I won a Tony Award. Oh, no I didn’t — April Fool!

Posted by Jeff on Apr 2nd, 2011 in News | 0 comments

Thank you, one and all, to those of you who came out to see Grouch on a Couch, whether it was during last year’s festival run or at the Bread and Circus a couple of weeks ago. Although the show was far from a smash hit or a critical darling, I’m aware that many of the people who saw it liked it a lot. I received plenty of positive feedback on the script and on the honest passion that went into writing and performing the show. That matters a lot. It makes having done the show seem, in retrospect, very worthwhile, however little I may have gotten out of it financially or in reputation.

And now, it’s time for the Grouch to hang up his trash can for good.
At least, I’m through with the show as a live performance. That doesn’t mean the world will never hear from Grouch on a Couch again. I’m seriously considering publishing the script (along with an introduction) as a chapbook with Burning Effigy. Who knows, maybe you’ll even catch me pimping a home-burned DVD at some point. But I just don’t see the point of mounting the show anymore. If you want me to be brutally honest (and would the Grouch want it any other way?), it seems like an enormous amount of hard work and time spent, not to mention hundreds of dollars (thousands last year), to put into a show that relatively few people want to see. If I could have some kind of guarantee that I’d bring in a good turnout every time, and that more non-fringe media could come to the show and actually take it seriously, perhaps that would make a difference. But that ain’t gonna happen, people. Let’s not kid ourselves.

So if you wanted to see Grouch on a Couch but never made it out, all I can say is… sorry, bud. All gone. Should’ve postponed the manicure until another week.

But let’s not dwell on the past. Let’s get on with the present, shall we? Yes, let’s shall.

First up: Next Friday the 8th, I will be a cast member in the comedy sketch “Dinner at Arthur and Martha’s”, written by Charlene Winger, at improv night Jammin’ On The One. It’s a wacky scene about a family holiday dinner gone wrong. The sketch will also feature Tanya Morgan, Terry Kan, Shelley McCabe, Dani Alon and Winger. There’ll be another featured performer, all followed by an open improv jam (short-form games).

And then, the following week… I’m jumpin’ on a plane.
Yep, it’s been almost three years, but I’m heading back across the pond. It’s time for Jeff’s Third U.K. Mini-Tour! Three gigs in London, one in Reading and one in York. Also some open-mic pit stops in London and Manchester. Along with some visits with friends, a bit of West End theatre, fish and chips and crisps, and cider that doesn’t suck. Maybe I’ll even find time to stalk Lily Allen, who knows.

So, if you’ve got any friends in the land of lorries and lifts, particularly London, tell them to come out and hear me say and read silly things in front of other writers and poets.

You can find all details on the above events on the right sidebar, under “upcoming events”.

Fare thee well, young creatures of the wind.

March comes in like a lamb, which lies down on Broadway

Posted by Jeff on Mar 5th, 2011 in News | 0 comments

This is it, my friends. Get your Grouch on soon, because we’re less than two weeks away from the remount of Grouch on a Couch at the Bread and Circus Theatre!

Yes, if you missed its run at the (now in the process of relocating) Bad Dog Theatre last year, you’ve got four more chances to see it. We’ll be running the show for four straight nights, with sketch-comedy troupe Uncle Mao and the Red Star Review as the opening act. That’s two shows for the price of one, kiddo. Full details on the right sidebar, under “upcoming events”.

And even if you saw it last year at Bad Dog… come again.
Why? Because it’s going to be better this year. Seriously. We’ve got a bigger stage (and a better couch); we’ve tweaked some of the blocking and staging; and we’ve put back in some of the lines we had to cut. We had to trim a few bits to get under the Bad Dog Short Play Festival’s 45-minute time limit, but now you get to see Grouch as it was meant to be seen. Call it the director’s cut. Or rather, the writer’s.

The opening night is St. Patrick’s Day. So come in green! Green for the holiday or green for the grouch, your pick.

I’ll be on hand at a couple of upcoming shows to preview brief scenes. First, there’s Comedy Show of Madness next Wednesday at Cafe Piccolino, which Uncle Mao is putting on. And there’ll be another preview on Sunday the 13th. I don’t have the full info on that show as of this writing, but it’ll appear on the events sidebar here once I do.

