Many years ago, some brilliant people from the Ivy League (nothing to do with the schools – The Ivy League was a one hit wonder band from the early 80s) realized that Halloween is too awesome to only celebrate once a year.  Now Halloween Day is an annual tradition in honor of Halloween that happens every year on May 31.

Halloween Day was a big deal around the bnotions and Harth TV offices.

I brought out my special occasion cape for it.

Front:

Rear:

Peep the costumes at the office:

Who Ya Gonna Call?  Maybe Carolyn…

Regina is an 80s girl.  You might think Marie from Nat & Marie did not participate, BUT…

…she is an Olympian rockin’ the official gear and the official sponsor’s food.

Happy Halloween Day to everyone!  Make sure your workplace takes part next year if you didn’t on this one!

On the way back from our adventure in Austin, Texas, there was only one all-out touristy thing that we all wanted to do: visit Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee.

The man’s flying 2 bedroom apartment, named after his daughter.

This is where Elvis received The Beatles when they dropped by to visit.

They make a big point about how Elvis spent most of his time upstairs, and only came downstairs when people came over. Also, no one ever got to go upstairs – that was his private space. And so they’re not going to show us the upstairs out of respect. #EPICFAIL #WACK

So here we are going downstairs – but it’s cool because the whole stairway is mirrored!

The basement:

The sign on the TV set above reads “Gift from RCA to Elvis for the sale of 50 million records between the years of 1956 and 1960.”

This was the part I perked up at the most – the display case with the memorabilia from Elvis’ 1968 prime time TV special. He hadn’t had a hit in a while, and had been out of the public eye for a few years. It’s scarier for a performer to go out after he’s been big and isn’t so much any more than it is when he’s just starting and no one knows who he is yet. And on the show you can see how nervous Elvis is.

#WANT

This trophy room used to be Elvis’ personal racquetball court:

The house itself was way more modest than you might think, being that it’s the home of one of the biggest stars of all time, but it’s decked out so that you can see where Elvis got bored and decided to mess with a part of the house to make a new hangout pad for he and his friends.

I was really disappointed to not see the upstairs, especially after they play up how it was Elvis’ private space. And it’s chilling to reach the end of the tour, be standing at the graves of Elvis, both of his parents, and his grandmother, and realize that he was only 42 when he died.

I’m glad that, like the Hollywood sign, I got to see one of those things I always wanted to see through my own eyes.

And I’m glad that a quick stop into the gift shop means that DMC has a homey to kick it with.

What up to my contest winners: Aleks, Reado, Shaun Hawaii, Aaron Broverman ★ Gail Gabrielle, 40deuce, Dave Coleman, and props to Jon (the Big Thinker)

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Hello! Thanks for checking out my website.  Feels like I haven’t poured my random craziness into this blog in a while.

Winter is in full swing here in Toronto.  I’m still spoiled by the winter I spent bombing between Los Angeles and the Mexican Riviera on a luxury cruise ship two years ago.  I spent that winter away, most of that next year just hanging out in California, and I have never been the same since.  I got back just in time for last winter but I hadn’t resolved the personal issues that led me to seek a change of scenery in the first place so I was still away from Toronto and generally hiding from life.

Now I’m bringing the action and satisfaction, out in the big city, making moves and shaking things up.  I’m having fun, but I am definitely not cut out for this winter business.

It’s been a great few weeks since I moved into the new pad.  Living smack in the middle of everywhere you go downtown is pretty great.  We’ve got the green screen studio set up, have already run a few successful tests, and are almost ready to shoot a few new videos I’ve been cooking up.

Speaking of videos, this weekend is going to be the first table read of my next big movie – Julian Assange and The Double Damn Burger.  I cannot effin’ wait to hear those words come out of the mouths of the people I wrote them for.

In other work news, I’ve started working with a few new clients in just the last week or so on some really cool stuff.  One project in particular is an animation project.  I haven’t done an animation project in several years.  I’m really looking forward to putting that in front of you.  Stay tuned!

I think that about catches you up on what’s going down in my world.  But enough about me!  How are you doing??  Leave a comment and let me know what you’re up to.

And come see my Social Media Week session tonight!!!

You know I’ve got you.  I’m your connection.  So check out this video – catch the game from the best seats in the house and come behind-the-scenes into the heart of the Air Canada Centre…

This was one of those experiences you’ve heard me talk about that you just can’t buy.  These aren’t just great seats that we were sitting in…

We were sitting in the seats that belong to Richard Peddie, President of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (basically, the boss of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors, Toronto FC, and Toronto Marlies).

↑ Our tickets!  These seats are incredible.  We were dead on centre ice, nine rows up.  We could see everything, right down to the expressions on the the players’ faces as they left the bench or the penalty box.

My press pass

Here’s me and Jon Sinden, my host for this game.  Jon is the community manager for MLSE so he runs the Twitter and Facebook for all of those teams I just mentioned, in addition to a whole bunch of branding and outreach activities.  Jon is one of those friends who I don’t see as often as I would like, but when we do spend time together it’s always tremendously eventful and inspiring.  We’ve got a few projects we’re cooking up (hence why I got to go to this game), so keep this site open in a browser tab for when that drops.

Here’s where Jon works (I presume) ↑

Sonny Weems from the Toronto Raptors sat two rows in front of us!

Face off!

Penalty!

Goal!

Fight!

Another goal! Doesn’t Anaheim’s goalie look dejected??

