Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - February 2023 Memorial Episode: Toronto Mike'd #1214
Episode Date: March 1, 2023In this 1214th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike pays tribute to those we lost in February 2023. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Canna Cabana, Ridley Funera...l Home and Electronic Products Recycling Association.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
are dead or never dead to us until we have forgotten them.
As always, I open this episode with that quote from George Eliot,
because I believe it to be true.
By remembering those who have passed,
we give them life. Let's remember those we lost in February 2023. As always, this memorial episode
of Toronto Mic'd is brought to you by Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of this community since 1921. And every guy has got you near his side
What you're doing with a clown like me
Is surely one life's little Mr. B
So tonight I lie
The stars above
How did I ever win your love?
What did I do?
What did I do? What did I say?
To turn your angel eyes my way?
For the second month in a row, we lost an FOTM.
Tom Stephen was the drummer for the Jeff Healy Band.
OTM. Tom Stephen was the drummer for the Jeff Healy band, and on March 7, 2019, he visited my home for a 90-minute chat about his time playing with Jeff. I was sad to learn that
Tom went into cardiac arrest on February 20 and passed away at the young age of 68.
I've dedicated episode 1210 of Toronto Mic'd to his memory,
and you can find it in the Toronto Mic'd feed right now.
Quiet on the set.
Roll sound. Roll sound.
Roll camera.
Slate.
Canadian movie takes 79.
Action.
I said action.
Oh, please don't let them film the story of my life.
I don't want to become a Canadian movie.
Because the acting will suck.
And so will the editing.
The lighting and the script and the popcorn too.
And they'll set my life
somewhere
in Saskatchewan
because that's where the
producers could get funding
ah please
don't let them film
the story of my life
I don't want
to become a Canadian movie.
Because the leading man will be Mike Bullard,
Rick Mercer, or Frank Bahavlich.
I might even be portrayed by Peter Mansbridge.
And no one will pay to see me.
Still, it'll win a genie.
For best picture.
And best editing.
And the soundtrack's hit theme song
will be sung by Celine Dion
in a duet
with Nickelback.
Here's your Nickelback.
Please don't let them shoot the story of my life.
Shoot me before I become a Canadian movie.
I'll put a stipulation in my will
Not to bury me until I'm guaranteed
Not to be
Yes, I'll eat yellow snow
I'll move to Buffalo before I let him go
And turn my life into a Canadian,
into a Canadian line.
Movie.
Thank you.
Movie.
Movie.
Typically, these Ridley Funeral Home Memorial episodes of Toronto Mic'd
are for remembering those who passed away in the previous month.
But Robert Davis actually passed away on November 21st, 2020.
Earlier this month, I went hunting for local independent podcasts, something I do periodically.
Good local independent podcasts are far rarer than you think, but I stumbled upon this podcast called Hit Me by a Toronto musician named Robert Davis.
Hit Me was simply episodes about music with personal anecdotes from a self-professed music expert, and I dug it.
I saw 70 episodes in the feed, downloaded them all, and started going through them on bike
rides. By the 10th episode, I knew I wanted to invite this Robert Davis over for an episode of
Toronto Mic'd, because he had referenced working at CFNY and CBC, and to be frank, I just liked the
cut of his jib. So I went to robertdavis.ca to find contact details.
And that's when it hit me like a ton of bricks.
In the top right corner, it read,
Robert Davis passed away November 21st, 2020.
I pledged to listen to all 70 episodes.
And as the drop dates approached 2020,
I kept wondering if Robert would disclose an illness.
The final episode of Hit Me,
dropped on March 20th, 2020,
one week after the pandemic lockdown,
was a shaky Robert,
merely saying we all needed a catchy song at that time,
and then playing All That She Wants by Ace of Base.
That was it.
I now know Robert only had eight months to live.
At some point, robertdavis.ca will likely go offline,
but those 70 episodes will hopefully remain indexed for others to stumble upon.
I never met Robert, and only learned of his existence earlier this month.
But I wanted to recognize his passing
as an FOTM who never was, but should have been.
What the world needs now
Is love, sweet love
It's the only thing that there's just too little of. What the world needs now is love, sweet love. For some, but for everyone Lord, we don't need another mountain
There are mountains and hillsides
Enough to climb
There are oceans and rivers
Enough to cross, enough to last
Till the end of time
What the world needs now is love, sweet love
It's the only thing that there's just too little love But the world needs now
This love, sweet love
No, not just for some
But for everyone
Lord, we don't need another meadow
There are corn fields
And wheat fields
Enough to grow
There are sunbeams
And moonbeams
Enough to shine
Oh, listen, Lord
If you want to know
Oh, oh, oh
What, oh, what Is love? to know What the world
thinks now
Is love
sweet love
It's the only thing
that there's just
too little of
What the world
thinks now
Is love
sweet love,
no, not just for some,
oh, but just for everyone.
Burt Bacharach was absolutely prolific.
Over 1,000 different artists have recorded Bacharach's songs.
No less than 73 of his iconic songs have reached the American Top 40.
Those that top the Billboard Hot 100 include
This Guy's In Love With You by Herb Alpert,
Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head by B.J. Thomas,
They Long To Be, this is a parentheses jam,
Close to You, The Carpenters,
Arthur's Theme, another parentheses jam,
Best That You Can Do by Christopher Cross.
That's What Friends Are For,
Dionne Warwick, with help from her friends,
Elton John, Gladys Knight, Knight and Stevie Wonder and On My Own
by Carol Bayer Sager I spoke with Blair Packham about his dinner with Burt Bacharach in 2001
we lost Burt Bacharach recently and uh I'm just like fascinated he was a prolific songwriter
and when you learn the songs he composed and you're like,
oh,
that's him too.
Like I went down this rabbit hole of like every song of his that went is in
the top 40.
And it took a long time.
Okay.
There's dozens and dozens and dozens of songs he wrote that hit the top 40,
but I'm going to lean back from the mic and I'm going to listen to Blair
Packham because Blair Packham has an amazing Burt Bacharach story.
Blair,
the mic is yours,
but thank you.
It,
it,
you know what,
Mike,
it is an amazing story.
Um,
it amazes me looking back and,
this is how it went.
So tying it in with the comedy world,
Mike Myers had just had Burt Bacharach in one of his,
uh,
Austin power movies,
Austin powers movies.
And Mike's best friend and our mutual friend David McKenzie this was around the time of 9-11
and so Mike had reached out actually to
Bert. I thought it was the other way around and was worried that Bert was stuck
in Toronto because air flights and stuff like that.
