I have been slammed with a strong neck pain. Can't move for now. I'll be back on line when I can...

Just the other day, the last day we made the l.5 hour trek up to the Fortezza, during the l.5 hour trek back Gord said, “No more media. We’re closing down the show. That’s it, it’s the end.” He was tired, he was driving and he was fed up. He hadn’t had a day of rest since after Christmas; and the weather was warm, nothing to be done about the paintings against the walls, they were, simply, changing. The mostra looked and felt different. Gord loved the variety and strange patterns and shapes the process was giving the paintings -- that’s what ice painting is all about -- freezing and melting, paint moving along the crystal structure of the ice, a link to the melting polar opposites, but -- will anyone ‘get it’? Every time someone came up to do a story, it was up early, hours driving up, preparing the ice, cleaning it, (people have been walking on the paintings!) and then time in the cold church for the interviews. Two interviews for CBC hadn’t even aired yet -- and then, last straw, the lights went out on one bank. How could anyone even see the paintings now? So he said “No”. Okay, okay I said. No more. We’ll close early and go to Milan to see an opera at La Scala. We’ll visit with Margaret and we’ll just let that busy Torino have all its tourists and Olympic goers. They’ll get their medals without us. We’ve done what we came to do, we’ve had our successes. Enough is enough. Because I want you to know, going back into that cold environment after over a month of that stress when we’ve just now licked our colds and flu is not something done easily.



So then we got a call. Art Sutherland had recommended a broadcaster friend who owns an ice curling rink in Japan. A man who appreciates ice. He said, “Hello, it’s me, can I come to see the show? Friday would be good, eleven o’clock, how’s that?” And then Barbara Papuzzi informed us, somewhat gleefully, that she had a bus load of ten journalists who wanted to see the show on Sunday. And family arrive on Sunday. They haven’t seen the show either.

So here we go again. Gord had a rest and something to eat and then he looked at the situation one more time.



And now we're stuck in a blizzard on the road to back to Torino. Bumper to bumper, stand still and inch. On the day all outdoor Olympic events have been cancelled because of the weather. The flakes are huge. It's minus 2. Everyone arrives in Torino tonight, Jaz and Erik from Venice, Gord's brother and nephew Mike and Conor, Lori and Jason from Florence. And Even though my neck is stiff from holding my head at the wrong angle on a forced march up from the Super G yesterday at Sestriere Borgata, today was a good day. Brian Coxford from Global TV and his cameraman Sergio came to do a follow up story. Rai TV shot footage of the exhibit and wanted info in Italian. And Barbara? She and her mythic group of journalists never showed up. Because of the snowstorm.



Buses and cars going up towards Sestriere are being stopped for chains. The wet flakes on the windshield are the size of a dime. It's a winterland of soft snow and red brake lights snaking down the winding road. My phone just shivered, someone has gone ape sending me text messages today and there is not now, nor has there ever been a special insert to tell me how to retrieve one. I can barely use a cell phone -- don't be sending me email and text messages on this thing!



We're going 15 k/hour. This must be one of those mandatory Olympic experiences like the one we had yesterday - free tickets to the Super G, 110 euros each and we thought we were lucky. Until we were trudging down the steep 1.2 km path to the stands, which supposedly hold 8,500 people! We weren't the only ones late, but we worked up a sweat stepping around many others on the steep path. We pressed on up the metal stands about 5 stories off the ground and were not more than ten minutes in our seats when the sign on the board and voices in 3 languages announded that the race was postponed for an hour and a half due to weather. We had been saving ourselves for lunch and decided to hike back up to the town. An hour later, after a slog in the beige smush, again people on all sides moving step by step en masse -- and we are on our way OUT of a crazy-busy Sestriere. We were so traumatized by it all we skipped the 2nd set of tickets -- to curling!

To the fortezza yesterday. Met Hiroshi Kobasyashi, curling commentator for Japanese television, and his Italian translator, Isabella Guarino. The 'mostra' is still magnificent.



