Wednesday, March 22, 2006



When the digital revolution was in its infancy, when everybody seemed to be home publishing and anybody with a Macintosh could and did print their own business cards, the man on the left (Chris Dahl) knew what was coming. Crossing Burrard at Nelson with Chris some years ago, I remember that afternoon vividly. He said, "No matter what happens you and I will always be in demand. They will hire us for our eye. Eyes will never be obsolete." The man on the right, Mac Parry, has lived three periods of his life in BC after he arrived from England around 1969. Of his first I know little. Of his second,I met him in 1977 when he was editor of Vancouver Magazine. We all knew him as Mac.

In his present third period as gossip columnist for the Vancouver Sun, he is known as Malcolm. With Chris's art direction and Mac's editing Vancouver Magazine was the best magazine I ever worked for and many thought and still think this. This photo was taken in 1983 when Vancouver Magazine demolished the Toronto Mafia to win the National Magazine Award for the best magazine of the year. I remember one day in early February, 1982 when Mac took me to the Cecil Hotel. He told me, "Sean's (Rossiter) cat has cancer. He's written a story about it. Go home and photograph your cat. Make sure his whiskers are sharp because we're putting him on the cover." For about a week before the magazine went to press I was on a high. I was going to have two covers on the same magazine in the same month. Mac almost convinced publisher Ron Stern to have Gaticuchi (my cat's name) on the cover for half the press run. In a different area of the city my photo of a stripper in tub at the Cecil Hotel, illustrating a story by Les Wiseman was going to be the alternate cover.

That never happened.