The Bay Street Bull 4.1

THE GUMBALL 3000 An outrageous celebrity-packed romp across Europe

ON THE EDGE Photographer Elaine Ling finds life on the fringe

MAVERICK MICHAEL LEVINE APRIL/MAY 2007

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Canada’s super-agent to the stars brings a classic to the screen

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IN THE ISSUE:

fea tures

THE SECOND IN COMMAND 8 The most misunderstood position in business.

START YOUR ENGINES...

16 The Gumball 3000 Rally: An outrageous celebrity-packed romp across Europe.

STREET LEGAL Maverick Michael Levine brings a Canadian literary classic to the screen.

departments 12

THE LEARNING CURVE Personal finance sage Patricia Lovett-Reid talks about smart money management.

15

BULL REVIEW The 2007 XK: the most technologically advanced Jaguar yet.

20

GETAWAYS Adventure vacations the whole family will love.

24

WINE REVIEW Chilean wines that are sure to delight.

32

DESIGN Deluxe home theatre systems that make moviegoing a thing of the past.

42

ON THE SHELF Our picks of must-haves and must-reads.

ON THE STREET 6 Clear canoes, personal perfumes and Vegas links.

IMAGE & FASHION 28 Tevrow + Chase: real clothes for real women.

THE ARTS 38 Photographer Elaine Ling captures life on the edge of civilization.

34

COVER PHOTO: Rick Graves

APRIL/MAY 2007 | THE BAY STREET BULL | 3

PUBLISHERʼS NOTE

BAY STREET PUBLISHING Vol. 4, No. 1

APRIL/MAY 2007

VICE PRESIDENT, PUBLISHER Fred Sanders EDITOR Catherine Roberts CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Dianne Fowlie ART DIRECTOR Mark Tzerelshtein CONTRIBUTORS Sharon Aschaiek Mike Dojc Fred Espina Lisa Fitterman Nate Hendley Marjo Johne Chris Powell Laura Pratt Dick Singer Vivian Vassos PROOFREADER Patricia Post PHOTOGRAPHERS John Hryniuk Ruslan Sarkisian WEB DESIGN Karl Stahl DIRECTOR, ADVERTISING SALES Bill Percy COMMUNICATIONS FACILITATOR David Rees The Bay Street Bull is published six times yearly and distributed in Toronto’s financial and business districts. Distribution method: hand-delivered, inserted, mailed and retail. Editorial + subscription + retail advertising enquiries 305 Evans Ave., Suite 305, Etobicoke, Ontario M8Z 1K2. info@thebaystreetbull.com

A

h, spring—a time of growth, renewal and beginnings.

As we emerge from the cold, dark days of winter, we’re ready for a fresh take on life.

At The Bay Street Bull, we believe that you, the men and women who make up Canada’s leading business community, are ready to turn your thoughts to the things you love, from the familiar and satisfying to the new and exciting. And with this issue, we’ve produced an assortment of entertaining, amusing and thought-provoking fare that is sure to inspire.

Lisa Fitterman provides an exposé of Michael Levine, super-agent to the stars, power lawyer and, more recently, extra extraordinaire, and his triumph in bringing a Canadian literary classic to the screen (page 34).

Looking for a unique family vacation experience this year? Sharon Aschaiek showcases holiday opportunities in Peru, China and the Galapagos Islands that not only are great fun but also provide the entire family with a chance to learn about ancient cultures both past and present (page 20).

Travel of a different sort is featured in Fred Espina’s account of the Gumball 3000 rally, a celebrity-packed, frenetic dash across Europe in high-end vehicles (page 16), while Marjo Johne brings the international jaunts of Toronto’s Elaine Ling into focus with a fascinating look at the work of this physician turned photographer (page 38).

Closer to home, Mike Dojc speaks with Patricia Lovett-Reid, a senior vice-president with TD Waterhouse, about her wealth-management tips (page 12), and Nate Hendley finds out how important the role of the second in command is to the vitality of a company (page 8).

Ladies, if you’re considering an addition or two to your wardrobe, be sure to check out Vivian Vassos’ visit to Tevrow + Chase, where fashion designer Paul Sinclaire takes a collaborative approach to dressing his clients (page 28).

A night out at the movies will become a thing of the past once you read Chris Powell’s survey of the latest trends in home theatre systems that not only entertain you but can control and monitor a whole host of your household functions (page 32). And no spring issue would be complete without a suggestion (or two) of wines to add to your collection. For this we turned to Dick Singer who offers his picks of great Chilean wines (page 24).

We are always interested to hear how we’re doing. If you want to write in about this issue, or have an idea that you would like to see featured in the magazine, please address your letter to Fred Sanders, The Bay Street Bull, 305 Evans Avenue, Suite 305, Etobicoke, Ontario M8Z 1K2 or e-mail me at fred.sanders@cdnpub.com.

WWW.THEBAYSTREETBULL.COM 1 (888) 866 2855. (416) 252 4356 Printed by Harmony Printing.

Fred Sanders, Publisher

4 | THE BAY STREET BULL | APRIL/MAY 2007

Photo: Ruslan Sarkisian

S T R E E T

courtesy: Jean Patou Paris

courtesy: Lake Las Vegas

T H E

courtesy: Hammacher Schlemmer

O N

CLEAR SAILING

MAKING SCENTS

DESERT PARADISE

Make your love for the water transparent in a

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one’s fragrance. And no scent could be more

shoes, a lake at your feet and a club in your

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so than one custom-made. Jean Patou Paris,

hand. Just a few long shots from the deca-

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dence of the downtown strip, this much

sturdiness for novelty. It’s made of the same

troduced Parfum-Couture, a program that in-

anticipated destination is hollowed out of the

durable material found in the cockpit

vites women to participate in the development

craggy desert topography of southern Ne-

canopies of supersonic fighter jets, with a

of their own fragrance. Each client spends a

vada. Nibbled at by a 320-acre (130-hectare)

lightweight anodized aluminum frame for

day in Paris (or in a locale of her choice), vis-

azure lake, the trio of unique courses takes

easy transportation and storage. What’s

iting bakeries and meandering among flower

on all comers. Reflection Bay Golf Club is

more, it’s wide and low-slung, displacing a

and spice markets with Patou’s master per-

Nevada’s first public resort course designed

greater amount of water for increased sur-

fumer Jean-Michel Duriez, discovering her

by Jack Nicklaus. The Falls, the resort’s

face stability. Paddlers sit lower to the deck

specific tastes—including her personality

newest addition, is a 7,250-yard (6,630-

for better balance and can adjust the seats

traits, sense of style and scent preferences.

metre), par-72 double-dare with terrain varies

for leg room. The boat, a product of Ham-

Duriez then concocts three samples from

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macher Schlemmer’s constant pursuit of in-

which the perfume’s muse gets to choose.

SouthShore Golf Club is a par-71 challenge

novation, comes with two double-headed

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with strategic bunkering and forced carries

paddles, a water bailer and a pair of flotation

sions eventually produce a Parfum-Couture

over canyons and water that promise a

devices. But the coolest thing about this el-

winner, delivered in a shimmering cube of

unique experience for scratch golfers and

egant watercraft is crystal clear: passengers

Baccarat crystal that bears the client’s name,

high handicappers alike. Off the greens,

taking lazy passage inside its glasslike hull

holds a litre of the fragrance and serves as a

handsome hotels, gourmet eateries and lav-

get to enjoy under-the-sea views not possi-

reservoir for refilling the accompanying Bac-

ish spas host and pamper. There’s also a

ble in its more traditional counterparts.

carat 90-millilitre and purse spray bottles. The

helipad and a full-service marina with water-

house of Patou keeps the confidential recipe

craft rentals and yacht cruises. The Tuscan-

on hand for subsequent refills but the scent is

inspired resort is home to a Ritz-Carlton, the

not available to anyone else unless it is be-

Loews Lake Las Vegas Resort, MonteLago Vil-

queathed. The cost: US$60,000.

lage Resort and—soon—a 200-unit Hilton

hammacher.com

Grand Vacations timeshare resort, as well as

jeanpatou.com

a 50-unit Waldorf-Astoria fractional project (which will overlook the 17th hole and the 18th tee of the Reflection Bay course).

