Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Scott Dobson: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1630

Episode Date: February 12, 2025

In this 1630th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with producer/director Scott Dobson about his creative life from SCTV to Lee Aaron. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

Welcome to episode 1630 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. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Okva.

Recycle MyElectronics.ca. Committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. Building Toronto's Skyline. A podcast and book from Nick Ainiis, sponsored by Fusion Corp. Construction Management Inc. and Redley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Joining me today, and he brought me a coffee, He's making his Toronto Mic debut. It's Scott Dobson. Welcome Scott. Welcome. Welcome to Toronto Mic making your debut. It was a, you don't have to give me all the details, but it was a difficult experience to get

here to New Toronto. I love New Toronto but it it was a little bit... Not today. No, no, no. I still love it is just I forgot my phone and and the phone had your address and I was trying to do it from memory right and okay so we without giving too many details because only sir Jerry can do that I will you were close but you're on the wrong street and because you had no phone I guess you walked into like a beauty parlor or something I went into Meg's hair Loft nearby and the great people there hooked me up with a phone and a quick haircut and then I waited for you to get back to me.

Yeah, so I get an email from you and it's like it's from the hair place and it's like you're at the hair place and I'm like what's Scott doing at this hair salon in New Toronto? Like did he want to look pretty for me? Look good for this? Because Valentine's Day is only a couple of days away. Yeah, I wanted to look my best. But it was funny, like they were the, I was walking around like trying to find someone on the street with a cell phone, trying to find a store

that was open, you know, because it's still, you know, early. Yeah, it's like... And it was, it was like Omega Man with Charlton Heston. Like, I'm the last man left in New Toronto and I'm walking around like, someone someone must there must be one other human being here That's funny. Yeah. Okay. Well, you know, it's uh, all good. It's a cold day. Maybe people are hankered down inside Okay, but good good to meet you. We have had like an email relationship where you would you're very engaged Which I love and you'd recommend guests and stuff and I think if my memory is correct, like you were recommending a guest and I said, okay, but how about Scott Dobson dropping by

and here you are. Yeah, that's how it, and I still think of people actually and during the course of the day who I think would be great on your show. Which I appreciate, because sometimes, and there are a number of listeners, I'll say who like to recommend lots of names. And sometimes I know that person and sometimes I don't,

but whenever someone recommends somebody that they think would sound excellent on Toronto Mic, if I don't know who they are, now I go and figure out who is this person? Like there are these people, I have blind spots, you have a couple of years on me, and there might be certain personalities in this city that just simply I just missed.

I mean, I know that I've suggested a couple of folks to you. Could I name a name? Yeah, I mean, I was saying like Patty Habib, who was one of the co-owners of the bamboo, there's a whole bit of Toronto story in there. We were talking about John Harris, who runs the Harris Institute. Which I have definitely sent an email to John first.

I mean, usually I've. you've never had, I'm thinking because I'm a doc maker. I'm also thinking of Barry Cohen. I mean, she's an amazing doc maker and opinionated person. It would be great to have us anyways. No, so I appreciate that. And then it's nice to put a face to the the name and I'm glad you wore your Trademark hat. Yes. Is that a derby? What is that hat called? Well, it's part of the fedora family, but it's you know, but that's like your your look right? You're like Fred Penner there with the hat You're giving you're giving me a lot of credit and calling it a look as if there's some planning involved Scott branding my my

personal shoppers help me out with this stuff. Is that Dave Badini? I feel like Badini rocks the hat. No, no, he's more of a Jocko Thomas type. I find Badini's morphing into Fred Penner. Slowly but surely. Yeah, yeah, the beard, I get it, I get it. So we're gonna, because you were late because you you know of all the days like why do you typically leave the home going somewhere you've never been before without a phone or was this just

like a like I'm surprised you forgot your phone. Well you know I was in the the reason I forgot my phone was I was actually just bringing a couple items here in case we needed some props or some humorous things to talk about. Well why start now? You know I even brought like a picture of me at Heatwave in 1980 just because I knew you would like it. Okay, Heatwave, we're going to Heatwave. Firstly where's my coffee from?

Oh this is from Birds and Beans. Okay that's a Mimico institution. Yeah, yeah nice people there. Shadow to Mimico, I buy by burns and beans all the time and Would it be a mistake though if I accidentally got it wrong and called part of New Toronto Mimico and called part of I Would probably rough you up like those are fighting that blood on the wall There's those are fighting words around here previous guests have told me oh, it's nice to be in Mimico And I literally I mean I look like I'm not particularly strong but I get angry and I

grab them by the scruff of their collar and I pin them against the wall and I'm like this is New Toronto. You know they spent a lot of time coming up with the name New Toronto a lot of times on that name. I can envision like yeah they had community consultations like what should we name it? We're like Toronto but we're newer yeah well let's call it New Toronto they didn't know Google was going to be a thing at some point the SEO in New Toronto is terrible. What is the official dividing line? Oh Dwight so you know where the McDonald's is yeah so that's Dwight Street and uh Dwight is the so once you get to numbered streets you're in New Toronto.

There's no numbered streets in Mimico. That's what I would say. So once you get to the numbers. On Dwight Street, is it sort of like Bloods and Crips? Like they each keeps to one side of the road. There's a gentleman named Adam Bunch who came over. He's like a Toronto historian. He did tell the story of the battles.

Like we're, yeah, on Dwight Street, you'd have the New Toronto people and the Mimico and they'd riot and fight and it was like a hootenanny there a man a hootenanny no that's more of a party right this is like a uh yeah throw down right what blood is that true yeah well Adam wouldn't lie to me this guy's got integrity to lose I feel like he's done his homework so I believe it to be true and shout out to the VP of sales who's at the at live.torontomike.com because he lives in Mimico and he knows, you know, you gotta ask my permission before you cross the border, right?

Like you just can't go back and forth without, you know, without blessings. So, all right, lots of ground I wanna cover with you. And I'm gonna start, I know where I wanna start actually, and I don't know which of these three, but. And you know, you're the producer here. If you think I'm playing the wrong one, you tell me, but... I'm swelling.

That's what the Ridley funeral home measuring tapes for. Measure the swell. I love that this intro is so long. Well, you can talk it up if you want. Or you want people to feel the... There's a sea of people, perhaps 200,000 of them. They're gathered along the jagged edge of an awesome chasm. It's close to a mile wide and almost as deep. In the center of it all is a man dressed in white leather and strapped into a rocket-like machine that is

poised on its launching ramp. A gleaming red, white and blue missile aimed at the other side. I hope it's not Trump. A tap on the helmet. Someone mumbles good luck. The machine is detonated and he's on his way. Science fiction? For sure. No. No. Because Evel Knievel, the most famous daredevil in the world today, is actually going to jump Idaho's incredible Snake River Canyon on his sky cycle. Why? We might just as well ask why Columbus sailed off to what everyone at the time thought was certain.

We might as well do that. Why Charles Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic in a single-engine plane. Why the astronauts shot for the moon. Each of them, like Knievel, possessed or was possessed by the desire and the ability to do something no one else had ever done before. Wow. Wow. Unlike a fighter or racer who competes to win against another fighter or racer, Knievel has only one ever-present competitor.

