Toronto Mike's Blog

Niedermayer's Sick and Classy Ducks Fans

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 09:16:24 -0500

Scott Niedermayer was named first star the other night after scoring the overtime winner for the Anaheim Ducks. He then tossed his stick to a little girl in the stands. That's when all hell broke lose.

Stay classy, Ducks fans.

Those Creepy Sarah Palin Ads

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:30:19 -0500

The entry I just wrote about Oprah triggered an onslaught of ads for Sarah Palin's new book. I'm guessing the company behind the ads, Newsmax.com, is bidding heavily on the popular keyword "Oprah", perhaps in conjunction with the keyword "magazine", realizing those in the Oprah cult are most likely to spend $4.97 on Palin's book, "Going Rogue".

As many of you have remarked, the ads are pretty creepy. I took a screen cap of them in case Newsmax.com gets outbid.

I'll conclude my Oprah ~ Palin entry with a prediction. Taking over for Oprah in her syndicated talk show in 2011: Sarah Palin.

This is an Entry About Oprah

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:55:23 -0500

I've written about the cult of Oprah before. My wife is an Oprah fan. She records every show, reads her magazine, talks about her with friends. She's a big fan.

The big Oprah news of the day is that she's pulling the plug on the Oprah Winfrey Show in 2011. Oprah fans everywhere are mourning the loss of their show, but don't believe the hype. It's a ruse!

Oprah ain't goin' anywhere. This is from her own site.

For an hour a day, she's been bringing 'live your best life' television right into your living room. Well now it's time for what's next. Not just what's next for Oprah, but what's next for you. The Oprah Winfrey Network will be a 24/7 cable network devoted to self-discovery, to connecting you to your best self and to the world. Oprah will be with us every day. She's the life force of OWN.

That's right, she's leaving her hour talk show to focus on her 24/7 cable network. In 2011 we'll have more Oprah than ever before.

That's not retirement, that's business.

Maple Leafs 5, Hurricanes 6

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:00:08 -0500

Enough is a enough. We jumped out in front 3-0, coughed that one up and blew a 4-2 lead in the 3rd. Ian White then scored with 30 seconds remaining, but the Leafs couldn't hold the 5-4 lead. Erik Cole scored with three seconds left to force overtime.

The Monster did his best Tosky impression in the shootout, and the rest is history. We couldn't hold a 3-0 lead against the worst team in the NHL. The only silver lining is that this total collapse should spur Brian Burke to actually do something. Let's shake this thing up.

And then, it's time to follow these three simple steps the rest of the way.

Them Crooked Vultures - New Fang

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:14:53 -0500

I'm submitting a song for SLS22 consideration. I'm submitting "New Fang" by Them Crooked Vultures.

Let's see... singing this song is some guy named Josh Homme. The bassist and keyboardist is a guy named John Paul Jones. And on drums? Some dude named Dave Grohl.

Did that get your attention?

Homo Milk

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:52:19 -0500

Five years ago I wrote about milk bags. My family drinks a lot of milk, and we buy bags of milk. Canadians will be familiar with the three bags of milk totalling 4 litres that are so common in these parts.

As peculiar as that sounds to an American, it's not the Canadian milk drinker fact they find most amusing. That would be our term for homogenized milk. We call it homo milk.

Tell an American you enjoy homo milk and they'll likely giggle or laugh hysterically. American's call it whole milk, because homo milk has different connotations... not that there's anything wrong with that.

Personally, I've never been a fan of homo milk. I was raised on 2% and recently started enjoying 1%. As a result, the below Neilson Trutaste milk that "tastes like homo" does not appeal to me.

Mississauga Blogger's Mississauga Blog

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:08:04 -0500

Children of the blogosphere, there's a new blog in our midst. Horonymous has been commenting here and at Canadian Thinker for years, and now he's started his own blog.

You'll find his blog at http://www.mississaugablogger.com/ where he's writing about things he finds interesting in the 905 and beyond. I particularly liked his thanks to his father, posted in time for Remembrance Day.

Click on over and check out Mississauga Blogger. If you'd like to unleash the inner blogger within you, contact me and we'll make it happen.

Ranking the Radio Listener Outcries

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:58:08 -0500

If my memory serves me correctly, I've written about five radio stations flipping formats in the past seven years. I'm sure more stations heard in Toronto have changed their formats during this period, but I've only blogged about five.

Here are those five entries and the number of comments left by frustrated fans of the abandoned format. The total for the Country 95.3 entry is as of this moment and will most likely have increased by the time you read these words.

Country 95.3 Quits Country - 308 comments
1050 CHUM Now CP24 Radio 1050 - 83 comments
Kiss 92.5 All Hits Radio Born From Ashes of Jack FM - 71 comments
Virgin Radio 999 FM - 13 comments
WBUF Drops the Rock - 0 comments

Don't go messing with a country boy.

Depeche Mode - Black Celebration

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:37:27 -0500

I share an MP3 from my collection every Wednesday. You have seven days to grab this week's MP3. Please right-click your mouse and select "Save Link As..." or "Save target as..." so you can download it to your PC before playing.

Depeche Mode - Black Celebration
This is the title track from Depeche Mode's fifth studio album, released in 1986. I was surprised when this song was omitted from Depeche Mode's double disc greatest hits compilation "The Singles 86-98". As Depeche Mode albums go, Black Celebration is the red-headed step child.

I've always liked this song.

Maple Leafs 2, Senators 3

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:38:49 -0500

The Leafs have surrendered the first goal in 17 of 19 games this season. That's a big reason why we're 3-11-5.

