Day 3 — GOLD!

So, after Friday and Saturday’s HELLACIOUS weather, blue skies and good times are finally here. The day was one for the record books (in both the best and worst ways possible: the tourists were loving it, Olympic organizers not so much). Word is that Sunday was actually two degrees warmer than the ’92 Barcelona Summer Olympics.

Brutal. The Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) canceled thousands of tickets for the standing areas at Cypress Mountain, which is the venue for moguls and snowboarding. Fans were obviously none too pleased — after dropping $300 on auctioned tickets, many are only receiving $50 compensation from Olympic organizers. It’s unfortunate for sure, but as much as VANOC is trying to go green, it can’t control the weather.

Of course, for those of us not on the hills, Sunday was gorgeous. I caught the SkyTrain downtown in the afternoon, getting off at Main Street Station to check out the Canadian and Russian houses.

The entire waterfront, located across from the athletes’ villages, was buzzing with fans, tourists, and athletes from all over the world. After checking out the vibe (electric) in the area, my brother and I made our way down to LiveCity Yaletown, one of several venues hosting free concerts for the duration of the Games. We jumped into the already massive lineup at 6:00 p.m., two hours before North Vancouver’s own Mother Mother was scheduled to play. Twenty minutes later (security has been extraordinarily efficient so far) we found ourselves wandering the grounds inside the fence, where there were attractions set up by corporate sponsors (such as Coca-Cola) concession booths showcasing ethnic food (Greek and Jamaican being the most popular) and about 5000 people milling about. The atmosphere turned ridiculous as two massive screens flanking the concert stage were patched through to cameras at Cypress Mountain, where Canadian freestyle skier Alexandre Bilodeau was preparing to take his final run. As is well-known and documented by now, he nailed it, vaulting him into first place with only one skier left to go. It was quite something to see the crowd at LiveCity Yaletown stop in its tracks and hold its collective breath to watch the final run of the final skier, whose name and nationality escape me because frankly, he was of no consequence. When his score came in behind Bilodeau’s, LiveCity erupted. It was literally an EXPLOSION of primal screaming and happy times as we all broke into an impromptu dance party to celebrate our first gold of these games (and first Canadian gold on home soil EVER!) before launching into a raucous rendition of our national anthem. It was diehard patriotism at its finest and I’ve never been prouder of the ol' red and white than I was at that moment (including the fuzzy feelings I got at the end of blog post No.1). The night only got better from there, oh my brothers. Mother Mother came on and played an absolutely killer show, flipping between popular singles such as “Ghosting” and “Arms Tonite” with some of their lesser-known tracks. The set was extremely high energy as the North Vancouver band got to play in front of family and friends for an hour and a half, setting the stage (no pun intended) for the other headliner, local surf rocker Daniel Wesley, who is a personal favorite of mine. Wesley mellowed the hype right out of LiveCity Yaletown, turning the rest of the night into his own personal jam session. As dry ice smoke and Vancouver smoke* mingled together in the (surprisingly) crisp air, the moon and stars decided to come out and play, lighting the way for an evening that finished off in the most West Coast way possible — dub reggae, new friends, and some seriously righteous times. Peace. *That’s the Mary Jane, kids. Day 4 — Vancouver Weather = Fail Really. It really, really does. After all the trouble that has already plagued the Games with the Georgian’s death and the mechanical error at the opening ceremonies, the weather is doing its best to ensure that 2010 goes down in the history books as an absolute washout (pun intended, pun so very much intended). While I won’t go so far as to dub it “the worst Games ever” as some international media outlets are already starting to joke, I will say that so far, I have been a little embarrassed with the way things have gone. Despite schooling in Ottawa, I’m still around Vancouver enough to know just how much work has been put into making these Games epic, and so far, for reasons both inside and outside our control, things have not been up to par. Here’s hoping that VANOC can turn things around. I’m optimistic — we’re still only four days in! I do have to say that the organizers know how to get the fans into it — free shows are good shows, and there have been and still are plenty of free shows to go around. Tonight I decided to once again brave the crowds by making the hour-long commute down to LiveCity Yaletown, where Montreal rock band Malajube opened for Matisyahu, the infamous Jewish rapper-turned-reggae-artist. Unlike most of the evening revelers, I actually know of and listen to both Malajube and Matisyahu, so stoked does not even begin to describe my state of anticipation. And then the rain started. And for a while, it sucked. Then it stopped sucking because we hardy Vancouverites sucked it up and realized that this is our damn Games and we’re gonna have an effing good time in the rain because that’s how we do it. From that demented realization, things deteriorated into a two-hour-long, soggy mosh pit that moved to the rhythm of Matisyahu’s excellent dub. He ended the set with his hit single “One Day,” prompting all of the 2000 or so diehards still gathered in the deluge to sing the track’s main chorus with him:

All my life I’ve been waiting for, I’ve been praying for, for the people to say that we don’t wanna fight no more, there’ll be no more war, and our children will play.

This we belted out as strangers linked arms and did the whole good times sway that epitomizes unity and love. And then there were fireworks. Doesn’t get any more Olympics than that, does it? P.S. Congratulations to Mike Robertson for bringing home another medal. Well done, sir.