Ciao Torino

Now that the Olympics are over, what news results will I obsessively search for to distract myself at work? I am so pleased we came away with 24 medals. Just last Monday I was being all negative and wondering if we could top SLC. And even without the coveted men's hockey gold, a lot of other athletes got to shine in their well deserved spotlight without being overshadowed by h-0-c-k-e-y.
So sadly, today I deleted my CBC Olympic Newsticker from my desktop and I feel oh so ... empty.
Yesterday's closing ceremonies were interesting and I admit that I didn't watch all of them, only the relevant parts featuring Canada and Andrea Bocelli who has the voice of an angel. I had tears in my eyes listening to him sing. Can we give him honorary Canadian citizenship so he can sing for us in 2010? Perhaps David Foster will compose another Olympic opus for us too?

So, that was some spectacular 8 minute tribute to Canada.. er, .. Vancouver. Seriously, advertise the city of Vancouver please, not all of Canada. I saw a lot of stereotypical crap (like hockey players and a bunch of other people aimlessly running around) which I guess is the best we can pull out for the limited amount of showcase time. I was confused by a lot of things but I did enjoy the native invitation extended by the Musqueam and Squamish representatives as well as the fact that Avril Lavigne got cleaned up and sang an occasion appropriate song.
However, I still don't appreciate that ridiculous inukshuk logo which has nothing to do with the native groups of the Lower Mainland. And it looks juvenile. It seems more like a mascot than a logo. There had to have been other designs that were more attractive and more representative of Vancouver which is one reason why I refuse to take down the Olympic bid logo at the bottom of my sidebar. I think it represents everything that Vancouver used to sell itself AND Whistler, let's not forget about that important location, to the IOC. They should've just stuck with that. I suppose in the end it won't really matter, but for now, there are 4 years of stress and cost overruns to get through in order to make things look effortless for two weeks in 2010. The cost of the modern Olympics hardly seem worth it, but if you have attractive Olympic gear, that will solve all problems. Has Tu Ly been hired to design for that yet? Last week I bought one of those Olympic white snowboarding hats with the red maple leaves and braids. That hat is so damn cute... it just looks good on everyone. Definitely a good design.
Oh ... and a side note about Canadian Olympic gear -- it is now 20% off at the Bay, so go and get your gear unless they are out of stock and then in that case order it online. There is free shipping to the Bay closest to you, where you can then pick up your order!

Well, this is enough reflection on Olympiad XX and procrastinating for today. I'm going to go look for a warm corner to sleep in until it is time to go home.

The Match Point

So Russia knocked us out of the Olympic medal hunt in hockey aaaaand,... I'm over it. Yes, it was disappointing to watch, but it was exciting to see how good all the other teams are. It's that kind of unpredicability which makes international hockey so great to watch. It's nice to see a final not dominated by North America. That's what people criticize about the status quo of women's international hockey, although Sweden helped debunk some of that slander earlier this week.
I'm not really going to delve into all the factors that made this year's team shitty... I think we'll hear enough of that for the next four years. In my opinion, if you have to lose a medal, lose it in Turin because it will mean so much more if we put together a new gold medal winning hockey team in Vancouver.
Besides, the day shouldn't belong to hockey, because the women CLEANED UP in long track speed skating. Cindy Klassen set a Canadian Olympic record for most medals won by one athlete in a Games, and that surprise gold from Chandra Crawford in 2km pursuit was pretty sweet.

Oh... I saw the new Woody Allen film 'Match Point' last night with Mic and Gosh. That movie is seriously a bit insane but really good. It's in the vein of 'Unfaithful' and 'Closer' if you like that sort of drama. Definitely a movie to rent when it's released. It also reaffirmed how creepy I find Jonathan Rhys-Meyers. Attractive, yet very unsettling.

The Proverbial Brick Wall

Sometimes I feel like I am talking/writing to myself. My words are sent out into the great void and while I know they are being read, there is little reciprocity. Slacker, you know who you are, so smarten up. Friendship or whatever-ship isn't a one way street. I'd really love to hear more from you because my patience is being tried.