You'll never guess. Death. Wow. Have you ever seen, have you ever had the pleasure of seeing Evil Knievel? Yes, I did. Please tell me. That, well that recording is from a record that he did in the spring of 1974 and I went to see him at the C&E August 20th, 74 and so that would be fit well just over 50 years ago and you know it was hard it's hard to it's hard to explain now just sort of like Evil Knievel was sort of

like a Cardassian like he was a guy that like everyone in the world knew, sort of like Muhammad Ali was, you know, like was one guy that everyone knew and Evil Knievel was another person that everyone seemed to know. And it's interesting because they, I think Muhammad Ali was a wee bit more talented, but nonetheless, but they were both showmen. Right. And, And I think that the showman thing was really very much kind of part of the 70s. There's a real 70s showmanship kind of thing. And so I said to my dad, we got to go. We got to go see Evil at the C&E. And I'm sure my dad went out and bought the tickets immediately for 10 bucks each.

Well, 10 bucks and 74 is a lot of money. But I suspect that my dad did not tell me that he had purchased them for months, which meant that I was on my best behavior for needlessly, needlessly for a few months. And, you know, taking the garbage out, you know, helping my mom, doing all that stuff, just because I so desperately, desperately wanted to go and see this. Is this the the lighthouse? Yeah. So lighthouse opens for Evel Knievel at the C&E in August 1974. Yeah. Wow. And that was when they that was they used the that little, not

little, but that concrete shell that they pulled out with a tractor, right? And then lighthouse played for two hours and then when it was over, like a guy got on the tractor, started it up and the stage and they pulled the stage away. Like it was kind of funny, actually. It was the first time I ever saw what you'd pop music live. Okay, well you would be a young man in 1974. Yeah, I was about 11. Okay, so, but here's where I'm not going to call you out on your own life history here, but don't you see Van Morrison before you see this Evil Can Evil lighthouse show? Ah very good question and I will give you an excellent answer. I said pop music constant. Oh you don't consider Van

Morrison pop music? Van Morrison was just getting into his into his Scientology trippy stage then with you with giant belt buckles and I don't know, that whole sort of thing. So my dad had worked at U of T, so I had this incredible thing that my dad loved music, so I went to see all of these shows when I was like 9, 10, 11, Harry Chapin, Melissa Manchester, Van Morrison, Al Stewart, like all these really great concerts, at Convocation Hall and places like that. Right.

But the Lighthouse show was the first show that I actually went to where I went, oh, I know these songs, I've heard these songs on the radio. And I kind of clued in, oh, like people actually really do pay money to go see bands here on the radio. It never really occurred to me. I never thought about it. You were a very young man. Yeah, you were cluing in. But I think it's like as a guy who was born that I was literally born that summer.

So you're at Lighthouse and Lighthouse is opening for Evil Knievel. So it's just my brain is trying to wrap around the fact. So the Lighthouse goes a couple of hours and then the stuntman comes out. Yeah and I think one of the things that people forget about you when they think of Evel Knievel they think oh he's gonna you know he comes out he does his jump but no this is the 70s there's a whole stage performance thing that he did so when he comes out right all all of his cars come out and he's in one of them, including like a Cadillac that he's got.

And then at the very end of this convoy, as in the song convoy, is his Mack truck traveling camper motorcycle rig that he had. It was like a two trailer rig that was all painted red and said, Evil Knievel on the side. And then there's stunts. He comes out and he does like a whole sort of like, you know, I'm a, I'm part of the gladiator tradition kind of thing. And then Robbie and Kelly, his sons came out and performed for the first time ever in public in Toronto.

Wow. And they, so they did all these wheelies and stunts and it's just trying to get you more hyped up and more hyped and you know. And then of course, and Evil as he always did, does this big anti-drug message about how like it's gonna ruin drugs, they're gonna ruin your life. But this is the 70s because at the same time he tells you that if he dies,

he has his own special version of heaven that he wants to go to where there's lots of draft beer Because I think in the 70s no one thought of alcohol as a drug right so so he's telling you least down this big You know anti-drug thing that's funny, but in real life. He was he was an alcoholic Okay, a few quick hits here one is that song convvoy. Oh yeah. You got a great big Convoy. Yeah McCall, W.C. McCall. W.C. McCall something like that. Yeah. But I was first introduced to that song because it was played in an episode of the Simpsons when Bart gets that and I think I had one of these too like you it's a microphone you talk into and you pick a frequency on your radio that wasn't used by you know Chum or whatever. Yeah, and then you could hear yourself through the radio Which was kind of a novelty back then and I think there's in the ad somebody singing convoy or Homer

Maybe Homer singing convoy, but that's when I heard convoy for the first time. That's probably like 1990 or so I'm happy to tell you why I still have one of those microphones and I still use it Okay, what frequency do you use? Do we have anything open still? I didn't bring it, I don't know what frequency it's on. I think you can pick it, I don't even remember now. But I have a two, I actually have two. I have like a vintage one from the 1960s, it's Italian. And then I have one from the 70s

and it's like a Mr. Disco or something and it has glitter on it. You know, I mean, like I said, you have a couple years on me but like I remember the 70s, and I can tell you in the 80s, which is like when I'm really growing up, that's a huge novelty that you could be on the radio by talking into a microphone like that.

How exciting is that? You're right there with Tom Rivers. Yeah, you know, it's funny, and you think of things that like we've forgotten that people thought were marvels of technology at the time. But if you're an 80s child, you probably had one of those telephone tone generator boxes.

So if you weren't at home, you could phone back to your answering machine, put in the tones and get it to play you the messages. Remember those? That was so high tech. I don't even think it entered my home, but that's highly impressive. That was considered an advance. What is the Evil Knievel song where he name checks Toronto? What's actually not a song but he on that record He actually there's a press conference

Like all these guys always have this thing where they have to do something with kids because it makes them more human so this Everywhere well, this is his in this world. No, this is not it. No, this is his... This is not it. No, this is his ballad. This is called Why. It's a poem he wrote. Okay, but no Toronto reference in this one. No.

And it's not in the ballad of Ivocanevil either. Maybe I'll put it in the background while I mention that... A few things. You mentioned draft beer. Well I'm here to tell tell you Scott. We drink craft beer in New Toronto Who's singing this one an unknown guy this is doesn't matter Is this a 70s or what Move over ballad of Tom Henke. The Strong but Simple Man. He can move a mountain, deep across a winding river

Once he's made his mind up, there's nothing he won't try There's something deep inside him, lusting for the thrills at driving Wow. Yeah, you know what? Candy in the sky. Candy for a kid. Okay. So, oh yeah, that's where I was going. I'm giving you some Great Lakes beer brewed right here in South Etobicoke. It's available across this fine province. Great Lakes, thank you for your support so you're gonna get that craft beer. Right on. Then I'm gonna get on a motorcycle. Have you ever ridden a motorcycle? Have I ever been in a motorcycle? Like ridden one?

Yeah I have. I actually had an uncle that collected motorcycles and he specialized in police motorcycles which are kind of an interesting subcategory of collecting. You know, but it's interesting though, this is so schmaltzy that it's just... It's cheese, right? Like, sometimes you want to eat cheese. But it's pure cheese. But it's, you know, if you weren't alive at the time it's like people a took him like quite seriously at the time and um and it's funny because when you look at the jump in Toronto now or some of the other jumps that he did and I say this respectfully to the the ghost of evil can evil but yeah it's really not that impressive but at the time like 13 mac trucks you watch him jump it in Toronto and you kind of go. Okay

Well, I guess it's like a rare opportunity to maybe see somebody die. Yes I think that with I think there was that's exciting. It came out of the barn storming like, you know County Country Fair kind of entertainment circuit. That's kind of where he came from in a lot of ways, right? But you watch it you watch it on YouTube and you can watch it in slow motion and you kinda go, hmm, okay, I might almost be able to do that. But for some reason, like people thought that jumping 13 Mack trucks was like Columbus discovering a new world, as they say in that little prologue.

