The Life and Times of Peter Green
Archive: 21 May - 3 June 2012
May 21stHappy Birthday Sharon Finn! See I remembered, and I didn't need any electronic gizmo to remind me. She was impressed that we actually did remember as she knows I suck at birthdays.Weird day, actually some sunshine, felt fantastic on my skin, it sucked up all that Vitamin D, felt great. I stuff some Dr Chiro paperwork under Rosemarees door and Skully goes a bit cat crazy, I think she is in love with me. Probably the only pussy I'll get this week!!! (Lets not go near that line please). Thought I'd make the effort and drive it down to her place so she has it. Last night was the coldest night for the last 9 months. I do remember waking up and gliding deeper into the bed clothes. I know it's not my imagination, it HAS been cold this year, I usually don't feel the bad weather this early but lately it's been noticed. Lots of media today, just small time and quite a few European newspapers running pieces on Peter Jones. I did find a group photo for Neil, so sent it, not sure if they can use it but at least they have it. We work in the office, sending the fans a treat, well starting to, it's going to take ages....but a small surprise. We watch "Sucker Punch" movie which seems to be universally slagged. I liked some of it, but it seemed a bit fractured. I LOVE Wise-mans quotes though, I'll happily steal these two. "If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything" and my favourite " For those who fight for it, life has a flavour the sheltered will never know." So good.....!!! I think the movie couldn't decide if it was a playstation game , a rock video, the missing Buffy season or all combined. I wanted to love it, I ended up "liking" it- just a bit. May 22ndBanshee sleeps in Marks bed last night, gives him a loving malling when he tries to put her cat blanket back on her. I get a fantastic night sleep. I call Peter J's sister to grab some funeral details, looks set to be this Saturday at St Kilda. She sounds good all things considered, lovely woman. So Saturday is it, I bet they get a large crowd, from the bands and artists alone that he played with will fill Ormond Hall. Home to the infamous Reefer Cabaret shows, I'm sure he'd have a chuckle over that.Dr Chiro gives me a few neck corrections to day -love that cracking sound. I also received another certificate from them, I have so much organic shampoo I'll have to grow my hair again to use it! Still $30 worth each time, so brilliant. They do look after me at my chiropractor! Plus a bit of a massage today (not in a John Travolta "happy ending" sort of way either). A friend was complaining how avocado's in Victoria are so tough these days and never ripe. I told her to put a ripe banana next to them. I think it's the ethylene gas that the banana emits that ripens the avocado quicker... fairly sure that's right. Always seems to work for me. Great to see the Australian Greens introducing the "Koala Protection Bill" into the senate. It will be introduced legislation in June & hopefully everyone will agree it is a good thing. Koala's need protection especially now when they are at their weakest & numbers dwindling. I returned some chocolate today (yes *gasp*) it was 4 months past use by date. Supermarket were cool about it, all innocent (cough) & the chocolate makers sent me a credit voucher for Woolworths so that was nice of them. Still 4+ months past use by date is a bit extreme. Nice that most of our friends called to see how we were around Peter Jones dying. The other few too focused on their shopping I guess. May 23rdWinter is still 10 days away but the last months it most certainly has arrived early. You just want to stay snuggled in bed. I'm so glad I don't have to leave home at some god horrible time on these cold mornings, no wonder people are always snappy to each other at work during these cold days. We are lucky that the music industry doesn't really start rolling till 10.00.Quite a lot of tributes in the paper today for Peter Robert Jones. The one from his family very nice with a little drum above it. He'd been ill for 14 months so I'd imagine there would be hundreds, maybe thousands of people who made contact, and helped make his life easier. A few days ago I talked to Jane and Tania about heading to the snow. Our friend Tania has never seen a waterfall and I thought I'd get that on crossed off her "Need to see" list.... thought if Miss Allie is down from QLD with Emma Angel we can squash the kids in too. Only a day trip but fun, maybe at Mt Baw Baw. It's only 2.5 hours driving from Melbourne so that is an easy days escape. Just mailed Nick and Neil copies of the Peter Jones dvd that Mark put together for Peter and his family. So good of you to do this Marky, you do rock you know that. I found a hiking trails map of our Dandenong Ranges National Park for our mate Maz from Boom Crash Opera, coming up here for a bit of a hike and visit I think Always welcome the BCO boys. Catch up with Jane for some