Photo by Toby Snelgrove

It started at the Art Gallery and ended in front of Terry Fox memorial at BC Place, but the protest did not deter the celebrations. As 2000 protesters jostled with police, others were glued to TVs and projection screens all around the city. The atmosphere was electric. Wherther on the street on in restaurants, spontaneous applause broke out as spectators were dazzled with the ceremony’s display of art.

Here are some images of the evening.

By Des Dougan

I can't remember the last time I sat in front of the TV for three hours - perhaps watching one of the Lord of the Rings movies - but I did it tonight, and was captivated. Along with my 14-year-old son, Peter, we watched entranced as the amazing, and sometimes breathtaking, Opening Ceremony unfolded. From Greece to Canada, we watched as the athletes and coaches paraded through BC Place (which was transformed from a concrete balloon into an amazing chameleon throughout).

I'm no longer much of a TV watcher and haven't watched an Olympic opening for a long time; that said, tonight's was quite possibly the most amazing piece of theatre it's been my pleasure to watch - ever. From the first moments, watching the snowboarder carve his way down the mountain and into the stadium through the Olympic rings, to Rick Hansen and his cohorts lighting the cauldron, we sat ooh-ing and aah-ing.

The march of the athletes was fun, and turned into a geography lesson for a Grade 9 student who didn't know what the Soviet Union used to be (it's hard to believe it didn't exist any longer when he was born). We cheered when the huge Canadian team finally made their entrance, a proud Canadian and his immigrant dad, just as proud of the country I now call home.

The cultural segment in the middle was a real eye-opener - knowing how cheesy and kitschy these events can sometimes (often?) be, I had low expectations... Wow, were they blown away or what? Quite amazing lights and graphics led us through from the North to the Prairies (underpinned by Joni Mitchell's ageless talent). The punk fiddlers and the punk poet (Shane Koyczan) whose creation was just so Canadian; the peerless Sarah McLachlan and the quite amazing rendition of Hallelujah by kd lang, who has one of the greatest singing voices ever. It's so hard to recall the details, there was so much to see.

The Olympic flag ceremony and the minute's silence for Nodar Kumaritashvili were emotional moments handled with tact and grace. It was great to see Betty Fox alongside Senator Romeo Dallaire and Bobby Orr. I loved Donald Sutherland's voiceovers during the cultural segment.

Finally, the flame arrived and the only hiccough of the evening when one of the crystal pillars failed to rise, causing a short delay and unfortunately preventing Rick Hansen from taking part in lighting the cauldron alongside Catriona Le May Doan, Steve Nash, Senator Nancy Greene Raine and Wayne Gretzky. Overall, though, a quite stunning demonstration of the great talent and skill we have in this country.

And then I got back to my trusty MacBook to find 200 tweets - some of my co-bloggers really do need to get a life!!!

It's clear that my amazement at the quality and sheer energy exhibited by the performers, and the talent who designed the event, is fairly universal from all the tweets I read. Let's hope, Canada, that the rest of the world recognizes what great talent we have here. And that we Canadians, from wherever we have come, open our hearts and offer our hands to the thousands of visitors to our country and our city.

Des Dougan is Principal of Dougan Consulting Group, which provides technology support services to small businesses in the Metro Vancouver area. Des can be contacted here and via @ddougan on Twitter.

Toby Snelrove Photography

Some People I bumped into Friday - some with interesting stories.

Bill and Audrey - she works with the homeless and wishes some of the funds went that way. She is still smitten with the games.

Nowhere to eat ... why not her?

Clyde just bought his veggie dog from an ex-ESL student who, with his new language skills, was able to start a life in Canada.

Elaine and Patty got seat for the opening - $700 seats.

More free music ... and they were good.

One homeless man took advantage of the increased traffic.

Kez enjoying managing traffic on Burrard and Robson.

Local colour on Granville St. - note the patriotism.

Roland from Toronto, volunteering for Roots (the sponsor).

Pin traders in action.

Taxi driver Pardwp has found little work - "Too many sponsored vans".

Nothing special about Troy ... he's just having fun.

Jann Arden torch relay at Children's Hospital in Vancouver

Photos by Leigh Righton

www.madmannequin.com

twitter: @madmannequin

By Toby Snelgrove.

