JB's Warehouse & Curio Emporium

Backstory: Michael is my longest-lasting friend - we met around grade 4 and stayed close through the end of high school. In elementary school, we'd play games for hours on his Commodore 64 hours. In high school, we were involved in Amherst's annual musical - me on stage, Mike on the tech side. If you ever need to know what my life was like pre-university, he's the expert. We lost touch for a few years after graduation. Around my second year in TO, Mom ran into his mother and discovered he was working at a Canadian Tire store down here. About a week or two later, I hopped into the elevator at work. Another guy was in the elevator and we noticed something familiar about each other. "Mike?" "Jamie?" We still laugh about our reunion. *** The wedding was the day before I flew to London. It was my first wedding outside of a non-denominational or Christian setting, so I was looking forward to seeing the differences. The program was very helpful in...

The oldest CBC ad I've found in my mound of mags, touting the network's comedy/variety lineup for 65-66. The jovial man pictured is Larry Mann, a mainstay of CBC television programming of the era (including the show he's a booster for, Wayne and Shuster ). Among Mann's credits: the voice of Yukon Cornelius in Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer . Speaking of Rudolph , was anyone else spooked as a kid by the Rankin Bass logo that appeared at the end? If you're confused, this clip will jostle your memory. It's a simple ad, but it's not hard to see why he's laughing at the lineup. Read the fine print and you'll encounter many fondly remember series, including the debut seasons of Get Smart! and I Dream of Jeannie and the end of the line for The Dick Van Dyke Show . As for those shows that might not be familiar: Flashback (1962-68): CBC copies itself with a variant on Front Page Challenge . The panel had to guess the person or event, followe...

951: VINTAGE SATURDAY NIGHT AD OF THE DAY (Yeah, it's been a crazy week here, hence the large number of "vintage ad" posts recently. While prepping for future posts and such, may as well put the finishing touches on a couple of entries that have sat in draft limbo for awhile). Every morning on my walk to work, I cross Yonge in front of The Art Shoppe . I've never gone in, despite the well-arranged displays in the front windows (some good, some bizarre - metallic greyhounds?), probably due to my furniture price range being limited to IKEA. Note the pyramid pictured, which I'm guessing plays into the "abstract mystery usually associated with office planning". Pyramid power reached its height in Toronto during the Maple Leafs' 1976 playoff run, when coach Red Kelly placed pyramids around the dressing room and under the bench, evidently as a confidence booster and a means to distract the team from the latest outbursts from irascible owner Har...

It was going to be a rare quiet Thursday night. Sitting at home, wasting time on the computer, debating when to pop a Harold Lloyd disc I rented into the DVD-o-matic. The phone rings. It's my friend Brad, who I haven't seen in awhile. He knows I'm game for most things, so asks if I'm interested in catching a movie. It takes a special movie to motivate one to drive from Guelph to Toronto to catch a flick on a weeknight. Hello, opening night for Snakes on a Plane . We drove down to the Paramount. For the first time ever, I ordered tickets online and was surprised how quick the pick-up process was. Brad joked that my reaction would have made a good commercial ("wow, I can't believe how simple that was!"). The theatre wasn't 100% packed, but the crowd was lively. When we walked in, teens were already yelling "SNAKES ON A PLANE!" and jeering the first of a 10-minute stream of commericals. Objects flew around the seats. Audience members...

Yes, modocrylic hair will make you a sex god. I'd love to have seen how the sample matching turned out. This ad appeared regularly in early 70s comics. One wonders who exactly their target market was: high schoolers wanting to appear older and more sophisticated, especially if they couldn't generate any peach fuzz? Drama club members on a tight budget? Swingin' college students? Imaginative kids? A man-about-town who wanted instant facial hair to match the mood, the pot of fondue he whipped up for a lucky lady and his Hef-style smoking jacket? Unlucky 43-year old batchelors? Early drag kings? *** Tomb of Dracula (1972-79) was one of a slew of horror-themed series Marvel unleashed after Comics Code restrictions about the use of ghouls and monsters were loosened in the wake of drug-related stories issued by Merry Marvel ( Amazing Spider-Man #96-98) and the Distinguished Competition ( Green Lantern/Green Arrow #85-86) in 1971. Other series spawned included Werewol...

Sometimes it doesn't pay to get out of bed on the weekend. Sunday morning of the long weekend. Felt the urge of get out of town. Buffalo/Niagara? Sure. Since it was Sunday, best to get up at a decent hour to make the most of the day, no matter how good bed felt. Everything goes smoothly until I hit the usual logjam at QEW and 403. No problem: Upper Middle Rd to the rescue. Tried to rejoin QEW at Bronte Rd. Still backed up. No problem: st drive through Burlington and rejoin by the Skyway. Flip on the radio. Traffic's backed up onto the Skyway. No problem: stay in Canada, meander through the west end of the Golden Horseshoe, then hit food stands and the odd winery in Niagara. I turned onto Lakeshore in downtown Burlington. Slow traffic. Everyone else was trying to escape QEW or out for a Sunday drive. No big deal, I figured, I'd just amble along through the beaches of Hamilton Harbour. I crawled a block. Stopped. Suddenly, I heard a bang behind me. Problem. Cu...

