Disco was an interesting musical movement because it brought diverse groups to the dance floor:Hispanic, black and gender-diverse groups mixing with middle class whites. And then, seemingly over-night, it was shut down by the “disco sucks” movement. Remember that? Who was behind that? AM radio? The Christian right? This set North America social inclusivity back several decades. Maybe we need a musical movement for freedom now.
hmm... you locked out comments for episode 4 and made them available to only paid subscribers.
unfortunately Charlie, I have no money as I am on CPP disability and paying rent in a Toronto apartment building. you ain't getting money from me anytime soon. so, I thought I could add something to your episode 4 using the episode 3 comment section.
First, everything you said is true, about going from analog to digital DIY.
I just want to throw in some important influencers you didn't mention:
In my opinion, these three were the main incubators, concert producers/promotors, and developers of Toronto's - and maybe the world's music scene.
But, there's a long history behind them, and it's not the point I wanted to make about the digital transition. There are many other leaders around the world that made contributions.
But, these three DID deserve mention:
Particularly Steve. He never could play or sing - but he loved listening to music. And he did everything he could to foster musical talent.
This was especially true at the Toronto store, which was located around many nightclubs. The Horseshoe Tavern is across the street, the El Mocambo around the corner. The Silver Dollar just to the North. The Drake Hotel to the East. All within walking distance.
And, Steve even built a small stage inside the store to host concerts. That stage is gone now.
Steve offered brand name instruments from all the makers and sold them at steeply discounted prices to musicians that otherwise couldn't afford them.
The store still has a custom guitar manufacturing shop that can build a guitar to any specifications. And, of course, that shop is able to fully recondition damaged guitars.
He also sold lighting, sound equipment, mixing boards, and recording devices for DIY home production, again within reachable prices.
And, he made everything he sold available in the store to try out.
Many bands who came to play in Toronto, like the Rolling Stones, dropped into Steve's. There, they could checkout and try the latest things on the market - without anybody noticing.
Because, when you visited Steve's, as I had regularly, you tend to find everybody in that store coincidently looks and sounds like some rock star. 🤔
Sometimes Steve talked lessor known musicians into doing a concert inside the store. So, while Steve didn't produce concerts at the CNE, he enabled bands like yours to acquire equipment and even gave them somewhere to play. 👍
Sniderman and Waters, however, did produce concerts. Sniderman was good at advocating for and luring big international names to perform in Toronto. Like Steve, Sniderman built relationships with musicians, and many visiting Toronto would head to his store for hard to find records.
CHUM, under Waters, would step in and arrange the facilities, promotion, secondary acts, and generally manage the concerts most of which came from Sniderman's leads.
So, when we talk about the collapse of Toronto's music scene, it's partly because all three of these men have died and they took their passions with them to the grave.
But, I digress.
Let's talk about CuBase, Notator, an Finale.
Now, there's three digital disruptors if there ever were any.
These computer programs came out around 1986, exclusively for the Atari ST. At the time, Atari Canada primarily serviced the Toronto market.
Because of the Toronto Atari Federation, there was greater sustained interest in the platform here, than in the USA which was dominated by Apple and IBM. The only other place that had a bigger Atari following was Germany.
The Atari platform was several thousands of dollars cheaper, and these programs were not available on Apple or IBM.
They are scoring, mixing, and instrument control systems that replace anything a professional musician does. They are equivalent to what the word processor did to professional writing, previously done on typewriters with correction fluid.
Together with Roland and MIDI connections, you could have a full scale orchestra in your room that was truely spatially authentic.
And, the MIDI could also operate sound mixers and tape decks. You didn't even need any sound engineers to produce a recording.
Suddenly in Toronto, anybody could make a high caliber professional song in a fraction of the time, from their bedroom. They could print their work as sheet music and give it to their band members to practice.
This de-mistified music and turned it from something rare and special into a commodity that super saturated the market.
Suddenly, Toronto's Kim Mitchell's song "Patio Lanterns" (which is pretty decent) got thrown into Zellers discount bins.
