Notes From The Den 6-9-08 Hey Den-ziens, On Tuesday night I beat every major news outlet by reporting on Lazlo's Den that Barack Obama had won the Democrat party's nomination a good half hour or more before everyone else did. So remember that Lazlo's Den is not just a source of good music, but we give you news before it officially happens :) ~~~ Lots of stuff happening on Lazlo's Den this week: Tuesday is new music Tuesday featuring new music from Agency, Stuyvesant, The Black And White Years, Trevy, Golden Animals, Copper Box, Della Valle, Sam Phillips, and more. Wednesday will feature an interview with Shift (www.shiftpages.com), and Thursday will have an interview with Switches (www.switchesmusic.co.uk). Next week Lazlo's Den will spotlight the Wave Gathering (www.wavegathering.com) every night, and have an interview with Gordon Brown, one of the organizers of the festival happening throughout Asbury Park. And don't forget to check out the new Lazlo's Den Fan Club on ThePenguinRocks.com http://thepenguinrocks.ning.com/group/lazlosdenfanclub ~~~ The next BlowUpRadio.com Free Concert at Buddie's Tavern will be on Saturday June 28th and will feature sets by Agency, Keith Monacchio (from The Commons), and Matt Colligan. ~~~ And now it's time for this week's Pissed Off! Well it finally happened. The president didn't believe it just a few short months ago (neither did one of my staunch Republican friends, who then later apologized when he realized he was wrong), but over the weekend the national gas price average reached $4.00. Sadly, it shows no signs of stopping there. Now that we know that Barack Obama will be facing off against John McCain in the presidential election we need to let it be known that we want both of them to agree to legislation like California's former ZEV mandate. As I discussed a few months back here in this column, the documentary "Who Killed The Electric Car" is largely about California Air Resources Board passing of the ZEV mandate in 1990, how it led to GM making the EV1 (electric vehicle), and how pressure from many fronts caused the California Air Resources Board to overturn their mandate. This killed the electric car. Now more than ever though, we need this mandate. A ZEV (Zero-emissions Vehicle), according to California's Air Resources Board (CARB), is a vehicle that has: No tailpipe emissions No evaporative emissions No onboard emission-control systems that can deteriorate over time No emissions from gasoline refining or sales http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-emissions_vehicle Environmentally sound, and non-oil reliant, these vehicles are good for everyone. But as usual, instead of the government getting in on this, activist entertainment figures are. Several are profiled in "Who Killed The Electric Car" (most notably Ed Begley Jr, and Tom Hanks), but Neil Young is going so far as to have his classic 1959 Lincoln Continental convertible to operate on an electric battery. http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/ptech/06/02/young.electric.car.ap/index.html The time is now for us to contact both presidential candidates and make sure they know that America wants a ZEV mandate. ~~~ That's all for this week. Thanks for reading. Peace, Lazlo www.LazlosDen.com