• Frontier Partisan Felonious Monk scouted out an Australian movie that instantly shot to the top of my priority list.
Warwick Thornton’s Sweet Country is…
…set on the Northern Territory frontier in the 1920s, where justice itself is put on trial when an aged Aboriginal farmhand shoots a white man in self defense and goes on the run as posse gathers to hunt him down.
It’s due out in the States in March.
• Felonious also mentioned Matthew Restall’s new book, When Montezuma Met Cortés: The True Story of the Meeting that Changed History. Which reminds me…
A legendary Sisters artist named J.Chester Armstrong recently complete a triptych depicting the Spanish conquest. It is an absolutely breathtaking work of wood sculpture, carved with a chainsaw.
I covered the story for The Nugget.
In the summer of 2012, Armstrong created a massive five-panel depiction of the Mayan creation myth, which is housed at Javier’s Mexican Restaurant in the Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Thousands of people have seen that work. One man in particular, a resident of Belize, fell in love with it.
“He saw it whenever he went to Vegas,” Armstrong told The Nugget. “Every time he went to Vegas he made a point of making a pilgrimage to see it.”
Finally, he commissioned Armstrong to tell his own Mesoamerican story – the story of the Conquest of Mexico. The client is of Spanish Castilian descent – the blood of the Conquistadors flows through his veins. Armstrong’s work, which flows across three panels, offers up vignettes from the saga of his ancestors.
Each panel is nine feet tall; five feet wide. Unbelievable. A real privilege to write the story.
• Speaking of the early Americas. From BBC:
Researchers have found more than 60,000 hidden Mayan ruins in Guatemala in a major archaeological breakthrough.
Laser technology was used to survey digitally beneath the forest canopy, revealing houses, palaces, elevated highways, and defensive fortifications.
The landscape, near already-known Mayan cities, is thought to have been home to millions more Mayans than other research had previously suggested.
The researchers mapped over 810 square miles (2,100 sq km) in northern Peten.
Results from the research using “revolutionary” Lidar technology, which is short for “light detection and ranging”, suggest that Central America supported an advanced civilisation more akin to sophisticated cultures like ancient Greece or China, National Geographic reports.
• And just because Felonious keeps hitting the x-ring and deserves a hat-trick — a tribute album for the 100th birthday of blues great Elmore James. Strange Angels: In Flight With Elmore James features Rodney Crowell and Jamey Johnson, and also the sisters Shelby Lynne & Allison Moore (who I had a crush on long before she became the 6th ex-Mrs. Steve Earle). I’m in.
• No sooner do I say something nice about The Intercept than they run a piece of tripe that requires pushback:
Over at Running Iron Report, I recommended The Intercept for its investigative reporting, allowing for a clear left-wing bias. I like listening to podcasts featuring a Marxist critique of contemporary economic and cultural realities and such. And, while I had some problems with its lack of historical context, I thought Matthew Cole’s The Crimes of SEAL Team 6 was a solid and worthwhile piece of reporting. But when the sheep start bleating bitter about movies “glorifying outmoded models of masculinity,” my hackles go up.
Peter Maass has a problem with the movie 12 Strong.
“You can see Rambo and John Wayne return to life in the latest war blockbuster, 12 Strong, which was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, who also brought us Black Hawk Down. 12 Strong is an extravaganza about a Special Forces team that fought the Taliban in Afghanistan in the weeks and months after 9/11. During the movie’s pivotal scene, the leader of the Green Berets, played by Chris Hemsworth (the grievously handsome star of the Thor franchise), decimates a hive of Taliban fighters with his rifle ablaze as he gallops ahead on his fearless horse (yes, he’s riding a horse). In the same way that Hemsworth’s assault weapon goes rat-tat-tat and the bad guys fall like bulleted dominoes, the scene itself checks off one born-in-Hollywood cliché after another: of the rugged gunslinger, the warrior in camo, good versus evil, the modern vanquishing the profane, a man at his fullest.”
