O Joe College

Bernie Sanders defends America on Bill Maher, January 20

2012-01-21T07:46:00.000-08:00

In an eloquent and impassioned plea for the right of Americans to control their destiny, Bernie Sanders has become a hero to many. Watch this vid and you will know why Bernie is so loved for telling it like it is.

Mitt Romney caught in SuperPAC lie

2012-01-08T07:48:00.001-08:00

Willard exclaims "Of course the PAC is run by my former staffers"

During this morning's Meet The Press debate, Mitt Romney claimed he has never seen the negative ads produced by the PAC supporting him, and that he is not involved in any of the planning. Then just minutes later he detailed all the major attacks in one of the ads... so, he has either seen these ads airing, or he planned or viewed them before they went public, and either way he's caught in a lie.

My guess is that before 6pm today, his staff will find a written account of one of the ads and claim that Mitt read that in the newspaper and that was how he knew the content. Or they may fall back on the idea that he hasn't seen ALL of them, but did see the one he detailed air on TV.

Huntsman looks like the only GOP guy who could give Barrack a serious run, so in many ways I am grateful that his words appear to float above the heads of his competitors and audience.

List of chemicals used in fracking process

2012-01-06T18:48:00.000-08:00

Methanol (Methyl alcohol) HAP 342
Ethylene glycol (1,2-ethanediol) HAP 119
Diesel19 Carcinogen, SDWA, HAP 51
Naphthalene Carcinogen, HAP 44
Xylene SDWA, HAP 44
Hydrogen chloride (Hydrochloric acid) HAP 42
Toluene SDWA, HAP 29
Ethylbenzene SDWA, HAP 28
Diethanolamine (2,2-iminodiethanol) HAP 14
Formaldehyde Carcinogen, HAP 12
Sulfuric acid Carcinogen 9
Thiourea Carcinogen 9
Benzyl chloride Carcinogen, HAP 8
Cumene HAP 6
Nitrilotriacetic acid Carcinogen 6
Dimethyl formamide HAP 5
Phenol HAP 5
Benzene Carcinogen, SDWA, HAP 3
Di (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate Carcinogen, SDWA, HAP 3
Acrylamide Carcinogen, SDWA, HAP 2
Hydrogen fluoride (Hydrofluoric acid) HAP 2
Phthalic anhydride HAP 2
Acetaldehyde Carcinogen, HAP 1
Acetophenone HAP 1
Copper SDWA 1
Ethylene oxide Carcinogen, HAP 1
Lead Carcinogen, SDWA, HAP 1
Propylene oxide Carcinogen, HAP 1
p-Xylene HAP 1
Toluene
Ehylbenzene
Benzene
Methanol (Methyl alcohol) 342
Isopropanol (Isopropyl alcohol, Propan-2-ol) 274
Crystalline silica - quartz (SiO2) 207
Ethylene glycol monobutyl ether (2-butoxyethanol) 126
Ethylene glycol (1,2-ethanediol) 119
Hydrotreated light petroleum distillates 89
Sodium hydroxide (Caustic soda) 80

Fracking is not the answer...

33 Heroes of a leaderless revolution

2011-12-29T08:05:00.000-08:00

A Canadian's viewpoint of Uprising 2011

North African uprisings and Arab Spring

1. Tunisian fruit vendor Mohammed Bouazizi deserves first mention as he is the highest profile martyr of the Arab Spring of Hope. He immolated himself on December 18, and died from the severe burns on January 4th, 2011. The revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt both gained significant momentum from Mohamed's actions.

2. On December 22nd, 2010, Houcine Falhi, a 22-year-old Tunisian, committed suicide by electrocuting himself in the midst of another demonstration over unemployment in Sidi Bouzid, after shouting "No to misery, no to unemployment!"

3.Khaled Said died in Egypt from a police beating in 2010, but rose to prominence through the We Are All Khaled Said webpage on Facebook, created by “ElShaeed” (meaning “the witness”, “the struggle” or “the martyr”). ElShaheed was later revealed to be Google executive Wael Ghonim (see Hero #5)

4.April 6th leaders: Isra Abdel Fattah, Ahmed Maher, Asma Mahfouz, Mohamed Adel, Ahmed Salah

The April 6 Youth Movement began as an Egyptian Facebook group founded by Isra’a Abdel Fattah, 29, and Ahmed Maher, 30, in spring 2008 to support the April 6 workers strike in el-Mahalla el-Kobra, an industrial town along the Nile Delta. Ahmed Salah was also an early supporter of the April 6th Youth Movement. Another associate, Mohammed Adel, "Dean of the Dead" was arrested at the age of twenty, detained and placed in solitary confinement for over 100 days because of his political activities on the Internet.

On January 18th, 2011, a video that changed the world was uploaded by Asma'a Mahfouz, for in it the young Egyptian urged her countrymen to take to the streets to protest the injustice. Take a look:

5. Wael Ghonim, ElShaeed

During the Arab Spring I was posting to my Original Joe College blog 3 to 5 times per day, and the arrival in Egypt of Wael Ghonim, and his subsequent arrest, sent shockwaves through the country and around the world. These were no street raggamuffins, but rather included a senior executive from the most powerful company in the world! After Ghonim's release from detention by Egypt's secret police, his DREAM TV interview electrified the nation.

Wael Ghonim with the mother of Khaled Said

6. Mona Eltahawy

International journalist returned to her Egyptian roots to cover the initial Tahrir Square and other Cairo events, herself being arrested and assaulted during the 2nd wave of uprisings in November 2011. Mona's many appearances on global news programs provided an eloquent window into events, adding a charming human face to Egypt's revolution.

7. Gigi Ibrahim

A citizen journalist from American University of Cairo, the stunningly beautiful Gigi Ibrahim was one of the most prominent of many Egyptian youth utilizing modern technology and social networks to report on events in Tahrir Square and throughout Egypt.

8. Tawakkul Karman, a female icon of the Yemen protest movement, won the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize for her brave efforts. She has been called by Yemenis the "Iron Woman" and "Mother of the Revolution."

Tawakul Karman wins Nobel Peace Prize

Bringing It All Back Home – North America revolts

9. Mark Miller, the Wisconsin Senate 14, and the Wisconsin Democratic and union leadership incl police, firemen, teachers. Several decades of collective bargaining progress was about to be wiped away by a reactionary politician with wickedly conspiratorial right-wing business allies, and the people rose up as one to be heard, loudly and clearly.

10. MSNBC's Ed Schultz

Most talking heads on TV do not even comprehend the issues. Ed does, he's mad as hell, and he's not taking any bullshit from anyone. What is it about the name Ed? Canadians will remember the earnest and profound Ed Broadbent, while Americans know and respect Ed Asner, a member of the Campaign for Peace and Democracy and Democratic Socialists of America, and two-time president of the Screen Actors Guilkd. Honest Ed...

11. NDP leader Jack Layton

For anybody in Canada this needs no explanation. For others, Jack was a well-loved and highly regarded social democrat whose untimely death and emotional funeral united Canadians of all political stripes, even for just one day. In Mr. Layton's honour, I am working with other progressive Canadians to unite the NDP and the Green Party, and form the Green Democratic Party of Canada.

We miss you Jack...

12. NDP MP Charmaine Borg – The election of many 20-something MPs in the last Canadian federal election shocked many, however the NDP surge in La Belle Province delighted young activists across the nation. Charmaine Borg is a conscientious young lady dedicated to human rights and social justice, in Canada and globally.

13. NDP MP Mylene Freeman – Also elected in Canada's 2011 election that saw the NDP surge in Quebec vault them into Official Opposition status, Mylene has been a tireless advocate for Native Canadian rights and equality for women, and is a fiery and diligent representative for her Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel riding.

14. Kalle Lasn / Adbusters publisher – Likely the most influential person on the planet that almost nobody has ever heard of, the publisher of anti-consumer magazine Adbusters issued the call for the Occupy Wall Street protest, and remains a key contributor to new directions for the burgeoning social movement. Kalle and Adbusters partner Micah White continue to provide valuable direction to OWS and Occupy Together.

15. Micah White in California (Adbusters Senior editor), Kalle Lasn's confidante and co-creator of OWS – Micah is the Senior Editor at Adbusters, and a humble, covert contributor to Occupy Wall Street planning and success. Micah keeps a low profile but will likely be a key contributor to social progress in North America for many years to come.

16. OWS facilitators and spokespeople, incl Marisa and Ketchup … Marisa Holmes, the “quiet leader” of Occupy Wall Street, a 25-year-old freelance documentarian who hewlped organize and guide New York City's pioneering occupation.

Ketchup, spokesperson for OWS, is a 22 year old redheaded gal from Chicago, and her earnest and no-bullshit explanations of OWS goals and methodologies helped the outside world begin to understand what all the ruckus was about.

17. Julian Assange exposed the underbelly of global diplomacy and shook some ivory towers and fortified bastions in the process

18. Michael Moore - the first person to bring a mainstream network news crew to OWS, he insisted that if a major TV network wanted to interview him about OWS, they do it at Zuccotti Park

19. Amina Waheed, Occupy Oakland spokesperson and journalist.

20. Freedom from Occupy LA – She is also founder of Visionary Activists Network; during the eviction of the Occupy LA camp, about 2,000 viewers watched her eloquent live reporting via a web feed.

21. George Strombolopoulos - My first visit to Occupy Toronto was on day three and it was encouraging to read later that evening that George S was there about one after I left, and his show was very balanced regarding goals, tactics and effectiveness of Occupy Canada protests.

22. Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine played at both Occupy Wall Street and Occupy LA. Here he is in New York:

23. Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel – OWS. Here's Jeff performing at Occupy Wall Street:

24. Down By Riverside – Essentially became house band for Occupy Toronto, the Nozuka brothers' group and its members supported the park, the rallies plus any and all Occupy Toronto events more than any others. Props to Jesus Las Vegas, Flow Dan and all the other park musicians I was fortunate to jam with during the occupation.

25. Faith Nolan – Performed and jammed at occupy Toronto a bunch of times. Faith is a talented and conscious singer-writer and a lady our city can be very proud of.

Faith Nolan and Bill Bourne perform together at Occupy Toronto

26. Sid Ryan, President, Ontario Federation of Labour, and Occupy Toronto supporter..

Our message to the Occupy Toronto protesters is this: While the mayor of Toronto may not care about the public services we all rely on, you do. While the mayor, the corporations and those at the top may not care about affordable post-secondary education, public pensions, living wages, quality public health care and basic entitlement to democratic rights, you do.

Your view that every single human being deserves an opportunity to work, to contribute to society and to a life filled with hope and the opportunity to live up to their full potential is what has fuelled the public’s imagination to support your efforts.

The OFL stands in solidarity with you. We will do everything possible to support you in your desire to make the lives of the 99% of the people in your community better.
We pledge to be there with you, shoulder to shoulder, to defend our right to free speech and free assembly.

27. Joe Shithead Keithley - Performed solo at Occupy Ottawa and Occupy Regina, and with his band DOA at Occupy Vancouver. For over thirty years, Joe has been the conscience of Vancouver and of the Canadian punk scene. We old punks waited more than three decades for Occupy to get rolling, and we are not about to let this opportunity for freedom and justice slip away. Fight on young brothers and sisters!!!

28. & 29. Even today in Egypt, dissent is not tolerated and activists like Michael Nabil and Alaa Abdel Fattah remain in jail for critiquing the army.

30.Yennesew Gebre … here we go again. On 11/11/11, 29-year old Ethiopian teacher self-immolated in protest against his students and other young Ethiopians being held in jail without charge, entirely because they expressed and interest in politics and justice. Democracy advocates in Ethiopia will be well-advised to keep Anonymous informed of their plans for next July 21st to July 23rd, as they may need to have certain government websites and communication systems shut down for a few days.

100 years from now, when our great-great-grandchildren ask their parents what happened on 11/11/11, they will reply “Let me tell you about a noble man named Yennesew Gebre, and his gift from the past to the future.”

31.Alexey Navalny – Russia's truth-telling blogger rose to international prominence after the flawed 2011 parliamentary elections. This 35 year old anti-corruption crusader braves arrest and imprisonment every day. Like many things in Russia, even here there is a darker side … as Navalny is a nationalist and has associated with anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim groups. Bears watching...

32.Justin Trudeau – Most people will find it a stretch to include Young Trudeau as a hero of 2011's global uprisings, yet his dissing of the PC blowhard resonated on Main Street. With the NDP currently leaderless, JT appears ready to stand up to the PCs and is the overwhelming fave to become the new leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. Justin will turn 40 on Christmas Day.

33.Fadwa Suleiman – Syrian actress spoke at a rally in Homs and began a hunger strike to protest against the oppression and violence of the Syrian regime, risking her own life for the sake of her people and her nation. God Bless this Light who has her own heart, mind and soul.

Honourable mentions: Razan Ghazzawi, Dorothy Parvaz, Alexandrine Latendresse, Laurin Liu, all Occupiers, and especially all those who have lost their lives in the North African and Syrian revolutions.

Occupy LA: photos of last stand 30NOV11

2011-11-30T07:46:00.000-08:00

I was up until 4am watching Freedom's OccupyFreedomLA stream and went to bed when the cops were inside the camp and tearing down tents. Here are a few cool photos from the last night at Occupy Los Angeles' Solidarity Plaza:

Marijuana Tax Act of 1937; can hemp decorticators save our world?

2011-11-28T16:58:00.000-08:00

The American Medical Association (AMA) opposed the act because the tax was imposed on physicians prescribing cannabis, retail pharmacists selling cannabis, and medical cannabis cultivation/manufacturing; The bill was passed over the last-minute objections of the American Medical Association. Dr. William Woodward, legislative counsel for the A.M.A. objected to the bill on the grounds that the bill had been prepared in secret without giving proper time to prepare their opposition to the bill. He doubted their claims about marijuana addiction, violence, and overdosage; he further asserted that because the word Marijuana was largely unknown at the time, the medical profession did not realize they were losing cannabis. "Marijuana is not the correct term... Yet the burden of this bill is placed heavily on the doctors and pharmacists of this country."

Dr. William Woodward, American Medical Association lawyer, 1937

Some parties have argued that the aim of the Act was to reduce the size of the hemp industry largely as an effort of businessmen Andrew Mellon, Randolph Hearst, and the Du Pont family. The same parties have argued that with the invention of the decorticator, hemp had became a very cheap substitute for the paper pulp that was used in the newspaper industry. These parties argue that Hearst felt that this was a threat to his extensive timber holdings. Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury and the wealthiest man in America, had invested heavily in the Du Pont families new synthetic fiber, nylon, a fiber that was competing with hemp

Decorticators for every village and town!

A decorticator (from Latin: cortex, bark) is a machine for stripping the skin, bark, or rind off nuts, wood, plant stalks, grain, etc., in preparation for further processing.

In 1861 a farmer named Bernagozzi from Bologna manufactured a machine called a "scavezzatrice," a decorticator for hemp. A working hemp decorticator from 1890 manufactured in Germany is preserved in a museum in Bologna. In Italy the "scavezzatrice" faded in the 1950s because of competition from synthetic materials and from other more profitable crops.

Probably hundreds of different decorticators have been developed since 1890. Misconceptions spread about the device includes the suggestion that the first working hemp decorticator was invented in the US in 1935. In 1916 there were already five different kinds of "machine brakes" for hemp in use in the US, and still others in Europe.

One of the most discussed decorticators is the Schlichten model. Quoted from Hemp - American History Revisited by Robert Deitch copyright 2003 Algora Publishing:

“ ... because of the 1917 introduction of a machine designed by George Schlichten, known as the "Decorticator." The Decorticator separated the long hemp fibers from the pulpy celluloid (hurds) center of the hemp stalks, dramatically reducing the exorbitant labor costs associated with cleaning and preparing hemp for further processing. ”

Quoted from The Emperor Wears No Clothes - The Authoritative Historical Record of the Cannabis Plant, Marajuana Prohibition & How Hemp can still Save the World! by Jack Herer copyright 1993 Green Planet Company Publishing:

“ Under old methods, hemp was cut and allowed to lie in the fields for weeks until it "retted" enough so the fibers could be pulled off by hand. Retting is simply rotting as a result of dew, rain and bacterial action. Machines were developed to separate the fibers mechanically after retting was complete, but the cost was high, the loss of fiber great, and the quality of fiber comparatively low. With the new machine, known as a decorticator, hemp is cut with a slightly modified grain binder. It is delivered to the machine where an automatic chain conveyer feeds it to the breaking arms at the rate of two or three tons per hour. The hurds are broken into fine pieces which drop into the hopper, from where they are delivered by blower to a baler or to truck or freight car for loose shipment. The fiber comes from the other end of the machine, ready for baling... Schlichten spent 18 years and £400,000 on the decorticator, a machine that could strip the fibre from nearly any plant, leaving the pulp behind. His desire was to stop the felling of forests for paper, which he believed to be a crime! ”

In 1919 George Schlichten received a U.S. patent on his improvements of the decorticator for treating fiber bearing plants. Schlichten failed to find investors for production of his decorticator, and died as a broken man in 1923.

There are still companies who produce and sell new decorticators for different crops.

Source: My fast-footed friend Wik I. Pedia

Occupy Christmas / Buy Nothing Day strategies, links and wall photos

2011-11-24T16:48:00.002-08:00

Small Business Saturday on November 26, 2012

Occupy Christmas December 2012

The founders of Occupy Wall Street, a 69 year old Canadian (publisher of Adbusters magazine) and a 29 year old Californian, have made some suggestions for Occupying Christmas, via the mag's website:

— a Santa sit-in, whereby protesters sit outside a store and encourage people to cut up their credit cards;

— a Jesus walk, where people put on a mask in the Holy Son’s likeness and walk through malls, to create an eerie sentiment. (Note from Joe: Pose for pictures with the kids, sign autographs.)

— a “whirly mart,” in which would-be shoppers fill their carts with products but abandon them at the cash register. (Note from Joe College: Please do NOT put perishables in your whirly cart, as they could be local. Try to fill it with ultra-crass imported junk.)

Facebook Occupy Christmas group offers advice on buying local gifts

Top Ten Ways to Occupy the Holidays, from Made In USA Challenge

Wherever we read buy USA or buy local, substitute Buy Canadian / North American / buy regional, the theory is the same wherever you live. Support local businesses. This list below is from MadeInUSAchallenge.com:

10 Ways to Occupy the Holidays

1. Buy American. Support local jobs, buy gifts from the many awesome American-made options available.

2. Shop locally. Visit your local independent shops and help reinvest in your own community.

3. Buy handmade. Everyone loves receiving a unique handcrafted gift. Check out local craft fairs and Etsy.

4. Do it yourself! If you are so inclined, share your talents through homemade art, baked goods and craft creations.

5. Buy used. Keep it out of the landfill! Check Craigslist and consignment sales for steals on used products in excellent condition.

6. Give service gifts. Lessons, classes, memberships to museums or tickets to a theatre all make fun gifts.

7. Choose gifts that give back. Charitable giving in recognition of your loved one sends an important message.

8. Cook holiday meals with local foods. Hit your local farmer’s market before they close up shop for the season!

9. Buy with cash. Using cash instead of using credit cards helps you stay on budget and prevents the big banks from further profiting from your hard earned money.

10. Spend less. Only spend what you can afford. No one wants you to go into debt for their gift. Create a budget and stick to it.

The Facebook page for Occupy Christmas already has 2,000 Likes, and it is only the eve of Black Friday. If you are an artist or craftsperson, consider upddating your Facebook status with the image below.

One more link, please don't forget this is Small Business Saturday on November 26, 2012.

Is skull in Peru a child, a dwarf, or an alien?

2011-11-19T07:20:00.000-08:00

Head-binding tradition means skull is human, and likely a child

News of this skeleton found in Peru has scientists baffled. The head is almost as big as the body, indicating a young child, and the skull has a soft spot ... yet there are two molars normally found in adults.

Is this the skeleton of a child, or a case of head-binding on a dwarf-like individual? That may seem to be the most logical explanation, and the first step will be to DNA test the skeleton and the skull to ensure they are the same person.

Head-binding in Peru, Mexico and Africa

Paracas skull from Peru

Unusual Paracas skull supposedly deformed by binding the growing head of an infant. The resulting domed head was considered beautiful.

Photographed in the Museo Regional de Ica, from World-Mysteries.com

The tradition of head-binding is also known in Africa.

Could it be that a dwarf was subjected to head-binding at a young age, and one possible side effect was that the head was able to grow even when the body couldn't, so you end up with an extra-large adult head on a child-like body? Further testing may provide clues about that, however it seems less likely than a scenario where this is a human being who died young.

In summary, the most logical explanation is that it is a child and the head-binding was so "successful" that the small neck and body could not support the skull, leading to premature death, a clear warning to Paracans as to what can go wrong. If a child, one could estimate this person may have been at least seven or eight years old, because of the presence of molars.

Occupy Music: Performances from protests across North America

2011-11-15T11:14:00.000-08:00

Here are a range of artists performing at Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Toronto and across our beloved continent:

Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine performs The Fabled City at Occupy Wall Street

Blues slide guitar virtuoso at Occupy Wall Street

Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel at Occupy Wall Street

Down By The Riverside at St. James Park, Occupy Toronto

Chanting and singing at Occupy Taipei

Violin, Banjo and Two Guitars at Occupy Toronto

Rainer Mandler's new song Nothing About Us, Without Us

Faith Nolan and Bill Bourne perform together at Occupy Toronto

More 99% Blues from Occupy Wall Street

Hawaiian guitarist Makana played the White House in 2009, and at the APEC gala last night, Makana made a musical statement. His unbuttoned suit jacket revealed a shirt that read “Occupy with Aloha.” He performed an Occupy Together-themed “We Are the Many,” wherein he blasted corporate lobbyists and called on Americans to occupy “the streets,” re-starting and playing several different versions of the tune for 45 minutes in front of world leaders.

