2010 Vancouver Olympic & Paralympic Super-Thread

[SpongeG]

oh lol shows how much i pay attention

[Yume-sama]

CTV's interactive broadcast schedule is out now. I couldn't get it to work on FireFox but it worked on Chrome
http://www.ctvolympics.ca/tv-online-listings/index.html

[johnjimbc]

It isn't any wonder the international media get things wrong about the Olympics sometimes. Here are two glaring examples of reporting from the local media recently:

1) In either the metro or 24 this past week (can't remember which), the article about Clara Hughes being the flag-bearer for the Olympic team included in both the photo caption and article a statement that she would be "lighting the Olympic cauldron." > Um . . . no.

2) In the Province paper today they included a large photo of Cambie streets banner with downtown buildings in the background, zoomed in such a way that the only truly identifiable background building was the Harbour Centre tower. The caption explained the photo showed banners on the Cambie bridge "with the Sears Tower in the background." > Maybe they've hired a few contract staffers from Chicago to handle the extra workload during the Games?

*** I may be embarrassing myself if it ends up the Harbour Centre is, or was once, called the Sears Tower, but it still seems a strange reference today. ***

It's somewhat funny, but it's also incredibly embarrassing. These are our local media sources, and they are getting such obvious things wrong. Even a cursory editorial reading before going to print would do wonders for their credibility .

[Yume-sama]

I think the majority of the media probably enjoys too much of our provinces natural produce before writing their articles.

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by johnjimbc

It isn't any wonder the international media get things wrong about the Olympics sometimes. Here are two glaring examples of reporting from the local media recently:

1) In either the metro or 24 this past week (can't remember which), the article about Clara Hughes being the flag-bearer for the Olympic team included in both the photo caption and article a statement that she would be "lighting the Olympic cauldron." > Um . . . no.

2) In the Province paper today they included a large photo of Cambie streets banner with downtown buildings in the background, zoomed in such a way that the only truly identifiable background building was the Harbour Centre tower. The caption explained the photo showed banners on the Cambie bridge "with the Sears Tower in the background." > Maybe they've hired a few contract staffers from Chicago to handle the extra workload during the Games?

It's somewhat funny, but it's also incredibly embarrassing. These are our local media sources, and they are getting such obvious things wrong. Even a cursory editorial reading before going to print would do wonders for their credibility .

it used to be referred to as Sears tower since thats where the Sears store used to be lots of old people still think of it that way - the same way i think of Husky tower in Calgary even though it has a new name

[Yume-sama]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

it used to be referred to as Sears tower since thats where the Sears store used to be lots of old people still think of it that way - the same way i think of Husky tower in Calgary even though it has a new name

Oh, really? Isn't that something. A little (well, a lot) dated, but something.

I don't think many people in Calgary would know what you mean by the Husky Tower, now, either.

[cabotp]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

it used to be referred to as Sears tower since thats where the Sears store used to be lots of old people still think of it that way - the same way i think of Husky tower in Calgary even though it has a new name

I sometimes referrer to it as the revolving restaurant tower

[mooks28]

Originally Posted by Yume-sama

Oh, really? Isn't that something. A little (well, a lot) dated, but something.

I don't think many people in Calgary would know what you mean by the Husky Tower, now, either.

My parents still call it that. If I said I was at harbour centre they'd have no idea where that was.

Same way people still call Telus BC Tel...

[Yume-sama]

lol, well, I guess it just takes a lot longer than 30 years for some things to sink in

[jlousa]

No surprise the bay Olympic store was a zoo again today, spent another few hundred but I'm now done and never have to go back. Up on the 5th floor they had a band playing, but they weren't too my taste and were way too loud. Surprising how dead it was up there compared to the lower level.

[Yume-sama]

Originally Posted by jlousa

No surprise the bay Olympic store was a zoo again today, spent another few hundred but I'm now done and never have to go back. Up on the 5th floor they had a band playing, but they weren't too my taste and were way too loud. Surprising how dead it was up there compared to the lower level.

On the 5th floor, did you notice if they had the other teams *authentic* jerseys (not the ones with the $130 pricetag, more like $400).

I still have to figure out who I'm going to support. I think Finland

[mr.x]

Originally Posted by jlousa

No surprise the bay Olympic store was a zoo again today, spent another few hundred but I'm now done and never have to go back. Up on the 5th floor they had a band playing, but they weren't too my taste and were way too loud. Surprising how dead it was up there compared to the lower level.

What's up on the 5th floor should be on the main floor...and what's currently on the main floor should have been a bit bigger...

[jlousa]

Didn't see any of the $400 jerseys just the $130. I agree with you though the Finland stuff looks top notch. I want to like the Russian stuff I can't.
I went to Casa Italia today as well, very disappointed, and the outfits they have there are absolutely terrible. You actually have to go and see them for yourself.

