Here are some of my (Olympic) favourite things

Is it too early to talk favourite Olympic moments? Is it alright that I feel whimsical about something that happened 5 seconds ago?

Sure it is!  To both questions!

I want to give type to a few things/events I admired so much during the Olympics that my jaw made a dent in my chest.

#1 Vectorial Elevation. Those lights felt like a city-wide hug of art. They were comforting, dazzling and incredibly interactive. And the icing on the sky? Artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer spoke out about BC’s pending arts funding cuts.

#2 Circus West. As a part of  Granville Island’s Winterruption festival, performers and students of the circus wow’d growing audiences under the bridge on chilly, rainy and cloudy evenings.  My fav performer was the artist on the unicycle… it takes more than guts to try out new stuff in front of a live, expectant audience under a concrete bridge in Vancouver during the 2010 Winter Olympics, and anytime he fell, he just popped himself back up, made a motion to the audience to cheer him on, did a few dance moves with his arms and then tried the back flip again. Unbelievable and awesome.

#3 Also on Granville Island….Are you ready to rumbllllle…..Radio Radio rocked Performance Works/Place de la Francophonie like bees on speed. I only understood every third word they said but could feel it all, babee. Did I mention it was also my birthday? I lost the gemstone in my engagement ring, missed a date, ruined video for a fundraiser, got two pitches rejected AND still danced on fire to these guys, they were so good. For days after, my fiancee and I were much better phone conversationalists saying everything goes into ‘mon jacuzzi’ (so your carrot bean burrito in ma jacuzzi, paying my cell bill dans ma jacuzzi, I’m walking to meet you dans mon jacuzzi) Gosh, I forgot what it’s like to have fun. Radio Radio reminded me.

#4 Sidney Crosby scoring the winning goal. If that didn’t kickstart our Canadian hearts, no Alice Cooper song can. What a rush! What a unified WHHAAHOOO which I’m sure could be heard from the moon. I jumped up from my friend’s couch and didn’t stop jumping until they went to commercial and even then I was still screaming. I kept saying “we did it, we did it, we did it!” and rationally I know I didn’t do anything to help get that goal, but emotionally I felt like every single past, current and future Canadian got that goal.  I think maybe I could get just as much excitement if I jumped from a plane, but this was way better.  Check out this video post on Geist.

#5 Walking/bumbling/fumbling/high-fiving and praying not to be crushed on Granville Street after Sid’s goal. At one point I came to an intersection, I was separated from my friends and a very thoughtful young woman going the opposite way told me “don’t go that way, you’ll get crushed” while giving me a high five and sharing some Canada-woohoo’s. I tried to turn around but that was a no-go. I had no choice but to keep going the same way and for a split second I promised myself never to crowd around dogs who can’t see beyond ankle or hip level (I’m so short) and then I thought if I go down, it’s over and then I thought, don’t think like that, then I saw these three incredibly stout men standing in the centre of the intersection like boulders in a waterfall. I gave them each a high five and a yah Canada! on my push past and one guy looked at the other two, laughed and then lifted me up in the air from my kneecaps saying “yah Canada!”  I was mortified, gleeful and relieved to see that if I kept following the crowd in a few meters I could get out of the main rush and get to the side of the street to cheer and wait for my friends. I waved my little Canadian flag, said thank you to the man when he put me down and felt a renewed confidence in humanity. Today, there was no way I’d let anyone fall either.

#6 Olympic Tent Village. What an incredibly organized, visual and heart-wrenching protest. And to my surprise the most welcoming for an interview request. The thousands of dollars if not hundreds of thousands of dollars that went into organizing and setting up provincial pavilions is in such contrast to the zero-budget, no PR, open-community centre that was the Olympic Tent Village. From garnering International news coverage to receiving blankets, tents and food donations, Streams of Justice really presented an Olympic message that I hope can have even a quarter of the impact of Sid’s goal. According to an article at mediacoop.ca, 40 temporary residents of the Olympic Tent Village have now found housing. Go, Canada, Go, er, let’s go National Housing Strategy, let’s go.

#7 The Tim-Horton’s-commercial-esque gushy stories that are orchestrated to make you cry before you hear the end of the first sentence… Vancouverites footing the bill for athlete’s families to watch the games, messages to medalist Joannie Rochette, Clara Hughes donating $10 000 to Take a Hike…Those get-yr-handkerchief, get-yr-blanky-and-have-a-good-cry stories.

#8 The turn out for the Memorial March for Murdered and Missing Women. Which I’m going to post about separately because it was so powerful to be there.

#9 Canada’s Northern house - unpretentious, wide-open and full of art. And still open till the end of March.

#10 That I missed so many olympic moments! Dance marathon, the ice thing in Richmond, a taping of the Stephen Colbert report, getting a high five from the wandering Aussie’s boxing kangaroo mascot… so many incredible people, experiences and that thing we’re all looking for just beyond the sidewalk pavement: magic.

My terrible shot of Vectorial Elevation, those gorgeous robotic searchlights that lit up Vancouver's nights and life for two weeks. This is taken from the Granville Bridge. I'd usually try to get some place each night to stop and watch them and there were always little crowds of people doing the same.

Here is my favourite performer of the Four Seasons Circus West show 'under the bridge' at Granville Island. He is on a unicycle about to go up a set of stairs. He even rides down the stairs backwards and in the last show I saw, he did a backflip off of them all while on a unicycle!

Radio Radio when they turned the lights down low but before they lost their shirts on Granville Island. What a show!

Sid the kid waving the Canadian flag after scoring the winning goal during the Men's Olympic Hockey Gold Medal Game. I was at my friend's place and all of us were waving tiny Canadian flags with glee (same when the Women's Hockey team won gold too!)

Granville street was amazing post Olympic Men's Gold Hockey game and pre closing ceremonies. So many Canada-capes and cheers!

Olympic Tent Village was on 58 West Hastings. It was an incredible place: at once challenging and welcoming. Created by Sisters of Justice and other grassroots groups. I did my first official Olympic interview here and it was one of my most welcoming. We've got to re-establish a National Housing Strategy for Canada, make Bill C-304 a priority for your MP.

Depending on the source, between 500-5000 people marched for the murdered and missing women of DTES, Vancouver, BC, Canada on February 14th. The march started at the Carnegie Community Centre on Main and Hastings and continued in a grid, stopping at places where women's bodies have been found or where they lost their lives. It was an incredibly somber and uplifting afternoon. Uplifting because two eagles soared overhead and there was hope in that. There was also hope in how many people showed up.

Canada's Northern House is a really cool pavilion to check out. You can still visit until the end of March. There's no longer any daily performances but the artwork and thoughtful displays are still up and well worth the trip! At the corner of Seymour and West Hastings.

And the photos just aren't complete without a pic of the Australian's Boxing Kangaroo mascot. It's funny enough that the Aussie's were asked to take this down but even funnier that it stayed up.