Six months have passed since Derek and I had the privilege of driving down the Pacific coast from BC to California. The goal was to get Erin Davis’ Mini Cooper to Palm Springs. Mission accomplished, via a gorgeous drive.
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Recently, as I scrolled through the headlines on news websites, regrets appeared in several headlines. They happened to involve celebrities but they’re certainly not particular to the famous.
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I was looking for something online and the Internet presented this fact to me: It’s been 18 years since Christopher Walken starred in Fat Boy Slim’s Weapon of Choice video.
…Throwback Thursday – (Arguably) The Best Music Video of All TimeRead More »
Everyone knows my love for Tommy Shaw. Styx was one of my go-to bands growing up. I loved their entire albums until we got to Mr. Roboto. And I always preferred Tommy’s lead vocals to those of Dennis DeYoung.
…Seattle’s Pike Place Market. May 2017.
This old photo of me and my Dad is a fave of mine.
…Just about a year ago, we were in Memphis. We visited Graceland, walked storied Beale St. and took a tip from a producer at Sun Studio and grabbed lunch at Elvis’ favourite diner.
…Now that Marie Kondo has her own, popular TV show about her KonMari Method of tidying up, I can say I knew her when!
…Maybe it happened before I played Becky Thatcher in our grade 8 production of the musical, Tom Sawyer. But if it did, I can’t pinpoint the moment. …
Throwback Thursday – Performance With a PaychequeRead More »
We read stories about people quitting work by doing something outlandish and think, OMG, I could NEVER. Around the time I quit MIX/CFRB there were much bigger and bolder exits from broadcasting. One used their airtime to lambaste their boss and company owner. Another tossed his headphones and walked out. One of my exits became a bit of a folk-tale and over the years it has come back to me with the details all wrong. …
Throwback Thursday: Not My Finest Hour (But I’m A Good One Nonetheless)Read More »
Yes kids, in addition to playing actual records on the radio, long-time radio pros also became intimately acquainted with a piece of technology known as the Bulk Eraser. …
Our maternal Grandma was always a bit of a mystery to us. She was deeply religious, we never saw her wear pants, and I don’t think she had a lot of fun in her life. …
Only Londoners of a certain vintage will remember the Hiney Winery! It was a fictional locale, part of CKSL morning show lore, located in lovely Arva, just outside London. Rich and Norm referred to it regularly as if it was a real place. …
Richard Simmons leaped up on a couch and kissed this portrait at the MIX 999 reception area. A symphony conductor (whose name escapes me) told me that my eyes danced in the photo. And it’s been made fun of more often than I care to remember! …
I know I’ve thrown back to this before. I can’t help it. It was such a spontaneous and wonderful moment. Five years ago, it looked like I wasn’t going to be able to meet one of my rock heroes, Tommy Shaw. Free-FM was presenting the band as part of a great line-up at Rock the Park, but no meet-and-greet was planned. The band had things to do. We got to meet and get photos with Toto and Grand Funk but Styx couldn’t make it happen. …
Translation: It’s been ten years since Derek and I visited England and France. We also went to Monaco but didn’t quite make it to Italy. I’d love to spend a couple of years visiting tiny pockets of Europe. The only other European country I’ve seen is Iceland. …
Throwback Thursday – Une Dizaine D’annees, Mon Dieu!Read More »
When I was a kid, I loved the poems of Robert Service. They told stories of the Yukon gold rush in a musical cadence that included lots of alliteration and rhymes. Service didn’t bother with subtleties in his most famous works. You knew what you were getting with The Cremation of Sam McGee, The Ballad of Blasphemous Bill and hundreds of others. He also wrote six novels, two autobiographies and even acted in the 1942 film, The Spoilers, with Marlene Dietrich. Visiting his restored cabin in Dawson City, Yukon – a preserved historical site – is on my bucket list. …
Picture it: 1984. Or was it ’85. No matter. I was working as a “swing” host at all-hit-radio CKSL. Think CFTR but in London, Ontario. Swing means my shifts swung around the clock. There were a couple of overnights, an evening, an afternoon and fill-in shifts when necessary. The promotions department asked me to accompany a couple of contest winners to Detroit via limo, to see the Four Tops and The Temptations perform. …