Opposing Viewpoints

I am very used to dealing with opposing viewpoints. I have spent many, many year’s examining reasoning and arguments back and forth on a great many topics. This is an area that can be very difficult for many people that are not used to having their beliefs challenged. I think what happens to a lot of people is they have had certain beliefs for a long time, been isolated with people of similar beliefs, or just really have taken for granted a lot in life. Then when someone sees something that completely contradicts their point of view there is an initial shock of seeing this happen. This might bring about some fear and anger. It is almost as if someone is telling them the sky outside on a normal day is green. The thought might be the person contradicting his or her ideas is crazy or a crackpot. If you could only see some of the looks I have gotten when I have been seen with a book that others know I probably don't agree with, "What are you reading that for?" It can really be upsetting to others if you talk in hypotheticals to people that are not used to various ways of argumentation even if you have the same beliefs.

This is why the old saying, “one should not talk about politics and religion with others,” came about. Although, I have noticed in my experience, right after that said a lot of politics and religion still comes up. Part of the reason for that is one can never really escape those issues if they are taking the issues of life seriously. Although I keep up on those issues, this blog really is not the place for them; at least not a full discussion of them. Most political viewpoints one has can be strongly opposed by about 50% of the population. I figure if someone really wants those types of debates and discussions they have better places to go.

Even in issues of history strong disputes are certain because, as I just mentioned, one can never really escape the big issues of life. Those issues are always mixed into history. Let me give you some examples.

For quite some time I have had an interest in a Japanese police force called the Shinsengumi. They were a group of samurai hired out to protect Kyoto near the end of the Japanese shogunate in the 1860’s. Eventually, when the Tokugawa shogunate ended and the Meiji era began, those who had not died or left had lost their jobs. Lots of books and movies have been based on these men. I own a bunch. There story has been told in fiction a lot because there is this idea of their strong loyalty and ideals. They would fight to the end no matter what the cause for the authority of the Tokugawa (and Aizu clan who hired them). There is a lot of “if’s” and “but’s,” but that is the favorable side. The other side is much more negative. With the fall of the shogunate brought about the Meiji Restoration. The Meiji Restoration brought about many political changes after the year 1867. Naturally, if one sees the restoration as being good politically then whatever was trying to hold it back would be a bad thing. So, from the negative point of view the Shinsengumi have been described as Nazi like cultists who used their rules and power as an excuse to commit murder. See, a whole political viewpoint may determine how one views the Shinsengumi.

I enjoy reading and watching both perspectives. Some years back I was told that a new book in English about the Shinsengumi by a guy known as Romulus Hillsborough would come out. I knew right away, based on his pro-Meiji stance in previous works, what viewpoint this book would represent. I did not care about that though, but just wanted to see it because it would be the first real book written in English about the subject. However, I knew this might be a problem for those that really advocate a more positive viewpoint of them. It took a long time for the book to come out, but when it finally did it was the way I expected it to be. I have not really kept up with that “fanbase” on this since I left it, but from what I have been told since then the response has had downright hostile toward the book. One of the most recent messages I was forwarded was about a guy who was declaring that the book should be banned and not purchased.

That is the worst attitude one can have when investigating history. In order to come to a greater understanding of anything one must allow for opposing points of view. If there are errors of fact, bad assumptions, etc. so be it because those will be corrected in the overall process. In the long run, more essays and books will come out in response and, the way I look at it, the truth will come out. Also, allowing other points of view allows you to strengthen your own point of view. Can your viewpoint hold up under rational thought? Maybe you have made some simple errors and the other viewpoint helps bring them out. So, although it can be painful, one should welcome other points of view and have a more humble approach. There is tons of stuff that I have had to correct over the years due to different outlook.

The book I was referring to was really written as a popular level book. The author writes more from a narrative approach where he is trying to tell a good story, but also includes themes and facts. To me, that is more of a historical fiction perspective. The book is not a university press book. The difference is that, for the most part, university press books tend to be more professional with scholars in the field. I suspect that a lot of the criticism taken is because it was not written like a professional historian would write it.

I am currently re-reading two old west books that have just come out that are university press books. One, Salt Warriors by Paul Cool, is about the El Paso Salt War in which a group of Mexicans forced the Texas Rangers to surrender. This is the only time that has ever happened. Some time back I mentioned there are three major stories about the El Paso area that could use a movie. This is one of them. The book is to some extent revisionist in that it goes against some of the popular thought of whether the Mexicans were a chaotic mob, but well organized insurgents. I’ll write about it at another date since the book is rather detailed and, in all honestly, rather tough read for me. It is a good book because of this, but you really have to want to know about every person involved in the conflict and not just the conflict itself.

