Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Al Grego Kicks Out the Jams: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1496

Episode Date: May 27, 2024

In this 1496th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Moneris podcast master Allan Grego about six of Yes, We Are Open kicking out an appropriate jam for each episode. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, The Advantaged Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada, The Yes, We Are Open podcast from Moneris, The Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball Team and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

Welcome to episode 1496 of Toronto Miked. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta, enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. The Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team. The best baseball in the city outside the dome.

Join me and Toronto Maple Leafs CEO Keith Stein on June 2nd. I'm recording live from Christie Pitts, June 2nd, 2 PM. Be there. Recycle my electronics.ca. Committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. Season six of Yes, We Are Open, an award winning Menaris podcast hosted by FOTM, Meneris podcast hosted by FOTM Al Greggo and Redlee Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Today, returning to Toronto, Mike, to kick out the jams from

season six of Yes We Are Open is Al Greggo. How are you now? That's a, you're doing a Shorzy thing. Letter can you get her? Can you sing there? I'm wearing your t-shirt. Yes, you are. You're wearing the hat. See, uh, you got here a little early. And I was in the shirt. I was biking in and you were naked. I was in a state of undress. I was the battle of the nudes. Alan. I, who won the award? Okay. Speaking of awards before we go any further, another visit from the cuddly one Al Gregor and another award

Won by you because I saw on your social media that you wanted a quill award Tell us what this is and congratulations to you. Thank you very much quills a Toronto based company that They they special or well, they're a podcasting company, but they specialize in mostly in branded podcasting. And so the awards that they, they've been doing this, I think six or seven years now, the awards, they, they, uh, give out are heavily weighed to on that side of it on the branded and corporate

podcasting side of it. So we've been nominated in the past for Quill awards, but this is our first win. So we're pretty, pretty excited about that. You should be. That's a, it's an honor to win these many awards. How many awards is that now? If you're keeping track at home, two awards, two awards, one twice. Yeah. Lots of, lots of nominations though. I was feeling like Susan, Susan Luchy. Okay. All my children. See, I get these references. I like dropping. That's a reference where I feel like, uh, I feel like a 25 year old, not going to know what the hell we're talking about. Not at all.

Do you think kids today are as up to date with the, um, the pop culture history of their parents and grandparents as we were? In terms of music or sorry, in terms of television and movies, maybe not. I feel like music though, they are. My son, he loves 80s heavy, or hair metal. And my daughter loves like, you know, 80s music too. So I feel like, you know- Is your daughter more new wave and your son's more hair metal? What's going on there?

My daughter for some reason is into the prog rock. She loves- Wow. Yeah, I don't get it. But yeah, we've got her taking bass lessons. hair metal. What's going on there? My daughter for some reason is into the Prague rock. She loves. Yes. Yeah. I don't get it. But, uh, yeah, we've got her taking bass lessons. So I think, uh, she, she looks for, she, she listens for baselines and she likes baselines and so it's weird. Okay. And hair metals. Are we talking about like poison Cinderella?

What are we talking about? Oh, and my son, he's into extreme. We're going to go see extreme actually. I just seen a Ram in September. He loves me. Because your cohost. Yes. Victor. I know Victor. I remember having like a deep chat about extreme with Victor.

Yeah, that's right. So Victor got his hands on my son and has already, you know, uh, tainted his musical preferences, but whatever. Well, we'll, we'll, we'll get them back. That's kind of amazing that your son is an extreme fanatic No, he's into extreme dream theater all these were like he's a drummer So and his buddies they want to start a band and like oh, what are you gonna play and they're like, oh we're gonna play Dream theater. I'm like really don't you want to start with? I don't know smoke on the water first like some how old is your son?

He's 17. That's exciting that you like I feel like when met you, you had like little ones and now they're big ones. Yeah. Well, yeah, he's, he's, he's, he towers over me now. Six foot four, six foot 17. That's a, you know, he could be, if he killed someone today, he'd be tried as an adult. You know what I mean? Like this is, I don't condone that, but no, no one, you know, it depends who you're killing. I suppose. Or why I would want to know, why are you killing my site? I murdered a guy. I killed a to know why are you killing my son? I murdered a guy. I killed a man. Why did you kill this guy? Like, let's talk about this. But I want to start with the jams and we'll catch up between the music here. Now remind us of what you're, you've done

this in the past, but this is, um, every episode of season six of yes, we are open an award winning podcast from Monaris, which just won a prestigious Quill award. Yes. Like I just learned the Quills existed, but you might as well tell me you won an Oscar. Like I'm so excited for you. Do you get a plaque or a trophy? I get a mention in their newsletter. I get like, I know. I could give you that. Well, you could. Yeah. But it's not, it doesn't attach to an award. And I'm sure I'll get a nice, you know,

pittance from Monaris for being an award. They'm sure I'll get a nice, uh, uh, you know, um, pen, pittance from, uh, Maneras for, for being an award. They'll give you like a bonus. Yeah, probably. And was it, no, I've asked you this in the past, but for the quill awards, can you enter for free or do you got to like, uh, stick a check down there? You have to be nominated for it. So you need to, to get people to nominate for you. Well, I nominated you for that award.

I nominated you too. Unfortunately, I'm eligible for a Quill award while you were, I mean, maybe Toronto Mike isn't known too much in the business podcasting circles. So that's probably why you didn't. Well, that explains it. When they hear the Jerry Levitin

episode, they're going to give me all the awards. Well, I think, I think you've got a good, a good entry there for the next Canadian podcast awards because that was a That was a fire episode. I love that episode Well, I got a lot of nice comments about it from people who loved it They didn't know what was gonna happen next and I wonder what's gonna win me the next award

Will it be the Jerry Levitan episode or the most recent John Gallagher episode? They're kind of neck-and-neck which will win me the next award I know that's Gallagher being Gallagher I mean if you ask anybody, no offense to Mr. Levitin, but if you mentioned his name in some, you know, in most circles, I wonder how many people would actually know. I've been calling him the kid who interviewed John Lennon. Yeah. At least then it's like you gave him some branding or whatever.

Okay, let's get to the first jam and then we'll catch up between the jams. I have a little surprise for you in the middle of this jam kicking here. So set the table for your first jam, the first episode of season six. All right. So, uh, I mean, season six, as if people listen to this podcast, you know that I went out to Alberta for this season and recorded a bunch of stories out there. And my first stop was at a place called river cafe, which was on Prince's Island, which is an Island in the middle of the city. It was pretty cool. I've had guests who have

been there and were, this is, and they were like, uh, yeah, that's an amazing place. Yeah. It's a really cool restaurant and the food there was amazing. And I got to meet, uh, the owner there. Her name is, uh, Sal Howell. And, uh, so yeah, this is the jam. So this time around, I actually asked some of my coworkers for,

for help picking these jams, but this first one was my pick. Uh, and it's, uh, if you play it, if you play it, we'll talk about it a bit. ["I'm Not a Jailbird"] And you say. This, I believe this predates that song. I want to, I know. Lisa Loeb stole it from REM. Ethan Hawke directed that video, if you know that.

Oh yeah? Hey now little speedy head The meat on the speedometer says You have to go to town in the city Where people drown and people serve Don't be shy, you just deserve It's only just like years to go Me, my thoughts are flowers true

The potions don't way very low Me, my thoughts of flowers true, the potion storm may bury me I have got to meet to find my way Watch the road and memorize this life that has before my eyes When nothing is going my way I predicted a different River song, but you went with Find the River by R.E.M. Yes. If we were ever to do a Kick Up the Jams with my favorite songs of all time, this might make the top 10. This is my favorite R.E.M. song. How come we've never done that?

I don't know. That's up to you. To be discussed. To be discussed. To be discussed. Okay. Yeah, I love this song. It's my favorite. To me, it's a perfect song. It's a beautiful song. It's from Automatic for the People. Yeah, from Automatic for the People. It's actually the sixth and final single from that album. This was a single? I did not remember this being released as a single. Well, not surprisingly, it didn't chart in the US, but it did reach number 54 in the UK.

Good, because I don't live in the US. Well, but I mean, if it didn't chart in the US, it probably didn't up here either. I'll ask Wiseblog if that's true. I love that song, and it probably would be in my top 10 because it's my favorite REM tune. And from what I've read, a lot of our big REM fans, it's among their favorites as well. There are literally, I think we could kick out your 10 favorite River Jams. Like there are so many good songs about a river. Yeah, but this is the only one that might have made it my top 10.

