MAGGIE KANG

They gave her the key to the city, which she definitely deserves. An immigrant from Seoul, you know her as the Oscar-winning force behind “KPop Demon Hunters.” She said she wanted to make the characters stupid. And that she tries to be the funniest person in the room. And when asked how to add a female character to a script she said they should just flip a male character to a woman. Maggie wanted to get all her Korean influences into the movie, which took seven years to complete. This is the type of person changing the world, this is the type of person who cannot be replaced by AI.

DERYCK WHIBLEY

You know him as the frontman for Sum 41. A pipsqueak punk. But he’s a veritable intellectual. Analyzing his life and the life of a musician and faith and fear and courage… He separated out all the issues. He was a deeper thinker than most college graduates. Reminded me of the old days, when rockers would be interviewed in “Rolling Stone” because they had something to say, not because they had something to promote…the interview might not even have been aligned with a release. These rockers opined and readers like me ate it up. These were our heroes, these were our leaders. It wasn’t about raw adulation, it was about thinking and responding.

JULIAN BUNETTA

We talked all about writing hit songs and… One thing he agreed with me on is the best stuff comes in a flash, a bolt of inspiration, and you need to get it down right away and most of these great songs are completed quickly. As for only wanting to give your song to an artist if it’s going to be the single… In the old days, an album track was worth as much as the hit on a CD, and paid accordingly. But in these pick and choose days, if writers have what they believe to be a hit song, many hold it back for a hit artist who will use it for a single, that’s where the bread is, an album track just ain’t worth much. And I was discussing this with Julian and he said you never know what a hit is anymore. That the audience decides. He talked about a household name act where the fans picked a ballad first, which a record company never would have. It’s not only the gatekeepers who have been eliminated, but those at the source, the label itself, no longer have the power of yore. You can’t push a record to the top. You need the audience to start it.

MARY RAMOS

She’s a music supervisor who did “Pulp Fiction” and other Tarantino movies and so many others. She was a bundle of energy, she evidenced a lot of personality, you could see that she’d be fun to have around, to hang with, and that’s a main criterion for any gig, you’ve got to fit in, hopefully add to, be a friend…nobody wants to work with a jerk. But even more, Mary reminded me of Annie Hall… The way she pulled back in the middle of a statement, laughed, smiled…it was nearly uncanny.

TRUMP

He not only lives in the minds of Americans, but Canadians too. Hang long enough and he and the political situation in the U.S. come up. People keep asking me about the 2028 election. I tell them that Trump and the Republicans are never going to let a Democrat win. That there are only five to seven states that matter and if you strike enough people from the voter rolls and put up other hurdles…a Democrat has no chance. Those in D.C. and the media still believe in the system, young people do not, and they’re the ones who ultimately force change.

NORTH BAY

That was a new one on me. I mean I know Mississauga and Hamilton, but people keep telling me they come from places I’ve never heard of. Not that North Bay is at the absolute limits, but it is three and a half hours from Toronto. As hip as Canada is, there’s definitely a feeling that they live behind a great wall that is hard to jump over to make it in the United States. To be big in Canada is like being big in your high school, but to be big in Hollywood… Oh, don’t tell me about all the Canadian superstars, that’s not my point. I’m talking about an outlook, a mentality. Canadians don’t feel entitled, they know it takes a lot of work to break through.

WALKING

Nobody walks in L.A., isn’t that what Missing Persons said? But that was when there was a hip alternative music scene commenting on the mainstream by being truthful and irreverent and therefore connecting with those on the cutting edge, who led change. I’ve walked more in Toronto than I did all last year in L.A. I guess this is a feature of most cities, but Toronto is not down and dirty like so many south of the border.