• If I had the peltries, I would be hanging Len Babb’s Leaving Bent’s Fort on my office wall. Len is a long-time buckaroo, saddle maker and Western painter and sculptor in the tradition of Charles M. Russell. He had an art show in Sisters last weekend, displaying his large-format paintings and some sculpture.
I liked the cowboy stuff real well, but what really tripped my trigger was the mountain man/plainsman-themed paintings. Of course.
Craig Rullman did a nice pair of pieces on Babb for The Nugget last week, in advance of an art show in Sisters.
Western Artist To Hold Show In Sisters
• Speaking of Rullman, he scouted up a new book, Dunmore’s War: The Last Conflict of America’s Colonial Era. Borderlands history done right, as far as I can tell. Glenn F. Williams is also the author of the highly-regarded Year of the Hangman: George Washington’s Campaign against the Iroquois.
From the excerpts I’ve read, he’s coming at the subject in the right way — understanding it through the eyes of incompatible and clashing cultures, rather than putting a 21-st century ideological stamp on it. Revisionist history tends to look at the little-remembered 1774 conflict as a land-grab by greedy Virginians. Williams argues that, while personal aggrandizement was part of the motivation for westward-looking Virginians, they were also acting upon the ideological imperatives of the Enlightenment, which placed a high value on property rights and “improvement” of the land to bring it into its highest and best use by men of reason and industry.
The Indians — in this case the Shawnee — saw things differently, of course. They had their own interests and defended them vigorously. And they were forced to defend their lands on their own because they were sold out by the Iroquois who claimed suzerainty over the region.
Williams also argues that Dunmore’s two-pronged campaign against the Shawnee was inaugurated as a defensive measure when passive defense against Indian raids failed to stop them. The campaign climaxed in a standup fight at Point Pleasant, at the confluence of the Kanawha and the Ohio rivers. It was an unusual toe-to-toe slugging match, in which both forces acquitted themselves well. Williams apparently goes into considerable detail about the organization and the performance of the militia as light infantry.
I’m saving this one up for the autumn, maybe as a birthday present to myself. That is the season when I have the best “feel” for the Allegheny frontier. Eccentric, perhaps, but there it is…
• And speaking of autumn… September brings the third season of STARZ Outlander. Based on Diana Gabaldon’s third book, Voyager, this season will bring the 18th century Highland clansman Jamie Fraser and the time-travelling love of his life Claire Fraser to the New World, where they end up on the North Carolina frontier.
’Tis a tale dearly loved by Clan Cornelius…
• Watching the second season of Shooter based — very loosely — on Stephen Hunter’s Bob Lee Swagger novels. I had my doubts about it, particularly about Ryan Phillippe as a 21st century Bob Lee, but I found myself pulled in. Turns out, I really like Ryan Phillippe as Bob Lee Swagger. As I told Marilyn and Ceili, it goes a long way toward filling the Strike Back-shaped hole in my heart, especially in this second season.
• Stephen Harrigan has released a preview of a monumental multi-volume history of Texas that will see print starting in the fall of 2018.
The Texas Bookshelf promises to be the most ambitious and comprehensive publishing endeavor about the culture and history of one state ever undertaken. Comprised of in-depth general-interest histories of a range of Texas subjects—politics, music, film, business, architecture, and sports, among many others—the Bookshelf volumes will be written by the state’s brightest authors, scholars, and intellectuals, all affiliated with the University of Texas at Austin.
Published in a signed edition, “They Came from the Sky” offers an exciting preview of Harrigan’s sweeping, full-length history. This tantalizing “short” begins with the earliest native inhabitants over ten thousand years ago and continues through the ill-fated Spanish explorations of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. In its pages, we encounter the prehistoric flint producers and traders who were Texas’s first entrepreneurs; Spanish castaways and would-be conquerors; the Karankawas, Querechos (Apaches), and Caddos, whose lifeways were forever changed by contact with Europeans; and the “Lady in Blue,” an abbess who mysteriously claimed to have visited the “Quivira and the Jumanas” in Texas while remaining within her Spanish cloister.
