This is the 20th anniversary of my first summer working at the Canadian National Exhibition, known affectionately as simply The Ex. Although much has changed in the last 20 years, including a reduction in the number of days The Ex is now open, here are six significant changes I noticed
At the Ex yesterday, they had this "5 DVDs for $20" deal. There's four of us in the family, so everyone got to choose a movie and I'd top it off with one family flick. Here's the choices made. Keep in mind, this DVD shack didn't have any A-list titles.
I'm back from a great day at the CNE. I've written extensively about my three summers working at the Canadian National Exhibition as a teenager, so when I join the family for a trip to the Ex now it's really for three reasons. The Sights, Sounds and Smells I love
Smart People: 4 out of 10. Smart People is a pretentious piece of crap. At 95 minutes, I thought it would never end. The voice Dennis Quaid puts on to seem pompous is so annoying, I wanted to kick his ass, but not in an engaging, effective way. He was
I think I've seen about 50 remixes of this scene from Downfall by now, but it never gets tired. Here's Hitler's reaction to the Oasis split. Hitler hilarity!
I used to do this every Friday, but I haven't done it in a year or so. My wife just told me we're watching Smart People tonight, so here are my favourite Dennis Quaid films TrafficThe Big EasyAny Given SundayThe RookieInnerspace
According to Google Analytics, here are the top ten keywords that brought people to this site in August 2009. toronto mikemartin streekfearless fredsandra rinomato breastsprima tvwedding songs 2008wedding songs 2009norm rumackwedding playlist 2009party playlistFor the very first time in the history of this blog, 'toronto mike' searches sent the most
A couple of days ago I shared the MP3 of The Icicle Works' "Birds Fly (Whisper To A Scream)". Andrew chimed in with this comment: There's a 12" remix of this song that I have from a collection called "Classic Alternatives." It's a 4 disc set with lots of great
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. Fellow Michael Power grad @joanneacri just tweeted about this old ad that aired in 1986. It's a catchy as all hell
The Fan 590 has sports updates every twenty minutes. They've had this for as long as there's been a Fan 590. As a Toronto sports fan, I know I can count on these twenty/twenty sports updates. All week, the twenty/twenty sports updates have sounded different. The intro music,
Toronto radio is about to get a reality check. We're about to get a clearer, more accurate look at who's listening to what stations and how often. 9000 people across Canada are, as of today, wearing PPM devices. Here's what these PPM devices do, according to the BBM Canada press
I admit it, I used to read Archie Comics. I gobbled them up like candy as a kid. I know I'm not alone because the gang from Riverdale has been gracing comic book covers for 70 years. It was recently revealed that Archie is engaged to marry Veronica. This upset
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 Icicle Works - Birds Fly (Whisper To A
I used to bike every kilometre of this city. Toronto's streets were my bike paths and I'd tackle them daily until there was snow on the ground and then start up again after the first thaw. When I biked to get myself from A to Z, it was the bike
I started using Gmail over five years ago. My work email resolves in Gmail, making it an integral part of my personal and professional life. I love Gmail as an email client. The filters, the labels, the conversations, the integrated chat, it's served me well for half a decade. All
I'm submitting a song for SLS22 consideration. I'm submitting "Anti-Venom" by Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker. I must confess, I play Questamation all the time and I play it very, very loud. I play it and Welding the C:/ as a combo. A delicious Parkdale combo.
When I first wrote that I was going to test drive a Smart Fortwo car for a week, a commenter warned me to stay off the 400 series highways. That's all I needed to hear. The first thing I did when I got the keys from Mercedez-Benz this morning was
Toronto Stories: 6 out of 10. Last December, the PR folks behind this Canadian indie film contacted me and asked me to help promote it. They sent me the DVD to review, but in typical Canadian indie film promotion fashion, the DVD had no audio. I let my contact know
I'm running for Terry on Sunday, September 13 at High Park. I'm aiming to raise $1000 for The Terry Fox Foundation. I'm really going to need your help. Donate to my run. They'll email you a tax receipt in PDF. It's easy, secure and for a good cause. Who has
Sam Etcheverry was 79. He was the legendary quarterback who led the Montreal Alouettes to three Grey Cup appearances in the 1950s then later coached them to CFL title.
A few weeks ago, I wrote I was test driving a 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid for a week. Someone from Mercedez-Benz reads this blog and send me an email moments later. "If you're going to test drive the Fusion for a week, you have to test drive our smart fortwo
I watch a lot of documentaries. I love a good doc. One of my favourite documentary series is The View From Here on TVO. If you have a PVR, I highly recommend recording The View From Here as it's better than anything you'll find on ABC, CBS, NBC or FOX.
We never owned a Commodore Pet, but my dad would bring it home from work on selective weekends. That made the Commodore Pet the first computer I ever enjoyed. One of my favourite games was Eat-Man. I just Googled the crap out of "Eat-Man" and there's surprisingly nothing out there.
My son has a Gmail account. Gmail is integrated with the Google instant messenger, Gtalk, so when James sees me online, he likes to chat. This afternoon, James' cousin told him about this cool video game he discovered online. Apparently there are aliens and stuff, so James tried to download
I used to have a form on this site for anyone to submit a guest blog entry. Five years ago today, a gentleman in British Columbia submitted a tribute to Robert Reichel who was leaving the Leafs after three seasons to play at home in the Czech league for Litvinov
