Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Toronto Mike'd #130

Episode Date: July 24, 2015

Mike chats with Elvis about the Pan Am Games, Kim Mitchell, Humble and Fred, and a whole lot more.

Welcome to episode 130 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything, often with a distinctly Toronto flavour. I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me this week is social media guru Elvis. Wow. What did that happen? I write a new intro each time. All right. Thank you. I think. It's good to write a new intro each time. All right. Thank you, I think.

It's good to be a guru. I guess. I feel like I should be wearing a robe or a turban or something. Yeah. Or with a cane. Like that wonderful Mike Myers film, The Love Guru. Which I bet is one of your top ten films of all time. Why would you say that?

Because you like such shitty movies. It's horrible. No, I like shitty movies. Remember Four Christmases? Yeah. All right. I bet you you're getting like opening night tickets to Adam Sandler's Pixels. Am I right?

I don't even know what that is. Wow. Filmed in Toronto. New Adam Sandler movie with Pac-Man. Tonight it debuts. I read a review that it's like the worst garbage he's ever produced and he's produced such garbage he has this is like amazing if you could produce like a new low i've never i don't think i've ever even seen a commercial for it or a trailer or anything that's another

indication you've cut the cord yeah it could be well you know what i i do try and look at trailers but maybe it was because i saw it was an Adam Sandler movie. I just decided not to watch it. It has the, and I don't watch Game of Thrones, but it has the short fellow in Games of Thrones. Oh, Peter Dinklage. Yes. The short fellow. The little person.

Is he a little person? I didn't know. I was caught in that moment of what's the term. He's a little person. I described him. The short fellow. Danny DeVito is short. Peter Dinklage is a little person. Danny DeVito is short. Peter Dinklage is a little person.

Danny DeVito is great. He's a great penguin. He's a big fish, too. Oh, fantastic. Danny DeVito fellow. Hey, you know how you need that one tune that gets you jazzed up or whatever? Yes. Oh, here.

This is real quick here. I can't wait this is gonna be something horrible um no it won't be horrible i don't know maybe it will be horrible uh but i'm just saying still many years later that if i'm i don't know whatever i'm doing if i need that pick me up or whatever and this tune i call this tune on the playlist it's got this crescendo so it's climbing up right now and it's like i start to feel it like I'm Hulk Hogan at Hulkamania or whatever. Like I'm starting to shake and I'm starting to feel it and it's coming. And it's like a wave is going to just take me over and then I'm just going to ride it.

Let's go. Did you just get goosebumps? Did that fire you up? Don't be mad. You're finally here and I'm a mess. Did you just get goosebumps? Did that fire you up? I'm going to go for a fun run. I'll be back. All right. Welcome, everyone, to Toronto Mike.

Q10 Toronto Mike. My name is Elvis. And Mike is in... I'm like Garth when Mike Myers leaves the basement. That's right. Or Mike Myers leaves the basement. That's right. Or when Wayne leaves the basement. Once in a while, I actually flirt with the idea

of doing an episode of my own and then I think better of it and I don't do it. Yeah, that's a good idea. I think, no. I need like at least, I don't know, even if Jarvis was there,

like somebody to talk to. I'm surprised that we're able to fit in this podcast in between all of the shitty Pan Am games you're watching. Oh, do you want to dive right in? Yeah, Panamania.

You want to dive right in? I thought that's who you're going to play is Panama. And we're going to start talking about bullshit Pan Am games. Oh, I'm stupid. I should have done that. That would have been perfect. Okay, so let's do the Pan Am chat first. And then I want to talk to you about something cool happening in this hood.

And I want to talk about some episodes you've missed because you've missed lots of great episodes. Okay. I love how when I'm on the show,'s just a let's recap all the other episodes only because i mean i can find a listener just becomes a big fucking ad for all your other podcasts nice okay come on it's more subtle than an ad first of all ads pay money okay well you pay yourself yeah i pay myself with handy jays by the way way, Cheryl, the option is still on the table for you to come and be part of the podcast for the same salary that I'm willing to donate my salary to you to be on this podcast. Regarding Cheryl, every day on the most recent open mic, there's a Baltimore Orioles update every single day. Like, oh, Orioles lost.

That's right. It is her team. Them, the Cardinals, right? Although, yeah, but it seems to be more, in my humble opinion, it's become like 90% Baltimore. And so she likes the Coyotes, but doesn't she also like the Cardinals? Or no? Yeah, I think she likes all the Phoenix stuff, I think. But for baseball, it's become the Orioles.

But every day, it's like, she's got to finish. Every day, there's an update. And somebody complained the other day. I actually like it. Like, it's something charming about it. Yeah, it's fine. It's totally fine. Oh my God, not good good my oreo's lost again it's so great and i love i i wonder if it's because of her trainer i love like this trainer oh but the

trainer's the superman does the trainer have any idea the amount of control and influence he has over her life it's okay quite quite insane there were a lot of comments before the pan am games that she would have like there would be traffic issues and her trainer might not be able to get there because of the HOV lane and stuff. She was really nervous and anxious. And she reports in periodically to say, actually, it's not bad. My trainer's getting here, says the highways are pretty empty and it's fine. And she's letting us know that the trainer can still make it from Hamilton to her place. Oh, thank goodness.

Thank goodness. But she got really anxious about it. And, like, somebody, sometimes people will pull her leg. Like, she's so easy to, like, thank goodness. Thank goodness. But she got really anxious about it. And like somebody, sometimes people will pull her leg. Like she's so easy to like goof on. And you'll be like, oh, they're actually shutting down the Gardner for like they're tearing it down tomorrow. And I always, then I kind of laugh a bit. And then I go, and I always write a comment, Cheryl, John Smith is just, just messing with you. They're not tearing down the Gardner tomorrow.

Just FYI. Your trainer will still have a highway. Okay, so I'm going to start by just telling you, as recently as maybe a week before the opening ceremonies, I was so negative on these games, okay? I had Matt Galloway in that seat, and I was like, we were both talking about how underwhelmed we were by this, okay? I was ready to just hate these things. I was so set up. in that seat and i was like we were both talking about how underwhelmed we were by this okay i was

like ready to like just hate these things so what's set up so i have a list if you want it what was the turning point all right yeah yeah yeah it's because i'm as fascinated by this as you are because i was all olympics olympics olympics what's this bolt's not gonna be here there's a hundred meter dash without gatlin like i'm all like this in this vein okay and then uh see that's even more than i got yeah because i actually even do you like the olympics if you say bolt was here i still win okay but do you like the olympic yes okay all right absolutely hang in there okay i'd care more if bolt was here because at least i'd know uh we have the best hundred meter guy okay so I'm all negative on that I think my term

I blogged about this so I can't even like hide I can't even spin this I talked about I called it underwhelmed I think a week later

I'm still underwhelmed a week before the games then I so I took Jarvis so I took little Jarvis to the torch relay where Natalie Spooner was going to run in

with the torch okay we spent three hours at this park you shouldn't say this out loud because your boss is like, we pay this guy

too much fucking money. It's five to eight. It was after hours. It doesn't matter. What do you mean it doesn't matter? It's a three minute walk from five to eight.

Of course I got time. That's five minutes that you should not devote to walking in this fucking torch. Torch! Torch relay for what? The Greeks didn't invent

the pen name. Me first. There's no fucking torch. Go on. I go first. You can read torch. I fucking torch. Go on. I go first. You can retort. I will give you fair time. I'll try to be succinct here.