The other book I am currently re-reading is the most radical book I have read in a while. The Feud that Wasn’t: The Taylor Ring, Bill Sutton, John Wesley Hardin and Violence in Texas by James Smallwood is a rather hostile point of view in regarding something called the Sutton-Taylor feud. You can see there might be a problem right away because the book even disputes that there was a feud. I’ll have to come back to this at another time because to explain what has traditionally been called the feud would take a long blog entry in itself. Let me point you here: http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/SS/jcs3.html

In the feud traditionally understood, after the Civil War in the United States, the Taylor family got in a dispute with the Sutton side. The Sutton side is really not a family since Bill Sutton was the only participant, but it represents the law enforcement side. The Taylor’s were seen as outlaws who preyed on the cattle in the area. The Taylor’s saw the cattle as free to those who could catch them; this was known as mavericking (taking unbranded cattle). The Sutton side saw this as cattle rustling. I am really simplifying things here, but that is how it is traditionally understood.

Lots of books have been written on the feud. Most of them are from the Taylor point of view. Finally, a book has come out that gives more of the other side of the story. The author, James Smallwood, has written a lot in regards to the Reconstruction of the South after the Civil War. This book is another part of his view of the bigger picture. Now I am glad that the Shinsengumi fans I knew of are not into the Taylor family history. They really could not handle this. Smallwood is very hostile to what he calls the Taylor crime ring. In his view, the Taylor ring not only represents the family, but a lot more outlaw individuals associated with them. On each page he seems to constantly indict the Taylor’s with murders, rapes, racist acts, etc. as recorded by local law enforcement, the state police, and eventually the Texas Rangers. Again, some of the politics of the time period influences how one sees the Taylor family and the law enforcement of the period. If you think the south was mistreated during reconstruction by Yankee abusive rule then you might be sympathetic with the Taylor side. On the other hand, if you see the people like the Taylor’s as unrepentant confederates, criminals, and racists who were fighting a second civil war during reconstruction you probably will take the law enforcement side.

I have had some sympathy for the Taylor side from what I have studied in the past. Some of what Smallwood has presented is rather shocking. Some I would have expected. In Some instances I think he is rather biased and assuming the worst possible interpretation of the situation. At times I do not really care for the way he uses his sources in presenting the material; part of that maybe because he was limited to 200 pages and could not give full quotes of his sources. What is going to have to happen is a full examination of his sources that are mostly taken from the National Archives. However, when it is all said in done, I welcome a book like this. It helps in understanding the overall process of trying to figure out what was going on with the violence in Texas after the Civil War. Smallwood has filled in some of the details in some instances I have not found elsewhere. I think it will be a great thing to see further books on the subject and those in response to it.

I had to write a long blog to get out some of this. Seeing someone contradict what you believe can be a bit unnerving. It may produce fear and anger if you are not used to it. If you really are after truth then you will welcome it. It will help you reflect on what you really believe and whether would you really should believe it. I can not say I will do this with every entry I talk about regarding this, but I do try to give you sources for both sides when I can. At the end of the day, it is not up to me to figure out what you believe regarding anything in history or life. I will tell you what I think, point to a few sources, and it is up to you to figure everything out for yourself.

Let me give you some sources and alternatives. Regarding the Shinsengumi:

Hillsborough, Romulus. Shinsengumi: The Shogun's Last Samurai Corps. North Clarendon: Tuttle Publishing, 2005.

The next book is not so much an alternative point of view, but a university press text. The Shinsengumi are practically footnotes in this book. I wanted to refer to this book because it is done by a professional historian. There is a completely different style of doing history in both books. This is not a cheap shot at Hillsborough because he is using a historical narrative approach which is good when writing a story for the general public. Totman, on the other hand, is not so much trying to tell a story, but give you solid reasons for why the shogunate fell using historical sources.

Totman, Conrad. The Collapse of the Tokugawa Bakufu, 1862-1868. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1980.

Regarding the El Paso Salt War:

Cool, Paul. Salt Warriors: Insurgency on the Rio Grande. College Station:Texas A&M University Press, 2008.

As I mentioned, a great detailed and epic book, but IMO not the easiest of books to read; okay, for those of you that obsess over everything in the old west I am not talking to you. There are a bunch of earlier books, but let me just give this one by Sonnichsen. He had a stand alone version with just the Salt War section, but one might as well just get this one for the extra feuds. It maybe good to read this one first then compare with the above book.

Sonnichsen, C.L. Ten Texas Feuds. University of New Mexico Press, 2000.

Regarding the Sutton vs. Taylor Feud (or No Feud):

Smallwood, James. The Feud that Never Was: The Taylor Ring, Bill Sutton, John Wesley Hardin, and Violence in Texas. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2008.

For the classic telling of what traditionally was called the feud I again refer to the other book by Sonnichsen about Texas feuds. This book covers lots of other interesting feuds so it is worth getting.

Sonnichsen, C.L. I'll Die Before I Run. New York: Devin-Adair, 1962.

For a free account that is actually pretty good from the time period download the Victor Rose book:

The Texas Vendetta, Or, The Sutton-Taylor Feud

or go to the google page HERE.