June delights in participating in the Granville St. LunarFest art installation. Photo: Toby Snelgrove

You don’t have to be from another county to be awed by Vancouver and the Olympics. June lives only 20 minutes by the Canada Line from Vancouver (Richmond BC), however, this was her first trip to down the town. “We’re really excited about the Olympics” June said after she posed in the Granville Street LunarFest art installation. “It is really wonderful and beautiful.” Whether you are from Richmond or Frankfurt, the Olympic atmosphere will delight.

www.tobography.com

http://tobysnelgrove.blogspot.com/

By Des Dougan

I took my 14-year-old son to Lonsdale Quay this morning for the Olympic Torch Relay. We breakfasted at a well-known coffee shop chain on Esplanade with a couple of networking colleagues, then we headed down to the Quay. Even at just around 8.00, the place was busy with musicians doing their sound-check, volunteers handing out Canadian flags (predictably, my son wanted one of the Coca-Cola sponsored ones, probably because they were glossier that a simple paper Maple Leaf) and a big group of kids from two of the nearby elementary schools. The kids had created great long banners and were proudly showing them off, along with their equally proud teachers.

By 8.30 the place was solid, with people up on the ICBC plaza, others on the external stairways and hundreds of others jammed into the space leading from the Seabus terminal and bus loop to the plaza. There was even one gentleman (who shall remain anonymous, as I know him well) on the roof of the office building adjoining the Seabus.

Just as my Grade 9 son was starting to get bored, we began to get some action, with a couple of morning DJs (are they still called that?) from Virgin Radio acting as MCs. There were the predictable speeches from the Mayor, MP and MLA and some very good drumming from the Stony Creek First Nation Drummers prior to the relay itself.

Scheduled for 8.42 a.m., the runner appeared almost to the second. Victor Kraatz, a former Olympian who figure-skated in three Olympic Games with Shae-Lynn Bourne, brought the torch into the central plaza to loud cheers.

Victor Kraatz carrying the torch in North Vancouver

Following a brief stop, the flame was handed over to another runner (unfortunately, I was unable to find his name on the Torch Relay information sites) who headed back out and up to Esplanade for the next stage of North Vancouver's big day of Olympic excitement.

Thankfully the rain held off while we were at the Quay; unfortunately we had to leave as soon as the torch did so that I could get my son to school. Overall, though it was a most enjoyable event.

Des Dougan is Principal of Dougan Consulting Group, which provides technology support services to small businesses in the Metro Vancouver area. Des can be contacted here and via @ddougan on Twitter.

Matthew Lennox sining for his dinner on Granville St.

By Toby Snelgrove

There are numerous musical venues for the Vancouver Olympics. In fact, there will be over 160 free concerts just in the Vancouver Area. But Matthew Lennox isn’t interested. He’d rather perform his sweet guitar sounds on the street. Born in Toronto, he has been a Vancouverite for the past 10 years. Due to the warm El Nino weather, he decided to hit the streets and start busking for the Olympics. If you can’t get to hear him on Granville St., you can find his guitar melodies here: www.myspace.com/matthewlennoxmusic.

http://www.tobography.com/

http://tobysnelgrove.blogspot.com

If you read Shane Gibson’s earlier Metro-Blenz News Squad post, you probably learned that the Irish House’s soft opening was an absolutely fantastic evening. It was a loud, fun-filled and jam packed Irish House, and we managed to capture a few photos from the night.

Nordica Photography is the combined efforts of photographers Allan Cole Roberts and Jakob Granqvist. Nordica focuses on capturing images of people, which allows them to do wedding photography, event photography, portrait shoots, and head-shots.
Learn More about Nordica Photography here or follow Nordica on Twitter, @nordicaphoto.

By Des Dougan

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of North Vancouverites gathered at Lonsdale Quay early this morning to welcome the Olympic flame to the North Shore. Along with City Mayor Darrell Mussatto, MP Andrew Saxton and MLA Naomi Yamamoto, citizens from all over the North Shore met at the Plaza at the Quay to see the torch relay.

Crowds began gathering well before 8.00 a.m. and the plaza was packed by the time the torch arrived to cheers. Precisely timed to arrive at 8.42, the torch was handed over from one runner to another before it headed back out on its all-day visit to North Vancouver.

Des Dougan is Principal of Dougan Consulting Group, which provides technology support services to small businesses in the Metro Vancouver area. Des can be contacted here and via @ddougan on Twitter.

I want to share some Olympic related news. I was asked to join the Metro Blenz News Squad. A group of citizen journalists documenting the Olympic experience. So watch for me in a Blenz near you. Come up say hi and share your experiences with me. You never know we may see one of my blogs in the Metro newspaper. Check out the video below to see some of what I’m planning on doing.

by Adam Kambeitz

It is not only the architecture and the occasional star lighting up Vancouver at night, these days the city of Vancouver has transformed its landscape with a number of beautiful public works of art throughout the city. A few of those works, although visually stimulating and inspiring by day, take on whole new meaning when viewed at night.