And if, for some reason, you just can’t get enough of me at the Bread and Circus, never fear: I’ll be back there a few nights later, on the 23rd, in The Carnegie Hall Show — along with improv by the legendary National Theatre of the World. I’ll read or perform a spoken-word bit or too, in my first CHS appearance in almost a year. (Since then, Colin Mochrie and Scott Thompson have also performed in CHS. So I can brag that I’ve performed in the same revue as they have. Nyah.)

Below is the silly promo video for Grouch. Actually, it’s the same silly promo video that I did last year, with Audrey Hepburn and Elton John, but with the dates and venue changed.
When I posted the Hamilton version on this site last year, I got a number of comments from Elton John fans. I couldn’t tell if the fans were just sharing their proud fandom or if they were offended that I was gently taking the piss out of their idol. Frankly, I picked John only because the avatar character looked vaguely like him. I’m actually a fan of some of his work from the 1970s and early ’80s. Just cheap laughs, that’s all I was going for here.

Allrightythen. See you in Kensington Market soon.

Do we say twenty eleven or two thousand eleven?

Posted by Jeff on Feb 5th, 2011 in News | 0 comments

Has it really been two bloody months since I posted here? To the day?

Oh well. Time funs when you’re having fly. Hope you had a good Hanukkah/Xmas/Boxing Day/Festivus/New Year’s Eve/New Year’s Day/MLK Day/Groundhog Day. Right now, we in Ontario are putting up the tinsel and singing the timeless carols of Family Day. That’s the day when the Focus On The Family Fairy comes down your chimney and leaves a new baby under the tree. Or just impregnates you. Or something.

Happy Family Day.

I don’t have any gigs this month, but I’m very busy preparing for the upcoming remount of Grouch on a Couch. That’s coming in less than six weeks to the Bread and Circus Theatre, featuring opening act Uncle Mao and the Red Star Review. You’ll be hearing about it. I guarantee it. I’m also getting ready for my next trip to the U.K., in April. And I’m writing comedy sketches for a Second City class. And working. And reading, and seeing shows and stuff. And doing bad improv. Such is life.

But while I don’t have any official performances this month, I do have one TV interview. Toronto Jay, with Jay Stoyan and Sandy Duarte, is having me back on in two weeks, to discuss Grouch on a Couch and whatever other hijinks of a delightfully ribald nature may come up. It seems they’re welcoming me back because I didn’t offend them enough last time. Looks like I’ll have to try harder. Time to pull out the Ricky Gervais guns…

You can catch the show with me on it later this month. (EDIT AGAIN: I’m taping it this Friday the 11th, and it’ll air a week or two after that.) The show’s on every Friday afternoon at 3:00 p.m., at ThatChannel.com. And if you want to watch my previous interview on the show from last April, just click on “Press/Media” up on the top banner of this page.

You’re beautiful. Yes you are.

Dashing through the snow. In a beat-up Chevrolet.

Posted by Jeff on Dec 4th, 2010 in News | 0 comments

It’s late, and I’m tired, and I can’t think of anything funny or topical to say. Or even inoffensively quirky. Unless you thought that last bit was funny or inoffensively quirky. I didn’t. But I’m just gonna go straight into it and tell you about the two little giggies I have in the coming two weeks:

1) Sharilyn’s Nepotism & Blackmail Stand-up Extravaganza!
This show will be so exciting, why, they had to add an exclamation mark.

Here, I’ll be the sole spoken-word purveyor in a room full of stand-up comics. I’ll do a short set, and the evening will also feature Magdalena, Adam Susser, Catherine McCormick, Amber Harper-Young, Daniela Saioni and Bob Smith. (No, not the guy from the Cure.) It’s at the Crown & Tiger this Tuesday night.

2) Hot Sauced Words Annual Seasonal Anti-Pageant Show
Every year, Hot Sauced Words at the Black Swan subverts the traditional values of our established society with a holiday show that opposes pageants. What bold rebels they be.

On the sixteenth, look for me reading a few pieces alongside the likes of Kirsten Sandwich, Edward Nixon, Kate Marshall Flaherty, Sue Reynolds, Rob Welch, Elves and others. (Yes, it appears there will be elves.)

For further details on these shows, move your mouse over the listings under “upcoming events” on the right side. I mean, really, do I have to do everything around here?

Happy holidays. War is over. Eat turkey and chocolate. Shoot your eye out. Jump in the river to save George. Forgive a pig-headed old fool. You know the drill, Spanky.