I admit, I’m not erudite to know what the hell this snide little fucker means by “the modern vanquishing the profane.” Not woke enough, I guess. But anyway, Peter, hero tales “of the rugged gunslinger, the warrior in camo, good versus evil… a man at his fullest” are older than Beowulf and they’ll outlive this sorry Age of the Wimp (hat tip to Jeff Cooper) you seem to desire to embody. Thank Crom for that.
• From the BBC, the untold tale of one of the most famous photographs in history. A valuable reminder that human stories are complicated and defining, symbolic moments may not be exactly what we’re led to believe they are.
“The general killed the Viet Cong; I killed the general with my camera.”
— Photographer Eddie Adams
…the photo did not — could not — fully explain the circumstances on the streets of Saigon on 1 February 1968, two days after the forces of the People’s Army of Vietnam and the Viet Cong launched the Tet Offensive. Dozens of South Vietnamese cities were caught by surprise.
Heavy street fighting had pitched Saigon into chaos when South Vietnamese military caught a suspected Viet Cong squad leader, Nguyen Van Lem, at the site of a mass grave of more than 30 civilians.
Adams began taking photos as Lem was frogmarched through the streets to Loan’s jeep.
Loan stood beside Lem before pointing his pistol at the prisoner’s head.
“I thought he was going to threaten or terrorise the guy,” Adams recalled afterwards, “so I just naturally raised my camera and took the picture.”
Lem was believed to have murdered the wife and six children of one of Loan’s colleagues. The general fired his pistol.
“If you hesitate, if you didn’t do your duty, the men won’t follow you,” the general said about the suddenness of his actions.
Loan played a crucial role during the first 72 hours of the Tet Offensive, galvanising troops to prevent the fall of Saigon, according to Colonel Tullius Acampora, who worked for two years as the U.S. Army’s liaison officer to Loan.
Adams said his immediate impression was that Loan was a “cold, callous killer.” But after travelling with him around the country he revised his assessment.
“He is a product of modern Vietnam and his time,” Adams said in a dispatch from Vietnam.
The photo — and people’s interpretations of what it meant — would haunt Loan and almost kept him out of the States post-war. Adams testified on his behalf to lift a ban on his entry. An ugly, complicated episode of an ugly, complicated war. Hat tip to the BBC for digging a little deeper.
Breaker Morant says
Jim>>>”I like listening to podcasts featuring a Marxist critique of contemporary economic and cultural realities and such.”<<<<
I have been listening to some Jordan Peterson on Youtube for critiques of "Post-modernism" and "Cultural Marxism" and so forth. He is relatively famous for a couple of recent controversies.
Be that as it may, I have way too many books going right now, but one of my reading plans for winter was to dig into Gulag Archipelago again. I was reminded of this through a Peterson Podcast on Solzhenitsyn.
It has been 20 years since I read them and I had forgotten how good Volume 1 is. In my memory, Volume 1 was a bit of a slog, but Volume 2 (mostly in the camps) and Volume 3 (resistance) were transcendant.
I may be moved to post a couple of special paragraphs as off-topic comments as I get to them-they will be bubbling out of me and you can't really talk about Solzhenitsyn at a high school basketball game (LOL).
I am also invested in his Red Wheel series on the Russian Revolution. I saw that the 3rd book in the series (I think there are 10) was recently translated. I have to re-read the first 2 to get to the 3rd. They are a bit of a slog, but some parts are pretty good, I especially remember a hagiography of Stolypin-A Czarist official who was making some very progressive changes (circa 1908) but was assassinated (If I remember correctly).
JimC says
Outstanding. Consider the possibility of a RIR post — might be a good fit over there.
Ordie_Rat says
I might suggest reading “The Black Book of Communism – A History of Terror Crimes and Repression” for those who want to see what the true face of Socialism/Communism looks like. It is taken directly from the former Soviet Secret Archives and therefore cannot be disputed by the leftists even though they would try to with their old slogan of “They didn’t do it right.”
