So long, and thanks for all the quotes...

Well, I'm out.

After nearly eight years, several thousand articles and 345 blog posts, I am hanging up my reporterly fedora and seeking my fortune elsewhere. This was a colossally tricky decision to make, because I honestly believe that being a newspaper reporter is one of the very bestest careers in the whole wide world, right up there with astronaut, movie star, bikini inspector and Bono.   Very few jobs offer the variety, the excitement and the freedom to shout profanities in the workplace with impunity as that of a daily newspaper reporter.

During my time at The Record, I have interviewed thousands of people, most of them fascinating and delightful (olympic athletes, rock stars, bestselling authors, local heroes), others not so much (David Cassidy). 

In the line of journalistic duty, I have jumped out of a plane (see right), scuba dived, surfed in "sharky" waters off San Francisco, been pummelled by an ultimate fighter, bared it all at a nudist resort, hung out backstage on Broadway, covered the 2004 Olympics in Athens, flown in an ultralight aircraft, groomed an alpaca, got bucked off a mechanical bull, played one-on-one basketball against a Harlem Globetrotter and, coolest of all, covered the Wellesley Apple Butter & Cheese Festival.  Along the way, I have gotten to know countless local artists, musicians, thinkers and otherwise-creative types who make Waterloo Region such a varied and interesting place to live. I'm grateful to have been given the opportunity to be a journalist and, amazingly, get paid for it.

I'm happy to say I'm not leaving the area. I'll be working amid the world-class scientists in Waterloo who are harnessing the weirdness of quantum physics to create the supercomputer of the not-too-distant future. Neato, huh?  So although I'm leaving The Record, I'm happily staying in the community it covers (and covers very well, he says with only a little bias).

So I shall continue to enjoy all the cool things this place has to offer, and I recommend you do too. Among my faves, in no particular order: the Open Ears Festival, CAFKA, used books at Second Look and Casablanca and KW Bookstore, Generation X video, live music at Starlight and Jane Bond and Maxwell's Music House and the Boathouse and Trepid House and The Registry, Pho Dau Bo, Dixieland Jazz at the Lanc, Asphalt Jungle Shorts, the symphony at Centre in the Square, Princess Cinemas, Ethel's Lounge and the friendly/surly service there, Tri-City Roller Girls, the Donkey Sanctuary in Guelph, Lost & Found Theatre, Encore Records, Saturday mornings at the Kitchener Market, and all the other cool stuff that is uniquely ours.

See you around.

-30-

Comments

[Terre]

So long. It's been good reading your work. You still ought to blog. I would subscribe and I am sure many others would too.

[Angela Henderson]

I truly enjoyed reading your articles and blogs! You are one talented guy. Clap. Clap. Clap. Clapclapclapclapclap.

[Mantaur]

Among the best things in town you listed, you forgot Theatre on the Edge and the Medievel Festival. Good luck with your new job -- I'll miss reading your stories about birds. God speed.

[Michelle Eggleston]

Keep your stick on the ice. I'll miss seeing your beautiful face in The Record. Long live Dream Theatre!

[genxmike]

Colin, you have no idea what a loss this is for The Record. You made it readable again. I am glad you are moving to a better paid job but I'm sad that The Record will become less interesting.

You have done a tonne to help the arts in Waterloo during your time there. You deserve a pat on the back for all the work you have done.

And I will be forever in your debt for the Carissa White piece you did. That was awesome.

[Sean Stokholm]

You've enriched to the fabric of life in this town for many of us. Thank you for that.

Your support of independent local music was appreciated by many of us. A lot. Thank you for that, too.

But sad though it may be to lose your voice, I wish you the best of luck in your new career.

Take care,
Sean.

[Fred]

Hope to C U around The Still.
Fred

[Hilary.]

All the best dude,
H.