We Are The Many, Occupy video by Makana

Makana video released with recent CD

Makana performing Led Zeppelin's classic rock song Going To California

Toronto rapper spittin an anti-war, pro-justice flow, check it:

Down by The Riverside, a Toronto indie band, performing at St. James Park gazebo:

Here's Jesus Las Vegas from Day One of Occupy T-Dot, reading three of his original poems and inspiring the people with his uplifting vibe:

Interview with Toronto band Down By The Riverside:

Nozuka brothers of Down By The Riverside, jamming at St. James Park.

Impromptu Stand By Me jam at Occupy Toronto, with everyone joining in:

350.org animation to save our planet; spread the word!

2011-11-14T20:46:00.000-08:00

The global ecology group 350.org invites people of all nations to participate in making our planet a healthier place.

Occupy Portland: Justin James Bridges brutally beaten by police

2011-11-14T07:51:00.000-08:00

UPDATE: Interview with Justin from his hospital bed:

Portland, Oregon musician Justin Bridges in Legacy Emmanuel Hospital

After receiving a vicious beating by Portland police last night, guitarist-singer Justin James Bridges (he is also an American Sign Language translator for Occupy Portland) remains in hospital today, in serious condition and unable to move one arm.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Justin, who can be seen speaking about Occupy Oakland and playing his guitar in the video below.

Hawaiian musician Makana performs Occupy song for Obama and APEC leaders

2011-11-13T13:21:00.000-08:00

Guitarist takes stand at Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation dinner

“It was an incredible experience to sing those words to that group of people,” said Makana.

Hawaiian guitarist Makana played the White House in 2009, and at the APEC gala last night, Makana made a musical statement. His unbuttoned suit jacket revealed a shirt that read “Occupy with Aloha.” He performed an Occupy Together-themed “We Are the Many,” wherein he blasted corporate lobbyists and called on Americans to occupy “the streets,” re-starting and playing several different versions of the tune for 45 minutes in front of world leaders.

We Are The Many, Occupy video by Makana

Makana video released with recent CD

Makana performing Led Zeppelin's classic rock song Going To California

Occupy Music from St James Park, Toronto

2011-11-13T11:06:00.000-08:00

Toronto rapper spittin an anti-war, pro-justice flow, check it:

Down by The Riverside, a Toronto indie band, performing at St. James Park gazebo:

Here's Jesus Las Vegas from Day One of Occupy T-Dot, reading three of his original poems and inspiring the people with his uplifting vibe:

Interview with Toronto band Down By The Riverside:

Nozuka brothers of Down By The Riverside, jamming at St. James Park.

Impromptu Stand By Me jam at Occupy Toronto, with everyone joining in:

Lord Mayor's carriage passes Occupy London Stock Exchange

2011-11-12T07:15:00.000-08:00

At first I thought this had been photoshopped, yet considering it is from England, and is by photographer @LewisWhyld, who works for the Press Association, based in London, looks like it may be real!!!

Black Sabbath announces reunion tour at the Whiskey a Go-Go!!!

2011-11-11T11:00:00.000-08:00

The press conference is going on in Los Angeles as I type, with the big question remaining: Will there be a new LP to go with the tour?

November 11, 2011: Global ReluvU*shone

2011-11-10T12:40:00.000-08:00

Everybody please be respectful of all veterans and Remembrance Day events tomorrow, as the freedoms we rally to protect and expand were fought for and won by our parents and grandparents. The 80+ countries involved in Occupy Together / United for #globalchange are the best places to live on the planet, so please appreciate the freedoms we do have and respect them deeply!!!

RENEW branding for London, Ontario Occupy protest

2011-11-10T11:02:00.000-08:00

Occupy Together needs a 4th brand; Why our global revolution is about renewal

Of the three global brands our movement has so far generated, two are somewhat problematic due to limitations of scope and meaning, while the third, though encompassing our ethos, is beautiful but perhaps a tad long:

Occupy Together
Take The Square
United for #globalchange

Our movement has been primarily named after a tactic, as Occupy Together and Take The Square both have their roots in the 25JAN mass protest in Cairo's Tahrir (Liberation) Square. The United for #globalchange brand began with the 15OCT globalization of the Occupy Wall Street protest.

The reality is that "occupying" is just one arrow in our quiver of civil disobedience and non-violence tactics, along with marching, boycotting, voting, general strikes, direct action etc. Our goal is to renew the social contract, to reinvigorate democracy, improve human rights and social justice, increasing freedom and the pursuit of happiness. Do you remember when Occupy was still a bad word, as in “Iraq occupied Kuwait”, or “Israel occupies the West Bank”? This is a very serious matter that deeply affects public perception of our worldwide movement.

By focusing on successful occupations as the core, we must battle local municipalities, and it is not this level of politics that deeply concerns us. Please don't misinterpret this as saying we should not use urban occupations as a tactic, as my point is that it should be a core strategy but not the whole focus. Occupy Wall Street has a ring to it and it is achievable, however Occupy Canada is far less precise.

With London, Ontario having been the first Canadian Occupy Together protest shut down by local authorities, that Western Ontario city may be an ideal locale for launch of the RENEW brand. In addition to Occupy Together, Take The Square and United for #globalchange, RENEW London, RENEW Canada etc will broaden the scope of the dialogue.

To the GA of London in Canada: If your protest has been shut down and you wish to relaunch as a permanent occupation, consider doing it either as Occupy London Ontario once again, or as RENEW London urban occupation, which will take people by surprise and broaden the coalition.

Now, if an Occupy protest is closed down and wants to relaunch as a daily demo without overnight facilities, consider launching as RENEW London Now and make an extra effort to invite labour and environmental groups and all citizens to participate and contribute ideas for renewal of our society.

Here are 3 reasons why it would be incredibly inspiring if London, Ontario were to relaunch as RENEW London Now:

1.Will immediately differentiate the local protest from the one in London, UK.
2.Adding a 4th brand now, rather than waiting to Jan 1st or March 21st as originally proposed, will broaden the movement and increase mass participation in decision making, one of our primary goals.
3.As the first protest to be taken down by authorities in Canada, it is crucial to have a successful rebound, presented in a manner that captures public support and invites all citizens to share ideas for renewing our social contract.

As RENEW London Now, an urban movement for social justice, we can invite everyone down to contribute ideas for social renewal of Canada, North America and the World.

November 11th, 2011 World Re-Luv-U-Shone

2011-11-07T18:05:00.000-08:00

I was fortunate to get down to St. James Park again for a few hours yesterday afternoon. It was a sunny day, good vibes all around, got to hear and jam with more of the resident talent. Hoping Toronto the Good can continue to set an example, both citizenry and protesters.

Chinese youth Redefines Class Consciousness

2011-11-02T09:55:00.000-07:00

by Michelle Chen, HuffingtonPost.com

In every region of the planet young people are rocking their worlds, defying government crackdowns in Santiago and Sanaa, occupying beleaguered cities in America and Europe, challenging authoritarianism across the Global South. But one of the largest concentrations of youth on the planet seems relatively dormant: China's rising generation appears, at least in the Western media lens, to be too timid, cynical, or busy making money, to take on political struggles.

But to read China’s fraught political geography, you need a long-range lens. A new report by the Hong Kong-based advocacy group China Labour Bulletin tracks the nascent Chinese labor movement from 2009 through 2011, examining a pattern of conflict, organizing and advocacy, and finds the seeds of a youth-led labor movement underpinned by a sense of growing economic injustice. Communication technology, migration, creative organizing tactics, and the sheer density of the popular mass are fueling thousands of labor protests in both the public and private sectors.

Socially and geographically, mobile young workers are starting to leverage their power within the political and economic establishment, according to the report:

Workers are becoming more proactive They are taking the initiative and not waiting for the government or anyone else to improve their pay and working conditions.

The protests have created an embryonic collective bargaining system in China. The challenge now is to develop that basic model into an effective and sustainable system of collective bargaining that benefits workers, improves overall labour relations and helps achieve the Chinese government's goals of boosting domestic consumption and reducing social disparity.

Their ability to organize is improving. A growing sense of unity among factory workers, combined with the use of mobile phones and social networking tools, has made it easier for workers to initiate, organize and sustain protests.

Worker protests are becoming more successful. Recent protests have secured substantial pay increases, forced managements to abandon unpopular and exploitative work practices, and even stalled the proposed take-over and privatization of SOEs.

Though China has earned a reputation as the world’s preeminent sweatshop, its broader economic agenda centers on turning legions of workers into vast, politically obedient, domestic consumer class. The fragile social structure has shown some cracks lately, though, as workers discover their unique place in the global economic hierarchy. Workers with rising aspirations understand that they deserve equitable pay for the “cheap” labor that foreign capital readily exploits.

China Labour Bulletin cites a series of high-profile protests by Honda factory workers in 2010 as just one many examples of workers organizing to press for decent working conditions and wages. Troubles have been bubbling up in China's state-owned firms as well, as workers revolt in a “unified collective force” against the state's ruthless drive toward privatization.

On the other hand, a series of suicides by workers at the massive Foxconn electronics plant in southern China suggests a massive level of despair that hasn't yet crystallized into a proactive youth labor movement. And the rioting that erupted in Guangdong earlier this year suggested that when pushed to the brink, disenfranchised migrants will lash out against authoritarian social oppression.

The rapid pace of change, and the demographic upheaval driven by rural-to-urban migration, could be a catalyst for worker solidarity, though the scope of worker activism remains constrained. Geoffrey Crothall of China Labour Bulletin told In These Times:

There is without doubt a great deal of unity among workers at the factory level and to some extent at the industry and regional level, strikes in one factory leading to others in that sector but beyond that it is difficult to see how more widespread action could develop. The authorities are watching carefully and will clamp down very quickly on any organization that develops that could in their view politicize the workers movement.

So far, restive workers have won substantial pay hikes, both from employers and through the local mandatory minimum wage. Meanwhile, amid international public scrutiny, multinationals have made some hasty concessions (Foxconn wages in Shenzehn recently doubled—perhaps a suicide premium of sorts).

In some cases, worker militancy has compelled the All China Federation of Trade Unions, which is embedded with both the state and business interests, to pivot toward labor by strengthening collective bargaining mechanisms. But the government will likely find it increasingly difficult to contain or co-opt dissent as political consciousness converges with economic desperation in the workforce.

Media stereotypes tend to portray Chinese youth as a faceless army of job-sucking drones, or as carefree consumers racing toward a neoliberal dream. But as old state institutions wither and the “free market” moves into the vacuum, the "Chinese century's" generational arc may take a new revolutionary turn. The young workers who will determine China's social future seek more than material wealth, and while their aims are not yet clear-cut, they've emerged at the vanguard of their own long march.

Very Cool and RARE Rock Music photos, Part Two

2011-11-01T13:14:00.000-07:00

Dave Grohl - Bruce Springsteen - Elvis Costello

Post-1975 rare rockstar photographs

In Part One of rare and cool rock star photos, we offered up a range of images mostly from the 60s and 70s. This group will be from the late 70s right up to the 90s, with a few even newer! Enjoy!!!

Elvis Costello and Joni Mitchell

Nirvana

Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood of Radiohead

Thom Yorke and David Byrne

Ringo Starr and David Bowie

Kurt Cobain with Eugene Kelly of The Vaselines

Kurt Cobain and Eddie Vedder

Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love

Last photo of Julian Lennon and John Lennon together

Julian, Sean and John; The Lennon lads

Joni Mitchell with beloved Charlie Mingus

Joni with late bass legend Jaco Pastorius

Johnny Rotten and Joe Strummer

John Kerry and John Lennon

Last photo of John and Sean Lennon

Joey Ramone and Debbie Harry

Joe Strummer and Johnny Rotten

Mick Jagger with U2's Bono

Jagger with Madonna and Tony Curtis

Jagger and Springsteen

Bob Dylan and Robbie Robertson

Deborah Harry of Blondie with Joey Ramone

Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain

Courtney Love with Kurt Cobain and their daughter, Frances Cobain

Carlos Santana and Eric Clapton

Bob Marley, Mick Jagger, Peter Tosh

Bob Dylan with Barack and Michelle Obama

Bob Dylan and Patti Smith

Rare and VERY COOL rock music photos - Part One

2011-11-01T12:47:00.000-07:00

Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell

As I have gathered a few dozen of these gems in recent days, I have decided to split them into two camps, pre-1980 and post-1975. If I'm not sure, some of them may make it into both posts.

Today I will just post the photos, and in coming days I will add notes identifying everybody in the shots but for now, how many can you identify? I'll give you the first one below cuz it's a toughie.

Pre-1980 rare rock star photographs

Marlon Brando and Miriam Makeba

Bob Dylan and Muhammad Ali

Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez - trailblazers!!!

Big Joe Williams with Bob Dylan

Beatles and Little Richard

Rare Beatles photo

Eartha Kitt and James Dean

Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Eric Clapton

Record exec Clive Davis with Janis Joplin

Bowie - Garfunkel - Simon - Bono - Lennon - Flack

Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan

Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin

Jimi Hendrix with The Moving Sidewalks

Janis Joplin and Tina Turner

Grace Slick and Janis Joplin

Grace and Janis

Jim Morrison, The Doors

Jimi Hendrix, Toronto arrest photo

Jimi Hendrix with Buddy Miles

Jimi Hendrix and Brian Jones

Jim Morrison

Johnny Nash and Bob Marley

Joni Mitchell and Neil Young

Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, Robbie Robertson

DOA to play Occupy Vancouver on Saturday, Nov 5th

2011-11-01T10:43:00.000-07:00

We can, we will, and we must make this place into a better world - Joey

Joe Keithley and the dynamic punk band DOA are slated to play Occupy Vancouver this Saturday afternoon. Fresh back from a cross Canada tour, the godfathers of hardcore D.O.A. will perform at Occupy Vancouver on Saturday November 5th at 5 PM.

During D.O.A's recent cross-Canada tour, band leader Joe Keithley stopped into to play acoustically at Occupy Ottawa on October 15th and Occupy Regina on October 28th. Standing in solidarity with the 99%, Joe played songs like: General Strike, The Enemy, Fucked Up Harper and Class War. Just before D.O.A. takes the stage, Rex Wyler, one of the founders of Greenpeace will be speaking.

Joe "Shithead" Keithley: Punk Godfather, Canadian legend

If you live in the Lower Mainland, DOA hopes to see you there this Saturday and as Joey says: remember friends, that we can, we will and we must make this world into a better place than it is now!

Did Chuck Lorre insult Cher and her family?

2011-10-31T18:05:00.000-07:00

Two and a Half Men episode refers to "transsexual on Dancing With The Stars"

In a scene where the Jon Cryer character complains about his mother and infers that Chas Bono went on Dancing With The Stars because he is screwed up, rather than because he likes dancing, Chuck Lorre may have gone beyond social commentary. The remark is guaranteed to piss Cher off, as it implies that she and Sonny Bono were not good parents, and Sonny isn't even here to defend himself.

Chas is also unlikely to be amused, as he ends up being the "potential bad result" in this "joke". That slurs both him and his parents, so Chuck better get his full apology bows in order.

Is that Charlie Sheen I hear snickering in the background?

Occupy Together; Music and jams from across North America

2011-10-30T19:59:00.000-07:00

Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine performs The Fabled City at Occupy Wall Street

Blues slide guitar virtuoso at Occupy Wall Street

Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel at Occupy Wall Street

Down By The Riverside at St. James Park, Occupy Toronto

Chanting and singing at Occupy Taipei

Violin, Banjo and Two Guitars at Occupy Toronto

Rainer Mandler's new song Nothing About Us, Without Us

Faith Nolan and Bill Bourne perform together at Occupy Toronto

More 99% Blues from Occupy Wall Street

Burlington music in the mid to late 1970s

2011-10-29T20:28:00.000-07:00

When I think back to when I was fifteen years old and in my very first band, with Jim Burns on drums, Bill Bishop on guitar and myself on bass, there is a lot of joy in the memories of those days, and in the musical journey from there to here. We were just teens goofing around on Jumping Jack Flash, Takin Care of Business and Radar Love, yet those sloppy, noisy nights were the beginnings of a lifetime love affair with rock music and culture.

Around seventeen years of age I de-emphasized bass playing and began managing the best band in town, Bill Wood's excellent progressive rock group Darwin, which also included the stellar Mike Danna on keyboards, Mike Lalonde on drums, Mark Shannon on bass and artist Tim Clement on guitar. These guys could play everything from Pink Floyd to Genesis, King Crimson to Led Zeppelin, and were a staple of the Tree Top room at the Estaminet on Lakeshore Road before I started booking them into Burlington and area high schools.

After Darwin, the next group I managed was Interchange, and though they were a bluesy rock outfit closer to the Stones and Aerosmith in style and repertoire, one thing they had in common with Darwin was they also had a very strong lead singer, Simon Leblovic. Simon later went on to front The Start, a Toronto band who had the Cancon hit Hey You in the early 1980s.

Growing increasingly influenced by songwriters such as Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and Leonard Cohen, at nineteen I began playing guitar, and soon embarked on a couple years of hitch-hiking and learning songs on the road, which would take me to Dawson Creek, Vancouver Island, Santa Cruz in California, Vancouver, Banff, Quebec City and Charlottetown, PEI.

At the peak of my street singing I knew about 56 different Dylan songs and about 300 tunes in total, including some originals I had written. Then I saw the Dead Boys perform in San Francisco, and was truly electrified.

World War 3 by DOA; my all-time fave punk video

2011-10-29T19:18:00.000-07:00

Say no more...

Occupy Toronto: Down By the Riverside at St. James Park

2011-10-28T19:29:00.000-07:00

Indie band performs strong set at Occupy T-Dot gazebo

Had the pleasure of meeting and jamming with poet / musician Jesus Las Vegas this afternoon at St. James, and also was introduced to Johnny Righteous and other members of the excellent reggae rock soul combo Down by The Riverside, a Toronto indie band, who performed at St. James gazebo today:

This aft Jesus Las Vegas played harmonica on some of my original tunes (Big Bear, Ecology) and a cover of One by U2, while I noodled out a few blues leads for his songs. Here's Jesus from Day One of Occupy T-Dot, reading three of his original poems and inspiring the people with his uplifting vibe:

Interview with Toronto band Down By The Riverside:

Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel at Occupy Wall Street

Alright, now here are a couple of bonuses for all you Neutral Milk Hotel fans, vids of Jeff Mangum performing on acoustic guitar at Zucotti Park Occupy Wall Street protest:

Okay, one more bonus: Nozuka brothers of Down By The Riverside, jamming at St. James Park.

1%er prefers Occupy Together ethos to Tea Party madness

2011-10-27T10:05:00.000-07:00

A Voice From the Top 1%

by Gaius, DailoyKos.com

The impetus behind the Occupy Wall Street movement - a vague sense that the rich are getting ever richer while everyone else suffers - was confirmed by a recent report from the Social Security Administration showing that while total employment and average wages remained stagnant, the number of people earning $1 million or more grew by 18% from 2009 to 2010. Those figures give real substance to the "We are the 99%" slogan, yet Republicans continue to insist, despite all evidence to the contrary, that if anything those "job creators" deserve an even greater share of our national income. The Tea Party, meanwhile, has launched its own "53%" movement, inexplicably rallying the working class to the defense of the wealthy. The one group rarely heard from in this rancorous debate is the 1%, whose incomes and taxes are its focus. I am one of them, and here is my perspective, which may surprise you.

First let me note that I am not part of the yacht and private jet set, which represents an even smaller subset of incomes than mine. The threshold for inclusion in the top 1% of income earners in 2008, the most recent year for which published data is available from the IRS, was $380,354, enough for an extraordinary life but nowhere near enough for a harbor berth in St. Moritz. Nevertheless, I am - for now - comfortably ensconced in that demographic. Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan would save me roughly $400,000 a year in taxes, and President Obama's tax proposals would cost me more than $100,000, yet I support the latter and consider the former laughable.

Here is a secret about rich people: we wouldn't have noticed a 3.5% tax increase

Thus you can imagine my amazement this summer when I watched the Republicans in Congress push the United States to the brink of default - and the world to the brink of ruin - over whether to repeal a portion of the Bush tax cuts and raise my taxes by 3.5%. I know a lot of people with high incomes and even the conservatives among them were confused by that sequence of events. Here is a secret about rich people: we wouldn't have noticed a 3.5% tax increase. That is not only because there isn't a material difference between having $1 million and $965,000, which is obvious, but also because most of us don't actually know how much money we are going to make in a given year. Most income at that level is the result of profits rather than salary, whether it comes in the form of bonuses, stock options, partnership distributions, dividends or capital gains. Profits are unpredictable and they tend to vary wildly. At my own firm, the general rule of thumb is that if we are within 5% of our budget for the year, everyone is happy and no one complains. A variation of 3.5% is merely a random blip.

I was not amazed but disgusted when John Boehner and his crew tried to justify the extremity of their position by rebranding the wealthy as "job creators." While true in a very basic sense, it obscures the fact that jobs are a cost that is voluntarily incurred only as a result of demand. Hiring has no correlation at all to profits or to income - none. Let me keep more of my money without increasing customer demand and I will do just that - keep it. Perhaps I will spend a little more of it, though probably not, but even if I do it won't help the economy very much. Here is another secret of the well-to-do: we don't really buy much more stuff than everyone else. It may be more expensive stuff, sure, but I don't buy cars, or appliances, or furniture, or anything else more frequently than the average consumer. The things I do spend more money on are services such as travel, entertainment, restaurants and landscaping, none of which generate well-paying middle class jobs. There, in a nutshell, is the sad explanation of what has happened to the American economy over the last 25 years of "trickle down" economics.

