this... "TV" thing you speak of.. :)

Okay... where were we?

First up....Snow.
What the heck have y'all doing with all our Alaskan snow down there? Just feel free to send it on back any time you're tired of it. :)

Second... did a fair amount of sewing over the weekend, while keeping an eye on the recent(ish) DVD Into the West

Honestly...decent. Visually amazing, of course (what isn't these days?). Generally well acted and scripted, and from a "historical toys" point of view it's a delight. I distinctly remember geeking out over the freakin' cooking kettles they got right. :) Likewise enjoyed seeing the occasional background man of the 1830's-40's still in a rifleman's frock, a stylish holdover from the early American 'cult of the rifleman.' Tres cool. Nice attention to detail.

Storywise, it was fair amazing how well they managed to get the Big Themes all tied together so nicely. The only really big one I can think of offhand that didn't come in was the Mormon migration.. and probably the Mexican War should have had more emotional presence in its era.

On the other hand, well.. it is Hollywood - and that means exactly what you'd expect.

psst... Mr. Spielberg... this is 2011. John Wayne's been dead for thirty years. Your brave and innovative storytelling was not "telling the other side of the story." We've had a steady diet of Why We Suck films for decades now. Actually, your noticeably "brave and innovative" moment for 2011 (2005 I guess) Hollywood was having Jedediah Smith reading his scriptures and not being a total raging Pharisaical ass in the next scene. (Actually, the Sun Dance/cave scene was decently clever juxtaposition. Good for you on that one.)




So... meh. But pretty meh.





More seriously... in the middle of Ellis' His Excellency George Washington* and Chernow's book on Alexander Hamilton waiting in the wings. That last just because I've had a distaste for Hamilton so long, I might as well get a fuller story from someone generally sympathetic - leastwise that's what the reviews say.

Anyhow, back to the needle. Y'all take care.





OH! Before I forget - any of my Alaskan friends up here care to suggest a place to go snow shoeing? It'd be neat to try before spring comes on.














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*I'm a little bit cautious on this one actually, so far. The accounts from Yorktown taken from Joseph Plumb Martin's account are a little.... shaded from the original. Not wrong so much as more... faintly snide in its presentation of the General. It could just be the narrator of the audiobook, but that discrepency is still enough to make me take the rest of the work with a fair cellar of salt 'till I can cross check it.