A Marriage of Crime Scenes, Pucks and Rocks

                                   photo link

by Lisa Ovens

It appears the USA Network has become a bizarre blend of Police Procedural dramas, Men's Olympic Hockey and Olympic Curling. After being in the United States for almost a year and a half, I've learned that the USA Network is the place to go when you want to watch Law and Order's, NCIS's or CSI's ALL DAY LONG. For now, the binge viewing style network has become a refuge for errant hockey games and curling competitions.

Of course it took me six days of the 2014 Winter Olympics to discover there was this hidden gem of hockey nestled amongst the hard boiled detectives and lab geeks. However, I do have an excuse for my rusty sports viewing skills: I've spent the last year and a half away from sports working on a time consuming project! Heck, my blogging skills are also rusty! I can count the number of blog posts on one hand for the entire year of 2013!

So, in order to assist myself, I am going to list the Men's Hockey Schedule for the USA Network right here in this post...(all times in ET)

Fri. Feb.14 12pm   Canada vs. Austria
Sat. Feb.15 12pm   Sweden vs. Latvia
Sun. Feb.16  3am   Austria vs. Norway
                7:30am   Russia vs. Slovakia
                   12pm   Finland vs. Canada
We. Feb.19 12pm   Men's Quarter Final Game

Gotta love those nooners!!!

Olympic Hockey Appreciation in Florida

by Lisa Ovens

Look what arrived in my inbox this morning... a Sochi/ Team USA Watching Party hosted by the Florida Panthers Announcement! Nice work, Panthers! Two early morning "Hockey Brunches" will be taking place on Saturday and Sunday this weekend during Team USA's tilts against Team Russia (Feb.15th) and Team Slovenia (Feb.16).

The Sochi watching parties are taking place at the Break-Away  Bar and Grill in the recently re-branded Florida Panthers IceDen, the Cat's official practice facility in Coral Springs, Fl. . Yes...it is no longer called the Saveology Iceplex. The Florida Panthers IceDen is a far better name and hopefully will add a nice boost to the Panthers hockey profile in South, Florida.

In other Panther news...Panther fans have two "Cats" to keep an eye on during the Men's Olympic Hockey tournament at the Sochi 2014Winter Olympics: left winger,Tomas Kopecky is lacing up the skates for Team Slovakia for the second time, and making his Olympic debut, center, Aleksander Barkov will be playing for Team Finland. Barkov is Finnish/Russian, so obviously he had a choice in countries to try out for. Click here to learn how he came to choose Finland


Enjoy the pancakes, hockey fans!!

SOCHI 2014!

by Lisa Ovens

Four years ago today, The 2010 Winter Olympic Games opened in my hometown, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Oh, the memories! I created this very blog for those games, and the many posts below will always be a trip down memory lane for me. Now, it's back to spectating from the sofa again.  It's safe to say I will never be a Winter Olympic athlete, but I sure now what it is like to be a "host" of the games.

And, this is a first: I am not in Canada during the Winter Olympics! It's been almost a year and six months since I left Vancouver. I wasn't planning to be away this long...last June I was granted an O1B Visa, so, I am still in the United States for a few more months.

 The only Olympic swag I happened to have on me for my trip down south is what you see above: my Rick Nash Team Canada Hockey Sweater Key Chain. It's been jingling and jangling from my handbag for the last month. GO  CANADA!!

Apart from the lack of Olympic swag, watching the 2014 Winter Games is the other issue I'm dealing with. I am at the mercy of NBC's scheduling; two channels to choose from (NBC, NBCSPN) with bits of coverage on MSNBC and CNBC! After checking out Canada's Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium and the bounty of channels pumping out the events, I am a little envious of the Olympic loving folks back home. I'm not complaining, I am adjusting!

Okay, time to change channels! Go CANADA GO!!!

Cute 2012 Team Canada T-Shirt!

By Lisa Ovens

Well,  my Canucks have been knocked out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, so I now have a little more time on my hands. I was curious about the latest Team Canada Apparel from The Hudson's Bay and decided to have a look. The above t-shirt is definitely my favorite. It's the colorful crest that did it for me. I wasn't able to capture a larger example of it, so please click here to check it out....

"Canadian pride gets a retro-inspired makeover in this crest tee from HBC's Olympic Collection. The tee features vintage lettering combined with a colorful crest displaying iconic Canadian imagery".

It's all about the iconic Canadian imagery! Plus I find the crew neck to be refreshing change from the plunging necklines we often see in NHL clothing for women. The shirt cost $20 and comes in black, white, red or green.

One Year Later: Inside my 2010 Winter Olympics Box of Stuff

by Lisa Ovens

Well, there it is...my 2010 Winter Olympics Box of  Stuff.  If you are wondering why...please read the column below as an introduction. As you can see, Lisa's Big O stuff  didn't all fit inside. Locating more Olympic stuff in the far reaches of hockeyandhighheels.com's headquarters just didn't fit into the plan, so I strategically placed two: the Holland Heineken House Hat, and one of the many Petro Canada Olympic glasses that I own.

