Faceplant to the IOC

http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/hockey/story/2010/02/26/sp-hockey-women-drinking.html

"The International Olympic Committee will investigate the behaviour of the Canadian women's hockey players who celebrated their gold medal at the Vancouver Games by drinking alcohol on the ice.

Several Canadian players returned to the ice surface at Canada Hockey Place roughly 30 minutes after their 2-0 win over the U.S. on Thursday night.

The players drank cans of beer and bottles of champagne, and smoked cigars with their gold medals draped around their necks."

And a faceplant to the AP reporter to tattled

"Gilbert Felli, the IOC's executive director of the Olympic Games, said he wasn't aware of the celebration until informed by an Associated Press reporter."

Gold for the volunteers - daily!

The Olympics would not be running at all without the workers and volunteers who function under the same principle as the Chinese army - the problem can be fixed if you throw enough people at it.

Just when you think you've hit the limit as a volunteer, you hear a story that is more extreme/tragic/inspiring than your own.

When I thought waking up at 3:30 in the morning was extreme I met an older volunteer who was getting up at 2:30 to reach WOP from Brittannia Beach.

When I thought about the wages lost while taking time off work I met the woman from Montreal who quit her job because they wouldn't give her time off to volunteer.

While I had a lovely stay with old friends in Squamish, others went back to the cruise ship moored in the harbour, affectionately known as "the Alcatraz"!

A big shout out to all the bus drivers (I heard they were getting $60 a day) and enjoying the challenge of 12 hr days and the thrill of piloting a double decker bus down the canyon with the pylons (!) in the dark. And to those whose Olympic experience was driving a shuttle all day between two muddy parking lots, but were still smiling.

I don't begrudge the money spent on the other transport workers either, the ones who stood in the rain for 12 hr to make sure that volunteers got on the right bus. If the 4:40 morning bus is going to be late, it sure is nice to have someone there to smile and explain to you.

Also, I heard that my friend's nephew is absolutely THRILLED to be working at the Games - after 2 tours in Afghanistan.

Faceplant

For any reporter/photographer who filed a story on the Canadian women's hockey team after party. Reminds me of tattling children.

Clarification please...

Can you please point out where John Doyle says "warm and moist." Also the rating of women, I seem to have missed that too. It may indeed be fluff from a TV jounalsit, but creepy? Are you refering to some other article, as I only read the one you linked?

Gold Silver & Bronze to the Black Bloc

In one fell swoop of adolescent destruction and a just plain nasty tantrum of vandalism these fashionistas, dressed all in black like arty elites off to a gallery opening, have utterly discredited and rendered all other demonstrators null and void.

To top it all off they have driven a gigantic wedge right through the so-called demo-referees and other demoers, eliciting a pie throw to a face that further cemented their wing-nut status.

Even more, they have caused virtually all potential anti-Olympics fence-sitting sympathizers come out strongly, in all manner of media, to distance themselves and denounce the violent tactics of these feral window-smashing and foul-mouthed yelling brats.

History might also reveal that it was they that assisted in igniting the overwhelming and unprecedented gigantic wave of nationalism and pride that visiting Canadians and Vancouverites are displaying in support for their country and for the Olympic Games.

We have to hand it to these punks. They just could not have self-destructed more profoundly.

Ron Obvious

Did you just wake up R'man? Been out of town for the last 10 days? Even the CTV consortium hasn't exactly censored the odd announcer for refering to the games as "excess" when so many in this world are hungry. But they're not going to dwell on it either. Not in the best interest of the sponsor you know...

Your attempt to stir this up is juvenile at best. What are you 14?

Faceplant, BIG FACEPLANT

To the utterly amateurish and idle chit-chat format of all of CTV's coverage of these games: From their useless fawning and bogus analysis at the Richmond field house to their fake emotionalism at the Pacific Coliseum; their facile 'coolness' at the half pipe and the aerials and especially their over-the-top Bobby Clobber brainlessness during the intermissions at hockey. And who is that play-by-play dude – the one who yells every phrase yet manages to mess up the names of every player he’s describing?

