Cam Gordon has asked me to say a few words to open his Track Changes book launch event on Wednesday. Apparently I have 3 minutes before I pass the mic to Cam himself, so I jotted down some notes.
This is what I intend to say on Wednesday at Handlebar. Note: I don't write anything with AI. I kick it old school, typing out prose as I think it, and then reconsidering it upon further review. I can't believe I now feel I need to clarify that.
I’m Toronto Mike and I started blogging as Toronto Mike at Toronto Mike dot com way back in 2002. Ten years later, I launched Toronto Mike’d, my little podcast. I’m knocking on the door of 1900 episodes.
During the heyday of the blogosphere, I’d get pitches from PR reps. Some were pretty rad - court-side seats at a Raptors game to try Gatorade or a fun road trip to Quebec with GM - but I’d get these emails from a Cameron Gordon that ended up being Completely Ignored. Cam was over the other day for an episode of Toronto Mike’d and we revisited these pitches, because he couldn’t believe I didn’t respond to his stylish LG event invitation, but this email contained the words that act as my kryptonite: jacket required.
Eventually, when I had Toronto Mike’d and Cam was at Twitter (remember Twitter?!?!??!), he pitched himself as a guest and I bit. I needed to know more about this mysterious Cameron Gordon. We had an amazing chat that June 2018 day for over 2.5 hours, he introduced me to his high school buddy Stu Stone, and when the pandemic struck (remember the pandemic?), the three of us pledged to record a music-themed episode every week to help everyone deal with this massive curveball. We called it Pandemic Fridays, and we did that for 76 weeks in a row, until we recorded a finale at a TMLX event at Great Lakes Brewery in front of listeners. That happened, and it was glorious.
I mentioned Toronto Mike’d is almost at 1900 episodes, and Cam has been a part of at least 100 of those. And it’s not because he’s so damn handsome, it’s because he’s a curious cat who cares to document an important and fascinating era. He gets it. He cares to track changes. Cam is one of us.
I loved the book, especially chapter 11, and I love this guy. It’s my pleasure to welcome to the stage Cameron Gordon.
