The Torch is Nigh! – Olympic Outsider #12

Examining Main and Hastings – Olympic Outsider #11

On the Ground in Vancouver – Olympic Outsider #10

The Olympics is in itself a family friendly event. However, if you’re wondering about what activities would be fun to do with your kids, here are a few suggestions:

The Robson Square Zipline:

Whistler’s Ziptrek Ecotours has installed a 170 meter zipline across Robson Square from the top of the law courts to the south-east corner of the Vancouver Art Gallery. It will be up throughout the Games from February 12 to 28th, from 10am to 9pm, and it’s FREE to the public! If you and your kids are up for an adventure, THIS is the place to go! I highly recommend arriving early, as the lineups for this unique activity will be long! (It isn’t everyday that you can zipline through the city!) They plan on shooting 70 people down the line each hour, so chances sound pretty good that the lineup will move quite quickly! So come early and have FUN!!

Robson Square Skating Rink

The General Electric sponsored open-air skating rink at Robson Square is a super fun activity for the whole family! It is open from 9am to 9pm throughout the Games. Bring your own skates or rent a pair for only $3. Admission to the rink itself is free! The rink is out doors, but in a covered area so a fun activity, rain or shine

Coca-Cola Pavilion

The Coca-Cola is an amazing and fun place for people of all ages. I was privileged to get a sneak peak at the pavilion before it opened and was amazed by what I found inside. You will learn about the history of Coca-Cola’s involvement in the Olympics from the 1990′s to present. Included in this is a display of the Olympic torches of each Games Coca-Cola has been involved in. Very Cool!! Next you will be invited to watch a video of the torch relay, and then they will let you loos in the main room of the pavilion to enjoy an ice cold Coca-Cola and participate in several cool activities, including having your photo taken with an official torch of the 2010 Games. The Coca-Cola Pavilion is a MUST SEE as far as I’m concerned! The Pavilion is located at LiveCity Yaletown at David Lam Park.

To see the photos of my “sneak peak,” and to get a better idea of what to expect, please visit Flickr.

Canada’s Northern House

A very cool Canadian cultural activity would be to check out Canada’s Northern House. Located at the corner of Seymour and West Hastings, the Northern House give the public a taste of the culture in the Yukon and Northwest Territories, as well as Nunavut. For more information about the Northern House, please visit the website at http://www.canadasnorth.com.

The OZone

The OZone is located in Richmond, near the Olympic Oval at Minoru Park. From February 12 to 28, the O Zone will be an awesome destination to celebrate the Olympic Games, watch Olympic events on the huge screens, watch live entertainment, and participate in many family activities. Included at the OZone are activities from outdoor skating, to participating in the BCLC virtual reality sporting events, to learning about the different regions of British Columbia, to the World Ice Art Championships! There will be fireworks and theme nights at this venue as well! For more information, visit the website at http://www.richmondozone.com.

These are only a few of the many many family fun activities you will find around the city during the 2010 Games! The list is endless! There are things for all ages to join in the Olympic spirit. So bring your kids out and HAVE FUN!!!

A few of us went to the Opening of CODE Live in Vancouver, last Thursday evening…

We had a chance to explore both the Emily Carr and the Great Northern Way CODE locations.. Emily Carr was a bit more casual, with a video installation, digitalized clothing and fashion art. I hung out with mostly with Mariska, Dave Olson and Bev Davies (Respected Old Skool Punk Photographer)… We had some of the food and met with other social media friends before we made our way to the CODE 1 location..

At 8pm we went to the Great Northern Way Campus for the Opening of CODE 1.

At 7.50$ a beer/wine, it’s not really a cheap venue to go party, but I must say it is worth the detour to have a look at the various installations..

