JB's Warehouse & Curio Emporium

Another break from the vintage CBC ads this week for a peek at how CITY-TV advertised itself in the late 70s. Little flash or uber-hipness here, just strong lettering and increasing shades of grey. On air for five years when this ad appeared, CITY had upped its signal the year before, when the CN Tower went into service. Note that the station was way up the dial at channel 79, where it stayed until 1983. The station had a mixed ownership, including Moses Znaimer - CHUM wouldn't buy its first stake until the following year and wouldn't gain full control of the station until 1981. Brian Linehan's City Lights enjoyed a healthy run on the station and in syndication (1973-89). Known for digging deep into the background of those he interviewed, he was later parodied by Martin Short as "Brock Linehan" on SCTV . Linehan's 2004 obituary from the Globe and Mail . Another CITY regular spoofed on SCTV was Morton Shulman, whose life included stints as Toronto...

Now here's something I've never seen before... The Sunday New York Times made its debut at the new digs this weekend, with a red sticker on the bag. This sticker provided a dire warning to whoever might want to snatch my afternoon reading. Anyone have statistics on the conviction rate for people pilfering their neighbour's papers? There were times I could have used a notice like this at my old place, especially one month several years ago where the person housesitting the apartment above me ensured that my morning Globe and Mail made it into my hands 50% of the time, often appearing pre-read (it took several reminders before they left the paper alone).

Once upon a time, I moved around a lot. It wasn't uncommon to move my junk in and out of residences, houses and sublets two, three times a year in university. But I didn't have as many possessions as I built up in the bunker over the past seven years, so moving was never particularly taxing. There were times I had wished this was the case now. The past week was almost pure packing. There had been dribbles over the previous month, but it was mostly tossing a few clothes in donation bins or donating cannned goods to local food banks. There was life to live, and my old landlord wanted to show the apartment. Only when my target date began to dawn on me did I get down to business. I was proud I moved around 20 boxes in the Official Warehouse Car on my first two runs...then collapsed from total exhaustion. Pacing was going to be the key, especially as I discovered just how much of a packrat I'd been... An old-fashioned, writing-university-essay style panic attack struck...

A short break from the usual Tuesday CBC ad for a look at one of its competitors. CHCH started off as Hamilton's CBC affiliate in 1954, severing its ties around 1960-61. For the next three decades, it was one of Canada's strongest independent stations, developing programs such as Hillarious House of Frightenstein , Party Game and Smith & Smith . A number of sales followed, until it formed the basis of CanWest Global's CH network after the station was acquired from WIC. The introduction of colour programming spurred this series of trippy ads, featuring the station's "flower" logo. Also note that while the ad is tuned in and turned out, it doesn't suggest that the audience "drop out". The bean counters wouldn't have appreciated the audience numbers had that happened... Source: Toronto Life , December 1967 

One anniversary I missed last month - the 20th for British rock magazine Q . Amy and I started to pick it up around '93 and were regular readers for the rest of the decade, before price increases forced us to the back issue market. We'd howl at its humourous edge, especially the "Who the Hell" interviews and the side comments used for photos. English words drawn from article headlines slowly crept into our vocabulary. It was much fresher than the North American press - did we really need to know everything about a tired 70s act's latest project, as Rolling Stone often featured? Cover stories on the premiere issue were Paul McCartney, Big Audio Dynamite, Lenny Henry and cocaine. Among the pieces inside: * How digital audio tape threatens to sink the then-still-new compact disc * The collapse of Stiff Records * The new face of British horror fiction (featuring Alan Moore, Ramsey Campbell and Clive Barker) * Reviews of albums by Elvis Costello ( Blood ...

Random notes from The Political Party Monday night... * Arrived around 7:45 and the place was already packed...though I managed to snag a parking space directly across the street. The joys of running late. * I've been to Revival twice before and couldn't believe how different the space looked with full lighting. Surprisingly bright. * To indicate that time was up when answering a question, the TTC chimes were used. Some confuson was caused when a bicycle The only real abuse of this came during Jane Pitfield's last question, when she rambled on about crime in the city (summed up as people don't feel safe in the city because "crime is unpredictable"). * It was quickly clear that the house was pro-David Miller. It felt as if there were a few strategically-placed designated clappers for Pitfield, especially one near the front of the room, who at times literally was the only person clapping. Miller seemed more relaxed than his challenger, in dress, tone...

Colour programming debuted on CBC in September 1966 with a documentary on the Calgary Stampede on Telescope ( video clip ). Slowly, colour worked its way across the schedule, which brings us to today's ad. A description of The Paper People from a 1991 article on author Timothy Findley's dramatic work in Theatre Research in Canada : The 1967 broadcast of The Paper People , CBC's first feature-length colour film, caused an immediate controversy. Members of Parliament joined the public and critics in an outcry over the film's high cost and subject matter. The film focuses on an artist who fashions life-size figures out of papier-mâché then burns them in a kind of early performance art, filming the conflagration. The filming of a documentary about the artist's work frames the story. Findley came up with the plot idea after producer Mervyn Rosenzveig said he wanted a script to capture the essence of the sixties. Script editor Doris Gauntlett and director David ...

1) A recent Psychogeography walk, which circled the train tracks running alongside Dupont. Left: Nighthawks at the Vesta Lunch. This was my first visit to the venerable greasy spoon and I was happy to discover my stomach could handle it (mind you, I only had a roast beef sandwich, but the meat was thrown on the griddle). On the right, one of Toronto's darkest secrets - its quiet strain of anti-Wookieism. More photos from this trek on over here (Oct 20th pics). *** 2) Marche Jean-Talon in Montreal. I drove back from la belle province with a back seat full of produce, ranging from peppers to pattypan squash. Made a fantastic spaghetti sauce from a large $1 bag of baby eggplants. The orange samples on the right are typical for the market - they lived up to their "very, very sweet" billing. I could have made a light lunch out of all the chunks of apples, pears, pineapples and cucumbers that were up for grabs. I also blew a bundle on local ciders and preserves at...