ABBA Return as Lovren and Ronaldo Star in Europe

After what turned out to be a three-days trilogy of Folding Mirror poems, I feel a bit drained of creativity today, so thought I’d catch up on some greenYgrey world news. Along the way I decided to do it in a 2 good 2 bad style used in Match of the Day 2; they do events, mine is news.

ABBA Return

My XaW Files: Beyond Humanity book, which included a lot of Folding Mirror style poetry, only in free verse form, proclaimed a new ABBA age, and now they are reported to be returning for real after thirty-five years with two new songs, after meeting up again last year.

Lovren and Ronaldo in Euro Semis

There weren’t many footballers mentioned in the book, and two of those who were, the only two I can remember at the moment, are in different Champions League semis, and their teams are favourites to go through after the first legs. Ronaldo of Real Madrid was already a star and RM could be expected to be where they are, but Lovren and Liverpool are a surprise, although they did reach the Europa League final together in the year of XaW Files’s publication.

Arrividerci Avicii

While Sweden welcomed Abba back it must have been a bittersweet week for them, after Avicii passed away. He was only 28, just making it past the mythical rock n’ roll bogey age of 27. He was after my time in dance music and I didn’t know much about him, but he seems like he could be house music’s Kurt Cobain? I liked the quote I heard of remembering him for the life he’s led rather than the money he’s made. My version would be the money I haven’t made!

Alfie Evans Parents

After I featured John Lennon here this week, and Working Class Hero, I think Alfie Evans’s parents acted like that throughout the sad story of his struggle for life. Going into my Magnificent Seven Charles Bronson’s Bernardo O’Reilly dying quote mode, I think it’s people like that that are the real heroes, rather than the people who often get celebrity status for negative reasons, or trying to be too shouty political on social media when they know little about it.

Knowing Me, Knowing You, it’s Goodbye to WoO

It’s goodbye to the Werewolf of Oz week at the Greenygrey, with just one episode to go in the epic 142-episodes serialisation of the first ever fictionalised virtual travel around Australia by Google maps.

Cover of ABBA

In the words of the almighty Abba, breaking up is never easy, but like them, we’ll still be working with WoO.

Knowing Me, Knowing WoO, Photos for You

Hi, it’s Baron Wolfman, creative department head honcho in the absence of the legendary Andy Wolfhol. First of all, William Wolfsworth has done some further research, and clarified that the Parcel Force van logo mentioned in the last mirror poetry blog is ‘making red vans green’.

Tom and Jerry. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Your very own travel photos are always good for a trip down memory lane, and it’s no different for virtual travel.

That’s what Grey (as part of the reunited Greenygrey) told me this morning anyway, after a couple of greenygrey photos it saw on Facebook reminded it of the Greycliffe House mouse it met in Sydney. The poem is repeated after the photos.

Virtual Travel Photos: Virtually Greycliffe House

That photo was posted on Facebook rather fittingly for Goodbye to WoO week by the R.I.P. (Research and Investigation of the Paranormal) Files T.V. show, which I noticed has a greenygrey design when I followed it up.

Virtual Travel Photos: Greycliffe House Mouse

And if that house could be Greycliffe House, this could be the mouse, showing its support for the Greenygrey! It was posted on Facebook by the Rainforest Site.

It reminded me of Jerry, from the fantastic Tom and Jerry cartoons I grew up with.

Here’s the poem (and links to the WoO):

The Greycliffe House Mouse

Not long after I’d thanked Dr. Watson and turned away,
in a triangular hall containing a square ball,
I was accosted by a small mouse of my colour grey.

It said its name was Cliff and the house was named after him,
I replied it was built in 1852 so how could that be true,
It said it was on a special diet and low-fat cheese kept it quiet.

 

Link for Amazon book and kindle.

Link for multiple Ereaders at Smashwords. 

Agnetha Faltskog and Russell Brand Meet in Greenygrey

While Sweden’s Ghost are trying to shake up the system touring the U.K. with Alice in Chains, Sweden’s Agnetha Faltskog of Abba fame will tonight be shown making her first appearance in front of a live audience for twenty-five years duetting with Gary Barlow for Children in Need.

