The Life and Times of Peter Green
Archive: * - * 2014
Skyhooks Australia Day Weekend 1975
January 20thWe decide to name one of the upcoming chickens- Mordecai- after the falcon in The Royal Tenebaums movie. Fairly certain we are rescuing 3 more. I've been trying to time it with good weather as they are in shock enough, let alone have them suffer heat stroke from a super hot Aussie Summer. Plus the pen needs the smallest bit of work.I ask the Split Enz fans today to cast their vote for their one favourite Enz song. Picking one song is actually really hard, I get it down to five... but we receive A LOT of emails etc so many many have voted. Just some fun, but also it's interesting to see what the final list is like. A lot of not so obvious votes- and I've decided to make it a top 20 list, ten is just too few. I work on Neil Finn bits and pieces till 3.00 in the morning. I just looked up and suddenly it was 3.00. He most certainly got his monies worth today out of me (chuckle). January 21stAfter breakfast we call into William Ricketts Sanctuary. It was such a beautiful day and after last nights late nighter I thought I'd claim an hour free for myself. It rained through the night so some of the water features are trickling away around the sculptures. It's just lovely here and so close to where we live. A bus load of Japanese tourists comes stomping through. It's like military , rush rush snap snap and back on the bus. They miss all the good parts and probably miss the whole point of the calm and beauty around this spot. Mark waves them all on.. we smile, I try not to laugh at Marks lollypop man impersonation .... as he herds them towards the exit. So funny... thank god no one tried to take a photo of Mark! Yieks.January 22ndIt's one of those hot Summer days.. you just want to stay inside. So the office is great, it's so nice and cool here. If I'm going to work for hours and hours I want to do it in a nice cool environment. You just get a lot more done and not feel revolting. We even have some really great ice creams in the office freezer!Miss Banshee calls by the office, she spends the day under my table watching what I do. Sometimes a bit hairy cat arm will sneak out and hit me, just to remind me that she is here. She's such a freaky kitty... she does like exploring the various archive rooms-thankfully never shown any interest in destroying any of it (Phew). She knows which side her friskies are buttered on!!! It's always weird during our summer -as we get emails and photos from mates overseas and they've had massive snow storms and blizzards. Stay safe and snug all of you. January 23rdThere is talk of Campbell Newman losing his seat of Ashgrove in the Queensland election. It's probably a hundred years since that has happened with the leader of a state party in power. It could be a fascinating election after all. I guess we'll know by the end of this diary if that is the case. Who says Queensland is boring?and speaking of voting , as mentioned we ask the Split Enz fans to vote for their favourite Enz song. It's amazing for a third year in a row "Message to my Girl" just romps it in. The rest of the final 20 is cool, not always the hits which is great. "Carried Away" does well.. it's become some sort of fan favourite after they played it on the last reunion tour. The fans are always so passionate about such things, it's brilliant, it really is. I love our fan base! Neil goes "Carried Away" think it's placing surprised him too. January 24thSunny Day! Just a wonderful Saturday. We are in yard work mode. Just trimming, chopping and repairing. I'm trying to avoid the office today as I do wander in but what was 5 minutes ends up being 20 and after that an hour.I sneak into Sexyland as I heard they do have a copy of the Jimi Hendrix XXX documentary. You know the infamous plaster casters on the couch chatting about Hendrix and the famous canister of film found at the market that is really Hendrix own footage of him getting a blow job from some groupies. Obviously Jimi loved to film his exploits. The porn footage is about 11 minutes. I love how Cynthia Plaster Caster- goes " That's his dick and I should know" as she waves around a plaster replica of Jimi's cock! Oh I so love rock n roll! Thankfully no scary couples try to entice me at Sexyland for a menage a trois. I bought some fun cards from Sexyland a few months back and these 2 people did my head in- well kind of. It was some sort of party at our place tonight, it just happened , a few drinks , a bit of pot -which is so rare these days and some great music! Nice night. January 25thHappy Birthday to Mal Green from the Enz. he sends me an email from the UK which was unexpected. It's Australia Day tomorrow so i find our old' Aussie flag so I can swap it over and take down the Sea Shepherd one-for a week or two.I wish the Aussie flag image would be the Eureka one -such a lovely flag that one. I make rather delicious homemade hamburgers tonight. Kind of healthy. Lots of Aussie Music playing at our place..nicer and loud- give the neighbours a treat. I remember (finally) to email 2 mates of mine about Bluestone Lane.. the Australian coffee outlets in NYC. Finally some great coffee comes to the USA. Website: http://www.bluestonelaneny.com/ January 26thHappy Australia Day.I'm awake early so decide to go measure our fire wattle (sounds a bit rude). "Hey baby come and see my massive big fire wattle"..oh yeah! I'll have to let our mate Wendy know as it loves where it's planted and has had a growth spurt-almost 100cm larger. A happy wattle-can't wait for it to burst out in colour. BBQ snags and a flag shirt today. I do celebrate Australia Day- I don't do it because of the raising of the flag at Port Jackson, but because this country so so damn amazing (even