The Life and Times of Peter Green
Archive: 4 October - 17 October 2010
October 4thGreat news in from Kenya. Our adopted baby Kalama is doing really really well. Mark and myself are about to become 'parents' of a child star. An Italian film crew were at the wildlife trust and Kalama was chosen to be the baby elephant they filmed. It was for their geographic magazine series. Apparently the crew loved her and even went along for her daily mud bath. They filmed her on one of her runs and even when she had a short nap. She proved what a star she is by doing several re-shoots of her entering and exiting her stable. She eventually proved to be a REAL star when she refused to do another take..... does our heart good to see her getting stronger and bigger!We need to have a talk to her about the birds and the bee's as she was recently spotted having sex with her best friend, a boy elephant called Kibo. She is just becoming a beautiful girl.... I've noticed her ears are really large now and she still leads the pack when bolting for her milk. You go girl! October 5thGood to see that Keith Richards book "LIFE" is finally out late October. I've read snippets of it, some parts really funny, and VERY Keith. The drug bust at Keiths home (didn't the horrid "News of the world' have something to do with that as well?) when he and friends were on acid...and Keith was wondering what all the dwarves were doing outside in the cold in matching suits. (It was actually the police). Will be a fun read.. but after all it's only rock 'n' roll but I like it, like it, yes I do! Bring on the Anniversary tour guys-can't wait.It's Nellys birthday at the Post Office and general store, all the insanity that we create having a post office box at that store I think she deserves a birthday present. Mandama had some great ruby red cut licquer glasses so they were the perfect gift, rather classy too and the shop wraps them....so easy present for once. I hear from one of our old road crew and Simon who worked in the Enz office will be in Cairns when Tim is playing so hopefully catching up. It seems so long since the Enz office days, the fun, the madness we all dealt with it really well looking back. I think that at one stage everyone was banned from going into Mushroom records except yours truly and when I went in I'm sure I was followed around the building, it was intense. Anyway side tracked again, hope you are well Simon! I mail Elroys 21st present, I found this cool brass telescope, just a small one, good to watch what is happening down the road or the next door neighbours, really lovely design and looks old.... really just a thought, got to have cool presents on your 21st eh? Stoked Sharon is packing it to give to him. October 6thDecide to watch the Hockeyroos playing at the Commonwealth Games- such a great women's Hockey team. Mark works on the Kenya editing while I'm watching 'chicks with sticks'!!! They are up against India...and India loves hockey. But Australia wins, chuckle as one of them has the same family name as my mother... and she's an old hockey player from way back. You did well girls! Such a tough sport, if anyone has had a hockey stick in the ribs will tell you.This season of True Blood is fantastic.... it seems to of moved into some 'should be watched' area by the general public, so there goes the wonderful cult feeling of watching something that the public don't. Oh well, I guess success will keep it on the air. Jen in NYC has grabbed Rolling Stone with True Blood o the cover... couldn't find this anywhere so I'm over the moon. October 7thThe Australian dollar is out of control, broke through the USA .99c mark...last time it hit 99c was in 1982. Only a matter of time before it climbs above the US dollar and hits US parity- sadly it does mean Australian farmers lose out and to a degree tourism here as it is no longer a bargain. We also lose on paypal changeover. Still it makes me wonder how weak the US dollar is, and I guess America will now be printing more and more money to try and stimulate the economy. Didn't Robert Mugabe try that in Zimbabwe, making that countries money worthless and trigger massive inflation? OK America isn't Zimbabwe.... but it sounds worrying to me, I guess the Central bank will start buying government debt (US treasuries) so they can increase the supply of money.... is tat how it works?I've decided to sign a whole pile of Crowded House christmas cards this years, yes thousands and thousands- I hate it when you get cards and no one has signed them, so cold.... so I'll do it... I'll put aside a few hours every day and just do this. I think it's a good thing. A friend emailed me how she is starting on her christmas cards and complained about signing a few dozen, I bit my lip and didn't have the heart to tell her to try and sign 10,000 or whatever it is. I start on this epic signature scrawling in a week. October 8thI hear from the folks at CARE Australia and they've added some new items to the CARE Gifts area. One is a full solar power system for schools in a third world country. It's been awhile since we have had a special club project so I'm thinking this might be a good one. It will generate enough power for the whole school, and will last about 85 years at least (unless a goat eats it!!!) so maybe this is the thing for this year. I love renewable energy and as a present to a community this could be a very cool thing. I always get amazed at what can happen when thousands of people just put in the smallest amount of money or energy.... it always feels great when something is created from little effort. I figure everyone can afford a dollar.We leave home around 8.00 to head to The Caravan at Oakleigh. It's part of the old RSL club and we haven't been to this gig before, I have heard heaps of good stuff though. Drummond Street Oakleigh is full of cars, surely not all for Dog Trumpet? We grab the last car park and walk down