The Life and Times of Peter Green
Archive: 2 June - 22 June 2014
Our mate Paulo with his copy of the fabulous "Wings Off Flies"
June 2ndA few mates are thinking of heading to the snow for a day. I've been peeping on the snow cameras at various locations and not a sign of any white fluffy stuff. I think the season will be late this year so I've told everyone to put the date back. Good for me too as it means I can buy some new tyres for the 4 wheel drive, so it's much safer to drive.. I'll probably need snow chains anyway. It's appealing that snow is still a welcome novelty for us...and I keep thinking this will be the year where it snows again at Kalorama. I need to buy some toboggans online on Ebay... the Arboretum is brilliant when it snows....bring it on!June 3rdWe are seeing Mr Crombie tomorrow so he can pick the lucky raffle tickets for the fan prizes. Such a brilliant lot of things this year. I always get a buzz if it's a name that we know. Good old Noel and Nigel, just stoked they are our mates. So fan positive.We are spending some long hours in the office-with Neil away in Greece on holidays it's a good chance for us to catch up (or try to) on an endless list of things. I'm dying to wade through stacks of old negatives in the hope of finding even one too diamonds that I might of somehow missed-that would be cool. June 4thI leave late afternoon for Noels and I'm wondering if I should of put it back by a day-the weather truly sucks and looks like a storm is rolling in. I take the short cut down the Mountain Highway which is state park all the way ...so I'm hoping no trees collapse. Arrive at the Crombies and Noel picks the lucky tickets. I get to climb into the attic, in a few weeks I'll be back to take a few photos of Enz items for the Official Enz facebook page Cozzies and rare merchandise-some of the items from the very early days sound brilliant, so it's not like work at all for me-just fun. I'd love to set up a photo shoot of Noel and Sally in their attic surrounded by the cool bits of bric a brac.Both the Crombie girls are home so I drop Hedwig off at an art show- they are such lovely young woman, the Crombs did a fantastic job of raising these girls... good to see. Rain floods down driving home and the Mountain Highway is awash... I'm ok the Jackeroo is such a cool car, it gets me through it. So glad we don't have some small car, it would of been washed over the edge for sure. It is good to finally get home. I contact the lucky winners- some really excited Frenz which is good to see. June 5thWorld Environment Day....as if Abbott and co actually give a shit. How did we get stuck with this truly piss weak government. Unemployment creeping up again, there are predictions that in 4 months it will again be the highest in the last decade. Mr Abbott already has the highest unemployment numbers in the past decade with him as PM- so it looks like that he will bump off his own record. Now he wants to remove the protection off parts of Tasmania amazing forest areas... we will fight this all the way- tasmania is too beautiful to be raped by such revolting scumbags like Tony Abbott and the Liberal Party!June 6thI manage to get Mark's Woolworths orange card fixed up so for now on he'll be receiving flight points with our regular weekly shop. It just helps him get closer to that Business class fare to to Dubai. We save about $15,000 so why not.Dinner- crunchy tempura prawn rolls- nice and fresh-not bad! They probably equal 3 flights points!!!! *GRIN* June 7thFran and the boys drop in for coffee at the General store. Rosemaree and myself are already at the table. So good to see Francesca and I get belated birthday presents-YEY! These arm warmers.. which at the time I thought were a tad bizarre but one day later they are GREAT. It means I can wear a tee and these in the art room...so warm and practical.....!I paint for the rest of the afternoon...and avoid the phone. June 8thMark makes homemade sausage rolls for lunch..soooooo good. Nothing else matters today- they ARE that GOOD!!June 9thWow some of the snow toboggan's on Ebay are so high tech! I want basic..... I can get what I want for about $55.00 so I'm ok with that. How often will I use it..unless Mt Dandenong freezes over in my life time.......maybe Mark needs one too!I'm checking out The Sweets "Desolation Boulevard" LP cover and notice in the top left hand corner part of the sign for Filthy Nastys..... in LA...of course that went on to become The Viper Room. Mark and myself had been to the Pre-Viper when it was that shit hole called The Central.... we wandered in for a drink once. I can't remember if it was Chuck Weiss playing.... yes " Chuck E's in Love" song fame...... I remember Depp used to go see Chuck played and outbid Arnold Schwartzenegger in buying the