Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Andrew Stoakley: Toronto Mike'd #50

Episode Date: September 9, 2013

Mike and Andrew Stoakley talk about the new Indie88 and more.

Welcome to the 50th episode of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything, often with a distinctly Toronto flavour. I'm Mike from torontomic.com. Joining me this week is audio guru Andrew Stokely, and hosting this audio file are the good people at Core Fusion. and hosting this audio file are the good people at Core Fusion. Welcome, Andrew, to the Big Five-O. I feel honored. I feel very honored. Episode 50. Yes, this is great. In the new facility. In the brand spanking new Toronto Mic Podcast Studio.

I think this is the podcast version 2.0. So you, I want to talk about this new neighborhood briefly because I know you used to live very close. So we're sitting now in New Toronto. Yes. South of the lakeshore and you used to live in Long branch correct so i used to live west here uh i used to live on 29th street so just west of kipling east of brown's line and for those who don't know and that was me a year ago but now i'm an expert there's mimico and then west of mimico is new toronto and then at like kipling uh you get into long branch which takes you to Mississauga. And then Alderwood. But that's not along the lake. No, that's north. North, right. Long Branch goes down to Marie Curtis Park before it becomes Mississauga.

Gotcha, gotcha. And you loved this neighborhood. Loved it. I can see why. I've only been here since Thursday, and it's very lovable. Yeah. You could walk to places, especially where we were. We had the big no-frills, so we could walk to the grocery store.

There was the beer store there. The only thing you really – you had to get in your car and drive to the liquor store. But transit right there, you had to go train. You had TTC right at the end of the street. You were a 15-minute the to the subway at kipling um you have the big queensway theater uh you have all the major stores you have sureway gardens which is i just drove past there it's a gong show to building that huge parking garage there's a lot of construction going on over there yeah rosie's gonna love that rosie can't wait yeah i would

imagine um you know we just loved it it just it we out we outgrew the neighborhood in terms of real Rosie can't wait. Basically, you didn't want to be house poor here to get the size you required. Correct. Yeah. And I wanted a little less stressful area. What I do for a living is really loud. And the neighborhood in terms of loudness was starting to get to me. And it wasn't anything crazy. It wasn't like there were street parties. It's not there was bars or stuff like that. It's just the overall general noise of the neighborhood.

I needed a little peace and quiet when I got home. And I have that now in Niagara. And in Niagara, all you hear at night are crickets. Crickets, birds. Birds wake you up in the morning. And the coyotes. Coyotes, coyotes. So we had a chat off before we recorded it.

So you call them coyotes, which is how I know them as. But on CBC, I heard them referred to, coyotes. So we had a chat off before we recorded it. So you call them coyotes, which is how I know them as. But on CBC, I heard them referred to as coyotes. Honestly, that wouldn't surprise me. I know, because as you mentioned, so we talked about the word schedule. So I believe the proper way to say that, the word schedule in Canada, is to say schedule. It sort of sounds pretentious to me. I always feel awkward saying schedule, even though I know it's the right way. I feel is to say schedule. Yeah. It sort of sounds pretentious to me. I always feel awkward saying schedule, even though I know it's the right way. I feel I should say schedule,

because who am I to say schedule? Well, you don't seem like a pretentious prick, which is who I think a lot of people would be when they say that, I don't know, schedule, schedule. But it's proper. Like, shouldn't we be proper? But coyotes is another one. I need to find out.

So for the next episode, I have to find out what the proper way of that animal is. You call them coyotes? Wile E. Coyote? I know Americans call it coyote for sure, but are we supposed to call them coyotes? I don't know. To be honest, it's one of those words that I guess you just grow up with. Most of us at our age, we would have grown up with cartoons, right?

Wile E. Coyote. But we have a hockey team named the Coyotes, and no one's calling them the Phoenix Coyotes. No, they call them a big pile of steam, and you know what. Well, except for Cheryl. That's right, that's right. Cheryl on my site is a big fan, so we gotta be careful. So there's coyotes in Niagara. A lot. Wow. Yeah, we have...

Well, they have them near the Humber River here, but I never see them. I just hear that they eat a little dog now and then... Yeah, we don't have... And right now where we are, because they're all little dog now and then yeah we don't have and and right now where we are because they're all new homes a lot of places don't have fences up all right so they just run wild through uh through the the the housing development and last winter uh we heard a kill out and uh in our backyard about two in the morning and it was in the snow in the winter and i went out there and it it looked like the killing fields. Like there was blood, there were, there was fur there. It was

just, it was nasty. Um, but, and like I said, my son, uh, we were saying off air, my son has to go through coyote, uh, watch. There's a group in Niagara called coyote watch and they come out to the schools and they teach kids what to do in the event that you come across a coyote. And when the CBC reports on that, it'll be called Coyote Watch. I can just see it. Yeah. So this new neighborhood is fantastic. And along with this new house, this old but new-to-me house in this neighborhood,

is the brand-new recording studio. Yes. And I like it. I like it. I like it. There we go. Ah, and that's why. Good old Baltimore.

