Fawlty Towers, Muse and AC/DC in Werewolf of Oz

Hi, it’s Greenygrey. Thank Godzilla it’s Friday! We feel the need to escape the human world today, so here’s the second episode this week of Werewolf of Oz: Fantasy Travel by Google Maps.

This episode sees the travelling quintent heading north-east, on the final straight of their epic Ozyssey. Hopefully it contains lots of laughs, as Fawlty Towers returns to the script, and Angry Bonzo / Dandelion Cordial (AB/DC) get a surprise gig.

A literary nonsense poem leads into episodes with some of my favourite poems of the whole book… but for now, here’s a cool episode full of music and mirth:

72.  ANGRY BONZO ROCK GEELONG WITH WERE SONG 

We headed inland from Port Fairy as the sun rose to illuminate it; making the port and sea look magical. After that, we careered through Kirkstall; hurtled past Hawkesdale, and then sped down to Simpson. I thought our ol’ friends the Simpsons might be there, but there was no sign of them. It was quite a relief that Bart wasn’t there! Cathy upped the pace along the south coast, and her spirit seemed to rise a little with each step.

Maintaining speed to Torquay,
caused frazzled fatiguey
so we stopped for tea
at the hotel Fawlty.

Basil Fawlty (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Fawlty reminded me of the Hotel Tazmania, which had reminded me of Fawlty Towers. The owner seemed quite confused when I asked for a Werewolf salad; not seeming to know how to make one. I told him it was similar to a Waldorf salad, and he seemed to remember making one of those before. We enjoyed the south coast snack.

Geelong is GGood for a Sing-Song

Our bellies full, we headed north-east to Geelong. The name ‘Geelong’ reminded me of Green and me when we are together, because our initials are a sort of long Gee: a GG.

Telephantasm (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We called in a rock bar called Geelong Goodbye for dinner, as it advertised that Muse was playing there that night. We wolfed down a big meal in time for the band, but they didn’t appear as scheduled. A couple of hours passed, with the crowd waiting patiently. Then it was announced that Muse had phoned saying they were being sucked into a Supermassive Black Hole, so they weren’t going to be able to make it; they were sending their apologies as the line went dead.

I could relate to their predicament after my space flight over to Oz; I’d had a couple of near misses myself.

Angry said the band not turning up meant he wasn’t going to be amused.

Time Is Running Out (Muse song) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I was worried he was going to start raging, and asked him to remain cool if possible, but then he pointed out it was a joke: Muse, amused. I saw the funny side then and laughed… with a mixture of humour and relief.

It turned out to be a blessing in disguise in the end; Muse’s cancellation, not Angry’s joke; because Angry and Bonzo volunteered their services, and then played a tasty first performance as Angry Bonzo / Dandelion Cordial.

The crowd lapped up the bluesy rock beats, and one song was inspired by my recent werewolf poem. The chorus went something like this:

Beware of wereies?
Wereies cuss berries?
The most precocious of wereies?
No! Be cautious of berries.

When the Geelong Goodbye closed, we called in a nearby pub called the Duck and Drake for a nightcap.

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Notes 

Fawlty Towers was set in Torquay, England, and there is also a Torquay, Victoria; but it doesn’t have a Fawlty as far as the author knows.
In Fawlty Towers’s Waldorf Salad episode (season 2/episode 3, 1979) Basil struggles to make a requested Waldorf salad.
Muse and song (Supermassive Black Hole).
Christopher McCandless died after eating berries while living in the wild; Jon Krakauer adapted his journal for the Into the Wild book.

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Poem of Fawlty Towers and Tazzy in Tasmania

Hi, it’s Greenygrey. Yes, as Tony unearthed on his historic dig into Greenygrey history, I did have a great time sharing the Old Grey Whistle Test stage with Talking Heads and Blondie. With all respect to Talking Heads, Debbie Harry singing she was always touched by my presence was indeed a highlight of my musical career.