Harrigan is a Texas novelist best-known for The Gates of the Alamo. He also wrote Remember Ben Clayton, which has been strongly recommended to me by readers here.
Ranger Captain Rick Schwertfeger, Austin Command, has accepted the mission of running a recon operation on this one.
• Saw Atomic Blonde on Friday night. Loved it. It’s everything it oughta be. Boer Scout Danie Theron can look down from Frontier Partisan Valhalla with pride as his 2x grandniece kicks ass across Cold War Berlin. Though his Boer rectitude might be challenged a bit by this wild, sexy and wildly sexy ride. The old scout might not approve of his niece’s smoky way of saying “Fuuuuucckkk…”
Charlize is impressive. Apparently her combative capabilities allowed the director to take long, continuous shots of the VERY violent action — and it makes a difference. The combatives are convincing as hell, even though you’ve got a (very stylishly dressed) woman going up against multiple male assailants.
The movie is stylish to 11. Lots of fishnets and thigh-high boots and such. Eighties music. Berlin nightlife. I noted the Makarov pistols and that Dragunov sniper rifle. Daughter Ceili noted all the clever Dior product placement (Charlize Theron is Dior’s golden girl). Something for everyone.
The plot is just twisty and convoluted enough to satisfy as a spy flick — and to serve its main purpose, which is to propel action. Including some Sapphic action.
It’s that kinda movie — and it’s a hoot.
• Still have a piece on Robert E. Howard’s El Borak stories in the works, but my main focus the past week or two has been on the last Apache warriors. Reading about the chieftain Chihuahua, brother of Ulzana and a sometime friend/sometime foe of Geronimo, I got diverted down a side trail and started following the elusive tracks of Adelnietze, Massai and the Apache Kid. Look for a multi-post look at “The Wild Ones” starting in the next few days.
On your trail, Kid…
Paul McNamee says
My trap line contributions;
AMC will have a NON-fiction show about the more harrowing and horrific side of the Old West. Weird West, but in a non-fiction manner where men & women are the monsters with a dash of supernatural folk tales. At least, that’s my takeaway from this article.
http://bloody-disgusting.com/tv/3450477/blumhouse-amcs-wicked-west-will-tell-true-wild-west-horror-tales/
All the talk of outlaw country music around our fire makes me think I should promote this anthology featuring some friends of mine;
MAMA TRIED
https://www.amazon.com/Tried-Fiction-Inspired-Outlaw-Country-ebook/dp/B01ILL06US
The stories are inspired by outlaw country songs and the t.o.c. shows most (if not all) the story titles map to song titles.
This book came out last year but my memory was recently jogged when I bought a copy at a conference last month.
JimC says
Outstanding! I’m in on both.
deuce says
I assume AMC will cover the Bender Murders. I live about 7mi from the old Bender place. My great-great-grandad rode over there on the day the bodies in Hell’s Acre were dug up. There is also, apparently, a movie that just came out on the Benders.
JimC says
Gotta.
Matthew says
The Bloody Benders. They’d be remiss if they didn’t.
Matthew says
Apparently her combative capabilities allowed the director to take long, continuous shots of the VERY violent action — and it makes a difference.—-
I remember reading somewhere a critic pointed out in Bruce Lee’s movies the fight scenes were mostly long shots of continuous combat while Jet Li and Jackie Chan’s were pieced together from shots of every single punch and kick. It always said a lot of Lee’s talent. I do think Lee’s been hyped a bit much. In a real life fight, I wonder how he would do against say someone like William Fairbairn.
JimC says
Fairbairn in about 2.5 seconds…
Matthew says
Probably.