So this song is appropriate because we have painted on the wall in this recording studio. We have a hippopotamus. We have an elephant. We have a giraffe. And there's a monkey hanging from a tree you know what's missing from the tree

tell me there's no coconuts there's no coconuts in my coconut tree or bananas that would be great and luckily the monkey's not throwing poo no poo being thrown on my wall so this room used to be a nursery

for a four year old girl like a playroom and now it's the recording studio. And you know what? I think it's great. Like I said, as I was looking around here, I just noticed that the ceilings are curved. Yes. And that's fantastic because your acoustics, you won't get any standing waves or any reflections off of your ceiling.

And it's even better because two sides of your ceiling are curved. So you won't have any standing waves or reflections from your ceiling. That is why I bought this home. Well, you're a smart man. You will have to get a carpet and some curtains. Really tie the room together. So the dude abides. One of my favorite movies, The Big Lebowski,

and yes, I'm going to find a rug that really ties the room together. Yeah. Well, I think you have to decide if you're going to keep it yellow with the animal motif, or you're going to go for something a little more calming color, and then you can get a nice big carpet, plush carpet to go with it.

So, if anyone wants to see what we're talking about i did post a picture on toronto mic.com this morning so there's a picture of the new recording studio complete with the jungle animals uh so andrew stokely you're an audio guru uh and you are you were extremely helpful when i decided to build my home studio you were my yoda you advised me, you helped me select my equipment. And I, A, I want to thank you for that. But B, I want to thank you for what you're doing now, which is you've taught me about the acoustics. So I felt it was echoey in here. And it's because I have a lot of hard, I have hardwood floors and I have uh like i don't have a fabric uh drapes or curtains and there's nothing on these walls they're just hard and you also have a

a hard desk that this sits on um wood is a really good uh reflector of sound but since we've been in here and talking uh it's not as echoey because we absorb sound. Um, especially when we're talking face to face, uh, my sound, my voice travels towards you and some of that will be absorbed. But I think when you add the other things in here, it'll, it'll make a big difference. So an area rug, um, fabric curtains and, uh, something on the walls. Yes yes something that'll don't put any pictures up like don't put you know a giant mona lisa or darn an oversized picture of atlantic city if somebody gets that joke uh hopefully they will um yeah you don't want anything like glass

or frames or metal so what should i put on the walls well i mean you could go to home depot or lowes or anything like that and buy some sonex or a sonix just some if anybody's built a suspended ceiling um just some of those panels and you can go to fabric land and just put some some fabric on and just put it up on the walls it's a really cheap way to just sound absorption or egg cartons i saw it in a tv show once yep they had the you know absorption. Or egg cartons. I saw it in a TV show once. Yep. They had the, you know,

the old paper egg cartons stapled to the wall everywhere. And that's the key. The paper ones, not the plastic ones. Not plastic ones. The plastics won't absorb. So on Wednesday, actually it'll be,

I think we just had, yeah, we just had garbage. So on Wednesday, I'm going to go to all my neighbors' recycling bins and take out all their egg cartons. Nice. That'd be good. That's a good way to introduce yourself to the neighbors. Hi, I'm Mike, your new neighbor, and I'm here for your egg carton. Yes. Yeah, that'd be good.

So you helped me with my recording studio. Since then, have you helped any other podcasters help build their studio it like branched out into this whole new world? Uh, well, I mean, I haven't helped people build their studios, but I've, I've fielded a few questions, um, and just kind of given some answers. Uh, the one that I've helped the most probably would be the Geeks and Beats pod pad, um, excuse me, Geeks and Beats podcast with, uh, Hainsworth and Alan Cross. Um, Michael hasael has you know reached out to me just just some questions there was some compression issues uh some algorithm stuff the way he edits it and uh and some mic choices and i'm happy to give him because he's a good friend they're both

good friends and you know okay i'm curious now so what is the main difference between how Toronto Mike records his two podcasts and how Alan Cross and Hainsworth record Geeks and Beats? where Alan and Mike record each of their own voices separately in their own facility and chat via Skype. And then Michael edits that down using Pro Tools and puts the package together. Okay, so Alan's actually in his Oakville home. He's got a home recording studio there. And Hainsworth is somewhere else. Yep, he's in the beaches. But they're doing it live. They skype going so they can hear each other