Taz 1500 (Photo credit: photobeppus)

Anyway, it’s back to the literary nonsense poetry, as it’s about time we had our first Werewolf of Oz: Fantasy Travel by Google Maps of the week. After the last episode brought the Kangaroo Island to Tasmania tetralogy/quadrilogy epic poem to a rocky end, we have yet another poem in this episode. This is after Grey’s travels through Tasmania reminded it of watching Fawlty Towers. Here it is:

58.  TRAVELLING TASMANIA IS A FAWLTY FANTASIA 

Oh Lord – let there be Sun! (Photo credit: Cieleke)

It looked rocky approaching Marrawah, which brought out a rousing rendition of Let There be Rock from AB/DC. I was worried about landing on the rocks, so I was relieved when Taz, Baz and Caz took us up in a perfect storm before setting us down safely on the Tasmanian terra-firma.

After partaking in a latte in Port Latta, we carried on to Penguin, where Bonzo brushed up on his Penguinese. They had a different dialect here to Kangaroo Island, but Bonzo could still make himself understood.

This Penguin is in Penguin in Tasmania (Photo credit: Craig Bellamy)

We then headed south over Cradle Mountain, which felt very comforting.

Arriving in Taz-mania is a Fawlty Fantasia

In fact, it was so comfy I dropped off to sleep.

When I awoke we had arrived in Taz-mania. Taz said he had a full house, but we could stay at the Hotel Tazmania, which was owned by his boss, Bushwhacker Bob.

He was a little grouchy,
but no Basil Fawlty,
Sybil must’ve been off her trolley,
Fawlty Towers was a folly,
even if Manuel was jolly,
and what about pretty Polly,
oh, don’t get me reminiscy
about my time in Torquay.

After unpacking, we frequented the bar and met some of the locals. I got on great with Wendell T. Wolf, who was very friendly.

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Notes

Bushwhacker Bob and Wendell T. Wolf are characters in Tazzy.
Fawlty Towers (1970s sitcom) and characters (Basil Fawlty, Sybil, Manuel and Polly).

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Quotes from the Werewolf of Oz book

Hi, it’s the Greenygrey. I’ve just been picking out some quotes from the Werewolf of Oz book for our Shelfari page. I didn’t want to use any that give the story away, for those who don’t know it. Here’s the thirty:

• “The desert chose my direction, or at least limited my options; I was heading to north and new, and the alternative was south and scary. I was happy to be. Just to be. To be without decisions, pressures and stress. To be the only life I could see. To be able to sing thinking I was in harmony; without anyone to contradict me. Although my feet kept to the road, my mind flew this way and that; to the north, west, south and east horizons; looking north to the future, south at the past, and wondering about what I have missed and will miss to the east and west. Sometimes my thoughts settled into the outback, nothing in nothingness; it was a nice place to be.”

  Grey

• “I envisaged Blighty being so brighty that stars dropped to Earth in the form of birds to re-energise their glows amongst the overabundance of sparkling effervescence.”

  Grey

• “We stopped near the bunyip. Its breath wafted across the path, smelling like brontosaurus. At least it wasn’t brachiosaurus; that is the worst.”

  Grey

• “Bonzo and Were, beware. Hold onto your hat and keep to the dust sandy path, unless the hat glows, because when it’s safe it knows.”

  MiMo Moby

• “Come along off the path, you all look plum pole-axed piqued out. The ghangiant could be along soon, and you don’t want to be around when it turns up.”

  Alice

• “Why, Alice, I haven’t heard such sweet singing since Sade stopped by the Springs.”

  Wally Mac

• “I just came round to see if anybody fancied coming to the Oo-loo-roo Air’s Rock festival at Uluru / Ayer’s Rock this weekend. There are many magnificent macropod bands there. The way you’re singing it sounds like you could even play there yourselves.”

  Wally Mac

• “I had a good chat with Wesgrey about kangaroo mythology. He said their creation myth told of their escape from the Grapes of Rolf, and how they lived their lives fearing the return of Rolf”

  Grey

• “I thought we might not survive, such was the dive, but after a minute or three we began to slow down. Elle brought us to our final stop by grabbing us. I had to laugh when Bonzo turned around to me from under her right arm and declared: ‘She’s Got Balls!’”

