1987

Rating: NNNNN

AIDS DRUG CRISIS

As the AIDS death toll steadily mounts in T.O., activists slam sluggish drug companies and fame-seeking doctors in a series of demonstrations.

“Too many people stand to profit by keeping the public ignorant about AIDS. Doctors won’t share their research because they want a Nobel Prize and drug companies won’t share theirs because they want to cash in on a cure.”

they said

I wish I could trust the studios, but in Hollywood there a lot of people in high places who should be selling fruit. – Robert Benton, director of Kramer Vs. Kramer

When I was young and people did express interest in my talent, it ended up that they also wanted to sleep with me. – novelist Timothy Findley on the curse of self-doubt

The thing about writing poetry is that you go to a party and people learn that you’re a poet, they introduce you without fail to the most horrible person at the party who is another poet. And you are trapped by this person for the rest of the night. So I decided I couldn’t be a poet any more. – poet-turned-screenwriter John Patrick Shanley, who wrote Moonstruck

Anyway, you want me to level with you? Why should I level with you? I don’t even know you. Do you level with strangers? I don’t. – Tom Waits levels for no one

we said

“As much as I like Atom Egoyan as a person, I honestly do not think he has talent as a filmmaker.” – in a review of Family Viewing

“As to whether Bad is as good or better than Thriller, it can’t be better because it simply is Thriller a few years on. And the real thing is almost always more exciting than a recreation.” – about the King of Pop before his fall from grace

“His Pistols rags have been replaced by a voluminous and baroque ensemble resembling a three-piece suit on a drug binge. Lydon’s hollow cheeks have filled out and he is almost beefy, taller than one might expect, with the cocky demeanour of a football hooligan.” – about former Sex Pistol Johnny Rotten

“Strained, synthesized and superfluous, this record takes patience and optimism to the very limit, and pushes it off the edge.” – about the Monkees’ Pool It! LP

Top 10 albums

The Cult Electric

Dinosaur Jr. You’re Living All Over Me

Eric B. & Rakim Paid In Full

Jane’s Addiction Jane’s Addiction

Michael Jackson Bad

Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris & Dolly Parton Trio

Ladysmith Black Mambazo Shaka Zulu

Pixies Come On Pilgrim

Public Enemy Yo! Bum Rush The Show

New Order Substance 1987

R.E.M. Document

Top 10 movies

Wall Street

The Last Emperor

Withnail And I

Full Metal Jacket

The Untouchables

Evil Dead II: Dead By Dawn

The Princess Bride

River’s Edge

5 Corners

The Good Father

in this year

JANUARY

Canada Customs seizes a Dutch doc about Nelson Mandela because it might be hate propaganda.

RIP: Alt-country singer/songwriter Handsome Ned.

FEBRUARY

NOW reports on the Toronto chapter of the reactionary Societies in Defence of Tradition, Family and Property and its connections with right-wing dictatorships in Latin America.

T.O.’S food banks worry their services, meant to be an emergency response to rising poverty, could become permanent if governments fail to fulfil their social responsibilities.

MARCH

Naturalists call for protection of the Rouge River system from development, which the federal government agrees to years later. In the wake of the Iran-Contra illegal arms scandal, NOW traces Nicaraguan Contra connections to right-wing groups and politicians in Canada.

APRIL

A national childcare policy promised by the federal Conservative government emerges as a program of tax credits rather than direct funding for daycare centres.

Provincial leaders agree to the Meech Lake Accord that recognizes Quebec as a “distinct society.”

MAY

Local peace activists oppose the visit of a U.S. warship carrying nukes. A 19-year-old West German pilot lands a small plane on Moscow’s Red Square.

JUNE

For the third year in a row Mayor Art Eggleton refuses to proclaim Pride Day.

Metro Toronto tries to develop a plan to deal with rapidly filling local landfill sites. The problem persists.

AUGUST

Native dissent emerges against the Meech Lake Accord.

OCTOBER

Toronto becomes the North American HQ for the anti-apartheid South African Congress of Trade Unions.

Stock market levels plummet in a day that became known as Black Monday.

DECEMBER

Just in time for the holidays, Prozac hits the market.