Reposted Rant from Van-Goth
Jul. 24th, 2003 10:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mbarrick
[Discussing the upcoming Indy race]> The race is one of the few things left
> in this city...
It's not something that's "left". It's not a unique part of Vancouver. It is another mass-marketed, corporate sponsored, "gee-ain't-we-'world class'?", lame knock-off event that has no soul and no basis in local history that was plunked here in recent years like a cow-pie in a field of flowers. *Indy* FFS, as in *Indianapolis*: there is no history of auto manufacture or racing here. This is a city that has its roots in forestry and fishing. What the hell happened to the Sea Festival? The bathtub races? No, can't have anything home-grown here, we simply *must* copy-cat things that grew up out of the distinct cultures of other cities, all in the name of luring tourists from other cities to spend money to benefit the sponsors that are headquartered in other cities, all for the sake of appearing "world class" to other cities. We didn't have fireworks on *Canada Day* this year for fear of unruly crowds, yet we'll pack the beer-swilling yahoos in to watch the fast cars go vroom. I don't see the fireworks being sponsored by the Hong-Kong/Singapore Bank (based in London, England) being cancelled. What about those crowds? Oh, that's right, were not sucking the IOC's ass the day after those. It's a fucking joke! Events like Indy, Expo, the Olympics, don't do anything but entrench a provincial service-industry culture, dependent on sucking up to those places that generate the real wealth, while we try to weasel a barmaid's tip from them. We're building a city of branch offices and franchise stores. Would you like fries with that? Would you like whip cream on your Frappuccino™?
There are two million people in Greater Vancouver. Do we really need to draw people in from out of town to make money? When New York was this size they were building the grandest monuments in the entire history of the world to date. Jazz came into being in New Orleans when they were half this size and not nearly as ethnically diverse as Vancouver. When London was this this size they were out founding nations. At its peak ancient Rome had fewer people. Golden Age Athens was a tenth the size.
Behind us, in those oh-so-pretty mountains that loom over the city is more *real* wealth than almost any area in the world, but we don't exploit it because we don't want to scare the tourists away with unsightly factories and foundries. But where to the tourists come from? Places that buy our primary resources cheap and make something useful out of them that we *could* make ourselves, and have local people making decent money instead of selling souveniers and lattés for minimum wage. We serve them with a smile so we can barely afford to buy the furniture they made with our wood, the cars made from our iron, the electronics wired with our copper and gold...
Fuck Indy. Fuck the tourist "industry". We need *real* industry and to get our heads out of our colonial ass.
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no subject
Date: 2003-07-24 11:23 pm (UTC)/sarcasm
Vancouver's pioneer sports
Date: 2003-07-25 12:10 am (UTC)...and let me add: lacrosse - which along with cricket were the first mass spectator sports in Vancouver.
In it's heyday at the turn of the century until the early 1920s, crowds in excess of over 10,000 were not uncommon at lacrosse matches. 10,000 fans back then would be equivalent to the Canucks drawing 250,000 fans today - quite impressive if you ask me.
Re: Vancouver's pioneer sports
Date: 2003-07-25 07:36 am (UTC)There is really one criterion I have for the merit of an event - did it start with local people out of love for the event/sport (good) or is it something brought in for the sake of profit/relatively cheap advertising/propping up tourism (lame)?
1911
Date: 2003-07-25 08:24 am (UTC)Intersting point you make in your last paragraph, though....
Hockey was imported into Vancouver by the Patrick Brothers who were looking to form their own professional hockey league on the West Coast as an alternative of the eastern leagues (forerunners of today's NHL). This was the league the famous Vancouver Millionaires played in.
Before 1911 - apart from one or two disorganised pick-up games on Trout Lake (whenever it froze), the only ice hockey played in BC was up in the mining camps of the Kooteneys around Nelson.
Lacrosse came west with the CPR railroad men in the 1880s and was played amateur until 1909, when the first professional clubs appeared. These were set up mostly as an eventual reaction to the East which had professional teams for about a decade.
It was the professional, money aspects that unltimately killed off lacrosse as Vancouver's number one sport in the mid-1920s.
