"Well, it's finally finished. 14 months, 800 pages and 835,000 words later, the double volumes of the Canadian Pop Music Encyclopedia have been put to bed. Volume 1 was released in March and Volume 2 is off to that magic place that turns Microsoft Work documents into books and Kindle Surprise. It'll be available for download or sticking under the leg of a wobbly table in the next 10 days or so. And those who are true believers can order both here: www.bullseyecanada.com".

A teaser is available at: Bob Segarini's: Don't Believe A Word I Say website.

That site includes this about Paul Q: "QUARRINGTON, Paul
Paul Quarrington was not only a musician, but a critically acclaimed novelist whose most recognized work was the book 'Whale Music' (and the movie made from it). He also wrote the screenplay for 'Camilla' (1994). Quarrington was a member of Quarrington-Worthy, Joe Hall and the Continental Drift and The Porkbelly Futures. His brother is jazz musician Tony Quarrington whose album 'Top Ten Written All Over It', Paul sang on. Paul Quarrington died of cancer January 21, 2010. Cordova Bay released a CD of Quarrington's collection of solo songs in August of that year."

Check out both volumes of this massive and important work.

The 35th Annual National Magazine Awards

CALGARY, Friday, June 8, 2012 - The 35th Annual National Magazine Awards, held June 7th in Toronto, proved to be a stiff competitive field for Alberta magazines.

Of the four Alberta magazines nominated for NMAs - Alberta Views, Eighteen Bridges, Swerve, Uppercase and Western Living - only Eighteen Bridges, a not-for-profit magazine published through the Canadian Literature Centre at the University of Alberta, brought home awards.

Writer Don Gillmor took gold in Arts & Entertainment category for "All In," his piece about Paul Quarrington, and Alissa York's story "Class Mammalia" earned silver in Travel for the new publication.

Eighteen Bridges went into the awards gala with 10 nominations, Alberta Views and Swerve each with four, and Uppercase Case and Western Living each with one.

"It is a huge accomplishment even to be nominated for a National Magazine Award," said Valerie Berenyi, Swerve's editor-in-chief. "Each of those nominations is considered by the NMAs to be an honourable mention."

Read the article.

'Paul Quarrinton: Life in Music' Nominated For A DGC Award
2011 Directors Guild of Canada Awards Nominees Announced
SOURCE NATIONAL FILM BOARD OF CANADA

TORONTO, Aug. 15, 2011 /PRNewswire/ - The DGC congratulates the 2011 nominees announced today in Toronto. Selected from close to 175 submissions, the 76 nominees in 19 categories represent a cross section of the industry's outstanding talent in film and television.

The Awards will be presented at the annual Gala on Saturday, October 29, 2011 at the prestigious Royal York Hotel. Hosted by multi-talented radio-host, musician and writer Jian Ghomeshi, the 2011 DGC Awards marks the 10th anniversary of the Awards.

"I am proud of the nominees and what their collective body of work brings to this country's industry as well as to the Guild as a whole," stated Sturla Gunnarsson, President, DGC. "It is an honour to be a part of this organization and to lead the celebration of the best work created by DGC members last year."

ALLAN KING AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN DOCUMENTARY
Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie - Sturla Gunnarsson
One Ocean: The Birth of an Ocean - Mike Downie
Paul Quarrington: Life in Music - Albert Kish
Where Did I Put My Memory? - Barbara Doran

Bravo Encore for Paul Quarrington Life in Music
Sunday, March 27, 2011 at 8 p.m. ET/ 5 p.m. PT
Saturday, April 2, 2011 at 7 p.m. ET/ 4 p.m. PT

PAUL QUARRINGTON: LIFE IN MUSIC is a documentary about an artist whose sudden diagnosis of his terminal illness led him to embrace both life and art. Packed with intimate moments with Quarrington himself, this documentary features interviews with Quarrington's family, friends, and members of the arts community. The list includes writer Roddy Doyle, musician and writer Dave Bidini, author Wayson Choy, musicians Dan Hill and Joe Hall as well as Paul's life-long friend and fellow musician Martin Worthy. The documentary also includes dynamic performances from Porkbelly Futures, and a touching performance by Paul's brothers Joel and Tony Quarrington.

PAUL QUARRINGTON: LIFE IN MUSIC is produced by BookShorts Inc. and directed by Bert Kish.

Broadcast and supported by Bravo!?s original series GREAT CANADIAN BIOS, which showcases the lives of our nation's most iconic, accomplished and revered artists.

Quarrington posthumously drops book, CD, doc - Canadian Press
By Nick Patch, The Canadian Press

TORONTO - Months after his death, Paul Quarrington is still finding new ways to surprise.

The multi-hyphenate author, musician, filmmaker and playwright died of lung cancer in January. But the work is still coming. This spring will see the release of his first solo CD and a new memoir, while a documentary about his final months will air on television.

And as they survey his latest spate of creative works, those close to Quarrington continue to marvel at the friend they've lost.

"The reception, it's just overwhelming, the sense of 'thank you,' and 'I didn't know that,'" said Judith Keenan, a close confidante of Quarrington's and the producer of "Paul Quarrington: Life in Music," a documentary that will air on Saturday (Bravo, 7 p.m. ET).

"These are people talking to me -- 'I'm a high school friend of Paul's and I didn't know that about him.' Or his brother would say, 'I didn't know that about him.' They're all discovering things about this gentleman.