General Loan did that Lem clown a favor, because look at what the Communists did when they took over South Vietnam – killing approximately 2 million people. Is it any wonder why the Communists have a death total of approximately 200 million victims? If you don’t believe me, get the book and read it for yourself.
“Freedom for those who willing to fight for it, has a flavor the protected will never know.” – Tim Craft – LCpl. USMC – Khe Sahn, 1968
JimC says
It has always troubled me that the multitude of crimes of Communism are elided by some on the left because it was good intentions got awry or “true Communism” has never been tried.
As Martin Amis wrote: “It was not a good idea that somehow went wrong or withered away. It was a very bad idea from the outset, and one forced into life – or the life of the undead – with barely imaginable self-righteousness, pedantry, dynamism, and horror.”
Anybody who trotted out the argument that “true” National Socialism would be wonderful – it just hasn’t really been tried” would be savagely ridiculed. Yet you still hear the old “true Communism” canard in college classrooms.
lane batot says
DEFINETELY will have my eye out for “Sweet Country!……That guy did that carving WITH A CHAINSAW? INCREDIBLE!…….Just watched a cheapo DVD version of “The Lost City Of Z”–I liked it, regardless of the numerous negative reviews I read about it. And seems like Percy Fawcett has been vindicated yet again with these latest discoveries of Mayan ruins. No telling what else may be discovered down the Amazon way……And “12 Strong”–JUST saw it YESTERDAY! Definetely a kick-arse movie! Or maybe I should say a “kick-horse”, since that IS the way you make them “go”! Sure, I can see that it may have been Hollywooded up some, but it was a great tribute to those guys, and makes me want to learn more about the REAL story. I could NOT have replied better to that snarky critic than your response , Jim–PERFECT! Again–“When the legends die, the dreams end. When the dreams end, their is no greatness”. There was SO MUCH MORE to that movie than Rambo/John Wayne cliche’s–I especially loved the Afghan leader’s distinguishing between a “soldier” and a “warrior”. Maybe that critic went out to pee or get popcorn while that scene was playing out? Speaking of Beowulf–I cannot imagine anyone better than Chris Hemsworth to play THAT part! We do indeed NEED our “Beowulfs”……
JimC says
Hemsworth as Beowulf would be great. Glad you liked the movie — I’m sure I will, too. Skip Armstrong’s work is amazing. He’s a wild man — you’d enjoy him.
Matthew says
Your mention of “Sweet Country” reminds me to ask if you’ve read any of Arthur Upfield’s works set in the Australian Outback? Particularly his detective novels about an aboriginal police officer Napoleon “Bony” Bonaparte?
I’m glad we are still finding Mayan ruins. There are still some parts of the world that we don’t know everything about.
Recently, I finished rereading People of the Black Circle by Howard. I just started a Poul Anderson SF novel The Star Fox, in which the main character becomes a space privateer in a conflict over a habital world.
JimC says
I have not. I’ve read a little of Peter J. Watt ¸— Australian frontier epics along the lines of Wilbur Smith — but I hadn’t heard of Upfield.
Matthew says
He was mostly a mystery writer, but his books are set in the Outback. Bony was one of the first aboriginal characters in fiction.
deuce says
That triptych was done with a CHAINSAW? Goddamn.
JimC says
Yep. Obviously he did finishing work, but his carving is with a chainsaw.
Breaker Morant says
“Age of the Wimp”-I like that. Fits right in with Mark Steyn’s “Eloi” and VDH has written on that area as well.
What is probably Solzhenitsyn’s most famous quote kind of fits (LOL). One end result of wimpdom. I promise I won’t get carried away. This one and one more. And Yes, there is a lot of good RIR stuff there.
>>>“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?… The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin’s thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If…if…We didn’t love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation…. We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”
― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956<<<<
JimC says
Let’s talk, Breaker — you’ve got the germ of a RIR post here.
