The Short List- West
Sarah Tait (Victoria, BC)
RANT
Ever been to a ball in Scotland? Me too. Was yours utterly disappointing? Mine too. Feel let down by Jane Austen? So do I.
Once I arrived at the ball, I realized the room was filled with young, intoxicated, well-dressed Scottish farmers looking for love. Seriously, they were desperate farmers. This was not the sophisticated Austenesque event I had imagined. I scoured the room: 120 men and not a one caught my eye, even in kilts. Not that I have anything against farmers. I like vegetables and wheat; I just don't necessarily want to dance with their creators.
I could see that personality was really going to matter; that was disappointing too. Why is it that no one ever got so drunk in "Sense and Sensibility" that they fell off a table and cracked-open their head? Or passed out on the lady they were courting on the dance floor, then followed that up with the oh so impressive act of pissing themselves whilst smothering their screaming date with their lifeless, whisky-soaked body in "Emma"? Jane Austen seriously misled me. A ball? Where was Mr. Darcy? Mr. Bingley? Instead I got 120 altered versions of a kilted, drunk Mr. Collins. Arg.
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How It Works
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Write In!
Out of hundreds and hundreds of entries, just twenty Canadians made it to the Short List and won themselves an audition with Canada Writes. Then eight semi-finalists were picked to play in the Eastern semi-finals and Western/Northern semi-finals.
Read their winning songs, blogs, ads, rants and movie pitches!
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On March 14th and April 4th, tune in to GO! on CBC Radio One at 10 am (10:30 am NT) for the Eastern and Western/Northern semi-final games in Halifax and Vancouver. The finals will be held in Toronto on April 18th. Or join us at any of the three shows to root for the contestants in person. Go to cbc.ca/go for tickets.
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The Canada Writes 09 Online Challenge is now over. Thanks for playing!
Updates
(Toronto, April 25, 2009)
It was a very tight race in the end. Our four finalists fought it out by blog, song, ad and a three-line story. First, they each drew a blog topic, from “the best hundred dollars I ever spent” to “one fact I would like to ‘un-know’”. Challenge number 2 was to re-write a song by Queen, with Valerie Stanois from the musical We Will Rock You bringing power vocals to their surprising new words. Then judges Geri Hall, Terry O’Reilly and Darrell Dennis sent Kaveh Mohebbi through the infamous Trap Door. Challenge number 3 was the radio ad. Clever ads for Cornhobbler’s Crematorium and Juice Bar (obviously not a real business) and Christmas greetings from the makers of Flank Chainsaws won Katie Sanders and Laurie Schwartz a last chance at writing glory, but it was Margaret Beach’s turn to go through the Trap Door. Finally, Laurie and Katie had to come up with the first two lines of a three-line story… on yellow writing pads on their laps…and in 90 seconds….
After weeks of effort and tension and achievement -- from the writing contest in January, through the auditions, the short list, the semi-finals and the finals – it was all over in a couple of minutes. Katie pulled ahead by a crucial point -- and became the winner of Canada Writes 09! Listen to the show! Read the blogs!
For more photos, go to http://www.cbc.ca/go/photogallery.html.
Winner of the Online Challenge! Ontario's Heather Smith is the winner of this year's People's Choice Award. Her winning entry was a re-write of the ABBA song 'Waterloo.' Take a look!
Western semi-finalist 09