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6 | THE BAY STREET BULL | APRIL/MAY 2007

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Illustrations: Vasily Kafanov/GettyImages

SECOND IN COMMAND

BY NATE HENDLEY

ention Oracle and you think of Larry Ellison. Say Berkshire Hathaway, and Warren Buffet quickly comes to mind. Hear the abbreviation GE, and I bet you still think Jack Welch.

CEOs—successful ones—become synonymous with the companies they run. And so they should. They are the visionaries who create the company’s direction, see the big picture, recognize important trends and establish policy.

But few would succeed without an equally competent second in command. “The lone-wolf model doesn’t work,” says veteran Bay Street executive Thomas Caldwell, founder and chairman of Caldwell Securities Ltd. “Any business is a team effort. It’s like a [good] marriage [where] one and one makes more than two.”

Yet often the right-hand man (or woman) is obscured by the boss’s larger-than-life persona, leaving the role (and its importance) overlooked and misunderstood. “When you start to examine those who are second in command, one thing immediately becomes clear: There are almost no constants. People with very different backgrounds ascend to the position and succeed,” say Nathan Bennett and Stephen Miles, management gurus and coauthors of the Harvard Business Review article “Second in Command.”

While no two relationships are the same, the bond between the CEO and his second in command is “the most difficult of all work relationships because more than others, it is a balancing act on the threshold of power,” says U.S. psychologist Harry Levinson.

And trust is critical to these complex relationships. Without it, the fragile bonds can easily deteriorate into unhealthy rivalries, defensiveness and rigidity. A CEO needs to feel comfortable confiding and sharing ideas on major issues, while the second in command must be able to handle power, while keeping the ego in check.

Not to be confused with a yes-man, sidekick or gofer, a good assistant-advisor challenges the boss, debates policy and suggests alternative investment strategies.

“The downside [of such relationships] is that the two start to think so alike that there’s now an established barrier to new thinking,” says Jim Fisher, vice-dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. “There is only one way of thinking and the two reinforce themselves and their own biases.”

But there’s no doubt that once a solid bond between the two is formed it allows the second in command to serve many roles, even as a partner.

“Don and I have a symbiotic relationship where we feed off each other,” says Nisker, president of FieraYMG Private Wealth. “My primary responsibility is building the business and bringing the money in and overseeing the operation. Donald Conner is there as chief investment officer of private wealth. He’s responsible for making sure that every investment goes into models that are appropriate to the clients.”

Nisker and Conner are something of an odd couple.Tall and talkative, Nisker was born and raised in Toronto, the son of a stockbroker. He would later become the chairman of his father’s firm, Brown Baldwin Nisker (it was sold in 1998), and his own Nisker Associates Inc., Strategic Wealth Management.

M

APRIL/MAY 2007 | THE BAY STREET BULL | 9

A CEO NEEDS TO FEEL COMFORTABLE CONFIDING AND SHARING IDEAS ON MAJOR ISSUES, WHILE THE SECOND IN COMMAND MUST BE ABLE TO HANDLE POWER, WHILE KEEPING THE EGO IN CHECK.

Conner, who is quiet and reserved, grew up on a farm in Snowflake, Manitoba, a small community near the U.S. border. After earning his MBA at York University, Conner worked at the Bank of Canada and Scotiabank, joining Fiera YMG in 1995.

Conner and Nisker first met in 2000, when YMG bought out Nisker Associates. After taking a year to learn about each other’s strengths, weaknesses and investment strategies, they found they shared the same corporate vision. And although they seldom socialize outside of office hours, their partnership works. “I’ve never, ever vetoed Conner. If I did, he’d leave. And why would I want that? says Nisker. “Don is the one who makes me look good.”

Sometimes a rapidly growing company will engage a second in command to mentor a young 10 | THE BAY STREET BULL | APRIL/MAY 2007

or inexperienced CEO, bringing to the company a rich, established network and wisdom.

By many accounts Michael Dell, of Dell computers, did just that when in 1994 he hired Mort Topfer. With a company growing at a pace that threatened to get ahead of the founder’s managerial experience, “Michael Dell was selfaware enough to acknowledge that he needed some seasoned executives around, both to capitalize on the market opportunities and to accelerate his own development as leader,” say Bennett and Miles.

And it worked. Perhaps because Topfer, then in his mid-fifties, was completing a successful career at Motorola and had no aspirations other than to help the 29-year-old founder.

In other companies, the second in command acts as a change agent, leading turnarounds, major organizational changes or a planned rapid expansion. That’s just what Oracle’s Larry Ellison had in mind in 1992, when he hired Ray Lane to revitalize his troubled sales and marketing division. The result: a tenfold increase in sales from US$1 billion to more than US$10 billion.

In many cases, the second in command is being groomed for the number one spot.

Thomas Caldwell currently has two right-hand men—an old friend, and his son. The old friend is Dennis Freeman, whom Caldwell met four decades ago when the two of them worked as traders for the Royal Securities Corporation.

Caldwell Securities hired Freeman in 1990. His title is executive vice-president and director, portfolio manager for Caldwell Investment Management Ltd. “I run the private side of money management,” says Freeman.

Freeman is content in his position, even though he’s not Caldwell’s successor. That will fall to Caldwell's son, Brendan, who worked at RBC Dominion securities before joining his father’s firm in 1995 and is currently president and CEO of Caldwell Investment Management. And though he’s destined to follow in his father’s footsteps, he hopes not to fill the role of the visionary, charismatic leader for many years. “At the moment, I’m primarily concerned with running the investment management business.”

Today we have larger companies, with expanding global interests, many more acquisitions and CEOs who are expected to be public figures.

While the role of the second in command is neither generic nor portable, it is vital. “You just can’t do it by yourself,” says Thomas Caldwell.

THE LEARNING CURVE

Patricia Lovett-Reid

12 | THE BAY STREET BULL | APRIL/MAY 2007

MONEYSENSE PHOTOGRAPHY: JOHN HRYNIUK

PERSONAL FINANCE SAGE PATRICIA LOVETT-REID IS A SENIOR VICE-PRESIDENT WITH TD WATERHOUSE CANADA INC. SHE IS THE CO-AUTHOR OF FIVE POPULAR WEALTH MANAGEMENT TOMES, INCLUDING HER MOST RECENT, LIVE WELL, RETIRE WELL, AND THE HOST OF BNN’S MONEY TALK. BETWEEN HER CROSS COUNTRY SEMINARS, SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS AND MARKET WATCHING, LOVETT-REID FOUND THE TIME TO TALK MONEY WITH THE BULL'S MIKE DOJC. When or where did you first realize that you had money smarts?

I had a paper route, I worked in the Fox theatre down in the Beaches and I worked in a delicatessen all at the same time. I just loved the idea of achieving financial independence even at a really young age. I recall my stepfather looking at me and joking, “You know, Patty, you’re almost 18; you really have to give up the paper route.”

But it was great—I liked my customers, and I could work it into my schedule. I was even buying other people’s routes so I could increase [my earnings]. I killed two birds with one stone. I was making money and I was also out exercising.

Does being smart with money entail cutting out some unnecessary extravagances?

I learned a really great lesson from [my] youngest daughter when she started to save. I said to her, “Jane, here’s what you should be saving your money for…” and she looked at me and said, “Why would I get excited about saving my money for something that matters to you and doesn’t matter to me?” and I thought, “I’ll like you a lot better when you’re 35.” But she had a really great point. It’s no longer about keeping up with the Joneses. Some will save for retirement, others will save for a car, others will save for the trip of

a lifetime.What is important is that it’s important to you and then you’ll make wise spending decisions and will be prepared to compromise on the difference between a need and a want.

What is the most gratifying part of your job?

I had one gentleman who was sitting in the front row of a presentation I did and he said, “I’m 87 years old, I have my driver’s licence and I’d like to buy a new car.” I said, “Well, what are you waiting for?” And he said, “Nortel.” I responded, “Nortel?” He said, “Yes, I’m waiting for it to get back to $16 [this was before the reverse split] and I laughed and said, “Sir, you’re 87.” He laughed back and said, “Yeah, I know, but I’m still not buying the car.” Three days later I got an email and all it said was “Bought the damn car!” I do what I do to help educate; it’s not to sell a service or to sell a product but to help point people in the right direction. So if they watch my show or come to a seminar or they pick up one of my books, I think that’s great. But then if they don’t do anything differently I feel like I’ve wasted their time and I hate the thought of that.