And asked him if he you know if he
wanted to be amused basically and Mike then asked David McKenzie to round up some some friends of
his musical friends and uh and they would meet with Bert for dinner and dinner was on Mike so
so we so David called me at my studio and he said uh you want to have dinner with Bert Bacharach I
was like yes you know and then um uh David David said he couldn't come right away because he lived out of town at that
point. So he lived in Minden. And so David said, I need you to go to the restaurant first. And then
I'll arrive and some other people, I'll invite Kurt Swinghammer and Michael Philip Voivoda and
a few other people. So I go to Prego in Yorkville,
and I walk in, and there's Bert sitting at a table,
smiling, his blue eyes, you know,
and he's wearing a sweater tied around his neck
the way that you see him in so many photographs,
you know, casual, and I say to him,
hello, I'm Blair Packham, I'm one of David's friends,
a friend of Mike, and he said,
well, welcome, Have a seat.
So I sit down.
And instantly we start talking about anything but music.
And it was amazing.
Well, and it's because of this.
On the way there, I had called my mom because I was so excited.
I called my mom and I said, guess who I'm having dinner with?
Burt Bacharach.
And instead of going, oh, that's wonderful, Blair,
because that's how she talked.
That's wonderful.
She said, instantly, she said,
ask him about Olive Hall.
Like that, as if she'd been waiting for the call.
You know, as if she knew that I'd be calling
to say I was having dinner with Burt Bachrach.
She's just been waiting for this moment.
Yeah, so I said, Olive Hall?
What do you mean?
And she said,
Burt used to come to the
dorm when we were at mcgill and he dated olive hall she was so beautiful and he would come to
the dorm and he would sit and play the piano and entertain us girls and while she was getting ready
and and so so i sit down in the restaurant and you, and we greet each other and how do you know David?
How do you know Mike?
And, you know, I knew how we knew Mike and so forth.
But we're talking and I should have said,
so you're a songwriter.
But I said, my mother, I called my mom.
I'm so excited to meet you.
I called my mom.
And the first thing she said was this.
And I imitated her.
Ask him about Olive Hall.
And he went all dreamy
eyed like he seriously did he went like olive hall i haven't thought of her in 50 years he said
and he's still looking off into space and he said she was so beautiful i knew her at mcgill
and then he turned to me and like very urgently said,
do you know what happened to her? Do you know where she is? Can you get in touch with her?
Like clearly Bert was in the market for a girlfriend, you know? And, uh, and I said,
no, I did ask my mom and apparently she married a neurosurgeon and moved to the American Midwest.
And he went, Oh, and he said, she was beautiful. I would go to the the dorm and while i was waiting for her to get
ready i'd play the piano and all these girls would hang around and i said yeah my mom was one of them
he went wow that's amazing and then we started talking about other other things uh you know uh
my baby boy had just been born he's 21 now and uh so the idea of being a father was scaring the shit out of me. And also relationships get tense or, you know, they get transformed often when you have children.
And I was experiencing a bit of that and didn't really know why and didn't know if I was doing the right thing and so forth.
And I just said, he said, so are you married?
I said, well, yeah.
As a matter of fact, I just had a kid.
And he said, oh, that's great.
And then I said, but the marriage is, you know, it's being tested.
They often are. And that's what's going on here.
And he said, oh, man, yeah, I can relate to that.
And he started telling me stories about how it was with Carol Bayer Sager,
who he was with.
And he's, like, so open and so candid.
And he told stories about Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown at the Grammys
and how she had to be
replaced because like at the last minute because they wouldn't come out of their trailer they were
you know they're in the trailer acting crazy he said and so I'm uh conscious of you know celebrities
and they you know my experience with celebrities is they don't want to say bad things about other
celebrities which is nice it's good impulse but it's a little disingenuous maybe. So I said, I said,
well,
what was the problem?
And he said,
she was high on crack as if, as if I was the biggest idiot in the world.
And then he asked you to leave the table.
Yeah.
No,
I was like,
but I was like,
oh,
of course.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
Okay.
So anyway,
but it was a lovely evening.
The other people arrived after about 40 minutes or so.
And David arrived first and he sat with us
and talked about his friendship with Mike and so forth.
And then Kurt Swinghammer arrived,
and he had a guitar that he had already,
and he had this already because he's the biggest
Burt Bacharach fan in the world.
He'd taken the headstock of the guitar,
and he put a little black and white picture of Burt on it,
and he wrote on it in silver pen, Burt.
And he'd already done this.
It wasn't for this evening. He'd already done this. And so when he pulled it
out of his case to ask Burt to autograph it, you could see Burt was like,
okay. Like a little freaked out, you know. It's intense. It's pretty intense.
Yeah, but he did it and he was very, very gracious. And it was really a lovely
magical evening. Do you think Burt went on the Craigslist
misconnections?
Olive Hall. Olive Hall.
This is Bert Bacharach, seriously.
Olive Hall, what a name too.
And the fun fact, which I only learned about when Bert passed away, is that
he went to McGill.
My daughter's there right now. I had no idea Bert Bacharach
went to McGill. He didn't like it.
I asked him about going to McGill and he said, no.
I went to two other music schools and he listed them, what they i don't remember but he said uh yeah mcgill was
shitty uh at the time he said i'm sure it's better now and i and i think it is better by the way i
know many mcgill grads who are amazing hence his 1974 hit mcgill is shitty that's right lyrics by
hal david right of course yeah you know how gets the short end of the stick here. Like, he's such a key part of that songwriting machine.
Those lyrics for those songs.
Do you know the way to San Jose?
Unreal.
Yeah, I mean, all those lyrics are so vivid,
and they've got these incredible little details to them,
and they're really amazing.
And he does get the short end of the stick.
Even by Bert, who I didn't have the nerve to ask,
why are you and Hal David not a thing?
Because apparently there was some aggravation.
That was your chance, Matt.
I know.
He was ready to talk about anything.
I didn't want to ask him stuff that you could read anywhere.
But as soon as you sat down, what's with Hal David?
Yeah, come on.
Hal's in the kitchen right now working.
It's called real talk.
Waiter, drinks. No, wait so blair this there's
something else we have in common that i don't i knew i didn't realize we both have 21 year old
sons like that's something we have in common that's yet another thing yeah i don't have to
add that to the list yeah that's right my boy is at york university and doing very well you ready
for this my boy's at york university oh my god wow in engineering no your boy's smarter
than my boy i don't know my boy's pretty smart he's got a huge this is why i didn't have kids
see there's always something happens the rivalry and then it crashes yeah and here's burt baccarat
with some other fotms toronto's own Ladies. Okay, I've always wanted to play
you know, with a young happening band.