What about Neil Young, Down By The River? Sure, yeah, they're all great songs. I had a lot of good suggestions. Billy Talent, River Below, right? I tell the river below. Now, I could have also picked some rain themed songs because in this story with River Cafe, we talk about the 2013 Alberta flood, which we didn't, I mean, we got some, some like video and picture images from when that happened.

Like for example, I remember seeing video of the saddle dome, you know, the bottom bowl submerged in water. Like it was a major, major flood. Pictures of it made it look kind of like the aftermath of Katrina. It was pretty bad, but I didn't get the sense of how bad it was until I met with Sal and she told me the story. Because basically the entire island disappeared and her, the river cafe was, was submerged. The lower level is submerged. And all you could see is the roof peeking up from the water. It was, it was a pretty, pretty tragic story. No, that's terrible. It's a, that's far worse than our flood when that guy had to abandon his Ferrari.

Yeah, that's the way that guy, that's a lawyer who, he's the lawyer who sent me, I got a cease and desist about comments made by Jazz FM personalities on Toronto Mike. They made comments about this guy, Ross Porter. And in Ross Porter, I guess hired that lawyer to send me like scary messages that I have to delete these messages, sorry, these episodes, which I never did do.

But he's the same lawyer who's abandoned his Ferrari in our flooding. You love, you just love getting to the legal trouble these days. That other legal thing I never have, that's never gone in public. Should I, should I mention it now? It's your call. I don't want to, I don't want to like take over this important episode about season six of yes, we are open, which by the way, you can subscribe now for free. Is that correct? That's correct. Free podcast. Wherever you get your information. episode about season six of Yes We Are Open, which by the way, you can subscribe now for free.

Is that correct? That's correct. A free podcast. Wherever you get your podcast. With all that information and those great stories. And it's award-winning, you said? It is award-winning, correct. A couple of awards now.

Squirrely Matt is on the live stream, live.torontomike.com. And he says, damn, how many podcasts is this dude on? He just does. You have been in a lot of, you have, should we run them down? So you host Yes We Are Open for Meneris. That's right. But you got another Maneras podcast. Just good business. How come just good business has never sponsored Toronto mic'd? You know, I will give you that real estate. All right. Well, we'll talk. We'll talk. We'll talk. Let's talk right now. What are you afraid of? Okay.

So that's two that are like corporate that you get paid for it, right? As listeners of this show know, and I'm wearing the t-shirt you host the produce stand that is the letter Kenny slash Shorzy love-a-thon that is correct and that's kind of where squirrely Matt comes in right mm-hmm yeah he's one of my co-hosts okay but you've been guesting on lots of shows like you want I mean I just follow you on social media it seems like you're kind of you know getting around I'm trying to do the rounds for sure the media rounds. I was on nobody wants to talk to me You know, I don't know. I believe people do want to talk to you. I was on

Katie Katie Lauer's podcast. She's got that great. He's never invited me on pod Crack open our Great Lakes beer. What do you got there pay on the mic? Oh, yes. I've got the new Canuck pale L and I have a burst and Katie has asked you on the Canadian podcaster discord. I promise you never. I promise you never. Well, we'll remedy that cause I think you'd make a good guess for her. I might say no, but I just want to be asked. Okay. I just like to be invited to things so I can turn them down, but really quickly here before we get to the next jam, I did crash an episode of the produce dance. Yes, you did. So in a nutshell, I

Told you I would come on your podcast and I gave you a heads up that I would Fake like act like I was really pissed off that you had decided you could kick out the jams on your podcast Yes, but you didn't tell your wife. No, you freaked her out a bit. So I come on. Well, I didn't tell any of my goals. I didn't tell anybody. And apparently, this was a moment when a squirrely Matt was not there. So he missed out on this. So I come on the zoom and I really did try to play it up. Like, you know, you have stolen a lot of things from me, right? Like live.tronymaik.com. I've paid some homages to your, your show.

Yeah. So I kind of amped it up and I went off on you cause I said, the last straw was you kicking out the jams because you basically completely just completely blatantly ripped off something I've been doing for years, right? They can go, yeah, I'd admit like I like you and you are a sponsor. So money has exchanged hands here. But you have stolen the whole kick out the jams spirit from Toronto. Mike didn't took it. And then now you're doing it on the produce stand.

I did it once. Yes. And I'll do it again and I'll do it again. And I'll give proper credit every time I do it. Okay. So send a check and give me credit. But when I, uh, when I hung up on your zoom, like I was so mad, I said, Alec, this is a bridge too far. I'm pissed off here. And then I left the zoom. What was the reaction of your wife? We didn't know. And I get this confused. Like I was so mad. I said, Alex, this is a bridge too far. I'm pissed off here. And then I left the zoom. What was the reaction of your wife who didn't know? And I get this confused. Like you get this confused. I don't know if I was doing a work or a shoot, but whatever the fake one was I was doing.

What was your wife's reaction before she realized I was putting? I could see the look of concern on her face and she thought you upset me. Yeah. That's why I let the, you know, I let it out right away. That's a, no, that was Mike told me he was going gonna do that, don't worry. But even after that, she said, well, maybe we should just name it something else. Well, she's right. Talk to my lawyer.

I'm gonna talk to your wife, forget your lawyer. We have the same lawyer anyways, I just talked to Lauren. So I'm loving the beer by the way, but I know your wife wants you to stay friendly with me because she knows you're gonna come home with a large meat lasagna from Palma Pasta. And I do have one, it was delivered this morning just for the cuddly one and it's in the freezer.

I'm just showing the box to the live streams. So Matt can be good and jealous. Matt, how far is Matt from Holland's landing? He's, I mean, he's closer to you here than he is to, he's not far from you. So Matt, if you're listening to me, you're invited to T, what is it called? It's your party.

TMLX 15. Yes. On June 27 from six to nine PM. I know Al's gonna be there. Al, you should bring everybody because Paul Mopasta is gonna feed you in Great Lakes. Well, I can't tell you, like the 17 year old doesn't get a beer but if you're

over 19 GLB will buy you your first beer and we're gonna have a good hang man June 27 at Great Lakes Brewery 30 Queen Elizabeth Boulevard in South Etobicoke be there or be square yeah he's been to team Alex before oh he's gonna come to another one I want to see him on now that I know who the hell he is. I want to see him on June 27th. Set up the second jam, Al Gregor. All right. Well, why don't you play it

and then I'll talk about why I picked it. Yes, sir. One time. Yeah. Yeah. One time, yeah, yeah Yo, all I need is one mic, one beat, one stage, one nigga front my face on the front page Only if I had one gun, one girl and one crib, one god to show me how to do things It's Sunday pure, like a cup of virgin blood Mix with 151, one sip, sip or make a nigga flip right alright

this was in my pick this is not your song no it's my song like I said it's okay I have a radio edit it's probably it's all right this is my like I said I asked my teammates if they could suggest some songs and this one here actually was my my director Rick who suggested it and it's One Mic by Nas and the reason we pick it is because in episode two I visit cast Kylie Burke and Sean Chan from the Cacks Bar and Podcast. A really cool place in downtown Calgary basically it's a really cool bar, but it also has a pod podcast studio built in. So you're basically sitting in a fish tank looking

out into the bar, but they've got like the whole setup with cameras and microphones and everything. It's a really cool area. Amazing. How long were you in Alberta? I was there for a week and I spent a lot of time at all expenses paid for it for the most part. You know okay, Cax bar and what's the podcast element there? Well, they have a podcast called Cax podcast that you can check out on YouTube and it's basically Sean a Chan. He he hosts it and he interviews a bunch of people. You know kind of east. You know he's almost like a, you know, Calgary Mike version, you know.

Now I'm calling my lawyer. But it's really cool, really great setup. That's where we recorded our show or our interview. And and Sean and Cass are doing a great job out there. It's really unique idea for a bar. Let me ask you a question. So I don't know if it was last summer or the summer before, but my wife went to Budweiser's stage to see Nas open. He opened for Lauryn Hill. Lauryn Hill is notorious for being really,

really late. Like this is her thing, man. Imagine that's your thing. Like let's go see her. She's famous for being like two hours late. Like doesn't that sound fun? Okay. So recently Apple Music put out a list of like, they call it like the greatest albums of all time. I think this is what they're calling it. And they put Lauren Hills, the miseducation of Lauren Hill, they put that at number one. Wow.