Except that I'm at the torch relay. Honestly, most amazing three hours. It was just such a wonderful ceremony. So the torch relay happens, and I'm like Natalie Spooner's in and inviting the cauldron, and there's so many people there, and we were all excited. So this happens. Okay, hold me on. Then I actually liked it so much, I actually biked to another torch relay at uh queen's key where the uh ferry ferry docks

by jack layden statue so i bike there for one okay later in the week then i watch the opening ceremonies on television and i quite and i'm like i'm enjoying it i'm like this is way better than vancouver is like i'm digging it and then and then the whole family we go to Pan Am Park and we check that out and now it's like now it's all like flowing through me I go to Nathan Phillips Square and I take a picture of this amazing Toronto sign and I know you're gonna tell me it's like the Amsterdam sign but fine but it's still still awesome and then I start streaming selected sports okay so I'm not watching everything okay but I wanted to see Ryan Cochran in the 1500 swim I watch he wins it was amazing and then i want to watch the men's baseball final ernie wick coaching canada versus usa

and i blogged about this game and you commented so you know it was a walk-off failed pickoff attempt but it was like crazy game and it was so much fun and then the next night i watched the uh american canadian basketball team win gold and then of course we all tuned in i think even you might've cared about this. Maybe a bit. You'll tell me in a minute, but Andre de grass won a hundred meter and he, I watched his heat,

a semifinal last night. Cause he's in the 200 meter final tonight. And then Damian Warner sets the Canadian record in the decathlon winning gold. So those were sort of all my events I'd watched. And otherwise I'd be, I'll be peeking at things and the kids are into it michelle and james went to diving they went to field hockey they loved all this the new facility

they loved and so it's just like maybe it's because i've been you know biking to the core and down to the waterfront and i've come around it and the volunteers have been amazing and i've seen the mexican bike team on lakeshore go by me And it's like, I'm going to be so sad and miss these games when they're over. That's where I'm at. I'm loving these games. And I know it's because it's in Toronto. And I know if it was in Mexico, I wouldn't be following these games. I admit that straight up.

But it happens to be in my backyard. And I'm absolutely in love with these games. Your turn. I don't know what to say. I'm like, I mean, you can tell the audience, my mouth is wide open. I'm in shock. I don't, I honestly, I'm not trying to be an asshole. I'm not trying to be funny. I'm not trying, this isn't a character. I don't understand anything that you've just said. I really don't. I can't comprehend how this is exciting for anyone in any capacity outside of the athletes and their families and obviously the people who you know the coaches and all that kind of stuff i think

you're too far removed i think you're too far removed i've been in the city every single day you don't even give yourself five minutes to walk to the torch relay that's how hard you work and you're out of town a lot the great no i haven't been out of town at all except for last yesterday i was at a funeral in ottawa unexpectedly but um there is a pan am game store at the right outside of my building like right on the main floor of my building and i i've joked that they they maintain a one-to-one uh ratio of customers to people who work in the store but that's not okay the nathan philips Square is a store and there's one at the Pan Am Park. Those are the two I've seen. There's one in the Eaton Center.

I have no idea. I haven't been to the store. Forget the store. That's never a good indication. You honestly don't feel it. You don't feel the city. The city is empty. To me, it's palpable.

The city is empty when you walk around downtown. Now, I have noticed a little bit of a difference in the last few evenings when I've gone home because there are more and more individuals walking around in the evening with their lanyards that are really fucking wasted. But you've been to any of the free concerts? That are really fucking wasted. So I've noticed now that people, as their events are done, they're starting to come out a little bit more. Have you talked to anyone who's been to an event? I had.

No, because I don't know anybody. Okay, so whenever I hear from someone who's been to an event, they all to a T are surprised at how exciting it was. It's a sporting event. It's fine, of course. You could be excited at, I am excited at my daughter's soccer practice as well. True, but that's your daughter's. So, right, exactly. I was in the Distillery District, had dinner there one time, and the most exciting part about that was that there was a a protest

that walked through distilled district saying end the games end the games um i don't know i just don't get it i don't understand it it's not something that we care about i think uh why should we care about it we should care about it because there's a ton of fucking money that was spent on this that could have been spent on so here's why um okay so you've you've decided essentially to opt out which i'll do periodically to things like i'm the only thing i had comparison is a lot of people seemed really excited by this like there was a british open playoff on the monday right okay i opted out of that like it wasn't it's different it's different well you know it wasn't in toronto it's there's not there's not billions of taxpayers dollars

that are going but you see that party so Europe said it happened in the first place. See, my brain has decided it's happening. I can either join the party or I can be like a grumpy curmudgeon and just like, ah, it's dead to me. I could go either way. But one way is a lot more fun. Like, I went the fun way. Yeah, well, that's why then you have John Tory, who's generally a smart man, I think, now suggesting that we should bid for the Olympics for a sixth time. Oh, Elvis, that'll be a party.

But a big competition, Rome and Boston. Let's go. Is that sixth? Because I only remember the two. I remember the Beijing beat us and Atlanta beat us. First bid was in 1960. We bid five times. I was very young.

Failed every single time. Very young in 1960. Okay, so this is one of those fun crossfire shows where you and I have different ends of the spectrum. It doesn't make any sense. There are so many problems in this city, and it's really sad that it takes the Pan Am Games for a fucking rail to be built from the airport to the downtown.

I agree, it's sad. Except this is one of the things. It's the only way you get all the government, the chip and the money to get things like the new aquatic center and all these improvements and stuff is having a stupid party like this. If this game failed, then there would have been at least some impetus to get change, to have change

happen for the right reasons, not because we want to have a party here. We can have parties. We don't need to have a $1.5 billion party. Did you consider bringing at least your oldest daughter to any of these free concerts? No. I took her to a TFC game.

Yeah, but you had... And that's right beside the Pan Am Park thing. I know. That was the day I was there. Didn't even go. I know. Didn't even go. Yeah, but a lot of TFC fans were there.

I would imagine. That's the day I was there because I can't remember if it was Instagram or Facebook or whatever. At Pan Am Park, while you're at TFC, and you booed me. Yeah, I did. I did boo you.

When I saw the boo, I told Monica, I said, I now know what Elvis is going to say about the Pan Am Games. It's horrible. It's horrible. I love it. I'm going to miss it when it's gone, but we got to move on. Oh, my God. How many times can we repeat?

I'm actually, honestly, I was thinking today. Okay, I have one last question for you. You said to me, and I couldn't figure out if it was you're being serious or not, because you are being ridiculous with this whole thing. So far, this podcast is all sincere. I'm not doing anything. Or you hope that Toronto is the permanent home of the Pan Am Games. Okay, well, that was a joke because it would never happen.

But if every four years we had this party, I love it. I would love it. To me, and maybe it's because you're in a go, and then you work hard, and then you kind of go back to Oshima. Dude, I've been to... Because all my stuff is biking and walking, to me it's palpable. You can cut the enthusiasm with a knife, as Gorilla Monsoon once said in WrestleMania 3. I want to punch you in the solar plexus.

Oh, was it Steve Anthony? Steve Anthony was pissed off that this brother, Jake Jake Edwards made so much money off that stupid bet. That's brother Jake. Brother Jake has the copyright on The Champ. And he made a lot of money on it by syndicating it. And he's upset about that? Yeah. You got to go back to...

Well, I mean, it is a ridiculous thing, but it's funny. I love it. I love The Champ. Is it still on? I don't know. I've heard about Brother Jake's out of work. He has an app he's selling. Yeah.

He sells an app now for an iPhone. Called the Champ? Is it for the... And basically all the Champs are in there, but it's iPhone only. Oh, hello. Like you go to thechamp.com, I think, and that's where they push the app. I know you don't buy a lot of apps, but if you had the opportunity to purchase this app on your Android, how much would you pay?

I would pay up to $3.99. Wow. What's your number? I was thinking more. 99 cents? Hopefully it was 99 cents. Oh, for Brother Jake? Oh, I love Brother Jake.

Come on. The Champ. Do you know what the app is called? I think it's called The Champ. I don't know. I know that if you go to thechamp.com, he promotes it there. All right. Maybe someone can call in.

Do we have calls? Who is it? I read some Twitter questions to somebody recently. And afterwards, they were like, were we live? They thought the tweets were coming in live. But I had collected them earlier. We can make them live. You know, people are doing Periscope now.

