Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Marc Saltzman: Toronto Mike'd #1211

Episode Date: February 24, 2023

In this 1211th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Marc Saltzman about his years drumming for Remedy, the bands they shared a stage with, betting on the MP3, getting his media start with Alan Cross on CFNY and they many places you'll see him and read his writings. Plus bonus Naomi Parness! Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Canna Cabana, Ridley Funeral Home and Electronic Products Recycling Association.

Welcome to episode 1211 of Toronto Mic'd. 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. Alma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville.

Electronic Products Recycling Association. Committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. Ridley Funeral Home. Pillars of the community since 1921. And Canna Cabana. The lowest prices on cannabis. Guaranteed.

Learn more at cannacabana.com. Joining me today, making his Toronto Mike debut's debut is remedy's own mark saltzman welcome mark thanks so much i wow that's like a blast from the past right off the top we'll sit tight mark there's more explain that well did you know this episode was all about remedy did you know that oh my goodness goodness. No, I hope not. But yeah, it's all good. Your listeners and viewers are going to be like,

what is he talking about? We'll get to that. They're going to find out. Now, before we get into your life and times, Mark, it's a pleasure to meet you. We've never met before. As difficult as that is to believe, this is the first time we've met each other.

There is a voice. Hello, caller. Caller. Call caller caller are you there caller am i a caller caller uh please uh listener first time caller talk a little bit so we can all guess who you are and then we'll reveal your identity and then uh you and mark can have the way i speak now isn't the way people remember it okay talk like they remember it speak like that when i speak that, people don't remember. But then I go into reporter voice, and then they remember. Well, could you do a little reporter voice on how amazing I am and how much fun you had at TMLXX?

I'll listen. All I would have been doing right now is covering City Hall. So for those who would know, I would have been down at City Hall. Then I was the education reporter reporting live in Toronto, Naomi Parnas, CTV News. That's the broadcast voice right there. Hey, Naomi. How are you, Mark? So I happened to be recording something with Mike earlier, another podcast that we're working on. And then Mark came on. And I remember speaking with Mark so many times when I used to interview him at CTV and he is the best. So I'm really excited that Mark and Mike get to talk now. Yeah. I love how loose this is that you're like

your previous guests just stick around and say hi at the top of this next podcast episode. That's how we roll here. I love it. Naomi, how is Mark Saltzman as an interview subject? Always professional or give us the lowdown very professional great sound bites and you know what to be honest really great information i always really enjoyed i learned something every time i interviewed him which is one of the reasons that i loved being a reporter um because we get to learn new things every day but mark always taught me something new and he's really really good he knows his stuff he's he knows his stuff really well so that means a lot i appreciate that naomi thank you yeah now when we needed someone we we would call Mark. We knew who to call. Thank you. And

I'm thrilled to hear how well you're doing as well in your newer gig. It's not so new anymore, but yeah, and continued successes. Yeah, there is life outside of TV, which Mike wants me on to talk about at some point. Well, Naomi, listen, I have a couple of quick questions. One is when you interviewed Mark Saltzman, like after the interview, did he slip like, I don't know, a Samsung phone in your pocket or anything? No, never.

Greasing her up a little. There you go. You didn't get any free tech out of this, man? No free tech. Free tech advice, but no free tech. I envision, Mark, if I could like see you, I don't know if you live in a home or a condo or under a bridge but if i could see where mark saltzman lives i just picture like piles of tech right my office looks like a best buy exploded 100 yeah do you still miss a blackberry i kind of still miss i still have them i don't think they work but i'm a bit of a pack rat, which flies against the EPRA

partnership you have, by the way. I'm going to call you Mike. Mike? Toronto Mike? What are you? Toronto Mike, please. Let's be professional here, Mark. I've been listening to your previous... They're a partner of mine as well. So you're not supposed to hold on to your tech. But Blackberry, I have a soft spot. I just don't want

to get rid of it. Well, Naomi, for a moment, Naomi, I need to put a pin in you because we just need to tell everybody to go to recyclemyelectronics.ca, find out where you can drop off your old tech. Don't be like Saltzman here and have it pile up in your kitchen. There's safe recycling options.

Go to recyclemyelectronics.ca. I love the people at EPRA. They're so nice. They really are. And yes, they are a partner of mine, full transparency. So I smiled when I've listened to your podcast and I know you mentioned them as well. But I do recycle all my tech by going to that website,

except I keep a couple of things. In fact, did you hear that an unopened iPhone went for 63K US? I've got an unopened second generation iPhone. So it's the first one in Canada. The iPhone 3G it was called. Unopened. So I'm hoping it's, so I'm sorry, EPRA.

I'm not recycling that because I want to, I got to pay for my three kids in university. All right. Now my last question here, and Naomi, you can stick around as long as you want. We're going to be talking music. I would love to, but I have to go. I go I have a meeting okay because Mark is here to talk about remedy that's why he's here oh my goodness but uh Naomi you must know if you're coming on Toronto

Mike that you're talking about music yeah I'm good with that but I don't know if I can talk for an hour just roll with me Mark all right okay it's gonna be. Yes. When, like I did see you at an event, TMLXX, which was at Great Lakes Brewery. Yes. And you got some complimentary Palma pasta, I hope. Delicious, yeah. Okay. Good, good. When will you make your Toronto Mike, I almost forgot the name of my show.

When will you make your Toronto Mike debut? If you keep asking, we'll see. We'll see. Well, you're playing hard to get and I'm sort of digging it. So we'll see. We'll see. Well, you're playing hard to get and I'm sort of digging it. So we'll see. I have to get to that point. Mark will warm me up, right? All right. Fair enough. Warm up the seat. You know, enjoy the podcast. Thank you. And great to hear from you again. Keep in touch. Okay. You too. For sure. Thanks for the kind words. Naomi, I'll be seeing you soon. I'm sure.

And it's a pleasure working with you on the Women's Brain Health Initiative podcast, Mind Over Matter. Yes. Loving those podcasts. All right. Get out of here. Enjoy. Bye-bye. And there goes Naomi.

Wasn't that a surprise? Last in the past. Naomi Parnes. Is it Parnes or Parnes? I think it's the first. This is how I used to call, like say her last name. If only she was here,

I could ask her. Only if you didn't already hang up the call. She hung up the phone. Okay. That's all right. So Mark, I know I'm doing a little bit here about Remedy and of course my tongue's in my cheek,

but there are a million places people can go right now to hear about tech evangelist Mark Saltzman. And we all know that you translate geek speak into street speak and we'll get to that but i am kind of fascinated by remedy so maybe we can do this because i know you were uh destined to be a rock drummer and manager so maybe take us back like to a young mark saltzman like how did you end up in this world when you're supposed to be a rock drummer and manager? And then hopefully before we get you to this world, where you're kind of everywhere, in my opinion, you're all over the place, even on my movie screen, you're all

over the place. But I do want to dive a little deeper into Remedy. But tell us about your like, rock star roots. Yeah, so I started playing drums at age nine. My first band was 11. By the time I was 15, I was in a band called I Rock, which we changed the name when the car became a thing. We spelled it I-R-O-K. But we started playing Lee's Palace, Sneaky D's. We ended up playing El Macombo, Gasworks, Opera House a little bit later.

And then that evolved into a band called Remedy. So I was a rock drummer and I was the manager of the band. We were, you know, a young, I remember Daniel Richler. I just came across this picture the other day, Daniel Richler interviewing us for new music maybe. And I was just, oh no, it was for a Now Magazine article. It wasn't on TV, I stand corrected. But I was just like, oh my God, we're going to make it.

And I went to U of t as a backup i promised my family that i would uh you know go to university just in case the band didn't make it uh and we ended up getting bigger while i was in university i was now with this remedy band and we were opening up for um well actually don't actually don't name any other bands okay i'm not yeah i'm turn that into a joke. But don't drop the names yet. I won't drop any more names. But we were starting to go somewhere. And then, yeah, I graduated in 94 when I was 24. And then it's just kind of fizzled out musically.

But yeah, that was my persona. I was a rocker. If anybody that I ran into since then, Toronto Mike, they would be like, that I knew back then, they were like, you were never a geek. Did you have long hair? I did. Yes. How long? Like, give me an idea. Okay. It was a bit of a mullet at some point, even when I started my, uh, my, uh, TV work as a techie, it was, uh, cause my bang stopped growing. It looked at one point, like kind of like a Michael Hutchence kind of thing, like an N in excess, but then the bank stopped growing and it was just like

a full mullet. And I hope you're not going to pull up a picture there's a clip of me on canada am introducing the blackberry funny enough that naomi brought that up uh and i was like full-on mullet oh my god i wish i had this and if i had that clip i'd play it right now but maybe i'll add it in post but i have a question name check the other members of i rock? Okay. So the late, great Si Ben Lolo, who passed away, is my first cousin. He went on to pursue music as a career and played all around the world with DJs. So they were spinning like techno and house, and he would come on and play hard rock for 15 minutes or so as a quick set to compliment. So it was a nice contrast, like heavy metal guitar solos. He played Ibiza. He played in Mexico, stuff like that.

