The Life and Times of Peter Green
Archive: 9 July - 22 July 2012
July 9thWow Bon Scott of AC/DC would of been 66 today if he had lived. Quite a few of those seventies legends hit their sixties this year. Bon should of survived, despite his rough exterior a gentlemen underneath. The Bon Scott AC/DC the only AC/DC that matters. If it's not Bon it's not on!Call the pinball guy for a service. Well not ME being serviced the actual pinball machine! July 10thWe work till 3.00 this morning in the office.Yes you guessed it book stuff. Once more wading through live dates and quite a few segments done. We don't need torches on the walk track, Mark is glowing in the dark from scanner radioactivity -so he can light the way.Just found the photo of Hessie, his Mum Anne, Grant Thomas and myself at the Chocolate Cake launch. I remember Paul and myself were putting our EK Holdens in for a fine tune and went for a walk to grab a coffee. Stumbled across the Prahran Club, it was a bit rickety but we both thought it would be a fun place for a showcase. So when EMI called a week later it seemed to be the perfect place. It was sure one hell of a night, EMI were amazing, very generous with the bar tab. I think Rebekah and Mark drank the bar dry. I miss EMI I wish they were still our record company for future recordings-there I've said it! July 11thHappy Birthday to wonderful Gough Whitlam, turned 96 today. Such a brilliant PM, Kerr was an arsehole for what he did and the Queen an equal arsehole for supporting Kerr. I hope Gough makes it to 100, even if he doesn't he'll always be a legend, whereas John hoWARd will always remain a turd. Hmm why don't I say what I really feel *GRIN*.Book in Banshee for her cat flu shot, Moss is away so Jacinta has to give her the injection. I know Banshee adores Moss for some strange reason so I hope she doesn't rip Jacinta's arm off. I read an article where Medical Association boss Kerryn Phelps and some other people discussed with Kevin Rudd that if he was PM he would support (and fix) gay marriage in this country. If that's the case Mr Rudd has our total support to be PM. We head up to Mt Evelyn today and do some banking, and have lunch at Morrisons. Sherradyn is cooking so she makes a fine BLT. She has a new hair colour too-we compliment her. The gallery has some new art in, a few bush scenes are pretty nice. Tranquil. There is a new girl (Amy) at Morrisons too, makes a fine coffee. July 12th50 years today since the Stones played their first gig at the Marquee. Amazing.... sad they didn't do any shows in line with this date, but from all reports it's happening next year. Long may they rule! Marks "50" Stones book arrives, an early birthday present from me.Well Banshee was brave and well behaved. Got weighed, needle and a thermometer up the bum! Not sure which one she enjoyed more-strange cat. She's the perfect weight and sleek like a leopard. Jacinta says she looks like she goes to the cat-gym. It's all the running around on the two acres and climbing the trees I say. I look out the office windows and see her wandering past heading off for some mission or running down the tracks, I love how she's active and happy living here. Sometimes she will call into the office for a cat visit. Nice email from Sharon Finn in London today, sounds like they are having fun. July 13thCall into Rosemaree's and she gives us the paper lay out that she has done- and a really cool cheese grater for my parmesan-thanks hon.Guess who won the meat tray again, it's brilliant , about $60 worth of meat each week- love it. We plan to head into the city next week to the State Library to do a few hours of research. I've called them and they have all the JUKE music magazines but on microfilm, so old technology but that's ok as long as we can access them and read them, especially the gig guide area. We are determined to get those Crowded House dates when Gill Civil played in the band. July 14thSaturday roasts are back in vogue at our place. Dig up some potatoes from the garden, pick some snow peas and some sweet potato and pumpkin and a killer gravy....not bad! We found these cool roasts at Woolworths, they are $11 and we still have 1/2 left for sandwiches. No fat on them, I'm amazed at the value. So much for Tony Abbott's "the sky is falling" around the carbon tax. I bought the exact same items this week and they were $6.25 cheaper! Abbott really is full of shit, all scare tactics so old people get rattled.July 15thI head to the lower area of the yard and collect a load of kindling for the fire place. It's a bit damp from morning dew so I store it in the garage. We have gone through a decent stock of firewood this year, some very cold days up here, so the solar is limited as far as what we sell back. (Hate that). Still in about 5 months the whole system would of finally paid for itself. So whatever discounts we get on each bill for the rest of our life is just a bonus.July 16thThe fans send me their emails for rare items they want me to look out for at next weekends Record Fair. So I have a 4 page list. Last fair we did well, found some radio discs for NZ and Scotland. The guy must of thought we were crazy buying every one he had, but I knew they'd go to good homes. I thought he'd have some Canada shows as Crowded House did a lot of shows in Canada that were released to radio, a hell of a lot. I'll keep my eyes open at this upcoming fair, I'm always happy that fans get such things. Beats people buying them at the record fair from store holders and greedily selling them to our fans for $150 on Ebay. I asked Neil if there were any LPs he wanted for his musical collection but I think he has everything he wants.July 17thWe head out to get some birthday presents for Fran and Trudi. Want to make sure they get them and their cards on time. Frans will be easier as we have heard from our mate "Mandy No Pants" and we are caching up with her on Friday in the city. She's down from Sydney, my old school buddy. So we can call into Frans on the way to the city. It's easy to do, going from the city to Kalorama you'd want to drop in on someones birthday, got to make the effort.My pay arrives and I've allowed this small amount to buy myself a present. This amazing old looking metal whale balancing toy. As you rock the metal waves the whales eyes move and mouth opens- very cool. It's in our kitchen by the window, a perfect spot for a happy metal whale (instead of a heavy metal whale!)