Craig Rullman scouted up a delightful documentary on “the pinnacle of virile self-expression” — The Cowboy Hat Movie.
Lots of history and the visuals are wonderful. If you’re a hat person, you’ll love it. If you’re not, well… you’ll love it anyway. And maybe you’ll go get something on your head.
As you all know, I am a hat person — have been since I was about three years old. As in, I don’t go out of the house without a hat or a cap on my head. I’d sooner go out without pants. I call my EDC hat a “western” hat, rather than “cowboy hat” because I am not a cowboy. But that’s just a point of precision and a proper deference to those who actually do that work. Gene Baldwin Custom Hats calls my hat “Boss of the Oregon Trail.”
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Daughter Ceili scouted up something intriguing…
A forthcoming Netflix fantasy series set in an analogue of Tsarist Russia.
From Entertainment Weekly:
“Shadow and Bone takes place in a very different kind of fantasy world,” says author and executive producer Leigh Bardugo. “Think Imperial Russia, not Medieval England, repeating rifles instead of broadswords. It’s a story about the people who have been told how much they don’t matter proving how much they do. And it’s been incredible to see that story take shape on such an epic scale, the battles, the magic, but also the relationships between the characters. These photos give just a tiny hint at what’s in store — a mapmaker with an extraordinary gift, the people who want to use her, the tracker who will do anything to protect her, and the team of thugs and thieves who are about to cause some very big trouble for everyone involved.”
Anything that serves up an image of a magnificent, mystical stag in a winter forest is going to grab my attention…
I’ve said here before that were I to write a fantasy yarn (and, yes, there’s one banging around) it would be in a late-period Frontier Partisans setting. The genre has long been dominated by medieval tropes, though that’s broken open considerably in recent years. I’m just not a medievalist, so…
I like where Bardugo is coming from.
… I knew I wanted to take readers some place a little bit different with this story. And I also knew that I wanted modern warfare to play a part.
Going in, I knew I wanted to explore some place that would be new to me. And Russia was a very natural fit. There were already dynamics emerging in the story — a desire to industrialize, a largely conscripted army, a huge gap in wealth and resources between the rich and the poor.
I also think that people who don’t know anything about Russia still have very strong associations with it. And they tend to have associations that are both very beautiful (the Winter Palace, Faberge eggs and the Bolshoi Ballet), and also very brutal (the Gulag, bread lines and mass graves). So, in a way, it lends itself very powerfully already to a fantasy world that would be both familiar and, I hope, transporting.
For what it’s worth, I’ve long felt that the Mexican Revolution was a more intense and intriguing game of thrones than, well, Game of Thrones. Just sayin’.
Painting by Argo.
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Also forthcoming from Netflix — a wilderness thriller:
David and Nadja attempt to rekindle their relationship on a romantic hiking trip to the North of Sweden. The trip quickly turns into a nightmare when a red laser dot appears in their tent, and they are forced to flee into the unforgiving wilderness pursued by an unknown shooter.
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The second series of The Frontier Partisan Podcast will launch on February 8. This second series will focus on the Highland Scots as a frontier people — both in their homeland and in the forests and prairies of North America.
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Must admit that the events and fallout of the past few weeks have cast a cloud here at Frontier Partisans. The imperative to address national matters in my local newspaper — in a generative way that adds value and not merely more noise — taxed my time and focus, which is why the podcast got pushed a bit.
Amidst plague and chaos and disorder, I’ve found myself brooding more than usual, which is not a good state for me. Fortunately, I have tools to bust loose of that state. Getting out into the woods is a big one — and so is the music. I’ve found myself lately taking refuge in learning old folk songs. I mean really old.
Over the past week, I’ve worked up three that range in age from the 17th to the 19th Century. Not coincidentally, they are from the Grateful Dead/Jerry Garcia catalogue:
Jack-A-Roe (originally Jack Munro) is from the 19th Century, about a girl who disguises herself as a boy to find her lover who has “gone a sailing with trouble on his mind.” Unusually for the genre, there’s a happy ending.
Peggy-O dates back to 17th Century Scotland. Recently discovered this nicely haunted version by The National.
And here’s the great Billy Strings serving up the deliciously morbid Oh The Dreadful Wind And Rain.
This one also dates back to 17th Century Scotland — as The Twa Sisters — and it’s probably older than that.
There’s probably something wrong with me, but for some reason this palavering with ghosts helps the center hold when the gyre widens and the falcon cannot hear the falconer.
H.P. @ Hillbilly Highways says
I didn’t finish the series, but I read the first two Shadow & Bone books back when they came out. Very good stuff.
JimC says
That’s good to hear. I wasn’t familiar with her work at all. If you dig it, I know I will.
Matthew says
A fantasy set in Tsarist Russia sounds interesting.
Not to long ago, I finished Samuel Pepys diary. I’ve since started on (among other things) A Means to Freedom: The Letters of H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard. It is a window into a past world. I’ve found REH’s letters to be more interesting than Lovecraft’s. REH talks a lot about Texas history. I’ve also read the part were he talks about various ballads brought over by the Scots-Irish.
JimC says
Howard’s letters are quite extraordinary. I never warmed up to Lovecraft in any sense.
Matthew says
I like lot of Lovecraft’s fiction, but I certainly prefer Howard. Oddly, of the two, Lovecraft seems to get more respect. I’ve seen his books in the classic section of bookstores, and I think he deserves to be there, but so does Howard.