I'm not sure about cricket, except that it was quite big at the turn of the century. The First World War seemed to be the turning point in the fan loyalties in the Vancouver Sports scene. Hockey was in and the 'original' popular Vancouver sports were out.
Re: 1911
Date: 2003-07-25 10:45 am (UTC)Re: 1911
Date: 2003-07-25 10:06 am (UTC)Re: 1911
Date: 2003-07-25 10:48 am (UTC)Other teams included such quaintly-named teams as the Seattle Metropolitans, Spokane Canaries, and Portland Rosebuds. New Westminster Royals also had a team for a couple of years.
Re: 1911
Date: 2003-07-25 05:30 pm (UTC)here's the others:
portland they became the aristrocrats...
calgary tigers
edmonton eskimos
new westminster royals they became the rosebuds...
regina capitals i like this one...these guys became the second portland rosebuds who became the chicago blackhawks...
seattle metropolitans
spokane canaries the logo is real, the jersey imagined...
millionaires
and finally
victoria cougars the aristocrats/senators became the spokane canaries...the aristrocrats then became the cougars who eventually became the detroit red wings...
New Westminster Red Wings?
Date: 2003-07-25 07:11 pm (UTC)The is at least one serious writer that I have done hockey research for that has put forth a strong case of the Detroit Red Wings actually originating with that New Westminster team of 1911.
Theory goes like this:
1) New Westminster Royals moved to Portland ca.1914;
2) Portland Rosebuds moved to Victoria and became the Cougars, ca. 1918
3) When the Western League folded, the Victoria Cougars were sold en masse to the NHL's new Detroit franchise in 1926. That team was called the Detroit Cougars.
The Detroit Cougars were later renamed the Falcons and then the Red Wings in the early 1930s.
Re: New Westminster Red Wings?
Date: 2003-07-25 07:47 pm (UTC)Dullard!
Date: 2003-07-25 07:18 pm (UTC)If you want to read an excellent history of the early NHL's formation and all the legal dirt that was stirred up (and since hidden), then read Deceptions and Doublecross by Holzman and Nieforth. I assisted with some of the Vancouver research and got to proofread / critique the first draft before going to press.
Re: Dullard!
Date: 2003-07-25 07:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-25 07:15 am (UTC)diligence in an employment or pursuit; especially : steady or habitual effort
2 a : systematic labor especially for some useful purpose or the creation of something of value b : a department or branch of a craft, art, business, or manufacture; especially : one that employs a large personnel and capital especially in manufacturing c : a distinct group of productive or profit-making enterprises (the banking industry) d : manufacturing activity as a whole (the nation's industry)
3 : work devoted to the study of a particular subject or author (the Shakespeare industry)
doesn't seem to me there is the creation of anything of value or manufacture...but it is yet another way to hide the fact that most "industry" has moved elsewhere and to keep the masses placated with some sort of work...although they are mostly minimum wage jobs with little future that barely allow them to maintain an acceptable standard of living...well i don't consider it acceptable and am glad i don't have to live off those wages...i don't know how they do it...vive le revolution!!!
no subject
Date: 2003-07-25 07:19 am (UTC)Now *that* is a Vancouver tradition that locals can be proud of. Has anyone ever seen English bay lined with those massive 'industrial-sized' BBQs celebrating one of our greatest local industries? Or the water contests, like log rolling (that was hilarious!)? You mentioned the bathtub races... man I miss that, that was a gas. Too bad we can't think of better things to do to draw tourism to Vancouver that they don't already do in other cities. I know I'm not the only one who misses the Sea Fest.
local vs mass media
Date: 2003-07-25 08:35 am (UTC)There has been a drastic shift away from localised news and activities to that of a "global" scale. Hence why long-ago popular events that were heavily localised such as the Seafest, PNE parades (these were still big in the 1970s), the Empire Day athletic games (pre-WW1), etc died out - because the big media and sponsership giants can't and won't identify with what they see as small-scale events.
I think the fallout from Expo 86 killed off a lot of the popular, local events.
Re: local vs mass media
Date: 2003-07-25 09:02 am (UTC)In summarisation....
Date: 2003-07-25 09:30 am (UTC)In 2003, it isn't cool to cheer for a team from New Westminster or Kerrisdale.