This game was amazing.  It was as close to the perfect game of hockey as I’ve ever heard of.  It was fast-paced, high-scoring, low on fights and penalties, and the home team won.  I saw the most amazing goals I’ve ever seen.  I’ve always said that the Leafs come off like a bunch of guys bumbling around, accidentally scoring goals once in a while.  But for this game they were smooth and in control.

I’m still overjoyed now, a day later, over how for all the games I could have been invited to with this unbelievable level of access, I got to be there for this game in particular.  Just brilliant.

Here’s me with broadcasting legend Andy Frost, the Voice of the Leafs and radio personality heard on Toronto’s AM640 and Q107 FM:

His voice is so iconic and burned into my subconscious that meeting him and hearing him talk was a trip. He’s a super cool guy and I was really excited to meet him. During 2nd intermission we went to say hello to everyone up in the media gondola. We got to see all of the TV and newspaper people both from here in Toronto and the Anaheim media, covering the away game.

This is a man having an incredibly fun night out.

This was right beside the rink between periods.

Here’s Leafspace Monika running the show during intermission. Remember when she did that freestyle rap for us??

Thanks and congratulations to the Toronto Maple Leafs!

Check out these links for more with me and the Toronto Maple Leafs:
Leafs bum-rush an amateur game and select one player to be Leaf for a Day
Coke Zero Fans First game against the Ottawa Senators

On Monday, December 20, The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto was the site of ELECTRIC CHRISTMAS 2.  This was a Christmas pageant on another level featuring: a Twitter Talent Show, Corey the Cellular Guru’s birthday, and a historic performance by one-night-only show band GIFT RECEIPT.

Watch the video:

When you come in, say hello to Regina and Christine at the door.  Put your Secret Santa gift on the table behind them!

Send your tweets to our Twitter Fountain – use the hashtag #ElectricXmas2!

Be sure to get your photo with Santa (whose beard was mightily filled by Lauren O’Nizzle)

OUR PERFORMERS:

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Regina Sy

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Rayanne Langdon

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Marie Nicola

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Kat Langdon & James

In the middle of Kat and James’ set, we found out that #ElectricXmas2 was a trending topic on Twitter!

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Secret Santa Gift Exchange

sponsored by The Cellular Guru

Everyone who brought a gift for the Secret Santa Gift Exchange was enterted to win a phone.  Corey the Cellular Guru lined up a laundry list of mobile sponsors who all donated big prizes from phones to 1 year of mobile service.  Big thanks to Corey for sponsoring the Secret Santa Gift Exhange!

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Christine Estima

teaming up with me for a dramatic reading of The Night Before Christmas – Twitter Edition!

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And the evening’s finale…

GIFT RECEIPT

The night closed with a truly epic triple-ending.  Check out this uncut video:

We got everyone up on stage for rousing round of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”, to the accompaniment of an extremely drunken Corey taking turns with an extremely drunken Jesse shouting “Hannukah!!!” into a microphone.  That was followed by Raymi jumping on the drums and rockin’ her solo skills, and finally Joey “AccordionGuy” DeVilla brought his accordion on stage to deliver a rousing round of a certain Cee-Lo Green song with a swear word in the title.

Seriously, watch the video above. It’s chaos!

Thanks to everyone for coming! We raised a little over $300 just from donations at the door for War Child Canada.  I’ll put up a video of going to see them after everyone’s back from the Christmas & New Year’s break.

Thanks to everyone who helped make this event something special.  Thanks to Regina, Chris, Rayanne, Kat, James, Marie, and Christine for performing.  Thanks to Dwayne, Alex, and Mike for taking part in my foolishness.  Thanks to Lauren for being a good sport and bringing the party with the Santa thing.  And thanks Affan for making the Twitter wall happen.  And Regina gets a double dose of thanks for her help on the administrative side, stepping in quite late in the game and making the event come together in ways it otherwise would not have.

And thanks for the photos: Joey DeVilla, Ava Zack, Chris Brooker, Lauren O’Nizzle, Christine Estima, Dan Levy, Jason Howlett, Marie Nicola.

The Christmas fun doesn’t stop! Click here to check out the 4th Annual Sean Ward Christmas Record (but only until the holidays are over)!

Six months in a row of daily videos.

As a gift to myself, I got a Spider-Man t-shirt to add to my growing Spider-Man t-shirt collection.

And now my Spider-Man t-shirt collection consists of five times:

Which one should I wear the next time you and I hang out?

But as sometimes happens in life, I’ve gotta mash it up and give it a little more Flava’…

Cuz that’s how I do.

Sometimes it’s fun to see your hometown as though it’s all new to you.  Half the fun of getting away is coming back.

When I’m walking around the streets of Toronto, I will often absent-mindedly put myself into a hypnotized state where I try to make it all feel like New York or Olso or some other foreign city that I am seeing for the first time.

Last week, Toronto was on fire.  No one knew what was going on and you could feel the vibe downtown get tense as people didn’t know what to think.  You could hear smatterings of people starting to fear the worst, but it turned out to be a south-facing condo on fire.

I always assume the best until reason to believe otherwise presents itself.  That’s why I can just chill when we don’t know what’s going on.

This photo is from a series I am doing of interesting views of the CN Tower.  I want to do 100 of them and do something with the series.  Maybe a show, maybe just a blog post.  Who Knows???

This woman didn’t even want me to take a picture of the food in the container.  Whaaaat?  One of my spring rolls is in that box!

I take a lot of pictures of interesting Toronto scenes.  Always keep your eyes open to see your city from angles you’ve never looked at before and

And finally, enjoy a rare look at the arc reactor in my chest.