I don't know why people like elevated it so big. Well, you know, we were starving for entertainment back then. So this was something. This was also during the it was also during the Watergate era. And there was like a lot of sort of like social kind of, you know, people weren't happy inflation, stagflation, all of that stuff. So they were looking for a gasoline. Yeah, looking for a hero. Looking for a hero.

I want to hear about Heatwave. I absolutely want to hear about Heatwave and then I want to ask you about being the king of indie music videos. I mean so much ground again. You're a little late so we're gonna cook with gas here but tell me about Heatwave in August 1980. Do you remember the slogan for that show was it's going to be so hot and it was it was really hot but it was you know it was supposed to be it was supposed to be like you know the big like new waves new wave in quotation new waves woodstock and because I you know it was only like an hour and an hour and a bit drive away it was from where I was

you know live and it was like I'm I was living, it was like, I'm going. Sure. Yeah, and it was interesting because I sort of went with people that were maybe not... Just north of Bowmanville, right? It's in Mossport. Right. Yeah, it was near the racetrack. And it was funny because the first thing I remember is that they had a big... when you

got to the grounds, they had a big police cordon and no bottles. You weren't allowed to bring a bottle and then they had one guy at a count little like a little card table selling Tupperware so someone knew right one rich guy made a million dollars selling Tupperware and if you poured your booze into the Tupperware they'd the cops would let you in and if you didn't want to do that then you had this big bin that they just had to toss it into. But yeah, the only thing about that concert, I mean, it was

it was a lot of fun, a little disorganized, super hot. Also not as commercialized as concerts became. So it still kind of had a little bit of a I wouldn't say hippie, but a little bit of a, I don't know, homemade kind little bit of a I don't know homemade kind of vibe to it which I think fits with the new wave thing. I've had on this program a couple of founding members of the Kings yep and did you did you stick around for the Kings? Yeah you know I did stick around for the Kings you know the people I went with my friends were not as into the music I think they were more into the idea of going and so at the end when the

headliner Elvis Costello came on, they were bored and wanted to go and then the Kings came on as sort of a the Danube Ma act of the festival and I'm like hey man I paid money I want to see the Kings. You want full value, you want to hear the beat goes on switching to glide. Yeah yeah but it was sad it was kind of a little bit of a drag because everyone started, a lot of people started to leave that that that that was midnight, right? When it was late, it's midnight when the Kings hit the stage. Yeah, it was late.

And I think people had that how do we get out of the parking lot was basically farmers fields filled with cars. And I think there was a lot of people started to panic about how long he thought you just saw Elvis Costello and I could see I could see a mass exodus. Yeah, he was the big, that was his only appearance at Heatwave. I'm sorry, the Heatwave one was the only appearance he did in North America that year or something. But the rest of the lineup, I have to say I'm a big Elvis Costello fan, but I have to be honest. I thought that Elvis was a little bit of a, you know,

after rock pile of B 52s, the pretenders, uh, talking talking heads did an amazing groovy Elvis kind of seemed a little, a little bit of a, you know, a little bit of a step down in energy and everything, even though I loved them. Um, yeah, it was a pretty good lineup. The only thing is, is the clash as you know, didn't it and that would have been the... that would have been like that would have topped it off incredibly. How was Teenage Head? Good, good. You know and they were... well you've had... Well Dave Rave on this day one year ago this day and here's my Gene Champagne,

he's now the drummer. Gene Champagne gave me these teenage head drumsticks but yeah Dave Ray was here one year ago today to talk about his his experience with the band and he's now the singer yeah Dave is one of the nicest people you will ever meet in the industry oh my goodness there's a there's a picture of me at heatwave and I'm holding which I still have my official Heatwave frisbee. And you know when it was made because it lists the clash on it and they didn't appear. So it's amazing. So it's a collector's item. You still have it? Yeah. Okay. Amazing. I've hardly even used it. Okay.

Very cool. But, uh, so, so you, go ahead. I always want to say Dave, this is what Dave, I mean, I, I, uh, like I made a video with him, uh, with his, uh, so, go ahead. I always want to say Dave, this is what Dave, I mean, I, like I made a video with him with his, Dave Rave conspiracy. We went to Russia and had a pretty cool adventure, but. You went to Russia with Dave Rave. Yeah, yeah. Wow. When was this?

So I guess this was 91. It was right around that it was right during the coup time. And like, so we didn't really know when we got there, if there was going to be anybody there. Right. Like what was going to be. Like New Toronto. Yeah, like New Toronto. And, and, and it's funny because when we got to St. Petersburg, there was another town right next to it called Mimico, which is very, very strange. And, and, um, Dave had been signed through like Dave Rave is this, the funny thing about Dave is you just never know where you're going to end up with him.

And so somehow he got signed to the Russian state record label Melodia. How do you do that? I have no idea. And that's why we went. Wow. Yeah. Okay. So this kind of ties in nicely where I want to go next with you.

Like there's so many, and again, I haven't even really established that who the hell is this guy, Scott Dobson, right? Like I'm like this guy emailed me suggestions for guests and I just randomly said, you should come over and have an episode. No, man, it's this production work. We have, I mean, I have notes. I want to ask you about everything from like Lee Aaron to SCTV, but I do want to know about this moniker King of Indie music video. So tell us about basically videos that you've directed music videos Yeah, there was hardly hard to believe but there was a time when music videos were actually kind of you know They were the deal and if you were a music video director like that was kind of a cool thing sure and

Now everyone just uses their 360 cam and makes their own videos. But during that period of time, I don't know if you've ever talked about this on the show, but they really wanted to establish a Canadian music video industry and they created Bravo Fact as part of Much Music Getting Off the Ground. And Bravo Fact was kind of run, what the main person that ran it was a wonderful person no longer with us named Julie Thorburn and her thing was to outreach to not only the bands but to directors and try and build an industry of people making videos and crews and directors making them and I think it was actually

quite successful and they granted money to help bands do videos. And that's sort of where I got my start making videos. And you were working originally with Roy Pike. Yeah, you know, I, I had gone to OCA, and then I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. And I met Roy through through his wife. And Roy had a little production company called Sensibility. And Roy was a clever, quirky, creative guy, a little bit off kilter, and he hired me to be his assistant.

And he was making music videos and I learned a lot of great ways to get good production value out of small dollars from him and so he kind of gave me my he kind of got me going until I could get out on my own so do you want to name check anybody well it's you know common knowledge on this program the first concert I ever saw was at the Ontario Place Forum and it was Chalk Circle back in 85 so Roy Pike directed videos for Chalk Circle? Yeah I did 20th Century Boy for Chalk Circle, did a video for Johnny Loveson, did the famous video for The Box you know the one that's like the French film everyone calls the song Say To Me but that's not the name of the song but it's it's like a murder investigation as a music video I think it's one of the coolest videos ever made in Canada,

and I was so excited to be working with Roy because I loved that video. And then he's done stuff with everyone from boot sauce to... You know what we say in this program, we say fuck boot sauce. That's what we say. Why? Were boot sauce good to you? Did you work with boot sauce? I've worked with them a little bit. I have no bad boot sauce vibes. Okay, so you do not sign off on that terrible sentiment.