the street... a cold Melbourne wind is lashing our faces, what crazy people come out on a night like this? We head in and The Caravan has a really decent crowd. It's such a cool venue, a real old style RSL club, with a beautiful little stage, chunky blood red curtains and 1950s skinny lamp lights around the edge of the room, small tables with chequered table clothes and every table taken, in fact people standing up. We spot a beer table with no stools near the bar at the back so we head to that and claim our spot. Lisa Miller is onstage and the crowd really is enjoying her efforts... col band as well. Pete from Dog Trumpet spots us and comes over for a chat, so good to see him, and I'm stoked that a crowd of several hundred turned up. We look for a few of our friends but doubtful that any made the effort, so we decide not to ask people anymore when we go to shows like this, we are both flying solo these days and just going out. However what we lack in our closest friends we make up for with musicians and other people we haven't seen. All night band people come up to say hello. Was stoked to see Stephen Cummings from The Sports, he always says hello, tonight he was very chatty and told us he will be playing here in a few weeks so we'll be back to see him. Some of the guys from The Models are in the crowd.... I'm focusing on Reg & Pete and Brian from Rockwiz jumps i front of me and has a cuddle... we just laugh, small world...the question is WHO ISN'T HERE tonight. It's like the world is ending and the music industry has to squash in one gig. Pete and Reg are fantastic, the crowd loves the songs and they play quite a few new ones off 'River of Flowers' the new album... I think they have a few of the songs from it on their myspace site- head to: http://www.myspace.com/dogtrumpet Some locals are up the back with us, it gets a bit squashy but they are all ok, I spot a very cute young man for Rebekah but she is no where to be seen.. nice guy, and he leaves the venue dateless. I grab a few of the 'River of Flowers" cds for a couple of friends and Pete & Reg sign them. Quite a few of the patrons of the venue are buying music- so they sell a few. Wonderful to see Sue, Pete's wife and one of my favourite artists, she tells me she is tour manager *GRIN* -you go girl! Chat for awhile, and say goodbye to every musician in town..... get home about 2.00 ..... wonderful night, loved the venue and so stoked for Dog Trumpet. Maybe the word will get out and good music will replace some of the shit that is clogging up the world. October 9thJohn Lennon would of turned 70 today if he would of lived, quite a few articles in Australian weekend newspapers. I hear a few Lennon songs today... quite nice to hear music. A Beatle at 70.... wow... that would of been good.Greg Skyhook visits and grabs some wood (sounds rude)... I'm sure we keep his house warm. The three of us go to Viewpoint for some food and coffee and chat... he is a bit obsessed over 'Snouts in the trough" the banned book about some of Victoria's Police. I work on some of the address labels for the upcoming mail out..... October 10thI call in to do some writing at Viewpoint. The motorbike club arrive, about 30 bikes. A few of the guys recognize me and come up and say hello. Nice bikes guys, they are so polite to the staff. Everyone is enjoying the sunshine today, a nice day for a bike trip.Crowded House are one of the bands up for PUBLIC VOTE for the ARIA Awards- MOST POPULAR AUSTRALIAN ARTIST. It's really easy to vote... takes 5 seconds and Australian music lovers who vote can win a chance to attend the ARIAS. The Crowdies are in the first category so just cursor down to 'C" and vote for the Crowdies. Here is the link: http://www.ariaawards.com.au/venergypopularvote.php Lets hope some horror like Guy Sebastian doesn't win (urgh-kill me now)...please vote so I don't blow my head off with a shot gun!!!!! October 11thSo funny I sent Bronwyn Pike the link to cast a vote for the Crowdies in the ARIA and she voted. It's funny politicians are always asking for OUR vote so good on the member for Melbourne to cast a vote for US. Thanks Bronwyn. I hope she does well in the upcoming Victorian election, she's so supportive of the gay community.I've signed on as a member for Linden gallery, I think they are short staffed as it has taken them ages to process my membership. It's such a cool gallery, I love that mansion-a cool place for art shows at St Kilda. I'm working away on the boxes for the F/16 Box set. I notice some of the diary readers are referring to them as 'The Sleeping Gryphon Box". The front image under the glass window is a 'sleeping' gryphon' (was this originally from Alice in wonderland?).... so it's all curled up..black print on red paper. So I'm going to call the box set "The Sleeping Gryphon Box.... thanks guys. I had someone ask how I made the boxes. Well I like things being individual...so they are all unique. I bought 50 of the boxes, some different sizes, all different colours. I made a template of the inside of the lid, cut a small window 5cm x 4cm. The cutting is a nightmare, I'm using a VERY sharp stanley knife, cutting along a piece of metal that I'm holding. The lids are quite thick so I'm using the knife about 6 times each side of the box. I pop the square out and tidy up the cut. Next I use a very small brush and paint in gold along the inside cut and back cut. I use this cool purple mini hairdryer that gets used a lot for art and zilch for hair... to dry the gold. Next I cut out the window glass (thick clear plastic.). I tape that from the inside. I cut out a red square that has the 'sleeping gryphon' image on it. I hold it up on the inside of the box, the light lets the image line up really easy and that is taped behind the window plastic. Thick clear tape (2 batches) across the window/image. PVA glue is used on the inside of the lid. I cut out some white paper and that