James Dean Knife Fight Location

This is a well known one and is one of the ways the observatory people promote their location. Even before I was even into location hunting, as a kid, I could have told you where this one was.

There are some differences with the way it is now compared to then, but it is obvious that it is the same area. When you are facing the front of the observatory just follow it around on your left and you will run into this place.

Personally, I would have kept the lug wrench and not thrown it like James did. Ehh, I would not fight fair in a situation like this. That is just me though.


As I mentioned, part of the way they promote this place is with this movie. There is a plaque located here dedicated to James Dean. You can see the Hollywood Sign in the background. If you want to go to the observatory it is free. There are some short science movies they show for a fee, but the rest is free.

The Tunnel to the Griffith Observatory

I guess you could say this is one for the kids. I think Nancy Drew (2007) bombed at the box office last year, but at least it provided this one location. In this scene Nancy Drew and her friend almost get run over.

The picture below is the direction you have to go to get to the observatory. You just take a left out side of the tunnel, and within a minute or two you should find somewhere to park. That all depends on the day you go. During the week you should be able to get really close. Other times you may have to park down the hill a bit to walk up it.

When I did this I was wondering if I had the right side of the tunnel. After all it could have been filmed at the opposite end.
To make sure I had the right spot I examined the left side of my picture...
with the one below. The bush on the left is the same one, but there are some color stains on the wall that are the same.
The first picture from the movie was helpful too. With location hunting there are certain thing you look for in comparing stuff. This was not that tough, but you do develop an eye for detail. I can not remember since I have not seen the movie in ages, but it seems to me that the movie about Who Framed Roger Rabbit had something here too or the other side. Okay, duh, I just looked up the filming locations on imdb and it says it was the entrance to Toontown. Naturally, within Los Angeles there is tons of places movies are filmed that people walk by everyday.

My Days of Debates

While I was in my second year of college a friend and I would talk about the various issues regarding history, philosophy, religion, and politics. He made the comment one day that I was going into areas that, “you have to expect people disagreeing with you all the time.” I understood at the time what he meant, but for some reason it was not as powerful to me at the time. I think I had this idealistic view that others will disagree with each other, but if you present the better argument then your chances of coming to an agreement are better. I still do to some degree; otherwise, why even present arguments? Let me give you some personal history on how I have changed a bit on this.

Not too long after what I mentioned above with my friend, I was on a Bulletin Board System (BBS) corresponding with others by message boards and e-mail. A BBS was a pre-cursor to the internet. The internet was really just taking off at this point, but BBSes were still in vogue until about the mid-90’s. There was this man I noticed debating a lot of teenagers on these message boards. How do I explain this guy? He had this 1960’s Existentialist Hippie thing going, and he had this way of really talking down to the teens on there. I decided to step in and debate this guy so the teens would not feel like they were walked on, but mainly because I thought the guy was wrong on so many things.

After months of going and back and forth with this guy something always came up. He would always say something like, “There are lots of people that disagree with you.” I would acknowledge that, but then try to get him to respond to the particular argument I had made. You know, “Which premise do you think is not true? Let’s talk about the reasoning.” Later, it would come up again that others disagree with me. Then I would respond with, “If everyone disagreed about what 2+2 equaled would that mean that it did not equal 4?” Or, how about the people that thought before Columbus crossed the Atlantic the world was flat (It turns out a lot of people going back to the Greeks thought the world was round, but you get the point)? He had this hang up over the whole concept of truth and, in his mind, the argument was over once he pointed out others disagreed with me.

I ended up debating another guy sometime after this that was a lot smarter. The problem was he was not as educated in the areas we were talking about. What happened is whenever we came to a point that he was not comfortable with he would make some sarcastic remark or try to be funny at my expense. I had a “stick to the facts” attitude about it because I did not want to get into just name calling. Eventually it got to the point where I felt like all he wanted to do was take cheap shots. It was not about having good reasons, but seeing if he could get me angry, the upper hand emotionally, or something.

This is part of the reason I do not get involved with online debating very much. Usually, if it is something I really care about I might try to present a few facts and let it go. My days of big, drawn out debates are long gone. It just is not worth my time. If someone likes that sort of thing then he or she should do it. However, I would encourage doing it to see how well your arguments hold up rather to see if you can “convert” someone to your point of view. Also, asking probing questions to better understand what a person means to create clarity is probably just as important for your own understanding.

That last sentence is what I want to emphasize. In any issue you care about it is important that you study the issue and find good reasons for what you believe. A few blog entries ago I mentioned that to know something means you have to have true beliefs, but also good reasons for that belief. This is not an easy thing to do because of some of what I have just mentioned.

Now on this blog I do go into a little bit of history from time to time. On just about every issue there is an opposing viewpoint. On a lot of things it depends how skeptical one wants to get. This is especially true in old west history because of the fragmentary nature of some of the history. On the other hand, it has to do with assumptions or biases involved what one considers a fact, and what one considers evidence. Next time I will go more into the issues of opposing viewpoints and how I deal with them.

