Life in Calgary
As many readers know, I started my professional writing career as a reporter for the Calgary Herald. Thanks to the Daily Oil Bulletin, being back in Calgary has given me the opportunity to practice being a newspaper hack once again.
A few weeks ago, I attended an energy conference at the Banff Springs Hotel. The featured speaker was Stephen Harper, former prime minister and current international consultant.
I had never heard him speak before, and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that he has a very sharp sense of humor. In his opening remarks, he lamented the name change of the Edmonton Eskimos to the Elks due to political correctness.
“What’s next?” he queried. “Are they going to start calling the Oilers the Renewables?”
Crystal Ball Now Available on Amazon!
Read an Excerpt Here!
Movie Review; 50th Anniversary
Blazing Saddles
Streaming on Prime
Half a century ago, Blazing Saddles made its debut. Directed by Mel Brooks, it was a desperate attempt to revitalize his career after a number of flops had pushed him to the edge of bankruptcy.
Undeterred, the comic genius set out to spoof Westerns, a staple of Hollywood. The premise of the movie was standard fare; the town of Rock Ridge hires a sheriff to save them from the clutches of evil politician Hedley Lammar (Harvey Korman), when a railroad is routed through their town.
Brooks then ran the genre completely off the rails. Sheriff Bart, played by black actor Cleavon Little, is almost lynched by the town’s residents but manages to escape their clutches by threatening to shoot himself first.
Bart then enlists the legendary talents of The Waco Kid (Gene Wilder), and Mongo (NFL star Alex Karras), to battle Hedley’s thugs. Along the way, Brooks mixes in Nazis, motorcycle thugs, a Bavarian seductress and a Yiddish Indian Chief. Oh, and the fart scene.
Critics universally panned the movie, but audiences fell out of their seats laughing and the picture took in over $100 million, placing it among the top ten grossing films for that time. It was subsequently nominated for three Academy Awards.
Gross, tasteless and raunchy, Blazing Saddles is considered by the American Film Institute as one of the 100 funniest movies ever made. It has stood the test of time; I highly recommend you watch it!
Book Review
Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone
By Benjamin Stevenson
You have to admit, that’s a great title. The murder mystery is written by an Australian stand-up comedian, and it’s very funny.
The mystery takes place in a ski lodge on the tallest peak in Australia. The Cunningham family has gathered there to celebrate the release from prison of Michael Cunningham, who was convicted of manslaughter in the death of a lifelong criminal.
The Cunninghams are notorious throughout Australia after the family patriarch killed a policeman during a botched robbery in which he was also gunned down in graphic fashion.
His widow subsequently raises three young boys amid public scorn. Ernest, the middle boy, is the narrator of the novel, frequently cataloguing the victims of his siblings and in-laws in satiric fashion through direct observation and flashbacks.
Obviously, a stand-up comic uses stage communication with the audience as their primary means of story-telling, and Stevenson frequently pauses the narrative to seek out the sensibilities of you. The technique can be quite disruptive in the wrong hands as it deliberately suspends the reader’s sense-of-disbelief, but the author uses it to great effect.
Anyway, the family reunion is thrown into disarray when a stranger is consumed by flames during a raging blizzard. Who is the murderer stalking among them? Is it the anal sister-in-law, or her dweeb husband? Constable Reynolds, trapped by the blizzard, must suss out the guilty before they strike again!
I won’t give too much away but the narrator finally pieces the puzzle together just in time for a fiery finale. I highly recommend Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone!
TV Series
The Perfect Couple
Streaming on Netflix
Yes, I know I reviewed this last month, but that was really about the book, and this is about the series, plus I never pass up an opportunity to post a photo of Nicole Kidman.
As you recall, Greer and Tag Winbury (played by Nicole Kidman and Liev Schreiber), are hosting the wedding of their son Benji and his bride Celeste at their fabulous beachside mansion on the island of Nantucket. Hundreds have been invited to the lavish affair, which is expected to be the talk of the island.
The eve of the wedding is tragically marred by the death of the maid-of-honor, however. Merritt is found on the beach below the mansion, apparently drowned. But when the Chief of Police begins to investigate, he soon discovers an undercurrent of deceit and chicanery that belies the reputation of ‘the perfect couple’ and their family.
I was greatly impressed by Nicole’s portrayal of the steely matriarch Greer (she can win an Emmy with the wiggle of one eyebrow), but I was unexpectedly pleased by the performances of two secondary characters, the wedding planner (Tim Bagley), and the maid (Irina Dubova). When the police call them in for questioning, they spill the cattiest gossip you can imagine in straight face; the series is worth watching just to see these two veterans perform.
The critics, of course, are calling The Perfect Couple mindless soap-opera trash, but it’s all done in the over-the-top, prime-time tradition of Dallas, and you’re not going to find a better performer of a wily villain than Nicole Kidman!
Join me for a reading of Crystal Ball on Sunday, September 15, 4 pm at Owls Nest Books!
