The Life and Times of Peter Green
Archive: 16 March - 29 March 2009
March 16thI'm not sure how I can beat last week- that amazing Sound Relief gig, Gunns losing their court case and having to pay the Wilderness society, Iarla's fine work on the nice and shiny new Skyhooks website. Some weeks are just like that- exceptional. I'm happy to stick with a month of good to amazing weeks. I wonder if it will be all down hill for the rest of the year! No still adventures to be had I assure you.I send Wally Wilkinson the next batch of Split Enz MENTAL NOTES cd covers to sign- just was unsure what we are doing day to day so hard to lock in visitors. At least this way he will get them fast and they will be signed and just waiting for Judd-Crowther-Chunn signatures. The fan side of me is stoked to be able to offer this- how many chances would Enz fans have to receive a CD of the debut release fully signed. Someone said to me- imagine they'll be worth a small fortune if someone dies! Wasn't sure if they were planning on bumping off an original Enz member!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I want to see the Mental Notes lineup play at least one small show before someone dies on us. Loads of Hitler stuff on cable lately-we watch Eva Brauns home movies, mostly filmed at the Eagles Nest-despite the content, the footage is incredible in many ways- and while millions are being slaughtered around her Eva just gets on with her gymnastics !!! Very surreal. March 17thThere has been a huge surge in people buying the 4th diary book TRIP- so I took a box down to the Verandah today and signed them and packaged them. It was fairly empty so I could get this done fast and no one dared disturb me, It still feels odd to sit here and sign these, it really is like it's another person and I'm hiding way up in the brain banging on the eyelids- 'let me out, let me out'. A strange world that I live in sometimes. I think this one is selling so fast because people love to read the 'on the road with Neil Finn' bits.... it covers a huge chunk of touring so, will keep everyone happy. Touring is good copy, it's meant to be exciting and flashy. vast lines of cocaine off young road crews 6 pack flat stomachs. OK it's pizza on the bus and smelly hairy over weight blokes!Oh the paper has that John Farnham is threatening to return- gee lucky us- NOT. Why can't he stay away - all the suburban people will probably get excited and rub their moccasins in delight. I made the photo of him in the paper into a drag queen... it was an improvement- Johanna Farnham! Complete with buck teeth and lippy. I guess jail bird Wheatley needs the money since his sons crappy band have died in the ar$e. I bet he tries to stick them on the Farnham tour. Just "Fuck Off Farnham"- there I said it- three simple words that say it all. March 18thI'm at the fence chatting to Barry and I thought I heard heaps of birds walking on the roof. The office door burst open and out runs Mark- 'we just had another earthquake' he bellows (a bit like Miss Candee). Barry and myself were so deep in conversation we never noticed. The odd thing- the epicentre was right near the same spot as the first. It was a 4.5 so a bit less but all the gold records in the office are slanted now and Mark says his computer was bouncing around on his desk. Are you sure you just wern't watching porn hon? All that desk bouncing? Just odd that it was in the same spot eh? All these omens... Armageddon is close by.....the end is near.The bright and shiny new look Skyhooks website: www.skyhooks-music.com is getting 4 times the amount of hits per day now. Seems a lot of new people are checking it out, good to see. All Hooked each and every one of them. March 19thEating breakfast at Lilly Pilly and we all start talking about the Pauline Hanson possible nude shots, I say I don't think it's her as does one of the Lilly Pillians.... Mark and the rest say it is. With the Queensland state election only days away it just seems like a way to destroy any last bits of dignity that she has... and lets face it after serving jail time she wouldn't risk it again by lying in court. She can be a fruitcake, racist and many other things but this time I believe the fiery red haired politician running for the seat of Beaudesert. Time will tell, I know I'm right on this one.I make Chocolate Mousse for Mark, sometimes it's just nice to spring a desert surprise on him (I don't mean hurl it across the room!). We are spoilt department. The lovely Marg at Lillly Pilly hands us a bottle of homemade blackberry jam.... excellent! She's amazing with her jams, we feel very special. March 20thPhil Judd's birthday today- he turns 57. Call and no one answers so we email him-and get no answer. Spock confirms he is indeed alive. Happy Birthday you crusty old bugger.She may look like Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but our deputy PM Julia Gillard acted far more like Buffy herself today- taking a stake to John hoWARds horrible work