The same thing happened with the printing industry. People could produce their own advertising rags at home using desktop computers.
Anybody can produce and report on news. As a result, journalism is dieing because of market supersaturation.
It's like Star Wars. When it first came out in 1977, it was unique and special. Now, there are so many Star Wars franchises that have far better special effects which are cheaper to produce, nobody cares if they miss any them.
Now, about those shock jockey talking heads. I knew one from CFTR before it went completely talk, who then became a lawyer. It wasn't an act. He really was a jerk both before AND after.
But, why stations hire jerks that alienate listeners, who then drop all business with their advertisers is beyond me. It doesn't make good business sense to me. it's the best way to lose audiences and severe relationships.
cause, we live in an experience economy (going back to what Steve did). And, people just don't like bad experiences.
I remember my kids in their early teens, were petrifies after watching that movie. I literally had to sit with them and say “run home, find each other and run home” they asked what I would do. I said I’ll drive home. My son asked what if your battery is dead. I said, “Then I’ll run home to you” then what they asked. Then we will get our dog and all get in bed together and we will hug each other close. I didn’t know what else to say.
My recollections of this kind of thing are mainly a mainstream movie and a CBC TV adaptation of a Canadian play. The first was War Games . . . lighthearted and kind of silly, but still posing the basic questions about nuclear war pretty strongly. "Strange game . . . the only way to win is not to play."
The second probably few remember, but I found it incredibly chilling and yet darkly hilarious: "Last Call: A Postnuclear Cabaret". The adaptation has the characters wandering into a half-destroyed CBC studio--you first see them sideways until one of them picks up the camera and sets it right way up. And since the lead is having fun with the concept of someone still being out there watching, he busily queues the commercials . . . so even the commercial breaks felt like you were still maybe in that post-nuclear world. I can still remember the anecdote the guy, who was slowly dying of radiation, recounted about some rich man: "He had his own valley in the rockies, with machine shops and supplies and security and the whole nine yards--he was READY. Unfortunately for him, the day the bomb dropped he was in Burnaby for a dentist appointment."
A great read!! As a member of the Greater Victoria Peace School we hold an annual event regarding the bombing of Hiroshima/Nagasaki 80 years ago, to remind our community that this should never be allowed to happen again!! Carol Pickup
This is an incredible reminder of how ordinary people can organize to do extraordinary things. Something we need to recall for what we are facing to day - — never give up!!
#1 'MAD' - you equate US and Soviet tactics while Regan was pushing the technological envelope to a first strike capability; you decry MAD as the problem - but Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) was a philosophy of conflict that *prevented* a nuclear exchange. You're uninformed opinion is a child-like take I hear a lot these days from the younger generations (I'm your age) - a function of a rewrite of history by those in high places in the Pentagon and NATO who want to fight a first strike or tactical nuclear war today.
As a student leader at the U of W, our executive decided to rebrand our student pub, (cc101) as "the Bomb Shelter". We weren't happy with Reagan's renaming his missile defence system as Peace Makers.
I was so busy & preoccupied with my own life in the '80's, Charlie.
I realize now that I am old that for many people, life gets in the way of consciousness about the world's state.
The 1980's: I got married (still together, since 1978), started & finished nursing school, moved to a new city & an unknown subculture (moved to Ventura County & worked briefly in LA County), had our 2 sons, 4 years apart.
😮
So, although I vaguely remember the "world" in the '80's, it is a blur compared to the memories of that decade in my personal life.
I love this...something to look forward to....thank you My youngest Son ..53 now had nightmares for years.....I grew up with a cousin, who vowed he was never going to have children because of the fear
My daughter (now 42) "marched", pushed in her stroller at several anti-nuke demos in Toronto in 1983. Got her off to a good start, raised her right. She recently took her son to his first march, an anti-genocide demo in Amsterdam, getting him off on the right foot as well. Elbows up runs in our family!
