[BCMA] Fwd: Press Release - Whistler Answer Digitization Project

[Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.]

* *

*Whistler Answer* Digitization Project Launch



For Immediate Release



Contact: Brad Nichols, 604.932.2019 archives at whistlermuseum.org



On-line Launch: Monday, January 14th

Where: www.whistlermuseum.org/whistleranswer.ubr





*Take A Trip To Whistler’s Golden Era With The Whistler Answer*



The Whistler Museum & Archives Society is excited to announce the launch of
our latest on-line exhibit, the digitization of Whistler’s iconoclastic
underground newspaper, the *Whistler Answer*.



First published from 1977-1982, with a second run in 1992-1993, even
the *Answer’s
*name was irreverent. The publication’s title was a playful response to the
*Whistler Question, *the only serious local paper at the time. The
*Answer*aimed to be the community’s alternative voice, representative
of the
youthful squatter & ski-bum population, billing itself "For those tired of
questions".

 The content is witty, creative, and cherished by (almost) all who were
around to read the originals. Few publications could have managed to fit in
so much censor-maddening drugs, nudity and profanity while maintaining such
a consistently hilarious and good-natured tone.



While it often featured stories that weren’t covered elsewhere, due to its
heavy satire and quirky record-keeping the *Answer*’s main historic value
stems less from its recorded facts than from its expression of the spirit
of the times.



The *Answer *provides a window into the oft-reminisced “Old Whistler,” an
idyllic era that pre-dates our valley’s hyper-development and fast-paced
urban atmosphere. A playful browse of the *Answer *catalogue is perfect
fodder to debate whether Whistler’s free spirit is truly long-gone, or
alive and well.



Either way, times have clearly changed. Consider how the *Whistler
Answer*is now digitized, text-searchable, tablet-friendly, and has
been given a
permanent on-line home, but the original 1977-82 run was hand-drawn,
hand-lettered and hand-pasted by the light of kerosene lamps in a local
squat. That, in its own right, is an apt summary of Whistler’s mind-numbing
rate of change in recent decades.



The original idea to digitize the *Answer* was born from a conversation
between Whistler Museum staff and original *Whistler Answer *editor Charlie
Doyle in 2011. Funding for the project was generously provided by the
University of British Columbia’s Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, as part
of their British Columbia History Digitization Program.
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