A day of extremes at Lake Louise

Manny Osborne-Paradis won his first World Cup Super G today in Lake Louise while team leader John Kucera was airlifted off the mountain with a broken leg that will almost certainly keep him out of the upcoming 2010 Games.

Photograph by: Andy Clark, Reuters

LAKE LOUISE, Alta. — John Kucera’s 2010 Olympic dream likely ended in a high-speed crash Sunday during the super-G slalom at the Bombardier Winterstart World Cup.

The 25-year-old Calgarian, one of the favourites in the race, suffered a broken left leg when he went off the steepest part of the course as he attempted to complete a C-turn and crashed into a catch net.

He was airlifted off the mountain by helicopter and transported by ground ambulance to Banff hospital for X-rays. An Alpine Canada spokesman revealed that Kucera’s injury will require surgery but didn’t specify which bone was broken.

“It’s a tough day . . . I mean it’s a good day but a tough day,” frowned a concerned teammate Jan Hudec when he learned of the extent of the injury. “He was skiing so good . . .”

The good day were first-, fourth- and fifth-place finishes for the seven-man Canadian team.

Read the whole article here.

Always read the fine print

“Could we ever know each other in the slightest without the arts?” – Gabrielle Roy.

Fantastic message from the Greater Vancouver Professional Theatre Alliance.

Olympic mayor aiming even higher

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson says he likes his job, plans to seek re-election and has zero interest in standing for provincial office.

In a wide-ranging interview marking his first full year at city hall, Robertson said he’s happy with the progress he’s made so far. But he still has a long list of things he wants to do, including helping create a slew of green jobs.

And that may take years. “I’m intending to run again for another term as mayor,” he vowed.

There had been speculation that, after the Olympics, Gordon Campbell might step down as premier, paving the way for a new leader of the Liberal party — and the NDP. And the personable Robertson, a former Vancouver-Fairview MLA, had been touted as a replacement for current NDP leader Carole James.

However, the Vision Vancouver mayor dismissed such aspirations. “I like the job, and it’s good to have stability and a record of achievement here at city hall and getting things on track,” he said. “So the provincial scene is of no interest right now.”

Read the whole article here.

Absolut V contest proceeds to go to Vancouver arts community

Sketch by Vancouver artist Douglas Fraser for the limited edition Absolut Vancouver bottle.

One of the five finalists in the Absolute Vancouver contest — David Suggitt — was a major contributor to our recent Restore Arts Funding Now PSA. Check out his work on the Absolute Vancouver website and vote. This is the announcement about the contest …

ABSOLUT® VANCOUVER highlights a thriving Vancouver arts scene.

Pick up the Limited Edition ABSOLUT® VANCOUVER bottle and proceeds from your purchase will support the Vancouver arts community. We’ll donate up to $120,000 to help celebrate everything that’s unique about the city. With your help, we’ll salute leading edge Vancouver artists whose vision, passion and body of work have defined Vancouver as the ABSOLUT® home for the arts.

B.C. residents can vote for the deserving top finalist submission idea whose vision best captures the excitement, creativity and passion of Vancouver.

Vote here.

How a Tofino Guy Earned a Surfing Crown

Congratulations to Peter Devries on winning the Cold Water Classic in his own home town a couple of weeks ago. Had to feel good.

How did Pete Devries win big at home in Tofino? Like any water creature, he evolved to fit his environment.
By Insiya Rasiwala-Finn, 10 Nov 2009, TheTyee.ca

When Pete Devries launched his board out of the choppy surf off Chesterman’s Beach and into the international surfing spotlight last week, it sounded like an impossible Hollywood fairy tale. The reality is a hard-won achievement 30 years in the making, a victory not just for Devries but for his home town of Tofino and the family who raised him to appreciate the wind-lashed west coast and the sublime challenges it can offer a young surfer.

Great article in the Tyee here.

A Big Festival Born in a Small Town

BANFF MOUNTAIN FILM FESTIVAL TOUR TRAVELS TO KALISPELL

Nice video trailer on the Festival tour home page!

The small Alberta town of Banff, where the population is only slightly higher than the elevation, may seem an unlikely candidate to spawn the largest mountain film festival in North America. But if you look closer, at its illustrious Banff Centre of arts and culture, at its stunning mountainous surroundings, perhaps it all makes sense.

From Oct. 31 to Nov. 8, more than 10,000 moviegoers crowded into theaters throughout Banff, a town of just over 8,000 in Alberta, for the famed Banff Mountain Film Festival. From 277 total entries, 62 films were chosen for the festival. Screenings included outdoor adventure films and documentaries serving as in-depth cultural examinations. Winners in various categories were named.

