Sex and hockey
The loves that dare not meet
John Kendle

Is he a rocker, an author, a journalist or a just an overgrown sports nerd?

Questions such as this have dogged Dave Bidini since the Rheostatics guitarist and songwriter began writing a pop-culture column for the Toronto Star in the early ’90s. The lines became even more blurred when he began writing books such as On a Cold Road (1998), Tropic of Hockey (2001), For Those About to Rock (2004), Baseballissimo (2004) and The Best Game You Can Name (2006).

Then Bidini wrote and presented I Am a Hockey Nomad, a TV doc that took him around the world, earned him a Gemini Award and led to a follow-up, The Hockey Nomad Goes to Russia.

Most of Bidini’s published and televised work has been a form of participatory journalism. He mixed tales of his band with those of others in On a Cold Road. Tropic of Hockey took him around the world looking for the essence of Canada’s game. Baseballissimo found him playing ball in Italy’s Serie B baseball league.

Yet throughout all this activity Bidini has also been a pivotal member of a tremendously progressive and artistically ambitious musical group. The Rheos have composed film scores, written and recorded music for an exhibit of work by the Group of Seven, created and recorded a children’s music story, and along the way have made some of the most compelling music of their generation of Canadian musicians. (Sadly, their March 30 show at Toronto’s Massey Hall will be their last, though Bidini and Martin Tielli will likely continue to work together.)

It has been rare, though, for Bidini to apply his artistic vision to his writing in the form of fiction.

But his latest book changes all that.

This fall, Dave the author has two hockey books out. One is trade paperback The Best Game You Can Name. The other, from small imprint Brindle & Glass, is a slim hardcover collection of hockey sex tales called The Five Hole Stories.

The former combines Bidini’s musings on the game he plays in a Toronto rec league with the observations of former NHLers.

The latter — which forms the basis of a theatrical production by Calgary’s One Yellow Rabbit Theatre Company that will premiere in early 2007 — is a roiling, rollicking revelation.

In six short stories, Bidini explores love and loneliness, sex and sensuality, the crazy lives of pro hockey players, the effect women players may have on men’s teams, and the notion that Wayne Gretzky was probably a gay icon — even to a teammate or two.

Really.

Next to On a Cold Road, The Five Hole Stories is the best and the funniest thing Bidini has written. And there could be more Bidini fiction to come. Earlier this week he said he had a couple of ideas for novels on his back burner. He also admitted to some trepidation about putting out The Five Hole Stories.

“There is an unreasonable measure of seriousness attributed to fiction in this country, so I kind of thought… that this book might be preposterous to some people.”

True, The Five Hole Stories will probably be absurd to both the literary and the hockey worlds. But the voices of these tales ring true.

You can make up your own minds when Bidini reads from the book at 7:30 p.m., Oct. 21, at Mondragón.

He will also be up early the next day to deliver the keynote address to the Western Canadian Music Alliance conference

Schedule changes

Speaking of the WCMA, there have been two changes to the festival lineup since we published it last week:

• Winnipeg’s All of Your Friends are slated to play Oct. 20 at 10 p.m. at the Pyramid, replacing Vancouver’s E-Twinz.

• That same night, Floor Thirteen takes the place of Mad Young Darlings at 1 a.m. at The Zoo.

Get your free tickets here!

I have five pairs of tickets to Sunday night’s Western Canadian Music Awards shows to give away to the first five callers who reach me at 949-4373 at noon on Friday, Oct. 20, with the correct answer to the following question:

Who is being inducted into the WCMA Hall of Fame this weekend?