And then we found ourselves at Palazzo Cavour, Canada Place, where you need a Canadian passport - and a recommendation - to get in. A place for Canadians. Not the big log house made to attract business to BC and attention to the next Olympics, with people streaming in and buying HBC olympic gear, and listening to the sound track and watching the big screen. At Palazzo Cavour, athletes and their families meet and visit and watch the competition and congratulate each other, and go over the day's events. A home away from home, sans the Big Hype, but full of excitement, camaraderie. Four computers and internet that works and newspapers from home and CBC television on, all day on the big screen. Wine and coffee and snacks. A lot of Canada red and family members wearing silly hats. A feeling of welcome. As a family member of the only artist from Canada officially invited to exhibit at the Cultural Olympiad, I was recommended by the Console General, Margaret Huber. Even without the official badges around our necks, we are happy to hold up the flag for artists in Canada.

We waited in anticipation and then cheered Jeff Buttle into the room with the bronze around his neck. We toasted his performance and whistled for his medal and watched while the tv cameras shone the light on his very young face. His sister, Meagan, promised me she'd send me a photo. She looks just like her brother.



You have to go halfway around the world to meet people in your own locale and sure enough, we met Erin Simmons, a snowboarder (and drop-dead beauty from West Vancovuer) but more to the point, one of 16 Canadian athletes who qualified to go to the Olympics and compete to advance to the semi-finals. In the end, sixteen from around the world qualified. Erin was number 17. She was understandably disappointed, especially since she's been going to all the competitions with the same group she's been boarding around with since forever, and gets the better of them as often as they do of her. But yesterday there was snow, she had the wrong board and it slowed her down enough to put her just this side of being a contender. She's an athlete, no excuses, but it makes you think about how only one person wins the gold and 99% of the others who try -- don't. We can't follow them all, but it's pretty amazing to be here in the first place, isn't it? All that effort and in a couple of seconds, it's all over? Jeff Buttle had a longer moment on the ice and his sport was mixed with art. He's going to stretch out his win with all the related glory that comes to him, but it's all about his few moments of grace and skill.
An achievement which thanks to technology, we can watch again and again, but a few moments in time, which have evaporated, just like ice on a hot day. Here’s the record going again, around and around, but it seems to be just like . . . the paintings! The ice. Here, today. Bold and bright and beautiful right now.

And tomorrow? The Canadians against the Swedes in women's hockey! For the gold! Okay, we're going out tonite, we'll stand with the hordes and check ourselves through security just to get tickets to that!

Feb 16, 2006 - 10 PM

Check it out! http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/olympics/2006/writers/02/15/olympic.blog.6/index.html



The Sports Illustrated guys came through! The article is called: "Taking it to the Streets, Defending national pride in a game of ball hockey." A play-by-play on THEIR "The Olympic Blog" for Wednesday, Feb 15th, 10:41 local, Day Six. Go there! The writer's name is Richard Deitsch. Only place we differ is: the age of the little players, they're much smaller than nine, and they were half our team, a significant handicap. Turns out these guys have played before!

A tardy photo from Tanya and Sam Charles of Shaw TV from our interview the other day. Got an email today: it airs Friday. Look at that Canada red!



And back home, a fund raising "Ciao from the Sunshine Coast" grace a la Spirit of BC committee. I know Cindy Buis and Marje Umezuki, and Bonnie Nichols tells me that in the picture are also Judy Osiowy, Muyuki Shinkal, Janice Edmonds, Chris Klinenberg and Rachel Lawrence holding the Spirit of BC sign. Missing is Mardi Umezuki who was late for the shot; all stand next to her art "Pearfection". All contributed their artwork to the event. Molte grazie da Torino!



TODAY we took down the Vancouver 2010 logo in ice at BC Canada House. There's a time for everything.

Everyone's wearing Canada red. Finally we had the day to ourselves and then Jeff materialized from his travels to collect his bags. We walked the streets of Citta di Torino, thick with mobs of people to BC Canada House to maintain the Vancouver 2010 logo. The Canadian Curling team sat round the fireplace and Jeff snapped a shot. Here are Shannon Kleibrink and Amy Nixon, who gave me a wrist band for solidarity. I tried to sound in the know, saying my best friend was Sandra Schmirler's cousin, but they had their eyes on their own prize.



