On Thursday, April 3, 2008 at 1:04:50 PM UTC-6, Charlene wrote:
> For some reason I missed this one, and since his death hadn't been
> posted before here you go.
> http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/entertainment/story.html?id=cae88b29-a751-41b5-ae6a-ef1359c805af&k=18419
> Muretich lived, loved music scene
> Outspoken Herald rock critic, 54, loses battle with cancer
> Heath McCoy, Calgary Herald
> Published: Tuesday, September 19, 2006
> You never knew quite what you'd stumble upon when paying a visit to
> James Muretich.
> When word spread last April that the mercurial Calgary rock critic was
> terminally ill, stricken with a brain tumour, people around the city
> were stung by the news.
> Always a boisterous, extroverted soul, Muretich had kept an unusually
> low profile in recent years -- certainly since his fast and furious
> days as the Calgary Herald's rock reporter throughout the 1980s and
> '90s -- and many of his friends had not seen him for a long while. But
> so many wanted to reach out to the man.
> Would he shake hands or bite 'em? Nobody could be sure. It depended
> how Muretich was feeling that day, really. It wasn't much different
> when he was healthy. And so some paid him a visit and others stayed
> away.
> One Herald reporter made the journey to the 11th floor of Foothills
> Hospital on a Friday afternoon in April. Rather than finding Muretich
> confined to his bed, or taking medication, the visitor witnessed his
> former colleague storming out of the ward, bags packed, grumbling
> bitterly about the doctors.
> "They're treating me like I'm already dead," Muretich growled. "I've
> got things to do."
> "Can I catch a ride home?" he asked.
> Anybody who knew Muretich had to laugh at the story. It was so like
> him. Razor sharp. Tough. Obstinate. Full of life. That's how he'll be
> remembered.
> Muretich, who was coaxed back to the hospital that same night, died at
> home this past weekend. He was 54.
> Muretich was raised in Montreal, where he earned a BA in theology and
> philosophy at Concordia University before attending the University of
> Western Ontario where he earned a masters degree in journalism. After
> a short stint as a court reporter in Peterborough, Ont., Muretich
> moved to Calgary in 1979 where he worked as a rock critic for the
> Calgary Sun (then called the Albertan). He came to the Herald in 1983,
> where he stayed for the next 19 years.
> For two decades, Muretich was the voice -- with a capital V -- of
> Calgary's music scene, both in the Herald and on TV where, in the
> mid-80s he hosted his own community access music video show -- FM
> Moving Pictures -- on Channel 10. Muretich also had his own show on
> Calgary's campus radio station, CJSW.
> In a conservative city, writing for a family newspaper, the hard-
> living writer managed to be Calgary's version of Lester Bangs, the
> gonzo rock critic for Creem magazine in the 1970s. Muretich might not
> appreciate the comparison, having once snarled at this writer: "I
> could write circles around Lester Bangs." Humility was not James's
> thing.
> Nevertheless, Muretich, who described his freewheeling style of rock
> journalism as "surfing on chaos," lived and breathed the Calgary music
> scene.
> He was so ingrained in it that when he married his second wife, Sally,
> in 1995, the nuptials were performed at the legendary and now defunct
> rock club, The Night Gallery, with rocker Art Bergmann as the wedding
> performer.
> Muretich made a sizable impact, promoting the Calgary music scene to
> the rest of Canada and providing gutsy, insightful, sharp-witted
> commentary on the rock world at large for Herald readers.
> There's no better way to pay tribute to Muretich than to hear stories
> about the man from the people he touched.
> Rest in peace, James.
> Jann Arden (Calgary based singer-songwriter; Juno award winner)
> "James was so bold and forthright and . . . well . . . odd. (At first)
> he kind of scared me, to tell the truth. His bald head and numerous
> twitches and quirks made him a force to be reckoned with. He made me
> nervous. (But) over the years I was so proven wrong. You cannot judge
> a book by its cover, not his book, not that man. He was warm and
> sensitive, and very open about his life and his pain.