choices. The public hated work choices, and finally with them gone- workers will get more rights and a fairer deal. Julia the Work Choices Slayer- wonder if she likes cheese (sorry Buffy joke). John hoWARd would hate this.... feel the pain hoWARd . My next book will be on Crowded House. "Ghost Cars On The Freeway". It's so insanely close to a sell out already- funny because it's not due out till late July. I'm going to paint the cover soon,or at least the front, a few ideas, most are obvious... but it should work well. I'm telling fans who will want this, grab a copy soon as I am expecting to put up the Sold Out sign. I know I'm going to get endless emails asking for this after it's sold out- once it's gone that's it. March 21stWell for us it's official, fire season is over. We start putting away all the sprinklers and extra hoses and some of the other fire fighting gear. It's nice to be able to do this, I utter a huge sigh as I lock it back in our fire storage area. We do have two super blaster water pistols full of water- so I'm sure some visitors will get it when next they visit! *GRIN*.The Queensland election is on- like I said I know little about Anna Bligh or Lawrence Springborg. I notice Laurence has really bad teeth though-I notice things like that. I even obsess over things like that. Why would you run for Premier looking like you have Hyena's dental work. I have met Anna Bligh once- and she seemed a bit nice to be a politician- that could be a welcome change. Anna (I keep writing GOanna..instead of Go Anna!) goes into the election way behind on some polls and the LNP seem very very cocky. Julia Bishop from the federal Liberals- who totally creeps me out-I detest that horrid "I'm wearing pearls look' - anyway she has been her usual annoying self going on about a massive Liberal win or some rubbish. I decide to follow the election, and I remember Iarla and Deb telling me that Frenzcom has Twitter- so I jump on board and let Twitter do it's thing around the election. It's great, nice short bursts of information. Some direct from the Tally room. Those in the know expect the election to roll on for ages- but they were wrong.... Anna Bligh shows staying power and Labor win. They are down on a few seats but it's a fairly swift result and the swing against Labor is half of what is expected. Springborg and his poor canines cuspids look shitty.... and he basically quits as Qld LNP leader (yey). I'm sure Clive Palmers the mining magnade who donates millions to the Liberals is pissed off- good. He's not JR of mining he's just a naughty boy, he should donate to more worthy causes. So twitter was great- it only has 6 million users and you know it's the new cool (well it started in 2007 when people wanted to find the best parties at the SXSW festival), where facebook has 150 million users and I know Facebook is no very uncool (blah blah blah)....which probably makes my F/16 diary (I hate the word blog) as uncool as you can possibly get........ in other words it's becoming cool again- full circle folks. Are you keeping up??? So Labor hold onto Queensland, it's 5th term, which is so rare. Now Anna has to live up to her promises. Meanwhile Pauline Hanson won a mere 20% of the votes for Beaudesert, so Australia has been saved from her again. March 22ndDid I mention I'm growing some Centella Asiatica in a pot out on the decking. It grows easy and you eat 2 leaves a day-meant to fight of arthritis pain. It tastes hideous and no idea how well it works.The Age newspapers Good Weekend magazine has a 3 page feature on Twitter- how odd. I work all of the day, just catching up on all those little jobs. We have to seriously get into removing the broken trees next weekend, I have a huge dumpster bin arriving, which we will fill up fast. I'll need a tree guy to remove the rest, so a few grand later the place will be back to normal. Lots of Nazi stuff on Foxtel again. Tonight we watch The Nazi's and the Flying Saucers. Very cool as it has THE BELL. It's also called Die Glocke. It was an experiment by the Third Reich scientists working for the SS in this huge German facility near the Czech border (the Wenceslas mine). It's fascinated me for ages and ages so I was a bit shocked to actually see someone has done their homework. It seems Red Mercury -Xerum 525 (if Red Mercury actually exists) was involved in the counter rotating cylinders and talk of over 60 scientists died making it a reality (most from radiation poisoning I think). It was one of Germanys most secret weapons and lots of talk of it being an anti gravity device. There was always talk that SS General Hans Kammler handed it over to the USA (and lets not even go into details of what happened to Hans!!!). Many people believe the infamous Kecksburgh (PA) UFO incident was a US version of Die Glocke....NASA reported recently that fragments from the wreckage are from a Russian Satellite (The Kosmos 96?????). Anyway it's very cool and I'm looking at a few photos to see where the