One of the many benefits of the BC Media Centre is that all sorts of cool things come through here. The other day, Lord Stanley’s Cup stopped by:
The rules as told by Craig & Phil (who are Archivists for the Hockey Hall of Fame) is that anyone can touch, hug, kiss the Cup, but in order to be able to lift the Cup, you have to win it.
I’m happy with my hug.
Earlier this week I stopped by Canada’s Northern House Pavillion on Hastings & Seymour. It’s a huge two level pavilion that seems to be drawing big lineups but since they let in 40 people at a time, the lines move quickly. Lots of interactive displays and live performances for the whole family.
We also had an impromptu True North Media House meetup there as it seemed fitting.
Dave Olson even recorded a podcast with me and a number of others while there.
During the Olympics, more people will visit the pavilion than actually live in Canada’s North.
The Winter Olympic Games have brought thousands of people to Vancouver and I’ve been able to meet a ton of amazing people during my adventures over the last couple of weeks. I thought I’d profile a few of them here and make a few other posts as the Games progress.
Lindsey Anderson
One thing that has struck me is how many people have directly and indirectly contributed to the Games without being an athlete or in sport at all. Lindsey works for Nk’Mip Cellars which is one of the official suppliers of wine for the Games. Nk’Mip is North America’s first Aboriginal owned and operated winery. Based in Osoyoos, she is a participant in a mentorship program that has been helping people in her community get training in various aspects of the winery business. She is very excited to be a part of the Games.
Kristy Richards
During the press conference after the Women’s Moguls, Kristy heartfully described her run the day before in contrast to the medal winning run her teammate, Jenn Heil had. She fell about half way through the run, lost a ski and then collected herself and completed her run with an amazing jump on the second half of the course. You don’t get more Canadian than that!
Eleanor (Mackenzie) Miller
While waiting to board the train in Whistler to go back to Vancouver, Rebecca & I stopped off at a little pub. We sat a large table as the place was pretty empty. It was about an hour until the big Switzerland vs Canada Men’s Hockey game so people were trickling in. Next thing we know, Eleanor and her friend Marge ask if they can sit down at our table. We say sure and then Marj mentions that Eleanor is a former Olympian. Turns out she had competed for Canada in the 1952 Summer Games in the 100m and 200m races in Helsinki and had participated in the Opening Ceremonies rehearsals in Vancouver. She proudly wore an Olympic (temporary) tattoo on her face and a commemorative Olympic scarf around her neck that was given to her by the City of Vancouver. She was quite a character and I’m glad I had a chance to spend some time with her.
Team Spandex
Also while in Whistler, I came across these crazy people that were roaming around in spandex uniforms, posing for ‘sexy pictures’ and getting a huge crowd of people around them, interacting with them and of course taking their picture with them. I have no idea who they were, but they were awesome.
The BC Media Centre that I’m currently using as basecamp during the Olympic Games hosts a LOT of press conferences and Premier Gordon Campbell attends many of them:
and when he’s not at the Media Centre, he’s out and about:
I’m pretty sure by the end of this, I’ll be on a first name basis with him.
My pal Duane stopped by for a visit the other day and we shot this little video to give you a little glimpse inside the BC Media Centre.
It’s where I’ve been spending a lot of time lately attending press conferences, processing photos, writing posts like this one and sometimes just relaxing and actually watching some of the events on one of many tvs with various live feeds:
This morning, I went from shooting photos of cute, excited kids and tall ships:
to shooting photos of Police and SWAT teams dispersing crowds during a protest march that turned violent.
I missed the window smashing and crowd control (I was taking photos of the ship in North Vancouver at the time) but suffice to say, these Olympics have been anything but boring.
My Flickr sets for the Tall Ship and the Robson Street Protests.
This post has also appeared on Vancouver Access and the Vancouver Sun/Canada.com’s VanFans2010 site.
This morning I had a chance to be one of the first to ride the new Zipline that goes over Robson Street:
Needless to say, it was amazing!