Meanwhile, over on Channel Four‘s Alan Carr Chatty Man chat show, Russell Brand will be trying to shake up the system his way.

The Greenygrey of Ghost, Agnetha and Brand 

Attack of the 50 Foot Fez (Photo credit: Usonian)

Hi, it’s Grey Greyvara, social conscience at the Greenygrey. It’s a coincidence that Agnetha is making her first live appearance for 25 years in the year Marc Latham is celebrating his 25 years of travelling… and passed from the Kerouacian age to the Agnethan.

Russell Brand is also a child of Kerouac, as he showed in a documentary he did retracing the On The Road journey, now with parts available on YouTube.

Of the people mentioned in the introductory paragraph, Ghost and Russell Brand might be seen as in one corner, and Agnetha Faltskog in another.

While the obvious reason for that is that Ghost and Russell Brand are men, and Agnetha is a woman, the real reason for supposing their differences are that Agnetha is generally seen as a safe quiet mainstream artist, while the others are troublesome loud counter-culture artists.

Cover of Agnetha Fältskog

Abba did have some controversial lyrics questioning institutional religion, as discussed by Bjorn recently, but they were missed at the time because Abba were generally seen as nice, safe and squeaky clean members of the ‘good community’.

The ‘good community’ that has historically and recently put institutions, religions and the powerful before children in real need.

Reasons to be Cynical 

English: Agnetha Fältskog (album) Svenska: Agnetha Fältskog (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

At around the same time as Ian Dury and the Blockheads were singing Reasons to be Cheerful I was cynical of Bob Geldof at the time of Live Aid, and hated Princess Diana‘s posturing in front of the camera. I now think they were generally doing good.

While Agnetha Faltskog and Gary Barlow do have a record out, I don’t think they need the money, so I think their Children in Need duet is generally a genuine charity performance; especially as Agnetha doesn’t like performing live.

While Ghost and Russell Brand might be seen as ‘being true and genuine’ by their young fans, because they are being so one-dimensionally critical of ‘the system’, they are also trying to sell products and make money in an artistic and media world where you have to shout to be heard.

As Marc Latham is trying to sell products at the Greenygrey.

Only Ideological Extremists Heard in Modern Media 

The shout-to-be-heard age is epitomised in the media-political world by Jeremy Clarkson on the right and George Galloway on the left.

At the Greenygrey we believe in taking both sides of an argument or social position into consideration… like politicians!… which is why we probably aren’t being as noticed as much as the Clarksons, Galloways and Brands… or popular with one half of people, and unpopular with the other half… but if only one half buy your products you’re doing well..! and if you’re not ‘telling one half of people what they want to hear’ you probably won’t be heard, or sell much product..!!

P.S. Russell Brand is shouting a simplistic hegemonic theory at the political elite; the same theoretical framework used by Dr. Marc Latham to criticise the British elite system in his 2000-2005 PhD thesis.

P.P.S. I have consciously only included Agnetha images for comedic effect… although I think they do look nicer than the images of the other people featured in the blog.

P.P.P.S. That doesn’t mean I like the look of all women, or even all blonde women. Myra Hindley and Margaret Thatcher were ‘blondes’!

Children in Need

Abba’s Bjorn Ulvaeus Speaking Rational Humanism

Hi, it’s Grey Greyvara, social conscience at the Greenygrey. When Marc Latham was studying for his PhD from 2000-2005 he was considered a Jew in a derogatory Islamo-fascist-liberal way for daring to say the Middle-East was a cycle of violence; mostly influenced by the work of media analyst with a cool surname Gadi Wolfsfeld.

Islamo-fascism continued in the area Marc lived, and that persecution of anything criticising Islam probably helped inspire some of those involved in the 7/7 bombings of 2005.

British Left-Wing Support of Islamism 

Nazi Wandering Jew propaganda at Yad Vashem (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Marc was still quite a radical socialist during that time, so was critical of Islam for its social inequality and human rights abuses. But criticism of Islam at university was decoded and demonised as being pro-West, pro-Israeli and right-wing.

Marc understands this is the way the world is divided between east and west; highlighted in the Syrian conflict recently. Marc doesn’t like the U.S. blockade of Cuba, but also doesn’t like Cuba’s alliance with countries such as Syria and Iran; although the West’s ally in the Middle-East Saudi Arabia also has a terrible human rights record.