Disco was an interesting musical movement because it brought diverse groups to the dance floor:Hispanic, black and gender-diverse groups mixing with middle class whites. And then, seemingly over-night, it was shut down by the “disco sucks” movement. Remember that? Who was behind that? AM radio? The Christian right? This set North America social inclusivity back several decades. Maybe we need a musical movement for freedom now.
hmm... you locked out comments for episode 4 and made them available to only paid subscribers.
unfortunately Charlie, I have no money as I am on CPP disability and paying rent in a Toronto apartment building. you ain't getting money from me anytime soon. so, I thought I could add something to your episode 4 using the episode 3 comment section.
First, everything you said is true, about going from analog to digital DIY.
I just want to throw in some important influencers you didn't mention:
Sam Sniderman
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Sniderman
Allan Waters and his CHUM Empire
https://broadcasting-history.ca/radio/radio-groups/chum-ltd-1944-2008/
Steve Kirman and Steve's Music
https://www.namm.org/library/oral-history/michael-kirman
In my opinion, these three were the main incubators, concert producers/promotors, and developers of Toronto's - and maybe the world's music scene.
But, there's a long history behind them, and it's not the point I wanted to make about the digital transition. There are many other leaders around the world that made contributions.
But, these three DID deserve mention:
Particularly Steve. He never could play or sing - but he loved listening to music. And he did everything he could to foster musical talent.
This was especially true at the Toronto store, which was located around many nightclubs. The Horseshoe Tavern is across the street, the El Mocambo around the corner. The Silver Dollar just to the North. The Drake Hotel to the East. All within walking distance.
And, Steve even built a small stage inside the store to host concerts. That stage is gone now.
Steve offered brand name instruments from all the makers and sold them at steeply discounted prices to musicians that otherwise couldn't afford them.
The store still has a custom guitar manufacturing shop that can build a guitar to any specifications. And, of course, that shop is able to fully recondition damaged guitars.
He also sold lighting, sound equipment, mixing boards, and recording devices for DIY home production, again within reachable prices.
And, he made everything he sold available in the store to try out.
Many bands who came to play in Toronto, like the Rolling Stones, dropped into Steve's. There, they could checkout and try the latest things on the market - without anybody noticing.
Because, when you visited Steve's, as I had regularly, you tend to find everybody in that store coincidently looks and sounds like some rock star. 🤔
Sometimes Steve talked lessor known musicians into doing a concert inside the store. So, while Steve didn't produce concerts at the CNE, he enabled bands like yours to acquire equipment and even gave them somewhere to play. 👍
Sniderman and Waters, however, did produce concerts. Sniderman was good at advocating for and luring big international names to perform in Toronto. Like Steve, Sniderman built relationships with musicians, and many visiting Toronto would head to his store for hard to find records.
CHUM, under Waters, would step in and arrange the facilities, promotion, secondary acts, and generally manage the concerts most of which came from Sniderman's leads.
So, when we talk about the collapse of Toronto's music scene, it's partly because all three of these men have died and they took their passions with them to the grave.
But, I digress.
Let's talk about CuBase, Notator, an Finale.
Now, there's three digital disruptors if there ever were any.
These computer programs came out around 1986, exclusively for the Atari ST. At the time, Atari Canada primarily serviced the Toronto market.
Because of the Toronto Atari Federation, there was greater sustained interest in the platform here, than in the USA which was dominated by Apple and IBM. The only other place that had a bigger Atari following was Germany.
The Atari platform was several thousands of dollars cheaper, and these programs were not available on Apple or IBM.
They are scoring, mixing, and instrument control systems that replace anything a professional musician does. They are equivalent to what the word processor did to professional writing, previously done on typewriters with correction fluid.
Together with Roland and MIDI connections, you could have a full scale orchestra in your room that was truely spatially authentic.
And, the MIDI could also operate sound mixers and tape decks. You didn't even need any sound engineers to produce a recording.
Suddenly in Toronto, anybody could make a high caliber professional song in a fraction of the time, from their bedroom. They could print their work as sheet music and give it to their band members to practice.
This de-mistified music and turned it from something rare and special into a commodity that super saturated the market.
Suddenly, Toronto's Kim Mitchell's song "Patio Lanterns" (which is pretty decent) got thrown into Zellers discount bins.