Awful, mostly unwatchable crap!

As for the nationalism and pride...ugh! I don't think so - a bunch of nascent drunks elbowing each other for a chance to leer and mug at a camera. Little more than a few thousand red clad sorority girls and fraternity rats chasing lemming-like through the mean streets of Vancouver in search of moments to ‘remember’.

I've never been so disappointed at the general level of mindless immaturity of my countrymen and women.

Grow up people, you're paying for this two week migraine and you'll be doing it for years....

Black Bloc benefits

"In one fell swoop of adolescent destruction and a just plain nasty tantrum of vandalism these fashionistas, dressed all in black like arty elites off to a gallery opening, have utterly discredited and rendered all other demonstrators null and void."

Actually, by pushing the boundaries of publicly-acceptable protests and overstepping them in some instances, what they've done is make more room along the spectrum of dissent for less extreme viewpoints. All the people railing against the Black Bloc tend to say the same thing... that they support freedom of expression and Olympic protest, but property damage is taking things too far. Before the incident, a common viewpoint was that the time and place for dissent had long passed and we should all accept the Olympics as a foregone conclusion and enjoy the party. By taking an extreme position, the Black Bloc legitimized other protesters by giving them the opportunity to take the position of moderates.

This is a very common, and age-old approach to pushing boundaries. You can see it in manifested in almost any sphere of human activity. Cue the howls of outrage, but the Black Bloc were at least partly successful in achieving their goals, whether you agree with their tactics or not, a dispassionate analysis shows it's effective.

stellabloo

Well, it should be about that, and superficially it is. But the sad reality is that the real primary focus of all the governments, businesses (especially the mainstream media), and various organizing committees is wealth and power and the making and breaking of fiscal alliances -- athletic achievement comes third or fourth, and the athletes themselves probably a distant fifth or sixth.

Faceplant for realisticman

For re-hashing the MSM's overwrought handwringing over a tame protest, and repeating the overreaction by all the people who have no first-hand knowledge of what went on Saturday, and can't read between the corporate apologists' lines. But really, should we be surprised at such obfuscation from someone who feels he has to convince us that he is "realistic" in his handle?

staying real

"The Olympics is about the athletes - smashing the barriers of human effort and endurance."

Athletes work hard and deserve credit for their efforts, but so do actors, painters, etc, etc. Having said that, we need to avoid the hyperbole about Olympic achievements. What we are really watching are incremental increases/improvements in technology, training, and nutrition. I don't think athletes today 'try' any harder than their predecessors and I think it's dismissive of the notable achievements of many earlier athletic stars to suggest otherwise. How hard you work at something is a question of mental toughness and I don't think we can say with any certainty we are mentally tougher now than ten years ago, or ten thousand.

As an example, athletes have taken 15 seconds off the one mile record since the Empire Games in Vancouver, but that accomplishment took over 40 years.

Further, the athletes themselves are usually quite adamant that on any given day, first place can be won by a number of competitors. So, an Olympic medal is basically a snapshot of performance capabilities. I know this verges on heresy, but we're watching a very entertaining and dramatic lottery, with a significant barrier to entry and an extremely difficult skill-testing question.

I think we take away more than we give when we oversell the accomplishments of the medalists.

That's what this article is about Kaz - re-hashing

...seems to be suggesting that the demonstrators didn't really want much media coverage. I doubt that.

What was the pie thrower into David Eby saying? What has David Eby said?

Charlie Smith's Georgia Straight piece from earlier this weeks also discusses the flop. Hardly MSM hand wringing; unless one considers The Straight MSM.

"Clearly, the anti-Olympic movement has failed to generate the level of outrage that some opponents were hoping for.

There are many reasons for this.

I was talking with one person yesterday who suggested that the anti-Olympic activists were misguided by focusing so much attention on these Games being held on stolen Native land.

The message didn`t resonate with the public when the chiefs of the four host First Nations were so vocally in favour of hosting the Olympics. " etc...

http://www.straight.com/article-292384/vancouver/did-antiolympic-movement-miss-mark-focusing-stolen-aboriginal-land

As Charlie Smith so well said;
"* The Vancouver anti-Olympic movement has been fairly humourless,"

All I wanna know if those cigars were Cuban or Nicaraguan

that's all. Because I don't give a rat's ass about medals.

Medals are designed to satisfy inferiority/superiority complex of nations.

realisticman, The left imploded... ... again

The small "Black Bloc" group basically caused a fracture of the entire social change movement Chris Shaw and many others had tried to build. The foolish notion that David Eby deserved to be pied, a fate normally reserved for cabinet ministers, for criticizing this behavior is astonishing.

This is the problem with "The Left" and Progressive Movements. There are too many different opinions and not enough people will unite on common principles. Fragmentation is a good word. The capitalists and the right-wingers manage to get together.

How about an apology to Dr. Chris Shaw?

How about an apology to Dr. Chris Shaw from ISU head Bud Mercer? Shaw was unfairly demonized in advance of these Games as the ringleader of a group capable of "criminal" protest.

If there's been any significant threat to these Games that the ISU or military have neutralized, we have yet to hear of anything. Then again, I suspect such information would be withheld until after the Games.

Dave 49

The only "principles" shared by right-wingers and capitalists would be rape, pillage,& plunder......

G West

quote:

"I've never been so disappointed at the general level of mindless immaturity of my countrymen and women."

Perhaps you should come over from Victoria West and see for yourself. Just watching CTV doesn't tell the story and will never be able to transmit the 'buzz'. This is much more than a sporting event, it's a cultural and arts event too - maybe more so than sports. If all you're seeing are groups hovering in the camera background, you're missing out. Don't be so, ...Victorian.

"Olympics profoundly transform downtown Vancouver

'It’s been a bit of a smash hit, closing a bunch of our streets and creating this walking celebration.'

"VANCOUVER -- The Olympics came with a lot of hype, and culturally, lived up to it. For the past two weeks downtown Vancouver turned into a big street party as up to 150,000 people per day flooded into the core to wander around, take in the sights and check out the many cultural events.

“Downtown feels like a downtown should,” said heritage expert John Atkin.

“It’s busy, it’s crowded, it’s active all hours of the night and everyone is having fun. The best thing is they turned Robson Square into what comes as close as we’ve ever had to a civic square. ...

The most important single factor in the vibe might be the Cultural Olympiad and the LiveCity sites, where the masses have been exposed to a tremendous amount of music and culture.

“I stand to be corrected, but I think this is the largest arts and culture festival in Canadian history,” said Mayor Robertson.

“The arts and culture [part of the Olympics] I think has been the secret to our success, bringing crowds out and celebrating downtown, adding more depth to the whole event. It broadens it. Not everyone can get to the sporting events, tickets are pricey. [But] a lot of people have taken in arts and culture.”

The Cultural Olympiad was programmed by Robert Kerr, who put together a diverse program ranging from a ballet based around the music of Joni Mitchell to a tribute concert to Neil Young featuring Elvis Costello and Lou Reed. ..."

http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/2010wintergames/Olympics+profoundly+transform+downtown+Vancouver/2618455/story.html

In Control of Events

I haven't been watching the Olympics.... Welll, with the exception of that game last night between the Canadians and the Slovaks. (Though the Slovaks lost, of course, what a valiant push they made to close the gap in the last period... and almost bloody did, for want of five more minutes.)

What is of interest to note however, catching the few glimpses of women's and men's hockey at the Olympics I managed, is how much more superior and interesting to watch it is over what passes for the NHL.

But most interesting to observe here, of course, is the banging of the right wing bats flying short-circuited blind in the belfry, scarcely able to control themselves over the successful grab for attention and points of the Anarchists. For all the wingnut banging about in the dark, the reality is, even for whatever the rest of the tame progressive and left thinks, the Anarchists have managed to successfully signal that the developing resistance to the ruling class agenda is about to undergo a change here. And whatever the "tame" left might think, they had better move quickly here to sharpen up the effectiveness of their own tactics, or they will be completely outshone and reduced to irrelevance.

For the reality is, the tame left needs to get over their hissy-fit here, that other more radical elements have dared move in on their assumed turf, to which they previously felt they enjoyed a god given, rightful monopoly. And they need to get over it because the fact is, even many of those of us on the more serious/radical left recognize, that their needs to be not only a more effective tactical development to ruling class predations generally, but that it needs to occur along a much broader front than either camp alone.

People need to be brought in and engaged against the system at whatever tactical level they are comfortable, or at least more willing to join the coming fray. And there is room and need for both lesser and more militant camps, with each having their particular role to play in the endgame defeat of capitalism and its Greed Machine, as well as its Endless War and Planet Destroyer view of the future.

If, as I think there is, ever to be a real united Left front out there, it has some ways to go and experience yet, with fighting and posing alternatives to Capitalism in these, not a past modern time.

Meanwhile, let what passes for the realisticmen of the Raving Right whine and complain. The future is no doubt evolving and taking shape as it will. :-)

Which pisses them off, for sure. They are discovering that even they are not as in control of events as they assumed they were. :-)

Ponderings

realisticman said:

Well, the Georgia Straight is close enough to MSM to be so called. It really has become little more than an endless parade of ostentatious lifestyle advertising and prosletyzation for woowoo that these days serves little valid purpose beyond being a good fish 'n' chips wrapper.

In my opinion.

RickW said:

LOL. Too true.

Women Hockey Players

"They look more like the drunks, punks and party crowd on Robson than elite athletes."

Take 3 years out of your life, work your guts out, WIN gold for your nation and get crapped on by the pompous asses? This was a "set up" by an AP photographer. AP, that's AMERICAN Press. Whose ass did they just kick? Oh yeah.
They are WINNERS. Envy will get you NOTHING, except looking like a LOSER.

Who here remembers the Canada/Soviet Hockey Games of '72?

The general comment was how "robotic" the soviet players were for the first couple or three games. Is that how Canada's women's hockey team was supposed to act?

Playing the Soviets..

"Who here remembers the Canada/Soviet Hockey Games of '72?" Rick W

And yet, at least in my experience of it, those games from that point on, turned out to be some of the best hockey we, or they, have ever played... down to the present. (Though I did like that game with the Slovaks.)

They compelled this country to actually play fast moving, complex "team" hockey, instead of mere WWF fisticuffs on ice. Those games were a beauty to behold.

that game with the Slovaks

coyoteman

I agree with you completely.

Realisticman

"...that game with the Slovaks." Realisticman

Well, I'm certainly pleased we agree on something. :-)

@dave49

The failure of the left to unite is its perpetual handicap in elections. Rightwingers are so much more comfortable with the very notion of authority, that they more readily coalesce behind their leader and succeed at their goals.

The left, being intrinsically seeking of higher purpose, is so critical that it claws down its own leadership. Leaving the leaders to the extremely mediocre.

Alas.

WWE hockey?

I also agree that the hockey games have become all about force and fisticuffs.

Some of the european teams played a more elegant game, where finesse and technique was evident.

That kind of hockey is interesting to watch, fast and gracefull skating, even a bit of sportmanship!

But as long as Don Cherry is cheerleading, that kind of hockey will not happen here!

The best thing now is that this whole charade is over!

Campbell and Harper will take as much of the glory as they can scrounge, and the stupid voters will be happy.

alive

You know the line in Batman, where Jack Nicholson as the Joker says, "Wait Til They Get A Load Of Me!"?

Well, just wait til the the 'stupid voters' get a load of the budgets coming down.......

What's Up With Watching the OWElympics???

I thought that every poster here agreed that the OWElympics should be boycotted.

And people here are now buying into these corporatist shenanigans?

Obviously no principles exist with commenters here at the Tyee.

People should learn from progressive socialist organizations around the world that despise the OWElympics - and take to the streets to protest the incredible poverty that arises as a result of hosting these OWElympics.

What's wrong with this picture?