Zoe Nicholas was my singer who now lives on the East Coast. He's a fantastic vocalist, first with IROC and then in Remedy. And he played with Mud Men and some other bands after that. He also pursued music quite a bit afterwards. And Kevin Albom, my bass player, was perhaps the most talented out of all of us. I got to say that. He was a big Who fan.

And we keep in touch, but I don't know if anybody is still doing the music thing. So what, you guys were high school friends? Yeah, kind of. Zoe was brought on, you know, we became friends, but we auditioned him as a singer. And my lung collapsed the day we auditioned him as a singer and my lung collapsed the day we auditioned him how did that happen it's called a spontaneous pneumothorax it's just a

random thing i was a skinny non-sporty kid big surprise and uh it just it kept collapsing so after it collapsed a third time they stapled so they could just do that they could just collapse like spontaneously yeah it happened to sigh as well, my cousin, who was our guitar player. Okay, so did iRock just rename themselves Remedy? Sort of. We had some other members. We had Nathan and Isaac Goldberg, some brothers, and we had Oren.

So we've had a couple of rotating members, Harlan. But it was, yeah, iRock kind of evolved into, it was a little bit more of just changing the name uh we had uh yeah which is a good move like remedy is a better name than i rock yeah i think so but then people then the black crow song came out and they're like oh are you a black rose cover band so we were we kind of were cursed with the names that we chose uh but we we uh yeah we had some success more locally like in you know mostly in the Toronto area, but it was really fun. I told you I won't drop names.

Yeah, because let's pause that because I just, what was it? I just recorded this afternoon jam kicking with John Scholes, who was on Q107 for like 19 years. And then Rob Pruce, keyboardist for Spoons. Yeah, I heard that episode about him. So him and Bob Ouellette, who's a program director now,

they dropped by. Bingo Bob. Bingo Bob, that's right. From humble and fred show back in the day uh we kicked out talk rock as you heard and uh well the fact is i love kicking out jams and i thought maybe i'll just play a few jams to help us talk a bit more about remedy pre-internet and i haven't uploaded a lot of stuff no i don't have remedy okay Remedy. Okay. On that note though, do you have Remedy? I don't have the song or do I have, I don't have any with me. Do you have, no. Do I have Remedy?

Do you have any of your cuts? Like how can there be nothing on YouTube? I don't know. I haven't done it yet. I have it. Sure. I have CDs and tapes and. Oh my gosh.

We can talk over this. Like, so, okay. So I'm going to play... I got four jams loaded up by four different artists. Three are Canadian bands. One is not. Yeah. I think I've heard of this band before. Yeah. Give it a moment

and then we'll discuss why am I playing the Tragically Hip here. By the way, I think this is a underrated jam on an underrated album. Like, this is Cordelia from Road Apples, which... Road Apples was a great album. There it is.

Up to Here. No, no, that was the album before. Up to Here was the one before. Sorry, I was thinking of... Sorry, when I hear... I'm one of those guys where you hear one song, you can't think of another song. You know what I mean? That's okay. There's a condition, I'm one of those guys where you hear one song, you can't think of another song. You know what I mean? That's okay.

There's a condition, I think. Okay. So, I'll bring down Gord. We also miss Gord. We sure do. Did Remedy ever share the stage with the Tragically Hip? We did indeed. Okay, give me that story.

Oh, gosh. So, I hounded Jake Gold, who is, I believe, still there. You probably know who he is. He's still the manager. Yeah. Oh, yeah. By the way, you're now an FOTM, Friend of Toronto Mike. Oh, I love that. That means you've been a guest. Jake Gold's who is, I believe, still there. You probably know who he is. He's still the manager. Yeah. Oh, yeah. By the way, you're now an FOTM, Friend of Toronto, Mike. That means you've been a guest.

Jake Gold's been over? Yeah. Absolutely. He's fantastic. So I hounded him. And he finally caved and said, fine. So we opened up for the hip at U of T. And that was when this album, Road Apples, came out.

So they were already big, right? This followed Up To Here. Oh, yeah. Up To Here broke them out in Canada. So they were already big. And I was so nervous. here made yeah so so this this they were already big and i was so nervous it was a blast to hang out with them backstage what year is this 92 93 okay because i'm at u of t yeah from 90 and 93 uh september 93 i arrive at u of t okay so i'm 89 yeah so i'm ahead of you so i think think it was just before. Okay, I just missed Remedy and the Tragically Heavy.

What was it, Convocation Hall? Where are you playing? So actually this one, this time, this was at Scarborough Campus U of T. I don't count that. Come on now. Shout out to the U of T Scarborough Campus alum. Yeah, but Jake Gold allowed us to open up for them and it was such a blast

because I was a huge fan and I don't geek out over celebrities and stuff like that. I've had, through the tech world, my chance to interview, the privilege to interview a lot of them. But there's one, save the one you're thinking, because there's somebody you just interviewed

who's going to be in the next band i play so don't so yeah well the note the name dropping needs to happen but i love until i get through this is fantastic so is there any better song than fiddler's green oh yeah so fiddler's the morning i learned uh gourd passed away i didn't know what to do like i was distraught so i recorded myself and the first song i could think of was Fiddler's Green. And I just played Fiddler's Green and then The Water Works and it's all recorded. It's still in the feed, but that's the first song I thought of

actually, Fiddler's Green. Might be my favorite Tragically Hip song. Yeah, it is mine for sure. Wow, fantastic. What a loss, huh? So, did you get a chance to talk with the guys? Yeah, we hung out with them backstage for quite a while. I laughed at their, what do you call it, a rider?

Their list of things that they get. No brown M&M's, is that what it was? Yeah, hardly prima donna like that. But it consists of lots of beer and weed. Now that it's legal i can say that but back in 92 well when you get your legal weed you go to canna cabana they won't be undersold on cannabis and when you drink your beer there's great lakes beer yeah you're gonna bring some of that home with you you've oh i like that thank you friday night action shout out to glb awesome

so uh but yeah i was i i'd expect i expected nothing, but that was really cool to open up for the hip. Mark, do you know this story? Okay. So, uh, you know, there's a lot of jokes made about the no brown M&Ms from Van Halen, but, uh, David Lee Roth explained it perfectly one day. Uh, someone recorded it and I listened and I'm like, Oh my God. He's like, they stick that in there because if they get to the venue and they see there's brown M&Ms, then they're like,

what else did they skip on the rider? Cause there's all these things in the rider meant to protect the band for safety and safe reasons, right? I didn't know that was the reason. There's all these things in the rider that keep the band safe. It keeps everybody safe.

We had that terrible, terrible accident at, was it, Downsview Park when Radiohead was supposed to play and somebody passed away. It's very serious business. So they stick in the brown M&M thing because they want to know the attention to detail that the venue has paid to the rider so they get to the venue they look at the bowl of m&ms they see a brown one now they

got to go through it detail they got to go line by line and see what else did this venue miss so that's why they put that in there that's's a great story. I know. You can borrow that next time you're talking to, you know, CTV or city TV or whatever. Okay. So the, the, the boys treated you well and Jake, I like hearing this about Jake Gold.

So Jake Gold grew up best buds with Mark Hebbshire, who I co-host a show with every Friday morning called Hebbsy on sports. So I hear a lot about Jake Gold. He loves tennis, by the way. I didn't know that. Big, big tennis guy.

I haven't seen him in person in a while, but I had him on my radio show, Tech Talk, to chat about two or three years ago. But I thanked him profusely for, you know, back in the day, letting us open up for the hip. It was a one-time thing, but it was really like a highlight for me. You could have been the Watchmen

because that's another band that Jake Gould was managing. Yeah. And that's how my, my ex singer Zoe opened up for Watchmen. That's probably why and how. Yeah.

And the lead singer of the Watchmen, Danny Graves, opened up, well, he closed TMLX, TMLXX at Great Lakes Brewery.

Naomi Parnas was there. Yeah. Very cool. Look at that. Everything's coming full circle. That's how we're including this next artist. This next band. We'll let this brew a little bit

and we'll talk about this band and this singer. Taggart on drums. I love their snare sound. It's super tight. Right here. Right here. Are you as good a drummer as Jeremy Taggart? I would say not.

Solid drummer, yeah. You're a good drummer? I just saw them last year. No, not me. Jeremy. The Our Lady piece, OLP. Well, they got a new drummer now. Yeah.

Oh, is that so? Yeah. I didn't even notice. Whoops. You thought of solid as Jeremy. I saw them at Mass Hall last year, though. Yeah, they got a new drummer now. Yeah. Oh, is that so? Yeah. He knows the sound. Whoops. I saw him at Madison Hall last year, though. Yeah, different drummer. Different drummer. Sorry.

