The Life and Times of Peter Green
Archive: 15 February - 28 February 2016
Kookaburra family protected by water blaster hero!
February 15thI wake up nice and early today, which is great as I have been sleeping in a bit too much lately. Too many late nights, too many dreams, too many, too many. We have Bongo Skyhook on Sunrise TV show, so thought i should watch it and make sure all goes well. I'm glad we helped find a Molly Meldrum mask for him as the gag worked well (excellent idea Bobby boy). It also meant he could carry the Molly "Do yourself a favour" line and wave the Skyhooks Hits N Riffs cd around for a lot longer, so extra TV exposure.Bob calls straight after the Sunrise session and I tell him that it looked great on TV. Nice when a little subtle promo stunt works. I think this tv appearance will be the trigger for a jump on the national chart. I head to the General Store for a coffee and take my work folder with me . Notice there is an email from Tim Finn, he's back in Melbourne for the last night of "Ladies In Black". It's certainly done very well, nearly every night has been Sold Out. Good to see, congratulations. Pay our house rates today, (Phew) $3264.00 ... it always seems so much. Still a few acres and a decent house will cost you that much these days. All paid up for another year. That part feels good. VINYL debuts on Foxtel, we enjoy it, nice to see the New York Dolls (at the end) bring the house down -well the infamous Mercer Arts Center (not quite what happened but it suited the story). I know the critics will attack this show, open season really to do so, but stuff them, we enjoyed it. I notice my YouTube page has had close to 250,000 visitors! That's amazing,well it is for little ol' me. Love it when record company people attempt to lecture on You Tube etc and they know absolute shit. February 16thI take 3 Crowdies stage jackets to the General Store and add them into the archives. It's fine checking of each one first just to make sure no mould etc. Detailed description and coding. Nicks work is impressive and stands the test of time. A few of the painted areas are a bit "stiff" (don't be rude) but fabric and paint and time, that tends to happen. The trick is slowly getting them flat again and working the fabric a bit, and thankfully no paint eroding off. Very time consuming but the results are positive. I think i found one of Hesters original jackets too and we never had that one before at exhibits so a big cheer.So Australia's population hits 24 million. We sit up on the edge of the mountain range and watch the urban sprawl crash into us. 24 Million, I wonder what percentage are jerks and arseholes. ? Wake up with the urge to play Rod Stewarts "Atlantic Crossing" album. Not sure why, but one should always follow those whispers in one's head saying what to play. We help out an animal charity today with a cheque. It all helps so was happy to grab a few items etc, such a good thing to support. Watch "The Case Against 8" and it's fascinating. How brave were those 4 people to stand up for marriage equality in the States. Cool documentary. Kate at Yarra Ranges Council has been exceptional where as Australia Post a bit pathetic. We pay for this higher mail service now, you expect your mail to arrive intact. Not opened and cheques missing. I see Pells being called up to give evidence. Shame on the Catholic Church and those who hide child rapists. February 17thBreakfast at Montage. Crowded House's "Instinct" is playing as we walk in , kind of funny and I obsess over the song, it's been awhile since we've heard it.An email arrives for 'Glory Days Of Aussie Pub Rock' which looked great and then the penny dropped it's STUDIO recordings. Oh for fuck sake where is the "Glory" and where is the "Pub Rock". All those pub gigs , the glory is the passion from the crowd, the odd bit of feedback, the artist surrendering his live version of the song to us. The thing is Warner Mushroom have so many live recordings in their archives, this could of been great and really it's now a puss filled bloated pimple on the arse of commercial wanking. This is a dog with fleas, spend your buck$ at your local pub seeing an Australian band play live- or find a cool live album - this one is a farce. That's the thing, the Molly soundtrack sells and every record company try's to cash in on the multi cd discounted bulk buy- but you'd think the dimwit who thought of this title would actually have real LIVE material on it. (Waves arms at the heavens). February 18thSleep in, felt a bit worn, too many late nights. Eat brunch at BRUNCH- Mark the owner, kids me for having the kids meal. Hey it was great , just a big kid.AEC call and offer me some work during the next election. I am totally flattered as what they offered me was amazing, and total responsibility. I walked backwards and really want to work with my mate Marjo so semi declined the position but yes to other stuff. Still I was flattered , honoured. I think the Electoral Commission must of gotten the wrong person (ha ha). We'll see on Election Day how good I am. Nice to have the offer though. February 19thI finally remember to get some petrol for the mower, the centre of the circular drive needs a #1 buzz cut. Everything grows so fast this time of year. The agents are on the street and say they can easily get $1 million for our place. I keep saying to Mark lets sell and travel till the day we croak it! Funny that they can promise 1 Million. I smile, nah not enough.Author Harper Lee dies, really Mockingbird is such a cool book. I get a call for polling and it's the fist time in a long long time- so poor old Malcolm Turnbull doesn't do well with my vote. Bloody video card on Marks Apple goes (again). Try to find paper work of the last repair but doesn't appear to be any, I wonder if they actually replaced the card. This is a worry. I guess I'll have to bite the bullet and pay. So we take it back to our Mac rep where we bought it. OK I am sitting down $900! I decide it's fucked and tell them to hold the machine and I'll approach Apple. Time for the little terrier dog to latch onto the worlds biggest company. There are some