These guys are
really happening now. And guess what?
They're going to let me play with them.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Bare Naked Ladies. Please. Why do birds suddenly appear
Every time you are near
Just like me
they want
to be
close to you
why
do stars
fall down from the
sky
every time
you walk by just like me they long to be close to you
On the day that you were born the angels got together And decided to create a dream come true
So they sprinkled moon dust in your hair
Golden star light in your eyes of blue That is why all the boys in town follow you all around They long to be close to you
Just like me
They long to be close to you
I'm close to you.
I'm close to you.
Burt Bacharach passed away
on February 8th
at the age of 94. ¶¶ I gotta get down to, get down to, get down to
The reasons why I gotta get down
Yes to the reasons why, why
The world is blind So unkind to you I gotta get down to, get down to, get down to
The rights and the wrongs, I gotta get down
Yes, to the rights and the wrongs
get down yes to the right still wrong
world is blind so unkind to you tell me how this is Gotta get down to, get down to, get down to When it's time to move on home
Get down Yes, when it's time to move on home get down yes when it's time to move on home
that's right world is blind so unkind to you guitar solo
I've got to get down to, get down to, get down to the reasons why I've got to get down
Yes to the reasons why, tell me why
The world is blind, so unkind to you
Yes it's true
The world is blind, so unkind to you Yes, it's true.
The world is blind and so unkind to you.
The world is blind and so unkind to you.
Mendelssohn Joe was a painter, singer, composer, author, and activist.
And on February 7th, at his home in Elmsdale, Ontario,
through the provision of medical assistance in dying,
with his wife Karen Robinson by his side, he passed away.
Joe was 78 years old. One of my great Toronto thrills was biking along Davenport in the early 90s and seeing Mendelson Joe out for a stroll. I yelled out
his name and he waved back. He left us a farewell note at mendelsonjoe.ca. It closes with this.
note at mendelsonjoe.ca. It closes with this. Medically speaking, I'm shaking and rattling,
as it's been over five years since Parkinson's disease surfaced. Parkinson's is a dead end for me. The Parkinson's interrupts my creative flow of writing, painting, and making music, to say the least. I have ended my job as multimedia artist
with the provision of MAID,
Medical Assistance in Dying,
on February 7, 2023.
I see MAID as a sign of a civilized society.
To be born Canadian is a great blessing.
We have free speech.
We have health care. We have free speech. We have health care.
We have made.
Thank you, Canada.
Guido Basso.
Let's talk about Guido Basso.
Talk about Guido.
So Guido Basso, another one of these just classic guys who has been involved in millions of things.
Trumpeteer.
trumpeteer most famously
I think
people would
remember
his work
on a series
called Night Ride
which was
this program
that came on
on Global
in the middle of the night
and it was just a POV
of a car driving
or there was Night Walk
which was
a camera walking around
or Night Moves
I just posted
on TorontoMic.com
embedded the YouTube
it's continuously
playing night rides. Right. There's this fellow who just
did a stream, which is awesome. And it's amazing, yeah.
Yeah, because it's, you know, people want to relive
that feeling of being an insomniac
or coming home from a night out
and seeing that. And obviously
there's this great interest because it was
filmed in 1986 and you see all
of these, you know, Yonge Street in
1986 and all this stuff but
the music was a big part of why i think it stayed with us because it was just this kind of low-key
but really classy jazz and this track is actually from that toronto record that came in the toronto
star and i just think it sums up sort of the guido basso sound let's hear some guido basso sound. Let's hear some Guido Basso. Thank you. awesome some good driving in the rain music right there no it, it's great. Seriously, I'm just too mellow to continue, man.
Take over.
Guido Basso.
Guido Basso.
He's also, I have this fantastic public service announcement
that's on my YouTube channel that's called We Are Ontario.
And it's basically a bunch of musicians,
including Guido Basso, who do this sort of scat song,
and it's all about how Ontario is made up
of all of these different cultures,
and when they all come together, it sounds great.
And it's a beautiful message.
It's a beautiful little piece.
Man, we had so much hope,
and what happened to us as a people?
Dude, I know.
This is my nostalgia,
because I sometimes have my buddy Elvis over,
and he's adamant.
He's just against all nostalgia,
and I'm like, what the heck is wrong with you? Because I sometimes have my buddy Elvis over, and he's adamant. He's just against all nostalgia.
And I'm like, what the heck is wrong with you?
Like, this is the most potent drug on the planet, and it will not shorten your life.
And we are the dealers of this drug.
That's right, man.
The first one's free.
Come back when you want more.
Hit that Patreon, buddy.
That was FOTM Hall of Famer Ed Conroy, better known as Retro Ontario,
chatting with me on Toronto Mic'd about Guido Basso.
Guido Basso passed away on February 13th at the age of 85. Mirror, mirror on the wall Tell me mirror, what is wrong?
Can it be my daylight clothes
Or is it just my daylight soul?
What I do ain't make believe
People say I sit and try
But when it comes to being daylight
It's just me, myself and I
It's just me, myself and I I I
It's just me myself and I
I
It's just me myself and I
I
It's just me myself and I
I
Now you tease my plug one style
and my plug one spectacle
You say plug one and two are hippies
No we're not, that's pure plug four
Always pushing that we formed an image
There's no need to lie
When it comes to being plug one
It's just me, myself and I
It's just me, myself and I
It's just me, myself and I It's just me, myself and I This just me, myself and I Proud, I'm proud of what I am
Poems I speak are plugged too tight
Please, oh please, let Plug to be himself
Not what you read or write
Right is wrong when hype is written
On the soul, they lie that
Style is surely our own thing
Not the force disguised to show this They lie solely from the soul And own thing, not the false disguise of showbiz.
They lie solely from the soul, and in fact I can't deny.
Strictly from the damn call Stucky, and from me, myself, and I.
It's just me, myself, and I.
It's just me, myself, and I.
It's just me, myself, and I This just me, myself, and I Glory, glory, hallelujah
Glory four, plug one and two
Hope that glory's been denied
By consent and gooky eyes
People think they diss my person
By stating I'm darkly packed
I know this, so I point at Q-tip
And he stay
black. Mirror, mirror
on the wall, shovel chestnuts
in my path. Just keep on
up, lifting up so I don't get
an aftermath. But if I do
I'll calmly punch them in the
fourth day of July. Cause they
try to mess with third degree
that's me, myself, and I.
It's just me, myself, and I. It's just me, myself, and I.
It's just me, myself, and I.