place! June 10thWe share the table at The Deli with Anna-everyone knows we want that large table....it's become a bit of a joke.....! The religious group invade the Deli every Wednesday morning and reserve the table... all they have is a coffee! They always seem to be late (act of God maybe) so it sits empty and all the locals stare at it......! There will be anarchy one day and we will all invade the table before the Christians arrive (late). *GRIN*.We watch WHEN THE BEATLES DROVE US WILD..as it's been 50 years since the visit. The doco is on the ABC, really enjoyed it. June 11thGood pick by Marky on Foxtel. "AND SOON THE DARKNESS" which is a remake of the 1970 movie.... a thriller- 2 American girls, one gets kidnapped in Argentina etc. The part that is so fantastically cool is that a section of it was filmed in the ruins of Villa Epecuen. It was originally a 1920's tourist town by the shore of Lago Epecum...a salt water lake. The weather patterns went haywire and the lake rose and rose and rose..eventually breaking through the dam. The town covered in 33 feet of salt water in 1985. It wasn't till 2009 that the waters receded and left behind this destroyed town... the trees stripped of leaves and whitewashed by the salt water... it's an incredible place to film a movie...which is what director Marcus Efron did. Currently Villa Epecum has a population of ONE. One lone guy Pablo Novak who lives at the place.... so check out this movie, it's worth it just for the ruins!Great episodes of American Horror Story-Coven. The latest just excellent- especially when Myrtle Snow (Frances Conroy..who we dig so much) is playing the Theremin..... and of course the special guest appearance of the white witch herself- Stevie Nicks. It left me almost obsessed to learn to play the Theremin.. a musical instrument that I actually don't have to touch..that sounds like me!!!!!!!! Eh? June 12thI wore my Skyhooks denim tour jacket out today. So many comments, all of them good. After filling the car up with fuel, the payment lady went- "Living in the 70s' best aussie album ever"! Before I could comment the guy behind in line goes "I agree". Just cool made me laugh. It's nearly 40 years old and still peoples favourite album-we like that.June 13thCoffe at the general store today, we have a lot of work on so lunch at home. At 10.30 I'm in the office and a call comes in that singer Jim Keays succumbs to his illness and passes away. 7 years- a brave fight. Some of us were just saying the other night how well he looked on The Beatles documentary on the ABC. His 2012 album DIRTY DIRTY should of been a hit the same way Russell Morriss's recent albums were... I know he was working on a new release up till a few days before he died. It looks like they will have an open celebration at Ormond Hall this coming Friday-same place we farewelled the lovable Peter Jones not so long ago.I needed a good laugh today so we watched the trailer for the upcoming Dumb & Dumber "second" movie- just great, tears in our eyes. June 14thThe jasmine is taking over, every week we stuff bags full of it. clip clip..it seems to enjoy a good snipping, so I'll have to remove it at the root level.I call our mate Shock for her birthday, at least I remembered, so that is rare! The mountain is covered in fog today... spooky looking. June 15thThe Federal government spending a further $68 BILLION on weapons... Abbott and Hockey keep crying poor and taking money from hospitals, schools and pensioners but amazingly they can find an extra $68 BILLION. Fuckers! 5th Poll in a row and the Liberals are still behind, 3rd Poll where Shorten is preferred PM. Allowing for a 3% for polling, which you always do, they are still ahead of the LNP by 4% which is great news- roll on the next election, watch all thew One Term Tony headlines.June 16thI hear on my grapevine that the World Heritage Committee will be telling PM Abbott to go fuck himself. Ok they'll be kinder then that... but Abbott has lost his bid to have Tasmania's ancient forest stripped of their protection status. We had so many people email the committee from my facebook page and other areas, it was wonderful to see people make the effort. It took a mere 7 minutes for the committee to say NO. They said:"The justification presented to the reduction are, to say the least, feeble. Accepting this delisting today would be setting an unacceptable precedent...we cannot also disregard the positions voiced in this issue by the Australian Senate, by nature conservation associations and I would dare say, most of all, by Indigenous communities." The people at Get Up had nearly 370,000 signatures, thousands of emails.....even Liberal voters we know-well the very few remaining Liberal voters, many were saying it was a truly dumb move by Abbott