Venice & Sydney

[drawback]

Just a shout out to those who are, right now, living in the paths of rising tidewater and horrific fires â am I right in recalling that Guido, Andrea & Co are somewhere near, or in, Venice? How about miden, markay, dazzjazz and the crew in Australia? The hazards of living in the frequent fire, flood, storm and seismic zones of North America are more featured in our news slots, but I just wanted to reach out and say I â we â are thinking about you too. Take care there, and drop us a line to ensure your safety if you're able.

 

Cheers

[nursers]

Thank you sir it is much appreciated. The worst of it Australia-wise is a few hundred km north of Sydney (I live 80 km south of Sydney), but an outer suburb of Sydney did cop it the other day. Bushfire season is really only just kicking off for the year as well

[CowboyNQ]

Right in the thick of the bushfire stuff at the moment. Our band has been trying to travel from Adelaide (nowhere near the action) to Sydney (right in the thick of the action) to Port Macquarie (lives lost and highways closed) to Tamworth (just, but only just, outside of the fire zone).

 

Somehow we've been able to make this work without cancelling any shows. This said, we're not 100% out of the woods yet as half the band is yet to traverse part of the fire zone, then we all have to run back through it for our final show of the weekend, then get back home. Ultimately we'll have covered about 4000km by road and 3000km by air in and out of the danger zone. We are not lunatics and are keeping our eye on weather, road and fire alerts and are plugged into a plethora of government apps and websites to ensure our personal safety and compliance with emergency services.

 

People have lost loved ones, pets, livestock and a heap of property in these fires, which have dominated coverage nationally for the past week.

 

Thank you very much for your thoughts. Although I'm not personally impacted from my safe haven down south they are appreciated and we'll be letting our audiences this weekend know how much love and empathy there is for them locally and globally.

[David Emm]

I have a friend in the NSW region and I'm monitoring him carefully. Its highly unnerving and I wish you good luck in the mess. We have some lively discussions about the various Whys involved, but we usually end up bringing filthy Politics into it, which just leads to a great deal of spitting. I tell him that its partly his fault for playing in cockeyed tunings. I said "If they boo our free-form bamboo marimba stylings, we'll just up the ante by playing on steel pipes in an alternate tuning that sounds like a migraine salad." He said "I'll get right on that." Thing is, he probably will. Therefore, I'm praying for rain.

 

[Markay]

Thanks for the thoughts.

 

I am sitting outside breathing the smoke of a new fire on the fringe of Sydney as I write this. The fires in Turramurra, a northern Sydney suburb, threatened homes less than 6 kilometers from where Dazzjazz and I live. But we are both in heavily urban areas and unlikely to ever be under threat. Sydney has a lot of national park in urban areas starting less than 5k from the CBD. Regrettably all the recent fires near Sydney and more than 50% of all fires in Australia are deliberately lit.

 

Our bush is designed to burn, some species of trees and shrubs on germinate only after fire, a fact the first Australians worked out 60 thousand years ago and also worked out that it is best practice to selectively burn the bush in strips each year so the source of their protein would not flee too far away.

 

We used to share fire fighting helicopters with California, but now their fire season extends through to winter that is no longer an option.

 

The inland fires are down to us now experiencing one in a hundred year droughts every ten years.

 

Our willingness to address this is issue is now down to politicians.

 

Where I sit on that issue is best illustrated by sharing the fact that we recently installed 6.6kW of solar panels on our home and export, after self consumption, roughly three times the amount of energy we consume from the grid each day. Nice to be able enjoy solar powered soft synths. Also makes me feel warm all over to know that my playing B5 leaves enough left over to power someone else's B3.

 

 

 

[nursers]

:thu:

[AUSSIEKEYS]

Havent been on here for years although still lurking and reading but hope other aussies are fairing ok as its still a nightmare for many.

 

I moved interstate from Sydney a few years ago & saw before xmas that my old art studio/storage in mountains was in the midst of devastation and friends threatened. Properties there were lost but my 2 mates properties up there survived. My art studio i think already gone because of white ants hee hee. Although i lived down in suburbia when not up there I am glad not to have been in sydney enduring the smoke as i only have 33% lung capacity. Ive been told by relatives who know my health it was so bad i probablly would have been hospitalized. Thats how bad it was for the overseas guys

 

We are just starting to experience the smoke down here but managable for me. Although we live in a designated bushfire zone (and bloody flood zone hee hee) i feel well be ok although the creek running at bottom of block is a corridoor of pine trees and they go up. Basically there is a danger zone further up the creek and mountain but ive only lived here short while and not heard bushfire stories. Just the flood story. Been more worried about that but now with Australia on fire ??

 

Basically if it happened im out of here and leaving all behind because with my shitty lungs i cant even run away from it

I dont think ill even put my gear in the car as physically thats difficult and makes me literally breathless. The band will have to do with out me if that happens. But i carry the PA too. Hee hee.

 

This is the worse fires i feel in my 60 years being its all of Australia. Its still going on so Basically guys leave it behind and get out dont try and save it. Save yourselves.