witchcraft and other magical symbols on the base of the German BELL originate from. Mystic symbols and German odd creations seem to go hand in hand....they were really into the black arts. You also start getting into things like electro-acoustic longitudinal wave forms, quantum mechanics, quantum aether, vril energy , zero point energy and people like Reichenbach, Gerlach, Schauberger & Nikola Tesla. It's all so full on, one name leads to another leads to more secret stuff. The one thing that still exists is one of Schaubergers wartime "Repulsine"saucers. It's a small test model that was passed down to a relative. Some say he is the father of the terra-UFO's. On the net you can find both photographs and blue prints of his "Repulsine' saucer. It's all amazing and truly makes my head ache. If the theory is correct The Bell would give off a strange blue-glow after a minute of operating, supposively a high tensity torsion or axion field was created-which can bend space around the generator itself. Torsion fields have been hailed by many as being the explanation for telepathy, homeopathy, clairvoyance and lots of other stuff- ESP- so no wonder the NAZI's were interested. The more torsion you can generate the more space you can alter around The Bell. Which goes to more headache thinking and theory about bending time itself and one of it's other goals, to create anti-gravty. Talk of neutrinos and loads of other fun stuff. So yeah DIE GLOCKE is fascinating. I love all the Net debate, it's VERY heated. All those NAZI's coming to America for 'project paperclip' working at the US Sandia National Labs. I start to drown in too much information, loads of speculation. Disclosure TV has some cool stuff on this: http://www.disclose.tv/action/viewvideo/15116/The_Nazi_Bell_And_The_German_Flytrap/ I am way too into this, have been for decades, as time goes on more material surfaces. Some footage is coming my way of a certain journalist climbing into a small boat and heading down the water filled passage ways of the Wenceslas mine, all nice and spooky. Can't wait. March 23rdWe bumped into Roger Daltry and Pete Townsend today, well kind of, they were in the city streets doing a small media photo shoot. I thought Daltry looked ok, Mark said he looks a bit like a Nana with his hair. I find it hard to see the Who without the other guys.... but good on them for doing what they love- also they are playing the Grand Prix - which I'll never support. I still hate how it's at Albert Park Lake.On the way back we call into Forest Hill Chase. The Big W store there has Blu Ray dvds for around $10 cheaper then JB HI FI- buy the new Bond 007 movie on Blu Ray and its cheaper then standard DVD- which is fine. I also use my $20 free card to get the Black Hawk Down movie on Blu Ray. We walk the centre for a hard case (suitcase) for Marky but no one sells hard case anymore, all soft case. I guess the fact that Michael Jackson wants an elephant onstage at his shows beats Crowded House and their greyhounds! At least the greyhounds had a good time- imagine if the elephant crushes Michael with it's foot, sorry why am I laughing. here come the jokes.... I volunteer our friend Jen Foxy one in Queenslanbd to look after Michael's elephant! March 24thIt's been a few weeks but I finally get to see Warrick for some chiro. I'm put in the sunshine room. It gets that morning sun, and it's nice feeling those rays on my back. Everyone is asking about the Sound Relief show, I'm amazed at how many people went, watched it, heard it or read about it. It's nice to be part of it. I'm told I'm a little bit tense but it's not too bad. I kind of snooze this morning and let the acupuncture needles in my back do their thing. I leave with some extra energy and it gets me through the day. I wipe everything off my TO DO list for this Tuesday-excellent. My Gryphon tattoo has a special solar micro chip so it takes off my back and flies around the room (ok I imagined it in my little head).I go and order Australia Post stock from the general store, trying to have it all ready for any mail outs and items. I also book the largest walk in bin- which gets delivered tomorrow- it's a lot of work- sweat, chainsaws and blokey stuff. March 25thI keep laughing at the ESTA forms on the net for the USA, I have an Aunt Esther and keep asking if they named the forms after her. Just more red tape to go through but they are done. Mark throws a small tantrum when his doesn't work out. The coding at the bottom is easy to mess up- it just makes him bad tempted. Pre-travel stuff is never an enjoyment for him. I am a good buddy and fix his up when he storms out of the room.I've had a look of feedback about the TOUR Archive area on the Skyhooks site. www.skyhooks-music.com It would be great later down the track to have a similar live area for the Enz and Crowdies. Iarla still has a few more posters to go up from the live shows but you get an idea what it's going to end up like. I was expecting him to just