When Symbols Change Meaning: The Swastika
Published March 18, 2010 @ 12:12 in Miscellaneous

Today, the swastika is primarily seen as the symbol of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany. The connotation is incredibly negative, and rightly so... under the flag of the swastika, a racist belief in the superiority of the Aryan race took hold and resulted in the death of 11 million people. This symbol has power.

Until the Nazis used this symbol, the swastika was actually used by many cultures throughout the past 3,000 years to represent life, sun, power, strength, and good luck. The connotation was so positive, it even made its way onto a hockey jersey. Here's the Edmonton Swastikas hockey team from 1916.

[Photo via Birthplace of Ice Hockey]

Entry Permalink    0 Comments

Alex Chilton, Dead at 59
Published March 18, 2010 @ 11:18 in Celebrity Death Watch

Alex Chilton was 59. He was the singer and guitarist who rose to prominence in Big Star and The Box Tops.

Entry Permalink    0 Comments

The White Stripes - Black Math Live in Canada
Published March 17, 2010 @ 18:27 in Weekly MP3s

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.

The White Stripes - Black Math Live
The White Stripes have released a documentary film and accompanying live album entitled "Under Great White Northern Lights" which documents their 2007 tour across Canada.

I'm enjoying the live album and I'm sharing "Black Math" because it's one of my favourite White Stripes tunes.

The White Stripes: The best band of the past decade. Agree or disagree?

Entry Permalink    3 Comments

Dan Achen, Dead at 51
Published March 17, 2010 @ 14:30 in Celebrity Death Watch

Dan Achen was 51. He was lead guitarist for the Hamilton rock band Junkhouse.

Entry Permalink    1 Comments

Happy St. Patrick's Day, Grandma
Published March 17, 2010 @ 11:16 in Family

I was always very close to my grandmother. I remember a pre-teen version of myself timidly approaching the elderly woman behind the counter of the Irish Store and asking if she had a print of the Doors of Dublin. My younger brother Ryan was there too and our plan was to buy this print and have it framed for our Grandmother who spoke often about the old country. She spoke with such fondness of Dublin and Gaelic sayings and Irish legends and we knew she'd love the Doors of Dublin on the wall of her Gilford, Ontario home.

For many, St. Patrick's Day has become an excuse to party and drink to excess. For me, it's a reason to remember good times with my Grandma. We were told she wouldn't be with us by Thanksgiving Day 2009, but she's still with us today. Grandma, may the Lord keep you in His hand and never close His fist too tight.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Entry Permalink    8 Comments

Airchecker Steals Content, Gives No Credit, Ticks Me Off
Published March 16, 2010 @ 15:58 in My 2 Cents

Airchecker has a blog and a Twitter account. The official Airchecker bio states they're based in Vancouver and "Canada's number one source for the Canadian Radio Industry. The first social networking news provider. Radio insiders, powered by YOU.".

When they say "powered by YOU", they really mean "stolen from YOU". Here's the sequence of events that ticked me off, in chronological order.

1. I Post An Exclusive Interview on My Blog
I conducted an interview with Rick Hodge, using questions I wrote, and with Rick's explicit permission, I posted this interview on my blog.

That's my content, licensed under a Creative Commons License that permits anyone to "copy, distribute and transmit the work" so long as it's noncommercial and I'm attributed as the source with a link back to my site.

2. Airchecker Posts My Content On Their Blog
Airchecker takes my entry, likely from my RSS feed, and reproduces it on their blog. They don't credit the source, they reproduce almost the entire Rick Hodge interview with "Posted by Airchecker" in the footer. Here's a screen cap of how my entry looks on their Blogger blog.

3. Airchecker Tweets About Their Interview With Rick Hodge, Linking to Their Blog
Now that Airchecker has my exclusive content on their site as if it's theirs, they may as well promote it via Twitter. Their tweet, of course, doesn't include @torontomike or a link back to my blog. Here's their tweet:

I'm aware there are thousands of scraper blogs out there, stealing content from RSS feeds for SEO fodder, but this is different. This Airchecker is an attempt to provide a Canadian radio news aggregation service, and that's why this practice of theirs has me peeved. It's just wrong. It's stealing.

Airchecker, I'm sentencing you to five minutes in the sin bin for unethical blogging and tweeting practices. If you need good content, write it yourself. If you want to borrow some of mine, at least mention that it's mine and link back to the appropriate permalink, or put me on the Airchecker payroll. Play by the rules or Colin Campbell will suspend you... or not.

Entry Permalink    29 Comments

McDonald's Shamrock Milkshake
Published March 16, 2010 @ 15:27 in Miscellaneous

I used to look forward to McDonald's shamrock milkshakes at this time of year. Shamrock shakes were only available around St. Patrick's Day and had a minty sweet taste that would appeal to a 10 year old.

At some point, McDonald's stopped selling them. I'm guessing they weren't selling enough to make it worthwhile. It's too bad, I think the kids would dig them.

Here's an old ad for the shamrock milkshake, circa 1986.

Entry Permalink    15 Comments

Rob Ford For Mayor? Not On My Watch...
Published March 16, 2010 @ 10:59 in Politics, Toronto News ~ Toronto Focus

On March 26, Rob Ford will announce something. Speculation is he'll announce he's running for mayor of Toronto. I hope he's announcing he's quitting politics for an on-air gig at AM640.

