Ty and I decided to watch the last period of the Canada-US men’s hockey game on the big screen outside Live City, Yaletown. After building up a 2 goal lead, the US came back to tie it up in the last 24 seconds of the final period.

The crowd was tense; the mood became a bit somber … then, some minutes into overtime, he shoots, he scores. Sidney Crosby scores the winning goal and the crowd goes wild.

That was about three hours ago and the crowd is still going wild out there.

From  our place we can see and hear the crowd yelling and screaming, horns honking, cars scrawling along with multiple flags flapping …  after the game, we walked through Yaletown and up along Granville Street to Robson, along Robson to Richards, and then home again in a huge sea of red and white flags, hair, hats, boots, painted faces, hockey sticks. Granville and Robson are both shoulder to shoulder for blocks; people are dancing, high-fiving, singing, all sporting their colours.

With the men’s hockey win, Canada has 26 medals, including 14 gold, more than any other nation in history. After a very shaky start, red, white and gold redemption for these games.

See more photos here.

He waited until the final moment – with Canada teetering on the brink of a national panic attack – before Sidney Crosby put his mark on this game, this gold medal, this emerging legacy.

Timing as they say is everything.

In a game for the ages, it was Crosby – the leader of Canada’s Generation Next – who scored the golden goal 7:40 into overtime, leading Canada’s men’s Olympic hockey team to a thrill-a-minute 3-2 victory over their arch rivals from the United States.

It was Canada’s eighth Olympic gold medal overall in men’s hockey and they became the first to win on home ice since the U.S. did it in 1980′s ‘Miracle On Ice.’

Crosby was one of a handful of players who had a chance to put the game away in regulation. Canada nursed a 2-1 lead into the final minute of play; prior to that, Crosby had been denied on a breakaway with about three minutes to go and both Pronger and Shea Weber hit the post early in the third period.

Normally, in the rhythm of any hockey game, too many missed chances at one end translate into a goal at the other – and yesterday was no exception. With 25 seconds remaining in regulation; Canada getting set for a celebration; and goaltender Ryan Miller on the bench for a sixth attacker, the U.S. tied the game on a goal by Zach Parise. The sequence was potentially heart-breaking: Patrick Kane’s shot deflected off Jamie Langenbrunner’s skate right to Parise, who skated across the front of the goal crease and tucked a shot past goaltender Roberto Luongo.

To be so close to the championship – and then needing to return for four-on-four overtime – was just the final test in what had been a pressure-packed two weeks for the Canadian team. Thanks to Crosby, they survived.

( The Globe and Mail)

Friday evening Ty and I headed out to watch the Hockey matchup between Canada and Slovakia. Our first thought was the Hennessey Irish Pub next to the Ramada Inn on Granville but they already had a full house, as did the next three places we tried to get into. Finally, after a brief stop at the crepe place down the street, we were heading back to Granville when we thought, “Hey, what about the Yale?”. A blues bar on the corner of Granville and Drake, this place has been a staple on the Vancouver night scene for at least 40 years and this day was packed with sports fans. There was room at the inn but initially it did not seem as though we’d be able to get a seat. Ty finally found us a tiny table against the wall next to the cash machine – the last free table in the house – yippee! – with a great view of the gigantic screen and two smaller ones right in front of us.

Since the Yale wasn’t serving food, after the first period Ty headed out to grab something from the White Spot across the street but they were too slow. So, we waited one more period, and then I ran out down to Bella Pizza three blocks away for a pepperoni pick-up, and we watched the final cliff-hanger while munching on that.

The last few minutes of the game were tight and the crowd in the Yale was raucous. As the last 20 seconds counted down and the Canadians seemed barely able to hang onto their 1 point lead, the crowd went crazy. When the clock ran out and the game was won, the roar was literally deafening. I have never heard a cheer so loud and long – everyone was on their feet and the noise was rolling through the room and bouncing off the walls as the patrons screamed, shouted, pounded tables, and pumped their fists in the air. Coming from the outside we could hear the car horns honking, people screaming, noise-makers noise-making – yes, Canada is in the gold medal final on Sunday.

Today was another golden day, this time for the Canadian boys: gold in men’s curling for the Martin rink, gold in men’s snowboard parallel giant slalom from Jasey-Jay Anderson, and gold for the men’s long-track team pursuit in the 5,000. In bobsleigh Canada 1 took bronze, missing silver by the slimmest of margins at .01 of a second to the Germans.