so they're having a conversation via skype and they're recording on each of their own yeah i guess okay yeah they're recording on their own and they're they're both recording on whatever program they're using they're just you know it's making a wave file basically and then michael takes that in and he does a bunch of editing yep and he edits it together because he adds a lot of music and clips and voiceover work uh and puts the package together and that's the way they do it because they just don't have time to get together in a facility like this and do it which podcast do you prefer toronto miked or uh geeks and beats um i like them for both different reasons uh it's a tie it's a tie they're the only two i listen to uh so i listen to them 50 50 i look forward to both each week um your podcast talks about different things than they do they're

they're more tech heavy geeks and music right tech and tech and music we're here it's it's a like you like like the song says it's got a toronto flavor you know and i don't live in this anymore but i lived here for 20 years So I like to keep in touch with that portion. Cool. And I should point out, you didn't only help me with my acoustic concerns here, but you brought me a gift, something I've actually been desiring for about 20 episodes now. Yes. You came with a cable that enables me to have a fader for the music I'm bringing in via the laptop.

Like that jungle, like Tarzan Boy. Yes. You just played. Yes. So it's nice because this now gives you control on the same area that your microphones are, as opposed to trying to mix your music on your laptop. And I had that knob, the USB input input level knob i was trying to do it there but it's not nearly as nice as the fader no and in the old days of radio it was all knobs

potentiometers was the correct term uh until can you spell that word uh not anymore but i think i had to i'm pretty sure at some point in first year radio i had a test that i had to spell it um but yeah the old wardbeck consoles if you will use dials and they would dial them up and stuff like that it was it was pretty cool speaking of uh you just mentioned alan cross and he's got his podcast alan cross is also a consultant of some sorts he's working with the newest the newest radio station in Toronto, Indie 88. Yeah, C-I-N-D. And this is C-I-N-D, yeah, 88.1.

And they play the kind of music you and I really dig. So this is for guys like us. Yep. I am very excited to hear your honest and uncensored thoughts on the new indie 88 um i'm not impressed and i was and i think that was the problem uh when they did their soft launch uh you know i was excited i was excited it has been a long time since I have listened to celestial radio, especially in the FM spectrum. I'll listen to 680 news and I'll listen to the fan 590 because I like sports and it's what I do for a living. So I'll be informed on that.

But I don't listen to an FM station. I can get music anywhere now. I can find music with two clicks of a mouse. I can find what it is I want. So I was excited about a new radio station and especially a radio station that I thought might cater to me and what I like. launch i got super excited really great music really great guests especially their throne of glory series that they had um i sent a tweet out a couple weeks ago when when alan cross had matt gooden uh for 90 minutes and i and i still believe it i said if you want listen to that stream because they can get it from their website i thought that was the best 90 minutes of music radio i've heard in a decade it was just it was fantastic so to clarify this is the period after the rick rolling uh so between rick rolling and labor day the hard launch yes so as i recall i did listen to a lot during this period as well it was commercial free completely and you didn't have the djs yet nope so all it was was music and it because they were bringing in uh guys like matt good and dan mangan and alan cross bookie did a segment you had guys who came in and played music that they wanted to let other people

hear whether it was local artists or indie artists. And I hate that term, indie artists. Basically all that means is just a band without a record contract and a major label. Or with a small, yeah, not a major label. But just a quick note that I asked the guys at Indie88 about this. They're not named Indie88 because they play guys, not on big labels. It's because they're not owned by Chorus or Rogers or Bell. Yep. Or Chum.

I don't even know who owns Chum anymore. I get confused. CTV. Okay, so they're not owned by one of those big conglomerates. Yeah, and I even think that's bullshit because they own three radio stations now. So they're not WKRP. No, they are not WKRP. They're not even Chay FM from Barry in the heyday.

They own three full radio stations now. I can't remember the company they own, but they own Y95 and Barry. They own CIND and they own another channel. So just because you're not part of the quote, big conglomerates doesn't mean you aren't one of the big conglomerates. You're just in a smaller size. So prior to Labor Day, you were very happy with yeah in the 88 yep i heard stuff that i hadn't heard on the radio before and i thought that was fantastic i thought great here we are and they played some of the old stuff which is great you know i don't i don't need i mean my favorite era music's you know 83 to say 88 89 give or take because there were some pretty crappy music towards the end of the 80s and early

