You've got to love Andy Barrie. He's been hosting Toronto's CBC Radio One program Metro Morning since 1995 and is one of the finest broadcasters working in this city. His Metro Morning has always been a favourite of mine. This morning, on his 65th birthday, he announced that he's retiring
I've been running blogs on the Movable Type platform for years. Over that time, I've witnessed the ebb and flow of comment spam. Anyone who manages a blog is familiar with comment spam and has a strategy implemented to fight it. I've detected a comment spam spike over the past
I slept in this morning. My son's early morning practice was cancelled due to a video shoot at the rink, so I didn't wake up until 9:30 or so. The moment I got online, I learnt something big was going down. Brian Burke had a press conference scheduled for
Crazy Heart: 8.5 out of 10. Crazy Heart reminded me a great deal of The Wrestler. Both films are about a down and out former great who meets a good woman and attempts to resolve issues with their offspring. The Wrestler, which I very much liked, had an open
Dion Phaneuf is a Toronto Maple Leaf. This is not a drill. The Toronto Maple Leafs have acquired defensemen Dion Phaneuf and Keith Aulie along with winger Fredrik Sjöström from the Calgary Flames in exchange for Matt Stajan, Nik Hagman, Jamal Mayers and Ian White. Phaneuf, 24, averaged 51.5
Up by 3 heading into the third, they fooled me. For a brief moment, I truly believed we could win a game. Quite the fool I was. In the words of Roger Daltrey, WON'T GET FOOLED AGAIN. I'm told "major changes" are coming today. In an hour, Brian Burke will
Pauly Fuemana was 40. He was the frontman for OMC, the New Zealand duo who found fame with the hit song "How Bizarre". I was newly married when "How Bizarre" broke and my wife was a big fan of the tune. The song guaranteed OMC a spot on a whole
I'm submitting a song for SLS23 consideration. I'm submitting "Saint Veronika" by Billy Talent. I'm a sucker for this band, and I really don't care that you hate them.
Neil Young has never won a Grammy. I know this for a fact because Neil Young might just be my favourite singer / songwriter of all-time. Neil was honoured at the pre-Grammy MusiCares gala as their Person of the Year for his artistry in music and philanthropic contributions. I did a
The Swansea Hockey Association is the world's largest outdoor hockey league. Normally that's a good thing if you ask me, but when it's -18°C, it's less of a good thing. The SHA plays at Rennie Park. The Rennie Park zamboni has animated Maple Leafs painted on it, and it
They say you shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. I disagree. If the horse is a lemon, it's not gift at all. It's a big animal that you have to care for and feed and that's going to cost you lots of money for oats and a stable
I just got back from a great little party to celebrate a pal's birthday. I left this party with a pretty cool gift. It's Wendel Clark's book "Wendel - My Life in Hockey" and it's autographed for me. Earlier in the week, I ordered a tee shirt from Pucking Hilarious.
Yes, I used to watch Pee Wee's Playhouse. I loved that show. It's great to see Pee Wee Herman back in his playhouse getting an iPad.
Ball. I've got nothing else to say.
I thought I hit the bottom last October. I had just come to the realization that my five and a half year old daughter had not been alive for a single Leafs playoff game. We Leaf fans are enduring an unprecedented streak of failure for a team that hasn't won
J.D. Salinger was 91. He was the legendary author, youth hero and fugitive from fame whose "The Catcher in the Rye" shocked and inspired a world he increasingly shunned.
I remember listening to Punkorama on Edge 102.1 back in the day when it was hosted by George Stroumboulopoulos. The hard aggressive sounds of Punkorama will no longer be heard each Tuesday night on CFNY as the last episode of Punkorama aired two nights ago. Here's the playlist from
Zelda Rubinstein was 76. She was the diminutive character actress with the childlike voice who was best known as the psychic called in to rid a suburban home of demonic forces in the 1982 horror movie "Poltergeist."
I actually resisted the iPod for years. I preferred my iRiver because it actually had a built in FM receiver. Sometimes I want to listen to MP3s, other times I want to listen to the radio. I eventually bought a Shuffle for running and a couple of years ago I
The George Carlin of the Barilkosphere, also known as Down Goes Brown, had this to tweet the other night. Dear 2009-10 Toronto Maple Leafs. You have no redeeming qualities whatsoever. I hate you.That, in a nutshell, is precisely the problem. There are no redeeming qualities to speak of. We
Congrats to my brother Steve and his wife Vanessa on the birth of their first child. Nathaniel James Boon arrived at 12:41 this afternoon. The inspiration for his name is obvious to me.
I've always loved Public Enemy. I'm still infatuated with the first four Public Enemy albums. Those samples, those hardcore drum beats, Chuck D's rhymes... PE remains the greatest hip-hop band of all-time. "Fight the Power", the last track on their third album, Fear of a Black Planet, recently turned 20.
Back in 1983, I watched a made for TV movie starring Gary Coleman. It was called "The Kid with the 200 I.Q.". I was only 8 or 9 at the time, and I thought it was the greatest movie in the history of the world. It was perfect. Gary
Pernell Roberts was 81. He played the eldest Cartwright brother in TV's "Bonanza" and had the lead role in "Trapper John, M.D.".
A few years ago, I shared my memories of Elmer the Safety Elephant. Elmer was a character who would visit my primary school back in the 80s to teach us about bike safety, not walking on train tracks and such. I just received the following email regarding Elmer the Safety