So scary I had to use my new camera's sepiatone setting! You have been warned... Ah, the things one discovers while wandering with a group around Toronto. Last week's walk started off behind St. Clair West station, then northwestward along the path through the ravine. After checking out patches of poison ivy, local kids gave us a tour of the tagging underneath Bathurst. They had to leave before 9 or their moms would chew them out. We were accompanied by a film crew from 52mondays - the footage should be up in the near future. Resurfacing near Vaughan Rd, we checked out a playground at Laughlin Park. Two of us ripped up our hands going down the slide on the jungle gym. I should have learned my lesson about slides after skinning my elbows while riding down the tube at the Delta Chelsea a few years ago. The healing is proceeding smoothly. Wonder if the wooden posts holding up the slide have developed a reddish hue over the years... We headed back along Vaughan, ...

Be a good neighbour and you could have a street named after you. Frank Kovac owned a garage on Harbord St for three decades before passing away in 2002. According to this report , the local residents association proposed to name the laneway by the garage "Frank's Alley". Apparently apostrophes and "alley" are frowned upon by those in charge of street names, so the more formal "Frank Kovac Lane" was the name given in April 2003. Note in the report the objections raised by police and emergency services, due to too many streets named after guys named Frank. This should not discourage all other Franks out there from being neighbourly. Globe and Mail piece by Rick Salutin on Kovac . Another story about Kovac's passing . The lay of the land - Frank Kovac Lane is in green. Our journey begins with Church of St. Mary of Magdalene Anglican Church , bounded by Manning, Ulster and Frank Kovac. Opened in 1888, the exterior was completed 20 years ...

We'll take your best guess as to what transpired between the Superfreak and the fish, and if Charlie Murphy was involved in any way. Taken outside Chippy's, Bloor St, Aug 7/06. - JB

Part 1 Part 2 Day 4 began with lunch near Euston station. Drummond St is lined with Indian eateries, which I'm surprised I didn't uncover while I lived in Camden Town. There was a now-closed restaurant I used to go to near the Camden Palace, but its food was mediocre at best. I tended to make my own, which led to Indian remaining a steady part of my diet. After flipping through the Cheap Eats guide, I settled on Diwana Bhel Poori House, a vegetarian restaurant with a buffet. The atmosphere was not what I expected - the stained-wood tables and seats made me think of cottage country. I filled my steel plate with various tasty salads - chick peas rich with bits of tomato and coriander was the highlight. Time Out review . Food over the next day tended to be quick snacks on the go, as I scurried to pack in as many planned destinations as possible. Sandwich shops and market stalls provided most of my fuel, as well as groceries I'd stuffed in the fridge at the residence....

While passing through Guelph on the weekend, this caught my eye. Had the dumpiest theatre from my university days finally met its end? While I only saw one movie at the 3 Star, it was the constant butt of jokes for years for its less-than-optimal state (for the record, a group drove out to catch Goldeneye during second year). Remote-for-students-without-vehicles location, small auditoriums and decaying conditions were among the complaints. When a Galaxy opened up down the road, one had to figure that 3 Star, despite low prices, would bite the dust . The place had various identity crises. I didn't know the name had changed to Woodlawn; nobody took the effort to replace all of the signs. Called the 3 Star, had 6 screens, with plans for 9. Call it a thing for multiples of 3... A few shots of the interior. Don't remember, but I'd guess the concession stand signs were there back in '95. The general appearance gave me 80s teen movie vibes. The 3 Star/Wood...

A double-page spread this time out, featuring CBC's fall lineup for '71. Groovy art rules the day yet again. We'll let you decide how this schedule lives up to its tagline. Note that few shows were carried by all stations - back in those days, there were more independent stations that carried some CBC programming. In southwestern Ontario, this would have included CKLW in Windsor (bought in full by CBC in 1975, call letters changed to CBET ) and CFPL in London (later part of the Baton system, then a "New" station, now an "A-Channel"). It should be noted that due to its proximity to the border and agreements with Detroit stations, CKLW/CBET did not air the American portions of the network lineup, usually replacing them with local programming, British imports or syndicated reruns - while growing up, the latter meant The Mary Tyler Moore Show , The Dick Van Dyke Show , House Calls and Hawaii Five-O . Most of the American imports were comedies, one ...