English: Graham Swann at Lord’s Cricket Ground 20th July 2009 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Hi, it’s Martin ‘Werewolfie’ Adams, satirical comedy sports correspondent at the Greenygrey.
Unfortunately Graeme Swann has announced his immediate retirement from all forms of cricket.
Swann is getting on in cricketing age, and has been out of form on the England and Wales Ashes tour, which the Aussies lead 3-0 (just realised that now won makes a nice palindrome… before then realising it was a mistake… but didn’t want to waste it!).
Swann becomes the second travelling casualty of the Ashes tour, after Jonathon Trott returned home due to mental health issues.
Werewolf of Oz Swan Lake Tragedy
Swan Lake (Photo credit: Cindy Andrie)
Swann’s retirement is poignant for the Greenygrey, after the Werewolf of Oz featured a Swan Lake tragedy, with the loss of Kalbarri Barry and family in Swan Lake, N.S.W.
The 5th Ashes test will be in N.S.W., but before that, there’s the 4th test in Melbourne, Victoria.
Dolphins seem to want to play all day
it’d be nice if we could leave them that way
respecting them as our intelligent aquatic cousins
and appreciate them teaching us marine biology lessons.
Hi, it’s Greenygrey. It was great to return from a long weekend away yesterday and see a postcard that seems to bear ol’ Wolfhol’s distinctive and almost certainly impossible to forge signature on this blog.
It looks like he’s in a good proud peacock place, which along with the fun introductory poem is nice for today’s blog, as it features a sad episode of the usually satirical comedy literary nonsense filled Werewolf of Oz: Fantasy Travel by Google Maps.
However, as well as being a comedy classic it is also a travel quest epic, and as anybody acquainted with the genre knows, sometimes there’s just got to be a tragedy. And that’s what we have in this episode, a complete and utter unnecessary tragedy.
Hopefully we can learn some lessons from it. Moreover, there’s some great news about Barry the bottlenose dolphin from Kalbarri, called by Grey while passing the Western Australia coast, in tomorrow’s blog.
An adult female bottlenose dolphin with her young, Moray Firth, Scotland (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
So please don’t feel sad tonight, as Barry and family are just a part of the Swan Lake tragedy, and there are many real dolphins in need of consideration and conservation every day.
I shapeshifted into human form after we moored on the edge of Swan Lake, and looked up the Swan Lake tale on Wikipedia before going to Cudmirrah with the people. Barry and family were happy to lounge in the lake.
Swan Lake Cudmirrah Swan Lake
A man approached us on the edge of town and introduced himself as Prince Siegfried. I said I was pleased to meet him, but thought twice about that after his next words.
Pavel Gerdt as Prince Siegfried in the Petipa/Ivanov revival of Swan Lake, St. Petersburg, 1895 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
He said he was about to harpoon me when I was a dolphin; but then he saw me change into a human, and fell madly in love with me.
I thought this Cudmirrah Swan Lake situation could mirror the Swan Lake plot a little too much for my liking.
So I said I was just passing through, and although very flattered, wouldn’t be able to spend any time with him. He looked a tad disappointed, but seemed to accept it.
We continued into Cudmirrah, which is a lovely town in a beautiful setting, and stocked up on provisions for the onward journey.
We were about to leave the lake and head out to open sea, when we saw the prince dive into the far end of the lake. An older woman shouted, ‘Siegfried, no, don’t do it, come back.’
Swan Lake Tragedy
I was shocked, but didn’t want to get involved. Barry said he wanted to help, so he untied his harness, and started swimming toward the prince; his wife and children followed, hot on his tailfluke.
Engraving by J. H. Clark of the harpooning of a whale (c.1814) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
We watched them closely, and paid a heavy price for it. For as our dolphin friends rose out of the water and into the air, half-way there, a salvo of harpoons landed all amongst and around them.
I finally broke free of my harness, and set off to look for our bottlenose buddies, but half-way there I saw them ascending into the ether; clicking and smiling with what looked like love, just the same as when they’d played in the water. It was a scene straight out of Swan Lake, literally and metaphorically.
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Notes
In Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake (1875-1876), Prince Siegfried falls in love with Odette, who is turned into a swan by sorcery. It was inspired by Russian folk tales.
Hi, it’s Greenygrey. After the classic comedy Mollymook episodes the Werewolf of Oz: Fantasy Travel by Google Maps epic travel quest sails up the east coast to its denouement; the end is now within sight, only about thirty episodes north as Molly Mook flies.
After the last two stories were name-sound inspired, a new story starts in this episode inspired by name-history. As the Werewolf of Ozzers reach a real Swan Lake in East Australia it sets off a Swan Lake story that can only end in tragedy… for that is the essence of Swan Lake.
This episode can perhaps be called the beginning of the end, as Grey starts to notice things in the Tasman Sea, and wonders what they might be; they are relevant to the conclusion.
Grey is also in a reflective mood, after seeing the green light of the sun makes him want some human fun.
Chapter 111. Sky Show Leads to Swan Lake Story
As we prepared to set off
I thought I heard a commotion
out in the Tasman Sea,
and wondered what it might be.
