Besides introducing me to the brand of cookie called Pirates, my friend Bruce also directed me to follow Roger Ebert’s tweets. Glad I did, because not only is he a really interesting tweeter, with tons of opinions on everything (and not just film), but he also posted this excellent clip tonight, which I haven’t seen before.

I could probably spend weeks watching all the Wong Kar-Wai clips on Youtube.

It seems like I’ve been introduced to a lot of new desserts lately. For example, when my friend Bruce came to cover the Olympics, we managed to have him over for dinner and he brought with him (among other goodies) a bag of Pirate oatmeal peanut butter cookies. Never heard of them before – but in a short period of time I’ve realized they are highly addictive and, sadly for my waistline, readily available at Safeway.

Around the same time, my friend Randal gave me a giant bakery made Oreo-style cookie, which he got from Butter Baked Goods on Dunbar Street in Vancouver. It was, in a word, delectable!

Now, being both a Pirate AND Butter Baked Goods cookie addict, it made sense to go visit the bakery. I mean, if you’re a Pirate addict,why not go and try their Peanut Butter Sandwich, advertised as “two big soft peanut butter cookies with a creamy peanut butter filling” right?

Of course, walking into Butter Baked Goods means facing a wall of cake, cookies, loaves, cupcakes and homemade marshmellows. And of course, I walked out with the Peanut Butter Sandwich AND something called a Blackout Cake, for no reason other than it was a Saturday. Let’s see: layers of chocolate cake with pudding in between, covered with cookie crumbles. Again, new discovery (what have I been doing that I miss this kind of thing?)

Anyway, I think I’ve found my new favourite bakery in town. This cake is a must! For everybody!

Very saddened to hear about the passing of Yulanda, Toronto photographer and blogger. The photo above is taken from her blog, Little Thoughts. I didn’t know her personally, but was an avid follower of her blog, which is a trove of beauty and inspiration. Her father has written on note on her blog to all her readers – a very kind thing to do. She will be missed.

The Colbert Report has come to Vancouver to do 2 days of live tapings during the Olympics. They are located right next to Science World (or Sochi House as it’s called right now).

Thousands of people must have turned up today – we got there pretty late and stood near the back, as you can tell by the photo. The guests were MP Ujjal Dosanjh and Michael Buble. It was quite interesting to watch a TV show being taped. The set included the now famous Shepard Fairey poster, a huge stuffed moose and lots of fake snow.

He did several takes of the intro (at one point holding an Olympic torch that someone in the crowd had brought along). He was very funny in between all the takes as well. We only stayed for part of it, as the crowds were so huge and the stage was so far away. I’m looking forward to seeing the edited version on tv!

This is a shot of Johnny Weir in a practice session at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver. He’s been practicing beautifully in Vancouver – looking solid and landing all jumps.

He skated about as well as he could for the short – fingers crossed for a similar skate in the long. This field in the men’s competition is so deep right now – any of the Top 10 could win it on a good day.

Lots of restaurants are making special menus for the Olympics. Ebi Ten is a good, cheap fast-food Japanese restaurant on Robson.

Their specialty is probably tempura. I normally order the teriyaki udon. They’ve recently added a bunch of new items to the menu, including this Victory Curry.  I tried it a couple of days ago and it didn’t quite taste of victory…it tasted more like Glico curry. I wasn’t too keen on it.

I’ve also heard that there is a Japanese hot dog vendor someone in Vancouver that has named a dog after figure skater Mao Asada and a sushi roll she helped create called the Mao roll. That must be the ultimate symbol of celebrity-dom – having food named after you. I hope to hunt both down before the Olympics are over…

A great new JJ Bean just opened literally outside the door at my work. It’s my favourite coffee chain in Vancouver. Their espresso beans are superior to even Artigiano, imho. I think the RCMP agrees – Joe grabbed this photo of these official looking officers taking a coffee break from whatever duties they were on for the Olympics.

Johnny Weir…where do I start. Him being an American skater, I didn’t follow him to closely at first, but then last fall I saw Pop Star on Ice at the Vancouver International Film Fest and everything changed.

Needless to say, I thought it was a great documentary but also, found Johnny to be an incredibly compelling character on screen. So now I follow him on twitter and keenly anticipate each and every performance. If you haven’t seen Pop Star, it’s still not yet available on DVD, but Johnny now does have a follow up reality show called Be Good Johnny Weir on the Sundance network, which should be available for download on iTunes soon. Seriously – go to that site and watch some clips. You won’t regret it!

Anyway, I bought tickets to a men’s figure skating Olympic practice last weekend and was able to watch Johnny practice in the flesh for the first, and possibly only time ever. Incredible! He was dressed like a ballet dancer and went through his practice with regimented discipline. His Russian coach Galina Zmievskaya was in his face the whole time, giving him encouragement and direction. He vamped for the crowd a few different times – the only skater in the whole practice to project his personality to the small crowd watching.

He is very graceful jumper and you can really appreciate that when you see him in person. So far it’s been a major highlight of the Olympics for me!

Vancouver is abuzz with Olympic fever! There is something going on in every nook and cranny in the city, or so it seems. Crowds of people milling all over the streets, lineups for any place with the word ‘pavillion’ written on it…fireworks at night. I have to say, when you’re out there the bustle kind of makes you wish Vancouver was this lively all the time.

The atmosphere in events is infectious – everybody is going crazy cheering for their athletes. I few other things I’ve realized:

• you have to lineup for EVERYTHING, usually with no cover and for a long time. Folding umbrella mandatory.
• carry a camera on you at all times. Joe saw Mitt Romney at short track speed skating last night (or so he insists)
• food is allowed inside venues
• carry pins on you – people seem to be crazy about trading them.
• the bus system is overwhelmed – build in a lot of time to get from place to place. Skytrain seems fine.

It’s been so exciting so far – really looking forward to the next couple of weeks.

Vancouver songwriting maestro Nick Krgovich (P:ano, No Kids) has collaborated with Hive Creative Labs producer/engineer Colin Stewart on a new (to us) project called Gigi.

When I briefly had a chance to talk to Nick about it he mentioned some of these songs were recorded as far back as 2005. That’s unusual on two levels; first of all 5 years is a long time to wait for a song to come out, but also, these are 60s influenced songs – does that make them equally appealing and out of place in any year he would have released them?

The thing about Gigi is that the songs sound like they belong in a musical. I had the pleasure of seeing the Krgovich-penned musical In The Yard, Havin’ Fun: A Prison Musical last year at the PuSH Festival, and these songs are in the same vein.

My favourite song from Maintenant (at the moment) is “The Hundredth Time”, a track featuring Duffy Driediger from Vancouver rock band Ladyhawk. You can listen to 3 of the most radio friendly songs here, but you can also check out more songs here.