And I should just point out with my tongue in my cheek, I've actually never met the guys from boot sauce. And if they ever wanna come on Toronto Mic'd and talk, I would happily have them on. But I have heard a couple of stories from people like Ron Hawkins and Art Bergman that led to that expression being coined but I'm sure they're they're lovely lovely guys I have to meet them and make my own make my own judgments here you know I give you an example of Roy Pike thinking at the

time right something I learned is I is I remember we were filming down by the C&E when it was on with Johnny Loveson, and then Roy went, hey, wait a minute, the fireworks are gonna get off. Go off soon. Everyone, climb up onto the roof. And we climb onto the roof of this building on Fraser Avenue and try and figure out

where the fireworks are gonna be in the sky. And then Johnny has to stand up on this like Stupid brick thing and hold his balance play guitar and sing a song called She's a lady tonight or something while the fireworks going off, but when you see the video you go Oh, man, look at that shot with all the fireworks amazing. Yeah, okay So you almost a good mentor there and Roy Pike so meanwhile, so you're you're working with Roy Pike You're supporting yourself your bartending at the bamboo club Yeah, but you decide you're gonna go off on your own

Yeah, I'm dying to know name name check like crazy cuz I know there's some you know Who was it who I blame everything for is Andrew Cash Andrew Cash Yeah, so I was hanging out at the Bev and it's going to OCA You know and so most of my friends were bands. And as they sort of kind of went up the ladder a bit, they knew I was taking film at OCA. And they were like, Hey, he's Scott's the only guy we know that knows how to use a film camera, I need to do a video. And my phone rang and Andrew or Andy, as I called him at the time, called me and said, well, let's do a video. And it was just at the end of Letrange,

before Letrange bit the dust and Andrew Cash was created. So I did a Trail of Tears for that. And then eventually I went on when he became Andrew Cash. I went to- The Boomtown era. Yeah, yeah, I did Time and place for that record for Island Records But sort of in that just post Andrew thing It was literally like a virus went off and did you know ballad of Wendell Clark with a ray of static?

Can I say I love the video because I can see old mill donuts there Yeah, and it's like it's been law hasn't been old milled owns But when I was growing up on Dundas and I went to Michael Power, the original location, it was still around at that time. But I loved the views of old Etobicoke in that video. You know, that video is filled with just people on the street who had no idea who the radio statics were, but just liked a bunch of guys wearing plaid jackets and would come over and like want to be in the video. Like we're out in front of the grocery store and the lady says, I look beautiful

in that video. And there's the little model of the Stanley Cup on the hood of a car and the focus pulls from a guy, an Etobicoke guy washing his car to the Stanley Cup. I love it. Like I legit love it so much. And there's a name check for FOTM Dave Hodge in that song. And Dave Hodge says it's the only time he's been namechecked in a song. Is that true?

That's what he says. Wow, I find that hard to believe but okay. Some people say, oh, it's surprising you got a name check at all. Like it's just strange but it's so brilliantly done. We mentioned Badini earlier. It's funny that we did that. We literally shot that video like I think in a day and we shot it on Betacam because we couldn't afford film and we drove around,

I think it was Dave's parents like gigantic Parisian or something. We all fit everyone into like two vehicles and drove around. That was our production crew. That's an iconic Toronto video and it's got that name Ballad of Wendell Clark parts one and two, right? Yeah. It's a great song. It's a great song, but now fast and frenetic here, but we mentioned Andrew Cash and I would be remiss if I didn't mention that his Letrange bandmate Charlie Angus was over here recently. And I am of the belief Charlie Angus should run in the next election and should when they have their eventually when the NDP party has their leadership race or whatever at some point. eventually when the NDP party has their leadership race or whatever at some point, they, uh, and that Andrew, sorry, Andrew Cash, Charlie Angus would make a great

leader of the NDP party federally. I don't know, I might be voting for Létrange's drummer Pete Duffin to run. Yeah, I think maybe he should run. Yeah, no, I totally could see something like that with Chuck, but I kind of get the feeling from him that he wants to sort of be unshackled from being a member of a political party and wants to speak his mind a little more clear, you know. Right. Well, he's definitely saying that for sure. Yeah.

But so, okay, so- Get back to his activist roots. Right. He's great for soundbites, like, because I had him over and then I'm running the video and the soundbites I got from, it's like's like oh my god here's another one like they're under a minute they're just you know he's got these well rehearsed right so you'll you know he came over and then I think later that week was on the agenda and he had some of these things were like verbatim word-for-word like he's

just got that pattern down like he's Ron James or something so so go Charlie though I love what he's doing here. I dropped some more names on me. It's my most recent guest Was a guy Sir Jerry Levitan. Yeah, super tight with Mike Myers to a point where he has promised he will Personally invite Mike Myers on Toronto Mike. This probably won't happen. But Mike Myers brother has been on Toronto Mike Paul Myers Yeah, I know Paul and Mike well. And you directed videos for Paul. I did two videos for him, yeah. Felt this way before and, geez,

I can't remember the other one actually, it's top of my head, but. And Paul was a friend from high school as well, and still is a friend. I was just communicating with him a couple days ago. And he's a polygot of things, that guy. Well, he's got a John Candy book coming out. Yeah, yeah, well it's coming out.

Cause we're gonna talk SCTV in a minute. Yeah, it's coming out like super, super soon, like within days I think. Wow, and I know he did the Kids in the Hall book, which was great. Yeah, it was good. Yeah, no, I got a lot of time for him. And FOTM Blair Packham was house sitting for him last summer.

Yeah, yeah, Blair's a good guy. You only have good people on your show. I don't know if that's true. I got to run. It's a long list. Oh wait a minute you had a politician the other another politician from Toronto. Oh Brad Bradford. Oh never mind I'm not saying anything. See we make time for everybody. I will shout out Marcy Ian will be here next week so speaking of politicians. Not that I want this show to become political. It sounds really boring to me like I wouldn't even listen to my own show but there are some this is a different time. We're living in right now

So there's a little more political talk than normal to be you know There's a provincial election we're having at the end of the month and then as we know there's gonna be a new leader of the Liberal Party, which means a new prime minister and then At some point this year that will go to the polls federally and of course We have our sovereignty is being threatened by the president of the United States of America. I don't know if you've caught wind of that. I've heard a little bit about it. So lots going on here. Okay, drop a few more names here because another recent guest was Manfred from Elephants and Stars.

And his new album was produced by Ian Blurden. Oh yeah, Ian and I went to high school together so I did a Change a Heart video. Okay, this is the alternative high school, right? Yeah. What's it called again? So it's called Seed and it's still going. Well, I hear about it from guests like Ian and others and it's, can you explain to the listenership, like, what was different about Seed as opposed to I went to Humberside Collegiate

or whatever? Well, the people that went to, so seed was born in like 68, and it was kind of connected to the whole concept of free schools, which was a big movement that was going on in the UK at this school called Summer Hill. But it was a, an idea where you could create a school where students that had difficulty fitting in a regular school

could go and educate themselves in ways that worked for them. And also, to help with that, they had this idea that they would not only have teachers from the board of ed there, but they would bring in experts in their fields like Judith Merrill, the science fiction writer came in and taught like a science fiction class at Seed and they called them catalysts and that was a whole new concept the idea they'd have people who were experts in a field coming into a classroom and doing a class. Wow. And so Seed was a it was a place where high achievers could go if

they really knew what they wanted to do or people who were you know having trouble fitting in in regular school or being bullied or you know people who might have been you know their sexual orientation might've been an issue. They were safe at Seed. And it's that way to this day. And is it true? I mean, a little birdie tells me you might be researching a documentary on Seed Alternative School.

