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The Unofficial Guide to the Olympic Arts

Unleash your inner author at the Whistler Writer’s Festival

By Rebecca Wood Barrett

To all appearances Whistler is the jock capital of Canada. It's a magnet for those addicted to sweating profusely, accumulating searing doses of lactic acid, firing their heart rates into cardio orbit and losing a few front teeth¾all in the name of outdoor "recreation."

If Whistler is so obsessed with sports, how did it receive its Cultural Capital of Canada designation? Do we really deserve it? Or was it a savvy political handout in light of the upcoming Ultimate Jock Party, the Games-that-shall-not-be-named?

The short answer is yes, we do deserve the designation (and the $500,000 that comes with it) and no, it is not a handout but an award we've earned. Further to that, the Olympics are not just about athletics even if the Olympic motto is Citius, Altius, Fortius (Swifter, Higher, Stronger). In fact, the modern Olympic Movement is built on three pillars of a different sort ¾ sport, culture and environment.

To connect the dots between Whistler and arts and culture, one only has to skim through this paper on any given week to realize there is more to folks who live here than the pursuit of physical perfection/destruction. Just ask your bartender what musical instrument he plays. Chances are your ski instructor moonlights as a filmmaker; the nanny you saw herding a passel of kids also paints cover designs for snowboards; and the ski bum you sat next to on the gondola just finished the next great Canadian novel. Most ¾ if not all ¾ liftys are poets.

The significance of arts, culture and heritage in our community is clearly evident through the many diverse events and organizations that celebrate history, painting, film, writing, music, pottery, sculpture and dance. But there's more to winning a Cultural Capital of Canada award than cultivating a vibrant grassroots arts movement.

Whistler achieved the title by creating an ambitious and original project called Celebration 2020: A Natural Step Towards Cultural Sustainability. The project not only supports a wide range of cultural activities, it involves people from across the community, including First Nations, artists with disabilities, professional and budding artists, Francophones and youth in a smorgasbord of cultural activities, workshops and events. Furthermore, ecology and the environment are integrated as key elements in the program. This seems fitting considering the inescapable connection artists in Whistler have to the mountains, the creatures that live here, and mountain culture. And although Whistler is a young community, those who've made it their home have worked hard to establish a cultural identity (whether they knew they were doing it or not), one that is inextricably formed and informed by our environment.

While it's true the average Whistlerite is focused mainly on the pursuit of athletic exploits, our artistic sensibility should not be denied. After all, it's one of the three pillars, one of the legs on the stool that we sit on. When we suppress this part of our humanity, we become less whole and we complain more. Lately it seems the practice has escalated to such heights the IOC is considering implementing it as a demonstration sport for 2010.

The affliction is easy to remedy, though. Simply indulge in your artistic sensibilities. Feed the muse. Celebrate the psyche. Now is the time to use your head (isn't that why you bought that overpriced helmet?), and attend an event at the Whistler Readers' and Writers' Festival. To make the picks easier for all the jocks, please find below the Unofficial Guide to the Olympic Arts, a sporting translation to this year's eighth annual literary festival.

 

Speed Skating Long Track

Athletes in this sport require phenomenal endurance to compete over long distances, a trait that is quintessential to the novelist. Like the speed skater, the novelist spends much of his or her time going in circles, writing draft after draft for a period that spans, on average, three years.

Perhaps there is no time when speed skaters doubt their purpose more than on the 19th long, lonely lap around a 400 metre track. Similarly, this is the time when an author battles through the umpteenth rewrite with days to go before the publisher's deadline.

For you racers who thrive on long distance-induced existential angst, join CBC Radio One's Paul Grant as he probes novelists Lee Henderson (The Man Game), Claire Mulligan (The Reckoning of Boston Jim) and Annabel Lyon (The Golden Mean) to discover "What's the Point of All These Words?"

 

Friday, September 11, 7pm-10pm, Legends Hotel at Creekside, $25

 

Ski Cross

All ski cross courses are different. Athletes train for several days on a competition course prior to the event, memorizing the height of every hump and the camber on every turn until the course lives in their muscles. Fearlessness is crucial.

Courage and good technical skills are key for the non-fiction writer to integrate the concept of place into their writing. Author Wayne Grady's "Writing Place" is the perfect workshop to explore how to absorb a certain place and setting into your bones, and evoke atmosphere in your work. Whether writing memoir, travel or general non-fiction, you'll learn how to situate characters in a believable place.

 

Saturday, September 12, 8:30am-11:00am, Legends Hotel at Creekside, $25

 

Aerials

Aerialists are a special breed. They ski high into the air off jumps and do triple back flips (purposely) and throw in four or five twists for kicks. They train hard to produce explosive bursts of energy, just the kind of reckless enthusiasm you'll need to write with C.C. Humphreys (The French Executioner) in "Characters in Action." Fast-paced and interactive, your characters will be somersaulting off the page into breathtaking new adventures.

