My Times

I have recently completed my move to the Hollywood Hills in sunny California.
I fell in love with Hollywood when I first visited in 1993. The past few years have been difficult keeping in touch with my family, friends and colleague's. I hope now I can be better at holding onto the relationships that I've truely valued in my life.
I'll never forget that I am British, um, Canadian, er American...oh, I hate nationalism!

Duran Duran were in Hollywood recently puting on the best live show I've seen them do since the Police Picnic in Toronto in the early 80's. Wes and Steve were brilliant on bass and drums and Warren, Nick and Simon were spot on with all the tricks from their recordings. Who Do You Think You Are from the new album and Ordinary World were a couple of the highlights for me. A great show that you must see!

I came across a fantastic Duran website that almost has the same name as one of my songs. It's just a State of Mind. Their News page is the best on the web!

A great new web site for musicians who use samplers was mentioned in this weeks MusicWeek news from the UK. Samplenet has news and reviews as well as a huge FREE sample library!

Recently the LA Times ran a front page story about those big ugly boxes known as Sport Utility Vehicle's that make up nearly half of US auto purchases. SUV's are modern day station wagons usually driven aggressively by drivers who seem to have little care for pollution and no fear for their own or anyone elses safety.
Well it seems our old friends the Car Companies have been developing truck's disguised as cars, because truck's don't have to meet the same stringent emisson standards. Reversing 30 years of automobile technical development and giant leaps in fuel consumption, vehicle emission standards and safety. Even the energy and resources wasted manufacturing these overweight curb crashers exceeds that required to make a real car many times over! And if the EPA changes the rules to include them as cars, Ford already has a 7000 lb version coming out next year that could even be classified as a bus! And we all know what it's like to be behind a bus with the roof down!

Amazingly, the average buyer of these planet destroying dinosoars are also the very baby boomers who have faithfully pretended they care about our environment! In Los Angeles, they even move away from the city so as to better pollute the suburbs and the beaches with their filth belching eco-killers!

And if that's not enough reason not to buy a truck, sorry Sport Utility Vehicle, how about the very reason most people do; Safety.
SUV's are dangerous to drive and deadly to our planet! The car makers won't make them if you don't buy them!
Where did all the Flower Children go?

Vehicle Size Compatibility: The continued growth in light truck sales relative to passenger car sales will continue to have a negative impact on overall fleet safety. This is due to differences in size, weight, and vehicle handling characteristics. The first and most alarming safety issue is that high profile vehicles are more prone to rollover during certain steering maneuvers. In addition, when high profile vehicles are in crashes with lower profile vehicles, the mismatch in size or weight creates significant hazards for occupants of the smaller vehicle.
NHTSA 2020 Report1 ©Bayview Avenue Records Inc.
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