What is your personal investment philosophy?

I think there are two rates of return that people look for. One is a desired rate of return and the other is a required rate of return. The required rate of return is what I align my investment philosophy behind. I tend to be more conservative by nature rather than speculative because I feel like I know how much I need to save for retirement and save for the kids’ education. I tend to take on less risk in my portfolio and build it with good quality investments. I tend to stay away from speculative, unproven investments.

How often should you reassess your portfolio’s holdings?

I reassess my portfolio on a quarterly basis. If you have good quality investments there is no reason to buy and sell on a regular basis.

Do people plan enough for long-term health care issues?

No, and I think that is our biggest wildcard.

None of us know for sure just how long we’ll live. From there comes the question of will we outlive our money? Right now, globally, there are

about 200,000 people over the age of 100. By 2050 that number will balloon to 2.2 million.

This raises a question: what if you live too darn long? So I think you are going to hear a lot more about longevity insurance (insurance to buy today to guard against living longer than you ever imagined) and, obviously, critical illness insurance is gaining popularity.

Market psychologists have said that we are twice as upset when one of our investments goes down as we are happy when one of our investments goes up.Why do you think this is?

It’s myopic loss aversion. Sufferers can be very shortsighted.You see a loss and feel the pain of that loss exponentially more so than a gain and that’s because we can’t believe that in our own predictive powers we would pick a loser in our portfolio.

You’ve been an advocate for educating women about investing and taking control of their finances for many years.What tangible progress are you proud to see develop in the last five years?

I’ve seen huge progress. Where women were once accused of being risk averse, they’re now risk aware.We can on occasion err on the side of too much caution in our portfolios but change in this regard is coming.

What would you be asked when you first started out in the industry compared with what you are asked nowadays?

The typical question used to be, how do I get started? What is the first thing I should do? I don’t know where to look or who to talk to. Help point me in the right direction. Now I’m being asked about the dominant sectors to put your money into, given where we are in the market cycle.

What character trait that was passed down to you from your parents are you most grateful for?

Tenacity. When you get knocked down, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and move on. In life you will be thrown a curveball when you least expect it and it doesn’t always work out exactly the way you might have thought or hoped.

My father died when I was very young. I was nine years old and my mother was an incredibly strong woman.This was something that she really imparted to me.

APRIL/MAY 2007 | THE BAY STREET BULL | 13

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THE ONLY INVESTMENT WE LOOK FORWARD

TO WATCHING GO

DOWNHILL.

MEGAN RYLEY

SHONA RUBENS

STEFAN GUAY

1st and 7th in Slalom at the Mt. Ste. Anne NORAM Cup

1st and 3rd in Giant Slalom at the Mt. Ste. Anne NORAM Cup

Two 1st place finishes at the Lake Louise NORAM Cup

BULL REVIEW

Jaguar XK The unveiling of the all-new Jaguar XK reinforces the marque’s reputation for building ground-breaking cars that are as rewarding to drive as they are gorgeous to look at.

The last-generation XK, which ceased production in June 2005, was Jaguar’s fastest-selling sports model of all time. The challenge, then, for the 2007 XK design team was to produce a model that bettered that success story.

And they’ve done it. Everything from the car’s advanced aluminum chassis to its sophisticated transmission and exquisite interior has been used to create the luxurious, sleek and most technologically advanced Jaguar ever.

A: XK Convertible takes just 6.3 seconds to reach 100 km/h and the XKR Convertible takes 5.3 seconds. Electronically limited top speed of 249 km/h. B: The New Jaguar Sequential Shift six-speed ZF automatic transmission system incorporates steering-wheel-mounted paddles for manual gear changes. C: Standard on all XK models is the six-speaker, 160-watt Alpine audio system with AM/FM radio and six-disc in-dash CD player. D: The all-new XK offers a choice of aluminum alloy wheel designs in two sizes, with the standard Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS). The 4.2-litre XK has 18-inch alloy wheels as standard, with the option of 19-inch and 20-inch wheels. Moreover, all wheel sizes have conventional solid rims. On each model, and whatever the wheel diameter, the rear wheels are wider than the front ones, optimizing the steering characteristics, handling, balance and traction. E: The new generation of XK cars is roomier than the previous XK, and has the classic 2+2 sports car layout with individual sculpted seats in the rear. There is 58.4 mm more seat-track travel, 53.3 mm more front leg room, 20.3 mm more front head room and 35.6 mm more shoulder room. There is also better foot space all round, and Jaguar’s electronic parking brake liberates the space that was previously needed for the outboard handbrake lever. F: A key element in the character of a sports car is its engine. The new XK comes with a powerful four-cam, naturally aspirated 4.2-litre AJ-V8 power plant.This compact, lightweight engine is based on that fitted to the latest-generation XJ sedan and has undergone significant development compared with the engine used in the previous XK, including new fuel-injection technology. The latest 4.2-litre engine satisfies stringent emissions regulations.

A

B

C

D

E

F

APRIL/MAY 2007 | THE BAY STREET BULL | 15

THE GUMBALL 3000 RALLY IS A CELEBRITY-PACKED, HIGH-SPEED ROMP ACROSS EUROPE.

START YOUR ENGINES...

BY FRED ESPINA | PHOTOS COURTESY GUMBALL 3000 or eight straight days, beginning on April 29, a group of car enthusiasts will gather for an annual event that pits aristocracy against Saudi oil men, bank presidents against playboys, rock stars against actors, and venture capitalists against trust-fund babies in a 3,000-mile (4,800 km) journey through 16 countries and two continents.

This celebrity-packed, high-speed dash across Europe, known as the Gumball 3000 rally, is the brainchild of Maximillion Cooper, a 35-yearold former Armani model turned entrepreneur. Wanting to inject a bit of glamour into his favourite sport, the millionaire Brit, in the summer of 1999, set about reawakening the rally spirit of 1930s America by combining the race element with nightly parties and luxury hotel stays.

He took the event’s name from the 1976 movie The Gumball Rally, a film which celebrated the legendary motorcyclist and race car driver Erwin G. “Cannon Ball” Baker, who in 1933 drove across the United States from coast to coast in 54 hours.

The first rally featured 50 of Cooper’s friends, roaring from London to Rimini, Italy, and back by way of six countries, two principalities and five Grand Prix circuits. This “private party” achieved immediate notoriety, no doubt because Cooper—if one is to believe the gossip— leaked to the press that supermodel Naomi Campbell would be one of the participants.

She wasn’t. But that didn’t seem to deter a whole host of ultrarich bankers, nightclub owners, entrepreneurs, music moguls, actors such as Jason Priestley (who drove a Lotus Esprit V8), minor sports stars and other car enthusiasts willing to cough up the £6,000 entry fee to drive 600 miles (960 km) a day for six days, all in the hopes of winning the coveted (and apparently prestigious) Spirit of the Gumball trophy—a gumball machine complete with gum for the “Gumballer who most embodies the free, uncompromising character of the rally.”

F

Cars ready for transport on a Russian cargo plane. McLaren Mercedes SLR (bottom)

16 | THE BAY STREET BULL | APRIL/MAY 2007

"The Pirates" (above). American muscle car heading out (top). Pall Mall crowds (below)

For the record, last year’s honour went to multi-millionaire Ezra Chapman and his teammates, who crashed their camouflaged RollsRoyce Phantom outside Serbia, managed to board the plane to Phuket, Thailand with minutes to spare, travelled more than 800 km by taxi to Bangkok, and completed the final leg of the race, that began in Salt Lake City, with a brand new Rolls-Royce. Now that’s perseverance.

But one wonders why all this effort to get to the finish line. There’s no prize for first place. Times don't seem to be recorded. And each entrant receives a bronze statue of the Burt Reynolds bust fancied after his portrayal of J. J. McClure in Cannonball Run. Not many people’s idea of serious winnings.

Yet, despite the dearth of major prizes, the Gumball 3000 has become a multimillion-dollar international brand. It now attracts participants from 35 countries and some 5,000 applicants monthly are willing to pay the £28,000 entry fee to secure one of the 120 spots on the increasingly challenging courses. Courses that resemble an Indiana Jones adventure.