Okay, let's wait for Rain before we turn it in. Sorry, Rain. could not fly in search of souls in search of something let it go and let it fly yeah yeah yeah yeah

yeah dude I love this I love the Navid era Our Lady piece yeah this is a solid track that stands the test of time

I think this might have been their first hit yeah I think so this or that Birdman one this was their breakthrough song i think sing it buddy no okay did remedy ever play on the same stage as our lady our lady we did we did we uh we opened up for them i think it was it was lee's palace for sure and then i think maybe a

second time but yeah we opened up for lee's palace And when I saw, when I met Rain again last year, we were backstage through a mutual contact. And my wife was excited to meet Chantal Kravjic. But I was trying to find Rain, the original, because I'm a pack rat, as I've already revealed. But I have the concert, I have the tickets from Lease Palace. And I showed him lots of photos and tickets. He was blown away by away by it he's like you got to send me that you got to send me those tickets can i guess can i guess eight bucks maybe eight eight fifty eight bucks at the

door oh man you know i was talking about going to u of t and playing in the band at the same time but what sucked was first of all being the drummer is tough if any of your listeners or viewers know you're the first one at the gig and the last one to leave and you got to schlep all your gear we did have a roadie near the end but it's tough it's i'm not looking for little violins but out of all the musicians being the drummer is the most amount of work right but then i had to sit in a uh management office until the wee hours of the morning and fight to get every penny that was owed to us because they would always try to nickel and dime us and say no, you didn't have as many, you didn't sell as many tickets as you said.

And here I am as like, you know, at this point, a 19 or 20 year old still, like even though I started when I was 15 playing those bars and, you know, they don't, it was like pulling teeth and I had to be in class in like, you know, five hours. That kind of thing.

It sucks that they would try to take advantage of you. Yeah, well, of course. Just because you're young, right? Yeah, I guess so. You needed a Jake Gold there because he's the bulldog, right? He's like, fuck you, give us our money. But yeah, these guys were great. I didn't talk to Rain and the band much

when we did open up for them, full disclosure. But, you know, super nice since then. And, you know, he's really into tech. And we've worked together on a couple things over the last year in tech and I've had him on my radio show and podcast both in Canada and the States. Oh because he's into NFT stuff right? Yeah, Metaverse,

NFTs but even technically above and beyond that he's really he loves all the different things that tech brings to the table. Okay cool. Very nice guy. to the table. Okay, cool. Very nice guy. Very nice. Very humble.

Good Toronto band, Our Lady Peace. Absolutely. Now I'm going to pay respect to a fallen FOTM because I learned this week that a drummer, that's why it ties in here. So Tom Stephen was the drummer for the Jeff Healy band. And in 2019, he came over and we had a great 90-minute chat about Jeff Healy and the Jeff Healy band. And in 2019, he came over and we had a great 90-minute chat about Jeff Healy and the Jeff Healy band. And I learned that he had,

I guess he went into cardiac arrest on Monday and passed away. Oh, wow. So 68 years old, way too young, and Tom Stephen no longer with us. But I wanted to just say my condolences to his friends, his family. We haven't lost many FOTMs.

Tom's actually the first FOTM, first guest of Toronto Mic'd, who visited in person to pass away in the 11-year history of this podcast. He's the very first one. Rest in peace. We'll miss Tom Stephen. Okay, I got another jam. Boy, this interview

is really all about music. Hang in there, Mark. We'll cover everything. I'm good if I can keep up. You know, this is my prior life. You never forget these glory days, right? The 90s, best decade ever. This band had some killer ballads too, right? Let's face it.

Could you whisper in my ear The things you want to feel I'll give you anything To feel it coming Until you wake up on the throne I wonder give you anything To feel it coming Until you wake up on your own I wonder where you are Living with all your faults I wanna wake up where you are

I won't say anything at all So I don't say smile Not Canadian, but Buffalo's pretty close. Yeah, pretty close. Pretty close. I actually skipped the ballads on purpose. Like, yeah, you got Iris and you got... Name.

Yeah, I don't know the name. Yeah, they have some big ballads, but this is probably my favorite Goo Goo Doll song. I don't know. But they used to not sound like this. Okay, so before we find out how they sounded, I have to ask a question. Did Remedy ever share a stage with the Goo Goo Dolls?

We did, in fact, and they opened for us. What? Yeah. That's a mind blow. That was crazy. But at the time, we didn't think they were, you know, they were good, but they weren't a name yet.

Was Johnny the singer when they opened? Yep, yep, yep. But they were a hard rock, they were good, but they weren't a name yet. Was Johnny the singer? Yeah. Yeah. But they were a hard rock trio, almost metal, hard rock trio from Buffalo. So they did not have these softer songs that we're hearing now with. And of course, their their ballads. We thought they were really cool, but they were hard rock like we were. We were kind of like the cult in a way, if I had to describe our sound. The cult meets GNR. Remedy was kind of like in that vein a way if i had to describe our sound the cult meets uh gnr uh remedy was kind of like in that vein um early 90s sound uh not quite grunge but um these guys were

hard like they were not like you know guttural death metal like skid row no harder than that harder than skid row like yeah that's 18 in life and Yeah, but that's more hair metal. Okay. I don't know. Harder than that. No offense to Sebastian Bach. You might be listening. Great song, 18 in life. No, Monkey Business is a better song than 18 in life. That's the next album though, right?

That's the one with the cowbell. Okay, but that's not... Yeah, that's the next album. Because the big singles were 18 in life and... That was a huge hit in the States, by the way. 18 in Life was huge in the States. Youth Gone Wild. Yeah.

And then they had the ballad. What was the ballad? The big ballad on that album. I thought it was 18 in Life. No, they had a bigger ballad. See, it's hard to think of another song when you're listening to one song. You must have what I have. Monkey Business was a faster track and it had a cowbell.

But next album. I think that was next album. Okay, so real quick. Slave to the Grind? No, that's... Something like that. Yeah, Slave. I think so.

Okay, so the song I'm thinking of is I Remember You. Oh, yeah. That was a bigger ballad than 18 and Life. That's true. Okay, I love this. Slave to the Grind, by the way.

But, okay, Ike. Youth Gone Wild, Monkey Business, Slave to the Grind, Wasted Time, Dark... Okay, okay. Shout out to Sebastianastian bogg who's no longer the lead singer of that band of that uh you know rachel bolin is in that band now no from my he was in uh bon jovi you might recall okay no you know what i have no idea if that's true i said that like i knew it was talking about i think i'm confusing all my uh hair metal guys okay so you, you did not open for Goo Goo Dolls.

They opened for you. Yes. Twice. If I remember correctly, I may be wrong. What venues again? This one, one was Lee's Palace for sure.

Cause we, we were pretty regular there. Not sneaky D's with Goo Goo Dolls. Definitely, definitely Lee's Palace. But I look, man, if I knew you were going to ask me these questions,

I would have done my homework and just one more song and then we're going to blow the dust off of the old remedy stuff we're going to get techie in a minute here ah yeah well you sure did

your homework I got to tell you well you made it easy because this is pre-internet yeah so I did my homework but I could not

for the life of me and I even I asked some of the nerdiest guys I know Cam Gordon people like that. Oh yeah, he's a good guy. I'm like, where is the Remedy Audio? I have yet to update it, but yeah, B&L, of course.

So we played with them at a charity event. Well, twice, I think. One was at Second Harvest at Nathan Phillips Square. So we were... That's a good not-for-profit. Oh yeah, it was great. I was dressed as a turkey at a market

to get donations I think it was earlier than all this I think it was like 89, 90 I think we might have even been IROC when we opened up

with them for them but we were by no means the only opening act were they a fully-fledged band or were they just Ed and Steve no no no

so they had I think they had Gordon okay okay so they were already big Tyler Stewart So they had, I think they had Gordon. Okay, okay, yeah. So they were already big. Remember they had their independent tape as well? Yellow Tape. Yellow Tape.

Which was at one time the biggest selling independent release in Canada. That had the song on there, didn't it? Yep. Yep.

It also had a Public Enemy cover. Do you remember that? No, I don't. Fight the Power was on there. You know what my favorite song is? Brian Wilson. No, Box Set. Freaking love Box Set. that no i don't fight the power it was on you know what my favorite uh you know song is brian

wilson no box set freaking love box set such a catchy ditty no no great actually right yeah absolutely uh and steven page also an fotm so you're in oh yeah that's cool company here that's cool and i just want to shout him out because he's listening but in the chorus do i wait for the chorus maybe i fast forward Everybody just ignore this part. Hold on. Okay, there should be a chorus here of a bunch of voices. This is the bridge right now, though, right? One of those voices is FOTM Blair Packham from the Jitters.

