Olympics

The one sad part about going to Venezuela for me was that I missed the meat of the olympics. On Isla Margarita, VZ the air channels consist of the following: 1 - Static, 2 - snow, 3 - white noise, 4 - Chavez adressing the nation, 5 - snow, 6 - Chavez addressing the nation in slightly brighter colour, 7 - Chavez addressing the nation in dimmer colour but louder sound, 8 - Chavez addressing the nation with snow in the picture but blaring sound, 9 - Chavez addressing the nation with (Allelujah!) Perfect sound, great colour, 10 - black screen, 11 - Canal FOX, Latin America's FOX channel. If we were lucky they would be showing a good movie in english with Spanish subtitles, if we were unlucky they would be showing Los Simpson in spanish dubbing (that's right, Homer sounds rediculous screaming "WOHOO!" in En Espanol) with no subtitles, english or otherwise.

What it all adds up to is no Olympics. And do you blame them? Venezuela's only competitor was an old professor doing the luge, who the italians were kind of worried about. Not so much for his luge skill but more for his personal safety.
Nonetheless after my bout with food posioning TV was in order. I watched our figure skater dude put on a fantastic performance yesterday. I was also moved by the personality, and later the compassion, of Clara Hughes, and was really happy for Cindy Klassen - 5 frickin' medals. Way to go ladies. As much as our athletic program sucks here (not our athletes, but the financial support we give them) they dealt with it and came out on top, which is good to see. Only people like them can bring in the support that those potential athletes between a rock and a hard place really need.

What is my Harangue really about? Well technically speaking, not much. By not much I mean Avril Levigne. I know it's trendy to like her, and it's even more trendy to hate her. But can we please make an exception for me? Can I hate her and be not trendy? Here, I'll try: It's not so much her I dislike, it's everything about her, and it's that Canada sent her. What message is that? Look you can drop out of high school and still make it? She was about as dense as Cesium in her interview with CBC. They had to get a flighty uptalking interviewer to talk to her, just so she wouldn't look so obtuse by sheer contrast. Unfortunately I think Avril Levigne looks dense by contrast next to a jar of mayonnaise. Anyway, I just don't think that's the best we could do. But kudos to our country anyway for sending such strong female athletes to show the world what's what. And kudos to Vancouver for electing a mayor on what he says and does, not how he looks or whether he can walk - on a matter of sheer principle. It is a good and logical step for such a progressive leader of a city as Van is. Also, I really love our Inukshuk 2010 logo, I think it's very appropriate. I think we could have better organized the native invitation to the world. . . did the chief forget his lines? That was a little akward. What was the token he was holding? He should have talked more about it . . .

I loved the projected ice effect and the building of the inukshuk, though I think they should have built him out of fake stone, as the fake snow blocks invoked images of igloo building. Inukshuk are not generally made of snow are they? (though I know they can be sometimes). A little background to the rest of the world and even ignorant Canadians on what Inukshuk represent and who uses them would have been good too. . . Anywho, I think as long as we organize it a little better, and try to present our cultures as undiluted but with gradual borders between each other, rather than a mishmash where hockey players and street surfers cruise around a strutting Avril Levigne and a bunch of snow Inukshuk builders - we should be in good shape. Canada has a lot to offer, and the world seems to have a fairly high opinion of us. Let's show them we don't have to be delightfully tacky all the time, we have taste too. . .