Belly Of The Beast

As promised, a few looks behind the scenes

YVR

More than 40 thousand of us will leave today. Waiting for departure on the busiest day in Vancouver airport's history.
NBC threw a big wrap party last night. Everyone's more tired than before if that's possible.
I wandered through Gastown this morning. It was interesting to see life returning to normal for these people. Soon it will for us too.
I shot some good behind the scenes video yesterday. I'll upload tomorrow.

Last One Out Turn Out The Lights

Closing Ceremony day.... The animal house of Control C.

Also, Max's alternate group

Read The Signs

Last night I was ushered into the inner circle of the NBC Olympic unit. Totally out of my league. I'd better not reveal who was there or what was discussed, except to say that at one point the conversation turned to the subject of the Bel Air Country Club . I had little to contribute. It was cool, though. Dan Ingram's goat joke scored.
I remarked to my boss, Mark, "This is like going drinking with the Vice-Principal!"

Also a shot of some set furniture outside the door. This is how I get home. Rumor has it this will also be the VO booth at the London Games.

Adventures of the Spawn Part 1

Hello from the sad children who wish they had not left Vancouver.

I don't even know how to describe the gloriousness that was our trip! We ate many veggie dogs, became ice dancing fanatics, re-fell in love with skating god Apolo, got screamed at by drunk Canadians on the street, outsmarted the Olympic ticketing system, and had some ridiculous celebrity encounters.

Our first day we did nothing but freak out over trying to get tickets for short track so we could see his holiness AAO in person. After many failed attempts, we managed to find a guy who had them and in a scene that looked like a drug deal, rode the skytrain way out toward the end of the line to purchase them. Then we decided to see what we could do about ice dancing tickets at the venue. Feeling like superstars after our extensive haggling experience in India, Guatemala and Tanzania, we managed to score $420 tickets for $100 each. We saved $640!! And sat third row, where we got to look at all the glitter very very close up.

Mary proudly displays our tickets!

This was for the compulsory dance, which it took us waaay too long to figure our was just them all doing the same basic tango over and over. We still had a great time though. Little did we know we would see vastly more awesome dances in a couple days.

I don't remember which pair this was but they had such a sassy pose!

We loved these Frenchies! The guy in particular was so funny.

The often-overlooked flower and teddy bear gathering little BOYS! So cute!

I think my favorite thing about Vancouver was that they had veggie dogs and what I always tend to refer to as "Mexi-Coke" (aka real sugar!) everywhere! Funny snack while watching ice dancers.

I think Muk Muk loves ice dancing! I love that nobody even noticed we were photographing this.

Belbin and Agosto, the most famous American ice dancers! And sadly the only people we recognized the first night.

Giddy after leaving ice dancing, we took a very frustrating and indirect route back to the hotel and soon became cranky. We were about to go out to dinner when we realized we had no money because I took my daily debit limit out of the ATM buying the Apolo tickets. Oops. So we ate in the hotel, which ended up being fab! We ordered the Olympic themed drinks because we are suckers. Mary actually ordered hers by saying "...and I will be performing the triple axel!"

It was pretty funny when the bill came!

Then we realized we could see the Olympic flame reflected in an office building next to our hotel. Can you spot it?

We went to bed almost too giddy to sleep. Maybe it was a sign of the VERY EXCITING EVENT that was coming the next morning. (Which has already been documented on here, but we have MANY more pictures!)

ZZZZ

Here's the stack of some of the scripts I've read. There's another multi-inch stack from promos. The image on the monitor was just coincidence.
I was wondering why I'm so tired at the end of the day. Now I understand why. That statement I made yesterday about not wanting this to end...I was clearly delirious.
Another sign I've been here too long...Al Michaels appeared in one of my dreams. I told Matt Allen about it. He said: "Was he naked riding a horse?" I said: "Did you have that dream too?"
We're all seriously burned. Running on fumes. Tapped.
I've been invited to have a drink with the big guys. I'll have a drink, but if they want me to talk, they'll have to pay me.
Time to join the NBC Algonquin Round Table now.

You can lead an announcer to a microphone, but you can't make him sync.

That was for you tech guys who are fans of Dorothy Parker.

Maybe We'll Hit The Finish Line

Yeah, it's Groundhog Day...again. Last minute 4th revision of thrice previously read, cut, edited and mixed 1:10 Continuing Coverage promo. Stuff happens out there that keeps the prime time show changing on the fly. Anytime during the big nighttime show I see Dick Ebersol coming to our end of the hall, I think: "Oh, shit!" Actually whenever I see him I think that. I believe having really important people know who you are is not advisable.
It's the bittersweet period in one's assignment here when you can't wait for it to end, but in a way don't want it to. Patty Hearst time. The smell of fear has given way to cautious optimism. Hey, we haven't screwed up big time for 14 days of The Games ...only 4 broadcast days left. And we were the top 9 shows of the week in the ratings, so maybe GE will only lose 100 million or so on this. I pray so.
Yours in L. Ron Hubbard,
Me