We could be Periscoping this right now, like effortlessly. And then people could just like click in and watch. I don't know. Come on. You look good today. This is like a rarity. All right, we gotta move on. In fact, before I have a,

I have a couple of things here. All right, hit me, hit me. This is not, not Pan Am related. Okay, so you'll be happy to know. So in my hood, see this wonderful hood you're in? Yeah. Okay. You remember when I said five minutes away there was this Pan Am?

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So five minutes away I mentioned the, I enjoyed Natalie Spooner lighting the collagran at the Pan Am. It is tied to Pan Am. No, the Torch Relay. So that same park is hosting back to back to back three nights in a row

free concerts. Okay? The first night, this is a week today, so next Friday. Spoons. Really? Spoons.

Live down the street. You should come with the family. Last year I saw 5440, but this year they've done three nights in a row. Okay? And what are the other acts?

Yeah, I'm glad you asked. So that's Nova Heart by Spoons. I hope you're sitting down. This is the Saturday night. You ready? Oh, for fuck's sake. Are you sitting down? Canadian legend.

So yesterday, my mom's birthday is on Friday, I think. So I said, do you want to go see Spoons? And she's like, I don't know if I'm busy. I'm like, well, do you want to come with me and see Kim Mitchell on Saturday? You know what she says? Oh, I'd love to see her.

But she said it like she knew who it was. She was trying. Oh, I'd love to see her. I'm like, mom. Good for your mom. Kim Mitchell's not good for you so who is the american i was trying so i work with a lot of americans and i was trying to explain to them the phenomenon of kim mitchell and i mean yeah legitimately he was in a band and i you know he does have you know it's he's easy to make vacations yeah it's good shit he's go for some good shit. Yeah, yeah. Is there an American equivalent?

The one I settled on was the guy who does the Hawaiian shirts and has the restaurant chain. Oh, Margaritaville. Yeah. Jimmy Buffett. Yeah, Jimmy Buffett. That's sort of what I settled on as the American equivalent. Is that fair? Because these

are summer songs, right? Patio Lanterns, Go For A Soda. He's a legitimate musician. I am a patio lanterns go for a soda he's a legitimate i am a world party yeah yeah he's a legitimate musician but you know maybe not necessarily taking us seriously it's not bad that's not a bad i don't know okay not bad he's a cute i guess you know of course you're a cute drive yeah you know what and he's a guy uh speaking of radio he's a guy when he first started, it was like, Oh man, Kim Mitchell. He was, he was pretty rough, but he's turned into a really good broadcaster. I really do enjoy, I really do enjoy listening to him on the air.

Like Elliot, uh, not Elliot. Who's the, uh, uh, Kiprios. I'm thinking of the guy after the morning show, after the wonderful, he was horrible at first. He was, he was really, we've talked about that. We've talked about that. Um, so Kim Mitchell, I really enjoy him as a broadcaster, maybe even more than... But he'd be a fun, free concert.

Can you imagine walking down the street on a Saturday night and Kim Mitchell? Yes. Hey, speaking of Canadiana, did I hear correctly? I was in Ottawa, so they were more... Did you know that Ottawa is celebrating or leading up to the 150th birthday of Canada? They are having events

like weekly in Ottawa right now? Every weekend, there is something that's building up to the... I've been immersed in the Pan Am Games. ...the birthday in 2017. It's fucking crazy.

Anyway, it's crazy. That's a big birthday. Did I hear correctly that Kanye is no longer... No, that's not true. He's closing. I heard that he's... One more night, though. I just told you

about Friday and Saturday. This is a long weekend, okay? So I don't even have to work. There's like a civic holiday. This is the one after this one. So we got Spoons on the Friday night. I recently met, yeah, I was just there seeing Spoons. Amazing band. I might have

Panamania right now. You ready for what's happening Sunday? Van Halen You too Isn't that amazing? Yes For free concerts Down the street

I think that's amazing Last year at 5440 I'm like This is fucking amazing We're outdoing ourselves now Hey do you want Do you think What do you think

The chances are that Roshan knows Who this is? 100% He's more Canadian than you. Although he's been quiet lately.

He has been, yeah. Do you think he stopped listening? Maybe because you're not on Well, because I

haven't been on his song. He's waiting for me to get done, Sherry. Remember, Glass Tiger, what's his name,

was really involved in the Vancouver Olympics. Yep. Didn't he write that song? He did, believe, write

that song, right? You know what, our song is better than that song. What is the Panam that song? He did, believe, write that song, right? You know what? Our song is better than that song. What is the Panamania song? It's a big one. Serena Ryder. I can't remember it off the top of my head

except I hear it because I watch the CBC coverage and they use it. But it's a cool tune. It's a better song than that, I believe. We win again. All right.

Now moving on. Okay, so Elvis, since you were last here, you missed the following five wonderful episodes. All right. I love moving on. Okay. So, Elvis, since you were last here, you missed the following five wonderful episodes. All right. I love... I'm going to love commenting on these. Matt Galloway from Metro Morning.

You know what? A lot of people seem to listen to this show. It's very popular. It's very good. I listened this morning. Did you listen to this episode? No, of course not. Oh, that hurts me.

I wouldn't... You know, I wouldn't listen to it because I don't... Oh, it's just like the Pan Am Games. You're going to pretend it doesn't exist. No, no, no. No, I just don't listen to the CBC. Not because I don't... I have nothing against it.

As I get older, my percentage listening to CBC Radio 1 goes up. I'm at like 90% now. You are getting really old really quick. Yeah, but I just saw your birthday. You're really old really quick. I'm only I just saw your birthday. You're really old. I'm only two years ahead of you. Today is birthday plus nine. I can't.

Nine days. B plus nine. So I'm two years ahead of you and in the best shape of my life. Good for you. Thank you. Roger Ashby. Yes. Have you heard of him?

No. Is that true? You've never heard of the great Roger Ashby? Yes, I've heard of him. I didn't listen to it. Yes. I was worried. That would be one that I would be interested in listening to.

I think he would probably. But you haven't, even though you. No. Okay. Actually, that is one that is downloaded on my phone. Melissa DeMarco. Not a huge. Beautiful woman.

Not a huge interest, I'm sure. She was a principal in DeGrasse. Did I see a picture of you and her? Yes. Yeah. We took some shots together. Good for you. We were a good looking couple I'm sure. She was a principal in DeGrasse. Did I see a picture of you and her? Yes, we took some shots together. Good for you. We were a good-looking couple.

Mocha from Roz and Mocha. Yeah, I have both of those on my phone as well. I want to listen to those. I want you to take a note. That's two out of the last four guests there that are visible minorities. I have a quota now. You're like Jerry Seinfeld. The car is getting copies. Is that right?

Women and... Amber Giro gave me a quota, so I'm trying to fill it. So after Mocha, I had John Downs. Did we decide if Matt Galloway was actually... I asked him. He identifies as a half black, half white man. Oh, he identifies as a white man. One parent of each.

I asked him how he identifies. And then John Downs. John Downs. He's, half white man. Oh, he identifies as a white man. One parent of each. Gotcha. I asked him how he identifies. And then John Downs. John Downs. He's a very white guy. Yeah. Yeah, he was great. Can he have a whiter name? I don't think so.

So do you know John Downs? I know. From your AM radio days? I know of him, but I don't know him. All right. Well, that's... I would listen. Would I listen to John Downs?

I'm not sure. Probably. He was interesting. I thought he was interesting. Consider I never heard him. So sometimes it's weird when I have a guest on. How did you find John Downsend? If you don't know him, did he reach out to you?

Somebody suggested because he got fired by CFRB. Right. I wanted to find out why he got fired. You love all the juice. I need this. But he did say Rob Ford. Doug Ford was responsible for him being fired at 640, which was fascinating. Yeah, because he was the only one on the station who wasn't pro Rob Ford.

