gone.


The Green Dollar
The Green Dollar is a hard dollar, to make
or to keep. Green Dollar people believe that
they can, with some extra work, develop a
substantial one-time revenue score
that will secure their current assets
and/or fast-track their departure from
the workforce and into their Golden Years.
This, unfortunately will prove to be
the exception, rather than the rule.


The Red Dollar
The Red Dollar is the Canadian dollar,
because these are not the Vancouver Olympics
(much), these are the Canadian Olympics.

The contracts make this very clear.

The Red Dollar is everyone who is none of the
above, regardless of latitude or longitude. It's
anyone who thinks about what else could have
happened in the True North with all that money.

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greetings from Olympic City

... for 10 days or so,
it's all about the athletes.


for 10 years or so,
it's all about the benjamins.




same as it ever was.




same
as
it

ever
was.





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Good Sports

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