Hi, it’s Greenygrey. We’ve just had a reported sighting of Andy Wolfhol from our friends in the north, Downside-Up Penguin and Ice Spider. So we’re heading over to the travel25years.wordpress.com blog to follow it up. We shouldn’t be long…
Monthly Archives: June 2013
Bon Scott Inspired Character Finds AC/DC Home
Hi, it’s Greenygrey. As we enter the final 3/7ths of the Werewolf of Oz: Fantasy Travel by Google Maps today’s episode is a momentous one in many ways. Not only do the Werewolf of Ozzers enter the magical rock decades 1960s to 1990s world of Kerang–Kerrang for thirteen chapters/episodes, but one of the most important characters leaves, and the travelling quintet become a quartet once more.
Bon Scott, AC/DC and Wizard of Oz
This episode is paralleled in the human world by Bon Scott passing away in 1980, and the AC/DC rock group he’d played a big part in elevating to rock giantdom recording a Back in Black memorial album with Brian Johnson.
The Bonzo character in Werewolf of Oz parallels Toto in Wizard of Oz. Toto of course completed the journey.
So Bonzo’s story resembles Bon’s more than Toto’s.
Chapter 81. Ghost Dog Bonzo Finds AC/DC Back in Black
There was a time-machine at the entrance to Kerang-Kerrang, and you could choose a decade to enter. The 1980s looked an exciting time, with the magazine-town being built and developed on a surge of metal euphoria. So we entered then.
Kerang-Kerrang Born too Late for Bon Scott
We had an eerie introduction to 1980s Kerang-Kerrang, walking through an arid barren region populated by just one gravestone. It reminded me of a scene out of a spaghetti western.
When we reached the gravestone I read out the inscription ‘Ronald (Bon) Scott, born 1946, died 1980.’ The next thing, Bonzo keeled over.
We revived Bonzo, and I asked if he knew what happened to him. He said he’d had a rush of déjà-vu when he saw the grave; as if it held some significance to his past. He’d felt an urge to dig into it, but had tried fighting it, and then his legs had given way beneath him.
AC/DC begin the Kerrang Construction
When Bonzo was steady on his paws we continued toward the first constructions in Kerang-Kerrang.
The first was a black house featuring a big mural of AC/DC’s Angus Young on the front. I was admiring it with the others, until noticing Bonzo wasn’t with us. I looked around, and poor Bonzo was on the ground again.
Bon Scott and Brian Johnson Meet
A man wearing a flat-cap emerged and exclaimed Hell’s Bells. He introduced himself as Brian and asked what was wrong with Bonzo. We told him it was the second time it had happened today, and Bonzo’d said he’d had a sense of déjà-vu the first time. Brian said he’d go and get some food and drink. He returned with a beer and bone, and after reviving Bonzo told him to ‘Have a Drink on Me, and chew on this bone.’
Somebody shouted from the house asking him what he was doing, and he replied that he had Given the Dog a Bone. He then asked Bonzo if he could Shake a Leg, and when Bonzo showed he could, he invited us all into the house.
It was rocking in there, and a revitalised Bonzo soon became the life and soul of the party.
Bye-Bye Bonzo
Bonzo and the householders got on so well that they asked him to stay. Having recently remembered his upbringing in nearby Melbourne, Bonzo decided that he had found his place to settle.
We were all sad to be parting from Bonzo, but understood his reasons, and stayed until the morning to make a night of it. As we waved goodbye to Bonzo and the rest of them, they sang us off with: You Shook Me All Night Long.
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Notes
Spaghetti westerns often have dramatic graveyard scenes, such as the concluding gunfight in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.
AC/DC album and songs: Back in Black, Have a Drink on Me, Given the Dog a Bone, Shake a Leg, You Shook Me All Night Long.
