After 15 years of working on radio at the CBC, I never imagined that I would win something called a Canadian Screen Award. That’s right, Screen Award. It’s a golden statue, about a foot or so high, and surprisingly heavy. My team won in the category of Best Original Program or Series produced for Digital Media.

Here’s how in the hell it ever happened: Last year, I embarked on an outrageous opus that became known as CBC Music Presents: The Beetle Roadtrip Sessions, starring a plucky little Volkswagen Fender Edition that affectionately became known as the #CBCBeetle.

The goal of the trip was to film excellent Canadian musicians performing on their own home turf. It would be the reversal of the standard rock ‘n’ roll tour: instead of them coming to us, we’d go to them.

The results were a video series showcased on CBC Music and George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight, filmed in spectacular pockets of the country from Vancouver to Toronto. Some of the highlights included getting “banjo’d” into the Elk River in Fernie BC [WATCH] by stoke-folk band Shred Kelly … stuffing a live goat into the Beetle [WATCH] courtesy of the Good Ol’ Goats in Cranbrook… jumping into Lake Louise [WATCH] naked… getting treated to a Saskatoon rooftop BBQ [WATCH] from Ewan Currie of the Sheepdogs… and smashing [WATCH] Sam Roberts’ guitar,  among many other good times.

Grant BBQing it up with Ewan from the Sheepdogs

The CBC Beetle Roadtrip was definitely one of the most rewarding and wild of my CBC experiences, made special by the team that made it possible – Bryan Ward, Kai Black, Brent Hodge, Talia Schlanger, Nicole Goodman, Jonas Woost, and Brian Cauley – and the incredible list of Canadian musicians who took part: Yukon Blonde, the Matinee, Shred Kelly, the Good Ol’ Goats, the Sheepdogs, Library Voices, Imaginary Cities, Hawksley Workman, PS I Love You, the Tragically Hip, the Arkells, Hollerado, Metric and the Darcys.

Oh, and what ARE the Canadian Screen Awards? Last year, in an effort to simplify years of confusion honouring the best in Canadian film and TV, the Genies (film) and the Geminis (TV) joined forces to create the Canadian Screen Awards to honour Canadian excellence on movie screens, TV screens, and computer screens. They are considered the Golden Globes/Academy Awards of Canada!!

Hearing our names announced as winners at the gala Tuesday night was a completely surprising, surreal, and exciting experience. Thanks to everyone who made it possible. This 15 year radio vet is definitely stunned and happy… and don’t worry, it hasn’t gone to my head, though I will be bringing that trophy with me to every single meeting at the CBC from now on: “talk to the statue!”

Grant and Shred Kelly on the Elk River in Fernie BC.

Upcoming events:

Fri Apr 11, North Shore Writers Festival, North Vancouver City Library, North Vancouver BC 7pm

Wed – Sun July 9 – 13, Winnipeg Folk Festival, Winnipeg MB

Sat Aug 2, Hornby Island Arts Festival, Hornby Island BC

Thu Aug 14 – Sun Aug 17, Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts, Sechelt BC

Happy 2014!

Hope this finds you and yours healthy and happy and ready for spring!! Here’s my latest happenings that I’d like to share with you.

CBC:

I am in the final, final, final days of my six month paternity leave. It’s been a wonderful and gratifying six months of monumental moments, and I am energized to get back behind the mic at the national broadcaster this week.

– I will return to my hosting role at CBC Radio 3 as of Wednesday February 12. I’ll be back in my regular four hour time slot, hosting Monday – Friday, starting at noon ET / 9am PT, playing the best in new and emerging Canadian music. I am live on SiriusXM 162 across North America and on cbcmusic.ca/radio3 around the world. Get the CBC Music app and listen anywhere!

– You’ll also be able to hear me on my regular spots on CBC Radio 1 afternoon shows across the country and sharing the occasional story on DNTO. I’m also working on some exciting new opportunities with CBC Radio 2, and will be creating some very special podcasts.

– Back in May of 2013, I drove a Volkswagen Beetle “Fender Edition” across the country meeting up with various Canadian musicians, filming it all (I also jumped into Lake Louise naked) for the CBC Beetle Roadtrip Sessions. I’m proud to say the video series has been nominated for a Canadian Screen Award for Best Original Program or Series produced for Digital Media.

– I’ll also be hosting a couple of “Toque Sessions” here in Vancouver… free evening concerts at the CBC, with Said the Whale on Thu Feb 20, and Hannah Georgas and Ryan Guldemond (Mother Mother) on Fri Feb 28.

– Oh, and I got my cherished CBC Sweater back after losing it for 35 days!

Books:

– Thanks again for your incredible support of my second book The Lonely End of the Rink: Confessions of a Reluctant Goalie. I completed an invigorating and sometimes totally FREEZING thirty date Canadian book tour from October to December and enjoyed meeting many of you face to face. Thanks to the many, many musicians who performed at my readings. Check out my top ten highlights.

– It’s been surreal for a nerd like me to release a “sports” book and see it reviewed in everything from indie music ‘zines to “The Hockey News”.

– In 2014, I’ll be visiting many literary, book and music festivals, including the excellent Galiano Literary Festival later this month (you should come), and the North Shore Writers Festival in April (complete dates listed below). End-of-the-road movers and shakers and I are working to try and bring a readers and writers’ festival to Lund BC (near Desolation Sound) in the future. More info on that as it happens (as we say on the CBC).

– Personally signed copies of The Lonely End of the Rink and Adventures in Solitude are available to be mailed directly to you anywhere through my website. If it’s a gift, please say for whom it should be signed on the order form.

Family:

– Ever since our son Joshua Matthew Lawrence was born in August, life has been a whirlwind of pure joy. Josh continues to grow in leaps and bounds, loves to smile at all the new people he meets and, true to his parents’ highly questionable lifestyle, at six months, Josh has been on 17 flights and counting.

– My wife Jill Barber won a Western Canadian Music Award for Best Francophone Album of the year for “Chansons”. It was inspiring to watch Jill decide to make a French album, re-learn the language over a two year period, select, learn and record the songs, and win the award.

– Jill will also be receiving an honourary SOCAN Songwriting Award at the society’s 25th annual awards show in Toronto this June, and is currently in studio working on her latest original album, due out this summer in time for festival circuit.

Hockey:

– Hopefully my team the Flying Vees will win another hockey game this year?! For whatever bizarre reason, since the release of “The Lonely End of the Rink”, the Flying Vees have been on an outrageous, near unprecedented plunging losing streak: Before the book: 6 wins, 2 losses. After the book: 1 win, 8 losses, including seven straight, just like the Canucks! If you can explain this, please let me know.

Upcoming events:

Fri Feb 21 – 23, Galiano Island Literary Festival, Galiano Island BC

Sun Mar 9, Canadian Screen Awards, Toronto ON

Fri Apr 11, North Shore Writers Festival, North Vancouver BC

Sat Aug 2, Hornby Island Arts Festival, Hornby Island BC

Thu Aug 14 – Sun Aug 17, Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts, Sechelt BC

Questions? Concerns? Ideas? Feedback? Let me know, thanks!

GO CANADA!

Even though it was five years ago, I remember the question within the email like it was yesterday: “What are your measurements?”

The kind person who wrote the email wanted to knit me a sweater. Sadly, it took me forever to email back my torso measurements, but I sure was glad I eventually did, because a few months later my customized measurements turned into the famed CBC Sweater courtesy of Granted Clothing (no relation).

Kids CBC TV with Mamma Yamma

I was overcome by the sheer majesty of the custom-knit CBC sweater… the workwomanship that went into it… the quality of the wool… the little details like the wooden zipper clip… and the glove-perfect fit. I felt so bad that I had been nonchalant and downright dismissive about sending in my measurements that I promised the kind family that runs Granted Clothing that I would wear the sweater EVERYWHERE.

Desolation Sound, BC.

I’ve made good on my promise. In the past five years I’ve worn the CBC sweater in nine provinces, two territories and four countries. I’ve worn the CBC sweater on stage at folk festivals in Dawson City, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Antigonish, Yellowknife and others.

The CBC Beetle Roadtrip

I’ve worn it in rock clubs in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and Austin, Texas. I wore it every day of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. It’s been my uniform on the Tracks on Tracks train adventure across the country and the CBC Beetle Roadtrip.

Everyone wants a piece of the CBC Sweater, even in Drumheller, Alberta.

This fall, CBC Radio 3 listener “McS” knitted a matching version of the CBC Sweater for my baby boy Joshua. Suffice to say, I LOVE THAT CBC SWEATER (and my baby).