90s um but uh well i shouldn't say maybe 92 93 uh but that whole british invasion the the true alternative era that came in um and then the grunge era if you will that happened in you know when nirvana launched that if you will the the whole Seattle West Coast thing. Um, but there were some bands and I have to admit, like, I, I, I haven't really been quote, if you will, up with the whole, uh, music scene because I just have, I'm too busy doing other things. I have friends that tell me about new artists and I'll play stuff and it's great. Um, you know, the, the first band, I should say that I really enjoyed, um, you know, both of us, we went to the, the lowest of the low show last year, Christmas at the horseshoe, the big anniversary shows. And you went on the night before we did for whatever schedule we couldn't. Yeah. We just didn't get there together, but we

both saw the same show. Now you saw a different opening act right um if you remember uh i dustin bento was it yeah yeah okay so the night i went i actually saw open for blue rodeo previously at massey hall okay um who is barney bento's son barney bento and the legendary hearts really son yeah wow i didn't know that that that's full of good info that is um but i mean normally in my heyday I saw hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of concerts. I know you had the list. Yeah, my list is a lot smaller than yours. I couldn't even go. I mean, to be honest, there's probably three years there

where I saw 100 plus shows a year just because of what I was doing in the promotions department. But my wife and I got down. We thought, you know, hey, we're going to have a night in the city. So we got a babysitter. We went down. We had, you know, hey, we're going to have a night in the city. So we got a babysitter. We went down. We had dinner at the Rivoli. It was great.

Walked around. Then we went to the SHU. And, you know, we were able to see the opening act. And it was this band called the Strumbelas. And I had not heard them. And to be honest, it was probably one of the best live shows of an opening act I have seen in years. And I bought the album on the spot. And I said that to them.

I tweeted them when I got home. I said, you know what? It's fantastic. And their album is just great. The new single's great. I can't wait for the new album. And I keep bothering them on Twitter saying, when are you going to come out to Niagara so I can go see you?

But I haven't heard the Strumbellos on CIND. Now, they might have been played. I've been listening to it a lot, especially last week,. Now they might've been played. I've been listening to a lot, especially the last week, especially since they did their hard launch. I was off last week. So I have a Sonos system at home and I have music going from the time I wake up to the time I go to bed.

Um, cause I love music and, uh, I haven't heard them, but I've heard a lot of other crap over. Okay. So this is post hold on. I just want to get it right.

So this is post a labor day. Correct. So they're hard launch. Okay. So tell tell me what so you were happy until labor day and then with the hard launch yep what happened to your uh feelings about indie 88 well their announcer showed up uh and to be honest i other than the three people who came from cNY, I don't know who the other ones are. They don't have a lot of announcers. Their overnights don't have an announcer. It's basically just a giant iPod.

Their evening show doesn't have an announcer. Is that Raina? Well, she does drive time. Okay. So she would be like 7 o'clock. She would be 3 to 7. They have their morning show. They have the swing announcer, which is usually,

uh, Bailey. His name is, uh, well, no, he's in the morning. I think Brian Bailey,

there's three guys in the morning. There's two guys and a woman in the morning. And then they go from 10 to 12. They have their basically it's a two hour shuffle where it's just, there's no announcers, very limited commercials. And then at noon to three, they have their swing announcer.

So it's either Lillian or Carlin. I heard that on my bike ride. Yeah. Uh, and then Raina comes in at noon to three they have their swing announcer so it's either carlin or carlin i heard that on my bike ride yeah uh and then reina comes in at at three and i think she's on till seven and then no one after that so you're you're not loving this talent um or they just they just don't have room to breathe no and this is a huge thing i need a reason to tune into your radio station you have to give me a reason. I tune into 680 because I want to hear traffic and I want to hear weather, and I know exactly what time those two things are going to happen. um i think he's great he shows great uh and the other guys throughout the day um but i need a reason to tune in and nowadays fm radio doesn't give enough time for their announcers and i take that they're not djs they're announcers um because no one djs anymore right um but these stations don't give their announcers time to let people get to know them like i was listening in on the way in because i wanted to just kind of have my memory

fresh and everything and this carlin guy had zero time between songs he had no time he's basically just saying here's the next song well here's the next well that's you know what you can just have a voiceover and i know you'd mentioned that. That's my idea. The audio tags. Yeah. Girl talk. Paper girl. Hire somebody to do the voice work and save yourself some money.

Alan would just do it. Yeah. Yeah. Pay Alan to do it. Because that's all that's happening. You're not getting. They don't do traffic. They have little news hits, but they don't have any news, which is fine.

But I want to be able to get a feel of who they are, and you're not getting that. And from what I can tell from the format, even after a week of listening, is that doesn't look like it's happening. Now, they might have plans to tweak it. I actually emailed their general manager at the station with my thoughts just because I'm like that. And I got a great reply, but I got a reply that I was expecting. It was the standard reply. It wasn't... Yeah, we appreciate the feedback.