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Victoria, Australia Literary Nonsense Poem
Hi, it’s Greenygrey. It’s that end of the weekend time of the week, so it’s time for the second episode of Werewolf of Oz: Fantasy Travel by Google Maps. This is another quick travel episode/chapter told in a literary nonsense poem, eating up the Victorian miles before the Kerang-Kerrang epic thirteen chapters/episodes on the border with New South Wales.
Talking of Oz and 13, congratulations to the British and Irish Lions for their first test win against the Australian Wallabies, and Black Sabbath for their new album titled 13 reaching #1 in several countries, including U.K., U.S.A., Canada and Germany.
Chapter 80. North Victoria Fast Blast
Sizzling progress in the morning
eating up the miles from day’s dawning.
Flat out for hours, apart from the sharp bends
by noon we’d reached Kangaroo Flat north ends.
Skipped straight through for a meeting at Eaglehawk
with a California Gully who liked to talk.
We wondered if Terrick Terrick,
was named after Terrence Malick?
Pyramid Hill pointed to Kow Swamp
where we were in need of a Wee Wee Rup,
and then it was north-west to Kerang
reminding us of a rock magazine called Kerrang.
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Notes
Terrence Malick (film director).
Kangaroo Flat, Eaglehawk, California Gully, Terrick Terrick, Pyramid Hill, Kow Swamp, Kow Swamp, Wee Wee Rup and Kerang are all real places in north-east Victoria.
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Summer Solstice Poem Celebrating Natural Life
Marc Latham’s latest Folding Mirror poem celebrates summer solstice in the northern hemisphere. Marc isn’t a practising pagan; he’s a perfect one (only joking).
So he wasn’t too bothered about celebrating the summer solstice, and especially as greenygrey weather dominated, but then he heard birdsong this morning, and that gave him the idea for this poem. Here it is:
Summer Solstice, Natural Celebration
I didn’t witness
sun setting
at its latest
time
of what we now know
as a year
from
standing stones
transported
over land and water
in a different world
to what we know now
sensing ancestor spirit, experiencing living reality
but I did hear singing
of a special kind
from tree and sky
flying
through thermals
up
in the air
dawning in what we call
morning
light of earliest
bird awakening
preceding prehistoric humanity
Marc Latham’s central site is the Greenygrey (http://www.greenygrey.co.uk), and he has books available on Smashwords and Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/author/marclatham).
British and Irish Lions V ex-Australian Qantas Wallabies
Hi, it’s Martin ‘Werewolfie’ Adams, comedy satire sports correspondent at the Greenygrey. Today we preview the Australian Qantas Wallabies v British and Irish Lions rugby union first test. It is predominantly written for a human audience in Britain and Ireland about a rugby match being played in Australia, and for readers in the present with reference to the animal spirit past and global branding future.
After writing this blog focusing on animal names I checked the British and Irish Lions tour website and found out for the first time that Australia is now known as Qantas.
That should hopefully dent the patriotic Aussies’ confidence; their journey towards a republic being overtaken by global branding!
The Greenygrey global brand can unequivocally declare that it has no plans to take over the British and Irish part of the British and Irish Lions name.
Train of Thought Reversed
Before continuing on the British and Irish Lions train of thought, the Greenygrey apologises to Lynyrd Skynyrd and you readers for calling the Railroad Song the Railway Song in yesterday’s blog notes, after adding it because Marc Latham hadn’t; and not putting it in italics.
The Greenygrey still considers yesterday’s blog a classic, but not a completely perfect one. I think it sees now that this book writing and editing lark isn’t as easy as it looks.
British and Irish Lions v Australian Qantas Wallabies
Tomorrow sees the first of three rugby union matches in the human land of Oz; Australia; with the Australian Qantan(?) Wallabies hosting the British and Irish Lions.
On paper (or African plains) Lions should beat Wallabies, but the Wallabies have home advantage on the edge of the Aussie (Qantie?) outback, so they may be able to out-hop the Lions, and it is therefore hard to predict the result.
