Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie the Podcast: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1890

Episode Date: April 28, 2026

In this 1890th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Barry Hertz, the Deputy Arts Editor and Film Editor for The Globe and Mail, about Nirvanna the Band, Nirvanna the Band the Show and Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie. This is Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie the Podcast. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, Nick Ainis, and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail].

Hello, this is Barry Hertz. I am the film editor and chief film writer for the Globe and Mail based in Toronto. I recently wrote my first book, Welcome to the Family, the Explosive Story Behind Fast and Furious, the Blockbusters that Supercharged the world, available everywhere now. But today, I'm here to talk about another franchise dear to my heart, Nirvana, the band, the show. show, The Movie. Welcome to episode 1,890 of Toronto Mike. An award-winning podcast, proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. Order online at Great LakesBeer.com for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta.

Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian, Pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Visit palmaPasta.com for more. FusionCorp's own Nick Iienes. He's the host of Building Toronto Skyline. And Mike and Nick, two podcasts that you ought to listen to. Recycle MyElectronics.c.a.comitting to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. And Ridley Funeral Home.

pillars of the community since 1921. Joining me today, returning to Toronto Mike to dive deep into the ongoing history of Nirvana, the band. The show? The movie? It is indeed. Barry Hertz. Barry, I love this song. I don't even want to bring it down. but it is excellent to see you again.

Oh, great to be here. I love this song, too. I kind of wish we could just listen to the whole thing. Yeah, well, I can. Like, it's my show, Mary. Yeah, that's true. I could do it. There was a wonderful little effect on your mic.

It's like, at first it didn't pick you up, and then it kicked in. I might have to check out these microphones. I don't want to miss a syllable you say. But I love this song when it was fresh and new. I love this song, and then it was amazing to hear it as part of the Nirvana, the band universe.

we're going to spend some time because you, I consider you, the residential, you're the expert, right? For how long have you been following these guys in their journey as your band of the band? You know, I think I've been following them for, gosh, probably about 15 years or so. I don't know, I feel like almost ever since the web series came into existence in 2007. I mean, I wasn't talking to them back then, but I was an admirer from a third. And it wasn't a few years later once I had a position of authority where I could expound upon subjects of my desire, I would be writing about them. Yeah. So you were an early adopter.

First generation adopter. See, I'm a late adopter. Like, I'm not ashamed to say. I kind of heard about this thing. And people would tell me, Mike, you'd actually really like this thing. But it was, I don't know, it was kind of hiding over there. And I never really got to it. And then it was actually you.

And you were hype, you, the movie. So my introduction to Nirvana the band is Nirvana, the band, the show, the movie. Right. And it was you who I got to know because you visited in November 2025. But you've been hyping this thing up. So when was the first time you saw the film, Nirvana, the band, the show, the movie? Well, I'm very happy and proud to say that I was there for the world premiere. Oh, there, my mic sounds better now.

Yeah, you know what, that mic, I might have to swap out mics at some point. That mic has been used since 2012. And it's been just working effectively and awesomely for 1,800-plus episodes. And here we are, I'm listening to it kind of come in and out. I'm like, I might have to replace that microphone. All good mics come to an end. But now it sounds great. It sounds great.

So continue that thought and I'll keep an ear on it. Okay, good. So I was there for the world premiere of the film, which happened at the second. South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas, in the spring of 2025. March 9th, I believe. March 9th, there you got it up there. A little homework. Just a little bit.

Good, good, good. So I had known about this film for a while. After Blackberry had come out, which was director Matt Johnson's previous film, you know, the conversation was around what they were going to do next. And right off the bat, he was like, I was like, I was. want to make a Nirvana, the band, the show, movie. And I was like, amazing. That sounds crazy. I'm not quite sure. You're going to do that. Go with God. Good luck. Right. And then several years kind of went by. And one plan to make this movie kind of came and fell apart and they reconstituted

themselves. I went to the set so much as there is a set for this movie. The city of Toronto. I was in the city of Toronto. But no, they have a queen street. Yeah, they have a house or they had a house. where some of this movie, a good chunk of this movie takes place in Parkdale. Is this Shaw and Queen? It was shot off of King. Okay, so there's the exterior then, because I have biked to see the house that exists like a little bit like north of Queen on Shaw. So there's two houses, right?

There's the house from the series and then there's the house from the movie. Okay. So the house from the movie is just a place that they rented out off of King. and Dufferin and Parkdale and they tricked it out and that's the interior of the of the you know the clubhouse so to speak of where they're hanging out so I went to that set where the RV the which plays a huge part in the movie was parked out front of course at that time this was in gosh I feel like the summer of 2024 is when this set visit happened and we had at this point I had no idea the significance of the RV until I stepped inside of it and they gave me a tour and I saw the flux capacitor. Whoa. And I saw just what they were doing and I was like, whoa, okay, how is this going to come together? Flash forward to Austin in March of 2025 and I saw how it came together and I was there at

that world premiere with probably every other Canadian who happened to be in town that weekend. Plus hundreds of Americans who had no idea what they were about to get into. and it was a generational screening. It was a seminal moment in my life. I am proud to say it. I've never laughed so hard. I've never seen an audience go so deliriously nuts for a movie. You can say ape shit on this?

Can I? They went, they went ape shit. You know, I'm just trying to, you know, I'm trying to be polite. But Barry,

this is why I only thought of one person, obviously I should get Jay or Matt maybe on the program, which I'm working on. I am going to do that, of course. But again, so I only recently discovered what's going on with this Nirvana, the band. And I saw the movie, and I have more questions about your initial viewing of the movie. But I'm just going to set the stage by saying, I was blown away by this film. And then I've subsequently gone back, and we'll talk later about the two series that predate the movie.

But I am like head over heels in love with this whole project enterprise, this concept. And you were my first thought when I said, I need somebody over to just talk about the ongoing history of these guys. And you were my first thought because of how you hyped this film. And I follow you on Blue Sky, but elsewhere in Globe and Mail, of course. But you hyped this film to a point where I had anticipation to see it. And I thought my expectations were going to be too high and I'd be disappointed. But actually, completely blown away,

I can't tell you how much I love Nirvana the band. This is amazing to hear. Because when you're in my position, and I am hyping it up and I'm building it up and I'm saying it was one of the greatest screening experiences of my life and I'm you know I'm telling my wife this and like she's you're nuts yeah it sounds like you joined a cult it's I don't know many people have asked like do you have an equity stake in this film's success and I was like no I only have a stake in so much in the sex sex success of any Canadian artist who I find exciting and I find these guys just so exciting

so exciting but so funny but what I loved and and I'm going to ask you a few questions about that initial viewing, but I love how, like, unabashedly Toronto this film is. And I know there are a bunch, we can talk about a bunch, Scott Pilgrim versus the world, and we can talk about, we can go back to going down the road, and we can talk about some great Toronto films. But I feel like this one is like over the top Toronto. Yeah. I mean, you know the streets of Toronto and you know these landmarks and you, you know, you and I know them intimately. But it's, it's so Toronto, I often wonder, how would this film play? This is my thought.

I only know my Toronto brains, seeing this movie in Toronto. How would this film, how do these guys play outside of Toronto? Well, I think they've really turned Toronto into something of an exotic locale. Like, this is now like Toronto to Americans, I feel, who have been exposed to this movie, suddenly you think it's like Tokyo. It's like this magical city full of mystery and fun. Like New York, right? We all grew up of New York films.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, what I love about the way it is so Toronto, it's explicitly Toronto, but at the same time, it remixes Toronto. It does not have a fidelity to the geography of Toronto necessarily. I'm thinking of the scene where they're crashing outside of the city TV, the old city TV building. Oh, $2.99. Yes. And suddenly right across the street is the Paradise Cinema. Of course, anybody would know that is not the case. Right.

And this is kind of goes into their history of mixing things to their pleasure. We see the RV cruising down. It looks like Queen Street across into Leaside there for a moment. And then suddenly we're back on, we're on Bay Street going north. So if you're paying attention, it's like it is this fantasy land.

But I think that goes in keeping with the spirit of the show, which treats reality as something of a malleable concept. So how did the Americans watching this on March 9th, 2025 at the South by Southwest, how did they react? Was it just the Canadians all hooping and hollering? I mean, the Canadians were certainly hooping and hollering. And I mean, you know, there was people who had worked on the film in the audience.

There was people from the distributor. There was producers. There was, you know, everybody who was associated with this film was there. But at the same time, that's still like only a small kind of chunk of that audience. And everybody, American, Canadian, whatever nationally, they were going nuts. Yeah, I think some of the jokes went over better with the Canadian. The Jean-Gomache joke, uh, psych gag, of course, would. be, I mean, that hit for me in my row where I was sitting with a bunch of Canadians.

So amazing. Yeah. I mean, we were losing our minds. I think the raccoon joke probably hit better with Canadians than maybe the, but at the same time. I even like an idea of what is now. What is? Like now doesn't exist in this way.

I mean, there's like that sense of recognizability. But other, you know, people could say like, oh, this was like an alt, you know, people are familiar with the concept of an alt weekly, I feel. So they, you know, so it was. But they might not have that, you know, that extra layer of like, okay, today you can't go downtown and pick up a copy of now. There you go. No.

And the city TV truck in the wall gag. I mean, that hit harder for Canadians for sure. But I feel like the other thing is like Americans, like they're just curious. It's like an object of fascination because with aside from like a Scott Pilgrim and if you want to go back to like, I don't know, what's the pilot? What's the dollar movie where it's last night? Last night.