Vote “No” on Vember

Posted by Jeff on Nov 3rd, 2010 in News | 0 comments

It’s a depressing time for politics. Ol’ Creepy Eyes is still holding the reins on Parliament Hill, Chris Farley’s doppelganger is about to take over as mayor of this city, and as I write this, the Mad Hatters down south are wresting control of their country away from the people once again. On the bright side, it may be fun to have warm winters, and the comedy and satire that’ll come out of it in the next several years will be gold.

Speaking of comedy. You’ll be needing it to cheer yourself up in the dark times.
Even if you missed the Canadian Comedy Awards festival last month and didn’t feel up to spending the money to fly or bus down to Washington this past weekend for the Rally to Restore Sanity (I made it to both events, ha ha), you’ve got options this month. There’s some kind of comedy festival or something happening in Toronto this week, which I don’t feel like looking up right now. But more important: there’s me. I’m doing stuff. Next week, I’m making my third appearance in Jammin’ on the One.

Next Friday the 12th, you can catch me doing a short spoken-word set at this monthly show, which will also feature yuks from Chaos Theory and The Jenkins Syndrome. The show also features an open improv jam in which anyone can partake. So come and cut your improv teeth in some short-form games — or just come to watch me act stupid in public. Because it’s not like I’ve ever done that before.

The show starts around, like, 8:00 or so. It’s on the third floor of the esteemed Arts and Letters Club; you have to ring a bell to get inside. And no cover. Dammit, they may even have free pretzels and chips.

One more thing… keep your eyes peeled in the new year, because Grouch on a Couch may be coming back. I hope it will, anyway. We’re working on it.

And wish me a happy frickin’ birthday this Thursday. Funny how I can’t seem to get through an entire year without one of those catching up to me.

And then my poor meatball / was nothing but mush.

Posted by Jeff on Sep 30th, 2010 in News | 0 comments

Hey, I’m always one to admit when I’m wrong.

Or almost always. Like, 97% of the time. As in, when I’m absolutely sure I cannot refute anybody else’s arguments.

I thought I had completely sold out of all copies of Guilt Pasta, my 2007 chapbook. I had no immediate plans to reprint it, which implied that they were, in the sing-songy words of every two-year-old, “Aw gawn!”

But then, Burning Effigy Press editor-in-chief Monica S. Kuebler found four unsold copies somewhere at the bottom of her suitcase or something. She brought them to Word on the Street this week… and sold two of them.

That leaves two. I have them. And they’re still for sale. If you hurry, you can buy one of them.

Right now.

Don’t all rush at once now, people.

Here’s the official description, from the Burning Effigy website:

Recipe for Guilt Pasta:
Mix equal portions of Spiderman, Roger Ebert and Ernest Hemingway. Stir in a pinch of the Ugly Duckling and a dash of the girl who broke your heart. Now add a sadistic army brat who clobbers mice with hammers, a jailed sex killer who feels bad about neglecting a parakeet, and an obnoxious co-worker who won’t shut up about his fantasies of turning Canada into a fascist regime. Blend well. Serve immediately.

Result: The third chapbook by Toronto’s notorious spoken-word satirist, Jeff Cottrill. This new collection of short stories and monologues combines quirky characterizations, black humour and offbeat cultural references in a way you won’t soon forget. Exploding nerds, bad cockney accents, a journey to the afterlife, lots of very good beer… Guilt Pasta has something for everyone. (Best recommended with lots of parmesan cheese.)

Not only that, but it has a really funky blue-and-yellow cover designed by Brett Bakker.

A certain J. Blackmore of Broken Pencil magazine wrote that Guilt Pasta was nothing but angry, pretentious, arty garbage, and that I was an a—–e for having written it. I was amazed that he could give such a strong opinion of the chapbook without actually having read it.
(Seriously, there was absolutely no evidence in the review that the dude had read more than two pages of the book. The only specific reference he made from its contents was to a silly, throwaway Hemingway parody stuck somewhere in the middle — and he completely missed the joke. And it’s not like it was a subtle joke. That’s the effort you’re getting from your neighbourhood book critics, kids.)

On the other hand — here’s what a couple of people who actually read the chapbook thought of it…
U.K.-based novelist/poet John Stiles
Toronto writer/critic Carolina Smart (scroll down to near the bottom)

So there.
You can buy a copy of Guilt Pasta by going to my page at Coffeehouse.ca and clicking the little orange button under the cover thumbnail that says “Buy Now”. Or… you can just wait until the next Toronto Small Press Book Fair. But they may be gone by then.

