Famous for Sixteen Minutes: Archive

The Life and Times of Peter Green
Archive: 4 January - 17 January 2021

"For 4 years Donalds been speaking it, now he can clean it"! (Kalorama Loo 2021)

January 4th

It feels exactly the same as 2020. I'm pretending it isn't, but I keep running out of steam. I think something amazing has to happen to us both in January for me to have faith again. I see this real level of stress around people, Covid exploding again everywhere, Trump spinning it and forcing the great divide to be even wider. A lot of nutters out there and conspiracy theory idiots- one has to wonder how so many are so easily suckered. Covid manages to show how weak some leaders are , how good others can be. So many dead and yet some deny it even exists. They are always the first to carry on when a family member of theirs dies from it. When we head out I do keep our safety in the back of my mind. By the time this diary goes up the world death rate from Covid will surpass 2 million. Terrible.

January 5th

We are woken by the Internet tech guy, way way too early. Early morning boners and sleep in my eyes, words dropping out of my mouth like a Zombie. Mark is even worse in the morning. Of course the tech head couldn't find our house - I gave him the Really? No GPS look. He basically swaps the NBN box over, lightening strike he says. I'm thinking- cheap shit NBN box more like it & wonder how long this one will last. Our neighbours down the road have replaced 4 boxes in 2 months! I am nice to the guy, i don't think he enjoys his job. At least it's working again for the moment. Funny how our old broadband we had for 15 years and never replaced boxes from lightening strikes , but i bite my tongue-that alone is a rare thing. My IN box is full again for days of no Emails. I do miss the Internet. It is my Mistress. It's nice when you are let in on a secret around a musical project. That trust and kind of excitement as well. After all these years I still get a buzz out of such things. I guess I've earned my stripes in the trust department.

January 6th

I am excited, i win $109 on Christmas lotto tickets-thank you Lotto God & my generous ticket givers. Mark wins a few dollars on Trudi's ticket so it covers his big bag of coffee beans. Coffee's on Trudi this month! Ta! The GA Runoff is underway and the Democrats win both seats. Typical response from Chump. He really is on the way out. His stupid phone call basically pushing to 'find votes' probably sealed his fate. He always seems to make abad situation worse. A present box arrives and inside a Trump toilet cleaner from MIM. How very fitting. Donald spent all that time talking shit, now he has to clean it!

January 7th

The U.S. Capitol building is under siege. The next time the Right point to violence from the Left, people will remind them of this day. Appalling and these Republican extremists are nut job- and in need of a good dental plan. I do feel a tiny bit of sympathy for those who tried to protest peacefully, sure I think they are fucked for supporting such a piece of shit like Trump but I agree with their right to do so. Sadly many Republicans were brainless arseholes and acted upon Trumps continuous mentions of the word "FIGHT" and idiot Rudy's comments. Absolute sadness for Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, beaten to death by a fire extinguisher thrown by one of Trumps scum. These trash take over the building for 4 hours. It could of been worse- the Trump supporting piece of shit driving across America with thousands of bullets and a weapon that could fire them, wanting to kill Pelosi live on national tv. Thankfully finally arrested. None of this is good, to make it worse Fox news seems flippant over it, smoke screening the event with other nonsense, watering it down because they are too gutless to call them out and Trump for inciting it. The inauguration is still 2 weeks away - at least if some of these Republican extreme arseholes get arrested they might be off the streets during it. Meanwhile Donald Trump probably happily dancing at what he is seeing and doesn't call them out on it or even act to get help. It's up to Pence to do the right thing. During these days Pence is being more of a President then Chump.

January 8th

Happy Birthday to Paul Hester (yeah same day as Bowie and Elvis). All three gone and sharing a birthday cake in Rock N Roll heaven. Paul would of been 62. We miss him so much. Very few days go by when I don't think of him. Some of our favourite moments were after he left Crowded House , he loved his Largest Living Things band and just fine days hanging out, plotting and planning, always a laugh or ten.

January 9th

America, 302,000 new cases of Covid in one day. No one has seen Donald Trump. He doesn't give a crap, just sulking away in his bunker, because the majority of America decided you were terrible and not worthy to be President. Trumps approval rating plummets to a mere 33%. All his own doing.