I was sitting beside him at a, at the paradise. No, it wasn't. Yes, it was a paradise. It was a paradise. It was a paradise. It was a West End Phoenix event where they got members of the newsroom, the CBC's. Oh, you were at the Ken Fingleman thing. Yeah.

Okay. Because as the VP knows, because, you know, VP and I, he's a member of the FOTM cast crew, also a big Nirvana the band, the show. I never know what they call them. Is it Nirvana the band, and then the show is called Nirvana the band The Show. And then the movie is called Nirvana of the show the movie. Yeah. I mean, they refer to themselves when they're trying to book the gig at the Rivoli.

They're like, we're Nirvana the band. Right. And then they have the. show and now they have the movie that's based on the show. I got a whole bunch of nerd out questions since I only discovered this. But to finish the VP thought is that we have been trying to get Ken Finkelman on Toronto Mike. Because I had Jeremy Hots over here and we dove into this, we dove pretty deep into the newsroom, of course, of Jeremy.

And it was kind of fascinating to hear about Ken Finkelman. And then I had Colin Brunton on who wrote for the newsroom. And he told some stories about Ken Finkelman, which were kind of mind-blowing. And I realized then and there, I need Ken Finkelman in this basement. But we struck out, man. We couldn't do it. And then this Dave Bedini character somehow digs up Finkelman, gets him on stage, and I'm in the, it was just so surreal.

You should have just pulled out your mic right then and there. It's like, you know, subterfuge. Well, I almost asked a question because it was suggested, and this is a quick divergence here. We're talking. The newsroom, though, very Toronto, I feel. Yeah, very Toronto, very Toronto. And excellent, right? Yeah, yeah.

Well, I have my favorite Ken Finkelman, in fact, you probably have this trivia. He wrote Airplane too. Yeah, I did. Because I had in the listenership, will remember Andrew Stokely, who actually recommended the microphone that might be breaking live on Toronto mic. Thank you, Andrew Stokely.

It only lasted 14 years. What did I expect for my $300 plus tax? It only lasted 14 years. But Stokely worked on that film, and we dove into that in one of the first 10 episodes of Toronto Mike. But long-winded wave saying, we were sitting beside Don McKellar

at this newsroom event. And I was thinking about that. It's Sandra O, right? In last night, walking by the street car. Yes. Yeah. But I was thinking about great,

great Toronto films that are unabashedly Toronto. And you realize, like most Toronto films pretend to be similar in America or something. I mean, yeah,

they do. There's a small but sturdy roster of explicitly Toronto movies. Last night, obviously, Cronenberg's crash is another one

that is very much Toronto. Video Drome. I mean, you know, a lot of the Cronenberg. The shrouds recently. Very mid-Taron. The most mid-Torano film I've ever seen because it's very young at Angleton heavy.

They name-check United Baker's dairy restaurant, favorite hangout for my Jewish parents. But yeah, this, but in terms of like wide exposure, for Americans, Scott Pilgrim is probably the key text. Right, because Americans actually watched that movie. Yeah, yeah. Well, it was, you know, from a big American studio and starring a bunch of Americans, although, you know, Michael Sarah represent. I love that movie. I love Scott Pilgrim versus the world.

I mean, it was funny, and it was great to have that moment. You know, for a movie to take place at Casaloma and also call it Casaloma, you know, that's no small thing. There's a lot of movies. I went to Casaloma for episode 1800

of Toronto Mike, and we recorded live there, and then I did a thorough tour. They have posters. There's a place by the cafeteria with everything. Cocktail, like X-Men. Like there's so many things filmed there. But that's like the only movie,

right where it is Casaloma can play Casaloma. Yeah, yeah, no other film. You know, maybe the Nirvana sequel will go there. Or maybe it was just too obvious of a Scott Pilgrim. Will there be a sequel? Good question. You'd have to ask Matt and Jay about that. Do they take your calls?

You know, they, you know, they return my emails. They see Globe and Mail.com or whatever your email is and they say, we better return this. Oh, I don't know. They also might be sick of me. They're like, oh, God, this guy again. No, they love it. So obviously I'm excited, jumped out of the gate talking about, I saw your t-shirt.

I got very excited. I kind of dove into it. But we're actually going to go a little more chronological. This is all like preamble because I want to remind the listenership, you listeners have met Barry Hertz before. Okay. November 2025. So what is that like less than six months ago? It was episode 1798 of Toronto Mike.

And here's what I wrote at the time. Mike chats with Barry Hertz. The deputy arts. and film editor for the Globe and Mail. And I told you at the time, that is a big title. It's a mouthful. It's a mouthful. But it's prestigious.

Like, I would, I would reply to an email from that title. Oh, thank you. I, you know, doors are flying open for you, Barry.

Yes, yes. If you put it on your tombstone, make sure that this funeral happens at Ridley Funeral Home, okay? I will die from eating too much Palmas pasta.

Oh, well done. Did you enjoy your palm pasta from? Oh, my gosh. It's fed my family for like three nights. It's a lot. It's delicious. And I have a lot. another one for you.

Excellent. I was planning my dinner this week around that. Well, you can rely on me to get you your palm pasta lasagna. Shout out to palm pasta. And I know I shouted out really funeral home, but I do have another measuring tape. Oh, good. My kids will have fun with this. See, all these ad mentions in the middle of my description I'm reading.

So while I'm doing it, I'll just quickly tell you that I also have fresh craft beer for you from Great Lakes Brewery. Thank you. I would dive into it, but it's not five o'clock somewhere. It's five o'clock somewhere. Okay, so I just named your big title, and then the rest of this description reads like this. About his life, writing about movies, particularly the Fast and the Furious franchise,

documented in his new book, Welcome to the Family, the explosive story behind Fast and Furious, the Blockbusters had supercharged the world. The only thing bigger than your title is the title of that book, the only thing longer. So we had a great chat, but how has, I mean, now I guess it's not a new book anymore,

But you did make the rounds. Like I was seeing Barry Hertz pop up here, there, and everywhere talking about Fast and Furious. What was that like to be a part of like that book launch rush? It was, it was surreal. It was weird to be on the other side of that media subject divide. And I would like to have said that I was prepared for it because I had been the interviewer on many, many occasions. But it was still, it was a weird experience. But it was fun.

It was great. It got great coverage. It was great for you to have me on here. That was really nice. And yeah, people have been really kind and generous toward the book. So I'm just happy that it's out there now in the world. It is out there in the world. People can get, I would read it again,

but I don't have that kind of time. Maybe I will. It's called Welcome to the Family, the explosive story behind Fast and Furious, the Blockbusters that supercharged the world. Okay, so because we had a rapport from your November 2025 visit, it. I was thinking, I couldn't, I, yeah, I was, I was going to break into the army. Have you a time? But, God said, son, you're fucking high. Love that song. Okay. But I was thinking

of you when I had this idea. I need to talk. I need to get it out. I need to ask questions. I need to learn more. So let's go back though and see how much you know because of course, Nirvana the band is Matt Johnson and Jay McCarroll. Do you have any idea of how these two got coupled up? to play fictionalized versions of themselves in the initial series, which was a web series from 2007 to 2009. How did these two get hooked up, do you know? Well, these guys are old high school friends from Mississauga.

I believe if I'm getting my origin story right, it was Jay's girlfriend at the time who connected the two. So, I mean, they have known each other for, you know, their teenage years onward. This is a true, this is about his lifelong. friendship as you can kind of hope for in the industry. That's like Paul McCartney and John Lennon, high school buddies. Exactly.

They are the Beatles of Canada. Well, I consider them that for sure. So they're longtime friends. And do you know where this premise comes from? Because everything hooks around Nirvana the band performing at the Rivalee. I'm, you know, I'm not sure where the exact, they'd always, you know, the Rivoli was like an object of fascination. Kids in the hall, I think, was kind of.

kind of a key text in the inspiration there. But at the same time, it was a joke that, you know, anybody can, it's not, it's not Massey Hall. It's, you know, anybody can really get in there if they want to. So the kind of,

the try hardness of it was part of the joke in and of itself. On that note, I am headlining at the Elma combo on May 21st. Oh, wow. And it's not like, Because it is funny that the premise is sort of like, oh, you know, we'll play the Rivoli. But literally you book the night and you cut a check.

Yeah. Yeah. That's pretty much it. Yeah. I mean, that was the comedy of the moment. But still, you know, the Rivley is such a Queen West institution. It's probably been there. I can't think of another place on that strip that has been there for that long.

You know, the Black Bull was gone. Well, the Horseshoe Tavern is. Yeah. Okay. Fair enough. Fair enough. But that will be my next one-man show will be at the Horseshoe Tavern. But the Rivilly, I remember one night biking home on Queen Street, and I passed the Rivoli,

and there was a lot of lights there, like, something was being filmed there. And I later found out that, like, Neil Young was playing there that night, and they were filming it. At the Rivley, not at the horseshoe? It was at the Rivley. Oh, interesting. Interesting. I would pay the horseshoe for him. Yeah, well, this was at the Rivley.

And the, you mentioned the kids in the hall. I'm a big fan of kids in the hall, of course, as well. And I was on the phone here. I'm dropping names. we do in Toronto mic but last night I got a call and the phone said Tom Wilson so I'm like oh the unofficial mayor of Hamilton is calling I got to get it and he explained that I can't visit tomorrow he said he was experiencing some bouts of vertigo he says I'm getting old we had a good chat this is Tom Wilson from junk house in case there's lots of Tom Wilson out there including a Tom Wilson

who plays Biff that's that's the Tom Wilson I know because you're thinking about that yeah I'm looking at your shirt you're thinking of that RV there yeah there you're in the future but this is Tom Wilson from Junkhouse. And I explained to Tom, I said, Tom, you're not in the calendar for tomorrow. Like, he wasn't even booked. He was explaining he can't be here today. But the only recording of Toronto Mike today is the great Barry Hertz talking about Nirvana, the band, the show. Vertigo free.