One piece in particular stood out for me, the sculpture entitled “We”, created by internationally renowned artist and sculptor Jaume Plensa. It is located a few metres south of the intersection of Thurlow Street and Beach Avenue in English Bay, and was constructed as part of the Vancouver Biennale.

The Vancouver Biennale, which is a bi-annual event that celebrates art in public places, describes the sculpture as a celebration of “Vancouver’s linguistic and cultural diversity” which seemed quite fitting as Vancouver prepares to host the world later this week. The 16 feet tall aluminum piece combines a number of letters chosen from 8 different alphabets (Latin, Greek, Russian Cyrillic, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese, Arabic, Chinese) to create a shape resembling a man sitting on the ground with his knees tucked into his chest. Lights have been placed in the floor of the “womb” created by the structure and light upwards through the white lettering to create a beautiful glowing effect.

I had the pleasure is of being introduced to Miriam Blume this week, who is the Director of Communications for The Vancouver Biennale. She was kind enough to describe to me the main of objective of the project and mention a few tips to make the experience more enjoyable.

Our objective is to situate art where people live, work and play, creating cultural experiences for people as they move about their daily lives. Our open-air museum includes some of the most renown artists from around the world and some new rising super stars that can't be missed.

A downloadable map is available on our website, and we encourage people to hop on their bikes, or take the Canada Line or do a series of walks to see all of the sculptures during the exhibition.

During the Olympics, we invite the city to join us nightly at Sunset Beach Park to watch the Vectorial Elevation light show in and amongst some of the most spectacular Biennale sculptures. Completely free and family-friendly, it's an incredible way to spend an evening. Watch for the Biennale team in bright yellow jackets giving away collector pins and postcards.

To find out more about the other sculptures and the artist behind them check out the Vancouver Biennale website or follow them on any of their social profiles Facebook, Twitter or Flickr.

Adam Kambeitz is the owner of Nine Point Ten Marketing a social media based marketing company and is interested in all things Social Media.
Follow Adam on Twitter @adamkambeitz or @ninepointten

Vancouver is the perfect showcase for the cool digital technology that allows anyone to design and control this large, interactive light show during the Olympic Games (image courtesy of www.katcam.ca)

by Judy Bishop - The Travelling Eye

Starting today (Feb 4th) beams of light pointed towards the stars are illuminating English Bay and the night sky in downtown Vancouver in a spectacular light show during the Olympics as part of the 2010 Cultural Olympiad.  The 10,000-watt lights quietly move and create patterns from locations in Vanier Park and Sunset Beach, covering an area of 100,000 sq. m and visible within 15 km of the city’s downtown core, stretching to other Olympic venues such as Richmond and Cypress Mountain.

Starting at dusk, 20 robotic searchlights create a canopy of night lights above and on the surface of English Bay with designs created by people around the world and delivered over the Internet. Called "Vectorial Elevation", its the first time this internationally-celebrated artwork is being displayed in Canada AND over a body of water.

The display is considered one of the world’s largest interactive artworks, and led by Canadian artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. More than two million people will personally view it in Metro Vancouver, and countless others internationally via www.vectorialvancouver.net or http://www.vancouver2010.com/code.  The lightshow runs regardless of weather until Feb 28th.  Wow.

A personalized webpage is automatically created for each participant to document their design and send a personal dedication to anyone in the world. Organizers estimate 130,000 different patterns will be created in the 24 days the project operates from dusk to dawn.  Previously, the installation was staged in Mexico, Spain, Ireland, and France where it received accolades such as Lyon’s prestigious Trophée des Lumières.

‘Judy Bishop – The Travelling Eye’ is a Vancouver-based photographer specializing in travel and experience photography. Her stock images are sold worldwide by Getty Images,   Judy was a board member of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics bid, and is a keen Whistler skier.   She is a long-time business/marketing columnist for Business in Vancouver newspaper, and sits on corporate boards.

Judy is also managing partner of Bishop + Company, a 20-year old management consultancy providing corporate & market strategy for technology and growth companies. Contact info & story summary available. Follow Judy on Twitter @travellingeye. email:  judy@judybishop.ca

My good friend and fellow Metro Blenz News Squad teamate Bonnie Sainsbury wrote a great post the other day about the Ask Me! button campaign that will alert visitors to Vancouver’s Olympic Games that the wearer of the Ask Me! button is friendly, approachable and helpful.  It’s a wonderful way to break the ice for people who may feel shy or intimidated at the thought of talking to strangers, and I encourage everyone to read Bonnie’s post and pick up a button.