The Lions have been touring all over Oz, like our very own werewolf Grey, and even farther than Marc Latham did in 1989, when he saw the Lions win the deciding test in Sydney.
The Lions were doing well until meeting the Brumbies this week. I thought the Brumbies were bees descended from Birmingham, England (people from Birmingham are colloquially known as Brummies) at first, but apparently they are Aussie humans.
British Lions in the Wolf and Greenygrey Worlds
For those reading this in the British wolf spirit world, the British and Irish Lions are what you know as the British and Irish Wolves.
For those in the Greenygrey world, the British and Irish Lions are what you know as the British and Irish Wollions.
Further reading for lovers of Oz rambling:
Pagan Films and Book Writing
Hi, it’s Greenygrey. I’ve returned to the U.K. today, but zipped ahead of myself last night for a run in the sun, after seeing on the weather forecast that I’d be dominating the landscape today and most of the weekend. Today we’ve got another Werewolf of Oz episode, after talking pagan films, writing chapter fillers and The Code numerical twists.
Pagan-Monotheism Realistic Greenygrey Movie
Talking of greenygrey dominating the landscape, our film correspondent, Quentin Tarwolftino alerted us to greenygrey dominating the landscape in Valhalla Rising, which is available to watch on BBC iplayer (only in the U.K. unfortunately) until Sunday.
The film provides a realistic portrayal of the clash between paganism and monotheism a millenium ago; we like to think that the dominant greenygrey with a little yellowyblue landscape was instrumental in creating its realism.
While we relate to its historic warrior paganism, we don’t want a return to those times of conflict and war, and think that a more feminine new-age-paganism is the best way ahead for Britain and the world: humanity, environment and wildlife.
Apologies to Marc Latham
First of all today I’d like to apologise to Marc Latham about criticising his leaving place names out of the notes when he was editing Grey’s great fantasy travel quest. While I was checking the Smashwords copy I noticed Marc did write in the book preface that place names were mostly real, and those that weren’t real would be explained.
Having said that, I think that for this serialisation of the book it’s better that connections are explained more clearly. For example in this episode, that the Railway Hotel is a real place in Castlemaine, and that’s the connection-inspiration for the Railroad Song being played.
While you may think book writing and publishing is easy work; and it is more pleasurable than most jobs in my experience; there’s a lot of thought and time needed to get it as correct as possible. This ‘quick blog’ was meant to have a paragraph or two introduction, but now has ten or twelve; and it and all its extras will take about two hours!
While we write with care and love for our work, you may decode it as soft sell egotistical ramblings; and maybe there’s truth in both… in line with Greenygrey theory…
Werewolf of Oz Catches Its Breath… Good for You Too
After the run, the above introduction, and what I consider a Magnificent Seven classic comedy satire fantasy travel quest episodes of Werewolf of Oz: Fantasy Travel by Google Maps; which is now not only available on Amazon for paperbacks and the Kindle Ereader but on Smashwords for other Ereaders; I’m quite relieved that today’s episode is a bit of a filler lull… but this blog could now be considered a classic!?
Before you think the Werewolf of Oz is bad value for money because it has filler chapters, this is a common technique in book writing. It allows character development, the back story to be told, and the readers to catch their breath. I just googled it, and this was the best ‘Writing “Filler” Chapters‘ result I found on the first page.
However, although it’s not a classic chapter/episode, hopefully you’ll find it quite enjoyable. And I think you will if you’re a Lynyrd Skynyrd rock band, Castlemaine beer or town, The Code documentary or Greenygrey Combination Colour fan… it also hopefully provides a little comedy.
My favourite little twist was the way Angry wanting two beers meant the beer order was 6-4-5 in a chapter/episode built around The Code documentary. The programme was about how some mathematical equations seem to dominate nature.
