13 Feb 2010. UBC is the first international entry into College Cups. Though it's more of a tip-toe, as Vancouver can't be more than 20 clicks from the border. UBC's city centre campus is located at Robson Square, which was home to constant street performances celebrating the Winter Olympics. For two weeks, the student bookstore put in double duty as the downtown box office. Where else can you purchase curling tickets and a shaving mug in an atmosphere like this?
Let me non-story this one here. It was originally to be Part Two of Two. Part One being Seton Hall where 'Ghostbusters' actor, winery owner, and Canadian Dan Aykroyd invites his Norwegian nephew Rag to accompany him to the Vancouver Winter Olympics for a promotional blitz. In Part Two, they attend a curling match and somehow Dan ends up on the ice. Perhaps he is feeling the 'pebble' of the water globules or just watching the curling stones. Or he got into a fight and was knocked down, hitting his head on the ice. How he got down on the ice is not the issue! But a curling stone is approaching his head. Though it is relatively slow moving, it is still heavy enough to carry a breaknose force. Before anyone can move Dan out of the line of fire, a second curling stone speeds out from the sidelines and knocks it off the track. The second stone sits in a stationary spin inches in front of Dan's face. Rag comes over to see if his uncle is okay. He tries to help him up but Dan stops him.
"Wait!"
His eyes are still on Rag's stone as its spin ends. The paint job is more at home in a tattoo parlor or a biker bar than a curling rink. There is an ice-blue skull emerging from striking blue and blood red flames. Two curling brooms are crossed behind it. The skull gives Dan Aykroyd the idea to bottle his new vodka in a skull-shaped container, which is an actual product in liquor stores today.
Anyway, that was the main idea but it just never lent well to the details. Knowing the end beforehand made it seem kind of forced as well. But I was so emotionally attached to the origin story of Dan Aykroyd's Crystal Head vodka that I couldn't let it go!
Finally after a couple months, I decide to cut losses and move on. Sorry UBC. The first Canadian entry - the first international entry even - deserved much more than this shoddy Cliffs notes version. There's got to be more inspiration laying across the Strait of Georgia on that big island over there.
