Aside from waiting more than 20 minutes for a late bus in the frigid cold, yesterday was a pretty good day and night.
I spent a small part of the afternoon sending e-mails back and forth with George Karrys, who won a silver medal curling at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. He's now the publisher of The Curling News. We found out that we both share a passion for curling (though he's actually very skilled at it, and I'm just good at yelling and drinking and can do a decent job of sweeping) and punk rock and are now looking to get together to throw some rocks and have some beers. George gave me a tip on a curling-rock connection in Sweden, and I put my own spin on it here:
http://www.chartattack.com/damn/2006/01/2405.cfm
George just may have usurped Ed Werenich's place as my favourite curler.
I saw Brittlestar perform at Lee's Palace. I saw David Curtis and Laura for the first time in months. I got caught up with Stewart, Allan and Jay from Brittlestar during the really bad Citizen A set that followed theirs. Then, when I got home, there were a couple of issues of Word: Canada's Magazine for Readers + Writers waiting for me. My interview with Dave Bidini about his book, The Best Game You Can Name, is on page three. But what actually excited me, for some strange reason, was seeing my small writer's profile at the end of the article. It made me smile when I read this in print:
Steve McLean is a freelance writer, reporter and editor who can be reached at lagace@pathcom.com. Steve chose Jean-Guy Lagace as his boyhood road-hockey role model when he read on the back of his 1973-74 Pittsburgh Penguins hockey card that "Jean-Guy is a master of the hip check."
My odd obsession with Jean-Guy is now officially in print. It's just too bad that, after years of trying to track him down, I finally did (actually, Warren Campbell did, and then passed the info on to me) and sent him a letter to tell him about how I always pretend to be him when I play road-hockey. I told him that I had a few of his hockey cards that I'd be honoured if he'd sign for me. I never heard back from him. My respect for the man may be dwindling. But for those of you who may have been wondering what my e-mail address meant, now you know.
If you don't want to fork out $5 for the magazine, you can go to http://www.themercurypress.ca/word/ and then open the November-December 2005 .pdf file to read the article.