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Stuart McLean did me a favour in July 2008

Upon the passing of broadcasting legend Stuart McLean, I remember the following story about an interaction I had with him:

In my first few months working on-air at CBC Radio 3 in 2008, I came up with a bit wherein I did an impression of Stuart McLean’s popular program, Vinyl Cafe, but all the stories would be boring, vaguely dysfunctional ones about my own family.

When I casually mentioned to colleagues that I’d invited Stuart to be on the episode, they all told me I was nuts. He was the biggest star in CBC Radio and I barely even worked there. Well, I asked him to do a thing and he did it. I wanted him to really lay into me for making fun of him and he was amazing. He went after me and my family with such funny ferocity that I was overwhelmed. He really enjoyed playing ‘Angry Stuart McLean’ and it was amazing.

Afterwards, he told me it was great and he loved it. Total pro and forthcoming with his time. I’d see him at the Hillside Festival from time to time after that and he was always cool. I’m so sad he’s gone. By all accounts, he was good and generous man. That was certainly my experience with him.

Here’s what the exchange between Stuart and I sounded like:

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News Podcast

Ep. #289: Lonely Parade

Lonely Parade is a fantastic band from Peterborough, Ontario consisting of Augusta Veno on guitar, Anwyn Climenhage on drums, and Charlotte Dempsey on bass. Formed around five years ago, Lonely Parade are childhood friends and excellent musicians who have toured throughout most of eastern Canada three times already, even though Augusta is 21 and Anwyn and Charlotte are both 18 years old. They’ve earned a loyal following based on their sophisticated, heartfelt, and humourous rock songs. Out this past September, No Shade is their third album and one of the finest records of 2016. The Lonely Parade are playing the fifteenth edition of Stay Out of the Mall on Friday December 16 at the Ebar in Guelph. We actually caught up at the CFRU studios when they were in Guelph this past October for an interesting and revealing chat about the ups and downs of living in Peterborough, teenaged touring and travelling, many states, courses and studying, childhood dance classes together, highland dancing and me in a kilt, a knife in my sock, bad dancing and zoo keeping, Riverview Park & Zoo, getting into music at 11 or 12 years old, leap year aging, when Ani’s dad John played drums in the Celtic punk band Mahones who should not be confused with Ramones, drum maintenance, elementary school jazz band with Ani and Charlotte, not slapping the bass, the Inbreds and Label Obscura, Jill Staveley of the Burning Hell and Trent Radio, Dave Ullrich and Zunior, Mike O’Neill’s bass playing, Augusta’s guitar playing and Girls Rock Camp and reconnecting with Ani and Charlotte and high school, piano playing, performing at their parents’ dinner parties, Yesterday’s Socks and math rock, starting the Toxic Markers five or six years ago before becoming Lonely Parade, dark humour, “My Mom Got Hit On at a Punk Show,” CBC Radio 3, Strokes and White Stripes and formative influences, cool parents, the Tragically Hip’s Trouble at the Henhouse, the cold road, a candle in the car, missing keys and Wax Mannequin and the pocket system, fast food, little scenes, Charlotte the organizer, Girls Rock Camp’s purpose and potency, everyday sexism, ageism, the new album No Shade and working with Jose Contreras, progressing as songwriters, writing about things that used to bug them, new songs, highland dancing, a day planner, Puberty Hands and cruisin’, painting and photography and an art collective, the song “Duck Hunt,” and then the parade was a little less lonely.

Related links: thelonelyparade.com vishkhanna.com

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News Podcast

Ep. #72: Marie LeBlanc Flanagan of Weird Canada

Marie LeBlanc Flanagan is the executive director of Weird Canada, a music site, whose mission statement is “to encourage, connect, and document creative expression across Canada.” It has earned renown for its curatorial acumen in promoting obscure, challenging music made across the country and for serving as a space for enthusiastic contributors to pay tribute to the artists who move them. Speaking of moving things, Weird Canada is launching Wyrd Distro, a means of distributing the physical manifestations of the music they love to people who want to buy or sell it. Wyrd Distro launch parties take place all across Canada on Saturday Feb. 15. Here, Marie and I discuss travelling across Canada, the wonders that are the people of Edmonton, what Wyrd Distro and Weird Canada are all about, how they serve musicians and music fans, why a Canadian music site like CBC Radio 3 would poll its users to name “Canada’s Best Music SIte” and what it means that its users voted for Weird Canada, how Weird Canada sustains itself with grants and an inheritance, why it needs to be volunteer-driven, a planned accessibility project in the works that aims to figure out who is and isn’t permitted in given spaces, how a capitalist ‘survival of the fittest’ mentality applies to outsider art and Weird Canada’s methodology, why it might not matter if Weird Canada is sustainable, how listsicles are impacting the coverage of artists and the consumption of art, how a change is coming, why mainstream media outlets seem less concerned about earning cultural capital these days, what the Wyrd Distro parties across Canada on Feb. 15 are going to be like and how people can best utilize the service, the song “Real Talk” by Dan Galway, and more.

Related links: weirdcanada.com vishkhanna.com

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