The Life and Times of Peter Green
Archive: 9 April - 22 April 2012
April 9thEaster Monday so the final public holiday, well till Anzac day. The "3 Ducks" are open so we visit the girls for some breakfast. They've had an intense Easter trading, seems everyone on the mountain and several thousand tourists wanted to eat at Olinda. It's the sort of weather where car loads of people come up here to these picturesque mountain towns.Movie of the month has to be THIS MUST BE THE PLACE- the brilliant Sean Penn as Cheyenne the bored aging ex-rock star. It will probably stay cult status but when it comes out on Blu ray it will find a happy home amongst our movie library. I love it when actors are brave and take on such parts-thumbs up to you Mr Penn. Rebekah drops in and we light up the fire in the pool room. Shoot a few games. Ok I win all three, I am in fine form. We all pig out on some easter eggs. (oink), it's so cold outside. We watch the sleet fall and cover the grass like snow, after that it buckets down. Really viciously cold, but Ailsa Craig gloriously warm inside. Bek brings along some fantastic soup, it really is the perfect weather for it. I have some passionfruit baked cheesecake left so we snack on that till dinner. We drive to Indian, and the restaurant is packed, I guess it's the night for it. We end up watching 4 episodes in a row of CALL ME FITZ, which is ok, not great but bearable- so funny to see Jason Priestly shaking it up a bit. Nice Y fronts Jason!!! April 10thIt was down to about 3 degrees last night, at one stage I think Miss Banshee & myself disappeared to the depths of the bed layer, almost never to return. My brain was ticking over and the cat decided 6.30 was a great time to go outside. I must look like such a Zombie when I let her out at that time of the morning.I post off a whole tray of the Enz Time & Tide cds. I held off by a few days so they wouldn't go missing in the Easter "no mail" period. I love it when fans get stuff like this, I'm glad i thought ahead at the last rehearsal and had a big chunk of slicks signed, or mostly signed. "Game Of Thrones" season 2 was on tonight, what a cool show, equally as good as the books, maybe better in some ways. A case of special effects being done to perfection & really good set dressing. Plus the characters work. We always make a comment that King Joffrey Baratheon (played by Jack Gleeson) looks like a young teenage Neil Finn! Truly check him out. Mark breaks the control for the central heating, it's such a crappy design it wasn't his fault. Whoever designed it should go back to school. I'm going to tell them that when I hassle for a new one. It's cold still but talk of the sun popping out in a few days time. April 11thBanshee keeps waking up so early, she is driving me slightly nuts! I hate it when your sleep is interrupted.We do the drive to Moorabbin, about 50 km away, Mark needed some recordable blu rays and other bits and pieces, and the store is so cheap. It means half the day is over by the time we return. A parcel arrives from Wendy, her brilliant chocolate coated macadamia nuts grown on their property, she must of read my mind! Hot cuppa some chocolate on such a cold grey day. Perfect, such a sweetheart! Mark has been so fantastic, thought i'd treat him and grabbed a Stones 45 off Ebay- the recent "No Spare Parts" vinyl. We've lost count how gigantic our Stones collection is now. It's great that vinyl still gets released, I love the smell, the artwork and even the odd pop and crack when played! I was tempted by Ebay to see if a Velvet Goldmine movie tee had turned up yet-sadly no- so little merchandise for one of my favourite cult movies. Decide it's time to venture out into the real world for dinner. Just Mexican so call a few mates. It's a girls night- Tania, Jane and Allie show up and we all squash into our regular reserved booth. Take a punt that my kidneys wont cave in and have a midori margarita. I have 2 pills left so avoid taking them while I have some alcohol. Being good whilst being bad, it's possible. Really nice evening, home not too late, just right. April 12thMark let Banshee the cat sleep in his room last night and she snored and then wanted to head outside at 6.30! So he almost falls asleep during the day. Cats do control our life. At least I got a full sleep.April 13thSorry to hear that Bob Brown is resigning from leading the Greens in Australia. He's one of the good guys of Australian politics. Give me a Brown over that moron Abbott any day. I guess that means Christine Milne will step up to the plate as Greens leader? She should do ok, rattle a few cages. I guess that finally Bob gets to spend more time with his boyfriend Paul, must be strange after such a long time in the political world. Not sure if I would wish political life on anyone, it's a vicious hateful place.Our friends Allie & Jane have a lunch on today, so we head to their place. All the kids are home and a few other people, most that we know. It ends up being a really lovely fun day. I drink ginger beer, still a bit soon for partying i decide, but Mark takes a bottle of jack. Allie is fantastic with her many dishes, so much food! Before we eat I raise my glass a toast to them both and "the feast of kings before us". I thought someone should thank them for all the effort. Emma Angel blows my mind with a fantastic early birthday present, but what she wrote just melted the old Gryphons heart. Kids can do that eh! Thanks Emma & love my present. It's also Harry W's birthday, so I hope his party was brilliant, sorry we couldn't make that one, sounded like fun. We get home and it's dark, thankfully the chickens have put themselves into their pen so Mr Fox didn't have chicken scarpariello tonight! April 14thI move the final blocks of wood to the front of the drive and my Free Firewood sign. Once again, someone takes nearly all the wood. brilliant. Just leaves the insane giant fallen tree, guess that will have to be professionally done.I think Ted Bailleu has fallen asleep at the wheel, Victorias unemployment is now 5.8%, the highest of all mainland states. He's letting Victoria crumble beneath his feet. 20,000 more join the unemployment lines- Ted Failleu indeed! I head to the general store for a coffee, my first in ages. Nice to sit and watch the Kaloramians do their thing. April 15thI filled in the short survey for Inquiry into the marriage equality amendment bill 2012. This is an important one so emailed a few friends and send out the survey link via GryphonMusic twitter. Ok I sent it to maybe 100 friends, good that people will support this, it's well overdue. Every person that stands up for gay marriage equality will help make it a reality.Such a nice day outside-On the way back from the bakery, I decide we should go to a hike. We pack some lunch and head a few kms down the road to TRIG track which goes for a few kms to the Kyeema crash site. The Kyeema was a douglas DC 2 that crashed into the side of MT Dandenong in 1938 killing all 18 people on board. Considering it was such a horror crash the area has this amazing calm around it. It's such an easy hike, recommend it to everyone, especially international people who want to enjoy those amazing white gums and ferns of the aussie bush. Wild deer watch us from further down the track and cockatoos flying everywhere screeching our arrival. Some of trees still have the scars of the crash , broken and the odd burn from the fire. It's amazing how many locals have never been to this area- it's really worth checking out. We watch the Logie Awards, our yearly "bitch fest" as Mark calls it. One Direction started the show, outside the venue to a selected lot of fans going nuts. Adam Hills very very funny start- of course the boring old Herald Sun didn't find his humour funny- it's the Herald Sun, I'm surprised they can pull themselves away from Football players having babies to even report on the Logies. It's such a tacky TV award night but every so often people get the voting correct. It was nice to see Ian Molly Meldrum get the Hall Of Fame Logie, but he'd probably cringe that the Logie show had FOUR overseas acts appearing and not a single Australian band. Well MOR Delta Goodren, who was so boring- I actually fell asleep. By midnight it was all over, One Direction finishing the show and Mark chanting "Five Justin Biebers" ...... I told him they weren't the Direction guys seem so polite whereas arsehole Bieber was a rude little shit on his Aussie visit. April 16thNice email from Miss Olivia, a heads up that Henry Rollins is on ABC Radio 774...so we listen to that on the Net. Henry's 2 fuels-Anger & curiosity ... he's so articulate on radio & on stage. It was worth waiting for him to appear on Melbourne radio today. I love how he's picked up the cause of Gay Marriage. He's so funny.....especially about losing 1/2 his vinyl during divorce- *GRIN* . He supports the RIGHT to it, and just so funny the way he vocally brings it all back to earth.I send Bek an email with the address for the Spanish Kitchen in LA so they can have some fun food. It's been awhile since we visited the restaurant but it should be ok, hopefully they won't get food poisoning. I release some Tim Finn NSW dates, sad that