Earlier this year, Zia Records released a 20-track compilation called You Heard Us Back When, which featured bands from Las Vegas, Phoenix and Tucson (the three cities with Zia outposts). Locals such as The Clydesdale and Big Friendly Corporation nabbed a spot on the comp and subsequently were signed by Interscope Records to multimillion-dollar contracts.

OK. That didn’t happen — that is, the signing and the million-dollar contract part. It’s hard to say how those bands benefited from their inclusion on the CD, but You Heard Us… did sell out and that means a lot of people now knew those bands’ music.

So, enterprising and exposure-hungry local musicians, it would behoove you to submit in person an original song for Volume 2 (no later than August 31). Not only will you have the ears of music fans here and in Arizona, should you win a spot on the comp, but you’ll have the heart of a Good Samaritan, as some of the album’s proceeds will go to non-profits pushing for music education in school.

And for you non-musicians who just want to sample some Southwestern flavors, the disc is likely to come out in October.

For information, visit www.ziarecords.com.

Across the valley today, politically and economically aware Las Vegans are celebrating. No, they’re not marking the 63rd anniversary of the explosion of our first experimental atomic bomb in the deserts around Alamogordo, N.M. And no, they’re not congratulating former U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh on both his 76th birthday and his willingness to attack his fellow Republicans for the rash of politically motivated prosecutions in the Department of Justice.

Instead, some of them are celebrating July 16 as Cost of Government Day, or the day of the year when we’ve finally earned enough to pay for the wasteful federal, state and local tax burdens placed on us by our government and corporate masters. For years, the nonpartisan Citizens Against Government Waste has cheered this annual emancipation - although they do warn that rising federal spending has pushed Cost of Government Day deeper into the calendar each year. Last year, it was held on July 12. In 2000, Cost of Government Day fell on June 30. These guys at CAGW have a point.

Some might ask what do we Nevadans have to bitch about — at least concerning state tax burdens. We don’t pay state income taxes here, after all. And the state and local taxes we do pay, such as sales tax, property tax and various business taxes, can’t be honestly called a burden, since we take great pride in funding our public and social services at near-Third World levels.

Turn your fire on Washington, some say for your ever-lengthening indentured servitude. Under President George W. Bush, the government has already spent $2.2 trillion so far this federal fiscal year, which end Sept. 30. His spending plans for fiscal 2009? You don’t want to know. (OK, you probably do, so go here.)

Coupled with the tax breaks for the rich that he ushered in years ago (tax breaks which U.S. Sen. John McCain now wants to make permanent - in shades of John Kerry, McCain says he voted against them before he voted for them), the $17.2 billion in federal pork spending (of which our men - and woman - in Washington are responsible for $449.6 million) and the national housing meltdown which administration and Wall Street regulators knowingly allowed, Bush & Co. have left our economy in tatters. As a result of this administration’s efforts, our economy is less stable than a Strip sex crime victim, left addled and sweating on the side of the road while the in-crowd party rolls on through the night.

So, go ahead, Las Vegas! Celebrate Cost of Government Day by going out to the mall and buying yourselves something special. That is, if you can still afford the gas to drive there.

I’m so gonna miss Circus Circus when (face it) it’s eventually imploded in a cloud of pink particulate clown blood matter or, um, whatever holds it together (carnie sorcery? dwarven magicks?). Not only is Circus² a place where the great unwashed like me can find good values, but it also answers the lingering sociological question of what it would be like if Ringling Bros. operated Venezuela’s prisons.

So there I found myself Saturday night (for reasons still unclear to me), paddling through the casino amid frothy breakers of barking humanity, a veritable mosh pit brought to you by Marlboro Lights. I didn’t realize at the time that I was, in fact, having fun!!!! After I got home and teabagged my corpus in a kiddie pool filled with Lysol, I made a list of what I like most about Circus Circus.

1. It’s one of the few resorts where you can valet-park your flip flops.

2. Its Adventuredome isn’t really a dome. But does it matter? No. Because the only shape a clown cares about is the shape of a child’s laughter.

3. The Steakhouse, which served me an incredible porterhouse so rare and tender it was like drinking a live cow.

4. Have you ever heard an infant with smoker’s cough? I can only compare it to the first time I saw a pony.

5. But this says it all right here:

6. Finally, after Circus Circus is gone, the only casinos we’ll have that are operated by clowns will be the Venetian, the Wynn Las Vegas and all Harrah’s and MGM Mirage properties.