The same thing happened with the printing industry. People could produce their own advertising rags at home using desktop computers.
Anybody can produce and report on news. As a result, journalism is dieing because of market supersaturation.
It's like Star Wars. When it first came out in 1977, it was unique and special. Now, there are so many Star Wars franchises that have far better special effects which are cheaper to produce, nobody cares if they miss any them.
Now, about those shock jockey talking heads. I knew one from CFTR before it went completely talk, who then became a lawyer. It wasn't an act. He really was a jerk both before AND after.
But, why stations hire jerks that alienate listeners, who then drop all business with their advertisers is beyond me. It doesn't make good business sense to me. it's the best way to lose audiences and severe relationships.
cause, we live in an experience economy (going back to what Steve did). And, people just don't like bad experiences.
hey guys, keep up the pressure on the guy with no brains
🍁 Elbows and SIGNS UP!
the next nation wide protest is being organized by 50501:
Saturday August 2nd 2025
RAGE against the REGIME
https://www.rageagainsttheregime.org/
THATS IN ONE WEEK!
We are the freight train.
🚂🇨🇦🇬🇧🇫🇷🇯🇵🇦🇺🇩🇪🇺🇦🇸🇳🇳🇱🇰🇷🇵🇱🏴🇻🇦
Nationwide 'Rage Against the Regime' Protest Planned for August 2
https://www.newsweek.com/rage-against-regime-protest-jeffrey-epstein-trump-2104497
🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁
2CELLOS - Highway To Hell feat. Steve Vai [OFFICIAL VIDEO]
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qfGggAGITwg
🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁
Keep protests peaceful.
Don't kill anyone.
Here are resistance related guides from around the world:
🇺🇸 Fundamentals of physical surveillance: a guide for uniformed and plainclothes personnel
https://archive.org/details/fundamentalsofph0000silj
The RCMP has its own publications including:
🇨🇦 GCPSG-022 (2025) - Threat and Risk Assessment Guide
GCPSG-010 (2022) - Operational Physical Security Guide
🇨🇦 GCPSG-019 (2023) - Protection, Detection, Response, and Recovery Guide
https://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/physec-secmat/pubs/index-eng.htm
The non-profit Electronic Frontier Foundation also has excellent guides on:
🇺🇸 Street Level Surveillance
https://sls.eff.org
🇺🇸 Surveillance Self-Defense
https://ssd.eff.org/
🇪🇺 🇸🇪⚠️ Resistance Operating Concept
https://jsou.edu/Press/PublicationDashboard/25
🇺🇦 🇺🇲 Radio Free Ukraine Resistance Manual
https://radiofreeukraine.com/3d-flip-book/resistance-manual/
⚠️ John Hopkins University:
Assessing Revolutionary And Insurgent Strategies (ARIS) Studies
This one is used a lot by ICE, so the Trump Regime keeps suppressing it. Here are alternate links as it keeps getting moved around by the good guys:
Small Wars Journal
Assessing Revolutionary and Insurgent Strategies (ARIS) Project
https://archive.smallwarsjournal.com/blog/assessing-revolutionary-and-insurgent-strategies-aris-project
Author's website:
On Resistance, Revolutions, and Insurgencies
https://zimmerer.typepad.com/resistance/
Free PDF download of the book from the original author:
Casebook on Insurgency and Revolutionary Warfare, Volume II 1962 - 2009
http://zimmerer.typepad.com/Documents/ARIS%20Casebook%20Vol%202%202012%20s.pdf
⚠️ Civilian-Based Defense: A Post-Military Weapons System
https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/resource/civilian-based-defense-a-post-military-weapons-system/
🏁 Simple Sabotage Field Manual by United States Office of Strategic Services
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26184?ref=404media.co
⚠️ Library of Congress
Revelations from the Russian archives: documents in English translation
https://www.loc.gov/item/96024752
🏁 Robert Reich/Resistance School
Communicating Across Difference
https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaT8gjnOmQl3dguy0_E0vVCL5ZYEyCTzu
🏁 Bernie Sanders:
https://m.youtube.com/@BernieSanders
🏁 CPJ Committee to Protect Journalists:
Safety Kit
https://cpj.org/safety-kit/
🏁 Activist Handbook:
https://activisthandbook.org/introduction
(⚠️ These are USA sponsered websites. Some publications may have been removed by the Trump regime)
I remember my kids in their early teens, were petrifies after watching that movie. I literally had to sit with them and say “run home, find each other and run home” they asked what I would do. I said I’ll drive home. My son asked what if your battery is dead. I said, “Then I’ll run home to you” then what they asked. Then we will get our dog and all get in bed together and we will hug each other close. I didn’t know what else to say.