I slept badly last night, tossed and turned for the last hour of sleep which basically made me feel like shit all morning. And you know what I was stressed out about? MONEY!
AND Martha Stewart showed up in my dream, so that qualifies it for nightmare classification. Blech!

Binge & Purge

This past weekend was incredible for unloading a lot of crap that I had piling up in my room, mainly clothing that I had attached ridiculous sentimental value to but hadn't worn in at least three years. It was unnecessary for it to be clogging my closet and close to breaking my dresser. The purge started around 11pm on Friday and only took about an hour to complete. At the end of it I had two full garbage bags of clothing to donate and all the clothes I actually wear immediately visible to my eye upon opening my closet doors. I was so happy I can't even begin to tell you what it was like. I mostly felt unburdened because with all the moving around I have done, I have accumulated a lot of extra crap that I don't really need.
Sometimes I daydream about finally moving out of my parents house for good and when I do go, I know there is going to be a lot of stuff coming with me, although I hope it is fair to say that now it will mostly be my books.
I was actually kind of surprised that I had so much to get rid of because at every holiday for the past three years, I have come home and done a spring cleaning of stuff that I knew I didn't want or need anymore, so I have actually gotten rid of quite a bit in increments. Obviously, I was still hoarding quite a bit of it and had managed to jam it into the small confines of the closet a lot better than I had imagined. It was a little insane to see the pile of empty hangers on my bed afterwards, but I am so glad that stuff is leaving. It just represented a part of my life that is over and if I ever mourn any of that stuff, well I guess I always have pictures.

On the binge-ing side of things, I read in the paper last week that Abercrombie & Fitch's first Canadian store opened in Sherway Gardens at the end of last month. I thought A&F would have been in Canada years ago after seeing the successful crossover of American Eagle Outfitters, but who knows or really cares why the delay. They are here now and I am willing to bank that by June there will at least be another three stores in malls throughout the GTA. I predict the Eaton Centre downtown, Yorkdale, and possibly either Fairview or Scarborough Town Centre.
Now of course with Michaela finally arriving home for her Reading Week this weekend, we decided that we were going to go and check out the new store at Sherway. It was actually quite large as most A&F stores in the US are and the prices were comparable to what AE is charging for their clothing here. Michaela picked up an awesome jean jacket that I might consider looking into as well, but the price of that item is a little off-putting to my budget right now. She, however, could justify it as she has searched high and low for years for the perfect jean jacket, and both my cousin Erin and I agreed that she couldn't leave without it. Thankfully, I only bought that cute white Olympic hat with the red maple leaves on it. That item is so awesome and reasonably priced... I am glad HBC did our Olympic gear because it's way more affordable than Roots ever was. And they had the ingenuity to hire Tu Ly, the designer who started our obsession with Olympic gear back in 1998 with the Nagano games. Besides, was anyone really impressed with what Roots put out for the USA this year?
Canada House in Turin is apparently selling out of all the Canadian Olympic wear... with a lot of it going to Italians and Olympians from other countries, although apparently the NBC anchors have snagged some of the sheepskin trapper hats. I wonder if they've actually sported them yet since they do have 'CANADA' emblazoned on the front.