There it is, dumped out onto my 2010 Winter Olympics fleece blanket that conveniently folds up into a small pillow. That 's one item of Olympic stuff that's been frequently used. Some things that aren't used at all...

These pins...


and...



These other...


Trinkets...

I have a small army of CBC buttons that are in the plastic bag in the bottom corner of the above photo. Those were relatively easy to come by: every time I walked by the CBC's studio I was given one. Don't worry, at the third pin I was protesting, but those cheery "street team people" would have none of it!

Here you can see more of the paper items, like my Olympic visitor guide, some ticket stubs, various torch relay and hockey game cheering accessories, an Olympic scratch and win (I won $30), an un-chewed pack of Exel gum, and a wrist band and a server's note pad from Holland Heineken House. And speaking of Heineken...look at the hat...

A fabulous hat when you are in a Holland Heineken House and there's an Olympics going on in the background. And, being the hat person I am, I must admit, I have not worn the hat since Feb.19, 2010, the night my friends and I tore it up at Holland Heineken House. In my travels since the Olympics have ended, I have yet to see anyone else wearing this hat. And you know a few of those babies sold - there were only $15.00!

I do like knowing I have the newspaper with Canada's first Gold win on home soil featured on the cover (bottom right corner)...

That was a thrill for us Canucks, eh? So was claiming as our own, the hottest winter accessory in recent years...the red Olympic mittens.

I was just at the Hudson's Bay downtown store on Thursday, and they have the new look mittens available...

...and they also have the original mittens, but only for those with small hands.

Oh those mittens! I know I wasn't the only one running around for those. They sold out every day! But I finally hit it on the right day during the last week of the Olympics; had to pick up a pair for my good friend, and fellow hockey writer, Jan Snyder, down there in Houston, Texas. She got them for Christmas. She told me she took them to the NHL's 2011 Winter Classic featuring the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals.  Apparently they kept her brother-in-law's hands warm, because he was one of those guys that arrived unprepared for what turned out to be a chilly evening.

As for my pair...never worn. But hey, there's always Sochi 2014!

So, everyone, as we'll be bombarded with Vancouver 2010 memories from the local media this coming week, don't forget to drag out you 2010 Winter Olympic Box of Stuff and show the souvenirs, the trinkets and the occasional piece of crap some love.

Oh yeah...Happy Hockey Day in Canada!

Piece of crap item not shown above: a flimsy, black ball cap advertising Parmesan cheese. Oh yes. You know you waited in line at the Italian House for that puppy, admit it! ;o)

One Year Later: Looking inside the 2010 Winter Olympics Box of Stuff

photo: Quatchi in Goal by Lisa Ovens

                                                   

by Lisa Ovens

I'm sure most everyone in Vancouver has a box on a shelf, full of stuff they accumulated during the 2010 Winter Olympic Games last February. I know I do. The box is in the photo above, acting as a backdrop to one item of stuff: my "Quatchi in Goal" Olympic toy from MacDonald's. Yes, something that I just couldn't live without! But, that was the fever that plenty of locals caught, as we made our way around the city either buying stuff, or opening up our hands to receive the stuff that was being given away. I remember visiting with my cousin, Jen during the Olympics, and she had this tiny coin purse in the shape of Sumi, the Paralympic Games mascot.

Jen: Look what I got...isn't it cute?

less than a week later she would say...

Jen: I don't know why I bought this. What am I going to do with this?

Today it's one week before the one year anniversary and I've opened up my Olympic box of stuff. I'm taking a trip down memory lane. Re-visiting my life, the times and the stuff from those fun filled two weeks in February 2010.

more photos to come...

With Glowing Hearts: a Movie Premiere

by Lisa Ovens

The one year anniversary of the 2010 Winter Olympics is just a few weeks away. What are your plans to celebrate? Where will you go? What will you do?

I have an idea...

A wonderful new documentary film will be screened on Saturday, February 12th, 2011 and I recommend everyone that can fit this into their weekend should do just that.

A very good friend of mine, diector, Andrew Lavigne, along with Animal Mother Films will be screening the final cut of With Glowing Hearts: Vancouver 2010, A Social Media Story at the Simon Fraser University Woodward's Theatre. 

Vancouver's 2010 Winter Olympics will go down as many things, and one of those is it truly was the "Social Media Olympics". But this isn't just about how the sponsors and the mainstream media utilized social media tools to get their message out. It's about members of a downtown community, and how they used social media to reach out to the world.

From the filmmakers...

With Glowing Hearts is a film about a revolution, one of social change and a precedent-setting shift in media representation. Vancouver sets the stage for our story about a marginalized community embracing leading-edge communication technologies, to empower, inspire, and break down the digital divide.


So put down your stuffed Quatchi, and that silly "Hockey's Canada's Game" placard for one evening, Saturday, Feb.12th, 2011 in particular, and experience something truly new to the Olympic Movement!
Tickets are Free...yes...FREE. But you need to make a reservation before they run out...

Reserve your Tickets now by clicking here


For more details, please visit With Glowing Hearts website