Matthew says
I forgot to mention I’m really looking forward to you’re articles. The Chihuahua article sounds interesting. The El Borak piece to. It was interesting for me to read about a Texas gunfighter in Afghanistan during the War on Terror.
lane batot says
….thanks to Frontier Partisan influence, I got and finished season one(duh-YAM, but that last episode was hard to watch–NOT enjoyable at all!) of “Outlander”, and got a just started season two–mainly because of where they are going with it in season 3! Although I’m likely to be VERY nit-picky about colonial days in my own home state, that I’ve been studyin’ on since grade school(lo, those many eons ago…..) I will be ROYALLY PISSED if’n they don’t have some stuff about the Catawba(and/or other related Siouan tribes present here in those good days), Iroquoian Tuscarora or Cherokee, or any of the myriad other diversity of Native tribes still in existence then…..And of COURSE–MUCH looking forward to reading/gabbing about the last Bronco Apaches–long a favorite subject of mine, as you well know!
JimC says
Yeah, that was painful and ugly — but I’ve gotta hand it to them for having the guts to “go there.”
Matthew says
I remember watching an episode of a show which was basically the main character being tortured for half an hour. It was very gruesome. It was actually a pretty good episode, somehow they added character development to a torture scene. That said I immediately deleted it after it was over.
lane batot says
Matthew, you just aptly described one of the last episodes of season one of Outlander! Not only did it go on and on and on sadistically, DAMMIT if they didn’t keep having flashbacks to that scene! The only “good” thing about it was the Scottish Highland Cattle that saved the day(I’ll say naught more!).Come to think of it, it was also a DEAD Highland cow that saved Rob Roy McGregor’s arse in the Liam Neeson film version of “Rob Roy”! Those shaggy bovines come in right handy, I’d say!
Matthew says
On my trap line…
Recently, I’ve finished Cold Zero about a member of the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team. It’s an interesting book since it was released in 2001 and written before 911. While HRT is a SWAT team there is definitely elements of old fashioned wilderness stalking to it. The writer was put on the sniper team and sent to the Marine Corp sniper school. He describes crawling through an open field as part of his training and coming upon a cottonmouth snake. It slithers past him and some other trainees and until it bites a poor Marine on the lip. Who then jumps up and starts screaming with the snake hanging from his lip. I don’t believe it says whether he survived.
He also talks about his time during the Ruby Ridge and Waco fiascos which he blames on poor planning among the higher ups. He notes that despite being a Christian conservative he got a lot of flack from the right. He notes ironically he read an article on it being a violation of the second amendment on the day he got his renewal form from NRA membership.
On a somewhat geekier I read the first volume of the manga Golden Kamuy which is essentially a spaghetti Western in early 20th century Hokkaido, the northern most island of Japan. I’ve mention this before. It’s about a Russo-Japanese vet and a young Ainu (the aboriginal people of Japan) searching for gold. It’s a very frontier story actually. The soldier and girl team while fighting a bear which showcases Ainu hunting techniques. The scenes of skinning the bear are very graphic as are the flashbacks to the soldiers time during the war. Also, the Ainu eat a lot of the food raw and the main character has to eat a raw squirrel brain. The series just started but I am certainly intrigued. It’s also being adapted to animation.
JimC says
That HRT book sounds interesting. Love the title. A HRT guy is in trouble over lying about firing a weapon during the shooting of Lavoy Finicum here during the Malheur takeover episode. High stakes those boys are playing for.
You also have me intrigued with the Golden Kamuy piece. The Russo-Japanese conflict fascinating — and very “frontier.”
Matthew says
Being a law enforcement unit HRT would have to have very high standards of conduct. Christopher Whitcomb seems to blame both for Ruby Ridge and Waco on the higher ups. To some degree this is probably him defending himself, but he makes a good case for it. The book is as much about his high hopes joining the FBI and eventually HRT, his disillusionment following Waco, and how he came to terms and learned from it. There’s also a few really interesting “cop stories” including one that reads like something from a Joe Lansdale story.
