the Games so far
Feb. 14th, 2010 10:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jawnbc Having watched the Opening Ceremony on TV on Friday with my volunteer posse, yesterday the Games began! Starting today I have tickets for something almost every day. Regardless, a lot of my Games experience will be TV driven.
We get pretty good coverage for the Olympics in Canada--awesome compared to the States for sure--but usually from our public broadcasters CBC (English) and Radio Canada (French). But when Canada hosts the Games the costs associated with being host broadcaster usually means CTV and a consortium of other English and French networks gets the nod.
I find CTV generally ad-laden and annoying in terms of commentary. Of course no CBC should mean no Brian Williams--who irks me to no end--but CTV pinched him so we get him AND commercials. Thank gawd for the French channels: more variety, less nattering. But really I've got about 12 networks to choose from and that's supplemented by excellent streaming content.
Yesterday
The first event is always the normal (hill) ski jump, which always reminds me how the technical feat impresses while the sport fails to engage. I watched some speed skating--which I almost always love, except for the exceedingly loooong races. And yesterday's 5000m is one of those. I watched some moguls, some biathlon and short track.
Last night![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
querrelle and I reconnected before he becomes an Olympic Widow™. We then attended the National Ballet of Canada and Royal Winnipeg Ballet as part of the Cultural Olympiad. Great evening. We they wandered back via Robson Square. Locals should brave transit and come down at least once during the evening: they won't recognize downtown--in very good ways!
Rant
Local folks who don't like the Olympics often cite "cuts to arts funding" as one of the reasons. Because the millions of dollars spent on the Cultural Olympiad apparently don't count as "the arts". Yes local arts groups took a hit recently--mostly due to drops in private sponsorship--but we're also getting a whack of international calibre artists--mostly Canadian, like last night.
We get pretty good coverage for the Olympics in Canada--awesome compared to the States for sure--but usually from our public broadcasters CBC (English) and Radio Canada (French). But when Canada hosts the Games the costs associated with being host broadcaster usually means CTV and a consortium of other English and French networks gets the nod.
I find CTV generally ad-laden and annoying in terms of commentary. Of course no CBC should mean no Brian Williams--who irks me to no end--but CTV pinched him so we get him AND commercials. Thank gawd for the French channels: more variety, less nattering. But really I've got about 12 networks to choose from and that's supplemented by excellent streaming content.
Yesterday
The first event is always the normal (hill) ski jump, which always reminds me how the technical feat impresses while the sport fails to engage. I watched some speed skating--which I almost always love, except for the exceedingly loooong races. And yesterday's 5000m is one of those. I watched some moguls, some biathlon and short track.
Last night
querrelle and I reconnected before he becomes an Olympic Widow™. We then attended the National Ballet of Canada and Royal Winnipeg Ballet as part of the Cultural Olympiad. Great evening. We they wandered back via Robson Square. Locals should brave transit and come down at least once during the evening: they won't recognize downtown--in very good ways!Rant
Local folks who don't like the Olympics often cite "cuts to arts funding" as one of the reasons. Because the millions of dollars spent on the Cultural Olympiad apparently don't count as "the arts". Yes local arts groups took a hit recently--mostly due to drops in private sponsorship--but we're also getting a whack of international calibre artists--mostly Canadian, like last night.