So if Blair's listening, I can hear your voice in there. We'll let them wrap up and then we'll get techie. Maybe it's not technically the bridge, by the way. I'd be rich. But it's just a little detour from ABAB. Beautiful, beautiful. So that was like the the ongoing history of Remedy. But what was that moment like

when you realized you all needed to go your separate ways and figure shit out because Remedy wasn't going to be the next tragically hit. So it was it was tough because that's what I had pegged

my whole career on. But at the same time I started to review video games and get paid for it. So I had this inkling. And then the web was just being born. Bullets and boards and then into World Wide Web. And I was like, my jaw, I just couldn't believe what I predicted what would come.

So I simultaneously traded my drumsticks for a computer keyboard, what would, what would come. So I simultaneously like traded my drumsticks for a computer keyboard, I guess, as a journalist, but it was tough, but I called my company Entertech because I love that, that the crossroads there, like the convergence of technology and music. And I was one of the first journalists in 96 or 97 to I wrote for CNN.com, which was a big gig for me, being a relatively unknown Toronto-based tech writer at the time. I predicted that MP3s were going to revolutionize everything,

for better or for worse, depending on which side you were on. And I remember being on with Alan Cross on his radio show, explaining to him what an MP3 was live on the air. Okay, so don't go too fast past that name there because he was just here a couple of weeks ago. So he came on 30 years of ongoing history of new music. Not uninterrupted

though. You also had Rob Johnston on. Rob Johnston with a T. Yeah, Johnston. Yeah, technical production by Rob Johnston. He produced my stuff at Edge 102. Okay, so what the specific, this is called Mark's Web Watch and the A Co-production by Rob Johnston. He produced my stuff at Edge 102. Okay, so what, be specific. This is called Mark's Web Watch and the A is the at symbol.

Yeah, that's right. You have an email address. So fast forward to 96. I was 26 years old. I was a bill collector by day. Hated my job. Being called an effing Jew all day. That was really fun.

Whoa. Yeah, that was really fun. Being threatened. What, was Kanye calling you? How old was he? 96? I'm older than him older than that's bullshit by the way that's bullshit so um no we had to use our real last names back then in ontario it was the law so i have a kind of an ethnic last name so i guess people were do you encounter anti-semitism often no because that's awful no i don't i gotta tell you as a journalist um as a journalist, I'm very blessed to write for some really big publications and the comments are often open.

Over the last 29 years I've been a journalist, I can count on one hand how many times, not even, really, a couple of fingers. So as a journalist, you've dodged that, but as a bill collector, what were you doing? I had to pay the bills. I had my own bills. So they're just lashing out

because you're trying to get money out of these guys. I was reviewing video games part-time. I wasn't really paying the bills, but I was happy to not pay $70 for a video game. But then I was getting paid. So before my career, before I could quit my day job, so to speak, I was a bill collector for several years

and just calling people who didn't pay their credit cards. It was a horrible, horrible job. High stress, liquid lunches almost every day. Like the whole, everybody would be downstairs drinking. Yeah, it was terrible, terrible. Yeah, there you go. So I was so blown away by, so I started writing articles. I did not go to journalism school. I studied psych at U of T, but I knew enough to write an article, like a review of a game, just as a means to an end, just to get free stuff. And then this was kind of like a scam in a way.

Like I would call video game companies and say, yeah, send me your game and I'll review it. And then they're like, okay, where's the review? And I'm like, oh. When we stop recording, I'll tell you about similar scams being pulled by people I know and love after the recording. Okay.

So anyways, I've got a good music scam, I can tell you, since we're talking about music a lot, but we'll see if we have time to circle back. Well, you can slip it in right now, man. We'll never come back. Just like I called companies to get free video games without really having a place to review them yet.

That came after the fact. Psy, my late guitarist and first cousin, we would call music labels, like the companies, the PR companies, because their phone numbers were in the back of every music CD. And we would call and the receptionist would answer. We would say, hey, yeah, we met, I don't know, Steven Tyler. Yeah, we met Slash at a party last night.

No, but it worked. But we would look at, we would have magazines like Circus and like all the rock magazines, we would see their tour schedule. So I would say, I met Steven Tyler at a party in, I don't know, Phoenix. And he told me to call this number for when you guys come to Toronto. And not one said no. They're like, how many tickets do you want? You want backstage? Could that work today? I don't think so. Well, now we're going to get a phone number from Spotify. But before then, at the back of every music CD had their management company's contact information

in the back of every music CD. So we would just call and not one said no. So we got tickets to every band for like five years. And they're good tickets too, because those are like the media tickets. They don't give you the ship seats. With Prince, we had second row floors. Get out of here.

I think it was the best that we had. So your whole career is based on how to get shit for free yeah really that's true this is the real combo that's how it started that's how it started and then so in 96

I I was just blown away about what this thing called the world wide web so what I did was I convinced Stuart Myers

who was the program director at CFNY at the time in Brampton I don't know if you remember where they used to be dude I'm like the authority. There's an episode 1021 in the feed

where I literally had everybody from Marsden. Like we just, the whole history. Alan Cross is on there. So I drove out to Brampton and I had a meeting with Stuart Myers and I had no radio, like no broadcast experience. And I said, please give me like a show to talk about the web.

And he's like, all right, I'm going to put you on with Alan Cross every Monday for 10 minutes. Wow. So I did it from the Bill Collection Agency. They gave me a room for 10 minutes every Monday. I called Alan Cross. Everything was scripted out.

Yeah. And we talked about cool websites of the week. And then that's where MP3s came in. Yeah. So that was the start of radio. Basically, you broke the news to Alan, who is a huge, still is, but a huge vinyl collector. Okay, Mr. Vinyl. When they were getting rid

of all the vinyl at 102.1, he rented a rider truck. Him and Ivor Hamilton split it like 50-50 and he took like hundreds and thousands of pieces of vinyl.

He's got so much vinyl. I think one day he dropped the number. It's a huge, thousands and thousands in his home. You broke the news to him that the burgeoning new format to bet on was MP3s.

Yeah, I mean, that's how I recall it was telling him on the air and him being like, what? And then him sending me an email afterwards saying, hey, remember that Depeche Mode MP3 you said you had? Is there a way you can send it? So yeah, that is crystal clear in my head that I talked about MP3s on that show. And I started writing about it as a journalist.

I started to write for bigger and bigger publications. Yeah, well, CNN.com was big. Yeah, CNN.com. And that's how I got my gig with Playboy magazine, which lasted 13 years, because someone remembered that I predicted that MP3s were going to be big. And then a year later,

like Napster was on the cover of Time, right? So the guy goes, oh, you were the one who, you know, that was that was well i got lucky but because music was my passion yeah and then i fell into tech and games that i was able to combine the three is like the conversion right right did you ever get to the playboy mansion i have many times yeah that was a nice little uh perk for writing for them many times this man has been to the playboy look but i mentioned i but I've been to parties there. I've been during the day

when it's quiet and there's just a couple of people playing tennis or, you know, I've met Hugh Hefner a couple times and I've been to parties at night, but I've never been to like those iconic, what do they call it, like Midsummer Night's Dream or I was never a friend of Hef or his kids, his son. But still, not many people get the

invitation to the mansion. Yeah, that was a very nice perk. And my dad, Stan, God love him. He got cold feet. One day Hank, who manages the grounds there or did, said, bring your dad. Because I said, my dad had a Playboy subscription since I was a kid. And I remember sneaking and looking at the magazine.

He said, bring your dad one day. So I'm like, dad, come to LA. When in your entire life will you ever have a chance to go to the, it's not going to be a party, but looking at the magazine. He said, bring your dad one day. So I'm like, dad, come to LA. When in your entire life will you ever have a chance to go to the, it's not gonna be a party, but come during the day. And you know, by the way, the mansion is really the backyard. It's really the grounds that are where everybody hangs out

and the grotto and all that. It's very rarely in the house itself. And he, my dad's like, nah, I'm okay. I'm okay. He got cool feeling. I keep bugging him about it now, right? You know what Wayne Gretzky once said? You miss 100% of the parties that you don't attend.

That's it. I like that. So yeah, it was really fun. It was a great gig. You know, people do read it for the articles. Come on. So yeah, I reviewed tech and games for them. Norman Mailer would write for Playboy.

Are you kidding me? I only read the articles. I refused to look at the pictures. So I used to review games and gadgets for them. But that was from 97 to 2010. And then they lost their freelance budget. Yeah, but that's how I got that gig

was the story was that he remembered the MP3 piece. Did you ever meet James Caan when you were at the Playboy Mansion? I met him in New York, but not at the Playboy Mansion.

He was part of a video game based on the Godfather series. It was kind of like Grand Theft Auto, but then they licensed the Godfather and he was there that day. We'll bet.

