David Cranmer's Blog, page 38

Subversive Laughter is the Best Medicine

We've been watching NewsRadio again which I'm laughing at just as hard as the first go around. Made me think of other shows that I rank high up on the funny bone chart. Of course, with most programs, the early episodes are best. In no particular order, my favorites:

Barney Miller
The Honeymooners
Frasier
Archer
Fawlty Towers
The Larry Sanders Show
Extras
Arrested Development
Louie
American Dad
Night Court
WKRP in Cincinnati
Taxi
Sanford and Son

Seeing a definite subversive slant running through my list that I wasn't aware of before compiling. Anyway, what makes your list?

Outlaws and Angels (2016)

Fine performances by Chad Michael Murray and Francesca Eastwood are eventually marred by an overtly sadistic script. Realism is one thing, but lingering scenes of the rape of  a woman and a man about to be sodomized ventures into gratuitous territory. A Tarantinoesque wannabe sees a trio of on-the-run outlaws deciding to hole up in the home of a preacher whose sexual desires extend to his own daughters. It’s not long before fifteen-year-old Florence Tildon (Ms. Eastwood—yes, from Clint’s clan) warms to the outlaws’ leader (Murray) and joins the gang to exact a bloody revenge on her cowering family.

The Deadly Companions (1961)

Just passable, meandering film, about a former Yankee soldier (Brian Keith) who accidentally kills a saloon girl's (Maureen O'Hara) son and then helps the lady—against her will—escort the boy's body back home through Apache territory to be buried next to his father. Brian Keith is superb as the guilt ridden Good Samaritan but the beautiful Ms. O'Hara makes every scene she's in pop—though it's quite gratuitous silly for her to take a bath with the enemy in the vicinity. Though, come to think about it, I'm  not sure what I'm complaining about on that particular point.

Best line comes from the tortured Keith character who says:

"You don't know me well enough to hate me that much. Hating's a subject I know a little something about. You better be careful it don't bite you back. I know somebody spent five years looking for a man he hated. Hate and wanting revenge was all that kept him alive. He spent all them years tracking that other man down. When he caught up with him was the worst day in his life. He'd get his revenge, all right. Then he'd lose the one thing he'd had to live for."

Early Sam Peckinpah (The Wild Bunch, Ride the High Country) though you would hardly know because he had very little control over the finished product.

Let's Go Racing

Here's a damn fine documentary: Steve McQueen: The Man & Le Mans (2015). More than just a racing film but rather what obsession does to the human psyche. Recommended for not just fans of  The King of Cool (The Great Escape, The Getaway) but viewers who like human interest stories and well sliced together documentaries.

It's currently available for free on Amazon Prime.

My Drinking Habit

I gave up coffee this year and am now drinking tea with quite the obsession. So far the favorites are "Constant Comment" black tea, Classic Sleepy Time, and Tetley green tea with lemon. Of the three, I'd rate "Constant Comment" highest and is my morning kicker and the other two throughout the day. Since I like sugar with my tea, I'm using a zero calorie sweetener called Stevia In The Raw. Perfect mix especially with the Sleepy Time.

You are now up to date on my drinking habits. Yours?

There's David

It has been a couple of weeks since I last posted here and the main reason for the lull is I have been occupied working on a poetry collection for BEAT to a PULP and am also gainfully employed reviewing books for Criminal Element. If you check the right hand column you will see my Twitter feed where I usually check in once a day, just in case you want to keep a closer tab on my whereabouts. Anyway, I will make the rounds to see how you, the last of the bloggers, are doing.

The Comedians (1966)

Graham Greene's The Comedians (1966) opens as the Medea ship makes its way to Port-Au-Prince, Haiti with a rich assortment of passengers aboard, including a former presidential candidate, a military “expert,” and a hotelier named Brown who dubs all of them comedians—his rationale:

Now that I approached the end of life it was only my sense of humour that enabled me sometimes to believe in Him. Life was a comedy, not the tragedy for which I had been prepared, and it seemed to me that we were all, on this boat with a Greek name (why should a Dutch line name it’s boats in Greek?), driven by an authoritative practical joker towards the extreme point of comedy. How often, in the crowd on Shaftesbury Avenue or Broadway, after the theatres closed, have I heard the phrase—“I laughed till the tears came.”

Here's the link to the rest of my article.

Latest...

I've been busy editing a book of poetry, having fun being dad which is the best job, right?, and continuing my trek to the Dark Tower. Here's my latest re-read at Macmillan's Criminal Element blog. As always, thank you.

Veteran's Day: Alfred S. Cranmer

Thinking, on this Veteran's Day, of all those who have served our country like my great-great grandfather Alfred S. Cranmer (1838-1919). He served in the Civil War, was wounded in Antietam, MD, and later re-enlisted in the N.Y. Volunteer Cavalry.

Notes: Writing Prose in Pleasure of the Park

I’m hoping to get Notes: Writing Prose in Pleasure of the Park out in early December. Kyle was working on it just before his death in 2013, and it contains a new batch of poems with strong, and strange, imagery as well as several humorous short stories. Spending time on this project and hearing his unique voice is a wonderful, personal Christmas present.