Yeah. But then in this combo, he said, I said, Tom, I'm in Hamilton Friday night. I'm going to go see this. It's a good life if you don't weaken this musical set to the music of the tragically hip. I'm going on, I'm taking my daughter. We're going to go on Friday. I said, I'm in your city on Friday. He goes, Mike, I'm going to be there.

Make sure we chat it up. And he goes, have you met my friend, Bruce McCullough? And I go, he was in my calendar three times, and he kept making weird excuses and I gave up. But I really wanted Bruce on Toronto, Mike. And Tom has said his dear friend, Bruce, he's going to make Bruce come over and sit in my basement for 90 minutes. So you mentioned kids in the hall.

Yeah, pretty much. He's done that for Kathleen Robertson from 902. Okay, yeah. And he tells me, I only found this out yesterday, because Colin James was on years ago, and he was great. But I actually thought it was Eric Alper who wanted me to have Colin James on

because Eric Alper was doing some PR work for Colin James. And it was revealed to me yesterday on the phone during this conversation with Tom Wilson from Junkhouse that Colin was not sure about visiting some South Atobicoe basement. And Tom said, just do it. And he did it. So I'm giving Tom Wilson credit for the Colin James visit. And potential Bruce McCullough.

Yeah, well, that's it. Who knows? Apparently I'm going to meet Bruce on Friday. And yeah, I want all the kids in the hall in this basement. I only have two so far. You've had Scott? I've had Scott. And Scott, I think I'm going to get again, actually.

Scott was unbelievable. And I had Kevin. Okay. Yeah, good, good. Gotta get Dave down here. Well, apparently he's the toughest one. Not surprising to hear. Not surprising.

I think, oh, at that aforementioned, I know we're going to get back to an event of the band, the show of the movie, but at that aforementioned newsroom event at the Paradise, I was, I spent, I don't know, I spent like 12 minutes right beside Mark McKinney. Oh, wow. Okay.

I did not want to, like he was there with, I think it was his wife, a woman. He was there to see this newsroom thing. And I didn't want to like be that guy who's like, hey, big fan, come to my basement and say with the Tobico, like I just left him alone. But I did spend time right beside him. You never know what's going on in those guys. He could have known you. And he's like, is this guy going to ask me or I'm going to just have to sit here like a sad sack,

you know? I've heard that story. I know more than once that somebody, I will reach out to somebody, just didn't want to bother you, but I would love to have you on it. I was waiting for you to ask me. So, okay, so here we are.

Back to Nirvana of the Ben. So these are high school buddies from Mississauga. Do you know what high school? Oh, gosh, not off the time. I got to get Matt Johnson and Jay McCarroll on this show. Okay. So what do you know about the web series? So I took a little note here to set the table for you

that it was 11 episodes from 2007 to 2009. What do you know about the web series? this web series. Yeah. So, I mean, that was produced by them out of not their, not the Queen Street house that would come in later for the Viceland series, but the apartment that we see in the movie back in time, also off of Queen Street. So these episodes were, again, like sometimes 10 minutes, sometimes a little bit longer, all involving some hairbrain scheme, usually originating from the Matt character about getting the band to play the Rivoli. And it would always result in chaos.

And they were filmed, you know, very frugally. But, and they are also now today, not so easy to find. You can if you are resourceful on the internet. They did put out a DVD of all those episodes many years ago. my good friend and colleague Natalie Atkinson has this DVD and she graciously loaned it to me recently so I could revisit it. And it is actually jam-packed with special features with commentary like for a web series that was produced for almost nothing many years ago. They really did have legacy in mind at the time, let's say. Yeah.

Yeah, very interesting. My question is regarding the name Nirvana the band. Okay. Anybody who knows a series now and watch the Viceland series, which we'll get to or watch the movie, knows there's spell and Nirvana with three ends in it, okay? So N-I-R-V-A-N-N-A. But am I right that in the beginning?

It was just spelled like Nirvana? Just one end. It was the same spelling as Nirvana for the web series. I believe when they went, when they got the Vicerland deal, there was some legal, concerns that we just need to make this a little bit more separate from the... I'm no lawyer, Barry. Yeah.

I feel like that's not enough. Like, if you're, if they're, like, I don't think that would, you know, make it somehow. They have a very good copyright lawyer based out of Los Angeles who's helped walk them through a lot of these problems. I'm not sure if he was involved in it at that point in time. But if it was, it was good enough for Vice Land, it was good enough for the judicial system. Also, I don't think, I don't know who owns it now. Like, I don't know who owns it. I know Courtney Love may have sold.

Oh, yeah. I don't know. So I don't know. I don't know. Like, if it was the people, then I'd be like, oh, they're not going to like, it's bad PR to go after these two indie, hilarious indie people from Toronto or whatever. And it's not like anybody is going to confuse Nirvana with Nirvana the band. I mean, I have heard anecdotal evidence of people walking into the movie thinking it was some kind of documentary

about Kirk Cobain, or at least maybe during the film. festival run. But, you know, they walked out with a new appreciation for a different band altogether. It doesn't erase Kurt Cobain's legacy. Although, you know, maybe in 10 years we'll be talking more about these two guys than we will about Kurt. I don't know. Yeah, if they missed that third N in Nirvana.

Yeah. Then they could be quite the screw up here. I was watching the Viceland series, which we'll get to in a bit. But I did see there's an episode where when they are in, I guess they are in Now magazine and it says Nirvana. Like it just is Nirvana. But it's spelled like, you know, the Kirk Cobain band. Yeah, no, I mean, I'm just chuckling remembering that now magazine episodes.

Yeah. All right. Shout out to Now magazine. A guy, what's the guy from CP24 who bought the branding? Brandon. Branding Gones. It's going as media. Yeah, so he's got the logo basically and the domain name.

But it is a pale shadow of its former. It ain't what it used to be. I don't know. I also know, of course, a lot of form. former now writers and editors who were particularly aggrieved, rightfully so, in my opinion, about that whole situation. Well, it's Sumo, Sumi, Sumi. Glenn Sumi. Glenn Sumi was pretty public with his public writing about how they did a lot of work at the end there without getting paid.

And my friend and colleague, Rad and Simon Pallai was also, can we say screwed on the air? You can say fucked if you want. Wow, okay, well, actually, it's in the army. Dad said, son, you're fucking high. There you go. He was fucking screwed for my understanding of that whole situation. Yeah, I think also the great Norm Wilner was working. Yes, Norm as well.

I mean, and now we're, you know, it is for all intents and purposes, non-existent, except for in Nirvana the band, the show, the movie. Right. Okay, so they do this web series from 2007 to 2009, which I completely missed. I have already been full of shame. I've already declared the fact I'm new to this phenomenon. So you were there, so you were watching the 11 episodes on the web?

Yeah, I mean, I was watching them, I guess on the, I mean, they were broadcast on linear Vicerland television. I was probably watching them. Oh, that first web, the one from 2007. No, no, sorry. The web series was web only. Sorry, I'm jumping ahead to the Vizelan series. We're going to get there, but there's like a decade almost between the two here.

So I've got questions here. So you're there for the web series in 2007 to 2009? I mean, I'm watching it. I'm watching it as it's going on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm jealous. I'm going to live precariously through you. So, okay, so what happens between,

because they end that web series, only 11 episodes, but 2009 is when they post the last episode there. And then it comes back, the Vicerland series, which we'll talk about now, 16 episodes from 2017 to 2018. So what's going on between 2009 and 2017 is this project just dormant? I mean, they were busy making movies.

The Dirties, which is Matt Johnson's feature directorial debut, which is about a school shoot. It's a comedy about a school shooting in a, in the kind of same similar mockumentary form, you know, is quite quite the firebomb of a movie when it initially came out. I believe it premiered at Slam Dance, which is, or was the Sundance competitor. And it was immediately, almost immediately championed by Kevin Smith, who I think,

who already loved DeGrasse. So he has a Canadian connection. Yeah, of course. And I think he slapped his name across it as an executive producer, helped get it out into the world. You know, so that made the rounds. Then there was Operation Avalanche. You'll have to fact check me on the year that came out.

This was at least, I feel this is 2016, 2017. And that is another kind of found footage, mockumentary type. Found footage is the wrong word, but a mockumentary type thing about a team faking the moon landing, and it involved Matt Johnson and his filmmaking team gaining Seratippus access to NASA headquarters because they said they were just there to film.

I don't know. I forget the exact story, but it's a wild story in and of itself. Right. And while this is all going on, yeah, the idea of making a full-fledged series is brewing and then enter Vicerland.

Okay, so you mentioned this film debut, directorial debut of Matt Johnson, and it's, so I haven't seen it, but it's a humorous approach to a school shooting. Is that what you said? Yeah, it's basically like, Matt plays, Matt Johnson plays another kind of Matt Johnson E character who is walking the camera through this plan to be, to execute a school shooting alongside another character named

Owen who's played by a close associate. And it kind of has to be seen to be believed. Well, this and listeners, astute listeners of Toronto Mike will remember that when the aforementioned Scott Thompson made his Toronto Mike debut. We went into pretty great detail about the horrific Brampton Secondary School shooting. He was a student at the school. This is like one of the first school shootings in Canadian history. Luckily, we haven't had that many in this country.

