geezus jupiter jumpin’ pie.

There have been a lot of Olympic moments that have peeled back the concrete of the city to reveal the the feeling of these nonsensical words underneath.

A little shazam zoop de kawow.

It’s all so heartbreakingly beautiful, inspiring  and eye opening. How can one athlete’s moment of glory be another’s quick slippery fall? How can one event that celebrates unity and collectively reaching past our strangeness be a sword cutting a swift path to the periphery for those who find themselves already marginalized. What’s worse than not feeling a part of the Olympics especially when the Olympics are in your city?

Not feeling a part of life at all.

About five minutes after arriving in front of the Carnegie Community Centre for the Memorial March for Murdered and Missing Women I was handed a picture of a woman who has been missing for over 20 years. Her sister was being interviewed by various news people. The reporters formed a circle around her with their heads bent, making respectful notes. The sister of Gail Williams let tears roll down her cheeks as she spoke. I found it so brave for both the reporters and her to be asking and answering questions. Something that hasn’t been done enough for the over 60 missing women in Vancouver and 3000 across Canada.

I’ve had what I would call a few Olympic moments and they came from groups and events I would never expect them to come from. While crammed too close for comfort in front of the steps of the Carnegie Community Centre I had one of those moments. As women were drumming and chanting on the steps, setting a safe space for the families to come out and start the march, I saw two eagles soar and circle above where they sang. I heard gasps in the crowd and a woman held an eagle feather up to the sky and the drummers chanted with their whole eyes, whole beings tilted upwards. And a thought entered my chest like an envelope. I pulled back the sticky part and a word slipped out: peace. What if acknowledging what we have not acknowledged before can bring peace. Eagle wings cutting through hypocrisy and bureaucracy and systems that have been set in place long ago that have never quite worked. We need a separate public inquiry into the cases of these murdered and missing women outside these systems.

We need to have at least that.

I felt touched to stand in such a large crowd of people honouring the families’ ongoing grief and suffering as well as our nation’s.  To stand next to elders, drummers, journalists, college students, tourists, neighbours, parents, politicians, concerned citizens, teachers all listening to the names of these women who have gone nameless for too long. That’s all I did; I listened. I got my recorder out for some interviews and then I lost my nerve. I didn’t know what to ask. How have you coped? What do you want seen done? What can the average citizen do?  I think I know those answers. You have to. Carry on. Justice. No more murdered or missing women. No more murdered or missing anybody. Demand a separate inquiry.  Care. Call attention to this. Don’t be apathetic. Don’t get overwhelmed.

So, my second olympic moment (first one was seeing Shane Koyczan on my friend’s tv do spoken word during the opening ceremonies) was seeing two eagles soar high above us all with maybe a view point we don’t get to see too often. That on that day, Valentine’s, The Chinese New Year, The Memorial March for Murdered and Missing Women, that on that day we were all marching for peace.

This week on M2M at CJSF 90.1 fm Sarah Hyde and I go arty and bring you a soundscape of the Olympics with a few good-natured interview clips thrown in.

So, what would a day at the Olympics sound like if you showed up downtown Vancouver and walked around with the crowds?  If you stopped in at a friend’s house to talk about Wayne Gretzy and taking the bus? If you piled out of the place where you watched the Olympic Men’s Gold Hockey Game and high fived more people than you have in your entire life?

You’re going to find out.

Close your eyes and don’t worry about crossing the street. We’re going to take you from the Chinese New Year’s Day Parade to the Memorial March for the Murdered and Missing Women to Russia House -Sochi 2014- to the Circus to Granville Island performances to the Candahar to Northern House to the Torch Relay to Granville street crowd cheering morning, noon and night.

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.

No matter how awkward The Great One looked standing in the back of a truck slowly making its way down a different route to light the outdoor Olympic cauldron or whatever technical difficulty occurred  seconds before the end of the show at BC Place, the Opening Ceremonies of the 2010 Olympic Games were OUTSTANDING.

Outstanding.

I went through at least four kleenexes at my friend’s house while the three hours of unprecedented storytelling unfolded.

The images of killer whales, the four host nations welcoming the world, kd Lang’s performance, the aerial salute to the prairies, the fiddlers, Donald Sutherland’s voice and snowboarder Johnny Lyall flying through the Olympic rings? Heck yes. What do you call that?

One Helluva Show.

So, when the lights shone on local artist extraordinaire, Shane Koyczan, I literally thought there was no way this opening ceremony could get any better unless a hologram of Terry Fox lit the cauldron, but that’s a very steep unless.

To witness Shane Koyczan perform is to know that you’re alive. And the fact that The Opening Ceremony planners had the foresight to  not only feature a hyper-local-exceptional talent, but a spoken word artist, well, here’s one word: outstanding. Ok two in caps: OUTSTANDING.

I felt sooo much pride for Vancouver, for the arts, for storytelling, for Canada that I didn’t think my chest could swell any larger without something gross happening.

And here’s the thing, Shane Koyczan’s performance is like kd Lang’s singing to Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah: it comes from a place you feel privileged to witness. Honoured, exalted, even.