Breaker Morant says
The Preface to the book is probably one of the best attention grabbers ever.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>”In 1949 some friends and I came upon a noteworthy news item in Nature, a magazine of the Academy of Sciences. It reported in tiny type that in the course of excavations on the Kolyma River a subterranean ice lens had been discovered which was actually a frozen stream — and in it were found frozen specimens of prehistoric fauna some tens of thousands of years old. Whether fish or salamander, these were preserved in so fresh a state, the scientific correspondent reported, that those present immediately broke open the ice encasing the specimens and devoured them with relish on the spot.
The magazine no doubt astonished its small audience with the news of how successfully the flesh of fish could be kept fresh in a frozen state. But few, indeed, among its readers were able to decipher the genuine and heroic meaning of this incautious report.
As for us, however — we understood instantly. We could picture the entire scene right down to the smallest details: how those present broke up the ice in frenzied haste; how, flouting the higher claims of ichthyology and elbowing each other to be first, they tore off chunks of the prehistoric flesh and hauled them over to the bonfire to thaw them out and bolt them down.
We understood because we ourselves were the same kind of people as those present at that event. We, too, were from that powerful tribe of zeks, unique on the face of the earth, the only people who could devour prehistoric salamander with relish. <<<<
felonious monk says
Crikey Jim what a smorgasbord of content!
That felonious obsessive or what?
Guess he feels like I do, gotten so many hints, tips, ideas and links
from Frontier Partisans, he has to chip in and return the favor.
Sweet Country: not bad for a bloke who sleeps on his sisters couch,
turn to The Proposition while awaiting its release.
I am glad I was in the Yucatan a while ago, not sure I would go there
nowadays. At the time I decided not to go to Guatemala, too hairy.
(attn. link to RIR. Dulles-Howard Hunt-Arbenz). There’s great images
on Nat.Geo. For an great account on how it all started turn to Jungle
Of Stone_John L Stephens.
Arthur Upfield yeah cool, but turn to Libby Connors_Warrior for the real
skinny.
I am an ebeniste and those sculptures, man oh man oh menschkewitz!
Is that pine? cedar?
So I have to mention Isabella of Castile_Giles Tremlett if you want to
find out how it all started.
Thank you Jim, you’re the man and all snide pussies got to watch THE
WAY OF THE GUN and THE REPLACEMENT KILLERS.
Saddle Tramp says
Damn you guys!!!
Smorgasbord? For a thrashing crew or battalion even. Jim, I’m getting a little worried if you are getting any sleep. Another Tom Russell maybe. FM you brought up a good one for sure. All this post modernist crap and yes the oppressive factions of the left hamstringing reality. Did you I am equal parts liberal and conservative as it fits the case. I am not trying to adhere to any image that just ain’t comfortable. I most definitely do not want to be swept along with (at worst false) and at best misguided causes. I know it when I see it (I think). Like the films mentioned they just resonate. The triptychs are unbelievable. What an artist!!
So much nutrition on the plate here and a feast for the eyes too!! This is one helluva weighty trap line!!!
JimC says
Working up a two-parter at RIR on underground radicalism, which explores how people get swept along.
Saddle Tramp says
“threshing” crews…
And great blues too…
Absolutely agreed on photography’s misleading lens. For more on that read Susan Sontag’s ON PHOTOGRAPHY which just might be the last word on that. I read it years ago. However, that cannot take away from the potency of this shot. Another photo was forever embedded in my mind at 7 years old, that of bulldozers (the operator with a kerchief over his face) pushing a pile of emaciated dead into a pit. Jewish concentration camp victims of course. I tried to grasp it, but I had no real reference point. In my gut I knew it was evil as hell though. On a better note (and the other aspect of photography) I picked up the latest copy of Cowboys & Indians (25th Anniversary) with HOSTILES on the cover. That is not why I bought it (not something I habitually do). I bought it for the stunning photography of horses and those of Edward S. Curtis. Photography is a dicey game (especially) today when it comes to truth. A glimpse and a grab like so many other things. Jim, you put out quite a spread…
JimC says
I believe that we come into the world with a moral compass. Fundamental matters of good and evil (as opposed to culturally-derived morality) are, I think innate. I can’t prove it.