Yeah, I've been, I've been thinking for quite a while about doing a documentary about Seed, because it was really something born out of the 1960s that has lasted until today. And I think it's been a huge success. And I think it's something that rarely gets mentioned in the press. You rarely read about Seed at all anywhere. And yet there's so many amazing alumni that have gone on to do so many things from that school.

Well you had me at Ian Blurton. Yeah Ian Blurton. So I actually one of my things about I'm researching doing a documentary on Seed and what what it started as and what it became. I think it's gonna be possible for me to do the entire film and have the entire crew of the film be Seed alumni. Which goes, yeah, something like that. Seedlings. Seedlings is what we were called.

And I think that the power of it is that Seed has morphed every decade as the needs of students have changed for different reasons. For example, more acceptance of trans students now. For sure. SEED has adapted to be welcoming for those folks too. And so I think it's a and I think it will continue to evolve. So if anyone has any great SEED footage, by the way, I'd love to get my hands on it. I would tune into the SEEDlings documentary. Yeah, I think you know what? I think there would be a great doc and it's I'd love to get my hands on it. I would tune into the seedlings documentary, without a doubt.

I think, you know what? I think there would be a great doc and it's perfect for TVO. Yeah, you know what? 100%, just like that, the teenage head doc, which was very good. There's a lot of great docs there on that TVO. I do think that TVO would be an excellent place

for that doc to live. Should I call Payken now? Or do you want me to do it later? Yeah, just after, yeah. But, so Ian Blurden, Change of Heart. Yeah. They got new music coming out and they're playing on Geary Avenue. Yeah. I had to get to the show actually. It's a smaller venue. I got to see if I can sneak in the back door or something here. It might be sold out. But man, I love Change of Heart. Which video did you direct? I did Pat's Decline. I love that song. Yeah, it's a great song. You know, and Ian is like morphed and changed like like in so many ways musically over the years and

yet he has remained like completely committed to what he's doing and completely like like Blurton is its own category. Blurtonia. Yeah, Blurtonia. Yeah, it is its own thing. Any bikes so shout out to Ian Blurton on his bike. So, I love that guy. I just saw last time I saw Ian was with another seedling, Catherine Rose. I saw him at Junior Gone Wild show at the horseshoe. In Junior Gone Wild, speaking of Junior Gone Wild.

Yeah, I think I did like five videos. Five videos for those guys. Wow. Yeah. And it was interesting, you know, being a guy from Toronto, going out and doing five videos for a band from Edmonton, you know. We have an Edmontonian two floors above us right now. And she's taking me by the way, taking me on a romantic, Valentine's early Valentine's Day lunch, which is why we're

cooking with gas here because I can't be late for that. That could be good. But she's from Edmonton. But I so the two big points I want to get before we we do a little more. And again, I'm blaming you, Scott, because you were late because I was going to give you an easy 90 minutes and I'm going to try to get as close as I can. But can you tell me about your relationship with Lee Aaron, the metal queen? Lee Aaron. Well, I'm sort of in the early pre-production stages

of trying to do a documentary with Lee. Lee's in Vancouver these days, lives out there. And trying to do a documentary, get that off the ground, we'll be at Hot Docs this spring, pitching away to broadcasters for that. So we're just getting our pitch materials put together we got a bit of a development grant from hot dog slate fund which is I saw the press release and I said oh and he you were in the calendar before I saw it I'm

like oh I got something I'm gonna ask God about yeah so that's the Aaron documentary yeah so that's great and so I've been sort of hanging out and catching Lee for the last a year or so the road, did some filming with her at the Hall of Fame at Massey Hall when she was inducted two years ago. Wow. And you know, seeing her play like at the Classic Bowl place out in Mississauga, that's a trip. I haven't been yet, but the guy behind it has been over here to talk about everything, but I haven't actually... You gotta go.

Okay. It's kind of like another dimension, but in a good good way I would go see just to see the spoons yeah no it's good it's good they have a really diverse kind of uh line up of stuff there I mean and and when he has his big annual one it's Ed Sousa we're talking about when Ed has his big annual uh fundraiser charitable fundraiser I mean it like takes like they've literally practically rip out the bowling. McDonald's house. I mean, it's in a bowling alley center. So you're thinking, where do they put the show?

Will they build this whole thing like over? It's really quite something actually. Well, now that we've mentioned Lee Aaron, I am contractually obligated to shed out Midtown Gord, who's listening in Midtown of all places. Hence the nickname given to him by Gord Stelick. Will you ever a sports fan? Yep.

I'm gonna play very quickly here. I'm just gonna play this. Three, Doug Gilmore. Says number 23, Doug Gilmore. Second overtime, two to one. The goal by Gilmore, three, 16. So you do have the great, the late great Bob Cole talking over that, but that's the Paul Morris call of the Gilmore wrap around in against Cujo and the St. Louis Blues in the second round there.

And I played it because we lost Paul Morris, passed away. And that's that voice. I don't know about you, but that voice is tattooed in my brain. I've been mimicking it since I was a kid. You know, goals, whatever you play ball hockey, whatever goal scored. And what I think I'm trying to think, what is it? And it's because there was no Homer ism at all to a point where that goal, you heard him call an overtime winner in the playoffs by the home team, Doug Gilmore, and he calls it the same way he'd call

a pre-season goal by the opposition. It's just a monotone delivery style and no Homerism at all, and it's just tattooed in my brain. You could actually, that would be good AI, simulate his voice for other things. I had a friend named, I have a friend named Scott Kerchak and when we would go to the games, he would actually insist on staying to hear Paul do the post-game wrap-up where

he would go through all the stats and we'd be the only people still in the stands and my friend would be listening to it. Love it. Just a little taste more. I'll do more of this in a future episode Toronto goal scored by number 19 Frederick Modine assist number 32 Steve Thomas and number 25 Jason Smith time 54 seconds its home So there's a little tiny little documentary feature that aired on hockey night in Canada, but I'll play that in a future episode I just wanted to pay my respects to a voice a significant Toronto voice that I guess he had that gig until they moved to the Air Canada Center, so we had it until 1999 and

It was Andy Frost. I Also do an imitation of any Do you do an Andy frost impression no no no psychedelic Sunday any frost but Andy frost got the gig so I look forward to I know that the funding from the slate people that's good and you're on your way and I look forward to the Lee Aaron documentary but I got to talk SCTV with you I'm afraid I'm gonna run out of time so you produced the SCTV DVD release for The

Second City? Yeah, so I was one of the people that was the producer of putting that DVD collection out, which people had been waiting for for like a million years. So my co-producer on that was Dick Plisucci, who was as you know one of the writers on SCTV and then he went on to be the producer of Mad TV. So I had a new guy and an old guy working on that together. And it was a dream project just to go through all that stuff and all the archives and, you know, look for things. And everyone wanted to see it like it was something that people wanted.

So whenever you said you were working on it, people are like, when is it coming out? I want it now. Well, you know what else I want? I want Martin Scorsese. Does he take your calls? You know, no. When they filmed that thing a couple of years ago, more than that, I think it's pre pandemic.