The event is held by the Banff Centre, an institution that film festival director Shannon O’Donaghue describes as a “leading center for professional development for artists” in Canada. Roughly 5,000 artists from across the world train at the center annually, in fields such as mountain culture, aboriginal arts, drama, opera, dance and literary arts, among others. The center is geared toward “mid-career artists,” O’Donaghue said, differing from traditional university art schools.

“We have a lot of residencies and workshops,” O’Donaghue said. “It’s a really special place, actually. There’s nothing like this in another small town in Canada.”

Just days after the festival ended, two vans – equipped with top-of-the-line digital projectors – embarked on a mission to show 25 selected films across Canada and the United States. The films will also be taken to countries across the globe as part of the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour, which will hold more than 500 screenings in 30 countries, O’Donaghue said.

Outside of Canada, the first stop for the tour is Montana. On Nov. 13, films will be shown in Great Falls, followed by back-to-back screenings in Kalispell at Flathead High School on Nov. 17 and 18 at 7 p.m. As in past years, the Flathead Nordic Ski Patrol is organizing the Kalispell event as a fundraiser for the nonprofit.

Read the entire article here.

Mayor Gregor Robertson – Launch Party – Vancouver Biennale

Mayor Gregor Robertson – Launch Party – Vancouver Biennale, originally uploaded by kk+.

The Vancouver Biennale official launch was this morning @ Morton Triangle, English Bay. Take a look at this flickr set by Kris Krug.

BC flickr photographers help speak out against arts cuts

Recently I had the privilege of producing a PSA with Jenn Strom for the Alliance for Arts and Culture in response to the BC government’s funding cuts to the arts. About a month ago the Vancouver arts community put together a huge rally at the Vancouver Art Gallery. This PSA starts with that event.

Thanks to a big community of flickr photographers and several BC artists (listed below) who contributed their time, images and music to this video. Very special thanks to Jenn for contributing her talent and insight.

Please share it widely and spread the word.

Featured photography: Russ Beinder, Jeremy Crowle, Jurek Durczak, Derek von Essen, Dan Fairchild, Electric Company Theatre, Jonathon Evans, Gale Franey, John Goldsmith, Ivan Grabovac, hundrednorth, Ahmad & Graça Kavousian, Peter Kim, Mark Klotz, Kris Krug, Joao Marcelino, Jenn Perutka, Philip, Tony Puerzer, Philippe Sokazo, Susannah Steers, Peter Suk Sin Chan, Vancouver Opera.

Time Lapse sequence (moving): David Suggitt; Time Lapse sequence (still): Tim Matheson; Video clips of rally: Paul Bennett; Audio clips: Keith Higgins.

Producer: Kevin Teichroeb
Editor: Jenn Strom
Composer: Christian Prohom

If you would like to speak out, follow this link to a webform where you can write in support of BC arts.

“Samsara”

A strong case for arts funding at the Arts Umbrella rehearsal studios on Granville Island yesterday. This was an afternoon preview of “Samsara”, choreographed by Margo Sappington, music by Tony De Vit, and performed by their Senior Dance Company. All of these dancers are between 16-19.

"Samsara", originally uploaded by inklake.

The video clip was shot on my iPhone.

350 on Ice at Treble Cone, Wanaka, New Zealand

350 on Ice at Treble Cone, Wanaka, New Zealand, originally uploaded by 350.org.

Amazing flickr photos of “350″ actions around the world here.

Meanwhile, here at home in Vancouver, we saw 10,000 join in the biggest march since the Iraq War protests of 2003.

Yogi Berra told us “The Future Ain’t What it Used to Be.” The future is not some distant paradigm that justifies our pacifism. We are bearing witness to effects of climate change every day. Christina Ora from the Solomon Islands knows this all to well as her people are steadily being displaced by rising water levels. She told her story to the inspired crowd of 10,000 Vancouverites on Saturday.

Read more here.

bike on 3rd beach

bike on 3rd beach, originally uploaded by inklake.

The kind of fall day I’d like to see next weekend.

Cold Water Classic hits Tofino

World’s best drop in to tame Tofino’s waves
Vancouver Island’s top shredders ready to match their skills against the pros in the first tour stop on Canadian shores
BY IAN WALKER, VANCOUVER SUN
OCTOBER 24, 2009

It started out on a remote corner at the edge of the world, where the Indian Ocean pounds the isolated Tasmanian shoreline. Then up to the northern town of Thurso, Scotland, renowned for its reef breaks. South Africa’s treacherous Cape Peninsula was the next stop, surfers attacking the powerful swells under the towering cliffs of the Table Mountain Range.

Fog, snow, freezing temperatures and ice-cold water are just a sample of what could await competitors during the fourth stop of the O’Neill Cold Water Classic, which gets under way today through next weekend in Tofino.