Gosh and I went out on Saturday night to 7 West, our favourite 24 hour martini bar. We mainly went with the intention to have a good drunken mope about Valentine's Day, which we did, but then we sweetened it a bit with cake. We both recommend the carrot cake and banana-chocolate cake if you're interested...
Later on we met up with J. at a small lounge called Pur on King St. W. It's nice for a place that is just getting off the ground... but I assume improvements are still forthcoming. It's got three floors to it which I find perilous when drinking and apparently you aren't even supposed to be carrying drinks up and down the stairs between floors with you, but I didn't see that enforced.
I imagine it will be lovely in the summer when the plate windows are taken off so more air will be circulating through it. The major downside to it for me was that people were allowed to smoke inside because it is designated as a 'patio' even with all the windows being sealed tight for the winter. That was fucking awful and contributed to a powerful headache that I had even before beginning the evening with martinis. To top it off, some guy who obviously thought he had magical hands tried to massage my neck which only succeeded in creeping me out and making my exit that much quicker. It was probably good I left when I did because I woke up on Sunday feeling much more hungover than I thought I would be.
The one thing that I do remember clearly from Saturday night was J. telling me that he is in possession of some incriminating photos of myself and a certain partner in crime from the Berkeley bash in December. Now I have an irrational need to get my hands on those before they get published for the world to see. I don't necessarily want to see them more than actually destroy them. They can't be that bad, but then again every other photo from that night has been HIDEOUS so, I really think it's in my best interest to know what other people may have on me.

And on one last purging note, where the fuck was Team Canada in that hockey game against Finland yesterday? Even when the camera panned to Wayne Gretzky he looked like he'd rather be anywhere but watching Canada suck it up against Suomi. Pat Quinn was characteristically enraged and red in the face. He must have felt like he was watching hockey in Toronto rather than Torino. All I can say is if Team Canada has to lose, at least contain it to the preliminaries and get your fucking acts together. On that note, good luck to the women in the hunt for gold today.

This Week in Canadian News

Well, so far our Olympic showing is sort of decent but still short of the 17 medals we picked up in Salt Lake 4 years ago... is it realistic to even think we may top that? Our best medal hopefuls are on the brink of losing out (i.e. curling, men's hockey)... although we are guaranteed at least a silver in women's hockey. Speaking of which, what an upset for the USA... I guess it had to happen that either the US or Canada would fall at some point and it probably is good that it happened in this year's Olympic show down because of the criticism the sport was attracting. And of course, it's always better to watch Canada keep up the domination. Here's to sending good vibes to Team Canada for tomorrow's game against Sweden *crosses fingers*.

This week the Juno nominations were also announced and while I never watch the Junos and could actually care less about who wins them, I was disgusted that Nickelback was given SIX nominations -- the most for any one act this year. I'm going to pray for a miracle that in the categories where either Neil Young or Michael Buble are nominated against said band, that they win instead. Nickelcrap is still playing the same shitty tunes they've been producing forever now. I'm surprised they even bother coming up with new lyrics. I know I've mentioned this phenomenon way back in the day on here so I won't really dwell on it.
Back when I was still working at the ossuary with N. in the autumn we set out our musical boundaries for radio listening in the van and determined that a radio station change was necessary if either Nickelback or Our Lady Peace was put on (there were other bands on the list too, but they are currently irrelevant to this post).
Some days were really difficult because stations would be playing the same songs from the same bands at the same time. In that situation, we just turned to 680 News with the hope of catching Traffic and Weather on the ones. At least that was more entertaining than letting our ears bleed and we got to bitch about how fucking cold it was outside as determined by the Weather Network.
Anyhow to get more to the point of this post, I'm just disappointed that a band like Nickelback still gets critical respect. We should exile them on principle of destroying Canadian music cred alone. And of course, Rolling Stone did once vote Chad Kroeger the ugliest man in rock and roll, which says a lot given how many fugly guys are in bands out there.

