Greenpeace

Birthdays are special occasions.  And, when you're Greenpeace, they're something even more special to celebrate.

On saturday, September 9, Greenpeace (unofficially) turned 35.  Guess all those hippies who used to say "don't trust anyone over 30" are eating their words right about now.  The important part is that we weren't alone in celebrating. Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics, one of the coolest cats ever, also celebrated his birthday with us at a party in Hollywood that left hundreds wanting more.  

Hollywood's a funny place.  Some people love it. some people hate it. Some say it's fake, Others say it's the most real manifestation of humankind on the planet. Whatever I believed before this, I'm not too sure, but it was great to know that there are people out there willing to support Greenpeace and wish Dave, a truly awesome guy, a happy birthday.

Dave is in the process of recording a song with some of his recording industry friends to commemorate Greenpeace's 35th year of kicking ass and taking names, and a big focus of the night was to record some of these folks belting out what will surely become the "We Are the World" for our very own movement. Artists who have already been recorded for the song include Annie Lennox, Sarah McLachlan, Ozomatli, Candy Dulfer, Nadirah X, Imogen Heap, Gina Gershon, Carina Round and others. Dave and his buddies Glen Ballard, Curt from Tears for Fears, Harry Dean Stanton (not just a great actor), and some of the folks above came together on the 9th at a major recording studio on Sunset Blvd to record, jam, exchange birthday wishes, and spread the word about Greenpeace.

Dave gathered 200 of his closest friends- including Anthony Hopkins, Dennis Hopper, Anastacia, Debi Mazar and others- and wished us a happy 35th. Hopefully you caught at least some of the live webcast and maybe caught a glimpse of Greenpeace staffers Mark and Nathan handing Dave his framed piece of sail cloth from the Rainbow Warrior as our birthday present to him.

As the bands raged and the crowds mingled, everyone was spreading the buzz about GP as cameras from AP, Reuters, Getty, and others captured the moment. The Hollywood set definitely was treated to a great fiesta thrown for us by one of our biggest fans who's also one of the best things ever.

In times like these, we should all be glad to know that people are eager to come out to support us and honor the Greenpeace cause while governments and companies try to stop us in our tracks. It was pretty magical to know that Dave was inspiring a whole new group of people for us (and the planet) and that such a great event could be undertaken in our name.  And in a room of celebrities and other Hollywood-types, it was pretty incredible that they saw Greenpeace as the true star of the night.

Big thanks to everyone for all of their help to pull this off. This is the start of great things to come, so stay tuned and join us in being more than grateful to Dave Stewart for honoring 35 years of Greenpeace in this way and for getting some amazing people to stand with us in looking forward to many more. 

Anyway, sorry for the delay in reporting on this, folks.  It was an amazing night, and has taken a few days to sink in as to what an amazing experience it was. There are too many people to thank for an awesome night, most especially Dave and his crew at WME. They haven't seen the last of us, so do yourselves a favor and buy every single record from all of the artists listed above (oh- and this wouldn't make a bad birthday gift, either).