Oh, well, he might be a little bit paranoid. He doesn't have like a smoking gun on this, but he's got a lot of... Like CNN always has their token conservative and Fox has their token liberal. Yeah, but do they fire their token liberal? No. So John Downs got fired. I know, so I don't think it was because of that. I don't know.

Upcoming guests. But what do I know? I don't know anything. Michael Landsberg. I had a chat with him last week. Yeah, so Michael Landsberg is excited to come in. We're going to find a time he's going to come in. Wow, can I say something at the risk of him not coming in?

Yeah, he won't hear that. This is a pretty tiny basement. I'm not sure his ego would be able to fit down here. Oh, we went for it. I've heard that about him. Is that right? Yeah, I've heard that. He's a massive egomaniac.

Is he such a big ego that he can't say no to this invitation? Or why isn't his ego so big he would say no to the guy podcasting in his basement? Like, why was he so enthusiastic? Well, I think you're pretty well known now. Even the great Michael Lansberg. I think if this was like three years ago, he would have not even responded. I'm going to tell Michael Lansberg that Elvis thinks he's a good guy. Why would you do that?

I'm just kidding. Eric Smith. Oh, nice. I like like eric yeah i've tweeted at back in him back and forth with him eric smith is like a lot he's actually you know what i remember him as like i don't know if he was an intern or like just like brand new guy on the fan he's evolved into a solid broadcaster i think he's really really good on the raptors broadcast he came up in that like uhombomeric young fan club. He was after them though.

Maybe a little bit, but I think he's in his late 30s. I think he's around my age, yeah. He's a solid broadcaster. That's very late 30s. It doesn't get later than that. Yeah, you're right. I really, really like him.

You can tell him that. I really like him almost to the point where I might have a bromance with him if he gave me that opportunity. I can sneak you in. You can jump him from James' room over there. Nice.

Darren Jones. Do you know Darren Jones? The name sounds familiar. Do you remember Mr. Moe and what is it? Anyway, he's done a million things. When you see him, you're going to know him. All right. He's done a lot of stuff.

And he's going to come in. These are all like dates confirmed, Mike? They're all confirmed to come in. I don't have dates. I actually might take August off because I'm going, I got a camping trip and I got a cottage thing. I might just like take a hiatus in August. I haven't decided yet.

But David Alter is coming in. Have you heard of him? Yeah. So when do you bring in Alter in? Well, Alter. After the Pan Ams? Yeah. David is freelancing for the Pan Ams.

He's probably going to do some stuff for the Parapan as well, but he said that he won't be as busy. So yeah. Well, oh, I that he won't be as busy. So yeah, well, oh, I know him. I know Darren Jones. Yeah,

so Alter is your alter ego. Yeah, so we'll bring him in and we'll talk to him about the fan and how that works and MLSE.

He works for MLSE right now. Cool. So we'll see how that all works. It'll be fun. Jeff Lumby. Do you know this Lumby guy? I've heard of him.

He's on Red Green, not Red Green, yeah, Red Green Show. He's got a character on that. Yeah. I wish I knew the name of the character. I can't remember.

He's, like, he's been on many radios. He was a fan 590 morning guy one summer, like, before Andy Crystal came in. that's probably how I remember him. But he's done radio,

a lot of stuff in Kitchener, and he's done a lot of, like, TV things, and voiceover stuff, or, like, anime and things. I don't know. He's done a lot of stuff in kitchener and he's done a lot of like tv things and he voiceover stuff or like anime and i don't know he's done a lot of interesting things cool so it'll be a fun chat and that's actually the only committed guests i have listed here so exciting times i have i have a guest that i would love to be able to see if i can get in or you can get in i already mentioned david alter no not david alter another one because i think that he

would probably have the most amount of stories and a very unique view of broadcasting because he's a freelancer but you hear him all the time who roger lejoie oh my god he's a freelancer yeah he's they're stealing him and the fan he's like yeah he's like the he's like their utility guy because he does so much that move bugs me you know what they did to him because he's a full-time permanent They fire him, and then they bring him back as a freelancer. That move pisses me off. I don't know if they ever did. I don't know if they ever...

But he's on the radio. I know, but I don't know if they ever had him as a permanent guy. Yeah, I'm sure from the early days, he would... Maybe back in the day. Him and Storm and Norman and all that stuff. Well, you never know. He might have wanted to do that. Because he did Oshawa General's broadcast.

He was doing Toronto Maple Leafs baseball. Like, this guy is a master. Bring him in. You know who is a good friend of his? David Alter. Not only guests. Jason Agnew. Oh, really?

Who is from Splat a lot. Apparently, he is exactly... David, I had beers with him, and he says that Roger is exactly like you think he is. He's just like a salt of the earth, nicest guy in the. I'll bring him in. I'm sold but he's gonna bring Storm and Norman with him. Why isn't Storm and Norman coming in? I haven't asked them but dude, I'm still upset that Howard Berger hasn't

replied yet. Hammerhead alert shirts Did you hear about Berger? Do you want to talk quickly about that? I saw your post about him and the lawsuits. He's basically claiming losses because he's basically claiming losses because he's paying his own money to go travel with

the Leafs. Right, but he's an independent blogger. But all he has is his blog. So the whole idea is you have to spend money to make money. There's a whole great debate here. For example, it'd be like if I took a trip to Paris and just to do a blog about what's Paris like.

And I expense that trip. I use that as a loss. All that expenses were like losses on my taxes or whatever. Because I would plan to make revenue from my blog entry. Anyway, so that model to me is fascinating because... He has his own business though, I guess, right? Right now, he has no money coming in. Yeah, but I don't think you need revenue to be able to claim expenses, do you?

Don't you have to demonstrate it's a real business? Well, if he doesn't have a job, then that's what his living is, right? I don't know. I could see how there could be a point. Yeah. He won the case, right? Yeah, well, the judge has to break a ruling, but that paper I saw did side with him, but it was like by a slipper.

Right, yeah, yeah, yeah. He was one of those backhanded, like, you know, it's not really a gig, and he has no real sign of, he never tries to get sponsors. It's like, oh, he didn't actually, you know, ask anyone to sponsor. I guess you can't,

I guess the tax law isn't there to determine if you're a good businessman or not. It's just, are you a business? Yeah, but it's kind of sad. What he does is he gets fired from the fan, but he keeps doing what he's doing, which is traveling with the Leafs. That's amazing. He goes to Manhattan to watch a Rangers-Leafs game, and then he's got to buy the hotel

and the food and all that. It's an expensive life. That's a pretty risky proposition for him to go about doing that, not knowing that it's going to actually work out. You could argue it's mentally ill. That's a lot of money, personal money that's being spent here. He's got kids, doesn't he?

I don't know. For fuck's sakes. I don't know. He hasn't responded to my request. Yeah, no kidding. So what do you think, speaking of Berger and Leafs talk, what do you think of Lou?

Lou. First of all, I did not see that coming. Did you? That's what she said, but no. Where's the insiders? The interesting part is that he resigns and signs on the same day.

Like, is that not the fishiest fucking thing ever? That is, yeah. So you're not allowed to negotiate while he's under contract? Unless you have permission from the devils. And usually that permission is... That would leak. That's something that we'd usually leak. But I mean, who does Lou have to get permission from?

I guess the owner. And the owner's maybe not going to leak it. So maybe you would be able to keep it quiet. I don't know. Is it, it does. I don't know what name another general manager that's gone from one team to the other and one to Stanley cup. I'm always, I'm always skeptical of this kind of stuff. Even with, even with Babcock, I do think he's a good coach, but you know,

not, there's not many Scotty Bowman. There's not a lot of Scotty Bowmans out there that can do this, that can win with multiple teams. But certainly it seems as though as long as the power lies where it should, you know, Shani knows his role, Lou knows his role, Babcock knows his role, and there isn't suddenly three big egos in the room. And you still got Dubas and Hunter. Hunter, yeah.