Mexican and then a few other friends at the coffee haunt after wards. Jane was hysterical, always a chair for her in the ol' inner circle. I find a $100 note on the ground near the car park, been so long since I've seen $100 aussie notes (nearly always $50 these days circulating) that I thought it was a fake-but no real. Money from the Gods-thank you Zeus! So shout everyone coffee and cake. Such a great night, and home before midnight. Jane how good were the midori margaritas tonight?! May 24thThe Avengers movie is now in the Top 5 grossing movies of all time. It will climb to #4 next week and may even bump off Batman at #3. I'm really happy for writer Joss Whedon, he's one of the nicer blokes in the business. Meanwhile Battleship is on the nose, numbers dropping for that movie very quickly.Breakfast at the wonderful "3 Ducks" at Olinda, coffee is brilliant today-fine work by Astrid and cute leaf design in the froth -true art! I like how they spoil us, a good bunch that run it. Maybe some of the vibe from Lilli Pilly has hung on. It's actually been quiet in the office today. So few calls and only a handful of emails. Maybe it's the eye of the storm till Saturday when the funeral is on. I know it sounds selfish but I will be glad when this is all over with. We have however been doing something nice for the fans who supported the charity raffle, it's only a small token thing around Peter Jones but I'm hoping those people will enjoy it. I recommend my account to a friend today, she'll like her, an accountant that never feels like an accountant- how rare is that, what a novelty *GRIN*. My sister sent me a parcel today, one item was a fridge magnet of a (real) cat dressed up like Dame Edna- looked very freaky possums! Wow Facebook is on the nose again, shares drop for another day. I see a class action law suit is being filed against them and I wonder if it's true about smaller investors not being told about Facebook's weak profit forecasts . I think its sitting about 16% below it's $US 38 IPO price. A dog with fleas except for a few lucky people. Some friends of mine have arrived in Melbourne on their boat, ok yacht. It must of been rough getting through the heads, but they have gone through bass strait so after dealing with that it would be a breeze I guess. Asked if we wanted to go out on the bay in their final vessel for some lunch and fun. Funeral on Saturday so guess we will see how it is on Sunday. Invite a few interesting friends I think. Could be fun. Since Peter Jones death I noticed that www.frenz.com/crowdedhouse/ has had quite a bit of traffic & the Frenz Forum too. The website is up to over 760,000 visitors in less then a week. I guess just the articles in the online newspapers have peaked some sort of interest. Death (sadly) always does that & with the internet being such fast & easy access people just google us. May 25thI can't believe how pathetic the National Enquirer is (actually I can, I really can) so John Travolta went to a party in drag once- whopppeee get over it! Time to leave the guy alone, if there were more John Travoltas in the world it would be a better place. We tweet a picture of Mark as Nana-his one off drag appearance- asking why he was ignored by the National Enquirer . So typical the Herald Sun re print the stupid story on this, leave Travolta alone, far worse people out there than him. Can you imagine what the Enquirer staff get up to-desperate old hacks.We get some facts in the mail today, since Ted Failleu and the Victorian State Liberals have been in power, and extra 49,000 jobs have been lost in this state. Truly pathetic, who voted for this dick head. I stand outside for a few minutes and watch the snow flakes fall. They land in the tops of our giants but so few make it to the ground. I know Mt Baw Baw which is about 2 hours drive from here received about 20cms so far today. You can feel it in the air, that brisk cold, that makes the ends of your fingers numb. Roll on Winter, one week to go. Peter Jones funeral tomorrow & I'm still working out what to wear. Not sure if I want to go the whole black suit, maybe mostly black but I'm thinking of dark green shiny shirt- add some colour. It's at Ormond Hall with it's fine musical history it's just tempting to not go "straight" as far as clothes. I remember Noel and Sally wore hawaiian shirts to Hessies private funeral and I just loved that and Paul would of adored it too. Grant, Mark Hart, Marky and myself arrived like we were from the "walking in shades" scene from Reservoir Dogs movie. But we did look spiffy I have to say. Neil saying i scrubbed up ok. I mention to Tania about the holiday house on Magnetic Island- as the days grow colder here I think of it more and more often. Sunshine, now that would be good. I could work from my lap top, so very tempting. May 26thWell today is the funeral for Peter Jones. I had some really nice phone calls last night from friends, just wanting to chat and checking in. I love that one on one stuff, thank you to our