That’s right, Tofino. The 6 Star ASP World Qualifying Series event is the first pro surf contest to grace Canadian shores and is being dubbed the sport’s coldest by organizers. While that’s up for debate — to be honest, the waters of Scotland were colder — Vancouver Island’s rugged western coastline, idyllic beach breaks, cedar-lined shore and majestic snow-capped mountains make it one of the coolest surf contests on the planet.

“Maybe some people take it for granted due to a lack of understanding, but everyone here knows how big this is,” said Noah Cohen, an O’Neill-sponsored surfer who was born and raised in Tofino. “Not only is it a World Qualifying Series stop, but it’s a six star event — and there’s not many of them around the world. For surfers in the area it’s huge. Not just for the chance to compete, but to see a surf contest of this level with a world-class international field.”

Read the whole article here.

Campaign Against Emissions Picks Number

By ANDREW C. REVKIN

Campaigners against global warming have drawn on an arsenal of visually startling tactics over the years, from posing nude on a Swiss glacier to scaling smokestacks at coal-fired power plants.

On Saturday, they tried something new with the goal of prodding countries to get serious about reaching an international climate accord: a synchronized burst of more than 4,300 demonstrations, from the Himalayas to the Great Barrier Reef, all centered on the number 350.

For some prominent climate scientists, that is the upper limit for heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, measured in parts per million. If the gas concentration exceeds that for long, they warn, the world can expect decades of disrupted climate patterns, rising sea levels, drought and famine. The current concentration is 387 parts per million.

Organizers said their goal, in the prelude to global climate talks in Copenhagen in December, was to illustrate the urgent need to cut emissions by pointing out that the world passed the 350 mark two decades ago. Yet while agreeing that unabated emissions pose serious risks, some prominent scientists and economists focusing on climate policy said the 350 target was so unrealistic that the campaign risked not being taken seriously — or could convey the wrong message.

“Three-fifty is so impossible to achieve that to make it the goal risks the reaction that if we are already over the cliff, then let’s just enjoy the ride until it’s over,” said John M. Reilly, an economist at M.I.T.

“The message needs to be that there are risks at the current level, and those risks increase the further we push the system,” he said.

In a prominent recent study, scientists concluded that carbon dioxide levels were almost certainly headed beyond any levels experienced on the planet in the last 15 million years.

Read the entire article here.

Mayor releases plan to make Vancouver the world’s greenest city by 2020

Love everything about this. If we’re making sacrifices, make them meaningful and make the city a healthier place to live while we’re at it.

BY GERRY BELLETT, VANCOUVER SUN
VANCOUVER — Mayor Gregor Robertson announced an ambitious 10-year plan Tuesday to make Vancouver the world’s greenest city by 2020.

Robertson presented the plan to Gaining Ground-Resilient Cities conference at the Vancouver Convention Centre.

“As in many other cities, Vancouver’s ecological footprint is far too large despite having decisions made decades ago to keep freeways out of the city, protect our watershed and to protect agricultural lands surrounding the city,” Robertson told hundreds of delegates to the three-day conference.

“We are still far too reliant on cars and on food from far away,” he said.

“Every day, we produce too much waste, consume too much energy and water.”

Read the whole article here.

Medals of honour

A different take from this medal collector …

Vancouver’s unusual Olympic medals carry on a recent trend of designs that reflect the character of the host country.

“This medal is going to stand out as one of the most impressive ones,” said Jim Greensfelder, a collector who wrote a reference guide to Olympic medals.

Mr. Greensfelder, who lives in Venice, Fla., predicted that some people won’t like the Vancouver medals because of their undulating design. “But I think their uniqueness, in fact, will be a big positive as people receive them,” he said, noting that athletes commonly compete in multiple Games and enjoy winning distinctive medals.

Vancouver unveils medals … jury still out on design

Organizers proudly revealed the medals today for the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver and the description was naturally enthusiastic:
“The medals, revealed today, each feature a different crop of larger contemporary Aboriginal artworks and are undulating rather than flat — both firsts in Games history. The dramatic form of the Vancouver 2010 medals is inspired by the ocean waves, drifting snow and mountainous landscape found in the Games region and throughout Canada. The Olympic medals are circular in shape, while the Paralympic medals are a superellipse, or squared circle.”

A couple of random thoughts. Whenever you can get the word undulating in a release, it’s impressive. Let’s put it this way … that word doesn’t make its way into NBA copy very often. And if it did, a phone call from an editor would probably follow.

After a morning of looking at images of the medals, and two cups of coffee later, I am still not sure whether I like the look. But the viewpoint of a junior high art-class laggard hardly matters and, quite frankly, no athlete is going to quibble with the quality of appearance of a gold medal.

Colleague Ron Judd, columnist at the Seattle Times, summed it up quite nicely on his Twitter feed this morning: “Vancouver 2010 medals display traditional native 45-RPM-record-left-on-dashboard-in-sun design.”

He probably got all A’s in art class.