Some people say too many cooks in the kitchen, but as long as we all know our role. Yeah, as long as people's egos don't start going crazy. So don't bring Landsberg in there. Is that what you're saying? Or you don't have Babcock wanting to be the GM as well, or you don't have Lou wanting, didn't Lou coach this year? Yeah, he's one of those guys.

And of course, a lot of people are like, well, first of all, Lou's best years are way behind him. Sure. The Devils are not a model team right now. No, of course, a lot of people are like, well, first of all, Lou's best years are way behind him. Sure. The Devils are not a model team right now. No, and they're horrible under the salary cap. He doesn't know how to manage the salary cap at all. And he really did benefit from this young guy named Martin Brodeur who was going to spend 20 years there.

Right. If you take him out of that equation, who knows what the Devils are. I mean, they had Scott Stevens, but other than that. And they had Brennan Shanahan, right? They did. He played for them for a while. So, I don't know. Sure, on the surface, it looks great that. And they had Brennan Shanahan, right? They did. He played for them for a while. So I don't know.

Sure, on the surface, it looks great. Yeah, Niedermeyer too, right? Yeah. That was a good team. On the surface, former Leaf draft pick. Niedermeyer. Remember we traded away the- Yeah, the Corvers?

Corvers. Tom Corvers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Almost was Linder on us. So on the surface, yeah, great. Seems as though we have a fucking all-star front office. Let's have an all-star. But we had an all-star front office under Pat Burns.

Brian Burke as well, right? Remember, he hired a ton of guys. Oh, I know. He hired a ton of guys that didn't know hockey. You know, Shanahan went to my high school, so I'm going to put my trust in the Shanahan plan and see where we go. No, you're right.

So it's the same team as last year, except the most skilled player has been tossed out. So essentially, we're built to suck. We haven't talked about Phil Kessel. What do you think about

that move? I don't know. I feel like, you know, I'm so split on this. I go both ways. So sometimes I realize he had to go. Maybe there's poison.

Maybe Babcock, when he came on, is like, okay, but Kessel's got to go. Maybe he's a problem in the dressing room. Maybe the work ethic. There's something with kessel that's off two teams have discarded him already and he's such a skilled player something's off like sometimes i think he has to go but i feel like it's that trade reminds me a little bit of the like the vince

carter trade like it seemed at the time like i know vince has to go but there must be something of value for a guy that's skilled yeah we didn't really get much no we got nothing back so it's and maybe it was just a salary cap play. Maybe they just said, you know what, we want a salary off. Like, I'm not brokenhearted. He's gone because I never had, like, I loved his skill

when he decided to display it and stuff, but I never, you know, he's a hard player to really, like, get behind. I'm okay with losing the goals as well because this is a long-term rebuild and you can't say, well, where are we going to get these 30 goals next year? That's besides the point, but it is still going to be his, when we going to get these 30 goals next year? That that's besides the point.

But it is still going to be his when we do rebuild his 30 goals would be really fucking nice. And it would be interesting to see how he plays under Babcock because it would just just I'm just curious how he'd respond to Babcock. I think in Pittsburgh he's going to he's he I don't think Crosby is going to take the the the lack of a work ethic every single night. I just wouldn't think so. And then I heard he's going to he'll play on M work ethic every single night. You wouldn't think so. And then I heard he'll play on Malkin's Line.

That power play is fucking crazy, man. Yeah. By the way, my B team. So when my Leafs are gone, I adopt the Penguins as my team. This is what I've been doing since Crosby. Well, I've been doing it with Mary Lemieux, too. I've always liked Pittsburgh as my B team. And kind of neat to kind of pseudo root

for Kessel on the Penguins. I like Kessel, but again, I'm not too sad, but I, you know. Oh, what do you think of Steve Simmons talking about

the hot dog vendor? Who fucking cares? And then somebody did the mapping and said it was too far a walk for Kessel to do every day to get his hot dog.

Steve Simmons. Steve Simmons is... Is he like Ego too? Is he like Landsberg? I've never met the man. I don't know. Steve Simmons is, he was, is he like Lansberg? I don't know. I don't know if Steve Simmons like thinks he lives on earth really. Um, but he was the,

I don't even know what he calls it anymore, but, uh, what's his name? Fucking, uh, Michael or not Michael, Keith Oberman named Steve Simmons.

Oh yeah. Either the week or whatever he does. And he just ripped him a new asshole. It was fucking great. It was so great, the whole hot dog thing. As I observe Steve Simmons on Twitter, which is really the place I observe him, he has really toned down his act

and shaped up on Twitter because he was a Twitter disaster. And he's actually been on much better behavior. How about our good friend Damien Cox? Is he still blocking people up? I don't know he never you know the great dean blundell i saw this dean blundell unblocked toronto mike is that is that the opening of an invitation to come on this podcast i don't know i uh dm'd him it's funny i dm'd uh and i don't know if it's i can't never tell if i'm dealing with the person or if they have like a team. Do you direct mic to him?

I direct mic to him. I DMed the guy after we started following each other and once again, like, repeated my request that he come on and we talk about all this stuff. And then somebody goes, hey, thanks for the invitation. And it sounded like a third person. Like, hey, Dean would love to consider the offer could you please share with us uh some episodes in which you share your opinion of dean or something like that and then i linked them to a bunch like like i think we're probably the ones i wanted to then right because we know just uh no all his uh former colleagues oh okay so you didn't actually give your opinion you just no

yeah and uh i know it's i don't think he was ever going to come on, but he said he's busy right now, maybe later. But I don't think he's coming on. Why would he? If I'm him and you want to talk about CFNY, I'd be like, nah, it's over. We don't even talk about the fan. Is that over?

I don't know what time is it. I don't know. They're going to give it a good go. Another guy, Mike Ben Dixon was really pissed at me for, he felt an unfair interview with Amber Giro. Really? Yeah. So, and then I had a chat with Mike Ben Dixon in which I invited him on and he was basically like, he had nothing to gain by coming on. And then I told him, I think he's pissed at Amber Giro, not me. Like I'm told, what was I supposed to do with the Amber Giro interview? He felt, all I did was let a former employee of 14 years talk. I never spoke to, I don't know what 1010's like. Yeah. I've never, no. So I'm like, I think, and I, so

I try to reason with him. Like, I'm not the guy he's pissed. I think he's pissed at her. That's like the case of like when, when someone that you're with cheats on you and you get mad at the person they cheated on with. It's like, you should be mad at your partner. Of course. Cause that's one of the trusts. And really, with Amber, she told me she was pissed at a bunch of stuff at 1010, and I said, well, why don't you come on and talk about it? And literally, I just let her talk.

I knew nothing of 1010's situation. In fact, the other 1010 person I had on had nothing but good things to say, Siobhan Morris, and she had positive things to say. So I let her talk, but Ben Dixon was, did not like it. And at some point on air, he referred to it as that crappy podcast. Really? Yeah. And I got that reported to me by two different people. And then I called him out on it and he explained why he feels that way. And at the end of it all, he said, maybe he'll come on just after the summer. And

this one sounds like it warmed up at the end. Like, I think he saw that I wasn't the asshole. Like I'm not out there to get 10-10. Well, you are an asshole. I'm hoping to work at 10-10 one day. Who knows? You are an asshole, but you know. Yeah, but I'm not out to railroad anybody. Right, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

I think that's pretty fair. In fact, as far as I know, Ben Dixon's a good guy. I mean, oh yeah, we have to talk about that. What episode is this, 130? I think you've got enough examples now to show that that's not your style. This is 130. You're right. You're right. That's not my style. You're right. I listen.

Yeah, that's a good point. Ben Dixon, speaking of Ben Dixon, who runs, if anyone doesn't know, Ben Dixon's the guy in charge of programming at News Talk 1010. That's who that is, by the way. He canceled the Humble and Fred show two weeks ago. Yeah, I saw that. And we now know why. It's because he's going to syndicate a new show by Art Bell.