Baby Joshua in his matching CBC Sweater knit by "McS"

So you can imagine my shock and horror, when, on my recent book tour for The Lonely End of the Rink, I made my first mistake. I forgot the CBC Sweater in an overhead bin on a tiny Air Canada plane I hopped between Calgary and Edmonton on December 9.

The realization that I didn’t have the CBC Sweater slammed me in the chest like a rodeo bull as I shivered in a taxi in the middle of a blizzard on the way to CBC Calgary for an interview with the afternoon radio show. It was too late to turn back.

CBC afternoon show host Doug Dirks had seen my panicked freak-out missing-sweater tweets and brought it up in the interview. That caught the ear of Jennifer Stewart, who works for Air Canada in Calgary. She tweeted me and vowed to find the CBC Sweater and return it to me. That was over a month ago. IT WAS GONE.

The CBC Sweater on DNTO in Winnipeg.

During that time, Jennifer let me know that the sweater had actually been located in – of all places – Grand Prairie, Alberta. After that, the sweater made its way to Edmonton, and then down to Calgary, where, briefly in late December, just before Christmas, the CBC Sweater was actually physically in Jennifer’s hands. It was found safe and sound. Or so I thought.

That’s when I made my second mistake. Should I have the sweater mailed home, or take up Jennifer on her kindly offer to send the sweater on an Air Canada flight to Vancouver so that I could pick up it up at the airport when I returned from an Ontario holiday after Christmas?

I should have had it mailed home, because that’s when I made my third mistake. We extended our Ontario holiday. I missed the pick up date in Vancouver. By the time I got to the baggage counter in Vancouver after Christmas, the CBC Sweater was gone, apparently banished to the giant, bottomless Air Canada lost and found vat, located in Montreal.

There are so many lost items in this container that it apparently resembles the trash compactor from Star Wars. It is so massive, and so unwieldy as more and more lost items are tossed in, that there is NO PHONE NUMBER for Air Canada’s main lost and found. Not even Air Canada employees can call.

Folk on the Rocks, Yellowknife NWT

Jennifer was very worried. I had pretty much given up all hope. Another Air Canada employee who wished to remain nameless described the lost and found as a “black hole” swirling with more lost loot than Saddam Hussein’s bunker. IT WAS GONE.

That’s when my lifelong friend Megan Barnes stepped into the fray early in the New Year, letting me know that her ball-bustin’ linebacker-sized cousin Chris Bennett works at the baggage department of Air Canada. I still didn’t get my hopes up.

Two days ago, my phone rang at 6:15am.

“WTF?” I thought groggily, glancing at the number. Didn’t recognize it, didn’t answer it. The phone rang again. And again. I finally answered.

A gruff voice on the other end asked “Is this Moore?”

“Uh, no, you have the wrong number”. I was about to hang up.

“Are you missing a CBC Sweater?”

I bolted straight upright in bed, suddenly wide awake, whipping my cucumber sleeping mask from my eyes. “YES, YES!”

“So, your name is Moore”.

“NO! It’s Lawrence! And I’m missing a CBC Sweater!”

“We may have located the CBC Sweater. Come and pick it up today at the Air Canada baggage counter in Vancouver. Ask for Marco”.

Phog Phest in Windsor ON.

I leapt out of bed, pulled on a t-shirt and ran out the door. Realizing I was shirtcocking, I ran back inside and put on shoes and socks and stumbled to the car.

Marco and Dora were waiting for me at the Air Canada baggage counter with wide smiles. They pulled out a crumpled white plastic bag, that sure enough, inexplicably labelled “MOORE”. From out of the bag unfurled the CBC Sweater, missing for 34 days. My friend Megan’s cousin Chris had beaten the bushes and eventually it turned up.

Dora and Marco return the CBC Sweater at the Vancouver baggage counter!

THANK YOU to Jennifer, Chris, Marco, Dora, and everyone at Air Canada who tracked it down. Thanks to Doug Dirks at CBC Calgary, Megan Barnes, Granted Clothing, Allison Outhit (for the title of this post), and YOU for caring. You’ll see the rescued CBC Sweater on the folk fest stages this summer!

Related:

Top ten highlights of The Lonely End of the Rink book tour

Orca whales help celebrate 30 years in Desolation Sound

Upcoming events