Monthly Archives: February 2010

My morning with Colbert.

Today was awesome. No other way to describe it. It is exhilarating to have the world come to Vancouver, and feel the great energy and vibe the city has going on.

I have been particularly excited about Stephen Colbert’s impending visit to Vancouver. My brother-in-law and friend, Eric is a writer on the show. Eric and I go way back, we were friends in high school, and traveled Europe together, and I’m married to his sister. Eric came with the crew here for the filming during the Olympics, and he was generous enough to let us into the VIP section this morning.

He was also the warmup act for the crowd to get them pumped before Colbert came out. It was exciting to watch him perform before a crowd of thousands in the city he went to high school in. Cool stuff.

The taping took place in the park literally across the street from my work. I asked a co-worker (whose meeting I skipped out on to go to the taping) to take a picture from our floor. Not sure how many people were there, but it must have been a few thousand by the time it started.

The camera guy was nice enough to take our camera and take some pictures of the crowd.

The set was great, and the backdrop was perfect. It was a glorious day here in Vancouver.

Our spot was amazing, and we had a great view of the whole thing. His guests were Michael Bublé and Bob Costas, who mounted a Moose used as a backdrop.

Many thanks to Eric for an unforgettable Olympic morning!

Photos from opening day.

We’ve taken some photos over the last few days. Here’s one of my son, Ivan when he ran in to the Danish curling team at a local mall. He was so excited, and tonight during opening ceremonies, when he saw this curler, James on TV he went absolutely crazy. No way anyone could be more excited about Danish curling.

Here he is with a torch bearer and her torch.

And just to give perspective, here he is, even more excited to simply have a bird on his arm.

Here are some photos of the Olympic flame passing through our neighbourhood, including the van passing through a few minutes ahead of the runners, with a great license plate.

Here are some photos taken from the roof of Vancity Centre, which happens to be across the street from Olympic Village, the pavillion for the Russian Winter Games in Sochi in 2014 (normally Science World) and just down from a whole bunch of pavillions and stadiums where events take place, including opening ceremonies.


Let the games begin.

So the Olympics start tomorrow here in Vancouver. I gotta admit, if I had lived here when the vote took place to approve the olympic bid, I would have voted against it (we were living in LA at the time). I just wasn’t that into it.

Then I became complacent, I was resigned to the massive spending, and just hoped for the best.

But then in the last few months buildings started opening, the new SkyTrain line opened, the excitement started building and I became much more optimistic.

When I found out a couple of weeks back that the torch would pass right near our place, like four houses down at our nearest street corner from where we live on the flame’s way to opening ceremonies, my excitement increased.

Now, wandering around town, everything is ready. My work is across the street from Olympic Village and the Russian pavillion for the Sochi 2014 winter games. Our home is not far from the stadium where opening ceremonies take place. My life is right in the thick of things, and it’s pretty cool.

Because Vancity is a slang term for Vancouver, and I monitor what people blog and tweet about Vancity, I get to see where Apolo Ono is hanging out and how much he loves my hometown.

I’ll take pictures of the torch passing near my place tomorrow and take some photos from the Vancity head office roof and post them.

Let the games begin…