English and writing students at Earl Marriott Secondary

Over the past week or so, I’ve had the pleasure of getting “back to my roots”, at high schools up and down the coast as part of the BC Book Prizes Tour and Powell River Writers Conference.

Stepping back into high schools for the first time in years is like stepping back into time… all those cliques that existed when I went to high school 25 years ago in West Vancouver still exist today… the geeks over in one corner, the jocks in another, the pretty girls, the disabled kid, the punk/alternative kids, the requisite pair of goth kids. It’s the Breakfast Club x 300 at every school. John Hughes so nailed it. (The only sect that actually seems extinct is the banger).

What I have had the pleasure of doing is speaking to these groups of kids in each school and telling them the story of how my book Adventures in Solitude came to be, as well as all my years in The Smugglers, my friendship with Nardwuar, what CBC Radio 3 is all about, the Canadian music scene, and my past colliding with bands like Nirvana, the White Stripes, and the Hives. It’s great watching the students react positively, but hey, I love to sell the sizzle, right? I was dropping so many names I’m surprised they didn’t call the janitor in to sweep up.

At each school I’ve read the “out of control house party” story from the book (Chapter 13, Take Me To The Riot) and each time the kids seem to actually like it, laughing at various parts, especially when I make out with a Smugglers fan during the melee, and when my Dad sees our house on the front cover of the paper miles away from home.

Over the past few days I’ve visited Brooks Secondary in Powell River, Seycove Secondary in Deep Cove, Carson Graham Secondary in North Vancouver, and Earl Marriott Secondary in Surrey. In Powell River, when I asked if there were any questions, the goth kid said “Yeah, DON’T LEAVE” (he didn’t want to go back to reading Animal Farm). In Surrey, a kid who was obviously a little smart ass, followed me out into the parking lot, and asked me two questions: “Can I be your best friend?” and “Can I have a party at your house?”

He reminded me of a lot of another little smart ass from my high school 25 years ago: me.

Want a grown-up smart ass to come and talk at your school? Get in touch.

The Vancouver Flying Vees win the championship!

Sports is a funny thing. Unlike a movie, or a TV show, or a book, in sports, you never know what is going to happen, and it’s never over until it’s over.

On Sunday afternoon, my beer league hockey team, the Vancouver Flying Vees, for which I play goal, won our division championship for the second time since winning it our first season, when we joined the league in 2004/2005.

At the beginning of this season, way back in September, I don’t think any member of our team would have predicted a championship. We lost our first six straight games, our worst start ever, then had another long stretch of the season when we went winless in seven games, during which we were dropped a division, then lost the first two games in the new division by scores of 10-5 and 8-2. We went into the playoffs a couple weeks ago and lost our first game 3-2.

But then, we suited up for our requisite second playoff game that the league owed us (each team gets two playoff games minimum), and low and behold we WON in convincing fashion, 4-1. The following tie-breaker was scoreless, so we went into a shootout. We scored once, they didn’t score on any of their three opportunities and suddenly we were off the semi-final. Goodbye, Irish Heather Wild Boars, hello Jackals. Again, we played hard and fast and beat the Jackals fairly handily by the score of 4-2.

Yesterday, it was the final, against a team called the Buffalo Chicken Pack, which is somehow fitting since their jerseys were take-offs on the original Buffalo Sabres jerseys, and trivia fans will know that the Sabres and Canucks entered the NHL in the same year… Buffalo were almost immediately a great team, whereas as the Canucks sucked for years. Vengeance for the early-era Canucks was ours on Sunday.

Things didn’t look good when they scored first. We had all the pressure, but a turnover at their blue line sent a Buffalo player in on a long, clear-cut, angled breakaway, and he deked me out of my jock-strap to open the scoring. But then, with less than five seconds left in the first period, Chris “Nitzy’s Hockey Den” Mizzoni streaked into their zone and lasered a pass to the goal crease where Nick “Lock-Eye” Thomas (my old partner in crime in The Smugglers), redirected the puck into the net, scoring with less than one second in the period!

Anytime any one scores a buzzer-beater, it’s a momentum swing for the scoring team and we rode it, as Jeremy “Bomber” Bidnall (bassist for International Falls among others) quickly scoring from the same spot, doorstep five-hole. We then held them to that score well into the third period, when the Buffalo Chicken Pack really starting stampeding into our zone trying to tie it.

One of their players fed a perfect pass from behind the net to a wide-open player in front, who one-timed it into the low corner of the net. They started wildly celebrating their tying goal, until they heard the ref yelling “NOOOOOOOOOOO!” What?!?!

NO GOAL! Yours truly managed to slide post-to-post, just getting a toe on the puck, holding it right on the goal line. We were able to kill the final few minutes of the game and then the sweetest sound of all… the final buzzer. A 2-1 championship victory for the Vancouver Flying Vees. Goodbye Buffalo Chicken Pack, hello championship trophy!

Six players remain from the group that won the first championship seven seasons ago.

You can see an entire slideshow of pretty much the whole game, and the locker-room victory celebration, here.

A painting in the mail from the great Canadian artist Stew Jones.

Whoo hoo! My apartment buzzer rang the other day and the voice on the other end said “Canada Post, delivery for a Mr. Grant Lawrence”. Two minutes later the postman handed me a large, light weight package wrapped in brown paper from Toronto.

Inside, to my delight, was a new painting from Stew Jones, one of my all-time favourite Canadian painters. He specializes in angled street scene oil paintings, many from Toronto alleys, main drags and side streets. He’s also responsible for the beautiful cover art of the last two Cuff the Duke album covers, as well as Sarah Harmer‘s I’m A Mountain CD and Escarpment Blues DVD.

Stew and his wife were recently in France, which is where this street scene is from; the painting is entitled Cobble Street – Saint Emilion.

Check out more of Stew Jones’ paintings here.