Why This Is Vancouver's Last Super Spectacle. Because We Built This City on Boosterism, but we've done run out of room.

Protesters target torch. "Anti-Olympic activists are making no secret of where and when they plan to protest against the Olympic flame as torch-bearers wend their way through Metro Vancouver. (a) But the activists are not saying exactly what they're planning to do. (b) The ironically named 2010 Welcoming Committee announced (c)... their group had been infiltrated by undercover police and said the infiltrators might try to cause trouble so that uniformed police could crack down. A similar ruse was said to have been tried at a G7 summit meeting in Montebello, Que., in 2007 when police allegedly (d) disguised themselves as demonstrators but were discovered".

a) Why should they
b) That's because it depends entirely on how the guys with batons and shields behave
c) How is that ironic exactly?
d) Allegedly, on video mind you, but allegedly

There are the Vancouver Olympics, and there are the Vancouver Anti-Olympics. In this divided city we have two torches and two sets of mascots running around town. With days to go before the opening of the 2010 Olympic Games, yesterday (Sunday, Feb. 7th 2010) Vancouver hosted the third annual Vancouver Poverty Olympics.

Between 600 and 700 people took in the Poverty Olympics held in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside at the Japanese Hall on Alexander Street to watch "events" titled Wrestling for Community, the Housing Hurdles and the Broken Promise Slalom. Present at the Games were The Poverty Olympics' 12-foot-tall, 200-pound torch (which just spent a week making its way around Greater Vancouver) and Poverty Olympic mascots (a rat, a cockroach and a bedbug).

So, I don't know about you guys, but over the years I've found some real gems in Vancouver alleyways, free sections of apartments, and thrift store "free bins."

A few days ago I found this book placed carefully on a chair in the alleyway outside my apartment, miraculously sheltered from the rain and moist. It's a famous illustrated edition of the classic Frankenstein from 1977 with graphic novel-style drawings from Berni Wrightson. Even though its cover has been defaced, I'd still count it as one of my favourite finds.

Flipping through it, I was pretty amazed at the quality of the hand-drawn illustrations, done in pen and ink and meticulously detailed. The book now sits on my desk, inspiring me to start drawing and being creative again -- by using real art materials with my hands instead of my usual computer-based graphic design projects.

Thinking back, my friends and I have found many quality pieces in Vancouver's streets -- and the true advantage to these "found" items is how quirky and amazingly random they are. We've found orange Tiki lamps decorated with gaudy bamboo sticks, endless picture frames of all sizes and materials (sometimes with photos still inside), odd keychain charms and antique tables, limited-edition records, odd family pocket photographs, and when one is lucky, a real $50 bill (I felt like a king that night).

Ross hits on some of the usual points, but one of the most interesting sections in his essay is titled: The World-Class Thing.

Ah, yes, the "world-class thing". By my count, there are two camps of Vancouverites: those that enjoy and propagate the world-class thing, and those that are embarrassed by the world-class thing. Ross brings up a good point in that you can't declare yourself a world-class city, much like you can't declare yourself a genius or insane. It has to come from outside. Otherwise, it's like giving yourself a nickname. Or, put another way, it's like a father buying himself his own "World's Best Dad" t-shirt and then parading it around the office. Basically, it's lame.

I don't own or need a car, but like many who live in central Vancouver, my home is situated five minutes from a venue, and right smack in the middle of a labyrinth of streets marked with "no stopping" and "road closed" signs. These may protect roads near venues from becoming clogged arteries in the traffic flow of Vancouver, but with no parking at events, and little in the blocks nearby, where will event goers leave their cars?

For an urban centre, Vancouver is a bit of a light-weight. With a population of just over 600,000 (its greater area being over 2 million), it falls far behind the metropolises found in most of the rest of the world. Between its size and its young age of 124 years, it's easy to scoff at the suggestion that Vancouver's history and culture could possibly make an interesting story. Historically speaking, the extent of a Vancouver-themed book collection would include coffee-table books showcasing the ocean, mountains and trees, a few Arthur Erickson buildings, Douglas Coupland, Emily Carr paintings, totem poles and that sparkly science ball. But that is a bit Expo '86.

Wherein official sponsor of the 2010 Winter Games takes on those grumpy brits at The Guardian. "If you're going to say the Vancouver Games cost $6-billion, have the decency to note $4-billion is for infrastructure that was going to get built anyway".