is placed on top of the glue to cover the whole inside of the lid. Next I cut out this expensive red recycled hand made paper (blood red) from Thailand. More PVA glue goes over the white paper and the blood red is laid on top. It just adds something to the inside of the box. I take the box lid outside, put it on the large glass table with a glass to hold it down and let the sun dry it. When dry I use gold paint to put a small gold border (almost frame like) around the window on the outside of the box. I hair dry that as well. So that's it, all that messing about but it means each one is hand made. I'm really happy how they turned out. Each box has a numbered limited edition sticker under the bottom of it too. Crafty Gryphon! I'm just glad that none of the editions ended up with a bonus cut off finger included!!!! October 12thLatest figures show cocaine use in Australia has doubled in the past decade. It may be hot and lots of desert but there sure is a lot of snow in Australia! We have some food and then make our way to our lovely printers. Always good to see them and they do such a great job. Nicky shows us the freshly printed Crowded House Christmas Cards, they came up really really well. Stoked..now to sign them.... plenty of time I guess as Christmas is still ways off..but I want to include them with the latest Update and blurb for THE VERY VERY BEST OF CROWDED HOUSE cd which is out October 15th in Australia.After I finally complete the Crowded House book a new Famous for 16 Minutes diary book will be done. I get a lot of emails asking about our early days at the Enz office, and what bands we have worked with and how we got into this freaky job... so decided the next diary book will be 'The Early Years'...going right back to day one...before we came to Melbourne. It will be fun. Only a 1000 run so when it sells out that will be it for this one. Doesn't feel too strange having a 'flashback' book- the photos will be brilliant I assure you. October 13thI'm up very early this morning. Mark didn't sleep- no not my endless sexual appetite (cough) just too much dreaming and not feeling great-so I call Decadent Beauty and blow out his appointment but I keep mine. A good mate gave us vouchers- yey...so I'm all ready to get a massage..and good grief a facial! Renee the owner looks after me, the room is all candle lit and smells great and low lighting...so down to my jocks and on the table for my back to get massaged. She's great, not a lot of stress but I'm loving it- I smell good too! I wonder what oil she is using. The facial is freaky... and we are laughing too much. An hour later I'm all blissed, so much I can hardly focus on my driving...way too cool- thanks Wendy.I see Corn prices worldwide have nearly doubled (that's Corn not Porn!).... due to drought and too much rain...so grab your cornflakes now before the price really sores. I sit and sign cards while watching the Hockeyroos win against New Zealand at the Commonwealth games- go girls you did well. October 14thThe last of the Chile miners is safe, 70 days amazing. Nice they thanked Australia, thank god for technology. I bet they score a good book deal out of this. They surprisingly look great.We watch 'It might get loud' on cable. I've only seen a bit of it before so was happy to watch the complete doco. Jack White, Jimmy Page & The Edge- love it-excellent. Jack White is my favourite musician of the last decade. I'm signing christmas cards again and this time watch the mens Hockey team from Oz thrash India at the Commonwealth Games to win a gold. Australia romped it in with winning the most gold medals- they did well. October 15thThe Very Very Best Of Crowded House in stores here.... and stock arrives on time. JB HI FI has it everywhere in the store, nicely displayed. I got some photos in the booklet, very cool.... that's a bit special.The Australian dollars hit parity against the US $ at 11.00 tonight, creeping past the $1 US mark.... it's the first time since 1982. We watch 'American Beauty' on Blu ray- such a great movie... excellent script and perfect casting. October 16thWell the "Sleeping Gryphon" box set sold out, fast. I wasn't expecting it to be THAT fast. So I'm creating boxes, signing books and adding info to the photo set... phew. Don't get me wrong I'm kind of blown away, Incredible, (yes I get excited easily). Thanks to all of you who grabbed one of the box sets.I try calling Cathy and she doesn't answer, I tried calling Jen but no answer, I try Ben on his mobile no answer... what is it with Queensland..has everyone gone out partying? *GRIN* I hear that my funky U2 military style cap is on it's way, I don't want to get friend when the show is on... nice shaped caps too. I do hear from Bec which is good, have a chat. October 17th"My name is Peter Green- I have a drinking problem. I am addicted to San Pellegrino- Limorata!" Yes lemon. I can't get enough of those little 200ml bottles. 6 a day ad the 6 packs cost $14 here. Cocaine would be cheaper.Tania and Warwick visit. Warwick has a nice new car, it's shiny black and big and chunky- excellent. You just want to have wild sex on the bonnet . Tania tells me she is reduced to third now- the dog is loved the most, the car second and now she is third. It happens baby, never come between a man and his car. It is a sexy car, so glad it's not a small lame arse thing. Brooooom! I bought a few albums this week- The Sports- definitive collection (2 cd set), Neil Young 'Le Noise' (great sound on this one) and Robert Plants 'Band of Joy' (this sounds good too...and oh yeah I bought a copy of 'The Very, Very Best Of Crowded House'.... got to support the boys. I know we have comps on the way but all helps. I spot John Farnhams new album and hide copies- urgh how horrible. Thats it for me, and remember to cast a vote for Crowded House at the ARIA awards website: http://www.ariaawards.com.au/venergypopularvote.php Take care PG |