Dave Alvin is the coolest man in the universe

February 22, 2012
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Just had to be said. It’s a fact. I already kinda thought so after spending several hours hanging out with Dave at the Sisters Folk Festival last September. Now the proof has been established beyond any doubt. Last night, Dave’s song “Beautiful City Across the River” played over the final scene of “Justified” as a [...]

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The Art of John Seerey-Lester

February 11, 2012
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  It’s unlikely that I’ll ever take that African safari of my dreams. Gotta send the kid to college and all that, after all. And besides, as my wife wisely notes, I’d need a time machine as well as a fat bankroll to get the experience I really want, which is to taste the glory [...]

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Pancho Villa sat here

February 2, 2012
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Pancho Villa’s last saddle, made shortly before his assassination in 1923 went at auction for a cool $718,000. That exceeded presale estimates of $150,000 to $250,000 by just a bit. Read the story here. Went to a South Texas-based collector who plans to put it in a museum. I’ve never been a fan of highly [...]

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A Forgotten Frontier Partisan

January 30, 2012
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History is capricious. For every frontier partisan who became legend, there are probably a dozen who slipped into obscurity — though their exploits are no less vivid or significant. Such is the case of Kentucky frontiersman Bland Ballard. Everyone has heard the name of Daniel Boone and most folks with a passing interest in early [...]

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Character is Fate — The Sanguinary Fiction of James Carlos Blake

January 23, 2012
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I was working in a bookstore when I discovered Blake’s debut novel, “The Pistoleer.” I was knocked out. Blake recounted the life of Texas gunman John Wesley Hardin through the eyes of people who knew him (actual and imagined). His command of an array of voices —  a judge, a whore, a gambler, a lawman [...]

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The Elephant Poachers of the Lado Enclave

January 22, 2012
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  “…When we were all assembled in my tent and champagne had been served out to everyone except Roosevelt — who insisted on drinking non-intoxicants, though his son Kermit joined us — he raised his glass and gave the toast ‘To the Elephant Poachers of the Lado Enclave.’ As we drank with him one or [...]

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Link from Querencia — NSFW rifle post

January 20, 2012

Stephen Bodio’s piece here is too fun not to share. Go check it out.

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The Last of the Buffalo Soldiers

January 16, 2012
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The Autry museum in Los Angeles hosted presentation by two of the last Buffalo Soldiers. Read about it here. The 9th and 10th Cavalry in particular did yeoman’s service in Apacheria, and the Buffalo Soldiers were an under-sung element in the capture of the San Juan Heights in the Spanish-American War. They deserve to be [...]

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The difference between dynamite and road flares

January 11, 2012
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    I guess “Justified” done gone and got popular. I had to drive all over Bend to find the Season 2 DVD set the day it was released. People in these parts must be pouring it down like Mags Bennett’s Apple Pie. Well, why the hell not? It’s the coolest damn thing on TV [...]

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Frontier Partisan cinema — Billy the Kid

January 8, 2012
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There’s a new documentary out on America’s most legendary juvenile delinquent. The production looks gorgeous and a lengthy interview with Frederick Nolan — the world authority on the Kid — is worth the price of admission. At least, I assume it is. Have to do the pounds to dollars calculation. Yep. It’s an English production. [...]

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