My recollections of this kind of thing are mainly a mainstream movie and a CBC TV adaptation of a Canadian play. The first was War Games . . . lighthearted and kind of silly, but still posing the basic questions about nuclear war pretty strongly. "Strange game . . . the only way to win is not to play."
The second probably few remember, but I found it incredibly chilling and yet darkly hilarious: "Last Call: A Postnuclear Cabaret". The adaptation has the characters wandering into a half-destroyed CBC studio--you first see them sideways until one of them picks up the camera and sets it right way up. And since the lead is having fun with the concept of someone still being out there watching, he busily queues the commercials . . . so even the commercial breaks felt like you were still maybe in that post-nuclear world. I can still remember the anecdote the guy, who was slowly dying of radiation, recounted about some rich man: "He had his own valley in the rockies, with machine shops and supplies and security and the whole nine yards--he was READY. Unfortunately for him, the day the bomb dropped he was in Burnaby for a dentist appointment."
A great read!! As a member of the Greater Victoria Peace School we hold an annual event regarding the bombing of Hiroshima/Nagasaki 80 years ago, to remind our community that this should never be allowed to happen again!! Carol Pickup
My god we are so much more than our leaders
“I hope the Russians love their children too”
Sting.
So needed at the time.
This is an incredible reminder of how ordinary people can organize to do extraordinary things. Something we need to recall for what we are facing to day - — never give up!!
Incredible story and a great reminder of what we have so sadly forgotten. Thank you!!
#1 'MAD' - you equate US and Soviet tactics while Regan was pushing the technological envelope to a first strike capability; you decry MAD as the problem - but Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) was a philosophy of conflict that *prevented* a nuclear exchange. You're uninformed opinion is a child-like take I hear a lot these days from the younger generations (I'm your age) - a function of a rewrite of history by those in high places in the Pentagon and NATO who want to fight a first strike or tactical nuclear war today.
Lose the arrogant anger and try a constructive expression of your point of view. Done with bullies of all stripes.
You can't hear what I'm saying and the tone you perceive is telling.
I was arrested at Litton; trained with ACT at Hart House.
As a student leader at the U of W, our executive decided to rebrand our student pub, (cc101) as "the Bomb Shelter". We weren't happy with Reagan's renaming his missile defence system as Peace Makers.
I was so busy & preoccupied with my own life in the '80's, Charlie.
I realize now that I am old that for many people, life gets in the way of consciousness about the world's state.
The 1980's: I got married (still together, since 1978), started & finished nursing school, moved to a new city & an unknown subculture (moved to Ventura County & worked briefly in LA County), had our 2 sons, 4 years apart.
😮
So, although I vaguely remember the "world" in the '80's, it is a blur compared to the memories of that decade in my personal life.
THAT is why your perspective is so important!
Thank you, Charlie!
If you thought the Day After was something, try the British docudrama Threads!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvFu7Z5cc88&t=3344s
I love this...something to look forward to....thank you My youngest Son ..53 now had nightmares for years.....I grew up with a cousin, who vowed he was never going to have children because of the fear
My daughter (now 42) "marched", pushed in her stroller at several anti-nuke demos in Toronto in 1983. Got her off to a good start, raised her right. She recently took her son to his first march, an anti-genocide demo in Amsterdam, getting him off on the right foot as well. Elbows up runs in our family!