WWE Wrestler Trish Stratus-Maclean’s Originally, my profile on World Wrestling Entertainment star Trish Stratus was scheduled to span several pages, but was bumped to less than a page because some other story was printed at the last minute. It was a shame, since my original piece was an in-depth profile on this WWE Diva, a gracious and charming woman. Of all the photos taken that day, the photo editor decided to pick this one, the only somber shot on the roll. There is a lot to be said for working ‘against type,’ but I have never liked this image, since it doesn’t really reflect what this dynamic woman is all about.
Wildwood Management Corporation-Emerging Growth Ventures A recent advertorial piece on environmentally responsible mining in South America. Emerging Growth Ventures is a great new magazine specializing in up and coming business ventures.
Swiss Clock Museum-The Globe & Mail If there is any country in the world known for everything being on time, it is Switzerland. I remember being on a train that was running late to the Zurich airport (sacre bleu!), and the conductor actually asked if anyone on the train was flying to Canada. I said I was, and he actually phoned the airport and told them to hold the plane for me. Swissair actually did it! (good luck getting that type of service from Air Canada). The Swiss are terrific. Everything works, and 99.9 per cent of the time, everything runs on schedule. This article is a tribute to the Swiss fascination with horology.
Swiss Hotel Was a Hit with Inspector Clouseau – The Globe & Mail I have written many travel articles over the years, and especially like this one for its lighthearted tone. The Palace Hotel in Switzerland has served many guests over the years, from Louis Armstrong to John Travolta. It is also where key scenes from Blake Edwards’s film The Return of the Pink Panther were shot.
Arts Sanctuary: Sir Peter Paul Rubens – Silver Kris Back when I studied art history, one of my favourites of the Baroque period was Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). This article – for Singapore Airlines magazine Silver Kris – pays homage to this brilliant man and his European home.
Nash the Slash Unwrapped – Performing Arts & Entertainment in Canada A lot of musicians can claim they are original, but few come close to Canada’s Nash the Slash. A classically-trained violinist, Nash was one of the founding members of Canadian progressive rock band FM. The man, like his music, defies description. Soon after the Three Mile Island nuclear meltdown, Nash started performing with his face covered in bandages, and the gauze has remained part of his act ever since. Now in his early sixties, Nash still records, performs live, and occasionally tours.
Plunderphonics Pioneer - Performing Arts & Entertainment in Canada I have always admired troublemakers, and one of the best remains Canada’s on John Oswald. Years before sampling songs from artists became accepted behaviour in the music industry, it was, well, illegal. Oswald is the man behind Plunderphonics, which uses radical techniques to sample snippets from different artists, mash them into an audio blender, and come up with bastardized songs. It is hard to imagine Pat Boone singing Metallica, or a backwards version of Michael Jackson’s “Bad” called “Dab,” but Oswald has pulled it off. It is 20 years since his first Plunderphonic CD came out. He was forced to destroy all remaining copied of this not-for-sale disc, but a few survived, and can be found on the Internet.
Exclusive interview with John Barry – Film Score Monthly There probably isn’t anyone alive who hasn’t heard the distinctive James Bond theme music. Presented for your enjoyment is an interview with one of the world’s greatest film music composers, John Barry. Aside from creating the best Bond scores, Barry was responsible for the brilliant music for films like Zulu, Born Free, The Lion in Winter, Out of Africa, Dances With Wolves, and countless others. My interview with the reclusive Barry took place in Switzerland in 1997.
Roman Polanski I love Switzerland, especially Gstaad, and have been there half a dozen times. Back in the mid-1990’s, this glorious little village started an annual event called the Cinemusic festival. Under the patronage of Julie Andrews and her husband, Pink Panther director Blake Edwards, the festival focused on the woefully underrated role of music in films past and present. At the time, infamous director Roman Polanski’s most recent flick was Death and the Maiden, based on the play by Chilean playwright Ariel Dorfman (which borrowed the title from Franz Schubert’s masterwork). Roman Polanski remains controversial for too many reasons to mention, from being a Holocaust survivor to the husband of Manson victim Sharon Tate, to having sex with an underage girl. He is unlike anyone I have ever interviewed, which comes across in this 1996 profile for Menz magazine.
The Last Night of the Condemned Back in 2002, I proposed writing an article on the l ast hangings in Canada for Maclean’s magazine. “The Last Night of the Condemned” was written to mark the 40th anniversary of the double hanging of Ronald Turpin, a small-time Canadian hook, and Arthur Lucas, an American who was convicted of murdering an FBI informant in Toronto. While researching the article, I soon realized that there wasn’t a lot of accurate information on these two men – everyone I spoke with had a different story. My habit it to research the living daylights out of a subject, and these two men were no exception. My editor at Maclean’s said, “You’re not writing a book.” Perhaps I took this as a challenge, because I did write a book
Cults: The Next Wave - Homemaker’s I wrote this piece for Homemaker’s magazine, back when it was under the leadership of Editor-in-Chief Sally Armstrong. Cults: The Next Wave was published in 1998, as the Millennium loomed, and threats of so-called Doomsday Cults hit the radar. Over the years, I have researched cults, and find them fascinating and terrifying at the same time. Many of the cults that ended in tragedy – such as the Jonestown Massacre in Guyana in 1977 – began with good intentions. This is an article about how power affected leaders of religious groups, who became gods in their own minds. The article also clears up the common misconception that only vulnerable or ignorant people are recruited by cults.
Pit Bull fighting - Equinox magazine PLEASE NOTE: This article contains graphic photos. “Blood Sport” was one of my first major pieces, published in Equinox soon after graduating Ryerson’s journalism program in 1989 (the glory days of IBM electric typewriters, and the smell of three-sheet multi-coloured carbonless paper). The article was about the smuggling of pit bull dogs from Canada to Yugoslavia, and how the dogs were trained to fight, often to the death. To say the article caused a stir is a gross understatement. The magazine received dozens of letters, some of them praising me for exposing this cruel sport to the world; others thought of me as a villain for the same reason. A few of these letters – printed in a subsequent issue of Equinox – appear at the end of the article. I remain especially proud of this article, and for the record, I am against animal cruelty on all levels. The reason I wrote this piece is because I do not believe on turning my back on acts of injustice – ignoring evil acts, against animals or humans, does not make them disappear.