Saddle Tramp says
An add-on to Susan Sontag so as not to be remiss would be her later followup to ON PHOTOGRAPHY. It is even more specific to the above execution shot and is titled REGARDING THE PAIN OF OTHERS. I would ask is there any place for a practical or pragmatic sadism such as there is for a practical or pragmatic paranoia. It becomes a matter of survival (at the least) to ignore the reprehensible (or accept it) and move on. It is inevitable and someone, somewhere is always on one end of it or another. both BEOWOLF and MILTON’S PARADISE LOST were both taught by an extremely serious, knowledgeable and passionate English Lit teacher in High School. Ironically, my personal choice for a book report was CONRAD’S HEART OF DARKNESS. Also taught was CHAUCER’S THE CANTERBURY TALES. What chance did I have it seems. The die was cast…
JimC says
Yeah, but the journey is worth it.
felonious monk says
That photo had a huge impact on me too, I think we need to remember
that it comes from a time in which we didn’t suffer the huge visual
onslaught we do today. You can not unsee things and thus we are
being desensitized. The thing about reading is that in a way you are
making your own movie.
Film criticism is like so much else nowadays, a lot of opinion so very
little knowledge. Reducing things into a manufactured culture war as
a way of skirting real issues. It is like this binary view of history we
constantly have to contend with. Data is not information, info. is not
knowledge, knowledge isn’t wisdom. We have more knowledge than ever
before and yet we keep making the same mistakes, trickle down economics
the war on drugs, on and on it goes.
Breaker Morant says
Alan Furst has a book review in the New York Times that is apropo of your section on the undying hero story and Age of the Wimp. The review of “The Saboteur” on a French Resistance hero is well worth reading on its own as it hits the X-Ring here-regardless if we ever get to the book.
Considering that the French Resistance events depicted are less than a lifetime ago, Peter Maass (the “Snide little fucker”) is awfully confident that he won’t have to answer the questions that Robert de la Rochefoucauld had to answer in honor and blood
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/02/books/review/paul-kix-saboteur-robert-de-la-rochefoucauld-biography.html
>>>”There are hundreds of books about the French Resistance, some fictional, some based on actual experience. Again and again, one meets heroic people who will not give in to the forces of evil. These works are morality plays about courage and determination. Kix puts it this way: “The boys talked about how France had lost her honor. ‘I didn’t have much good sense,’ Robert said, ‘but honor — that’s all my friends and I could talk about.’
These many narratives, about holding dear to one’s honor in the face of persecution by a powerful enemy, will never go out of style. The reason they remain popular and widely read today is this implicit question: What would you have done? ……
Reading “The Saboteur,” one understands how a certain person at a certain time answered it. La Rochefoucauld faced torture and death, yet he carried on. There is inspiration in his example, and that makes “The Saboteur” well worth reading.”<<<<<<<
JimC says
Breaker, this comment is an example of synchronicity at work. Stay tuned at RIR.
Matthew says
I tend to think that the eternal popularity of these stories as a good thing. The “snide little fucker”‘s don’t see that. Ironically, a type of person who thinks there some golden age of manhood in the past and anybody younger than they are pathetic wimps don’t realize how popular these things still remain. Of course, the later are usually as bloodless as the former.
JimC says
That’s a worthy point.
Saddle Tramp says
Honor!!
Absolutely!!