strange things about the last repair etc so possibly that might help us. February 20thReading loads of stuff on the chemical DMT. ( dimethyltriptamine) I find it incredibly fascinating. Cool article here: http://wondergressive.com/death-solved-by-vestigial-gland/Lots of visitors today, all girls and all way too wild. Haven't laughed this much in ages, serious tear laughing. We seem to be getting more and more new friends- that's interesting. Grab 4 of the Crowded House albums for art work scans for the record company - the original art trans etc long lost by EMI etc but all 4 are mint so they will be happy. Lots of stuff later this year, all of it good. February 21stCall Helmut at the Apple store , he can't really explain why our Macs serial number shows up with no work done on it. It's all a bit strange. I have a new contact at Apple -the wonderful Jeremy. I spend a bit of time writing a pretty decent email , it feels like a winner, it's totally honest and after speaking to consumer affairs they also believe we have a case. So Mark and Peter take on Apple, in a nice way.February 22ndSpend most of the morning dealing with Apple , they are being really excellent about this , so a nice surprise. We shall see what the final outcome will be.Latest Newspoll results are in and Labor/Libs are now 50/50-the honeymoon most certainly appears to be well and truly over for Mr Turnbull. 1800 polled and one of them was me. February 23rdI stand my ground with Apple and they see the light of day on all counts so repairs and all the time doing so are covered by Apple. When you look at the whole scenario you knew we were in the right, but it's a damn big company to go up against. Anyway we are happy.Sadly our Mac shop are a bit hopeless and mess up calling us, we only just manage to pick up the repaired computer with 3 minutes to spare. Mark is stoked and lets face it, always nice to save $900, which can be spent elsewhere. Thanks Apple. It's a hot evening and the sky is full of Currawongs. My heart jumps as I see Andy the Kookaburra and his 3 babies trying to find safety at our house. The Currawongs (think crows) are attacking them trying to kill the baby kookaburra's . I whistle to Andy and he circles the babies urging them on and finally they arrive. Ripped feathers and cuts from bites. I think they are safe. I'm outside trying to photograph some old LP covers so my camera is handy. I'm appalled that the Currawongs have little fear and continue their assault . They were not ready for yours truly having a full turboblaster nearby. My mother fucker of a water pistol and I am a good shot. After 10 minutes seriously wet Currawongs start leaving. The classic happens, one of Andy's baby birds jumps up on the water pistol and lets out a loud Kookaburra laugh. It's like he's saying Fuck You. He waits while I take a photo as no one would believe me otherwise. Andy watches him like a proud bird dad. The family stay for a few more hours and a few more Currawongs get a soaking. I'm just glad our little bird family is safe. Now if I could just teach Andy how to fire the water pistol, it's only a matter of time he is one smart bird. February 24thImpressed, rare people can say something good about their local council. Today Yarra Ranges spent every moment with trucks and tractors and shovels digging out the very large water runoff that goes by the back of our property. They filled at least 5 trucks with tree drop, leaves etc , so all nice and clean. I only called them once on this and a week later all done. I'm glad I pay my rates on time! Money well spent. Thanks Yarra Ranges. See we are happy citizens!February 25thI hear from Tim Finn and we are catching up while he is in Melbourne .haven't seen him for awhile so this will be enjoyable. He's done so well with the "Ladies In Black" production, it must feel great having that success after putting in the long hours. Good on him, also he has the final signed 8x10 photos so getting those off him too.Montage again this morning and "Locked Out" was playing, one just has to laugh. February 26thGood luck Laura, thinking of you.Strange call from my Mum, she does drive me kooky sometimes. OK I love her but PHEW, a long day today. Her birthday coming up, she's 78 so make up a special birthday pack and add a few dollars too - she can always do with some buck$. February 27thI make chocolate mousse for dinner as our friend Miss Fen requested it. I don't always do requests but yeah this time happy to do so. So great they are cooking dinner for us and we arrive way ahead of schedule, the drive was so quick- about half the time compared to our last visit when someone else was driving. Maybe our Navman takes us on a super dooper short cut. A wonderful night, loads of laughs , and we left before midnight , it was tempted to stay but I was uncertain about what time I had to get up tomorrow. Anyway Fen and Giles if you are reading this-thank you a lovely night.February 28thOur voting from the Skyhooks fans finishes today. A record number of votes arrive- 2139 of them. We asked fans to nominate their 3 favourite songs , and once again for the 6th year in a row- "Loves Not Good Enough" easily became the most popular Skyhook song. It's an interesting list, not your obvious "Hits" which becomes the predictable fodder of record companies and their endless "Best Of's". I love that fans enjoy that wider range of songs - always a buzz to see the final results.I'm yawning a lot today, even though we left Fen and Giles by midnight, we stayed up till 4.00 AM so Nelly's coffee was brilliant. Thankfully not seeing Tim today so no long drive to the city. In a few days time it's Autumn. The hot weather at Kalorama shows no sign of stopping- the government should change the seasons by a month and extend Summer all through out March. In a few days we announce a few more of Neil's USA shows- July 7th- Neil Finn @ Ravinia Musics Festival in Highland Park IL as well as Osfest in Norway on August 6th. More dates to come. That's it for me... Now stand up, it's really bad to sit in front of your computer this long. Go on, do it now... and have a long wonderful life! xPeter |