It's just me, myself, and I.
David Jude Jolicoeur was the rapper and producer who rose to fame as a member of De La Soul
under the stage name Trugoy the Dove.
He also wrote and rapped a verse on the Gorillaz Feel Good Inc.
That song won a Grammy Award in 2006 for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals.
Fun fact, True Goy
is yogurt backwards.
He passed away
February 12th
at the far too young age
of 54.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
7, 8, Shlemiel,
Shlemizo, Haas and
Bamboo Incorporated.
We're gonna do it.
Give us any chance, we'll take it.
Read us any room, we'll break it.
We're gonna make our dreams come true.
Do it our way.
Nothing's gonna turn us back now.
Straight ahead and on the track now.
We're gonna make our dreams come true
Doing it our way
There's nothing we won't try
Never heard the word impossible this time
There's no stopping us
We're gonna do it
On your mark, get set, and go now
Got a dream and we just know now, we're gonna make that dream come true. And we'll do it our way, yes our way, make all our dreams come true. As a kid, when I'd watch late great movies on city TV,
I used to love it when they'd air American Graffiti.
I thought that was the coolest flick.
That's where most people first saw Cindy Williams,
who is best known for her role as Shirley Feeney
on the television sitcoms Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley.
At one point during its run,
the series was the number one rated show on television.
After a brief illness,
Cindy Williams died in Los Angeles on January 25, 2023, at the age of 75.
I stand before the Hall of Fame in honor of my brother, who seized each Carpe Diem day with passion like no other.
with passion like no other.
Born Randy Mario Poffel, he became the Macho Man.
Randy Savage made it cool to be a wrestling fan.
His match with Ricky Steamboat in 1987 was on a scale from 1 to 10, much better than 11.
He snapped into a Slim Jim with his iconic voice.
He earned a role in Spider-Man, which made his fans rejoice.
When the mega powers exploded, the storyline was real.
Life's too short to hold a grudge.
It's time for us to heal.
In triumphant jubilation, we celebrate his name.
Finally, the Macho Man is in the Hall of Fame.
Randy Savage.
Randy Savage! Randy Savage!
Lanny Poffo, better known by his ring names Leaping Lanny Poffo and The Genius,
was best known as a professional wrestler who competed for many wrestling companies,
most notably the WWF from 1985 to 1992,
where he wrestled with his brother,
Macho Man Randy Savage.
I remember him well because he was in the WWF when I followed it closely.
Lanny Poffo passed away on February 2nd
at the young age of 68. Raquel Welch became an international sex symbol in the 1960s. Widely remembered
for playing a bikini-clad cavewoman in the 1966 film One Million Years B.C. She also won a Golden Globe for her role in
1974's The Three Musketeers. Perhaps more relevant to Gen Xers like myself, Raquel Welch acted in
the season eight finale of Seinfeld. Here's a clip from The Summer of George.
Here's a clip from The Summer of George. Hello? Sydney? No.
No, I told you I don't want to do that.
If you bring it up again, I'll feed your genitals to a wolf.
Kids!
You're still here.
Well, uh, uh, Miss Welch, I-I do need to talk to you about a-a little problem regarding your, uh, your performance.
What kind of problem well it seems that uh due to the uh the vagaries of the uh production parameters vis-a-vis the
fragmenting of the uh the audience due to cable television uh carnivals uh water parks out with it
well you're fired because you don't use your arms when you tap dance you're like a gorilla out there
arms when you tap dance you're like a gorilla out there i gotta go that's my signature would you just keep an eye out for this woman she's about
i don't know yay high and uh she doesn't swing her arms when she walks what do you mean? Like this.
What the hell is that?
Are you making fun of my dancing?
Aren't you Raquel Welch?
You know who I am.
Now, what are you doing?
Uh, nothing. I just wasn't moving my arms.
That's it. You're going down.
Cat fight.
So, how's George?
I don't know. They won't tell me anything.
Oh, jeez.
What's that?
Tony?
What happened to you?
That rack-o'-welch.
Yikes. What happened to you? That rack-o'- Welch. Yikes.
What happened to you?
Raquel Welch.
That woman is a menace.
Yeah.
I bumped into her on the street.
It got pretty ugly.
Cat fight with Raquel Welch? Yeah.
Cat fight?
Raquel Welch passed away in Los Angeles on February 15, 2023.
She was 82 years old. The best things in life are free
But you can give them to the birds and bees
I think I'm
That's what I want That's keep on. That's what I want. That's what I want. That's what I want.
That's what I want. That's what I want. That's what I want. Your love gives me such a thrill.
But your love don't pay my bills. I can't come That's what I want
That's what I want
That's what I want
That's what I want
That's what I want
That's what I want
That's what I want Money don't get everything it's true
But what it don't get I can't use, I need money, that's what I want, that's what I want, that's what I want, that's what I want.
Money, lots of money, a lot of money Money, lots of me money A lot of money
All of me green
Yeah
That's right baby
That's what I mean
That's what I want
Uh-huh
Uh-huh
Uh-huh
Uh-huh
Uh-huh
That's what I want
Barrett Strong was the singer and songwriter
known for his recording of Money, That's What I Want,
another parentheses jam,
and it was also the first hit single for the Motown record label.
He's also known for his songwriting work
in association with producer Norman Whitfield.
Together they penned such songs as I Heard It Through the Grapevine, War, Just My Imagination Running
Away With Me, and Papa Was a Rolling Stone. Barrett Strong passed away on January 28th
at the age of 81.
The Toronto Maple Leafs used to be a Canadian institution, but no more. The Leafs are stumbling through the hockey season in 12th place, and the big crowd-pleasers like Daryl Sittler
and Mike Palmatier are wondering when they'll be traded.
Morale may be low on the ice, but in the front office, it's business as usual,
and that means big deals, big profits, and outrageous talk from a man who boasts that he's one of the great con artists.
Harold Ballard has hung around rinks and hockey teams since he was a boy.
Now he's the absolute boss at Maple Leaf Gardens, and he revels in it. For Ballard, the gardens and the Maple Leafs hockey team are like big, expensive toys. The toys may
not be working as well as they used to, but Ballard still thinks he's on top. You've got to win. That's
the only thing I know. At any cost? At any cost. Kill the other guy? Why not? Get him out of the
road. You'll never have to compete with him again.
There'll be somebody else come up in his place.
Well, take a shot at him too.
Peter Herndorf passed away on February 18th at the age of 82.
He had a lengthy career at the CBC,
where he helped develop such shows as The Fifth Estate and The Journal.