You know Art Bell? Oh, for fuck's sake. But it is midnight. First of all, I agree with you at first, and then I realize it's midnight. That's Art Bell time. Who's up at night listening to AM radio except those guys? So Art Bell then is going to compete with, oh no. Yeah, yeah.

He'll compete with 640. No, it's Nuri. George Nuri. No, George is, he's retired. It's not, well, Bell's not. Oh no, no, no, no. Sorry. Art Bell retired and he's coming back.

That's right. He'll go against his old show. His old show, yeah. Yeah, it's on 640. That show's fucking waxed. But that's the time of night. It's a fucking waxed out show. Yeah, like Spaceman.

Does Spaceman still do a show? Remember he used to do this conspiracy show, Spaceman on 640? a local guy he runs the he's like he runs the board and shit yeah i do remember and then he also has like i don't know i do remember that he's fascinating to listen to so so fucking weird anyone who's up listening to am radio at that time of night that's the kind of bell will be on 10 10 correct i would tune into that there you go that's why ben takes a day so were you tuning into the humbleble and Fred show? No. There you go. So I wrote a blog entry about this.

So Humble and Fred being canceled on 1010. That caused a big fucking uproar, dude. Yeah, so what do you think of that? Because I have some... I don't know. This whole concept of you and that, you getting guests from them, I never under...

You know what? And that, you know what? I get it. I think it's the same guy, though, using different names all the time. I actually think it's one guy. I can see that. Listen.

I think I know who it is, but, let me just set the record straight. Mike and I know each other. We've known each other for a long, long time. We actually started out with a professional business relationship, evolved into a friendship. That's fair. We're friends. Then we became lovers. We've been to each other's birthday parties. I went to your wedding. I was the mule at the, at your son's bris.

Is that what they call it? Mules? I think it's a mule, isn't it? I don't know. Anyway. Um, and,

and I've, I've, I've, I've, I've been in a feud with Humble myself. I'm not sure that Humble or Fred know who I am yet. I'm pretty sure Humble doesn't like me or maybe didn't like me at one point in time. Can you remind me? Cause I only remember the Costco room. Costco room. Didn't you tell humble about a Costco room and he made that a

bit on his show or am I confusing you? So you have the Costco room, right? Yeah. We talked about that here. You told humble about that at the wedding? Maybe. Because he went on the show and did a whole bit about this guy he knows who has a Costco room. Oh, yeah. That's me. And I listen to no one's TV. Yeah, that's me. But what beef is there? Remind me. He was on...

He was... He's got lots of beef. A former partner of his was on your podcast, and I was one of the first podcasts I listened to. And I commented that I... No, I did not say that. Don't start this bullshit again. She's a lovely person by the way.

She is a very lovely person. She's very nice. Anyway, I made some comments about the podcast itself and it was misinterpreted. Oh yeah, I do remember now. I do remember his comment. No, I remember now. Anyway, so I've known Mike for a long time

and I can tell you, and I've been a co-host of this podcast for, you know, there's been 130 episodes. Maybe I've done, what, 20 of them? At least. It's just very low for a co-host. It is very low. Well, you've had two co-hosts. Who was the first one? Rosie. Ihost. It is very low. Well, you've had two co-hosts. I don't know.

Who's the first one? Rosie. I know. And you're very nice. And you refuse to, and you enjoy doing interviews by yourself, which I actually think is a good thing. I can tell you that there's never been any influence from these guys in terms of who's on the show and who's not.

It might be the opposite. The more I think about it, it might be the opposite. I am privy to some of the conversations you have with these people in confidence, obviously, as your co-host slash co-investor slash co-producer slash lover. And I don't understand where that comes from. This is all you, man. This is all you. Oh, see, I know this.

It's all you. In fact, I actually wonder sometimes, first of all, not only do Humble and Fred never ever send a guest over, but I feel like they would maybe purposely not send a guest over. Yeah, you know what? Because it dilutes the quality. If they're a guest, yeah, it dilutes their show.

In the Venn diagram, there's a lot of Humble and Fred listeners who listen to this. Right. And they're noticing if guests are better on one than the other, especially considering one is a big, mega, you know, 20 years on terrestrial radio, like professional show.

And then one is me in my basement. Right. So if they're got, I don't know, let's say Anne-Marie was a big guest. They had they had Anne-Marie. OK, that's big. And they're like, Anne, got to go down the street and do Toronto Mike. It's a great podcast. She's like, OK.

And she drives over and does my podcast. Now they're promoting of having Anne-Marie is so diluted by the fact, you know, Toronto Mike's got Anne-Marie, too. Well, it's not so diluted, but it's to me, I can see why they wouldn't do it. And well, I can. I mean, you have you've got a point, but there's also then Anne-Marie shows up in your fucking basement and she's like, what the fuck? Why are these professional broadcasters?

Why are these professional broadcasters referring me to some psycho's basement? Like, what the fuck? They think it's cool. Right? But tell me that. I'm pretty sure that Anne-Marie is not. Strombo fucking loved it, man. He's like, this is real fucking talk, real radio.

Real talk, real radio. Isn't that a tagline somewhere in the city? Yeah, it's mine. It's mine. Anyway, this is Mike. Thank you for saying that. This has nothing to do with Humble. I actually have done a little work here.

So I've been chatting with Fred,'s in at his trailer near Peterborough. Does he broadcast from there? No, they haven't broadcast in a long time. So all this went down. They haven't been on. They haven't done a live. They haven't done a show in weeks. Really?

I thought they did a regular podcast. They do. But in the summer, they take a lot of time off. Gotcha. But that's if you saw the comments on that entry we're talking about, there were lots of people complaining about the bangers. OK, so Humble and Fred call a day off a banger. So they'll be like, oh, no, I think they call it, yeah.

So they'll say, hey, we're taking a five banger, which means five days off in a row. Like this is their terminology they use. And I'm going to say they kind of jokingly brag about the fact that they're their own boss and they're going to take a fucking banger right now. They almost took all of July off. So a lot of people were complaining on the post about all the days off, which, you know, to me, it's ridiculous.

But anyway, so I talked to Fred and we did some homework because I was getting a lot of comments from different names and IP addresses, but they were all, they seemed too similar to me in their negativity towards me and the Humble and Fred show. And primarily Fred Patterson, very nice guy, by the way, I like Fred a lot.

I met Fred at your wedding. Great guy. He's very nice guy. I had dinner with him. Yes, you did. You did. You had dinner with him and his lovely wife and,

and, and humble as well. Yes. Uh, so apparently when Fred was in Peterborough as a program director for the chorus stations, he fired a morning guy who had been there forever and was an old fart who basically needed to be put out to pasture.

And Fred did it. Okay? So we, and I won't name this guy because I don't need any cease and desist or whatever. But this guy is, we believe this is the troll who keeps because he keeps i've been deleting these ones so i get comments that are basically calling fred out for a bunch of stuff i deem unfair and i kill them because they're not like the oh too many bangers or these guys aren't funny because of poop and poo jokes and sex talk and all that that stuff's fair you can go nuts on all that shit and it's even fair if you're going to call me out and say oh humble and fred send over all

your guests which is not true but sure i'll take that whatever sure when these were such comments that i actually delete them that's where we're at and i would share some of them with fred to let him know and then fred we basically determine we think it's this guy so there's this one guy who's got a hate on for fred and seems to be rooting against humble and fred and have smeared me in there i guess because they can't leave comments on humble and fred's blog because it doesn't exist. And we think that I think he's using a proxy server to just use different IP addresses and different names. And that's what I think is going on. Interesting. Yeah. So I've tried it whenever I've detected that I've been deleting or I've been leaving

a comment to say this guy and this guy are actually the same guy. And I think after I did that, this person caught on to change IP addresses or whatever. So I'm trying to keep it up and clean, but sometimes you can't tell, so I leave it just in case. Anyway, it's a clusterfuck, this entry about Humble and Fred being cancelled on 1010. Yeah, it seems as though there's a lot of people who are happy, other people who are sad, and then

people obviously don't have an opinion. Lots of those guys. It seems to be very, very polarizing. Yeah, I don't even know. To me, it's like, and this is, I tweeted this, because I tweet my smart stuff now. I tweeted, like, if you don't like a radio duo or radio personality,

just don't listen. Like, what do you care if they exist? I never understood this. I agree. See, but that's how it's different from the Pan Am Games, because I'm not paying for them. Yeah, okay, I know, and that is different. No, in all seriousness, you're right just don't fucking listen it's like that it's like the kardashians i was like it's actually yeah it's like the kardashians a lot of people are very mad this show exists where i just don't tune in like it's easy not to tune in i i guess

you could argue that it is uh the fact that the show is successful as a comment on humankind and society, but yeah, you're right. Just don't fucking watch or listen. So Humble and Fred do a lot. Yeah. So a lot of people are up there.