His commissioned masterpiece is uniting more Canadians than a chain of Tim Horton’s and I know that is saying a lot.

So I have to say this, there is one line in his work We are More,  that struck an off chord in my chest.

“and yes we say zed instead of zee”

It has never stood out to me before. I think it’s a pretty humble, clever little line, but somehow it being said while lit up on a drum stage in front of 68 million viewers, it sounded smug, snide, maybe a tiny bit like we were sticking out our tongues and saying “nahnahnahnah”. Like we resorted to semantics in front of our guests from the States. That we still can’t define ourselves unless it’s in comparison to those guests, to our neighbours to the south. And Koyczan is beyond right, we are more than that.

Much much more.

And something gross did happen in my chest, a small part of it turned to ash. With those eight words, a part of me slumped and thought, ah shoot, that’s not very Canadian.

So, I felt a tiny bit disappointed not because a pillar of the indoor cauldron didn’t raise up or that Canadian broadcasters kept calling attention to it, but that it felt like an artist with more integrity, heart and dignity than you could shake a dozen maple leafs at, played “king of the castle” for a second and the audience snickered right along.

I don’t think originally the poem was ever meant to come across like that.  It’s a prideful, humble piece of art.

So that said, I also have to say this: the guts, heart, courage, grit and talent, oh gosh, THE TALENT Shane Koyczan has would swell any chest to the point of bursting with pure pride. Olympic pride. I thought kd Lang stole the show until I saw Shane Koyczan’s beard and vest light up in the centre of it all.  No matter what my small beef, his performance was outstanding just like the entire Opening Ceremonies.

Go, Canada, go.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili says he is touched by Canadian condolences.

On my walk home last night I spotted Nodar Kumaritashvili’s name, the 21 year-old Luge athlete who died on February 12th, up in lights.

Specifically, lit up along an apartment’s balcony and I thought, we can all do this!

Earlier in the evening I was noticing all the different Canadian flags lit up on apartment balconies, what if we put Nodar Kumaritashvili’s name in our windows? In lights, in writing, in a poster, whatever, to really show that the games truly are dedicated to him and that Canadians, although celebrating the Olympics, are mourning his loss.

What a day for hang gliding emotions: swooping up, down, over there and back again.

There are a lot of currents in the air in this city right now, some congruent and some fighting for a piece of the wing.

The death of Georgian athlete Nodar Kumaritashvili is so tragic and senseless that it leaves one’s head spinning.  Although a few bloggers thought dedicating the opening ceremonies to him wasn’t enough, I thought VANOC did well. It was a powerful minute of silence after opera singer Measha Brueggergosman shook the 60 000 + people in BC Place. I have no doubt that that minute of silence was respected in households around the world.

My thoughts and prayers go out to Nodar Kumaritashvili’s family, friends and team mates who have decided to compete in his memory. If that doesn’t make your bottom lip quiver, reading the kind condolences people are posting will.

I also felt a turbulence of positive emotions yesterday when I saw the Olympic Torch carried past me . I stood within a large swell of people who cheered unabashedly. It was such a feeling of ‘coming togetherness’ or perhaps Olympic spirit, that for maybe the second time in my life I wanted to cheer for Canada. Not for the athletes and performers (I’ve been cheering for them for a long time) but for our country itself.  Inside my ribs I was saying something like, ‘you know, we’re not half bad, Canada, even with our large open wounds…racism, indigenous rights and land, poverty…we’re not half-bad, we may even, shoot,  be good. What a shift that was for me…to stand with hundreds of people celebrating… Canada.

 

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*Video note: I love  the guy wearing the best “Olympic” hat I may see in these next two weeks. You really get to see his hat the moment the flame goes past me as it blocks out my view, haha, then again at the very end of the video.

So, olympic spirit comes in lots of forms. A funny hat perhaps or a violent protest?

I sympathize with Olympic protesters because it’s true – hosting The Olympics has forced already marginalized people to shoulder the city’s problems in a way that is invisible and inexcusable.  How can we spend a billion dollars on security when people are sleeping in the streets? I think giving the Athlete’s Village to not-for-profits and social housing would be a great way to start undoing some of these injustices.

But no matter what, I don’t condone violence. Breaking stuff just turns people off, especially during such an emotional and symbolic time.  Depending on which story you read, the protests this morning were infiltrated by a “few bad apples” but were otherwise quite peaceful. I do know that the online forums have some thoughtful responses which probably took longer to write than it took a few masked people to break windows downtown.

And speaking of what is the what with media coverage, the W2, the official unaccredited international media zone, open 24/7 for bloggers, journalists and every combo of the two, are covering stories in a way we might not get to hear otherwise. You can get their coverage here. And rabble.ca is rocking Olympic coverage here. 

I want to share some ideas from the opening ceremonies in a future post. But for right now, I’m off to see Anvil, and you know what? Anvil are definitely the Olympians of Canadian Metal! Can you think of a lead singer more enthusiastic, heart-breakingly hopeful and ready to rock than Lips?

Nah, I didn’t think so.