put up the Live Area but he totally polished and fixed up the complete Skyhooks website- blew us away a bit- thanks guys! Our massive walk in bin arrived today, and we filled it with broken tree limbs and just fallen tree stuff. It's packed. I'm told all of the green waste is reused for other garden stuff so happy about that. We both work up a sweat- I'm yielding that chainsaw again and Mark is breaking branches like he's Rambo (I might say Dack Rambo!!!!!!) and speaking of Dack. We watched some Dallas the other night where Dack Rambo plays one Jack Ewing, cousin to JR. You watch his scenes and truly all you see is his MASSIVE crotch. It's almost obscene-surely it's a tshirt (or the worlds biggest towel) down those jeans. YIEKS!!!!!!!!!Holy trouser python. I just found the LPSG site (Large Penis Support Group site) and yes there they are talking about Dack Rambo LP! (hmm Long Player....or Large Penis... the result is the same I guess). Cathy from QLD calls and we have a half decent phone chat session- in the end her kids were telling her to vacate the phone- we pulled rank and got an extra ten minutes of in depth chatter and laughing. A nice way to end the night. March 26thWell it's been 4 years since Paul died- it seems like 4 years to me. I mentioned to Neil today that I seem to think about him more , not less as time goes on.The wonderful folks at Frenz.com put up the Paul on the tour bus snap I found (on the main page of the Crowdies website). I just wish the 'official site' would of had something up around Paul- even a token thing. It just seems it's only active when the band have a new cd or tour dates out. I'm not bitching but I know how much Paul meant to Neil, Nick and Mark and just thought on something like this it wouldn't hurt to remember him. In the end we did something so I should just be happy with that- the whole world doesn't stop for one man- I get it. Another reason I always love fan sites compared to official ones. It was nice hearing from both Neil and Nick as well. It's strange as you know so many of us are thinking about him today. It's still the unanswered question really-why. It always will be, so you tend to accept the never knowing bit. I'm reading the paper and I see that French secret service agent Xavier Maniguet, died in a plane crash. He was one of the 4 who escaped conviction when they sunk Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior in 1985 in Auckland harbor, killing photographer Fernando Pereira. I'm glad the hand of fate caught up with this french bastard- just 3 remain- hopefully their days are numbered too. It was such an evil act. saying that I do occasionally have dreams of blowing up a certain Japanese Whaling Boat..... but no plans of turning them into a reality yet!!!! I take Meg the dog across the road, the lamb bone from the roast, she rips it out of my hand and runs off and devours it- yeah my roasts ARE that good. I make homemade pizza's for dinner- Marks is salmon with a fetta cheese. Nice thin healthy organic flour base. I've even started flipping the base in the air after rolling it. Peter the pizza man I am I am. March 27thIt's Friday again, a full on day for a mate of ours- good luck with it.A spice parcel arrives from Cindy in CO. USA..makes me totally trippy all day. Customs opened it went through it , included one of their brochures and delayed it. As you dear readers know spices of all type send me, so I'm off with the pixies when I'm walking through those exotic markets in Cairo or Nepal- the spice is so wonderfully thick in the air. I spent the afternoon signing diary books. Word is obviously out that Hussy and Bang! are down to the bare bones, as most orders were for those. One new reader ordered every book including WINGS- it was one of Rocket Pocket Books biggest sale days since we started- by 3.00 I've ran out of things to write inside the books. Someone should put together a book of witty autograph one-liners. I get sidetracked because I foolishly open up Hussy and start reading it- mostly all the goings on around the Crowded House 'Farewell to the world' show at the Opera House. It's kind of cool having it all documented in this little diary book. Such memories, fun times, though the Opera House gig was an exhausting week. Hussy is going, going., going....... March 28thI have a feeling my body is fighting that Flu bug that's going around. Seems nothing will stop it. My eyes are also a bit hayfever-ish and my throat sore. Eventually stumble out of bed as Phil Judd and Mr Pete his son are arriving at 11.00 and he's always on time or early. Rare that a musician is on time. How strange he is!.....and he's doesn't disappoint, 5 minutes early- it's good that he times it like this. It's been a rough week so a morning up here is probably good for him, good for us too as he is good company. He signs away, more Mental Notes covers, I know all 7 guys from the lineup are probably sick to death of doing these, but they have been patient. I still have 