"I think just the way he constructed his life, it's people finding doors to walk through they didn't know existed. It's increased the value of this trifecta of products coming out at the same time."

And these final creative works exist thanks to the tireless effort Quarrington put in during the months and days that would prove to be his last.

Quarrington was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer last May, a fatal condition he would succumb to in January at the age of 56.

In between, he worked at a prodigious pace to complete his projects. Rather than being defeated by the diagnosis, he almost seemed buoyed -- in the film, he refers to it as a "gift," because the knowledge that his time was limited served as motivation to work furiously to complete a staggering career of accomplishments.

"It was funny, like anybody's reaction would be initially ?obviously, it's devastating news, and he was pretty down in the early days shortly after the diagnosis," said Martin Worthy, a fellow member of Porkbelly Futures and a friend of Quarrington's since they attended junior high together in Don Mills, Ont.

"We had lots of opportunities to sit up late and talk about it. It's funny, at one point, I said to him that anybody else in his situation might hope to begin to live with the time they've got left the sort of life that he's actually led for 40 years. And he said, 'Yeah, I really don't have many boxes next to the list that haven't been ticked off.'

"And at that point, he seemed resolved to take everything about his life and just enlarge it, blow it up bigger."

Added Bert Kish, who directed "Paul Quarrington: Life in Music": "He was like the Energizer bunny. He wouldn't stop."

During those final months, Quarrington toured relentlessly. Even the heart attack he endured during his fight with cancer couldn't keep him off the stage, as he soon performed while being fed oxygen through a tube.

Roughly half of the songs that appear on "Songs" (hitting stores June 8) were written after the diagnosis, and he deals directly with his feelings about his impending death.

On the brittle "Are You Ready," Quarrington is by turns defiant and accepting: "The night is coming, creeping oh so close/ I try to hold it off, but still I know/ It's like trying to hold back an old freight train/ Coming down on me, still, I'm not afraid."

"Hello Jim," meanwhile, is a fairly jaunty (and darkly humorous) song about meeting your maker, while "Over Yonder" was written for his daughters, Carson and Flannery. "I can tell you, certainly, some of the songs on his solo record are going to be songs that are going to haunt me and inspire me for the rest of my life," blues guitarist Colin Linden said over the phone from Nashville.

His memoir, "Cigar Box Banjo: Notes on Music and Life," similarly began life before Quarrington knew that his was soon ending. The book was to examine Quarrington's lifelong involvement in music and he submitted the first draft at the end of 2008.

After the diagnosis, he returned to the book to add "new thematic material," as he put it in a summer interview with The Canadian Press.

The book revealed some new insights to even his closest friends.

"There are interesting things in the memoir about his mother dying and how he coped with that or didn't cope," said Worthy, who co-wrote the 1980 No. 1 single "Baby and the Blues" with Quarrington. "That lingered for all of his life, issues around that. They informed his behaviour. He uses music to be able to say the things that he couldn't tell people in person. And then in the course of writing that memoir, he realized how many times that he could approach doing that through music."

The documentary, then, uncovers another layer that Quarrington had guarded through his life.

Over the course of the one-hour special, both his brother, Joel, and his ex-wife discuss how private Quarrington could be. That he would allow such intimate access to these months -- cameras follow him on tour, as he jams with friends including Dan Hill and Worthy and even his children speak about their dad on camera -- served as another surprise.

"I think he was a very passionate person, I think he was a very romantic person, and somewhat sentimental, but he kept that very well-cloaked," said Kish, a friend of Quarrington's since 1997.

"He was a very loving, all those types of things. But he had a very tight lid on certain aspects of his persona. Through the course of making the film -- especially the parts where he talked about (ex-wife) Dorothy -- he expressed things that he'd never expressed before." Even Keenan, who said she dated Quarrington on and off over the past few years, saw another side to him.

"The deep meaning his family ties had to him -- he had to his family and his family to him -- was something he didn't share as much of in either of the dimensions that he and I had a relationship, professionally or otherwise," she said. "So that was very touching." Those frank interviews with Quarrington were shot in three main chunks, Keenan said. He looks remarkably healthy for the most part throughout the documentary, maintaining a sanguine demeanour and rarely hinting at any physical discomfort as his body tried to fight off the cancer.

Of course, Quarrington didn't think of it that way. In his mind, he wasn't fighting a battle with cancer.

"In a way, we made a point," Worthy said. "We never discussed his problem with cancer as a battle. We said, this is ridiculous. It's not a battle, it's not a fair fight. There's always a loser in a battle. We just thought it was a poor way to characterize it.

"So, we decided to call it a journey. And he made that journey into a parade. And it was a fantastic ride. He made cancer and death seem very insignificant."

And these last three creative contributions, if nothing else, inspired those close to him.

Keenan rekindled her interest in painting. She said that Quarrington's brother, Joel, married his long-time partner. Quarrington's editor, Keenan said, overcame a childhood fear and bought a dog.

"It sounds corny, but this is what happened watching Paul," Keenan said. "People were doing things they hadn't done, or doing things again, or doing things more intensely, as a result of watching this guy go through what he was going through. ... You actually acted on stuff. "We hope that it'll inspire people. We say that because we were inspired. It was so impressive. It didn't matter what the creative thing is, to Paul, not living that creative life on a daily basis was worse than death."