Thanks to ZipTrek EcoTours for putting this on. It opens to the general public FOR FREE on Friday, February 12th. You can watch people ride it on their webcam.
I shot this with my Kodak Zx1 camera with the fisheye lens attachment. Seemed like a perfect day for a waterproof(ish) camera.
UPDATE: I felt confident enough to take my Nikon D90 out for a zipline spin too:
I ended up riding the zipline 4 times…it’s unlikely I’d ever get a chance to do that again (go again & again) so I made the most of it! They even said I could just leave the harness on between runs…except to get back to the launch tower, I had to walk up Howe Street and cross Robson on the sidewalk…yes, you get lots of looks when you are fully geared out with a harness and helmet. So much fun!
Check out some more photos from the Zipline.
This morning I had a chance to be one of the first to ride the new Zipline that goes over Robson Street.
Needless to say, it was amazing!
Thanks to ZipTrek EcoTours for putting this on. It opens to the general public FOR FREE on Friday, February 12th. You can watch people ride it on their webcam.
UPDATED: I took the ride again with my Nikon D90 with a fisheye lens:
Also had a chance to take some more photos from inside the Zipline setup:
So. Much. Fun!
Wow…I’m still beaming from what happened early this morning. I never expected to get ‘into it’ like a lot of people have been but I now ‘get it’ after witnessing first hand what the Olympic Torch relay means to people.
This morning I had the privilege of doing a ride along in a GM support vehicle for the relay.
These guys have the tough job of keeping all the relay vehicles going as they drive across the country and back. This morning, our driver was Art and he has the enviable job of driving in the ‘parade’ of vehicles and coordinates repairs along the trip. This can include finding the nearest dealership to source parts or a repair bay to doing simple fixes on the road. Art seemed to love every minute of it though. You’ll see why in my photos – so many excited people of all ages cheering and smiling as we drove by.
We were behind the Coca Cola ‘float’ trucks that had music blasting while dancers handed out drinks to the crowd:
Our vehicle was nondescript – it had no official markings other than a sign on the windshield. As we drove past the cheering crowd we heard them shout all kinds of things including “Rockstars!” and “Hey look it’s the CSIS truck” and my favorite “who are those guys?”.
We still felt compelled to wave back as the energy from the crowds was incredibly infectious.
So many kids were possibly more excited than on Christmas morning had braved the cold and waited for the Torch to come by.
and finally, what the crowds were waiting for:
I made a little video to give you an idea of what it was like to drive in this crazyiness:
A HUGE thank you to Art, Alex, Jim, Michael and everyone at GM for allowing me to be a part of this….it was pretty special.
Here’s all the photos I took during the relay:
or you can watch a slideshow of them on Flickr:
Update: Here’s Rebecca’s shot of me hanging out the window:
Tonight I got to check out the large tent pavilion for my home province and it was pretty impressive.
It was the first ‘tent’ I’ve been in so far for the Olympics…many are popping up all over town to accommodate large groups of people. It didn’t feel like a tent at all once inside.
What surprised me was the amount of technology inside….it was a showcase of a lot of innovation that was created in Ontario.
By far the coolest thing was the Interaxon demonstration where you wear a headset with sensors on it that allow you to control one of three Ontario landmark light shows with your mind. I chose to control the CN Tower’s lights.
Using your alpha and beta waves that the sensors pick up, I was able to slow down or speed up the lights that were on the outside of the CN Tower – there was a live video feed of all the landmarks so you could see in realtime if you were affecting the lights.
We then headed over to the 4D Theatre where we got to see a six minute movie in….wait for it….4D! Can you guess what the extra dimension is? It was a slick tourism movie that definitely reminded me of where I grew up.
There was also a number of Microsoft Surface tables and 3D TVs scattered around the House….no glasses required which was pretty wild…it truly worked. There was even a videogame you could play via Blackberries (made by RIM who is based in Ontario) that was in 3D.
Definitely an impressive showcase…and they’re planning on having a ton of free concerts at Ontario House during the Games. Rebecca has the full lineup if you want to check it out.