I guess I'm not cool then.
no subject
Date: 2003-07-25 09:43 am (UTC)Roommates living in a house is Glmaorized as reality TV
A sport where men in funny pants slowly put a ball into a
hole is Glamorized as PRO-GOLF
...mass media can glam anything up - nothing is too unglamorous to be marketed and put on DVD for a frothing at the mouth consumer.
The only drawback to something like a localized event is that you
can't sell a Sea-festival to viewers in Texas or Nevada or any other land locked territory. It won't appeal to a wide audience
and generate the revenue.
There is also the "this event is OURS" sellout factor. People get pissed if there are cameras in their faces or a media Van parked there. They worry about maintaining the 'Integrity' of the event .. becaue they are distrustful that
1: the media will paint it in a bad light or in a way that is contrary to their opinion of the event("they just don't get it").
2: It will protray the event in a good light - and other , richer cities may take away the event.
..either that or they are afraid the photos might capture their soul.
Minor Thing
Re: Minor Thing
Date: 2003-07-25 12:57 pm (UTC)(/shrnks away a little red faced)
although you have to admit - you really don't think aquatic activities when you think of texas... just deserts, oil drills
and cowboys.
Re: Minor Thing
Date: 2003-07-25 01:15 pm (UTC)Re: Minor Thing
Date: 2003-07-25 06:58 pm (UTC)who nedds suntan lotion - i'm covered in texas-tea!
Re: Minor Thing
Date: 2003-07-25 01:32 pm (UTC)NICE counterpoint there Homer!
no subject
Date: 2003-07-25 10:01 am (UTC)Golf is the most artificially pumped-up "sport" around. I cannot figure out why people would want to watch it live or on TV?
But local sports as a whole are not "media friendly" in today's world - there's nothing glamourous about a lacrosse game between say Maple Ridge and Coquitlam, so the big media now does not go near it.
However, if you go back 50 years ago, such a game would steal front-page sport section press from perceived-distant major league baseball and other 'out of town' sports.
When I was working on research for my book, I often came across in the 1920s (and before) Vancouver Province coverage of (effectively) commercial beer hockey leagues that got more print than the NHL.
The transformation of sports from local to glamour seems to coincide with the rise of television in the late 1950s. The actual triggering event can be nailed down to when the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants moved to California and professional sports became continental in scope.
no subject
Date: 2003-07-25 01:04 pm (UTC)sports program
How could anyone get excited WATCHING golf , fishing , or even
Car Racing. Not to invalidate them as good things to DO.. but
to watch?
"This Is How-wad Co-sell, Ta-day we are in for a tru-ly ex-citing day of Grass Grow-wing action"
Yeah watching saturday sports ...Minutes of fun!
Bread and Circuses.... but they aren't even giving us the damn
circusses any more.
and we lost our saturday morning cartoons .... to make room for this?
Golf
Date: 2003-07-25 01:18 pm (UTC)Golflax
Date: 2003-07-25 01:31 pm (UTC)Now that would be fun to watch: golf with body checking and crosschecking.
You could have the competing players scrum off for the ball before starting the set-u.... (...as I quickly run off to the copyright office before those Slamball! guys steal my idea for ESPN2)
FULL CONTACT EXTREME GOLF!!!!!
Date: 2003-07-25 02:22 pm (UTC)Now THAT would be keen...
(did you ever notice how much more interedting sports get
as the level of violence increases, and vice versa)
Who is up for some HYPER-MEGA-CRUNCH Syncronized swimming
Re: FULL CONTACT EXTREME GOLF!!!!!
Date: 2003-07-25 03:12 pm (UTC)Re: Golflax
Date: 2003-07-25 05:35 pm (UTC)Re: Golflax
Date: 2003-07-25 07:05 pm (UTC)Nevertheless it would nevertheless be an interesting test of shooting accuracy. I reckon that a lacrosse stick could drive a golf ball with better accuracy over a longer distance - but would be difficult to get the ball in the hole at putting range.
Re: Golflax
Date: 2003-07-25 07:44 pm (UTC)Re: Golflax
Date: 2003-07-25 08:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-25 01:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-25 02:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-25 02:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-25 05:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-26 05:34 pm (UTC)