The Life and Times of Peter Green
Archive: 19 November - 1 December 2013
PG & Gang on the Guided Tour- Mushroom 40th Exhibit-RMIT Gallery-Melbourne
November 19thStrange, starting the diary on a Tuesday! But after last nights fun time at the Mushroom 40th exhibit it just had to be an extra day last time...and one less this diary. Life does indeed balance out.I wake up feeling pretty good, despite working on Neil Finn presales as soon as we returned home. I love the Molly snap, from last night, final icing on the cake. The Australian presale was on today, a few small hiccups at a few sale areas but over all our area worked well. I think it should be made law for ticket selling sites to stress which browsers work best, Firefox and Chrome seem to but it dos cause hiccups for some people who use others. In the end I had 4 problem emails and thousands of good ones. You will always get a few, just how it happens, every time. God I hate pre-sale. Sometimes you just want NZ to say 'hey thanks for all your efforts" but that seems to happen like never. November 20thThe Stones finally announce the SA gig. We've known about this possibly happening for 6 months now. The press are all excited about shows in Sydney and Melbourne but I don't think even contracts have been signed, we've learnt to be patient till the tickets are in our hot sweaty hands! No vibe to go to Adelaide and see them with 70,000 others, a smaller Rod Laver show would be great, or Hanging Rock maybe.... still a few weeks before any other aussie dates are announced if at all.November 21stHappy Anniversary Marky! 33 amazing years. It just happens to be the same date as when KISS played Sydney 21-11-1980..and yes we were at that KISS show. "I was made for loving you" indeed! We have a really great dinner tonight, just a really lovely night. I dig my best friend, he keeps me balanced. We have fun and enjoy our life together. Just don't want to end up one of those old guys that is grumpy and loveless.I see employment in Victoria is getting worse- 300 jobs gone from BP! Napthine is napping again, roll on the state election, time for this pissy Victorian government to be thrown out. Possibly the laziest Victorian government ever. I bet the next Polling numbers are a disaster for the Libs, people on the street just hate them now. It didn't take long. Congrats to Illinois, the 16th USA state to approve gay marriage...just after our lovely Hawaii became the 15th state. The snowball is rolling, watch the states jump on line when it's 50%. Of course that prick Abbott and those arseholes who find any reason possible to fight marriage equality will always keep their dinosaur heads in the sand here. Which is ok, just another nail in Abbott's pathetic coffin...so many these days he's almost nailed himself in! All you hear on the street are people complaining how he sucks, which is kind of funny. Mark is like Oliver Twist when he's working on the upcoming THE EARLY YEARS book... needs a few lines of text here and there "can I have some more please"...... I accommodate his demands... I can spot a good writing moment, it just flows. Other times I think I am a lazy useless bastard and don't even want to write. Weird that. All in my head I'm sure...hell I'm not a writer I'm not fooling anyone especially myself. November 22ndLive Nations ticket sale happened today and it was ok, and 2nd Opera House Sydney concert added for Neil, no fuss, not even a press release it just went up. I think Melbourne will have a 2nd Neil Finn gig but it won't be announced this week. Which is great as I need a few days to re focus and get on with other work.I have to stop typing One Nation.... it's not like Pauline Hanson is gonna rock up at a Finn show!I take an hour off and work in the garden while it's nice and sunny. Train the running roses along the verandah in front of the office, they seem to bloom at night, roses everywhere up here and the national park is growing at a mile a minute from all the rain and sun. MY new vegetable patch is looking pretty fine... even I'm impressed. Meg the chicken has been well behaved and not raided it, still I don't think our dear Meg has long left, she managed another year so she has been lucky. She's the last of the batch, so when she goes we'll have a few months and then rescue 3 more. The first Nielsen Poll results are released soon since the election. Oh dear the honeymoon is well and truly over. On a 2 party preferred level , the Liberals/coalition have dropped 5.5% and Labor ahead. I guess