Have you heard this? So Apple, this is a very recent list published by Apple Music. I hadn't heard this, but I mean, it's a great album. Okay, it's a great album. Yeah, but I don't think it's the best of the year, but maybe I mean, it's a great album. Okay. It's a great album. Yeah. But I don't think it's the best of the year, but maybe I know that it's a different strokes for different folks. I learned that from the sitcom, different strokes during Gary Coleman and Mr Drummond, a lot of people dead from that show. They're all dead. I think except for Willis.

What you talking about? Is he still there? Remember that Christmas episode of the Simpsons when Gary Coleman guest guest starred and at the end he goes, what you talking about? Willis? And he goes, what you talking about? Everyone. And this is how they end the Christmas episode. My eight year old daughter will just go up to me and go, what you talking about? Everyone. It's the funniest, funniest. So see some of those things live on through The Simpsons and stuff. Oh yeah.

Just really quick here about and stuff. Oh yeah. Just really quick here about this song. Third single. I just wondered if you would say like, do you think like, is it like, like, I just don't know how that can be so like, how is that the, you know, I don't know. I just can't believe I know a lot of people love it, but yeah, number one of all time. No, I mean, maybe streaming is, I don't know. It's weird. Better than Fluke by Rusty. Like let's process that for a minute. Yeah, slightly better. Says who? Says you. Yeah. Okay, third single from his fifth studio album, Peaked at number 43. This is interesting though. He's, Nas is a huge fan of Phil Collins and he was inspired by the vibe in the air tonight. Of course.

And that's what this song. Cause he probably saw it on Miami vice. Yeah, probably. But this song here, he's trying to capture that same vibe. Yeah, there's a bit of that ambiance. Yeah. I can feel it coming in the air. So I thought it was an interesting,

I mean, call out for him to be saying. But it is interesting. There's an artist who is really famous for one album. Like he has one album that makes every top 10 hip hop albums of all time list. And then everything else is like, Oh, that's not bad. That's pretty good. But the Illmatic is like where it's at for him. Yeah. Shout out to NAS and a come on Lauren, be on time for your concerts.

Like people paid money to get babysitters, right? Cause you know, these people have kids and they get babysitters. They make a night out of it. You can't be two hours late. It's disrespectful. You are early for your Toronto mic episode. And I appreciate that. Yes, I try to be. Okay. Let me give you something. And again, this is actually, uh, there's two things I want to give you. One is the Brown hard covered book right here. This is the history of the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team.

Oh, that's nice. Hard, very nice book and full of it. You're going to love that book. Everybody's digging that book. Al, I know Holland's landing is far away, but how do I get you to Christie Pitts one Sunday? Like, how do I get you there on June? I really wanted to go last time, but it was Mother's Day. I just couldn't do it. What about June 2nd? Is that Mother's Day? Second, I'll be down here, but I'll be at a podcasting show. Actually, what podcasting show? Radio. Where are you? What podcasting show?

Radio days, I think it's called, and it's a four day event. Uh, the, but the first day, which is a Sunday is all about podcasting. I'm actually there to, I'm going to be introducing a couple of, uh, panels. So again, I'm, I'm not going to be able to make it and, and the time, no, you're throwing out the pitch and I want to be there for you, but, but I'm going to throw you a strike. Okay. I'm going to throw you a strike, but I do want to shout out Toronto Maple Leafs baseball because it's a, it's a free event. It's at Christie pits and go to their website for the schedule, but they often play on Sunday afternoons and again, great food,

great beer, great ambiance. And I can't wait to be there next. Uh, this coming Sunday. So maybe squirrely Matt will join me there. Squirrely, Matt, you want to come to the maple leaves baseball game? It's a high caliber baseball, too. I was really impressed it's very good and one more gift this one again not a sponsor of Toronto Mike because I didn't receive a penny but there's a FOTM named Bruce Doe began you've listened to Bruce on Toronto Mike I have and I used to listen to him and Steve Paken on was it the fan, right? Yeah, they did a show on the fan double play. I think it was called

so Bruce and his son wrote this book, it's called Deal With It. And it is a hockey book. It talks about the trades that stunned the NHL and changed hockey. Is the Kordic deal in here? Well, you'll read it, you find out there's a lot of talk about the Gilmore trade, but it's really, it's a big, very rich in info, the 10 big trades and his son and him did this and they self published it. And I'm like, you know, if you'll give me some copies to give to guests like Al Gregor, then at least I'm mentioning the title and that it exists. Like it's must be tough to self publish a book in 2024, like any help you can get.

So that's for you to take home and read. Oh, I see this. The forward is by Steve, Steve Bacon. Interesting. FOTM is all over this. Well, giving you a free book. Why wouldn't you check it out? Come on, check it out and let me know what you think. But I'll be handing those over the next couple of weeks. More swag for you here on Toronto Mic. And you already know about Recycle My Electronics.ca. That's where you go if you have old tech, old electronics, old devices, old cables. don't throw it in

the garbage. Those chemicals end up in our landfill. Go to recycle my electronics dot CA and find out where you can drop them off to be properly recycled. I have used their service and it has worked for me. And cliff hacking will be back this fall to kick out the jams, which is what we're doing right now. Any words? Cause I actually just heard a podcast about that had a lot about, uh, the woman who's on this duet here.

Any words to say before we kick out your third jam? Let's kick it out and we'll talk about it. Ain't no mountain high, ain't no valley low, ain't no river wide enough, baby If you need me, call me, no matter where you are, no matter how far Don't worry, baby, just call my name, I'll be there in a hurry You don't have to worry, cause baby there ain't no mountain high enough Amazing, Why Are We Playing Ain't No Mountain High Enough by Marvin Gaye and Tammy Terrell. For the third episode of Yes We Were Open, I went up to Banff, which is gorgeous. Oh my god, most beautiful spot I've visited so far in this country. Did you go to Lake Louise?

No. Hopefully next time when I go to Alberta and I go to Edmonton, I'll go to Lake Louise. But for now... You know what? I agree with you. It's probably the most beautiful part of Canada that I've been to. It's so distractingly gorgeous. And I visited Ken McMurdo, he's the owner of Mountain Chocolates. Did you bring me any samples?

I brought samples home, but they did not, I mean that was a couple of months ago. Love chocolate, love it. So yeah, it was great to visit with Ken. He'd been, he's been there for a, since, um, I forget now, but like 30 years, 30 plus years, uh, selling chocolates and candy and, uh, in Banff. And, uh, yeah, great story. Uh, his, his struggles and, uh, along with a CACS Bar and Podcast, we talk about, uh, rising costs and inflation that small businesses are dealing with right now. And like he talks about sugar has basically tripled in price in the last year or so and

how he's had to deal with that. But one of his too though, he talks about whenever you're a touristy business, tourism is highly affected by, uh, external factors. So he talked about nine 11 and the, the impact it had on his business. He talked about, uh, how, and, and I, and I got this, actually, I heard this from, uh, somebody that I spoke to in Niagara Falls, uh, Americans don't travel on election years, which is, I thought I found really interesting. Why?

Because they don't, they don't know that Why? Because they don't know, well, A, there's- They don't know if they'll come back? They don't know what their money's gonna do, or what the economy's gonna be like, because they don't know until they know who's gonna win the election. That's wild. Yeah, and this was confirmed by somebody

that I spoke to in Niagara Falls as well, that election years, Americans, sometimes they spend a lot of money on their political rallies. But the economy's pretty good right now. So travel now because who knows? I would think you don't travel the year after an election because who knows what's going to happen when the new guy gets in there. Like I don't quite understand that logic that you can't travel in the summer because in November there's going to be an election. Well, he, he confirmed it though. He's the one who

brought it up and then when I bring in the heat today, I had no idea. Yeah. And he talked about the effect of SARS. Like, yeah, he, he's seen it all in the 30 plus years. SARS affected band. Yeah. Well, cause what would happen is Europeans, I would normally come into Canada, even though SARS was more, more central, like it was like Toronto, they had, they didn't know the difference between Toronto and Calgary. So there's like, Canada, no, we can't go there. SARS. So he said that they, yeah, they were

heavily affected by SARS as well. Oh, YYZ Gord, who is known to travel a little bit. He's always traveling, right? He's always traveling. He's always on the road. That's wild, this lifestyle of a YYZ Gord. Shout out to FOTM Tom, who accompanies Gord on a lot of these trips. Americans also think that all of Canada is on fire, which is killing tourism. Yeah. Yeah. All the, the fires in Fort McMurray is our, and I mean, last year in Ontario and Quebec, right? So we had some smoke for sure. A couple of days smell like a giant bonfire when I biked the city, but, uh, that's still wild. This is a, some ignorance, but, uh, yeah, you would be, uh,

