Issue 11, Volume 1
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Our On The Streets section occurs in a parkade, where I often see this panama yellow '58 Corvette, complete with appropriate year of Alberta plates. The iconic American sports car seen here was still in its' infancy. Imagine that only a few years before this car could only come with a 'blue flame' inline 6 cylinder. It was the late 60's where large eight cylinder engines with more displacement and more power started to be pushed by guys like Virgil Exner, or GM president Harley Earl, champion of the 'Vette. Still a C1 (first generation corvette) in 1957, the Corvette would gain and be the poster child for Chevrolet's 283 cubic inch V8 putting out 290hp in fuel injected form. The 1958 model gained the twin headlights and more chrome seen here. Although carbureted engines would become the more popular option until the 1980's, in the late 50's Chevrolet wanted exotic sports car status. One of the most exotic and winning race cars of the era was the Mercedes SL300 (gullwing) sports car, which featured fuel injection. The 283 engine could be even had in trucks, and sedans like the bel-air 150/250 versions. This car frequently is seen in the parking lot, and is sometimes replaced by a Jeep Grand Cherokee on inclement weather days. With summer drawing to a close, this individual may not be taking his prized possession to work too much longer. By the way, tying it all in; there was a steep recession in 1958. Between 1958 and 1964, things weren't so fantastic, but they weren't nearly as bad as they are now. Probably was one of the reasons the Edsel failed so hard, thinking back.
Economic Collapse: The Second Recession
If you've ever taken a look at a chart at a bank, usually there's one on the wall somewhere. These charts are available for special order every year, and feature just about everything on them. They include the value of the dollar, value of gold, GDP, market index (TSX, S&P, NYSE), price of oil, interest rate...basically everything you could use to see how an economy is doing, except maybe unemployment (and I don't know - that very well could be on there). If you happen to take a look at one of these graphs, you'll notice that just about everything except the price of oil (which seems to go up and down based on no other factors) is always consistantly up. That means if you wait long enough, the mutual funds you hold will eventually be worth more than they are today. Meanwhile, you'll notice they take a dip and rise back up about every 10 years or so.
What you don't see: them take a dip, plateau, slowly rise, and then take another dip within 5 years.
Indeed Benjamin Tal, Cheif Deputy Economist at CIBC believes we are inches away from being in the depths of another recession. Himself, and other economists are calling this the worst period in economic recovery since the great depression.
Consumer confidence is down, says Tal, but it's a great time to buy houses. That is because the interest rate is so low, and the market is down. Meanwhile, we are experiencing a horrible time of 'stagflation' - inflation in price without economic growth. Usually what you get paid, coincides with price increases. Except one day we had huge inflation, and now everyone puts everything on their credit cards, and finances stuff. Alright, moving along...
It was estimated that inflation was about 3% overall for Canada, which wasn't too bad. The things that inflated the most, however, are things we're going to feel. So while the price of a flat screen television might have changed from $680 to $700.40, we don't necessarily need to buy a flat screen T.V. this year. We can hold on until our wage rate goes up. But what do we need to do. Well we need to eat, and put gas in our cars. Gas was up a staggering 27% over this time in 2010. Food was up something like 14%, and the cost of home insurance and utilities, 9%. Meaning, on average, paying for things you actually used went up about 17% in price. So if your household bills, say, your utilities cost you $300/mo, gasoline $200/mo, and groceries about $300/mo for a grand total of $800/mo, you would be paying $936 a month now without any increase in volume, service, amount, or pay rate.
So, what's the solution? Well, unfortunately, for Canada, all we can do is hold on. This isn't a regular recession. A regular recession would see interest rates stay low, and consumer confidence stay high to assist recovery. However, this recession was created by the United States nearly defaulting, and their dollar devaluing so much. We depend on our dollar being lower than theirs, because we are largely an exporting nation. While we hold our interest rates low (great if you're paying back prime + ___ loans or buying a house) to keep our money as worthless as possible, it's not helping.
Here are some great economic tips during this time:
-buy some mutual funds if you can afford it.
-pay down as much debt as you can right now while interest rates are low.
-find ways to save. Shut off the lights, wear a sweater, use alternative transportation.
-buy locally -> spend money on Canadian products, that will help our own economy
-eat locally -> buy your groceries at a farmers' market, etc.
These will inspire Canadian market consumer confidence, and as well, save you money, while you don't have to resort to eating KD. They will assist at a local level first, which is where the growth needs to stem from at this point.
Good luck!