people now know what a total stinker we have as a PM. Bit late Australia, it's all downhill now. Save your electricity bills and watch Abbott's next lie fall apart, and people were dumb enough to believe his rubbish. I noticed a bit of a jump in the diary readers this month. I get amazed that people still visit after all this time. 17.5 years is a long time for a blog, and I thought everyone would bail for Sheep- opps Facebook but no you keep returning. So thanks I guess, what does one say. I guess it will be kind of cool (or very very sad) when "Famous" turns 20 years! I'll still be 17 of course! I wonder in 50 years will people find all these ramblings and be amused. I would be. I make a few notes for the Guided Tour tomorrow. A lot I have stored away in my head, so I'm hoping my Ginko tablets are working over time. We had a really nice day up here, life is pretty much perfect at the moment, we are usually happy but it feels just right. November 23rdI call Rosemaree and ask if she can arrive a bit earlier so we can both grab one of Nellys morning coffee's at the General Store before heading in. Just feel it's what I need. I'm not really nervous, probably half of these people on the "tour" I've known for ages, in fact I'm looking forward to it. Rosemaree's great, nice to have her along today. We arrive with 10 minutes spare. I get the exact same park as the opening party, a few nights back. I walk in and it's very quiet today. The rain outside has kept people away from the city, hence my easy car park. Already 6 people are waiting by the giant gold Kylie Pegasus statue. What a good place to meet. Rosemaree has the name list and tags so we mark everyone off, say hello and just chat. Pretty much everyone is on time. It's nice to have it for ourselves, well almost. The Guided Tour went for about 2 hours. I encouraged people to ask questions and also to contribute. I'd grabbed a few cds, and Mushroom sent a couple for a giveaway , so Rosemaree kept score. We didn't say there was a prize. The RMIT gallery people probably used half of what I lent them, which was ok. My main plan was to give them as much to choose from. The fans loved the costumes in the Frock area. Our reason to support such things is for the fan base, be it Crowded House, Split Enz or Skyhooks. People seemed happy, and before they left I passed our camera to our mate Giles to take a group photo in front of the big Skyhooks backdrop. The tour group were just a joy to take through, we are lucky, the people we seem to attract to such things are really good, and we hall had a few laughs as well. A fine day.I expected to get a parking fine, but like party night, the parking gods were looking after me and no fine. It ended up being a nice day. I returned to the office and worked till midnight, once more on endless pre-sales (different country, different pre-sales). By the arrival of the witching hour I was feeling well and truly fried. I need a week off soon and I make a mental note to just take it. Everyone else can just wait for me for a change. November 24thDr Who 50th Anniversary episode, just great!!! I totally loved "An adventure in space and time" superb and David Bradley is an exceptional William Hartnell-the first doctor. It's done so well..... I might of even loved it more then the 50th anniversary episode itself! It seems so long ago that a very very very young PG hid behind those chairs in the relatives lounge room, watching the Cybermen for the first time, all by myself. They scared the life out of me..but I had to keep watching, sci fi had a deadly grip on me from a very young age and I never looked back. I found a small pile of Sci Fi pulp paperbacks in my uncles wardrobe and would sneak one a week to read. I was heading to other worlds in my head and I never wanted to return to earth. Why would you? I guess the ratings will be average for this in Australia- it gets shown twice on the same day-the same time as UK so about 6.00 in the morning and then again at 7.30 it's regular time. Still makes me sad that it didn't win it's ratings spot in the UK.Meg the chicken, our last one, has been showing all the signs that it's time for her to go to the big chicken pen in the sky, as I mentioned previously. I make an effort to sit with her today, and just pat her and talk softly. I think she'll be dead in a few days, maybe sooner. I carry her to her little straw nest and say goodnight, it felt like the last time. I was right. November 25thSad morning as Meg did indeed die. We bury her in