When Scottish Skies are Smiling

I saw on the news this morning; reminding me of the Beatles song, oh boy (posted below from YouTube); there’d been a sighting of the greenYgrey in Shetland (in the form of the aurora borealis); the only place in the UK it visited of course on its epic Euro trek: XaW Files: Beyond Humanity. It might have inspired this little poem, although I’ve always liked those place names, which is one reason why I fantasy travelled with the greenYgrey…

• While Manchester seems like
  the place to be on Wednesday
  I’d rather be in Fort William
  for the visit of Clachnacuddin
  or nestled in Nairn County
  for their battle with Brora
  on paper by names at least
  for the weather can be a beast
  although the aurora borealis
  is brightening the sky at least.

Highland League

• Fort William19:45Clachnacuddin
• Nairn County19:45Brora Rangers

News, weather and sport were all on the BBC.
I also remembered Finland and Scandinavia yesterday on this website’s sister site, travel25years.

Tony Benn and Miners’ Strike, Grado and Rebecca Rock

Tony Benn passed away this morning. He was another legendary socialist from a classic period of politics. This week also marked the 30th anniversary of the miners’ strike, which was a landmark event in the creation of today’s Britain. A day before I watched a miners’ strike documentary I watched one about Glasgow’s Insane Fight Club wrestling shows. Together, they inspired a lot of greenygrey thinking.

Miners’ Strike and Modern Glasgow 

Tony Benn and Giles Fraser speaking at Levellers’ Day, Burford. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hi, it’s Jeremy Paxwerewolf, political television correspondent in the Greenygrey world based on the style of Jeremy Paxman in the human. Probably the biggest link between the two documentaries spanning thirty years of working-class life was the struggle to survive and make a decent living.

While in the 1980s most working-class people worked in industries, and were happy to just work their shift and enjoy their free time, the Britain of today doesn’t provide such jobs in the same amounts it did before manufacturing and industry were neglected.

Grado wrestling website.

So now working-class people often have to try and create their own jobs, and this is what the Glaswegians led by Mark Dallas organising the wrestling events known as Insane Championship Wrestling (ICW) are doing… and Marc Latham in the Greenygrey!

Grado and the Greenygrey

You say dreich, I say greenygrey; you say Grado I say Greenygrey.

The Scottish word dreich; meaning a dreary or miserable day, and voted Scotland’s favourite old Scots word in a poll last year; pre-dates the emergence of greenygrey to describe the same kind of day, but with a positive green land spin.

English: Dramatic lighting at Achnasheen The late evening sun bursts through the clouds for just a few seconds to produce this dramatic effect, seen from Achnasheen station’s footbridge. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

With this year’s greenYgrey rebranding the word can also be used to describe a sunny or mixed day, meaning that every day is a greenYgrey day!

However, the Greenygrey website has been established for longer than that of Grado. Grado was the biggest fan of ICW before becoming a wrestler himself. In many ways Grado’s rise to fame as a fan mirrors that of the Greenygrey.

Grado Meets Rebecca Rock

While Grado was mostly a fan of ICW, the Greenygrey is mostly a fan of WWW: women, wolves and working-class.

There was a great meeting of two of those when Grado went to the very trendy Nicky Clarke Mayfair salon and met Rebecca Rock, hair colourist and animal welfare advocate.

Unfortunately, there were no wolves present… and Rebecca’s in a relationship, so she has to be classed under unconditional appreciation in the Greenygrey world!

Although it could have been a clash of cultures they all got along fantastically, and had a good laugh.

It was so good it inspired the second Marc Latham Folding Mirror poem of the week, although the seeds of the poem had been planted by Chris Packham‘s Inside the Animal Mind documentary in January. Here’s the poem; there’s a little more explanation over at fmpoetry.wordpress.com:

 Women and Wolves, Different ways Delectable

perfume in air
way you wear
feminine essence
flowing sun hair
smiling eyes
a graceful touch
oozing strength
to be yourself

good humoured woman, wolves love scent

swimming in chanel
rolling euphoria
one shaggy sight
laughing mouth
full coated fur
natural exuberance
lights up life
paws upside down

Marc Latham has books available on Smashwords and Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/author/marclatham).

Existentialism and Stonehenge in Glasgow Art Imagine Documentary

Hi, it’s Andy Wolfhol, I was thrilled to see at least two cases of greenygreyism in the BBC’s Imagine documentary on the Glasgow art scene.

David Shrigley calls Glasgow Weather Existentialist

In the 23rd minute of the documentary, David Shrigley described the Glasgow weather as existentialist, as you see so little of the sun you forget it’s there.

House for an Art Lover designed by Charles Rennie Macintosh, Bellahouston Park in Glasgow. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There were a few trees around to add the green for the Greenygrey combo. Moreover, the sun was shining at the time, and the presenter Alan Yentob said it does make the light look great at times like that.

 Jeremy Deller‘s Stonehenge Creation

The documentary also showed the Stonehenge bouncy castle we previously reported here at the Greenygrey in the 59th minute of the 63, and interviewed its creator, Jeremy Deller.

Deller is actually based in London, but likes the vibrant Glasgow arts scene.

Peter Howson: Folding Mirrors Show Balance of Art

Image by pixelsandpaper via Flickr

I was watching a clip from a BBC documentary about Peter Howson, a Scottish artist, when I noticed he used two mirrors (with a folding effect) to check the balance of his painting, saying you could see all the mistakes that way.

I hadn’t noticed it when watching the whole documentary, so that shows how editing and repeated observations can be beneficial.  The whole video is available from the above link in the UK for three days, and the clip might be available to everybody for longer?

It inspired this Folding Mirror poem, which took a lot less time than Howson’s work, and could probably do with more editing.

Art of Humanity

art surface beauty is usually good enough
the mind is built on selection
look inside yourself
but don’t dig too deep

pictures are never perfect

edit a little over time
don’t destroy it
balance isn’t constant over a life
of change not felt on gallery walls