Daily Archives: May 25, 2011

Pig Paper: Canada 1975 Issue No.01, The Who coming to Toronto 1

All, Lighter side of life, Pig Paper • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Pig Paper was Canada’s very first self-published music fanzine, and for twelve years reported not only on the birth of that country’s independent music scene, but came to exemplify and epitomize the very DIY ethic itself.

Beginning life in the early Seventies as record-hunting correspondence between founder/publisher Gary Pig Gold and his oldest friend, Doug “Rock Serling” Pelton, the first Pig Paper to be made available to the public was a mock-concert program sold during a 1975 appearance by The Who in Toronto.

Within two years, The Pig Paper was covering Canada’s nascent punk rock community, publishing some of the first-ever in-depth articles on such bands as Teenage Head, The Viletones, and Simply Saucer as well as early reviews and interviews with The Ramones, Sex Pistols, Talking Heads and many others. Each issue also contained material on vintage acts such as The Beach Boys and Elvis Presley, as well as offering performers such as Half Japanese and Jandek many of their initial appearances in print. More…

About these ads

CBPP CHART: Bush Policies Dominant Cause Of National Debt 2

All, News: US, Politics - US • Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has updated and refined a widely cited chart, laying out the origins of the country’s current fiscal trajectory. And as before, the lion’s share of the problem comes from ongoing George W. Bush-era policies — particularly deficit-financed tax cuts, which eliminated Clinton-era surpluses and left the Treasury poised for a huge hit when the financial crisis and economic downturn further eroded federal revenues.

By the end of the decade, CBPP projects that, on the current trajectory, the Bush tax cuts, exacerbated by the economic downturn, combined with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will account for the significant majority of public debt as a share of GDP.

Without those factors, and without the need for stimulus measures under President Obama, CBPP projects that the debt-to-GDP ratio would have dropped under both Presidents Bush and Obama.

Aerial footage of Joplin MO, destroyed by EF-5 tornado Reply

All, Natural Disasters, News: US • Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Aerial photos of the Missouri city of Joplin taken on Tuesday showed the widespread devastation wrought by the record-breaking tornado that struck over the weekend, with entire neighborhoods reduced to rubble and massive buildings levelled. The National Weather Service said Sunday’s twister was an EF-5, the strongest rating assigned to tornadoes, with winds of more than 200 miles per hour. With 122 people confirmed dead so far, it was the deadliest single twister since the National Weather Service began keeping official records in 1950 and the eighth-deadliest in US history.