It seems I was born to create my own work out of my own imagination, because it never made any sense for me to create someone else’s vision.
At age 19 while in college, I wrote and produced a short film titled Down Among the Deadmen which got entered as one of the top fiction films from across Canada. It served as a backdrop for a song I wrote for my band at the time.
When I was 22, I worked for a summer on the railroad in northern British Columbia. That three month job changed my life forever. I discovered that the body can do amazing things. Working on the railroad turned me into a runner and weightlifter.
In the 80’s I was an avid, competitive runner, so I created and produced the first major running events in Toronto.
By doing so I learned how to coordinate on a large scale, enlist and work with hundreds of corporate sponsors, all for the purpose of once again creating work out of my passion.
In the 90’s I decided I could put my imagination to good use by choosing organizations I wanted to work with and help change for the better. Being a director of marketing for Outward Bound and The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and Orchestra taught me the meaning of ROI – return on investment.
In the 2000’s I did what lots of artistic, vagabond business people do: I took the trials and tribulations, the joy and pain of who I was, in this case, being a single parent, and turned to writing to help get me come to terms with what defined me.
I wrote the Single Dad column for The Toronto Star, Canada’s largest newspaper and Askmen.com, the world’s largest men’s portal and SingleDad Life, a premier website for single dads in the United States.
I am very proud of my work as a columnist, proud of the fact that each and every day I still receive emails from single parents telling me my writing made them laugh or cry. What can be better than making people “feel” big-time? Not much.
Taking my Toronto Star reader responses to a radio station, I was offered the opportunity to develop my own radio talk show on 1050CHUM. Once at CHUM, I wrote, piloted and hosted Your Relationship Radio with Liza Fromer.
Your Relationship Radio will be rebranded as Big Life Radio and will air on Talk1010 in 2010.
I intend to publish and launch an online magazine titled The Big Life as part of The Big Life Media Group, also in 2010.
I have raised funds for The Daily Bread Food Bank, Ontario March of Dimes, and the Canadian Diabetes Society and produce the annual Messiah for the City, the annual Christmas concert for the United Way of Greater Toronto with musicians of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and local choirs. It is now in its eleventh year.
Most importantly, I love being a father to my wonderful and fantastic nineteen year old son, Noah Falcon. He is the light and love of my life. Together we go through deserts, climb mountains, snorkel in the waters of the Bahamas and laugh till we cry.
Finally, in case you’re interested, I am an avid amateur archaeologist, paleontologist, astronomer and traveler.
I love antiques, and no, they don’t have to be rare or expensive, and everything in my living room pre-dates 1937. I have a large Prospector’s Tent in my backyard with an antique bed and bookshelf where I go to find peace and solitude.