There is no question that the increasing income inequality in our society is a bad thing, in the short-term and the long-term

That's why I was so pleased when the Occupy Wall Street protests began. I support them wholeheartedly, for several reasons. First, because I fervently believe in the exercise of first amendment rights, and I have been waiting for years for the American people to wake up from the torpor of the Bush years, when they were seemingly cowed into submission to corporate authoritarianism. Second, because I am dismayed by the thuggish tactics of the NYPD. I would have expected as much from Michael Chertoff or Dick Cheney, but not from the Bloomberg administration. Third, there is no question that the increasing income inequality in our society is a bad thing, in the short-term and the long-term, for both workers and for business. It is bad in every way and for everyone, with the sole exception of Wall Street itself. Fourth, I love the hysterical reaction it has provoked from arch-conservatives such as Eric Cantor and Glenn Beck. As George Orwell wrote in "Homage to Catalonia" about fighting fascists, I don't always need to know what I am fighting for when it is clear what I am fighting against. Fifth, and most important, it changed the national media narrative and sucked almost all of the energy out of the tempest that was the Tea Party.

It is the Tea Party's effort to recapture that energy, through the "We Are the 53%" movement, that has truly bewildered me. I have spent far more hours than I should have these last few weeks puzzling over the postings on that website, trying to understand who these people are and why they would possibly care about my taxes. I don't really have an answer to those questions, but I do have a few insights.

To begin with, a fair number of the posters there don't seem to understand the actual issues, or even the meaning of "53%," which is supposed to refer to the percentage of people in recent years who actually owed - and paid - federal income taxes. From their own descriptions of themselves as unemployed, underemployed, or struggling to raise families, it seems likely that many of these posters actually AREN'T part of that 53%, but rather, like most of the 47% they complain about, receive full refunds of their taxes each year, or perhaps even more thanks to the Republican-sponsored family tax credits. I suspect they think that because they work, and have taxes withheld, and file a tax return, they are different than the "47%" they decry as lazy layabouts. Of course they are not, but sadly they don't even realize it.

Next, ALL of the posters there seem quite proud of themselves. No doubt they should be, but they seem to have derived very different conclusions from their life experiences than I have from mine, which could read like an exaggerated version of one of their posts. My family is from one of the poorest counties in the country, in rural Appalachia. My grandfather was a coal miner who left school after 5th grade to help support his impoverished family. My grandmother wasn't allowed to attend high school because according to her parents women didn't need an education. I never knew my father. My mother and I subsisted on food stamps for several years. I got my first job at 13, working as a bus boy for $2 an hour, and I have never been unemployed in the 37 years since. I worked my way through college, which I paid for myself. When I started my career I worked 60+ hour weeks every week for nearly 15 years before that effort began to pay off. I employ nearly 20 people, I have no debts, and I have no doubt that I have earned every penny I have.

And yet, I am living proof of Elizabeth Warren's maxim that no one gets rich on their own. If not for the UMWA helping to secure a living wage for my grandfather, I would probably have had to leave school to help support my family, as he had done. If not for my grandmother's passionate belief in the value of the education she was denied I would never have aspired to go to college at all, and if not for my mother teaching me to love books, I would never have been able to succeed there. If not for my wife I would never have been inspired to work as hard as I did to see what I could become in life. How many smart, talented children don't have those positive influences? How many have exactly the opposite?

My good fortune did not end there. It was sheer luck, rather than moral virtue, that I never had the criminal record many of my less fortunate friends did when I was young. It was sheer luck that neither I nor any of my family members ever had a major illness, or accident, or disability, despite lacking health insurance much of the time. How different my life could easily have been! How different the lives of others still could be.

I understand too that but for food stamps, I would have gone hungry as a child, that but for public subsidies and federally guaranteed loans I could never have afforded college. I know that without the internet and airports, both of which were developed with federal taxes, I could not earn an income even close to what I make today. That all seems so obvious to me that I don't understand how anyone could question it, and those are just a few of the many reasons I am happy to pay my fair share of taxes, whatever that share maybe. Paying a lot of taxes just means you make a lot of money, and it is hard, frankly, to complain about that.

One last observation. Many of the 53% crowd seem quite proud of their Christian faith. I am not religious myself, but I am reasonably certain that Jesus would not respond to the poor and unemployed with shouts of "Get a job!" I vividly remember what it was like to be poor. To be concise, it sucked, and my heartfelt sympathies automatically go out to anyone who has to experience it, especially children who are blameless for their circumstances. Whenever I meet someone who has not been as lucky as I have been, I recognize how easily our roles could have been reversed by the random forces of fate. And despite my lack of religion, I instinctively think "There but for the grace of God go I." If only those who actually believe in God would think the same thing more often they might not be so eager to cut my taxes

Cale Sampson video, live from Occupy Toronto

2011-10-27T08:21:00.000-07:00

Toronto rapper Cale Sampson performs Reach Up at St. James park occupation site

Happy Birthday Simon SLAM!!! Long may you run!

2011-10-25T11:05:00.000-07:00

Simon Slinger from The Start celebrating B-day in Kyoto, Japan

Regular readers of the Original Joe College blog will remember Simon's tales of the Burlington / Hamilton rock music scene in the late 1970s, and we hope to share more of Simon's memories in coming weeks. We're also putting a book together regarding Golden Horseshoe bands from that era.

Happy Birthday Simon!!! If there's one thing I could've helped you with in your music career, I wish you would have let me help you pick your punk name. Though Simon Slinger wasn't a bad handle for the period when you were frontman for The Start, it's shallowness and ultra-obvious sexual connotation means that it may not have translated well to a solo career, which may have been a factor in preventing you from going that route. I would have preferred something like Simon Slam or Simon LeBeau...

Well, that's water under the bridge and it is what it is. The main thing is we made a lot of fun music in those days, and laid a foundation that allows today's youth almost complete creativity in their musical output. Amen to that.

3 things you may not know about Occupy Toronto

2011-10-24T13:14:00.000-07:00

I made a return visit (have now been down on Day Three and Day Eight) to Occupy Toronto yesterday, and am happy to report that spirits in the camp are strong and there's more music than ever. I sat in on about five different jams within a couple of hours and very much enjoyed the sessions.

Props to young actor / rapper Sami Sayn for making the trip down to St. James Park with me. Sam was hung over from a weekend in Niagara Falls so wasn't able to spit more than a few low-volume verses before his raps faded, however it is the thought that counts and the people of Occupy TO appreciated the urban flow and the witty humour.

All in all a great day at the park, hoping to be back there real soon!

HERE are the THREE THINGS YOU DID NOT KNOW about Occupy Toronto:

1.YOU are welcome there. Regardless of your age, sex, creed or ethnicity, come on down!!! You will find the people very hospitable, and willing to answer any questions you may have about the occupation (it is true that having an occupation is good for your health!).

2. The Occupy Together movement IS highly relevant to Canada and Canadians. Even though we are not in the dire straits of many other nations, the social network is being eroded in Canada and the recent majority given to the PCs will increase the backsliding. Canadians are respected globally and it is crucial we have a strong voice in this new worldwide movement.

3.The protesters DO KNOW what they want, and it is an end to a globalized society that treats corporations and the super-wealthy as above the law, and a beginning to a more cooperative, human-focused world. The issues may vary from one encampment to another, and this is a global movement (more than 1,000 cities, 82 countries), so there is room for everybody.

I encourage all Torontonians and GTA residents to visit the occupation, and if you are a musician, bring your instrument!!!

2012 will mark end of capitalism as a pure ideology

2011-10-21T15:23:00.001-07:00

Social justice movement a Western reflection of Soviet Bloc in late 1980s

Just like the breakup of the Soviet Union put the lie to communism in the late 1980s, the United for #globalchange / Occupy Together / Take The Square movement will swell in Spring and Summer 2012, and mark the end of conscious human beings believing that capitalism is a practical ideology for governments to follow.

What will emerge is a global consensus, led by the British Commonwealth nations, that the best path to peace and prosperity is through social democracy, a finely-tuned balance of business and government. Growing secular humanism builds bridges between faiths and cultures, and the idea of wars among our nations will become increasingly remote.

Countries will still utilize private business, including publicly-held companies, to generate the bulk of economic activity, and this will be regulated for sustainability, equity and fairness issues. 2012 will also see a major institutional investor revolt, with pension plan managers insisting on dividend payouts from corporations rather than massive executive bonuses for a firm's inner circle.

We will scramble to achieve a sustainable, organic economy, yet we will do it. The efforts of the 99% will ensure the survival of the 100%.

Americanarama Occupy Together July 4th, 2012 in Philly

2011-10-21T10:07:00.000-07:00

In light of the USA national Occupy Together meetup scheduled for July 4th, 2012 in Philadelphia, here are the lyrics to the awesome song Americanarama by Canadian band Hollerado.

Americanarama, by Hollerado

Hey Philadelphia you used to exist

As a city in the North-East where the Power used to sit

There's no more Chicago

She went down with the last of the buffalo

Poor weak New Orleans

She went first and we didn't even hear her scream no

Denver U.S.A

you came down from the top of the mountain

Bet you didn't count on becoming what you are today

Doot doot doo doot do doo Doot doot doot doot do doo

Lord I miss you

Doot doot doo doot do doo Doot doot doot doot do doo

Lord I miss you

Hey Philadelphia where'd you go?

Oh New York City... you're so pretty in the dark

When all your lights are gone out

We're camping out in Battery Park

Denver.. U.S.A.

you came down from the top of the mountain

Bet you didn't count on becoming what you are today

Doot doot doo doot do doo Doot doot doot doot do doo

Lord I miss you

Hey Philadelphia where'd you go?

Hey Philadelphia...

Hey Philadelphia...

Where'd you go?

FREE Iranian filmmakers!!! Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

2011-10-20T07:43:00.000-07:00

Hollywood leaders call for release of six documentary filmmakers in Iran

Six independent documentary makers whose films have appeared on BBC Persian TV were arrested in September.

Actress Marzieh Vafamehr has been imprisoned and sentenced to 60 lashes for being in a film critical of Iran.

The groups have also condemned the continued house arrest of Jafar Panahi for making a film about Iranian unrest.

BBC Persian TV, which can be accessed through satellite TV, is aimed at Farsi speakers, mainly in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan.

Broadcasts from BBC Persian TV have been jammed in Iran amid criticisms of the BBC by the country's government.

Hadi Afarideh, Shahnam Bazdar, Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, Naser Saffarian, Katayoun Shahabi and Mohsen Shahrnazdar were arrested last month for providing the BBC with material deemed damaging to Iran.

Saffarian and Shahrnazdar have since been released.

In a statement, the Academy said that, before the release of these two, all six had been denied access to their lawyers and families "who were forced to remain silent".

"These film-makers - and others - are artists, not political combatants," it went on.

"We join our colleagues around the world in calling unequivocally for these film-makers' safety, release and return to film-making."

It said they deserved the same "full freedom of expression" as any other film-maker, "no matter where they are from, no matter where they work, no matter what their beliefs".

Social commentary

Last week Panahi, a vocal critic of Iran's strict Islamic law and government system, lost an appeal against a six-year prison sentence.

He was convicted in December for trying to make a documentary about unrest following the bitterly disputed 2009 re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and has since been under house arrest.

Panahi, whose films are known for their social commentary, was also banned from making films for 20 years as well as from leaving Iran.

The director, whose film Offisde won the Silver Bear award at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival, has made a documentary which shows him under house arrest in his apartment in Tehran.

This Is Not A Film, which was smuggled out of Iran, was co-directed by Mojtaba Mirtahmasb - one of the six arrested in September.

The documentary, which was shown at Cannes this year, has just been screened at the London Film Festival.

Actress Marzieh Vafamehr, meanwhile, was sentenced earlier this month for criticising conditions in her country.

She appeared in 2009 Australian movie My Tehran for Sale, a film that is banned in Iran that tells of an actress whose stage work is banned.

The Directors Guild of America, one of the co-signatories of the joint statement, said creative freedom was "an essential building block of liberty, culture, civil and human rights".

"We hope the Iranian government will release these film-makers and recognise that their creative works can only strengthen and enrich Iranian society," it added.

The Screen Actors Guild urged Iran "to refrain from stifling the artistic expression of its citizens and to let their unique and valuable voices be heard once again".

The Producers Guild of America, the Writers Guilds of America and the International Documentary Association are also among the bodies calling for an end to the film-makers' detention.

Source: BBC.co.uk

Letter to the Dead Man who inspired global revolution

2011-10-19T07:14:00.000-07:00

Mohammed Bouazizi's self immolation sparked worldwide resistance to oppression

by Rebecca Solnit, author of 'A Paradise Built in Hell'

Dear young man who died on the fourth day of this turbulent 2011, dear Mohammed Bouazizi,

I want to write you about an astonishing year -- with three months yet to run. I want to tell you about the power of despair and the margins of hope and the bonds of civil society.

I wish you could see the way that your small life and large death became a catalyst for the fall of so many dictators in what is known as the Arab Spring.

We are now in some sort of an American Fall. Civil society here has suddenly hit the ground running, and we are all headed toward a future no one imagined when you, a young Tunisian vegetable seller capable of giving so much, who instead had so much taken from you, burned yourself to death to protest your impoverished and humiliated state.

You lit yourself on fire on December 17, 2010, exactly nine months before Occupy Wall Street began. Your death two weeks later would be the beginning of so much. You lit yourself on fire because you were voiceless, powerless, and evidently without hope. And yet you must have had one small hope left: that your death would have an impact; that you, who had so few powers, even the power to make a decent living or protect your modest possessions or be treated fairly and decently by the police, had the power to protest. As it turned out, you had that power beyond your wildest dreams, and you had it because your hope, however diminished, was the dream of the many, the dream of what we now have started calling the 99%.

And so Tunisia erupted and overthrew its government, and Egypt caught fire, as did Bahrain, Syria, Yemen, and Libya, where the nonviolent protests elsewhere turned into a civil war the rebels have almost won after several bloody months. Who could have imagined a Middle East without Ben Ali of Tunisia, without Mubarak, without Gaddafi? And yet here we are, in the unimaginable world. Again. And almost everywhere.

Japan was literally shaken loose from its plans and arrangements by the March 11th earthquake and tsunami, and that country has undergone profound soul-searching about values and priorities. China is turbulent, and no one knows how much longer the discontent of the repressed middle class and the hungry poor there will remain containable. India: who knows? The Saudi government is so frightened it even gave women a few new rights. Syrians wouldn’t go home even when their army began to shoot them down. Crowds of up to a million Italians have been protesting austerity measures in recent months. The Greeks, well, if you’ve been following events, you know about the Greeks. Have I forgotten Israel? Huge demonstrations against the economic status quo there lasted all summer and into this fall.

As you knew at the outset, it’s all about economics. This wild year, Greece boiled over again into crisis with colossal protests, demonstrations, blockades, and outright street warfare. Icelanders continued their fight against bailing out the banks that sank their country’s economy in 2008 and continue pelting politicians with eggs. Their former prime minister may become the first head of state to face legal charges in connection with the global financial collapse. Spanish youth began to rise up on May 15th.

Distinctively, in so many of these uprisings the participants were not advocating for one party or a simple position, but for a better world, for dignity, for respect, for real democracy, for belonging, for hope and possibility -- and their economic underpinnings. The Spanish young whose future had been sold out to benefit corporations and their 1% were nicknamed the Indignados, and they lived in the plazas of Spain this summer. Occupied Madrid, like Occupied Tahrir Square, preceded Occupy Wall Street.

In Chile, students outraged by the cost of an education and the profound inequities of their society have been demonstrating since May -- with everything from kiss-ins to school occupations to marches of 150,000 or more. Forty thousand students marched against “education reform” in Colombia last week. And in August in Britain the young went on a rampage that tore up London, Birmingham, and dozens of other communities, an event that began when the police shot Mark Duggan, a dark-skinned 29-year-old Londoner. Young Britons had risen up more peaceably over tuition hikes the winter before. There, too, things are bleak and volatile -- something I know you would understand. In Mexico, a beautiful movement involving mass demonstrations against the drug war has arisen, triggered by the death of another young man, and by the grief and vision of his father, leftwing poet Javier Cicilia.

The United States had one great eruption in Wisconsin this winter, when the citizenry occupied their state capitol building in Madison for weeks. Egyptians and others elsewhere on the planet called a local pizza parlor and sent pies to the occupiers. We all know the links. We’re all watching. So the Occupy movement has spilled over from Wall Street. Hundreds of occupations are happening all over the North America: in Oklahoma City and Tijuana, in Victoria and Fort Lauderdale.

The 99%

We are the 99% is the cry of the Occupy movement. This summer one of the flyers that helped launch the Occupy Wall Street protest read: “We, the 99%, call for an open general assembly Aug. 9, 7:30 pm at the Potato Famine Memorial NYC.” It was an assembly to discuss the September 17th occupation-to-come.

The Irish Hunger Memorial, so close to Wall Street, commemorates the million Irish peasants who starved in the 1840s, while Ireland remained a food-exporting country and the landed gentry continued to profit. It’s a monument to the exploitation of the many by the few, to the forces that turned some of our ancestors -- including my mother’s four Irish grandparents -- into immigrants, forces that are still pushing people out of farms, homes, nations, regions.

The Irish famine was one of the great examples of those disasters of the modern era that are not crises of scarcity, but of distribution. The United States is now the wealthiest country the world has ever known, and has an abundance of natural resources, as well as of nurses, doctors, universities, teachers, housing, and food -- so ours, too, is a crisis of distribution. Everyone could have everything they need and the rich would still be rich enough, but you know that enough isn’t a concept for them. They’re greedy, and their 30-year grab for yet more has carved away at what’s minimally necessary for the survival and dignity of the rest of us. So the Famine Memorial couldn’t have been a more appropriate place for Occupy Wall Street to begin.

The 99%, those who starve during famines and lose their livelihoods and homes during crashes, were going to respond to the 1% who had been served so well by the Bush administration and by the era of extreme privatization it ushered in. As my friend Andy Kroll reported at TomDispatch, “The top 1% of earners enjoyed 65% of all income growth in America for much of the decade” just passed. “In 2010,” he added, “20.5 million people, or 6.7% of all Americans, scraped by with less than $11,157 for a family of four -- that is, less than half of the poverty line.” You can’t get by on less than $1,000 a month in this country where a single visit to an emergency room can cost your annual income, a car twice that, and a year at a private college more than four times that.

Later in August came the website started by a 28-year-old New York City activist, we are the 99 percent, to which hundreds daily now submit photographs of themselves. Each of them also testifies to the bleak conditions they find themselves in, despite their hard work and educations which often left them in debt, despite the promises dangled before them that (if they played the game right) they’d be safe, housed, and living a part of that oversold dream.

It’s a website of unremitting waking nightmares, economic bad dreams that a little wealth redistribution would eliminate (even without eliminating the wealthy). The people contributing aren’t asking for luxuries. They would simply prefer not to be worked to death like so many nineteenth-century millworkers, nor to have their whole world come crashing down if they get sick. They want to survive with dignity, and their testimony will break your heart.

Mohammed Bouazizi, dead at 26, you to whom I’m writing, here is one of the recent posts at that site:

“I am 26 years old. I am $134,000 in debt. I started working at 14 years old, and have worked Full-Time since I turned 20. I work in I.T. and got laid off in July 2011. I was LUCKY, and found a job RIGHT AWAY: with a Pay Cut and MORE HOURS.â€¨ Now, I just found out that my Dad got laid off last week - after 18 YEARS with the same employer. I have debilitating (SP! Sorry!) O.C.D. and can’t take time away from work to get treatment because I can’t afford my mortgage payments if I don’t go to work, and I’m afraid I’ll lose my NEW job if I take time off!!! WE ARE THE 99%.”

Some of the people at we are the 99% offer at least partial views of their faces, but the young IT worker quoted above holds a handwritten letter so long that it obscures his face. Poverty obscures your face too. It obscures your talents, potential, even your distinctive voice, and if it goes deep enough, it eradicates you by degrees of hunger and degradation. Poverty is a creation of the systems against which people all over the planet are revolting this wild year of 2011. The Arab Spring, after all, was an economic revolt. What were all those dictatorships and autocracies for, if not to squeeze as much profit as possible out of subjugated populations -- profit for rulers, profit for multinational corporations, profit for that 1%.

“We are not goods in the hands of politicians and bankers,” was the slogan of the first student protest called in Spain this year. Your beautiful generation, Mohammed Bouazizi, has arisen and is bringing the rest of us along, even here in the United States.

The People’s Microphone

Its earliest critics seemed to think that Occupy Wall Street was a lobbying group whose chosen task on this planet should be to create a package of realistic demands. In other words, they were convinced that the occupiers should become supplicants, asking the powerful for some kind of handout like college debt forgiveness. They were suggesting that a dream as wide as the sky be stuffed into little bottles and put up for sale. Or simply smashed.

In the same way, they wanted this movement to hurry up and appoint leaders, so that there would be someone to single out and investigate, pick off, or corrupt. At heart, however, this is a leaderless movement, an anarchist movement, catalyzed by the grace of civil society and the hard work of the collective. The Occupy movement -- like so many movements around the world now -- is using general assemblies as its form of protest and process. Its members are not facing the authorities, but each other, coming to know themselves, trying to give rise to the democracy they desire on a small scale rather than merely railing against its absence on a large scale.