Last year’s route, for instance, contained the most ambitious of any Gumball to date—from London to Thailand to Los Angeles in eight days with the help of three Russian Antonov-124 cargo planes and an Iceland Air passenger Boeing 757.

The starting grid showcased cars flown in from all corners of the globe. Every model of Ferrari from the 1960s on was there, along with 34 Lamborghinis, 13 McLaren Mercedes SLRs and a number of RollsRoyce Phantoms. From London, it was a mad dash to the Euro Tunnel, where everyone was transported across the English Channel.With only a brief stop in Vienna, racers tested their endurance with a night drive to Budapest and finally, Belgrade. From here, the drivers and their cars were flown to Phuket, Thailand, for the start of the race’s second leg.

But first, a day to recuperate at the luxurious Amanpuri Resort. Revitalized, the Gumballers headed to Bangkok, leaving behind resort beaches, passing through a dense rainforest and a bat cave. Once in Thailand’s capital, the drivers were bundled back onto the planes and whisked to the U.S. for the third and final leg of the journey—Salt Lake City to Los Angeles via Las Vegas, finishing on Rodeo Drive. After a quick break to freshen up, they were off to the Playboy Mansion where Hugh Hefner held the closing party and awards ceremony.

Bentley with Inspector Gadget-like instruments

Tony Hawk and teammate

Pierce Brosnan's son Sean and actress-singer Martine McCutcheon

Founder Maximillion Cooper (above) and skateboarder Mike V (below)

Car troubles for "The Pirates"

Supercars lined up in Bangkok

Ultima GTR at Salt Lake City

Skateboarder Bam Margera arrives in London

Touchdown in the USA

If imitation is the highest form of flattery, then Maximillion Cooper should be very flattered. In the last few years, a number of cross-country rallies have sprouted up, including the Bullrun, an eight-day trek across the U.S. and parts of Canada that in 2006 had its second-day start from the Toronto Hilton’s underground parking garage, and will set off this year from Montreal.

North Americans, however, won’t get a glimpse of Gumballers tearing through their streets as the event returns to its roots of mainland Europe.

On the grid, though, will be the usual suspects: ultra high-end super cars (there are at least seven Bugatti Veyrons each worth about $1.7 million), an eclectic mix of participants and the inevitable police chases as the drivers, breaking speed limits, wind their way from London to Istanbul via Amsterdam, Athens and Bratislava.

Will the rally’s “cool” status start to fade? Perhaps.

But 2008 is the 10th annual Gumball 3000 rally and rumours are already flying that the organizers are going to push the boundaries even further, charting an incredible route from London to Moscow to Sydney. And you can bet that high-end car dealers around the world will be shining up their chrome.

Playboy Party

Masked as always, Torkenstein prepares

Jackass - The Movie actor Ryan Dunn on the start line

Musical twins The Cheeky Girls head off in a Bentley (above). Ferrari Enzo delights onlookers at Pall Mall (below)

APRIL/MAY 2007 | THE BAY STREET BULL | 19

G E T A W A Y S

TRAVEL

Swap your children’s history and environment textbooks for a dose of the real thing: two weeks of exploring the ancient Incan ruins and tropical cloud forests and rainforests of Peru.

Horizon & Co. helps you plumb the natural and cultural depths of this South American country, beginning with Lima, its capital city, in which a local host guide accompanies you to Spanish colonial churches, a pre-Incan adobe step pyramid, and Larco Museum, home to extensive pre-Columbian artifacts.

Reaching Puerto Maldonado, gateway to the Peruvian Amazon, you’ll discover the unparalleled biodiversity of one of the world’s most remote rainforests, including river otters, giant armadillos, spider monkeys, jaguars, pink river dolphins and yellow-headed river turtles.

Your deluxe base camp for the next three days is Reserva Amazonica, a luxury lodge smack dab in the middle of the rainforest, situated on a riverbank in a 40-square-mile private ecological reserve. This child-friendly accommodation offers a menu for the little ones as well as nine kid-tailored tours.

BY SHARON ASCHAIEK

Every parent wants to give their child the world, but now it's easier than ever to make that happen. Boutique travel firms offering custom-made getaways to every corner of the earth let parents and children equally enjoy vivid and authentic experiences of foreign cultures, landscapes and peoples.

These three family adventures, brought to life by seasoned local guides and fully open to personal tailoring, are both fun and insightful—and your kids won't even notice they're learning along the way.

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Peru’s rich biodiversity includes camelids such as llamas and alpacas, which served as a source of food and clothing (above). Machu Picchu Hotel (top left).

Colonial church and modern life (top of page).

Photos courtesy: Horizon & Co. (Peru/Galapagos) and Butterfield & Robinson (China)

PREMIER PERUVIAN ESCAPADE

Ascend 45 metres above the forest floor for a 90-minute canopy walk and views of massive fig trees, orchids, tamarin monkeys, toucans, parrots, woodpeckers and three-toed sloths. In an afternoon trail walk to Lake Sandoval, one of Peru’s most beautiful lakes, you’ll spot rare red howler monkeys, red-bellied macaws, anacondas and side-neck turtles.

In Peru’s rural areas, colourful traditional dress is a blend of pre-Hispanic influences and European clothing.

On day six it’s on to Cusco, historic capital of the sun-worshipping Incan empire situated in the Andes Mountains, 3,300 metres above sea level.

While staying at the exquisite 16th-century Hotel Monasterio, have a bath butler draw an aromatic, candlelit bubble bath.

Hop in a Land Rover the next morning and explore Sacred Valley, once a key Incan settlement area, now a lush agricultural region. A gourmet picnic lunch in the countryside is followed by a trip to your villa in a quaint rural hamlet.

The next day’s excursions include a visit to local salt mines, a regional pottery workshop and a walk through the magnificent ruins and colourful market of the town of Pisac.

A train ride away is Machu Picchu, fascinating ruins above the Urabamba Valley that have survived centuries of change and the Spanish conquest. Built between 1460 and 1570 AD, the site consists of a citadel, large palace, temples, residences and Wayna Picchu, a pyramidical mountain up which you can race your kids. A guided, meditative twilight walk in the cloud forest reveals fascinating pre-Incan rock paintings. Cap the day with a one-of-a-kind Andean sauna, where stones steam in a candle-lit bamboo and eucalyptus-leaf igloo.

Your Peruvian escapade is rounded out by two full days to explore the unique shops, lively cafés, artist studios and archaeological landmarks of Cusco. ($5,995 per person, visit horizon-co.com)

ORIENTAL ODYSSEY Show your kids an enthralling new take on Phys Ed with an 11-day bicycle trek through the small rural villages, large bustling cities, expansive mountainous countryside and archaeological wonders of China.

Butterfield & Robinson’s China odyssey begins with a full day of guided walks through Tiananmen

The Chinese joke that their national bird is the construction crane. Yet, many historical artifacts, such as the 2,000-year-old Terra Cotta Warriors at Xi’an, are a sobering reminder that modern China is built on the foundation of one of the world’s oldest civilizations.

Square to the the majestic halls and courtyards of Beijing’s magnificent imperial court, the Forbidden City, and later, through the noted hutongs, serene alleys in the midst of the city’s chaos. Travellers end the day at The Peninsula Beijing, rated China’s top hotel by Travel & Leisure in 2005.

A private coach escorts you the next day to a less-visited section of the Great Wall. A smoked salmon and champagne lunch fuels travellers for an exhilarating 25-km bike ride along a beautiful stretch of paved country road.

Enjoy some more biking along Beijing’s large avenues, and take a tai chi lesson by a local master before flying to Xi’an, China’s historical and cultural centre.Your suite at the centrally located Hyatt Regency, Xi’an’s best hotel, puts you in close walking distance of the remaining walls of this 3,000-year-old city.

Day 4 launches with a visit to the noted archaeological site of the 2,000-year-old Terra Cotta Warriors, near the mausoleum of China’s first emperor, at which more than 7,000 pottery soldiers, horses, chariots, and even weapons have been unearthed.

Two days of cycling across the sprawling countryside of Yangshuo provides up-close glimpses of water buffaloes, rice paddies and bizarre rock formations. Yangshuo’s busy main street enchants with vendors offering up lanterns, candles and lotus pudding, while in the evening, a light show performed by 400 local farmers will leave you awestruck.