[Yume-sama]

Hmm. The Italians doing something really weird does not surprise me

[Waders]

Banning media from Cypress? Not a very good PR strategy.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/02/07/sports/sports-us-olympics-snow.html

VANCOUVER (Reuters) - Olympic Games organizers, scrambling helicopters to pile snow on to the barren freestyle ski and snowboard venue, told the media on Sunday that they would not get access to the first official training session.

Officials say they "do not have anything to hide" at Cypress Mountain, the most weather-challenged venue of the 2010 Winter Games that open on Friday (February 12-28).

But the journalists will miss the first day of moguls training on Monday on the slopes visible from Vancouver, the host city hampered by the warmest January on record.

"Largely this is to ensure the safety of everything that is up there but more importantly it allows us to focus on getting the field of play as best we can for the athletes' first day of training," said Tim Gayda, vice president of sports for the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC).

The media will be allowed in for men's and women's mogul training sessions on Tuesday, he said.

Reporters are likely to find a scene quite different from an idyllic Winter Games setting.

There will be no snow in the spectator areas, with the 5,000 cubic meters of snow coming from nearby mountains being used only to complete courses for events such as the mogul, half pipe and parallel giant slalom.

But the media might be kept at bay even longer. Executive vice president Cathy Priestner Allinger said VANOC is prepared to make decisions, like delaying the media coming on site, if it is in the "best interest of the venue and the athletes."

Organizers emphasized that the freestyle skiing and snowboard courses are nearly complete and the Games will not suffer on Cypress Mountain despite bad press about the lack of snow.

"There are eight other venues and hopefully you will ask me questions about those one day," Gayda told journalists.

(Reporting by Mary Milliken; editing by Jon Bramley)

[jsbertram]

Originally Posted by johnjimbc

It isn't any wonder the international media get things wrong about the Olympics sometimes. Here are two glaring examples of reporting from the local media recently:

1) In either the metro or 24 this past week (can't remember which), the article about Clara Hughes being the flag-bearer for the Olympic team included in both the photo caption and article a statement that she would be "lighting the Olympic cauldron." > Um . . . no.

2) In the Province paper today they included a large photo of Cambie streets banner with downtown buildings in the background, zoomed in such a way that the only truly identifiable background building was the Harbour Centre tower. The caption explained the photo showed banners on the Cambie bridge "with the Sears Tower in the background." > Maybe they've hired a few contract staffers from Chicago to handle the extra workload during the Games?

*** I may be embarrassing myself if it ends up the Harbour Centre is, or was once, called the Sears Tower, but it still seems a strange reference today. ***

It's somewhat funny, but it's also incredibly embarrassing. These are our local media sources, and they are getting such obvious things wrong. Even a cursory editorial reading before going to print would do wonders for their credibility .

This goes back a while, but the old department store building (now used by SFU) was originally "David Spencer Limited" better known as Spencer's. A rival to Woodwards, the Spencer's chain was bought by Eatons after WW2, and all the stores were rebranded as Eatons stores.

When Eatons moved into their new Pacific Centre flagship store in the early 70's, Sears moved onto the old Spencer's building and the rest of the block was redeveloped as Harbour Centre. With Eatons advertising themselves as "Eatons at Pacific Centre" so people would know NOT to go their old location on Hastings, Sears came to be known as "Sears at Harbour Centre".

With Eatons going bust, Sears moved into their Pacific Centre space, and the old Spencer's building was redeveloped into the downtown "Harbour Centre" campus of SFU, sometimes called "SFU at Harbour Centre".

Even though the old Spencer's building and the new Harbour Centre buildings share the block, only the below-street mall areas are actually common space; there are no connections between the office floors in Harbour Centre and the SFU floors in the old Spencer's building.

When I've been working in that building, it's commonly called "The Spencer Building" or just "Spencer", and the other building is "Harbour Centre Tower" or "Harbour". With the new Harbour Centre Tower dwarfing the old Spencer building since the 70's, I can't imagine anyone today would call the Spencer / Eatons / Sears building a 'Tower', although perhaps it was considered a towering building when it was built almost 100 years ago.

[jsbertram]

Originally Posted by mr.x

What's up on the 5th floor should be on the main floor...and what's currently on the main floor should have been a bit bigger...

I was hoping the entire main floor at The Bay would become the Olympic Shop, and the stinky perfume counters moved elsewhere.

[SpongeG]

when i was in the bay two guys saw a sign that said olympic store downstairs or so they thought - they looked at the arrow the wrong way - the olympic store was about 50 feet behind them and they wandered off in the wrong direction looking for it

[raggedy13]

I definitely grew up calling the Harbour Centre Tower 'Sears Tower'. I hadn't thought about that name for a long time though. I believe both my parents still call it Sears Tower.

[officedweller]

Even the Sears Tower in Chicago is now called the Willis Tower (after the insurance company that either bought it or leased a majority of space).