Yeah. Pre pandemic. You know, I ended up helping him up the stairs. Scorsese. Yeah. He's like, he's quite elderly quite elderly actually in real. I'm not trying to diminish him or anything but he was having trouble getting up the stairs and I so I kind of went over there and helped him and I was like wow I did like you know and I was just asking

some people in the know like what's going on with that SCTV Scorsese project and nobody, nobody seems to know. So I've only talked to a few people about it, but I talked to Dave Thomas. What does he say? He doesn't think it's ever coming out. Like he says, he doesn't seem to, if he knows he's not telling me, like if he has an idea of why, but he said it sort of like Scorsese moved on to other projects. This thing got shelved. And so, so if there's a reason, like some business reason, like I'm just looking for something that will explain it. Like, oh, this was going to co-in,

it was paid for by whoever and they were going to coincide it with this. And then that got kiboshed. Therefore the documentary got shelved. I had wondered whether it was music royalty issues, which had been a huge issue with SCTV from day one. They just dropped the needle for that entire series and never licensed anything. And that's why when we put out the DVD, I mean, we had to hire a special person just to deal with the music licensing. Who'd you hire? Is it David Quentin Steinberg? No, no. It was someone that was... And this person, like like worked for a couple years

and cleared it all up, but that's why certain sketches had to be cut out of the DVD release. I think there's a great Rick Moranis sketch where he, he's Michael McDonald, I guess. Yeah, the Doobie Brothers carpets. Right. Yeah. Like you, you got to pay for that song. And then there's like the Stairways to Heaven. Right, like the wind.

Stairways to Heaven. Right. And so they could, they ultimately couldn't get permission to do stairway, get permission for that song. So certain things were cut out of the DVD because of that. And I wondered if that came back to haunt or became just too expensive. Yeah, because they got other beloved programs of the era like WKRP in Cincinnati. Yeah, that took a long time. You know, when I saw the actual recording of it, though, what that they did with with, you know, with with all the other cast members.

This is the reunion. Yeah, the reunion. We included Joe Flaherty, Joe Flaherty, no longer with us. Shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. Yeah. And Joe Flaherty. Joe told me a funny story one time about going to going to Ancaster for a Christmas dinner, a family thing, and he he pulled up, got out of the car, and he realized that he wasn't wearing any shoes. He was in his sock feet. And that's just such a Joe Flaherty story, like totally lovable Joe.

But I, you know, I don't know, I don't think this thing is going to come out. And I have to be honest as an SCTV fan, it kind of felt like they were making a clip show. So you were there, just to let me know you were helping Scorsese up the stairs. So we know you were in the building. Yeah, I was in the building. Because I have talked to many people

and we're gonna do it right now with you, but who tell me it was great. So what is your honest assessment? I was a little more, I was a little more meh. Underwhelmed. Underwhelmed, well, you know what it is. Shout out to Sloan. Well, it was a little more meh. Okay. You know, from your- Underwhelmed. Underwhelmed. Well, you know what it is- Shut up the Sloan.

Well, it was sort of like the cast guys, the cast members all sort of told the same stories that they've been telling for years. And there wasn't any sort of like digging deeper into stuff. And there was a lot of good natured camaraderie, haha, remember when. Right. But there wasn't like anything sort of deeper. I had kind of, I wished Harold Ramis had been there. I just, there wasn't anything deeper.

And I want to mention that there's the famous British director producer team known as The Archers, so that was Powell and Pressburger. And Scorsese loved them. And he released a film a year or two ago about them where he like Dissect scenes in their films and says hey like this really affected me what I thought about directing That's not unfortunately I think what the SC TV thing was gonna be it was gonna be more of a clip show and I I

Really wish that it was more of the Powell and Pressburger kind of thing Especially because they did get as you know I really wish that it was more of the Powell and Pressburger kind of thing. Especially because they did get, as you know, because you were there, they got the aforementioned Rick Moran as to be there. And other than I'm thinking Ian Thomas's son had a terrible accident. And there were some benefits for him that united Bob and Doug McKenzie. But other than that, oh, and some beer commercials. Yeah, they got together for some beer, but they probably did that remotely or whatever. But this was actually, Rick Moran is back with the gang

and it's a very rare occurrence that we see that. Yeah, I mean, when I talked to Rick on the phone for the DVD release and he was just very polite and said he just really didn't wanna participate in any extra features or anything for the DVD, and he was like the nicest guy in the world about it but I was still kind of sad because I actually thought he would have some interesting observations. Oh sure sure and we talked about Paul Myers earlier

because you directed videos for him and we talked about he's got a John Candy book coming out but you know John Candy this larger-than-life you know figure who comes out at SCTV, even just to hear everybody talking about John, that to me sounds like a documentary unto itself. You could carve out docs from this. And again, I've never seen the footage. I wasn't there. No one invited me. Can you believe it? Come on. But it sounds like you're a little underwhelmed and maybe Scorsese was and maybe a couple of business factors get involved. maybe there's some music clearing thing and then a domino effect is like I'm moving on to other projects because Scorsese's always got other projects on the go.

Like the Irishman takes some time because that movie takes time to watch. Well you know I'm sort of surprised that they didn't finish it though because really it's they get a bunch of people together put them on a big set ask them a bunch of questions they all tell some tales from the past everyone chuckles then throw in some clips. I mean like a junior producer could put that show together. I guess I give this footage to Stu Stone. You know what, give it to…

I can put it together. You could put this together. Absolutely. Absolutely. Now, give it to Fedder Green. You friendly with Avi Fedder Green? Do you know this name? No.

Prolific producer of films in this country. Oh, I know who you're talking about. So Avi Feddergreen, who, his lawyer actually is a huge Toronto Mikes fan. This is how I got connected to him. And I guess he was talking to her about he had a podcast idea and she dropped my name. And I can't remember her name. It doesn't matter, but she loves the program. So hello to her. But I just launched a new show from Avi

Feddergreen called Unleashed. And it's basically he's shining a light on what he sees as a, um, the problems of the Canadian film industry. So you, you know, you may be so interested and he may be interested in even having you as a guest on the program, but, uh, it depends how much real talk you want to deliver.

But like, do we have a problem with independent filmmaking in this country? I'd probably be late for that one too. We'd find you on a different street. Yeah, I mean I'm old enough that I've lived through about five golden ages of documentary and I've also lived through about five the documentary is dead periods and I think we're kind of in a documentary is dead period right now. For a lot of sort of things going on, but streamers have really sort of up, but there is a lot. I don't know. I feel like there's a lot going on. Like here's where I just a couple of things that the listenership would be interested in is that they made a CFMY documentary and that's currently shelved

in Scotland or something. Yeah. Like that's done. And not that I heard that one might be underwhelming too. Well, I mean, there's a lot of, there's a lot of people, I mean, there's a lot of people that are out there doing like really cool, interesting docs. Think of Joel Goldberg doing things, right? 100%. But it's really hard to get your doc seen and that is one of the big issues is the amount of places that video docs are being shown is getting smaller and smaller. Right, like you said TVO, it's like how many outlets do we have? Unless you're the tragically hip, right? Yeah, exactly. You gotta be a huge name like the tragic, although Blue Rodeo's, I haven't seen it yet, but I had Greg Keeler on talking about it. There's been a little

flood of music documentaries in the past couple of years because I think a Lot of doc funders have started to shy away from political or controversial docs. That's an issue Right and so now they're saying oh, maybe we've done too many music docs now So there's that sort of thing going on as well. And are you aware of this 299 Queen Street West? Document I am aware. I would love to see it. Well I did see it at Roy Thompson Hall. This guy, Sean Menard is his name. Young guy, he came over and we talked about it so he's an FOTM like you Scott, but he invited me to the premiere at Roy Thompson Hall. You rented out Roy Thompson Hall on a Friday night. It was fine, like it's a good nostalgic trip, a lot of good

Ed Conroy retro Ontario clips and a few legends printed, but it was more or less the first half anyways. And then it sort of became like, let's celebrate these big American stars who actually visited 299 Queen Street. So you get a lot of like Britney Spears and NSYNC and Beyonce or whatever. And I kind of left, it was cold.