But this is in Brampton, late 70s, I believe. And Scott Thompson, his teacher was the target. And Scott is high, I don't know, he's hiding in a room under a desk because there's an act of shooting. And he cracks a joke. and Scott points to this moment as the moment he realized he wanted to go into comedy. He cracks a joke during an act of shooting. This is fascinating. I feel like we've stumbled into how a lot of Canadian artists have had career inflection moments involving school shootings.

We can, we're waiting into dangerous territory here. Let's go. But, okay, we got the Scott example right now. Right. We've got the Matt Johnson example. One of Denny Villeneuve's big breakthroughs, of course, was Polytechnique. Right. The dramatization of the infamous Quebec school shooting. Right.

You know, I don't know if we should dig further into this, but three makes a trend. Wow. Okay. It's funny because not ha ha funny. But in my one-man show at the Elmo, there is a reference to the Scott Thompson's school shooting joke. Like in that they have crafted this thing I'm going to perform on May 10. 21st. People should go to Toronto mic.com and click Elmo gig and buy tickets.

Because this is only happening once and I have a very, very special closing by very special guests. And of course, Scott, not Scott, Rob Pruss, Scott, not Scott. But Rob Proust will be on stage with me throughout this evening playing keyboards. He was with spoons. He co-wrote romantic traffic. Oh, I love that song.

Yeah, because speaking of Toronto, is there a more iconic Toronto video than the video for romantic traffic? Because you see the red rocket. And that actually is filmed guerrilla style. They didn't get a permit, I don't think. They were just hiding from the authorities, filming in the subway system, like Young and Blue or, et cetera.

And that's sort of how I think Nirvana, the band shoot all their stuff, right? I don't think. Well, there is actually, you know, a very famous episode of the, of the Viceland series where they go into the subway system. Right. Okay, well, this is all coming together.

Subways and school shootings and this link. And also this rivally link, because you mentioned kids in the hall and how that applies to Matt Johnson's directorial debut, finding, finding humor in the horrific chaos. Yeah, yeah. You know,

taking something dangerous and making it a little more dangerous. Right. Okay, wow, I'm taking notes over here. Barry, I'm glad we were doing this. Should I be recording this?

This is a very cool film. Oh, we weren't, oh, I thought none of this equipment is plugged in. We're just having a chat here. Okay. So,

so how does the Vice Land series? This is 2017 to 2018. How does Nirvana the band the show the Viceland series come to be? Does Vice Land approach the guys and say you want to revisit this Nirvana the band? Yeah, I mean, this was kind of around the time that Vice Land was coming into existence at all. I remember going to talk with Spike Jones, who was like the crew, who built himself as kind of the creative director of Vicerland as a whole. And I went to go talk to him at the old Vice-Oxie. offices in Liberty Village.

And this was kind of like all big part of their vision of like entering the television market, which today, you know, 10 years later seems like the craziest thing you could do. And, you know, they remember there was that big partnership between Vice and Rogers. Media, of course, of course. To a guy, the CEO, guys, what was the guy's name? His first name was Guy. And he wore that leather jacket.

And I'm just remembering that bit because I don't know if you saw the Rogers v. Rogers, There's one-man show that was on at Crow's theater. No, but I heard so much about it because I produce a show for a guy named Joel Greenberg called Life and Stages. And we talked to the, who's the actor? Who's the guy who puts on the movie show? But I'll look that up while you keep talking here. But yeah. Anyway, this was all part of like Vicerlands, you know, storming the beaches of Canadian television.

And, you know, the Nirvana guys were able to kind of hook onto that. But the problem was, like, Weissland was like still kind of hard to access, hard to find. It wasn't, you know, a mainstream cable network. I don't, you know, I don't even know how you did access it on linear television. Michael Healy is the guy's name. He's a playwright, of course. Right, right. And he is the, oh, Tom Rooney.

Tom Rooney. So Michael Healy wrote it and then Tom Rooney starred in it. Both chaps have been guests on Life and Stages from Joel Greenberg. Okay. So yeah, so from Rogers v. Rogers to Nirvana versus Nirvana with one end. But yeah, so I mean, it had a, you know, it made a real pop in certain corners of the culture. I remember they screened three episodes of the Viceland series at TIF, I believe in 2016, before it kind of premiered as part of the festival's primetime lineup, which was their,

which is their television specific lineup. up and I remember seeing those in the theater and they, you know, got huge laughs from, you know, people who were there. There was actually some material that I don't think ever played outside of those TIF screenings. That was like, I remember there's a great peers handling joke that they made at one point. But, you know, eventually flashing forward, Vicerland kind of collapses. There was a third season of the show that they were working on. It is, it remains a mystery as to the final status of that third season. It was always like they always were saying like it's kind of partially produced, partially

completed. And the rights finally, I believe, reverted. They were able to gain those rights back away from whatever, you know, corporate entity, Viceland had become. And, you know, word on the street is that, you know, these will be made available probably via, you know, neon the films, US distributor and elevation pictures. the Canadian distributor. But we haven't had any word on that yet.

And you're talking about the unseen season three. Season three of Nirvana, the band, the show. Okay. I actually, I got a news piece from August 2019, but actually I'm going to play a little clip

from Nirvana, the band, the Viceland series, okay? This, I just dove in after seat, so I saw the movie first, and then I went,

so I'm going to actually backwards, because I then dove into the Vicerland series. And so many moments that make me laugh, but, This little exchange here, I'm just going to play it because I think this is the funniest thing in the world. You ready? All we need to do is we need to let the Rivley know to expect Nirvana the band. What do you do? Call the Rivley from Now magazine.

Oh, hey, it's supposed to say, call the Rivley from Now Magazine. We already did the... You see? Oh, my God. It's just a reverse. You just got to break into Now Magazine. You just came up with it like as if it was nothing. You're incredible.

I thought you'd say you're Kramer. You're Kramer. Actually, which one was Kramer? I think I'm a bit more cramer than you. I mean, in the show. Was it the Jewish woman? The guy who came in the door. Yeah.

Jerry, I need a pickle. I think that's a litmus test. If you play that 30 seconds for somebody and they're indifferent to it or they're like, I don't get it, I don't care, or whatever. Like, maybe this isn't for them. But if you can watch, listen to that. That exchange, it just tickles my funny bone.

The old Jewish one. I don't even know who he's talking about, right? Is that George's mom? I mean, it's not Elaine. She's pretty much, she's never coded as Jewish in the show. No, because she's Dennis or whatever. I think she's like, yeah.

Well, there's that one episode where she's dating who she thinks is a black guy and he thinks she's Latina. Right. Yeah. Right. And so it's not Elaine, but whoever that is, but I love this description that he comes in the door and he's like,

he got a pickle. And then they hit the notes and they do that a lot. They bring in and I don't know how they clear. all that or whatever. Again, they have a very good lawyer. You know, fair use and parody laws are elastic in a way. But the great thing about the show and the movie and the web series and the whole enterprise is that it requires a unspoken dialogue with the audience that you know

exactly with these million different cultural references of a certain generation that are being spoken without having to, you know, footnoted or name check it explicitly. Right. Like even, was it a growing pains or? Growing, yeah. Some of the, one of the episodes, like it has a growing pains parody in the opening title.

I mean, one of the episodes of the Nirva, the Viceland series, you know, it's a big riff on Indiana Jones and the origin of the hat, which I think is part of Last Crusade. You just,

you just kind of have to be in that, you kind of have to have grown up not alongside Matt and Jay, but in that same kind of funnel of pop culture. Well, then that begs a question, is this a show for Gen X? I don't even think,

you're a millennial, right? I'm a millennial, I believe. Older millennial, maybe? I think old. I mean, I was born in 83. So, yeah, so you're an older millennial. Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, and they're about,

I think, you know, they're a little younger than me, maybe, but not by much, like two or three years. Because it really does seem to nail some of these GenX touch points. Completely. Like all the, you know, we shop Wednesday stuff.

You know, the, it's, if you grew up and you rented VHS movies, but you also then still were in a state of youth where you were also renting DVDs. I know, I feel like that's kind of like the era. Right. Can I play like 40 seconds of Matt watching Star Wars for the first time? Oh my gosh. Yes. Star Wars. A long time ago.

All right, MJ. Sit back. Shut the fuck up, man. Whoa! No! What? How are you doing, you old pirate? I hate you.

Episode six, Jay. You want to turn it off for like one? Get your hand off me, dude. I can't see. Are the lights on in this house? Go on to the country. All right, I pulled a few clips knowing you were coming over, so I'm going to put one more. Okay.

Then I'm going to get back to it, and then eventually we'll get to the movie, but then I'll thank some sponsors and partners before I get to the movie but heck I'm glad you're here man I am loving this Matt yeah update day what new wee titles what I'm in the bathroom update day for the we shopping channel it's funny because normally they do it midnight but it's like 11 it's like 11 15 what time is it in Japan I can turn that up I love That's that grooving? What kind of music is that? Like a Basanova beat?

Makes you really want to just croon it. This is such a danceable song. You know what we should do? We should write a song for our act with titles of Wii games. Oh, I like it. I like it. Because everybody knows about the Wii Shopping Channel. And everybody loves to shop on it every Wednesday. So what we'll do is we'll write a theme song for the We Shopping Channel.

Watch this, watch this, watch this. You can sing to the titles of the... Super Mario RPG Super Mario 3 Mega Man, Neo-Turf Masters Breakin StarPra... You know what I mean, Jared? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You say the lyrics of the...