Below, Canada’s Charles Hamelin (L) celebrates his gold medal with bronze medallist Canada’s Francois-Louis Tremblay after the men’s 500 metres short track speed skating final at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, February 26, 2010.

Today the animals were out in force downtown, along with the Silver Elvis, the mostly-naked underwear dude Spandex Andy, and cardboard Don Cherry.

See more pictures here.

By Jeff Blair, The Globe and Mail Posted Sunday, February 21, 2010

WHISTLER – They are worth watching, those who walk down the road less travelled – or, in this case, slide down it at 145 klicks per hour. So keep an eye on Jon Montgomery, Canada. You never know where this gold medal of his will take him.

Friday night, it was the centre of Whistler Village, like some kind of roving street party. People spilled out of the pubs – or, more accurately, vacated their place in line – as word spread that the guy they had been watching on television was coming down the mountain.

Clutching his turtle and thunderbird First Nations motif helmet, the automobile auctioneer who grew up playing baseball with Theo Fleury’s family in Russell, Man., Montgomery stopped to guzzle beer, accept hugs and sign autographs. “Sign the stick … sign the stick … sign the stick,” a crowd yelled outside the CTV stage where he had just been interviewed, as a small hockey stick was passed up to him. Deed done.

About the only thing Montgomery didn’t do was crowd surf but that’s no surprise. Because while his wild-man antics after his exhilarating and, for Canada, desperately needed win on a track that up to then accounted for one more death than Canadian medal, there is much more to the moppy, red-haired Montgomery than simply being a dude. One of the first things he did in the post-race news conference was apologize to silver medalist Martins Dukurs of Lativa for the over-exhuberance of his celebration. It was extended good-naturedly and accepted thusly. There is much, much more to Eldon and Joan Montgomery’s kid than meets the eye.

“Sometimes you feel like you’re floundering around on the roads of Europe,” Montgomery said on Saturday, at a reception at the Whistler Brewing Company about seven hours after he’d shut down the partying in the wee hours of an alpine morning.

“That it doesn’t really matter. That what you’re doing is insignificant. But to see the pride others share in our success here … it means everything to us as athletes. A large portion of this goes to all of Canada.”

See, this is why gold looks so good on a guy who admits that the first time he saw a skeleton go down the track at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary he figured he’d just stumbled on a luge accident. Because at a time when there are those among our chattering classes who feel our inner hoser has somehow been violated by the medal-lust of Own The Podium, it is important we celebrate simple, unbridled passion. “I’m the luckiest boy in the world,” he told a TV audience after his win.

“And I don’t give a lick.”

Ah, but there is time for him to use the podium as a bully pulpit of sorts, and don’t be surprised if Montgomery does. There are weighty issues to be advocated – and as he did at a news conference before training began, Montgomery once again Saturday pushed the cause of a 24-hour amateur sports channel whose revenues might help replace funding that will be lost.

“It’s gathering a lot of dust in the CRTC,” Montgomery said, “and through our efforts at the Olympic Games, maybe we can urge Canadians to put some momentum behind this and stick in a few elbows. That would be probably the biggest benefit of this. We wouldn’t be just a flash in the pan, then.”

Montgomery aims to defend his medal in Sochi in 2014, and hopes his girlfriend Darla Deschamps, who is also part of the Canadian program, is with him. So there’s an element of selfishness to his stand. But somebody’s got to step up, no?

And who better than a guy who says competing at home didn’t mean more pressure, but more support; who knows the first thing the true king of the hill does is come down and walk among the people.

Montgomery said he came upon this sport at a time when he was looking for something to be passionate about.

“When your eyes are open and you’re receptive to new opportunities, that’s when things will find you,” he said. “When you’re sitting around at home and saying to yourself: ‘Well, if there’s something out there it will come to me,’ that’s not how it’s going to happen.

“You have to get out there. Have a little zest in life. You have to find things and seek out new challenges and push yourself – and that’s when you find something that piques your interest and makes you passionate. That’s how I found skeleton.”

Lucky for Canada, it’s how we found Jon Montgomery, too.