That wasn't really what I was there for, but you know, it was fine. And then it was going to drop on Crave and it was promoted as such and it was like oh Crave is gonna have it on Friday or whatever it never did drop on Crave and this is now a couple years ago yeah so well I mean is people say oh there's documentaries everywhere but but the reality is this a lot of what people are calling documentaries now are really just true crime news Magazine that clip shows right, you know or their celebrity driven You know celebration fasts. I mean, I just write I mean how many documentaries do we need that are executive produced?

Oh like j-los like yeah by the person who's in the dock I mean, it's to me that's not necessarily a a dock anymore You got the Prince News that came out. Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly so I'm dying to see that project. I bet it's amazing Yeah, that's the warts and all real talk on Prince and the family and litigation and made a deal and Netflix is not going to drop it It was pretty long too. And it took a long time. It's a five hours Like wouldn't you like to see warts and all five hours on print instead? Print is a complicated genius, no question. No question.

So let's explore it. But now we're gonna get the official version executive produced by the estate of prints. Yeah, and then you're never going to get the real time. No. In that situation. And also let's say an artist spent like five or six years working on this project for nothing. That's why I always wish maybe that guy leaves a hard drive in my driveway and maybe I plug

it in and I accidentally put it on my YouTube channel. Is this going to be like the new cocksucker blues? Like, you know, like pirated copies float around for years and years right like the old the speakers corner outtakes but those guys I mean unless you have a celebrity attached to it streamers kind of don't want to like I aren't interested in challenging docs anymore and it's really it's really also they're risk-averse when it comes to litigation they're risk-averse to being having Donald Trump mad at them so So true man. What a shitty time to be alive. Like really now everything has got to go underground. If you know this is one of the last outlets where

will they're talk about such things right Scott? Well and it's also when you spend a lot of time you know supporting good journalism over the years say at the New York Times or the Washington Post and then you discover like that they both turtle and become like Trump ass kissers. Oh, I know. I know. Same with Apple computer by the way too.

No, you're a hundred percent right. There's Tim Cook right next to Trump at the inauguration. Yeah, and even when you, and I don't have an American IP address, but I am told by people I trust, if I had an American IP address and I went to Google maps, I would see the Gulf of America.

Yeah. Like that's there today. My goodness gracious. Okay. See, I just checked the clock here. So here's what we're going to do because there are some points I still want to get with you, some fascinating things you've done. I want to discuss.

We'll have to be, you know, quick here. But I want to say thank you to Nick Aynes the CEO of Fusion Corp Developments Inc who stepped up to fuel the real talk he's got a great podcast called building Toronto skyline and he made his Toronto mic debut last week and a lot of people are talking about it there's warts and all really it was Nick Aynes warts and all that was the five hour documentary on Nick Aynes and it wasn't some sanctioned, polished 90 minutes piece of bullshit there.

So you know, take a listen and learn more about Nick, a real person who basically showed you his real self. That's all I'll say about that. Then I will also tell people, RecycleMyElectronics.ca and I know you you scott you collect all tech what's your prize possession in your your old tech you know that's funny to say that's funny you should mention that because this is a product from the seventies

and it's a canvas bone and is called the bone phone and these are very very rare what is a bone phone do i don't remember how i can i'm gonna open it up and I'm gonna hand you the manual because it has some amazing Farrah Fawcett looking 70s people modeling it inside. Wow, I don't even want to put my grease on this. I watch Antique Roadshow on PBS. They don't touch it. So the bone phone was a 70s radio system. Oh, I see.

You wear it like a backpack. You wear it around your neck. Yeah. And it's like a towel, like as if you had a small towel around your neck. Yeah. And then because your body's sort of like an acoustic resonator, when you turn it on,

the audio vibrates through your body and you hear it in your head. The bone phone. So you don't need headphones. An incredible product at the end of a certain sort of like technological thing because about the time that this came out, the Sony Walkman 1 came out and totally killed it. Right, right. But yeah, so I just.

So that's a 1979. Yeah Pwn phone bone phone phone. Okay bone phone that you buy you said why it's in a Shape like a bone I guess cuz it rhymes with phone and nothing more It goes through your bone it goes through your bones into your good name inside of your head and it works and it works And you look and it has all this cabling to attach it to yourself which is really kind of like I mean now it's like you can use it to cycle jog walk mow the lawn spectator sports walk the dog ski skate work or just relax I get all those and I think and if I'm not mistaken I think it makes a great gift for mom, dad, sister, brother, uncle, aunt, grandpa, granddad, boss, co-worker.

So that still works, so it's not going in the garbage anytime soon. No, but if I had to, I'd take it to the recycling. Yeah, recyclebyelectronics.ca is where you would go, Scott, to find out where to drop it off in your neighborhood, to be properly, where is your neighborhood these days? I live in Junction Triangle. Oh took you a long time you were still late I feel like that's close close enough Junction Triangle West End you should have been here are you gonna are you gonna mention I was late anymore during this but I am enjoying my coffee so you're am I on the late late show or

just the late show right Craig Kilbourne or whatever. Okay, tell me my friend about the Church of Elvis. This is the... Oh God. From 2012. Yeah, so for Vision TV I went and did like a four-part series on the spiritual world of Elvis Presley. Traveled through all through the southern US and California as well and Las Vegas and sort of tried to look at Elvis a as someone who became almost like a religious figure to the fans here and also a look at his own personal spiritual journey Which must have been it was pretty trippy when you're Elvis and it you know the whole world You know you're one of the most recognized people in the world

Yeah, no doubt so hope my buddy Elvis has checked out the Church of Elvis. Where would you see that today? Well, I guess Vision TV, Moses was behind it, you know, and I guess it's they still show it on, I'm sure there's some bootleg copies online because there's so many Elvis fans. Right, so they'll make docs about Elvis because he's a big name. So they will make a doc about Lee Aaron though? Yes, I'm sure they will. I think Lee has an excellent story. I love that Lee is still making great music, still rocking. She still looks great. Oh, she actually, I mean people always think of the music part of her world, but she is an absolute blast to hang with and talk to. She's really

very funny, very witty, very smart. No, big fan here. Yeah. And making great music. Yeah, her guitar player, Sean Kelly, I guess at one point. And we had the anniversary just like a couple of days ago. Absolutely. Sean Kelly's been over here. Big Lee Aaron fan here. What's the name of that dog going to be? Does it have a name? Well, our working title is Test Your Metal.

Right. Work on that metal there. I want to make a suggestion for the new title of your Lee Aaron documentary. You ready? Yeah. Just one word. Karen. Okay.

Karen. Yeah, I don't think so. I don't think so. Shot down. Okay. I don't think so. All right. So because we literally are in our last five minutes, Scott, um, wow. So I mean, maybe I almost should ask you which hotspots you want to get, but I do want to say you worked with, uh, FOTM, uh, Michael Voya Voda.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, actually, well, here's something, you know, Mike and I are, uh, during COVID we did a video for our good friend, Katherine Rose, music video for her. And he's been currently involved in this big box set thing and remix of the Plaster Scene replicas. Wow. Box, sorry, not box, a library of music, which he was a member of the band

and he was also a producer of the band. And so they then decided, hey, let's do a little documentary about the replicas. That's cool. And so Mike and I are working together on that. Yeah. He's cool. Kat came. I don't know.