And now, to close, I’m going to post another goofy Alfred Hitchcock video. Because I can.

Best. Trailer. Ever.

OMG bookz iz teh awesome dood!!! lolol (Sent via ÜberWordPress)

Posted by Jeff on Sep 25th, 2010 in News | 1 comment

You like books, don’t you? Of course you do.

That’s why you’re going to the twenty-first annual Word on the Street book and magazine festival this Sunday, September 26 at Queen’s Park. Once again, Burning Effigy Press is going to have a booth in the Fringe section, somewhere. I’ll be there for part of the time.

And because you like CDs almost as much as you like books, you should know that Clown with a Coat Hanger will be available for sale at the Burning Effigy table. Yeah man.

In addition, author Ian Rogers will be on hand from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. to sign copies of his latest chapbook, The Ash Angels, the sequel to Temporary Monsters. Other BE authors will be present later for their own signings as well.

Of course, there’ll be far more to see at the festival than just us. Yann Martel, the guy who wrote The Life of Pi (you know, the one about the tiger and the raft), will be there. So will Erica Ehm, now a children’s author, but better known as the unbridled fantasy of an entire generation of Canadian teenage boys during her MuchMusic years. And Jessica Holmes, too. And soon-to-be-ex-Mayor David Miller, and Robert Sawyer, and the husband of the lady who designed this very website. And, it would seem, nobody whose last name begins with “U”.

There’ll also be a number of staff writers from The Toronto Star. Including movie critic Peter Howell, who once wrote me an angry, bitter e-mail saying that I would never have what it takes to write for a major newspaper. (Guess I showed him. Wait… never mind.)

Yes, I know… this is my second post in a row about a Burning Effigy event that is only marginally connected to me. I do have a gig coming up in November. Seriously. Be patient.

And now, for no apparent reason, here’s Alfred Hitchcock sexually harassing Anny Ondra in a 1929 sound test:

Have a happy.

With no power comes no responsibility

Posted by Jeff on Aug 25th, 2010 in News | 1 comment

Any geeks out there?

If you’re a true, serious geek, and you live in the Toronto area, then chances are you know about that Fan Expo event that’s happening this weekend at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

Lots of interesting famous people gonna be there. The Shatner, for one. David Cronenberg, for another. Also Peter Mayhew, better known to the masses as Chewbacca, and to princesses as This Walking Carpet. And Stan Lee, and a bunch of folks from the 1960s Batman show, and Spike from Buffy, and one of those Star Trek alien guys with the forehead wrinkles, and a lot of other dudes whom I don’t know because I don’t watch enough TV these days.

That alone should persuade you to come. But if you’re looking for a sweet little cherry on top of the geek-heil sundae… I’ll be there too.

Yes, just as I did last year, I’ll be manning the Burning Effigy Press table part-time at the Rue Morgue Festival of Fear, along with Monica S. Kuebler and Claire Horsnell. Please stop by our table, say hi and buy a bunch of books or chapbooks. We’ve got a few new titles to show off, as well as some older ones you might not have yet. And I’ll also be selling copies of my CD, Clown with a Coat Hanger.

Just like those big celebrities at Fan Expo, I’ll be perfectly happy to sign autographs. You can even take a picture with me, if you really want. Best of all, I won’t be charging, like, $40 for the privilege. Even though I need the money far more than those other guys do, hey, I’m good like that.

Nobody’s asked me to do a forum or Q&A, though. Maybe I need to slay more vampires first.

Live long and prosper, Captain Solo.

Grouch on a Couch: Reflections

Posted by Jeff on Aug 3rd, 2010 in News | 2 comments

“I see no harm in telling young people to prepare for failure rather than success, since failure is the main thing that is going to happen to them.”
— Kurt Vonnegut, Hocus Pocus

So, in case you haven’t heard, I spent the last six or seven weeks doing a one-man Fringe show, Grouch on a Couch, in Ottawa, Hamilton and here in Toronto.

This was a pretty big undertaking, for me. An attempt to use Muppet characters as metaphors to tell some unpleasant yet important truths about life, it was my first one-man show and my first theatre production, a relatively ambitious and deeply personal project that took more than nine months of sweat, money and hard work to put together.

