The Life and Times of Peter Green
Archive: 3 March - 23 March 2014
Nine years have passed and you are always in our minds & hearts, Hessie
March 3rdI keep having this recurring dream where this deep voice keeps saying "May 2014 is your month, your life will change for the better, better better" and then I wake up. It's almost Godly but I know it's not and I see loads of swirly smoke. It's happened at least 10 times over the last month- it is freaking me out just a bit! I'm taking it as a good omen and not that that satan will be knocking on my door on my birthday (May 11th) , taking my soul whilst giving me a present! I don't want our life to change too much, it's pretty good- I wouldn't swap it with any of our friends , and apart from some more cash it's not too bad. Still to have that same dream numerous times is freaky-I have to watch what I eat before I go to bed at nights!March 4thI drive to Nigel's, little do I know that I actually get a speeding fine, 6kms over the speed limit, that tricky area where it goes from 70 to 60 but I can't recall any signage. Still my fault I should of been watching, obviously the local cops are fining as many people as possible to pay for their shiny new police station at Emerald.It's great to see Nige, I was planning on staying for 15 minutes but 3 hours later..... lots of laughter and just enjoyed my time with him- think he had a nice afternoon as well. We played some rare Enz recordings, and bits and pieces. Mark and myself are transferring them just good to have a few copies scattered about for safety etc. He's a good bloke Nigel Griggs we do laugh a lot, similar thoughts on many things. March 5thTony Abbott on the news today, he's almost bragging that South Australia will fall to the Liberals-such a creep-I hope he ends up with egg on his face. I think his misjudges the South Australian people. SA is very similar to Victoria and next State election the Liberals are being kicked out after one term-people hate them in this state-a lazy do nothing government ... I am hopeful those across the border will not let their fine state fall to the same absurd useless politicians. Guess we'll see, it has been 12 years in charge for Labor so that will always work against you at election time.I call my Mum today, her birthday, send some flowers, will be nice to see her in May. At dusk I walk the recycle from the office to the bin area and I disturb an owl! For once I am ready, my Canon camera with it's very cool lens is on the table, I run in, grab it and even though it's now pitch black outside I manage to get a few good shots of the owl. I'm going to try and photograph all 3 types that live on our block- all in one year-being so nocturnal it's a big ask. Such exceptional birds..so mysterious.  March 6thAll our items are returned from RMIT today. I'll have to work my way through the boxes, a missing frame and that's all that has been lost-well so far. It is good to have everything back, but takes awhile to re-load it all back into the archives. Everything gets checked, signed back in , stored etc. I'm still amazed RMIT didn't use so many of the really great items.... still not my exhibit- done and dusted now. We were happy to help them out and Mushroom too.March 7thI work on Neil emails for the whole day,& for the first time in weeks I have managed to clear the decks of every email, took 6 hours but all have been replied to. Tonight I start some live venue searches in NZ for the Split Enz Live List. Mark has really taken this on and made a massive effort. I do worry I will need to buy 3 truckloads of padding for his room as I am certain it is driving him nuts!I email Nick and Nat to hopefully see them at the General Store tomorrow....it is a busy period for us but will be nice to see them again. March 8thI do hear form our book people at last. The Early Years has one final correction run and then it goes in. It's taken forever this one and I've gone close to having it printed in Hong Kong-as Australia can be exhausting. Even though it rolled as far as content the construction side is a pain-the one annoying thing about having your own book company. Shit I hate delays but they happen way too much.The rest of the afternoon is spent on Neil Finn dates, mostly bits and pieces around America. 