{"id":7847,"date":"2013-10-16T08:45:45","date_gmt":"2013-10-16T15:45:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=7847"},"modified":"2013-10-28T13:40:03","modified_gmt":"2013-10-28T20:40:03","slug":"vancouvers-grant-lawrence-takes-time-away-from-his-cbc-gig-to-explore-the-lonely-end-of-the-rink-in-new-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2013\/10\/16\/vancouvers-grant-lawrence-takes-time-away-from-his-cbc-gig-to-explore-the-lonely-end-of-the-rink-in-new-book\/","title":{"rendered":"Vancouver’s Grant Lawrence takes time away from his CBC gig to explore the Lonely End of the Rink in new book"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIn one night, he stole my booze, beat me up, and had sex with my girlfriend.\u201d<\/p>\n

So says Vancouver-based author Grant Lawrence about a villainous hockey-jock from high school. Remembering his days of thick glasses, knee braces, and bullying, he recalls his journey to becoming a CBC radio broadcaster, author, and founder of a hockey team where, years later, he finally faced that same jock and gave him his comeuppance on the ice.<\/p>\n

From longsuffering dork to indie rock star, Lawrence, host of CBC radio shows The Wild Side<\/i> and RadioSonic,<\/i> was familiar with being in the attack zone of hockey meatheads long before he became a goalie himself. A great storyteller, his new book, The Lonely End of the Rink: Confessions of a Reluctant Goalie,<\/i> is funny, contemplative, and wholly Canadian.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a really artsy guy, and have been since I was a little kid\u201d he says. \u201cIf anyone told me I would be writing a hockey book when I turned 40, I would have looked at them like they were completely insane.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite Lawrence\u2019s total disinterest in sports as a kid, his parents were never without their skates in winter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got my first pair of ice skates when I was two years old. [The ice rink] smelled like sticking your face in a freezer of stinky socks,\u201d he says, adding that he later grew to love the smell, which was to him indicative of \u201chaving some fun with friends, free of jockular harassment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Author Grant Lawrence displaying his hockey skills (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lawrence later got a taste of being one of the \u201ccool kids\u201d when he became the lead singer in a rock band, an experience from which he draws many comparisons to hockey in his book.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goalie position is like the drummer; you have to be in perfect sync with the bass player\/defencemen,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Although Lawrence is the lead singer of popular garage rockers the Smugglers, he says that playing the centre position on a hockey team never appealed to him in the same way.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was always the goalie that intrigued me,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen everyone else is on the other end of the rink, you\u2019re by yourself focusing your ice vision.\u201d<\/p>\n

His baby coos in the background as we chat, and Lawrence continues to describes how playing in a band and playing on a hockey team are, surprisingly, similar.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey both end in a lot of sweat,\u201d he says. \u201cWe change into matching outfits in the locker room or backstage, and play as a team for crowds of people, facing criticism for both.\u201d (The Vancouver Flying Vees, named after the legendary Gibson Flying V guitar, are a hockey team of Vancouver musicians founded by Lawrence in 2003.)<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve come a long way,\u201d he says, after reminiscing about his hate for hockey and beefy jocks, which turned into celebration and success. Fate came full circle when he was able to throw a few punches back and marry Canadian singer-songwriter Jill Barber, with whom he spent a month in the south of France while writing the bulk of his new book.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel great about the new book coming out,\u201d he says. \u201cNow the trepidation is if people will like it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lonely End of the Rink <\/i>book launch
\n7 pm October 25
\nThe Copper Owl,\u00a01900 Douglas Street
\ncopperowl.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIn one night, he stole my booze, beat me up, and had sex with my girlfriend.\u201d So says Vancouver-based author Grant Lawrence about a villainous hockey-jock from high school. Remembering his days of thick glasses, knee braces, and bullying, he recalls his journey to becoming a CBC radio broadcaster, author, and founder of a hockey […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","category-october-16-2013"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7847"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7970,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7847\/revisions\/7970"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}