Let me try one. Let me try one. Let me try one. Let me try. Super Mario RPG Sonic the Hedgehog Donkey Kong 3 Adventures of Lolo 1 and 2. Kings night dig dug dug Juman Fu Harvest Moon Write this song

League puzzle Pokemon To jam in Erl in panic on FunkoTron Castlevania Fatal Fury Ninja Juchumaro Comet razor blazing lasers bases loaded mega Tururicon Cybernator rolling thunder dynastic hero Bubble Bobble double triple double dragon F zero I get it you remember

Right. Zero eggs. And Donkey Kong Jr. Math. Ninja Gaden one. Ninja Gaden, two, ninja Gaden, three. Who's in USA? Ah. Ah. Update day.

Okay. So, where are we here? I had a news release for you, Barry, from August 2019. So let me see here. Good. We're pre-pandemic here. Set the table. Everything is not.

The Raptors just won the NBA title. We did it. We did it, Barry. Toronto is in a perfect state. Freeze it in Amber. That I'll never forget going with Hebsy to that parade and I was on the exhibition side. And then I had the best time. And then I heard from friends who were on the Nathan Phillips Square side who had the worst time.

I really depended where you were. I skipped the whole, I was working, although I remember, I had to go home after my shift. And I couldn't, the streets were crazy. The subway was insane. Beautiful June day. I walked all the way home from the Globe of Mail and King to my parents' place at Young in St. Clair. And on the way, I encountered my mother who had also been unable to take the TTC home.

And that was when I also told her that my girlfriend and I were having a baby. Wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What a day for the Hurts family. It was a monumental day. It hurts so good. Okay, August 2019. CBC television officially acquired Nirvana the band The Show from Viceland and began airing the series along also streaming it on CBC Gem.

And I feel like this is a moment in August 2019 when people are reaching out to me to tell me I should be watching Nirvana the band the show on CBC Gem. And yet you ignore it. Their advice. I didn't completely ignore. I took a mental note, oh, I should do that. And I think I always intended to do that. And then I never got...

You filed it away. You know, there's lots going on here, Barry Hurts. I get it. I get it. We're busy. We're busy people. All right. So I don't know if that's still the case.

Like, can you still watch Nirvana of the band the show on CBC Jim? You know, I should have fact checked. I believe you cannot. It is not available on Gem. For a while it was. And I would revisit it quite. Quite frequently. If somebody, I'm not sure, you mentioned the web series is a bit tough to find.

You go find a torrent network, okay? We don't condone it, but that's how you do it. Yeah, if you go in the, there's a very healthy subreddit community devoted to these guys, and very frequently you can find links and back alley kind of stuff. But legally, it is not available. Even the Vicerland series? Even the Vicerland series, far as I know, certainly not in the United States. And I believe CBC Jem does not carry it as well.

Listeners feel free to fact check me on this and then send me an angry email. But it has been a source of huge, you know, consternation among the fan base, especially with the movie out and people then discovering it. Yeah. And like, hey, what, where can I watch 30 more hours of this? And like, sorry, can't. Interesting. See, I have a dear friend.

Her name is Stella. And she did hook me up. And I thank Stella for lending me her. personal collection of all of this material. But I would think with the buzz around the show, especially since this guy at the Globe and Mail has been raving about this movie for months now, like you'd think they would make this all available somehow. Maybe that is coming soon.

You think, but I would assume it is coming soon. That would be the smart play. I believe very smart people are involved in this. And I think there was a sense perhaps of like waiting to see how hard the movie would hit and kind of, you know, piggyback off that success. Well, how hard did it hit? Because this, at the beginning of this conversation, you talked about, I guess Matt Johnson announces when, I guess this is the Blackberry time. Blackberry's coming out. I guess this is 2023. Matt Johnson announces that, oh, my next film project is going

to be a film based on Nirvana, the band, the show, which, you know, you're very interested in this. You're all over this. And it sounds like they start filming it in 2020. And then you see it for the first time on March 9th, 2025. I had to wait until March 2026 to see it. But I guess I'm wondering, what is my question again? Is it about Matt Johnson, Blackberry? What was my question? Genesis of the movie. It's actually an interesting story because when I first asked him about it, he was telling me like the plot he told me whether this was going to be it or not was them going to Europe and doing like they're basically the idea was like they have to become famous overseas in order for the Rivoli to book them so it's like it was like a road Euro trip kind of movie and

they're like we're going to Danko Jones yeah yeah and then that kind of permutated into they actually so there is a Nirvana the band the show the movie a version of this movie which has will maybe never be seen maybe it will be incorporated into this third season or something but there was a whole other version of this movie shot absent the time travel element in which Matt and Jay do a road trip through the United States. Again, the idea being like, we got to get famous in the States in order so we can get the Rivoli gig. And they went down, they were in New Orleans, they were in Detroit, they filmed all this footage of kind of like them interacting with Americans and months and months of stuff. And they got back and they kind of

like, you know what, I don't think this is quite big enough for a movie. It's not quite working and then they, you know, eventually got on to the time travel elements with the RV. That's interesting. So they basically scrapped that and let's try this different approach. Yeah. And I mean, they could do that. Not a lot of filmmakers can do that, but they were able to do so because it's a very small scrappy crew.

They're working with a very, you know, this was pretty much almost, they like to say it was made entirely with Canadian money. most of it from telefilm. And, you know, their distributor, I guess producer as well, elevation pictures kicked in some as well. And, you know, Johnson and his longtime producer Matthew Miller also kicked in their fees to make this happen. But they were able to do it because there wasn't, you know,

U.S. studios or financiers breathing down their necks to deliver something. They were able to break stuff and move along. and start over and remix and fine tune. And that has been the formula ever since. Like, they are constantly finessing and finicky with this film. Even from the version that played in Austin was not exactly the version that played at the Toronto International Film Festival,

which was not exactly the version that opened in theaters, you know, a few months ago. Interesting. Okay, you're bringing the fun facts here. So I'm going to play the trailer. So we can just talk more about this.

Yeah. the actual movie. We finally got to Nirvana the band, the show of the movie. This trailer is brought to you by Recycle My Electronics.C.A. if you have old devices,

old cables, old, I don't know, you got old laptops. Maybe you got an old Blackberry phone. Shout out to Matt Johnson. By the movie was exceptional.

I mean, yeah, and the success of that movie was what paved the way to get this movie made, no doubt. I was shocked by how much I enjoyed Blackberry.

And I don't know why I was shocked. It's just well done. and I really, really enjoyed it. Well, I completely agree. And speaking of alternate versions, have you seen the CBC miniseries version of Blackberry? Do you know this exists? I do remember existing and I have not seen it.

Because I had already seen the movie. I guess I felt like I didn't. If you are now part of the Matt Johnson Super Fan Club, you must see it because it is structured entirely differently. And it has about, I think ultimately maybe about 17 minutes of extra footage. But the structure is episodic. And it's very fascinating to compare it against the feature. Well, it's funny because this,

this whole premise of all this Nirvana, the band stuff is that they want to perform at the Rivoli. And I feel like the future of Toronto Mike is just me wanting Matt Johnson on Toronto Mike. Like this will just be my pursuit. This is your, this is your Rivley. Yeah. Hair,

what's hairbrain? What am I looking for? Yeah, hairbrain. Yeah. Okay, schemes. Schemes. Plans every episode.

I'm going to try a different approach. How do I get Matt Johnson to come visit myself, the Tobical basement? You have to call them from the office of Now magazine. Right. Oh, no. Hook up to Brandon. Well, you know what?

The new Now magazine is Michael Hollets got in the Portland's there, right by, what's the docks? Right by the docs. There's the HQ. What is the name of his new publication? I know of which you speak, but I feel like it surfaces and then goes into hibernation. Okay, but I've seen the HQ. Like they have a bricks and mortar HQ.

To invest in a brick and mortar HQ for a print publication is quite the decision. Next magazine. Next, yes. And Michael Hallett's been over here. We've talked about it. You know, but yeah,

Next magazine, I think it still exists. I don't, sure. Hopefully. Well, you're at the Globe and Mail. You got to, you can't, you get a plead ignorance. You got to plead ignorance. Are there other other than the Glob and Mail?

This is all news to me. No, I won't tell Keenan, you said that when he comes over. Uh-oh. next quarter. But David Ryder's in the calendar I see coming up. So there's one other publication that I know of, okay. Although I had Warren Concella here last week.

Apparently he writes for another publication. Haven't heard of it. Sure. All the best. Although I did say, oh, you write for the sun. And he very quickly, like I noticed in like right away, he said, I write for post media. Like he didn't like me saying he wrote for the sun.

He writes for post media. But like, I mean, come on. Like we're being very pedantic here. Yeah. One is the arm of the other. Right. So recycle my electronics.c.a is where you go if you have those old electronics. You put in your postal code and find out where you can drop off your tech stuff to be properly recycled.

So thank you, Recycle MyElectronics.ca. Thank you to Nick Iienes. He's the host of Building Toronto Skyline. We record every couple of weeks. And he has a recent live event that I produced. He did a wonderful live conversation with mayoral candidate, Brad Bradford. Do you think it's going to be Brad versus Olivia? Are we going to get a third name in the mix here?

I know the campaign hasn't officially started yet. I hope we get a third name in the mix. I'll leave it at that. There's no rumors about a third person. Like I've been assuming we'll get more big names, but it's so far. Well, you know, John could change his mind once again. We don't know. Well, okay, he could change his mind.