79. RAILROAD SONG IN THE RAILWAY HOTEL, CASTLEMAINE BEER IN CASTLEMAINE
After the meal and passer-by had left us dazed and confused, we decided a drink or three was needed. So we headed up to Castlemaine and chose the Railway Hotel because it reminded us of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Railroad Song. We ordered six 4Xs for the five of us, because Angry wanted two.
The Code
It was a quiet afternoon, and our finking was frankly frazzled, so we lounged around watching a documentary called The Code.
It argued that there were numbers naturally embedded in nature, and that some numbers seem especially common and important.
I wondered if green and grey would be a top colour combination in a similar study on colours. I didn’t say anything to the others because I thought it might sound supercilious; be treated as super silly, and not be taken super seriously.
We didn’t overdo the beer this time, and all left the bar compos mentis.
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Notes
There is a Railway Hotel in the centre of Castlemaine, Victoria.
Railroad Song is a classic Lynyrd Skynyrd hobo travel song.
Dazed and Confused is a Led Zeppelin song.
The Code was a real documentary.
finking – thinking.
4x is a Castlemaine brewery beer.
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Understanding Democratic Government Decisions
Hi, it’s Wolf Whistzer, with the Greenygrey news and theory. The G8 EU-US trade deal looks promising, but whether it will come to fruition and cut shopping bills; helping people struggling with the recession; is up in the air for the foreseeable future. Talking of up in the air…
Bird-Brained Government Decisions
Reading the last couple of paragraphs of the Geographical article about wind power mentioned in yesterday’s article showed the tough decisions policy-makers have to make, in line with Greenygrey theory, with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) supporting wind turbines despite the amount of birds they kill, because they consider climate change a greater threat to birds:
“Overall, however, the RSPB is sanguine about bird strikes. Looking at the wider picture, it believes that the loss of birds to the blades pales in comparison to the wider threats posed by climate change. ‘Our starting point is climate change and that we can’t tackle that without low-carbon energy,’ says Scrase.
‘We have to be upfront – turbines can kill birds and that can be upsetting,’ he continues. ‘But the impact is insignificant, and nothing compared to the damage that will be caused to birds and other wildlife by climate change. Provided that turbines are well located, bird strikes aren’t much of an issue – even though they’re widely cited by critics of wind farms.’”
Did New Labour Hide Child-Grooming for Multiculturalism?
One unnecessary bird death seems tragic, but looked at in the wider picture, the RSPB consider it the lesser of two evils.
Reading the above RSPB quote, and comparing it to political decisionmaking, I can’t help think that New Labour did cover up the child-grooming going on in Britain under their government; and that they did it because they considered multiculturalism more important.
It’s only since New Labour lost power that it has been really exposed and tackled. The Conservative-Democrat government has also been quite quiet on it, and Labour’s Anne Cryer was its most vocal political critic, but it seems like more action has been taken since New Labour left government.
If governments are going to give some communities and issues a lower priority for what the consider the greater good they could at least tell the people, rather than just trying to ignore them, and pretending there is no problem.
G8 too Late to Make Britain Gr8?
Hi, it’s Grey Greyvara, social conscience at the Gr8 Greenygrey, reporting on the G8 conference. Back in the ’80s I hoped that Britain and the world would become a socialist utopia; kind of like my human parallel Che Guevara in the ’50s. Then New Labour got power! After cool Brittania turned to bankrupt Britain, with the rich richer and poor poorer, and most communist countries like Russia and China going more capitalist, as well as socialist countries like Sweden, it’s made me think that ethical green capitalism is about the best we can work towards.
G8 Too Late To Set GB Straight?
Has the British working class become lazy, or is it a victim of globalisation? Many of the rich liberal elite running the country (like Piers Morgan before he thankfully left!) claim the British working-class has become lazy, and doesn’t want to work; that’s why they have to import foreign labour.
Most of the economic immigrants are probably harder workers than the British in Britain. When Marc Latham was working his way around the world he was more willing to work longer hours when working: when you’re in a worker-traveller community life revolves around work, and you want to save up for long periods of travelling.