He later took on roles as publisher of Toronto Life magazine
and then chairman and CEO of TVO.
That's where FOTM's Steve Paikin enters the conversation.
I chatted with Steve Paikin today
about his friend and mentor, Peter Herndorf.
Steve Paikin, when did you first meet Peter Herndorf?
I think I met him for the first time when he was still at CBC,
but I really got to know him, of course,
after he took the helm of TV Ontario, as it was then called, in 1992.
And I think I was one of the first people that he hired
to come on over and basically give life to a new vision that he had for the place.
So tell me a little bit more about that, you know, that happening.
Did he just approach you?
You're working at CBC News or you're working for CBC and he approaches you and says he has a vision for TVO?
Yeah, pretty much.
I was hosting the 6 o'clock news on CBC at the time, CBLT, Channel 5, Cable 6, I think as we
called it back then. And as I said, I bumped into Peter, I guess, a few times when we were both at
CBC. We were just acquaintances, didn't really have a friendship. And then he basically sent
word through a guy who had hired me at CBC named Howard Bernstein. And Howard Bernstein
had moved from CBC to TVO. And he called me up and he said, you know, I think you ought to
have a meeting with Peter Herndorf here. He's got some ideas and you could be part of them.
And I loved and love Howard Bernstein. He gave me my first really huge break in television.
And so off to the fifth floor corner office
I was to have my meeting with Peter. Now I must admit to you
I only learned about Peter when he passed away. And like many
imported people in the zeitgeist
I have to do catching up here. And as I'm learning about him and what he
did at the CBC,
I think he was at CBC for like almost three decades.
Yes.
But then, you know, you start to pull up these threads,
which I like to do, and you see, okay, Steve Paikin hosts,
you know, the agenda was created by Peter, right?
And poaching you from CBC, that was his initiative.
Well, the poaching me from cbc was his
initiative the agenda was not okay uh let me give you the chronology here all right he comes over in
1992 i show up later in the year august of 1992 and ostensibly he says to me we need to do three
things uh i need you to host an existing show called between the lines which was sort of a
weekly town hall show that Howard Bernstein was producing.
He said, secondly, you and Howard need to create a new weekly current affairs show
whose focus is provincial affairs, Queen's Park.
He says, we're TV Ontario.
We need a show about Ontario politics.
So I want you two guys to create that, which I would, again, be the host of.
And he said, but this is the short run.
The long run is TV Ontario needs a nightly live public affairs show. And this place has never
done nightly before. And I need somebody who knows what it takes to put on a nightly broadcast.
And Howard, of course, had done that at
CBC at the time. He was the executive producer of the Six O'Clock News, so he knew what that was
like. And I, as the host and a previous reporter, knew what that was like. So he said, that's my
vision. And then he said to me something I'll never forget. He said three things that, well,
that have stayed with me for lo these 30 years. He said, Steve, you really should come to
TVO because you'll get a chance to do stuff here that you'll never get to do if you stay at CBC.
And then he said, you'll never regret leaving CBC to come to TVO.
And then he drew on his own experience, because remember, as you said, he'd been at CBC almost
three decades, but then he said, but I have to be honest with you, you will miss CBC. As much as
I want you to come here, and I think you'll get to do stuff here you'd never get to do at CBC,
you will miss working for the National Public Broadcaster.
So I didn't really have to think about this very hard. I wanted to come.
I liked his vision.
I really loved his leadership chops.
And Peter was wrong about one of those three things.
I went to TVO, and within a week, I didn't miss CBC at all.
Wow.
Lucky me.
Well, okay, clearly a visionary.
I'm speaking of Peter, and maybe yourself too, Steve.
No, him, for sure, him.
So clearly a visionary, sounds like a tremendous leader.
But I'm curious, what was he like as a man, as a human being?
Well, one of the things that we all loved about Peter is that, you know,
in some respects there's two different kinds of leaders.
There are people who really don't want to get to know, quote unquote, the help,
and that's what I am and all of my friends.
We're the help.
You know, they tend to want to stay in their offices
and take care of administrative things and deal with Queen's Park and all of that.
And that's fine.
It's a perfectly fine way to do business.
Peter was not that way.
Peter loved to manage by wandering around.
And he would always poke his nose into the control room.
He'd poke his nose into your office.
He'd wander around the building.
He knew everybody on a first-name basis.
When he took over the job, he was chair and CEO.
The job was all in one back then.
It's two separate jobs now, but back then it was all in one.
And he made it a point to have weekly breakfasts with everybody.
He'd invite seven or eight people to those breakfasts in his office, and it would be a mix of everything.
Guys from the technical crew, his hosts, his managers, his people who staff the master control, everything.
And he got to know everybody.
And after, I guess, seven years of being the chair and CEO there, you know, everything. And he got to know everybody. And after,
I guess, seven years of being the chair and CEO there, he did know everybody.
And as a result, we all loved working for him and really bought into his vision for the place.
You know, the vision, Mike, I got to tell you, the vision was different. You got to know when
TVO, when he took over TVO, I mean, it was a respected organization, but it was a very pedagogical organization.
You know, a lot of what TVO was about was teachers videotaping, or I guess recording, recording on their VCRs the programming that we did and then playing it in their classrooms the next day.
And that was a lot of what TVO was about.
Peter thought, yes, I love the educational mandate, but let's make it lifelong learning. Let's broaden it. Let's define education in as
broad a way as possible. And that meant public affairs. And that meant Between the Lines and
Fourth Reading, which was the Queens Park show we created. It meant Studio Two, which was the
daily show that we eventually created in 1994, which lasted until 2006 when the agenda took over.
Peter, of course, long gone by then.
And these were the kinds of shows that he wanted to be his calling card.
When was the last time you saw Peter?
Peter and I and one of the producers who worked for him as well back in the day
named Vodick Schemberg, who is still an agenda producer to this day.
We got together last September for beverages and we just loved it.
Peter's been he had been fighting bad health for a while and it was the first time we'd been able to see him in a while.
and it was the first time we'd been able to see him in a while.
And we got together and he was feeling pretty good and enjoying the hell out of our company as we did his.
And we talked about, you know, we talked about broadcasting,
we talked about media, we talked a little bit about sports,
although Vodick is absolutely useless in that conversation.
It's funny, Mike, you know, Vodick's brother is the director of communications
for the International Ice Hockey Federation.
He knows a ton about hockey.
He's probably forgotten more about hockey than I'll ever know.
And yet Vodick knows nothing about sports.
Well, this reminds me of Norm and Mike Wilner.
Ask Norm about baseball.