While that might sound Islamophobic, Marc enjoyed his time in Islamic countries when travelling through them in the 1980s. It’s not Islamic people on the whole that Marc criticises, it is their rulers and ideologies.

BEWARE GEORGE GALLOWAY IS THE NEXT HITLER (Photo credit: pixelhut)

Unfortunately, Islamism has risen since the 1980s, inspiring more people to become extremists. This has had a knock-on effect in other countries and religions, with more Christian and Jewish extremists, as well as more radical atheists.

As a focus on Islamism took over the left in the U.K.; originally through New Labour, and now epitomised by George Galloway; and 7/7 happened; Marc moved to the political centre, and out of academic life, leading to Greenygrey theory on this here websitey.

From Marxism to Scandinavian Democracy 

Green field & green person (Photo credit: Let Ideas Compete)

Marc moved from being a bit of a British Marxist, common in 1980s Britain, to a Scandinavian style democratic socialist; although Scandinavia has also changed politically since the Utopian post-World War II era, and many parts have become more capitalist.

However, it still scores highly in most standard-of-living and democratic ideals ratings: equality, press freedom, freedom of speech, environmental innovation etc.

Abba‘s Bjorn Ulvaeus on religion 

Cover of Björn Ulvaeus

So I was interested to hear Abba’s Bjorn Ulvaeus express similar views to Marc on religion recently, published on the British Rationalist Association website; and in particular on the negativity and threat of Islamism.

Moreover, our ol’ pal Marc Latham replied on September 18th, before the latest explosion of Islamism in Kenya (and Pakistan, where dozens of Christians were killed in a Taliban suicide bombing attack):

‘Israel has some responsibility in the Middle-East, because of its expansionism, but it is only Islam that is still spreading religious war around the region, and out into the rest of the world.

And even then, Judaism was around for about 1000 years before Islam, and Christianity for about 500 years before Islam, and they are both trying desperately to hold on to some land/a foothold in their Middle-East homes.’

Marc hopes that Iran’s election of the more moderate Rouhani and his recent peaceful overtones to the ‘West’ can bring a new era of hope to the Middle-East.

Bjorn Ulvaeus Swedish Humanist 

I didn’t know that Bjorn Ulvaeus was a Swedish humanist until I read that interview, or that he’d had a similar religious journey to Marc Latham until watching the following interview.

Bjorn Ulvaeus was also a secular freedom of speech advocate who didn’t take much interest in religion until the rise of Islamism and 9/11:

Eidfjord Forest and Waterfall Natural Escape Photo Article

Hi, it’s Jack Wolfpac, poetic travel correspondent at the Greenygrey. With the WWW three-week spectacular having taken precedence here, we’ve fallen behind with Marc Latham’s travel25years.wordpress.com website, which ended its Scandinavian journey on the same day as the WWW-3-week; by the way, we’d like a three-week working month at the Greenygrey; including a great greenygrey Stockholm fountain. My human parallel, Jack Kerouac, got a mention as well as Abba‘s Agnetha.

Eidfjord Greenygrey Journey

With a few hours to spare in the small town of Eidfjord, whose spectacular mountains were under thick cloud at the time, Marc walked a little up the mountain on a forest path.

Agnetha Fältskog, ABBA, Ekeberghallen, Oslo, Norway (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Leaving humanity behind, and unable to see the spectacular, Marc had time to appreciate the beauty of the natural world that is often overlooked; a natural world that is often greenygrey.

Marc said that in a land dominated by awesome natural beauty, it was a time of quiet contemplation and reflection amongst nature that is often passed without being noticed.

However, once the outside world was forgotten, and the mind absorbed into the quiet surroundings; hearing only rushing water, and seeing only nature, time passed quickly, and there was not time to see it all, or to go farther into the greenygrey void.

Here’s some photos; you can enlarge them by clicking on them. There’ll be a more human discussion deriving from Eidfjord tomorrow:

Abba Eagle Video Tells Search Story

Hi, it’s Greenygrey. It seems that Abba long ago wrote a song about our recent searches for Andy Wolfhol: