I realize it’s probably a bit tacky to suddenly return after not posting for a long while to try to drive more traffic to a video I made, but hey I still have the most posts on Vancouver Metblogs so I figure it should be allowed.  Granted most of those posts were just a video of the sea otters at the Vancouver Aquarium floating around their tank holding hands, but it’s hard work making that seem new after the fourth hundred time.  And gosh aren’t they cute?

In exchange for housing during the Olympics an out-of-town friend of mine provided me with tickets to see the Men’s Olympic Ice Hockey game between Canada and the United States of America.  Inspiredby the righteously awesome “A Night At The Emirates” video [yt] I set out to make my own fan’s perspective video.  It’s hard to say how it turned out because I’ve spent too much time on it to see it clearly and my wife loves me just enough not to insult it to my face.

So enjoy the video as you prepare to watch Team Canada (hopefully) beat up on Germany tonight.  Looking on the bright side it was a valuable wake-up call early in the tournament that hopefully will let us adjust before facing tougher opposition like Russia; though to be fair that’s what the game against Switzerland should have been.

I have a pile of things for another post, but I want this one to focus on just one news item.

I’ve mentioned a personal enjoyment of the Never Not Funny podcast and the show’s hosts when they come to Vancouver for the comedy festival. Well, the show’s engineer, Andrew Koenig, has disappeared here in town. Andrew has often expressed his love of Vancouver in the past, on the NNF show.

The parents of Andrew Koenig — who has reportedly been missing for the past week — described their son as “suffering from depression
” and “not doing good” in the days leading up to his disappearance.

Judy and Walter Koenig (who played Pavel Chekov in the “Star Trek” series) tell TMZ the last time they heard from Andrew was on February 9. They say his cell phone is turned off and that they have learned the last time his phone received a text was on February 16 in Vancouver.

They say he was last seen at a bakery in the Stanley Park area of Vancouver.

His partners at Never Not Funny made this post to Twitter just a few hours ago.

Please RT: Info about Andrew Koenig, missing 1 week? PLEASE call Vancouver authorities @ 604-717-2967 or 604-717-2534. Case #202029519.

A bizarre and sad tale during the Olympics. With so many visitors coming to town, how common is it for people to disappear during an Olympics? Who else has gone missing?

Please note the Vancouver PD contact numbers and case number above, if you have any information.

– Boardercross is way more exciting than I thought.

– Curling don’t get no TV love in the opening matches.

– The UK press really, really, really wants us to be embarrassed about our Olympics, but it’s pretty apparent it’s mostly collective nervousness they’ll be embarrassed of their own. British pals and pals of pals seem pretty supportive however and have carefully explained the press there is rarely indicative of the people. Fair enough.

– On Monday, ESPN columnist Rick Reilly was backhandedly complimentary of Canada for US readers. Met with huffy, Canadian indignation, Reilly open hand slaps Canada, then half-apologizes, asking, “Baby, why ya make me hit ya like that?”

I realize, slightly patronizing as it is, Reilly’s original blog was intended to be comedy. Cutting, condescending, stereotype-laden comedy, but comedy nonetheless. His response to Canadian offense however… well, to put it in Canadian terms Rick will think he understands; take off, eh?

Let’s take a look inside Rick’s tickle-trunk of loathing and see what’s inside, shall we?
(more…)

– I have no official head count, but a crowd, easily numbering a couple thousand (plus the couple of thousands watching) descended upon Robson Street and on cue, proceeded to demonstrate a non-Olympic sport; flashmob dancing. Imagine1Day, a group dedicated to educating the children of Ethiopia, organized the flashmob to raise awareness to their cause. They not only succeeded, but I’m sure they also caused an iTunes sales spike for Martha and the Vandellas (the crowd danced to – what else – the original Dancing In The Streets), and showed not all large gatherings in Vancouver result in police actions. Even surprise ones, which are normally a bad thing. Never pop a balloon around Grandpa while he’s sleeping and never surprise police on high alert. Am I right? Right? Right.

– Last night The Simpsons took to the Olympics, which depending on your personality as a Canadian, was hilariously awesome or pathetically offensive. For me, the most interesting part was when a preview commercial slammed Vancouver for “non-union filming”, which was changed in the actual show to a light ribbing over tax credits for filming. This, after governor Schwarzenegger, who has taken advantage of Vancouver’s film industry, both directly (Sixth Day) and indirectly (running for Governor on a platform against Canadian filming) was the last torchbearer prior to the opening ceremonies.

Photos by thedarkerside and nickfruhling.
To any American’s reading, 80% of all BC and Yukon film productions have union agreements – all of them local chapters as the same unions in the States.

– Want to keep track of everyone’s medals? I did, and while I still haven’t found a good, free iPhone app for it, there is this perfect and elegant website.

– I wish we had a video copy of NBC’s feature on the Women’s Moguls. It literally amounted to “Look! We made Canada cry! Awesome!” Well, keep laughing, ’cause we got it back today!

– And awesome guy of the day is this guy and his carefully selected spot behind the CTV outdoors news desk on Robson;

Ever wanted to see The Colbert Report live?

Well, if you can get down to Science World by 9:15AM on Wednesday and Thursday, you can!

Start Time:
Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 9:15am
End Time:
Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 9:15pm
Location:
Creekside Park next to Science World
Description
The Colbert Report is taping at Creekside Park next to Science World on Wednesday 2/17 and Thursday 2/18 at 10am to a live audience. Please arrive by 9:15am if you would like to participate. Keep in mind there is no parking in the area so public transport is the best option

[VIA CTV]

“We Are More” by Shane Koyczan
When defining Canada
you might list some statistics
you might mention our tallest building
or biggest lake
you might shake a tree in the fall
and call a red leaf Canada
you might rattle off some celebrities
might mention Buffy Sainte-Marie
might even mention the fact that we’ve got a few
Barenaked Ladies
or that we made these crazy things
like zippers
electric cars
and washing machines
when defining Canada
it seems the world’s anthem has been
” been there done that”
and maybe that’s where we used to be at
it’s true
we’ve done and we’ve been
we’ve seen
all the great themes get swallowed up by the machine
and turned into theme parks
but when defining Canada
don’t forget to mention that we have set sparks
(more…)

That’s it! Arnold Schwarzenegger (who campaigned on a platform of taking jobs away from the province he’s worked in several times before – I’m just saying) has the torch, the opening ceremonies are under way, and we’re off to the races… and games… and distances? Is that it – time, goals, and distance? I think that’s right.

– Unless you’ve been asleep today, which I concede is possible, you’ll have heard about Nodar Kumaritashvili, the Georgian luger. Kumaritashvili came down from the last turn of the track too early, which ran him into the right hand lip of the home stretch – at 134-144+ kph, that resulted in a terrible crash into some support girders. A tragic start to a happy day for a lot of people. To every Twitter wag that had something pithy to say about lugers, bite me.

– The CBC, prior to today’s crash, was already questioning whether an outer limit of safety has been reached in the Olympic games. A similar conversation has been ongoing around the office here – when car racing reached it’s “too dangerous” point, mechanical solutions could be brought into play. Race cars could have their speed delimited, forcing crews to seek strategic advantage through other means (like fuel efficiency, etc.) and engineering could deflect harm away from the driver. None of this is an option in skiing, snowboarding, bobsledding, luging and so on. The way to push records and win games is just as much about pushing past safe/sane limits, as it is making the perfect start, finding the perfect line, etc. With a death (and a lot of injuries in the months leading up to the games), I think a lot of discussion will take place on this very subject.

– A happier story. My first year in Vancouver, I got to go listen to fellow Calgarian Tim Tamashiro play at the now gone Babalu Bar. With him were fellow jazz cads, Jamyz Bee and David Pierce. Good company, great show, an all round awesome time. Well, guess who’s the musical director for the Olympics? Tim Tamashiro would be a good guess, given the way I laid this paragraph out, but no, it’s Mr. Pierce. Mr. Tamashiro has a bit to say about his pal, Dave.

David Pierce, Jaymz Bee, Tim Tamashiro

– Did you miss the torch run? No problem – Flickr is filling up with loooooooots of olympic photos.

Yeah, two posts. So?

This is short though – our friends at Sense and Styles have posted this great look at Capone’s and the push to be an Olympic party point.

Passing through Yaletown today, I noticed a lot of the retaurants there are pulling out all the stops, some even putting up covered tents outside. In fact, I get the impression from VPD recruiting trailers and such, plus its proximity to LiveCity, Yaletown is going to be hopping. Keep that in mind, next time you’re down there and looking for a bite to eat.

I got to check out the Panasonic Pavilion today at LiveCity (aka David Lam Park) and see their exciting 3D technology in action (did you see the Beijing opening ceremonies in 3D – no you did not. But I did) – I’ll have more on this tomorrow, but in the meantime I have to mention something important.

Leave your umbrellas at home!

Not all the time, but LiveCity (and I’m assuming any other outdoor venues that have security gates the public has to pass through to enter) will be searching bags and umbrellas are a no-go. You can’t take them in. They were kind enough to offer to hold mine, but I was there with maybe 100 people, and there were only a couple of temporarily liberated umbrellas – it was easy to retrieve later. I’m not so confident this will happen – or work if it does – during full events.

So, think water proof shells and plastic ponchos.

A couple of things to add to the Olympocalypse post today;

– Twitter hashtags are ramping up. Keep your eye on #Van2010 and #Olympics

– Things just barely started and we’ve had one bomb scare (it wasn’t) at Lonsdale Quay – keep an eye on your stuff. Absentmindedness will get your backpack mangled by a robot! Or blowed up real good!

– An update to yesterday’s post. TravelSmart.ca (which you should all check out – lots of good info) says stopping or driving in the “Olympic” lanes (excepting when you move in just before a right turn) will get you a $100 fine. So, I think the $1000 fine might be something specific to business vehicles – still anecdotal, but fair warning.

– Getting a jump on all the protests that are expected tomorrow, InSite got in the Prime Minister’s face (figuratively) today. Message sent (keep safe injection sits open) and nobody hurt – let’s file that under win-win, and see if we can’t keep it that way for the next few weeks.

– A new Fat Burger has opened on Broadways. This has nothing to do with the Olympics, it’s just really close and tempting…