That's a great analogy.
So we had this great get-together last September,
and as we were all leaving after our wonderful schmoozy gossipy conversation,
Peter said to both of us, he said, you know, that was great fun.
Let's do it again soon.
And unfortunately, he got sicker after that, and there was no next time.
Well, it sounds like Peter Herndorf would have made a great FOTM.
Oh, you know, I'm kind of shocked that you never got him on your show because he would have been a perfect. Now, mind
you, a lot, a lot over the last 10 years, a lot of his professional life was in Ottawa because
after he left TVO, he went to the National Arts Center and, and completely redefined the mandate
of that place and, and breathed life back into that place,
put the national back into National Arts Center, did a lot of programming that it had never done
before. So I guess, unless you wanted to be Ottawa Mike, he wasn't likely to show up on your radar.
But I remember the last time I interviewed him, which was about nine years ago. We'd known,
obviously, we'd known each other very well, but I'd never interviewed him until he left TVO and
went to the National Arts Center.
And I remember asking him, Peter, where is your heart?
Is it in Toronto or in Ottawa?
And he had to sort of acknowledge that as a Winnipegger originally, his heart was now sort of in three different places.
He'll always be of Winnipeg.
He loved Toronto and the cultural scene in Toronto and the sports scene in Toronto.
But Ottawa was where he was planting his flag at the time I talked to him. So he had a foot in all three camps. And I'll tell you that the smartest thing he ever said to me, and this actually had
nothing to do with anything professional. We love baseball.
We went to baseball games together.
We both had a soft spot for the Red Sox in our hearts
because he went to Harvard.
So we both went to school in Boston.
I went to Boston University.
And I remember asking him during,
after the interview was over that I just referenced,
I said, what do you do with your kids that you enjoy the
most? And he said, well, I like to take my son to the Raptor Games because it's a two-hour assault
on our senses. It's like a big, long rock and roll concert, and it's really very exciting,
and I love the energy of it all. And then he said, but if I want to know what's going on in my daughter's life,
I take her to a Blue Jay game. Because, and to me, that just summed up everything that we loved
about baseball. We loved the drama. We loved the history. We loved those exciting moments.
But we also love the space around those moments when we could talk. You really can't talk to
people when you go to sporting events nowadays. It's too tough. But you can at baseball.
And we love that about baseball, and we loved our talks when we went to Blue Jay games.
Steve, thanks for this, and I'm very, very sorry for your loss here.
Not just mine, Mike, but so many people across the country who loved him and who owe their careers to him.
And I'm one of those guys.
I owe my career to this guy.
He's so right.
I've had a chance to do things that I never would have been able to do
had I stayed at CBC.
And I love him, and I can't thank him enough for poaching me away.
I hope I vindicated his decision to steal me away,
and I'll miss that big booming laugh,
but I'm glad I got to work for him for a while.
Oh, I see.
Mrs. Schwartz?
Yes, I'm fine.
Mrs. Schwartz, do you know what Ralph just said?
Uh-uh, not that at all.
No, he said...
No, not that!
Yes, that. Do you know where he heard it?
Probably from his father.
No, he heard it from your son.
What? What? What? heard it from your son. Melinda Dillon passed away on January 9th, but her death was only announced to the public in early February. She was nominated
for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her roles in Close Encounters of the Third
Kind and Absence of Malice, but she might be best known for her role as Mother Parker in the holiday
classic A Christmas Story. Her other film roles include Bound for Glory,
Harry and the Hendersons,
The Prince of Tides,
and Magnolia, for which she was nominated for a Best Actors Guild Award.
I love Magnolia.
Melinda Dillon was 83.
Welcome back. Here we are in Studio One, the election studio. What are you doing here? Melinda Dillon was 83. Being your last show, I wanted to present you with something. And you know something? Ever since I found out you were leaving, I have been practicing interrupting myself, and it doesn't work.
Oh, you'll find someone else to interrupt you.
It's part of the deal.
No one could do it as good as you, buddy.
Anyway, we've really enjoyed ourselves.
And look, I bought you a little gift.
Oh, for God's sake.
And this.
Careful with the set there.
You don't want to break that before the election.
And this here, Jim.
Open the door. Oh, Peter. You shouldn't want to break that before the election. And this here, Jim, open the door.
You shouldn't have.
Even though you might all never have the upper hand, you should be able to have the upper seat.
I'll use that to keep me out of the rain, which you so constantly forecast.
Yes.
Oh, there's one other thing, too, buddy.
Wear this in good health.
What the heck is that?
What does it say?
Retired, don't ask me to do a damn thing.
Anyway.
I don't think that's big enough for my head.
That won't surprise you.
No, no, it will. It will surprise me.
It's the right size for you, Jim.
We've had so much fun in the past two years.
Peter, it's been a gas.
We've only had a year and a half to work together, but I've enjoyed every minute of it.
It's been a great pleasure for me.
It's nice to meet you.
We fooled a lot of viewers, too, because a lot of people me. And you know we've fooled a lot of viewers too because a lot of people are saying you know don't
you guys like each other. We get along fine. I know it's been a blast. It's all part of the shtick.
Anyway you want to see a younger Jim Nunn? Oh my god. Let's take a look at a younger Jim Nunn here.
What's this? I was supposed to be a lawyer you know. My father and my cousin, who's now a judge, had it all figured out.
Without asking me, I was told I was going to go to law school.
Hi, Mr. Noose.
Hi, how are you?
And there is some hope to be taken today.
We'll keep you informed.
Sprung his in way over its head and all it...
Mother. I've been everywhere, man.
Good evening, I'm Jim Nunn. How did Arnie Patterson handle himself during the last campaign? Well,
liberals are expected to nominate high school principal Alvin Sinclair to contest the seat
against the man liberals call that carpetbagger from Quebec. I know a lot of people criticize the CBC and some of your viewers criticize you.
Listen, if you ask me one more question like that,
I'll rip your eyes out and send them out over the airwaves right now.
Do you understand?
I can understand.
I think he's highly overrated and I think the only reason he ever got into broadcasting in the first place
is that he's the son of J. Clyde Nunn.
A fella told me, he said, you're going to be talking to Jim Nunn this time.
And he said, watch for trick questions.
Is it true, as the stories tell, that newly married couples in Newfoundland would put your picture up in their bedroom so as to assure that their family was blessed?
No, so the baby would look like me.
My God, I'm going a little gray, you notice?
You're a narcissistic guy who needs to have a little bit of leeway in your relationship.
Don't touch me.
Have you heard about the recession, Premier?