Okay, you got stories here. I thought it was just going to be Remedy, but now I'm intrigued. Okay, so you bet big on MP3s. Why does the Alan Cross segment end? It just ran its course? Yeah, so that evolved into a more polished, pre-recorded and sponsored segment

that Rob Johnston produced. Technical production by Rob Johnston. So I would go down, I think by this time, they were right by the Eaton Center. So they had moved to Dundas. And then so it became Cyber Escapes with Mark Saltzman. And it was a one minute interstitial. So instead of a 10 minute live chat,

it evolved into a paid- Who sponsored it? I don't remember. You don't remember, okay. But I didn't get paid when I was doing Mark's web watch with Alan. That was just for free for exposure. I was cutting my teeth.

And then that gig landed me a one-hour talk show with 1010 CFRB back then, which I still host. And that started in 99. So Steve Couch, who was the program director at CFRB, he should be on your show. I'd have him on.

I know the name. He's written books about broadcasting stuff. Yeah, good guy. He gave me a, he put me on with Erica M for an hour and then he put me on, Dan Gallagher actually before Erica M, rest in peace.

Shout out to Ridley Funeral. Pillars of this community since 1921. I was at that, I remember being at the, it doesn't matter, it's off topic. Dan Gallagher by the way.21. I was at that, I remember being at the, it doesn't matter, off topic. Dan Gallagher, by the way. I was at his funeral and I think it was a new market, if I remember correctly, or Aurora. I'm trying to remember now. Yeah, very sad. He was doing

Argo's public address announcing and he had of course a test pattern on Much Music, where most people knew him from, but by all accounts lovable guy just big heart and yeah big time gone far too soon 100 so then they they gave me my one hour show which wait erica m you co-hosted a show of erica m yeah well no so she hosted all saturday

afternoons on cfrb i don't remember what the what the window was but let's say it was three or four hours so i would come in for an hour and talk tech with her. And then Steve Couch said, Saltzman, you can have your own show. You can do it. You can do it. Because you know when you're starting out, you don't... Also, he might have realized it would be easy to sell that show

because it's a tech show. There might be an ulterior motive. Yeah. That's all I can think of. But yeah, so that was how I started in broadcast. And so I've been doing tech talk for, since 99. And then in the States,

I started a show in 2017 called Tech It Out. Okay, put the pin in the States talk because I have a question from the aforementioned Cam Gordon. But first, a comment from Mark Osoris. Mark says, I think he was the first tech writer I ever remember reading

when I was first getting into my nerdy IT ways. Yeah, love it. There you go. There's probably a lot of people his age who look at Mark Saltzman as one of the OGs. So I used to write for a Toronto-based newspaper called Toronto Computes. I don't know if you remember them.

They had boxes outside on the street, just like you would have a daily newspaper. And in Quebec, it was Quebec Micro. And so that's when I started writing articles. My editor said, if you want to be a freelance journalist, by the way, I hope you like Kraft Dinner. She's like, if you want to be a freelance dinner in Canada.

And then you thought of if I had a million dollars, and you go, we'd have more Kraft Dinner. There you go, exactly. I love how you keep tying it back. All the segues love it. Well, you know, it's my 1,211th show. Yeah, congrats, by the way. Thanks very much.

I learned a few things. Look, I was on the front page of the Toronto Star, okay? That doesn't just happen. Every podcaster marks off. Wow, that is true. Well, 11 years is a hell of a run so far, so that's great. Cam Gordon, ready for this? I've always been impressed how many US freelance gigs he's had while based in canada i would love to

hear more about his first few non-canadian writing gigs and how he's continued to write and broadcast across the border for years so let's talk about all this american stuff so cam's great by the way i got to know is he though yes he is indeed you know him so when he was doing pr i think back in uh back in the day with High Road. I ignored all those emails. And then he got the gig as the internal comms guy at Twitter. Did he?

Yeah. He worked there at Twitter? Stop. I'm just kidding. At first I'm like, really? Well, I know he's listening, so I'm having fun. By the way,

he's always been super nice. No one's had more appearances on Toronto Mic'd than Cam Green. That is a documented fact. Yeah, he was on the show that I most recently listened to as well with Bob and stuff. Anyhow,

so being a freelance journalist, you can write from anywhere, right? So the fact that I was Canadian didn't really faze many of my editors. So I started with PC Gamer. I used to write for techie magazines, right? Wired, CNET.com, PC Gamer.

And then I found my calling, if you will, which is more about demystifying tech. Like you said off the show, breaking down geek speak into street speak. So I started with USA Today. It'll be my 25th anniversary in October as a weekly contributor. And those articles are picked up by Yahoo and MSN every week,

which so it's huge exposure and yeah i started with cnn.com and then um yeah and then you know uh started on cnn proper thanks to peter kent from global wrote an email about me to someone at turner broadcasting in atlanta he's such a mensch really um And they interviewed me in 2001, and that was my first gig. There was a period of time when Peter Kent was the heir apparent to the CTV National News, after Lloyd Robertson. This was a

period in time. I just talked to Lloyd, and we talked about this. Yeah, that's good. Lloyd's a legend as well. So Peter, yeah, so I started with... So yeah, I was able to, and I still am able to live in Toronto, because this is my preference. This is my home. But I do a lot of... Like, I have able to, and I still am able to live in Toronto because this is my preference. This is my home, but I do a lot of, like I have a TV show in the States. It's not here called Tech Impact. My book publishers are American. I write, the last ones are those dummies

books. I wrote Siri for dummies and more recently Apple Watch for dummies. We're on the sixth edition of that. You're a busy guy. Thank you. How did you have time to visit the TMDS studios today for your Toronto Mike debut? I'm so happy that you invited me. This is great. Yeah. I heard you came because I'm going to give you a lasagna. Would you like to take a lasagna?

It could be part of that. I didn't know about the beer, but you did hint about pasta, which is awesome. And I do have something else for you, my friend. Courtesy of Ridley Funeral Home measuring tape. You might need to measure something. You never know. Thank you.

It comes in handy. You need to measure something. I got a dirty mind, but okay. What are you measuring? Not now, Mark. Not now. There's also the dark joke about measuring myself for a casket. Well, that joke's been made a few times.

Yeah, I'm sure it has been. That's low-hanging fruit. It is low-hanging fruit. But thank you, Cam, for the shout-out. That's very nice. Yeah, Cam's a big fan. But he's a big fan of Remedy. He's probably got cassettes of Remedy that he could have... Injected was our

biggest one at HMV. Wow, Injected. Can you please share it? Well, if I knew you wanted to talk so much about it, I would have brought a track or two. You sure did. Now we're going to walk through, okay? We're going to walk through it in just in a nutshell

because you're like, you're six and one. This is what I consider Mark Saltzman, six and one. So one is you're a journalist, right? And that would be your work, you said. Freelance writing, yeah, for multiple places. Yeah, Toronto Star. I'm in the Toronto Star tomorrow. You're all choked up talking about it.

I know, I'm crying. Tomorrow I'm in the Star. So yeah, I freelance for a bunch of places, half in Canada I'm in the Toronto Star tomorrow. You're all choked up talking about it. I know, I'm crying. Yeah, tomorrow I'm in the Star. So yeah, I freelance for a bunch of places, half in Canada, half in the States. So that's one of my gigs. Okay, so there's one stream of revenue for Mark Saltzman Enterprises. He's a journalist.

You're also an author. You mentioned the dummies books. Like there's, you are authoring things. Yeah, look, it's not fiction or anything, but- But there's a check at the end of that day. Yeah, you know, it's funny. Yeah. Look, it's not fiction or anything, but there's a check at the end of that day. Yeah. You know, it's funny. Sometimes you write, I've written books over the last 25 years that some I'm like, oh yeah, this is going to be a huge hit and it bombs. And then there's something that you write over three weeks part-time and you're like, you know, this is just

to pay the bills, but then it actually takes off and then you do an annual update, which is kind of funny. So you're a journalist. That's one. You're an author. That's two. Let's take a moment and discuss because I got a couple of questions about this. I'll give credit to Kara for the most recent one.

But people want to know, how did you become the Cineplex tech guy? You were on movie theaters across this country. Yeah, it was a good 11 year run. It ended just before COVID. And there's some talk about doing a couple this year, but it won't go back to the monthly thing. That's for sure.

And this was called the Gear Guide. Yeah, Gear Guide. So Darren Solomon, who you may know, was in broadcast. He worked at CTV at the time. We wanted to work together, but I was exclusive with Global. So I couldn't go on CTV at all,

including with the guest we spoke with earlier her name is naomi partners well i'm just kidding yeah for those who haven't she won't get this far this one thing i'll say she'll listen to the first five minutes to hear how she sounded there's not a prayer in fact i'll drop a little thing naomi if you can hear this text me the words peanut butter text me the words peanut butter right now if i don't get a text of the word peanut butter i know you did not get this far in the podcast please continue mark sure so darren uh said hey i'm now working with cineplex and i've been tasked with creating a 20-minute pre-show half ads half edit like entertainment uh editorial would you like to be my tech guy?