These are the famous Occupy general assemblies in which decisions are made by consensus and, in the absence of amplification (by order of the New York City police), the people’s mike is used: those assembled repeat what is said as it’s said, creating a human megaphone effect. This is accompanied by a small vocabulary of hand gestures, which help people participate in the complex process of a huge group having a conversation.

In other words, the process is also the goal: direct democracy. No one can hand that down to you. You live direct democracy in that moment when you find yourself participating in civil society as a citizen with an equal voice. Put another way, the Occupiers are not demanding that something be given to them but formulating something new. That it involves no technology, not even bullhorns, is itself remarkable in this wired era. It’s just passionate people together -- and then Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, text messages, emails, and online sites like this one spread the word, along with some print media, notably the Occupied Wall Street Journal.

The beauty and the genius of this movement in this moment is that it has found a way to define its needs and desires without putting limits on them that would automatically exclude so many. In doing so, it has spoken to nearly all of us.

There is the terrible rage at economic injustice that is shared by college students looking at a future of debt and overwork, as well as those who couldn’t afford college in the first place, by working people struggling ever harder for less, by the many who have no jobs and few prospects, by people forced out of their homes by the games banks play with mortgages and profits, and by everyone the catastrophe that is healthcare in this country has affected. And by the rest of us, furious on their behalf (and on our own).

And then there is the joyous hope that things could actually be different. That hope has been fulfilled a little in the way that an open-ended occupation has survived four weeks and more and turned into hundreds of Occupy actions around the country and marches in almost 1,000 cities around the world last Sunday, from Sydney to Tokyo to Santa Rosa. It speaks for so many; it speaks for the 99%; and it speaks clearly, so clearly that an ex-Marine showed up with a hand-lettered sign that said, "2nd time I've fought for my country, 1st time I've known my enemy."

The climate change movement showed up at Occupy Wall Street, too. What’s blocking action on climate change is what’s blocking action on all the other issues that matter: it would cut into profits. Never mind the deep future, not when what’s at stake is quarterly earnings.

A dozen years ago, after the wildly successful revolt against neoliberal economic policy in Seattle, the slogan that stuck around was: “Another World Is Possible.” I was never sure about that one because in crucial places and ways that other world is already here. In a YouTube video of the New York occupation, however, I watched an old woman in a straw hat say, “We’re fighting for a society in which everyone is important.” What a beautiful summation! Could any demand be clearer than that? And could the ways in which people have no value under our current economic regime be more obvious?

What Is Your Occupation?

Occupy Wall Street. Occupy together. Occupy New Orleans, Portland, Stockton, Boston, Las Cruces, Minneapolis. Occupy. The very word is a manifesto, a position statement, and a position as well. For so many people, particularly men, their occupation is their identity, and when a job is lost, they become not just unemployed, but no one. The Occupy movement offers them a new occupation, work that won’t pay the bills, but a job worth doing. “Lost my job, found an occupation,” said one sign in the crowd of witty signs.

There is, of course, a bleaker meaning for the word occupation, as in "the U.S. is occupying Iraq." Even National Public Radio gives the Dow Jones report several times a day, as though the rise and fall of the stock market had not long ago been decoupled from the rise and fall of genuine measures of wellbeing for the 99%. A small part of Wall Street, which has long occupied us as if it were a foreign power, is now occupied as though it were a foreign country.

Wall Street is a foreign country -- and maybe an enemy country as well. And now it’s occupied. The way that Native Americans occupied Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay for 18 months four decades ago and galvanized a national Native American rights movement. You pick some place to stand, and when you stand there, you find your other occupation, as a member of civil society.

This May in Ohio, a group of Robin Hoods literally lowered a drawbridge they made so they could cross a “moat” around Chase Bank’s headquarters and invade its shareholders’ meeting. Forty Robin Hoods also showed up en masse last week in kayaks for a national mortgage bankers' meeting in Chicago. Houses facing foreclosure are being occupied. Foreclosure is, of course, a way of turning people into non-occupants.

At this moment in history, occupation should be everyone’s occupation.

Baby Pictures of a Revolt

Young man whose despair gave birth to hope, no one knows what the future holds. When you set yourself afire almost ten months ago, you certainly didn’t know, nor do any of us know now, what the long-term outcome of the Arab Spring will be, let alone this American Fall. Such a movement arrives in the world like a newborn. Who knows its fate, or even whether it will survive to grow up?

It may be suppressed like the Prague Spring of 1968. It may go through a crazy adolescence like the French Revolution of 1789 and yet grow beyond its parents’ dreams. Radiant at birth, wreathed in smiles, it may become a stolid bourgeois citizen as did such movements in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and the reunited Germany after civil society freed those countries from totalitarianism.

It may grow up into turbulence as has the Philippines since its 1986 revolution ousted the kleptocracy of the Marcos family. Revolution may be assassinated young, the way the democratic government of Mohammed Mossadegh was in Iran in 1953, that of President Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala in 1954, and President Salvador Allende’s Chilean experiment on September 11, 1973, all three in CIA-backed military coups. On behalf of the 1%.

Whether a human child or a child of history, we can’t know who or what it will become, but it’s still possible to grasp something about it by asking who or what it resembles. What does Occupy Wall Street look like? Well, its siblings born around the world this year, of course, and perhaps in some way the American civil rights movement that began in the 1950s.

There was a national uprising in the United States no less spontaneous in its formation during the great depression of the 1870s, but the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 was violent, while the Occupy movement is deeply imbued with the spirit and tactics of nonviolence. The last Great Depression, the one that began in 1929, created a host of radical movements, as well as the Hoovervilles of homeless people. There are family resemblances. The marches and actions against the coming invasion of Iraq on February 15, 2003, on all seven continents (yes, including Antarctica) are clearly kin. And the anti-corporate globalization movement is a godmother. And then there’s a sibling just a decade older.

Cousin 9/11

Zuccotti Park is just two blocks from Wall Street, and also just a block from Ground Zero, the site of the 9/11 attack. On that day, it was badly damaged. This September 21st, my dear friend Marina Sitrin wrote me from Occupy Wall Street: “There are people from more diverse backgrounds racially, more diverse age groups, including not just a few children here with their parents, and a number of working people from the area. In particular, some of the security guards from the 9.11 memorial, a block away have been coming by for lunch and chatting with people, as has a local group of construction workers.”

If the Arab Spring was the decade-later antithesis of 9/11, a largely nonviolent, publicly inclusive revolt that forced the Western world to get over its fearful fantasy that all young Muslims are terrorists, jihadis, and suicide bombers, then Occupy Wall Street, which began six days after the 10th anniversary of that nightmarish day in September, is the other half of 9/11 in New York. What was remarkable about that day 10 years ago is how calmly and beautifully everyone behaved. New Yorkers helped each other down those dozens of floors of stairs in the Twin Towers and away from the catastrophe, while others lined up to give blood, desperate to do something, anything, to participate, to be part of a newfound sense of community that arose in the city that day.

There was, for example, a huge commissary organized on Chelsea Piers that provided free food, medical supplies, and work equipment for the people at Ground Zero and also helped find housing for the displaced. It was not an official effort, but one that arose even more spontaneously than Occupy Wall Street, without leaders or institutions -- and it was forcibly disbanded when the official organizations got their act together a few days later. Those who participated experienced a sense of democracy amid all the distress and sorrow, a tremendous joy in finding meaningful work and deep social connections, and a little temporary joy, as they often do in disaster.

When I began to study the history of urban disaster years ago, I found such unexpected exhibitions of that kind of joy again and again, uniting the generative moments of protests, demonstrations, revolts, and revolutions with the aftermath of some disasters. Even when the losses were terrible, the ways that people came together to meet the occasion were almost always inspiring.

Since I wrote A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster, I have been asked again and again whether economic crisis begets the same kind of community as sudden disasters. It did in Argentina in 2001, when the economy crashed there. And it has now, in the streets of New York and many other cities, in 2011. A sign at Occupy San Francisco said, “IT’S TIME.” It is. It’s been time for a long time.

No Hope But in Ourselves

The birth of this moment was delayed three years. Argentinians reacted immediately to the 2001 crisis and to long-simmering grievances with an economy that had ground so many of them down even before the government froze all bank accounts and the economy crashed. On the other hand, our economy collapsed three years ago this month to headlines like “Capitalism is dead” in the business press. There was certainly some fury and outrage at the time, but the real reaction was delayed, or decoyed.

The outrage of the moment did, in fact, result in a powerful grassroots movement that focused on a single political candidate to fix it all for us, as he promised he would. It was a beautiful movement, a hopeful movement, much more so than its candidate. The movement got its lone candidate into the highest office in the land, where he remains today, and then walked away as though the job was done. It had just begun.

That movement could have fought the corporations, given us a real climate-change policy, and more, but it allowed itself to be disbanded as though one elected politician were the equivalent of ten million citizens, of civil society itself. It was a broad-based movement, of all ages and races, and I think it’s back, disillusioned with politicians and electoral politics, determined this time to do it for itself, beyond and outside the corroded arenas of institutional power.

I don’t know exactly who this baby looks like, but I know that who you look like is not who you will become. This unanticipated baby has a month behind it and a future ahead of it that none of us can see, but its birth should give you hope.

Love,

Rebecca

Source: HuffingtonPost.com, also published on TomDispatch.com

6 Principles of Slow Money Investing

2011-10-18T12:20:00.000-07:00

The Slow Money Principles

In order to enhance food security, food safety and food access; improve nutrition and health; promote cultural, ecological and economic diversity; and accelerate the transition from an economy based on extraction and consumption to an economy based on preservation and restoration, we do hereby affirm the following Slow Money Principles:

I. We must bring money back down to earth.

II. There is such a thing as money that is too fast, companies that are too big, finance that is too complex. Therefore, we must slow our money down -- not all of it, of course, but enough to matter.

III. The 20th Century was the era of Buy Low/Sell High and Wealth Now/Philanthropy Later—what one venture capitalist called “the largest legal accumulation of wealth in history.” The 21st Century will be the era of nurture capital, built around principles of carrying capacity, care of the commons, sense of place and non-violence.

IV. We must learn to invest as if food, farms and fertility mattered. We must connect investors to the places where they live, creating vital relationships and new sources of capital for small food enterprises.

V. Let us celebrate the new generation of entrepreneurs, consumers and investors who are showing the way from Making A Killing to Making a Living.

VI. Paul Newman said, "I just happen to think that in life we need to be a little like the farmer who puts back into the soil what he takes out."

Recognizing the wisdom of these words, let us begin rebuilding our economy from the ground up, asking:

* What would the world be like if we invested 50% of our assets within 50 miles of where we live?

* What if there were a new generation of companies that gave away 50% of their profits?

* What if there were 50% more organic matter in our soil 50 years from now?

Source: SlowMoney.org

First demand of Occupy Together / United for #globalchange

2011-10-18T00:43:00.000-07:00

While we would like to clearly state that the oppressed should never at any time be limited to one demand, a single request is required to get negotiations going, so let us consider starting with an important, likely crucial one. If you agree, please place the short version on a poster or sign, and the full demand can be utilized during your General Assembly and other gatherings, and in your publications.

Yuya Joe College
Toronto the Good

1st Demand, Occupy Together

End oil, coal and uranium

First Demand, United for #globalchange

The people demand that academic, business and political leaders develop and execute a coherent ten year plan to evolve and transition our society away from a dependency on toxic fuels coal, oil and uranium, utilizing natural gas as a bridge fuel while developing an infinite energy based, organic economy. The new green model will have a diverse range of renewable power inputs, including geothermal, solar, wind, biomass / biogas / biofuel, wave / tidal, fuel cell, additional clean energy technologies plus improving efficiencies in energy generation, power transmission, energy storage / batteries and modern conservation techniques.

As hemp is a proven provider of high quality food and fuel, plus fibre for paper and clothing, it is imperative for our planet that hemp be given a central role in the emerging organic economy.

The rapid rise of United for Global Change

2011-10-14T10:05:00.000-07:00

American Autumn of Inspiration spawns worldwide protests tomorrow

How the Canadian magazine Adbusters launched a planetary revolution

How did a small Canadian “culture jammers” magazine inspire a global revolution? The story of United for Global Change begins with the Adbusters call for a protest called Occupy Wall Street (OWS), to begin on September 17, 2011. The instigators of the action would have had no way of knowing what they were about to set off, and the global movement has grown so fast that it seems to be a case of perfect timing. It is almost as if people thought “if the world's gonna end in 2012, we don't wanna go down like bitch-ass punks, so let's stand up and fight for what's right.”

Huffington Post lets readers down by not covering global uprising

First of all, keep in mind that this has been an organic, grassroots uprising, with little help from established media, including even the usually reliable Huffington Post. I was shocked that HuffPost carried a badly written climate change disinformation piece by Conrad Black earlier this week, but was even more dismayed that not a single mention of the United for Global Change movement was made anywhere on the HP website, even though we will be protesting in over 900 cities and over 80 countries tomorrow.

Back in July, after being inspired by the Tahrir Square people's uprising in Egypt and the wider Arab Spring of Hope, Adbusters magazine issued a call for protesters to Occupy Wall Street on September 17th, 2011. The fact that the call came from Vancouver, Canada, and that NYC's Zucotti Park is owned by Canada's Brookfield Properties, both went unnoticed by mainstream media.

On the 23rd of August, global hacker group Anonymous issued a video backing #OccupyWallStreet, and the movement spread globally from that day forward. The success of S17 in the USA gave rise to the 15OCT protests being coordinated internationally, and here we are on the eve of the biggest global protests ever held.

This ain't no Tea Party, this ain't no foolin around

Those who would compare the OWS ethos with the Tea Party surely miss the uprights by a wide margin. Although there was a grassroots angle to the early gatherings, that “movement” was quickly taken over by Rupert Murdoch's Fox News organization, whop paid the Tea Party's bills by granting huge amounts of free television coverage. From there it was easy as pie to get the original Tea-baggers to abandon their own goals and become shills for America and the world's billionaires and multinational corporations. Now it is just an obstructionist rump within the Republican Party, a new “Moral Majority” that again represents neither morality nor a majority of American citizens.

As for the 99%, who will be protesting in almost 1,000 cities worldwide tomorrow, it will be fascinating to see if the rapid rise of United for Global Change will lead to enduring, positive, progressive change.

Our planet and its two-legged creatures could really use a respite, and on Saturday, October 15th, conscious human beings will be throwing a few more wrenches into the churning gears of the toxic death machine.

Let the Autumn of Inspiration roll on!

Primary websites of United for Global Change movement:

October 15th worldwide network - United for Global Change

Livestream Global Revolution streaming videos website

TakeTheSquare.net official website

America's Autumn of Inspiration now worldwide United for Global Change movement

2011-10-13T19:13:00.001-07:00

15October protests scheduled for 868 cities in 78 countries

How did a small Canadian "culture jammers" magazine manage to inspire a global revolution? I think it's good timing.

Good on ya Adbusters...

United for Global Change October 15th protests official website

United for Change Movement: Statement for Canada and Canadians

2011-10-12T20:48:00.000-07:00

15O protests in 719 cities, 71 countries

People are rising up all over this beautiful spinning ball of blue, green and brown fun, rallying to claim their rights and demand a true democracy. Now is the time for each and every one of us to join in a global non-violent protest.

United in one voice, we will let politicians, and the financial elites they serve, know it is up to us, the people, to decide our future. We are not goods in the hands of politicians and bankers who do not represent us.

Time and water are running out, the Earth is heating up, and it is imperative that we foster and steward a global green revolution, a grassroots movement, a coalition of wonderfully diverse forces with common goals. We want a more humane, egalitarian, equitable, just and sustainable society.

In Canada we will march for legalized marijuana, assistance for the poor, more education and health funding, for equality among sexes and ethnicities, to protect the rights of workers and to preserve our ecological heritage through a diverse, permaculture economy.

On October 15th, we will meet on the streets to initiate the global change we want. We will peacefully demonstrate, talk and organize until we make it happen.

It’s time for us to unite. It’s time for them to listen.

People of the world, rise up on October 15th!

United for Global Change movement October 15th website

American Autumn of Inspiration now in 71 countries!

2011-10-12T19:05:00.000-07:00

October 15th United for Global Change protest has spread to 719 cities

The revolution is being televised and is coming to a metropolis near you. Localize your concerns, globalize your empathy.

In Toronto we need to push social justice, ecology and legalization of marijuana.

Yom Kippur video from Occupy Wall Street

2011-10-12T16:46:00.000-07:00

I love the 99%, it's amazing how inclusive people can be when they desire it. A large, open plaza across from Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park, where Occupy Wall Street has made its encampment for three weeks, proved to be the perfect setting for Kol Nidre on Friday night.

As sundown approached, a crowd of approximately 700 people gathered on the New York plaza for Kol Nidre prayers; similar services were held at Occupy Wall Street camps in Washington, Philadelphia, Boston.

Kol Nidre @ Occupy Wall St. from Jewish Forward on Vimeo.

FREE Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye

2011-10-12T16:06:00.000-07:00

Ethiopian PM's interference indicates mistrial

Everyone who respects the rights of journalists and values a free press will find Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's public comments regarding an ongoing trial offensive, and the only way for Ethiopia to go forward is by declaring a mistrial and freeing the journalist team from Sweden.

With a massive local and international battle looming over the proposed Nile River dam, the Ethiopian government will likely have little time for this issue, and the best way to make it go away is to expel the two from the country, as they usually do when finding truth-seekers reporting on life.

JUMP, You FUCKERS! Best Occupy Wall Street signs, Volume One

2011-10-08T15:16:00.000-07:00

The corrupt fear us, the honest support us, the heroic join us

American protesters use signs as outlet for communication, creativity and frustration

Personally I'd like to see more eco-activists join this protest and keep our issues at the forefront, as green energy, conservation and efficiency technologies are all crucial to America's economic progress in the 21st Century.

Enjoy some signs reportedly photo'd at the NYC Wall Street protests:

Interchange's early gigs; Simon remembers the adrenalin and the alcohol

2011-10-08T08:52:00.000-07:00

(Initially published on MortysCabin.net)

What God Didn't Give You

by Simon Leblovic

At forty one learns to close the door quietly on what once was. At eighteen I was drinking like Malcolm Lowry under the volcano. Being a crazy baby, I always took things too much to heart, so getting loaded quelled the demons and unleashed a babble of nonsense. "Demi, why you do dis to me? Please, Demi, I'm afraid." To ease my deluded and obsessed little mind, I developed a rabid thirst for booze, a taste like no other. So how does a dipsomaniac and professor of scatology recall and imagine times long past? Allow me to run my mouth and whine my latest head up my ass soap opera. But first I must beg your indulgence in inflicting this maudlin, adolescent reminiscence from a faded and wasted youth, for which I have only my village idiot self to blame. How can I put this all into perspective? Lou Reed sang, "Some people work very hard, but still they never get it right." Johnny Rotten sang, "I don't believe illusions 'cos too much is real." My Father used to quote his maternal grandmother from the Carpathian Mountains. The Slovak translation would roughly go, "What God didn't give you, you can't buy in a drug store."

There is too much useless information and nothing fires my imagination. Then out of a quagmire of drivel rises the shining image of Lesley, my fantasy girl and high school sweetheart who never was. In those hazy days, whenever I saw Lesley I would swoon and my crystal heart would fill with the passion of young love and infatuation. To me she looked like the actresses Leslie Caron, Sandy Dennis and Jane Fonda, sweet and vulnerable with long black hair, blue eyes, pale skin and pouty lips. I remember walking down a school hallway and there was Lesley sitting alone. I'd never really spoken to her, but on that day I sat next to my sweet angel and talked to her with no one else around. I retain a vision of Lesley walking through the high school parking lot wearing a long coat and smiling and waving to people. Watching her from a distance gave me reason to live, though she barely knew I was alive. I finally got around to asking her out in high school, but she told me she was already going steady with some guy. I couldn't get to first base with her, although I did manage to learn that she had been born in Wales and was a year older than me.

Even while dating other girls, I still found myself thinking about Lesley. I remember being in a local bar one night called The Pig and Whistle, where I saw Lesley sitting with some friends. As I passed their table on my way out, I impulsively leaned over and gave Lesley a kiss, for which I received a shocked and sour look in return. On another night in a feverish fit, I phoned Lesley and asked if I could see her. She said yes, and when I got to her place we went and sat in a park near her house. Being near her, I wanted to take her in my arms, but even more I ached to tell her how much I loved her. During our conversation she suddenly brought up the subject of schizophrenia. I had certainly been what you might call different in high school, so did she think I was crazy, or was it just part of her studies in biology at McMaster University? Love is insanity, but madness aside, I was head over heels in love with her and she didn't even know it. Or maybe she suspected how I felt and didn't want to know.

After high school my volcanic bouts of drinking kept erupting, spewing forth some severely evil and obsessive delusions. My family had written me off, as I had taken up residence in another world, playing the part of a rock star and singing in a Burlington band called Interchange. Looking in the bathroom mirror, I thought I could be as cool as Mick Jagger and Steven Tyler. What did it matter that I couldn't sing, for there were positive signs, like people telling me that I resembled Freddie Mercury from his "Bohemian Rhapsody" period, a comparison I absolutely loathed. Other than my weird and wonderful little self, the only member of the band who I considered to be cool was our rhythm guitarist, Roy Furness, my musical mentor and Keith Richards partner in crime in my mind. Roy was a few years older than me and had previously played guitar in a Rolling Stones band in Burlington called Stonehenge. When I was desperate to play, he let me sing in the first band we put together called Shampain. I suspect he may have done this partly because I drove and could give him a lift to rehearsals. Roy definitely had me pegged, because when we hung out at Sheridan College, he would ask me with a sly grin if the sky was blue. My pin head was about as far up my butt as it could go, and I really had no clue as to what was going on. I mean was the sky blue? It was clear that I was living a white punk on dope, pie in the sky existence, although there were girls around when you played in a band, which wasn't a bad thing.