But last I heard he was not going to run. Is this the point in the episode where I say Matt Johnson for mayor? Don't tease me like that. Could you imagine? I could imagine, but he has bigger fish to fry. Well, okay, speaking of that, I'm going to play the trailer now, but I notice we do talk a lot about Matt, and we don't actually talk as much about Jay McCarroll.

So let me play the trailer, and then I'll play a bit of a song, and then we'll do a little bit about the movie before I give you that palm of pasta lasagna. That's the reason you're here. I know that. That's the only reason that me. So this runs about two minutes, everybody, but it's worth it.

Here we go. Watch out, watch out. What's going on here? It's just, well, this is actually kind of hard to explain. Time machine plan. This is going to be the last plan you and I ever have to do. And as far as I'm concerned, Nirvana the band is playing the Rivoli tonight. We have the RV decked out like the DeLorean.

So it's a full-time machine. Okay, watch this. Hold on to your butt. The time machine worked. And we are in 2008. Oh, my God. Matt, it's 2008. I told you!

Real goths. We are trapped. How can we use this to get a show at the Rivley? No, that's secondary now. This could have insane ramifications. Oh, Richard. I really fuck us up. I did not do anything.

I see. You're like, work's done for the day. We've done too much. It's time to play. I'm like Teen Wolf a little bit, right? There was a holiday! Come check us out at the Rivoli later. Do you have a show at the Rivoli?

We could be playing any day. Right off the bat, they're going to ask for an encore. Gentlemen, you're probably wondering who we are. We are Nirvana of the band. If you're watching this in theaters, thank your lucky stars. It's a bop. Barry. A total bop.

And that's a good segue to talk to. about Jay. Listen, what do you think I'm doing over here? You know what you're doing. You know what you're doing. We talked about what Matt did

between the series and then the movie, but we got to talk about what's Jay up to before the movie. And then this segues beautifully into the movie, but what are we listening to Barry Hurts? I mean,

we are listened to Never Come Down, which is the single that Jay made with his sister as part of their band Brave Shores. And, I mean, yeah, it's a bop. And so they, you know, I mean, it had some degree of significant success when it was released. Yeah, for sure, for sure. And the way that the movie recontextualizes it as this world conquering hit is, you know, pretty brilliant. And it also introduces a whole new audience to Jay's music. So, I mean, Jay's been, you know, a very, I would say in-demand Canadian composer and musician for Canadian film and television, you know, while all of. this stuff is building.

And, you know, he did the music for the film, which is a brilliant riff on a lot of the Allen's Vestry score for Back to the Future. And it's worth noting that comment at the end of the trailer, Matt Johnson says something like, if you're watching this in a theater, thank your lucky stars, because they actually don't just play a riff on it. They play it. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, but like with like slightly tone key variations. Yeah, but they'll never be able to release this movie. a joke about how they're never going to be able to release this movie because they're not paying for that. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that joke played really well at the Austin premiere. I can tell you that because people actually took it to heart. But again, they have a very good lawyer. But yeah, you know, Jay needs his very due credit because he's as much a part of this as as anybody else. What I really love about the movie is that Jay is kind of the lead. This is Jay's story. Jay is achieving his dream. It's nice that for the Canadian Screen Award nominations, Jay is nominated for

Best Lead Actor and Matt is Best Supporting in a comedy. So they submitted it with him as the lead. And, you know, it's a great meta-commentary too because, you know, so often the conversation can be about Matt and what he is doing and, you know, Blackberry had Matt front and center in it. And now we get this movie in which the Matt character is chasing the celebrity fumes of the Jay character. So it's brilliant. It's brilliant. The guys have a great sense of that relationship and the give and take that's involved. And I mean, Jay is a great actor. He's funny. And he's got a very difficult role because the Matt role, you know, he's the he's the he's the Joker. He's the prankster. He's the Mary mischief maker. And Jay has to be somewhat of the. the aggrieved party sometimes, but sometimes he has, you know, he still has this like

kid like enthusiasm is like, okay, that's a fun plan. I'll go along with it. And only to, you know, end up crushed in the end. Okay. Absolutely. Now here's a little mind blow for you, Barry Hertz, if you want to tie it all together. This just struck me here. So, Jay McHarrell, great musician. He was in Hayden's band. Do you know Hayden? Yeah, of course. So I actually had his hat here. Things are bad. He didn't talk. Hayden dropped by, gave me this hat. Things are as bad as they seem. As bad as they seem was the big single from that big first Hayden album. And the video for as bad as they seem, which was played on much music early and often, was recorded at the Rivalee. Uh, uh, oh, do, da, da, I mean, what I love

about, you know, talking about the series and just like digging into it is the, the interconnected web of Toronto artists that are involved. We have a, even gotten around to talking about Jared, Jared Rab, the cinematographer for the series. Well, tell me about this. And he is, you know, he's ostensibly a character in the movie, you know, in this whole cinematic universe, let's say, because it's not just like an unknown presence is filming these guys. Like, it is Jared. They name check him directly several times. When they time travel, there's a younger Jared in the background. And, you know, Jared Rab has done tons of music, shot tons of music videos, tons of other films, the born ruffians,

who also play, the members of that band play Jay's backing band in the series. Some members, you know, some of the members were in Blackberry as the engineer. Like there's this whole inter, like, if you were to like kind of do a float chart or like, you know, I'm thinking of that, you know, meme from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia with Charlie Day in front of the board, you could do that with like, Matt. and J at the center and just how it spins off. So like there's so many people. Let's do that, Barry. Well, I don't know. Like I could go on further.

There's so many people who don't necessarily get like the spotlight in bringing this whole thing together. And so there's there's Jared. There's Matthew Miller who's the producer and who's been with the guys like forever and does the real hard work of getting this stuff out in the world. There's Matt Grayson who's another producer and, you know, there's, um, there's, um, Vicki Lean. There's, oh my God, I'm forgetting some names, like Adam Belanger, who was the production

designer for Blackberry and did such a wonderful job there. It goes on and on and on and on and on. And I know I'm forgetting people, and if they're listening, they're like, how could you forget me? And I'm sorry, but... I'm sorry. What a banger.

I will sing you on apology. So interestingly, in the movie, which if you haven't seen it yet, I think this is like the greatest promo for the movie we've ever done here. And it's unpaid, I'll point out. No money exchanged hands here. There is no money. But they didn't get no pile.

This is just, you and me a posth. Because the next 10 years of Toronto Mike is me trying to get Matt Johnson and Jay McHarel on Toronto Mike. Like that is going to be the premise for the next 10 years of this project. My great fear is they're willing to do it next week. And I'm like, no, no, no. No, no. We got to build the tension.

10 years from now, you can do it. And that'll be the final episode of Toronto Mike. but there's a scene where you see because, yeah, they re-contextualize that song we just played by Brave Shores as Jay McHarell's big worldwide hit and he's playing it at

what just changed names again. We knew it as the most in amphitheater. It became the Budweiser stage and you know what it is now? It's the RBC amphitheater. I thought it was going to be like, isn't it like Doug Ford's airport now? Well, it's only got like a year, I think,

and it's going to be demolished is what I think is going to happen there and they're going to build a new one at Ontario place, but don't get me started on that. I'll save that for Ed Keenan. But they filmed that because I think it was an Arkell show. I believe it was an Arkell show.

And then they filmed the, you know, Jay McCarroll playing that song in front of the crowd. So you got that venue, but I'm just going to name check a few things in here and then ask you a question I've been wondering. But, okay, so there, of course, the C&Tower plays a key role in this movie. Big role, yeah, yeah.

The Skydome plays a key role in this movie? Skydome. Do they name check it as? ever the Rogers Center? No, I didn't hear Rogers Center. I think it was always Skydome. So Skydome, which is what I like to call. The Skydome, the Skydive plan.

Right. Which is, yeah. Unbelievable how they filmed that too. Like, it was, I thought they did such for a, like, you know, I don't know what the budget of this movie was. It was about $5 million. Yeah, like for $5 million. Like, you know.

And remember, this includes like the other entire movie that was filmed and never seen. What value? Okay. So, but so Skydome. C and Tower, of course, the Rivoli, that's key to all of this. But, you know, TTC plays a key role. But CP24 has a key role. Anyone who's ever gone to a coffee shop or a pizza joint has seen some CP 24?

Paradise Theater plays a key role. Right, Paradise Theater, right? Oh, right, because they're watching the film Hangover. Yeah. Right, okay. Right, but also let's shout out two FOTMs. Raws and Moka. Oh, Raws and Moka.

I will tell, okay, so. Going into Austin last year, I was still carrying one-sided beef with Rosamoka because I just loathed the pre-show clips that they had recorded for TIF the previous fall in 2020. I just thought they were so awful. And I was like, Raz and Moka, you have poisoned the film festival. And you have turned the city of Toronto and anyone who has visited Toronto for the film festival against you. And then I was told, I was like, wait, there's going to be, you're going to love Rosamoka again. I was like, nothing could make me turn that tide. And the person who told me was right.

And I was like, Raz and Moka, redeemed. Redeemed all over this movie, Raz and Moka. My goodness. And there's like allusions to things that are very Toronto, even though they're known beyond Toronto. But like the Drake. Oh, the Drake Mansion, another, another key location. Yeah, I mean, that was somewhat semi-spoil. for me when the shooting actually happened because again like I know a couple people who like follow

this even more intensely than I do and they sent me like screenshots of CP2 for with like Matt running around in the background I was like oh my god what are they doing so I mean like I said off the top here it's unabashedly Toronto in every sense so now a couple of things you might know due to your role at the glow and mail what's that title again uh film editor and chief film writer. Okay. And how many times how many times

has the globe let you write about these guys? You know, we can say enough times, but I would gladly write about them

even more. Okay, stay tuned. So here's a couple of quick kick quick. One question is, how did this movie do? Like, so, like, did it do well?

