Barris Beat

Where the Junos come from

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The current Juno Award owes its name to a champion of Canadian arts and culture from the late 1960s, Pierre Juneau. Photo Music Canada.

A couple of weeks ago, I had a conversation with some of my journalism students about the annual parade of awards shows – the Grammys, the People’s Choice Awards, the Oscars and the rest. The subject of this year’s Canadian music awards, coming up in April, eventually cropped up. They had all heard of the Junos, sure. But then I asked if anyone knew the origin of the Junos.

“Oh, it’s the name of the Canadian beach on D-Day,” one said.

“Yes, you’re right on the D-Day reference,” I said. “But not the musical one.”

“I know,” said one of my more erudite students. “Juno is the Roman goddess of marriage and queen of the gods.”

“Right again,” I said. “But she’s got nothing to do with the Juno Music Awards in Canada.”

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Barris Beat

Stitch in time…

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My father was born in 1922, raised in New York City, N.Y. and (as his U.S. Army Honorable Discharge paper said) was last employed before entering the army as a “sewing machine operator.”

I saw my mother do it. I saw my grandmother do it even more. It wasn’t something my grandfather ever did. And I never saw my father do it. Although, after he died in 2004, we did find some of my father’s military papers from the Second World War when he served a sergeant in the army medical corps. And those papers suggested he knew how to do it. On his Honorable Discharge papers when he left the U.S. Army in December 1945, his attestation revealed that he had done it.

“Civilian occupation,” the discharge papers revealed, “Sewing machine operator.” (more…)

Books, Features

Ted Barris writes Foreword to new book Syncopated: Black Stories

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In a new book of biographies (compiled by author Ed Brown) about Black musicians in Canada, Ted Barris was invited to write the Foreword.

The star attraction was not in the house that night. While many others – the luminaries of the Canadian jazz scene – performed on stage, perhaps the country’s best studio and jazz concert drummer of the day was absent. In fact, it was because he was absent, that all the stars came out. It was in 1967 when Toronto-born musician Archie Alleyne suffered serious injuries in a car accident. He was not able to work … at either of his jobs.

“I didn’t have a car, so I had to carry my drum kit on streetcars and the subway,” he told my father, Alex Barris, back then. “I’d play from 9 at night to 1 a.m., get home with my drums by 3 a.m. and be up four hours later to go to my day job.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Papal opportunity

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Pope Kiril Pavlovich Lakota , in publicity photo from movie “The Shoes of the Fisherman” 1968.

I remember the Pope. He was Polish, but he wasn’t Józef Wojtyla. Not Pope John Paul II. This was a man named Kiril Pavlovich Lakota. He had been a political prisoner – Number 103592R – in a Soviet gulag. He was scooped up by the powers that be and sent on a mission, a mission to ascend the thrown of the Catholic Church and to then negotiate an end to the Cold War with China. What? You don’t remember that Pope? Well, he was in all the newspapers, magazines and movie trailers in 1968. And he looked an awful lot like Anthony Quinn.

“You gave me absolute power,” actor Quinn says as Pope Kiril, “You must submit to my use of it.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Words R us

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In 1966, Walter Cronkite made the cover of Time magazine. But he still couldn’t pronounce “February.” Photo Robert Vickrey.

I know Walter Cronkite did it and that made it OK. Walter Cronkite, the CBS TV news anchor from the early 1960s until 1981, was once considered “the most trusted man in America.” But just because he was most trusted didn’t make him the most correct. He still couldn’t pronounce the name of the second month on the calendar. All those years ago he still closed his show this way:

“And that’s the way it is, this Thursday, Febuary 7, 1963,” he’d say in his sign-off. “This is Walter Cronkite for CBS Evening News. Good night.”

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Barris Beat

Life on the death beat

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Sandra Martin, the obit Queen. Photo by Nigel Dickson.

I had a visit with the Queen this past week. Not Elizabeth II. No one with any royal blood really. But she has certainly worn a crown, of sorts, as the best at what she does. In fact, she has won gold and silver recognition in her profession. She is a writer, a writer of one of the oldest forms of journalism and among the most actively followed sections of published newspapers – the obituary.

“Her subjects (are) the famous as well as the unknown,” said a press release promoting her most recent book. “Sandra Martin is the obit Queen of Canada.”

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Barris Beat

Send in the lip synchers

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Beyonce sort of singing the “Star-Spangled Banner.” Photo Spin.com

Monday’s inauguration of the U.S. president seemed quite a success. Barak Obama had come from behind to win the November election. He had survived the fiscal cliff debacle. Now all he had to do was put his hand on a Bible and repeat the oath of office to begin his second term. And unlike the flub of the oath line during the 2008 inauguration, it seemed to go flawlessly. Then, Kristin duBois, a master sergeant from the U.S. Marine Band, spilled the beans.

“We all know Beyonce can sing,” she told ABC News, “We all know the Marine Corps can play (the anthem.) We do not know why she decided to go with the pre-recorded music.”

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Barris Beat

Idle voice no more

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Elmer Ghostkeeper lived the “Idle No More” philosophy before it was official. Photo by Cliff Skarstedt.

It’s about 30 years ago now that I met Elmer. Born in 1947, he was about my age. Like me he’d grown up searching for a place in the world to make a difference. He’d gone to elementary school in the Canadian North, to college to become an engineer and to university to study anthropology and political science. In the 1960s, he poked around Europe hoping to figure things out. Then he found his calling.

“My dad had taken sick and nearly died,” he said. “I decided it was time I returned home to get to know my parents.”

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News

Tour of Cold War era submarine HMCS Ojibwa

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Checking out the damaged port side of HMCS Ojibwa. Prior to its transport from Halifax to Port Burwell, Ont., the Royal Canadian Navy conducted shock tests on Ojibwa’s hull; despite the heavy indentation, her hull withstood the concussion.

On Saturday, Jan. 12, 2013, Ted Barris received an advance tour of the Cold War era Royal Canadian Navy submarine HMCS Ojibwa. He is a member of the Project Ojibwa Honorary Board which in 2012 assisted in the salvage and transport of the sub from Halifax to Port Burwell, Ontario, on Lake Erie.

 

News

Barris receives Diamond Jubilee Medal

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Ted Barris received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton. Photograph by Quenby Massey.

During an awards ceremony at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum on Oct. 14, 2012, Sen. Joseph Day presented Ted Barris with a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. The announcement issued with the award said, in part, “the medal is a visible and tangible way to recognize outstanding Canadians … who have built and continue to build this caring society and country through their service and achievements.”

Barris was nominated for the award by the Air Force Association of Canada. (more…)