The Life and Times of Peter Green
Archive: 8 July - 22 July 2001
July 8th 2001
So here it is the cover of the second F/16 book- titled "BANG!".
By the time this segment goes up on the Famous for Sixteen Minutes site, Deb would of put the NEW upcoming book on the merchandise area. Such a blatant plug I hear you cry- maybe, but it's worth checking out the Merch. area just to have a chuckle at the BANG! cover art (thanks Spock). The latest debate is which cartoon characters have we stolen from...hey at least I am the only one with an eyebrow ring...well! Like HUSSY , this one will be a limited hard cover run of 1000, numbered and signed.
Now into this fortnights diary....
Neil is in town so I head off to the Leunig/ACO show with Rebecca, he's playing the concert hall, three shows and we have opted for the matinee. I keep telling myself that Neil is only a part of this. He gives us great seats (or Amanda does...) about 6 rows from the front, all 3 shows are sold out. The lady in front asks her friend who is this Neil Finn. I think the odd scattering of Neil Finn t-shirts has both alarmed and intrigued some of the regular ACO concert goers....guess Bowie got the same reaction when he played the part of the Elephant Man on Broadway. (:
The ACO take up the first part, chamber music is a love hate thing with me, I loved some of it, wanted to kill "the bee" musical number....being Winter the odd cough made us jump. Spotted Noel Crombie with Heddie and Grissie in the foyer. Bec wanted a smoke so we went outside for interval. The second part I did enjoy, the choir were fantastic, especially the smallest member with pigtails- she had a great face.
Neil was both subtle and superb, though I enjoyed his uncertain hand movements, i'm sure he was trying to decide on what to do with his hands- no guitar, no major microphone grabbing...no onstage jokes. Both "Sweet Secret Peace" and "Lullaby" were brilliant.
"Real life it's all true
You know how I'll miss you
In quiet places I'll come undone"..
We left feeling uncertain, but it is a brave project and it crosses the line with a thumbs up. It's the uncertainty of not knowing what is being created, that brings both joy and questionable thoughts to my head, but as mentioned Neil's is only a part- I think I enjoy my Finn musical steaks when they are 100% kiwi...
Rosemaree comes by at 6.30 and has yet again created some wonderful food, we all retire to the viewing room and watch "Sleepy Hollow". Love that Deppstar.
July 9th 2001
Lend my copy of Cave in the Snow to Jackie at Babble. She was reading the Tibetan book of the Dead and I thought she'd find "Cave..." an enjoyable experience.Call Robbie in London today- surprise him at work. he tells me that Rosie is out touring with Madonna and having a fun time of it...as expected.
Mark comes up with an idea for a band to combat the ever increasing tide of really young girl groups.........OK here it is. The band is called DOUBTFIRE.
It's made up of middle age musicians who dress as an OLD girl-group...we are talking about major hairy legs, (gelled so the hair is nice and spikey) wearing those horrid beige old lady stockings (half falling down of course). The thing is they MUST rock...so bad nighties with furious and fast Greenday/Pansy Division style guitar/music. We've worked on several songs- all taken from the Mrs Doubtfire movie segments....... "Power tool", "She's got crabs", "Beyond obsession", "Meet Mrs Doubtfire" and "Teeth in a glass" and "Going down payment".
Picking the band was hard work, two hundred band applicants, went through a rigourous cross dressing audition process. Jackie O was one of the judges dressed as an old man......
So DOUBTFIRE has been created to combat the evil of Girl Groups....our own Bardot have agreed that DOUBTFIRE may stand a chance of being special guest act on their next world tour. As young Sophie Monk was supposed to of said "It will be just like having our Mums...no Grandmothers on the road with us". The first tour is the "Plastic Panties-no knitting allowed ALL ages tour". Starts in Peru late July. If you are going to the Bardot instores remember to ask the girls who their favorite member of DOUBTFIRE is.
July 10th 2001
Picked a new hair colour for the overseas adventure....Loreal Feria has a new colour on the market- Brazilian Brown (Golden Copper Brown), a huge sample box arrived here, we all want to look like the model on the cover... she has good lips.July 11th 2001
Pay Electricity bill- notice that because of the solar panels we are close to 25% less then last years. Solar power saves money.The Susan O'Doherty art arrived it's a huge piece of art and will live up on the main staircase. How we are ever going to get it that high up remains a mystery. Really love this abstract work, Susan has taken massive strides as an artist.
The invites for the Mark Ryden art show arrive at the same time. With the Aussie dollar worth 3 coconuts I am terrified at what his work will cost.
July 12th 2001.
Our travel agent has started calling our Sth American airline the "Dodgey Brothers" airline...Trudi discovers it's the same one that crashed into the Andes with the Soccer team on board and they had to eat the dead players. Guess it really doesn't matter that we've paid to be in business class, just means we won't share our seats with as many pigs and other livestock...... have to learn some Spanish for "hey watch out for the mountain". Deb if our plane crashes you have permission to press book three on schedule (Glamour).Get an email from Nick, he's looking for some artwork, tells me he keeps reading his copy of HUSSY- do miss our fave Crowded House Bass player. he sounds good though.