95% of shows either sold out or close but 2 or 3 that need a bit of a push- which really isn't a lot.He still does well. Nick and Nat drop in and it is so great to see them. A really nice afternoon. As soon as they have left I'm back in the office. I do remember to call Merly on her birthday , though I sing to Jen as they are both sounding alike on the phone. March 9thWe are off to another birthday tonight, sounds appalling but we were hoping they'd change the time as we really wanted to see BCO at The Espy but it's an early one for them so we blew it. It ends up being a really good night but we got home when the sun was rising so we vampires never like that. At least we didn't burst into flames....March 10thPublic holiday today- which means very little to us. I don't live my life by the 7 day a week cycle. Which I guess is a pretty good thing-we are lucky. We all make our own lives, it's so easy to fall into the 9.00 to 5.00 trap or whatever those conventional hours are. We both work in the office today, which is our choice to do so- still our office is pretty cool- lots of music, today we carried down a tray of food and drinks. A few friends called, some neighbours dropped in. We even managed to get some work done. Imagine that.March 11thMark is showing signs of obsession over the infamous bikini tree that used to be on Magnetic Island. He has found several photos on the net but they are not the "real" original bikini tree, they are of the replacement tree.... he pulled out his photo with his family (early seventies) and the seventies version has a bigger bust and a different bikini....he did however find an article in the Milwaukee Journal July 1973 with the ORIGINAL tree in the article..in a USA newspaper..... the photo he has is great, his brothers are so young as is Mark..his dad seems to be having a rather good time with the tree (yieks!).Head to Mexican , it was an 11th hour call- I am tempted by margaritas and oh yeah our friends too. Fun night I only misbehave a bit, not remotely drunk just slightly happy. I am careful driving home, giving any alcohol time to pass on by. March 12thNF first night at Hamer Hall, he is in such fine form..such a happy chappy onstage. The crowd are very passionate, Melbourne does love him.March 13thI head into soundcheck today, I'm stuck in traffic, car accidents everywhere.. I don't have my pass so I just bluff my way in. I head to level 5 which is backstage, the elevator doors open and there is Sharon Finn- all we could do was laugh. Some of our regular crew are working, nice to see them. Neil's good- I love soundcheck when he's working away... "Golden Child", "Driving Me Mad", several goes at "White Lies & Alibi's ".....and "Dive Bomber" with the recorded piece which was missing last night. It has to have the dive bomber it doesn't work nearly as well.Crombie wanders in as he is fiddling around with the backdrop. Neil gives me his camera to film some bits of one of his "sequences" that may or may not be used and I'm not spilling the beans....hopefully I got what he wanted. He signs some items for me afterwards, good to see them. I head back to Kalorama and grab some mates who are going and head back in. Chat to some Frenz in the foyer... a really fun night, two encores. Home by 1.00 in the morning-I sleep so well...well kind of. So many people coughing at the show tonight, I know they had that horrid virus that is going about. I'm sure to of gotten it! I wish people would cover their mouths when they cough. March 14thWake up feeling a bit average and as expected I have some sort of bug. I know my body will move it through but from all reports this is a really mean strain. By afternoon the headaches have started and they are total bitches-really painful, at one stage so bad I considered hospital Lots of breathing exercise and yoga. They helped to some small degree. I even popped a few pills, still avoided the opiates but went close. I slept and slept and slept on and off just letting my body fight it-which I was fine about. Still not wanting to bombard it with endless pills-the human body should be tough enough to fight such things, so I just rolled with it. I decide to go for a walk around the oval..no jogging for me. I walk 4 laps. God I feel fucked!!!!Mark reminds me that the recent Enz at Warehouse-New Orleans 1981... well it's a famous venue...it was the last place The Doors played with Jim Morrison before he left for Paris. The Enz fans are stoked that the link is up on Official Enz ....such a nice vibe around the gig. Jim's last gig.... March 15thI spend some of the day on the couch, and I end up watching the SA election. I kept telling Marky the Abbott factor will cost the Liberals votes and possibly the election. Labor have been in power for 12 (?) years that's a long time when it's state politics. Plus Abbott being so conceited and almost bragging that SA will most certainly be yet another Liberal run state. The last election a mere 1000+ votes decided, I think it will be just as close this time around and the good people of South Australia will not hand their state on a platter to PM A Butt! Also, it will be a sign of things to come, watch Victoria go back to Labor after only one term of the Liberals....wait and see. As the night moves on Labor are ahead by one seat, and it will again be independents that will decide. Abbott's landslide didn't happen, and already the Liberals are blaming each other. I love it when that horrid party falls apart & fights amongst itself.. I did think both Liberal and Labor representatives on the ABC panel were pretty decent...and that wasn't painful to watch. So the night closes with no clear winner, but Mr Abbott- no clear loser either so you'd hate that wouldn't you Tony