mates for phoning, I remember things like that and appreciate them. Mark is staying at home today, so I'm solo for this one. Which is ok. The mountain is covered in the thickest blanket of fog as I drive to the general store for one of Nelly's magnificent coffees. Just what I needed. Home to fresh bread and a sandwhich and then I decide what to wear. So I go for a (subtle) pinstripe suit. Just a good white shirt and leather shoes. I decide to be respectful.The drive is perfect I arrive at 1.00 on the dot and actually get a parking spot just down from our old house at 55 Greville street. It's interesting to see what they have done to the row of terraces that we lived in. Lovely cast iron fences but the colour schemes are a bit ugly. I approach Ormond Hall, loads of beautiful motorbikes outside which means that Pete's bike club are all here- so fantastic. The lines to go inside are long, so many people have turned up. I bump into Dugald and Craig Bird- 2 of our old crew. I haven't see Birdy for ages, such a nice bloke and charming as ever. Musicians are everywhere, some I know, some I don't and girlfriends of Peters and I'd say half the music industry. I get inside and decide to stand by the back door area to avoid the crush. The upstairs balcony area had to be opened because of the sheer volume. The service is wonderful, Russell Macdonald from Peters bike club reads the Eulogy. Lots of music, fantastic stories, and there was so much I didn't know about this man. At the end Meyrem Hoca was superb with "Yasin" from the Kuran. Captivating! The bike guys gave him a guard of honour as he left Ormond Hall, I stand next to Brian Nankervis & watched as their machines growled to life. . I left feeling somewhat exhausted, so much to soak in, like the most amazing art museum where the facts and stories are just endless, all rich and enjoyable though. I walk back to my car and take the long journey home. The wake was at Station 59 Hotel in Richmond but I was drunk enough on the brilliance of the day so decided to head to the hills. May 27thHappy Birthday Neil Finn.I empty the office bins and have to go up onto our decking to do so. There sits Miss Banshee on a chair, near the door 3 chickens all curled up in a group and 4 king parrots land wanting some food. It's like having your own petting Zoo! The king parrots are quite brave, landing on my arm and having a chat. I try not to encourage them too much, all humans are not as nice as me, better for the birds to stay wild. Warwick calls and leaves a message around the funeral, I keep missing calls but nice that people make the time to call us. So DC comics keeps saying that one of its major superheroes will be coming out of the closet. Everyone is pointing at Batman being gay-it's enough to make a boy wonder (grin-sorry bad joke)! I always thought Aunt Harriet was just on the show to stop those Bruce and Dick (maybe Bruce really does like Dick?!! Holy Bat clue) rumours. I'm sure it will be the Green Lantern..ok maybe not 100% sure. My comic Gaydar says possibly. I read a really fascinating article on Australia's debt. I always wondered how we were especially up against the 34 advanced economy's and Australia is actually in a pretty decent position. We have the 3rd lowest debt of all of those economies. Australia is a mere 9% of the GDP. Example Greece at the moment is 160% of it's GDP!!!! USA is around 110% and Japan a whopping 241%! So why does Tony Abbott ramble on like Australia has the worst debt in the world? The usual spin and because the average Australian probably doesn't have a clue! I track down a history of several Rosaleen Norton paintings and sketches that have sold over the past decade. It's on Australian Art Sales Digest so I'll have to subscribe for a month but thats not too bad. It's interesting to find out what the Witch Of Kings Cross's art work sells for these days. My original (the Cat) is fairly primitive but there is something very cool about it. I think it does fuck with peoples heads a bit, if they think that is full on they'd really freak over some of Roies other works. Iceland really needs to stop killing Fin Whales- in 2012 there is no reason for such cruel murder. Sign the petition to help stop this bullshit: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/525/872/281/tell-iceland-not-to-resume-fin-whale-hunt/ May 28thWe get a call from Michael Den Elzin- always fantastic to hear from him. He's been working on the "Coniston" documentary that will air on the ABC soon. We need to catch up, been too long.Roll on pay day, only a few days to go-yey. Part of my pay this month is being donated to the brain cancer charity. Wish i could donate more, it all helps I guess. May 29thHave a chat to Bongo Skyhook today, his birthday rolling up fast. We both laugh that he was born on the same date as Mick Jagger (obviously different year) & both mortified that its the same birthdate as smelly old John hoWARd. How fucked is that we both say-laughing.The Orangutan's that are featured