Ok, it is an odd disconnect, Olympians and fast food, but I was at the Nagano Olympics (trust me, not as an athlete) and there was a McDonald's in the athlete's village and they did eat there — carbing up before competing or letting loose afterwards. But it is still funny and now I'm hungry. (Link via lunchbreath)
In terms of pop culture, the opening ceremonies for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics was a showcase of Canada's most mainstream entertainment — Nelly Furtado, Sarah McLachlan and Bryan Adams — but it was the performance of We Are More by slam poet Shane Koyczan that captured the energy in the room.
An excerpt:
we do more than sit around and say "eh?" and yes we are the home of the Rocket and the Great One who inspired little number nines and little number ninety-nines but we're more than just hockey and fishing lines off of the rocky coast of the Maritimes and some say what defines us is something as simple as please and thank you and as for you're welcome well we say that too but we are more than genteel or civilized we are an idea in the process of being realized we are young we are cultures strung together then woven into a tapestry and the design is what makes us more than the sum total of our history
I can't find the performance anywhere as the International Olympic Committee, in its wisdom, is clamping down on anyone doing something ridiculous like positively promoting the games (nor is it available on the official sites either) but there is an earlier version available.
In case you somehow missed it, the Quadrennial Seasonal Athletic Event is upon us! (I'm wary of using the world Olympics, lest the IOC try and sue us for whatever money we have left. They are kinda touchy about these things.)
Anyway, right-wing faux-blowhard Stephen Colbert is heading for Vancouver next week, as part of his support for the U.S. speedskating team, and he wants the world to know.
Nation! Join Stephen on his quest for Olympic glory LIVE at Creekside Park next to Science World at 1455 Quebec Street in Vancouver, BC on February 17th and 18th at 9:15am. To help spread the word about his historic visit to Canada, DOWNLOAD the exclusive commemorative poster and post it all over Vancouver!
The poster is from artist Shepard Fairey (of the Obama Hope poster) and even he fears the litigious hand of the IOC, making no reference to the vaunted rings. Perhaps his battle with The Associated Press has tempered him.
Almost more than Michael Phelps's Olympian-sized breakfasts, TV commentators have been obsessed about the grandeur of Beijing's Olympic venues. They rave about the complexity of the Bird's Nest, the luminescent brilliance of the Water Cube and so forth.
To be sure, they are fascinating structures, but what better way to understand their complexity than building Lego replicas, right? That's the task that the Hong Kong Lego User Group set for themselves, using more than 300,000 Lego bricks and 4,500 Lego people. The model measures 8m x 3m and includes models of the Bird’s Nest, the Water Cube, the Equestrian centre and took 100 hours of work.
Of course if you're not impressed by that, than how about the Bird's Nest, entirely built out of playing cards? World Record cardstacker Bryan Berg recreated the Bejing Olympic Village using 140,000 playing cards over 20 days.
You'd think that being surrounded by such great talent, some of it would rub off on me. Here's a roundup of what some of my friends are up to in culture and online:
Karen Henricks has designed Canada Post's stamp for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. It had never occurred to that there are designers for stamps, but it makes perfect sense to me now. Karen — do you get to go to the Games now?
Another university friend, Richard Gilmore, is part of the photography exhibit 21 Days of Black Rock City until Aug. 3 in Petaluma, CA. Ricky is a fabulous photographer and often shoots fire-dancers. You can see examples of his work here.
Last, but not least, two of my friends have been named to NxE’s Fifty Most Influential ‘Female’ Bloggers list. Amber MacArthur of commandN (among other things) and Rachel Sklar, the editor of Huffington Post's Eat the Press have both deservedly made the grade.
Almost more than Michael Phelps's Olympian-sized breakfasts, TV commentators have been obsessed about the grandeur of Beijing's Olympic venues. They rave about the complexity of the Bird's Nest, the luminescent brilliance of the Water Cube and so forth.
Of course if you're not impressed by that, than how about the Bird's Nest, entirely built out of playing cards? World Record cardstacker Bryan Berg recreated the Bejing Olympic Village using 140,000 playing cards over 20 days.