Four years ago, after having enough of Rob Ford's Neanderthal comments, I wrote a definitive list of Rob Ford quotes. Here are a few of my favourites:

"This is an insult to my constituents to even think about having a shelter in my ward!" - April, 2002

"I don't understand. Number one, I don't understand a transgender, I don't understand, is it a guy dressed up like a girl or a girl dressed up like a guy? And we're funding this for, I don't know, what does it say here? We're giving them $3,210?" - June 2005

"People do not want government housing built in the city of Toronto. They want roads fixed, more police presence, but they don't want more government housing that will depreciate the value of their property." - July, 2005

A year after I wrote that entry, he chimed in with a beaut about bike lanes.

I can't support bike lanes. Roads are built for buses, cars, and trucks. My heart bleeds when someone gets killed, but it's their own fault at the end of the day.

Rob Ford, they seem to like you in Ward 2, Etobicoke North. Please run there. Toronto's next mayor won't be a bike lane hating, Transit City killing social conservative who promises to "cut everything but police spending to tame the city budget. Libraries, parks, whatever."

Surely we can bring accountability to city hall spending without this extra baggage and complete lack of big city vision.

Entry Permalink    24 Comments

Rick Hodge Interview - Why He Left CHUM, the Sunday Funnies and More
Published March 15, 2010 @ 16:46 in Interviews, Radio

I recently worked with Rick Hodge. Rick and I had a rocky start to our relationship, but as is often the case, the guy you most want to stab in the eye quickly becomes a solid bud.

Rick Hodge is no longer on the air, having been booted from the radio by Astral, but he's now writing very interesting prose on his blog. All bias aside, it's a very interesting perspective and he occasionally tells some pretty cool Toronto radio stories over there. I strongly urge you to check it out.

Here's an interview I conducted with Toronto radio legend Rick Hodge earlier today.

Q: I can't tell you how many Sunday nights I spent listening to you host the Sunday Night Funnies on CHUM-FM. How did that program come to be? Are you aware of how awesome it was?
A: I inherited the Sunday Funnies after the original host left. It was kind of make shift at the time so I thought it would be a good idea to get it organized. Because of content and language a lot of the material couldn't be used and it would take the producer hours to find all the edits. So I catalogued the entire library. Then I made a point of going to the big record stores downtown and bought up anything new I found. I remember coming across Jeff Foxworthy for the first time. I bought him, loved him and played him. After a couple of weeks I got a call from Sam the Record Man. The guy said "what the hell are you doing?" They were getting a non stop stream of people coming into the store asking for Jeff Foxworthy or that southern guy I heard on the Funnies. I also made runs to Buffalo about every 3 months because they had material that wasn't available in Canada. Don Ferguson from the Air Farce told me I had the largest comedy collection he had ever seen.

One thing I took pride in was promoting as much Canadian talent as I could. The 2 comics I got to know the best were Gerry D who cut a name for himself on "Last Comic Standing" in the US and Frank Spadone. I just happened to pick up Frank's cd one day and started playing it. I used it on the Funnies and he called to ask if he could do a ticket giveaway on the morning show. He did and the venue, which was only half sold, sold out. And he did it on Super Bowl Sunday.

The program director at the time wanted me to start cutting back on the older comics. He wanted the young comics I told him the problem with the young comics is that most of them live and die with "F" bomb. If he'd allow me let that word go in their bits it would open things up for all sorts of new material. He did and we only got one complaint.

To answer the question, no I never did realize how awesome it was.

Q: I used to catch you on television hosting Rinkside, a weekly AHL highlight show. How did you score that gig?
A: Actually they came to me. It was just after I won a sportscaster of the year award. I'm not a television guy so thank God it was pre-taped. The most fun I had was with the co-hosts. Brian Kilrea of the Ottawa 67's did regular bits one year and he was a hoot. Brad Smith (Motor City Smitty) was fun to work with. We discovered Jim Ralph when he was a goaltender with the Newmarket Saints. I knew from the start he had a career in sports casting. I also got to know Gord Stellick. Truly one of the nicest people I have ever met and another former non broadcaster who's done very well on hard work and talent as a talk show host.

Q: "Roger, Rick & Marilyn" was my mom's favourite radio show. The CHUM-FM morning show was tops in this city. Why did you leave?
A: Roger Rick and Marilyn was, and remains, the highlight of my broadcasting career. I was honoured to be asked to be part of Roger Ashby's induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. So, why did I leave? The station was evolving. My commentaries had been dropped, the Funnies were dropped and finally the sports casts in the morning were dropped. I disagreed at the time but in an industry that had become specialized I understand why they did what they did. I wanted to get back to doing sports and commentaries and I wanted to get involved with talk radio. There's more to the decision but basically when I was presented with the opportunity, I took it.

Q: Astral never seemed to know what to do with you once they landed you. You were on the EZ-Rock morning show, while running down the hall to be on CFRB. Then, without giving you a fair shot, they kicked you off the air. What the hell went wrong?
A: Good question.

Q: Do you have any resentment towards Astral?
A: No. Sometimes you forget it's a business and the people running that business will do what they feel is best for the company. I understand that. That doesn't mean it doesn't sting when it happens but at least you understand.

Q: What's next for Rick Hodge?
A: Well, I have to check the kitty litter, I have to fill out my NCAA brackets for the pool, Pardon the Interruption is on in about an hour (best show on TV), then I'll read some of the new book I just picked up. Lord I've got cabin fever. Actually I want to stay in radio. It's the old Joni Mitchell line "you don't know what you've got 'till it's gone." Getting up at some ridiculous hour never really bothered me. I love the early, early mornings and the drive to work at 2:30 am with virtually no traffic on the road. Where I'll end up I don't know and who knows, I may not end up anywhere.

Entry Permalink    10 Comments

The Great One and The Greatest One
Published March 15, 2010 @ 15:06 in Toronto Maple Leafs

I love this photo of The Great One and The Greatest One.

[via Vintage Leafs]

Entry Permalink    14 Comments