Endeavour Over Tasman Sea, Australia (NASA, International Space Station Science, 02/19/10) (Photo credit: NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center)
However, when I looked around, the ocean was calm. None of the others seemed to have noticed anything, so I kept it to myself.
Green Ray and Epic Ballet
The moon had risen by the time we reached the Bendalong peninsula, and its light was invaluable as we bent our route around Bendalong for a long time.
It was dawn by the time we reached Swan Lake via Cudmirrah. The sunrise’s crepuscular rays streaked up into the bluing sky.
Cover of Swan Lake (Paperstar)
The lake’s name reminded me of the ballet; from what I remembered, it was a tale every bit as epic as this one.
I thought I saw a green ray above the sun as it rose; I wondered if it was a sign from Green, or the rare optical phenomenon I’d read about.
Those last two thoughts seemed to trigger my next one: that it would be more like Green to compare its journey to something so grandeur as Swan Lake.
After so much thinking early in the morning I half wished I was back in human form instead of being a brainwaving bottlenose; so I could neck a few Swan beers!
Hi, it’s Green. Greyt news from Grey. It seems to have recovered from its Swan Lake tragedy, and has blogged a couple of days in a row, so we’re all hopeful at the Greenygrey that it will reach the conclusion of its quest soon. We can’t wait to welcome it back. Here’s the latest two blogs brought into the Greenygrey world for your convenience:
Elle took to the raft-pulling like a dolphin to water, and with the load lightened behind we reached similar speeds to the previous day. The sea also seemed returned to normal, and it felt good to be lost in the waves, alternating time between the waterworld and skyspace.
Huskisson has some kind of Pull
We reached Jervis Bay in the evening, and thought about stopping somewhere for a meal.
As we circled the bay from the left, Vincentia did not attract us, but Huskisson seemed to be drawing us on; maybe it was because Elle and I had been doing a similar job to huskies with all the load-pulling.
Husky Son in Huskisson Hushes Us On
We were preparing to land near Elizabeth Drive, on the junction with Moona Moona Creek, when a car load of women stopped at a nearby junction.
The driver mooned at us twice. Her front-seat passenger berated her, shouting ‘Elizabeth, will you stop mooning or we’ll be up the Creek without a paddle; there’s a husky father and son just over there. Elizabeth, drive on now.’
We continued north up the east coast, thinking we’d overnight in Wollongong. We stopped in Shell Cove to re-energise, and were served by a friendly snail called Michelle.
Her shell reminded me of lobsters, and I told her I hadn’t seen any around. Michelle replied with the Ode of Shell Cove:
There were 110 lobsters eating pears
contentedly up a crab-apple tree.
When along came a storm
and swept them out to sea.
They made themselves at home
and decided that’s where they’d be.
We passed Warilla, and saw gorillas warring on the beach. I was amazed to see this, as the gentle giants are usually very peaceful.
Then we reached Warrawong, where there were many gorillas in a plentiful peace protest proclaiming war is wrong.
Wall and Gong Prevent Landing in Wollongong
The incidents we witnessed in Warilla and Warrawong spooked us out a little, and then when we approached Wollongong we could hear a deafening gong sound long before we set eyes on it.
Well, actually, we never even set eyes on Wollongong, because there was a massive fortress style wall all around it.
So we continued past it, hearing the gonging grow ever louder until reaching its zenith off Battery Park.
Somewhere between Wombarra and Scarborough we reached silence once again.
Hi, it’s Wolf Whistzer, with a wolf whistle stop tour of the Greenygrey News. There was a yin zen yang new Folding Mirror poem about the balance of night and day, light and dark, by ol’ partner Marc Latham on fmpoetry yesterday. Here it is:
Changing of the Guard
duel at dawn
between night and day
light always emerges
with seed of moon
Yin zen Yang
sun leaves evening all
dark envelopes sky
in the second leg
of cosmic balance
New Werewolf of Oz
And more importantly for us, our other ‘alf Grey posted a new blog about its epic ramble on the Werewolf of Oz. We’ve imported it into the Greenygrey world, and without further ado, here it is:
As we were preparing to set off I thought I heard a commotion out at sea, but when I looked around the ocean was calm. None of the others seemed to have noticed anything, so I kept it to myself.
The moon had risen by the time we reached the Bendalong peninsula, and the moonlight was invaluable as we bent our route around Bendalong for a long time.
We reached Cudmirrah at the entrance to Swan Lake as crepuscular rays streaked up into the bluing sky, announcing the imminent arrival of the new day’s sun.
Green Ray and Ancient Ballet
I thought I saw a green ray above the sun as it rose; was it a sign from Green, or the rare optical phenomena I’d once read about.
Entering Swan Lake via Cudmirrah, it reminded me of the classic ballet, and I thought that its epic proportions mirrored my own epic ramble.
Green Thoughts lead to Swan Song
Those two last thoughts seemed to merge into one when I next thought that it would be more like Green to compare itself to something so grandeur.
After so much thinking early in the morning I half wished I was back in human form so I could neck a few Swan lagers, instead of singing the bottlenose blues!
mistYmuse 