Oliver Craner

[vimothy]

Where is he? What is he up to? Rolling thread for Craner-related news, sightings, new writing, etc.

[luka]

I'd like to use this thread to petition him for a comeback. I want to see him stalking the dissensus Savannah like the Great Beast he is, majestic mane swept back from a noble aristocratic brow. I miss his presence. I don't want a Craner locked in the choon for the day thread refusing to come out like a teenager in his bedroom. I need more Craner. Intelligent serious Craner. Thoughtful profound Craner. Misbehaving libertarian Craner. Saucy aesthete Craner. I hope everyone agrees with me and we can mercilessly love bomb him back into our arms. The forum is lively again. New blood, new energy, it's time for the return of the prodigal son.

[luka]

WE WANT CRANER
WE WANT CRANER
WE WANT CRANER
WE WANT CRANER

[vimothy]

come back craner, luka's sister gave us a stack of expensive cigarettes and cheap red wine, barty's jamming on the bongos in the corner, everything's set

[luka]

Anybody who doesn't express a strong and heartfelt desire publicly and on this thread for the immediate return and reintegration of Craner I will henceforth consider an enemy of Craner and therefore an enemy of this forum. What do we love about Craner? Personal testimonies will help here I think.

[vimothy]

we need to revisit everything that went wrong at the end of the 2000s. politically we're still struggling to process the tumultuous events of the war on terror and the financial crisis. I dont think its an over-exaggeration to say that craner is the only person who is able to guide us through this difficult passage

[luka]

That's actually true. The last time i saw him he was drunk and self aggrandising of course and telling me how ahead of his time he was. I, reluctantly, had to agree.

[vimothy]

drunk and self-aggrandising craner is the best sort

[luka]

This is what Craner was up to in his early 20s. No one, professional or amateur, was writing as well as this at the time, certainly not on the blogs, no one came close, but perhaps nowhere at all.

https://cittaviolenta.blogspot.com/2004/02/

[version]

cacofonix.jpg

[luka]

"There was also "my eye for the ladies," twitching like a maniac, with insane industry, converting someone on the street into something as flat and fleeting as a bus stop Versace poster. (George Melly said that losing his sex drive was like being untethered from a wild beast!)

Not just images and bodies but every material: metal, glass, plastic, fibre. So tactile! The connection between Guy Bourdin's early slides of LA doorways and curbs and his later fashion photographs make exact and perfect sense now. He made connections that would come to define the link between lust and consumerism. He realised this subtle intimacy between things, how it would, in the future, finally determine reaction and response, undercurrent and contours."

[vimothy]

lets crowd source the chapters of his next book. craner, you fill in the blanks. kick them off as posts on your blog with discussion threads here. I'll start:

the end of the war on terror
the crisis of 2008
the meaning of liberalism
the fate of the international political order
the role of nato
the future of the middle east
the russian threat
europe and the new populism

[vimothy]

whatever it takes

[sufi]

hear hear

[luka]

cacofonix.jpg

school teacher and scapegoat.

World-renowned poet and bard (if not exactly appreciated…) and respected school teacher, Cacofonix is an important figure in the village (he is thus a member of the Council that sends Asterix into exile in Asterix and the Cauldron). However, as the eternal butt of the villagers’ jokes, Cacofonix lives on the fringe, in a hut built at the top of a tree.

https://www.asterix.com/en/portfolio/cacofonix/