Birds called Zebra Finches fly to and from an electric guitar at an art installation in the Barbican’s Curve Gallery, London, on February 26, 2010. The installation is a walk through aviary in gallery space inhabited by 40 Zebra Finches, created by French artist Celeste Boursier-Mougenot. The birds fly freely from bass guitars, guitars and cymbals as they feed and perch creating sounds as they move along the instruments which amplify the sounds through loudspeakers.

The Canadian women’s hockey team defeated Team USA for their third straight Olympic gold medal. Let’s hope the men’s team can do the same!

Clara Hughes gets the bronze in the last speed skating race of her career – a great performance at Vancouver 2010 before the home crowd.

Canadian women take gold and silver in the two “man” bobsleigh – fantastic runs for both teams.

Gold medalists Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse race below

Silver medalists Helen Upperton and Shelley-Ann Brown below

Canadian women’s short track team takes silver

Sunday dawned sunny, blue skies and warm. While Ty spent the afternoon watching the Russia v Czech Republic (I think) game from the dark confines of The Corner bar, I strapped on the inline skates for another cruise around the seawall. As soon as it gets warm, the siren song of the inline skates captures me and it’s off around the Park I go. This day was more crowded by quite a bit than Thursday so not quite as pleasant a ride but still lovely out. The north side of the Park never sees the direct sunlight in the winter because the sun doesn’t rise high enough; as a result, the bike path is slick and wet and difficult to skate on. On bikes, these conditions don’t matter but on skates they sure do so I always take that part of the wall with caution. On Thursday I’d seen a shirtless man in shorts running along Third Beach; today it was bocce ball players and more joggers in summer attire.

After returning to the ranch with tired legs after a last ditch sprint around Wainborne Park to get home, I met Ty for a coffee at Coo Coo, which was packed; people seem finally to have discovered this little gem of a coffee shop with its best cappuccino in town. Later we watched the disappointing performance of Team Canada in the hockey loss against the US from the comfort of our downstairs lounge, saving ourselves the money, and calories, that a trip to one of the local establishments would have cost. Some of the bars and restaurants here have jacked up their prices quite high – greed lives on – and I think we’ve given them enough business to date.

So far, I’ve seen long and short track skating events, a bit of the women’s aerials, pairs skating, bobsleigh and Canada’s great win in curling over the UK, on the TV. To me, the best moment, by far, has been Jon Montgomery’s gold medal win in the men’s skeleton and his post-race interview with CTV. It’s not every Olympian who can auction off a gigantic pint of beer with billions around the world watching. The guy’s great – good for him!

On another note, I find it incongruous, to say the least, that these Olympics are sponsored by, among others, Coke and Mcdonalds, two of the world’s largest purveyors of diabetes and obesity – talk about a disconnect!

The weather has been great the last several days and the sunny cloudless skies, and 15 degree warmth, have brought out the Olympic crowds en masse here in Vancouver. All the trees and bushes are flowering ahead of schedule, including beautiful pink Japanese maples and magnolia trees; these latter had only furry grey buds two days ago.

On my drive home from the Island Thursday it was so beautiful that I just had to slip on the inline skates and go for a cruise around the park. Since most of the action is downtown, the seawall and park are not nearly as crowded as they usually are – great for skating! As I made my way around the seawall, I saw that all the sculptures and statues gracing the park have been adorned with red Olympic mittens, including the giant English Bay inukshuk, the statue of Robbie Burns overlooking the rowing club, the bronze sculpture of track star Harry Jerome, whose mittens are gigantic red boxing gloves emblazoned with the maple leaf, and the mermaid girl at Lumberman’s Arch.

As well, the huge lions on either side of Lions Gate Bridge have big red mittens on their paws, as well as necklaces of world flags. As the days pass, more and more flags adorn the windows and balconies of downtown Vancouver’s condo forest, mostly Canadian but from many other countries as well. Cars, too, are festooned with flags – I saw one the other day with six large flags and a small flag garland flapping in the breeze as it raced by with horn honking.

Friday night I met Ty downtown at Waterfront Station – I was going to walk down, but as I came out of our front door, a pedi-cab was passing by; I flagged it down and rode in style down Seymour in the height of the 4 pm rush hour, with annoyed bus drivers honking at us along the way. Waterfront Station was a packed zoo of people swarming everywhere and, as usual, the German Fan Fest Beer Garden had an enormous lineup. Apparently, they’ve now just about run out of beer and are having to fly in a special additional order from Germany to keep up with the Olympic beer-drinking hordes. Not wanting to wait in line to drink beer, Ty and I headed down further into Gastown to Chill Winston’s, one of our favorite patio stops, where the crowds were less dense, and sampled a few glasses of Grey Monk.

