CLT Blog

Yet another protest has sprung up in Vancouver earlier today. Protesters rallied earlier for one of the most shafted individuals of the entire Vancouver 2010 games, Mukmuk the Vancouver Island Marmot. The protesters sum up the situations below.

“Pity MukMuk. While his friends Quatchi, Miga and Sumi gallivant off everywhere entertaining children in the lead up to the 2010 Olympic Games, MukMuk the marmot is left to pick up the trash and tag along behind. For those of you who don’t know poor MukMuk, he’s the virtual reality sidekick to the Vancouver 2010 mascots. He lives mainly in cyberspace. Well, cyber jail, really, because he doesn’t get out much.”

Mukmuk is a true friend to all of the other Mascots but constantly gets pushed around by a Seabear, a Sasquatch, and some sort of bird/bear. Mukmuk is always there to show support with his red gloves and #1 foam finger. How do the other mascots thank their friend? They drop sleds on him, leave him in the cold, and abandon them when they fly to the olympics. All evidence can be found here in the video announcing the mascots.

If you are tired of oppressed marmots across the land, like I am, you can fight back and demand they FREE MUKMUK from his digital prison. If you want to show support for this movement by joining the official facebook group or you can go to the streets like these patriots of mascot freedom did earlier today.

video: extrachrisb; watch on YouTube

Photos: www.jeffmasigan.com/ ; View on Flickr

video: Justin Ruckman; watch in HD on YouTube (recommended)

Last week we had a chance to catch up with Vancouver-based photographer, web guru and man-about-town, Kris Krug (@kk). His deep involvement in Vancouver’s tech, media & creative scenes made him a natural tour guide, which isn’t to say he doesn’t get out of the city: a quick glance at his popular Flickr account shows photos from the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit, SXSW, Pop!Tech, An Event Apart, and a handful of recent BarCamps in Vancouver and Shanghai.

We met up by the steam clock in Gastown, walked down to the Woodward’s redevelopment project, and then over to the W2 Culture+Media House, a break-out 4-story coworking and event space geared specifically for citizen media production, press conferences and art exhibition. From there we walked down a few blocks to the red tent protest, which at the time was just getting started.

Take a moment to watch all 14-ish minutes of this video (in HD), it’s worth it.

watch this video on YouTube

Yahoo’s Olympic offerings this year include a website staffed with award-winning writers, a custom broadcast studio in Vancouver, and a street-level participatory entertainment space: FanCouver.

We stumbled across this cool space in the Yaletown neighborhood the other night, where people can stop in and watch the games, browse the web, and have their pictures taken in hockey gear for instant printing on post cards.

Check out these photos on Flickr

In a city like Vancouver, where 20% of the population is Chinese, the Chinese New Year is a big deal. We made it out to the New Years parade in the international district and witnessed a great parade. The crowd was huge, and so were everyones spirits welcoming the New Year in the middle of the Olympics. It was a truly an awesome experience, but the best part was celebrating Chinese New Year/Valentines Day eating amazing Chinese food at New Town Bakery.

Watch this video on YouTube

The luge finals in Whistler yesterday were amazing. I captured some high speed video (well, high speed-ish: 60 fps) for doing slow motion.

I have a lot more editing to do, but here’s a test for now.

video credit: lululemon athletica; watch this video on Vimeo

This was shot yesterday, apparently from a Lululemon Atheltica yoga shop in Robson Square. It took place right before an imagine1day flash mob kicked off.

It’s awesome to see something positive like this in light of all the protests.

Hat tip to @jritch for the video.

We split up into three groups today, and still none of us ran into any riots. I guess we’re not waking up early enough, or hanging out with the right/wrong people.

It’s a little beyond me how a group of people protesting excessive spending would demonstrate their belief by causing yet more excessive spending: flipping dumpsters, spray painting cars, smashing windows, destroying newspaper boxes, etc. That’s not protest; it’s just a scene, almost recreation. We should turn protest into an Olympic sport and watch the hippies’ heads explode in a burst of recyclical irony. Just kidding, I love hippies.

Contrast these scattered violent protests with the peaceful and self-organized one we witnessed on opening day. Now these are people I can get behind (literally).

Watch this video on YouTube

Is it just us outsiders that feel skeptical about the whole protest routine here in Vancouver? Usually I’m all for stuff like this, especially in Charlotte.

If you’re the average sort of person in Vancouver right now, you a) did’t have enough money to buy the $1k and up opening ceremony tickets, and b) didn’t want to wait in line a million hours (to no avail) at one of the LiveCity viewing locations around town.

So you end up in a bar. And maybe in Yaletown.

Watch this video on YouTube

photo credit: Joe Aston

I’m taking the 2ish hour bus ride north to Whistler today to catch the men’s luge finals. Should be interesting given the controversy around the track (and, of course, the death of Georgian athelete Nodar Kumaritashvili).

That said, I have to be honest. I’m looking forward to the scenery as much as I am the actual event. Wish I had time to go snowboarding. Also, I wish I could snowboard.

I’ll be posting updates to Twitter (@jruckman) whenever possible.

Watch this video on YouTube

First day we tried: six hour wait. Today: four and a half hour wait.

It will be ours, just you wait.