!!! Sometimes you have to spoil yourself and I've spotted this one at Mangana at Olinda! I can't believe it I just found my metal whale on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=culBdOhbbhI July 18thIn the afternoon I see some sunlight, I am amazed. I grab the small mail bag and decide to walk down to the General Sore/Post Office...I need some vitamin D, I need to feel suns rays. I see some of the locals at the oval and we are all excited by the sunshine. So for the next 20 minutes picture 16 Kaloramians , walking around the oval together all squashed into a small segment of sunshine..funny! Nice that we now know the locals. All of them very kind to us.Ghost Cars-Crowded House book, orders are arriving every day. By the time we send this off to the printers it will be sold out. I have to remember to keep some copies aside for the band members. Once I've taken those out I figure we have 100 to go. So if you still need this amazing little Crowded House book, do not delay, once it's gone I doubt we will re print, so a true collectible item. July 19thMy bank somehow lost my debit Mastercard. Took them a week and finally they have tracked it down. I worry when things like this go missing as it usually means cancelling out cards etc. Relieved they found it.I've got some time off owing soon, especially after the hours we have been working, so my week on Magnetic Island will happen. I'm excited , and Mark will be when he arrives on the island. Still attempting to get our usual house, it looks like they have swapped estate agents, I'm hoping it is vacant. The one thing about climate change is that up here in the national park it seems to create strange growth patterns, our tomato crops are less but our dinosaur plant -the Wollemi Pine seems to thrive on it and the changed weather patterns (but hey it is from a dinosaur era so that may well be why!!~!!!) July 20thWe head into the city, some breakfast on Canterbury road first. It's Fran & Trudi's birthday...the year has came around too fast. We surprise Fran, great to see the kids again and Pete. They always make us feel welcome. It's a quick visit as I am meant to see Mandy No Pants at 1.00 and the city traffic does suck. I call her on the mobile and put it back by 30 minutes. Grab a park at the Hyatt-hey its only $19 per HOUR!!!!!! We arrive at the State Library, the staff are brilliant and soon Mark is set up with his micro film. We are using the original film readers so old world technology and apart from making you feel sea sick it's great.I meet Amanda at the corner of Swanston & Burke. She looks brilliant in her funky boots and the next few hours are fun. I take her to one of the lane way coffee houses, actually it's the old Black Cat where I used t go with Vali Myers. It has some new name. We like Amanda, apart from using a Mac she also happily settles for a cappuccino -so wonderfully Wollongong of her -I have the same. We talk about friends, school, work, bands, it's good. She's a great mum and I have to say it was a nice time. I rush back to the Library, Mark has gone beyond the call of duty to allow me time to catch up with my school buddy while he carries the weight and does the research. I walk him to JB so he can buy some dvds... and back to the car to pay the $62 parking fee! We head home,I really don't miss the city very much these days and with the traffic , even less. I take some short cuts and save an hour, so not too heinous. Call in for grocery shopping and we end up home as the night descends. It's been an enjoyable day, we got about 12 dates to add to the live area of the Ghost Cars book and came home to find a message from EMI that our VERY VERY BEST OF CROWDED HOUSE has now hit the magic Platinum sales mark in Australia- wonderful. Earthquake hits while I am on the phone to mum, a 4.3, a few things fall over this time and it is loud. Banshee ran away 10 minutes before it started, they really can feel it in advance eh? July 21stI call the girls for their birthdays. Chat to Tania that night. My airfares to go to Magnetic Island are locked in so I'm over the moon. Very happy. I sign up for AVIS as Hertz no longer give you frequent flyer points with Qantas, so my cars will be with Avis for now on I guess. Some talk of lear jet available for part of the flight (don't ask) Viva la Rock star!We head to the office and work on Ghost Cars till 2.00 in the morning. Mark now thinks we will have too many pages in this little book....(sigh). July 22ndI sleep in, well a bit. Foggy day but no rain, just a bit crisp. Work in the yard for a bit of the day, and then we both meet up in the office at 2.00. Mark Hart is in contact and emails his Answers to the fans questions, he wanted to update them. He's also working on his next solo album, demoing so he'll be doing the full recording soon. Nick is still fiddling about with his Q&A !!!!Jane calls and we chat, she's by herself for the start of the night so comes on over with a present and stays and eats a roast dinner with us. She's fun, I think she enjoys it as we disfigure the Justin Bieber perfume adverts! She has some of our Beerenberg tomato chutney and agrees it's pretty special. Beerenburg rules! Sad news comes in about Nigels animal mate Igor. I think we feel more for an animals loss then some people. Nigel has such a huge heart around helping animals too. We feel his sadness. Laura and family call and will see us at the Marriage Equality Rally, jane and family coming along too. Good to see our friends making an effort, these are the things we will remember.Time to stand up and be counted. The shooting at the Batman movie in Aurora Colorado is depressing, why America actually needs 350,000,000 is insanity at best. Especially weapons that fire that many bullets, that quickly. I love that country but I will never get the bullshit around guns. Sadly neither side of politics will have any balls about this because of the election. So worrying, so many injured, killed and just terrified. If Australia ever became that gun mad I would move to some remote island. The innocence of dressing up as Batman has probably been destroyed for many kids too- as a long time fan of the Bat (think first day of school in Batman gear) it saddens me no end. Stay safe Peter Melbourne Readers. August 11th 2012. State Library Steps 1.00 PM. The marriage equality rally is on. This one is really important as the vote happens later this year. So spread the word...and come along. |