 

Saturday, September 12, 8:30am-11:00am, Legends Hotel at Creekside, $25

 

Bobsleigh

One of the most critical parts of a bobsledder's run is the push start. In the magazine writer's world it's as equally important to get off to a torpedo-like start when pitching a story to an editor. During "The Pitcher's Mound" five editors will discuss the type of powerful approach and muscular pitch a writer needs to break into Canada's leading magazines. Ten writers will have the opportunity to take a high-speed run with their best story ideas in front of editors James Little from explore magazine , Leslie Anthony from SBC Skier , Sandro Grison from Color magazine, Matt O'Grady from B.C. Business magazine and Charlene Rooke from Western Living . Whether you're practicing your pitch technique or learning from the sidelines, you'll slide away with a bag full of magazines, a belly full of lunch and head full of ideas.

 

Saturday, September 12, 11:15am-1:25pm, Legends Hotel at Creekside, $35

 

Halfpipe

To pull off the combination of tricks and high amplitude, halfpipe snowboarders typically have small, compact frames. They tend to be missing an extra copy of the neuroD2 gene ¾ unlike the rest of us mere mortals ¾ enabling them to take more risks and feel less fear. There's no room for error on course or catastrophic injury could result. No room for hesitation either; these athletes depend on their ability to make quick decisions. That way if they miss a trick, they can still alter their routine.

The short story is another kind of compact beast, with no place for flabby prose, extraneous plot developments or characters-without-purpose. A short story author has to get to the point or the story will fall flat. Author Nancy Lee (Dead Girls) will tune participants' technical skills by sharpening language; grinding characters in an Olympic-size workout until they are taut; and elevating dramatic tension in "Fierce Pleasure: Writing the Short Story".

 

Saturday, September 12, 1:30pm-4:00pm, Legends Hotel at Creekside, $25

 

Biathlon

These athletes require incredible cardiovascular fitness for the cross-country ski, while the rifle shooting demands control and accuracy. The best biathletes can turn off the outside world and focus solely on shooting one target at a time. Both successful biathletes and writers have a remarkable ability for self-discipline, and in the session "Trimming the Fat" you'll learn how to become your own best editor. Prepare to pare down, as author Merilyn Simonds (The Convict Lover) coaches you on how to focus, take aim at your manuscript and fire at any laggard words, inconsistent imagery, blowsy description and overdone dialogue.

 

Saturday, September 12, 1:30pm-4:00pm, Legends Hotel at Creekside, $25

 

Nordic Combined

Biathlon's combination of shooting and cross country skiing makes a certain amount of sense¾showcasing old school hunting mastery in blending the speed and thrill of the chase with the intense focus and quieted breath required to nail the target. But Nordic combined seems a pretty random mash-up of skills. After all, what historic roots would have necessitated the practice of both cross country skiing and ski jumping, one after the other?

Cindy Filipenko knows something of covering vast tracts of airspace in a single bound (that would be negotiating with TV producers), hard on the heels of having sprinted through a 52-episode television treatment. Writing for kids AND for television requires a quick wit and stamina, and Filipenko's seminar "Writing for Kids: Getting Your Concept to Market," will share her experience in developing animated television shows, and navigating the labyrinth of television production. Those with an interest in writing the next Seinfeld show will gain much from this session, because, behind every show about nothing, there's an awful lot of flying and sliding and sprinting required... This is your run-down on how to write the perfect pitch so your concept leaps off the page. And then working out who to send it to.

 

Saturday, September 12, 1:30pm-4:00pm, Legends Hotel at Creekside, $25

 

Isn't it amazing how new sports are always being invented? Imagine what the first winter Olympians of 1924 would have thought about the debut of snowboardcross in the 2006 Olympics. This year the Festival offers a winter sport triathlon equivalent combining Hockey, Moguls and Super-G, all in one night!

 

Hockey

In Olympic ice hockey, star players have to check their egos in the locker room so they can quickly form a team that works together. Which sex is better? (No, the answer is not "any"). Do the male players communicate more clearly, or is talking and communing more in the women's realm? Or do they just interact differently? Unlike men's professional teams, women's teams don't slam through as many games in the season, allowing them more time to hone their individual skills and rest. Is their regime an advantage or disadvantage in the Olympic arena?

In "He Read, She Read: The Battle of the Book Clubs," Nancy Lee, Lee Henderson, Mike Berard, C.C. Humphreys and Pam Barnsley debate the separation of the sexes when it comes to mixed, all-estrogen or testosterone-only book clubs. Will the women hip-check the men into a chicklit corner? Or will the men high stick themselves into a dicklit penalty? Come and cheer on your favourite chromosome combo. Regardless of which team you support, the organizers of the event recognize fans' need to be properly fortified and will be providing free appetizers and drink specials.

