Moments That Matter - January Month End Edition

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
- Monday, January 26th
We lost a family member on Monday. Robert Cowley, my Great Uncle Bob, passed away suddenly.
Uncle Bob was a Staff Seargant on the Sudbury Police force and helped set up a police museum there. The museum is named after him, The Robert D. Cowley Sudbury Regional Police Museum.
I have many fond memories of visiting with my Uncle Bob, Aunt Julie and all of their kids whenever we drove across Canada.


LAST SUPPER
- Wednesday, January 28th
Anthony Farrauto and I took Dan Tucek out for his last supper as Program Director of The Bounce. Dan is leaving the station to focus on his own company, Ear Candy. He's already landed a lot of big clients for his voice over company. Russell James, the APD & MD at the Bounce, and Newcap Radio's Pat Cardinal joined us at Thanh Thanh for dinner.

It was a good night of catching up on the music and radio biz. Sadly most of the conversation was about downsizing. We talked about Universal Music laying off people and Astral Radio laying off people. Careers in the music and radio worlds are shaky at best. At least in radio's case there are more radio station launches on the horizon, so we know there will be more jobs. You can't say that about the music biz. I don't think any new major record labels are about to spring up.

Dan will be missed. I always enjoyed our chats about the music biz. Every time I was in Dan's office at the Bounce my visits would always go on much longer than I intended. A couple of times I even ended up with parking tickets because the conversations were that good.

Dan and I actually go back a long ways. One of his first interviews with a band was with Utah Saints in Toronto. I was the Promotions Rep for PolyGram Records overseeing that media schedule. It was a day I will never forget, although I don't remember meeting Dan. It was the day after the Toronto Blue Jays won their first World Series in the fall of 1992. The highlight of my day was finding a copy of the Blue Jays theme song (Let's Play Ball) for the group to sample for their show at RPM that night. I was also a wee bit hungover from partying on Yonge Street with thousands of other Jays fans. My girlfriend at the time worked for the Jays and I had been to the first 5 games of the World Series, including the first two in Atlanta. I was quite close to the staff of the team back then so it was a pretty special feeling when they won the championship. Sorry Dan, there is now way you could compete with that. Although I am sure the interview with Utah Saints went well. You did go on to become a Radio Program Director after all.


OMG! TWO HOT BLONDES AND THEIR G-STRINGS
- Friday, January 30th
One More Girl were in Edmonton on Friday for a show at the Myer Horowitz Theatre with Jaydee Bixby. I picked the girls, and their Mom, up at their hotel and took them to CISN FM for an interview and acoustic performance. Shortly after arriving at the CISN studios we realized that Carly's guitar had a broken string, the G string. She wasn't used to having to change her own strings so she had to get her Dad, Tom, on the phone to help talk her through the procedure. Mike McGuire tried to catch Carly during their interview but she wouldn't take the bait. He tried to get her to say "G-String" but Carly said "G Note String". Nice catch!

During the show that night, the girls talked about the incident from the stage. Carly said she was afraid that she might break another string during the show. As luck would have it, it was Britt who broke a string. Funnily enough, it was also her G-String. At least it happened during the second to last song of the girl's set so they were able to finish off the show, doing the current hit "I Can Love Anyone", with Carly carrying all of the guitar work.

I brought Hope to see the show and introduced her to the girls during the intermission. She was pretty impressed with the show and how nice the girls were.

After driving Hope home, through a wicked wind storm, I met back up with the girls and we attempted to go out and visit a few Country Bars. We headed to The Ranch but when we tried to go into the club we were turned away because Britt didn't have any photo ID with her. She just turned 18 earlier this month and isn't used to having ID on her. We had planned on going to Oil City and the Wild West as well but decided that we wouldn't risk getting turned away at those places like we had been at The Ranch. We did go to Cook County though as it was close by. Luckily we were on the guest list and were able to walk right in without much of a hassle. I knew the owner, Barry Sparrow, was at the club so it wouldn't have been a problem to get Britt in. We had a drink in the club and met some of the staff. They played the girls song in the club, the first time the girls had heard their music played in a club. Afterwords we met up with Barry and his family at Von's Steakhouse and enjoyed a late night snack in the restaurant.

I dropped the girls off at their hotel a little after midnight and as I was pulling away from the hotel "I Can Love Anyone" was playing on the radio. The perfect end to a great Friday night with One More Girl.