our pet cemetery. At first when i was digging i thought i'd already found a spot "taken" but thankfully only tree roots not bones! (PHEW!). So she's in the ground. I cover her with flowers and rosemary to hide the smell from foxes. The chicken pen is now empty. We'll rescue more in late January. RIP Meg!UK Neil Finn presale is on, the stupid cd/ presale deal is also on and again causes confusion. Password leaks out and fans grab tickets via that too. Of course all it does is add another 1000 emails to my IN box. It will all work out in the end but the multiple pre-sale idea is now just stupid, no matter what spin people put on it. I just want our real fans to get looked after, seems like I am a lone voice sometimes. Finn-Kelly DVD drops to #3 and PINK climbs to #1 which I expected. Still top 5 is fine by me. It's clicked over Gold status already. I'm glad none of the overseas sales went via us, seems like my worry that certain discs are having problems being played overseas, this should of been worked out before hand-justy more confusion. Speaking of confusion, that useless idiot Christopher Pyne now starts fucking with Gonski and school reform. Even the state Liberal education ministers are furious, left up in the air with uncertainty on school funding. They are right, the Liberals most certainly are hanging themselves in every area possible... the only running of the country they are achieving is into the ground. The dancing poodle really needs a new portfolio he is obviously getting a big "F" for his efforts on Education. It is an important area, why would politicians mess with this? Welcome to Australia the dumb country, and getting dumber by the minute. What a sad mess it's becoming...and Hockey obsessed with raising the debt ceiling to $500 Billion, Australia will never pay off it's debt -just another election promise out the window. How many is that now? November 26thWe "envelope stuff" for USA and Canada, and a few more of our Crowdies Christmas cards are ready to go. The majority of USA will be mailed in about a week+ time. I'm slowly seeing our office floor again. Still appalled that Australia Post is now charging $2.55 per christmas card for overseas. About $1 more PER CARD compared to last year . All those poor pensioners who have to mail a mere 20 cards that's $50, it stings them. Australia Post should be ashamed of themselves, nothing more then greed at the time of year where it should be about good will and kindness..talk about a bunch of scrooges!November 27thI take a break from all the endless Net work and decide to mow the lawns. While it's hot, as rain is on the way. Get stuck into it, as Ailsa Craig always looks pretty nice when she's had a trim! Mark makes dinner, and I continue the epic mowing! It's a bit strange as I'm use to Meg the chicken following me about looking for bugs in the cut grass. Banshee is sitting high on a rock in the sun, like a young lioness just observing me.....I'm sure she's thinking "where is that damn chicken".30 days till Christmas , it will be upon us soon. I think this year we will simply escape having a christmas lunch, run away, hide in the bushes, jump on a plane or surf our way to Hawaii! I don't know, think I'll let Mark decide. We could go anywhere do anything, or just hide in the house from the world. Help the lovely Berry Twins out today as always totally happy to do so. Fate intervened as I hoped it would! I see John Farnham is coming back yet again, wow how lucky are we in Australia. (Puts Gun to head pulls trigger and hopes for a fast death! ). The dull do indeed get duller! November 28thRolling Stones concert rumours are running riot. People keep asking us where they are playing like we have booked them for Kalorama Hall! It's still a week or so before other Aussie dates are announced. Adelaide all sold out, I think that was the oval where I last worked for them, just had a whole new facelift and the SA government putting buck$ in so the Stones will open the new venue.Well the polling has crumbled for the Liberal party both on a federal level and Victoria state. Labor ahead nationally in the first Niesen Poll since the election. Liberal Coalition- 48%, Labor 52%. A 5.5% drop, I guess the honeymoon is already over for Abutt! The Liberals seem to be making fools of themselves every day especially on the International stage. The few Liberals we know have gone very quiet, guess they are embarrassed to support such losers! Victoria is no different, Coalition 46% Labor 54% - the Libs could lose 