[Joe]

I think it's silly. You try to celebrate our Canadianess by playing Candian bands. Fine. But when you showcase bands from Canada that are already famous in the US, I scratch my head. Avril and Nickleback are the antithesis of the evolving Canadian music scene, and to see them get more face time than fantastic bands like The Hip, Patrick Watson, Plaskett, Wintersleep (the list goes on: Arcade Fire ffs!) it gets to be discouraging- all this talent going unnoticed. I understand that the organizers wanted some popular acts to preform at the closing ceremonies, it just would've been nice to see some, even one, talented indie Canadian musician(s) up there instead of Nicklegay.

To be fair, VANOC really outdid themselves with the Cultural Olympiad. For the two weeks (And for a month last year) nearly every venue was full of great, independent Canadian talent. Plaskett and Wintersleep (Bands you mentioned) put on shows (Wintersleep playing four shows) among other great bands, such as Broken Social Scene, Arkells, Julie Doiron, Constantines, Dan Mangan, etc.

As for the closing ceremonies, why is anyone surprised? If VANOC had to choose between showcasing Nickelback or Constantines to crowds of well, billions, which do you think they'd choose? I turned the closing ceremonies off after Neil (And I was dog-tired from two weeks of booze and what not...) because I knew it'd only get worse. Let's face it, great live music doesn't translate well when shown on TV that often, so they went with bands that have done this kind of thing before. VANOC wanted to leave the internaltional media with a good taste in their mouth, and for many, Nickelback is good for their appetite. Just my 2 cents.

All in all, a fantastic games. Getting the chance to see Lou reed and Elvis Costello rip the shit out of Neil young's "Fuckin' Up" was enough to make up for a lack of Hip.

I applaud the Cultural Olympiad and their wonderful job of bringing the best of what Canada had to offer, I was just hoping to see a trasition from the small stage to the big stage for some of those guys. And you're one lucky bastard to be able to see Reed and Costello cover one of Uncle Neil's best!