Gary'sGlimpses

Going Down the Road. When I was living at Hazelton Ave. in Toronto (we had a commune)  there was a premier or preview of 'Going Down the Road' at the New Yorker. I went with Melinda, Carla and Helen, and Pauline. Pauline and i were going together at the time. We were knocked out by the movie and afterward, we went to the Pilot and we all raved about it. we felt it was a big step for Canadian Movies. Pauline really liked it. anyway, they wanted to go back to Hazelton and i stayed on for a few more drinks. so I am sitting there and who walks in but Paul Bradley. We hit it off we were friends from almost the first moment we met. We had a couple of hours of drinking and storytelling and somewhere in this haze, i got a great idea. it was Pauline's birthday on Friday and we were having a party. So I talked Paul into coming and playing his character of Joey from the movie (this was not difficult). This was my idea of a crazy birthday present for Pauline. Friday night Paul showed u...

Billy Joel Cost me my Job! I loved singing the Lobsterman with Maclean & Maclean. The lobster song is the 2nd oldest dirty song written down in English in the tenth century. My last performance was at the El Mocambo. We were doing the last set and as I was getting ready to go up to the stage I saw the manager whisk Billy Joel and his band to a nearby reserved table. The Macleans of course couldn't see for the lights' there is a place in the song where you can throw in a name so I stuck Billy Joel's name into it. The Maclean's looked askance. So I told them after the song. After the show, we all got together in the dressing room and found that Billy Joel was a big fan of dirty Humour . The management provided cases of Heineken's and we drank and partied late into the night.  He raved about the show. But all that he could really remember was me. He would point at me and say how blown away he was when I picked him off. The verse goes that is the end. there isn'...

I met him, I worked briefly on Death wish 5, My sister Gaille was the production secretary, I set up their computer with the accounting program. it wasn't easy first I had to download it on a 90 baud modem over the phone from L.A. it took hours. My sister met Charles when she had to go to the Airport in the middle of the night and rescue  Charles (who she called mister B) Charles had told the Pakistani Immigration agent to fuck off and he was about to be deported. Gaille had lots of experience with this and managed to get him in the country with some inside contacts. Charles took a liking to my sister and phoned our parents home a few times looking for her. Much to the delight of my mother. Charles ruled that nobody could talk to him on set he didn't like small talk. My sister got a small part she got beat up in the movie.  I got an old friend a job in accounting. He had been working for the government and wasn't ready for the movie biz. He phoned me one day said He couldn...

Harold Town (not Harry, its Harold) I met Harold one night at the Pilot Tavern he was not a regular there. We got into some long hot discussion and he invited me back to his place. We go in to his den and he takes two bottles of Scotch out of the cupboard and  hands me one and a glass. We tour around the house looking at works of Art, Mostly his, and they are really impressive. We end up in the basement sitting on carousel horses which he collects. He also shows me an old x-ray machine he was experimenting with. (I think it might have killed him) And so we talked and argued until the scotch was gone. He got me some blankets and a couch to crash on. Not much to talk about next morning heavy hangovers just a coffee and I was gone. "Toronto is a one Town Town". I dropped in on Harold several times after midnight always welcomed with a bottle of Scotch. I remember some people being there the next morning like wife kids? I was never introduced.One night after the Pilot ha...

I first met Jack Bush a few times a week for about six weeks before I even knew his name. It was 1965 and I had just been rejected by the OCA. Feeling lost and unsure of my next steps, I remembered reading that artists often gathered at the Pilot. So, I made my way there, usually a bit too early in the day due to my factory shift. Sitting at the bar, I noticed a dapper man in a grey suit with steel grey hair and a perfectly groomed mustache. He was sipping on a martini, and something about him caught my attention. We struck up a conversation, and I was immediately taken aback by his profound insights on art. This was a level of conversation I wasn't used to, and I found myself thoroughly enjoying it. We ran into each other several times, and each encounter left me with a newfound appreciation for this man. It wasn't until a couple of weeks later that I discovered the real artist hangout at the Pilot - the big, dark back room where they rarely appeared before 5pm. It took som...