THE FREE PRESS ENTERTAINMENT Page B5 THURSDAY, JULY 5, 2001 PHONE 564-0005 The Arts NOTEBOOK Mumpin’ Jackfish Up the road in Chetwynd is the Jumpin’ Jackfest (on Jackfish Road) on July 28 and 29. Variety of musical styles. Includes former Northern B.C. performer Kim Kuzma, Chetwynd’s own Wendy Hudson, the Review Crew comedy/music group from Dawson Creek, Moberly Lake aboriginal singer / songwriter Art Napoleon and Prince George recording artist Derrick McCandless. Tickets are available at Art Space (563-6648) or call 250-788-1830 (Rick or Kim) for more info. ► Rockin’ women Female Grade 12 students are eligible for the $1,000 “Women Rock” scholarship. Open to all 2001 graduates who are contemporary singer / songwriters (pop, folk, jazz, country, alternative, but not classical). Preference given to original material, but scholarship judged on musical merit. Deadline to apply is July 31. Forms available online (http://members.home.net/ women-rock). Must send a one-song demo and a paragraph (maximum 750 words) describing career goals and hypothetical plans for the scholarship money ► Improv for the summer The last Improv Ad Nauseum of the summer takes the stage on July 21 at 8 p.m. at Art Space. All-original improvisa-tional comedy, theatre sport games, spontaneous hilarity, and an all-local cast that doesn’t know themselves what comes next. Tickets are $5 in advance (available at Books & Company) or $6 at the door. ► Time for salsa The Family Y offers six weeks of beginner Salsa dancing classes. They run Friday nights from July 6 to August 10. Cost is $20 for Y members or $30 for non-members. Call Mason at 562-9341 for information. ► Bach on the agenda The organ music of JS Bach will be performed by Vic Steblin on July 8 at 2 p.m. at St. Giles Presbyterian Church. Admission is free. ► Acting up this summer Prince George Theatre Workshop holds theatre classes at the Playhouse this sum mer. Sessions are available for ages 4 through 19. Call 563-8401 for information. ► PGX entertainment The Prince George Exhibition has announced its slate of entertainment. The PGX runs August 9 to 12 at Exhibition Park and it features the midway and carnival, the Mexican Circus, Green Fools stilt walkers, Richard’s Racers animal grand prix, illusionist Murray Hatfield, retro pop band The Waybacks, comedian/juggler Paul Isaak, plus all the animals, family activities and fireworks the PGX offers. Story and Photo Frank Peebles It isn’t home and hearth that brings Brian Fawcett to Prince George anymore. He comes back to his hometown for more practical purposes now. The author and pop culture critic has lived in Toronto for years but grew up here, writing all the while with his signature practical sarcasm. Last week he was here on a specific mission: find the last bits of information and momentum to finish his two current writing projects. Like so many of his books, these are fabricated from his years in this, one of Canada’s northern rural capitals. One book is a nonfiction examination of this city with the Bowron Clearcut as the impetus. The other is a novel about hockey spun out of his remembrance of Prince George’s famous Mohawks hockey club. “Something about fiction: you’ve got to base everything on real life, but you don’t need to make it exact,” says Brian. “So what I did was take what I knew of the Mohawks when I was here in the 60s, transferred them into the 1990s and it becomes a whole issue about lumbering. The forest industry.” One of Brian’s earliest hockey memories is a Prince George goalie in the pre-mask era who became infamous for ducking out of the way of shots. That’s what a lot of people do when Brian turns his pen on them: duck. As a columnist with the Globe & Mail, the editor of Books In Canada, and magazine writer he has gleefully broken the unwritten Canadian rule that thou shalt say only pleasant things about other Canadians. In his book The Disbeliever’s Dictionary he compiles an A to Z index of all-Canuck definitions from rocker Bryan Adams (“Gravelvoiced androgynous Vancouver musician distinguished by his ability to discover and cover the musical equivalent of dead neutral ”) to television mogul Moses Znaimer (“...he’s fond of reading on-air from cue cards that predict the death of print.”). It is sometimes compassionate, usually insightful and often outright salty. “Yeah, I went out of my way to step on toes with that project,” Brian says, playing with a some-one’s-got-to-do-it grin. The dictionary is now a living document on the internet Please turn to Time, Page B6 Mohawk Memories Brian Fawcett hopes his new novel can tell a great hockey story Fawcett: ‘And the other thing is, Prince George is a kind of imperial centre in that what goes on here is like a clear microcosm of what goes on everywhere. So does it pertain to Toronto? Of course it does.’ with other writers adding new Canadi-anna definitions all the time. But he shows remarkable clemency when dealing with Prince George subjects. Many of his stories, articles and poems directly refer to PG people and events but he usually bottles his caustic wit on those occasions. “These are my people,” he says simply But he is also a former urban planner, so his gloves may finally drop when his current writ ing projects come off the press. "I don't think you have much choice about what you write about. This is my home, and it is my home whether I live here or not. And the other thing is, Prince George is a kind of imperial centre in that what goes on here is like a clear microcosm of what goes on everywhere. So does it pertain to Toronto? Of course it does. Because the same thing is happening there just on less clear terms.” So Prince George should brace itself for a realistic depiction. After all he is writing about our sacred religions: hockey and forestry In conversation he openly shoots at the name of the downtown hockey rink noting Prince George is nowhere near Rome. He also wonders about a community hockey team named after a native nation more than