Jack Layton; A Few Words
The honorable Jack Layton recently left us due to that ugliest of C words - cancer. I have only a few words to say. I think whether or not you voted for him, or particularly liked him, you recognize at this point now what he is worth to Canada as a whole, and Canadian politics. Layton brought the NDP, and its new-generation politics to become the official opposition, after being irrelevant for years. He, and the party, were champions of welfare and equality. Even if you are a Conservative, you recognize that you live in Canada, and things like 'social programs' are essential. That's what Layton stood for. Not afraid to poke fun at himself, we remember him smiling into the camera with a pitcher of beer from a pub during the Olympics. We remember him stealing Rick Mercer's bike on the Mercer report. While the NDP will get a new leader, there likely won't be another like Layton, at least for a long time to come. I would like to extend my thanks, not as anyone who is rah-rah NDP (I'm not going to reveal my political affiliation here, because it's irrelevent) to Jack Layton for his fight for Canada.
Thanks.
The Joy Formidable: The Big Roar
So once upon a time, there was this band I'd never heard of that was all of a sudden put on the Sonic Boom lineup list. And then they had sort of an infectious song called, "Whirring."
Well, I have news for you, if you've only been listening to this band on the radio. That song has a wicked double kick section that only a metal enthusiast would be able to truly appreciate that they don't play.
I have more news for you: female vocalist lead bands are...making a comeback? Making headway?
I've never seen such a time where male and female in rock music had been so equal, except at certain points. The first was the inception of rock n' roll. June was on Johnny and the rest of Sun Records' tour. Then there were a few bands along the way, until the late 60's, when Joplin killed it as the lead of Big Brother Holding Co. And then during the punk movement, there were artists like Patti Smith became famous.
But then there were the 80's, and that was horrible. There was the 90's and that was horrible too (except for grunge) and the 2000's which was also horrible. And there were the spice girls. That ruined it for everyone.
Now girls don't sing in girl groups anymore. They take control of groups like the Joy Formidable.
So how does that album shape up? Aside from the fantastic Manchester accent of Ritzy Bryan, this album is the standard in alternative rock today. A lot of synthesizers. Luckily there was that great wall of British fuzz guitar throughout, with some punk undertones that I could hang on to. Had this been another synth-pop-alt-rock standard equipment group, I wouldn't be talking about them right now. But overall, their song writing is solid.
The Joy Formidable released The Big Roar, their first full length on January 24th of this year, and it took a while, since it was their first full length, to catch on. It hit only 31 in the UK, but 8 on the US charts. Meanwhile, Whirring, the first single off of that album has hit 10 on the CAN charts, 38 on the US Rock charts, and hasn't placed on the UK charts. Crazy, eh?
The first single, Austere was actually a re-release of their 2009 UK single. For this, the album is a little disjointed. While Whirring is upbeat and fast, and sometimes a wall of noise, other songs are darker, but all with a fairly steady pace, and a lot of distortion. This wasn't a band that was influenced by The Cure, for example, or even maybe The Clash. Instead we get a lot of classic brit-rock licks, as if AC/DC snuck in there somewhere and lent them their huge Marshall stacks (indeed TJF does play with big Marshalls) but then, the sensibility of brit rock got angry and New Order showed up and gave them some keyboards too. Actually, I could probably draw a pretty good line between Joy Division and The Joy Formidable, especially with Rhydian Dafydd, bass player, indicating the album is emotionally manic depressive.
Highlights include the extended version of Whirring and other tracks like The Everchanging Spectrum Of A Lie, which force the listener to enjoy sonic walls of music. Then there are more simple tracks, like the closing The Greatest Light is the Greatest Shade that are simply enjoyable to listen to because of their poppy and simple beats.
You could easily slip this album into your 'sounds of summer' collection. I'm glad to hear a synth pop band that hasn't abandoned it's rock roots, and can still make a wall of distortion in a minor key. I rate this album about a 6.5/10. I feel TJF still has a ways to go before doing something that will really hit audiences hard and chart well. This album, being some newer songs, some written on the road, and some older EP re-releases isn't cohesive in all places, and certainly not linear. But it's a great first album from a band that you can bet will be back in a big way, if they can keep the excitement of songs like Whirring going on their sophomore effort.
Letters To The Editor
rbw2@ualberta.ca
Next Week
-It's the end-of-summer edition, with all sorts of cool wrap up articles, many suggested by you, the reader. What did you love about this summer? What did you hate? The sounds of summer music list, and photos!
Milestones
Our fashion issue proved to be our most popular issue, and we now have over 400 readers. Thank you!
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