 

Moguls

Immediately following the Battle of the Book Clubs, spoken-word wizard Shane Koyczan with take the spotlight to drop a few jaws with his acrobatic poetic performance. His vitality and power with verse echo the feats of the mogul specialists, skiers with fast twitch muscles that navigate the moguls and execute tricks. A verbal virtuoso, Koyczan's repertoire of tricks includes the tongue twister, the metaphorical backflip and the rhyming cork-720. He's the first poet from outside the U.S. to win the prestigious USA National Poetry Slam, so he knows a thing or two about making the knee-jarring crunch of the bumps look easy.

 

Super G

Once you've caught your breath from the Koyczan mogul event, the night switches skis to the Super Giant Slalom, in which the insane speeds of downhill are combined with the more precise turns of giant slalom. Thus, when you combine the precision of poetry, the competitive appetites of local scribes and a nail-biting thirty-minute deadline, you launch the national debut of Haiku Idol. With only the protection of a page torn from a thesaurus, 10 punters (non-writers welcome!) will bash their way through the word-gates to pen a poem of any length and style. (Okay, the poems don't have to be Haiku, but the name just sounds so reality-TV-dirty cool!)

 

Saturday, September 12, 7:30pm-10:30pm, Player's Chophouse, Creekside,

$25 (includes all three events, Hockey, Moguls and Super G)

 

Figure Skating

Self-proclaimed sports purists like to argue figure skating isn't a proper sport because athletes are scored subjectively. You only have to witness a world-class skater execute a Triple Lutz or the Russian splits to appreciate their extreme athleticism. But at the end of the day, what makes figure skating so entertaining is the attitude. The performance doesn't end on the ice but at the Kiss'n'Cry, where skaters burst into tears of defeat or jubilation when the scores are presented. And who can forget the great rivalries? The Battle of the Brians, the Battle of the Carmens, Sale and Pelletier vs. the crooked French and Russian judges, and Nancy Kerrigan vs. Tonya Harding?

In "It's Not What You Write But How You Write it - Bringing Attitude to Your Storytelling," Michel Beaudry examines how the stories we remember are the ones in which characters captured our hearts and minds. In this hands-on seminar Beaudry uses exercises to tease out the details of your story - to give it attitude, nerve, and to make it spin to life.

 

Saturday, September 12, 4:00pm-6:30pm, Legends Hotel at Creekside, $25

 

The Olympic After-party

Most Olympic athletes don't stand a chance of standing tall on the podium, and they know it. If you're ranked 79th in the world in your sport you go to the Olympics to set a personal best. You go to have a taste of the greatest sporting event of all time. You go for the party. It's these athletes who understand best that the Olympics is all about the journey.

Poets know this too. They will never make money from their agony and artistry. Their readers will be few. And yet, they keep writing and wondering about the world. If you believe it's all about the journey too, hook up with a "Pack of Pickled Poets", for a guided tour of Whistler's Poets Pause sculptures with poets Pam Barnsley and Mary MacDonald. Don't forget your scarf and hip flask. The stroll under the stars will wrap in time to wander to the Alta Lake Station House to hear a reading by Wayne Grady, Merilyn Simonds and some of the participants in the Whistler Writers' Group Writer-In-Residence program.

 

Sunday, September 13, 4:30pm-6:30pm, Alta Lake Station House, Free

 

The Whistler Readers and Writers Festival has events for all levels of writers, those who fancy themselves strictly "readers only," or non-writers interested in something different. You don't have to be an Olympic athlete to enjoy watching or playing an Olympic sport, and the same rule applies to the arts. Get in the game, pick up a pen, a paintbrush, a guitar, have fun, enjoy the journey.

And remember, if you've been feeling crotchety lately, consider relieving the pressure by firing up your mind instead of your heart rate for one weekend, September 11th through the 13th. For the complete Whistler Readers and Writers Festival program and to purchase tickets, visit www.theviciouscircle.ca

 

If Rebecca Wood Barrett were an Olympian, she'd most likely be a pentathlete. An unrepentant genre-crosser, she hasn't quite managed to settle on just one style, writing short stories, postcard-length mini-tales, Masters in Fine Arts theses, Resort TV scripts, corporate copy and several short films that have screened at the Whistler Film Festival and the TELUS World SKi and Snowboard Festival's 72 Hour Filmmaker Showdown. But her first love, for which she attended Ryerson in her pre-Whistler life, is screenwriting - she'll dish on how to write a one-page screenplay, using the key ingredients of story, structure, dialogue, conflict and setting, as well as the basic formatting tools of scene heading, action, character and dialogue.  (Saturday, September 12, 4:00pm - 6:30pm, Legends Hotel at Creekside, $25.)

 

 

 



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