Handprints in the ice all around the logo, and the droves who stream past it want to have their photo taken with the Canadian Mountie. It's become quite an interactive focus for the house.



Today the Canadians are triumphant with LeBlanc Boucher a bronze medalist in short track. Yesterday skookum women's hockey, Canada vs The Swedes. A fast game, the Swedes hardly had the puck at all. We haven't seen much, other than that, sans tele. The Olympics is really a great big slick television show. HBC is ripping up with sales of their outfits ... everyone is wearing something with Canada written on it.



On Valentine's Day we walked into four restaurants with that hungry look on our faces. Each one the same question: Prenotazione? Then the shaking of the heads and out we go. It's not as simple as it used to be, we had this city to ourselves before the games began. Here is some kind of medals event in the piazza. Mobbed.



Since I don't have my camera, all my shots come from others, cell phones or digital cameras. I give them my email address and keep reminding them of their promise to send! Yesterday we played ball hockey with four guys from Sports Illustrated. They kept trying to morph me onto their team, at one point one guy said, "Where were you born?" Texas, I said, but I'm on Gordie's team. Then: this guy is really called Gordie? Pretty soon they could tell he's played a game or two in his life, and we made some goals together. They snapped our photo at the end and said it will be on the Sports Illustrated Olympics blog -- 15 million people. We'll just SEE if they send me the photo! By the way, they were pretty decent players for never having played ball hockey before??? Am I being too gullible? They're from Sports Illustrated!!! We had the 5 and 6 year old Italian players on our team and the score ended up being pretty even. Then we saw Margaret Huber, Console General from Milan crossing the piazza and we went out for a glass of wine together. She's preparing for the Governor General's visit.



Saw Museo Egizio (The Egyptian Museum) and what stayed with me were the large stone statues in the basement room, lit from above, peaceful, graceful . . as if meditating. The well-preserved remains of a person curled up in the fetal position from thousands of years ago. Even without the energy which sustained him, looked comfortable and familiar . . . and somehow still sleeping. How we wonder about those who came before us, who breathed, made love, got sick, dressed up, went shopping, cheirshed their children, fought and cried and laughed. Like the ice paintings in the chiesa, they have their moment. Now we are the ones who are alive.

How things change in a day. My webmistress (whom I have yet to introduce and thank on this blog) has bought a restaurant in Gibsons! My soccer team, the Wild, has won its first game! A beloved member of our artistic community in Roberts Creek is gravely ill. The cubs have gone to Venice. Our last man on the crew, Patrick, is sick enough today to finally call a doctor. One bank of lights are out in the church.

It’s Valentine’s Day, we are again up early for an interview at the forte with another journalist, Samuel Charles of Shaw Cable Network. At an empty Cafe des forcats. Yesterday it was Eva Maria from ORF, Austrian television and her crew.



Today, Ashleigh was filmed by a crew from NBC about the fortezza, but they didn't think our link to the Olympics was strong enough to mention. Hmmm. It's Tuesday and you have to ask: Dove sono i touristi? Sestriere! Pragelato! Si! Fenestrelle? Noooh. Here are some photos from yesterday’s interview with ORF. They got some good shots, were funny and wonderful.



So, thank you Kera McHugh. For being at the other end of the email where I ask you to post the “Who’s Who”, to upload high rez photos of the exhibit for the media page, to do whatever is required to keep us current. For reading my IN CAPITALS emails without taking offense. Good luck with the Wild Blueberry Bakery in Gibsons!

I look at my book for tomorrow: there is nothing pencilled in! Maybe we can sleep in. I want to be somewhere warm.

IF YOU LIKE THIS BLOG, please LINK to it!

What a day yesterday! For Canada, the first gold medal of the games. For us, an interview for The Discovery Channel at the fortezza and after, the opening of “The King’s Door” a beautifully restored building below the church. Hundreds of guests and an orchestra filled the large stone building with a wonderful sense of drama; Ashleigh in full Scottish regalia and Alessandra dressed in an heirloom handed down from her ‘nonna’.



