Silver to Koyczan?

Make no mistake; I am a solid fan of this talented poet. However...I think the silver should go to Brad Chan for having the integrity to refuse to be part of this display. I thought I understood Koyczan's political philosophy...I can only hope that his participation was the price he paid for a wider audience to speak out for the disadvantaged of this province...and the corruption in both our provincial and federal governments....and not self centered crass opportunism. We will have to wait and see. Regardless...his poem describing Canada was written a long time ago...when Canada was still highly respected and trusted internationally. We are no longer held in such high esteem. I would have appreciated an honest statement about Canada today.

Faceplant rof Steven

For showing up at the ledge, speech in hand that should have been delivered in Paliment.

Temptation

The temptation was too much - I really wanted to find a video of kd lang singing Hallelujah in the opening ceremonies. Nothing on the official Olympic site that I could find. Went searching on the internet, and then spent the next half an hour cleaning up my computer because I ended up getting infected with a virus. Does anyone know of a safe site to view her performance?

videos have been pulled

It appears that all videos have been pulled from open and free systems. I suspect VANOC will be compiling a dvd to sell...to try and recoup Olympic financial loses..at least some of them.

brainwashed people!

I try to watch Knowledge network these days.
But, from what I do see this is mass-hysteria pumped up by the media and millions of dollars.

I did see some kilt wearing guy doing an irish stepdance and wondered what the hell that has to do with Canada?

Anyway, this spectacle proves that when money talks, the fools jump and scream.

Not much different from when money causes the media to make Gordo and Harpo win an election!

Fools all!

Faceplant to LiveCity which showcases...

A Coke pavillion and three high tech companies peddling their latest teevees and laptop computers, any of which you can find at the local mall. The food stands, which I'm guessing are supposed to reflect the ethnic cuisine of Vancouver are HORRIBLE. The South Asian booth is selling "Chow Mein with Indisn spice." WTF?Meanwhile Gregor's got his "Vision" tent which is a series of promotional slogans in Green font - Green, get it? - designed to appeal to business investors. Shoddy meaningless BS constructed at the last minute is all I can say. The "laneway house" model is also sorely disappointing. The officials tell you it's something you could build for your elderly mother as a replacement for your current garage. Uh huh. I can see my elderly mom wanting to climb those loft stairs. It's a shoebox that a student could live in, maybe. I guess Gregor doesn't realize that the 40K+ people moving here every year are immigrant families. Who need proper homes, not this. I would call it not a vision of how to solve the housing problem.

FACEPLANT

To a selfish and greedy cultural event that celebrates much of what is wrong in our society. The cult of high performance to the exclusion of others is not only present in sport, but can be found in virtually all of our institutions, corporations and culture. It's a greed over need, I'm all right jack, keep your hands off of my stack mentality--feelings and empathy numbed by the pursuit of money, media, anti-depressants and endless distraction, consumer junk and poisoned food.

I am not a protestor, do not condone violence but I suggest we take heed as our children take to the streets and destroy property. That's just the needle edge of their anger, frustration and rejection of our desire for the opiate we call our culture. I saw thousands of rioters practically tear down Robson Street over what? A hockey game. Somewhat ironic really.

On the field, the tragic and senseless death of a young athlete appears to be an inconvenience to officials, as we pursue the high performer status of owning the podium. I'm ashamed of VANOC. I for one, simply do not "believe". It is unfortunately, so very transparent and the world media is condemning us in published articles all over the net. Congratulations to the high performers. Great job.

On the streets many of us are unemployed, struggling to find reasonable shelter, laid off, downsized and undervalued, by the same corporations and institutions who drop millions on this five ring circus.

So, yes--FACEPLANT into a pile of manure for the entire event. It's a shameless, phony-baloney travesty and one of the most bloated, idiotic spectacles I've yet to witness.

Alexandre, Jenn, Michaelle

Gold of course to Bilodeau, obviously, but also to Jenn Heil who had a great performance and was graceful in taking the silver when she expected to take gold.