Excuse me? I say, have you heard about the recession?
Why don't you just focus on providing a service that people would appreciate?
Can we talk?
Can we talk?
Can we talk?
Have you always been like a cheeky, loud-mouthed person?
You seem an affable fellow.
I know you are.
How much money do you make?
I don't think that's a fair question to ask.
You don't make the minimum wage, though, do you?
When was the last time I talked to you?
Oh, years ago.
I'm sure you remember.
I hope it's just this vlog again.
See you later.
Thanks, Don Cherry.
See you.
What happened was the fact that the mission was planned.
One other matter.
He's the premier.
Well, I think you.
Let's deal with you.
And that is the heart of the dilemma facing the Buchanan government.
And that is the weather.
Never seen anything like it, Frank.
Thank you.
It's very unprofessional to laugh
at another man's problems, but that was funny.
The side of this story is that 300 other old movies
were taken from the site,
and they're now believed to be buried in a garbage dump.
We have more from Phil Sherman.
Why, tell me.
You do, Tom.
I'm insufficiently vertically challenged.
The secret's out.
I remember as a youngster growing up in the north end of Halifax watching Jim Nunn.
He was like a dill.
Now this is something I was sure I would never do on television.
Stitches are a little bit big, but that will improve.
Don't be critical now, I'm just starting.
I was very young in university, but I think I was wise enough to determine
that broadcasting and journalism would be more interesting
and more fun than law.
And that's it from here.
Say goodbye to your friends, guys.
Bye!
Many faces.
Thank God I finally found a barber.
What?
It's funny how styles change over the years. It is, yes. Well, good luck to you. Well, and best of luck to you, buddy. What? Yes. Isn't it funny how styles change over the years?
It is, yes.
Well, good luck to you.
Well, and best of luck to you, buddy.
Thanks, Peter.
What do we do now?
Say goodbye?
Oh, yes.
Next on CBC News, Nova Scotia at 6, National and World News.
We'll be right back.
Jim Nunn was the former host of CBC News, Scotia at 6, Land and Sea, and Marketplace.
In 2008, Nunn conducted an infamous interview with actor John Dunsworth about Trailer Park Boys coming to an end.
This is just wonderful.
Now tonight's Newsmaker interview.
The Trailer Park Boys are toast. This is just wonderful. And trailer park manager Mr. Jim Leahy was among a long list of wacky but probably unforgettable characters.
Leahy is the creation of the versatile John Dunsworth, an actor from Halifax, and I welcome him to the program.
Who am I talking to, Leahy or Dunsworth?
Both personas at the same time.
At the same time.
Yes.
Two for the price of one. Isn't it a wonderful thing that this awful television program,
full of foul-mouthed, dope-smoking, hard-drinking people who gave a very bad impression of the poor who live in trailer parks.
You'll have to forgive Mr. Nunn.
What?
I think you're doing a... Isn't it a wonderful thing?
A Pat Robertson imitation.
You know, I tell you, there's an awful lot worse language...
Can I finish the question?
I know it's a long one, but let me just finish it.
You sound like Rex.
Isn't it great that it's gone?
You know, it hasn't gone.
And, you know, every week, it's shown every day.
It's shown in Afghanistan every night.
And the people that come on...
That must be helpful.
It certainly is. A piece of Canadiana.
People that I talk to that come back from there, we save their lives.
But what are they?
We have saved more lives.
What do the people of Afghanistan think of that foolishness?
They love it.
Do they?
You mean the Afghanis themselves?
Yes.
Come on, give me a break. It's a different culture.
You do well over there. You're such a myopic kind of misanthropic.
Look, you should talk. You should talk. You use bad language. You say Jesus Christ died for us.
Not on the television?
Well, see, the thing is, is that if you can get by the language, then you're going to see values there that...
Oh, yeah, values there. Yeah, like dope smoking and beer drinking.
There's nothing wrong with dope compared to the lottery scam that you were reporting on earlier.
I mean, I think that legalizing marijuana would be a good step forward because it's hypocritical for...
I know it would be interesting to have you in.
Well, the thing is that...
I never know where the conversation is going to go quite, you know.
Well, you steer this conversation.
I try.
I say to you that Dr. Zed in New
Brunswick told me that one of his patients who was going to commit suicide watched this
program before he pulled the trigger. Which one? This one? Or the trailer park boys? Trailer
park boys. And it changed his life. He would have done it if he watched you. Come on. Come
on John. Hold on. Bubbles has had more people come up and say thank you for saving my life.
We have nurses come in every time we have an opening.
Bubbles saves pussy cats.
Bubbles is some kind of weird...
I got a 40-ouncer from a guy who said he was on death's door.
Listen.
No, no, it's all right.
Leave him there.
Wait a second.
Jim Leahy needs...
You need a little Jim Leahy in your life.
I saw...
Listen, you enjoy a little drinking pool once in a while.
Ah, come on.
I saw the program the other night, and you were committing to your homosexual lover that you were going back to your wife.
Yeah.
But you intended to continue the affair with Randy.
And you know why you saw that program?
Because of synchronicity, and that's what you need to see.
What the hell is synchronicity?
So you can confess to your wife that you're a narcissistic guy who needs to have a little bit of leeway in your relationship.
Don't touch me.
See?
You're homophobic.
I'm a little bit afraid of you.
I'll tell you that.
I'll tell you one thing.
What?
Big C conservatives don't necessarily like the program, but a lot do.
But most of the people who love...
You've got the federal cabinet lined up watching it.
Yes.
You have no idea.
Is Stephen Harper a big fan?
Holy...
Oh, yes.
Well, Stephen Harper has no real imagination. He doesn't. Come on. Well, I don't know. Well, you can see it. Stephen Harper a big fan? Holy. Oh, yes. Well, Stephen Harper has no real imagination.
He doesn't.
Come on.
Well, I don't know.
Well, you can see him.
He's a wonderful man, but he's steering Canada down a stupid road.
Look.
What are people going to do now for a television program in which they steal shopping carts?
Pardon?
What are we going to do now for a TV show in which the main activity is the theft of shopping carts and the saving of pussycats
and drinking and smoking dope and swearing.
There's only one trillion dollars
of the feds they're going to give to the American
big multinationals
and they're thinking of doing it
to Toronto, the have-not province
and they're thinking of helping the poor
automobile industry
and the gasoline prices have just
Listen, there's so much in this world right now that you could say, this is hypocritical.
Bobby Mugabe, why don't we get rid of him?
And you're going to attack a show that establishes...
I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm wrong.
I should never have attacked.
I have to go.