Then -- surprise -- they called Gord out of the crowd to thank him for his exhibit, gave him gifts and presented a bouquet of flowers to me! (That's Allessandra in the front in the purple dress; Marinella, Beppe's wife on my left).Everyone asked how Jaz was doing. (He’s better, at Rivoli today with Erik).



Later, dinner with Donald Ziraldo, Mr. Inniskillin and Margaret Huber, Consul General for the Canadian government (Milan), a wacky meal around wine and Italians giving speeches over the microphone. We sat at the same table as the CEO of the Canadian Olympic Committee, Chris Ruge, but he left early. Met the gold medal winner in diving at the 1960 Olympics -- she's 82 now and a wonderful ball of energy and charm, Italian, wouldn't you know? Great conversation (en Italien) on the ride home with the driver. Margaret, gracious and lovely. I'm off to the fortezza again, it's Press Sunday.

Couldn’t get Vicki Gabereau to come up to the forte today, but we got her son, Morgan. At the last minute, Discovery Channel decided to do a piece about the technological aspects of making ice paintings, and they didn’t have a local camera person. Vicki felt bad; she had been so excited about doing a piece on Pitture Sotto Zero; she was going to accompany Minister Illich on her visit, but someone at the house had other plans and nixed the story. Serendipity! Her son, an independent producer visiting the games was ‘disponibile’. Perfetto! as they say in Italy. Now Patrick and I are sitting in Cafe des Forcats warming up while Morgan films an interview for Daily Planet. It's a glorious sunny day, but cold in the shade.



The exhibit is changing as the weather continues to be warm. Ice is evaporating out of the paintings, creating a unique watercolor on stone effect. In this painting, which Giugiaro touches on opening day, in the upper right corner, a ghost of bright orange sits gently atop the rock. It's just as interesting as the shinier, icy, earlier versions of the same paintings!

Beppe gave me a pin from the Swedes he met while volunteering in Sestriere. Miche's English is getting better - at Cafe des Forcats there's always a chance to try Italian. Patrick tells me that JC has decided to go home, tomorrow morning, early, quel decue! He has been such a force of help, especially with the installation of the logo, and now he's gone off like the Lone Ranger, without time for a proper thank you.

2006 Olympic Winter Games Opening Day! Gord up at 6:30 AM to Fenestrelle to prepare the exhibit for the visit: British Columbia's Minister of Art, Culture and Sport, Olga Illish at 11:30. JC and Erik, helping out. Yves Pepin, from the Canadian embassy in Rome, met them at 9 AM at BC Canada House to go up with the entourage. Beautiful, sunny day!



Last night a snarl of traffic to get to a very hip art show "Ciao Da Vancouver". Piazza Solferino -- where many things Olympic are taking place - is closed, so you have to drive around in a maze to get where you want to go! Met Paul Wong and Sharyn Yuen and curator Elspeth Sage, as well as the new Mayor of Surrey! Jaz came out for the first time, and met a beautiful young woman -- from Vancouver! It was great just to relax with the remnants of the crew. Our social calendar is filling up - we have a few invitations to parties and dinners and openings! If only I can start feeling better -- it has been work, work, work since the day the plates arrived two months ago. Time for a break! Everyone in Torino has this cough -- or is about to get it. Gord just got back from Fenestrelle, he's just absolutely bagged. And then we got locked out of the apartment for two hours.

It costs from 800 to l,000 euros per person to attend the opening ceremonies, so we're going to watch it at BC Canada House on the screen there. Time to go!

Vancouver 2010 LOGO in ice! Here we are, after the unveiling of the logo Gord made in ice for BC Canada House. Here's what's left of our team: Erik, Patrick, Gord, Gabriella Massa, Caitlin and JC.