By the fall of 1975, I had been with Interchange for about half a year. At that time we were rehearsing and doing a few gigs here and there, playing cover songs by bands like The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, The Yardbirds, The Beatles, Chuck Berry, Led Zepplin, Bad Company, The Doobie Brothers, David Bowie, Alice Cooper, Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, April Wine, A Foot In Cold Water, Golden Earring and Foghat, along with a few of our own original songs. That September the band was booked to play an afternoon gig in the auditorium of a school in Burlington called General Brock. I recall what a rush I got when we hit the stage at that show and started playing a great, sleazy number by Alice Cooper called "Never Been Sold Before." Roy had chosen that song, mainly because he liked the Stonesy sounding guitars that came jumping out of the speakers when he played the song on his turntable. I remember Roy playing me "Two Thousand Light Years From Home" by The Rolling Stones under headphones, and raving about how you could hear some heavenly body in outer space whirring through your head at the end of the song. Stuff like that was pretty trippy and I liked it.

After the show at General Brock someone asked if we could play a house party on the following Saturday night in a part of Burlington called Mountainside. We decided to do it, and the next day I took a chance and phoned Lesley to see if she wanted to go. I actually thought she might be impressed watching me play rock star at a house party in a suburban basement. Leslely agreed to come, so on the night of the party I took extra care blow drying my hair in order to look my best for her. Frank Zappa sang, "It's Disco Love tonight. Make sure you look all right." Unless you've got brewer's droop, that is. Besides my coiffed hair, I was also thinking about liquid refreshments, which would most likely be provided for us at the party. But just to make sure there would be sufficient, I decided to take a forty-ouncer of gin from my parent's liquor cabinet. Chance favours the prepared mind, and in my wisdom I thought that Lesley just might be impressed by the sight of such a humongous bottle of booze. Please pause here for the Freudian slip. So armed with the forty-ouncer and my harmonicas, I fired up the white Toyota and drove off to pick up Lesley, ready for a night of song and dance and romance.

Lesley and I arrived at the party at about 8:00, where I knew absolutely no one. But the people there were friendly and appreciated the fact that the band would be playing that night. I asked Lesley what kind of music she liked and she said there was a song on the radio called "Holdin' on to Yesterday" by Ambrosia that she liked. The rest of the band eventually turned up and we set up the equipment at one end of the basement wreck room. Our hosts offered us food and drink, but I decided to open the bottle of gin I had with me. Lesley wasn't interested in the gin, but she did seem to be having a good time, and I was happy to be with her. The thought passed through my mind that it might be better if I didn't drink too much that night. I always justified drinking by saying that it helped me to calm down and get into the music. Such is the state of my nerves, especially under pressure. Before we played that night I poured myself a few stiff drinks, mixing the gin with whatever was available. Gin has never been my drink of choice, and as far as hard liquor goes, I much prefer rye whiskey, tequila or cognac when I can get it.

We got up and started to play our first set, and things seemed to be going well with people dancing and enjoying themselves in the crowded basement. After we performed the Stones version of "It's All Over Now," a girl came up and told me that I sounded like Bob Dylan. Today I would have thanked her, but back then I didn't take it as a compliment having my singing compared with Bob Dylan. I guess I was talking it a lot back then, instead of trying to sing. After we finished playing the first set, I decided to take Lesley out in front of the house so we could be alone. Leaning up against a car, we kissed, and her soft lips yielded to my passionate advances. I was in heavenly bliss, my head was swimming, and I would happily have stayed there kissing Lesley for eternity. But I also wanted to play music, so after awhile we headed back inside, where I proceeded to pour myself a few more large tumblers of booze.

And that's when things started to go south and my memory of the night becomes a blur, as I crossed the line from slightly wasted to being pissed out of my mind. During the second set I was having trouble standing up and I was unable to keep the microphone near my mouth. Then as I was dancing around, I stumbled and fell into Roy's guitar, and the song we were playing came to a screeching halt. I don't know what happened next or how the set ended, but afterwards when I went up to Lesley, she looked at me kind of weird. So I grabbed the bottle of gin and headed off for the bathroom to take a break from everything. As I entered the bathroom some older guy followed me in, and through the boozy haze I heard him lecturing me about drinking too much.

I exited the toilet, but I didn't know exactly what was going on, because the guys in the band weren't talking to me. It certainly seemed that we wouldn't be playing anymore that night. What was this a party or a funeral? In my own defence, I doubt I drank more than half the bottle of gin that night. I was nineteen years old and far from burned out and I'm sure the adrenalin of performing would have overcome the booze and kept me singing far into the night. But with the party apparently over, I decided the best thing to do was to take Lesley and leave. She was stone sober and seemed to be heavily involved in a conversation with a gas station mechanic I had seen somewhere around town. I told her that I wanted to leave, but I was too drunk to drive. Somebody offered to give us a ride, but when we got to their car it was filled with puke. I'm not clear on what happened next, but it seems that someone kindly drove us home in my car.

It was around midnight when we got to my house, where I proceeded to drag Lesley hastily up the hall stairs, while slurredly introducing her to my Mother. I had a vague notion that Lesley and I would chill out and listen to some music, but I was so drunk that I was having trouble carrying out even the simplest of motor functions. I took Lesley into my bedroom, which normally would have led to getting her between the sheets. Instead, this stupefied idiot proceeded to pull his Rolling Stones records out all over the floor in an inebriated attempt to give Lesley a glimpse into the deepest and darkest recesses of my soul. "Ooh, ooh. Please allow me to introduce myself. I'm a bloody fool. Ooh, ooh." To really impress her, I should have put myself in the "Trainspotting" movie and taken a dump on the floor in front of her right then and there. But none of that happened.

Lesley stood in my room looking aghast and told me that she wanted to go home. We hadn't been at my place more than fifteen minutes, but I couldn't argue with her. The thing was that in my condition I wasn't really sure if I had done anything wrong. We left the house and Lesley reluctantly got into the white Toyota with me. I told her not to worry because I was a great drunk driver and her house was less than ten minutes away. As we drove I kept telling her how much I loved her, over and over again, and that she must love me, as if saying it would make it so. When we arrived at her house I gave her a drooling, slobbering kiss good night and told her again that I loved her. She couldn't have gotten out of the car any faster. Standing in the street I shouted one more time at the top of my lungs that I loved her, as her back disappeared through the front door of her house.

I woke up with a dreadful hangover the next morning and decided that I had to see Lesley and would drive to the Burlington Golf and Country Club, where I knew she worked part time as a waitress. When I arrived there in the afternoon, Lesley looked shocked to see me. I thought she looked quite fetching in her black and white uniform. I went up to her in the middle of the crowded restaurant and apologized profusely for the night before. I then asked if I could see her after she got off work. She looked at me like I was Travis Bickle in the movie "Taxi Driver," and after a moment said she would come by and see me later that night. I left the club and headed home, praying that I hadn't completely blown it with her.

I phoned Roy later to find out what was happening with the band. He told me that Bullwinkle the drummer had visited him that day and had talked about firing me for getting drunk at the gig the night before. Roy had come to my defence, telling Bullwinkle that singers, as well as those not suffering from LSD (Lead Singers Disease), got drunk and high on stage, and also the basement party hadn't been an important gig. Apparently I was still in the band, although a few months later in early 1976, I would be unceremoniously kicked out of Interchange and the dilapidated, condemned hell hole of a band house that we shared on Margaret Street in Hamilton. On the phone I told Roy what had happened with Lesley, and he laughingly said that I should have hauled her into a bedroom and had my way with her at the party. Whether or not Lesley deserved to be put on a pedestal, I couldn't treat her like a pig. But then again perhaps Roy was right and things would have been better if I had forgotten all the romantic nonsense and had just done her at the party.

After getting off the phone with Roy on that Sunday night, I waited in vain for Lesley to show up. The fact that she didn't come to see me was no big surprise because I had certainly acted like a drunken asshole and blown it with her. For a guy like me one drink is too many and a hundred is not enough, as the saying goes. The devil named Al Cohool got the best of me again. Now forgive me for waxing philosophical, but putting the demon drink aside and turning to the fair sex, it seems to me that some girls want you no matter what you do, while others remain unattainable and forever out of reach. I gotta ask myself why I was so much in love with Lesley. Was it because I couldn't have her? Years later, when I was going through another heart break., someone wrote me a note that I have kept to this day. It says, " A woman is like a bus, every five minutes another one comes. But remember, don't get on the same numbered bus again. Be happy!" Good advice that I never followed.

Three or four days after the party I phoned Lesley, but she was cold as ice and too busy to talk because she was studying for exams. Looking back on the whole experience with her, I sort of felt like Travis Bickle when he takes Betsy to see a porno film, and then can't understand why she rejects him after. I guess I was too stupid to realize that getting drunk is stupid. For some people the best parties are the ones they can't remember. Ha, ha, ha. A few weeks later I was driving back from Roy's house one rainy night, high on grass, and on the radio came Lesley's favourite song, "Holdin' on to Yesterday" by Ambrosia. I sang the choruses as loud as I could and then I began to lose my mind.

After I got tossed from Interchange I took a break from singing in bands. Then in early 1977 I met a guy named Steve Park in a bar called Duffy's Rockpile in Hamilton. Steve had previously played in Teenage Head, and he and I would eventually put a band together in his basement in the west end of Hamilton called The Loved Ones.

In the fall of 1976 I started taking courses in Religious Studies at McMaster University in Hamilton. One wintry day, as I was wading across the campus in my usual muddled fog, I suddenly came face to face with Lesley. It had been over a year since I had last seen her. She looked at me with scorn, muttered something and walked quickly away. I turned around and watched her disappear in the distance, never to be seen again.

Hanging By a Thread, by Simon Leblovic

2011-10-07T21:50:00.000-07:00

"You hang in there," the voice on the phone said. But that failed to offer much comfort.

He felt like he was living in his own private hell. What had happened to him this time? Over a year ago he had gone ballistic and left his job. Then he had gone back to visit someone he thought he knew and there had been a terrible night, which had ended in a hurried return trip. Following his return he began taking medication in an attempt to quell his manic rage, while he still continued to fume over past events. But could he really be sure of what had happened? Perhaps most of it had taken place in his deluded mind.

The rage over past events slowly dissipated with time. The months dragged on and he was left in a lethargic state of depression. There was nothing to do and so he crawled through the days with little energy or purpose. He felt like hanging himself by his old guitar strings just to end the misery. Ah, what cheery thoughts. Perhaps he could find distraction in dwelling once again on past memories, no matter how mundane or far off in time they might be? The lonely days passed and nothing changed. He envisioned a bleak future where his few relationships slowly but surely came to an end. Everyone seemed to have moved on with their lives, while he could only wallow in clouded memories with nothing to do and nowhere to go.

While he was hanging around time passed like a slowly moving river. He knew the best course was to move on and leave mistakes and bad memories behind. Time heals wounds, but how much time did he have and how many more mistakes could he afford to make? He felt that the world and the people in it were all too much. He was weak and the world was too hard for him. And so once again he slipped into dark despair. He wished he could melt into a pool of liquid and evaporate in the sun. He wished he could turn to dust and blow away in the wind. He wished he could sleep and disappear forever in a dream. He wished he could disintegrate and become one with all things. Anything else but to try and live in a world of deception and confusion.

ln our last days we must gradually let go of the past, as the shells of our bodies break down and deteriorate. Little remains but the fading memories and dreams of what we were at various times in our lives. He felt he didn't belong here or anywhere. Thoughts came and went, when all he wanted to be was dead in the head. Faces and memories from the past invaded his sleeping dreams. But he just wanted to forget it aII. What to do now? Who knows what the future might hold. He was hanging by a thread and ready to let go.

Late 1970s Hamilton music scene; Simon Leblovic interviews Gary Pig Gold

2011-10-06T19:48:00.000-07:00

After finding Simon's recollections of his Rocking Horse days and his early music influences, it was a joy tonight to come across this interview with Gary Pig, where the two gents discuss such great local acts as Interchange, The Specs, Dave Rave Conspiracy, The Loved Ones, Simply Saucer, and Next Big Thing.

By Simon Leblovic

In the words of the late, great Jackie Gleason, "How sweet it is!" I want to tell you about Gary Pig Gold, who I last saw in Toronto in the winter of 1988. I first met Gary in Port Credit, Ontario in 1975, and I remember him then as a lighthearted guy who loved 60's pop music. Gary knows so much about music and is such a talented writer, I thought it was high time that someone wrote something about him. Here then is a "pinch of piggy."

In early 1976 I was living in an old, dilapidated band house on Margaret St. in Hamilton, Ontario. The house had formerly been inhabited by The Wild Ones motorcycle gang. The Wild Ones would visit sometimes, acting as if the house still belonged to them by doing things like carving their initials in the kitchen table. I shared this rented house with the other members of a five-piece band from Burlington called Interchange. Interchange was one of my first bands, and I sang with them from 1975-76. I got kicked out of the band and left the house in 1976. Later on I learned that Gary was now living in that same house on Margaret St., where he was working with Interchange. He continued to live and work there with the band after they became the frisky pop quartet known as The Specs.

In 1977 I was singing in a Hamilton band called The Loved Ones. I took The Loved Ones name from a novel by Evelyn Waugh, which was later made into a movie. Following the demise of The Specs, Gary ended up playing bass in The Loved Ones. We played a show at the Hamilton YMCA in the fall of 1977, opening for a band called Simply Saucer. The Loved Ones broke up immediately after that show, but Gary went on to produce some of Simply Saucer's music.

In 1978 I put my first Toronto band together, called The Hits, with a bass player named Paul O'Connell. In the fall of 1978 Gary began playing drums with the band, and we changed our name back to The Loved Ones. I remember Gary showing his vocal skills by patiently trying to teach me the harmony parts to the songs Lets Spend the Night Together and Mother's Little Helper by the Stones. Back then, singing harmonies for me was like diving into a swimming pool with my eyes closed. But for Gary, singing harmonies was a piece of cake.

My second and last time playing with Gary on stage was with that version of The Loved Ones in Toronto. We played three nights at the Beverly Tavern on Queen St. West during New Year's of 1978-79. I remember Gary playing the drums, wearing blue hockey gloves. I also recall Martin Goodman coming to the Beverly Tavern shows. Shortly after the Beverly gig I ended up leaving the band. But three of us from that version of The Loved Ones reformed later in 1979 as the band Rocking Horse. But this band did not include Gary, who went on later to resurrect The Loved Ones name for his own purposes.

During the 1980s I ran into Gary in Toronto from time to time, and that's when he began giving me copies of his Pig Paper. Later on he generously mailed me copies of the Pig Paper, along with music cassettes and articles. Through the years Gary always kept me informed about his latest doings. He recently went hog-wild answering my interview questions about his illustrious career and his own sweet self. Gary can't resist sticking his snout in a sweet trough!

An Interview with Gary Pig Gold by Simon - Sept. 2005

1. Where does the name Pig Gold come from?

Way back when I was a budding young Martin Scorsese in high school, a mockumentary I made about my hometown of Port Credit, Ontario, Canada won an award at a local film festival, and was then chosen to be shown on the PBS television station in nearby Buffalo, New York. However, due to some of its, um, controversial segments, before allowing my 16mm epic to be broadcast, their legal department suggested I indemnify both myself and the TV station by crediting the film to a fictitious production company instead. Come the very morning my film teacher had arranged for us to re-shoot the opening credits, when I still hadn't come up with a new name for myself, a little plastic stamper fell out of my Wheaties cereal box with a pig on it. Voila! "Pig Productions" was born.

Then, a few years later, my friend John and I decided to write and print up a satiric programme for a Who concert in Toronto, and then distribute it outside the venue the night of the show. Again, there was some, yep, questionable content in our little mag, so I again covered my legal ass with the nom de plume "Gary Pig," and John became, yes you guessed it, "Johnny Pig!"

That Who Pig Paper became such a little success (even Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey got copies!) that we did another one the next year when The Kinks played town (Dave Davies especially loved our Kinky Pig Paper!) Lo and behold, soon local bands were approaching us to review THEIR shows and records, and so The Pig Paper became a monthly (if we were lucky) periodical for the next several years. And those years, roughly 1977 thru 1980, were the peak years in the birth of the global Do-It-Yourself indie rock movement. So you see, with Gary Pig, I already had my punk name in operation!!

By the way: that little pig stamper from the Wheaties box? I still have it, and it remains my official operational logo to this day.

2. When did you first become interested in music and what does music mean to you now?

My dad was a semi-professional big band drummist back in the Forties (he'd wait with his drumsticks backstage whenever Benny Goodman or Artie Shaw would come to town, hoping to sit in!) and my mother remains a key member of the Mississauga Chorale Society to this day (some years, she gigs more often than I do!) So my childhood was surrounded by music. I even learned to print and draw at a very young age by copying the labels off old Bing Crosby 78's! Music remains my lifestream, as it always has. And most likely always will.

3. Can you tell me some of the highlights of your illustrious life and career?

Struggling to remain on stage (without soiling my bright white Miami Vice pants!) when a severe case of the runs struck me during an important very-high-profile encore with the Endless Summer band. Watching an EXTREMELY pissed (as in thoroughly sauced) P. F. Sloan struggle to jam on his song, "Eve Of Destruction" with the Dave Rave Conspiracy at a big industry showcase we were playing in New York City. Singing harmonies with the late, very great Del Shannon at one of the last big outdoor festivals he ever performed. TRYING to sing harmonies on a cover of J. Lennon's "I'm So Tired" at a recording session with Andrew Loog Oldham on a rainy Sunday afternoon in none other than Hoboken, New Jersey! (This town reminds me of Dublin, ALO said).

4. What was your official job title and what were your functions in the frisky band known as The Specs in Hamilton in 1976-77?

Other than help those guys pay a quarter of the rent by freezing in the attic of their condemned house, you mean?? I guess I started out as roadie, graduated to sound and lightman, and even got to be the manager sometimes, whenever dirty work arose that nobody else wanted to deal with, that is! MOST of my quality time was spent listening to records with rhythmic guitarist Roy Furness though. And THEN there was that fateful night when YOU burst into our kitchen, after having just witnessed the very first Ramones show in Canada!!

5. What is the title of your story about the Specs, and where can that story be found now?

That story has never, ever been told. But if it ever is, I'd definitely call it "I Gave Up University For THIS?!!"

6. Tell me us some things that you especially would like to have mentioned in your story?

Just the Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing BUT The Truth ..Whenever possible, that is.

7. When and why did you leave Canada and move to the States?

Like most things in my life, such a big move was never really planned or thought out: What with growing up on American television and especially American Top Forty radio, I guess it was only a matter of time before I jumped the Pine Curtain, as Stompin' Tom Connors might say. At first, I'd just sneak over the border to Buffalo to buy records when I should've been at school. Then I'd go visit my pal David who'd enrolled in art school in Brooklyn, when I should've been at work. Then a three-week exploratory visit to Surf City, USA with Roy Furness in 1979 lead me to return there for what turned out to be three whole years! I almost toured Australia with Jan and Dean once too, but alas I didn't have my passport. So I stayed in L.A. and put the California version of The Loved Ones together instead. For quite a good while there, we were the absolute scourge of the Orange County house party scene (parents out of town in Vegas for the weekend? Let's buy a keg or three, print up loads of flyers, pay off the cops and put on a show right there in the living room at ten bucks (U.S.) a head!!)

8. Do you prefer living in Canada or in the States and why?

I haven't really noticed the difference, or even thought about it! I just do what I do, regardless of where I happen to be living at any particular time. But I will tell you this: Even though I LOVE being able to order in Thai food at four in the morning in the City that Never Sleeps, I still keep all of my records safely at home in Oh Canada. There's a moral here somewhere, I think.

9. Can you tell us some of the major differences between living in the States and living in Canada?.

Other than the all-important after-hours Thai food factor? Not a hell of a lot, at least so far as I'm concerned.

10. Please tell your fans your favourite:

colour(s) -
Swimming pool blue and a bright rich gold (see? I could've been Gary Pig Blue maybe!!)

pop artists and pop groups -
Oh jeez, that's a tough one. Today, it'd have to be The Monkees, Raquel's Boys, Elvis Presley and Frank Lee Sprague. But tomorrow never knows!

breakfast cereal -
besides all-Canadian pig Wheaties? Kelloggs has got a great new guilty morning pleasure called Cinnamon Bun Mini Swirlz, which I actually just finished yet another heaping bowlful of just a few minutes ago! Not all that good for the teeth, but with enough milk the stomach survives.

Beatle and Beatles song -
Fave Beatles have got to be the dead ones, and fave Beatles song? Howzabout "Please Please Me," which may just very well be The Very First Power Pop Song EVER (not counting Buddy Holly of course)

Beach Boy and Beach Boys song -
Brian's my fave, though I prefer his brother Carl's voice, and Dennis Wilson was the only Beach Boy I ever did get to spend any time with. Fave Beach Boys song? "The Little Girl I Once Knew," no contest!

musicians you have worked with -
Does P.F. Sloan count??

musical artists -
EVERY musician I've ever worked with just has to be my favorite, otherwise, the others will feel hurt and left out!

songs of others -
He's The One (original, Bangles-type version) by The Masticators, When Patti Rocked by Dave Rave, Earn That Love by Mark Johnson, Run Better Run by The Cheepskates, and I only produced ONE of those, I'll have you all know!

songs of your own -
Goodbye To Greatness was not only the easiest to compose (it practically wrote itself as I took a walk down Manhattan's East Side late one night), but it always plays SO well and so easily, on stage especially. I'm quite proud of that one. Gotta take another long walk one of these nights I guess.

