He has been described as "bold, brazen, and totally unabashed," "one of a kind," and "clearly a genius." He won the Canadian figure-skating championships six times and brought back a bronze medal from the 1976 Winter Olympic Games.

He revolutionized men's figure skating, single-handedly transforming an athletic competition into a modern art form. He is an artist, celebrity, costume designer, broadcaster, choreographer of skating routines, coach, bon vivant, world traveler, art collector, legend, and enigma. He is Toller Cranston and the man has stories to tell.

They're all in his new book, When Hell Freezes Over Should I Bring My Skates? Like the time at Lake Placid when a woman drove her car directly into his bedroom and seduced him. Then there was this groupie who broke into his house and waited for him naked except for a few strategically arranged rose petals.

He writes about his encounters with the great and famous. (On meeting Joni Mitchell, for example, he asked, politely, "You sing, don't you?") With mixed feelings, he describes his reaction upon viewing a German-made pornographic film in which he played an unexpected part.

This is not so much a sequel to Toller Cranston's previous best-selling memoir, Zero Tollerance, as a companion volume. There are skating stories and stories from the world of art, there are stories of good times and of bad, high times and low. There are portraits of extraordinary people who have shaped and coloured his life, parting thoughts about his relationship with the management group, IMG, about his own retirement, and about the condition of skating today.

This is bound to be an entertaining, rip-roaring page turner, full of yummy bits of gossip by a great Canadian artist and performer, who's had a most unusual life.

Dancing up a storm: James Kudelka and his troupe of usual suspects are kicking off the season this coming Friday night with a production of The Firebird and The Four Seasons.

The Firebird is a new production for the National Ballet, choreographed by the inscrutable Mr. Kudelka. The Firebird (music courtesy of Igor Stravinsky) premiered in Paris in 1910 and it brought the house down. Kudelka's new interpretation promises to do the same. Santo Loquasto, who's traveled plenty of creative road with Kudelka, designed the sets and costumes.

The second part of this intriguing double bill features The Four Seasons. Kudelka put dance to Vivaldi's lovely score back in 1997. The critics went nuts and the audiences came to the Hummingbird in droves.

Get your tickets while you can.

Fine Tuning: Tonight, the election campaign heats up -- and sizzles -- on This Hour Has 22 Minutes: Jean Chretien shoots a new TV commercial while Stockwell Day introduces his new campaign song, "Never On Sunday." 8 p.m. on CBC TV.

On the radio dial, Margaret Visser -- the much-loved author and self-styled "anthropologist of everyday life" - explores mystery and meaning in an ordinary church. The Arts Today, after the 10 p.m. news (10:30 NT) on CBC Radio One.