Pat Blythe – Much Music, Pics and Other Stories…..

Baby’s got a new camera!!!! Chris’s camera finally bit the dust….shutter is stuck in the closed position, the “motherboard” is cooked. Ahhh….the digital age. ….and yet, his two 31-year-old “analogue” Nikons are in perfect working order. Complete with two motor drives, three lenses and a flash. Pop in a film canister and away we go. Planned obsolescence? Good question. Same goes for cars, major and minor appliances….just about everything we use today is all run by computer, and yes, computers run out of gas. That brain we call the motherboard, well….she just stops firing on all cylinders, or maybe, shoots off the wrong command. Her synapses aren’t synapsing (so to speak). I then found out today (being Tuesday) that digital cameras actually have an internal “odometer”. There are only so many pics that can (or should) be taken, then….sputter, sputter….you’re shooting on a wing and a prayer. Those aforementioned Nikons? Odometer? I think not. There is truly something to be said for analogue, vinyl, cassettes, 45s, my mom’s wash machine, stuff that was made to last a lifetime…..literally.

Roxanne Tellier: Speaking Ill of the Dead

We can now add “Where were you when you heard that David Bowie died?” to the list of other era defining questions. The world was stunned to hear on Monday morning that we’d have to struggle on without the Thin White Duke’s artistry and influence. And many wondered how this could have happened so soon after the release of his new EP “BlackStar” and it’s two videos.

Segarini: Don’t Show Me Your Big Ass, Show Me the Music

There are times when I wonder why I have been so blessed as to have borne witness to, or been a part of, so many wonderful times and places centered around leaps forward in music and pop culture in general. If ever there was proof of “being here for a reason”, my good fortune seems to verify the thought’s validity.

Nadia Elkharadly: My 80s top 6

That’s right, I’m jumping on the Bandwagon.  Bob and Cam’s lists of their songs from the 80s had me nostalgic for my childhood.  Frankly, I’m jealous of their more mature perspectives. They actually understood the music, what it was about and even got to see some of these acts live.  I’ve always said I was born at the wrong time, and I never feel it more when I look at when the music I love was made.  If I had been old enough to at least grasp what music was in the 80s, I would have been old enough to be seeing and feeling it live and in person in the 90s.  I was born in 1980, so for the most part the music of the 80s is a fuzzy background to other memories that I have growing up.  I was just a kid when this music was around, but for as long as I can remember, music was a part of my childhood.

Segarini: Happy Anniversary MuchMusic

August 31^st, 1984 saw the launch of Much Music in Canada. Unlike MTV, which had launched 3 years earlier, Much was a hotbed of innovation, creativity, and rebellious youth. We were not just the “Nation’s Music Station”, we were a frigate in a sea of uncharted waters, captained by a wide-grinned Rapscallion, manned by a rag-tag crew of slightly bent Orphans, Rakes, and Rowdies, and carrying a cargo of mousse-haired, shoulder-padded Dreamers armed with guitars, drums, and confidence. We were a Skid Row Noah’s Ark with a Penthouse view, and enough beer, blow, and bluster to build an Empire. It was the 1984…no one knew where their kids were….

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Segarini: When Radio and Records Ruled the World Part 16 – What happened, and The Epilogue.

Part 15 can be found here

In March of 1994, having just returned to Toronto from California with no money (actually, I made it back with just 100 dollars in my pocket) I stayed first with old friend Kim Everest in Forest Hill, and then, after wearing out my welcome, moved in with the man that had launched my solo career in the late ‘70’s, Wolfgang Spegg. For the second time, Wolf was about to change my life, and expose me to a world that at first, was as confusing and a intimidating as any I had ever known, and what he introduced me to would eventually change those previous worlds, the worlds of music, radio, and records, for all time.