HIP-HIP-HOORAY FOR MALLY
- Saturday, January 31st
The first time I got my ear pierced was way back when I was working in radio in Penticton (as the Night Ranger doing overnights at CIGV in Penticton). One weekend I drove to visit my buddy, Neil Rachynski, in Castlegar where he was working at the radio station. We went out and got really drunk on the Friday night. On Saturday we were very hung over and couldn't even think about drinking the remaining beer in the fridge. We needed some inspiration. All of a sudden a light bulb went on over Neil's head and he said, "Hey! Let's get our ears pierced." We stopped at a record store in Castlegar before heasding to the beauty salon in Trail. We had to check the album graphics from some of our favourite artists to make sure we knew which was the right ear to be getting pierced. After getting our ears pierced we found the inspiration to finish off the remaining beer in Neil's fridge and head back out to the High Arrow, Castlegar's legendary night spot. You haven't partied until you've done it at the High Arrow.

Saturday morning we took Mally to Merle Norman in the St. Albert Centre to get her ears pierced. She had been talking about it for days leading up to her birthday. Of course, as soon as we arrived at the store she got nervous and decided that she didn't want to get it done. I had been toying with the idea of getting my ear pierced again so I told her that I would go through with it if she went ahead and got her ears done. Even that didn't convince her. We told the girl at Merle Norman that we would take a walk through the mall and see if changed her mind. While we were in Claire's looking at earrings it dawned on us that some of Mally's friends might be getting her earrings for her birthday. Once Mally realized that some of her friends might be doing just that she decided she better get her ears pierced. We headed back to Merle Norman. Mally made me go first and then she bravely stepped up and got hers done. She cried as soon as they pierced her ears but not from pain, it was simply a reaction to the whole big build up of nerves. I was proud of her for getting it done. I would have taken her to the High Arrow, if she was old enough...and we were in Castlegar, instead we would have to settle for a birthday party at the Grandin Theatre and dinner out at Montana's.

Mally hosted a bunch of her friends for a party at the Grandin Theatre in St. Albert in the afternoon. The kids enjoyed cake and some snacks in a party room at the theatre. After Mally opened her presents the kids went into the theatre to see "Hotel For Dogs". Lesley went with the kids while I went to the library and enjoyed some quiet time. I really couldn't bear the thought of having to watch "Hotel For Dogs". As it turned out, there were problems with the movie. The picture kept cutting out. When it was over everyone got a free movie pass to come back and see another movie. An extra bonus for the kids at the party.

After the kids party we took the family out for dinner at Montanas. Once again Mally had to be brave. She was afraid that the staff at Montanas would sing to her and make her wear a set of horns. While we were waiting to be seated we saw one of these rituals taking place. Mally didn't want to wear the horns and told the waitress that maybe her Dad could wear them instead. When it came time for dessert and the staff came to sing to Mally, she changed her mind and wore the horns after all. My little girl is growing up. Hip-Hip Hooray for Mally!


Hip-Hip-Hooray for Mally.


MONTH END STUFF

Three Stars of the Month:
1) Barack Obama - incredible innaugaration speech.
2) Chesley (Sully) Sullenberger - incredible landing on the Hudson.
3) Jordan Eberle - Amazing last second goal against the Russians.

Milestones of the Month:
Mally's 8th Birthday.
Motown Records 50th Anniversary.
Doug Gilmour's #93 honoured by the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Glenn Anderson's #9 honoured by the Edmonton Oilers.

Best News this Month:
Barack Obama sworn in as President of the United States.

Weirdest News this Month:
Octuplets born in California - Mom has 6 other kids already!

Best Sporting Moment of the Month:
Team Canada wins 5th straight Gold medal at the World Junior Hockey Championships.

Best New Music of the Month:
Late of the Pier - Fantasy Black Channel
- Mix Supergrass with old David Bowie, toss in some Prince and Van Halen from the 80's. Synth heavy, danceable, fun, pop music. I wonder how these guys would be live. Hope I get to find out.

Best Concert of the Month:
Default at Jet.
- Nothing beats watching a hot sweaty rock show from side stage with a few good friends.

Best Reads of the Month:
Fiction: King Leary - by Paul Quarrington - One of the funniest novels I've ever read. I picked it up after hearing some high praise from another of my favourite Canadian writers, Dave Bidini.

Non-Fiction: It Still Moves - by Amanda Petrusich - Great book about the history, current status and future of Americana Music. The road stories that Amanda writes about had me wanting to hop in the car and hit the highway on a road trip of my own.

Best Screening of the Month:
Dark Knight - Can you believe this didn't get a best picture nomination?

Best Dining out this Month:
Ribs at Montanas in St. Albert for Mally's birthday.

Internet Buzz of the Month:
25 Random Things Survey on Facebook - Seems everyone I know filled out one of these.