zeitgeist2Greetings, Zoners! I hope you’ve all enjoyed the massive outpouring of awesomeness that was Stephen’s visit to Vancouver this week. As a fan, I was overwhelmed with glee at all the fun activities we’ve been able to glimpse the past few days. But I’ll admit, as an NFZ completist, I was overwhelmed, period. There was too much out there to keep track of it all, and by Thursday afternoon I had to admit defeat. So I just sat back and enjoyed the fun when I could (I hate it when work interferes with my fangirling), and spent my evenings going back and forth between watching the Olympics and dashing around the Interwebs to find the latest Colbert news/photos/video. I spent today going through everything I’d missed, and seriously, words cannot express how much I would’ve liked to be in Vancouver this week!

It’s been impossible to avoid spoilers, but in the interest of keeping at least a few surprises for next week, I’m going to put the majority of this zeitgeist behind the cut so that if you have the strength to resist temptation, you won’t have the whole week completely spoiled for you. With the overwhelming amount of info floating around the Interwebs from Stephen’s trip, it’s inevitable that we’re going to miss something. I think I’ve rounded up the best highlights here, but if you see anything good out there that we didn’t put up on the blog, pass it along to us!

The first item isn’t a spoiler at all, but I thought I’d throw in a link to Stephen’s completely delightful appearance on NBC last night, which happened during the late night telecast. He looks fantastic in the Mountie uniform, don’t you think? (Click on the picture to go to the video.) (h/t to justine marie for originally posting the link in a comment to Ms. I’s earlier post)

Stephen Colbert: The Full Mountie. And the Moose Formerly Known as Ebersol.


Creekside Park

  • The Vancouver Observer has a report, with pics, of the second taping at Creekside Park on Thursday. Love this comment from one of the spectators: “If the crowd chanted it, Stephen did it.” One of those chants, of course, was “ride the moose.” I now have this strange urge to create a t-shirt that reads “I rode the moose for Stephen Colbert.”
  • There’s some truly awesome eye candy here from the second taping at Creekside Park. Stephen looks like a natural with Seth Westcott’s gold medal draped around his neck. I think Seth is lucky he got it back!
  • More pics from Creekside Park, Day 2, here.
  • Some taping reports from Day 2 at Creekside Park: here, with video and pics (and the video is probably the best spectator video I’ve seen from either day); here, with some great pics, including a couple that give you an idea how huge the crowd was; here, with even more great pics, including the surprising sight of cherry trees in bloom in downtown Vancouver (keep scrolling down after the Colbert pics); and a really fabulous and very thorough report from Zoner Priya Noblet.
  • The Associated Press has a pretty complete write-up of the first taping, and includes some lovely eye candy.
  • There’s more video here on You Tube for those of you who aren’t tired of seeing the beginning of Wednesday’s taping in Creekside Park. I still snicker every time I hear Stephen say that he likes Bob Costas because he’s “bite-size.” (Via Newser.)

Colbert conquers the world

  • Among the flying visits Stephen made to the various cultural pavilions on Thursday was a stop at the Olympic Pride House, where he was presented with a pride pin that made him ask if he was “Queen for a Day.” The HuffPo article in the link has been changed since I first read it — initially it contained a lot of spoilery information — but there’s another brief write-up of Stephen’s visit at the OutQ News Blog that includes some pics. (I desperately want one of those crew t-shirts!) There’s also a brief video up on You Tube with Stephen giving his usual pre-interview explanation of what to expect from him.
  • Another Thursday afternoon stop was at USA House. Stephen, being the amazingly gracious person that he is, asked the staff there to pose for pictures with him because the employees themselves were prohibited from soliciting pictures with guests. There are great pics here, too, including a photo of the TCR press pass (the back of it is hilarious) and an official Colbert Report Olympic pin. And now I want one of those pins to go with the crew t-shirt!
  • I already blogged about Stephen’s visit to the Irish House pavilion the day it happened, but there have since been updates describing the visit, from the Vancouver Sun and IrishCentral.com. Stephen also talks a little about the visit in this article from the Stamford Advocate that Ms I linked to in her post last night. Stephen gets extra credit points, and my undying admiration, for singing “Rocky Road to Dublin.” I’m really impressed, because that is NOT an easy song to sing. I can’t wait to see that performance on the Report next week.

General news

  • The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has an article on Katherine Reutter with this great quote regarding Stephen’s presence in Vancouver: “That little stinker: He keeps hanging around with the long track (skaters)… I had no such luck. Why doesn’t he hang out with me?”
  • The Washington Post has an interesting article on sports psychologists (real ones, not “assistants”). This part made me grin: “‘It is an indication that the field has made it when Stephen Colbert is able to mock it,’ said Sean McCann, senior sports psychologist for the U.S. Olympic team…”
  • US Speedskating has some photos up on their Facebook page with an intriguing caption: “Reception with US Speedskating to thank Stephen Colbert for his support of the team…this is all we can show you for now but be sure to watch The Colbert Report for more Skate Expectations!”

And with that, I’m off to watch some speedskating, y’all! Have a great weekend and prepare yourselves for some amazing shows next week!

(h/t Ms I and Jennie)

Edit: Thanks to both Indeedy and mori in the comments for pointing out this fantastic slide show on NBC’s Olympic web site.

Related posts