Doug Pelton memory -
Probably my very first, as he tapped my shoulder in Grade 9 math class, introduced himself in his own very inimitable fashion, and asked me if I'd watched Laugh In the night before. Doug is my oldest pal.

Martin Goodman memory -
Again, I first met him when he showed up for a midnight teenaged jam at our friend Richard's house, wearing one of his father's old overalls from the gas station and carrying a cardboard version of Pete Townshend's Woodstock guitar. And I still have a tape of every single note we performed that fateful night!

Roy Furness memory -
We were stuck sitting by the roadside in the middle of New Brunswick someplace one perfect afternoon on tour (our van had just broken down) (again!), and as Roy looked out over the trees and up into the sky, he remarked how he felt we'd just stepped into the front cover of the Creedence Clearwater "Green River" album. That's Roy: a pure, magical mystical root rocker through and through!

11. Please talk a little about your own best and worst memories and experiences, and some things in your life you would like to change if you could, as well as any past regrets.

Regrets? I've had a few. But then again, too few to mention. And I truly believe the best is yet to come!

12. If you could accomplish anything, what would it be?

Get to the end of this interview without skipping off to down another bowl of Cinnamon Bun Mini Swirlz!!

13. What are your wishes, dreams and goals for the future, and what are some of your greatest accomplishment so far?

Wishes, dreams and goals? To write another song, make another recording, play another show, and have some more adventures, that's all. Same as it ever was, as David Byrne used to say! Greatest accomplishment so far? Making it this far (and not just in this interview ;-)

14. To what do you attribute your illustrious career and how has it all been so easily accomplished?

Well, it has been FAR from easy, Simon! But I look at it this way: I'm still having fun. And the best advice for dealing with the music biz, as Nick Lowe once advised, is to keep it as a hobby, in your mind, if nowhere else.

15. Please talk about bands you have been involved such as:

Martin and the E Chords -
Born that first night at Richard Cross' house when Gary met Cardboard Martin. We never really got things out of the basement, as Martin was reluctant to perform on stage back then. But I tell you, I bet we invented Punk Rock anyways!!

Interchange -
My initial escape valve from The Real World, honestly. My reason to quit school, leave home, catch mononucleosis, and make some of the very best friends I've EVER had.

The Specs -
Interchange in sheep's (as in satin) clothing; no more, no less. The very first professional band I ever had the pleasure to work with, introducing me to the wild wild world of musicians' unions, club owners, wicked wanton women of the night, and agents who keep changing their phone numbers every couple of days.

The Loved Ones -
The first real band I ever PLAYED with! And still probably my favorite.

Simply Saucer -
The first band I ever took in to the recording studio and produced, only coz the REAL producer got so fed up he walked out, leaving me the only guy at the mixing board. "This can't be all THAT hard," I thought. "This is just like a great big control panel on my record player!" By midnight, I'd finished the very first Simply Saucer record, which also turned out to be the very first Pig Record! It remains to this day a fervent fave of Steve Wynn, Thurston Moore, AND Cub Koda! And out of the thousands of copies I pressed up and put together in my parents' basement all those years ago, I got less than a dozen left, I'll have yez know.

The Dave Rave Conspiracy -
Hey Gary! I'm going into Dan Lanois' studio on Sunday morning to record. Wanna produce?Sure, I said. Hey Dave! You know my friend at art school in Brooklyn? He has an apartment we can illegally sublet for six months. Wanna move to New York City? Sure, Dave said. Hey, can you release our record in Russia? Sure, said the rep from Melodiya Records who showed up at our first-ever gig in Greenwich Village. Hey, can I play drums for you guys, said by no less than Billy Ficca shortly thereafter. I guess the rest is history, and Dave and I are playing a gig back at that very same club in the Village in a couple of months, believe it or not!

The Ghost Rockets -
What do you get when you mix Roger Miller with Paul Revere and the Raiders, garnish with a dash of Buck Owens, then have The Band's pedal steel guitarist join up for the ride? You get the band that probably put the "alt" into country once and for all! Too bad our song "Marcia Marcia Marcia" never made it into the second Brady Bunch movie, though it DID become a big turntable hit in Holland and New Zealand, I kid you not!!

The Next Big Thing -
The culmination of every single musical thing I've ever done or even imagined so far in my rollercoaster life: We've been compared to a rockabilly Neil Diamond, a skiffle Hollies, and (my fave so far) The Everly Brothers meet Peter, Buck and Mary, and that's after only four shows together!! Better check it out for yourselves, everyone:
www.tomlou.com/nextbigthing.html

16. Please talk a little about Marty Murray
You know why I not only like, but ADMIRE Marty Murray so much? Because he dared to review – in PRINT – one of the very first Ghost Rockets demos we ever sent out into the world. The one where we sang a German version of "What Am I Doin' Hangin' Round" right alongside my bluegrass "O Canada." And he LIKED it !!! If I haven't said it before, I say it now: Thank You, Marty, and man, you got weird taste in music !!

17. As the hardest working man in showbusiness, please tell us about some things you are working on at the moment?

On my virtual desktop this week, being written as we virtually speak today, is a review of Jandek's first New York concert, a press release for a John Lennon 65th Birthday concert, starring my friends Bubble, a story about the time Mr. Rave and I were hired to write songs for Bob Dylan's girlfriend, Part Two of my landmark interview with Beach Boys historian extrodinaire Domenic Priore (everyone, Be Sure and read his book, "SMiLE: The Story of Brian Wilson's Lost Masterpiece," and an obituary for my friend, Al Aronowitz, The Man Who Invented The Sixties. Meanwhile, over in the next room I got demos of about five or six new songs in the pipeline as well (The Next Big Thing are back in the studio in two weeks). A pig's work is NEVER done, is it?

Suzuki: Is using oil as fuel an unethical practice?

2011-10-06T10:58:00.000-07:00

by David Suzuki, HuffingtonPost.com

In his book Ethical Oil, Ezra Levant raises an important point about the moral implications of products and activities in the global economy. I applaud the move to raise ethics to greater prominence in discussions around trade and economics. Questions around social justice, poverty, environment, and violence have propelled movements leading to action against sweatshops and child labour in the garment industry, to fair trade and shade-grown coffee products, to boycotts of California grapes and trade with apartheid South Africa.

Two days after he was appointed federal environment minister, Peter Kent took up Levant's slogan, trumpeting Alberta's tar sands as "ethical oil." We rightly criticize oil-producing countries that support or indulge in violence, murder, oppression of minority groups and women, and so on. But because Canada does not overtly support or indulge in such practices, does that mean our oil is more ethical? Levant acknowledges that exploiting and using fossil fuels has environmental impacts. Does that mean there is a hierarchy of ethical practices or that one ethical practice cancels out other unethical activities?

The application of ethical standards in our purchase and use of products should be applied universally and not selectively. Canada signed the Kyoto Protocol, which became international law. When Jean Chrétien signed the document, he did so not as a Liberal but as the prime minister of Canada. This meant that, as a nation, we were committed to achieving the targets set by the agreement. On becoming leader of a minority government, Harper declared his intention to ignore Canada's commitment. Is it ethical to ignore an internationally binding legal commitment? This is even more astonishing in light of Prime Minister Harper's outspoken commitment to law and order.

Is oil ever ethical?

Canada is one of the highest per capita emitters of greenhouse gases. Our rapidly melting permafrost releases massive amounts of the potent greenhouse gas methane, amplifying our contribution to the global crisis of climate change. Alberta's tar sands require enormous amounts of energy and water to extract, further compounding Canada's already excessive emissions. Is there not an ethical component to our demand for a greater share of the Earth's atmosphere than most other nations? Rapid exploitation of Canada's tar sands -- by companies from countries including the U.S., Korea, and China -- is not crucial for our nation's survival or even well-being, yet we ignore the impact on the rest of the world. If that isn't unethical, I don't know what is.

Climate change is already causing more extreme fires and weather events, melting glaciers and ice caps, rising sea levels, drought, floods, altered plant and animal distribution, spread of disease, and killer heat waves, to cite just a few impacts. Canada's vast resources and space confer greater resilience than most nations, but the world's poorest areas are especially vulnerable. Floods in Pakistan's great river delta, drought across central Africa, and extreme heat in India are killing people who did little or nothing to contribute to the climate crisis. These deaths may not be as grisly or violent as those in Nigeria or Saudi Arabia, but that shouldn't matter in ethical debates.

Despite the Kyoto agreement and international efforts at Copenhagen, this unrelenting rise in greenhouse gas emissions means countries around the world intend to continue contributing to the enormous problems of unpredictable climate extremes and fluctuations that people for generations to come will have to live with. This is the most unethical practice I can imagine. In the face of overwhelming evidence that human use of fossil fuels is creating an incredible crisis of climate change, wealthy countries like Canada and the U.S., whose use of these fuels created the massive economic expansion that brought about the climate crisis, are now unwilling to reduce their emissions. It's all in the name of economic growth, not survival or the future for our children and grandchildren. That is not just unethical, it's criminal.

In today's world, all fossil fuels are unethical. There is no such thing as ethical oil. People like Ezra Levant, who say they care about ethics, should press for rapid transition from these unethical energy sources to more ethical, equitable, and sustainable sources, such as renewable solar, wind, and geothermal energy.

Dr. David Suzuki is a scientist, broadcaster, author, and co-founder of the David Suzuki Foundation.

Learn more at www.davidsuzuki.org.

Richard Citroen remembers Hamilton's The Loved Ones

2011-10-06T08:22:00.000-07:00

The Loved Ones and Me

by Richard Citroen (c)2009 SOCAN

This is my account of my time Hamilton legends, The Loved Ones.
While this account might not be 100% historically accurate, this is how I remember it.....

I guess it all started for me in early 1977, when I, a 17 year old high school student and aspiring drummer, went to the local A&A Records in Burlington looking to buy a new album with my hard won allowance to add to my record collection.

This record collection was in itself a fairly alarming. My earlier interest in early 70's glam rock like T.Rex had somewhere along the way given way to grim horrors like Rush's live album, Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, and other abominations like Yes' Close To The Edge album.

Sure, there was Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti, a couple of Mott The Hoople things, Spark's Kimono My House and some other good things, including some rather good promo albums from my ex-musician/manager/concert promoter/booking agent father's days working for NEMS (The Beatles organization) in the late 60's, but in the main,
it was horrible.

For instance, the only Bowie album I owned at the time wasn't even one of the good ones.
It was the dreaded Young Americans!

So after spending a fair amount of time at the record store, the closest thing to anything that interested me was an album by Foghat. God knows why I bought it, but I did. I got it home and put it on and as their turgid version of "Take Me To The River" filled my suburban rec room, I looked at the alarming number of beards on the album cover and the rest of my sorry record collection and thought to myself, there's got to be something better than....this!

Similarly, I was equally dissatisfied with who I was playing with at the time.

I'd been playing drums since I was 12, and I'd done some fairly dubious things. I'd done the silly KISS army thing with my first band of school pals. We'd done a Halloween gig in a church hall, playing stuff like BTO's "Takin' Care Of Business" and a particularly wretched version of Uriah Heep's "Sunrise" that sounded more like Billy Bragg than the 'Heep. Add to this the fact that we were wearing KISS makeup, and you can imagine how well we went over...

I'd also flirted with "progressive rock", playing with a guy who sometimes wore a kimono, but the attitude of most of the players in that scene (some of whom fancied themselves rotten) got on my nerves, plus my disinterest in replicating the Bill Bruford drumming style with umpteen time changes while singing about Hobbits meant that it really wasn't a fit for me. I mean dressing up like a flower? Oh please....

Eventually I opted for a more straight ahead approach, which suited me better, but after playing with pretty much every "hot" guitar player in town that owned a pair of platform shoes, I realized that I was getting nowhere.

One of the problems for me was that a lot of these guys were merely dabbling. Rich kids with expensive equipment, just killing time before going to law school or wherever, which was something that my father had warned me about. He would say things like "If music is what you really want to do, you shouldn't waste your time with people who are going to run home to their mums when things get tough. This lot wouldn't last 5 minutes in London." etc.

He also tried to tell me, after seeing some of the grizzly combos I would play with, that while it wasn't the be all and end all, it WAS important to get the visual image right and always have at least one or two good looking guys in the band. "That way girls will come come to your shows, and before you know it, the boys will come too, because they know that the girls will be there." Naturally, I thought that this was just old fashioned nonsense, especially since at the time I was playing with 3 guys, two of whom wore glasses and the other a beard, but of course dad turned out to be right...

Another problem for me was, no matter who I was playing with, good or bad (and I'd had plenty of both) was at some point, usually half through the proceedings, we would have a bash at somebody's dreadful "original", which was generally either a ballad or something John Denver would have rejected as being too corny. More importantly, these songs had nothing whatsoever to do with the other rocking songs that had come before it. I would say things like "Oh very nice. That one's got real potential" while groaning inwardly. Obviously I couldn't keep doing this, so I thought to myself, sod this!

I'd done pretty much everything that they tell you that you're supposed to do, and that didn't work, so why not try doing what you're NOT supposed to do?

It was then that I thought of a singer that I vaguely knew, named Simon Leblovic. I first clapped eyes on Simon in 1975, when he was fronting a Stones-y cover band called "Interchange", who had played a lunchtime gig in the cafe/auditorium at Lord Elgin High School, which I was attending at the time.

Simon cut an interesting figure on the day. Think Freddie Mercury doing a Mick Jagger imitation and you've pretty much got it. While I thought he was a bit "over the top", he certainly LOOKED like a singer! The rest of the band weren't very good, so naturally they had to put up with some catcalls from the local wiseacres, but they did have a "Keef" figure in guitarist Roy Furness and they played the Stones' "Starfucker", which impressed me, mostly because I enjoyed the number of time the word "fuck" was shouted over the school p.a system.

Over the next couple of years, Simon and I struck up a nodding acquaintance, mostly running into each other at the Burlington Mall and having a chat at various local "Battle Of The Bands" shows, most of which were usually won by Bill Wood's band "Darwin", which seemed fair enough, as those guys, especially keyboard player Michael Dana, could play rings around most of us, and Bill was a pretty good front man.

Interestingly it was at one of these Battle Of The Bands where I first saw a band called Simply Saucer. They stood out like a sore thumb among this gang of platform shoes and feather cuts and obligatory versions of "Stairway To Heaven" by not only playing their own Velvet Underground meets Hawkwind tunes like "Here Come The Cyborgs", but also wearing Salvation Army clothes and their Lou Reed-style singer/guitarist Edgar Breau wore sunglasses at night, all of which seems nothing now, but was practically unheard of in 1975.

But more on them later...

So here it is, the spring of '77 and I'm thoroughly fed up with playing with the usual tiresome heavy riff merchants, so I call up Simon Leblovic, inquiring what he was up to and did he by any chance needed a drummer? As it turned out, he did.

He told me that he had a band out in Hamilton with a guy who used to be in Teenage Head, (a band I'd actually heard of) and their drummer was leaving, and if I wanted to come down, that would be fine with him. I asked him what sort of stuff they were playing and he mentioned "Sunshine Superman" by Donovan. I thought was an interesting choice and told him so. Simon suggested that I come by the following Sunday, and oh by the way, could I give him a ride into town? I said sure...

So the big day arrives and I meet Simon and the other guys. There I was with my Don Brewer afro, wearing some baggy 70's nightmare jeans, with brown earth shoes and an awful t-shirt with Farrah f**king Fawcett on it (Sorry, but it's true) and looked at my potential new band mates. There was Steve Park with his wild curly red hair looking like a demented Ronald McDonald giving the impression that he carried a knife in his back pocket to the left of me, and Gary Pig dressed like a cast member of Leave It To Beaver to the right, with Simon doing his pouty Freddie Jagger thing in the middle. God knows what they thought of me, but I thought to myself, what have I gotten myself into?

GARY PIG GOLD sez: Personally speaking, as I usually do, I thought Richard was a cool guy, and a very good drummist. But I have to say I much preferred my Beaver look to his not-so-grand-Funk wardrobe.

Well, I needn't have worried, for as we went into the first number, The Kinks' "You Really Got Me", the room exploded!

Given my past experience, I was expecting some sort of grim heavy metal noise to come out of Steve's Marshall amp, but what actually came out was something that sounded so close to the original Dave Davies guitar sound that it made no difference. Amazing!

Next up was The Who's "My Generation", which also sounded great, and again I was amazed when Gary went into all those great bass licks and didn't miss a note! The other thing was without exchanging a word between us, we all instinctively did the "Live At Leeds" arrangement. This was the first example of the musical telepathy that Steve, Gary and myself had. Simon was doing his best to hang on, but it was really the three of us that was where the real action was.

After playing a feedback laden version of Bowie's "Suffragette City" and a couple of other similar numbers in which I managed to break not one, but two drum heads, Steve, without looking at the others simply said, "Would you like to join the band?" Naturally I said yes, for all sorts of reasons really, but one of them was this:

All three of them, Simon, Steve & Gary had started to write their own songs, some of which they played for me, and after hearing them, I realized that while they weren't exactly classics at this point, they at least sounded of a piece with the other material that we were playing. Also they LOOKED like a band. THIS was what I was looking for. Hooray!

BTW: We never did play Sunshine Superman...

Over the next few weeks, it was one revelation after another, as I quickly realized that this was what being in a REAL band was all about. All were passionate and knowledgeable about what they were doing, especially Steve. As a regular reader of Rock Scene magazine, I was naturally aware of people like The Ramones and The Patti Smith Group, and you'd have to have been living under a rock (or perched on a toadstool in a prog rock band) not to know who The Sex Pistols were, but the guys introduced me to the following: Television's Marquee Moon, The Flamin' Groovies' Shake Some Action, Iggy & The Stooges' Raw Power, the amazing first Blondie album, David Bowie's Pin-ups, and the first 3 Roxy Music albums in all their screechy glory. Add Johnny Thunders (Born To Lose/Chinese Rocks was the first 12" single I ever saw) and Eddie & The Hot Rods to this mix, and my reaction to all this new and not so music was basically where have I been???? In a basement in Burlington listening to f**king Foghat, that's where!

So here I was with my new band mates....

GARY

Gary was an amazing bass player, probably the best one I ever worked with, but even then he was a bit of a will 'o' the wisp disappearing and reappearing at odd times carrying his guitar in a battered old case filled with fanzines and posters for upcoming gigs for people like The Diodes and The Viletones etc. He also published his own fanzine called The Pig Paper and generally had his fingers in a lot of pies. Gary always reminded me of the Cheshire Cat out of Alice In Wonderland.

SIMON

Simon had all the usual pretentions that most vocalists seem to have, but I liked him all the same. He had pretty good taste in music (I remember him talking up Cheap Trick, who nobody had even heard of at the time)and seemed to grasp instinctively that during this period, the way to go forward musically was to actually go backward, which was something that I wholeheartedly agreed with. While some of his stage mannerisms were sometimes a bit much, and would have benefitted from a slightly more relaxed approach, he was a pretty good looking guy, and a decent front man.

STEVE

Steve, his prodigious musical ability aside, was a tough Hamilton boy, and always liked to let you know that you weren't, but despite this, I liked him immensely, as he really was a at heart a nice guy, and his passion for the music was infectious.
He really took me under his wing, basically going, don't listen to that, listen to this. Don't wear that, wear this etc. Needless to say Steve's crash course in cool resulted in 180 degree shift in my musical thinking for which I am eternally grateful, as well as a new attitude towards style and pop culture in general.

It was not to last, of course, as I found over the ensuing years, that what seemed so cutting edge and forward thinking at the time morphed into a backwards looking conservatism that I'm not entirely comfortable with even today, but it certainly was fun while it lasted.

But that was all to come later. Now back to our story...

So the songs came thick and fast and after about 2-3 weeks, the four of us had worked up 3 sets worth of 60's Kinks, Brian Jones-era Stones and Who covers, with a smattering of Stooges, Eddie & The Hot Rods and Patti Smith songs. This is where I discovered that not only was Simon a pretty good harmonica player, he could also do a pretty good impression of Patti Smith and Steve could do Lenny Kaye's guitar licks in his sleep, another bonus, as I reckoned that this was the way forward. Still, everything was going well, and soon it was time to book some gigs.

Enter one Steve Prendergast, who in later years went on to manage both Honeymoon Suite and Brighton Rock, but at this stage was a rookie booking agent who quickly booked us on to the Southern Ontario bar circuit.

I don't know where Steve came from but I didn't much care for him on either a business or personal level, and I'm pretty sure the feeling was mutual.
I suspect that Gary felt the same way about him too, because pretty much the minute Prendergast came on the scene, Gary went a.w.o.l.

GARY: Actually, I just went to my parents’ cottage for a month. Might’ve forgotten to tell you guys of course, but…

Normally this wouldn't have been a problem, but unfortunately we had gigs booked, and the dates were looming up, and with our bass player missing, something had to be done. So the word went out and we auditioned a several replacement bass players but the results were not encouraging.

One guy came by who not only looked like Elliot Gould in M.A.S.H., but was also blind, and played the cello. An interesting guy to be sure, and a pretty good player too, but obviously not what we had in mind. It was then that I thought of a guy I knew named Dru Davy.

I'd known Dru for years. He was the right age and looked pretty good, and while he wasn't the bass monster that Gary was, I reckoned his simple approach might work, so I called him up and arranged an audition for him.