It's important to us. Yeah, if you have any more thoughts, blah, blah, blah, blah. And if anyone's seen my Twitter feed the last week, they'll really know my thoughts of what I thought, because i've interacted with the their twitter people on indie and um you know i think the final straw was there's this song that i can't uh stand um and their repeats are heavy like radio radio breaks you down oh you would have it wouldn't you you said you weren't follow you on twitter yeah but you

said you weren't reading that. You said you wanted to have it fresh. Last night I went back to read a little bit, and I saw that you feel they play this song. Yep. It's called Elephant by Tame Impala, which has nothing to do, I guess, with the Chevy car that Elvis and I test drove this summer. No. Okay. So they were playing this. I guess they played it a couple of times

in a two-hour period. Last night. Yeah. I was listening in my office because I was working and they played this song within two hours. Now,

if anybody remembers in our age, there was only one radio station that had a limited playlist and that was Tarzan Dan and the all six, you know, all hit 680 news,

or 680, I want to keep saying 680 news. But, you know, they had a two hour rotation of sit. But that's what the station was. It was all hits. And I get that. It's like listening to hits one on on Sirius. That's what you're tuning in for.

When you when you listen to this guy's voice, doesn't it sound just like John Lennon? He's trying to be John Lennon. Yeah. Let's hear it for a second here. Hold on. I figured I'd turn it up just with the break here but uh yeah well i'll come back later i have this wonderful new fader now so it's very easy for me to bring it down and go down i love it it's like the drinking bird on the simpsons yeah it goes up bird goes down when he was down he had the disability because he was 300 pounds or whatever. That's right.

Which today would make him like an average-sized person. About that. Okay, so you feel they're overplaying the hits. Yeah. How many times a day do you think that they would play this song? Well, I know they've played it three times today already because I went back on their streaming site, and look, they played it at 12 o'clock, they played it there on their streaming site and look they played

it at 12 o'clock they played it at five o'clock and they played it around in the 10 o'clock hour and that's because it is one of their top 10 right now well i think they said it is their number one song blackberry didn't kill this well that's the whole that was my thing i blackberry killed it for me uh you know the minute it came out i mean what the hell you know it's like we are we living moby again is is moby involved in this somehow um but they have i made a list because i went back and you know it's amazing i haven't heard john lennon since i brought it up you know i thought he'd come back so start your list and I'm going to bring this back up when he comes back. They're most played right now. It's like Artist Said the Whale, M83, Matt Good, Hey Rosetta, Alabama Shakes, Jake Bug, Arcade Fire of Monsters and Men, Cold War Kids.

Yeah, but a lot of that's really good. It's just, it's really good, but it's too much. Like six times a day is too much. Yeah, I don't need to hear. You know. Here's John Lennon. Yeah. It's amazing.

He's doing a John Lennon impression. Yeah. The whole song is basically a beat. Like the bass line sounds like some stuff from the Let It Be album. Later, it's just, it's great. You know what? A little bit of come together, right? Yeah. I don't mind the song. I don't want's just it's great you know a little bit of come together right yeah yeah i don't mind the song yeah i don't want to hear it six times in a day

and you know and then they would come back they said well you know we want to we want to balance for all of our our listeners and i said you know i've said to them i felt like saying but who are your listeners like they obviously would have done some demographic research of who they were trying to target and what they wanted to target so are you going after the 18 to 24 demo are you going after the 24 to 35 demo are you going after the 35 to 50 demo they're obviously going after an older demo because they wouldn't be playing stuff like the smiths and the pixies they pay a lot of pixies i noticed which i love hearing uh yeah they played played Nirvana a lot. Their back catalog is the same artist.

It's different tracks, but it's the same artist. There's so many artists from the whole genre, the whole era, even going back to the early 80s, that they just aren't playing. And that's fine. But I did hear Psycho Killer this afternoon. Well, yeah, of course. I heard Burning Down the House, too. So they're playing the hits go in and and find an artist play the smiths if you want but play something

i haven't heard on the radio don't play how soon as now yeah and especially don't play the radio edit if you're gonna play how soon as now play the bloody track the way it was meant to be played you know there's a really bad radio edit of tainted love by soft sell too yeah and that's just bad like it's bad um but i think i i guess i had too much hope that you wish it had stayed the way it sounded during the soft launch yeah and that's fine but you can add your announcers you can add your announcers. You can bring your announcers in. But give them time to have a personality. Yeah, give them time.

