I Love You Radio: 80s Edition

Yep that's skinny moustachioed me doing the Friday radio club thing at Holy Trinity High School in the spring of 1992. With a trusty double tape deck, occasional turntable, and iconic Realistic mixer I guess I pioneered the "playing what we want" format about a decade before it became fashionable. The principal's request for Neil Diamond's Song Sung Blue has to go on right away? After Digital Underground's Humpty Dance? Okie dokie Mr. Gratton. Dr. Feelgood into Debbie Gibson? Gotcha. But I did love it, even though my compadres Dennis, Steve and Laura couldn't understand why I loved being on the mic so much. Looking back, it probably was a little much. But I was on a mission. Ever since the winter of 1984 when my mom gave me a transistor radio to pass the time as I waited for my ride for school, I was in love with radio. Sounded like fun, that was for sure. Especially with people like Bruce Bowie, Rob Christie and Audie Lynds at the helm in the morning (yes, I was an unrepentant CHED head). Of course, there's a big secret under all the fun: Like anything arts and entertainment related, radio takes a lot of practice and hard work, no matter how easy the aforementioned legendary talents make it sound. But I found that out a few years down the road.


In the mid to late 1980s, 630 CHED was on the cutting edge of radio trends in the Edmonton radio market. Not only did they have the top-rated (and future international award winning) morning show in the city thanks to Rob and Audie, they also decided to be the first in Edmonton to bring the crazy high energy "morning zoo" format to the evening. The ringleader of the "Nighttime Zoo" was one Jungle Jay Hamilton, a very high-energy personality DJ who was perfect at creating a mood and keeping them listening weeknights from 6 to 10 for about six years. I wondered what a guy who had that much energy was really like, and I found out about a year later when I met him at a spring break video dance party at Heritage Mall. Just as cool as I thought. He was gracious enough to remember me when I called during a show a couple months later.

Cut now to May 17, 1989. I was selected as one of the winners of a "cohost the Top 8 At 8 with Jungle Jay" contest, on the aforementioned 630 CHED. (Before I continue, a quick side note about DJs and dates. The nature of radio, as I sure found out that night, is quick and intense. Done and gone. in the blink of an eye. Unless you buy into the theory that all our radio transmissions float out into space for the amusement of alien races. I doubt it. So the DJ's themselves rarely remember what they did and when they did it. And why would they? Life is fast, baby! But one of my particular quirks is that if a date in my life is significant, I never ever forget it. Ask anyone who knows me well. So what do you think I said to Jay when the 20 year milestone rolled around in 2009? That's right: "Hey man, guess what? It's been 20 years since we did the Top 8 At 8! Isn't that cool?". The look on his face told me that no, he didn't think it was particularly cool, and how dare I. But I quickly backpedaled. Phew!

But on with the show. My mom and stepdad got me to the CHED studio about 45 minutes early after I finished the night's homework, which was social studies if memory serves. As I waited in the lobby, Jay came out to tell me it would be a few minutes while he and a colleague adjusted mikes. That was fine with me, because truth be told I was a little nervous. I was just over a chest cold, and taking Buckley's Mixture four or five times a day on the preceding weekend to make sure it would be vanquished by showtime on Wednesday. It was actually supposed to be on Monday, but Jay took a couple days off to get over his own cold, so I got a little reprieve there. Anyway, when I got in there, the last song before the countdown started was just finishing. (Baby Don't Forget My Number by Milli Vanilli if memory serves. There wasn't enough time to tell me the number 8 song before showtime, but enough time for Jay to tell me one very important thing:

"I'm gonna ask you questions, and you're gonna answer them."

Cool, man. So he introduced me, got me to plug Holy Trinity High, introduced Jody Watley's Real Love, and off we went. And after hastily wetting my whistle with a box of Co-Op apple juice, it was my turn to introduce songs such as Donny Osmond's Soldier of Love, One To Many's Downtown (a song I honestly have not heard since that night), Guns N Roses' Patience, Michael Damien's Rock On, Bobby Brown's Every Little Step, Eria Fachin's I Hear a Symphony, and the number 1 song, Paula Abdul's Forever Your Girl.

I sure made up that night for all the note passing I never did in school, Because Jay would write down the name of the next song on a piece of paper and hand it to me as the current song was playing. And as I said before, all at breakneck pace. It lasted roughly half an hour, but felt like about ten minutes.  And all the while I just introduced the songs in my best impression of how Jay would do them. And I must have done something right, because he played a applause sound effect for me at the end. You've heard of baby carrots? Well in the 80s, DJs had baby 8-track cousins that could hold one thing and were always ready to go. Like this one:




When the show was over, I asked my mom how she thought I did. She was, after all, the one who kicked off my love affair with radio by giving me that transistor radio.

She said, "You did great Mike. I know this has been a dream of yours for quite a while. Who knows, you might have a radio show of your own one day. You just might find your very own style!"


And I would.

But that is a story for I Love You Radio: 90s Edition.

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Last Jedi Teaser Thoughts

As I have said before, it is great to have the Star Wars universe in the hands of writers and directors who are more comfortable with the emotional underpinnings of current and subsequent stories than series creator and godfather George Lucas ever was. It will be interesting to see where the potentially interracial storyline between Finn (John Boyega) and Rey (Daisy Ridley) goes. And the opportunity to see Mark Hamill's Luke back on screen in an actual speaking role gives me chills, as does the prospect of seeing Carrie Fisher's Princess Leia front and center in a role she completed filming last July before her untimely death in December.