He showed up with his Dan Amstrong Lucite bass guitar and passed the audition, so Steve set to work getting him up to speed, which was no easy task, since there were 3 sets of material to learn and about 2 weeks to do it. Dru really came through for us at short notice, and we hit the road, playing small town Ontario. Places like Port Colborne, Brantford, etc.

I remember arriving at the first gig in Port Colborne, passing the "Coming soon: Myles & Lenny!" posters by the entrance, setting up on a stage that was about the size of a dining room table and doing our sound check, where we launched into our fairly raw version of The Stones' "Live With Me" at top volume.

Simon was wearing a black suit jacket and sunglasses, crooning into the microphone standing stock still while the rest of us created an electrical storm around him. It was great! Perfect in fact.

However the club owner thought we were a bit too "punk" and asked us to tone it down a bit. Of course we ignored him and did what we were going to do anyway, but this was my first inkling that we might be headed for trouble, but I thought no more of it, as there was the music to sort out. And what great music it was!

Our version of Patti Smith's "My Heart's Pumping", a version of "Gloria" that morphed into "Satisfaction" played at breakneck speed, and The Stooges "Search & Destroy" in which I managed to hit practically my whole Premier double kit at once!

Our version of The Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing There" and The Stones version of "I Wanna Be Your Man" with Simon's wailing harmonica and Steve getting all kinds of feedback out of his little red Gibson SG and big Marhsall amp was always a highlight, as was our version of The Stones' "Midnight Rambler" and The Who's "My Generation/See Me Feel Me" which we used to close the shows with. With me doing my Keith Moon/Aynsley Dunbar impression and Dru doing his best to hang on, people loved it...it was great!!

Things were going great until we hit Dunnville....

What a nightmare this was!

It would appear that the Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin loving locals weren't too impressed with our various leather pants, eye-liner, ballet slippers and stripey tops. We were greeted with such taunts such as, "Hey girls!" and "Get off the stage queers!".

Nor were they ready for our Stooges covers and generally raw and feedback laden approach to what we considered "Classic Rock".

Well, not only did we go down like a lead balloon, we got fired from the gig by the owner, and were replaced by another band called "Mythral" (whatever that means) that did, you guessed it..... Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin covers.

I remember sitting there drinking with the rest of the guys, looking on in disgust while guys with moustaches and skanky girls who looked like they knew how to fix your car danced to Mythral's rendition of "Walk This Way". The next day people even yelled things like "Go home fags!" at us from passing cars while we waited on the street for our ride home. Can you believe it? I would imagine that the locals in Dunnville are STILL listening to Aerosmith & Zeppelin...have a nice life kids.

So after the Dunnville debacle, we decided it was time for a re-think. It was pretty obvious to us that the cover band bar crowd weren't as interested in The Stooges and Patti Smith as we were, and although it was discussed, we didn't really feel like working up a pile of Peter Frampton and Foreigner covers to play in front of people who didn't give a shit.

Dressing up like novelty acts like Rheingold or The Imps was out of the question, so we decided that since people were calling us "punk" anyway, that we would concentrate on playing our own material and try and become part of the punk/new wave scene that had recently sprung up in both Hamilton and Toronto.

Gary Pig was of course just the man to help make this happen with his connections in both cities, so we called him up, said goodbye to temporary bassist Dru Davey, and Gary came back into the fold, bringing Roy Furness along with him on rhythm guitar.

GARY: Simon, Steve and I had actually been conspiring to get Roy into the band from the get-go, and were just cooling our collective heels til he got home from his final tour with that legendary proto-power-popping Hamilton bar band The Specs.

While I was happy that Gary was back, I viewed the addition of Roy Furness as something of a mixed blessing. For a start I remembered him from Interchange and hadn't been very impressed. Also Roy was already nearly 30, which was good deal older than the rest of us (Steve Park and I were 18, Simon 21) and he had something of a grim workmanlike manner about him, which I didn't think was a good thing.

GARY: Roy only looked thirty. Must’ve been his three-cigarettes-per-song habit.

However he made up for this by being probably the most sophisticated songwriter in the band, although again his obvious Stones fixation was, to me at least, a step in the wrong direction, as I would have liked to have seen us move more in the direction of The Who or The Patti Smith Group, since I thought we did that type of thing better than any of the competition at the time.

Nevertheless, we re-grouped in Steve Park's basement, threw out the old set, and started working on new material such as the fabulous "Let Me (Be The One") which I believe Steve & Simon wrote, that was pitched somewhere between The Vibrators, The Ugly Ducklings and Johnny Thunders, so was basically the perfect sound for 1977.
Add to that Roy's great minor-key Flamin' Groovies style "I Should Have Known" and we all knew we had a couple of winners.

Stylistically we eschewed the rama-lama guitar style that was already starting to sound like a cliche and came up with a sound that pre-dated The Strokes by several decades.

We still covered songs, but they were fairly obscure things such as The Ugly Duckling's "Nothin'', The Flamin' Groovies' "Shake Some Action" (which sounded particularly good with our Gibson/Marshall guitar sound easily trumping the Groovies comparatively weedy sounding Fenders Bassman amps) and taking a leaf out of the Beatles Cavern playbook that said that if the audience doesn't know it, then it's OUR song, we did a cover of The Boomtown Rats "Looking After No.1" which was only available as an import single at the time.

This was a particularly tricky piece of music to play. It was actually more complicated than King Crimson's "Lark's Tongues In Aspic", although you'd never know it to hear it.

As well as continuing to write new and exciting material, we were also working on covering Roy Loney's then current single. While I wouldn't exactly call it a sit-down, my understanding is that apparently either Steve or Gary had a word with either Frank or Gord from Teenage Head, who were also interested in covering the same record. We decided to do the b-side, "Second Cousin" since it was more our style, while they would do the a-side which was more in keeping with what they were doing. This what a little something called "Wild One", which worked out rather well for them!

GARY: Actually, I brought “Second Cousin” to us Loved Ones. It was from a single by The New Legion Rock Spectacular that I was distributing. Had nothing whatsoever to do with Teenage Head …and I doubt Steve especially would have ever been invited to a “sit down” with them guys at that point!

Around this time Gary got us a gig opening up for Simply Saucer. I thought to myself, Simply Saucer???? I remembered them from a couple of years earlier having seen them play in a field. Apparently there had been some changes in the Saucer camp. They had gotten rid of their synthesizer player and were now going for a more stripped down contemporary sound that was very much in keeping with the whole punk/new wave thing.

Anyway, they were doing a show at the YMCA in Hamilton and needed an opening act, and since Gary was pretty much managing them by then, we were in! There was also talk of Toronto gigs in the future as well. Gary even put us on the cover of The Pig Paper, even though we had never even played anywhere!

So there I was thinking to myself, hmm...great band, good songs, cool crowd.
It really felt that we were part of something....

What could go wrong?

Cut to the YMCA in Hamilton with Simply Saucer, and there we were, in our new Salvation Army clothes, having eradicated the last vestiges of the suddenly old-fashioned "glam" look that we had previously sported, and replaced it with a predominately black minimalist look.

Our apprenticeship on the bar circuit was paying off in spades as we bashed through our set like the well-oiled machine that we were. Nothin' and Let Me (Be The One) being particularly well-received by the local scenesters like "Kevin from England". We would have played an encore, but we didn't have any more songs! So I'm figuring that a bright future for our fabulous beat combo beckoned...

Wrong!!!

Next thing I know, the phone doesn't ring when it's supposed to, so I make some calls, only to be informed that Steve Park, our erstwhile leader has jumped ship to join Simply Saucer!!! Apparently they were pretty impressed with Steve on the night as well...

Well, I was shocked to say the least, as I simply couldn't understand why Steve would want to do such a thing, since I thought The Loved Ones were way more happening than Saucer, being generally younger, with way more teen appeal. To leave us to join Saucer was madness to my way f thinking, as it flew in the face of everything that I knew to be true about pop music.

Maybe Steve wasn't happy with the way things were going? A personality clash perhaps? We were all pretty opinionated and argumentative at times, while Saucer's Edgar Breau was a pretty easy going guy.
Certainly The Saucer were a more avant garde proposition than our comparatively orthodox approach.

Given Steve's love for Television and Roxy Music, that might have been a factor. Maybe he felt marginalized by Roy's increasing influence on the band's overall dynamic? This was certainly a concern of mine at the time, that and the fact that there suddenly seemed to be too many Chiefs and not enough Indians in the band. Who knows? You'll have to ask Steve. Still, there was nothing to be done. Steve was gone...

It was a sad day when I went to pick up my drum kit a couple of weeks later. Steve understandably wasn't there, but he left me a note of apology on the door to the basement. I kept it for years....and have often thought about what The Loved Ones might have gone on to achieve had we not been nipped in the bud. Indeed, years later Edgar told me that if he'd known that poaching Steve for Saucer would have led to the breakup of The Loved Ones, he would have gotten someone else.

Still, it wasn't all bad.

The Loved Ones and our solitary YMCA gig became something of a local legend in Hamilton, and people still ask me about it! In that regard were were a bit like Johnny Moped, who did the one gig/legend thing too, or at a stretch, The Police at The Horseshoe gig that was attended by about 20 people, but over 200 hundred people have claimed they were there!

After Steve jumped ship to Saucer, the rest of us continued to work together on and off in various bar band configurations with different people like Ex-Carboard Brains bassist Paul O'Connell making up the numbers, right up until about 1980, but it wasn't the same. Eventually, Simon went on to join The Start, who had a small hit with "Hey You" and toured all over Canada, and I, after playing briefly with a new version of, irony of ironies, Simply Saucer(!), moved to Toronto, eventually joined The Diodes ("Tired Of Waking Up Tired"), relocating to England with them in 1981.

There were even two bands involving both Gary & Roy that were called "The Loved Ones", but quite frankly, they stunk.

GARY: Richard, are you still mad Roy and I didn’t take you to California with us? Coz that version of The Loved Ones, far from stinking, was actually very, very good. At least Steve Wynn of the Dream Syndicate (who used to get us gigs), Rodney Bingenheimer (who played our demos on his radio show) and Michael Nesmith (whose Pacific Arts Records were courting us) didn’t think we smelled in the least.

Sometimes the other guy is more important than you think he is.

Simon Leblovic remembers Hamilton's Rocking Horse band

2011-10-06T08:06:00.000-07:00

Riding the Rocking Horse

By Simon Leblovic

Things that you don't think are important at the time seem to take on personal significance as the years pass. I played in a rock and roll band in Hamilton, called Rocking Horse, during the summer of 1979. We got together with the idea of playing some cover songs and making some money. During that summer we played weekends at a seedy dive called Wilsons, which was located at King and Locke Street in Hamilton. The gig was interesting in the way that playing in bars can sometimes be. From the stage at Wilsons I could see people dancing in front of me, while fights broke out between drunks at the back of the club. There were no bouncers, and the place had a barfly kind of feel, where nobody seemed to give a damn.

I liked Rocking Horse because I got a chance to play with musicians who I had played with before in other bands. The members of Rocking Horse were Roy Furness on guitar and vocals, Paul O'Connell on bass, Richard Auto Citroen on drums, Joel MacLeod on piano, acoustic guitar and vocals, and yours truly on lead vocals and harmonica. Rocking Horse played songs by groups that I really liked, such as The Rolling Stones (Not Fade Away, Around and Around, As Tears Go By, Jumping Jack Flash, Happy) The Beatles (Slow Down, Bad Boy, Rock and Roll Music, I Saw Her Standing There), Patti Smith (Because the Night, Dancing Barefoot), Mitch Ryder (Devil with a Blue Dress), Alice Cooper (Be My Lover), The Doors (Love Her Madly) and Robert Gordon (Sea Cruise, Red Hot, Fire).

The owner of Wilsons told me that if our gig at his bar was going to last, we would have to bring in customers, so I decided to try and drum up some publicity by asking The Hamilton Spectator newspaper if they wanted to do a story on the band. One night a lady from the entertainment department of the paper showed up at the bar. She asked if there was anything special about the band that she could mention in her story. After giving it a moment's thought, off the top of my head, I told her that I wore black vinyl as part of the garbage bag look. I don't know why I said this, but maybe playing at Wilsons brought the idea of garbage to mind. After the Spectator story appeared, some people at our shows asked me about the garbage bag look. Although I did wear black vinyl on occasion, at this gig I usually wore blue jeans and a T shirt.

Besides Wilsons, we also played some other shows in the area. The Rose and Thistle was located in Dundas, and we were offered a four-night engagement at the club. So after making some excuse to Wilsons, we headed out to play there. On our first night at The Rose and Thistle we found out that they booked other kinds of entertainment, besides rock and roll bands. In the early evening a male stripper named Mr. Tease did his thing, performing in front of packed houses of adoring female fans. Mr. Tease was a big draw with the ladies, maybe because during his act he walked around the stage on his hands, naked except for some masking tape wrapped around his private parts. One evening while he was onstage, Mr. Tease tossed one of our microphones into the audience. The microphone disappeared without a trace. When we mentioned this to Mr. Tease, he looked at us as if we couldn't be serious about bothering him with such a trivial matter! But besides that nonsense, The Rose and Thistle gig went fairly well. It was a good-sized room and made a nice break from playing every weekend at Wilsons.

Rocking Horse played a really fun show away from Wilsons one day. That summer a neighbour of mine was getting married, and he asked us to play at a wedding party that was being held on a farm out in the country. We agreed to play, and arrived at the farm early on a sunny Saturday afternoon. It was going to be great playing outdoors for a change, getting out of the smoky bar where we usually played. There were a lot of guests, partying outdoors at the farm that afternoon, and I noticed that the place even had a swimming pool. After we arrived, our host kindly offered us a selection of beverages, which included a large bowl full of margaritas. For me that afternoon consisted of singing songs in the sunshine, drinking margaritas, and jumping fully clothed into the pool. After I got out of the water I would dry off by running around the stage. I was having such a blast that I got the band to do every song we knew at least twice, which amounted to us playing about 50 to 60 songs. I think as the afternoon wore on we started to sound ragged, but I doubt if anyone really cared. After playing all afternoon we had to go back to Wilsons and do it all over again that night. I ended up being so tired that I could barely play, but no one at the bar seemed to notice.

Things often end with the passing of summer, and so it was with Rocking Horse. I put the kibosh on the band, and gave it my own personal kiss of death by pulling off a very selfish and nasty act at the end. In the early fall I was recording a demo in the studio with a band from Toronto, and I stayed in the studio, rather than showing up for a Rocking Horse gig in Dundas that was being put on by a pro-marijuana group called Norml. That aborted gig was probably the final nail in the coffin for Rocking Horse, and we broke up shortly after that.

In retrospect, I think that I enjoyed playing in Rocking Horse during that summer of 1979 more than any other band I ever played in. Although it was just a no-pressure cover band, the sound and vibe of the band felt really good to me. Rocking Horse wasn't too heavy, too loud, or too cool, like some of my later bands in Toronto, and I felt very much at ease playing with Roy Furness and Paul O'Connell. Roy and I formed one of the first bands I ever sang with, called Shampain, in Burlington in 1975, and Paul and I formed my first Toronto band, called The Hits, in 1978. So if I could go back and be in a band with anyone I ever played with, then I would definitely choose to play with both Roy and Paul. This may all sound insanely self-centered, ridiculous and absurd, and you may certainly accuse me of living in the past, but I want to say that Rocking Horse stands out in my mind today as my all-time favourite band that I ever played in.

Special thanks to source: http://www.mortyscabin.net

Simon Slinger of The Start remembers 70s music

2011-10-05T13:21:00.000-07:00

Many thanks to the Morty's Cabin blog for first posting this in 2009. I managed Simon's band Interchange briefly in the mid 1970s, and also became friends with the guys in The Specs, the band that formed after Simon left Interchange. The Burlington / Hamilton area was a lotta fun in the late 1970s, with Teenage Head and The Oh No's being two great live acts.

The Useless Minstrel

By Simon Leblovic (aka Simon Slinger, when fronting The Start)

If music be the food of love play on. Let sweet sounds lift my spirits, spiraling at the sky. Music is the life blood that expresses matters of the spirit that are beyond mere words. Music fills us with wonder and joy, and as a form of artistic expression brings us closest to the divine. In descibing the musical genius of Mozart's musical compositions, it was said that he was taking dictation from God. In other words don't that music make you want to get up and dance and feel good like you knew it would.

When I was young my parents had a calypso record by Harry Belafonte that used to get me dancing around the living room of our house. I remember hearing "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)" and "Jamaica Farewell," as well as a rhythmic number called "Do Adore Her." Then when I saw Peter Sellers playing the imcomparable Inspector Clouseau, I remember hearing the Pink Panther Theme by Henry Mancini. And I also heard Shirley Bassey sing the theme song to the James Bond movie Goldfinger. All unforgettable blasts from the past.

When I became a teenager I started to get into rock 'n roll music seriously. I remember hearing a 1960's compilation album with a couple of psychedelic songs on it called "Journey to the Center of the Mind" by The Amboy Dukes and "I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night" by The Electric Prunes. I also remember hearing that great make out song called "Go All The Way" by The Raspberries, as well as a sweet song called "Loving You" by Minnie Riperton that became our song with one of my first true loves. I also remember tripping under headphones to "Sweet Leaf" by Black Sabbath and grooving to an American Gangster number called "Superfly" by Curtis Mayfield. And how could I not get down with Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels when I heard songs like "Sock It To Me Baby," "Devil With A Blue Dress On" and "I Got You," the latter of which was originally performed by James Brown. And there were great Canadian rock 'n roll songs like "American Woman" by The Guess Who and "You Could Have Been A Lady" by April Wine. And there was a a song called "Nothing" by a Toronto band called The Ugly Ducklings, who were also known as The Strolling Bones.

At my high school in Burlington I met a guy named Dave McLean. Dave had become a fan of The Rolling Stones after seeing the band play live at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto in the summer of 1972. After meeting Dave my life took a drastic turn down the left hand path. One night I remember hanging out in the basement of Dave's house and hearing "Sympathy For The Devil" by The Rolling Stones. So right then and there, in the fall of 1973 at the age of eighteen, I decided that I wanted to be a rock'n roll singer.

Hanging out with Dave I got into other songs by The Rolling Stones like "Jumping Jack Flash," "Child Of The Moon," "Stray Cat Blues", "Midnight Rambler," "Monkey Man", "Brown Sugar," "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" and "Moonlight Mile." In the basement of Dave's house I also heard songs by Alice Cooper like "Under My Wheels," "You Drive Me Nervous" and "Never Been Sold Before." And the super fine "Something/Anything" album by Todd Rundgren, with songs like "I Saw The Light," "Hello It's Me" and the amazing "Couldn't I Just Tell You."

Dave played guitar and piano, and I wanted to sing in a band with him. And though he wasn't into playing in a band with me, I can still recall singing some songs by The Rolling Stones around town with Dave playing guitar. Those were my first times singing on stage in public at my high school and upstairs at a bar by Lake Ontario called The Tree Top in Burlington. I also remember sitting down with Dave at his house as he played piano, and I wrote lyrics for a concept album that I called "Reflections In Blue." After Dave and I stopped hanging out I found a band called Interchange in Burlington to sing with in 1975. And when my father discovered that I was singing in a rock 'n roll band he called me a useless minstrel.

Interchange

In 1975 I heard the "Toys In The Attic" album by Aerosmith. After that I got into a lot of their early songs like "Dream On," "One Way Street," "S. O. S. (Too Bad)," and "Seasons of Wither." Back then I also liked songs by The Yardbirds like "Heart Full Of Soul" and "Evil Hearted You," as well as "Rebel Rebel" by David Bowie. But at that time I think I especially liked The Rolling Stones and Aerosmith, because for me the song's the thing.. And to my ears the guitar playing of Keith Richards and Joe Perry complemented perfectly the songs that Mick Jagger and Steven Tyler were singing.

In 1976 I ran into another guy from Burlington named Rob Sikora, who loaned me the "Raw Power" record by Iggy Pop & The Stooges that had the song "Search And Destroy"on it. Rob also lent me the the first album by The New York Dolls with songs like "Personality Crisis," "Trash," " Bad Girl" and "Subway Train." He also loaned me the second album by The New York Dolls entitled "Too Much Too Soon" that had songs on it like "Babylon," "Stranded in the Jungle," "Human Being" and a cover of a Sonny Boy Williamson song called "Don't Start Me Talkin." Speaking of Sonny Boy Williamson, I consider him to be the best blues harp player ever. No doubt.

After hearing The New York Dolls I later got into a solo album by their singer David Johansen with songs called "Funky But Chic" and "Girls."(I also liked songs by Johnny Thunders, the guitarist for The New York Dolls, like "You Can't Put Your Arm Around Around A Memory" and "Chinese Rocks." And back then I also got into Robert Gordon singing songs like "Red Hot, "Sea Cruise" and a song that Bruce Springteen wrote called "Fire." At the time I was also listening to the first two Patti Smith albums, called "Horses" and "Radio Ethiopia." And later I really liked a song on the third "Easter" album by Patti Smith called "Because The Night" that Patti co-wrote with Bruce Springsteen. And on the fourth Patti Smith album called "Wave" there was a wondrous song called "Dancing Barefoot."

In early 1977 I was hanging out in Hamilton, the city of my birth. At a Saturday afternoon jam session that was held downstairs at a club called Duffy's Rock Pile, I ran into a drummer that I knew from Burlington named Lance White. Lance introduced me to a guitarist at Duffy's Rockpile on that day named Sparky, who had formerly played in Teenage Head. After that initial meeting Sparky and I tried to put a band together with another drummer that I knew from Burlington named Richard Citroen. We called the band "The Loved Ones," the name being taken from a movie that I had seen called "The Loved One."

