jimjack on 26/2/2010 at 17:31
I was loling to see the Canadian womens' hockey team celebrate like this, but maybe? the place is in the locker room away from the cameras to start cracking open the sauce and stogies.
Inline Image:
http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2010/0225/oly_g_canada13_576.jpgBut on the other hand, they're at home with their fans, their ice, their medals. Power to them..Live it up Ladies! :thumb:
*Zaccheus* on 26/2/2010 at 20:44
Yea, congrats to the Canadian hockey team and to the Fins for getting Bronze.
Starrfall on 27/2/2010 at 02:25
IOC needs to lighten the fuck up. Go party your goddamn hearts out, Canada.
Sgt_BFG on 27/2/2010 at 18:11
Watched USA rape Finland in the ass for their 6-1 hockey win, hopefully Finland can beat Slovakia and come home with something.
redface on 27/2/2010 at 20:58
Hopefully not.
Nicker on 2/3/2010 at 08:43
In case anybody missed it, Canada beat the USA, 3 to 2, in sudden death overtime, for the Gold Medal in mens' hockey.
Just saying...
Canada also earned more Gold Medals than any other host nation and while we did not "Own the Podium" (may I apologise for this bit of excessive rhetoric) we did make great gains over our previous showings.
I was in Vancouver, working in transportation for the games, and I can assure you that whatever certain ex-colonial overseers might think, this was by no means the "worst" Olympics ever (1938 and 1972, perhaps?). In fact we put on one hell of a party and every athlete, citizen, visitor or media person I talked to, had a thoroughly good time and were impressed with the friendliness, grace and thoughtfulness of their hosts.
It is impossible to hold an event of such size without controversy and troubles. It is impossible to predict all eventualities and prepare for them. It is also impossible to calculate the value of such a public ritual to this or any nation. I am not talking about chest thumping and strutting. I am talking about creating a cohesion, perhaps healing some wounds or just celebrating your existence.
Yes, the IOC is as crooked as it is profitable but compared to the military industrial complex, both the methods and the products are relatively innocuous, if not occasionally beneficial (unlike those of the primary sponsors of the games, McDonalds and Coke). I can think of worse things to spend public money on.
As they did for the often warring cities of ancient Greece, the Games provide a glimmer of internationalist hope. For a moment we can imagine that people of many identities can be citizens of one earth. As Pollyanna as that might sound, in this era of fear and suspicion, it is a moment of collective sanity and of enormous value.
So thank you World! We hope you enjoyed the party. Come back and visit any time.
Scots Taffer on 2/3/2010 at 12:37
I did miss the closing wrap-up or three towards the end, goddamn work being what it is, but I probably run out of steam too.
Glad to see the Canucks held their ground in the final. Good gripping stuff from reading the way the scoreline went too. Must've been a hell of a game.
*Zaccheus* on 2/3/2010 at 14:57
Canada Gold, Finland Bronze, I'm a happy ice hockey fan.
Keeper Mallinson on 3/3/2010 at 01:17
My fiancee had four tickets to the women's gold-medal game. We gladly went, and it was really fun. We had a heckling war with the Americans behind us, and won. It was pretty funny seeing them meek by the 2nd period. Those women were tough... Even though we were going for Canada, Lisa definitely cheered when one American team-member accepted her silver medal and made the vagina sign to the audience to represent woman pride.
The men's game was incredible. I have to say, the American coach was a brilliant strategist to pull his goalie in the last 20 seconds of play to make a desperate grab for the Canadian net. That was close... in the streets later on, well... it was the most dangerous day in Canadian history to jaywalk. Every 2nd car had a flag, a screaming posse and reckless jolliness behind the wheel.
We saw Shane at a book-signing and bugged him by pretending to be adoring fans. We saw him later on at the Wise Club's basement pub. Unfortunately, I couldn't make it to the poetry slam where he no-doubt performed like old times. It was a golden age back in 2002 when the stage saw Shane Koyczan, Barbara Adler, R.C. Weslowski and C.R. Avery on a bi-weekly basis. Last night at the slam, a regular came in screaming at the top of her lungs, and started making a speech in the middle of the floor despite requests for her to leave. She was screaming about how our neighbourhood (Commercial Drive, or "The Drive") is falling apart, and how we're sitting drinking tea as people are burning (a homeless man was set on fire one night while sleeping on a couch), women are being raped, and children are dying. There's some anger going around, and while it was unhelpful, I can't help but feel it came from somewhere.
The city's recovering now. We'll see the true ramifications, especially when the House of Commons releases its budget for the next year today. We'll see the damage, and who Campbell decides to blame for his blunderous decisions.
So, today, here I sit, going back to the job-hunt. It will be even harder now, now that the Olympics are finished and the task force is leaving. We've exhausted ourselves. Well, wish me luck.
PeeperStorm on 3/3/2010 at 03:42
Apparently the next Olympics will take place in some (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Winter_Olympics) little ass-end-of-nowhere town in Russia, and they're going to have to basically build the entire place from scratch for it. Hotels, infrastructure, venues, everything. It will also be the most southerly location ever for the winter games.