It did very well. I mean, so. I have no sense of this anymore. Well, yeah. So I published a piece about, two or three weeks ago digging into like the general state of the Canadian box office because it is an un it is like a black box of information generally like as Canadians we all get

you know inundated with press reports on like Sunday evening or Monday for those who are paying attention about like the weekend box office in North America and like Project Taylor Mary made you know 60 million dollars or something we never hear about the can what's happening inside of Canada films that are just either just released in Canada or Canadian and are also released in the States. Short story is Black, sorry not Blackberry. Nirvana, on its opening weekend

in Canada, I believe made $345,000 which is a very good amount for a Canadian film playing in Canadian theaters. And in fact, was the highest English language live

action debut for a Canadian film since, guess which movie? A Canadian film? Canadian, yeah. English language, live action. Give me a second to think on this for, geez, I'm kind of blanking on this one.

Okay, help me out. It's a trick question. It's Blackberry. The biggest since Blackberry. Damn it, Barry. Let's redo that. I'll fix it in post. Ask me again.

What do you think was the last film before this? That was the biggest English language, live action Canadian title at the box office. Barry, it's got to be Blackberry. You are right. You win. I'm giving you. You back my La Palma pasta.

So, you know, that goes to show the power of these guys. Right. And since then, I believe it has topped out. It's still actually playing in theaters. It's still, even though it is available digitally to own. Right. It's still playing in theaters. But I believe it's kind of topped out at $1.2 million Canada.

And about $4.5 North America million dollars. And that's just theatrical, right? So that's not taking into account. That's theatrical North America. It's not taking into account it's opened in New Zealand. I believe it's opened in Australia. It's opening in other markets. Still, the digital revenue is obviously to come.

They inked a deal with Crave for streaming in Canada before it went theatrical. So that's like this will make its money back and then some. Good. But in terms of a Canadian film, for any Canadian, movie to break 500,000 at the box office, let alone a million, let alone more than a million. That's an English language movie. Quebec is its own kind of unique thing. They got their own industry.

They have their own statistics. They have their... He just got inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. And I was thinking, I know this name forever. I couldn't name a single Rock of Wasin, but he's massive. He's massive. Yeah. So like, you know, Matt and Jay are the Canada's Rock Voisin.

Yeah, I was going to say, can you name a Rock Voisin song? Uh, no. Maybe I could like, if you played me like three clips, I could guess which one was the rock. I went through his greatest hits this morning. Oh, wow. Okay. And I thought there was one name I thought I recognized called Helena, like it's a French Helene, I guess. And then I said, oh, I think I recognize this name, but no, nothing. Like so not one rock Vasine song resonated with me that I said, oh, I remember that song. Oh, well. Anyway, so anyway. To your point. Quebec is like a like a, like a, Quebec is its own separate industry. They often, not often, but often, but often. Often enough have million dollar success stories. Like Le Bois and all those things.

The Lo Bois franchise is huge there. Or, you know, it was. I think they got up to number three. But it's a big deal. Right. This film is a big deal for the industry. It's a big deal for Canada at large. I love it because I love that this like,

these guys, these Toronto guys, they film this thing. I did, I saw a quote from Olivia Chow where she, because I guess they did break like filming rules. I mean, there's, you know, the, the area is gray in terms of the guerrilla filmmaking tactics. But I was at that Toronto International Film Festival premiere just a row in front of Olivia Chow

who was there and who was laughing very enthusiastically throughout and by the way this was a midnight show. It didn't get out until like 2.30. She's got a lot of energy. She might be twice Bradford's age but she might have twice Bradford's energy.

I think she was also sitting next to Carrie Ellis who was in the crowd. What's he doing here? Well, he was at Toronto for the premiere of one of his new films, the Gus Van Sant movie Dead Man's Wire, I believe. Anyways, he was at Tiff for his own related purposes, but he, of course, was in Blackberry. He played a supporting role there.

And he was friends with Neve Fishman, who was one of the producers of Blackberry. And Neve was like, Carrie, come with me and Olivia to this premiere and we'll have fun. And they did. Gus Van Zant loves to film here too, right? because good will hunting. Yeah.

And wasn't Finding Forrester also here? Pound the keys. You're the man now, dog. Yes. Right, which became the meme. But I just, I saw that movie, and I believe it's the movie where I guess Sean Connery is giving advice on how to write or something.

And he says, he says this stuff. I never forgot it. Like it bounces on my head regular because I'm always having to write something. I haven't yet let AI write all my shit yet. Good. Keep it away. Is Barry, does AI write your stuff for the globe? I am in.

A. Reganist? Oh, antagonist. Yeah, I have never touched chat GPT. I don't even know how. My wife's all into it, but she works for a big bank, which may or may not have naming rights on that amphitheater. But they,

where, like, she gets these subscriptions and she, like, for job, she has to get into it. And she actually uses it a lot. And I literally, like, I won't even touch it to write a description. Like, it's like, no, I actually, like to use my brain. And then I like to do. Here's a line from Sean Connery. I never forgot.

I already said it, but I'll do it again. pound the keys. So I have to pound the keys. Could AI ever write a line of dialogue? Like pound the keys? I don't think so. Who's the dog now? Okay.

Geez. And Cari Ellis, that's a mind blow too. But yeah, Olivia Chow, I was reading her quote. I don't know. It's part of the fun, I think, is that they just sort of like the romantic traffic video. It's like, get a camera and let's shoot this thing. But I remember reading that they filmed that TTC's,

that streetcar scene. They did it the day that Taylor Swift was playing. the Skydo and therefore they felt they could do it because all the cops and all the security was busy over there

did you hear that? I heard that. I'm... Sure or false, Barry Heard. I don't know. I'm questioning the truthiness of that. I'm the truther.

I am the Taylor Swift truth. It's a great anecdote though. Don't print the legend. We don't print the legend around here. All right, so on our way out in the movie there is some D8.

I'll call it, I can't call it that because it's not that. But basically it would be scenes of these guys in like 2007 or eight or not. No, maybe, I don't know what it is, but it's the young versions of them.

The young versions, yes. Right. And then, you know, you think, oh, well, you know, they, they, they, they, they aged Harrison Ford for the, a terrible Indiana Jones. Worst India, I can't, I actually had to turn it off. It was awful. But the, that opening sequence was the best part of that movie. That might be true because who got beyond that?

Very, very, very few. And it had the fleabag lady, so I was kind of into. Oh, she was, she was not good. No, but flea bag was amazing. For sure, but she's not a lot of subsequent hits for Phoebe Waller. Right, who always got confused with the singer anyways. Yes. Bridger.

Okay. So we're all over the place. We should do more episodes together. When they do the, when they announce the sequel, I'm going to get you back here. But they just had this footage. Like, it was kind of fascinating how they put it together. So the genesis of it actually is that their editors, who I should have mentioned earlier, Kurt Loeb and, Robert Upturch, we're kind of

tasked with going through all the old web series footage to see how they could kind of manipulate it for a new movie. And they stumbled up, I think the first kind of breakthrough moment was they saw the footage of Matt and Jay walking down Queen Street. And Matt says, is like, do those guys look like us? And they're just kind of continuing it on.

And that was like, we could go back. We could use this as the back to the future foot. Like, you know, there was just like an off the cuff kind of thing. And that was like, okay, now we have the locus point for this thing to recontextualize it in the back to the future way. But really a back to the, that's a back to the future to moment more than anything else. Because we, you know, remember Michael goes and sees like the old Michael. I remember.

And there, you know, it's Zemeckis like re contextualizing the thing. which is a really brilliant thing and kind of blew my mind when I first saw it. So that's how it happened. But I've had people come out and say like, so like how like what kind of like crazy effects did they do to like D.Hs guys. Or like even one person was like how did they find guys to cast who look exactly like they would. I was like, no, no, no, you don't. Like this is them.

And the way they interspersed like the, you know, that scene where, you know, Jay's watching the TV and he's like, oh, spine flu or swine flu. What do you think about that? Aviate flu. Yeah, yeah. It's like, oh,

birth flu. You know, maybe they'll have to invent a vaccine. It's just like, you can't, you can't make that stuff up. It's just like, so lucky.

It's a genius feat of, like the editing that was involved in this movie is a superheroic feat on the part of Kurt and Bobby. So will this movie clean up at the next Canadian Screen Awards? Well, controversy,

slightly, is that it's not nominated for best editing. I believe this is because Bobby is American and there's a new rule instituted this year after last year's controversy in which a bunch of Americans and Europeans cleaned up at the awards that you have to be a Canadian citizen to be nominated. It did get nominated for, I believe,

eight Canadian Screen Awards, which is not the leading contender, 40 Acres by R.T. Thorne, the post-apocalyptic thriller, which I quite liked, and I really, I really love RT's work. That got 11 nominations, so that's technically the leader going into the CSAs this year. Will Nirvana, it was still, Nirvana still got nods for all the major categories, including Best Picture. It also got nominated for Best Song for the ABC rap that Matt does. Oh, God, all right.

That's funny. Which is probably like the greatest nomination in the history of the Canadian Screen Awards. Will it win? I don't know. Blackberry, of course, swept and set the record for the number of Canadian Screen Award wins a few years back. Was that Trump movie Canadian?

