The Life and Times of Peter Green
Archive: **
 “Peter & Finn" -Olinda 2024. |
May 27thSo some of the diary enthusiasts would have noticed the jump in readers on the counter, as we got closer to 700,000. Lots of newbies after all of this time, so welcome.Neil Finn's birthday today and I did remember to contact him. Even after all of this time I try not to miss Sharon or Neils birthdays. In the Enz days the band members rarely celebrated, mostly due to the lack of time- all in the Split Enz bubble. Miss K calls so that's always a fun phone chat. Sucks she is so far away in Pittsburgh but the calls mean so much more when they happen. We drive through the fog for dinner and nearly everything on the mountain is closed, so we venture into Duddleys and sit by the warm fire. Nice food too. I value these nights out with my best friend. May 28thI call Laura and Kevin just before they jump into the pane to fly to Vietnam. Hope they have brilliant trip.I focus on the Hoodoo Gurus 40th Anniversary album, such a great reissue of Stoneage Romeo's (I love how my spell check made it "Stoneage Tomatoes!!!!") at the time it only peaked at #28 despite a really great first single review by yours truly. I hope this time it makes the Top Ten. Tomorrow is the 28th anniversary of this diary and we are climbing to 700,000 readers. I mention it on Twitter and suddenly lots more people checking out this gorgeous blog. May 29thWell happy Anniversary too the good ol' diary. Yes Famous For 16 Minutes is 28 years young! Almost three decades, and 700,000+ views. A bit mind blowing. One, because for 28 years I have been (mostly) disciplined and every day a post (in its fortnightly form). Some sort of reality comment around my day too day life , be it mundane or extra thrilling. Obviously not my entire life but a trinket, a tiny written dna moment. Secondly wow, 700,000. Deb would confirm how stupidly excited I was when I had 100 "reads", so 700,000 is beyond my wildest dreams. So thank you and as always a big shout out to Debbie Levitt. [editor's note: you're welcome as always!]The girls at the Olinda bakery make me a Famous for 16 Minutes cake. So we party up the kitchen and take a few photos , It has the diary name and "28" in icing , lots of rainbow sprinkles and I have to say a really nice cake. To top it off a parcel arrives from Mum and she found one of my Batsuits from when I was 5 or 6. So thats in the archives for the FAN exhibit now. The front shirt piece is missing, Mum has memory about myself falling into a blackberry bush wearing it, & it got torn to shreds. So I'll have to find or create a second Bat piece for it. It looks incredible. Memories come flooding back of me wearing it. May 30thI do some charity work in the morning, it feels good to do such things. I had three different older ladies who have all lost their husbands recently. They have that sadness in their eyes and I let them talk and sometimes that's all people need, the kindness of a stranger.I visit the Doctor at Montrose as it's time to check out my poor heel. Triple whacked in the same spot at the charity. The #3 still aches so they will probably have to do some scans. Dr wants to give me a blood test too just to be on the safe side. I'm sure a few things will be slightly higher than they should, but after all I am an old fart now. OK a young fart with an older birthdate. Compared to a lot of friends I'm fairly healthy. Maybe the results will happily surprise me. May 31stI wave goodbye to May and the crazy amount of May birthdays.Im sipping my coffee at the bakery and my mate Ingrid comes along with her dog Finn. Finn is the most gorgeous border collie and just loves me so much. He's happy to sit with me while Mum ventures into the bakery. I sit next to him and he gives me the most gigantic dog kiss. What a dog of good taste. The new Crowded House album "Gravity Stairs" is out today.I ask Finn thew Dog for a prediction. One bark for a hit, two barks for No. Finn barks twice., Oh no! Maybe it was an echo. Trust in Finn? All those months of pre sales, surely it will enter high on the charts. Every other Crowded House album has either made it to #1 or #2 nationally. We'll see how it goes. I don't think there are any other major releases here today so that might be good thing for it. I work in the art room on the "Bat" for the Batman outfit from my youth. Of course I have run out of Bruce Wayne Yellow paint, so just do the backing hue. It looks ok. Kellys at Olinda for dinner tonight. Carolyn had a wonderful table for us near the fire. June 1stHappy Birthday to Wendy C today. I sent her a small birthday gift, hope she likes it.We watch "Thanksgiving" , a slasher film from last year. Based on Eli Roth fictitious trailer of the same name from "Grindhouse" in 2007. It's not too bad and has made about $50 million at the box office. The sequel was green lighted so that's cool. Winter makes herself known at nights up here on the mountain, the temperature is dropping fast as soon as Sol sets. I guess we will be lighting our fires soon. June 2ndIt was a cold night, the car windscreen covered in ice this morning. I am still putting some plants in here at Ailsa Craig. A scaevola with dark blue and pink flowers in Spring. Probably not the best time to plant but it should be ok.I have a bit of a chat with our friend Trudy W, which was nice. We like a lot of the same music so thats a bonus. Late night grocery drive for me, I tell Mark to stay at home, no point both of us freezing. I find a big bag of organic coffee, the last one and it's 60% off. So into the trolley it goes. Coffee is getting insanely expensive these days. The orange Aero chocolates are on special too, so in they go. The roads are really empty tonight , could be the sleet blowing across Bayswater road. Brrrr get me home to warmth Red Beast! June 3rdSuzi Quatro turns 74 today. She keeps on playing and the audience just adores her. Music is in her blood.A really nice chat with Richard Lowenstein tonight. Love his work, apart