It's getting pretty exciting, as the games are almost here. Today we saw the Olympic flame in the streets! People lined the sidewalks with red "Passion lives here" flags, and the entourage was fronted by a number of noisy trucks, with I assume, athletes riding along -- like a parade. Then the person carrying the flame. Traffic was stopped in all directions, we missed going to Fenestrelle because we couldn't get out of the city. The press seems to have arrived. I met Vicki Gabereau yesterday, haunting the halls of BC Canada House. Gord and JC were finishing the logo, and I was working on the slideshow. In the kitchen, maybe ten people preparing delectable appetizers and setting out the glasses and drinks. Red vested staff at BC Canada House buzzed around, setting up tables, the sound system, brochures. We had to leave at 3:30 (no ball hockey in the square!) as Gord had a lecture at the Museum of Science where Gabriella's exhibit, People of Ice is showing, just around the corner. When we got back, the public was already pressing their faces against the windows of the log house.



In the end, there were about 200 people at the party, press, official sponsors, security guys for the 2010 games, independent photographers, businessmen from BC, Renato, Sergio and friends. Piero Addis had to leave early to attend a rehearsal for the opening - and gave us tickets! We stayed. Jaz still home alone, but feeling better.

Yves Pepin, Enrica Abbate and Margaret Huber, all from the Government of Canada, hosted a lunch in Gord's honor. I coughed through most of it, but managed to say a few words to Margaret! Gotta go!

Up early, wondering where the cell phone is.



Drove with Gord to Ital Design first thing yesterday to meet with Giugiaro. Franco Bay, their PR guy who speaks very good English, met us in their mirrored offices. Sitting in a square room looking out onto a Japanese garden, on quintessential Italian design couches, Giugiaro spoke Italian and Franco translated. We talked about art and design and all the projects around Turino which Ital Design has created, not the least of which are the two Olympic buildings in the center of Torino.



Then a tour of the plant, the highlight of which was the showroom of cars: every kind of luxury hot rod and ordinary cars like the Volkswagen Golf, which is still being manufactured in South Africa. Fabrizio, the son and heir to the business which employs 1,200 people met us next to a prototype Alpha Romeo; discussing what was intended design-wise with this car and that car. Although Giugiaro and his firm have designed many automobiles now in use, most of the cars in the showroom were made only for design shows, never manufactured. Fabrizio had seen Pitture Sotto Zero @ Fenestrelle in the snow; he treated Gord like a buddy from design school.



They took us through their gallery, a gracious building reminiscent of the Musee D’Orsay in Paris. Then lunch with Franco: a gold-star, delectable gem of a lunch. They pressed gifts into our arms including a cd with photos of the inauguration and we set out for the Fortezza and our meeting with CBC TV.



Mark Kelly was instantly recognizable. He hadn’t seen the paintings yet, they were saving it for an on-camera moment. It was late in the day when they began shooting and the five of us were alone in the church, surrounded by all that color and cold against the darkness. Dripping ice under some of the paintings, it's been warm in the church; the clear ice behind some has melted into the stone walls. Autostrada back to Turin. At Soddu’s, Jaz seemed better for the first time in two weeks. We ate in together, the three of us over take out Chinese, each of us a different shade of tired. I'm still coughing

Gord, Patrick & Erik in the mountains today, pouring the Vancouver 2010 logo painting, maintaining the exhibit at the church. It's been warm this past week and the paintings are frosting. Gord just called from BC Canada House, now he's there with the logo; the city is a zoo - people everywhere, in the streets, traffic - pazzi! It's Sunday, 600 people came to see the exhibit at the Fortezza today!



Our appointment with Jennifer Barr at CBC has morphed into an interview with producer Jeff Pearlman and Mark Kelly instead. After seeing the exhibit, Jeff wanted to do the story himself! Jaz still wiped out; Soddu just gave us honey, and now he's making hot lemon/honey tea.

Tomorrow we have lunch with Giugiaro!

The Olympic flame arrived in Fenestrelle today, and went around the plaza outside the church at the fortezza.



We spent Saturday in the citta. Evidence of the Big Day is everywhere. Giant orange boxes with grissini-like sticks have popped up on Via Girabaldi, happy decorations from the city of Torino, and we passed the opening brou-ha-ha of the subway line. The streets are filled with people. All you can think is: finally! They got that done! There’s still a lot of fenced-off areas with bricks in piles and guys in orange vests with neon stripes. The games begin on the 10th. I visited the media center; the press is arriving from all around the world, you can see them in the streets, hauling cameras with their big badges around their necks.