12 seats if there was an election now. Making them the first one term only party since 1955. Unemployment keeps rising here and jobs going elsewhere, and like Abbott just broken election promises... where are those 800 new hospital beds you promised Mr Napthine? Just sit back and watch the experiment fail, but even I didn't expect them to look so stupid so soon. November 29thRain and cold... we are going to have a late Summer this year...hot days on the way though.We are so stocked up from the supermarket my grocery shopping was hardly anything today (OK those addictive Connoisseur Sumatran Coconut ice creams they'll always be bought). . I'm stoked as Woolworths emailed me that I'm being sent a $40 gift card (Yey) $40 is pretty good off the old grocery bill-thanks Woolworths! I spend an hour writing some more little bits for THE EARLY YEARS. The pages run in lots of 16 so on a few chapters I need to just add a bit more text, which is cool- more for the reader. Today I was incredibly happy with my efforts-and I rarely say that. No distraction, no gigs, pre-sales, press etc felt really good-almost like I've been set free. I know we have fallen behind by a week or so on this but I just want it to be right, this prequel will be the best Diary book so far, I just know it. A movie will be made from this one *GRIN*. Brad has been booked already & Alexander Skarsgard I hear. Next, to start work on the tiny art pieces that we are giving to the first batch of pre orders on the book. Each one unique, hand painted, screened.....means I'll be living in the art room but something nice about people scoring some art with the book. Art and books go together. My mate Wendy has offered to help which is so kind. I hate how Fat Hockey thinks it's ok for Qantas to be owned by a foreigners ......! November 30thBilly Idols birthday today-with a rebel yell he turned 58 years young! He just keeps doing his thing, still puts on a fun show-more power to the Billy idols of the world!Rosemaree dropped in for coffee this morning, I was making a "to do" list and thankfully not too long. Achieved most of what we wanted this year = we survived! I will be glad when The Early Years is in the print stage. It's getting close. I have decided I like the cover art, which is meant to be painted by Peter Green aged 8 years old. We had a few other ideas but I kept coming back to this. I'm VERY happy with it. One more piece of writing to do and that is it. Hurrah. We are watching our Prisoner marathon...Vera Bennet-old vinegar tits, so nasty, not as great as The Freak but a total dried up old bitch. Actress Fiona Spence hit the nail on the head with that one. December 1st.Even writing the word December seems totally oddball. Another year wings by and our friends are getting older. Some of the musicians really old, worries me who will die next. Hey it may be me... you never know, I may be home when death comes a knockin'...I could just pretend it's the Mormons and tell death to go fuck itself!Lots of orders in for The Early Years, my day spent filling in order form. I did find some chill time in the back garden area under those giant gum trees. A superb day here, my favourite time of year on the mountain. The only distraction, 3 fire warnings-so alarms going off at the oval. Thankfully none of them huge but it can do your head in a bit. I'm picking my first lettuce from the vegetable patch tonight, love that! make an effort & pick the rewards, that always feels good. Our charts are still holding steady-the Finn-Kelly "Goin' My Way" still in the top 5 after 3 weeks. (#5). It's gold status already and well on the way to Platinum. It's sure to be a stocking stuffer for many people this christmas. Isn't it funny how worked up some kooks get when you are not interested in their lame little facebook sites. Just one of those ugly sides of facebook that exist. It's funny, people just keep telling me how fucked in the head a few of the people are, I just try to ignore it. We are lucky as 99.9% of people we deal with are fantastic, the rest you just roll your eyes and ignore and they'll go away. Some just need a life I guess. It's an amazing time to be on the mountain, exceptional days, but tomorrow is our first Fire Ban day, it's going to be a hot one. Could be worse, Alice Springs will be 42o degrees which is almost 108! Welcome to the Australian summer. 3+ weeks till Christmas.... now that's freaked you out! Love Life! PG STOP PRESS- 2nd Neil Finn-Hamer Hall- Melbourne show- on sale December 10th! |