from the Crowded House, INXS videos , he also directed the 1986 "Dogs In Space" movie. Maybe some work with him, we shall see. June 4thI get to sleep in for an extra hour today so that was bliss. I drive over to the Salvo's store at Monbulk as they are re-opening today. I chat to the lady at the newsagents and wait for the head honcho's to do their thing at the Salvo's. I am first in the door and some of the Salvo girls cheer which was kind of funny. I buy the first items , some toothpaste and some sixties sunglasses. Good to see everyone but I only stay for a minute as I need to get back to my own charity as I'm helping them out today. It was fun though and the Monbulk Salvation Army store looks great. Check it out. Libby is an excellent manager.You know I really like a show when I send the host, in this case Bill Weir from "The Wonder List" a message. Great show and he is a fun host, explorer etc, Inspiring. My heel is aching a bit, usually it's the last hour at the charity I have to learn to sit and rest it till I get the final result. I like some of the photos in the Crowded House edition of Australian/NZ Rolling Stone. Liams jacket is brilliant. Neil Finn spills some of the beans in the Zane Lowe Interview around Split Enz, well only a tiny bit. Of course it has the Frenz guessing. June 5thMidnight hangs with me while I cut back agapanthus and blackberries on the circular drive. She is a good kitty cat. I sing while working and she watches me and I swear her head bobs along to my vocal work. She appreciates my singing, someone has to love my voice.Markys Youtube Wednesday and the first live song from the salvaged video tapes. The Finn Brothers on that first New Zealand Tour. The James Cabaret , Wellington . March 1st 1996. "In Love With It All". The fans are so ecstatic over this one, so many nice comments. I soak in a nice hot bath, my heel is happy. It's the perfect spot to enjoy our Google Nest. How cute do those Split Enz "Murder" puppets look on the "Nest" screen. Murder continues to do well, 7600+ views and rising. It's really loved, that makes us smile.Keep spreading the word folks it is appreciated. June 6thMarky has some flu bug, we Covid test, I am in the clear but his is bit uncertain, so I need to grab another test kit later for him. Poor baby, I send him to bed and look after him all day. Not great timing as we were going to see Andy White at Merri Creek Tavern tonight. Instead I risk Covid and snuggle next to him while he attempts to sleep. I start him on some of my Flu tablets just in case.Our Split Enz "Murder" video has the highest view day for month. Kind of cool that people are still finding this little arty video of ours. June 7thI put some photos of Mick Ronson playing onstage with Split Enz, just on my Facebook page and Twitter. The fans love it, and many Enz fans are Bowie fans so it's nice musical post.Marky is a lot better today, the flu tablets seem to work well for him and I fussed over him. I have no symptoms so that's great. I go to my Dr to run through my recent blood work. I am relieved, everything is good except for one thing. I am deficient at the moment in Vitamin D. She recommends I head to the sun for a week to get a good zap this Winter. She also puts me on Vitamin D capsules, little clear balls of sunshine. I am so happy as we always think the worst over such tests. Sad to see The Zoo music venue at Fortitude Valley in Queensland is closing. That place had great vibe. 32 years I think it has existed for. So many bands have ventured through the doors of that cool venue. June 8thThe charts are in for Crowded House with the new album "Gravity Stairs". I hope it does well for them. I'm struggling a bit around it, I kind of get a bit bored if I am truly honest, but am committed to give it many more plays , hopefully it will click with me down the track. Every Crowded House studio album has peaked at #1 or #2 on the charts. This one debuts at #3. It might move up one spot next week but it might drop? It comes in at #4 in New Zealand, I truly expected it to be #1 in Neils home country so that's weird, #8 in UK. Some mixed fans comments, I guess points for them being honest. Loving a band doesn't mean you have to like everything. Even though we can feel a tiny bit guilty saying something is not to ones liking. They are still my other family so I wish them well.I had nice chat to Josephine in the afternoon around the release, after that I make some chocolate mousse, mainly as a get well treat for Mark. I buy him some "Dickhead" gummies as well. It's such an Australian word "Dickhead" and it seems to be stolen by America. Suddenly you hear the word Dickhead being used in American TV shows and movies. We do note that our Dickhead lollies are indeed made in China! June 9thThat miserable Winter weather has arrived, parts of NSW in flood . Rain and grey. Kalorama isn't too bad, just misty rain, some fog and it's keeping the tourists away this Sunday. The Tourist Road rather slim on traffic.My Mum doesn't answer her phone so Sis and I go into a bit of a panic mode. All ok though, looks like she bumped it into mute mode. Eventually we hear from her but a tiny scare for us , she's no spring chicken. We are so fortunate having her here still. Some glitch with IINET so I have to pay our Internet bill manually. It's one off, just annoying. I just wanted it done so we owe nothing. I hear from our friend Lillie around the Anniversary of the Storm Disaster up here. A few others make contact, thankfully the good memories outweigh the bad and the best part is that no one was killed during the disaster. I put up a few photos and a post on Facebook. It's an important time for the community up here and it's something we will all remember. 81 homes destroyed, 200+ properties damaged. We all have stories from that event and it has changed our lives. Some relationships crumbled because of it, ours seemed to grow stronger….and on that note ….. All the best and find happiness where you can. xPeter |