and signed petitions. At least some have taken off their rose tinted glasses and stood up and were counted instead of being sheep. People power... it will be the thing that will make Abbott a one term PM too-watch and see. June 17thI help Bongo Skyhook out with a small history lesson for his Age interview. We hope it helps. Happy to do so.Happy Birthday Alison... how old, oh 21 again! We all are! Enter the Wentworth "Visit the stars and set" contest... I so want a photo of Boomer sitting on Marky's knee. Still waiting for Joan Ferguson re-boot to become more vicious.... surely it has to happen? The Freak can't whimp out.. it has to happen. They should get Cynthia Leach to make an appearance..she was always just a voice on the phone in the original Prisoner.... they should make her a real character on Wentworth. If we win the contest we will suggest it.....! June 18thOh all the things we ran out of today , it was red pens. Our office functions so incredibly well.. but really the search for a red pen almost shut us down! Note on Friday buy 10 red pens!Back to my jogging, a mere 3 laps, it just got too dark too soon and the oval is slippery. June 19thStock check for Rocket Pocket Books soon (financial end of year). We've been having consistent sales of our coffee table style photo book- "Wings off flies". 70 pages of snaps Mark and myself have taken-bands, and solo artists over a 25 year period. Down to the final box, which in some ways is sad , as once it's gone that's it another of our books extinct. "Wings" makes a great birthday gift and Mark and myself will happily sign all copies. (If it's a gift for someone remember to tell us!).... a big chunk of the book covers our main bands- Skyhooks, Split Enz and Crowded House..... anyway if you need this beauty (and the price is so cheap) head to www.rocketpocketbooks.com Don't leave it too late though!June 20thSupermarket shopping at Woolworths today and noticed people in line had copies of Crowded House's "The Very, Very Best Of" album. It appears that Woolworths has stocked some cds, just a handful and one is the Crowdies. A mere $10.00. Plus it's jumped on the Aussie charts, re entered at #19, #20 on the catalogue chart. We must be double platinum by now with this one. Feels strange seeing it at my local supermarket but hey, a sales a sale. I guess most bands would kill to have an album go double platinum, so one has to be happy with these results. Guess it pays my wage each week?We watch the bluray of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" ...again, tonight. Love this movie- the bluray has a lovely book that comes with it. Such a history that movie too... just a classic. My sharp ears pick that it's a musical saw at the start and not a Theremin! Went to call our mate Leanne H, and for some reason I have lost the number-guess it's an email. I rarely misplace phone numbers so a bit odd. Chat to Jen (Jen & Merl fame) instead. We love those girls. Touch up my hair... just a rinse but I now look human..wave goodbye to the grey. June 21stI dig that Jack White's latest album is doing so well, debuted at #3-deserved to be #1 that week. Give me Jack White any day of the week compared to shite like Coldplay- bland lifeless husk of a band.Try to call Allie and Jane but it kept ringing out... head outside and cut some wood. I fill up a container for Jason and Jodes and drop it in as a present. Still trying for one good deed every day, if I can. June 22ndNigel Griggs calls in the afternoon and we have a decent yap... says lots of nice things on the Official Enz facebook page, which is really good of him. We are amazed that the viewer numbers keep rising, each week. people seem so happy with the page, nothing but compliments which is fab. 60,000 people each week.I track down a very cool 1975 Enz photo which I'll probably save for my media next year when Mental Notes turns 40. Such a unique photo. I hear from Tim Finn and he thinks he knows who took the photo...excellent. Mike Chunn is such a help too, saves me hours of work. Nice to continue to find great Enz photos. I spend some of the day signing more "Wings off Flies" books. Marks desk is now covered in them for him to sign- he does his duty and hardly complains at all-we like that. "True Blood"-the final season returns tomorrow....I love the little cast get together they had-nice little documentary and great to see Mr Ball on the couch! It's been a cool romp guys...! As I type this it hits zero degree's outside, and talk of some snow tonight. We rarely have snow here , I don't expect it to happen for a little while yet, still I would love to be proven wrong- snow is a novelty for us-and just an excuse to take some cool photos. Stay warm or cool depending where you are. Love life as it flies by too fast Peter |