I was going to say, uh say you'd be at the whim of the American's travel schedules, et cetera. But you missed another one, which I wanna talk about this jam you picked because I just listened to a podcast about Marvin Gaye and her grapevine actually. But you know, the obvious is Sugar Mountain by Neil Young. I don't know why every episode of yours

reminds me of a Neil Young song. Right. But Sugar Mountain would have been perfect. Think about it. This one here is a suggestion by my coworker, my colleague Sara. She suggested this one. I thought it was great. Oh yeah, it's a great song. I'm going to fix it in post and I'm going to put Sugar Mountain in there. Produced and recorded by Ashford and Simpson, their husband and wife writing team. Originally though, Dusty Springfield wanted to record this but they they said no they declined her Because they wanted to get into Motown and this was their ticket into Motown

So the podcast was very interesting because Tammy Terrell firstly she took that last name Terrell because when Muhammad Ali Converted to the nation of Islam converted to Muslim. One of the bodies that, uh, oversees heavyweight boxing stripped him of his title as a punishment for converting to, to Islam. Terrible to think about in 2024, but that

actually happened. And the boxer who assumed that title had the last name Terrell. And they kind of capitalized on this, him being in the news by taking that name for Tammy. Okay. So Tammy had a Y and they changed it to an I and they name Terrell and they kind of capitalized on this him being in the news by taking that name for Tammy okay so Tammy had a Y and they changed it to an I and they added Terrell but the sad story is and this fits into the legacy of Marvin Gaye whose life also ends tragically because his dad murders him shout out to Ridley funeral home but Tammy Terrell at the young age of 23 or

something like that starts getting these headaches and thinks it's because she's actually in a sadly she's in an abusive relationship intimate partner there's a whole story there but they find out oh you have a malignant brain tumor and she dies at 24 of this brain tumor and it was the death of Tammy Tarell that really changed the career of Marvin Gaye because he was doing songs like that like these duets from Motown or whatever and look at the career he has after that, you know, a change is going to come. Such important songs that he records, Marvin Gaye. And it's because he kind of has this epiphany when he, his dear friend, Tammy dies of the brain tumor at 24 years young.

That's crazy. Next time you hear that beautiful song, remember poor Tammy. And Marvin Gaye and Tammy Torello had a hit with this song for sure. But then in 67 and three years later, it was the number one hit again by Diana Ross. Okay. That's a, that's a supreme fact. You got there. What's going on is the big Marvin Gaye song. I was getting my, my social justice, uh, anthems mixed up there. But uh, yeah,

Marvin Gaye who can dies too early in 1984 himself, but a shadow to Tammy Terrell. But that's a great song and it's a great choice. And sugar mountain is what people will hear it. Cause I'm going to fix this and post, right? Okay. All right. Let's kick it. Another one before I surprise you with the curve ball. I'm going to throw on June 2nd when I met Christie pits here. You want me to just go into it? Cause it's one of my favorite songs of all time.

Yeah, I picked this one for you too. Thank you. Love it. This reminds me of Guitar Hero on PS2. It reminds me of an NHL 94, not 94, NHL whatever. It's one of the songs I'd hear when I'd play on the PC. They're just photos after all I can't make you hang around

I can't wash you off my skin Outside the frame But I believe in love I remember being aware I can go with the flow Don't say it doesn't matter No matter anymore I can go with the flow I can go where you believe it is your head Is there anything better on a Monday afternoon than listening to Queens of the Stone Age

with Cuddley Al Greggo while I drink a fresh craft beer from Great Lakes Brewery? This is awesome. I love this song. Yeah, it reminds me of Rock Band on PS2. We used to play this one all the time. Anyway, this whole album is fantastic. Songs for the Deaf. Yeah, it's a great album.

Yeah, for me. And the interstitial radio station stuff is cool too. So Going with the Grain. So after I visited Ken McMurdo and Banff, same day I went to Canmore, because I was on the way back, and I stopped in Canmore and visited Sarah and Joe Titus of Going with the Grain. They refurbish hardwood floors and install and he was working on one and I got to go visit him at a job site and Canmore is such a pretty place.

I mean yeah Banff is great but it's also very touristy. Canmore is an actual community by the mountains like across the road from the house he's working on where the three sisters and like they're like just the Rockies they were like right beside the Rockies. Not literal sisters. No. This is a mountain range called the three sisters and others that... We had three sisters here but they were smokestacks. No. Called the three sisters. Maybe they were named after the mountains in Canmore. But anyway it was a great story and they just talk about you know starting their own business and growing their brand and just

the kind of work they're in, it's kind of unpredictable. Again, they're at the whim of the economy, right? And right now, it's booming because people are, you know, renovating their homes and selling and they need to update their decor. And so he's a very busy guy. You know, all of these wonderful small businesses have two things in common. One, they're all Menaris customers, and two, they all got visited by Al Gregor. Oh, here, hold on.

Oh, see, that's all I got. Okay. My goodness. Listen to the album. Is that the beginning to the, what was the next song? No one knows. I love that. No. Well, yeah, that's well, that actually, you know, that song might be the song I'm thinking of from the NHL hockey game. Now that I think about it, the whole album is so great. I feel like a millionaire. All that stuff is great, but going with the grain, I think that's when I started shouting out the specific episodes on Toronto

mic'd like, I think I changed my approach maybe with going, or maybe it was mountain chocolates where I changed my approach. Like I'm going to actually shout out the episode that is current. Yeah. I appreciate that. Yeah. Cause it, uh, did you ever reach out and say, Hey, uh, just fun fact, you know, when he's talking to Ben Johnson, he's, you know, then he talks about mountain chocolates or, well I'm going to send an email saying, Hey, I was just on Toronto Mike.

And we talk about you and we, and we done we play some music and Shout out to Kenmore. They love their country music in Kamar, right? Well, they love their country music in Alberta in general They all drive pickup trucks and they're all happy Well, and I didn't tell you about my Alberta upgrade when I got there But basically I got upgraded to a pickup like my rental car I asked for an economy car and the guy took one look at me I don't know if I should be insulted by this or not. I said no you do look like a guy Well, I have a pic. I won't do any and he gave me the keys Here you go free upgrade and I went into the garage and there's a like a massive Dodge Ram

That really John Gallagher doing the Dodge Ram commercials and I got to drive that around Alberta for the week Love it. Okay, you're doing great here going up the grain here. We're gonna take a pause in the Al Greggo jam so I can play something. Okay, because I feel like even on many times We've talked about many seasons of yes We are open you've come on to do a best of Toronto mic'd episode every 200 by the way You know, it's gonna drop next this week episode 1500 will drop this week. I know. So I'm going to be back soon. I don't know how soon, but yeah. Well, you tell me how soon can you return as soon as now to do. Yeah. I just had a call this morning with Iver Hamilton and Scott Turner. And I was like trying to

find out like, what does it cost to put how soon as now in your documentary feature film I didn't get a number i'm still working on but aren't you curious like like if i'm gonna make it I don't know i'm gonna make the um Produce stan documentary. Okay, and I want it to be legitimate like you know Unlike normally where I break the rule and just deal with the punishment We never did talk about how I avoided jail time this morning. I respected your wish there Why do i'm not a big guy? I was going to talk about Peter Gross anyway, right? But maybe I'll touch on it in a moment here. But if I were going to license for your

documentary, I need to license, I don't know, a song that's in letter Kenny. Like what would that cost? And then what would it cost to get a Beatle song versus a rusty song? Like I'm just dying to know. Yeah. I need to know. I don't. You don't have a clue here. No sense.

Like if I wanted to legitimately license a lowest of the low song, and I don't mean going to like Ron and asking for a favor or something. I mean, straight up, we're gonna do this right. How many dollars will it take to have a Rosie and Grey in my documentary and be above board. Yeah, no idea. I mean, the music we use and yes, we are open is all through a service that we pay,

you know, a fee for, and it's all all the licensing is royalty free. Yeah. Well, it's not royalty free, but we pay for it in our fee. Right. Uh, so, but yeah, in terms of specific and popular songs, I'm sure there are different rules for those that, uh, because, or else, you know, something like the WK or RP when, you know, it took forever for that thing to get released, uh, the DVD box sets because they couldn't license all the music that they used in it. Right. And I think the same happened with shows like 21 jumps, anything that featured pop music at the time.