No trip to China would be complete without a visit to the Himalayan Foothills, with your jourAPRIL/MAY 2007 | THE BAY STREET BULL | 21

ney there beginning at the mountain town of Lijiang, a UNESCO World Heritage site rich in agricultural terraces and unique wooden architecture. Here, travellers embark on a 60-km bike ride down into the valley of the mighty Yangtze River and through rural villages surrounded by wide open fields and a mountain ridge beyond. A ride the following day meanders through Naxi villages, home to Tibetan nomad descendants with a 13th-century way of life.

On day 10, rural China fast gives way to the frenetic über-modernity of Hong Kong. After a poolside lunch at the plush InterContinental Hotel, check out the city’s vibrant street life, chic boutiques, upscale restaurants and its amazing harbour; later, savour exquisite Cantonese fare at one of Hong Kong’s most exclusive addresses, China Club, before enjoying a stunning view of the city’s famous skyline from your suite.

(US$7,795 per person, visit butterfield.com)

GLORIOUSLY WILD GALAPAGOS With awe-inspiring land and sea wildlife, fascinating flora and complex volcanic geology, venturing to the Galapagos Islands is like taking a supersized trip to the zoo.

Horizon & Co.’s 12-day exploration of this 13-island archipelago located 1,000 km from the Ecuadorian mainland begins in Quito, Ecuador’s capital city, with four days to explore local markets, craft shops and historic ruins, as well as quaint rural towns and villages nearby. Home base in Quito is a luxury hacienda in a small village south of the city with meals prepared by a private chef.

A short flight whisks travellers to the charming seaside town of Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island, and to home for the next week: Infinite Blue Villa, one of the best-kept secrets of the Galapagos situated in the most sought-after location on the islands. This private oceanfront villa features three well-appointed ocean view rooms and an abundance of amenities, including a heated infinite pool, rooftop dining, in-home chef and personal concierge.

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The Galapagos Islands are a place of retrospect and discovery, where you can enjoy up-close views of specially adapted animals, plants and terrain that fuelled Charles Darwin’s theories of evolution. The only drawback to taking the kids to this spectacular wilderness mecca is that you might never get them to go to the zoo again. Resort photos: Villa Infinite Blue.

endemic and peacefully coexisting species begins with a two-hour trek through dense, low growing vegetation to the Galapagos Marine Reserve on the Santa Cruz Highlands, where the islands’ famed wild tortoises roam freely.

The villa’s private yacht is used to sail to the surrounding islands, beginning with Floreana Island, home to pintail ducks, stilts, ghost crabs, a massive flamingo population and—thanks to volcanic crystals—a green beach.

Santa Fe Island’s picturesque turquoise lagoon and calm waters allow for prime snorkeling alongside sea lions. A volcanic uplift, the island features lava rock up to three million years old. In a large cactus forest roam yellow land iguanas. Owls, frigates, pelicans, manta rays and mockingbirds can also be spotted.

Bartolome Island reveals penguins, seals, stingrays, white-tipped sharks and multicoloured fish, as well as the highly visited Pinnacle Rock, a large, partially eroded lava formation. The nearby lava field of Sullivan Bay is a treat for geology and volcanology buffs.

Mother Nature’s out in full force at North Seymour Island, the site of the largest colony of frigate birds in the Galapagos, and many blue-footed boobies. Black Turtle Beach’s extensive mangrove lagoon, meanwhile, is home to rays, sharks and sea turtles.

The last stop is the seahorse-shaped Isabela Island, the largest in the Galapagos and one of the most volcanically active on earth.

The only drawback to taking the kids to this spectacular wilderness mecca? You might never get them to go to the zoo again. ($11,495 per person, visit horizon-co.com)

Red Hot Chile

BY DICK SINGER

he outline of the Andes, with its volcanic peaks, is an imposing and unforgettable image as our flight touches down in Santiago. Situated on an inland plain, this capital city is home to nearly five million. Old, it affords interesting sightseeing and vast contrasts, not to mention superb dining. The mood is laid back but the disparity between the have and have-not is sharply defined.

While Chile may be only a few hundred kilometres at its width, it stretches more than 4,300 kilometres down South America’s western flank. In the north is the Atacama Desert, the driest place on earth; at its feet, the ice of the Chilean Antarctic Territories. Our destination, though, lies somewhere in between, in the vineyards of the green and fertile Central Valley.

Chile’s wine valleys — Aconcagua and Casablanca in the north, Maipo, Rapel, Curico and Maule in the Central Valley, and Itata and Bio Bio, the most southerly — reflect the country’s geographic diversity.

Modern winemaking efforts began in earnest in the 1800s, when wealthy Chilean landowners, attempting to duplicate France’s Bordeaux region, imported vines and winemakers from that part of the world.The black pais grape that had been planted by the Spanish conquistadores was replaced by major Bordeaux varieties: cabernet sauvignon, merlot, sémillon, and sauvigonasse.

With 200 years’ experience, Chilean winemakers are proud, and justifiably so, having earned a solid reputation for producing some of the best wines of South America. Here’s a sample of four choice Chilean wines.

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Santa Alicia Reserve 2005 Chardonnay

Santa Rita Estate Grown Reserva Chardonnay 2005

Vina Perez Cruz Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon 2005

Marques de Casa Concha 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon,

Maipo Valley

Casablanca Valley

Maipo Valley

Maipo Valley

$10.85 A French-oak aged white, meticulously crafted from premium, fully ripe fruit.

Complex yet easy to savour, with inviting pale yellow tones and a bouquet of apple, oak, smoke and buttery hints, due to malolactic fermentation.

Balance and length are the key to its finesse, generous and complex flavour. Enjoy on its own or with chicken, grilled fish, and pasta dishes.

$13.10 A classic chardonnay exhibiting varietal characteristics. A touch light in weight, with the full oak, malolactic fermentation and aging treatment. Generous in white fruit flavours, this is creamy and precisely balanced.

A blend of stainless and oaked wines that provides excellent length and structure. Great for garden or informal gatherings.

$15.50 Much lauded and highly regarded, this classic red varietal has been lavished with care by its producer. The handselected fruit kisses the palate with exquisite hints of ripe, luscious black cherries, red currant and dark fruit flavours brushed with chocolate and mint. Long and lingering, delicious and enticing, it is a big but not heavy, generous treat.

$19.95 From the cellars of Concha Y Toro comes this medium-bodied red that is aged 14 months in French-oak barrels. Intense black cherry and baked fig flavours, touched up with varietal spice and black currant, hints of vanilla, and subtle coffee tones. A refined and seductive finish. Perfect to sip or to serve with game or red meat.

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Photos: Ruslan Sarkisian + iStockphotos.com (top)

E U Q I T BOU

TREET BAY S

PAINTING WITH FIRE Picasso first distorted the form, creating Cubism. Andy Warhol first printed a photograph and painted over it, creating Pop Art. Jason Mernick has been hailed as an inventor of a new art form called Torch Painting. Drawing from nature and using its raw materials, Mernick brings life to metal by carving, grinding, and painting with fire on copper and stainless steel. His works are appropriate for both inside and outside spaces. Ferns With Sun: 30” x 46”. $1,095. Art in the Village, 2311 Bloor Street West, Toronto; 416-763-2224; artinthevillage@primus.ca

THE BIG CHILL The EuroCave wine cabinet comes with a black glass door or a solid door in cocoa-coloured wood grain. Holds up to 183 bottles at between 10° and 14° C. This compact cabinet has exclusive humidity control, superb insulation, fan-assisted active charcoal filter ventilation, an anti-vibration system, soft accent lighting and a visual alarm. $4,400. Rosehill Wine Cellars, 339 Olivewood Road, Toronto; 416-285-6604; rosehillwinecellars.com

SAFE THRILLS A unique and very exciting experience for your VIP clients or key staff. Bridgestone Racing Academy has built its own Driver Development Centre at Mosport Park, just minutes from Toronto. With a 22-year injury-free safety record, this is a safe place for thrills. A 12 driver package starts at only $7,790.

Bridgestone Racing Academy, Box 373, Pontypool, ON; 905-983-1114; race2000.com

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F A S H I O N

Paul Sinclaire

Tevrow

+Chase AT THIS DOWNTOWN TORONTO ATELIER, IT’S ALL ABOUT STYLE, WHATEVER THE SIZE.