So I'm like, hell yeah. And it was free for the first couple of years. We couldn't figure out the pricing model. And my dad's like, don't they know who you are? You're on CNN. And I'm like, dad, this exposure is crazy. I should be paying them, okay? Well, it's captive audience, right?

So we figured out a pricing model that worked. And then I was their monthly tech guy. So it was a one-minute tech update that ran at the end of that 20-minute pre-show. Right. Often near, a little bit later, it was time play, which was like that interactive game. Yeah. Yeah.

So that was like the last five years. So Gear Guide was great. It was every month for several years. And then around 2017, they said, hey, Mark, it's costing us too much to the crew and the distribution. And we had French talent who was on the Francophone theaters. And they said, we're only going to do it when we have a sponsor. And they were far and few between because it's very expensive to pay for it. It was like a month in front of every movie for the entire month for the entire country,

in French and English. So as a result, there were very few sponsors. So the last one I did was right before COVID. It was December 2019. And it was a Samsung and Rogers co-op sponsored segment. Okay. So for reviewing at home, this is good. So one, journalist, two, author, three, movies, four, television. Yeah. So freelance, again, I'm not associated with any network in Canada. I'm just, whenever there's breaking news, I'm on for free. I talk about, you know, like-

You're the Eric Alper of tech. Yeah. I'll take that as a compliment. Eric's a hustler, man. Oh no, I love Eric. Yeah, he knows his music. He brought me a Gino Vanelli. So how could I not love Eric Alper?

Has he been on Toronto Mike? A couple of times, yeah. He kicked out the jams even. Yeah, good guy. So how could I not love Eric Albert? Has he been on Toronto Mike? A couple of times. Yeah. He kicked out the jams even. Yeah. Good guy. So, and we're comparable height as well. Okay. Maybe I'm a bit taller.

Well, he does not need to watch his head in the basement. Let's just leave it at that. And he has the long hair. He does. He's got the whole look. The whole, with the chain, like he's got the motorcycle chain on the side, the wallet chain. Well, his grandfather ran grossman's tavern oh

i didn't know he's got like bonafide musical roots yeah his whole family his whole family are wonderful yeah well hannah yeah that's true yeah yeah and candace's wife anyhow so uh so eric yeah like these damn alpers are too talented my goal was to be like the tech voice like so whenever there was a breaking news or whatever, I would, you know, in the 90s even, CTV would come over to my parents' basement and they would interview me, mullet and all, and global.

And then it became, you know, regular segments all for free. And then I've started to have my own shows. Like Amber Mack and I co-hosted a show in the early 2000s. Amber should come on Toronto, mate. Sue Lingo out of Edmonton. And Dina Puglia. Puglia. Yeah, she, you know, she's stepping Ling Go out of Edmonton. Uh, and, uh, Dina, uh, Poo, Poo Lazy.

Yeah. She, you know, she's stepping down. Today was her last day at BT, but she reminded me when I was on breakfast television a couple of months ago that, that she was my, um,

teleprompter at a show that I hosted in Edmonton in the early two thousands when my twins were born. Yeah. It's like, what? Wow. I, I didn't know i felt terrible that i didn't remember that anyway she's a doll she's amazing but i hear nothing but good things

about gina so honestly what you see on the air is what you get off the air she's legit okay yeah she's legit um so uh yeah i started to just you know i'm i'm freelance for well we started with naomi parnes who knew you because she interviewed you on CTV because she was a reporter at CTV so you are okay journalist author movie star television star the fifth category I would call it uh radio slash podcast yeah radio so what are you doing at 1010 so I still host a show called tech talk it airs on 11 stations now across Canada. It's a one-hour show that makes sense of tech in plain English, very interview heavy. What time would we hear it on the Mighty 1010?

In Toronto, it's on Sundays at 5. It leads into the evening news at 6, which is CTV on the air. Yeah, on radio. And then it runs in Montreal, in Vancouver,ouver winnipeg ottawa and south and southern ontario as well look so that's yeah and auto podcast are you also a podcast so the show in canada tech talk is part of the iheart family so you can hear it on demand on iheart my american show which again is only five and a half years old called tech it out it's similar uh and i'm on over 100 stations now across the states i work with a company called radio america in dc

um that is a an official podcast meaning uh they are radio america are responsible for uploading it to all the podcast platforms ever like i'm sure you can subscribe to that yeah like you can subscribe to that that's a fair way of putting it so i'm on spotify and that's a that's a real podcast a real podcast as opposed to an audio presentation i had if i can't subscribe to it in my podcast addict it's not a podcast i think that is absolutely fair so yeah i get i have canadian listeners of that podcast they're like mark why do you say because the announcer goes uh it's mark with a c saltzman with a z and oh yeah that's a giveaway and i'm like yeah because it's an american show but it's really, you know. So you can't talk about, you know, I was sitting on the Chesterfield.

Right. I was drinking, I opened a bag of milk. Right, right. You can't say, I just opened it. Eating ketchup chips. Right. No, I turn on my American, even my accent slightly changes. Yeah, like I don't say about, I say about, like I don't say about.

You Americanize everything. What's the other one? You don't, oh, I just walked to the foyer. Yeah, foyer instead of foyer. Yeah. Like I don't say about, I say about, like I don't say about. You Americanize everything. What's the other one? You don't know? Oh, I just walked to the foyer. Yeah, foyer instead of foyer. Right. When I started, just a funny side story. When I started with CNN in 2001, I went down for the interview in Atlanta. I got the gig. I chose to be part, like a contractor. I turned down the opportunity to be a full-time employee because I would have to quit radio, writing books, everything. We were on our first shoot in a playground, on a playground in Atlanta. And I was doing a standup, it wasn't live. And the cameraman, I saw the light turn off, like the red light turned off and he took the camera and put it down on the ground. He's like, how good are you about criticism? I said, hey man,

I'm relatively new. This is my first shoot for CNN. He's like, you sound really Canadian. He's like, you sound so like oot and a boot. And I'm like, come on. No, I didn't. And I did. Did you say, are you on the go for a rip for your bud? I didn't think I sounded that bad, but to his ear I did.

So I really, it just, I whitewashed it. Like I do videos for Costco, right? On their TVs. I change, whether it's for Costco Canada or Costco in the US, I will change how I talk based on the audience. It's, whether it's for Costco Canada or Costco in the US, I will change how I talk based on the audience. It's a conscious,

you know, or actually subconscious thing maybe. But anyways, yeah, so where were we? No, okay, so here's where you are.

Very nice to list everything. Yeah, okay, so wait, now I've got to recap. So it's a podcast. One more to go, one more to go.

Okay. But I'm just, what I'm pointing out here is that you've got these multiples, you're like an octopus wants to fight IPA from great lakes beer. There's multiple arms here. Okay.

So you got this guy, right? There you go. That guy's exactly the octopus wants to fight. It's my favorite IPA by the way, product placement, which wouldn't be wrong. Actually I do have partners.

Well, that's in all of them. Okay. Yeah. So that goes without saying, someone's got to cut you a check. Not journalism though. No.

Okay. No, I can't. So journalism is your objective. Yeah. I have had sponsors on radio. No, that goes without saying. Someone's got to cut you a check. Not journalism though. No, okay. No, I can't. So journalism is your objective. Yeah, I've had sponsors on radio. You're not for sale. No, I've had sponsors on my radio show and all that saying, hey, you just wrote about my competitor for, you know,

insert publication name there. And I'm like, yeah, that's a separate, like I can't. Different stream. I can't. I can't ruin everything that I've built. No, good point. So that's the journalism. That's one.

Then the authorship. That's two. Mov journalism. That's one. Then the authorship. That's two. Movies. That's three. Although now it stops in 2019, but maybe one day we'll see the big screen again. Yeah, there's some talks as recent as last week. Oh, okay.

Bring me in on those meetings. Toronto Mike needs to be a movie star. Okay. Then there's the TV stuff. Then there's a radio. This starts with Alan Cross, F-O-T-M, Alan Cross on CFNY. But now you've got this american podcast and you

got the the show on the iheart network which means it airs on 10 10 that's the radio slash podcast that's the uh fifth stream the sixth stream which we'll just discuss briefly here is now that covid is well now that we're moving on from covid i don't know if covid is done with us but we're done with covid that's for sure you can do public speaking events again so what like people would hire you to uh they have a conference or something and they need you to be the tech guy and maybe maybe you'll talk up a samsung product or something like that who knows they're usually not sponsored but yeah i'm on you never know public speaker which is the newest part of my business and uh did take a hit of course during covid i would do like you know virtual like zoom speeches but they don't pay

as well. And they suck. And you don't know that they suck because you don't know if a joke is landing and it's like you're talking into the ether, right? Yeah. I can tell you, I can't remember any of my remote guests. Okay. Exactly. And I'm sure that the audience also, it's not going to be as memorable as in person. So yeah, no, I'm a speaker. I give keynotes, talks. I give lunch and learns. I moderate panels. I do fireside chats before us recording this interview right now. Look at you, FDR here. Wow. I just had a lunch meeting downtown with a big accounting firm that has a big tech arm that they're developing and they want to tap me to... Do they need any podcast production? We should talk. We'll talk off the air. i'm not allowed to reveal we should add like a seventh arm where

you're like uh yeah tmds so yeah no i i love public speaking and it is the newest and youngest part of my work but uh and i'm with the speakers bureau but i get most work myself like you know companies will reach out on i don't know linkedin a direct message and saying hey mark i have this agriculture tech conference in Indianapolis. Do you know ag tech at all? I'm like, yep. You're either calling Mark Saltzman or maybe Amber Mack.