Did I just write 3-11-5? Three wins in 19 games? Are we really losing 84% of our games?

New rule: pass the puck to Kessel, get out of the way and pray.

The Carlton Theatre to Close December 6

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:22:18 -0500

Right after getting married in the mid-90s, my wife and I moved into a bachelor apartment near Yonge and Bloor. That's when we discovered the best movies, the films critics raved about and the masses rejected, could always be found at The Carlton cinema.

We've since moved west of the downtown core and procreated, so we don't get to The Carlton very often, but I'm still very sad to see it's closing December 6, 2009.

One of the last remaining shoebox multiplexes from the Reagan era, the Carlton opened its doors in 1981 during the Canadian indie-cinema renaissance, providing a venue for local filmmakers like Ron Mann to screen their earliest efforts. Since then, the theatre has provided valuable screen time to small Canadian distribution companies (Mongrel Media, Films We Like), hosting obscure international films for extended runs enough that would allow them to build an audience through word of mouth.

I saw many great films at The Carlton cinema, but I think my all-time favourite Carlton movie experience was seeing "Crumb" there in '95. "Crumb" wasn't playing anywhere else in the city, but I had read enough about it to know I had to see it. Then, I saw it, and it was even better than I could have hoped. I absolutely loved "Crumb", and I still think about it to this day. I'm not sure where today's "Crumb" will play.

With the closing of The Carlton, all instrumental theatres of my youth will be gone: The Runnymede Theatre and Humber Odeon I grew up with and the Uptown Theatre and Carlton Cinema of my young adulthood. Like Heraclitus said, nothing is permanent but change.

An Ode to Brendan Shanahan: My Favourite Non-Leaf Retires

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:28:57 -0500

Brendan Shanahan holds the NHL record for Gordie Howe hat tricks. He recorded 17 Gordie Howe hat tricks during his hall of fame career, 15 more than Gordie himself. He also holds the distinction of being my favourite player who never donned the Maple Leafs' blue and white.

Admittedly, I was predisposed to liking him. I attended Michael Power High School in Etobicoke, Shanahan's school. Several teachers spoke highly of Shanny, and even his siblings taught there. He must have had a lot of siblings, because his siblings were also teaching at St. Cecilia's primary school, another school I attended. Like Shanahan, I rode the red rocket to Power where he was a legend.

Although I was predisposed to liking him, he made it easy to root for him in a way I've never rooted for a non-Leaf. He was a deadly sniper, scoring 656 goals, and he was a natural born leader, winning three Stanley Cups and an Olympic gold medal. He was also incredibly consistent, scoring 20 or more goals in 19 consecutive years. And, as his Gordie Howe hat tricks attest, he was one tough sonufabitch.

Shanahan announced his retirement today, and I'm going to miss him dearly. Nobody did it better.

When Your Favourite Radio Station Flips Formats

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:48:09 -0500

As a life long fan of radio, I know how attached you get to your favourite stations. You get familiar with the personalities, the schedule and the genre of music. When your favourite radio station flips formats, it can be jarring to fans.

Last Friday, Country 93.5 out of Hamilton stopped playing country music and started playing oldies. I wrote about the switch, and thousands of Country 93.5 fans found the entry. As of this writing, 258 comments have been left, almost unanimously calling out Corus and General Manager Suzanne Carpenter. Country music fans in the GTA are pissed.

I chuckle to myself when I think that I'm now the go-to place for country music fans to voice their displeasure at the format change, because new country is probably my personal least favourite genre of music. I can't stomach the crap.

The Hamilton Spectator even covered the format flip today and included quotes from this blog.

As soon as the last country song died on the station, listeners crowded onto online discussion boards to voice their disapproval. At torontomike.com, a fan with the screen name Sheila moaned, "The last thing this area needed was another Rock station ... Talk about bad judgment."

Jared T declared, "Country 95.3 was a fantastic radio station and a great refuge from the kind of radio 95.3 has now become."

If the lack of country music in the GTA has you down, join the support group at http://www.torontomike.com/2009/11/country_953_quits_country.html.

Yee haw!

Seinfeld Reunion Update, Courtesy of Curb Your Enthusiasm

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:32:05 -0500

I loved Seinfeld and I love Curb Your Enthusiasm. Last night, as I watched Sunday's episode of CYE, I was treated to the best of both worlds.

If you're a fellow Seinfeld fan, you've got to see this episode. The primary Seinfeld actors had a table reading of Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David's Seinfeld Reunion script and we gained insight into what's happened to the characters these past dozen years.

Here are some of the highlights: (SPOILER ALERT, ELVIS!

Elaine had a baby courtesy of Jerry’s donated sperm.
George got rich inventing an iToilet app for the iPhone, but lost all his money to Bernie Madoff.
George’s ex-wife, Amanda, still had her hefty divorce settlement, so naturally he wants to win her back.
Newman is still a postman.

We're promised more Seinfeld character updates next week.

Old Footage of Downtown Toronto in 1986

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:18:48 -0500

YouTube user Retrontario frequently uploads fantastic retro-Toronto-centric gems. These clips never fail to bring back a ton of memories for me, so I feature them from time to time.

I love this footage from Global TV circa 1986. It's simply a drive around downtown Toronto to the smooth sounds of Guido Basso's trumpet and flugelhorn. They called this "Night Ride" and you can see the old Sam the Record Man and A&A Records signage in all its glory.

I also love these scenes because I can spot my old arcade hangouts from the mid-80s. I loved those arcades when you could actually play a game for a quarter.