with our loser PM) and it's the best place to live in the whole wide world! We are loving The Batman bluray box set- an excellent crossover episode tonight with Batman & Robin up against The Green Hornet and Kato. Appalling that a tv studio has not released The Green Hornet tv show on either dvd or bluray. How could that be possible. Van Williams has these damn sexy eyes and Kato (played by Bruce lee) such kick arse moves.... plus of course their outstanding cool car- the enhanced Black Beauty. I'm slowly getting Mark into The Green Hornet. He is my Kato it is true...in a Wollongonian Bruce Lee sorta way. January 27thI'm loving some of the artworks at our house. My favourite for this week is one of Susan ODoerty's abstracts. I can't recall it's real name but I call it - "Jesus & Malaki Joe Go Surfing" . Each time I look at it i swear i can see Christ dressed in white carrying a longboard (surfboard). Now who is Malaki Joe..that is the REAL question. Aha!I wake up with the Kalorama sniffles today- several cold nights in a row- about 5 degrees unseasonably chilly for an Australian Summer. I see Blondie's documentary - Blondies New York & the making of Parallel Lines" is finally on TV in Australia. Foxtels Bio channel- February 24th... seems like it has taken forever to be shown here, it could be good. January 28thOK, I cook a really really great Lasagne last night and also a desert. Mark says it's one of the best he's ever had, I have to say it was pretty damn fine.I look at the old fountain today and decide that we need to strip it right back to basics as far as the plant life around it goes , The area next to it I attack and Mark joins in, we open it out so the small grassy area around it is extended. "Wow more grass to mow" says Mark-total sarcasm. It's not much but good to have it open. I want to grow lots and lots of Dahlias around the fountain. They are still my favourite flower. Plus the frogs that live in the fountain will have some swim space and not get choked. January 29thIn a few days I have to start the tedious task of addressing the tough packs for the Neil Finn sets. They go out in a week or so , just paper work and writer scramp. They take days to get together so I'll be glad when they are done.I chat to Nigel from the Enz tonight, and I'll have to go visit him soon as he has some photo autographing to do. Those guys are great, they never complain about such things. January 30thThe Queensland election is on tomorrow. I think the LNP will have a back lash, I just hope Campbell Newman goes- by all polls and reports he will. He seems so arrogant - horrid Liberal, lets hope the people do the right thing. Labor have so few seats so it could be an interesting one to watch.January 31stWhere did January go? I head to the general store early today, Pete makes a pretty good morning coffee and I get a stack of band work done.I spoil Mark and make one of my baked cheesecakes except today I add in some blackberries because we are picking a container of them every day. I have to say they make the cheesecake extra special. Plus they are so good for you. Plus we save $6.95 per container. So about $50 a week saved on berries. Mark heads to the office and I settle in to watch the Queensland election. It's off to a fascinating start- I have a list of the 20 electorates that have some of the highest unemployment and they fall first to Labor. Anthony Green from the ABC is starting to think something is wrong with his computer as the massacre takes place. The Liberal Party are getting a serious arse kicking. It's truly magnificent. It isn't long before we see the exceptional Kate Jones send Newman packing. This one term premier has had a thrashing- the people of Ashgrove have spoken. I keep calling Mark on the video phone- "You won't believe this..." I keep saying. By midnight there is a good chance that Labor could even form government. It will be close, very close. No one and I mean no one would of believed this could happen. So many people are cheering and dancing- Queensland looks like a state that has been released from 3 years of jail time. The Liberals on the panel just keep trying to stay calm and save face and like what happened in Victoria- this election thrashing also sends a one fingered message to our useless PM Tony Abbott. You could really end up as One Term Tony. The NSW state election is on March 28th. After tonight there is already talk of a 10% swings against the NSW Liberals. If the swing is as mighty as QLD it could mean that Labor is a mere 1 seat from kicking the Liberals out in NSW too. What a trifecta that would be- Victoria, QLD and NSW. I guess Labor should really WIN Qld first. Even if it ends up being a hung parliament - QLD shone tonight and sent a solid message to politicians. We will kick you out if you continue to lie and not listen to the people. February 1stThe QLD election it's on everyones lips- seems like a dream, probably a nightmare for the old Liberal party. I'm waiting for a leadership spill to happen around the Federal Liberals. Abbott has been even worse then usual. It will happen but it depends if the spill is strong enough to actually force a vote. In the end having a useless suck like Abbott as Liberal "Leader" may well be a blessing for Labor and The Greens. A part of me loves the idea of the Australian people VOTING him out after one term. It's funny some older Liberal lovers we knew always said it would be decades till Queensland fell -they probably said the same thing about Victoria ...and they still say the same thing about Phoney Tony. Watch those dominoes come crashing down, one by one... and taking the worst of politics with them. Good riddance.Hey I made Butter Chicken for dinner..a nicer way to end the diary ! Power to the people. Peter |