BY VIVIAN VASSOS hen I arrive at Paul Sinclaire’s Adelaide Street atelier, where his womenswear line Tevrow + Chase retails, he’s busy working with clients. Not just any clients, mind you, but Toronto philanthropist Beverly Creed and her friend Jan Ortved, the owner of Emblem Flowers, who is shopping for a wardrobe that’ll take her from day to night with ease and sophistication. It’s a collaborative process that Sinclaire obviously enjoys. “I think Paul approaches it from a stylist’s point of view,” Creed offers when I ask her what appeals to her about Tevrow + Chase. “He has such great taste and he puts that into his clothes.”

“I never intended to be a designer,” Sinclaire tells me, after his turn on the retail floor. We’re now sitting in his office, where hand-written notes from such heavy weights as Vogue’s Anna Wintour and the fashion powers at Oprah and Vanity Fair are posted on the walls.

“But I always knew that I wanted to be in fashion.” In 1976, after graduating from Yale and then Tufts University, where he studied fine arts, he started as a fashion assistant at Vogue and later was one of the magazine’s fashion editors, where he worked with the brilliant editor-in-chief Grace Mirabella. I suggest to him that she’s an icon of American fashion.

“It’s a misused word, now, ‘icon,’” Sinclaire muses. “To me, to be an icon

Photo: John Hryniuk

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takes time. It’s where genius meets pop culture and it creates change—like Andy Warhol, he made the world change the way we think of art, or Elvis, he was an icon in music because he caused a shift in thinking.” And Ms. Mirabella? “I remember when Grace went to the couture in Paris in the early ’70s, dressed in American sportswear, of which she was such a champion. She was wearing a cashmere turtleneck in a gorgeous palomino colour—and everyone else was in their stuffy dresses.”

That, to Sinclaire, was an iconic moment—it helped change the way the world looked at how we dress.

Creed joins us. “I was here once and a client was trying on one of Paul’s fabulous coats,” she says. “She said she felt like Audrey Hepburn.”

Hepburn, though, according to Sinclaire, is not necessarily an icon, but rather the best of what culture had to offer at that moment.

So how did Sinclaire change the way he thought of fashion, going from stylist to designer? “I was having dinner with Joe Mimran in NewYork City and he wanted to know if I’d be interested in a project.” At the time, Mimran was running the show at Club Monaco, where Sinclaire was a VP, and that meal sealed the deal that brought the Massachusetts-born-and-raised Sinclaire to Canada. In 1999, Sinclaire was promoted to executive VP of design, and APRIL/MAY 2007 | THE BAY STREET BULL | 29

gles and the sporty handbag, the whole look. It’s about quality and being put together.”

The Tevrow + Chase customer, too, will have an easy time looking put together. “We call Spring 2007 the ‘Painfully WASP’ collection.

It’s about beach life, Palm Beach, Newport, Miami. Part of the fun with my clothes is to think of a code of dressing that strips away the artifice,” he says. “And then add that little something.” At this, Sinclaire pulls out his favourite pieces, many lined in silk chiffon, including the Jolie military pea coat, with its flouncy skirt-like hem, and a cropped check blazer

Fall collection 2007. Photos courtesy of Tevrow + Chase.

he stayed until 2003. “It was before Zara and H&M, and I had this idea about ‘fast fashion,’” says the designer, who lives with his partner and two dogs in Toronto’s Rosedale neighbourhood. “It helped turn Club Monaco from white shirts and khakis to fashion.” (Mimran is still involved with Sinclaire in this business—Chase is Mimran’s daughter’s middle name, while Tevrow is Sinclaire’s.)

Sinclaire also pays credit to childhood visits to Manhattan with his parents. “Walking down Madison Avenue, the memory of those women in the late ’60s—the perfect pant, the perfect shirt, the ban-

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“inspired by school boys,” he says.

“These little double pockets on the chest—a lot of my design influence is about a memory. [Fashion editor] Polly Mellon suggested that look in a jacket and I’ve loved it since.” Then, he pulls out the “Reese Flounce Coat,” a white, stretch denim trench, lined with eyelet lace, that Helen Mirren has been sporting. It’s certainly fit for a queen, and a wonderfully soft, black-and-white-striped turtleneck was recently deemed fit by pop princess Gwen Stefani.

For Sinclaire, however, the real woman is the one he’s interested in dressing, and he adds 40 or so new

pieces to the selling floor each month. “I’m here shopping for my twin daughters, who are coming home and going out into the workforce after graduating from McGill,” Creed tells me. “But I’m also shopping for me, because we all look stylish in Tevrow + Chase.

Sinclaire lists clients from Toronto’s financial community as some of his best. “We sell a lot of suits, great power dressing pieces,” he says. “We’re here to help women build a wardrobe—they even bring pieces from their closets. And whatever their size, they all look great,” he adds. “Because it’s not about size.

It’s about style.”

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SHOW

TIME ’ve just been shot by Pierce Brosnan. Perhaps I should explain. I’m sitting in a deluxe home theatre showroom at Sound Designs, a Toronto company specializing in top-of-the-line home entertainment and automation systems. Beside me is company founder and president Andrew Ellbogen; together, we’re watching Die Another Day, Brosnan’s final go-round as iconic super-spy James Bond.

Actually, considering the sensory overload provided by the magnificent $110,000 space, it’s more like we’re actually experiencing the movie (though, alas, my search for the Bond Girls proves fruitless).

Keith Yates, founder of the Keith Yates Design Group—an Auburn, California company specializing in “performance-based room design”—has a name for this sensation: The “Immersion Experience.” I call it double-O heaven.

The ascension begins as soon as the lights in the 10 by 14-foot space are dimmed, triggering the

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DELUXE HOME THEATRE SYSTEMS ARE NOT JUST CREATING NEW MOVIE EXPERIENCES BUT AN ELABORATE, WHOLE HOME SET-UP THAT PROVIDES NEAR-TOTAL CONTROL OF YOUR HOME’S FUNCTIONS.

BY CHRIS POWELL

descent of an 82-inch drop-down screen. It’s the kind of whiz-bang gadgetry you’d expect to find in a Bond villain’s island lair.

The Italian-made, Sim2 3Chip DLP projector provides a picture so vivid, viewers in the fiveseat, two-tiered theatre can practically count the pores on Brosnan’s chiselled face.

Tucked away in an adjoining mechanical room that houses the “rack” of audio/video components, two power amplifiers and a preamp manufactured by Peterborough-based Bryston are cranking out 1,900 watts of power. It’s so powerful, the periodic CRACK! of gunshots and the WHOP-WHOP-WHOP of helicopter rotors erupting from the seven Triad custom speakers and custom subwoofer—“made fresh daily” according to the Portland, Oregon company— leave the viewer feeling both shaken and stirred.

I want one. And I’m not alone.

According to the Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association (CEDIA)—an Indi-

anapolis-based industry association whose 3,000 plus member companies specialize in designing and installing home electronic systems—home theatre is currently the leading segment in the burgeoning home networking and home automation market, followed by home networking, lighting control and distributed audio.

It’s estimated that 28 per cent of U.S. homes now have some form of home theatre system (Canadian figures are unavailable). This can range from a simple $500 home theatre in a box (HTIB) set-up available at your local big box electronics retailer, all the way up to a money-is-no-object custom solution like the one provided by Sound Designs.

It’s likely no coincidence that while home theatre continues to do boffo business, the movie industry grapples with stagnant box-office revenues.

“I went to a theatre just the other day,” Neil Hall, assistant manager of Mississauga-based home theatre retailer and designer Trutone Electronics, is saying. “The picture quality is nowhere

Photo: M. Eric Honeycutt

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Photos courtesy of Sound Designs. Top photo: Nick Free

IT’S LIKELY NO COINCIDENCE THAT WHILE HOME THEATRE CONTINUES TO DO BOFFO BUSINESS, THE MOVIE INDUSTRY GRAPPLES WITH STAGNANT BOX-OFFICE REVENUES.

Photo: Anssi Ruuska

near as good as we have here, you have people walking up and down the aisles, the sound isn’t as good because you’re either off to the side, too low or too high. In your room, you’ve always got the best seat in the house.”

Depending on the extras installed (a motionequipped recliner anyone?), home theatre systems can range from a modest $40,000 all the way up to half a million.