Faceplant to those folks who assert that if you enjoy the Winter Olympics you are an unwitting oppressor of the poor and a dupe of the corporate class.

Gold to Michaelle Jean for not being Stephen Harper.

Gold

Gold to the protesters who in spite of months of intimidation, hate propaganda and the total pimping of the Owe-lympics by the media managed to get the message across that many people weren't happy about having their tax money squandered in this way.

Silver to the Black Bloc, who in spite of a dodgy tactic managed to get the media to cover the protest nation wide, something a non-vandalizing of billion dollar corporate property protest could not do.

Faceplant to the media who did everything possible to misinform the masses about the protest.

onethebay

Try this site: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_NpxTWbovE It will be without the Olympic flavor but she does a first rate job. Or just go to youtube and search kd Lang.

FACEPLANT

FACEPLANT and kick in the ass to the Times Colonist for showing a series of freeze frame images of the moment of death of the Georgian luger.

Disabled lossing housing due to Olympics

It is unfortunate that things have come to this. I am a disabled father of a ten year old son. i live on a provincial P.W.D. disability benifiy. I receive $375 for shelter per month I live in B.C. Housing and my rent has just gone from $362/month to $510/month a whooping $148/ month over my shelter cost. The reason has been explained by B.C. Housing as being they no longer go by a assistance persons income but, their size of family unit. As of April 1st I along with my son will be homeless. No one is willing to step up and help us either. we get "oh that's not right", or "they can't do that" but Pivot will not help nor will anyone else. When you live in a society and you are treated this way by the government and the society they represent, it becomes quite easy to realize that the only voice that is heard today is the extreme voice. Protestors are laughed at as the majority of society do not yet realize that they too are on the verge of marginalization. Ghandi said poverty is the worst form of violence yet when those forced into poverty due to circumstances beyond their control resort to violence to at least get a bit of publicity they are shunned, but which form of violence do you see as being the most evil. Soon a disabled man and his son will be thrown out into the street while the wealthy party on in Whistler. I for one am really starting to see the point of the terrorist in our society. They are the only ones capable of getting attention shed on what should really be imporatant. Do I agree with breaking windows just for fun? No, But then again what other voice do I have when no one will help a disabled man and his son fight agaqinst homelessness just to pay for some fireworks and a party for the wealthy. Even the NDP will not make this an issue because in my riding a BCLiberal won so I guess we are not worthy of help just to punish all of us for voting in a man who has done more to hurt the disabled and their families than anyone I have ever come across. If i can't be with my son i don't see much point of being here.

faceplant to spook

Some may remember the classic newsreel clip showing Barry Larkin hand the mayor of Sydney a torch, during the torch relay at the 1956 Olympics. It was a table leg painted silver, with a pudding tin nailed to the top, with the expected flames They let the mayor get into his platitudes a bit, then one of the brains behind the stunt tapped his worship on the shoulder and told him he was holding up someone's flaming underpants.

While the flaming underpants story is still in wiki, the newsreel clip was disappeared from youtube quite recently. I was utterly furious when I found it missing. Especially because you couldn't fake a giant reefer with a pudding tin nailed to a table leg.

Barry Larkin is a veterinarian in Australia. His name gets you all the wiki details, although he is quick to point out that he was just one of many in on the plot --- until the chosen runner waved his arms around too much and the underpants fell out, at which point Larkin took over the torch and delivered it to the mayor.

Olympic Medals - The Bay Window Breaking Competition

GOLD: Rock-in-a-Sock
SILVER: Back-handed Chair Toss
BRONZE: Voluptuous girl by overturned newspaper box

DISQUALIFICATION: Irate, shouting citizen pushing "activists."