I don't think he does many podcasts actually. So it was kind of an honor to have him. He's on a motorcycle. So he's like, he lives not too far from here, but he popped down. We had a great chat, you know, bare-naked ladies and more, but it's worth mentioning that getting along the video that Julian Taylor, FOTM Julian Taylor is featured on that song. Yeah, another one of the, another nice guy,

a super, super guy. Yeah, and I thought the video turned out pretty good, actually. It sounds so surprised. They won, no, no, no, it won a bunch of, not because of the people that were in it, but made during COVID kind of times, but it got a great response. And, uh, and I don't know, are you familiar with the replicas?

Not enough. Like I feel like I need to educate. Well, there's going to be a documentary coming down the pipe that voy a vote and I are doing. So you had me at hello. Yeah. Kidding me. So we're like, for the Lee Aaron doc and that doc and these docs you're working on like who distributes these docs like uh like tbo doesn't pick them up for the uh Lee Aaron project you know in this particular case we're looking at uh you know pitching to the amazons and the craves of the world right and going that route sure um possibly craves of the world. Right. And going that route. Sure. Possibly doc channel, the CBC doc channel.

But now, yeah, that's where we're starting. There. I think I was, I know I was talking to Alan Zweig recently, and he was complaining that nobody would distribute a documentary he wanted to make about Stomp and Tom Connors. And he said there was an end. I was thinking, oh, because Stomp and Tom, that's a big name in this country and Zweig is a good filmmaker. So it's tough times, I would think. Alan, I know you're listening right now. Oh, there's not. I was waiting for the message for Alan. I know he's listening. Do you and Alan get along? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. We always have this sort of like close but distant kind of relationship at the same time. The Stomp and Tom thing, no he's totally right about that. He's totally right about it. I mean the number of venues and places to show docs is

diminishing and getting smaller. Just as the number of independent cinemas are getting smaller in the country. It's becoming a real challenge and people are gonna have to become their own distributors. Well, they already are becoming their own distributors just to a large extent. Our shout out to Hollywood Suite and David Kynes. Yeah, they're helping. They help my buddies Stu Stone. They support the Review Cinema. Thank you Hollywood Suite. David Kynes, sponsor Toronto Mic'd. That's all I'll say. Okay, so I wanted to ask you one important question and then I'll leave the floor to you for the last five minutes to basically whatever you want to talk about. I do want, because there's so much we could have covered.

I mean, the Memphis Blues Society, there's so much I wanted to cover. But I do want to ask you if you like Italian food, Scott. I love Italian food. Would you like, would you take from me if I I were to gift it to you, a large lasagna? It is frozen in my freezer. That's where I put things that are frozen. Although you could put it outside today and it would freeze, but then the raccoons would eat it.

But it is from Palma Pasta, Mississauga and Oakville institutions. I was at Palma's kitchen on the weekend. Delicious. I got some Arrabbiata sauce actually and it's unbelievable. That is empty but it will be full when you leave. Would you like a lasagna Scott? I would love that. I always wondered like whether you were just giving people empty boxes or not. No. Every guess. You can confirm. Even Zweig will tell you that box is full when you leave.

I think Fergus Hamilton said to me yesterday that you gave him like a busload of stuff. Well. He said, oh yeah, you're gonna get all this swag. Fergus, fantastic, love Fergus Hamilton. He got his Great Lakes beer like you did. He got his measuring tape from Ridley Funeral Home and he got his lasagna, but he might've also got the Menaris giveaway,

which is not currently active. So people ask you about this? They always make the same joke. I know what it is. Am I supposed to measure myself for my casket? That is the joke I get like 90% of the time. You need to give me an original. I know I have a couple others but I'm not going to I don't want to say them publicly. Well I usually hint at those because those are obvious but okay last five minutes firstly how was this for you? Like was this Toronto Mike debut everything you hoped it would be?

That's a everything I hope well I mean I hope that we were going to discover tabletop fusion so no we didn't solve that but other than that it was fine and if I hadn't been late you know I should own up to it now. We probably would have solved that scientific mystery. And by the way, I just want to mention, I just finished the Booker Prize book, Orbital. So for all you voyavotas out there that love space literature, it's great. I just want to plug that. It was good. Well, you know what? Because I covered a lot of ground.

I didn't talk about ear to the ground. No, there's a lot of things. I didn't talk about keep on shucking. No one even the food channel. Yeah. Yeah. I'm yeah. And I mentioned that, you know, the you were nominated for a WC handy award by the Memphis

Blues Society. It's a something I'm really proud of. So this is this is the five minutes before I play the Rob Proust cover of lowest of the lows, rosy and gray. This is the five minutes where you can share with me the things I didn't get to, because I was rushing. Yeah, yeah. Well, first off, I would like to discuss the origins

and the causes of the Peloponnesian Wars, if that's okay with you. You know what, I'll go to this romantic Valentine's Day lunch that my wife has taken me to, and I'll just leave it recording when I come back. I'll still be here explaining. Well by then I'll be in the third Peloponnesian war because there was more than one actually for those that know. Do you want to leave saying anything about Toronto politics? Yeah oh you were such a mind reader so like you you were going to

say like what is the one message about Toronto politics that I would give to the world? What is the one message about Toronto politics that Scott Dobson would give to the world? I, you know, kind of feast and live on a lot of this stuff. I believe that the number one thing that has held Toronto back as a city in my lifetime is a lack of term limits on councillors. I'm not knocking counselors. There's been some fantastic ones over the years. But that said, you look at it even

today. You wonder why we can't move forward on things that are so friggin obvious that we need to deal with. And it's because there's people who've been on council for 30 years and have ideas from the 1950s. And so you know, that's what Anna Bailau said to me when she was a councillor. She said, you know, three three terms, you should get in, run for mayor or get out. And I think she's right. If you can't do your mark in 12 years, you know, then get out of the way and

then get out of the way and let someone else do it. And so that would be my number one thing to improve the city of Toronto for everyone is to get new ideas in I think that's actually a really good idea Scott because It's very difficult to Defeat an incumbent in municipal politics name recognition. Although Mark Grimes went down To Amber Morley last time. Yeah, that was interesting. That doesn't happen very often. No, it doesn't. I enjoyed this very much, Scott.

There's a gentleman did send in a hello to you and I got a little like I sensed a wink from it. So I'm wondering what you would say about this name. You ready? See, I saved this for the very end so you can't storm out. But what would you say about the name Mark Wiseblot who says hello? Oh, I know him. I know him. He's a smart cat. He's listening too. He's a smart cat. You know, he was so smart. I had him on every month for years. Yeah, I remember. Three hours. Yeah. Until he politely asked if he could stop coming

over and I realized I don't think I have the power to make him do this maybe I do those were good those were good shows I agree and if mark is listening and of course he's listening anytime he wants to come back we had this breakfast television upheaval yeah dramatic Sid Sixero and FOT and Meredith of Shaw out. They don't get to say goodbye. No more. Something new is in the works. And I was thinking, what would Mark have to say about this? And maybe, maybe he'll come by and tell us. So Mark Weisblatt, get your ass over here. Scott Dobson, thanks so much. We'll take a photo by Toronto Tree. I'll get your lasagna and then I'm off to my hot date.

Thanks for doing this, buddy. No problem. And that brings us to the end of our 1,630th show. Go to torontomic.com for all your Toronto Mic needs. Much love to all who made this possible. That's Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, RecycleMyElectronics.ca, Building Toronto Skyline, and Ridley Funeral Home. I think Joel Greenberg, a conversation with him, will my next episode dropping tomorrow. See you all then. Music