The Dream

When things start to change in my life, I can always depend on my dreams to let me know that things are changing or are on the brink of doing so. I dream quite vividly in colour although I don't usually see facial details quite so clearly. I always sense the identity of the people with me rather than focusing directly on their faces. I also have a set of faithful themes that are indicators of the kinds of stresses that are weighing upon me. For instance, when large transitions in my life are about to occur, I have a dream of being pregnant to the point of being in labour while sitting on a floor in a greenhouse. I'm usually alone with a garden hose and big leafy ferns all around me. As terrifying as it is, it's kind of pretty to be sitting there and I usually know that things are going to be alright in the end. It's got to be something kind of radical that is going to change for me to have this dream. It usually happens when I move away from home or finish a major undertaking like a degree.
Another dream that I have noticed more in recent years is one in which a tornado suddenly rips through my life. The situation is always different but the constants are that I am in my house in Toronto and suddenly the sky gets black and green as a storm sweeps through and then suddenly the tornado is there, close enough to be very threatening and scary but somehow it leaves me alone and my house is not damaged. In this situation I am always vigilant and hyper-aware of where the tornado is and what path it is taking. I run from window to window and door to door to check where it is and make sure that it's not coming too close. I know that I should be in the basement or somewhere safe and that I should grab a few possessions that I want to keep with me, but instead I always seem to be upstairs in my bedroom watching it decimate the school yard behind my backyard. It's like I have a protective island around me. The wind is shaking the trees but they're not snapping or falling. Last night I had one of these tornado dreams and when I woke up this morning I could hear the wind howling outside my window. I am sure that I somehow incorporated that sound into my dream, but I think something else is brewing.
I'm not exactly sure what is going on, but I do know what is weighing on my mind... I didn't think it warranted a tornado dream. Maybe I should be rethinking my strategies here.

Hockey Nation

I'm always hungry at this time of day, approximately two hours before the office lunch hour begins. I guess when you eat breakfast around 7:15am that is not too surprising but lately it's kind of killing me. I appreciate that the office lunch begins at 1pm because by the time I come back at 2pm there is only a mere 3 hours to get through, but sometimes my stomach puts up a very good protest about this arrangement. I think I'm going to have to bring extra fruit or something to tide me over on the longhaul to lunch.


So... Canada, as expected, is dominating the hockey at the Torino Olympics. There's been a lot of criticism in the media focusing on the women's team especially since they are racking up a lot of goals which some feel is unsportsmanlike towards their opponents. I feel like these women worked hard to get there, so as athletes, wouldn't it be cheating themselves to not give it their all when they go out to perform, especially at an event like the Olympics?
The rules of international hockey seem to provoke teams to hammer on each other because home ice advantage in the finals is determined by your record in the tournament, how many goals you've made and how many have been taken against. One American hockey player this week criticized the Canadian team for racking up points, but if the American squad could do the same, wouldn't they? Would they seriously sacrifice a precious gold medal to be more 'sportsmanlike'? It's almost like a role reversal has occurred and the Americans are playing the martyrs and the Canadians are seen as the aggressors, which is not really how it is.
To be fair, several members of the Canadian team have spoken of how they are aware that a team like Italy for instance has never played at the international level and while they didn't want to humiliate the Italians or make them feel badly, they still had to go out and do what they do because there would be tougher teams to face later on. And on behalf of the Italian team, it's kind of cool that they even had a hockey team that was willing to enter the tournament, seeing as it's not a major sport in that country. Perhaps after this kind of exposure to how good women can be at hockey, more effort will be put into training. This brings up the fact that women's hockey is just starting to take hold in many countries and it could take years for other national teams to develop their stride. Russia dominated men's hockey for years at the Olympics, but eventually other European nations caught up and now that competition is quite healthy. But was men's hockey ever debated for being dumped from the Olympics in the same manner that women's hockey is right now? I doubt it. But regardless of these issues, I am sure the Canadian women will do their best without being tacky about it. After all, they themselves feel that this year's roster is even stronger than the 2002 Salt Lake team.