My favourite GNW CODE Installations:

Condemned Bulbes

the ReacTable

the Paparazzi Bots…

near the bar…

old skool ghetto-blasters

and the container outside…

Also, check out kk’s post on CODE, he know’s a thing or two about the project since he is working with them in some capacity…

Here’s the list of Installations featured at each venue:

Great Northern Way Campus: Centre for Digital Media >>weblink>>

Dune 4.0: Studio Roosegaarde (Netherlands)
Artificial Moon: Wang Yuyang, curated by Li Zhenhua (China)
Where are you?: Luc Courschene (Canada)
787 Cliparts: Oliver Laric (Austria)
Vested: Don Ritter (Canada)
Cambridge Bay: A Time and a Place: Souns featuring Tanya Tagaq (Canada)
We are Stardust: George Legrady (Canada)
Paparazzi Bots: Ken Rinaldo (USA)
Condemned Bulbes: Artificiel (Canada)
ECO ART: World Without Water: Tahir Mahmood, co presentation with the Canadian Film Centre (Canada)
Greenhouse: Brendan Wypich, co presentation with the Canadian Film Centre (Canada)
Akoumasflore: Scenoscome, co presentation with the Canadian Film Centre (France)
Seed: Napoleon Brosseau and Gabe Sahwney
Mondo Spider: Zero Emissions: eatART (Canada)
mo_ving: Raquel Kogan, curated by Claudio Rivera-Seguel (Brazil/Chile)
Breaking the Ice: Societé des arts technologiques (Canada)
Reactable: Sergi Jordà, Martin Kaltenbrunner, Günter Geiger and Marcos Alonso (Austria/Spain)
Instant Places: Canada CODE: Ian Birse, Laura Kavanaugh (Canada)
PLAY: The Hertzian Collective: Geoffrey Shea (Canada)
Analogue Nostalgia Presents / présente – Foreign Voices, Common Stories (Ghettoblaster): James Phillips (Canada)

CODE Lounge: Featuring works by Organelle and Shea Allan-McCachen

EmilyCarr University of Art and Design >>weblink>>

The Paradise Institute: Janet Cardiff and Georges Bures Miller (Canada)
Organized by the National Gallery of Canada
Electromode / Peau d’Ane : Valerie Lamontagne (Canada)
Skorpions and Captain Electric : Joanna Berzowska, XS Labs (Canada)
Walking City and Living Pod : Ying Gao (Canada)
Company Keeper and Emotional Ties : Sara Diamond (Canada)
Blue Code, Jacket Antics and Tornado Dress (Barbara Layne, Studio subTela: Canada)
Electric Skin and Barking Mad L Suzi Webster with Jordan Benwick (Canada)
Tendrils : Thecla Schiphorst (Canada)
*glisten)HIVE: Julie Andreyev (Canada)
CODE.lab: M. Simon Levin and Jer Thorp with Emily Carr Students and Faculty (Canada)
Song of Solomon: Julian Jonker and Ralph Borland (South Africa)
Odd Spaces: Faisal Anwar (Canada / Pakistan)
CODE Dialogues: Co presented with Emily Carr University of Art and Design (Canada)

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The House of Switzerland opened its doors to the public for the first time, in both Vancouver and Whistler on February 5th. Vancouver Access was privileged to be invited to the opening celebration.

The Swiss House is situated at Bridges Restaurant on Granville Island. The lineup to get a first look at the cultural House was out the door!

The opening was celebrated with delicious Swiss foods, chocolate, wine, music and much more! The House will be serving meals, so make your reservations now!

The House also has a media room set up to cover the Games and will have several screens set up, covering events through the Swiss television station as well as local official Olympic television station, CTV. They bragged that the Swiss station would not show nearly as many commercials throughout their coverage, as North American stations would!

The House of Switzerland will be open until February 28th. I highly recommend you go check it out and experience how the Swiss culture celebrates Olympic excitement!

For more information about the House of Switzerland, visit the Official Website!

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This morning we went to the BCMC (British Columbia Media Centre) where Premier Campbell and Minister of State for the Olympics Mary McNeil greeted the media and gave us a brief intro of the BC International Media Centre’s features.

(Why is Gordon wearing his HBC Olympic Red Mittens indoors and trying to use the touch screen with them on? Je ne sais pas!)

After, Premier Campbell and five-time Olympian Charmaine Crooks will demonstrate one of the exciting activities open to the public during the 2010 Winter Games and ride the new 170-metre-long zipline across Robson Square…

For a complete list of things to-do during the 2010 Winter Games, check out our “free event guide“…

We managed to take several pictures, and I got to play with my new Canon 7D.. Which now allows me do do video.. So I recorded the Premier Campbell conference after he zipline over Robson Square.