That's who, who else are you going to call? Amber's totally crushing it, especially with- Well, she's prettier than you. That is true. But don't diminish her intellectual prowess. No, I would never. I would never. Amber is super talented.

I tease the phrase with her that we're frenemies because we are buddies, but we do compete for the same gigs. But Amber's a fantastic public speaker and she's a powerhouse, man. She's amazing. And it's a good 311 song.

Amber is the color of her energy. Okay, so I just want to point out, we talked about how Zoom suck or whatever. I had an interview for Toronto Mic'd with Sandy Horn from The Spoons. It was done via Zoom. I think it was during COVID. We did what we had to do. Thanks to technology.

We broke our ankles pivoting. Props to tech. Last night, I just want to shout out FOTM Rob Pruce. He had a great evening at the Moonshine Cafe in Oakville, and I was there. You rode your bike there. I actually was going to ride my bike there, but then the ice storm cometh, and I had to drive. But I bike every day, but these last two days have been tough. I bike this morning, and it's tough.

No one's plowing these roads anymore my brother-in-law has one of those fat tire bikes around the corner i got studs in my tire like snow tires but uh what am i going to do so thank you rob pruse for the invitation you were great and then brittle star was there but then sandy was there and i took a selfie with sandy and i'm like finally like i got to meet sandy horn after 40 years i've wanted to meet this woman yeah and it was like i saw that picture completely different than like the zoom this zooms whatever person is such a such the way to go really i mean honestly uh brittle star stewart reynolds correct he's awesome yeah he's yeah he lives in um stratford stratford and one of those stratford yeah and he

told me uh that yesterday was only the second time in his life he had been in oakville ontario oh that's great i'm like oh okay wow he was just i think in scotland i follow him of course on social media and all of his great videos he's a he's a he's a super talented guy as well oh no no doubt about it he's an fotm as well okay and i got i met him for the first time he's a guy i did remotely and then i got to meet him yesterday okay so now I'm going to give you what you deem to be the five most frequently asked questions of Mark Saltzman. And then I have a couple of myself I'm curious about. Oh, right. You're so funny because I put this on social media, right? Yeah. But most people didn't see it. Can you, Mark Saltzman, keep all of the gadgets that are

sent to you? Most, I'd say. Companies don't really want to incur the expense of asking for it back. So, you know, but there's exceptions, right? You'd think like, you know, a $50, you know, gadget or something like that would say, ah, just keep it. Sometimes they're like, we want that back. And then on the flip side,

there'll be like an $8,000 TV. That's like an 85-inch OLED TV. No, just keep it. So, so you know it's a nice uh perk uh along with going to the playboy mansion i guess but a nice perk uh covering tech where companies don't usually want it back they hope they get more out of it than just what they lent you but yeah yeah they would love for you to you know i got a traeger grill that i i did some work with the company traeger and then they were like over the moon when I posted a couple of things on Instagram of me, like grilling, like smoking

wings. Um, so like, it's the least I can do as a thank you, but I genuinely love that. Uh, that's pretty awesome. That's not expensive. That's not inexpensive. And you didn't bring me any gadgets, even though you have all these gadgets. Like, what did you say? Like a Best Buy exploded? Yeah. You don't have any gadgets for me. Yeah, I'm going to give you lasagna and beer. I know I'm terrible. That's bad. Well I will love to extend the invite. Hand over your FOTM card. When you come on my show if we can record in person

I will give you some grab bag or what do you call it? You had me at hello. A loot bag. You had me at hello. In the States they don't know loot bags. Is that right? I don't think so. I remember using that phrase. They're like, what? I was talking to Americans representing TMDS, Toronto Mic Digital Services,

and I said, Bob's your uncle. Yeah. I could just use it. And they were like, what? And I said, yeah, and Bob's your uncle. Like this phrase wasn't known to them. And I don't know if it was like a British thing or a Canadian thing, but it's not an American thing. We have some Commonwealth phrases, I think, that are.

Yeah, I'm sure we picked that up from our pop Brit in there. Okay, so the second one, you've already answered this, will gear guide return... Oh, sorry, just let me close the loop. I give away a lot of the gadgets. Like, I'm going to, my wife and I are going to a CF, a cystic fibrosis event tomorrow night, and they asked for some

giveaways, so I've got lots of gadgets from Prague. It's a costume party. So I try to donate you know or if a technician comes to my house to fix you know my furnace whatever i'm like hey do you have kids you have a playstation how about that you know that kind of a thing so i have kids i'll be picking up my playstations okay you've already addressed this when will uh will gear guide return to movie theaters you've already addressed that there might be a form of it coming back you had there's no more 20 minute pre-show but there's some talk about maybe doing a segment

or two okay third of your four uh most frequently asked questions uh iphone or android this is the one i get all the time it's tough like i i was on samsung for 12 years i just went back to iphone like a couple months ago just to go back again to see what it's like. And there's pros and cons. If you don't like to wrestle with your tech, iPhone is, I would argue, still easier to use. And Apple has fixed a lot of the beefs that I had with how much control they had over everything. Now you can add widgets and you can choose different mail programs or calendar programs. The phones were bigger because back in the day, Android was bigger. Well, I like the, you know, the phablet size. So they've righted a lot of the wrongs and that

whole walled garden approach. Boy, lots of these air quotes. Walled garden approach. You know, no one can see an air quote on a podcast, Mark. But Android, you know, but I would still argue the Galaxy S23 cameras are way better than the iPhone. So I'm back on iPhone, but it depends on your comfort level. Androids are not as easy to use and there are more risks when it comes to the apps that you download because with iPhone you can only... Well, only if you're dumb.

Well, no, you can somehow... You can sideload or download something to your Android that's not from the App Store. It's not that you're dumb if you're techie. Yeah, but that to me is an education thing. Like that's something my mom might do because she's not checking now

where is she getting this from? Okay, but I will just say, so you've got an iPhone now. I do rock an Android. So to tie in this room. Glad to hear that, yeah. Why aren't you on CNN anymore? Yeah, they don't do a lot of tech much.

I haven't been on CNN and probably just during the pandemic. It had to be a big story. I don't know. Remember even what it was. I was on every week for a show called Next at CNN. I would go to Atlanta and shoot a bunch of segments and they would run them every week until I went back again two, three months later.

But no, those days are done. They cover a lot more politics now. And of course, health like COVID stuff. They don't do a lot of tech. So I'm not on cnn but i get that question often well it was one of your four most frequently asked questions okay now here's a question from me and i want you to be honest with me okay no bullshit here nfts this is bullshit right this nfts i still don't understand them i won't touch them with a 10

foot pole because if i can't if my brain can't understand it, I don't touch it. What say you about NFTs? I don't own any. Well, that's all I need to hear. You don't believe in NFTs. It's not for me. I don't want the volatility of crypto or NFTs. Crypto is my next question. We should bring

that into this as well. I know some people, including in Ontario, who are self-made multi multi millionaires through crypto it's just i when i put my head down on my pillow at night i want to know that like i'm not going to lose like i can't stand that volatility that's just me i'm a little bit because you don't i don't if you're like me at all and you might be we went to the same university we were both in great rock band you did separate the fact that i went to scarborough i was being difficult there do you remember so mississauga campus is now called-

Arendale, it was Arendale. Yes, so younger people are, it's UTM, University of Toronto, Mississauga. But I always say, oh, you mean Arendale? And they don't know what I'm talking about. Oh, really? So it hasn't been Arendale in a while, but it was absolutely Arendale when I was at U of T.

So UTM sounds a lot like MTU, which is formerly Ryerson. No, TMU. Oh yeah, so that's true. Which is co-opted from the Toronto Mike universe. So UTM sounds a lot like MTU, which is formerly Ryerson. No, TMU. Oh, yeah. So that's true. Which is co-opted from the Toronto Mike universe. I've had my lawyer, Lorne Honigman, file papers. Lorne Honigman. That's awesome.

He's my lawyer, you know. Is he really? Yeah. That's awesome. There you go. I love that man. Love that man. That man loves his Bob Dylan.