And now for a reflection on the men's team... Has anyone come to the conclusion that the whole betting scandal naming Wayne Gretzky's wife as a gambler amongst NHLer's and Rick Tocchet was kind of an elaborate scheme to disillusion and distract Canada from being a powerhouse at the Olympics? It's evident now that Wayne Gretzky was not involved in this scheme and was completely flabbergasted when he found out that his wife was so bored she was dropping $75'000 on the Superbowl and $5'000 on a coin toss (amongst other bets). However, what about the 6-8 other NHLers who have supposedly been implicated in the gambling ring but not outted? Why were they given the chance to come forward on their own accord but Janet Gretzky was sacrificed to the media? It all screams of a conspiracy to me. But I think Wayne's doing just fine although I really question his decision to bring Janet to Torino. Won't she be tempted to bet there? Or perhaps he's keeping an eye on her. Regardless, the team found it's legs in that first game against Italy and I'm betting some more good hockey will come out of them.
But then of course, the latest blow to Team Canada is the lawsuit that Steve Moore launched against Todd Bertuzzi and the Canucks yesterday. You've just got to love the strategic timing of it all... as if this particular fortnight of 2006 is the absolute most crucial time for Moore to deliver his deathblow.
Now, I personally don't believe that Bertuzzi should be representing Canada on this squad because of the simple fact that amongst classy hockey players he is a total goon (I've heard this confirmed by people who knew him growing up in Sudbury as well), but seriously, someone thought he should play there and in Torino he is. I'm hoping this attempt at distraction will fail once again and that the men are going to keep their focus on gold. After all, we do have to prove that Sports Illustrated and the Associated Press were wrong in their predictions for hockey medals.

Flag Day

So, Canada's been flying a maple leaf for 41 years today... I say we need it to be a national holiday. Who's with me?

In other news... I just saw this man ---->
at Starbucks on my lunch hour.

Valentine's Day

Look who's alone now,
It's not me. It's not me.
... Got to ask yourself the question,
Where are you now?
~ "Wisemen" ~ James Blunt ~


I love this photo of the rose petal shaped like a heart. I found it on Flickr after someone at work told me of her own obsession with searching for cool photos on Flickr. If you like this photo, you can download it here.
So I sent out a mildly harassing email today asking a variety of friends if they felt bored or inclined to do something other than whatever they usually do, to ponder how they perceive me. Hopefully they will reply and the answers will show up in the Johari Window. I saw this little experiment on Cassie's site and it just seems like a cool self-exploration type tool. We'll see what happens.
Results will be in my Johari Window:
http://kevan.org/johari?name=dmcg

I also got tagged with this thing recently and finally decided to put it up here because there's no reason not to.

4 jobs I´ve had:
- camp counselor
- lifeguard
- office temp
- archaeologist

4 movies I could watch over and over:
- Pride & Prejudice (1995 BBC version)
- Anne of Green Gables
- Little Women (Winona Ryder version)
- Ferris Bueller's Day Off

4 places I´ve lived:
Toronto, ON
Sarnia, ON
Waterloo, ON
Vancouver, BC

4 TV shows I love:
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Veronica Mars
- Six Feet Under
- Sex and the City

4 places I´ve vacationed:
- St. Petersburg, Florida
- Greece
- Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
- England

4 of my favorite dishes:
- Spanakopita
- Stirfry
- Curry Stew
- Moussaka

4 sites I visit daily:
- CBC
- Toronto Star
- The Weather Network
- Wikipedia

4 places I´d rather be right now:
- In my bed
- London -- any museum in the city of London
- The Netherlands
- The Olympics (as a spectator only)

Money Money Money

Money is the only thing standing in the way of a lot of the things I want to accomplish, and also a lot of the things I want to just do for whatever reason. I think I'll go buy some lottery tickets.
I also had a really great phone call tonight. I'm pretty happy right now, even though work is 9h 15min away.
Sometimes I love my life and at this moment that's a genuine blissed out comment.

Junior Mints

I finished the book 'How to be Idle' last night just before bed. It was initially recommended to me by Greg while we of course were talking about the merits of procrastination and student life. But that was a while ago, and I had requested it from the TPL over the holidays. However, apparently I am myself too much of an idler and that damn book is now 4 days overdue. I swear I tried to renew it but some other slacker out there wants to read the book.
I would say the major theme of the book is an unofficial study of how the Industrial Revolution really screwed up the way that the Western world works for a living. In fact, it often made me feel angry about my job because I am kind of stuck for the time being as a slave to the wage because of my loan repayment plans. Otherwise, I might just be discontent that I make too little money but I basically make enough for the things I need and a few of the things I want. Now I am beginning to feel the blood start to boil so I need to switch out of this topic.