From there, it was a walk down the block to the newly refurbished Blarney Stone for one or two, then a zip through Tinseltown, along the BC Place perimeter fence to Concord Place on the old Expo lands to see the pavilions there and marvel at the proliferation of tiny inukshuk sculptures that continue to expand and populate the waterfront of False Creek. After admiring these, we walked on through the Edgewater Casino plaza, with its stage and vendors booths, along the Seawall opposite the Olympic Athletes Village, and ended up at the Yaletown Brewing Company watching curling and nibbling on a tuna roll. Outside the crowds were thick with people, jugglers, fire twirlers, stilt walkers, and a sea of red and white parapernalia.

Every night at about 10:45 fireworks explode from Live City at David Lam Park, much to the chagrin of our cat and dog, especially the dog, who spends his evenings under the bed shaking, and the crowds party hearty all night long. It’s loud.

Saturday noon saw us lined up for the aquabus at the foot of Hornby and off to Granville Island, where the lineups for ferries, food and drinks conintued to be lonnnnnnnnnng. Once again, we decided to pass on spending 2 hours in line for a drink at the Bridges Pub, now the Swiss House for the duration of the Games. Instead, we caught some interactive art, visited New Leaf Editions, and lined up for half an hour at the Granville Island Bewing Company tasting room for one beer and some alpine events on the tube, after which we made our way back home on foot over the Granville Street Bridge with the rest of the hordes too impatient to wait for motorised transport. The city looks beautiful, the crowds are happy, and the Olympic experience is proving to be a positive one – hoorah!

See more here.

On Saturday February 13, 2010 1500+ celebrated the Vancouver Olympics 2010 by taking part in the “Dancing in the Streets” Flash Mob on Robson St in Vancouver, BC.

Here’s the official Imagine1Day version:

Yesterday’s Olympic events were slightly marred by an anti-Olympic protest which turned violent, leading to quite a few metal newspaper boxes being thrown through large plate glass windows in businesses downtown. So much for the vaunted one billion dollars spent on Games security … I’m all for free speech and public protest, but not for an uncontrolled angry flash mob throwing things – where were the security personnel?

From the looks of things, people had been running down the street and just heaving metal boxes at will.

Our walking route through downtown took us to the Four Nations Host Pavillion at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre plaza, the north plaza of the Vancouver Art Gallery, where we discovered that the large cedar enclosure that we’d seen being erected earlier was going to be home to a First Nations carver of totem poles for the duration of the Games, and the area south of the Gallery between it and the Court House where a zip line has been installed so people can fly across Robson Square. We heard later that the lineup to try it was six hours long. After a little photo session on the medal podium, purchase of a pair of sale winter boots at Aldo, and a stop at the newly-refurbished Corner Pub to watch the ski-jumping, we were back at the ranch to catch the Dutch skater Kramer capture gold in the first men’s speed skating event, the 5,000 meters.

Later, we made our way through the downtown crowds, onto the Skytrain to Waterfront, onto a Main Street bus, and in the door at the Floata Chinese Restaurant in Chinatown, Canada’s largest Chinese Restaurant, for a formal 12 course sit down Chinese New Year dinner. Served at tables of ten, the food was excellent: BBQ’d meat, whole crab, tiger prawns, whole white fish, mushrooms and greens … and finished with a bright orange mango pudding. We enjoyed the food, and the company of some of our table-mates, but the evening was a bit spoiled as time passed by one couple, who arrived inebriated (after having spent the whole day drinking beer in the German pavillion), and proceeded to get drunker and more obnoxious as the evening drew on, filling up their glasses from bottles they’d snuck in inside their clothes. The man, in particular, was a real prize, grabbing food indiscriminately with whatever he had to hand, including his hands, spilling it and wine all over the table and the man next to him, and sinking lower and lower in his chair. Seeing that things were going downhill fast, Ty and I took the opportunity to slip out at a quiet moment. After a train trip back to Yaletown, we watched the crowd for a bit from the vantage point of Starbucks patio.

See more here.