we don't have any for Victoria. I was hoping. A chance of a Western Australian date though. April 17thI think everyone is departing Australia today-the Seymour family are heading back to Ireland, Bek to the States. She sends me an email from 35,008 feet somewhere between Australia and NZ. Have a great time baby!We drive to Mt Evelyn for petrol, banking and food. Good coffee at Morrisons today. Captain Ahad was at one of the tables, we don't know his real name, he's this old european dude, smokes cigars and he seems to enjoy our humour. he looks at a picture of Tony Abbott in the paper and simply says "Fool". One word can say so much!!! Very sad to hear that the beautiful Tarkine rainforest area of Tasmania may end up being mined. Lets hope the public get off their bums and protest this, it really is worth making an effort over. I wonder how many Aussie diary readers will read this and not do anything. Check out the area it's true beauty, do we need more mines in Australia? I tweet out a snap of one of the Crowded House wooden stage props (circa July 1987) has it really been that long since this was used, 25 years! We hung it on one of the Ailsa Craig gum trees (easier to use). I like using twitter, great for the supporters too (I still find the word 'fan" to be a bit iffy). It looks great surrounded by gum trees.... my twitter account is GryphonMusic. We go out of our way to keep Banshee awake, so she will hopefully sleep in till some 'normal' time. April 18thI am tired, worn. Cat was up at 4.30 and just disrupted my sleep. Won't even write how bad she was, grrr she got a dirty look from me this morning. Still I can never stay angry at that ball of fur. I wake up excited, we are all off to see Mr Rollins tonight.... just hope I don't nod off during the show. Still amazing that he has FOUR shows at the National! Glad we are night #1 so he's all fresh. Seeing a Henry Rollins show should be on everyones bucket list before they die. He really is a life changer-forget all that Anthony Robbins shit, go for Rollins he's far more fascinating and less bullshit. My friend Michica in QLD told me how her brother does the Robbins "stuff" yet he's too scared to even come out at work & home. So much for changing ones life in a positive way. That's called hiding & not who you truly are. (ok rant rant). She says that she's fairly sure all the family knows anyway.We left in the afternoon for our little adventure to the city. Picked Miss Jane up on the way & said Hi to Allie and the tribe. Jane & Warwick are Rollins virgins so this is their first show. I park in the Acland street car park as it's nice and easy and you can walk through to Acland street. We are meeting Warwick at ROCCO (89 Acland St St Kilda) for dinner. We had a table booked by the window, that way I can watch the human parade of St Kilda walking by. ROCCO is a bit expensive, cute waitresses and fantastic lasagne! Did it beat Rosemarees brilliant lasagne, possibly, it was close, but Rosemarees has 1 part lurve so she wins. It's the first time someone has given hers a challenge , maybe a tie. Who would of thought that would ever happen. Good to see Warwick, he hit it off with Jane which is great. Nice to see him happy, both of them had fun. A quick walk to the National, I remember it so well from that (almost) week of Split Enz shows way back in February 1984. Bruce Griffiths warmed up the crowd.. he walked out and said "I know what some of you are thinking Henry Rollins has let himself go...." after that he just won us all over. We've seen Bruce before- always enjoyable, the perfect welcome act. A very very short break and out walks Henry, like some crazed uncle arriving at a BBQ- just strolls onto the stage. The applause were so loud - Melbourne loves Hank. We are always amazed how he can 1/ remember his stage banter for 2 1/2 hours 2/ never drink a drop of water! I keep wanting to call out rehydrate! Tonights Rollins show as good as all the previous, he just does it so well. Hank takes you around the world with him, brilliant moments, so descriptive awash of emotions. I kept looking at Jane & Warwick and they were smiling, laughing - you just can't help it. Hank spotlights the fools of the world, the morons like Bush and the republicans running in the election and then a few seconds later you find yourself with him eating a rat liver in India. If I was God I'd decree that every human should see a Henry Rollins show before they die. You know it's a good night when your jaw bone aches from smiling and laughing. The only drag was the hardly working ticket machine at Acland parking -useless. Get