I dropped my youngest off at school and went for a brisk 15km ride along Lake Ontario before making myself some french press coffee. While I sipped I popped in to the usual spots: the FOTM group on Whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter, Bluesky and LinkedIn. I usually check email and these
Tonight, after a long day of cycling, watching soccer, swimming and hanging with the family, I threw on Reservoir Dogs. I love the opening scene in the diner. Heck, I like it all, but I wasn't nearly cool enough in 1992 to see it in theatres. The guy who owned
I haven't had a bath in decades. My first wife used to draw a hot bath daily, but I'm a shower guy who probably hasn't had a bath since the early 80s. But when I did bathe in the 70s and 80s, Mr. Bubble made it fun. Baths sucked, but
During this morning's episode of Toronto Mike'd, my guest Ebonnie Rowe started a story with "I'll give you the CliffsNotes version..." I chimed in that we Canadians would have used Coles Notes, not CliffsNotes, and that we only knew CliffsNotes from American films and television. I did a little digging,
I had a recording of Toronto Mike'd scheduled for 10am this morning, which means I blocked 90 minutes in my calendar. Due to a family emergency, my guest needed to postpone his debut, so I found myself with a little free time. Kurt Cobain died 30 years ago today, so
Last week, I visited my buddy Joe's house for his 50th birthday party. It seems I know a lot of people turning the big 5-0 this year. Joe's main floor is open concept, and against the wall near the entrance was a video game machine featuring Pac-Man. This arcade machine
For the purposes of this article, I'm going back to 1987. That's the year I became a teenager. I had to pick a year, and that makes as much sense to me as any year. In 1987, I was already in love with music. Here's how I consumed it. RadioIn
When I got married the first time, my occupation was grocery clerk. I worked at a Food City located at The Galleria Mall at Dufferin and Dupont. As a grocery clerk,I was responsible for grocery items, which was basically everything that didn't belong to the produce, meat or bake
Where were you on October 23, 1993? That's the day Joe Carter hit a 3-run home run in the bottom of the ninth of game six at SkyDome and the Jays walked off a World Series clinching victory over Mitch Williams and the Philadelphia Phillies. I wrote about this moment
When I was a kid, Garfield was everywhere. I'd buy his books, his posters, I'd watch his TV specials... Garfield was the #1 cartoon of my youth. There was nothing better than scoring a new Garfield book at the Scholastic Book Fair. And if you could score an I Hate
An early disappointment for me was Big Top Pee-Wee. Big Top Pee-Wee came out in 1988 and starred Pee-Wee Herman a.k.a Paul Reubens and Susan Tyrrell, Kris Kristofferson, Penelope Ann Miller, and Valeria Golino. I was very, very excited about Big Top Pee-Wee. Trailer for Big Top Pee-WeeI
This post was inspired by a New Yorker piece by Colin Jost. As a teenager, I lived on the east side of the Humber River, but attended high school west of the Humber. If we're talking boroughs, I lived in York and went to high school in Etobicoke. There were
When I visited The Woodshed last month to chat with Blue Rodeo's Jim Cuddy, Jim asked me why I pronounced "pasta" with an "aw" instead of the way you'd say "past". I was often told I had it wrong, but I'd never been asked why I say it that way.
Yesterday I was checking in on Twitter, as I do several times a day, and I saw a tweet from Kevin Glew about Willie Upshaw. #OTD 39 years ago, Willie Upshaw hits a two-run single in the third inning to become the first Toronto Blue Jays player to record 100
On this day in 1991, thirty years ago, four seminal albums were released. Nirvana released "Nevermind," Soundgarden released "Badmotorfinger," the Red Hot Chilli Peppers released "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" and A Tribe Called Quest released "The Low End Theory." I owned and adored all four of these albums. I still
It's déjà vu all over again. Someone with a vintage Elmer the Safety Elephant statue has turned to Google to find out the value, only to end up right here at TorontoMike.com. Here's the email I received last night. Me and my partner have an Elmer The Safety Elephant
I used to buy 45 singles. I had a record player, purchased at Consumers Distributing, and I'd walk over to Sam the Record Man at Jane and Bloor to buy the Top 40 hits of the day. I had caught the video for Bruce Willis's Respect Yourself and loved it
Much Music is down to one single hour of videos during weekdays. Previously, they were still playing seven hours of videos weekdays from 6am to 1pm. This new schedule as the videos being played for an hour at noon. I'll be the first to admit this change won't affect me
During his visit Friday, Ed "Retrontario" Conroy gave me an old record he stumbled across in one of his crate-dives for vintage Canadiana. This glorious piece of vinyl is entitled "Mac's Exclusively Presents Great Moments of Hockey" and includes Hockey Night in Canada calls by Foster Hewitt et al. Now
The Barenaked Ladies have been the topic of many conversations this past week, so it's no surprise their reuniting for the Juno Awards came up in last Friday's Open Mike. Commenter mrmojorisica linked to this video featuring interviews with Steven Page and Ed Robertson. There it was, a quote from
I love writing about Blinky. In the early 80s, Blinky the Police Car was everywhere. He and Elmer the Safety Elephant were primary school staples. I remember Blinky blinking, but I forgot Blinky used to talk. Thanks to my pal Retrontario, here's raw footage from the 1981 Santa Claus Parade
I remember countless school trips to the McLaughlin Planetarium when I was in primary school. It was an amazing place to learn about the stars, planets, and cosmology. I watched La La Land yesterday and there's a scene in a planetarium that took me back to the 80s when we
Last night, I was at The Royal Cinema for an event billed as MuchMusic Retro Mixtape. It was a discussion with Christopher Ward and fantastic video collections curated by Retrontario. Along the way, other veejays from the era would take the stage to share stories. It was awesome for this