I really enjoyed the first volume of Golden Kamuy. It’s actually set after the Russo-Japanese conflict, but it and the Bakumatsu (Japan’s civil war that happen around the same time of ours) plays a part of the lot the characters back stories. Also Hokkaido is basically Japan’s Alaska is probably the most wild part of Japan.
lane batot says
Did the Ainu story relate anything about the SUPERB(and virtually unknown in this country) Japanese Ainu hunting dogs? There are some amazing indigenous Japanese breeds, OTHER than the Akita(which originally was also used to hunt bear), which is about the only Japanese breed Americans are aware of. Most were(still are in some cases) hunting dogs . Quite a few of them would make IDEAL “Frontier Partisans” dogs!
Matthew says
Unfortunately, no. A Hokkaido wolf, however, appears despite wolves probably being already extinct by then. You occasionally get reports of them being sited even today, but there are probably no wolves in Japan.
lane batot says
……yes, wolves have been extinct in Japan for some time, but amazing to think they ever had them at all! One not familiar with Japan thinks of it as all overcrowded cities and agricultural fields(with really beautiful gardens!), but Japan still has lots of wild mountain forest, where various wild deer, wild boar, both Asiatic black bears and brown bears, live, and not to forget the indigenous snow monkeys! Yup, critter geek here has several books on Japanese wildlife, including two specifically about the former wolf population. There HAS been some considerations of reintroducing one of the surviving Asian subspecies of gray wolf, but it is as controversial there as anywhere else it gets suggested! And yes, the Ainu dogs are also officially known as “Hokkaido Dogs”–superb dogs! As are all the Japanese indigenous breeds(which I also have a book on, of course!)
Matthew says
I did not get to the more wild areas when I went to Japan. I did end up in a temple in the suburbs that was nice. I also visited zen gardens/parks. Tokyo, however, is huge. On top of a skyscraper in every direction what I saw was more Tokyo stretching to the horizon. When I was on top of the Empire State Building, I could see the ocean and, well, New Jersey. But at least it was different city.
That said the people were more polite and the service better than New York. It was cleaner too. The SUBWAYS are actually clean in New York. The Japanese at least do urban living well.
lane batot says
Amazing how developed and sprawling Tokyo is, seein’ as how it has been FLATTENED repeatedly over the decades by Godzilla!(ahem!) Sorry–couldn’t resist!….And although I haven’t been fortunate enough to actually visit Japan, I have a good friend that did on business once(and I think it was in Tokyo), and he commented on the same things–how frikkin’ organized and CLEAN everything was! He said the lack of litter almost drove him bonkers, and he was constantly tempted to drop a gum wrapper or SOMETHING on purpose! But he didn’t DARE! If I ever went(dog fanatic that I am), I would HAVE to visit Hachiko’s statue at the train station there, and rub it for good luck! Wonderful story that, about the faithful Akita. Of course there is that(purty good) movie they did(“Hachi”) on that some years back, but they had to go and totally Americanize it! At least they kept the DOG an Akita, instead of, say,the typical easily trained Golden Retriever or German Shepherd Hollywood tends to prefer! Anyone unfamiliar with Hachiko’s story,I highly recommend googling it NOW!
JimC says
Nothing beats Godzilla as an agent of urban renewal.
Matthew says
I think the actor in the Godzilla suit died recently.
Matthew says
I actually saw the Hachiko statue. I thought of getting a picture but it was too crowded.
lane batot says
Capital! Supposedly rubbing the statue brings good luck. I took my own advice and Googled Hacihko to make sure there WAS something about it, and of course, there was PLENTY! Lots of great photos, too. I was especially touched to see ANOTHER statue was done in Tokyo portraying Hachiko reunited with his master Professor Euno(if only in statue form)–brought a tear to my eye……As for dogs going to heaven–IF there is a heaven, OF COURSE they will be there! But reminds me of the great cowboy humorist Will Roger’s quote(now there’s you another Frontier Partisan!)–paraphrased here–when he heard dogs DIDN’T go to heaven(from some persnickity hethern, no doubt)–“if dogs don’t go to heaven, then when I die, I want to go where they go!” Or something like that. To which I agree wholeheartedley!