Oh, I just want to say, Canadians love the Trailer Park Boys.
Yeah, good to see you.
And we're proud to be Canadians.
Proud.
Thank you, John Dunsworth.
Thank you.
Jim Nunn passed away on February 19th at the age of 72.
And there used to be a ballpark where the field was warm and green
and the people played
their crazy game
with a joy
I'd never seen
and the air
was such a wonder
from the hot dogs
and the beer
yes there used to be a ballpark right here. And there used to
be rock candy and a great big 4th of July with the fireworks exploding all across the summer sky
And the people watched in wonder how they'd laugh and how they'd cheer
And there used to be a ballpark right here. Now the children try to find it
And they can't believe their eyes
Cause the old team just isn't playing and the new team hardly tries
And the sky has got so cloudy when it used to be so clear
And the summer went so quickly
this year
yes there used
to be
a ballpark
right
here
Tim McCarver was the all-star catcher and Hall of Fame broadcaster
who during 60 years in baseball won two World Series titles with the St. Louis Cardinals
and had a long run as one of the most recognized television commentators.
I knew McCarver as a broadcaster, but it's worth noting
he hit.478 in the 1964 World Series, hitting a three-run home run in the 10th inning to win Game
Five. In the 10th inning with Bill White on third base and Dick Grode on first base and one out,
Mickelson pitches to McCarver, and Tim takes a vicious cut.
It's a long one, way back.
Mantle heading for the stands and might be out of there.
It is a home run! And the Cardinals jump ahead 5-2 as three runners score.
The homer was his third hit of the game, his eighth of the series,
sending his average soaring to 471.
Tim McCarver passed away in Memphis, Tennessee on February 16, 2023.
He was 81 years old.
Hello.
Hello.
How are you?
Good.
Are you in a good mood? Good. You know, it's hard to believe that eight years ago I was a young comedian because now I'm an old Jew now and I
had to be led to this club. What? No, I was on the Young Comedian special in 1978. Remember that year?
No.
BR, that was, before Reagan.
And I was a hell of a dresser in those days.
Let's take a look at the clip and see how cool I was in those days.
The people had different ways of moving.
You know, I figured out why black people walk the way they do.
You know why black people walk the way they do?
It's because for hundreds of years, black people were denied the use of white bathrooms.
That's how the walkie-pollies, like a black guy would go up to a white place and ask if he could use the bathroom.
Say, oh, can I use the bathroom?
No? Oh. So you see these guys on the car,
and they think they're cool,
and they have to go over to the bathroom.
I had a lot of time for Richard Belzer.
Firstly, he was hilarious.
Before becoming an actor,
he was primarily a stand-up comic. But let's talk about Belzer's acting.
The role he's best known for is that of police detective John Munch.
Munch was originally a character on Homicide, Life on the Street. But when that show ended,
Munch moved to Law and Order Special Victims Unit.
But wait, there's more. Belzer would portray Detective Munch on several other shows. In fact, Munch is the only fictional character to appear on 11 different television shows played by a single
actor. In addition to Homicide, Life on the Street,
and Law & Order, Special Victims Unit, Munch appeared on Law & Order, The X-Files, The Beat,
Law & Order Trial by Jury, Arrested Development, The Wire, 30 Rock, Jimmy Kimmel Live,
The Wire, 30 Rock, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.
On March 27th, 1985, four days before the first WrestleMania,
Belzer repeatedly requested on his cable TV talk show Hot Properties that Hulk Hogan demonstrate a wrestling move.
Hogan applied a front face lock, causing him to pass out. When released,
he hit the back of his head on the floor. He was dazed, lacerated, and briefly hospitalized
after waking up. Richard Belzer sued Hulk Hogan for $5 million and settled out of court for $400,000 in 1990.
And here's one more fun fact about Richard Belzer.
He was Henry Winkler's cousin.
Richard passed away on February 19th at the age of 73.
According to his friend Bill Scheft, a novelist,
Belzer's last words were,
Fuck you, motherfucker. She's like the swallow
that flies so high.
She's like
the river that never
runs dry.
She's like the
sunshine on the
shore.
She loves her love, but she'll love no more
it was down in the meadow this fair maid did go
are picking the beautiful primrose the more she picked the more she pulled
until
she gathered her
apron full
she climbed
on yonder hill
above
to give a
rose unto her
love
she gave him one she gave him three To give a rose unto her love,
She gave him one, she gave him three,
She gave her heart in company.
And as they sat on yonder hill,
His heart grew hard so harder still
He has two hearts
instead of one
She says, young man
what have you done?
When I carried my apron low
My love followed me through frost and snow
But now my apron is to my chin
My love passes by and won't call in
How foolish, foolish you must be
To think I love no one but thee
The world's not made for one alone
I take delight in everyone She took her roses and made a bed
A stony pillow beneath her head
She lay her down, no more did say
Just let her roses fade away
she's like the swallow that flies so high she's like the river that never runs dry. She's like the sunshine on the lee shore.
She lost
her love and she'll
love no more.
Newfoundland's Gordon Pinsent
had a storied acting
career, spanning dozens
of films and television projects,
including Due South,
The Red Green Show,
The Shipping News, and Away From Her.
He was also the voice of Babar the Elephant in television and film from 1989 to 2015.
That's right, Gordon Pinsent shared the screen with Stu Stone.
Then, there was his dramatic reading of Justin Bieber's autobiography.
Hello.
I am Canadian icon Gordon Pinson,
and I would like to share with you some selections
from the memoirs of another famous Canadian,
16-year-old Justin Bieber.
The day I was born, March the 1st, 1994,
Celine Dion was Soledad number one with the power of love.
Not a bad way to start your life.
My first date has been mythologized
I took her to a King's Day buffet
Yes, I wore a white shirt
Yes, I got spaghetti
Singers aren't supposed to have dairy before a show
But we all know I'm a rule breaker
Pizza is just so good
I've gotten the ugliest haircut of my life
My trademark swoosh was hacked off into this squarish situation
That kind of reminded me of Bart Simpson
Dear God squarish situation that kind of reminded me of Bart Simpson.
Dear God, what he must have gone through.
I'm just a regular 16-year-old kid.
I make good grilled cheese, and I like girls. Oh, the girls. The grilled cheese. I wish I was you.
Gordon Pinsent passed away on February 25th at the age of 92.
at the age of 92.
This has been the Ridley Funeral Home Memorial episode of Toronto Mic'd for the month of February 2023.
If you lost someone you love in February,
my sincere condolences.
Peace and love to all.
I'm Toronto Mike. අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි Thank you.