But not everyone will be able to see those buttons.  Blind and visually impaired people like me, and many seniors with failing eyesight won’t be aware that you’re there to lend a helping hand.  So, here are a few things you can do to help:

• Remember that blind or visually impaired people aren’t always identifiable by a dog guide or white cane.  If you see someone who looks lost or uncomfortable crossing the street, or is having problems reading street signs or addresses, chances are they may have trouble seeing.
• Approach the person, and touch their arm lightly, and ask in a normal tone of voice if you can help at all. Don’t yell.  We’re blind, not deaf:-)
• Let the person take YOUR arm so you can guide them. Many people think they need to grab the blind person’s arm, which means that you’re dragging them around.  That’s very disorienting.
• If the person is using a white cane, don’t grab the cane and pull him/her along.  I’m serious.  It happens.
• If the person has a dog guide, don’t distract the dog by talking to it or petting it.  A dog guide is a working dog.
• If the person requires directions, make them very concise.  And don’t point in a direction.  It won’t help most of us.
• The phone number for the Vancouver branch of the Canadian Nantional Institute for the Blind is (604) 431-2121. Keep it handy.

Hope this helps.  Feel free to ask me or the CNIB for assistance.

Let’s make the Games memorable for everyone.

Cathy Browne is a freelance PR and social media professional. She is @CathyBrowne on Twitter and blogs at Cathy's Clean Slate.

FOR IMEDIATE RELEASE

Metro Vancouver and Blenz team up for exclusive coverage

Vancouver — Feb 1, 2010 — Metro and Blenz announced a unique partnership today that takes citizen journalism to a new level as Vancouver prepares for the global spotlight. Starting Feb. 12, Metro-Blenz News Squad bloggers will be stationed at key Blenz Coffee locations around Vancouver.

In the heart of all the action, Metro-Blenz News Squad bloggers, photographers and videographers will record and post your stories, anecdotes and experiences. Share with us the great parties you’ve attended, the cool people you’ve met and the once-in-a-lifetime experiences you’ve had. Vancouverites and visitors from around the globe are welcome to drop by selected Blenz locations to chat with our bloggers who will be easily recognized by their Metro-Blenz News Squad ID tags. Excerpts from the best anecdotes will also run in Metro Vancouver newspaper the following publication day.

Well-known bloggers like Shane Gibson, Bonnie Sainsbury, Cybele Negris and Marilyn Anderson will post their blogs on metroblenznewssquad.com where the content will be exclusive to Metro for a full day. “We’re excited to have attracted enthusiastic participation from some of the most luminous members of the local social media scene, and each brings their own personal perspective to the project,” Blenz President George Moen said. “Also, in keeping with the new social media theme, we’re using the power of .tel technology to support and promote the project with metroblenznewssquad.tel, which is a simple portal for those interested in learning about, participating in, or simply following the Metro-Blenz News Squad blogs.” The in-paper content will start running on Feb. 15 and include blog highlights as well as a daily photo submitted by readers. Additional reader photos and video will be available online at metronews.ca/newssquad.

Maryse Lalonde, Publisher and Managing Director of Metro Vancouver, said the partnership with Blenz is exciting. “Newspapers and coffee have always gone well together and what appealed to us about this project is that it’s so unique, grassroots and original. It’s a great way for us to connect with readers.”

About Blenz The Canadian Coffee Company Ltd™

Blenz The Canadian Coffee Company Ltd is a premium retailer of handmade specialty coffees, organic teas and other innovative beverages. All Blenz Coffee’s beverages are made in-store from only the highest quality ingredients available. World class barista training and a drive to provide a superior customer experience has fuelled their steady growth. Blenz Coffee now operates a large network of franchise locations in British Columbia and abroad including Japan and the Philippines. For further information about Blenz Coffee, please contact:

George Moen
President
Blenz The Canadian Coffee Company Ltd.
(604) 682 2995
george@blenz.com, Twitter.com/BlenzCoffee

About Metro

Metro is the nation’s No. 1 free national daily newspaper brand and the first national daily to publish in both official languages. In Canada, Metro editions are published in: Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. Metro targets 18- to 49-year-olds and has a circulation that now exceeds 800,000. Metro is the largest international newspaper in the world. Metro is published in over 100 major cities in 19 countries across Europe, North & South America and Asia. Metro has a unique global reach — attracting a young, active, well-educated, metropolitan audience of over 17 million daily readers.
For further information please contact:

Maryse Lalonde
Publisher and Managing Director
Metro Vancouver
(604) 648 3211
maryse.lalonde@metronews.ca