The latter price gets a customer not just home theatre but an elaborate whole home set-up that provides near-total control of your home’s functions—audio and video, lighting, HVAC, security, window coverings, even an automatic pool cleaner if you wish—through a series of touchscreen panels.

New Jersey-based Crestron Electronics Inc., a leading supplier of these touch-screen panels, even offers a biometric fingerprint reader that tailors both the screen and its options to each individual user.

“Basically we’re taking every sub-system you have in the house and putting it under one umbrella,” says Ellbogen. “I can turn off the lights or dim them in a specific location, or turn them back up to a much higher intensity. I can control what time I wake up to the temperature in different zones.”

Naturally, the “cool” factor on these wholehome installations is off the charts. Some systems, for instance, use sensors embedded in the driveway and homeowners’ cars to determine which household member is coming home, and adjust the house accordingly.

“It opens your garage door, because it knows it’s your car coming up the driveway, and as you drive in it’s been programmed to play your favourite music, turn on the lights the way you like,” says Hall. “The sky’s the limit: Do you want the blinds drawn? The skylights open? Do you want it to put the kettle on for you?”

Each year, CEDIA holds an annual awards competition called the Electronics Lifestyles Awards, which honours the best in home theatre design in a number of categories ranging from “Best Large Home Theatre” to “Best Hidden Installation.”

One fun element of the competition is a category called “Best Theme Theatre” which last year was won by a U.S. company called Electronic Systems Consultants (ECS). The Aspen, Colorado-based outfit set phasers to stun with a faithful recreation of the bridge from the U.S.S. Enterprise (featured in the TV and movie franchise Star Trek), complete with a set of those “whooshing” electronic sliding doors.

According to ECS, the client demanded “extremely high volume levels within a tasteful and highly detailed Star Trek-themed architecture.” Trutone hasn’t done anything that elaborate, says Hall, but it did recently complete a 15-seat theatre for one client and is working on another installation in Haliburton where the lighting, heating and audio/video for a series of buildings on a sprawling

40-acre property will all be linked together.

But why the need for this type of outlay? It’s not like a bad B-movie is going to be any better on a $110,000 home theatre set-up than on a nice high-end TV and a 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound set-up (or even a cheap RCA with lousy horizontal hold).

Fraser Richardson, who oversees operations and marketing for Brack Electronics in Toronto, likens it to purchasing an ultra-luxurious automobile.

“You can go out and buy a very nice car for $60,000, or you can go and buy a Bentley for $500,000,” he says. “Why does somebody go and buy a Bentley? Well, they go and buy the Bentley for the experience. The same goes for what we do. You either want to watch the movie, or experience it. That’s the difference.”

Assembling the ideal home theatre, says Richardson, is a delicate balancing act requiring perfect harmony between the individual components. “We typically talk about the system like a chain,” he says. “You want to make sure every link is the same strength. I hear radio commercials which say speakers are the most important thing and it’s scary to hear, because it’s not really giving the public the correct information.”

Even when the basic home theatre components are in place, add-ons can bring the movie experience vividly to life.

For those viewers who want to experience every car chase or gunfight, for instance, a Longueuil, Quebec company called D-Box Technologies has created a chair featuring motion-code technology.Two- or four-point suspension systems enable the recliner to move in sync with the onscreen action. The company has partnered with Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. and currently offers about 650 encoded movies and TV series.

Trutone, meanwhile, recently became a dealer for another product called Isky, which uses a combination of ceiling panels and LED lighting to make a room’s ceiling look like the night sky.

Hmm. I wonder if it has a shooting star?

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S T R E E T

L E G A L

Michael Levine

THE MAVERICK Michael Levine, super-agent to the stars, power lawyer and extra extaordinaire, brings a Canadian classic to the screen.

By Lisa Fitterman | Photography: John Hryniuk cene: Tanksy’s Cigar & Soda in Montreal’s Plateau district circa 1951, as young Jake Hersh tries to convince his salesman father to give him money so he can go off to New York and become a movie director.

“You think I like selling?” the father asks rhetorically. “I’d rather own the factory.” But wait—can you see them? Right there in the background, two old men dressed in ratty sweaters and baggy pants mutter as they play gin rummy. Look up close and you see the tiredness etched around their eyes— not because of their age, but because they’ve been playing gin rummy for seven hours straight, in take after take after take.

Welcome to the film shoot for St. Urbain’s Horseman, soon to be a mini-series on CBC. More than 40 years after it was first published, Mordecai Richler’s famous novel is finally coming to screen life, thanks to one of the old guys with the cards. And make that all the cards. Meet Michael Levine, Canada’s super-agent to the stars, power lawyer and impatient extra extraordinaire who swears he will never play gin rummy again. “We played it this way, that way—I never knew there were so many variations,” he tells me. “Finally, we played fake rummy. I mean, how long can you play the game?”

Then again, it depends on the game. Small, white-haired and dapper, Levine, 63, is a longtime partner at Goodmans LLP, chairman of the literary agency Westwood Creative Artists, talent agent and mentor. As such, he has been a big (not bit) and well-connected player in Canada for decades. One client, who both writes books and works in TV, was amused when Levine had no idea who a certain editor was but, upon meeting him, gave him the whole spiel about how he’d admired

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his work for absolute years. Another suggests I time him to see how long it takes for him to mention clients such as former governor-general Adrienne Clarkson, political leader Michael Ignatieff, or a Bronfman—any one will do. When I note his propensity for name-dropping, he laughs.

“It’s not an ego trip or social butterflying. Listen, I view my role in part as a connector. I am a living, walking Rolodex,” he says. “The end game is not money and notoriety. The end game is productivity. That’s the game I like to play.”

Of course, representing his clients’ best interests is serious business, and in a small market like Canada, Levine often runs up against situations that are, or can be perceived to be, a conflict of interest. In some cases, he will drop a client outright. In others, he ensures there are enough barriers erected around his different fiefdoms to keep his dealings honourable and above board. “I would never make the mistake that Richard Nixon made in Watergate: he lied about it and it became a catastrophe. My particular view of the world is to tell the truth,” he says.

Consider when Anthony Wilson-Smith left as editor of Maclean’s magazine and then Rogers Communications hired Ken Whyte to replace him a bit later. Levine was retained by both men, even though Rogers was reluctant for him to do so at first. “I went to both men and offered to step back.

Both said ‘no,’” Levine recalls. “And (Goodmans’) ethics committee approved my conduct. It wasn’t like the departure of one and the hiring of the other were related events.”

Longtime client Hana Gartner, host of CBC’s the fifth estate, once said she was sure that Levine was a strange and precocious baby, one who came out of the womb name-dropping. These days, she

is more circumspect: “He has his shtick but at heart, he’s a good, decent guy,” she tells me. * * * Michael Allan Levine was born in Toronto in 1943, the voluble younger son of a homemaker mother and a father who owned a clothing manufacturing business. He had an idyllic childhood in Forest Hill with a brother who was much taller and who followed their father into the family business. In high school, Levine discovered the theatre, directing the play The Crucible and appearing in The Teahouse of the August Moon. His love of the stage notwithstanding, he soon realized that it was not for him. “I saw that I was much better at helping creators than in being a creator myself,” he says. “I love people who are on the edge.”

At the University of Toronto, Levine studied political science and economics, and then went into law, articling with a now-defunct labour law firm. This was his future, he thought; as a (self-described) lefty Jewish kid who believed in truth and justice, he was going to fight for downtrodden workers and change the world.

But he came to despise unions for what he calls their “social conservatism,” and he ran off with his young (and now former) wife, to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, where he worked for a year with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). Upon the couple’s return to Canada, he fell in with entertainment lawyer Bill Rosenfeld and soon was travelling to New York on behalf of Astral Television Films Ltd. to negotiate with Mattel Inc. over rights to Astral’s animated program Hammy Hamster’s Adventures on the Riverbank.

APRIL/MAY 2007 | THE BAY STREET BULL | 35

He never looked back. Having spent the last 35 years helping to create a new, entrepreneurial version of Canadian culture that reflects a savvy realism, Levine is wont to note that it’s “show business, not show art,” and professes to love promoting new talent, such as author David Rotenberg (creator of a Shanghai cop named Zhong Fong), because he can and because they deserve it.