And as for Leia's continued appearances in the SWU beyond Last Jedi, I believe that they would still be able to happen, as long as it is done in a respectable manner which is amenable to both Fisher's estate and her brother Todd (probably one and the same). Because all SWU properties and likenesses are now owned by Disney. And I am damn sure that from both a financial and emotional standpoint, no one wants to see Carrie Fisher or Princess Leia ever being forgotten.

May the Force be with you!


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Don Rickles: The Legacy

As Don Rickles once remarked, he'd been in the business for 60 years, but his grandkids only knew him from the Toy Story franchise. Not a bad way to be remembered, in the end:








Rickles also often spoke of needing to keep his name alive. While I think that might be a problem for someone like Justin Guarini, I don't think Don Rickles will ever be forgotten. Because the secretly golden-hearted curmudgeon will always have Jimmy Kimmel in his corner:





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RIP Don Rickles

On April 6, the world lost  Don Rickles, a true comic genius, at the age of 90.





Here he is at his quick best in the 1970 action drama Kelly's Heroes. Even at a scant 20 seconds, he makes the scene his as Crapgame.





And here he is 28 years later roasting the film's star Clint Eastwood.


Doing the same thing to Frank Sinatra in the 70s (and Mr. Warmth was the only one whose ribbing Ol' Blue Eyes would tolerate, by far)











More 70s goodness with Sinatra on the Johnny Carson Tonight Show.


Rest well, Mr. Rickles. Ya done good.

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Deadpool 2 Trailer: Eyes Like A Firefly

More of the same jokey, edgy goodness presumably awaits us in Deadpool 2 in 2018. Looking forward to it. But when I saw this in the theatre attached to Logan, I couldn't help but notice the selection of Firefly posters on one of the walls. I thought to myself, "oh shit, the calls for a Firefly reunion are gonna come out in force again."

And I thought that would be cool.

But then I thought that the Firefly TV show was yanked by the Fox network after airing 11 of its 14 episodes. So what network is gonna want to touch it?

The 2005 Serenity film, while providing a great story and a chance for series star Nathan Fillion to really get his John Wayne and Harrison Ford ids on, only made $10 million on its opening weekend and $25 million over its entire theatrical run, as per Box Office Mojo. And that was after one of the most ardent and impressive fan campaigns to get the movie made in the first place. So I can't see Universal ponying up again.

Fillion has recently said that it is time for us to move on. And I agree with him. Here's why.

We all know that Firefly writer-director Joss Whedon is a genius when it comes to creating worlds populated with people who constantly mouth witty and incisive dialogue. But we also know from Whedon's two Avengers films that while the dialogue in those films was serviceably witty, the overall vision of the films seemed massively watered down by the Disney/Marvel behemoth. That is what studios are these days. Behemoths. They have notes, and they expect things done a certain way. Whedon reportedly had problems and clashes, and it shows. So I really don't want to see a watered-down version of Firefly, just to get something out there. And I don't think either Fillion or Whedon want to either.

But long live Deadpool. Looking forward to it.

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Justice League: DC Gets Its Marvel On

Could DC finally be getting its Marvel on with Justice League?  It sure looks that way in these trailers! And as to the guy who commented that Batman/Bruce Wayne joking to the Flash that his superpower was "being rich" is out of character, come on man! DC has obviously gotten the message that they need to lighten the tone of their films a bit in order to gain a piece of the money pie that Marvel has had to itself for almost a decade now. Here's hoping for greatness in 2018! Oh, and congratulations to Ben Affleck for stepping down from directing duties on the standalone Batman film. As he obviously learned on Live By Night, sometimes too much is too much.

And I'm sure that yelling "Action" and "Cut" from under that cowl would be a real bitch.

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Live By Night: Little Gangster On The Prairie

Thanks to Ben Affleck's fine directorial work in films like Gone Baby Gone, The Town and Argo, we know that he can tell a story in a brisk and captivating manner. And on the surface of things, it is great that Affleck's intention is to create an homage to hardboiled 30s and 40s film noir. On that basis he scores excellently, because in terms of tone and set design, there is nothing better. You feel as though you are in that era, with all the cars, clothing and speakeasies on display. Affleck has made no secret of his love for the Warner Brothers gangster films of the period such as The Maltese Falcon, Little Caesar, and the original 1932 Scarface. Yet the essential problem, perhaps because of his multiple hats as star, director, writer, and producer, is that he looks too damn good to portray a hardbitten war hero turned gangster, though he tries mightily to convince us he is so, in an almost continuous and overpowering voiceover. Multiple plot strands involving his character Joe Coughlin coming up in the underworld, a long-lost crush, a woman in Miami, and yet another woman, in the form of an idealistic woman he tries to save, don't help either. Neither does the always-mentioned but barely present brother played by Scott Eastwood who was obviously edited out. And the fact that although everyone else in the film looks and acts suitably period, Ben Affleck's hardbitten gangster looks about as believable as Michael Landon's hardbitten farmer on TV's Little House on the Prairie. But Live By Night is in the end a competent way to get into the film noir mood if that is what you desire.



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