Mark buys Jim Jarmuschi's DEAD MAN on dvd. Another Depp movie, it is exceptional- I even like Neil Young's musical score. A must have in your dvd collection.
Wow they now know that Saturn has a total of 30 moons. The new astronomical detectors allow scientists to look for fainter objects over larger areas of the skies- mark my words they will be discovering huge amounts of heavenly bodies soon enough.....exciting times for us Terrans.
July 13th 2001.
Talk to Spock about the idea of using another JUDD painting on the back of BANG, thought the Judd original of the guy pissing in the huge Forest was a good one, always reminds me of heading up to Beenami. Many times we boys just head into the forest for a quick release....poor wombats, then again I'm sure if you even pee'd near them they'd chomp "it" off.So the cover is coming together.
Head into the city and open vali's art studio for a few hours. Call into the Outre Gallery and grab a few more invites for Becky's Mum & Bob.
heading home I look up at the MCG and the aboriginal flag is really blowing in the wind, all the other flags are dead still...not sure what that means.
Wow only 2 weeks till we head off for our long awaited holiday- no bands, no phones, no emails , just the road, some good friends and a pissy Australian dollar.
July 14th 2001
The Aston Bi Election. No one really believes Labor will win this one, but in the end there is a 4.5 % swing against the Liberal party, but the primary vote is a whopping 8.5%, if this was the federal election John Howard would be packing his bags. Four more months till the election I think, 18+ weeks and then hopefully the little shit will no longer be the Prime Minister. Just watch how fast Peter Costello stabs him in the back...Drive Mark to Toija and Marcos for his haircut- it's a big secret but his Mum and Allan are heading down to surprise him for his _ _th(?) birthday. So Toija is in cohoots and we get him over for his Chairman Mao cut...looks good.
Rosemaree picks me up for some work (thanks girl) and we drive to the batcave for some speed copying.
July 15th 2001
Head to Beenami, our last chance for the Forest before we zoom off. It starts off Sunny but as soon as the 4wd gets into the mountains a huge mist and big grey clouds drop over us. Call in and buy some half logs to hold the gate for the goat pen. They just fit in the car, still saves $30 delivery.Mark calls into the shoe department of the local Kmart to get some hiking boots for the week...as a joke I try on big fluffy moccasins and other weird shoes....they feel strange, I even scare myself with how ugly they are. It's Pic and Save all over again.
Arrive at Beenami and all the daffodils and Joquills are out, several new baby bats have moved in behind the vodka bottle as well as the Tequila bottle...they have the smallest hands.
Mark lights a roaring fire and I roll a joint which we take with us on our hike. The weird drug dealing house in the heart of the Forest has a guy standing in the middle of the grass in the rain staring at the ground- we sneak off, there is a such a bad feeling around this place it smothers you like a blanket...Suss (with a capital "S").
Head down another fire trail and it goes on and on- this Forest is massive, our small creek is getting wider each km-er. The bush is lush, giant tree ferns cling to giant trees, they must be a hundred years old at least. We spot Lyrebirds and Rosella's...just heaven up here.
BBQ in the barn and decide to head home and make it out of the valley before the fog rolls in again.
July 16th 2001
Work on Bardot stuff all this week. The new single is ASAP, have done loads of pre work. The 2nd Popstars group Scandal'us (yeah crappy name I know) have had a flop with their second single make me Crazy, dropped from 30 to 35 this week. At least Bardot can say their album went #1 in Australia, NZ and Asia. Every single has gone Gold or double Platinum. Scandal'us only made it to #2, and look like being one hit wonders in Australia only. We made the right decision saying we didn't want to work with them. Roll on DOUBTFIRE- kick there Popstar arses I say (:All the copies of I LIKE IT RARE CD arrive so we start the mammoth task of mailing them out...takes ten days to do this normally as every address has to be checked etc. So we now no longer have a social life.
July 17th 2001
Our gate guy Glen arrives to measure up the new spiked security gates, just like a double layered condom, all that extra protection. So several security systems and massive gates and death rays it's looking more like the Stargate Complex! Even Cosmo has red laser iris beams in those eyes of his.Cosmo gets HIS shots today...yes we discover that our rabbit has balls.....and is a MALE. So what scientist told us it was a girl, I didn't think to look. Rabbits have the lovely bonus of being able to "suck" their testicles back up into their body (ouch) so they can be deceiving. So when "she" was having fun with Hairball HE was probably trying to get it on with her...no wonder she didn't want to know about the bunny! Chicks with Dicks....Cosmo could be the Doubtfire Mascot???????
July 18th 2001
Several thousand Bardot ASAP glossy newsletters arrive for their fan mailout....add to this the signed last to Know Finn cds, and all the Rare cds....urgh.We get asked to Debra Conways "Always Patsy Cline" premiere and would of loved to of gone but the previously mentioend "stuff" means we are here at the office. I love "walkin after midnight"...that song sticks in my head. She's another musician who died in a plane crash isn't she?
