Olympic flame behind chicken wire...

If you didn't get a chance to see the olympic cauldron up close during the games - dont worry. it's one of those experiences that's better on tv.

i know the games have finished, but i finally had a chance to get down there and check out the cauldron, albeit extinguished.

disgusted, sums up the experience.

the cauldron, which is visually impressive, a magnificent sculpture. it's flanked by a apocalyptic, soviet era fence. (see pictured). it's not even a nice fence. it's the type of fence you might hastily erect around a nuclear spill. it's base is made up of large concrete pads, (capable no doubt of stopping an attack by tank). then the fence is about 12 ft high. it means any photo or view of the cauldron is obscured and marred by this shocking eyesore. apparently during the games, there was complaint, and a 3-4 ft section above the concrete was replaced with plexi glass. this is good if you are around 5.5ft or shorter, but otherwise it's horrendous. when we have to go to these lengths to protect things - we have lost the battle. this looks like a fortified warzone, and probably isn't too different from a fence you might find in the greenzone in baghdad.

opening ceremony - moments of spectacular with alot of yawn...

ok, first the good. the whales, swimming through the stadium - holy shit that was amazing....BUT what the fuck was that tap dancing moron doing? as ever, it's annoying being forced to listen to everything in french, and seriously, who are we kidding, the people in quebec can get by with english.the olympic IOC president, jacques rogges - complete asshole, and what a stiff, the guy has no personality. what else??

then there was the epic failure of the hydrolic lift on the cauldron, what a spectacular fuck up of canadian engineering. jesus, i hope the moron who designed that thing lost their job.and the awkward look on everyones face as they waited for this thing to come, that never would. ouch.

oh yeah all the first nation stuff, ok that was necessary but a little obligatory and then the performances...well they were just ok. brian adams and nelly furtado looked about as comfortable together as a match and a box of TNT, and KD Langs hallelujah was not uplifting or appropriate at all, it was somber and sad.

when all was said and done at the end i was "is that it?" like having sex with a girl you've wanted to fuck for a long time, and realizing that it wasn't everything you thought it would be so too are the olympic opening ceremonies. and like the long time to find your pants, and get dressed, look for your keys and then the awkward goodbye after the lay...so too was the idiotic ending which saw wayne gretzky walk out of the stadium and then drive through the streets of vancouver on the back of a truck, in the pouring rain and light another cauldron - this time a functioning one.

olympics make their contribution to global warming...

As we speak, trucks are bringing snow from Manning Park, (more than 200KM east of Vancouver), to deposit on Cypress Mountain for the 2010 olympic games. Once the trucks dump the snow, helicopters will place it on location on the mountain, thats right, helicopters...furthermore pipes have been laid throughout the olympic course and dry ice will be pumped through those pipes in an effort to keep the mountain cold enough for the snow to remain...can you imagine how much fuel, electricity and energy all this effort involves?

all of this will make for at best poor to average conditions on the mountain, but at what cost will it come to to the environment, and ironically, further contribute to the very reason the weather is warmer in the first place!

The real stink of it...2 hours to the north lies Whistler Blackcomb, with some of the best skiing conditions in North America, and plenty of alpine snow.

NAFTA when it benefits us....

can't help but laugh at the chorus of protesters complaining about the appointment of a US firm to provide Olympic pavilion construction contracting. These are the same monkeys who complain about every single penny spent on the games, and the lack of fiscal prudence around the budgeting. yet when a firm wins fairly through a public bid process they are up in arms because a local more expensive contractor wasn't hired.

you can't have it both ways vancouver...