The Oral History of 1990s YTV

“Of course, YTV continues to this day, and all our PJs have long since moved on. The nostalgia cycle will continue, and future historians will come along to parse the eras of Sugar, Carlos, Suki, etc. This article is an attempt to chronicle a crucial decade of its existence, beginning shortly after its 1988 launch, from the perspective of some of its most beloved on-air personalities: a group of 20-somethings in a modest studio in a then-crappy part of Parkdale, who just happened to be watched every day by hundreds of thousands of kids across the country.”

 

Will Sloan – Torontoist – December 2015

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How to Make a Movie in the North

“Picture your classic sports drama. The new coach meets his ragtag athletes at an underprivileged school and sets out to reform them through the miracle of sport. Cue the montage of painful drills, some tender moments, a dash of comic relief, and the sweat-soaked breakthrough. Coach and kids overcome their differences, triumph over their privileged prep-school contenders, and win the championship. The Grizzlies was almost that.”

Samia Madwar – The Walrus – July 2019

The cost of cringe

“If you’re like me, you’ve never actually intentionally watched Gags. It’s only ever appeared somewhere — late at night on your television or on a screen in a public place; its silent stock-footage style of cinematography radiating a kind of dreamlike, unfinished quality. And if you’re like me, you’ve always felt like there was something wrong with the show, but you have also never been able to put your finger on exactly what.”

Nick Zarzycki – National Post – May 2019

 

How One Podcaster Got Us Talking about Sex

“When Kaitlin Prest first came to Toronto, she worked in her bathtub. She would climb in amid piles of pillows or piles of friends, spitballing ideas that would eventually become pieces of audio art. Sometimes she wore clothes, and sometimes not, just a girl and a computer monitor and a flip chart and an artful life. Before the bathtub, her office was a bed in New York City. But one day, two summers ago, sitting on the steps of a brownstone in Brooklyn, she got a call from an executive producer at the CBC. The producer wanted to talk about an offer: come home to Canada and use the resources of a major network. It meant a chance for Prest to make the podcast series about love that had been living in her mind for many years.”

Katherine Laidlaw – The Walrus – December 2018

How Do We Come to Terms with Leonard Cohen’s Legacy in the #Metoo Era?

“About a year ago, a friend who, like me, is a huge Leonard Cohen fan, confessed that she’d had a terrible thought: ‘Thank God Leonard Cohen is dead.’ I told her I’d often had the same sentiment. To understand why a Cohen devotee would harbour such feelings, you have to appreciate just how important Cohen is to the people who revere him and how defensive we can get about his legacy.”

Simon Lewsen – Sharp Magazine – November 2018

In the Prison

“Each time I entered prison I signed in, locked my coat and purse in the locker and put on a bulletproof vest. A guard led me down one hall and up another, our stride punctuated by waiting at several locked doors to be buzzed through. Each week I tried to memorize where I was going. Writing workshops were in a concrete room painted off-white. There were no windows, no colour except for the red fire extinguisher and the clock on the wall with its red numerals. Triangular desks were arranged in a semicircle; chairs filled with sand were too heavy for prisoners to use as weapons.”

Carole Glasser Langille – Atlantic Books Today – September 2018

Arkells, ascending

“Canadian rock is at a crossroads. Gord Downie is dead. Hedley front man Jacob Hoggard’s next appearance is likely to be in front of a judge. Many bands that have pushed the limits of how Canadian rock could sound this century, including Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene, first built their careers by circumventing the traditional Canadian label system entirely. As with rock itself, Arkells are in a structurally unique position. Yes, they were just behind the Hip last year among Canadian bands on Canadian rock radio stations monitored by Nielsen Music, but, stacked against all artists from every country and genre, Arkells were only the 65th-most-played artist over all in Canada. Hip hop has shifted to the forefront of the cultural conversation, pulling all of pop closer to its centre of gravity.”

Josh O’Kane – The Globe and Mail – August 2018