  Grey

• “Goodbye my friends. May Skippy be with you, and you never meet the Rolf”

  King Scote

• “However, despite all the rum on the deck and presumably inside the sailor, he still seemed to have a sense of decorum. So it wasn’t a shock when he introduced himself as Captain Dec O’ Rum.”

  Grey

• “Captain Dec replied that he wanted to introduce him to us. After telling him our names, Dec introduced the wine and women loving salty dog as Dai ‘on the Seas’. We had a nice chat, and Dai said he had acquired his nickname to differentiate him from his two best friends back home, a pilot now known as Dai ‘in the air’ and a farmer called Dai ‘of the land’.”

  Grey

• “The Fawlty reminded me of the Hotel Tazmania, which had reminded me of Fawlty Towers. The owner seemed quite confused when I asked for a Werewolf salad; not seeming to know how to make one. I told him it was similar to a Waldorf salad, and he seemed to remember making one of those before.”

  Grey

• “Our bellies full, we headed north-east to Geelong. The name ‘Geelong’ reminded me of Green and me when we are together, because our initials are a sort of long Gee: a GG.”

  Grey

• “They seemed to know each other, and were getting along fine, until the duck gave the platypus its bill.”

  Bonzo

• “The platypus went berserk, and started raging at the duck, that it must be quackers, if it thought all that had been drunk.”

  Bonzo

• “The platypus took a swing with one of its otter feet, and when you saw that, you dived in and shouted ‘duck’ to the duck.”

  Bonzo

• “But the platypus steadied itself, before brandishing its beaver’s tail, and before you had time to inhale, your head received the full flail.”

  Bonzo

• “I said Melbourne was just north, and from this moment henceforth, we should call it Gillian Taylforth.”

  Grey

• “My name is Holly Valance, and I’m going to give you a chance, to win all you can eat for free,by just answering a riddle or three.”

  Holly Valance

• “We got in a huddle, over a squeaky puddle, ready to answer the Valance knowing we could leave nothing to chance for our bellies were starting to rumble in need of a big brunch of bubble.”

  Grey

• “all the donkeys have exclaimed e-ohand most dogs have clapped at least one pawthe coldest ice maidens it did thawand even beavers stopped their gnawonce I told it on the sea-shoreand the waves kept coming back for more”

  Passer-by

• “You were only supposed to blow the Beatles Doors off, I’m quite fond of the Stones.”

  Charlie Croker

• “It was a relief to be back in the eighties, even though our futures were still hanging by a grungy doc marten lace.”

  Grey

• “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe: Faster Pussycat screeching on stage at the Rainbow Bar and Grill; I’ve watched Seasick Steve die in a dark shared with Love/Hate. A poison-dart-frog glowing in the Italian Job; Janis and Jimi running wild in the 1970s streets. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to fly.”

  The Gruninator

• “She said we all have our own special powers, and they wouldn’t be special if everybody knew about them.”

  Cathy

• “It didn’t take long before we were berrying an incrediberryble amount of berries into our bellies. I don’t know what type the Canberra berries were; maybe cranberries with the r left out.”

  Grey

• “We headed back down south once our berry ballooned bellies felt balanced, but we made slow progress; because we took along some sloe berries. However, the sloe berries did satisfy my desire for more berries and set my mind at rest; because prior to berrying them, I’d been regretting our decision not to detour to Dairymans Plains, as it sounded good for a raspberry ripple.”

  Grey

• “My hat seemed to be getting stronger with every step, and provided enough glow for us to see clearly; it felt like I was wearing a green neon sign pointing ahead.I started singing ‘Always look on the bright side of life…’ and the others quickly joined in.”

  Grey

• “She said these were the Alician Fields. They are a natural wonderland for those who have turned the world upside down to improve it before returning it the right way up; where sparkling spring water irrigates the earth from underground, and the sun always shines above.”

  Emily