The Hollywood Sign Hike

A few months back my partner and I decided we wanted to go up to the Hollywood Sign. It turned out that Huell Howser had just had his special episode up there where he had permission to go pass the fence to get directly under the sign. For normal people you have to stay behind the fence.

We decided to start the hike off at Griffith Observatory. I had been there recently and wanted to back again. To get to the sign you do not have to start there. You can get there from Beachwood Blvd., then park, but you still have to hike up the road that goes behind it. The whole point of us doing it from the observatory was to make it a fun exercise hike. I think it only took us about 2 1/2 hours to go up and back that morning. We really were not going that fast because we knew we had to wait until the observatory opened that morning anyways. No need to hurry just to wait around for it to open. Here is a picture on the trail we took looking back at it.

In all honestly, this hike is just walking a fire road after fire road. It is not the most scenic area to go to. It is nice if you just want to find a place close to the city to hike around. There were a bunch of Koreans out that morning for some sort of jogging race around this area of Griffith Park. The morning was really hazy, but not smog hazy, just a real foggy look that early morning. The trails took as back and forth so we curved around rather than head straight to it. We got to a short hill called Mt. Chapel that when we got there was covered with fog. There we took a quick break.

We moved down and on to Mt. Lee where the Hollywood Sign resides. The road took us back behind it. We looked down and saw the Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills Memorial Park. I told my hiking partner that I thought I saw Lee Van Cleef down there. Lots of celebrities gravesites are there. We turned another corner and saw the fence. We were there.
I went the extra distance to get to the top of the benchmark indicating Mt. Lee and took these pictures looking down on the sign.

We spent some time there and then just head back down, but decided to get a good shot at the end of Beechwood.

I see the sign all the time in the news and in movies. There area I shot this was nearby a place used in the movie Mullholland Drive; the mysterious cowboy scene. Some of the areas I walked down to get to this point definitely looked familar from that movie. I can imagine something going on at night where someone would have to meet someone up near the sign. The whole end of the hike could have a real suspenseful feeling to it. Then again, I thought Leslie Nielson was up here somewhere in the first Naked Gun movie, "And where the hell was I?"

So, the hike was nice. I am not sure I really have the motivation to do it again. This is one of those hikes you do once, and you probably don't really want to do again unless you are just doing it for a bit of excercise. I have excercise hikes I do closer to home anyways. There is another nearby hike from the cemetery side that I would not mind doing.

The Official Hollywood Sign Site

The Arrastra (The Alabama Hills Series)

(GPS: N36 36.090 W118 06.855)

This is another one I have wanted to do for a long time. This is one of the man made artifacts that has been left behind in the Alabama Hills. The movie The Yellow Sky has the Arrastra in it. When the men are working in the mind not too far from this location they hear some Apache Indians coming and run over here to see them below.

This is one of those things that I am not sure there is some Wikipedia type of articles to explain it. I did not look to hard. I did a simple search and found THIS. Basically, it was used to grind up the quartz to remove the gold found. Something like a donkey could be used to walk around in a circle to get the "machine" going. It seems to me the movie The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly had one at the beginning with the intro to Lee Van Cleef. There was a boy riding the mule around. Here is the way the one in the Alabama Hills looks today: I mention this in the video, but the story I was told was that this Arrastra was designed for the movie The Yellow Sky. When the movie was finished the guy hired to take it down only cut off the top part of it so it could not be seen from the nearby roads. He took his money and ran before this was discovered. The problem is that I have seen this used in other movies. The movie Kim has it briefly and you have to look or you will miss it. That was filmed a few years after The Yellow Sky. No problem there, but one day I was watching an old Rex Allen western, West of Nevada, which for a few seconds had this: At first I thought this must have been another area, but then I matched up the big rock behind them that looks like it has a bunch of lines going through it with my videos. Sure enough, it is the same location. It is possible that it was a movie set piece for this movie or another movie done here before it. My gut feeling is that this was a real arrastra used for some mining at some point. I could be way off though. I do not know enough about mining in this area. If someone knows the real story on this please let me know. Either way, it is pretty cool that it is still out there and has been used in movies. Although I have a bunch of other Alabama Hills videos I am going to post, I am going to take a break from this since I have posted a lot lately. For a change of pace, over the next week or two I am going to cover a hike I went on a few months back and some movie stuff related to it.

YS: The Arrastra (Youtube Version)

Making a Blog Relevant

In the past few blog entries I have talked about living in the information age, setting priorities, some of the pitfalls regarding the millions of blogs, vlogs, magazines, books, etc., and a little about knowledge and giving good reasons that are of concern to me. I will spend some more time regarding the last two in a blog I will do next week on how I handle various contradictory points of view in controversial areas. This is important in the areas of any type of history, so it is relevant here on this blog. However, in this entry, I want to focus on things I have kept in mind while doing this blog. Whether this is helpful or practical to you is something you will have to decide, but I wanted to just get this out there.