Humble, for example, he's really horny since that lady friend left. Is that fair to say? I don't know what to say, except that he's like, he's active. He's talking a lot about this

and being on Tinder and things and people are on him for that. Like Jesus. He's on Tinder. Yeah. No, he's on a Tinder. In his words, so I'm not speaking out of school. His words on his podcast, he's on a Tinder rampage.

That's interesting because he's like a recognizable person. Yeah, I don't know how he handles that part, but yeah. Interesting. Not good for him. He's on Tinder. Whatever floats your boat. Whatever floats your boat. And, you know, and then, yeah, they do take a lot of bangers.

Fred's got a very nice setup on this lake. Why would he want to be working here in Etobicoke? So when are they back? I don't know. It's been a long one. This is a long one, so I've lost track. I think they might be back maybe on next Tuesday after this long weekend.

That's my guess. You keep talking about this long weekend and you make me think that it's this weekend but it's not. It's not this weekend. It's the weekend after. You're right. What is this, Friday? Today's Friday.

I've already moved beyond this weekend. This weekend's done. What are your plans for the closing ceremonies here at Pandemania? Are you going? Is it Sunday?

It's not a free... No, I'm not going. Is it Sunday? I think it's Sunday. I'm tuning in to... I'm going to watch it and then Kanye's performing. I'll be tuning in tonight. Yeah, I'll definitely tune in to the closing ceremony. I'm tuning in to... I'm going to watch it, and then Kanye is performing. I'll be tuning in tonight.

Yeah, I'll definitely tune in to the closing ceremony. I enjoyed these games. I would never watch a closing ceremony of an event I liked, like the Olympics. Yeah, but this is ours. I feel like it's Toronto 20...

It's branded... That's another thing, too. I have some people tell me that they're in Ajax, and there's events in Ajax, and they're not feeling it. But I actually think we branded this so heavily Toronto 2015.

I think when things are in Milton or Ajax or Oshawa or Hamilton, I don't feel like they don't feel like it's theirs. You know what I mean? Because we didn't brand it, you know, Southern Ontario Pan Am Games. Like, it's really branded Toronto. And if I were a Hamilton guy, I think I'd be a little pissed at this. Well, I think because you reward it to a city, right? Yeah, except, yeah.

So when there are events, because I know baseball was in Ajax. It's like Vancouver, right? It's like they went to a city, right? Yeah, except when there are events. Because I know baseball was in Ajax. It's like Vancouver, right? It's like they went to a Vancouver Whistler game. But didn't they almost, yeah, that one at least, I feel like they co-branded that a bit. I think maybe to us, but not to the world. By the way, yeah, so the baseball was in Ajax.

What was in Oshawa again? First week was weightlifting, and this week it's boxing in the uh cubans are good at box ashwa center yeah what do they call it it's the gm center and they call it it's gm center is where the generals play but they call it the ashwa sports center that's what they call it okay because actually i because i've noticed they've been renaming things right because of sponsor differential but i gm is a sponsor so they a sponsor. Yeah, but they're not allowed to name venues like that, though. It's funny.

In the editorials of the local paper there, it's pretty funny that people are like, we need to support GM. What the fuck? I can't believe they would let us do that. I'm like, guys, this is well beyond one fucking arena. And we've got to keep the name, show GM we support them.

It's funny how dense people can be the other the other and then i don't want to go back to pan am games except i noticed the same people that were pissed off that you know nobody cares about the pan am seemed to be pissed off that uh like it would be too chaotic and busy or or they were pissed off that like cbc didn't televise enough live. CBC didn't do a lot of live. They do live at night but I admit I had to stream and I actually like streaming. I actually wish all sports were on a big fucking HTML page and I could just

click the one and live stream it. That's how I want to live my life. That's the only reason Rogers gets my money. We talked about this in another episode. Live sports is why I pay Rogers money. I love the fact that I could cherry pick the event, click it and and then you're an Apple TV guy. I'm a Chromecast guy. But when you press a button, it's on your fucking big screen.

That's what I like. And people were really negative on the fact that that baseball game wasn't on TV. Well, I think it shows how little the games actually matter. Yeah, but that was right. But that's all pre-planned, right? Like, they obviously, I think, CBC's got caught off guard by the interest and demand for these games. I think they were ready for it to be a little more underwhelming. That's what I think.

Okay, so I was in... They sure weren't going to treat it like the Olympics. That is for sure. And they shouldn't. I was in Brazil a couple weeks before the Pan Am Games, and no one in Brazil knew that there were Pan Am Games. Oh, no, that's normal. I talk to Americans like you do all the time, and I always, like, talk there were Pan Am Games. Oh, no, that's normal. I talk to Americans like you do all the time, and I always talk to the sports fans.

Like, hey, no, there's nothing. But I ask you this, and I acknowledge this too. Four years ago when these things were in Mexico, we just had a Commonwealth Games in Scotland. Did you watch any of this? No. No, you did not. I never would. But I'm not deceiving, I'm not reinventing.

I know I only care about these Pan Am Games because they're in Toronto. I care about all Olympics and Pan Am Games and Commonwealth Games when they're in Toronto. That's what I've realized this week. And my argument to you, Mike, as your friend, as your lover, that you're better than that. Actually, I'm going to argue I'm not better than that. Is TFC going to make the playoffs? So far, so good, man. I mean, they've got arguably the best player in the league right now.

Can I say it? Hold on. Gio Vincio. I'm not even close, right? Gio Vinci. Tell me the name. Da Vinci. Say it again.

He plays like Da Vinci. No, it's a Gio. Gio. Gio. Gio. Gio. Gio. Gio.

Gio. Gio. Gio. Gio. Gio. Gio. Gio. Gio.

Gio. Gio. Gio. Gio. Gio. Gio. Gio. Yeah, he's, uh, he's on fire, man.

I mean, this guy is scoring goals like crazy. He's a, he's a small guy and he's mean, this guy is scoring goals like crazy. He's a small guy, and he's young. He's in the prime of his career. And as long as they can stop teams from scoring on them, they should be able to get into the playoffs. Let me just pull up the standings here. But they're doing – pull up the table, sorry. They're doing really well.

They're fourth place right now in the Eastern Conference, but they've got a couple of games in hand on the people in front of them. So they've got 27 points, and third place has 29. So they're sort of mid-pack. They had a little bit of a rough start at the beginning, but they seem to be gelling together.

If they make the playoffs, let's get that guy. Who's the guy who listens to us who covers TFC? There's a guy who listens to us who covers TFC? Come on. And he's probably listening right now, of course. We tweet with him.

24th minute? Oh yeah, Dwayne. Dwayne Mullins. Let's get him on if TFC makes the playoffs. I'd love to be able to get Dwayne on here. Why wouldn't he come on? Fucking Dwayne Mullins. Let's get him on. Yeah. If GFC makes a playoff. I'd love to be able to get Dwayne on here. I'll get him on. Because, listen, why wouldn't he come on? Yeah, sure. Why not? He's a Toronto guy.