Faceplant to the Police in Quebec

For getting caught with their agents provocateurs, making many in BC suspicious when we saw random smashing of stuff from supposed protesters.

http://www.straight.com/article-241166/isu-wont-rule-out-agents-provocateurs

Slam stunk

Koyczan was an embarrassment; hipster doofus, goofy neck beard; I shudder that the world might think this is representative of us as a nation..."Canada's the 'what' in 'what's new'"? Sad. Playing to the cheap seats with the whole "zed not zee" trope, Uber lame. His entire performance, his affected 'I'm a beat poet' cadence simply screamed of insecurity: it reflected a people (and a poet) desparate to be hip, touting minor linguistic habits as the root of cultural distinctiveness. Or is this the very heart of Canadianess? I thought for sure he'd utter the dread phrase "world class", but having exhausted every other sad cliche, I guess there was no need. Note to comrade Koyczan: Canada's not new; it's been around for a while. By the way, is there a rule that all poets have to speak in elongated syllables, in the classic "I'm a slam poet" manner? It's beyond boring: it's purely mimetic, and I'd suggest it sounds rather American.

kd lang

CTV has video of the entire event at this link:

Opening Ceremony Full Replay http://www.ctvolympics.ca/video/collections/collectionid=40427/index.html

They also have a 'Highlights' version there.

grammar, please

just off the topic:
"GOLD for Vancouver police working Friday night, who reportedly faced off against a crowd of 1,500 protestors outside BC place. . ."
don't the writers and editors at The Tyee ever use spellcheck ?
There is no "protestor" in any of the available dictionaries. It's just plainly wrong.
Just in case you were wondering, for all those army deserters from U.S.of A. - they are "resisters", "resistors" are related to electricity.

Gold for comment, faceplant for The Tyee

Gold for Booker's comment: Faceplant to those folks who assert that if you enjoy the Winter Olympics you are an unwitting oppressor of the poor and a dupe of the corporate class.
Fail to The Tyee for once again making a mistake with the basic facts of the story. Alexandre Bilodeau was the first Canadian to win gold on Canadian soil. Frederic is his brother. Your story either (a) gets a fairly basic part of story just plain wrong; or (b) tries to make some kind of back-handed political point about Alexandre dedicating his gold-medal run to his disabled brother. If the latter was the case, you needed to explain your point a lot better. However, you could have just said "way to go, Alexandre Bilodeau" and just been happy for the kid. He is, after all, a young man who just did his best and deserved the praise.
And while we're at it, you couldn't come up with something a little less violent-sounding than "faceplant"? How about calling your criticisms simply "fail" or "last place" instead of a term that connotes someone getting violently pushed (or tripping over their own feet) and falling face-first into the ground at the risk of potential injury?

Gold to Shane Koyczan

News Flash:
Canada is indeed new, if you compare to it a country like China that has been around for 5000 years. The land mass of Canada is indeed ancient, however the amalgamation of stories that calls itself Canada is about 125 years old, just a baby in terms of growth. So my dear toquer before you criticize, perhaps you should take the long perspective.
Personally I enjoyed most of the opening ceremonies, though I waited till after they played and then choose to be intillegent and pick and choose what I wanted to watch on CTV's replay.
What I do think is a tragedy is that CBC was not given the funding to make a decent bid to carry the olympics
I for one avoid watching them , I think they are bloated and mostly pointless, but the canadian broadcasting company should be making all the money off of this. However it is a sad indicator of our times.
To the disabled man with son out there, I certainly hope there is some hope in your horizion.

here it all comes

8000 and now 20,000 tickets to be refunded, after snow washed out through the bales of hay.

CBC reporters seem to have instructions to only mention Canadian medal winners. Why? If a Canadian got whatever medal, why not quickly say who got the other two. If a Canadian didn't win anything, why not quickly say who did. It makes us sound like a highschool/church clique.

All that press and no updates on refunds, if any, if a token few, for Norwegian cruise ship and bogus tickets. And the big extortion bid/sale on Friday, no details for days. Amazing how many people know about the latter.