When I started this blog, my intention was to make it fun and deal with things that I consider hobbies. One may think I have many hobbies, but really a lot of what interests me comes down to the same things. I have found that a lot of the stuff I have been into in the past like locations, martial arts, movies, hiking, history, and a few other academic fields to name a few things, are very similar when I start to really examine why I enjoy them. Certain areas cross over into other areas the more I study them.

Most of what I have done so far in this blog is primarily in regards to my location hunting. Even with that, there is usually something related to one of the interest areas I just mentioned in the last paragraph. So, not only am I finding some interesting location, but there is usually something else involved along with it that is still as interesting to me as the location is. I like to integrate different areas of my life like this. I am slowly going into other topics that I have wanted to. These last few blog entries are my indication that I intend to slowly start branching out here and there a little more than I have done in the past. I still will be doing a lot of locations and will continue to do that. I have tons of more videos I am slowly going through to put out on my youtube account; I am actually a bit behind on a bunch of stuff. I think on any blog there is a time where one has to try to branch out when one is ready to do so to avoid just doing the same thing all the time.

My basic approach on this blog from day one, and here is where I start giving my “advice” which you can take for whatever it is worth, is that I do not focus on myself, but on something that exists apart from me. When I was kid I used to start these notebooks where I thought I might have a journal or diary. I would think to myself that I would record what happened during the day or write about something that interested me. Within a few days I would quit because I could not think of anything important to write about myself. The problem was, I was kid without a lot of life experience, but I was starting internally and trying to write about myself.

Now writing about oneself, one’s mental life, is not a bad thing. I think the pitfall that one encounters is that over time everything starts sounding the same. Then, it is just a matter of burnout and quitting. I suspect that there are a lot of people out there that have this problem. I know I have seen it on youtube where some younger people burn out of doing their videos.

My suggestion would be is to start with something external to you. Begin with the “outside world” and not just the contents of your feelings, desires, and thoughts of your inner mind. The focus of this blog is not ME. In fact, most who have read this blog in the past probably know very little about me from it. I do, from time to time, give you my thoughts and opinions on a few things, but this is just a small part of my life. Part of the reason for that is I like to keep a bit a mystery about myself, not that I have anything to really hide about myself or that I am really all that interesting either, but I write and show things that I think are interesting in the real external world.

One of the things that I get slightly annoyed about (pet peeve time) is when someone starts to focus on him or herself rather than the topic or area I enjoy. I encounter this a lot in an area I try to get hiking information on. One of the persons I know of that constantly writes messages about her hiking trips does this very thing. She has gone on a lot of interesting hikes and has posted tons of pictures. It is not a bad thing if done once in a while, but it seems like every hike she goes on or any information she gives there is always a smiling picture of herself showing every accomplishment. There is no problem with people posting pictures of themselves, but in what I am talking about is if someone makes him or herself the focus of everything then something has gone seriously wrong. Sometimes I feel this is more of an indication of mental problems, self-esteem issues, or trying to get approval from others.

The next thing I think of is related to what I just said regarding getting approval from others. My approach has always been that one should write his or her blog with entries that can be appreciated in the long term. I think one should be able to enjoy a blog two days from now, two years from now, twenty years from now, two hundred years from now, etc. In all honestly, I do not write, show pictures, or videos worried about how many people are viewing my stuff every day. It is nice to be recognized with whatever you do, but I like the stuff I do because it is good in and of itself. The nice word is intrinsic. There should be a timeless element to one’s blogs if you want it to be successful in over time. If you truly want more readers over a longer period of time this is the way I would suggest you do it. You will probably last longer than others out there this way, chances are someone will google search you out of nowhere, and you might get more readers this way.

If I want to get inspired to do new blog entries I do not go reading other blog entries, watch youtube videos, or whatever the latest computer or internet invention is. Those might have some interest, but actually going out to explore the real world, reading old paper books (both classic and modern), listening to the radio (both music and talk), and watching old and new movies. This is somewhat related to what I was saying in the past few entries about staying balanced in the life of the real world. Many would like you to think that the internet is the happening place where all knowledge is, but this is not the case. No, google searches do not give us some sort of omniscient access into all information. Do not give up the old ways of information transmission for the new ways because a lot of the new ways of the internet depend on the old.

Finally, in all of this, I do not take myself too seriously. I have made lots of mistakes in how I have done this blog. I have corrected a few recently with, “What I was I thinking when I wrote that way back then?” I try to keep a sense of humor about myself and what I write about. On the other hand, I do want to take the people that read my blog seriously enough that I give the best information possible as I know it. Everyone makes mistakes, but it is important to “not sweat the small stuff” and keep a sense of humility.

Enough of this. In my next entry I will talk about another cool location in the Alabama Hills. Sometime next week I will go into how I deal with different points of view on controversial subjects.