I also find that I agree with Howard more than Lovecraft. Actually, I have a hard time thinking of any point we agree, except maybe some of his aesthetic views.
J.F. Bell says
Shadow and Bone is a new one on me. Sounds interesting.
Once, years ago, I came up with an idea for one set during a near approximation of the Colorado Coal War. Even went as far as sketching out the characters and a good chunk of the world’s history – and then life intervened, and it’s been gathering dust since.
I’m all for industrial-era low fantasy as a general rule. Especially if it gets us out of the mire of chosen ones and dragons and magical bullshit. Doubly so if it can thread the needle without falling into the bottomless chasm that is steampunk.
JimC says
Perhaps a new genre designation: Magick and Mausers.
My concept is light on the Magick —- pretty much based around the idea that the paranormal capabilities the CIA fooled around with such as ESP, remote viewing and the like are real. It’s really more of an alt history.
J.F. Bell says
Might be something to that.
If I recall (and it’s been some time since I consulted my notes) the only extra-natural stuff I kept was more in line with folklore; healers, seers, witches…essentially, the last toehold of popular or cultural belief that was fading fast in the era of mechanized worldwide empires.
Most of those involved passed it off as border magic, and on the occasion it amounted to anything nobody seemed to notice much.
JimC says
That’s the kind of thing I like. Anything more elaborate throws me out.
JimC says
Tim Powers does a magnificent job working paranormal and supernatural elements into historical settings seamlessly and “realistically.” His “Declare” is one of my favorite espionage novels ever — Kim Philby and djinn. And it doesn’t violate any of the known history. “On Stranger Tides” incorporates zombies and vodoun into a pirate yarn — which, of course, works.
Padre says
That hat documentary cracks open a surprisingly large and extensive topic. When I decided I needed to find the right hat I didn’t realize what a long trip it would prove to be. Most of what’s out there is either a cowboy hat which isn’t the look I’m going for, or a fedora which leads to endless comments on your Indiana Jones hat. I wanted something that wouldn’t look out of place on a prospector or hunter in an old black and white photo, but could still wear as a mild-mannered pastor. I checked a few shops without any luck and then chanced upon the perfect one at Target of all places. I’m sure it was meant to be sold to hipsters, but for $15 I’ll go ahead and make the global economy work for me for once.
JimC says
Hey, what works… works.
David C Wrolson says
I have always felt too self-conscious to wear a hat, plus I had never found one that I felt made me look good.
However, I like the way my ten dollar bush hat looks on me, but I am too self-conscious to wear it. I try it out on occasion and it feels good, but just not me.
Having said that, I wish that dress hats and so forth were still a thing for men as a matter of course.
Miguel Rodriguez says
Thanks for the heads up on the hat movie. It was a little disappointing in that it was mainly focused on movie and TV influence on the style of the hat and not the everyday. It is real interesting to visit the Great Basin country in Oregon and note the vaquero influence on tack, hats and clothes. The farther north, such as north of Burns, the styles tend towards more Texas influenced Western styles. Years ago I fondly recall seeing a pair of buckaroos push a full cart in Bend Costco parking lot to a pre-68 Volkswagen Bug, load it up, and get in, and drive away with their 5 inch brimmed hats still on the heads–with still plenty of head room.
JimC says
What a great image. If you haven’t seen it yet, check out The Len Babb Movie Project that my friend Craig Rullman is currently filming. While it centers around the work of buckaroo, saddle maker and Western artist Len Babb, it is really a tribute to the working cowboy life of Eastern and Central Oregon.
The Len Babb Movie Project.
Miguel Rodriguez says
Someone once told me that both loggers and cowboys pity those that don’t do what they do (my inarticulate recollection) but it is true based on my dealings with both. I love this part of Oregon that has largely disappeared in the past 30 years, from what little of it existed then.
.lane batot says
Just saw a documentary on Megaloceros–the giant “Irish Elk” that once lived all across Ice Age Europe–fascinating stuff. The Russian-oriented film sounds intriguing–I’ll keep my eyes out for it. I don’t mind some fantasy, but I think it is quite difficult to mix fantasy and reality in a way that “works”, but when it is done, it is great. I think “Game Of Thrones” certainly succeeded, as did the “Harry Potter” series, by Jove! The Russian-oriented film made me think of a recent one I saw, was intrigued by, and purchased quite cheaply–a Ukrainian inspired effort titled “The Rising Hawk; Battle For The Carpathians”. I really liked it. No fantasy involved, just the local Ukrainian villagers fending off the Mongol invasion! And GAWD, are the Carpathian Mountains STUNNING. Coincidentally(?)I also just saw a documentary on a new series being shown on PBS, “Europe’s New Wild”, that featured the Carpathians a bit. GREAT series! If you are a critter geek like meeself, that is…..As for hats–never been much of a hat person. I AM a headband person, in order to keep my long hair from blocking my eyes. For any other headband person out there–I discovered, some time ago, that cutting off the sleeves of my old T-shirts(salvaging what material I can for various things), that they fit PERFECTLY around my head, without having to tie any knots!(Knots are quite uncomfortable to lay on if you are napping with yer headband on….)
JimC says
The Carpathians have always been “frontier Europe.”