Social media is now banning Donald- good- they are private companies- if you tick the "I Agree" box on a media platform you need to stick to their rules. Besides Chump has a huge press gallery at the White House that he can use for his brainless waffle. So by no means has he been silenced.

A perfect sunny day. Kalorama Pool is open and it's not too busy. I need to swim more. I wish I was on Magnetic as I'd swim several times a day. I need to be patient. Pip & Caz send me some images of a few more retro surfboards, they are getting close, I know what I want in my head, if anyone can find them, it's them. The orange seventies Liberty board is rather tempting. 'Gong Surf Crew rocks.

January 10th

Bowie gone 5 years. I run my little bit of film footage from the Sydney Showgrounds. People still say this tiny 25 seconds of footage is all there is from that first Bowie show/ Aussie tour. I'm not convinced, surely some of the media got to film some of it?

Way back on this date in 1975- Skyhooks "Living In The 70's" knocked Suzi Quatro off the #1 spot in hometown Melbourne. It also moves up to #8 nationally. That mighty Skyhooks album stays at #1 in Melbourne for 6 months, a record still unbroken 46 years now. Our favourite album.

I find a picture of 'Hooks bassist and songwriter in his Suzi Quatro fanclub T-shirt so that goes up on the Official Skyhooks Facebook page along with my post. I still love Quatro and Greg Macainsh looks so cool in that T-shirt.

January 11th

My various areas on the internet are usually consistent viewings around my Facebook page, twitter and this diary. But i've noticed it's now 'waves', slow and all of a sudden loads of people reading, commenting etc. Maybe it's the current state of the world, a bit broken, a bit uncertain. A bit flat and also crazy. It doesn't seem to take much to piss people off. Some jump to the wrong conclusions , maybe it's lack of sleep? Sometime this week I intend to have a really long sleep in, waste the day totally and recharge. Tune out from the world.

Lots of cool documentaries on cable, we seem to be enjoying something new every night. Tonights Doco. was on Pandemics and put together in late 2020. Mark says "just what we all want to see in todays world" but you know we still watched it & parts were fascinating.

January 12th

A Discovery Of Witches returns at long last for season two- a bit of a time jump-backwards , but I still enjoyed it. Mark not as much. I go to bed feel a tad Warlocky myself. Good dreams, flying dreams, forcing the future and some change. I wake up at 4.00 way too warm so I spend the rest of the night under a cool sheet. My furry familiar creeps up and touches my face with her paw-as if to say "just checking". She's a good cat.

January 13th

Maddisons reads to me down the phone from the Egypt book we gave her for Christmas. She loves learning about Egypt and the Wollongong Uni "course" is great, she is having a ball. Such a smart cookie. Maybe she will be an Archeologist?

I head to Montrose and grab some food from the butchers. A local coffee and take some parcels into Gerry to mail at Montrose Post Office. A lot of people wandering about, it is a beautiful sunny day. I watch 2 black cockatoos land in the park opposite , handfuls of some sort of bush with seeds. They are majestic. I'm heading to the ATM and a woman walks up and hands me a bunch of flowers. I was rather speechless. She told me they were so cheap at the vegie/flower shop she bought a few and decided to give them out and I looked happy and deserved them. It was really nice - I like that "do something nice for a stranger" moment. I thanked her and strangely enough turns out she knows some friends of ours. I put some in a vase in Marks room and he doesn't even notice them-not even after I swap them for some fresh ones a few days later. See he gets flowers way too much. Next time I'll just cut the tops off and leave a pile of twigs in the vase. HA!

January 14th

Nice to chat to Fen. We are both shocked that the UK Covid death rate is now past 101,000 deceased. I'm starting to think Boris is as useless as Trump. Reality is we have thought that for awhile now. Boris has been too weak around the Covid effort in the UK.

Our Woolworth groceries are still being delivered every week and so far on time. I'm still napping when they arrive, I watch the delivery man on the security monitor and hope Mark arises and brings them inside. It's not that early, just that we both had a really late night (again).

