Paul Quarrington, who passed away in January at the age of fifty-six, almost certainly wrote the only Governor General's Award–winning book to employ a jacket blurb from Penthouse. "The best novel written about rock 'n' roll," they declared of Whale Music, and even if that's a bit of hyperbole, it's a reminder that Quarrington wasn't your average purveyor of CanLit.

We’ve said it before: MuchMusic kinda sucks nowadays. Dave Bidini says the same thing, but more eloquently, in his column at This Magazine. The front man of the now-defunct Rheostatics reminisces about a time when his band was “afforded two hours at midnight to present bands live in an empty garage studio in the bowels [...]

Photo by Pete Nema from the Torontoist Flickr Pool. It's hard to believe it's already been over six months since the Rheostatics played their final show at Massey Hall. You may be wondering what each of the members have been doing since, and in Dave Bidini's case the answer is easy: he has already found the time to travel the world, write about his journeys, and get his book published by McClelland & Stewart....