And that's just my opinion. Obviously, it's my opinion. Sure. But I think I'm done listening to them. I might listen next Sunday when Bookie starts because I'm really hoping, I'm really, really, really hoping, and if Indy is listening to this, please let Bookie be Bookie.

Let him have carte blanche let him come in with a stack of cds and do his show don't pigeonhole him to what your uh radio format is doing let him come in and be the indie guy let him be like he is hosting the indie show at the horseshoe on tuesday on Tuesday nights. And I understand your station is not about indie. It's not about independent artists. And you can play stuff. But Bookie can find stuff from artists that you're playing that you're not going to hear on any other radio station in this market. And that's what I wanted from this station.

And I'm not hearing it. You know, a commenter on the blog mentioned that there's a time slot on Sunday nights now where you can hear Bookie on Indie 88. You can hear Strombo do his show on CBC Radio 2. And you got David Marsden and his Marsden Theater going on The Rock in Oshawa. Yep. Possibly three of the best guys who love the music talking about the music at the same time, Sunday nights. Yeah, they love music.

And I love music. I don't want to hear the same music over and over and over. And that's what I'm hearing. And to transition to somebody else in this market who loved music. Yeah. Your late great colleague,in streak yeah uh loved the music he played yes loved music um absolutely loved music he you know it's been so long now it seems like it's been a long time it's been what i think it was 09 yeah so three almost four years now it's

been over four years yeah and it just seems like that there hasn't been another personality that you've really like sunday nights was a no-brainer even saturday nights but sunday nights whiskey saigon like i talked about in the last time you had me on but just the station even if you didn't go down there just listening to the radio live to air yeah it was fantastic um but you know like i said it's hard to leave it's been that long but you had a a funny story okay i want to hear uh like i said when i mentioned before when i when i worked there um i started in the music department and then i moved into promotions and that's where i kind of finished 102.1 yeah is 102.1. Yeah, this is 102.1, The Edge. CFNY.

As everyone knows, Marty ran the roadshow. You don't have to go over that. So one day, he was hosting, they were having a roadshow in June at Canada's Wonderland at Kingswood, the Kingswood Music Theater. And I don't know if, I think Chris and Bobo, who were his normal assistants, weren't available that day. And he asked if I would come out with him

to help. And I said, sure. And I didn't have my car because my mother was at work, obviously. I mean, you know, I was just in high school. And he said, well, I'll pick you up. And then we'll grab some breakfast and then we'll go out. I said, okay, great. Martin's favorite restaurant was the Golden Griddle. Loved the Golden Griddle, especially the one on Queen Street in Brampton, near the 410, Queen Street and 410. I don't know if it's still there, but that was his favorite one. So he picked me up. We went out to the Golden Griddle. We had breakfast. I can't remember what we had, but as we started to drive out, we drove out to Wonderland. The stuff was there.

I started setting up. About four hours in, now this is probably at this point, this would have been one or two in the afternoon, things got a little out of hand. We both kind of looked at each other and realized that the Golden Griddle breakfast didn't sit so well. Uh-oh. breakfast um didn't sit so well oh and so we had to we were both basically running back and forth either throwing up in a garbage pail that was beside the pit where everything was set up or running to the bathroom in the greenhouse which you had to cross the floor so you had to run through these people like these teenagers and university students who were dancing in this road show to get to the washroom but most the time, it was just throwing up in this bucket and a big five liter. Oh, it was just, and it was cold.

It was one of those June days where it was about four degrees Celsius and you were cold. We were sweating because we were throwing up. And you were food poisoned. Yes. And in the days before the Cronut, you were poisoned by the golden griddle in Brampton. Yeah. Yeah. And that was a hell day. That's funny. I could see that. Yeah. And it was great though. We laughed about it, of course, once. Luckily, it was out of our system by the time we got home. Martin wasn't sure if he was going to be able to drive home. I mean, we were basically throwing up every 10, 15 minutes. That's horrible. When the cronut news hit, I was trying to think if I've ever had food poisoning,

and I don't believe I have ever had it, but it sounds horrible. I've had it three times in my life. And this is like dual exit, constant dual exiting? Yeah. I can't imagine. I don't want to gross you out, but you basically sit in the tub with saran wrap on your face. Oh, that's enough. And yeah. Okay. It's a horrible, horrible. Oh, that's enough. And yeah, okay.

It's a horrible, horrible, I do not wish it, I wouldn't wish it on your worst enemy. Like that's how bad it can be. Not even Adolf Hitler. Well, maybe him. You would send him to the Brampton Golden Dreadhaw. Yeah, I'd send him a nice cronut with some maple bacon jam. Oh yeah, you know what?