I could never disagree with this scenario. Never. The enemies (even with their own rationales) were blatant and their agenda became obvious. This may be one of the last admirable wars fought by the U.S. and her allies. This in know way takes one drop of blood or effort from the brave men and women since. I just get a little worked up under the murky and all out false premises since (by comparison). The other difference was that most of the WW II veterans went on to for the most part normal lives. They rose to the occasion admirably and fought like hell in all theatres and from all directions. Most came back to raise families and build a better society. This includes Bob Friend, a Tuskegee Airman and African American. I met him when he was 95 years old at the Lyon Air Museum alongside the John Wayne Airport. Bob keeps his plane in Palm Springs, but has brought it to the Lyon Air Museum in the past. The Lyon Air Museum is a must see for anyone interested in WW II history. Bob also has a friend and former Tuskegee Airman who was 106 years old at the time and recently went into assisted living. I also saw Bob and other veterans recognized at the Veterans Day Celebration in Washington DC. You could not ask for a more positive individual. It’s a shame that we are under such questionable times. Not saying the past was pristine. Far from it. It just feels like we have lost what made this generation stand out. From shirt sleeve to shirt sleeve as the saying goes. I had Bob sign the photo he gave out with him and his plane. One for me and one for my Dad that he inscribed with a special note to my Dad. No chest pounding by Bob. Just a helluva nice guy. This leaves hope…
Let Bob tell you a little about it:
https://youtu.be/PB28kWbngmQ
Saddle Tramp says
One more on Bob.
This is what America needs more of today, and I am not saying it is not there. Not at all, but I am afraid it is slipping away fast…
https://www.ocregister.com/2015/03/19/throwback-thursday-irvine-veteran-95-recalls-his-days-as-a-tuskegee-airman/
Saddle Tramp says
Jim,
The photo I took of Bob (aged 95) when I met him at the Bikers & Bombers Charity Event at The Lyon Air Museum. It is from my Instagram Account. His daughter (not shown) has also accompanied him. If you have not been to the museum, it is very impressive. Everything there is in exceptional condition and of rare subject matter. On one of my visits all the old guys were working on getting the General’s B-17 Flying Fortress ready to fly to the Chino Air Show. General Lyon also has a large collection of vintage automobiles that he rotated in and out. Bob was a very inspiring individual and honors all of us with his service…
https://instagram.com/p/BQ1kQoyFYb6/
felonious monk says
Sacre blue ! Morant and Tramp you’re killing me.
No really, penetrating insights, erudite passion.
I could go on, just want to say this; we all bleed red.
And furthermore have a look at Bacevich on Coll re-
Directorate S (NY-Times)
JimC says
Yeah, I’m really enjoying the penetrating insights and erudite passion myself. Gratifying beyond expression.
Saddle Tramp says
The favor of a link for FM…
It is disheartening but I give all the more respect to those who soldier on with pride and honor. This is the core of RIR exemplified by those Frontier Partisans that course through Jim’s veins.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/31/books/review/steve-coll-directorate-s.html
JimC says
This is on my list of reads.
felonious monk says
What those brave men fought against in WW 2 currently plies its trade in Washington.
I am looking at a government that thinks it is a good idea to create a military industrial
complex. They don’t remember Ike’s warning. It’s a hungry beast that demands to be fed.
(see Paul Daley: Beating The Khaki Drum-Guardian).
Other than getting very sad about the Stan I always think of Kitchener and the way he
set about to end the Boer War, block houses, terror, scorched earth. I guess that’s not an
option today. Why this is so I would like to know (morals, ethics I hear you say) they are
blowing up people by the hundred now.
On another matter that is, heroes myths and snide fockers. It is worth listening to James
Lee Burke’s latest interview for Book Nook where he talks about the sources for his plots
like the song of roland and the bible.
Jim, I would like to know what you think of T.J Stiles: How Do We Explain This National Tragedy.
It’s a big ask but you are up to the task!
JimC says
You got it. I respect Stiles. It might not be for a couple of days — buried in the day job.
Thanatos says
I have four more Aussie films that are up your alley:
The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce (2008)
Van Diemen’s Land (2009)
The Nightingale (2018)
High Ground (2020)
JimC says
Thank you. I will check these out.