Category: Interviews
In Honour of Bob Marley’s Birthday, the Story of My Surprise Interview with his wife Rita Marley
UPDATE: The interview discussed below is now available online at this link.
In honour of Bob Marley’s birthday, I thought I’d recount the day I conducted a surprise interview with his wife, Rita:
A few weeks ago, in preparation for this month’s issue of Zoomer magazine, I was asked to conduct an interview with Rita Marley — singer, Rastafarian, and widow of the legendary Bob Marley. The interview, was to be conducted via email, so I did my research, wrote up my questions, and sent them to Mrs. Marley’s publicist. On the day that I was to receive the answers to my questions, my cell phone rang. When I answered, I heard this on the other end: “Please hold for Rita Marley.” The next thing I knew, Mrs. Marley was on the line, ready to be interviewed for our magazine.
At that moment I was working on another assignment and didn’t have the questions I’d sent to Mrs. Marley on hand. Luckily, she’s a very kind, intelligent woman and for the next 40 minutes I conducted a telephone interview with her as I recalled the questions I’d sent her while simply going with the flow of our talk and coming up with new ones as the conversation progressed.
Mrs. Marley was incredibly gracious with her time, and aside from being an intelligent and well-spoken interviewee, she was also very funny. When we finished the interview and hung up the phone, I sat back in my chair and closed my eyes and simply tried to take stock of the situation: Rita Marley, Bob Marley’s wife, just called me on my cell phone and we talked for 40 minutes. I couldn’t believe it.
I’ll always be extremely grateful to Rita Marley for calling me that day, as it was truly one of the biggest thrills of my career and a moment I know that, as the years go on, I will never forget.
My interview with Rita Marley appears in the March 2012 issue of Zoomer magazine, which should be on newsstands very shortly.
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RasTa: A Soul’s Journey: Up right now on the Zoomer website, however, is my review of RasTa: A Soul’s Journey, a fantastic documentary by Bob and Rita Marley’s granddaughter Donisha Prendergast in which she travels to eight countries around the world, tracing the history of the Rastafarian movement, all the while taking part in her own personal journey to discover who she is, where she came from, and where she’d like to go. Click here for my review of RasTa: A Soul’s Journey.
All Fall Down: My TIFF interview with experimental filmmaker Philip Hoffman
Philip Hoffman has been making experimental short films for 30 years, and is an icon in his genre in Canadian cinema. Often called ”Canada’s pre-eminent diary filmmaker”, Hoffman sat down with me on the rooftop of the Sutton Place Hotel during the Toronto International Film Festival to discuss his latest TIFF entry, All Fall Down, filmmaking, teaching, and how the experiemental and the mainstream actually feed off each other.
Toronto International Film Festival: Interview with filmmaker Dylan Reibling
Filmmaker Dylan Reibling’s lastest offering, the short film Record, was recently featured as part of Short Cuts Canada at the Toronto International Film Festival. I sat down with Reibling in a second-floor room at the Sutton Place Hotel to discuss his latest work, his first film festival appearance, his love for Russian art history, the Toronto cycling community (of which he is a part) and more.
Pages Bookstore closes for good: my interview with Chris Reed
Chris Reed is co-artistic director and series co-ordinator of This Is Not A Reading Series. He has worked at Pages for almost four years, and will be on the front line helping to close the store for the final time on Monday, August 31st, 2009. The store is closing because the landlords near-doubled the rent to $400,000 annually. I spoke with Chris in the store during the last weekend of business about the legacy of Pages, it’s impact on the neighbourhood, what the future holds for the iconic bookstore, and more.
My interview with the Ring of Honor ring crew
The following is an interview I conducted with the ring crew at the recent Ring of Honor Death Before Dishonor VIII shows in Toronto. The four are from Montreal, and also train/work as pro wrestlers with the Quebec-based Northern Championship Wrestling (NCW). The crew consists of Jorge Morillas, 31, Benoit Chalifoux, 30, Alexandre Canuel,17, and Roxanne Paris. In the interview, the four discuss their lives as ring crew and wrestlers, how they got started in the business, their injuries, Toronto versus Quebec crowds, and more.
My interview with comedian Sara Hennessey
After a recent sold-out performance of Sara Hennessey Town, this year’s Fringe Festival offering from local comedian Sara Hennessey (Laugh Sabbath, Much Music’s Video on Trial), I sat down (actually stood in an alley) with her and spoke about her comedy, what inspires her, the struggles of females in the world of stand-up comedy, and what she loves and could do without in Toronto, and so much more.
Interview with Monica Kuebler — editor-in-chief of Burning Effegy Press
Founder and editor-in chief of Burning Effigy Press Monica Kuebler spoke to me recently on the eve of the 22nd Annual Bram Stoker Awards, where one of her press’ books, Redemption Roadshow by Weston Ochse, is nominated for an award in the long-form fiction category. The first horror book the press ever published, Nicholas Kaufmann’s General Slocum’s Gold, received a nomination in the same category.
Below, Monica discusses what makes great horror fiction, the types of books she looks for and what horror monster she wishes would just go away – and lots more!
Interview with playwright Pierre Brault, author of 5 O’Clock Bells
Pierre Brault is a Quebec-born, Ottawa based playwright, performer and artistic director of Sleeping Dog Theatre. His first two plays, Blood on the Moon and Portrait of an Unidentified Man, are both one-man shows. The former deals with the arrest, trial and execution of assassin James Whelan. The latter explores the schemes and suicide of art forger Elmyr de Hory. His latest show, 5 O’Clock Bells, focuses on the addictions and unsolved murder of legendary jazz guitarist Lenny Breau. This interview was conducted on June 10th, 2009, when Brault was in Toronto performing 5 O’Clock Bells as part of the Luminato Festival of Arts and Creativity. Below he discusses how he wrote the play, his feelings on Lenny’s murder/suspected killer and his previous career as a stand-up comedian.
My interviews with playwright Marjorie Chan and human rights activist Song Ge
Marjorie Chan is a Toronto-based playwright whose play The Madness of the Square, which re-creates the events of the Tiananmen Square massacre, recently enjoyed a run at Factory Theatre.
Song Ge is a human rights activist who moved to Canada from China over 10 years ago. He is also an actor in Chan’s play and was a participant in student protests 20 years ago in China’s Hunan province that occurred simultaneously with those in Tiananmen Square.
Below are excerpts of interviews I conducted with both on June 4th, 2009 — the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre — shortly after part of Chan’s play was performed in a memorial ceremony at Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto. An article I wrote based on the interviews is at http://newsfix.ca/2009/06/05/the-madness-in-nathan-phillips-square/.
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Interview: Risha Yorke and Graham Porter
As with most interviews I conduct for a story, there’s much more material than space to print it. As a result, a lot of creative, juicy quotes end up on the editing room floor.
The following are excerpts of an interview I conducted on May 21st, 2009 with Risha Yorke and Graham Porter, respectively the writer/director and musical director of the new play John/Yoko Bed Piece. My feature on the duo, as well as a review of the play, can be found at http://newsfix.ca/c/arts/.
Now, read on for Yorke and Porter’s thoughts on current celebrity activists (watch out Bono), the commercialisation of the peace movement and the one celebrity Yorke actually thinks is doing the world some good (hint: it ain’t Brad or Angelina).