Okay. If you ever have a question or want to talk Dylan, you can find him easy. He's still working as a lawyer. You can get a hold of Lorne Honigman. Just talk Dylan with the man. Nothing will make him happy. A little pro tip for you right there. I do not, and I've read a lot on it. I really have given it a

solid effort. I don't understand what crypto is based on other than the fact it's like a casino. This is some casino where people buy and it goes, you know, it's in demand, it goes up and people sell and it goes down. I don't really want to put my money on in a casino. Like NFTs and crypto, I don't understand. Therefore, I do not play the game.

Yeah, and you shouldn't if you don't understand, of course. But you understand? I understand it. Yeah. So it's built on the blockchain which is an online ledger that validates every transaction so it's like zeros and ones checks and balances that acknowledges a transaction yeah that part i get but what's uh what's what's driving the value right there's bitcoin there's theory like eth right ethereum and like that's built that's based

around a lot of the nft. And so there's competing. So I appreciate a non, like, you know, a non-centralized currency or, you know, where it's like not tied to any bank or country, where it's a truly digital currency worldwide. What is it tied to?

Well, so this is where it gets tricky, right? Generating Bitcoins and all that through, you know, like server farms and all that. And, you know, there's a finite number, I think it right? Generating Bitcoins and all that through, you know, like server farms and all that. And, you know, there's a finite number, I think it's like 21 million Bitcoins. So there can't be any more than that. It gets complicated when you can generate currency, not just trade in, say, American or Canadian dollars in exchange for a Bitcoin, just to use them as an example. So it gets a little convoluted when you can generate, which doesn't really happen as much anymore.

Not to mention the cost. Do you own any cryptocurrency? I don't. I was going to be gifted an NFT and they told me I had to set up a wallet and I did and I never ended up getting them. So I got ripped off even before the whole, no. Was that Rain Maida who promised you?

I know what's going on there. Yeah, it was an Our Lady piece. But nothing makes me alternative and I consume a lot of stuff. I will listen to Rain talk music. I'll hear him talk human rights. Yeah, it was an Our Lady piece. But nothing makes me alternative. And I consume a lot of stuff. I will listen to Rain talk music. I'll hear him talk human rights. I'm very interested in all these things. But once, in fact, we just did it.

I almost tapped out of my own podcast. But once I hear droning on about the blockchain and the crypto and NFT, I tap out. Like, it's like, I'm gone. It's sort of like sports gambling. I'm out. Yeah, so I get that. It can make your head swim.

But it's not for everyone. I just don't like the volatility of it. Some people, that excites them about it, right? That you can wake up a millionaire. People have money to burn. Like they're playing with some, I don't know, house money or they're... I had a guy on my tech talk show back in,

I want to say 2011. So we're talking a long time ago, telling me you should buy a Bitcoin. I'm like, what? It's like a hundred bucks a Bitcoin. Are you crazy? And now then it went up to whatever. Sure. What is that worth today though? Well, I don't even, I don't even follow it much. I heard it went back up again, but so look, it's just not for me. I like, and it's not like I'm old school with my money. There's problems with the fiat system as well and inflation and printing money

and printing money like they did during COVID to, you know, look, there's no perfect system out there, but I'm just hopeful that what I've built is going to be around when I'm ready to retire in a few years. No, I love what you've built. That's why you're here because I respect what you've built.

You're fiercely independent. Yeah, I'm a one-man company. I root for the indies, man. I root for the indies. That's you, that's me, that's all the indies. Shout out to all the indies out there. The last question here, you've been amazing. We've learned so much about you.

I can't believe this started with Naomi. And then final question is, what music would you be listening to these days? Do you have any time to just chill out to tunes? Yeah, so I love streaming music services because the idea of having um you know 80 million songs uh that you can just use your voice to ask for as well blows my mind so i have very eclectic tastes um i most recently i like i'm i still like hard rock a lot a lot is not trendy. It is not popular.

But I love bands like Falling in Reverse and Five Finger Death Punch. And like, they're hard rock, not metal, but hard rock. That is hard rock. Yeah, it's hard rock. I like Falling in Reverse a lot. But I also listen to- I think Jimmy Lang's a big Five Finger Death Punch guy. Yeah, that's cool.

Really talented band. Really good. They're kind of like a newer, they're kind of like a Motley Crue. Like, you know, like a hard rock, but very poppy kind of vibe a newer they're kind of like a motley crew like you know like a hard rock but very poppy kind of vibe but i also listen to like my favorite band of all time is floyd pink floyd despite roger waters uh you know comments i'm a huge floyd fan so you can separate the artist from the art it's hard i've gone on rants on social media about it. I mean, look, what Roger Waters has said about Israel is a lot tamer than what Yi has said about Jews.

Like, Roger Waters' argument is that I have a beef with... The nation. With the country, not the people. But he said some things that, to me, have crossed the line. So I'm trying to separate it. It is very difficult. But in addition to what could be argued uh to be anti-semitic i actually see his comments as anti-semitic for what that's worth

but but in addition to that he's just attacking israel but there's a lot more to it that he said that i really don't like but whatever the murder uh i'm gonna say pink floyd but the murder of george floyd uh he says that's a technique that was taught by Israeli soldiers and when you're starting to tie if you can blame Israel for the murder of George Floyd by police officers now it's like how far reached that

but also I've noticed very Putin friendly and seems to be sympathizing with Russia and the invasion of Ukraine that is true and it's ironic because his dad died in World War II as an English soldier. Like you would think he would. But even Gilmore won't have anything to do with the guy, right?

There's never going to be a Pink Floyd reunion. No, and even his wife went on Twitter and called him. He's an angry, angry, angry man. Super talented. But you can still enjoy Pink Floyd, even though you don't respect necessarily the artist. Yeah, even though I've been called out by my friends for supporting him.

Well, Naomi would kick your ass if she found out you're still listening to Pink Floyd. I'll just let you know. I love their music. What can I say? Are you listening to Ignition Remix by R. Kelly as well? Don't go there. Didn't he just get another 30 years yesterday?

Yeah, yeah. Oh my gosh. He got another one yeah no like and say kanye too i think he's super talented musically that hurt i was like whoa he's so talented uh but uh yeah and that's something where he just kept doubling down he never apologized and just and like that's brutal but but no i listen to everything i listen to i love i do like hip-hop and all but i i'm yeah i've got crazy eclectic tastes you love what you love do you like uh lowest of the low did you ever cross paths with them and remedy was in action no i've never crossed paths with them but uh from what i've heard i like yeah every episode of toronto mike closes with rosie and gray from

shakespeare my butt love it, you were amazing, buddy. Thank you so much, Toronto Mike. This was great. So fun. You really are getting a lasagna. That wasn't BS. That's not a shtick. Not a shtick.

It's in my freezer, so I'll fill that box. Thank you so much. You really are taking home the Great Lakes beer with you. And before you drive away, we take our photo by the tree as is customary, but you're now an FOTM and I really enjoyed this and I would love to do your show. Yeah.

Thank you. It's been an honor. Thank you so much. And you're welcome anytime to be my guest. And that brings us to the end of our 1,211th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. A big thanks to Naomi Parnes for being our,

she had no idea that was happening, by the way. She just wanted to say hi to you. And then I talked her into giving us a couple of minutes off the top. One day she'll come in for a deeper dive. But thank you, Naomi. Mark, tell people your website where they can follow you and learn about all this stuff you're up to. Yeah, sure.

I write a tech tip of the day on social media, often with a video. So I'm on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and even TikTok now. And it's Mark Saltzman, M-A-R-C-S-A-L-T-Z-M-A-N. I had to, I had to. Well, it is Canada. Yeah, I would be upset. There is a website, but I don't really, you know,

it's better, the social platforms is what I update daily. Thank you. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery, they're at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta's at Palma Pasta. Recycle My Electronics, we both love EPRA, they're at EPRA underscore Canada.

Ridley Funeral Home are at Ridley FH and Canna Cabana are at Canna Cabana underscore. See you all next week when my special guest making his Toronto Mike debut is Brent Bambery And it's just like mine And it won't go away Cause everything is

Rosy and green Well I've been told That there's a sucker Born every day But I wonder who Yeah I wonder who Maybe the one who doesn't realize There's a thousand shades of grey

Cause I know that's true Yes I do I know it's true Yeah I know it's true How about you Are they picking up trash And they're putting down ropes

And they're brokering stocks, 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 up Rosy and gray Yeah, the wind is cold But the smell of snow

Warms me today And your smile is fine And it's just like mine And it won't go away Because everything is rosy and gray Well, I've kissed you in France and I've kissed you in Spain And I've kissed you in places I better not name And I've seen the sun go down on Chaclacour

But I like it much better going down on you Yeah, you know that's true Because everything is coming up rosy and green Yeah, the wind is cold but the smell of snow warms us today And your smile is fine

It's just like mine And it won't go away Cause everything is rosy now Everything is rosy Yeah, everything is rosy and great Yeah, yeah, yeah guitar solo