Pat Blythe – Celebrating Anniversaries……and music

Well….I have three anniversaries this month. As of this writing on February 15, thirty-six years ago today, I married my sweetie. First wedding (and reception) ever held in Sparkles. For those of you old enough to remember, Sparkles was THE de rigueur lounge, club and disco in Toronto at that time. I have no idea what possessed me to book the place for a wedding! Maybe availability, maybe because it was an “all-in-one” since there was a restaurant below that would cater….who knows? Cost of the wedding, including food and non-alcoholic beverages, $1,350 for 65 people. One thing I’ll never forget…..the best man wanting to begin a speech with, “today, Chris got married in a place higher than he is”.

Roxanne Tellier – Whatever Happened to the Artsy Fartsy BBS?

In the nineties, I ran the Artsy Fartsy Bulletin Board System out of my home for several years. Those were the days of 2400 baud modems and the scree scraw weeeeeeeeeekkkk!!!  sound of the connection soon became a part of my every waking and sleeping moment.

Cameron Carpenter: Rock’n’Roll Rewind – Styx Are Poles

Somehow I managed to get a byline in The Eye Opener at the then community college Ryerson. It was the school I wanted to attend as their journalism course was highly regarded; however, I was not accepted and ended up attending Centennial College. This story appeared February 23, 1978.

JAIMIE VERNON – BOOT THE MAYOR, SAVE A CITY

I had another blog prepared and ready to roll today about my favourite topic, music, but in light of the last 72 hours of clown car antics from the family of my city’s mayor, Rob Ford, I couldn’t let it go without comment.

Roxanne Tellier: Slave to the Machine

My name is Roxanne Tellier and I am addicted to computing. There, I said it, in front whatever cosmic element you call your deity, and everyone.  I am hooked on electronic media and the Internet.

I likely wouldn’t have known the depth of my addiction if my main computer had not suddenly died on me a few days ago. Even those horrendous days off the grid during the Ice Storm hadn’t upset me as much as this week’s loss of contact with the world. Okay, it was just for a few hours until I got my little netbook up and running, but even those few hours were excruciating.