For us, it’s the 8th we’re working towards, the unveiling of the Vancovuer 2010 logo for the party with the Minister of Art, Sport and Culture. We spent the day at BC Canada House dealing with the installation of the refrigeration plate, while the BC Moments slide show sound-track played at top notch and people streamed in like I’ve never seen. And we played ball hockey in the piazza Valdo Fusi just outside. I was on a team with Italians: a Paolo, Marco and Emmanuele - and Gordie!



Here's Al, a photo I took on inauguration day. He's the one behind all the glamour shots in the chiesa. Monday, Global TV airs a segment at 6 pm.

Almost noon. Trying to be philosophical, otherwise, what is the point? But today nothing comes. Gord drove the two hours to Fenestrelle again, to caretake his work. And although the narrative of our adventures takes us away from the chiesa at the fortezza, I am going to post photos everyday of the show, so you can see as much of it as possible. It is so large and many-layered and in the end, it will melt.



Meanwhile, la vie continue. The car was broken into and our cell phone stolen. This is somewhat of a disaster, as all the publicity announces our contact # with that cell phone. At the hospital Jaz lay on the bed, waiting for an injection of cortisone, and we both wanted to consult Gord. But the phone was busy, busy, busy the thieves wracking up long distance calls at our expense. I didn’t get the insurance, either, back when we ordered the phone.

In the midst of it all, something wonderful emerged, an experience that only happens when you travel, when you’re outside your comfort zone, when you need the help of others. Yesterday we spent the day at Molinette, a huge hospital across town. Dr. Emmanuele Siano, who had examined Jaz the night before, agreed to meet us at 8:30 at the gate. He ended up ushering us through the Italian medical/hospital system because we couldn’t speak the language! We saw four or five doctors; each one coming to the same conclusion after everything was explained, and after they saw his rash. Jaz is allergic to penicillin. I was right to be worried when the rash emerged, but we are lucky his body responded with a rash instead of a swelling windpipe. He’s here, we’re here, for one more day.



So we got to know the doctor while waiting for our number to come up, or for our place in line to arrive at the front, or for the papers to be filled out. He loves travelling, he speaks English because he thinks it is more important to learn it than french or italian, he wants to come to Canada. We met his fellow doctors and interns, remarked on the beauty of women and in the end, he invited us to have supper at his house. The whole thing cost 18 euros and two cab rides. The hospital was old, and it looked like everyone in Torino decided to visit it that day. The doctor himself submitted willingly to the bureaucracy with a kind of optimistic resignation. We spoke English and French and when necessary, I listened to Italian. In the end, neither Jaz nor I could imagine this kind of thing happening in Canada, but who knows? We felt so lucky and so guilty.

JC is at Canada House today, installing the ice plate for the logo. Jaz, lying around trying to get better. Me, the slide show for the big party on the 8th.

Up early to take Jaz to the hospital well across town.This morning his face is more swollen and the rash, which covers his trunk and neck, looks more like sunburn. Last night the doctor came here after eight pm, and spoke English well; but is confused about what it might be; after consulting another doctor, and getting the events of Jaz's ailments straight between French, English and Italian, he’s ruled out an allergic reaction to the amoxicillin Jaz was taking for his swollen lymph glands and tonsils. We should be there the whole day, and I’m not sure exactly how this is going to unfold without being able to explain the symptoms in English.



Gord got in last night from Fenestrelle, couldn't find a proper parking space in the night streets of Torino. Patrick, JC, Erik and Gord went out to hunt for the car many blocks away. Came back with pizza. Everyone was here in the apartment using the internet.

Got a call from Patrick at the place they’re staying across town. Jaz has a rash all over his upper body. I’m trying to think here, got to pay attention. Rashes are weird, what could it be? I’ve told him to take a cab here, but haven’t heard from them in the last hour. There’s no one to call, everyone speaks only Italian!