Day 4 – Vancouver Weather = Fail
Really. It really, really does. After all the trouble that has already plagued the Games with the Georgian’s death and the mechanical error at the opening ceremonies, the weather is doing its best to ensure that 2010 goes down in the history books as an absolute washout (pun intended. Pun so very much intended.) While I won’t go so far as to dub it “the worst Games ever” as some international media outlets are already starting to joke about, I will say that so far, I have been a little embarrassed with the way things have gone. Despite schooling in Ottawa, I’m still around Vancouver enough to know just how much work has been put into making these Games epic, and so far, for reasons both inside and outside our control, things have not been up to par. Here’s hoping that VANOC can turn things around. I’m optimistic – we’re still only four days in!
I do have to say that the organizers know how to get the fans into it – free shows are good shows, and there have been and still are plenty of free shows to go around. Tonight I decided to once again brave the crowds by making the hour-long commute down to Livecity Yaletown, where Montreal rock band Malajube opened for the Matisyahu, the infamous Jewish rapper-turned-reggae-artist. Unlike most of the evening revelers, I actually know of and listen to both Malajube and Matisyahu, so stoked does not even begin to describe my state of anticipation.
And then the rain started.
And for a while, it sucked. Then it stopped sucking because we hardy Vancouverites sucked it up and realized that this is our damn Games and we’re gonna have an effing good time in the rain because that’s how we do it. From that demented realization, things deteriorated into a two-hour-long, soggy mosh pit that moved to the rhythm of Matisyahu’s excellent dub. He ended the set with his hit single “One Day”, prompting all of the 2000 or so diehards still gathered in the deluge to sing the track’s main chorus with him: “All my life I’ve been waiting for, I’ve been praying for, for the people to say that we don’t wanna fight no more, there’ll be no more war, and our children will play.” This we belted out as strangers linked arms and did the whole good times sway that epitomizes unity and love. And then there were fireworks. Doesn’t get any more Olympics than that, does it?
In other news, congratulations to Mike Robertson for bringing home another medal. Well done, sir.
The British press are having a field day, but by no means are these the 'worst Olympics ever', that, as it has been pointed out by many, belongs to the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta
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