So who is the coolest famous person you have ever met?  I have not met many famous people, I was managing a comedy club about a decade ago and met Tommy Chong of Cheech and Chong fame, he was pretty cool but happened to be wiped from a long USA tour when he showed up to do a one nighter in Toronto, so we exchanged maybe 10 words.

A few years before that I had the luck to meet up with Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley at a local Toronto nightclub.  I had always been a huge KISS fan and got the chance to buy him a beer and talk for about ten minutes.  He even passed along one of those guitar business cards and I will always remember how amazingly friendly and cool he was, I really wish I could find that card but I think it might be buried away with my bell-botton jeans somewhere in the garage.

It is funny but after meeting him I always hoped I would get into a business that would allow me to have printed one of those types of business cards with a cool shape referencing my profession but now that I sell toilets and urinals I decided it would not be that appealing….

Toronto is a great place to bump into celebs if you know the right places to hang-out.  So next time TIFF is in town why not go down to the entertainment district and see if you can catch your favorite celebrity.

Ok, I am sure we have all attended that horrible party that never seemed to get started and ends up being a ghost-town before midnight.  Even with loud music, an open bar and awesome guests a party can still fail if you don’t have a good DJ.  Just any DJ won’t do, it must be a company or individual with the right DJ equipment, a good mix of songs and a ‘bigger than life’ personality.  I went to a party last week and I would say that DJ brought it from good to GREAT!!!

If you don’t know someone that is up to snuff, then ask your friends or look through classifieds online or in  your local entertainment newspaper (in Toronto that would be NOW magazine).  Ask for references and actually call to see what past clients say.  Have fun and let me know about the best DJ’s you have ever seen in the comments section!

Hopefully you already have a business card, but if you don’t you should definitely create one. Business cards are something that we take for granted when we shouldn’t. The look, feel, and message on a card help people determine how they view you and more importantly, if they will even remember you.

When you leave a conversation and the other party has your business card, your identity is that piece of paper. Because of this representation, your business card should not only state who you work for, your contact information, and what you do, but it should also state something about you. Not in a written sense, but more so on the overall image it creates about you.

In the music industry I have seen some of the coolest business cards ever. Having attractive music business cards is a great way to open up the door for new opportunities.

Here are a few of my favorites!

For example if I were to hand you my business card you would probably get the feeling that I am a warm and friendly person due to the following reasons:

* The card is thick, yet feels soft.
* Corners of the card are rounded
* The card color is green
* The typography is a bit rounded

The main reason I had the card created with these qualities is because when I hand it to people, I wanted it to communicate a warm and caring feeling. This is important to me because I actually do care about others and I want to make sure people remember this and stay in touch.

If you don’t have a business card and are looking to create one, here are some things to keep in mind:

* Color – we usually take colors for granted, but there are meanings behind them.
* Paper – the quality of your card says something about you. The last thing you want to use is cheap paper or a material like metal which doesn’t allow others to write on your card.
* Uniqueness – if your business card doesn’t stand out in a pile filled with other cards then the chances are people won’t remember you by looking at your business card. You need to make your card unique somehow.
* Typography – fonts have a voice, so choose one that best represents who you are and make sure to choose one that is easy to read.
* Feel – touch is an important sense that we all have and your business card should appeal to that sense. If you want to represent that you are a soft and gentle person, make sure your card is soft and has rounded corners. If you want to represent that you are a corporate person who is very structured and ridged, you probably should have a hard business card with sharp corners.

Before you hand your business card to someone else, you need to make sure your card has the information it should but also truly says something about you. This will help them remember you and at the very least stay in touch once in awhile.

Since I am really enjoying this song (and video) I thought I would feature it!! Pink’s new single, “Raise Your Glass,” makes a toast-worthy blast on the Billboard Hot 100 this week, surging 51-11 and building anticipation for her “Greatest Hits…So Far!!!” album.

“Raise Your Glass” marks P!nk’s 20th Hot 100 chart entry dating to her arrival in 2000. With the song’s rise to No. 11, an advance of one more spot would mark her 10th top 10, tying her with Ashanti for third-most top 10s among women since 2000. In that span, only Rihanna (16 top 10s) and Beyonce (14) have more. Rock on Pink!

