It's Been Looked At.

From my website statcounter this morning. Click image to make it bigger.

A Letter To My Mayor

This is the an email I sent to my council mayor, Robert Doyle last Friday. No reply yet.

Dear Lord Mayor,

Seeing that you can get rid of protesters from the city, please could you get rid of the protesters outside the Wellington Street fertility clinic. You denied a link between the two protesters on 774 this morning but to somebody who lives in the area and votes for council elections, the link is obvious.

These protesters gather almost every day. This is at the end of my street. I live in Vale Street.

They're disturbing, intimidatory and their placards are deeply offensive.

They scare my wife from visiting the post office. Should my wife have to go to the Richmond Town Hall post office when there's one at the end of our street?

Several times I've seen people walking past abusing the protesters and almost coming to blows. This is a dangerous situation.

They've made their point. Now please, make them move on. Permanently.

I've had enough of them. Why should I have to be subjected to their deeply offensive protest almost every day?

Kind Regards,

Glenn Peters

STOP PRESS: It has been looked at by someone at the council.

What Jack Listened To When He Was 18 (and wasn't gay).

This was left by my great mate, Jack Thompson as a comment on my previous post. As Molly would say, 'do yourself a favor' and read it through to the end.

Beautiful stuff.


The year was 1991, and I had turned 18 in the April. I was getting excited about going to a Kylie concert in the May.....but I wasn't gay.

Shocked was my fave from the album Rhythm of Love, especially once I had learnt all the rap bit.


Also in that year the local Macedonian club put on an underage disco at a local reception centre once a month. Italo House was still the genre that was popular and I recall busting moves to this classic from Black Box.


Also at these discos there was obligatory slow dance to end the night. Boys and girls would entwine themselves to the sounds of music. This one from Def Leppard always made hands wander and would lead to lots of awkward kissing.

I was often asked why I didn't slow dance with any girls.

I would say something along the lines of "I was outside getting fresh air" or "Me and (insert girls name here), were having a conversation in the foyer"

But I wasn't gay.


That year being able to go to nightclubs legally, and not hiding from police officers doing patrols, I couldn't wait to get to The Metro to dance to this track from Madonna, you may have heard of it?


Another hit from Madonna that I wouldnt dance to until I knew all the moves (but I wasn't gay), was this one.


Turning 18 meant getting my license. Driving around in my skyblue Datsun 180B was one of my favorite things to do, Lygon St or Chapel St. This was often heard blasting through my four windows that were always down.


The Kenwood tape player purchased from Gary's Car Radio produced a high quality sound.
I was disappointed when I had to get a refund on the tickets from BASS when the KLF concert was canelled due to the ill health of Tammy Wynette.

I really was only going to hear this one song.


While I am speaking of concerts, C&C Music Factory toured that year. They played the National Tennis Centre. I was there in a pair of mustard jeans and a green shirt with white polka dots, doing the running man to this.

I could go on forever but these are just a few of the songs that I recall from the year of turning 18. Most of these songs are now on my iPod.


I will finish with the song that I finally danced to with someone at the end of the night. It was more like 6am in the morning.

It was at the Trade Bar in Collingwood, it is now apartments after being left vacant for 7 years and I even tried to buy it to return it to its former glory.

I finally found someone that I could dance with.

His name was Daniel.

And yes, I am gay.

Music I Listened To When I Was 18

Apparently, in advertising or film, if you want to get straight at someone's heart, you just play songs that your audience was listening to when they turned 18. Radio stations are all over this. That's why oldies radio has slowly followed their demographic by playing 60s and 70s music during the 90s to play 80s and 90s music now.

Why? Well, it's obvious. What were you doing when you were 18? Yes. That's right. Awesome.

Here's what I was into.


I moved to Geelong to go to uni on the week I turned 18. This was the anthem back then. Unfortunately a couple of fellas from Geelong's favorite band died in a crash on the Geelong road weeks before I arrived.


I came up with the idea for this posting last night at The Corner Hotel when I saw Dean Wareham from Galaxie 500 play this Johnathan Richman cover. I remember hearing this for the first time while running back from footy training late one night. I was fit then. But judging from my music tastes, not emotionally fit.


When I wasn't in pubs, girls' houses or lectures, I was on my skateboard. This was my favorite song to ride to. I'd play it again and again.


I spent several monumental moments back then listening to this.


I was in a band. We played art rock. It was amateurish, droney and up itself sludge. I was the flamboyant singer. But hearing 16 Lovers Lane, it became sadly obvious that there was more to art than being original. Simply made songs. And beautiful.


A few of us were obsessed with what was coming out of NZ back then. This is my favorite of all the many great songs that came from the Flying Nun label.


I still have a lot of time for the straight edge (no drink or drugs) punk movement. Feel the energy in this vid. So good. I've never thought you need anything in your bloodstream to get a lot out of great music. I also loved how outwardly political this music was. Especially now when 'political correctness' is scorned by most (I don't mind it at all), Fugazi still sound fresh and important.

What were you into?

Tell us about it in the comments.

100,004 People Can't Be Wrong.

As of a few minutes ago, 100,004 people have visited my blogs.

Thanks everybody.

(Except for that freaky Keanu Reeves stalker from a few years ago. You really disturbed me)