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The Canada Olympic House has two locations, one downtown Vancouver and one in Whistler Village.

Vancouver Canada Olympic House

The sixth floor of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Bay Vancouver flagship store on Granville and West Georgia Street will serve Canada’s Olympic House during the 2010 Games.

The House will provide an easily accessible retreat for Canada’s Olympic athletes, their families and team sponsors, within close walking distance of the downtown Vancouver competition and entertainment venues.

Canada Olympic House will be a relaxing and friendly meeting place for Canadian Olympic athletes, their family, friends, coaches, support staff, sponsors, government partners and special guests. Canada Olympic House also stages programs such as the Family and Friends Program, hosts athlete medal receptions and provides a multimedia centre/internet lounge and TV lounge in order to watch all the Olympic action with other enthusiastic fans and supporters.

“We look forward to working with our partners in Vancouver in creating a winning atmosphere for our Canadian team in 2010,” said Chris Rudge, CEO, Canadian Olympic Committee. “We have every confidence that they will provide excellent service and support as we Paint the Town Red in celebration.”

Canada Olympic House is scheduled to be open every day during the Games from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. (subject to change). Access to this private facility will require pre-games registration and accreditation by the COC and is not open to the general public. Media wishing to visit Canada Olympic House should coordinate requests with the COC.

(source: http://www.olympic.ca)

Whistler Canada Olympic House

The primary goal of the Whistler Canada Olympic House is to create a showcasing and hosting facility in the heart of Whistler. It is being designed and operated to meet the needs of the participating partners.

Held at the Whistler Public Library, the facility will be branded primarily as a hosting space that showcases Whistler and the Canadian Olympic Committee to invited guests.

Given the beauty of the building itself, multi-media will be the primary tool for showcasing, with large screens in place permanently throughout the 17 days of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.  The screens will showcase sporting venues, CTV sport broadcast coverage of the Games, and a live feed from Whistler Medals Plaza and Whistler Live! programming.

Whistler video and imagery, and other content will showcase the past, present and future of Whistler to facility guests.  The outside of the building will have signage so that guests and visitors are aware that it is Whistler Canada Olympic House.

Access is primarily by accreditation or invitation; however, the Whistler community will be invited to an Open House prior to the Games as well as special community events at the facility during the Games.

Community Open House Events

* Saturday February 6, 2010 – 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Community Open House – Celebrate the Torch Relay and the Library’s new look

Details: The Whistler Canada Olympic House will be open to the community to check out programming, meet athletes and get a feel for the new facility. With the Torch Relay coming through town, it will be a chance for visitors to get photos with the torch, talk to the torch bearers and learn more about the relay itself.   Kids and “kids at heart” can take in the face painting, Olympic sport competitions on Wii and make their own torch.

* Saturday February 13, 2010 – 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Community Pancake Breakfast – Celebrate First Nations and Sport

Details: Start the day with good hearty Canadian pancakes and celebrate the beginning of the 2010 Winter Games. Explore First Nations culture and art as well as rub shoulders with athletes. Guests can make their own uniquely Canadian souvenir and enjoy a variety of entertainment including Native drumming, story telling and bannock making.

* Saturday February 20, 2010 – 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Community Pancake Breakfast – Celebrate Sustainability and Culture

Details: Get stuffed on pancakes, sustainability and local entertainment. Learn about the importance of sustainability with arts and crafts and more. Bobs and Lolo will get the kids hopping and singing about keeping the earth green. Don’t forget autograph books because athletes will on be there too.

* Saturday February 27, 2010 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Community Pancake Breakfast – Celebrating the 2010 Olympic Winter Games and Our Athletes

Details: As the 2010 Olympic Winter Games come to a close, the community is invited to celebrate at another pancake breakfast. Look back on the success of the Games, experience the Games through they eyes of Canada’s only 2010 Nordic Combined Olympian and look ahead to what is next for Whistler.

* Sunday February 28, 2010 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Community Open House – Celebrate the Closing Ceremonies at Whistler Canada Olympic House

Details: Celebrate the closing ceremonies with fellow community members and Canadians at Whistler Canada Olympic House. Enjoy a traditional Whistler Après while taking in the closing ceremonies on the big screen.

(source: http://www.whistler2010.com)


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