OK, if we're going to have an honest discussion Gary, let's not argue on the price tag but ask how we're going to pay for it, and how long that's going to take? Let's just pretend that every cost expenditure was completely warranted, including the triple over budget convention centre next to a convention centre in the age of the internet. The Sea to Sky was going to get built anyways you say, but would Harriet Nahanee have died?

The RAV Line was going to built anyways you say, but would we have ram-rodded it through council, inflated ridership numbers, forced it to go down Cambie, then switched to cut and cover at the last minute? Let's pretend Translink didn't go bankrupt forcing them to raise fares, tax parking stalls, and cancel the Evergreen Line.

Let's pretend that the Athlete's Village didn't go bankrupt and we didn't bail them out under a shroud of secrecy. Let's pretend that VANOC did everything right and held open and transparent meetings and did its best to dissuade Olympic evictions, let's pretend they're not spending a billion on security, only to harass local activists.

My name is Kat and I'm a bit of a bipolar advocate of the City of Vancouver.

There's many times where I absolutely love this city's idealism, its optimism for the future and its sunny, engaged and active residents -- and want to shout out my appreciation from the (green and bee-populated, but sometimes hard to get to) rooftops. Other times I look at Vancouver with weathered, critical eyes as I shuffle despondently through week long rainy spells, seeing only the city's dark corners and crumbling precipices hidden under a facade of hesitant new growth.

I'm not sure about you guys as readers, but I'm beginning to think this type of attitude is a bit of a Vancouverite tradition. When its sunny outside, our city comes out in full force. We're unassailable, excited to be alive and ecstatic to be in this city, running through its parks with our dogs, showing up en masse at community events, jubilantly celebrating Vancouver conventions like gay rights and citizen-centered media while planting grand new plots in our community gardens.

When its raining, though -- whether that rain truly exists outside or is merely embodied in the form of certain mega-events that we are hesitant about, or perhaps looming provincial policies that make us feel sad -- we're a pretty frightening, disconsolate bunch. We fight petty wars on the blogs of respected local journalists, we gather proudly in the thousands to loudly and insolently protest against things that piss us off, and we make life hell for those who give our neighbours grief.

This is just the first step in the city really looking at the viability of more separated bike lanes running in a network throughout the downtown core. In statistics from Frances Bula's Globe and Mail article on the subject, trips by bike in Kits and Commercial Drive area account for 10% of travel. A number that shrinks to about half of that once you enter the downtown core.

I'm all for separated bike lanes. It's better for those drivers who get aggravated and skittish when encountering cyclists on busy downtown roads. It's also better for the cyclists as they don't constantly have to watch over their shoulder to see if someone is coming up behind them while simultaneously checking to see if a car door is going to fly open in their path. While I don't believe cars and bikes need to exist in totally separate realms, it's safer for both on busy streets if there are separate lanes.

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 3 / MODERN LAKES / THE MEDIA CLUB / 695 CAMBIE ST / $8 / 19+
Hailing from Misson, BC, the MODERN LAKES are celebrating the release of their EP, Better Times. The band describes themselves as "creepy, cool indie-rock" on their myspace, and their music is all of what they say they are. Other BC bands, PEPPER SANDS and THE FINNIGANS, will be accompanying them.
modernlakes.com/
peppersands.wordpress.com/
myspace.com/finnigansband

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 4 / ST. VINCENT / THE VENUE / 881 GRANVILLE ST / $16+ / 19+
ST. VINCENT is coming to town with WILDBIRDS AND PEACEDRUMS. I saw ST. VINCENT years ago with the Arcade Fire. Since then, I think her sound has developed a lot. Her most recent album, Actor, is thriving in talented vocals and melodies. I saw WILDBIRDS AND PEACEDRUMS play with Lykke Li last year. They're a down-to-earth Swedish duo consisting of only a vocalist and percussionist.
myspace.com/stvincent
wildbirdsandpeacedrums.com/

In what was surely unintentional, Vancity Buzz has made one of the better anti-Olympic blog posts of late.

Obama won't visit Vancouver for 2010 Olympics. Ok if he's not going I'm not going.

Oh man it just keeps on getting better Olympic lineups to be hours long. Don't get me wrong, I'd line up for hours to see Christians thrown to lions too but come on, a guy has gotta live, y'know? (Are we still not laughing at that?)