The wonder years, the wonder years. Yeah. Huge issue of the wonder years. And you're right. And even the theme song to merit of children, they had to use a fake one for a long time with their releases. But I just realized now as I talk to you, Alex, I'm smarter when I talk to you. I don't know what it is. You know, it's it's I don't know how to explain it by comparison, right? Well, relatively speaking here, Simon Head, who's an FOTM, he directed a documentary on lowest at the low called subversives.

Right. And this is meant to be, I think it's, he's above board with all this, you know, and I am going to have Simon Head here tomorrow. Well, then he's the man to ask. At 11 a.m. Perfect. To kick out the jams, his 10 favorite songs of all time. And I will 100% try to find out to play Rosie and

Grey in your documentary. What is that cost? That's what I'm gonna do. I suspect it'll be a sliding scale too depending on how many downloads that that episode gets, right? I know that for you know for even the music licensing service we use it depends on how how many downloads we get. Oh I did. It's one price for one and but if it's like, you know Super popular. It's another price it goes on a sliding scale All right. So if anybody can tell me how much it costs to get a house soon as now in your movie Please let me know. Okay. Here's a little detour before we get back to the subject of the matter matter? Are you happy with your life? I've been watching you, comforting your child

Tell me does he have a future? Is it all a big lie? Where the hell is his father? Does he love his wife? Working hard in a world full of money Straight to all that's in life That's it, life Giving up what I had coming Giving up what's rightfully mine

So we've alluded to this many, many times. We've never come out and really talked about what the hell Poised for the Worm was. Who's singing the song? That's me. So that's Rightfully Mine by Poised for the Worm, released in 2000 I believe. So this is your voice? That's my voice, yes. 20 years ago, yeah. Now you guys played some pretty big venues, right? Like you played Lee's Palace and stuff like that, right? Lee's Palace, we played the horseshoe. We played all every floor of the big bop. We got around a bit. Uh, concert theater once to the, the, the how's it called? The, I forget the theater. The Phoenix?

No, not, not Phoenix. Um, opera house. Sorry. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So how, what's the like lifespan of Poise for the Worm and why does Poise for the Worm and why does Poise for the Worm end? Poise for the Worm started at a college, so I'm gonna say 97 maybe, because most of the band were... It sounds good. Oh, thank you. College mates of mine in college. You're a bit low in the mix, like I feel. Yeah, well, we, it was self-produced, I mean. It's good, it's good. Yeah, and yeah, we had a good time. We had one, this CD, which was with bated breath. Uh, and then we were working on a second one.

We'd actually recorded all the beds and that's when kind of the band took a break, but, um, and never, never got back. Still on that break. It's still on that break. Yes. Any chance Poise of a Worm comes back or it's done? I can't see it. I mean, you know, I don't think it'll ever happen. This is your original music, right? Yeah, we're all kind of spread out.

You know, my drummer's out in Port Hope. That's normal now. My guitarist is up in Oro, my bass player. Remember, Derry from Honeymoon Suite lives in Nashville. Yeah. I mean, if there were like, you know, Hugh and Cry for Poise for the Worm reunion, but there were like, you know, Hugh and cry for boys for the worm reunion, but there isn't, you know, well, you know, a lot of people are just learning about boys for the worm right now. I can start this at Hugh and cry, Hugh Dylan and cry.

Okay. Godly and cream. You remember this? Uh, you make me want to cry. Remember that video? The faces, um, faces just like blend into other faces, kind of like black and white, uh, black or white version of the Michael Jackson song. You make me want to cry. It's big on like Toronto Rocks and stuff. Hey, one more and then we'll get back to your jams. Of course, one more. This is good shit. Oh, okay. Wow. Yeah, we're a four piece hard rocker. You want to shout out the other members?

Sure. On guitar was Gerald Fratzl. On drums, the amazing Travis Watts. He of the fast fricking wrist. Steve Honey Brown on bass. And for a while there we had Hillary on keyboard and backup vocals. And yeah, and myself on lead vocals. So listen now to the vocals coming up and know that these vocals belong to Al Grego, award-winning podcaster and host of Yes We Are Open. Listen closely. I was trying to hit the post, but I fucking missed it by a mile. We love our long intros on this album.

That's good for podcasting. You should use Poise for the Worm as your music. Actually, this one here is like, it keeps on going. The intro, it's kind of embarrassing how long it takes for us to actually, for me to start singing. Yeah, it's like Rosie and Greg. Come on. Where are the vocals? All right, is it coming up next while I hit the post?

Right now. You're caught in the pit outside each of the whore Watching the dying ground fall from the carousel Some are getting the things they like to have Which is my prayer, man, watching the dying ground Have your kids discovered Poise for the Worm yet? I think I've probably played them a few songs here and there, but yeah, they don't seem to care. But lately I feel like now that your son's into extreme and especially, I mean, Travis laid some nasty drum tracks down on his songs.

So I think my son is tight. Yeah, we were pretty tight. I mean, we had a, we had a fun run. And for those who follow Al Grego on Twitter and you wonder why is he at PFTW? Now you know why. Poised for the worm. Here's a fun fact for you. I'm ready. Late in like probably early two. That Layden is on this track? Late in our career as a band we were actually asked if we were interested in touring with a band in the northern states I'm not earth. No, no, no, no, no, no band. You would have heard of, but you would have heard of the leader of this band, uh, Tim users. Um,

I have to fake a head. Of course I know Tim. You there. Okay. Remind me who he is. Why don't I know her, her, her, she, Tina, Tina, you there. Sorry. That's it. Tim. Of course. It's the others. The others. What did you do? You said Tim Uathers. I don't know. I'm it's Tina. The others, a bit of a senior. I knew Tina, the others, because I was back in the nineties. I would listen to Howard Stern and I remember teeny others came on with her rock band. Yeah, there's a good band too. I hundred percent knew the teeny others was in rock and I don't know the name of that

band or any song, but I knew that fun fact. And yes, of course she was on family ties. I never missed an episode on Thursday nights of family ties. Alex P Keaton by Mike was played by Michael J Fox. Wow. I love that fucking show. And that's wild that you could have opened up for teeny others band. Yeah, we didn't, but it was, it was kind of fun to be asked and just to contemplate it. But at the time then- How come he said no? I can't imagine saying no to that.

Cause the band wasn't going anywhere and I was getting married and things were gonna start changing. Your wife ruined your dream. No, no, my wife didn't ruin it. It was just, it wasn't meant to be. But- Oh boy, you're very nice.

Okay, well, I'm sorry, because we don't know in an alternate history that if you open up for teeny others, we don't know who comes out with this tea others and says, Hey man, you got something here. You know, it could have been like the honeymoon, sweet story. It's like you got a new girl now. It's like, I like this song. Let's see what we can do. Ten year deal with Warner. Yeah. Yeah, maybe at all. Okay. Any words before we get back?

Now we're getting back to your jams. I just wanted to talk a little bit more. Yeah, no, I appreciate that. We never had a deep dive into back to your jams. I just wanted to talk a little bit more Into poise for the one not expecting that but I didn't tell you appreciate it. Thank you No, let's let's better than yours, I could teach you But I have to charge My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard And they're like, it's better than yours Damn right, it's better than yours I could teach you, but I have to charge Know you want it, the thing that makes me What the guys go crazy for They lose their minds It's the way I want I think it's time

La la la la la Warm it up la la Who chose Milkshake by... I chose this one. Kellis? Kellis, yes. Big Jam. I did a search. I didn't know this track before I searched for it. I know this song. It was a big hit, but also she brought it back for like some ad campaign for either insurance or a phone company.

I don't know, but it's like she re-does it for that. But regardless, it's a big jam. Yeah, it's a huge jam produced by Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo. Hugo, sorry, not Hugo. You can hear the Pharrell Williams and Chad Huger. Hugo, sorry, not Huger. You can hear the Pharrell in there. Yeah, for sure. And actually, so this is from 2003. Originally, it was offered to Britney Spears to be on her album In The Zone. It's a fun fact. But she turned it down. So that was good, you know. We should kick out the top 10 jams that were turned down but shouldn't have been turned down.

