Vancouver is playing host to the top female soccer players in North and Central America this week and next, and I will be sharing my thoughts on the tournament in this blog. I don't promise a report everyday, but certainly a few updates will be coming. First let me say that there are plenty of tickets still available, and if anyone is looking for a fun way to spend an evening, they should head down to BC Place and check it out. All of the details can be found at CONCACAF's website, but there are 2 games every evening (one at 5:00pm and one at 7:30pm), and one very cheap ticket will buy you access to both. 

The first two games of the tournament took place last night, with a game between Costa Rica and Cuba kicking (see what I did there?) things off. Costa Rica's speed and quick passing gave them the early lead over Cuba (with a goal from Saudy Rosales). Costa Rica dominated possession and some really skilled defensive play saved not one, but two shots headed into an otherwise open net. 

The main event of the night was Team Canada's debut in the tournament. The team was lead by their captain and outright star, Christine Sinclair, who scored 4 goals during the game, contributing to the 6-0 defeat of the national team from Haiti. The Canadian defence was hardly tested, but their controlled passing and movement on the ball set the tone for the game. There was one unfortunate injury, when the Haitian goalkeeper collided with one of her own players while retrieving a shot. The collision was brutal, and the goalkeeper was eventually evacuated to the hospital. No further details about her condition have been released at this time. 

A few weeks ago on The Vampire Diaries, Damon drew such a poor werewolf that Caroline thought it was a puppy with a tutu. Just for a treat, here's a real puppy in a tutu. It was picked up on Vancouver's Seymour Street as part of a campaign by Ballet BC to be seen as not your grandma's ballet company. Enjoy!

Don't forget to tune in for tonight's ROAD TRIP!

Days 8-11: The Problems with the Podium

Medals:

Canada's medal haul has slowed down in the past three days, and as of Monday evening, we have only earned two more (bringing our total to 9) (another medal is expected in the Ice Dance competition). In an exciting Men's skeleton race, Jon Montgomery edged out Latvian slider Martins Dukurs. His gregarious personality left few Canadians wondering how he felt about his win: the man was ecstatic. It is nice to see someone celebrating their medal, when so much of the news lately has been about disappointments and apologies (more on that in a minute). The other medal for Canada came from speed-skater Kristina Groves, who added a silver to go with her bronze (from the 3000 meters). Her silver medal came in the 1500 meters, an event won by Ireen Wust of the Netherlands.

We are sitting here listening to Darren Dreger ask if Canadians should be worried that both Martin Brodeur and Roberto Luongo were both pulled in their most recent NHL games. Meanwhile, professional misanthrope Christopher Hitchens has an interesting take on this whole Olympics thing. Initial reaction: get a grip, Hitch! Sure, sports are not a cure-all for the ills of the world, and athletes can be unpleasant jerks, if not downright slimy (including, sometimes, Canadians). But you could make similar claims about, say, free speech: it often leads to conflict and suffering, and  people who exercise their right of free speech to the fullest often reveal themselves to be cruel, ignorant or both. (There are lots of people we'd like to see contract lockjaw.) But that's a poor argument for scorning the practice as a whole.

I can understand part of Hitchens's point, though. All the headlines about skiing, skating and sledding obscure other important stories. There is, for example, a new development in the war in Afghanistan -- involving Canadians, of course.

And finally, something totally unrelated: this, friends, is what an imaginative, top-notch piece of short fiction looks like.

Previously, I reported my disappointment that Chris Weitz could direct two more Twilight movies. Now it appears that Summit will push ahead with filming in Vancouver this fall regardless of who they get to fill the director's chair, and it looks like it won't be Weitz. As I previously mentioned, one movie or two, I don't care because Breaking Dawn is bananas. If they do break it (and now that I'm thinking about it, they should), I suspect it will be around the -- spoiler alert -- childbirth-transition mark or Melissa Rosenberg would do well to end it on a cliffhanger (not unlike New Moon) with Alice dropping the vase and announcing a vision in which they all die.

Now, who can they get to direct them? May I suggest Catherine Hardwicke for Part 1 and David Slade for Part 2 if Summit wants to dip back into the well?  Regardless of the possible animosity between director and studio, Hardwicke excelled at building a haunting teenage love story with just a little tragedy and violence at the edges in Twilight, and the first part of Breaking Dawn continues Bella and Edward's love story with just a little tragedy and violence at the edges. Slade, who directed 30 Days of Night and will be responsible Eclipse this summer, can take on the more danger/thriller aspects of the finale, assuming his vision of Eclipse doesn't suck.