Fucking Dwayne. Okay, we'll do that. He's good. We'll do that. I bought a new bike. So I put like 10,000 clicks on my other bike. Hold on. Hold on.

Yeah. Is this the new bike? That's the new one, yeah. So the other one's in the shed. So I haven't like- Did you finally get the pedals? That's next. These are still the default pedals.

So there's actually no clips or clipless on that. That's just regular pedals. But I just got it. So that's my bike. So that bike is an upgrade. So I realized the way I was riding, which is a lot and hard, I essentially needed to upgrade the bike.

So I did 10,000K, and I still use... That bike's not dead or anything. I still use it when I... I find I'm using it when I need to lock it up downtown, or I'm using it when I need to lock it up downtown or I'm using it when it's shitty weather. So that's like your,

your utility bike. It's my winter bike. And this is your training bike. Right. So when I go for, if I go for just a 25K ride at lunch or something, this is the guy I jump on

and it's been, it's been amazing. I got a good deal on it. Nice and light? Very light. I'll let you pick it up later. Right on. Yeah, so I.

Get those pedals, man. I'm telling you. You'll see your time. But then I've got to wear special shoes every time. Yeah. It's fine. I know it's fine. I know everyone does it. You wear a special hat when you ride your bike, right? That's true. I do wear a hat. See? I do wear a hat. And you see your nice little slick helmet there. It's kind of...

That's got 10,000k on it, too. So the thing is, because I record all my rides, I know that my other bike and this helmet were bought at the same time in the summer of 2012. And I know I'm 10,000 K on it too. So the thing is, cause I record on my rides. I like, I know that my other bike and this helmet were bought at the same time in the summer of 2012. And I know I'm 10,000 kilometers. How, so how much longer is the helmet good for? They expire too.

I don't know. It's been three summers. So is that time? There should be an expiry date on the helmet. I don't know. I have to check it out, but yeah, I probably,

I probably need one anyways. That thing's probably like just drenched in like sweat. It's disgusting. Well, it looks nice. It's nice and it's black. So you're an equal opportunist. Yeah, it looks good. And you know what the big thing on that is?

The brakes. The disc brakes. Oh, nice. Look at you. Oh, yeah. So no more of those brake pad things. Wow. So I'm not riding this guy in the winter.

It's the winter riding that killed the other bike. It just became... Yeah, yeah. And you have a nice not riding this guy in the winter. It's the winter riding that killed the other bike. And you have a nice bell. You got lights on them. Nice. Yes, I have lights, of course. You need a headlight. Do you have a headlight? Right now I have one. I'm switching between the two bikes. So I have a holder on both and I swap it out.

Look at you. And then I realized that this is the third, only the third bike I've owned in my adult life. Look at you. And I still have all three because my my the bike i bought when i was 17 and i rode forever not yet actually he's got another bike but in my shed is the bike i bought when i was 17 still the big heavy cody i bought at bluer cycle at duffer bluer nice and then i bought my monica bought me the other bike which is a giant oh a giant oh my goodness a giant hybrid and that was uh years ago, which I rode for 10,000 clicks, and then I just bought myself this Fuji. It's nice. That's my bike story.

Fuji. I've never heard of Fuji. It's an American design, but they make all these bikes. You should have bought a Cervelo. It's part of the Torontonian company. Come on. Yeah, my apologies. Maybe they'll sponsor this podcast.

Okay, so anything else going on? We're at like 58 minutes. No, I was excited to talk about the Leafs in Panamania. That was my agenda for today. Other than that, not much. I'm looking forward to being at home for the summer. I had to unfortunately go to Ottawa for a funeral. Who?

Do you want to disclose as a friend? No, it was a woman who works for me. Her mother unfortunately passed away after a long illness. So it was sad. But it's nice that you would go to Ottawa for the mother of someone you work with. Okay, so you know what? People have said this to me, and maybe I've underestimated how maybe it is nice for me to go. But for the mother of someone, unless it's somebody really close, you usually don't travel five hours.

Let me give you the circumstances, and then you tell me if, listen, I'm not fishing for a compliment here at all. So I just want to put that out there. But so a brand new team at the company that I work at, this whole team, seven of them, young professionals started at the same time at the beginning of December, three months, four months into their tenure. So brand new team, but also brand new program at work. Um, their manager resigns and my manager, my director asks me to take over managing their team as well as a team that I'm already managing. So now I'm managing

two teams. And so part of my goal was to make sure that the team became stabilized, but also ensure that they continue to be welcomed into our family, our work family, but also, you know, really started to actually have impact on the business. That was what they were hired to do. So I just felt that it was really important for me to show that, you know, put my money where my mouth is. And if I talk about being one team and being part of a family at work that, you know, if knowing that she was really close to her mom and whatnot that i felt

it was important that she had at least one person from from the organization there to say that we were sorry and that you know that you take the time that you need and we'll support you in getting through this yeah two things one is that that is a excellent move for the team building and uh to you know to to lead by example but but two, it is definitely above and beyond. Definitely above and beyond. So you went above and beyond, which is good. Thanks, man.

Fucking that's what you should do. Thanks. But that is above and beyond because that is not, that to me, if you're based in Toronto, you live in Oshawa and then the funeral for the mother of the person who works for you is in, usually it's Ottawa, usually you send the flowers and send the condolences. But you go in there on your own dime. You're not expensing that trip, are you? You are.

Hold on. Different. Hold on. No, hold on. You're changing my answer. I was actually talked out of expensing it or talked out of spending my own money. All right. So the overall intention was for me to spend and then...

Still above and beyond because you were going to spend your own money. Absolutely. I was actually told not to. And the fact you didn't have to now, it becomes to me now, it's a no-brainer. But you did the right thing. Good job. You're a good boss.

I don't really know if they wanted me to go, my management team, but when they found out I was, they said, there's no need for you to pay. We'll pay. Anyway, my condolences. And you couldn't bring a friend.

I can't. Who really wants to go to Ottawa anyway? Ha ha. I was just there for the Tulip Festival. Oh, for fuck's sake. I saw that too. Kids loved it. Oh, Jesus.

You know what? A lot of this is seeing it with your kids. You're right. Come on. You should understand this. When you take your daughter to a Tulip Festival. Your daughters. I know Charlie's too young to appreciate a Tulip Festival.

Right. Glad Jarvis there didn't know what was going on. But you take your daughters to a Tulip festival and they're digging it. Suddenly, that's the best place on earth. You're right. You're right. You know what? I took my girls out for my birthday.

You know where we went? I got them manicures. It was the greatest fucking thing ever, man. They were so excited. And now someone somewhere is making fun of you for enjoying manicures. It's fucking great, though. You know what? Everyone's up.

Everyone. This is my new beef. Everyone's fucking great, though. You know what? Everyone's up. Everyone. This is my new beef. Everyone's complaining now about everything. You're right. HOV lanes. Kanye West. Humble and Fred.

I'm so sick of the complaining. Pan Am Games. Nobody cares. Who's Andre Degrass? By the way, 20 years old. Only started running three years ago. Hey, good for him, man.

Has run under 10 seconds. Will be in Beijing with the big boys later this summer. Right. We'll see what he does, but then he'll be in Rio with the big boys next summer. Yep. I think not next one, but the one after, which is in 2020. Watch out! We're going to have another Donovan Bailey here.

Good for him. Exciting, man. It is. It's the one event people care about. Bailey here. Good for him. Exciting, man. It is. It's the one event people care about. And that brings us to the end of our 130th

show. You can follow me on Twitter at Toronto Mike and Elvis is at Oshawa Elvis. See you all next week. Well, you've been under my skin for more than eight years. It's been eight years of laughter and eight years of tears. And I don't know what the future can hold.