Who’s Afraid of Beowulf?

Book written by Tom Holt

You might be surprised to learn how difficult it is to find something to read when a Terry Pratchett novel is not available. You have to bear in mind that Pratchett has long walked in the land of humor, so the problem is finding someone with a reputation as well as a good-sized backlog. Eric Idle wrote a wonderful science fiction novel, but only the one. Michael Rubens is great, bu he is a recent development.

In the end, two names fit the bill: Robert Rankin and Tom Holt.

Rankin is remarkable, though the words “an acquired taste” are usually appended to any recommendation. If you know who Robert Anton Wilson is already and just wish that Wilson was a bit funnier and English, then Rankin is definitely for you. I have read quite a bit of Rankin…

So, I tried Holt after reading Rankin, so I really had no idea what I was going to get. Needless to say, Holt felt more grounded in reality. After The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse, anything would. Holt’s tales start in a more familiar reality. The peculiarities tend to rise out of solid structures that offer some basis in our common knowledge. Like Rankin and Pratchett, characters may appear in multiple novels, but there is no sense that you had to have read any of the other books. Having said all that, Holt is no more Pratchett than Rankin and that is all fine. Much about the Discworld (Pratchett’s creation) is grounded in what we all know about cities and life.

Philosophically, Holt is closer to Pratchett,

while Rankin (like Wilson) is far more anarchic. The interesting thing about all three is that they all wear their views of the world out in the open. Something about working in humor allows more freedom (or maybe it requires a clear point of view). I am a pretty strong believer that you don’t necessarily have to agree with someone’s politics to get their humor. Funny is funny. It is a craft that edges into art when you are dealing with these three and many others.

Since art has been upsetting people for centuries, there may well be a thesis somewhere in the idea that comedy can be the purest form of art as it allows the artist the freedom to be the most outrageous. That would be something to sell to a doctoral committee, wouldn’t it? I suppose it would be all about the timing.

Like James Thurber and so many other great humorists, I find the works of Tom Holt little miracles in another way. As I read them, I discover that the book in front of me is the book that I have always been looking for. Something universal in the writing happens when you share a laugh or a tear. A common thread runs through all our lives that the best art reveals, but we forget that the thread is a joke as often as anything else.

What’s it all about?

You’ve Got to Check This Out is a blog series about music, words, and all sorts of artistic matters. It started with an explanation. 211 more to go.

New additions to You’ve Got to Check This Out release regularly. Also, free humor, short works, and poetry post irregularly. Receive notifications on Facebook by friending or following Craig.

Images may be subject to copyright.

Pouring Water on a Drowning Man

Song written by Danny Hugh McCormick and Drew Lane Baker
Performed by James Carr

I found out about Billy Stewart from watching a conversation between Elton John and Elvis Costello on television. From reading an article in Rolling Stone, I heard about Cornershop. I found some cool Willie Nelson in some interview, but I don’t really remember who or where. Naturally, I don’t recall the first time that I heard The Beatles or The Rolling Stones or Jay and the Americans, for that matter.

I have no idea how I stumbled upon Carr only a couple years ago. His heyday was decades ago and he died at least ten years earlier. People have definitely heard of him and keep listening to him. Maybe you have and are just shaking your head right now. The fact is that nothing much has occurred lately to push him into the limelight- this blog post won’t change that, though feel free to rush out and stream or buy one of his recordings. You’ll be glad you did.

So, I don’t know

what led me to the fantastic James Carr. I might have been looking for something in particular by Bobby Womack and one internet recommendation click and there I was: James Carr and his brilliant album, A Man Needs A Woman.

Let’s be clear that I am young enough (not by nearly enough) to claim reasonable ignorance about a lot of music, but it is always remarkable to go nosing around in the past and uncover something that just grabs you, especially in popular media. I can cut myself some slack the first time I see a painting in person and realize what I have been missing. There is only one of them and prints and photos may never have done it justice. At the other end of the spectrum, the current profusion of television and film pouring into our household receptacles means that I will probably be constantly surprised by an endless supply of pretty good video. But we are talking about a significant album released during those formative years for me and soul music.

Ohhh… but that’s right- this was soul music. Go ahead- give it a listen. I was listening to AOR on the radio- that would be album-oriented rock to those who have forgotten that we actually had a wide variety of music formats coming in over the airwaves before communication corporations discovered how cheap it was to have someone sit and talk instead.

Anyway… Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin found their way onto my local radio station, but they had to save room for the Kinks and the Guess Who. That was fine and there is only a certain number of minutes in an hour.

So… oh man… just listen. I am so glad that James Carr found a way through his massive challenges to bless us with his artistic contributions. I am doubly glad that fortune gave me a chance to find him now.

What’s it all about?

You’ve Got to Check This Out is a blog series about music, words, and all sorts of artistic matters. It started with an explanation. 212 more to go.

New additions to You’ve Got to Check This Out release regularly. Also, free humor, short works, and poetry post irregularly. Receive notifications on Facebook by friending or following Craig.

Images may be subject to copyright.

Rabbit Hood

Cartoon short directed by Charles M. “Chuck” Jones

Many of us walking this Earth owe whatever sense of humor we have to the denizens of Termite Terrace. Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and all those other manic characters taught us what was funny while we sat before our massive televisions in our pajamas on wintry Saturday mornings.

While I loved the smart mouth on Bugs (pretty much Groucho Marx in amrabbit suit), I loved Daffy for his resilience in the face of never-ending torment. He never stopped running his mouth, no matter what happened, including having his bill turned upside down. He was something more than a second banana doomed to unending failure (pretty much the fate of Elmer Fudd).

Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog also set off resonances which I have never outgrown. They may not encourage you to speak truth to power, but they do engender some perspective on bureaucracy when you have another day of drudgery before you.

As it turns out, we were watching versions of the original cartoon shorts that had been editted. The television networks wanted to cram more advertising for junk food and toys into our brains. (Let me just say that I am glad we had a paved basement for those SSP racers to traverse in the winter.) So, some of the humor cut beyond comprehension.

Even so,

certain moments cut through the morning malaise. Rabbit Hood could not be contained. Jones, Friz Freleng, Robert McKimson, Tex Avery, Robert Clampett and Frank Tashlin produced many, many brilliant shorts during their heyday. This was the one that reached out of the screen and said that I would never be the same.

You know how you can quote lines from Monty Python films and create an instant bond? This was Monty Python for children. Just start knighting someone with your worst royal accent and you could get away with just about anything. For that matter, just about the entire cartoon remains quotable. My personal favorite is the introductions that Bugs proffers for the Sheriff of Nottingham. Then there is the ending, which I would not dream of ruining, but let’s just say that you need to go out and watch some old Errol Flynn movies.

Mass media is an amazing thing though we often think of it only in terms of technology. It is only an empty vehicle without the art that can touch many hearts. Human beings have always used art to make connections. 19th century America had Shakespeare as a universal bond. You can bet that teenagers were acting out their own scenes from Much Ado About Nothing.

We lose something when we worry too much about what makes any of us laugh or when we saturate our mass media with downgraded commercial product. A few artistic lunatics locked in a room can accomplish a great deal to bring the world together if they don’t take themselves too seriously. Commerce makes it all too serious.

“London bridges falling down…”

What’s it all about?

You’ve Got to Check This Out is a blog series about music, words, and all sorts of artistic matters. It started with an explanation. 213 more to go.

New additions to You’ve Got to Check This Out release regularly. Also, free humor, short works, and poetry post irregularly. Receive notifications on Facebook by friending or following Craig.

Images may be subject to copyright.