Spring Round-up. Art by Charlie Dye.
A rare bounty of Frontier Partisan-related material is on offer this spring. Thought a round-up was in order.
Cinema is busting out some interesting tales, including Warner Herzog’s recounting of the story of the remarkable Gertrude Bell, Arabian explorer and one of the people who created the modern Middle East out of the cataclysm of the First World War: Queen Of The Desert
Percy Fawcett’s legendary, ill-starred expedition in to the South American wilderness comes to the big screen in The Lost City of Z on April 14.
The Son premiers on AMC on April 8. DVR is set to record.
As mentioned in the previous post, on April 10, PBS’ American Experience is serving up a three-part doco on America’s entry into World War I. April 6 marks the centennial of that watershed event.
The Promise, set during the Armenian genocide during World War I, gets wide release on April 28.
The Legend of Ben Hall is supposed to hit American shores any time. I don’t hold out a lot of hope that we’ll see it in the Oregon Outback, but I’ll track it down on DVD if I have to.
Jessi Colter releases her memoir of life with Waylon Jennings this month, and CMT is broadcasting a tribute concert on April 7.
A biography of Frontier Partisan Tom Jeffords, who made a personal peace with Apache alpha wolf Cochise drops on May 1.
That all oughta keep us more or less out of trouble for a month or so…
Paul McNamee says
My bookcases are full. Might as well fill the DV-R to bursting, too 😉
JimC says
All it takes is time…
Time?
Breaker Morant says
I didn’t know about the Gertrude Bell movie, thanks. I put Freya Stark in the same category as her. I cut Ms. Stark’s sign more in my reading than I do Ms. Bell’s. I may have to rectify that.
I am looking forward to the “Lost City of Z” movie-even though, I did not care for the book that much. Speaking of lost explorers in the jungle-I have to give a shoutout to the movie “Up.” What a pleasant surprise that movie was.
JimC says
Freya Stark is a remarkable woman, too.
Matthew says
Just looked up Freya Stark. At first, I thought she was a Game of Thrones character. She was a remarkable woman. She found the Valley of the Assassins.
The assassins that were defeated by Khlit the Cossack and later Francis X. Gordon.
JimC says
Love getting sent down side paths like that.
Saddle Tramp says
Yes Jim, I too will be looking forward to Werner Herzog’s QUEEN OF THE DESERT having become fascinated with her years ago. What was true then is true now. I just happened (in a rare moment) to pick up the April 6 Issue RS 1284 of ROLLING STONE and this being their 50th Anniversary year. I was attracted by it’s cover. I immediately went to THE PECULIAR MR. HERZOG article. It begins with:
“He’s been called a genius, a madman, a visionary and the last great hallucinator in cinema.”
Here he is saying that he is quoting Blaise Paschal, but he was really was quoting himself:
“The collapse of the stellar universe will occur like creation, in grandiose splendor.”
Kind of sums it up for me.
Hunter S. Thompson another madman gets a 50th Anniversary flashback too. “He had a briefcase of drugs and a supreme command of language. He built much of the legend that is ROLLING STONE.”
Those days are long gone. His commentary (although he predicted it all this long ago) are sorely missed today.
Two madmen in one issue, one gone and one still with us.
Dylan also croons inside as well and perhaps that is what we really need today.
The (that I will leave unnamed) other madman (or sly like a red fox) dominates the middle of the magazine and the relentless attention given to him.
Politics aside, Gertrude Bell was also dead in the middle of a political carving up of unparalleled significance. Her counsel is still needed albeit from afar.
Madmen, crooners and Gertrude Bell are my chosen companions!
Werner Herzog on the trail for deep truth and Frontier Partisans too…
JimC says
I’m gonna grab that off the news stand. Don’t read RS much anymore, but this seems worth the time. Always great to hear from you ST. (BTW, fixed the autocorrect typo).
john roberts says
If this thing is anything like as hallucinatory and visionary as “Aguirre, the Wrath of God,” it will be epic. “Aguirre” is about as frontier partisan as you can get.
JimC says
That is true.
Saddle Tramp says
Thanks Jim…
It can be hard to justify $6.99 for such a slim magazine now. This issue is fairly dense compared to the usual (what has become in my humble opinion) by and large a PEOPLE MAGAZINE with tattoos. A far cry from the days of the foldovers when Hunter S. Thompson was looming large on the cover. You can only carry something so far I guess. Such is everything in these troubled times, but in spite of it I try to remain hopeful, because every once in a while I get surprised. We are definitely seeing the water get turned over these days. No surprise to you though.
Keep on postin’ …
deuce says
I bought a lifetime subscription back in the ’90s for $300. Elsewise, I would rarely read it now. My subscription allowed me to have a ringside seat as their “fake but accurate” UVA rape hoax unfolded.