temo

It's no where near as packed as it was after the game, more of a late night crowd now, but still very noisey.

maple leaf forever!!! brilliant!!!

very...awkward...

I don't mean to say there isn't any atmosphere. Yes, there are lots of people and lots of things happening. I guess after vising other huge celebrations around the world I had unrealistic expectations for Vancouver.

Don't believe it. They can't handle the crowds so they're dumping the cheap seats (well, not seats, but you get what I mean).

For me the one big let down so far is the lack of festival atmosphere in downtown Vancouver. Having so many of the public areas locked away behind fences and security has taken away from what I expected would be three weeks of European style public partying. Ostensibly, the reason is security. However, all they've down is create masses of people outside various venues and locations. Why would someone try to get through security when there are so many more easy targets waiting in a line-up, or standing behind a fence outside? Not to mention the swells of people standing outside various transit locations. I don't mean to be entirely negative. Despite VANOC's best efforts, I've still had a lot of fun checking out many of the different Olympic functions. I plan on heading back down next weekend for the Canada-USA hockey tie. Hopefully by then they'll have learned to relax a bit and take down some of the barricades.

Make sure to check out the international area on the fifth floor of the Bay Building as well. They have lots of Canadian, Russia, Italian, British, American, etc. stuff up there. And you don't have to pay with Cash/Visa. The main store has everything but it's a bit of an overstuffed gong show.

The outdoor cauldron is actually growing on me and could actually become an iconic part of the waterfront. I wish I knew the indoor one was temporary (and already extinguished) so that I could have adjusted my expectations. The gas company is an Olympic sponsor and is covering all of the cauldron related bills.

I flipped back and forth a few times between the CTV-W and NBC-E feed. Ended up watching more of the NBC broadcast because they showed fewer commercials and their audio signal included more of the audience and background noises. CTV perhaps had clearer audio, but it felt lifeless without the background noises you could hear on NBC. This made a huge difference when listening on a DD 5.1 setup. CTV production was a step up from their typical broadcast, but frankly their team simply cannot compete with the experience and dollars thrown at the screen by NBC. It's a shame that after lording our superior CBC coverage over the Americans for so many years we've taken a step back. I found a lot of the characters pieces by CTV sappy and melodramatic. NBC can also be rather cloying at times, especially since they're almost entirely Yankee focused, but I liked that they incorporated more spontaneous (looking) interviews with athletes. At the end of the day, both used 90% of the same footage to cover the ceremonies, but I'd definitely have to give NBC the edge in terms of broadcast quality for tonight.

i thought i was hearing laughter after a serious portion of the ceremony. it wasn't until they showed pictures of the audience that i realized they were drumming. definitely a cool idea but i don't know if the execution quite came off. perhaps it sounded better live?

i thoroughly enjoyed the parade of nations. the different colours and styles...great fun...speeches are inevitable and instantly forgettable. i have mixed feelings over the event. some of my worst fears were confirmed, but the technical wizardly of the light show was truly amazing. i'll never rewatch them, but i'm glad i caught them live anyways.

Yeah, it's been well known for a long time. Nothing like that would ever be left up to chance... Billions of people around the globe gasped in admiration as the archer bravely found his target with unerring accuracy. Spot-kick misery for Diana Ross Or so it seemed. In reality, he had not actually landed the arrow in the middle of the cauldron - he had fired it way outside the stadium as instructed. Organisers dared not risk his aim failling short and landing into the grandstand and instead told him to fire it directly over the target area... some pyrotechnics-helpful camera angles would take care of the visual effect.

great molson ad in the making...

They should have gone with the fake Torino/Barcelona style of lighting the torch. Who cares if it isn't the person really lighting the flame as long as it works and looks spectacular?

what a bizarre sight watching random people chase the motorcade...this is painful...