One of my fav groups of all-time, Kiss! Gene Simmons, the Kiss frontman who is relaunching his record label in Canada, will be a keynote speaker at Canadian Music Week.

Canadian Music Week is an annual industry festival and celebration of Canadian music held in March in Toronto.

Simmons’s relaunched Simmons Records is partnering with Universal Music Canada to produce Canadian talent. Simmons launched it last fall with a promise of commercial success for bands under his wing.

At Canadian Music Week, he will speak about his business endeavours, including his experiences as co-founder of Kiss, a band that has survived for 35 years.

Kiss is a juggernaut of licensing and merchandising, with over 3,000 product — from Kiss Visa cards to Kiss condoms.

Simmons’s other endeavours include:

• Reality TV series Gene Simmons Family Jewels, which he produces.
• Cartoon show My Dad the Rock Star for Nelvana.
• Ladies of the Night released through his own Simmons Books.
• Marketing and branding for Indy Car Series through Simmons Comic Group and Simmons Abramson Marketing.
• A clothing line.

Canadian Music Week runs March 11-14 and includes four awards shows and a music festival. Simmons is to speak March 12.

Here is a really cool shirt that was shown at the Electronic Textile workshop held this month in Switzerland.

Featuring removable batteries, speakers and circuitry, the shirt enables the wearer to emit eight different notes.

She is out of the hospital, but Janet Jackson’s recovery from an unknown illness is forcing her to postpone two dates on her “Rock Witchu” tour.

Janet’s concerts in Boston (Oct. 1) and Philadelphia (Oct. 2) will be rescheduled, the star’s rep tells ET. The tour will resume in Greensboro, NC, this Saturday, Oct. 4.

On Monday, the 42-year-old singer suddenly fell ill before a scheduled concert in Montreal and was rushed to a hospital earlier in the day during a soundcheck. Info on the rescheduled concert dates will be released as soon as possible. I want to see her next time around in Toronto.

A family has dropped a lawsuit that claimed a hospital caused distress to a dying woman by moving her to make room for Michael Jackson during his 2005 child-molestation trial, an attorney said Wednesday.The relatives of Manuela Gomez Ruiz ended their case because of stress but felt the message of fair treatment to patients had been made, their attorney, James McKiernan, told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

“The defendants made it clear that it was going to be bare knuckles to the end,” McKiernan said. “I’m representing people who have families and jobs, and the constant stress of this lengthy process was too much.”

The court papers requesting the dismissal were filed Aug. 19. The trial had been scheduled to start next month.

The family said Ruiz, 73, had a heart attack the same day Jackson suffered flu-like symptoms during his trial. The lawsuit claimed Marian Medical Center kept Ruiz from critical care, moved her from a double room so Jackson could occupy it himself and subjected her to an “outrageous, circus-like atmosphere” in her final hours.

The lawsuit accused the hospital of inflicting emotional and mental distress. A judge dropped Jackson as a defendant in the case in April.

The singer was acquitted in the child-molestation case. Now this guys is super weird but I really hope he is not a child molester.

Here some of the more interesting music news shorts:

-Mariah Carey performed five songs during a brief concert at a Hollywood shopping mall on Thursday. How cool is that!

-Philip Morris International, the original sponsor of Alicia Keys’ gig in Jakarta last tonight, pulled down all its promotional billboards and posters after the singer spoke out against the tobacco company’s sponsorship of her show.

-Miley Cyrus’ non-Hannah album, Breakout, broke onto the charts at No. 1, selling 371,000 copies for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen SoundScan data released today.

Have a rock’in weekend, especially my Canadian readers you are off on a long one……

The BBC will air a long lost Beatles interview featuring John Lennon and Paul McCartney talking about the day they met and their songwriting partnership.  The amazing film interview lay forgotten for over 44 years in a garage in south London until film fan Richard Jeffs realized a piece of pop culture history at his fingertips. Experts were quite surprised to find the audio portion still usable for radio broadcast.

The nine-minute interview was recorded at the Scottish Television studios in April 1964 during the early days of Beatlemania. It will be broadcast for the first time on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday and repeated later this week.  On the tape, Lennon tells how he was playing with a skiffle band outside Liverpool when McCartney introduced himself.  I am really looking forward to hearing this historic interview.