Will I do another show for next year, or the year after? Will I ever do this again, period?
At the moment, I don’t know. What it depends the most on is my financial health. Grouch on a Couch has cleaned me out. I had a sizable savings account at the beginning of the year, and it is rapidly shrinking. Now I really, really need a new day job. This show cost me a lot more than I got out of it, at least financially. That’s what you get for being dedicated to your craft.

I suppose that in the big picture, it makes sense that Grouch on a Couch wasn’t as successful as it could have been. After all, Grouch is, perhaps more than anything else, about failure itself — and about the frustration of what it’s like to be the eternal underdog. No matter what he does, the Grouch is always going to be in Elmo’s shadow. That’s just the way it is. There’s nothing he can do about it; it has nothing to do with what he earns or deserves. It’s all rigged against him, and he has to learn to accept that in order to adjust better to the world.
Grouch on a Couch may have the same problem. Even if my show had been a timeless masterpiece, there was no way it could have competed with the charming, corporate-sponsored magician, or the kewl and gnarly rock opera with the sexy dancers, or the quirky absurdist comedy with the zany gunshot noises.

That’s not to suggest that the experience didn’t have its wonderful and satisfying moments. There were many.
Our opening night in Hamilton was amazing. So were our closing nights in Ottawa and Toronto. There is no better feeling than knowing you’ve given an audience, even a small one, a good show that they really liked, that made them both laugh and think, that perhaps gave them a fresh, if unsettling, new way of seeing the world. When one random stranger told me that my show was the perfect commentary on her whole life, it meant so much. When a good number of my friends, both old and new, came out to my last Toronto show and gave me a rousing response, I felt it profoundly. I made many new friends along the way. It sounds so trite, but there are moments from this journey that I’ll always remember.

I almost quit this project around mid-to-late February, for a multitude of reasons. I persevered out of the old “Finish what you started” and “The show must go on” ethics. Sometimes I wondered if giving up would have been the wiser and braver choice. Even at the best of times, when we had a good show and the audience loved it, I still wondered if this whole thing was a mistake and maybe I should have thrown it away, collected half the Fringe entry fees back and just focused on getting a real job again. Why was I putting so much effort and expense into a show that so (relatively) few people wanted to see?

I’d like to think it wasn’t a mistake, if only because enough intelligent and discriminating people I met seemed to sincerely enjoy the show — enough to make it seem worthwhile. (And a few of them were reviewers, too.) Contrary to what many professional, “legit” theatre folks will tell you, the main purpose of doing a work of theatre isn’t to make a lot of money or to become “famous”. It’s to express yourself, to entertain a group of people and, if lucky, screw with their perceptions of life.

*****

This whole entry was originally going to be much longer and rantier. And in three parts. I had stuff to get off my chest. I wanted to sound off on a lot of things that frustrated me about the process of doing the show. First, I was going to rant about the difficulties of promoting the show and how disappointed I was that fewer people came to it than I’d hoped. Then I was going to tell the story of how a lot of well-meaning yet terrible advice caused me to spend a needlessly large amount of money on it, as well as detail the mountains of early discouragement that almost spurred me to quit when I’d barely started. And then I was going to complain about how a few critics and other people totally misunderstood and misrepresented the show, and so on.
But then, I guess, the better part of me took over. Maybe I’ll save the more angsty draft for the future, for another time when I’m not as concerned about stepping on toes or burning bridges.

I’ve already implied some of the disadvantages the show had in competing with others. In addition, maybe my sensibility is too subversive and non-mainstream for Fringe. (Even though that’s what Fringe is supposed to be about…) I don’t know how to write hopeful, uplifting messages, because I’ve found that in real life, hope and encouragement have always set me up for grotesque disappointments. I don’t know how to create conventional, wrapped-up happy endings without coming off as false, because I haven’t experienced enough happy endings to depict them accurately. If you’re going to complain that my humour is too full of negativity and pessimism and cynicism, all I can do is sit here and shrug. Just like the Grouch and his worthless plastic bag of broken sporks, cracked juice containers and used condoms… it’s what I’ve got.

As for the money:
I wasn’t expecting to make much of a profit, if any at all, from Grouch, especially if I was travelling with it. Losing my shirt, however, wasn’t part of the plan. I originally thought this was going to be a simple, scaled-back, inexpensive show, and then I was shamed and patronized into doing it in a more complicated and expensive way. The lesson: Don’t treat a simple, dinky little one-person show as if you’re remounting Cats. Not worth it, no matter what the so-called experts tell you.