alongside Kalama the elephant and her mates on BORN TO BE WILD Blu Ray are brilliant-such amazing eyes and faces. Dr Birute Mary Galdlkas is an amazing woman - alll the work she has done around them since the early seventies. What a legacy. There is an incredible eco tour of Borneo heading off in January....I so want to photograph them. May 30thI hear from Mark Hart who helps me with some information for the Crowded House Time-Line for www.frenz.com/crowdedhouse/ website. Such a nice guy- thank you Mark for getting back to me so quickly. Neils sends over his lyrics for History never repeats, a great price. All in this silver grey graphite pen-god he is a neat writer, I am appalling with my pen-man ship compared to him.Homemade baked passionfruit cheesecake tonight and we start watch JUSTIFIED season 2 on Blu Ray. Australia can be so lame, Justified season 1 only released here today on DVD (not Blu Ray) pathetic. May 31stThe NSW upper house passed a motion today calling on the federal government to allow gay marriage. It's a step, more like a few steps, still a long way to go but very positive. It passed 22 votes to 16 which is a very healthy sign. Liberal member Matthew Mason -Cox was talking shit (yet again) what is wrong with some of these people. If two people love each other let them get hitched. Who's business is it anyway, certainly not the Church, marriage was about land ownership long before religion stuck it's beak in. It will happen in this country no matter what some conservative tossers have to say, they should just fuck off and let people live their lives.Don't you hate it when you pay is late arriving in your bank account? I think the people who push the buttons at Westpac are asleep today. We start watching Season 7 of WEEDS on Blu ray, it's actually a really fine season this one-off to a good start. So May is now over, how strange is that. We've had quite a few mates drop in for visits this week. Hardly seems like we have had a night to ourselves. June 1stIt's the first day of Winter and wouldn't you know it- a really nice day, not sunny but no rain.I see at a camera show they had the Nikon D700 up against a el cheapo camera and took several photos and compared them. The el cheapo camera won easily, sometimes spending money doesn't always mean a better product. Usually it does but not always. June 2ndNeil and Sharon are in Sydney town for the ART OF MUSIC fundraiser at the Art Gallery Of NSW. Pete, Reg and Martin from Mental As Anything are playing and Neil jumping up to play drums. Should be a good night, great these guys support it. Their mate Jenny Morris has a lot to do with the Art Of Music so she would of enticed them a bit.June so time to prune the roses and the cherry tree. I decide I'm planting a row of roses up the walk way on the side, so I'll grab them from Bunnings, they are always el cheapo at that place. Tania comes along for some time out. Also going to grab the water tank that my mates so generously helped pay for as a birthday present- so a HUGE thank you to Tania, Bek, Warwick, Nick and Nat, Trudi, Jen & Merl, Sis and Mum, Alison, Allie and Jane, Laura and Kevin. Thank you for this a really wonderful gift and also for the fantastic birthday cards. I still have my cards up, even though my birthday is 3 weeks ago. You guys are my best mates, thank you for spoiling me. Tania buys some vegies for her garden, I have power cords, roses and some desert Australian plant that has some freaky small fruit on it that is packed full of vitamin C. Water tank arrives in a week which is great, so cool. I'm only letting the above pee in our toilet seeing they contributed to the tank *GRIN*. Everyone else can go squat under a gum (joking..maybe not). June 3rdReally nice to see several king parrots land, red and green shiny feathers and their partner parrot not as vibrant but still beautiful. I can't believe so many Australians are so dumb they don't even know what the most basic aussie birds are. Too much time getting fat on couches putting dribble on Sheepbook and not enough time in the great outdoors. We have such an amazing country full of incredible fauna and flora - and hell it's good exercise to go for a walk .... see whats on offer...don't let your computers dominate your lives, you'll just become heinous over weight bores if you do. Why do people sleepwalk through life? Ok off my soapbox.In 2 weeks Mark and myself continue work on the Ghost Cars book. I only have half of the Peter Jones interview so make have to try and patch it up from other interviews. Sad as it would of been good to have the full interview for the book, I guess in some ways it must be one of the last or few interviews that he did. Really just got to continue and get this baby finished, it's long over due. Just need Nick to sit down and do his interview too...people have been so patient. That's all from the top of the mountain. Now leave your computer and go for a walk or some wild sex in the forest! (pref. with a human). Gryphon. xxx |