British people working in Britain want to spend time with family or friends, or doing other things than work; as decades of fighting for freedom from serfdom and slavery has stopped them having to work all the hours they can to keep from starvation.
So foreign workers who are used to earning much less are probably going to be better and more willing workers than British workers, whose ancestors have been fighting for better and easier working conditions for generations.
Only last week the BBC’s Panorama current affairs programme had a documentary about builders and dockers being blacklisted from work for fighting for better working conditions in industries where dozens of people still die every year. Actor Ricky Tomlinson was on the breakfast news talking about it.
Mass immigration has seen an increase in cases of poor workplace quality in Britain; including sweat shops and even some cases of modern slavery.
I and most of the working-class in Britain mainly opposed mass immigration because we saw how it was turning back workers’-rights fought for over centuries; not because of racism or bigotry like Gordon Brown thought at the end of New Labour.
Why Can’t I Have a California Mansion?
I don’t blame most of the foreign workers who come to Britain. If the California government was giving out mansions and enough benefits to live comfortably on I’d probably be on the first available plane.
That might seem a crass comparison, but some immigrants to Britain have been housed in mansions, and received massive benefits to live comfortably.
Britain Needs Balance
Maybe some workers and unions were trying to hold the country to ransom, and were pushing it too far in the 1970s. I believe in unions and workers rights, but think it should be within the service of the people of the country.
The same as the executives and liberal elite should be rewarding themselves to what they’re worth, not filling up their own pockets from the country’s finances.
Since Thatcherism took power in the ’80s and has been continued by successive governments, including New Labour, the pendulum has swung too much towards the rich minority from the poor majority. The Conservatives-Liberals government has been no worse than New Labour overall, in my opinion. I prefer Cameron to Blair and Brown so far.
Britain Should Aim for Lake not Sea
After the mass immigration under New Labour the old British working class; those who’ve kept working to keep treading water; are likely to lose out twice, with the recent immigrants taking their place in line for poverty payouts, educational grants etc.
Mass immigration was promoted by New Labour as being good for the economy… before it all collapsed and they were exposed as having bankrupted the country with the bankers.
While mass immigration might have had some benefits for the economy it certainly wasn’t good for the welfare state, and the recent cutbacks and stress on the system are obviously because there’s been a massive increase in the amount of people claiming benefits.
Britain felt like a stormy sea under New Labour, with the murder of Lee Rigby the most recent tragedy from the waves created.
The leaders of our country should aim to make Britain more lake than sea: keeping it calm and quiet. The best way to do that is with controlled low immigration, the rich paying their share, and enough benefits for people who really need them to live on. The people can play their part by working whenever possible.
Maybe I’d feel different if I was younger, a rich boss or an immigrant wanting more people of my community (in multicultural rather than integrated Britain) to feel safer or stronger; but that’s the way I feel as I am in this point of time in my country of birth; it’s just my opinion, one of about 60 million under our government.
Death of a Salesman to The Call Centre
British socialists often cite the decline in industry as the reason for working-class communities deteriorating. While mines and steelworks didn’t look nice places to work, they did provide good pay and a communal identity.
Now, they have largely been replaced by the service industries. The BBC has a documentary about a call centre on at the moment, and it shows how the new industries look nicer places to work than the old industries, but they also have other stresses and generally don’t provide as much money and identity.
While the management seem nicer than decades ago, the workers have to call people and try and sell products they don’t usually believe in, meaning they don’t have the job satisfaction of providing something really worthwhile, like in the old coal and steel industries; or crafting their own specialty, like Marx’s pre-industrial self-employed workers.
Maybe the green industries will be the saviour for people and planet? To show that I don’t think green industries are all good, and in line with Greenygrey theory, I was reading yesterday in the Geographical how wind turbines can be deadly for birds.