Bad Information, False Realities, and Why Should I Read This?

This video is good for a laugh about what I am about to say. Take a look:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-Lovt_kmXM

The amount of information out there in the world and online is enormous. For every topic there is to know about there are subtopics, links, and captions going on at the same time. A computer can multitask, but now a human is expected to do the same thing. The attention span of a viewer is supposed to be a lot faster. Everyday one is bombarded with advertisements, but the situation is even worse when people are bombarded with information that may end up being very trivial. I fear that this can cause anxiety problems because a person can feel he or she can not keep up. Somehow a way of keeping one’s life in proper balance must be taken.

I mention this because in the past I have had times where I tried to keep up with everything, and in the end it was just a waste of time. I am not just talking about being online and television, but I am talking about books, newspapers, and magazines in print too. I think the internet is the most obvious candidate for what I am talking about. First, if you are reading this you are online, but the main reason being the billions of websites, blogs, vlogs, message boards, etc. you have access too. Even if you narrow it down to the topics you care about there is still thousands of things you can spend your time with.

The thing to remember is the internet is accessed by people from all walks of life. This is good because it allows a certain level of freedom to explore and write or video aspects of things that interest you. The bad side is that not everything any particular person writes about is worth reading. This is a really strange thing about the internet, partly due to the anonymity one can have with an alias, that one can talk like they are an expert and may not have any authority in what they speak. As a hypothetical example, imagine an Albert Einstein still alive in the year 2008, under an alias, writing a message about his theory of relativity. Then someone who has never studied the theory, has had little education, but has an interest in science comes on and explains why Einstein is all wrong. Of course, theoretically, it is always possible a person like that could show Einstein’s theory is wrong, but in the real world this is not something that is taken too seriously.

Now imagine that this hypothetical person that thinks he or she has proved Einstein’s theory wrong creates a website, blog, etc dedicated to this. This person writes up hundreds of articles about this. We can not doubt the person has spent a lot of time in doing this, but at the end of the day is it really worth our time reading what this person has to say?

I admit that I do not spend my days reading too many blogs. I do some searches when I am in the mood, but there just is not enough time to read everything. Part of the reason I do not is because there is a lot of junk out there. A lot of them are cheap advertisements. On the other hand, it is like what I have written about above where people that really have not proven themselves start talking as if they are the authority in a topic. There are a lot people who write blogs online that do it for fun or have a humble attitude. Those I have no real problem with. Then there are those who are terribly obsessed with letting others think they are an expert. Ever read a really long rambling blog entry and then wonder, "Wait, what was the point of this? "
It gets really strange when people start fabricating and lying about themselves online. I have seen this happen a bunch of times. I do not want this to come across as a political cheap shot, but it does bring out a point I want to make. You may remember recently some statements Senator Clinton made about avoiding sniper fire in her Bosnia trip in 1996. As a factual statement, we know that never happened. This is not something unique when we examine the whole internet. There are people out there, for some reason, really like to tell stories that exaggerate and not give the whole story. I have even seen people make up more than one puppet account just so they can agree with themself. How do I know they were doing this? They were caught. There is some pride and ego building going on in those cases.

The internet, in all its various forms, can give a lot of bad and false information. It is almost like a person can create a false reality online. One might get the impression that some idea, product, etc. is very popular and mainstream by looking at some website or blog. There maybe a dozen people constantly writing messages about it back and forth on a message forum. I wonder how many hits the Flat Earth Society gets. Sometimes I tell others that I think the internet is where a lot of people go when no one in the real world takes them seriously. It is kind of like, “This journal will not publish my work. I will show them by posting all my research online and making a name for myself there!” Or, how about this, "I am really popular on the internet." Which has led to the "internet celebrity" which really makes me laugh. ;)

All the above are things that need to be kept in mind when you prioritize what is important about what you really need to know. There just is not enough time to read, watch, and listen to everything. If this is all anyone does they will have created an extremely unbalanced life. It will create anxiety about trying to keep up with a lot of stuff that probably is not worth the time anyways. Also, do not spend too much time on junk sites, articles, or books that lack that authority and the ability to provide good reasons whatever content is. The next entry I am doing regarding this will be about the approach I have taken on my own blog to avoid some of the traps I mentioned above.

The Real World, Knowledge, and the Internet

This may seem like I am coming somewhere out of left field for those that have read my blog. It is something that does relate to the internet, this blog, every other blog out there, vlogs, and the real world. A few weeks ago I was reading a news item (no longer online) that was talking about most young people not knowing much about classical historical knowledge (ex. Who wrote the Iliad?) versus the latest in pop culture (ex. What has Britney Spears been up to?). This type of news article is not that unique. Every few months studies will come out or someone will come out with a news article with how less educated young people are. The idea is that the intelligence of the population is now degrading. If you want to see a real toilet humor example of this idea then see the movie Idiocracy by Mike Judge. Although really trashy, there is some thought in this movie of the logic of intelligence.