Yeah. So the apprentice. The Apprentice. Yeah. So it's a Canadian co-pro. So there's a bunch of other territories here. It was so, you know,

a Canadian production company was very heavily involved in it, Daniel Beckerman's company. So it was considered Canadian that way. It was shot here. A lot of it was shot here. But yeah, I mean, you know, Sebastian Stan, not Canadian. Jeremy Strong, not Canadian. That's true.

Subject matter as about un-Canadian as you can get. So I would, yeah, sure, I would love to see. It just felt Canadian. It felt Blackberry-esque. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And what I would give to put Jeremy Strong and Matt and Jay in a room together would be magic, I feel. But I digress. I, you know, we'll see if it triumphs at the CSAs.

Maybe there's a sense of like this movie is, has one already in the, in the hearts and minds of the world that a CSA would be like too much. You know, sometimes Canadians can be like that. Well, I noticed the Juno is sort of like that. It's like, okay. The Drake weekend. It's like, okay, let's give it to, yeah, the, some lesser known artist or whatever. So hearing you describe how the editors get the old footage and work it into the new thing and it becomes a bit of a mind blow when you watch it. Like I had to watch it multiple times, kind of a mind blow.

But it almost makes you think like these guys are like, they're playing 3D chess here. And it's like the film Boyhood or something. Like, you know, they've been filming this for decades. And that's a great comparison. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's kind of like an accidental boyhood.

But like they, I mean, the other thing is the way these guys shoot is they shoot tons and tons and tons of material. And they're never satisfied. So there's reams and reams of, you know, video and archival material to play around with. so Barry Hertz this was this met my expectations I want to make sure we didn't leave anything I'm sure we left like tons like is there any like honor so again

I won't play us out until I feel we've drained the swamp here but are there any big things you think we should shit you you have in your big brain there about Nirvana the band the show the movie that would blow our minds or would be interesting to the listenership um oh my gosh I mean there's I'm putting a spot there's just I mean I just bring down here I want to expand that web a little bit in terms of collaborators because it's not just like the Nirvana and the Blackberry and the Dirties and like that product. It's, you know, like Matt has worked with, you know, Kazik Redwansky, who has done Matt and Mara and a lot of very, like, very acclaimed, you know, very low budget Canadian films.

The production company that they have, Zepruder, you know, that. they were responsible for getting Chandler-Lavac's mile-end kicks out into the world. There is, you know, Ben Petrie, who plays one of the, you know, how would you describe it? One of like Matt's new bandmates in the future or the alternate future. It was also an engineer in Blackberry. Like he has done an amazing work with his wife and creative partner, Grace Gullickie, including Dead Lover, which was also at Austin. And it was wonderful, actually, to be in Austin for that moment where all the Canadians were kind of congregating around each other and supporting each other.

So the one night, you know, on the Sunday night, I believe was the Nirvana premiere and everybody there. And then the whole Nirvana team was at the Dead Lover premiere premiere the following night on the Monday. Love it. So it's just the Olympics or something. Yeah, it's this, it is this web of interconnectivity and creativity and support that's really lovely to see. And then the other thing You know The future You know

Matt's got a film in the can Basically His Tony Bourdain movie With Dominic Sessa Who was the star of the holdovers From a few years ago Playing a you know 20 something

Anthony Bourdain That is I like the holdovers Yeah me too And that guy is great Dominic Sessa He's got a really great Interesting energy to him

And so that movie is going to be coming out this year. It's from A-24, which is a big, you know, hot-shot. Everything 8-24 I enjoy because it's just weird enough for, yeah. Yeah, so, I mean, you know, he's really, you know, the whole team is breaking in to the global film ecosystem. And that one's, you know, it's produced with Matt Miller, his longtime producer as well.

I believe Kurt and Bobby are also the editors on that, on that Tony movie. there's another long in the works movie that the guys are working on that is a Toronto journalism movie which you know hopefully we'll stall our Finn Wolfhard from Stranger Things you know he's working on a magic the gathering adaptation for legendary which is a huge production company out of the states out of Hollywood there's a lot of things in the future is looking very exciting

and it's very exciting not only for those guys but for the rest of the Canadian film landscape. And super exciting for Toronto, I feel like these guys always represent and we're proud of them. So I feel like we had this pride for Drake. And then at some point we're like, no, go away. We have our new representatives here in Nirvana, the band. Now, I asked you this off the top. But now that we've really set the table on our way out here,

it's playing a cover, Rob Prue's cover of a song from Shakespeare My Butt, which is 35 years old now. And that's a lowest of the low song that I've loved for 35 years. And I could hear them playing that at the Rivoli. I actually watched the lowest of the low documentary premiere at the Rivoli. It's all about the Rivoli here. So my question is, so with my Toronto brain, born in St. Joe, who's lived here my whole life, I'm watching this movie.

It's so Toronto. I love it. So how like, like, does the rest of Canada embrace it even 70% of how Toronto embraces it? how are they embracing this thing in like Los Angeles if you're not an expat? I don't expect you to know exactly how it could, you know, be viewed for a Chicago-born person. But what are your thoughts on that? Like is this best enjoyed if you speak Toronto or is this a global thing in Australia, they're going to enjoy it just as much?

I mean, I've seen some pretty passionate verging on rabid reactions to this movie from fans in Australia overseas. I know the Londoners are dying to get their hands on this. I don't think there's been a release date kind of formalized there or set, and they're very upset. Don't piss off the Londoners. I know, like, I know a lot of people. When I was down in,

I was down in LA for Fast and Furious book stuff in January, and I talked with people there, and they're very excited to see it. It's got, you know, I know U.S. journalists, friends of mine who have gone to see it and were like just blown away. It is a success. Does it work at its highest level if you speak Torontonian? Probably.

But it is a... Like, Roz and Moka will just be too radio people. Yes, yeah, exactly. But you get it. Like, there's a universality to it. It is about, you know, friendship and going, you know, growing up and trying to separate yourself from the immature person that you were

to the person you want to be. And there's lots of things that are extremely relatable, no matter what city or country or language you grew up with. But yeah, I mean, for Torontoians, it is a seminal piece of cinema. Torontoans have no excuse, okay? If you are in Toronto, you need to go on. And you can't. It's still playing at the Carlton, I think.

Okay. Steve's music shop closed. You know this. Steve's music store. But, you know, it's got a lot of, I guess it was that first episode of the Vicerland series with the penis. You have the billboard? Yeah. Which there's a lot of stees.

I think we need to preserve that sign. I'm just throwing this into the abyss. Well, we can preserve the same. We've preserved the Sam sign. Yeah. We preserve the Sam sign. We preserve the, they got to preserve the CP, the truck, but they got to bring it back to the original color scheme. Which was City Pulse.

Yeah. City Pulse. Right. But not get rid of the CP 24 part. Just bring it back to the City Pulse. The original, we keep that. The 1050 chum sign on Young there, I think they preserve that. the honest ed sign i don't know where it is it's in storage maybe but it's uh maybe matt and jay have

it i don't know that okay i got some ideas here but i think the steves music store sign like seen it made me realize oh it's still there i just biked by it yesterday but like i don't know how long that's going to be there they shut down the store silver dollar signs still exists you know what all the signs yeah where is it i just did me silver dollar well no there's there's a sign that was preserved maybe jahill will tell me later okay so let me just ask you this question at the end here. So we talked a lot about Nervanda the band, the show, the movie, and Nervanda the band the show, and her band of the band.

And I think we hyped it up enough. We both love it so very, very much. I really appreciate you, Barry Hertz, being my subject matter expert, because you were there from the beginning, and I just jumped on this bandwagon, so thank you. Oh, my pleasure. Paul Thomas Anderson just won his first Oscar for direction.

So my question is, which film do you prefer? Boogie Knights or Magnolia? Oh, boogie Nights. I agree, but you liked Magnolia. I like Magnolia. I have a very strong memory of dragging my friends to see it at the Richmond Hill Silver City. Two great films, but maybe it's because I just played music on a toast episode of Rob Pruss and Bob Bullett.

I just played music from Boogie Nights, that scene with the 99 Red Balloons and the Jesse's girl. Alfred Molina scene. Alfred Malina scene. And that scene, like that scene is so fucking good in the music they play. What's the, uh, uh, big jam, uh, it's motorhead. Oh, yeah, yeah. You know, motor in what's your price for life? Whatever.

Yeah, that one, which I'm not singing very well. But what a scene, what a movie, boogie nights. It gets better with age, I think. It's amazing. It's one of those films that if I'm traveling and I'm in a hotel and I'm flipping channels and I come across it, I'm staying. It's like two movies, two movies,

because you got, until something happens with William H. Macy, until that, it's a spoiler. There's no spoiler. But there's that movie, and then there's the other movie.

Who do you think is saying subdivisions in the Rush Song subdivisions? Do you think it's Mark Daly, or is it Neil Peart? I'd like, well, now I want to say Mark Daley. That is correct, sir. Bringing it back to City Pulse.

Everywhere. And that, Trying to get this out on my way out here. Let's see if I can nail this. The following program contains adult themes, nudity and coarse language. Viewer and parental discretion is advised. And that brings us to the end of our 1,890th show, 1890. Go to tronomike.com for all your Toronto mic needs.

Buy an Elmo ticket or two. Much love to all who made this possible. That's Great Lakes Brewery, Palmapasta, Nicayini's Recycle My Electronics. not CA and Ridley Funeral Home. See you tomorrow. Colin Cripps is kicking out the jams.