Toronto Mike

Memories

Total 433 Posts

Of Bleach and Reservoir Dogs

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
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Mr. Bubble

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
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Coles Notes Existed Before CliffsNotes

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,
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Pac-Man

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
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How We Consumed Music

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
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I Was A Male Grocery Store Cashier

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
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Garfield

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
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Big Top Disappointment

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
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My High-School Commute

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
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Pizza Pasta Made Perfect

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.
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Your Memory is Faulty

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
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September 24, 1991

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
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Elmer the Safety Elephant Statue

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
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The Gifted Program

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
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Blinky Used to Talk!

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
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I Witnessed a MuchMusic Reunion

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
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Built for Speed and Rio

1982 was the first calendar year in which I purchased music for myself. Prior to then, the only music in the house that didn't spill out of the radio belonged to my parents. But in 1982, I purchased one album on vinyl and one album on cassette tape. The vinyl
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