Well, I don't know if this is a Britney Spears song though. I mean, I think... Yeah, it sounds to me like a could be like a slave for you. Remember that jam? This sounds like slave for you. I could hear this as a Britney jam. I guess this was nominated for a Grammy for best urban alternative performance in 2004 and Nas, you know, going back to Nas, he appeared in

the video for this one. He's like a diner cook in the video. Nice cameo. Yeah. So what's the what's the biggest cameo before we get to why are we playing milkshake and getting me hungry just thinking about it? What's the biggest cameo in Letter Kenny slash Shorzy history? Oh, that's a interesting. I'm asking the expert here.

Big well defined biggest, right? Because Jay and Dan have been on Letter Kenny and Dan, well, Jay's been on Shorzy, but in terms of, oh, probably Jay Barishel. I think Jay Barishel is probably, because he's been in movies and stuff, he'd be more known to the non-Letter Kenny fan. He'd be known to Americans.

Yeah, for sure. Okay, good one. Okay, back to why are we playing milkshakes. So, Regrub Burger Bar, I met with the owner there, her name is Virginia Borges, and it's a really interesting story. She moved to Canada from South America and started this. She had like a three year plan

and was able to start this really cool burger joint. But yeah, they went viral because of some shakes that they made. That they're like, their shakes are, everything they serve there is highly Instagrammable. And they opened at a time where Instagram was a big deal in terms of, you know, promoting restaurants. And she talks about, uh,

their milkshake that went viral that caused them to then like the milkshakes couldn't keep up with the machines. Can keep up with demand. They had like, one day where they had to, where they made 700 milkshakes. Wow. That's like, it got crazy. But anyway, it was an interesting story and she was a, but that's a good problem to have. Yeah. Great problem to have, except, you except you know when when you can't keep up with demand and that's when you double the price People start saying, you know screw this place the the service here sucks. You know what Yogi Berra once said he said Nobody goes there anymore. It's too busy. Yeah, exactly Perfect. You know, that should be there. There are a lot of areas said that. Toronto Mike says Yogi Berra said that like Michael Scott said,

Wayne Gretzky's quote. But anyway, uh, yeah, it was a really interesting story. She's an impressive person in terms of like her, her dedication and, and everything. And also what does that mean? Regrub? Like I'm trying to understand the re it's re colon grub. Yeah. So do you know what that means? Well, spelled backwards, it's burger. So, uh, Oh my God, you blew my fricking mind right now. You didn't listen to the episode. I did. I talked about it on Toronto mic. I had a better, I had a similar epiphany. Hold on. I'm still processing this. Re grub is burger backwards.

Honestly. It's like when you find out the FedEx logo has that arrow in it or whatever, it is like boom or Amazon's logo is like A to Z. Another really cool part of her story is the fact that she hires other differently abled people on her staff. That is awesome. So she likes giving back to the community and that's her way of giving back. That's beautiful. And they're in Calgary? Yes, in Cal. If I, and they're in Calgary.

Yes. In Calgary, they've got two locations in Calgary. I promise this is a pledge. If I am next time I'm in Calgary, I will go to regrub burger bar and I'll get myself a milkshake. Yeah. And, but then you should also stop in a Cax bar and podcasts and record with them. I'm going to do it all. And I'm going to say, do you know who I am? And when they give me the, they say, okay, Mike, that's whenever it's 1495.

I'm going to say, pardon me. You do realize who I am, right? And then I'll realize you got to be Calgary Mike to get that comp or whatever. So forget that. Okay. Shout out to regraburger bar. That's a good jam. Now I'm, now I'm feeling it.

Oh, in this next jam, I'm going to tease all the jams by saying the hit of nostalgia that Gen Xers are going to get from hearing the opening chords of this next song. Just brace yourself and prepare. And speaking of teeny others, right? Did you do that on purpose? Family title. Cause you didn't know I was going to talk about boys for a word. No, we didn't. But we just talked about Alex P Keaton and now we're going to play this song. You ready, buddy? I'm ready. Oh, it's got a long slow intro. Just soak it in, buddy. Soak it in. I love this movie. No, this is not dug in the slugs. I thought it was the Jitters.

The Jitters, right. You know, in an alternate universe, this movie stars Eric Stoltz. Yep. I know you know that. I don't know. Sometimes I drop these fun facts and I go, why do I bother? Everyone knows that. And then somebody says, I didn't know that. And then I say, that's why I dropped the know that. I don't know. Sometimes I drop these fun facts and I go, why do I bother? Everyone knows that. And then somebody says, I didn't know that. And then I say, that's why I dropped the fun fact. The most depressing fact I've ever heard of the, about the movie is if it were done now.

Okay. So 55 to 85, it was 30 years back. So they did it now. 94 94. Yeah. That's fucked up. Can I swear on your podcast? Yeah, well, that's your podcast. How old do you feel? Yeah, that is an interesting thing about time, where when you're young, yeah, 50s seem like a million years ago, but today, 94 feels like 10 years ago. Yeah. That's wild.

Here's another cool fact. When Huey Lewis was asked to write a song for this movie, he actually suggested one he'd already written called In the Nick of Time, which didn't get used in Back to the Future, but got used for another movie. Do you know which movie it was used for? Wow. Another big eighties movie. The song was called In the Nick of Time.

Seeker of my success. No, I'll give you a hint, though. Breakfast Club. It stars. Well, one of the stars is Dan Aykroyd. OK, that's a big clue. Coneheads. Wait a minute.

No, I might I might be wrong here. I'm not fixated. I only am doing one track and the music's in the background. People will know if I cut this out. Was Dan Aykroyd in Brewster's Millions? No, it was Richard Pryor. Richard, yeah, no, Richard Pryor. Eric Idle, was it?

Well, which one? Oh, he was in the one with, damn it. Here, I'll help you. My memory sucks. He was in the one with Eddie Murphy where they take him and turn him into like... Yeah, so Richard Pryor and John Candy and I don't think...

Rick Moranis is in it as well, but I don't think Dan Aykroyd is in it. No, I'm confusing it with the one where they take Eddie Murphy off the street and teach him how to be like a rich guy. Beverly Hills... No. Trading Places. That's No. Trading Places. That's what you're thinking of. Just so we know, the song

Nick of Time was used in Brewster's Millions. That's right. But it was originally suggested by Huey Lewis that it could have been used in Richard Pryor, Star of Superman 3. Correct. Star of... Okay, so Pat Hingle is in Brewster's Millions there's a good Canadian actor trading

places yes thanks moose I got it without moose I was I know I want to give myself some points here here yeah John Candy was in Brewster's so this gentleman Hugh E. Lewis hmm his band was on at least one album was the Elvis Costello backup band. Oh yeah. Yeah. I feel like I knew that maybe I maybe knew that from a pandemic Friday. Maybe I learned it from a pandemic and he got sued, of course, for stealing the Ghostbusters song with a heart of rock. Was it heart of rock and roll? What's the song he with Heart of Rock. Was it Heart of Rock and Roll?

What's the song? He, no, I want a new drug. I want a new drug. Was too close to the Ghostbusters. It was pretty close. It was damn close. Should we play them? I played them back then.

Anyway, the song's over and we haven't talked about the business. Yeah, like we're doing it all, buddy. Heritage Park Historical Village. So picture, you know, those of us in Ontario, picture Pioneer Village, but on like steroids. Did you hear they're gonna change the name of Pioneer Ontario picture pioneer village, but on, on like steroids, did you hear they're going to change the name of pioneer village? No. Yeah. I think they're going to, I think the word pioneer is offensive on some level.

Oh really? And I think they're going to remove the word pioneer. I think, I think this is something I read unless it was the onion or the beaver, which is just an onion wannabe Canadian content onion. But I think there's something going on, but tell me more about heritage park, historical village. Cause I did talk about it quite a bit on Toronto miked and very interesting to me. Yeah, it was really cool. It's a huge, massive kind of historical village. Like it's like, like shock and Creek pioneer village that, that, uh, you know,

tells the story of, of, uh, Alberta's history. Um, and, uh, I got to walk around and said, like, it was all closed off for the, for the season. So I got to go walk around and see all the, like the empty buildings, but it's really cool. It's like walking backwards in time and seeing like, uh, all the saloons and the, and the hotels and stuff that you can actually go in. And when they're open, they have, uh, people out there acting their parts and

dressed in, and just in just just like Pioneer Village but on a much larger scale and they have a I think he said a three kilometer or three mile I forget a steam train loop that goes around the park and has different stops so you can not a monorail no so you can actually get off a steam train and back inside so it's's very, very cool. And also have a really neat, automotive museum, uh, amazing with a bunch of like a huge car collection. Yeah. It's, it's, I highly recommend if anyone's ever in the Calgary area to check it out.

