The Life and Times of Peter Green
Archive: 1 January - 12 January 2013
January 1stWelcome to 2013.I think my one new years resolution is to be totally honest (if asked). True friends should be able to deal with honesty, grow a tad weary of the bullshit that so many of us hide behind. The creations of huge scenarios of crap, where you need a bulldozer to move it out of the way. It's not a good way to live ones life. Fear not I'm not going to run up to perfect strangers who wear appalling shoes and tell them that, or chunky woman in tartan skirts or men who's butt hair is poking out. But I'm not going to add to the deceit, or tell half truths and hide behind them. Wow! Maybe I should smoke and give it up next new years eve as that sounds easier! I'm still a bit gob smacked that it is 2013. Australia Post has shut down for about a week, so my plan to continue mailing out Ghost Cars hit a speed hump by their inactive closing and holidays. So till Jan 14th we are enjoying our time off, no emails, mobile off just having a break. The world can find me if it really wants to .... or maybe not. So Happy New Year everyone. January 2ndA few people just wing by, bearing gifts and food, the weather is perfect so nice and chilled. No one is wearing bad shoes or ill fitting tartan so my honesty isn't tested (chuckle).Banshee climbs up and sits on my lap in the sunshine, it's a nice day, not too hot, but the heat waves will arrive. High pressure systems and all that desert heat moving to the coast. Playing lots and lots of The Who- "it's only teenage wasteland..." what a line...from Baba O'Riley! Nearly finished the Pete Townshend book, it's a good one...go read it now-go on..the diary will still be here when you return. January 3rdWe were going to do some final clean up/burning today but it's now way way too hot and fire bans are in place. From Jan 7th you can not light fires and burn off, for quite a few months... we got a lot of ours done, but with the aussie bushfires you can never be 100% ready.Bob Brown is brilliant, he's leading the Sea Shepherd people this year, he's on the board of directors and will be playing a huge role. It is great so many people we know are active around saving whales. This year the Japanese issue the ICR with a permit to SLAUGHTER 935 minke whales, 50 FIN whales, and 50 humpbacks. Japan should be ashamed of itself- time for the citizens of Japan to grow some balls and stand up to their government and say this is wrong in every way possible. If you genuinely care head to the Sea Shepherd website: http://www.seashepherd.org/australia/ We are no longer buying any Japanese products, till Japan stops whaling it will no longer get our money. Mark just chimed in "Fuck 'em". I agree. Pisses off us. January 4th.I take Marks lotto tickets in and he has won $28.00 from 2 tickets I've given him-yey! It may get him out of his annoying mood today, snappish... possibly it's the heat, I doubt anyone slept in Victoria last night. I'm a bit grouchy too, this morning but try not to let it show.I take out our fire sprayers and set them up around Ailsa Craig, give them a test run. One I have to repair so add it to my "to do" list. Will have to take it apart which is ok. It could save our house during a bushfire so worth it. 30 small fires in Victoria today, none near us thank god. Tasmania is in a worst state, some large fires and a few out of control. By the end of the weekend 1% of Tasmania would of been burnt. I try not to think what the fires have done to the wildlife. Tasmanian Devils already have enough problems with DFTD wiping them out let alone fires destroying them. I get a lot of emails etc from fans asking if we can have a raffle or something to raise some money. The Red Cross are the best bet, they do such good work, and maybe one of the animal rescue places in Tasmania. I'll put it into motion when I get a chance. January 5thToday is the last day you can burn and do clean up on the mountain, but really that won't happen today. It's the hottest day for 3 years, so a total fire ban. It's a stinker even for Ailsa Craig, our large lounge room with a really good air con unit just means I'll sleep on the couch. Miss Banshee curls up at my feet, she must be feeling the heat in that fur coat..she really does need a zipper attached so she can take it off during Summer. Next hot day I'll give her another wash in her Banshee bath tub, great that she loves water and we can do this. Each year she just gets better, the wild cat in her still exists but she shows she loves us...her mere mortal slaves .... such a brilliant cat , and yes Mark no cat can ever be as good as Hairball! Gone but never forgotten. Banshee is just "different'!!!I have been sneaking into the office and getting more Ghost Cars ready to be mailed, so a few continue to go out every day. Just need to stay on top of it. I figure it will be late February by the time the final one goes out! We just do what we can, and people will have to accept that. Worth the wait. January 6thI love the Tee that arrived with the American Horror Story Blu-Ray. It's Taits Tee from the show-says "Normal People Scare Me"!. I want one that says "Normal People Bore Me Shitless" but I'd be attacked in the streets. F**k whats "normal" these days? I am amazed at how compressed the Tee is, every bit of air removed, made into a brick shape so it fits next to the blu ray box. Amazing.January 7thI notice quite a few articles on the super foods and grains... Quinoa, Freekeh which I think is made from green wheat-possibly I'm wrong on that, I've had it a few times...so maybe I'm right, Amaranth which is also a grain along with that super ethiopian grain Teff-which I never really like....and good old chia seeds and of course acai berries which Australians can't get enough of. Finding out if Acia can grow up here seeing my wolf berries did so well. Pick the last handful today. Been eating about 30 a day for a month or two- just gotta keep Meg the chicken away from the berries! saying that we think the berries have given her an extra bit of life, she looks and acts healthy again.I sneak in and