Just a common sense suggests you should not have the maple yeah uh the jam what's it called in maple bacon maple bacon spreader jam my common sense uh told me maybe i take a pass on that so yeah it's one of those buyer beware i think it'd be one of those things that you go huh do i get the hamburger or do i get the experimental burger with the experimental maple bacon jam? And I don't want to spend too much time on this. I want to make this a really quick hit, but you had to sit through an awful lot of Blue Jay games this summer. And starting tomorrow, Tuesday the 10th, the Jays start a nine game homestand to finish the season and then they go away for a week and then they come back for three more games at the end of the month.

And I'll be at one of those three at the end of the month. Oh, that's right. Right, the 28th. That's right, that's right. Yeah, it's... Because I know we talked, you came over when I was setting up the studio, and it was in that glorious March period

when we were both excited about the moves. Yes. AA had made some moves, and we were like, holy smokes, we're a contender and i think that's the key everyone has said to me you know you drunk the kool-aid andrew and i said no what i'm excited what i'm excited about is that there's excitement with the team again oh because i drank the kool-aid yeah i know you did i wasn't well my brother forced it down my throat yeah i wasn't expecting the team to go to the World Series.

And to be honest, I wasn't expecting the team to get to the playoffs. But what I wanted, these nine games right now, these nine games. They should matter. They should matter. That would be awesome. To play meaningful baseball in September. There is going to be the LA Angels for the next three games. We're going to have crowds of 12,000 to 15,000. That's my guess. Maybe 20, tops.

The Yankees come in after that, or do they come next week? I don't know. I'm more interested in the Leafs rookie games right now, which I've been watching this weekend. Yeah, well, hockey starts and as I've been sitting there, I've been getting emails on my schedule so I've got a couple of

games I have to go to Winnipeg the first week of October and do a game uh in Winnipeg but yeah you know it's sad because there has been there was a lot of hype and I think it was pretty good hype in terms of what Anthopolis had done. You can say what you will about it. I'm not a baseball guy. I'll let people debate with Mike Milner. Yeah, knowledge of what people told us. Yeah, they told us that this was a playoff contending team.

Yes, and it should have been from what they did and from what they have. Managers, vice presidents, baseball operations people don't play baseball. They don't play the games. The players play the games. And it's easier to signal out one person or two people from management for a bad season. I don't think this season was lost because John Gibbons.

And it certainly wasn't lost. What more could anthopolis have done you know other than going out there and strapping on gloves and bats and playing the game okay so i hear you now i just want to know if is there hope for 2014 it's essentially going to be almost the same team coming back i don't know what the plans are if they're going to blow it up but if they don't blow it up it comes back pretty much looking like this same manager most of the same parts yeah um i don't think you'll see well josh johnson josh johnson will be because i think they picked up the option because i want i think they want to force the hand right if he goes then they get a first round draft pick whatever um but i don't think johnson's gonna have i don't think he could possibly have,

well, let's put it this way. If he has as bad a year this coming season, the 2014 season, as he did this year, then no one's going to pick him up. Who would want to pick him up? So he's playing for a contract. Cabrera, you know, they pulled Guado out of his back. I heard, yeah.

Yeah, I don't think anybody knew that. Malignant, not malignant. What's the don't think anybody knew that malignant what's the other what are the terms for what's benign benign that's the good one right yeah it was a benign tumor yeah in his spine right that might be some issues um they lost jose reyes for how many games at the start of the season good 60 games yeah it was a long time you know they lost brett lorry for how many games at the beginning of the season he's looked good lately since the all-star game he's been probably the best third baseman in baseball. I'm not going to jump on the bet, but this new kid, Ryan Goins,

who's been playing at second, he has come up here and looks like he belongs. Couldn't be worse than who we had at second. Exactly. Bonifacio-Ister's combo was... I mean, I haven't watched much since the All-Star break. I watched a lot, and then the All-Star break hit, and I'm like, I'm done. I think a lot of that. I don't think the ratings have been...

I think the ratings have gone down. It's because they overplayed that metric song during the first three weeks, and they kept forcing the hashtag Love This Team down our throats when they were playing like a bag of shit. Love This Team? What do I love about this team?

