It’s the end of January. More or less. And I had originally intended to cleverly follow up on my diatribe about premature year-in-review summaries by offering either a 2013 year-in-review or a 2012-in-review addendum, for those that relied on newspapers and magazines to put the year in its proper perspective.
But dang if those early editions didn’t have a point. No one cares about 2012 anymore. Just ask Psy. So I’ll limit my reminiscences to words of tribute to important music figures lost in the final days of an eventful year. Internationally, that means a mention of the passing of Dave Brubeck and Ravi Shankar. Locally, we’re talking the colourful Lance Matthews — the man behind The Whipping Post and a fixture at the Dominion Tavern and The Rainbow Bistro — as well as Dave Seal, the man who kept the beat for 1980s local faves Gonks Go Beat. All will be, and already are, missed.
As for The Wig‘s 2012 highlight, I have to go with a modest reflection on the passing of another local institution: the department-store cafeteria. This writer’s lament for the loss of Zellers’ diners inspired similar tributes on local television, as well as on CBC Radio’s national program The Sunday Edition. Indeed, even a local paper that had originally passed on the story had a change of heart, later assigning it to a staff reporter. Reached for comment about the classier of Ottawa’s dailies’ editorial reversal, one editor offered this writer the same advice allegedly given to Mitt Romney by Barack Obama’s chair during the 2012 U.S. election campaign.
Ah, 2012. Remember 2012? Me neither.
Wig Bubbles 