When I'm going to regrub burger bar and getting, uh, and going to a CACS bar and recording my podcast about it, I'm going to pick up some chocolate at mountain chocolates. Of course that's in Kenmore. Is that in Kenmore? A mountain? No, Banff. Banff. Right. And then going for the greens in Kenmore. it. I'm going to pick up some chocolate at Mountain Chocolates. Of course, that's in Kenmore. Is that in Kenmore? Mountain? No, Banff. Banff, right. And then going for the greens in Kenmore. Okay. I'm trying to keep track of where I'm going on this, because I'm expensing this. I'm expensing it to Minaris. Yeah, hardwood in Kenmore.

Bring my hardwood home. But Heritage Park Historical Village, I think the kids would absolutely love it. And now I'm just gonna ask you a big question here, Al Grego. Did you ever ride the Toronto zoo monorail? Yes, I did. Did you have the McDonald's, uh, some McDonald's hot dogs or pizza? I feel like the dome had McDonald's hot dogs. I feel like the zoo, this is before it, McPizza came around. I don't recall. I don't recall.

I feel like I had a McDonald's pizza at the zoo. And of course I rode the monorail. I definitely rode the monorail. I do remember that, but I don't remember what kind of food I ate. Before, of course, this is by the way, people, this is before the tremendous Conan O'Brien script that was the monorail episode of The Simpsons,

Marge versus the monorail. This is before that. We were riding the monorail at the Toronto Zoo. And I look forward to getting to Calgary and going to Heritage Park Historical Village. And it's fun that we mentioned, like organically, we mentioned Michael J. Fox for being in family ties. And he of course took over for Eric Stoltz

and became Marty McFly. That is correct. I know I'm correct. Okay. Okay. Come on. Robert Lawson over here telling me when I'm wrong, but excellent. Are you ready?

So that was 1985 that a Huey Lewis in the news put out back in time. That great song here. You want to go, I don't know. This one's even further back. 31 years. This is actually before Marty went back to go, I don't know. This one's even further back. 31 years. This is actually before Marty went back to see his parents in high school. Before that, this was a jam you might've been kicking out. Because he missed the scenery, The native dances and the charming songs,

But wait a minute, something go go, you mixed up a sizzliano, all you color braids do the Mambo like crazy with it. Hey Mambo, don't wanna ta da da da, hey hey Mambo, no more Mootarala, hey Mambo, Mambo Italiano, try an Angelada with the fish Bacala and then hey the fire. I'm gonna move. I'm gonna move. I'm gonna move. I'm gonna move. I'm gonna move. I'm gonna move. I'm gonna move. I'm gonna move. I'm gonna move.

I'm gonna move. I'm gonna move. I'm gonna move. I'm gonna move. I'm gonna move. I'm gonna move. I'm gonna move. I'm gonna move.

I'm gonna move. I'm gonna move. I'm gonna move. I'm gonna move. I'm gonna move. I'm gonna move. I'm gonna move. I'm gonna move. I'm gonna move. I'm gonna move. I'm stories. So I headed down to Niagara Falls I noticed this because I was telling everybody you went to Alberta and next thing you know, you're in Niagara Falls

Well, I recorded most of the stories there, but two stories were recorded in Ontario. This is one of them in Niagara Falls I visited Andrew Virgilito. He's the owner of a time ice cream in Niagara Falls and I can bike there Maybe I'll get there before I get to Calgary. Yeah, it's a great story. They've been in business since 1978. His father started it. Interesting family story there. His mom and dad met over mail and got married by proxy and then came to Canada and opened up this Italian cafe. They also make gelato ice cream.

And the cafe is kind of right in between touristy Niagara Falls and the town of Niagara Falls so he had an interesting childhood growing up in a place that was very overrun by tourists so it was an interesting story absolutely and I love these family run operations like the Petrucci family yeah They also been knowing to get down to some mombo Italiano. They had the, the palma pasta and Italian ice cream. Sounds like a fantastic place. Next time I'm in Niagara Falls with the kids, we're going to make sure we seek out some Italian ice cream. Tell Andrew Al Gregor sent you and yeah. Yeah. So this one here released in 1954.

Cashton. Did you know there was a mombo craze in 1954? Like I remember it well. That was all the rage apparently. I remember it well. Uh, I did not know that, but I'm not shocked by this, uh, by this news. That's kind of like pre rock and roll right now. 54 year kind of rock and roll is just sort of burgeoning out of the different I mean in the eighties there was a Lombada craze. I mean, yeah, that's true. I mean, things come back. The forbidden dance and they had like rival movies. There was two movies as I remember Lombada. I remember that the forbidden dance. So Mambo craze and Dean

Martin, I believe is like his last name is, uh, as was changed like for the stage, I think he's like a Martino or something like that. Right. So yeah, Mambo with Italiano. And there's a great episode of the sopranos, not the Simpsons, because there's a great episode of the Simpsons too, but there's a great episode of the sopranos when, uh, you know, they park a boat out in the water to try to get a guy to like sell his house or something and they're blasting Dean Martin.

It's just fantastic. Sopranos is a show I never watched. No, it's fantastic. I know. I hear I should probably go. It's the third best show I've ever seen. Yeah, and I've seen a lot of shows Oh, so when you go to see our friend from Italian ice cream, I know you're a Portuguese descent Do you try to pass as a no? No proud Italian? We have lots in common anyway

So he like we we commiserated over a perfect espresso, which he made it was it was great I can't it's hard. It's not easy to find a good espresso around here But you can find it at Italian ice you can definitely find it at Italian Niagara Falls, Ontario He's got it down to a literal science. I love it. This is great. I'm gonna gonna get my butt to Italian ice cream Okay, so we have a bonus jam at the end. We'll wrap things up. I'll play it But this I've been talking quite a bit. In fact, I still have the script because I put down like a document, like what is the most recent episode when I talk about it?

So just the other day, I would say something like in the season six finale of Yes, We Are Open, Al visits Peterborough, Ontario, and Scott Stewart, owner of Kawortha TV and Stereo. They've been fixtures in the city for over half a century. In that time, their industry has gone through countless disruptive technology changes, but they've always been able to adapt. And today, they continue to provide their customers with top quality products and services. This, my friends, is their story. So I would say that in my mind, I'm thinking what song will FOTM Al Gregor play when he talks about coertha TV and stereo.

And I was 100% sure that you Al Gregor would kick out this song, I was absolutely certain I'd be hearing this FOTM jam. My life is a stereo, how loud does it go? What songs do I know? Whatever happened to my plans? Whatever happened to life I thought I had? My life is stereo, I had a cheap little gift. How bad does it show?

Whatever did become of all my friends? Cone watch out he's been drumming up results Turn me up louder I'll scream as loud and clear as I can scream And if you like what you're hearing Please hang on to me I like being here Yeah, I'm all hooked up for all Hang on to me For one in a million One in a million

One of a million So hang on to me What a song. I love it so much. Like, hook it to my veins. Don't hang on to me Joey Surlin. But Ken Tiszer is an FOTM. My apologies, Ken. I saw your name and I thought, but I couldn't remember for sure. That hurts my feelings, actually. I know everybody who's been on the police. It's not about you, man. It's about... There's an FOTM who just saw Watchmen, I think in Niagara Falls, I think. And he sent me a... He took video of a new song that Danny Graves has written and he was playing on the piano. It's called James. My first born is named James. But this song is gorgeous. And I just want to give some love. Of course, Sammy

Cone's drumming up results. We know that. Okay. But let's give some love to the only guy I can think of who could sing for the Tragically Hip today. Danny Graves. What a lovely FOTM. And remember he sang for us. I was about to say, one of my fond memories of being at a TMLX is him singing acapella and killing it. What a magic night he killed it and you know singing like sweet baby James it was beautiful. I mean I you know I'm a singer but I don't have the guts to sing something acapella like that like he did but he can do it he's got the goods. He's a wonderful wonderful FOTM and Kaworthaereo, tell me about them because next time I'm in the patch. That's what we call Peterborough.

I'm going to buy myself a Hi-Fi stereo system. Well, that's the place to do it in Peterborough. I mean, Scott Stewart, he runs the place. His, sadly, his brother, who actually started the place, passed away back in December of cancer. But the fun story about this place is his brother, Glenn, Glenn Stewart, in 19, I think he was 1971, started selling sewing machines out of the trunk of his car.