For Levine, running his “show business” is all about connections. The story of how he managed to sell the St. Urbain’s Horseman series (a project that had been languishing since the book came out on the grounds it was too difficult to adapt for the screen) goes back 17 years to an earlier Richler book. Solomon Gursky Was Here tells of a Montreal family who parlayed a penchant for bootlegging during Prohibition into a fortune. Leo Kolber, then a senator, retained Levine on behalf of the descendants of Samuel Bronfman, so he could determine if they should sue for libel.

Levine read the book, decided it was a masterpiece and recommended that the family not go to court because it would be akin to putting 36 | THE BAY STREET BULL | APRIL/MAY 2007

themselves on trial for the whole world to see. A few weeks later, he got a call from Richler, asking if they could have breakfast together. They did, during which Richler said: “All my life, I wanted to be represented by a lawyer who represented the Bronfmans. And it’s you.”

Thus Levine started acting in a legal capacity for Richler, and the two men, one irascible, the other affable, became fast friends. And in 2000, as the author’s 70th birthday fast approached, the lawyer had no idea what to get him. At least, he didn’t until he wandered into his father’s booklined study to collect his thoughts after the older man died on November 27, 2000. His eyes lit on a copy of St. Urbain’s Horseman and it was as if someone or something had sent him a signal: he was going to find a way to option the property and immortalize it on film for posterity, even though no one before him had been able to do it.

Levine called Arnie Gelbart, the founder of Galafilm, a Montreal-based company that has produced such notable films and documentaries as The Valour and the Horror and Fire and Ice: The Rocket Richard Riot.

“It’s a great idea, Michael,” Gelbart told him.

“But I don’t have any money to make it.”

“I’ll get it,” Levine promised.

He sold the concept—and Gelbart—to longtime acquaintances Debbie Bernstein and Slawko Klymkiw, who were top programming executives at the CBC, then turned around and gave the money to Gelbart. He thinks it took only three phone calls to nail the deal down. Later that month, at Richler’s birthday party, Levine got up before the crowd and announced that he had something serious to say. “Mordecai,” he said, “I’m here to give you the most expensive present I’ve ever given to anyone in my life – but at least I earned a commission on it.”

All of which brings us back to Tanksy’s Cigar & Soda in east-end Montreal. Levine says it was instructive to experience the hard-slogging world of professional extras, all of whom seemed to have built credits over 20-odd years that any major Hollywood star would die for. But if there was one thing he learned, it was this: “The last thing you want to do is represent an extra. It’s too hard.”

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T H E

A R T S

iltered through the film and lens planes of an old-fashioned view camera, the world according to Elaine Ling is as vast and barren as a desert and as alive in its expressive stillness as a creatively carved hump of stone. For Ling, a Toronto doctor and accomplished photographer, these are the treasures she finds—and captures in black-and-white images—while venturing to the edges of the known world in places like Morocco, Namibia and Bhutan.

“I like edges, fringes,” says Ling, whose photos are in the permanent collections of a number of prominent museums, including the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the Museet for Fotokunst in Denmark, the Brooklyn Museum in New York, and here in Canada, at the Royal Ontario Museum and the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography in Ottawa.

“I like to go to the places where you think the known world is gone, and where you always think there's no one or nothing there.”

The paradox is, she always finds something, or someone, on which to lay her photographer’s gaze. And sometimes they even find her. Driving through a desert in Morocco, Ling stopped her car to shoot what she thought were miles of empty dry spaces when she was suddenly surrounded by children. “They hung on to my car and wouldn’t let go,” recalls Ling. “Life is everywhere.”

Five years ago, Ling travelled to the Gobi desert in Mongolia and there, too, she found something that she hadn’t expected. While photographing 3,000-year-old stones near the Siberian border, Ling came upon Turkick stone figures—which had become a type of shrine—of a man and a woman sitting, side by side, like a king and a queen.

On another occasion, she put her face to her camera’s lens and unexpectedly found three Mongolian horsemen in her view. “I was shocked,” she says. “I asked, ‘Where did you come from?’ As it turned out they saw me from a distance and rode over to see what I was doing.”

Between 2002 and 2005, Ling travelled four times to Mongolia, staying from two weeks to as long as a month. She always took these journeys in the company of a local guide (a Mongolian doctor), and occasionally her husband, Neil Edwards, an anaesthetist. Ling and her companions would frequently spend the night in a type of yurt called a ger, which was typically occupied by a large nomadic family, housing as many as 20 people.

Yet, the families were always hospitable, says Ling. Even when she and her party arrived late at night, someone would always get up, fix them a

F

ON THE EDGE Photographer Elaine Ling goes to the end of civilization and finds life

By Marjo Johne

38 | THE BAY STREET BULL | APRIL/MAY 2007

“I LIKE TO GO TO PLACES WHERE YOU THINK THE KNOWN WORLD IS GONE.” Photos: (top and left) — Dzong and Lady of the Valley, Bhutan; (right) Ancient Man Stone, Gobi Desert; (bottom left and centre) Family Room and Grandmother's Chair, Trinidad and Havana, Cuba; (bottom right) Abandoned, Namib Desert; (opposite page) Elaine Ling and Genghis Khan, Gobi Desert.

APRIL/MAY 2007 | THE BAY STREET BULL | 39

“FIRE TO THEM IS SACRED AND I HAD PUT SOMETHING UNCLEAN IN IT.” Photos: (top and centre) Kazakh Ger Interior and Ovoo, Gobi Desert, Mongolia; (bottom) Incredible Rocks, Kangaroo Island, Australia

40 | THE BAY STREET BULL | APRIL/MAY 2007

meal and then make room for them in the ger. “If everybody was already sleeping, they would just push someone aside to make room for us,” says Ling.

Many of the photos of life on the steppes were recently on display at G+Galleries in Toronto, in a one-woman exhibit called Eternal Blue Sky: Mongolia. They will also be shown at the city’s Bata Shoe Museum in May. There’s one photo showing the inside of a ger, where about a dozen men, women and children looking straight at the camera sit together in a semi-circle. And there’s another of two “wrestler brothers” dressed in skimpy undies with ropes tied like belts around their naked waists. They pose for Ling proudly, even eagerly, though there is a hint of shyness in their gaze.

Living so closely with the nomads of Mongolia, Ling encountered interesting cultural differences. A strange thing about Mongolian men, she observes: they always carry on their bodies a flacon of perfume.

“And when they meet other men, they open their little ornate porcelain bottles and sniff each other’s scents,” she says. “And then they say ‘thank you.’”

Another strange thing she discovered during her travels in Mongolia: throwing your dirty, soppy Kleenex—the one into which you just

Half Man Stone 2004, Gobi Desert

blew the entire contents of your nose—into a fire is a major no-no. “The one time I did that, people got very upset,” she recalls. “Fire to them is sacred and I had put something unclean in it.

But I thought, ‘You’re burning dung, how is that cleaner than my Kleenex?’”

Then again, what’s strange to most people is simply good composition to someone with a photographer’s eye. Around 1987, during her early years as a doctor, Ling worked for three months at a clinic in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. Passing by the waiting room, she would often see Bedouin men sitting with hawks perched on their arms and curved knives hanging from their waists. “I would tell them, ‘I have to take your picture first before I see you in my office,’” says Ling. “I always took pictures, even back then.”

After her first exhibition, which was in colour, her friends encouraged her to explore black-and-white photography. So she bought a Hasselblad camera and, in the early 1990s, signed up for an Ansel Adams photography workshop in Carmel, California. “For that one week, I met a lot of photographers and I learned a lot from them,” she says. “And from that time on, I was no longer just taking pictures—I was a photographer.”

So where will her wandering eye lead her next? What empty stretch of land will spring her next surprise and conjure up an image worth capturing? “Mali, and perhaps Ethiopia,” says Ling. “Both are fascinating countries.”

APRIL/MAY 2007 | THE BAY STREET BULL | 41

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THE SECRETS OF ROME: LOVE AND DEATH IN THE ETERNAL CITY BY CORRADO AUGIAS (RIZZALI) $34.95 For history buffs and armchair travellers alike, Corrado Augias goes beyond Romulus, Caesar and Borgia, and uncovers the hidden history, secrets and conspiracies of the passion and politics that have shaped Rome for over 2,700 years.

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