08Jul 2010 by R&O No Comments
When Queen was King

When Queen was King

Events, Music, Of Interest, People
Way back in December of 1979 and again in June of 1980, Doug Bower, a friend and fellow employee, went to see Queen perform at The Pacific Coliseum here in Vancouver. Back in these days of festival seating and lax security, a young aspiring photographer like Doug could bring his camera along to take photos of the band while standing a few rows back from the stage. (Yes, those were the days when we could get close to our rock idols without guard rails and security personnel. We refer to them as the good old days of rock.) Doug mentioned the photos he had taken back then as we discussed our favourite bands from the 70's and I asked him to dig them out and let me have a look.…
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15Feb 2010 by R&O 3 Comments

The Opening Ceremonies

Events, Observations, Olympics
The 2010 Winter Olympic opening ceremonies have had mixed reviews since Friday night's big event. I, for one, wasn't too impressed with the 30-40 minutes after the snowboarder intro but it certainly picked up as time went on. The typical aboriginal theme was a bit much and the large poles that rose from the floor of BC Place looked more like adult sex toys than anything else, especially their silhouettes during some of the proceedings. Didn't anyone on the opening ceremonies committee think they looked like giant, battery-operated vibrators? I'm tired of every Canadian event being shrouded in our alleged native heritage as this just perpetuates the global stereotype that Canadians wear animal skins and spend most of our day hopping on one foot and warbling monotone, unintelligible songs. That's…
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13Feb 2010 by R&O No Comments

Who else?

Events, Observations, Olympics, People
Who else could possibly be the right person to light the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics flame other than Wayne Gretzky? Nobody, that's who! I was writhing in anticipation of who would light the flame during last night's opening ceremonies and had nightmares thinking of all the bad choices that could have been made. Names like Celine Dion (shudder), Anne Murray (part of the flag carrying group ceremony in B.C. Place), Steve Fonyo (as if!), Ben Johnson (was he even allowed to watch it on TV??) or a number of nausea-inducing possibilities ran through my head as I waited for the big moment. A group comprised of Bobby Orr, Julie Payette, Anne Murray, Romeo Dallaire, Jacques Villeneuve, Barbara Ann Scott, Betty Fox (a nice touch) and Donald Sutherland marched into B.C.…
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12Feb 2010 by R&O 3 Comments

Luge Death at Olympics

Events, Olympics, People
The games here in Vancouver hadn't even begun before Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili was fatally injured this afternoon after being flung from the track during a practice run at Whistler Mountain. A very sad beginning to the 2010 Olympic Winter Games to say the least. [local /wp-content/uploads/2010/02/luge_accident.wmv] If the above video player doesn't work for you, use the contact form to drop me a line and I'll email you a download link. I had the link posted but it was costing me an arm and a leg in bandwidth fees so I had to take it off. Sorry about that.
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