Gary Pig Gold goes FIFTY YEARS WITHOUT ED

It’s hard to fathom a world where any imaginable sight, sound, or moving image of your fave rave pop star isn’t a mere mouse of a click away. But back in that Gold Age when the roll was still an essential part of rock, families instead gathered ’round their communal box every Sunday evening at eight to turn on and tune completely into the beauty, the splendor, the downright wonder which was The Ed Sullivan Show. And then, only if you were pubescent and/or lucky enough, at the top of any such given hour ringmaster Ed might just include in his introductory announcement, “And for all the youngsters out there…” before intoning – and quite often mispronouncing – none other than the name off the label of your latest, most current constantly-played 45.  

Mike Marino – The Ghost of Lenny Bruce

The city of Detroit, especially the radio community was duking it for the Heavy Weight Title of who would sponsor the George Carlin Concert at Henry Ford Community College in Dearborn, Michigan. George coming to college..the ultimate seven dirty words substitute teacher and class was in session. CJOM, WABX, WRIF and W-4  were all co-sponsors of the event being treated as the one in line with the big bang theory..however was more in line with Darwin’s Theory of Social Comic Evolution.

JAIMIE VERNON – LOVE IS IN THE AIR

2016 has been a difficult pill to swallow. Aside from the escalation of hate-filled death and carnage on the world stage we’ve seen an unprecedented number of celebrity deaths in the first half of the year. People are struggling to wring the nuances out of our loss. I see it as the final chapter of the 20^th Century. I expect that shortly before the total devastation of World War 1, the trend watchers noted the passing of elders and statesmen and people of importance who single-handedly built the 19^th century particularly in ushering in the Industrial Revolution and licking the wounds from global conflict not the least of which was the American Civil War. It was an era with its own particular set of upheavals.

Roxanne Tellier – Hope Springs Eternal

For anything good to happen in your life, or indeed, in the world around you, you have to be open and willing to learn. You need to have hope, and the ability to trust. The greatest triumph of last week’s election is how Canadians came together to change what they could no longer tolerate. Our cynical apathy had to end, or the Canada we loved would be irreparably damaged.

Roxanne Tellier It Was What It Was – But More

Yeah, yeah, it’s been a week since the Saturday Night Live (SNL) special, and Bob’s given his views on the pros and cons. But I’m still thinking about what the show meant to me, in its heyday, and occasionally, since.

Roxanne Tellier – Books, Music and Stuff!

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” – The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien

Since I’m effectively agoraphobic during winter, it seems like a good time to turn my attention to this mess around me that I’ve accumulated, and scan through the wee bits of paper on which I’ve written a germ of an idea, usually accompanied by an *asterisk* and several exclamation points!!! I just have to haul them out from under the weight of the newspaper clippings, flyers, magazines, library books and paper backs they’ve landed under, over and in between.

Darrell Vickers: How I Went from a Suite at the Four Seasons to a Shitty, Bug Infested Apartment on Avenue Road in Three Easy Steps.

Andrew and I had died on gone to showbiz heaven. We’d somehow been hired to come in and help George Carlin put together a pilot he was writing and starring in for HBO. This was about as likely as John McCain quitting the Senate to teach Anger Management seminars.

Cameron Carpenter: The ABC’s Of Rock’n’Roll – J is for Just For Laughs

I don’t know about the rest of you but I could sure take a break from what is going on in this city (Toronto) and the constant wave of recent passings.

In the sixties and seventies the comedy album was king. Teenage beer drinking parties were not complete without someone slipping on a George Carlin or Monty Python record, while stoners tended to listen to Cheech & Chong. Pot humour just wasn’t for me. Some of the older crowd would listen to National Lampoon or Firesign Theatre records but their humour was a little to advanced for me at that point in my life.