home about 1.00. A fine night- thanks Marky, Jane and Warwick. April 19thNew Jack White solo album arrives. It has to be my album of the month. It's called BLUNDERBUSS and you need to buy this album now. C'mon improve your crap taste in music, get Mr Whites solo offer... it's also on glorious vinyl too. For a limited amount of time you can hear the whole of this masterpiece on iTunes for free. His website has the link: http://jackwhiteiii.comCloudy day and it seems to be keeping the heat in. Mark tells me about his slow strip in bed as the night got warmer. Oh-la-la readers... I live with a stripper! Wendy is back at the 3 Ducks from her holiday, makes us some fresh rolls & good coffee... recharged after a late night. Great what coffee can do for you. I sneak into the real office and spend an hour on some band work. It will be nice to be back on the 23rd. Hopefully focused and ready to rock. Tell Macainsh he should go and check out the Rollins show, he'll love the bit on ageing old rockstars. Mick Jagger cops a bit of a serve. Greg Ham from Men at Work was found dead today. The media jump on the heroin rumour, it doesn't take them very long. April 20thGrey skies and rain, the weather has been so incredible up here lately, a really fantastic time of year.We call in and see Rosemaree, just making sure she is aok. Skully the cat comes out and says hello for 3.2 seconds!!! Nice to see that they are filming the sequel to the WOLVERINE movie at the Sydney studios in July. I heard PM Gillard sweetened the tax pot for the movie people, making sure it happened. maybe she has her eye on Hugh! *GRIN*. April 21stUp very early today, yes that darn cat of ours, I'm thinking she's gotten herself into a habit now of a 4.30 in the morning wake up! Maybe I need to gaffer tape her legs together, still if someone visits they'll think I'm into some bondage kinky cat sex! NOT!So I pop the bread into the oven and escape to see Nelly at the general store for a Nellachino coffee. It's a great coffee and many brilliant ideas come bursting from my brain-yey! The main one is to create an Enz dvd for the bands 40th anniversary in December and send it to all Enz fans in the fanclub for free. Now to work out how to pay for it, probably need about 15,000. Fear not Marky we'd get Regency or someone to press them (chuckle..I can see him now flipping out). I spend an hour outlining some ideas on paper and it looks good. I need to discuss it with the guys... I get home and we move the final wooden log which we've called "woman torso" -she is a bitch, so heavy we can just lift it and the wheelbarrow tyre is almost to the ground. Manage to get it to the fire area so she will go up in flames next burn off that we do. It's nice having the area clear. Just the 3 story fallen tree to worry about. The chestnut festival is on up here at Kalorama on Sunday May 6th.. http://chestnutfestival.com.au/site/ So our street and surrounding area will be jammed pack with cars , thousands of city people come up here for the festival. Mark still won't walk down to the festival in his squirrel suit with me! I spend an hour tweeting fans and mates, so nice and fast, plus a few photos sent out which is fun. April 22ndIt's Earth day , I spend a few hours working outside, adding some compost into the soil and getting rid of some weeds and the odd blackberry bush. Next month I turn the soil in the vegetable patch, add in the chicken poo and straw. There are usually so many worms in the ground so I think that's a pretty good sign. I'm careful not to hurt them, maybe I am becoming a Buddhist!! I'd love to extend the area and plant more vegies.The Age newspaper has a cool little article on George Takei who played Hikaru Sulu on Star Trek. he just turned 75 and is a star of social media. He's fun, article found at: http://www.theage.com.au/?gclid=CMiEkqaGuq0CFVCApAod9Xgl_A Isn't it funny how some people get older and just are miserable grumps. Life is too short, just haven't time for that bullshit anymore. They can be stuck with their own miserable company, kind of lame as there are so many more unfortunate people in the world. Maybe mid life crisis can happen twice *GRIN*. I just look around and it's this incredible world and they are such old bummers. Maybe it's just jealousy, who knows, possibly the fear that their life is running out. I take the high ground ignore the bullshit and enjoy ones own life, maybe we tolerate this less as we get older. I pray I don't end up a miserable old twat! Feel free to hit me over the head with a brick dear diary readers if that happens. Keep passing the open windows. PG |