Except for the laundry. I love the logo. Yeah, and I think they sold a lot of it. Yeah. But, you know, I have no control over the team but what i do have get out of here then what am i doing with you in this recording um i think the sound has been good this year sound has been amazing uh you know i've been happy with that and it's been great because the first up until we had fantastic crowds and it didn't sound like an empty concrete hole and uh it's going to i think you know i don't think the crowds are gonna be great i hope i'm wrong i i really hope i'm gonna

make a lot of noise on the 28th that's good i'll give you put a mic in my hand yeah um i'm going to my brother his son and my son it'll be we're gonna be as loud as can be i just need four wireless microphones we can wear i just need four wireless microphones we can wear i'll get my guys to put the crowd mic right in front of you that's right uh but you know in terms of i think our production you know i think our show on sportsnet's been really good um there's certainly you know the guys haven't they haven't stopped caring our producer our directors our camera guys our tape our video no one's stopped caring in the truck and uh you know i spend a lot of time with these guys in the summer and no one has thrown in the towel in terms of the actual production of the show

and that i'm still proud of i'm extremely proud of the product that we put out on a your product's amazing it's the other product we have to work on for 2014. Yeah. And I'm hoping. I can't see Anthopolis sitting on his hands. There are going to be some changes. There are definitely going to be some changes. Awesome.

Because if we don't change, it might end up a very similar result. Well, how do you think the marketing team is going to feel? The marketing department? They can't use Stadium Love anymore. Maybe they can use July Talks, Paper Girl. Tame the Elephant. Tame the Elephant. Well, I mean, Rogers, the whole BlackBerry thing,

they could use that. But honestly, like in all seriousness... You think there'll be a BlackBerry by the time the next Jay season starts? That's a good point by you. It'll be sold for parts, no? Well, they'll sell off... For patents?

They'll probably sell off the BlackBerry Messenger. I i mean they're going to be giving it away for free here anytime soon right it's yeah it's i have two good friends who are loyal blackberry actually il duche and mike muzzin loyal blackberry guys i was saying android android others were saying iphone iphone they're like no i'm going down with the ship both in the last week have basically told me that they're going. They can't stay on this platform anymore. I have a good friend of mine who works for BlackBerry. I've known him since kindergarten and I haven't had the heart to talk to him because I'm not too sure how he feels. And he's been with them for over 15 years. He's been with them since the beginning.

And it's sad. It's very sad. It's really sad. Because I loved, I was an ardent BlackBerry user. I had a Blueberry. I had a Blueberry. I had one of the old pagers. I had the Blueberry. I had a Curve, an original Curve. I had a Curve.

And then I got the Torch. The sliding one, right? Yeah. Monica had that. And I like it. My wife has one now with work. She has a Torch. And I liked it.

The only thing I hated about it is that it has a zero support for a a mac and the final straw for me was i was sitting in in my hotel and at the west end in calgary on a day off and i was updating my calendar and something happened with the program and it wiped my whole calendar and i i use my calendar for keeping track of hours for invoicing and what I've done. I went ballistic. I got home. I went right to the Apple store at Sherway Gardens. I bought an iPhone and that was it. You're happy.

I'm super happy. I have an Android in the US because I have a US-based phone when I travel for the winter. Just because I got tired of having to pay for it. Which Android do you have? I have a T-Mobile G2X. It's kind of old. And unfortunately, my brother left NVIDIA, so I'm not going to be able to get any new phones from him. Aw.

Yeah. Oh, well. What can you do? Last point is that I'm going to be participating in the Terry Fox Run on Saturday. And a lot of listeners and readers have contributed and it's not too late. So I'll have a link in the top left corner of torontomic.com. If you have pledged, you know, I appreciate it. And I'm going to be sending you an email shortly to thank you, uh, from the bottom

of my heart. And if you have not pledged, I would love it and the terry fox foundation would love it if you could pledge my run on saturday yeah my son is running in their school ones i guess in a couple weeks running away from the coyotes yeah yeah that'd be good uh well hopefully i just hit him i said well don't run hard they can run faster than you and there's the song oh that was this was a closer the night i went did they close with this on your lowest of the low night i don't know carrie was driving so uh it could have been wait a minute did you are you suggesting you left early no no i'm suggesting my memory might a little bit foggy oh yeah all right that's okay see that's. I don't want to hear about, I hate the people who leave concerts before the encore to be traffic.

Like, I hate those people. No, no. I waited until the lights came up. I waited through that 18-inning game earlier this summer that you hooked me up with those tickets. 18 innings. I was sitting there, too. You weren't getting paid to sit.

Oh, you want to get paid for nine innings, right? No, no. No, no. No, no, no. I get paid for the whole thing. The problem was there was just no overtime because it was an afternoon game. If it had been an evening game, it would have been, we would have been in overtime. But at least you could get up and go to the bathroom. I had to cross the legs for 18 innings. Yeah. And that brings us to the end

of our 50th show. You can follow me on Twitter at Toronto Mike and Andrew at Stokely audio. See you all next week. Yeah.