City TV journalist Mark Dailey passed away yesterday from cancer at the age of 57. Those who may not recognize\u00a0his face will certainly recognize his amazing baritone voice that announced incoming \/ outcoming shows, and smoothly proclaimed \u201cYou\u2019re watching City TV \u2013 Everywhere\u201d over the station’s simple yet-bold-logo.<\/p>\n
Known affectionately as \u2018The Voice,\u2019 Bailey joined City TV in 1979 during the station\u2019s second year of operation when its dial i.d. was Channel 79 instead of 57. This was all prior to owner \/ visionary \/ oddball Moses Znaimer allowing the\u00a0station and its radio network to be overtaken by several brooding corporate entities \u2013 a move that ultimately\u00a0weakened the station\u2019s ability to remain an independent voice in the city of Toronto.<\/p>\n
(Dumping veteran anchors, and weirdly re-coloring the sets and station graphics in a cooler, meaner blue than CTV also didn’t help. Was this dislocation and discombobulation of an original,\u00a0dynamic station style worth it for Znaimer? Does anyone really identify themself as a\u00a0”Zoomer” –\u00a0a name that connotes ‘a sudden physical dislocation from Point A to Point B after heavy bean comsumption’? I dunno.)<\/p>\n
City TV was odd, frank, cheap, and sometimes disorganized: when a late night controller fell asleep at the wheel and missed an ad break, he\u2019d make up for it by cutting away during the middle of a scene or actor’s line delivery\u00a0to batches of ads – sometimes 3 sets in less than 20 minutes. (IT HAPPENED.\u00a0 Mission of the Shark. A fine TV movie trashed by a crackead controller touching himself under the keyboard.)<\/p>\n
Dailey\u2019s voice often introduced the station’s once steady stable of films billed as \u2018the City TV Late Great Movie\u2019 \u2013 and as Rob Salem recalls in the Toronto Star\u2019s obit<\/a>, once in a while there would be a smart-assed quip <\/a>that had viewers doing a double-take of \u2018Did he just say what I think I just heard?\u2019<\/p>\n It\u2019s rare to have someone balance professionalism and wit live on air, but Dailey managed it so smoothly, and his voice and personality will be missed.<\/p>\n *\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0 *<\/p>\n This Thursday, Stanley Kubrick\u2019s 2001: A Space Odyssey<\/strong> begins its month-long exhibition at the TIFF Bell Lightbox (Is it allowable to knock that name down to TBL? It\u2019s less wordy) in mighty 70mm. The Star\u2019s Peter Howell presents his list<\/a> of 21 geeky<\/span> cool things within the film that either became fact, fashion, or were just fabulous.<\/p>\n The National Post offers a short piece <\/a>on 2001<\/strong>\u2019s effects whiz, Douglas Trumbull, who at the ridiculous age of 24, was nabbed by Kubrick during the late sixties as the film\u2019s special effects supervisor. Trumbull will be speaking Wednesday at the TBL (see how easy it reads?) for two hours about Kubrick\u2019s hippy-trippy masterpiece.<\/p>\n One more time: TBL. Hippy-trippy.<\/p>\n *\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0 *<\/p>\n Lastly, as reported by the Globe & Mail, Ontario Ombudsman Andr\u00e9 Marin released his report today<\/a> on the useless G8 and G20 summits that accomplished nothing, save for conflagrations of ill behaviour, unmasking deceitful officials who will walk away with impunity, and abuses of power that may have kept a minority of anarchists somehat in line, but essentially said Fuck You to local citizens by kettling dog walkers on a milk run at a corner by Queen and Spadina.<\/p>\n Premier Dalton McGuinty may not wish to ruffle feathers and create fractures in the relations between provincial and municipal departments, but it’ll bite him in the ass come the next election.<\/p>\n I\u2019d argue one reason Rob Ford was elected Mayor by centrists and maybe a few left-leaning centrists stemmed from citizen outrage at ex-Mayor Miller\u2019s lack of spine in dealing with the disconnect between the police, the province, and federal departments during and after the G20 boondoggle.<\/p>\n Ford\u2019s gruffness and bullheaded persona may have fed voters\u2019 unconscious desire to have someone perceived as strong \u2013 regardless of left or right leanings \u2013 at the helm, willing to run the city like a business with a customer service department.<\/p>\n So: if the service during the G20 weekend stunk, if an employee was phsyically abusive towards a customer, and if a public service\u00a0department is broken, the issues have to be addressed, or customers will not come back \/ people will hate you, too (just\u00a0 don’t let new best buddy Don Cherry do the talking. The last time the term “pinko<\/a>” was used in Canada was 1998, and that fart got cracked in the nose for not knowing when and where to shut\u00a0up, and make nice).<\/p>\n Most likely Marin\u2019s report will yield zero changes or clarifications, but who knows.<\/p>\n The fact someone came forward (see today’s\u00a0piece<\/a> in the Star)\u00a0with the missing 5 seconds of video footage in which\u00a0Adam Nobody was\u00a0punched by a uniformed officer in riot gear kind of contradicts Chief Blair and the SIU’s stance that Mr. Nobody was up to no good during the protest march that day.<\/p>\n The biggest surprise: Rosie DiManno\u00a0wrote a relatively straight and coherent news piece on the newfound footage. Who knew she could shelve the shtick<\/a>?<\/p>\n