Many of the people in the call centre documentary seem to be the modern versions of Willy Loman, protagonist of Arthur Miller’s 1949 play Death of a Salesman; one of the first critical commentaries on American consumer capitalism; at about the same time as our legendary travel correspondent Jack Wolfpac’s human parallel Jack Kerouac was escaping it On The Road.
I recently read Stephen King’s On Writing, where he said the choice between a brave new world and the shopping centre was made in the 1960s. Will we have a second chance?
In the ’80s I felt like Miller and Keroauc, but now I’m an older werewolf living in a country that has gone downhill for the working-class; a 9-5 regular job living in a nice suburban cloned detached house with a garden and picket fence doesn’t seem too bad.
In his middle-age, which turned into his last age, Kerouac felt as alienated and disillusioned with the counter-culture he’d helped create as Miller’s Loman did about the capitalist system he’d worked in; and my human parallel Che did about a lot of the communist revolution.
And 2500 years ago Socrates readily acquiesced with his own execution, thinking he’d done all he could challenging the egos of leaders who thought they and the societies they helped sustain were superior.
G8 and Mexican Gray Wolf News and Poetry
G8
think they’re great
but they ain’t as quaint
as sw-love being an
anagram for wolves
with Mexican grays
a reminder of the old ways
surviving with the help
of conservationists
raising Arizona
to wildlife nirvana
Mexican Grey Wolves Released
Hi, it’s William Wolfsworth, poetry correspondent at the Greenygrey. Hope you don’t mind my above new poem, combining the news that the G8 are meeting today and tomorrow in Ireland with great gray wolf news from USA Today that more endangered Mexican gray wolves are being released in Arizona, south-west U.S.A. There’s only about 70 Mexican gray wolves left.
To complete my poetry and news, with a combination of the two, Marc Latham has also published another Bergen, Norway-inspired nature topic Folding Mirror poem on fmpoetry.wordpress.com. Here’s the poem; there’s more explanation and a couple of photos over on fmpoetry:
Water Landscape, Mountain Canvas
sky spoke an ancient tale
in snowflakes and raindrops
sign language
wind written
on mountain arms
warmed by trees
nature’s cold beauty, interpreting warm message
water and land
intriguing relationship bond
misty apparition
delivering reminder
while replenishing forest waterfalls
best in life is free
Literary Nonsense Werewolf of Oz Comedy Poem On Sales
Sales, sales, sales. We know the last thing you need when you’re cooking, watching a good television programme, or spending some quality time with loved ones is a sales call at the door or on the telephone. That’s why we don’t sell our books that way. We understand most salespeople are only doing their jobs, and many don’t like their jobs, and sometimes they do customers a favour by selling their wares to them.
Today’s episode of the Werewolf of Oz: Fantasy Travel by Google Maps features an epic poem story about how a salesman delivered a quality quote to the Werewolf of Ozzers now bursting with bubble and squeak.
78. A PASSER-BY UNDER THE LITERARY NONSENSE SKY
The fabulous five outback travellers
were sitting on the grass dividers
after eating their fill of bubble and squeak,
when a passer-by did unto them speak.
‘I can tell you all you need to know
if you’ll just open your door
I promise not to induce a snore
my presentation is not a bore
it’s guaranteed to make you say cor!
and my jokes will raise many a haw-haw guffaw
it has not once started a war
or been considered against the law
all the donkeys have exclaimed e-oh
and most dogs have clapped at least one paw
the coldest ice maidens it did thaw
and even beavers stopped their gnaw
once I told it on the sea-shore
and the waves kept coming back for more
so what do you think my travelling four
are you ready for my rock n’ roar?’
The passer-by looked at us
after ending the recital syllabus.
I said I thought he was mistaken,
because there was no door,
and we were five,
not four.
The passer-by looked all shocked and awe,
before declaring me a talking door.
‘No,’ said I,
‘I’ve just eaten too much
bubble and squeak brunch,
and my body is now oblong.
So you are wrong; therefore, so long.’
mistYmuse 