I've been listening a lot to James Blunt in the past week. At first I thought he was a Rod Stewart-esque rip off in terms of vocals but now I am really liking that album. I think I will be sitting on the Ticketmaster website tomorrow to get tickets to his show.
Oh, and I am also really liking Dallas Green's little solo outing as City and Colour. I think he needs to ditch Alexisonfire once and for all and make his living as a solo artist.
And that's my two cents for Thursday.

P.S. Today I realized why I never really stick around for the friendship after a relationship is over, besides the fact that it's just never worked out that way for me. It's kind of hard hearing about the other person moving on.

Tiwsday

I'm not at work and I'm damn happy about it. Yes, it's true that I do not get paid sick days, but it was still worth having a little unpaid 'me' time to do it. Besides, this morning I woke up exhausted (even though I went to bed at a reasonable hour), aching (head and back), and there was a lot of snow I would have had to trek through to get to the subway. As it was, my dad later informed me (when I finally emerged from my room) that the TTC had shut down a major portion of its services on my route so it would have probably taken a few hours to get to work. NOT worth it in my opinion. If I had actually walked out the door to work this morning feeling as I did and had run into that, I still would not have made it in. I would have turned right around and cursed under my breath all the way home. So :P
Oh, and I am so sick of having Valentine's Day shoved down my throat everywhere I turn. Valentine's Day is for people who suck on the other 364 days of the year. They suck so much that they need to have a commercially designated day in which they will be sweet and appreciative of their significant others. This whole Valentine's Day nonsense is getting out of hand and stealing February from us. I have now seen that the Heart and Stroke Foundation is using this month (designated 'Heart Month') to go out and collect for their society. Does February really suck so much that we have to be reminded to love each other and take care of our tickers?
Fuck. I suppose I shouldn't be bitching about this, but Valentine's Day can be made really miserable for a lot of people who aren't in relationships or who aren't in love or who are but aren't with the person they want to be with, for a variety of different reasons. So far as an adult, I've been unimpressed with V-Day. I think my best Valentine memories are from elementary school where you made cards for everyone and got candy. That's how it should be! Simple and sweet. But it usually isn't, unless you get what you want.

Going, Going, Gone...

In a landmark victory for the repatriation of antiquities, the Italian government has managed to secure an agreement from the Metropolitan Museum of New York, that valuable pieces currently in the museum's possession, especially the Sarpedon krater attributed to the fifth century Attic Red-Figure painter Euphronios, will be returned to Italy if proof of illegal theft can be provided.

Euphronios is my favourite Attic Red-Figure artist and I've followed this story for a while simply because it's going to have a large impact on the futures of a lot of museum collections worldwide. The Euphronios krater in New York set records in 1972 when it was purchased from an antiquities dealer for more than $1 million US dollars. This event of course caused a surgence in the use of the underground illegal antiquities market, a battle against which has been waged for decades.
The provenience of this particular vase has always been an issue and it is almost certainly known that it was looted from an Etruscan tomb in Cerveteri. Of course it has changed hands many times on its journey to the Met and who knows if there is a conclusive paper trail that can be used to attain a return, but things are starting to look promising. I believe that this artifact is also a major prize possession for the Met so it must be a bit of a blow, although if they play their cards right it seems the Italian government will be willing to negotiate long term loans with them.

The repatriation of artifacts has caused a lot of contention between nations in recent years and this is only the beginning of an important story that has been gaining a lot of momentum in the past year starting with the Getty Museum in LA repatriating some of their illicit antiquities last fall.
And so it begins, ceramics, statues, and silver returning one day, perhaps Parthenon marbles some day? One can never predict what will happen and while Greece isn't anywhere near the position of power that Italy has fought for, maybe someday it will be.
Read a full account of the details here.