What these articles seem to be pointing at is that the information explosion has made knowledge of the real world very unbalanced. Let’s face it, trying to stimulate interest in learning about the United States Constitution (or, some treatise by John Locke) is much harder than giving someone a magazine about his or her favorite band. Most young people are going to want to know about what interests them, and not what seems so far away historically or abstract.

I have no doubt that many young people are exposed to some of these subjects, but their ability to remember maybe a problem. Some has to do with not having interest in the subject. The other is we do not live in a society like some of the ancients where oral tradition was passed down and central to a societies survival. These days we go to an encyclopedia or just do google searches.

One issue that is assumed in these types of articles is that our knowledge is fixed. When it is all said and done I would agree with this. However, I think people tend to underestimate how much of what was taught 30-80 years ago has been seriously questioned. We don’t live in the same world where the idea is to cram a bunch of facts into a person and that makes them educated. I see and hear this sometimes from others when someone talks about a textbook that is being used to teach a young person. The complaint will be that there are many errors of fact in the book. There maybe errors of fact, but there is a lot more that goes into this than just having the right answer.

When it comes to all of this I like to backtrack a bit. Ever since Plato’s Theaetetus, knowledge has been defined as having a justified true belief. I am going to throw out something called the “Gettier Problem” with this definition and just say that Plato’s three part definition is necessary for knowledge.

In plain English, the idea is that to know something you have to have the correct answer, but you also have to have a good reason for that answer. Sometimes you will hear someone saying that you need to know what you believe and why you believe it. Otherwise, all someone is doing is memorizing trivia. A lot of game shows are like this where all you need is the correct answer to win.

It turns out that in the world we live in that having good reasons is more important than the answer or conclusion. Sometimes a young person will tell me the answer to a math problem and I might be unimpressed. I then want to know why they came to that answer. If they get the answer and the reason for that answer I am satisfied. The real debates in areas in any field of knowledge is usually not the answers, but the evidence and reasons for those answers. This is where you start getting into proper valid logic, evidence, good reasons, the scale of rationality (ex. counterbalanced, probable, beyond reasonable doubt, evident, certain).

Why am I bringing this up? With the information explosion we are constantly being hammered with a lot of information each day. Watching some of the cable networks you get the main story being talked about, but then you get little captions keeping you up to date with everything else. Then with the internet you have websites, chat rooms, messages boards, blogs, vlogs, etc. that have different types of information. I like to keep informed, but even I have had a hard time keeping up with everything out there. I just feel worn down if I try to watch, read, and listen to everything out there. I do not mean to be insulting, but there is a lot of junk out there. Whenever I go to my local Border’s bookstore I am amazed at all the new books and magazines that are filled with stuff that just does not matter that much. The key is we have to find what is really worthwhile and relevant in life and make that the priority. I am going to come back to this soon, but I wanted to raise a few issues about this because of the billion blogs out there I am sure everyone wants to make his or her own blog something of importance.

The Hopalong Cassidy Mine (The Alabama Hills Series)

(GPS: N36 38.915 W118 07.510)

This one is from the Hopalong Cassidy movie called The Dead Don't Dream.
There was actually a real murder committed here across the way in the 1950's. Someone was shot and killed, and the killer was sent to prison. Here is a picture from the Hoppy movie. Interesting enough, it too is about a murder, but was filmed a few years earlier than the real life murder. Life imitating art. ;)
The area is a bit worn down since 1948, but this is it. The mine is still there.
Hoppy is in front of the mine here. You can see some of the entrance.
Here is how the entrance looks today:
I took a picture of the inside. It would have been nice to walk into it, but being trapped alone in a mine is not something I really would enjoy. So, this will have to do.
I hoped you enjoyed this one!

The Rawhide Stagecoach at the Lone Pine Film Museum

I wanted to follow up the last entry with a picture of the stagecoach that was allegedly used in the movie Rawhide.

Rawhide will be coming out on dvd in May. It is worth a purchase. If you want a sneak preview regarding what the movie is about then refer back to my last entry where I talk about one of the locations in the movie.

The stagecoach is currently at the Lone Pine Film Museum in Lone Pine, CA. Jim Rogers, whose name along with his wife’s is part of the museum name placed it there. Some of Mr. Rogers’s collection is held in the museum. There are other items loaned there as well as permanent items.

One thing to note is that the museum is no longer free. Please note that the current website, as of this writing, and the recent True West (April 2008, page 51) are outdated. There is a $5 admission unless you are a member ($35 a year).

During the last film festival the only paid administrator was let go and the museum is now run completely by volunteers. Keep in mind that the town of Lone Pine is mostly a tourist town. It is a town that is somewhere in between where you start your trip and where it ends. For many it is a town you stop off at to eat and gas on your way to Mammoth, CA. For others it is where you prepare to climb Mt. Whitney or go camping at higher elevations. As a side note, there used to be a major chess tournament held there in the 1970’s that many from the former U.S.S.R. would come to with bodyguards. In any case, the town and the museum have had to find ways to bring in money in order to survive.