Toupee?!!! The first time I've smiled during this flu bug of mine.March 16thI shout myself a coffee at the general store, catch up with Tony and a few other locals. They all have the flu so we all just shrug. Cross contamination *GRIN*. Urgh. Dizzy Heights re enters the national chart, the tour has kicked over a few sales.March 17thA new poll released shows the LNP drop 1 point and Labor up 1...a mere 2 points separate them. Remember when the Liberals were ahead by 23 points-that didn't take long eh?Still no signs of flight MH370, it's been 9 days now. Which is crazy. You'd expect if it went into the ocean the debris trail would be huge. Abbott seems to be trying to take some control, some of his statements are really extreme... is he just doing it to try and look like some commander and chief. ? His latest scramble ends up finding some very large patches of seaweed! Yieks. I think he did locate Harold Holts gum boats as well. They are probably just getting scans from debris left over from Japans tsunami.....at this rate Australia will corner the seaweed market! March 18thSad news about Jagger's girlfriend and the Stones Aussie/NZ dates thrown into doubt. They say it should reschedule later this year around November, but you never know for certain. Her company was in pretty dire need of cash and owed millions, the press will go crazy over this- someone has lost their life it is sad. But the media love good dirt articles...I wonder how much they'll make up.We have a new plumber (thanks Jason) as our old one died, no one cares when a plumber dies.... that never makes the front pages. March 19thScan scan scan, find some very cool snaps. I love that, when you go, wow where on earth did these come from. Part of my day is spent trying to find some missing original art-for the Enz "I wake up every night" it's the only item that has gone astray.from the archives..everything else has been logged in.....annoying, we are usually so damn good about such things. I'm sure it will turn up it just seems a bit strange.An improvement today, though Mark still has his bark. We are both watching Big Bang Theory on blu-ray and each time we laugh (which is a lot) we both cough..... we need to laugh like Sheldon... no real noise! March 20thA lot of Neil Finn emails today so my day is spent in Finn-land. It's what I do. We are lucky, such a very cool fan base....and some really great people. It makes my job much easier.So one of the independents backs Labor....so they will indeed form a minority government in South Australia. Roll out those barrels, the Liberals will be blubbering sour grapes again on this one. As Ma Anand Sheela once said on 60 Minutes- Tough titties"! March 21stThe Aztec exhibit opens at Melbourne Museum on April 9th-it's a good one check it out!In a few days it will be the 9th anniversary since our lovely mate Paul Hester died. It never seems that long, and probably not a day goes by without the little terror popping into my head and something he did just makes me smile. Mark and myself miss him so much, he had such a good heart around "the boys" and he usually encouraged the best in me. ..in us all. Just shitty he is no longer with us... he burn't so bright and so many genuinely loved him, he will probably always be remembered. March 22ndI was going to catch up with Karen and Michael today but Marky is still a tad germy so didn't want to give therm the gift that keeps on giving. So we rain checked on the visit. I did get us outside in the grey weather and work on the yard, mostly clipping back some of mother nature....the walk ways were getting intense. Still the natural canopy's are beautiful- sometimes I will just walk around our yard and let my mind wander. Shit we are so lucky to have this place.I cook some super healthy dinner, almost convinced Mark to eat my potatoes..but he didn't fall for it. We watch the 2nd Hunger Games movie on Blu ray, it was ok, not great. The books are better and the first movie beats the second. Still it wasn't horrid, it just seemed to be a bit slow and not well written. March 23rdI take my tax/BAS to the general store and work on it over coffee. I like to get it into the tax office asap, that way it's all done. I think my accountant must think we are way too efficient ....still our company stuff is really easy. While I'm working away we are told about the news of the Mt Dandenong Pub being robbed and the owners bashed. So little violence up here so such things really do resonate through the hills-it's all people are talking about as they pick up their milk and newspapers from the general store. Our friend Karena's band played the hotel that night so I'm glad they were not around when it went down.So the year rolls on by.... I'm getting excited as my niece comes to stay soon. It will be amazing to see how much she has grown....and my sis and mum tagging along. So a baby in the house, it's been awhile eh Marky! Take care and fight the good fight (I have no idea what that means but it sounded good as I typed it) xPG |