Gold Soundz

It was epic. What more can you say about the gold medal game between Canada and the U.S. yesterday? It was fast-paced, there was great goaltending, a stirring comeback, and a thrilling OT winner for the home team. Better yet, the game had everybody talking about hockey. It was the most-watched hockey game in the U.S. in 30 years, since that storied 1980 team won the gold. Granted, the Americans fell short, but they had an unexpected, exciting run that had them wearing silver by the end of the tournament. Non-hockey fans became familiar with names like Ryan Miller, Patrick Kane and Zach Parise, and that's a good thing.

I actually watched the game on a houseboat in Charlestown, believe it or not. I was hanging out with James Gralian, the host of The Rink podcast; he's from Colorado but in town for work. We watched the game and the recorded a show for his podcast and one for mine. I've been a guest on his show a few times before, so it was fun to meet him in person for the first time. As I mentioned last week, I was kind of torn over my allegiances in the game. I've always rooted for Canada, but this U.S. team won me over. I'm certainly not disappointed that Canada won, but when Parise scored with 24 seconds left in regulation to tie the game, I was as fired up as James. It would have been pretty incredible had the U.S. won, but it was a fitting end for Sid Crosby to score the winner on home soil. James hates Crosby so he was pretty bummed, but you've gotta hand it to Sid the Kid: The guy is clutch. He's only 22 and he already has a Stanley Cup and a gold medal. I still think Ovechkin's a better and more exciting player, but you can't argue with Crosby's results.

After watching the game, we did some serious podcasting. James has a truly sick audio setup; he's a former radio sound tech and has got some professional-sounding equipment. I'm totally lo-fi in comparison. I'm guessing he'll post the show we did sometime this week since we talked about the gold medal game and the prospects for the remainder of the NHL season [You can find it here]. The CompCon episode we did was about podcasting itself and the contrast to commercial radio, which is stuck in the mud to say the least. I won't actually post that for a few weeks, just because I've got a few more eps of the pop culture principle shows I recorded with Doobs last Thursday to roll out.

The Vancouver games ended with a truly insane closing ceremony, including Bill Shatner and the always enjoyable giant inflatable beavers. But I think this is a more fitting way to pay tribute to the Canuck victors: