The Life and Times of Peter Green
Archive: 10 June - 21 June 2024
 Midnights first fire. Winter. Kalorama 2024 |
June 10thA public holiday here, the Kings Birthday which is ridiculous as Charles was born in November. But most Australians don't really give a crap and will take the holiday, most, probably don't even know why it's a public holiday.The suns out so I strip to a T-shirt outside the bakery and get a tiny zap to help my vitamin D deficiency. The music industry loses another one. Andrew McVitty dies , he was the producer of the Nightmares TV show. Each year more and more music industry people pass away. Maybe I'll hang around till I am 100. "Music Industry Guru dies at 100", that sounds pretty good. Or "annoying music loving little shit dies at 100". LOL. When someone goes I try to stuff that little bit more into my day. Life is too short. I work in the archives this afternoon. I give the Neil Finn mandolin a clean. It's a Kasuga custom made job, used onstage for various Split Enz songs. A rather nice piece. Neil turned up at the house one day and just handed it over. Good one. June 11thRain, fog, cold, my bed is so warm. I force myself to get up for a tiny bit of time at the charity. Sucks as Lachie's coffee van isn't in its spot, so no coffee for me.I head to Lilydale for a scan, & ultrasound on my injured heel. They are really good to me, I am early and they put me in. Two different areas but it's all done now. Hopefully nothing broken inside. Thanks Tim for looking after me. I call into the art supply shop and buy some yellow, black and white spray paint as I've ran out of those. As time marches on I use more and more spray paints in my art. It's becoming a favourite medium of mine. I always loved Melbourne artist Denis Ropers use of spray paints, especially in his earlier works. We own about 6 Ropar originals. I need to follow up on Ropar soon and find out what he has been to. June 12thI'm a bit shocked by the lack of sales of the new Crowded House album "Gravity Stairs". In the past we'd sell a gold records worth in week number one. So around 35,000 in Australia. I expected some solid sales with all the press, the Rolling Stone Magazine front cover but especially the several months of "pre sales" which go into the debut week. But it's a mere 2781. That includes all the pre-sales, the vinyl, cd, streams and digital! Holy shit. 2781. Speechless in a bad way.Hamburgers for dinner. Fairly healthy hamburgers, a few bits and pieces from our veggie patch too which is getting to slim pickings stage because of Winter. June 13thMidnight keeps me awake tonight, she ends up playing soccer in the kitchen at 4.00 am! Still a kitten …in that furry shell. So I am awake early. The nudges and kisses me, I can never be angry at this cute little cat.I head off mountain and go through the car wash at 7.00 am. It's quite calming just sitting and watching the car get foamed and wax sprayed. It's great as the white cover on the back gets a really good wash, something I find hard to do. A long day at charity and my heel aches after 5 hours. Red Symons of Skyhooks birthday. He turns 75. Those 'Hooks are getting older. No word from Macainsh, he has vanished, probably off photographing clouds. Who knows. I sent him an email around the upcoming Living in The 70's album to get vinyl reissue etc but no reply so guessing he doesn't give a shit about Skyhooks anymore. A bit sad, but his life. Parts of Victoria, the coldest day in 5 years. My car covered in ice this morning. We really love Season Two of "Colin from Accounts" well written, very funny. June 14thSoup this morning at the bakery, nice sweet potato with spices.The argyranthemum is getting too big for its pot in the kitchen, so I'll find a sunny spot for it in the garden and plant it. Lots of blood red pom pom flowers are on it. So it will add some colour to the yard. I am driving around the Hills and hear our live Split Enz "Murder" the radio. The DJ gives our arty Split Enz "Murder" video clip an on air rave. The views jump, 7841 so heading to 8000. Brilliant. Thanks everyone. We appreciate all the shares and nice comments. Let's get it to 8000, spread the word and share the clip. June 15thI'm chatting to Tayla in the Bakery and Pearl Jam's "Last Kiss" comes on the radio and we both say how we love that song. It did well here, #1 on the charts. It ends up on Pearl Jams "Lost Dogs" album. I see that PJ's "Dark Matter" turned around on the Aussie charts this week and is moving back up, it will probably re-enter the Australian Top Ten when Pearl Jam play Melbourne later this year.Second week of charts for Crowded House. I usually say you can tell by week #3 and #4 if the public love your album or not. This second week Crowded House drop out of the Australian Top 50, out of the NZ Top 50 and the worse, out of the UK Top 100. Now remember they are playing some great shows in the UK and loads of press, and yet after only one week nose dives out of the charts. Holy FK! Maybe next week it will improve, it must be weird for the band . It's like the fan base has departed, gone to a different planet. In many ways they are a legacy band, and most people attending shows are probably the Recurring Dream "Best Of" crowd. June 16thZiggy Stardust album turns 52. We play it and I dance around the kitchen with Midnight. Such a wonderful album.Marky finds this wonderful photo of my Mum. I've never seen it before. She is so young and happy. I love the families FJ Holdens etc in the background. I send a jpeg of it to Sis. She agrees a great photo. Olinda Fish & Chips for dinner. The mountain has its fog shroud on tonight. I'm in a giant 1978 Ugg coat and glasses, a girl looking in a shop window tells me I look like a Rockstar. How funny. It stuck in my head all night. June 17thPeter Dutton and the Liberals keep pushing their Liberal Nuclear fantasy but he refuses to give costings. I don't trust or like Dutton, surely there is someone better to lead the Liberals. 73 consecutive polls behind Albanese in the Polls. Didn't the Liberals ditch Abbott after only 38 polls behind? No toMr Potato Head. Road Kill has more credibility.We spend most of the day in the office, both of us working on bits and pieces. Replying to emails, giving some of the clips on our Youtube page bit of promotion. 4,566,258 views. We are so glad everyone is enjoying Markys Youtube Wednesday videos. The comments make us smile, thanks everyone. Great to see Kate and Pinchapoo get their new van! Pincha crew do such remarkable work. We will always support them. We light our first fire for Winter in the lounge room. It's Midnights first fire ever and she snuggles up in front all toasty warm. A happy kitty cat. June 18thI work only part of the day at the charity and head to my second Dr at Montrose to go through the scans around my heel.It's mostly good, no real damage that they can see, a bit swollen . She asks if I want Physio but we end up deciding on some stretching exercises etc for month to see if that repairs it. All my bone work is great, nice and strong. So overall good news. I snuggle up with Marky in his bed with the electric blankets on and the cat between us and we watch numerous episodes of Prisoner (Cell Block H). Nice and domesticated. June 19thIt's cold today, and what looks like sleet is falling as I drive to Olinda. No cars on the road.Markys Youtube Wednesday, those fabulous Finn Brothers. Yes a second clip from that wonderful first Neil and Tim Tour. This time it's from Melbourne- Dallas Brookes Hall. February 13th 1996. "Where Is My Soul". Really cool and I love that the videos he has salvaged are all different songs. Please give it a view here, we appreciate the support. If people continue to enjoy these clips, Mark will continue to do them. I drive off mountain and fill the car up with petrol, the service station gives me double Qantas points so I'll keep letting them build up. June 20thAnother cold morning so for the first time I buy a LARGE coffee from Lachie. He is both amused and shocked. Sadly he has been offered some cool job and the van will only be here for another week. I will miss our chats and my twice a week coffee.A good day at the charity but it ends with my partner in crime Deb and myself laughing so much we had tears. You know that rare contagious laughter. We couldn't even look at each other without laughing. Insane but nice we let it loose at that place. Carol the boss would say something and we'd laugh even more. I think we both needed that. It's a fun place to volunteer. I hear from my friend Bill, Paul Kelly's manager and wonderful news, Paul will have a new album out later this year. We love Paul Kelly, such a talent. Very excited by this news. Bring it on. I'm playing the Suede debut album in the kitchen tonight and having a dance with Midnight-she loves Suede. A cat of good taste. June 21stI slept really well last night, deep deep in my bed warm and comfortable and good dreams.I'm at the bakery sipping on my coffee and my friend Bev turns up and I mind her cute little doggy Hunter. He's an old dog and loves his Mum. We talk, dog chat till Bev returns. His little tail wags like helicopter taking off when he sees her. I call into Pellegrinos and buy fruit, vegetables and something for dinner. I'm making a cool peppercorn sauce. Maybe some nice soup for an entree. It's the afternoon in the office. La Femmes album playing as well as the triple set "The Songs of Maurice Frawley" ("Long Gone Whistle"). So good to hear The Divine's Chrissy Amphlett and Charlie Owen cover Maurice's "Happy Home". I'm rushing the F/16 diary as Deb escapes for a well earned holiday so need to get it to her. (Have fun Deb) [editor's note: thanks!]. I think it's starting to snow outside. Love to you all. Peter. x |