Posts by Matthew Goody
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A look beyond the economic platform of the Liberals is evidence enough that the Liberals are certainly not the party of the true left.
Mulcair made a bad judgement going into the election that striking the middle ground on the economy was the best policy to win. He was very wrong and couldn't correct when polls started to shift.
The key issue however was that 60% of voters that wanted Harper and the Tories gone, regardless of which party could ensure it. The Conservatives have only ever had 40% of the populace to appeal to and never tried to move to capture the rest. It was left to the others to fight for the other 60%. People were exacerbated and disgusted at what almost a decade of Harper had done to the country and wanted to rally around a clear choice to guarantee change.
When Mulcair presented an economic policy that was both dull and totally unrealistic, the Liberals pounced. A prominent pollster told me that every election has a point where the polls start to shift in one direction and when it happens there's nothing the party can do to stop it. When the NDP started to lose public support, it was over for them.
More specifically, and what will emerge when the smoke clears, is that Mulcair and the NDP misread and miscalculated Quebec. It's astonishing to me how they let their influence in French Canada slip away so quickly.
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Also highly recommend that people use the Archive wayback machine to visit www.tallyho.co.nz for the great archive of posters and artwork.
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Doug of course played a hugely important role in the Flying Nun story...but most people don't even know he was briefly the singer in The Clean.
Determined to remedy this!
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I will obtain the relevant contact information and dispatch it to you and Matt.
James of EB told me he's still quite elusive. I tried to meet up in London last time to no avail.
Roger was a record store owner – I’m pretty sure he was only ever a manager
Thought i'd changed that stupid error ages ago. Must have forgotten. Thanks for spotting.
RE the Knox book. There is progress. Hope we'll have some updates very soon.
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Hard News: Friday Music: A Life of Stories, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Someone must some day do a book of David Mitchell's posters and artwork...
Here here.
Ian, you put it together and I'll publish it.
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To make matters even more depressing, this recent Stereogum article shows, the vinyl boom is also on dangerous ground at the moment:
http://www.stereogum.com/featured/have-we-reached-peak-vinyl/
Go to gigs and buy from the merch tables. Best ways to help bands directly right now. Otherwise, it's a mug's game.
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In case anyone is interested, Fire have posted pictures of the upcoming Jean-Paul Sartre Experience reissues. Bit of a Warhol vibe with the cover art. Bleeding Star will be on vinyl for the first time. I think the I Like Rain comp will include the early 4-track stuff but not confirmed.
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LWTUA a #1 and Atmosphere a #6, charted in 1981, according to Wikipedia
Atmosphere went to #1 on August 16, 1981, then dropped from there but stayed in the charts for 20 weeks. Transmission went into the charts Sept 1981, not 1979.
As for the charts in this period, especially the singles charts, let's be clear that they were FAR from scientific. Record shops owners/staff jotting down sales on a sheet of paper each week, making sure their favourite bands got a little sales bump here or there. That, and the face there were relatively small amount of new singles hitting the shelves each week, made for a perfect situation for local labels like Flying Nun to opt for releasing EPs and 7"s over LPs (that and they were cheaper!).
Alternatively, modern SoundScan in US grew increasingly unreliable as music sales moved online. Independent shops, not tied in with the SoundScan system, were shifting pretty solid units (especially vinyl) in the late '90s and throughout the '00s and much of this was never being reflected in the charts.
They still play re-runs of the Casey Kasem's American Top 40 show every week on the Oldies radio station here. They're doing about 1976 right now, and let me tell you, most of it makes my ears burn.
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Hard News: Behind Baltimore, in reply to Russell Brown,
It still seems to me that the drug war is the major component of all the American judicial gimmickry
For certain. Also essential in fostering a situation where African Americans cannot find work, are deprived of education and are totally barred from participating in the political system.
Key stats about Freddie Gray's Baltimore neighbourhood:
https://twitter.com/_cingraham/status/592884827952652288
And also the staggering income disparity between sections of Baltimore:
http://blogs-images.forbes.com/dandiamond/files/2015/04/Two.Baltimores.2.png
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Personally think David Simon is way off in his commentary. While the arguments for decriminalizing drugs are persuasive overall, to suggest that ending the war on drugs and getting back to 'real policing' will somehow provide the antidote to the poverty, racism and police brutality in Baltimore doesn't really address the deep seeded anger in the community.
His initial commentary on the protest and telling people to go home was also groan inducing.
Lanre Bakare's response to him in the Guardian is a good read.