I won’t say anything too specific about the reviews; after all, we did get a few positive ones. And the negative ones generally missed the whole point of the show anyway. Besides, it’s dangerous to respond to reviews, even if you’re in the right, because you can easily come off as an egocentric or oversensitive whiner, like, say, James Cameron or Kevin Smith.
But I did find it, let’s just say, baffling to read reviews and online comments implying that the show was nothing more than fifty minutes straight of anger, hatred and cheap shock humour. Really? Pray tell, what show were they actually watching? Seth MacFarlane Presents: Taxi Driver, Starring Mel Gibson? Because that doesn’t sound much like Grouch on a Couch, a show that I, my collaborators and many audience members I spoke with felt was more of an emotional roller coaster, with a variety of different levels and tones. What’s the point of the show, after all, but that an angry, grouchy person has more sides to him than just anger and grouchiness? (It’s not like I was subtle about it.)

Let’s take what may be my favourite moment in the show. About three-fifths into it, the Grouch reenacts his childhood, when he was so desperate to get away from his father’s rages that he holed himself up in his room. There, he learned to make the best of things by playing games with household trash. Onstage, we set the scene to Joe Raposo’s wonderful song “Imagination”. I most certainly did not write this scene out of anger or cynicism. I wrote it out of sadness and pathos — but also out of a kind of joy, because I wanted to show how the Grouch found some small morsel of happiness and a creative outlet in the most unlikely source, early on in life.

Zach Counsil, a well-regarded Ottawa actor and theatre-community member, told me personally that he thought this scene stood out as beautifully written and staged. So did a few other people. And why shouldn’t they? After all — I wrote the bloody thing from the heart, fa Chrissakes. I wrote it partly from life.
To some varying extent, we all know what it’s like to be a lonely child. We also know what it’s like to have to make do with limited resources in order to create our own modest means of happiness. I do too — more than some people. I won’t get into it, but yeah.

I wonder if some media people were out having a smoke during this scene. Or during most of the play’s second half. Even if you thought that scene didn’t work, you could have at least used it as an example of how the show was about far more than just being angry and cynical.

*****

I mentioned one reason why I’d like to think that Grouch on a Couch was not a mistake, in spite of all the lost money, disappointing turnouts, mixed reviews and so forth. Here’s another: Believing it was would be proving the Grouch right.

That’s the irony of it all. The Grouch believes that the notion of success through hard work and faith is a lie. He believes that there’s no point in trying, that if you can’t get it right the first time, then it wasn’t worth doing. He believes that you’re better off living a lifetime in trash and isolation than taking any personal risks or trying to better yourself. Is that the world we want? By saying that Grouch on a Couch was a total waste of time that wasn’t worth doing, I would be validating all of the Grouch’s most depressing beliefs. I wanted to see him proven wrong.

Where do I go now? No frickin’ clue.
All I know is, I need a job. I don’t know what I’m going to do now in terms of spoken word or theatre or writing. My event schedule is literally empty: this is the first time in a long while, perhaps even five or six years, that I don’t have any scheduled gigs coming up. Not even a guest-hosting spot. I have some ideas, for sketches or stories or even another Fringe show, but I don’t know if they’re any good. In the meantime, if you’re looking for somebody to brighten up your literary or comedy show with at least ten minutes of sardonic monologue and satirical storytelling, drop me a line…

The lower-case “n” was standing on a hill.

Posted by Jeff on Jul 24th, 2010 in News | 0 comments

Just a final, quick reminder that my one-man show, Grouch on a Couch, is coming to the Bad Dog Theatre Short Play Festival in Toronto this week. Here’s the Facebook event page.

But that’s not all, homeys…

On Monday, July 26, I’m going to be interviewed on CKLN’s Stage Left, which airs at 2:00 p.m. EST (that’s 11:00 a.m. for you west-coast hipsters, or 7:00 p.m. for any fans or friends I may still have in the U.K.).

In Toronto, you can hear it live at 88.1 FM. If you’re nowhere near a radio at the time, or if you just happen to live outside the Greater Toronto Area, you can listen in here: www.ckln.fm/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=150&Itemid=205

Let’s do this thang. Yeah.