The Loved Ones

As for the Loved Ones band, besides bombing at a few live shows, all we did for the most part was rehearse in the basement of Sparky's house, which was located right across from McMaster University in the west of Hamilton. On a positive note I will never forget hearing the "Never Mind The Bollocks - Here's The Sex Pistols" album at Sparky's house for the first time in 1977. Sparky also played early Roxy Music for me, which I came to appreciate.

As far as my taste in music in 1978, I remember hearing Billie Holiday singing for the first time on her album called "Lady Sings The Blues." Lady Day remains my favourite vocalist to this day. "God bless the child thats got his own." Besides falling for Billie Holiday in 1978, I also decided to look for a band to sing with in Toronto. So I paid a visit to a bar that I knew on Queen Street West in Toronto called The Beverly Tavern. And after picking up a copy of a local entertainment newspaper I answered an ad and phoned a bass player named Paul O'Connell, who had previously played in a Toronto band called The Cardboard Brains. Paul and I put a band together in Toronto called The Hits, and after awhile we started playing a few clubs around Toronto like The Turning Point. I remember that gig because we opened for a band called The Demics, who later had success with a song of theirs called "New York City."

The Hits also played at The Hotel Isabella and The Beverly Tavern in Toronto. I remember when we were playing at The Beverly and I was sleeping on the stage one Saturday afternoon before we had to play that night. And this guy named Jim kicked me and woke me up and told me me that he wanted to join the band. After an introduction like that, how could I say no? So Jim from down east started playing guitar in The Hits. We played songs like "I Got You" by James Brown and "Baby Please Don't Go" by Them, and "It's My Life" by The Animals. We also played a couple of songs by The Doors called "I Looked At You" and "Strange Day," and some early Rolling Stones songs like "Around and Around," "One More Try," "Surprise Surprise" and "Miss Amanda Jones." Paul and Jim ended up sharing an apartment together in Toronto on Bloor Street West. I remember hanging out with them one day, and hearing the great song "Bored" by Iggy Pop for the first time at Paul and Jim's place.

The Start at Lee's Palace

Simon Leblovic of The Start, musical influences, early bands

China, Russia support Syrian violence against protesters

2011-10-05T09:49:00.000-07:00

Chinese leaders actions contradict communist ideals

Supporters of freedom and human rights in Syria have had their hopes for change deflated by two powers (China, Russia) that formerly believed in workers struggles against oppressive dictators. With China siding with the bludgeoning Assad family, Lenin and Marx must be rolling over in their graves.

It is both saddening and illuminating to remember that the last time these two countries voted against sanctions, it was in support of Mugabe's murderous regime in Zimbabwe.

Here's a piece from today's HuffPost regarding the thwarted UN effort:

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia and China vetoed a European-backed U.N. Security Council resolution Tuesday that threatened sanctions against Syria if it didn't immediately halt its military crackdown against civilians.

It would have been the first legally binding resolution adopted by the Security Council since President Bashar Assad's military began using tanks and soldiers against protesters in mid-March. Its defeat reflects the deep divisions in the U.N.'s most powerful body over how to address the ongoing violence in Syria, which the U.N. estimates has led to more than 2,700 deaths.

The European sponsors of the resolution tried to avoid a veto by watering down the language on sanctions three times, to the point where the word "sanctions" was taken out, but they failed.

The vote was 9-2 with four abstentions — India, South Africa, Brazil and Lebanon.

It was the first double veto by Russia and China since July 2008 when they vetoed proposed sanctions against Zimbabwe. In January 2007, they also vetoed a resolution calling on Myanmar to release all political prisoners, initiate a wide-ranging dialogue and end military attacks and human rights abuses.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told the council after the vote that his country did not support the Assad regime or the violence but opposed the resolution because it was "based on a philosophy of confrontation," contained "an ultimatum of sanctions" and was against a peaceful settlement of a crisis. He also complained that the resolution did not call for the Syrian opposition to disassociate itself from "extremists" and enter into dialogue.

China's Ambassador Li Bandong said his country is concerned about the ongoing violence and wants to see speedy reforms but opposed the resolution because "sanctions, or threat of sanctions, do not help the situation in Syria but rather complicates the situation."

Supporters of the resolution expressed disappointment and outrage.

France's U.N. Ambassador Gerard Araud called the veto "a rejection of the extraordinary movement in support of freedom and democracy that is the Arab Spring" and commended "all of those who fight against the bloodthirsty crackdown in Syria."

Britain's U.N. Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said the veto "will be a great disappointment to the people of Syria and the wider region that some members of this council could not show their support for their struggle for basic human rights."

"By blocking this resolution, the onus is now on those countries to step up their efforts and persuade the Syrian government to end the violence and pursue genuine reform," he said.

U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said "the courageous people of Syria can now clearly see who on this council supports their yearning for liberty and human rights — and who does not."

"Those who oppose this resolution and give cover to a brutal regime will have to answer to the Syrian people — and, indeed, to people across the region who are pursuing the same universal aspirations," she said. "The crisis in Syria will stay before the Security Council, and we will not rest until this council rises to meet its responsibilities."

Rice accused Russia and China of wanting to sell arms to the Syrian regime rather than stand with the Syrian people — an accusation vehemently denied by Russia's Churkin.

From the outset of the Syrian uprising, the council has been split.

Western members, backed by some African and Latin American nations, demanded an end to violence, and when it was not heeded they pushed for Security Council action, including the threat of sanctions. On the other side, Russia, China and the newly emerging global powers — Brazil, India and South Africa — pressed for more time for the Assad government to implement reforms and for political dialogue with the opposition and strongly opposed even mentioning sanctions.

It took four months of arguments between supporters and opponents of Assad's regime for the Security Council to issue a presidential statement in August condemning the escalating violence.

Britain, France, Germany and Portugal, backed by the United States, then pressed for a council resolution calling for an immediate arms embargo and other sanctions aimed at stopping the Assad government's crackdown on protesters.

But Russia, China, India, South Africa and Brazil opposed that sanctions resolution. They argue the U.N. resolution authorizing the use of force to protect civilians in Libya was misused by NATO to justify months of air strikes against Moammar Gadhafi's regime and expressed fear a new resolution might be used as a pretext for armed intervention against Syria.

The final watered-down draft that was voted on and defeated demanded that Syria immediately end violence, allow fundamental rights and freedoms, lift all media restrictions and allow unhindered access for human rights investigators.

It expressed the council's intention to review Syria's implementation of these demands within 30 days, and "to consider its options, including measures under Article 41 of the Charter of the United Nations."

Article 41 authorizes the council to impose nonmilitary measures which can include economic and diplomatic sanctions.

The draft also would have strongly condemned "the continued grave and systematic human rights violations and the use of force against civilians by the Syrian authorities" and called on all states "to exercise vigilance and restraint" in supplying weapons to Syria.

Syria's U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari, the last speaker after the vote, criticized "the prejudice in certain Western capitals against our country" and insisted a comprehensive package of reforms is now being implemented by the government, "enhancing the democratic process."

Without naming the U.S., Ja'afari said that it used its Security Council veto 50 times since 1945 to protect Israel and deny the Palestinians their rights.

Therefore, he said, it could be considered a party to "genocide, as this language is tantamount to turning a blind eye and supporting the Israeli massacres in occupied Arab lands."

As he spoke, U.S. diplomats led by Rice walked out of the council chamber.

Republican Governors limiting voter rights in 2012 election

2011-10-04T18:46:00.000-07:00

Denver "inactive voters" list confirms rigging

Debra Johnson is an emerging hero in the United States for refusing to deny ballots to registered voters in primarily Hispanic neighbourhoods, and the Secretary of State is suing her for her egalitarianism and law-abiding behaviour. Denver has sent ballots to inactive votes for the past 5 elections, so why change now?

All over the country (well, in Republican-led states), new laws are being enacted to limit the rights of citizens to vote, and these new laws universally affect minorities disproportionately.

Imagine a taste of one's own medicine

What if the citizens denied their vote decide to protest in other ways, perhaps collectively blocking polling stations in wealthy areas? It saddens to observe what America is coming to, when people will be fighting in the streets in 2012, for the right to vote in a Presidential election.

A Song for Protesters globally: Chimes of Freedom

2011-10-04T18:35:00.000-07:00

Chime of Freedom lyrics

by Bob Dylan, 1964

Chimes Of Freedom

Far between sundown’s finish an’ midnight’s broken toll
We ducked inside the doorway, thunder crashing
As majestic bells of bolts struck shadows in the sounds
Seeming to be the chimes of freedom flashing
Flashing for the warriors whose strength is not to fight
Flashing for the refugees on the unarmed road of flight
An’ for each an’ ev’ry underdog soldier in the night
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing

In the city’s melted furnace, unexpectedly we watched
With faces hidden while the walls were tightening
As the echo of the wedding bells before the blowin’ rain
Dissolved into the bells of the lightning
Tolling for the rebel, tolling for the rake
Tolling for the luckless, the abandoned an’ forsaked
Tolling for the outcast, burnin’ constantly at stake
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing

Through the mad mystic hammering of the wild ripping hail
The sky cracked its poems in naked wonder
That the clinging of the church bells blew far into the breeze
Leaving only bells of lightning and its thunder
Striking for the gentle, striking for the kind
Striking for the guardians and protectors of the mind
An’ the unpawned painter behind beyond his rightful time
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing

Through the wild cathedral evening the rain unraveled tales
For the disrobed faceless forms of no position
Tolling for the tongues with no place to bring their thoughts
All down in taken-for-granted situations
Tolling for the deaf an’ blind, tolling for the mute
Tolling for the mistreated, mateless mother, the mistitled prostitute
For the misdemeanor outlaw, chased an’ cheated by pursuit
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing

Even though a cloud’s white curtain in a far-off corner flashed
An’ the hypnotic splattered mist was slowly lifting
Electric light still struck like arrows, fired but for the ones
Condemned to drift or else be kept from drifting
Tolling for the searching ones, on their speechless, seeking trail
For the lonesome-hearted lovers with too personal a tale
An’ for each unharmful, gentle soul misplaced inside a jail
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing

Starry-eyed an’ laughing as I recall when we were caught
Trapped by no track of hours for they hanged suspended
As we listened one last time an’ we watched with one last look
Spellbound an’ swallowed ’til the tolling ended
Tolling for the aching ones whose wounds cannot be nursed
For the countless confused, accused, misused, strung-out ones an’ worse
An’ for every hung-up person in the whole wide universe
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing

America's Autumn of Inspiration spreading north to Canada

2011-10-04T17:25:00.000-07:00

Even though our economy is in better shape than that of our beloved southern cousins, conscious Canadians will be out in force in coming weeks to protest the proposed new extreme anti-pot laws, and to protect our health care and education systems that took generations of effort to build.

This week Canada is holding provincial elections in four provinces; next week the young people will take to the streets.

Unions join NYC protest Oct 5th; Toronto takes to Bay St Oct 15th

2011-10-03T10:55:00.000-07:00

With at least two big New York unions joining the Occupy Wall Street protest starting this Wednesday, October 5th, this is a crucial week for USA street protests,

A week from Saturday, on October 15th, activists in Toronto have organized an Occupy Toronto Market Exchange.

If you are in the GTA, do something to protect your rights and your children's future, and come out and protest corporate greed and monopolization of public policy. The proposed new anti-pot laws in Canada (including mandatory minimum 6-month sentence, plus doubling of maximum to 14 years from 7) are an example of what can happen when you give reactionary conservatives a majority...

Be there!

Canada: Penalties for Organized Drug Crime Act - former Bill S-10

2011-10-02T13:42:00.000-07:00

Tories expensive plan to imprison gardeners a troubling piece of legislation

Including marijuana growers in a section on prohibitions against manufacturing drugs is illogical and a non-starter from the get-go, however that is what we are dealing with so let's examine some of the weirdness and anti-pot extremism contained in this bill.

Clause 2 New section 5(3)(a.1) of the CDSA reenacts the current section 5(4) of the CDSA and imposes a maximum punishment of imprisonment for five years less a day if the trafficking offence is for a small amount of cannabis or its derivatives, as listed in Schedule II.

Why would we want to reenact a provision that gives a five year prison sentence to someone who sells a couple grams or a few joints of marijuana? This is an epic waste of taxpayers money, and a tragic miscarriage of justice. C'mon Canadians, this is backward and not representative of us!!!

The legislation proposes mandatory minimum sentences for pot growers of six to twelve months or more, then goes on to detail why mandatory minimum sentances are really a bad idea:

Some opponents of the mandatory sentencing that is a feature of the drug bills have noted that the increase in costs to operate prisons will draw funds away from social programs, like those addressing improved education, health care and child poverty, which reduce crime. Incarceration is seen as poor stewardship of both money and human resources.

Other opponents of mandatory minimum sentencing have taken note of the fact that the United States, which has championed the use of such sentences for many years, is, in some cases, moving away from them. The thinking is that by depriving judges of discretion and forcing them to apply rigid and arbitrary sentencing rules, the United States built irrationality into its justice system. Yet, even though American courts mete out sentences that are double that of British and three times that of Canadian courts, the US violent crime rate is higher than in those two countries. In addition, while crime rates in both Canada and the United States have fallen by almost the same amount in recent years, the incarceration rates in the two countries have followed different patterns: in Canada, unlike in the US, there has been no substantial increase in the size of the prison population. One editorial has noted that, despite 25 years of harsh mandatory minimums, disproportionate numbers of the poor, the young, minorities and the drug addicted have been thrown in US jails with no impact on the drug business itself, which has flourished. Opponents of mandatory minimum sentences point to two Department of Justice studies that conclude that such laws are not effective and are increasingly unpopular as crime-fighting measures in other countries. A 2005 study concluded: “There is some indication that minimum sentences are not an effective sentencing tool: that is, they constrain judicial discretion without offering any increased crime prevention benefits.”

A 2002 study, meanwhile, found that mandatory minimum sentences do not appear to deter crime. The reasons for this lack of deterrence include the fact that they bar judges from using their discretion to sentence individuals. As a result, prosecutors and police take up the discretionary role, often choosing not to charge people with offences that would automatically lead to a prison term. Mandatory minimum sentences also sometimes lower conviction rates, as juries refuse to convict accused people facing automatic but seemingly unfair prison terms. Furthermore, while these types of sentences show success in deterring firearms or drunk driving crimes, they appear to have no impact on drug crime.

Can anyone comment on what the term "certain offences" means in 2.5 Clause 11 below?

2.5 Clause 11: Related Amendment

A reverse onus is placed on an accused person to show cause why he or she should be released on bail under subsection 515(6)(d) of the Criminal Code if charged with certain offences under the CDSA. Clause 11 of Bill S-10 will expand this subsection so that all of the newly amended sections 5 to 7 of the CDSA will be considered when eligibility for release on bail is being considered.

Six plants gets you six months; Only in Canada, you say...

Clause 4 Section 7(2)(a.1)

If the subject matter of the production offence is cannabis (marihuana), subsection 7(2)(b) will double the maximum possible term of imprisonment from 7 to 14 years.

(Why? Canadian crime rates have been falling for four decades and judges have ruled the existing laws are unconstitutional. This proposal would flood our courts and jails with gardeners, forcing violent criminals onto the street).

Mandatory minimum punishments will also be introduced for the production of cannabis (marihuana), with their length depending upon the number of marihuana plants produced. The minimum penalty is six months where the number of plants produced is fewer than 201 and more than five and the production is for the purpose of trafficking, while the minimum penalty is nine months where the number of plants produced is fewer than 201, the production is for the purpose of trafficking, and any of the health and safety factors also apply. If the number of plants produced is more than 200 and fewer than 501, the minimum term of imprisonment is one year, which increases to 18 months if any of the health and safety factors apply. The minimum term of imprisonment will be two years if the number of plants produced is more than 500, which will increase to three years if any of the health and safety factors apply. There is no mention of the production being for the purposes of trafficking when the number of plants is more than 200.

Anybody with six or seven plants in their backyard could face six months or more in jail, and if you happen to have a bigger operation, they'd like to keep you in prison for 14 years rather than the current maximum of 7 years.

Canadians may still have their homes and may not be in the same mood as Americans when it comes to challenging big business and banks, but this issue touches every family and the PCs have started a fight that makes them appear out of touch with reality on the ground. People would like to see penalties increased for white collar crime, financial violence so to speak, and would certainly agree with moving date rape drugs from Schedule II to Schedule I.

The indefensible anachronism is including marijuana growing as equivalent to hard drug production, when it clearly is not the same thing. Rather than jail growers, why not tax and regulate them, and jail only the tax evaders and unsafe operators?

Or does that make too much sense?

We'll be looking at this proposed new law in much more detail in coming weeks, and encourage everyone to post sections they find offensive.

Canadian Penalties for Organized Drug Crime Act, former Bill S-10 Canada full online text

Canada: Growing opposition to draconian anti-pot bill

2011-09-29T07:20:00.000-07:00

The anachronistic and vindictive proposed anti-cannabis legislation being promoted by the PCs is generating opposition from than more just pot smokers, as both the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the Canadian Bar Association have come out in opposition to this expensive and backward-looking set of laws.

From the Canadian Bar Association:

“The CBA believes that the bill will make already serious criminal justice system problems much worse, with huge resource implications,” likely referring to backed-up courts and overcrowding in BC and other jails that will only get worse if the Harper Government is intent on jailing tens of thousands more Canadian gardeners.

From the Canadian Civil Liberties Association:

“This is a flawed approach to drug offences. Mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes have not worked elsewhere, and there is no reason to believe that they will work in Canada.”

Instead of trying to make pot smoking and growing a more serious offence than rape (both minimum and maximum sentences are longer!), why not look at the financial violence caused by perpetrators of white collar crime, and increase penalties for those offences?

John Lennon's testimony at Canada's Ledain Commission

2011-09-28T18:51:00.000-07:00

For those unaware of the importance of the LeDain Commission, this panel of experts advised decriminalization of cannabis in 1972, after three years of hearings and studies. While researching certain aspects of the Commission this evening, I was pleased to come across the testimony of John Lennon at Canada's LeDain Commission into the Non-medical Use of Drugs.

Here below are some poignant excerpts; please enjoy and and share John's inspiration and wisdom.

John Lennon speaking to LeDain Commission in Canada

One thing that can be said about marijuana is that it's non-violent, and if any government wanted to use it to calm the people, they have got the ultimate weapon, and there wouldn't be any Saturday night crowds and Saturday night football fights.

Marijuana was the main thing that promoted non-violence amongst the youth, because as soon as they have it, they -- first of all you have to laugh on your first experiences. It's a community thing, and nothing would ever stop it, nothing on earth is going to stop it, and the only thing to do is to find out how to use it for good, for the best.

When we stick posters 'round saying "War is Over if You Want it", what we're trying to promote is an awareness in people of how much power they do have, and not to rely on government, or leader, or teacher so much that they're all passive or automatons, and that initial after effect of the drug scene has to be regenerated.

They have to have new hope, but everybody's looking for goals and answers, and youth especially, and what we're trying to tell them is "You are the goal!"

Nobody on earth can do it for you. Whatever you want, you must do it yourself.

Full testimony of John Lennon at Canada's LeDain Commission into the Non-medical Use of Drugs

While I am pleased to be able to read John's testimony, the fact that all of Yoko Ono's words are blacked out (as she is living) means that some of Lennon's remarks cannot be fully understood in their naked context, as Yoko has so often provided wonderful counterpoints, demonstrating their insightful rapport. The big black sections are a mystery to be solved far in the future...

Calling the NDP, Canadian activists and students; FIGHT the new pot law!!!

2011-09-28T17:04:00.000-07:00

Backward, expensive legislation first test for NDP's effectiveness

Canadian PM Harper proposes draconian changes

About four decades ago Canada decided to invest in criminal rehabilitation, and the result has been declining crime rates since 1973, to the point where our streets are safer than they have been in more than a generation. The Canadian Government is trying to take a "tough on crime" stance, yet their 19th century attitudes towards crime and punishment are not worthy of an advanced civil society such as we are.

Despite being warned by many judges that Canada's cannabis laws are unconstitutional and unenforceable, the right wing Conservative Party currently in power proposes making recreational pot growing a major crime.

Conservatives think growing herb is worse than raping children

Incredible though it may seem in this age of respect for children and tolerance of other cultures, the Canadian Government is proposing making 14 years the penalty for cannabis agriculture, versus 10 years for violently violating another human being. The minimum mandatory prison sentences for herbal gardeners are also more severe than those facing rapists.

Finally, the grandmother with 7 plants in her backyard is treated the same as a farmer with 190 plants on a half-acre of land. If they were both being treated well and fairly I would not mind this asymmetric aspect, however if the goal is to "punish the dealers" then this legislation is pure insanity.

British Columbia cannot afford putting more gardeners in overcrowded BC prisons, and Health Canada has been faced with severe cuts to medical marijuana research that were dictated by the Harper government.

NDP: You are Canada's Official Opposition, so please do something to help Canada's 4 million herb smokers, thanks kindly.

Students: Organize your friends to attend rallies and protests against this costly, unjust and vindictive law. Join the NDP or the Green Party and bring up the issue at meetings.

Activists: THIS is the battle you have been waiting for, and remember that civil disobedience and non-violence are interlinked and are keys to building a progressive, secular, civil and honest society. Organize ultra-smart, illustrative demos, rallies and statements, and you will earn the respect of Canadians and accomplish something significant for Canada, and crucial even for the progress of the planet as a whole.

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