1622 to buy, so am hoping 1622 more people get the vibe and either try this great debut or simply love the idea of having a copy fully signed by all those original Enz boys. I call Matty at Lilly Pilly and he holds a table for us, I'm sure being a Saturday the tourists are invading our food place. So off we drive in the 4WD, over hill and dale (dale ryder?). Arriving at Mt Dandenong itself. Lilly Pilly is packed and has an odd vibe, apparently a shit morning with a truly horrid tourists being rude and demanding to the lovely staff .... we've never seen them angry-stressed. The coffee is good and feels nice on my crappy throat. I apologize for not being the best company this morning. Still it's nice to eat together and tell some stories. Judd makes us chuckle- we love it when he's like this. Drive is all back to Ailsa Craig and wave goodbyes to Judd snr and jnr- Pete's great, makes me laugh- such a well behaved kid-nice to see he's welcome anytime. Not so sure about his big brother though- he misbehaves...oh that's his dad..sorry *GRIN*. I work in the yard during the afternoon, mend a fence and add new wires and plants in the ground , covering the small gapping hole where tree #2 crashed down. By afternoon I'm feeling much better, my immune system may well of beaten this thing before it took over. I still feel I need sleep , so an afternoon Nana nap (without Nana) is required. It's Earth Day, so at 8.30 we are pretty much turning off all the power for an hour, like million others will do. When the power is back on we watch MILK on blu ray. What a truly brilliant movie. Sean Penn deserved the Oscar- for once they got it right. he is amazing as Harvey Milk. I also thought James Franco as Scott Smith, showed incredible depth-without massive dialogue. Franco was a wonderful surprise as many times he comes across as a James Dean throw away clone- but the guy is great in the right role. Very underrated. The cool thing about MILK is the occasional use of real footage of the Castro from the seventies. Just a powerful brilliant movie. I loved the intro to his acceptance speech " Thank you. You commie, homo-loving sons of guns...".....I especially loved this line: "And finally, for those, two last finallies, for those who saw the signs of hatred as our cars drove in tonight, I think that it is a good time for those who voted for the ban against gay marriage to sit and reflect and anticipate their great shame and the shame in their grandchildren's eyes if they continue that way of support." Such a nice slap in the face to dickheads who supported Proposition 8 last year. There will be a time when the world looks back at things like proposition 8 in total shame and for those who support these vile ballots, let it be known here, it's only a matter of time- we have that on our side. The Sean Penns of the world are courageous and especially how time capsule movies like this reveal the worst of human kind- the true swine of society- the Anita Bryant- church hypocrites. But God has ways to punish such horrid old hags that use his name in vain- in her case it was bankruptcy, divorce and a failed singing career. If anyone is near Barnsdall, Oklahoma- feel free to spit on the street named in her 'honour'. (Her psycho ramblings in MILK will forever be her legacy as her homophobia runs crazy around the USA). MILK is my DVD movie of the year, so far. March 29thI still can't believe what a dickhead Pope Benedict XVI is. Did he just lie or distort scientific evidence or is he just plain ignorant. By saying that condoms exacerbate the problem of AIDS is amazing. Safe sex is the only way, if it's not on it's not on. The Popes insane comments could put so many lives at risk- and the sad part of it all , is that he said them whilst visiting Africa, the continent worst hit by HIV. Every so often the french get it right, the distribution of thousands of condoms mocking the Pope with his photo and the words I SAID NO! on them were a brilliant act. Catholic ideology is a sham when it comes to saving human life- sorry this Pope is just like the previous ones, useless.For those who love limited edition releases, check out U2's wonderful The Joshua Tree - limited edition box- love it- this is how limited editions should be- very classy. One of those flu-ey restless nights- stumble out of bed and go and catch up with Giles & Fenella at the VV. So nice to see these guys, chat for nearly TWO hours! Was it really that long. Just the right sort of day for it- and thanks for the coffee , owe you guys one. Home to do some final clear up work. Just leaves the BIG fallen trees for a treeman to remove. A massive task. Bec arrives in the afternoon and we all sit out on the decking. She manages to make a quick grab for Miss Banshee - rare that banshee is that slow- Bec has a strangle hold on her! Yey. So Miss B doesn't escape at dinner time. Fahita's for dinner, yum yum yum. Another fortnight has come to an end. All the best from the top of the mountain. Peter |