look at our emails, already up to 5000, good grief. Lots of really nice comments about Ghost Cars...which is great. Going to be a nightmare to reply to these when we re-open. January 8thAnother Finn-Kelly show for Melbourne, our 7th Palais Theatre, so I'm in the office for most of the day working on bits and pieces around this. Seven shows for Melbourne, incredible! I really thought we'd do two, I was wrong, totally underestimated the Finn-Kelly brand! I email Nick Seymour a jpeg of my poster from one of his first gigs at the Crystal Ballroom at St Kilda, way back in 1980.Mum tells me it's sweltering at good ol' Wollongong, 45c C today which is about 113 fahrenheit. The air con I bought her a few christmas back really was a great gift! My sister calls and the baby is expected August 11th, so all excited about that, still in that high risk area so just staying positive. I'm sure the heat will be knocking her about, the morning sickness even worse. January 9thThere have now been 333 consecutive months of rising average temperatures globally, wonder if dumbarse Abbott still thinks climate change is crap! Talk about head in the sand!I'm playing Billy Thorpe's wonderful "Tangier" album, that came out after he passed away. Such a great album, so many beautiful sounds on it, I'm thinking "we will be there" might be one of the songs I'll have played when I die at my funeral..wow heavy! Well I wont play it cos I'll be dead, but you know what I mean. A distant family member passed away this week so maybe that's why I'm thinking of the old grim reaper. Always happens when they are the same age as you, you suddenly seem less immortal. I'm not scared of death, I don't wish it and I'll fight it like a fiery gryphon bitch, I love life but really this life has been amazing so far. I'm lucky to have a true soul mate too, the real deal so rarely happens ... that makes the journey more fantastic. Watching loads of Buffy again on dvd... it doesn't date too much, Sarah M does kick arse...love the slayer! January 10thWe give our friend Melbourne Wendy (not to be confused with Qld Wendy or WA Wendy) her signed photo of Alice from the Brady Brunch- a big thank you to our friend for arranging this cool present...and Alice didn't charge a cent, not $600 like some, good on her!Even more emails arriving from people asking if we are planning a fundraiser for the Tasmanian Bushfires...and it has been on the back of my mind so no doubt we will do something. I send out the link for the Australian Red Cross-twitter is great for that. The Red Cross do really great work, so we'll always support them. January 11thThe Hobbit album drops one spot on the aussie charts this week, it's #46 (was #45) it really hasn't done very much, with the movie being so massive I expected a lot more from the soundtrack, just wanted it to be massive for Neil.My friend Kelly from NASA sends me this brilliant present-a cool medallion celebrating the shuttle misisons. Each medallion has a tiny piece of metal from the shuttle etched into it-so cool-I love this will keep it forever. She also knows me too well & included some USA postal stamps!!!! So thanks Kelly-this is cool, feel honoured. Lots of used stamps have been arriving for the Land Mine charity, so please if you have any old stamps from envelopes mail them to us (PO Box 50, Kalorama VIC 3766 Australia) and we'll fill up the charity bag with them. The charity buys prosthetic limbs for land mine victims by selling the used stamps to stamp collectors. January 12thI spent hours today going through my collection, the archives, cupboards trying to find some cool stuff for the bushfire raffle and found some things, so Red Cross will be happy-(well hopefully) with the result. I just hope that if ever we have some massive fire storm and our place is wiped out that someone goes the extra yard for us, you'd like to think so- so it's part of the reason to make this happen. It could be us! Thankfully no bushfires so far this Summer but plenty of hot days are approaching. I'm playing the 5 track Intriguer outtakes while I'm ferreting about in the office-- love those songs so much. Intriguer the title track, so goofy and bouncy, Turn it around, and the brilliant Eyes grow heavy. Blue Hotel which is so haunting as it should be and "God lives over the road" which is rather unique. This 5 track must get played 10 times before I move on..love it!Watching a movie and we hear Banshee carrying on near the back door. I go to investigate and at first I thought it was a huge moth... but no it's a bat! A cute bat! We've never seen a bat up here...so we spend some time getting it outside and it flies on it's merry way. Miss Banshee is now very excited at getting to see some new creature! At least she didn't eat it... bats are cute, Aunt Trudi hates them- her one weakness...! January 13thSad to hear that Victorian firefighter Peter Cramer lost his life while working on the fires in Tasmania. The Peter Cramers of the world are the true heroes-those who put themselves on the line to stop others being killed. Sad to see a good man gone-he'll be remembered for his tireless efforts to help others.The Kookaburras are turning up at the house daily-they bring their (very) fluffy offspring with them, knowing they might score some fresh meat-not always, but sometimes. They start to know us, one landed on my arm today that very sharp beak very close to my eyeballs! A bit daunting, but I do love them and their whacky bird laugh. Trying to keep them wild.... Our office re opens tomorrow, all those emails... the world really does come to our doorstep electronically! I'll deal with it-thank the goddess for cut & paste! That's it for another diary, spare some time to send some good thoughts to us here in Australia, nearly every state has fires burning and extreme temperatures. I'll be glad when this summer is over, can't believe we are all going through bushfire nightmare scenarios again. As I type this the fire siren is going off at Kalorama oval. That sends a few goosebumps up my spine...hopefully we are safe and no inferno is heading our way! Stay safe! Peter |