Saturday, February 27, 2010

A Huge Congratulations to the Olympic Graphic Design Team

The graphics for the 2010 Winter Olympics are spectacular. After 2 weeks, I am still in awe! I love the colours and the designs!!

The program cover

Banners on lamposts


The boards surrounding the rinks for curling, figure skating, etc, were wrapped with the graphics, rather than advertising. What a treat! And the green and blue theme continued up into the stands. The curling rink used green and blue for the circles and the walkways were royal blue. The workers and volunteers wore either blue or green jackets.
 
 You can view a video that explains the process the design team went through to come up with these gorgeous graphics. However, to my shock and horror, Leo Obstbaum, Design Director for VANOC 2010 Olympics, the man at the beginning of the video, died of natural causes, last August at the age of 40. How very tragic.

By the way, the graphic wraps in the rinks, etc, will be recycled into flooring.

Friday, February 26, 2010

Olympic Torch, Vancouver, BC

Some people have complained that the Olympic Torch was behind a chainlink fence, so that it could not be photographed nicely. So the organizers quickly moved the fence in and allowed people to go to the top of a nearby building for a good view. This viewing area had long line-ups.

These two solutions still did not fix everything so VANOC removed some of the chainlink and put up plexiglass.

So off I went to see it.

At the bottom of Granville St I found a sign that pointed us to the west. Then, as I joined the mass of people, no doubt heading to the cauldron too, I heard a young lady up on a lifeguard stand announcing through her megaphone that we were getting close and to keep heading west.

The current of humanity encountered one more "lifeguard" before we finally arrived. Was it worth it? The torch is definitely beautiful, however the immediate surroundings did leave something to be desired. But no one was complaining. Everyone was so happy. What a great day!

I didn't even bother to cross the street. It was just too busy. Can you see the viewing area on the left?

Using the telephoto lens on my camera I was able to get rid of a lot of the "extras". Too bad the mountains had so little snow on them or this would have been much nicer. It was a bit late in the afternoon, so everything is a bit dark, including the supports below, which are actually quite clear.



Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Vancouver Olympics & Canadian Pride

I am a fan of most Olympic sports, though it wasn't the sporting events that I wanted to see. I pryed myself from our big screen TV with sometimes as many as 6 channels covering sports in high-def, to travel 500+ kilometers to Vancouver to see and experience what was happening to the city. The downtown was as alive as any city could hope to be. The spirits were high. Wait a minute, I must be able to find a better word than "high"... maybe "over the moon". Or even "over the sun", as the weather was spectacularly warm and sunny.

Our culture is often considered to be reserved, but right now we are very big on celebrating being Canadian. Actually it was like we were at a hockey game... a two week long hockey game. People decked out in red and white. Everyone is happy and friendly. Not fueled by alcohol either. A remarkable site. It felt so very very good.

Lots of hockey fans. They come in all ages!



The next Captain Canada?

I liked the boy's hat, so I asked if I could take a picture. The boy wasn't as thrilled, but his Dad said, like a good Canadian, "Thank you" when I was finished. But see the lady in the red sweater who is pointing at me? Actually, I think she is pointing at what was behind me. It seems that NBC was filming me taking this picture. I wonder if I made the News.

What a wonderful shot! If only I knew who these people are, so I could send them a copy.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Doors of Provence

The town of Ménerbes was essentially closed for lunch when we were there. The upside of this was that I was not distracted by stores and was therefore able to notice all the beautiful door and windows there. One might say I went overboard taking pics of them, so I will divide them into separate posts. Sorry, but it is likely to be long, but I just couldn't eliminate any of them!




This magnificent door belonged to "la Maison de la Truffe et du Vin" - the House of Tuffle and Wine. The village of Ménerbes is called the truffle capital. Inside we sampled olive oil flavoured with truffles.




 Look at how warn the stone steps are!! Obviously everyone came and went by the right side. 
 

 
 
That's a grape vine above, with its roots under pavement and cement.
 
You might recognize this from the header of my blog.