> "James has done a number of kind-hearted stories about me over the
> years; one in particular has always made me laugh. . . . James came to
> my parents' home in the mid '90s to interview them for a piece he was
> doing about my Living Under June album. He plowed through a few
> probing questions concerning my youth and my wild years in the bar
> scene . . . My mother, at some point, asked James if he'd like a
> drink. Whoops. He did indeed. . . He went on to polish off an entire
> bottle of really horrible cheap whiskey. My mother said it was one of
> the most entertaining nights of her life! She told me that he made
> them laugh and laugh at all his crazy stories. Mom said he cried a
> couple of times, told them that he loved them and that he loved me.
> Well, I loved you too, James my dear. You wrote like you lived."
> Maurice Ginzer (concert promoter, former owner of Kaos Jazz and Blues)
> "I remember when he came into my club on 17th Avenue when we were
> primarily doing jazz and shifting into blues (mid '90s). It was one of
> those nights where there was a really staid, super-conservative
> audience and James walked into the place and we had a drink. He
> listened to the band, it was Jack Semple, and he called it
> immediately. 'This is a performer. This is phenomenal!' Then he leaned
> over to me and said 'But what's wrong with this crowd?' As he had a
> few more drinks, he became quite vocal about it! 'C'mon! We gotta get
> 'em going. Don't they know what they're listening to?!'
> "A couple more tunes went on and he had a couple more scotches and
> finally he said: 'I'm gonna throw some life into this party.' So he
> walked up and started talking to this attractive woman. It looked like
> she came straight from the office. She was in a two-piece business
> suit, a little uptight maybe. . . .
> "There's James in one of those T-shirts where it was cut off at the
> arms. He was gritty and rough looking . . . and he got her up
> dancing. . . . I think it was one of the first times anybody danced in
> my club!
> "From that point on, the club became a pretty happening spot."
> Tom Bagley (Calgary artist and rocker)
> "When he came to town, this was a different place. There wasn't all
> the bands there are now, but he always supported this little
> underground scene. . . . When I started Forbidden Dimension he came
> over to my house with a photographer, I lived way down in the suburbs
> with my parents. . . . He came over and did the interview and left,
> and as a joke he left a condom on the kitchen floor. We're this very
> suburban family, right? But my mom one-upped him. She said: 'Oh, James
> left his hat.' They thought he was this wild guy, but they appreciated
> him because he was always promoting their boy."
> Kerry Clarke (Associate producer: Calgary Folk Music Festival)
> "I remember James taking part in a CJSW funding drive. He announced
> that he would take off his clothes, the more money people gave . . .
> until he was naked. And he really was naked there in the booth. There
> were a few squeamish people around who were quite shocked. . . . But
> it really helped pump up the funding drive." (Incidentally, naked
> James stories abound in Calgary. Accounts still make the rounds of him
> running around a number of rock festivals, the folk festival, and even
> the Ship and Anchor wearing only a Speedo).
> Tom Cochrane (Canadian rocker, Juno award winner)
> "There's a song on my upcoming album (No Stranger) partly inspired by
> (James) called White Horse. We as musicians run into you (rock
> critics) in the course of business and promo tours and stuff, and the
> first line of the song says 'I didn't get to know you all that well.'
> But I knew him enough to know he was a pretty generous guy and he
> believed in music. If it didn't solve all the world's problems, it
> could definitely ease the pain. He really believed that. . . .
> "He and I had a lot of disagreements over the years, but I really
> respected his opinion. . . . Because you knew he sat down and listened
> to the music hard. That's why I would take him very seriously. . . .
> He respected honesty in art.
> . . .
> "One thing about James, he lived life to the fullest. He probably
> pushed the envelope more than a lot of musicians I know. . . . I
> always tipped my hat to the guy and I think I'm going to go drink a
> glass of wine for him in a little while. Scotch? Yeah, I might have a
> scotch, too."
> --
> wd44