If the Summit wants to hire someone new, it will at least have built a reputation of doing so. Perhaps Canadian Jean-Marc Vallée, director behind the swoony long-distance love affair in The Young Victoria, for the romance-focused half, and Alfonso Cuarón, who is no stranger to steamy with Y tu mamá también, high-profile literary adaptations with Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and end of the world-style tragedies with babies at their centre with Children of Men. Other vampire-aware director suggestions: Vincenzo Natali ("Quartier de la Madeleine"), Timur Bekmambetov (Night Watch and Day Watch), and Kathryn Bigelow (Near Dark). Of course, if she keeps scooping up best director awards for The Hurt Locker, it might take a little doing to entice her to this field. Then again, maybe she's one of those middle aged women who love Stephenie Meyer's work.

CALLING FOR ARTIST AND CURATOR SUBMISSIONS
SIGNAL & NOISE MEDIA ART FESTIVAL
VIVO MEDIA ARTS CENTRE VANCOUVER BC CANADA
Festival Dates | May 27, 28, 29 2010
Submission Deadline | January 15 2010
VIVO Media Arts Centre presents the tenth annual Signal & Noise Festival; three days of contemporary media and sound art. Showcasing a spectrum of single and multi-channel audio & video works, live performances and immersive installations. Signal & Noise is an intimate forum for creative exchange between local, national and international artists.
Submission Guidelines and Application Forms | www.signalandnoise.ca
Inquiries |  2010@signalandnoise.ca
Artists who have participated in Signal & Noise over the past ten years include: Jeffrey Allport, Julie Andreyev, David Askevold, Daniel Barrow, Eli Bornowsky, Kevin Lee Burton, Paul Chan, Shawn Chapelle, Dana Claxton, Aleesa Cohene, Thirza Cuthand, Francisca Duran, Sylvain Duval, Kevin Jerome Everson, Geoffrey Farmer, Flatgrey, Coin Gutter, Nelson Hendricks,
David Hoffos, Holzkopf, Mike Hoolboom, Oliver Husain, Lee Hutzulak, Intermission Artist Society, Luis Jacob, Anne-Françoise Jacques, Miranda July, George Kuchar, Meesoo Lee, Amy Lockhart, Anne McGuire, Julia Meltzer and David Thorne, Frédéric Moffet, Monique Moumblow, Shana Moulton, Takeshi Murata, Clark Nikolai, Shelley Niro, Midi Onodera, Judy Radul, Steve Reinke, Vanessa Renwick, Kristen Roos, Mirha-Soleil Ross, Jean Routhier, Ken Roux, Jayce Salloum, Semiconductor, Coral Short, Tadasu Takamine, Tom Sherman, Althea Thauberger, Ryan Trecartin, Rafael Tsuchida, Kara Uzelman, Emily Vey Duke and Cooper Battersby, Women with Kitchen Appliances, Kai Ling Xue, Jin-me Yoon, and Wayne Yung.
-- Amy Lynn Kazymerchyk + Kika Thorne Directors of Programming Signal & Noise 2010 www.signalandnoise.ca

H/E/R/O/S is a multimedia, visual art exhibit to be presented by Kickstart Disability Arts & Culture. It will showcase twenty artists with a disability at the Pendulum Gallery in downtown Vancouver, February-March 2010.

The Greek word "hero" originally referred to a demigod, the offspring a mortal and a deity. Straddling both worlds, part of and apart from each, the demigod sees each world from a privileged yet marginal perspective. Through the centuries the hero has come to refer to the protagonist who rises above mere mortals through acts of selflessness, courage or physical prowess.

Various dynamics are observed in relation to the disability community and the concept of "heroism":

• non-disabled people's exaggerated or patronizing perception of the normal requirements of functioning with a disability as courageous, even "heroic," which obscures the real experience of disability;
• a backlash within the disability community against expectations that every person with a disability "perform" like Rick Hanson, Terry Fox and their ilk;
• the real value of role models for youth with disabilities, etc.

Exploring the duality inherent in the historical terms, and teasing out a disability perspective from the very human need for inspiration in a troubled world, this curated exhibition will invite visual meditation or commentary within the context of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.