– Lisa Dillman

LA Times

Hermann Maier Ends His Storied Ski Racing Career

One of the greatest of all time calls it a career …

By Patrick Lang

A week prior the start of the next alpine World Cup season one of the greatest legends of the sports surprisingly announced his decision to retire from the ski tour.

Double Olympic champion Hermann Maier, who turns 37 in December, informed the amazed Austrian reporters gathered at the last minute in Wien by his press agent and the Austrian Ski Federation that he had decided to end his career as one of the leading heroes of the sports after overcoming another series of health problems.
————–

“I just felt that it was time to retire as I felt fully healthy again. I’m closing an important chapter in my life but I’m sure that there will be many more exciting moments to face from now on.”

Maier exploded on the ski scene in February 1997 a month after breaking a hand in a downhill crash at Chamonix in surprisingly beating all top-favorites in a Super-G race at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. He became a world star a year later at the 1998 Winter Olympics clinching two gold medals only a few days after a horrendous crash in downhill. He was nicknamed “The Herminator” afterwards by his colleagues, the press and his numerous fans from all over the world because of his incredible determination and his reckless racing tactics.

He won two more gold medals at the 1999 World Championships at Vail/Beaver Creek, in Colorado, and kept on dominating the scene until 2001, winning a total of 13 races that season. In March 2000, he captured his second overall World Cup title with a record of 2000 points.

Unfortunately he suffered a terrible motorbike accident in August 2001 and was lucky to survive it after a series of operations. After working very hard during his rehabilitation, he celebrated an incredible comeback in 2003, winning the treacherous Super-G race at Kitzbühel and a silver medal at the World Championships at St Moritz.

Read the entire article here.

Vancouver buildings show their Olympic spirit

I really like this. I know there are pockets of serious, principled resistance to the Olympics in Vancouver, but I don’t see the Games as the “evil” that some do. Never have really. I have lived and experienced one Olympics as a resident, when I was going to university in Oslo, Norway, and this has had a profound effect on my life. There was opposition there too, but when the Olympics finally began, a remarkable transformation began in the country. It was genuine and it was incredibly uplifting. I’ll never forget it.

I’m hoping that something similar happens in Vancouver, because the city deserves it, and so do so many of us who are going through hardship because of the recession. This extends to so many in the arts community and all the other social profit sector workers who have been hit so hard by the short-sighted Campbell cuts. I know many blame the Olympics for our problems, but I don’t buy it. These economic issues are much bigger than the cost of an Olympics. What we’re seeing is the unfortunate convergence of several issues at once, and we have to resist conflating issues that don’t belong together. It is not the Olympics that are costing the social sector workers in British Columbia. It’s the foolish economic moves made by a government that doesn’t have the intellectual capital to value its own civil society well enough.

Anyway, back to some of the first signs that the Olympics are going bold and public. If a city is going to hold an Olympic Games, do it with a big heart and invite the world in. Hopefully this is just a start:

Photograph by: Jenelle Schneider, Vancouver Sun

VANCOUVER — Expect huge Olympic images on about 10 Vancouver buildings before the 2010 Games begin next year, with another 20 to 30 smaller Olympic-themed visual projects on pavilions, hospitality centres and retail outlets.

That was the estimate Wednesday from City of Vancouver Olympic operations director Paul Henderson as the Bay building at Georgia and Granville officially unveils its new Olympic look with a series of five-metre-by-16-metre banners decorating the historic building’s exterior.

The city had earlier planned to restrict the installation of 2010 building murals and graphic designs until Jan. 1, 2010, but relaxed the rules to allow them as early as Thursday.

Read the rest of the article here.

Enlightenment before his death

Enlightenment before his death, originally uploaded by B℮n.

Xieng Khuan is a Buddha park located 25 km southeast from Vientiane, Laos in a meadow by the Mekong River.

I thought of this image when I heard about the Dalai Lama arriving in Vancouver.

Please click on the photo to get to Ben Visbeek’s amazing flickr page.

Dalai Lama arrives in Vancouver, B.C.

BY GRAEME WOOD, VANCOUVER SUN
SEPTEMBER 26

VANCOUVER — A small crowd of dedicated Dalai Lama supporters greeted the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader upon his arrival at the Shangri-La hotel in downtown Vancouver Saturday evening.

Photograph by: Jenelle Schneider, Vancouver Sun

The Dalai Lama is in Vancouver for four days to co-host the 2009 Vancouver Peace Summit.

“We’re here to acknowledge his presence and we’re proud to be here to witness this event,” said Pema Wamgchen, 35, who is Buddhist and came to Vancouver from Tibet seven years ago.

The crowd of about 100 people consisted mostly of Tibetan-Canadians and Buddhists. Many said the peace conference is an opportunity to raise awareness of China’s 49-year occupation of Tibet.

Read the entire article here.