by CHRIS BARRY

Name: Ihor Todoruk

Age: 60

Occupation: Artist, agent provocateur, proprietor of Gallery Harwood.

Bio: This badassed Hudson iconoclast, born in wartime Poland right up the street from some nutty fun palace called Auschwitz, eventually made his way to Canada to be weaned on Kerouac, Ginsberg and the raucous beat scene that was Alberta in the late '50s. Following the obvious life course for a young hipster, he soon joined the Armed Forces, found himself stationed at a radar station way up north, but, after spending two weeks in a military prison for insubordination after "losing a bulldozer," decided to "fuck it." Making his way down to San Francisco just prior to the summer of love, he lived next door to his buds the Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin before returning to Vancouver to launch Poppin which, prior to being forced into bankruptcy in a possible Nixonian conspiracy, was allegedly the third-largest music publication in America. In 2000 he opened the Galerie Harwood [www.galerieharwood.com] in Hudson, an art gallery that not only showcases Ihor's work, but that of both local and internationally renowned contemporary artists.

One pretty cool thing he did: Introduce Cheech Marin, who worked for him at Poppin, to his old pal Tommy Chong, who at the time was thinking about getting into comedy.

Something he can slap on his résumé no one else can: Being the only person in Canada to be legally charged with blasphemy after his 1970 Cerebral Erection film festival in Vancouver rubbed certain authorities the wrong way. "It was all because of this film called The Last Supper, which depicted Christ and the Apostles fucking the Virgin Mary. Ultimately they dropped the charge though."

Somebody he was pretty good pals with once upon a time: Jim Morrison.

Was Jim Morrison really a Dionysian god like Ray Manzarek says every time a "new" Doors product comes out and he needs a sales hook? "No. He was a drunk."

Another cool thing on his résumé: Ihor produced the one and only Jim Morrison Film Festival in 1970. "I called him up when Poppin was having money problems to see if maybe the Doors might do a benefit for us. They were pretty well finished at that point. Jim was working on a film at the time called HWY, so he suggested that he could let us screen it for free, so long as we let him do the promotion. Shit, the poster I designed for that thing goes for 5k now."

Something going down at Galerie Harwood this weekend: A theme show called Flesh and Fantasy. "Most vernissages are boring, you have a couple bottles of wine and a few peanuts. My things are events, I really have fun with these things. We have bands and shit. We put on a show."

Last book read: Harvest of Despair: Life and Death in Ukraine Under Nazi Rule, by Karel C. Berkhoff.

Musical preferences: Didula.

Words of wisdom: "After all is said and done the genius of humanity is said in its artwork. As we go through the centuries this is all we leave behind, the rest is just caca."

Comments? dimwit@openface.ca