A big storm hits the mountain, loads of lightening, thunder and boy does it rain. I empty 27 watering cans worth of water into the spare 3rd storage tank but i can't keep up, the other tanks are now overflowing and I hate it just washing away. The tomato plants are large and do survive this downpour. Banshee loves water as we all know and wants to go outside in it, she doesn't seem to care about the thunder nor the lightening - she did before. After 15 minutes she wants back in, hardly wet but obviously over it- her long fur feathering between her toes like some cat mini mops. Flop flop on the polished floor boards, little cat yeti footprints everywhere around the house.

January 15th

Two Million dead from Covid worldwide now. Three Americans dying every minute. It seems the F/16 diary is full of gloom and doom. I'm trying for it not to be the case but this pandemic has reached that horrid stage (again). Australia is thankfully doing well, the only new infections are in NSW. Every other state no local infections. I'm not convinced Gladys knows what she is doing, people keep saying NSW possibly has even more infections that haven't shown up yet-I hope they are wrong.

At 4.30 out NBN and phones etc are down again. Grrrr that little red light on the NBN box. Here we go again, I'm sure our server will blame the weather.

January 16th

Today is my sleep in day, I bury myself under the bedding like I'm in a journey to the centre of the earth movie, deeper and deeper I go, into soft snug bed heaven. Banshee eats her breakfast with Marky but also returns and climbs under the covers. I sleep, I dream, I fold up into some womb sleep shape and dream even more. The hours go by, I wake, I turn, I dream. Mark ventures in a few times, gives my fingers a massage and tells me "Disaster Donalds" latest insanity. By late afternoon I emerge and in the break between rain storms I finish a final few things in the yard. I saw down the huge part of the Fire Wattle that has died. I'm hoping to keep the other section alive but it's not doing too well-I guess everything runs its course. I pull out tiny blackberry bushes that are trying to take over between the passionfruit vines and the lavender. I chat to a neighbour and a hiker tourist asks me directions. I don't have a mask on in my yard so I really keep my distance from Mr Hiker. The rain commences again so I walk back inside and prepare some Lasagne for dinner. I think I over slept, finding it hard to stay focused and rather vague. It's a lost Saturday.

The shining beacon for today & there is always something. Mark records THE DEATH & LIFE OF JOHN F. DONOVAN. We'd never heard of it. An exceptional cast and it has become my favourite movie from the last few years. Kit Harington (Yes "Game Of.." Kit) is exceptionally sexy, plays the part perfectly, young Ben Schretzer an amazing actor for his age. This movie resonated within me like no other. I love the soundtrack too. Some say French Canadian Director Xavier Dolan created a mess cutting "The Death & Life.." down from 4 hours to 2 hours- but what a gorgeous, sexy, wonderful mess it is. Sometimes the message is basic- Be True To Yourself. I get this movie, parts of it- I AM this movie , I love this movie.

January 17th

Another crazy arrested with guns and way too much ammunition in Washington and fake ID. They really are coming out of the woodwork.

Marks happy to have the homemade bread I made yesterday but i decide we need some fresh bread and a chicken so head to Olinda. Montage is closed tomorrow so a coffee and a BLT for lunch for me. Our NBN and phones still down so i call our provider (again) and they are hopefully onto it. It's been a mere 9 days since last time. I try being nice but the person I spoke too was a bit of a jerk so I add a teaspoon of sarcasm into my now (fake) niceness. We will see if they get it together, I think they will. Lots of tourists are on the mountain today, I watch them from my table at Montage. They keep me amused. My funky red leather businessman IPad cover arrived a few days ago so I am using that. It looks great. Thanks Marky for ordering it. A perfect fit. All the staff are on at Montage, Will is the latest addition to the team. I'm nice to them all, dealing with the public is rarely a joy.

Phil Spector dies age 81- he was an evil prick so I care zilch.

I manage to call home , and they all know we are ok. It's weird, the drama and issues in America seem to wind people up here too, like all of a sudden Australia is not safe. I reassure my Mum we are fine. Plus Ailsa Craig as a rather amazing security system, the worst that happens are 2 possums fucking at 3.00 AM. The sun is out by 2.00 PM so the afternoon turns into a perfect Summers day. We are so blessed here, you almost feel guilty.

Stay safe and wear a mask, it makes a difference.

Gryph.