Had a laugh when Grant Thomas was made couch of a Melbourne football club...but it's not OUR Grant Thomas.
July 19th 2001
Mark gets a surprise when he walks into babble this morning, his Mum and Allan are waiting at the table with me...surprise. he smiles at them and gives me a "traitor...I hate surprises" look....hey how can you say NO to someones mother. Mark uses the word Cahoots about ten zillion times today....I I am the King cahooter!It's nice though, his Moe 3 stooges cut looks good, I hide my human tumbleweed under my beanie.
We all head back to the house and Cedar arrives to give Cosmo his shots. he is a good bunny and doesn't put up a fight. He's a Himalayan Bunny we find out (to do with the ears I think). His dark patches are where his main sensory parts are....ears, feet, nose, tail.....balls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well tonight Rosemaree and Tania organise for various friends to drop in, and everyone brings some food or drink.....and what started as a small food gathering, ended up being a rather brilliant party. Must be all the work as I went for it....misbehaved beyond the realms of good taste....Marks little rolley machine worked overtime and nearly all the Moet was used up (except the huge bottle from the Finns which we are saving for some SUPER special occasion)- it was just nice, our favorite people and for once I didn't have to organise it (yippee). Thankfully some of the night was video'd. DOUBTFIRE played on the roof, Rosemaree and Tania doing backing harmonies on "Going down Payment". Spock played keyboards on "Teeth in a Glass" he still has that Boom Crash Opera style, and Marco some serious vocal work on "She's got crabs". An amazing night, saying my last goodbye to Bec (always the last to leave god bless her) at 3.30. Thanks everyone we had a blast.
July 20th
We head to the Mark Ryden art show at Outre Gallery. We drive past and there is a line, you rarely have lines for art shows in Australia. I didn't RSVP us, so I just used the "name" to get us in, they said No problem...and were expecting us (cute). There are a few originals but the Aussie Dollar makes them ridiculous...especially when I know how much they were a year ago. The Giclee Prints are lovely- Giclee for those who don't know is fineart print produced on a large scale computer press/printer. It's an early ninties technique. The machine that makes them is called "Iris" so sometimes Giclee's are called Iris Prints. Nicely textured.Mark Ryden was born in Oregon and basically grew up in Southern California. Got his BFA from Arts centre college of design in Pasadena. I have one thing at least in common with Ryden, we both have a small vial of "Elvis sweat"!!! "If you enchant yourself, others will be enchanted too". Ok make that two things.
His "Anima Mundi-The art of Mark Ryden" will be out in September. http://www.markryden.com
We end up with a Paper edition of "Christina"-signed and framed. Sadly the very small "Jesella" painting is too rich especially after the recent splurge of Gehlerts. $17,000!!!!! Bob and Spock both get the framed prints behind the counter (I think it was Jajo and Angel of meat).
We head to the hardware alley for some coffee and cake.
Home to bed for an early night. I'm all arted out.
July 21st 2001
Happy birthday to both Trudi and Fran- try to call both but they are out celebrating.Speak to Qantas and they move us upstairs into the private hub area, so we are all sitting together. I'm happy about that. Now if our Sth American airline can get their s**t together and get our tickets to our agent we will be ready to go.
Drive Marks Mum and Allan to the airport- manage to get them there in 26 minutes- pretty good. Use the etag , its only a few $ , would save more then that on fuel.
Work all day and part of the night, watch The Matrix on dvd as we need a break, had the urge to see it all week. Keanu with his #1 buzz is just tempting me to cut all my hair off....maybe in Peru.
The street is very loud tonight- late night party goers keep me awake.
July 22nd
Wake up and no call from Rosemaree. She has slept in, now that is rare. Naturally I am enjoying her not being on time!(:We three head to babble which is very empty- it's a cold morning so I guess people are taking their time waking up. Make some notes on last minute "things to do".
Rosemaree is cooking us dinner again, I'm supplying desert, we are very spoilt this week. I let her raid the library for some books.
Work on BANG in the afternoon. Had about 20 emails this weekend from people asking if they can order it on line like they did with HUSSY. The answer is YES. Deb has BANG (and the last of the hardcover Hussy books) on the merchandise page. Just head to Merchandise. I love the Bang cover, it's much cheaper then cosmetic surgery...look how young I look!!!!!!
So this is the last diary update from Australia, I guess my next one will be from Peru or Vegas. A holiday at last.
For those regular emailers- remember you can't email me between July 26th and August 26th. It's on auto trash! I was horrified to come home again to several thousand.
Gotta go pack those Andes mountain climbing boots. We still are unsure how Robin is getting her Elvis souvenirs up the side of the mountain (especially that Elvis cuckoo clock)...at least my vial of Elvis sweat travels light! Rock in peace.
Peter