I sold my snowboard three days before moving to Whistler.
The poor neglected thing sat in my parents' basement in the suburbs of Edmonton for years after I moved from Vancouver back to my home province to become a reporter for the Edmonton Sun. While I learned to snowboard on the North Shore mountains, I could never muster the confidence to pick up much speed. Frankly, staying upright was challenge enough.
Sports (save for long distance running and its winter counterpart, cross-country skiing) have never been my forté. Instead, I've spent most of my time — and, sigh, money — packed shoulder-to-shoulder in tiny clubs watching emerging bands, perusing stacks of vinyl at the few record stores still clinging to life and obsessively reading music reviews and band interviews.
While I also deeply enjoy live theatre, visual arts and film, my life has always revolved around music. That blind love prompted me to move to New York City two years ago to pursue a Master of Arts in arts and culture reporting at Columbia University.
It might have been the most economically inadvisable degree imaginable, but, boy, did I get to see a lot of shows. It also landed me at SPIN for nine months, where I fulfilled a life-long dream of contributing to the venerable music magazine. Presumably, that path also led me here.
While I plan to spend most of my time covering and attending arts events in Whistler, I might also be convinced to give the whole plummeting-down-mountains thing another whirl.
So, if you spot me flailing/falling/failing on Whistler Blackcomb this winter, please be kind. I am, after all, just a music nerd from the prairies.