Monica's a sewist. Yeah. But one of- I like this part here. Yeah. And but one I like this part here. Yeah. We're going to get back to that story. Sewing machines, you say? Yeah. Out of the trunk of his car. But one of his suppliers also made serials, I guess, and insisted he put a stereo up for sale as well. And that thing sold really quick. So he bought another one and that's, and then after a while,

he just forgot about the sterile sewing machine part of his business and just straight TV and stereo. I think of an, uh, an industry where you got to pivot like that, like that you're, you're selling the big old speakers with the high fi and the, the, you know, the record player and all that and the radio receiver and all that. And then as time marches on, I don't know, is there just a track enter the fray and the cassette the, you know, the record player and all that, and the radio receiver and all that. And then as time marches on, I don't know, is there just a track enter the frame?

And then that's a disruption in that, in that industry is, is the, is the norm, right? It's crazy. Cause if he's, yeah, everyone had the record collection. And then when, when tapes came, oh, we have to replace the record collection with cassettes. And then when CDs came, same thing, like it was always, but now streaming's kind of screwed all that up. I feel for them, right? Because no one, no, now they just give me a receiver and excellent speakers that has an auxiliary input

for me to connect my device because I'm gonna be playing either a streaming from whatever your streaming station of choice is, like if it's Apple or Spotify or YouTube, or I'm just going to Bluetooth in maybe a podcast like Toronto mic or the produce. Bluetooth is a big disruptor for sure. I asked Scott like what, what he thought maybe the hay day was for audio visual. And he said the eighties and it makes sense.

He had an actual separate location of just a garage is where people would bring their cars in to have car stereos. I mean think of remember those days where replacing your car stereo is a big deal right? Aftermarket yeah for your car yeah everybody did that they they they spent a lot of money after they got their car upgrading their now a car is basically a piece of electronics anyway you don't you wouldn't dare replace anything because it's all connected. But yeah. Right. Jeremy Hopkins says a lot of people out there are still loving the old formats. I am surrounded by vinyl.

I can't find those made a huge comeback for sure. And he's got it again. He's got a nice display of turntables there and stuff. And yeah, we'll see how, I remember how do I say this gently in Peterborough? They haven't got streaming yet, right? Like there's still, right? Am I right? Wherever there's internet, there's streaming. I'm just kidding. I love Peterborough. I mean, Scott did say that radio is still big in Peterborough.

I think, I forget how many, they still have like stations and newspapers that are still viable in Peterborough. I know. When I was young and my buddy had a cottage in Huntsville and we'd go to the record store in Huntsville, I still remember like number one on their chart would be like back in black or something. I'd be like, Oh, that's interesting. Cause that's really old. Right now. This would be like, you know,

remember Peter also still has their own TV station checks, right? Like is, so, um, it's, it's an interesting market because it's just far enough away from Toronto that they need all that, but still close enough that, you know, they still have the noise from coming from Toronto. Absolutely. Bonus jam. Just as we wrap things up here, Al, I can't wait to get you back, not under the, uh, the Monaris umbrella, but you'll come in as Al Grego FOTM who will, uh, unveil the top Toronto Mike history moments from episode. I have to do this right. 20 sorry, 1250 through 1240, 12499, 1499. That's how it goes, right? Just call me retro Toronto Mike. So you're doing this on your own. You can help from leave a phone. I'm going to need a lot to help from, I've got,

I'm going to have assemble the Academy. I haven't done that yet, but I will. 1250. Yeah. Which is the first one you'll have to address is a Mike Stafford episode that was very memorable to me. I do recall that that was, there's a lot of interesting things that have happened in the last, uh, can't wait to wade through it. Yeah, for sure. And Alberta, will you be back with the family? You've been to Alberta on the company dime, are you gonna return with the family? Yeah, I hope so. It was supposed to happen this summer,

we were supposed to drive across the country, but I feel like those plans changed, but eventually I wanna make it out there again and take the family just to visit all the cool places I got to see. And what song are we listening to as our bonus champ? Well this is Alberta by Eric Clapton, it was from his Unplugged CD, which that album was on constant rotation back when I was delivering

pizza at Pizzaville in Bradford. This was my nighttime cleaning music, right? So the bars would close, we would serve all the drunks, and then at 3 a.m. I'd be cleaning and this would be the album I'd put up. What a life you lived. What a life you lived. When I watch the Al Greggo biopic, who's playing Al Greggo? I don't know, but it would be pretty boring.

I'm trying to think of who would I hire to play Al Greggo. Maybe John Hamm? Okay, I'm thinking more like Tom's Chigurus. This unplugged by Eric Clapton was everywhere. It was just everywhere. And it was because he did the, because you know, Derek and the dominoes, his like little, his little, he only put one album, I think, but Layla was a big hit for Derek and the dominoes on Toronto mic. We played the piano coda from Layla yesterday and talked about Jim Gordon,

who got credit for writing that song. Shout out to Rita Coolidge, who probably really did write that song, shout out to Rita Coolidge who probably really did write that song, but the unplugged version of Layla and the very sad song Tears in Heaven that Eric wrote for his young son and that whole idea like now that we're parents it hits differently I like to think like would you know my name if I saw in heaven or whatever, like, that is a devastating thought for a parent who loses a young child. Will you recognize? It's devastating. Yeah.

And I've heard the story of what happened. It's heartbreaking. I mean, say what you will about Eric Clapton as a person. That story there, I wouldn't wish that upon the worst human being. And this CD was just a huge, huge part of my, you know. So you worked at Pizzaville in Bradford and this is before you were off to college. What college did you go to?

Treviss Institute. Where? In Toronto. Okay. And that's when you formed Poised for the Worm? That's where we formed. See, I'm now slowly, I was like very slowly. It's like, you know, on The Simpsons, every once in a while, back in the day anyways, they'd have a little bit of the McBain movie and you could piece them all together if you got them all in there.

So we're doing this memento style. I loved memento. It was a great movie. What a great movie. Yeah, absolutely. And we're closing with lowest of the low because tomorrow Simon Head returns to the program and he directed the lowest of the low documentary. I'm working hard on a poised for the worm documentary.

I just have to license these points for the worm songs. You can have them for free. I know the guy. I know a guy. Do you have, you can do that. Okay. Well, we'll talk afterwards. We have a lot of negotiation to do. I wrote half the song so you can have half the song. I want the other mineras podcast too, because you do three months on three months off. Is this the last month? I lost track. June.

You still have to be for June. Okay, good. All right. I promoted your poster spot, so I'm glad we have you for June. I hope to at some point see you at a Toronto Maple Leafs game. I'm back there in early July. Don't leave without your lasagna. And I do highly recommend, I love the way you tell the story.

You're worthy of all the awards you've won. I hope I never win an award. I hope you win more. And I love season six of Yes, We Are Open. Good job. Thank you very much. And thank you everyone who listened and shared the episodes and Mike, you've been a great partner for Minaris and for, for Yes, We Are Open podcast.

I appreciate it. This bonus that Minaris is going to give you for winning the Quill Award. What are we talking here? Like two thousand dollars? I don't know. I don't know. It's not going to be like a Griswold where, you know, I can put in a pool or anything like that, but it'll help. It'll help the year end. Taking a poke. Do you remember that was the game show where he won the trip to Europe.

Was it Europe? Was that the one to Europe? I was thinking of Christmas vacation where he was going to put the pool in with his year end bonus. European vacation was like my first favorite vacation movie because I saw boobies in it and it was really like 12 year old Mike was so happy. And that brings us to the end of our 1496 show. You know, do you know Poise for the Worm? You know how to follow Al on Twitter, because he's PFTW, but you can find Alan Grego. And did you know Alan has two L's in it?

That's a fun fact. And two A's. Oh my God, you're right. Al Grego, follow him everywhere so you can learn about all the awards he wins. That's a fun fact. And two A's. Oh my God, you're right. Al Grego, follow him everywhere so you can learn about all the awards he wins. You can follow me everywhere as Toronto Mike, like Twitter and Blue Sky, stuff like that. Much love to all who made this possible. Not just Minaris, who I love with all my heart, but also Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta,

I got your lasagna in the freezer, RecycleMyElectronics.ca, the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team, and Ridley Funeral Home. See you all tomorrow when Simon head drops by to kick out the jams. He's got some sweet jams, you're gonna love it. See you then. And their brookering stalks, the class struggle explodes And I'll play this guitar just the best that I can Maybe I'm not and maybe I am But who gives a damn because everything is coming out rosy and gray Yeah, the wind is gold but the smell of snow warms me today