another music post.

ok. so music is obviously my thing. my area of expertise if you will and quite frankly. the biggest venue in the world disapointed me tonight. and on the 12th as well. i understand that the olympic committee wanted to showcase canadian talent, and i think that's awesome. really i do. but if you're gonna showcase canadian talent, then pick bands/performers WITH talent. tonights showcase could have included much better acts than it did. honestly, i enjoyed most of the show. i am a fan of micheal buble, a big fan of neil young. i thought the speeches were well put together with the exception of catherine o'hara. i honestly found her thing a little distasteful and rude. especially to athletes who had just lost one of the biggest events of their lives. while i'll be the first to admit that it is nice to bask in the glory of our wonderful olympic representatives, there must be an element of tact and courtesy shown when dealing with the teams that did not fare as well as ours. micheal j. fox's speech i thought was perfect. it could not have been better. quite possibly the highlight of the night, actually, probably tied with the raising of the 4th arm and letting katrina le may doan light it. i thought that was incredibly fitting, and well deserved. the only other two people that in my opinion desrved to share in that honour would have been joannie rochette and alexandre bilodeau. but because katrina missed out on lighting it at the opening ceremony, i was incredibly pleased, and honestly proud to see her light it tonight. again, the light/floor show was amazing. i'm sure there are far bigger words to describe it, but amazing/awe inspiring would be the two that ocme to mind. favorite part of the light show would definitely have been the whales in the opening ceremony. WOW! that is all. WOW!
now, since we're still talking about things i did like about the ceremonies we'll just slide on into the music end of things. best musical number performed in either the opening or closing ceremonies goes to.....



i don't care what anyone's opinion of her lifestyle choices is, you cannot deny that this song was performed brilliantly. so, the travy award goes to her.

best song in the closing ceremony would be neil young



i know that it's not the olympic performance, but i can't find it on youtube.
while i think the song is great, i was honestly hoping he'd sing heart of gold. both songs would have been quite fitting. either way, i'm not disapointed. not by him.

honourable mention for this award goes to micheal buble and his fun little number. classic buble, and it incorporated classic canada.

now, being a fan of classical and chamber music. i truly enjoyed greece's anthem, the olympic anthem performed by ben heppner, and the russian anthem performed by the chamber choir. i found all three amazing.

now, we'll get to the things i did not like about the ceremonies.

we'll try and work our way down. starting with the things that just kinda bugged me, working towards the things that made me angry.

opening ceremony, the whole pow wow thing. don't get me wrong here, i think it was wonderful that we honoured the first nation's people, but i just thought it was a little overdone. it was almost a little hard to watch the parade of nations when there were several hundred dancers out on the floor as well. i would have toned it down a bit is all. definitely not something to eliminate.

opening ceremony. the torch not working. i understand technical difficulties happen. however, it's like watching one of the events. if they had only practiced a bit more, they would have realized what was wrong, and could have prevented it from happening. although the first blunder of the games did lead to a fun and humorous closing show.

opening ceremony. wayne gretzky should have let katrina light his pillar inside the stadium. he said afterward that he felt horrible for her. well then, if he knew that he was still going to get to light the one outside, would not the gentlemanly thing to have been step aside and let her partake in a once in a lifetime event? granted, the situation was rectified in the closing ceremony, which is why this is near the bottom of my list of things that urked me about the games.

closing ceremony. catherine o'hara. i already hit on this above so i'm not going to reitterate the same bit again. distasteful, kinda rude. not canadian at all.

closing ceremony. nickleback, avril, alanis, hedly, simple plan, and whoever else may have played before i gave up on any one with talent hitting the stage and started playing video games. there were many, many, many other acts that could have been chosen to represent our country over these. here's just a few.

BTO - taking care of business
the guess who - running back to saskatoon, no sugar tonight, american woman, hand me down world.
jann arden - all i can think of is insensitive, and tho i don't think it would have been terribly "olympic" neither were any of the other performances.
paul brandt - didn't even see the dust, alberta bound, risk (probably more olympic themed than any other song)
george canyon - who would you be?, somebody wrote love (because of all the proposals and such at the games), drinkin' thinkin' (in honour of jon montgomery and the women's hockey team), i want you to live (in honour of every soldier fighting for the dreams and hopes of every citizen of our great country. we wouldn't have the games if it weren't for them. seriously, if you haven't done it recently, thank a soldier for their service. even if you don't support the war, support the troops.)
i'll try and bring in some other genre's too... but only ones that aren't geared strictly for 13-15 year olds.
tom chochrane - life is a highway
bruce cockburn - lovers in a dangerous time
as previously mentioned, stompin' tom conners - the hockey song, or if you want to diversify and represent more certain areas of canada, bud the spud
blue rodeo - bad timing, lost together
the bare naked ladies - million dollars, pinch me, brian wilson
the tragicall hip - ahead by a century, poets, new orleans is sinking
great big sea - everything shines, ordinary day, consequence free, when i'm up(i can't get down)
matthew good - hello time bomb, apparitions, load me up, strange days
steppenwolf - (an american and canadian band. would have been a great way to show unity between nations after the shalacking they took in hockey :P )born to be wild, magic carpet ride
Chantal Kreviazuk - leaving on a jet plane (goodbye olympians!)
rush - fly by night, tom sawyer
gordon lightfoot - the wreck of the edmund fitzgerald, sundown, if you could read my mind
the tea party (how cool would a reunion be?) - anything off of alhambra
Sarah McLachlan - arms of an angel (would be perfect for the georgian luger), i will remember you
kim mitchell - go for a soda, patio lanterns.
and seriously, if you're going for the younger audience. how about this?

RAFFI!!! - oats, peas, beans and barley grow, baby beluga, this old man, and many other great songs from our childhood.

now, back to the list.

rufus wainwright - pick one.
and the list goes on. i could have also said doc waker, emerson drive, adam gregory, etc, etc.

so, those are just a few of the much better performers than what we were given tonight.
so now we head back to the list of things i didn't like about the olympics.

the trashing of canada. two countries stood out spectacularily at this. the united states, with late night shows doing nothing but trying to poke fun at us constantly, until of course steven colbart actually got here and experience canada and canadians. he apologized on the air and admitted he was totally wrong about us. that was cool. also, a lot of the athletes, and teams. namely three. shaun white from the snowboarding raising a stink because apparently our "pants were too tight" in the half pip competition. the women's hockey team, or whoever it was that decide to raise a big stink about our winning team celebrating. and finally, apollo ohno after he was disqualified. he said on tv that he thught it was favoritism because the official was also canadian. when they brought up the stats, the canadian official had dq'd more canadians than any other country. there were also athletes from other countries who just showed incredibly poor sportsmanship, such as the snow boarder from australia (the millionare internet spam mogul) was completely arrogant and abnoxious throughout the whole games. (and he was originally from canada) the dutch speed skater. i'm sure everyone knows which one i'm talking about. there comes a time when you need to man up, and own what you've done. not just try and pass the blame on to someone else.

and, that brings me to the very last thing on my hate list. are you ready for it?

really?


believe it or not, the thing i hated the most about these olympics was the two renditions of our national anthem. they were both horrible. nobody could sing along, nobody could get involved. heck, even steven harper gave up trying to sing along. and then the other two countries and the olympics themself come out with beautiful performances, and ours bombs. i hated them. honestly. with a passion. i was angry at how poorly those musicians presented our country. i'm incredibly proud to be canadian. as were the other 60,000 people in the stands. i think it would have been soooo much better to just play the music and let the crowd sing. or else get someone with a voice to sing it the way it's written.


anyways... now that i've spent the past couple hours writing. i'm going to bed.