I remember traveling HWY 395 through the town in the early 1990’s seeing a sign that said it was the future place for the museum. I really thought that was cool. Then I remember seeing that sign each summer as I drove through for over a decade. Then the museum was recently opened for the public in the past few years.

I have been in the museum a bunch of times. It is a fun to go to at least once if you are in the area. I would encourage this. They have a short film they show you too if you would like.

When I went in recently to look at the merchandise the man behind the counter asked if this was my first time there. I told him I go to the festivals and come to the museum a bunch of times during the year. When I was about to head in to the museum he told me of the $5 fee, said he felt bad for regulars that come by regarding this, and then told me that I should become a member. I gladly paid, but realized that I probably won’t be coming in anymore unless I come to the film festival where I would get in free anyways. I did not have the heart to tell the guy that I was going to buy one of the books they had there, and the museum would have made much more money off me had I had the money I had just given him. As much as I love the museum, I don’t really need to constantly go in to see if there is something new, nor was I really going in this time to view the whole exhibit. In fact, the picture above of the stagecoach is what I really came for and you don’t really need to enter the museum to see that. I have taken enough pictures of the place in the past anyways.

As I was quickly walking through the some of the exhibits I had seen lots of times before I was thinking about how much time and money I have put into this town over the years since I was a kid that some of these people that live there will never know. On this blog alone I have freely plugged the Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, and the museum more than anything. I have non-internet things I do that these locations come up a lot too. I will continue to show locations in this area because I truly love doing this as a fun hobby.

If it sounds like I am discontented here then I want to say nothing is further from the truth. Part of the reason I have not spent more time talking about samurai movies on this blog is because of some of the nonsense and dishonesty that I had to deal with in the past in that area with people just trying to make a quick buck; eventually in another entry I’ll explain some of my martial arts background and why I got into those movies. This isn’t the case here with Lone Pine, and in my experiences, not in the area of American western movies either. I just wanted to mention, in regards to the above paragraphs, that it takes a lot of money exchanging hands to enjoy some of these things that I have written about on this blog. There are lots of places I wish I could drop everything and go to right now. I wish I could explore other parts of the whole planet, but that is not realistic. It is up to others to show some of their local location treasures. Someday I will visit them.

Enough of this. I have another Alabama Hills location that I think is rather unique for next time. Until then...

The Rawhide Burial Site (The Alabama Hills Series)

(GPS: N36 36.495 W118 07.615)

(Edit 1/29/10: this is one I decided to update with an HD version of the video. At this time, the old version is still up, but might be taken down at a later time. The new HD version is in the links below. There is a little more in this one and I do not explain every little detail. So, it maybe good to pause and repeat viewings if you want to get the most out of it.)

This is one of my favorite locations. I would have shown this one a long time ago, but I was never completely satisfied with the pictures and video I have done of it. Part of the problem is that the sun is always in the way at the correct angle when I showed up. Some areas of the Alabama Hills can be shot in the morning with no problems, but others require one to wait until the late afternoon in order to get the best shots.

A bunch of films have used this location. I show a bunch in the following video. It is known as the Rawhide Burial Site because it was where Edgar Buchanan was buried in the movie Rawhide. Check out the video:

Rawhide Burial Site (Youtube Version)

Here is a picture from the movie showing where the burial site was in the movie.

You can see the little rock that is like a headstone in this picture.
Here is a different angle of it. That little rock is still there in the middle of the picture. I say it is little, but when you get to it is a bit bigger than what these pictures make you think it is.

Another movie used this location just about 50 feet south of the site. This would be to the right of the above pictures. Here is the bad guy riding his horse attempting to attack Audie Murphy.

I stood right in front of this rock formation to get this picture.
I stepped out onto the road to shoot at this angle. Same rock formation, but Audie would have been behind the rocks in the middle of the photo shooting the guy.

In the video I showed that Posse From Hell, The Oregon Trail (a lost John Wayne movie), and Ride Lonesome were filmed here. I have seen it in others too. The Indian attack in How The West Was Won passed by here. I know Hopalong Cassidy and Roy Rogers passed by here too. I am sure there are more.

Virgil Earp Home (The Earp Family Series)

This is one of those entries I struggled with in how I was going to present this. I went with a compromise. I will get to that down below.

Virgil Earp was really the "leader" in Tombstone since he had the authority as a law enforcement officer. I do not want to spend too much time rehashing that so let me just refer those who are not too familiar to a quick read of the Wikipedia article about him:

Virgil Earp Wiki

For those that want a more serious treatment of his life then I would refer you to this book:

Chapput, Don. Virgil Earp: Western Peace Officer. Affiliated Writers of America. Inc. 1994.

After the attempt on his life, then the eventually death of Morgan mentioned in the previous entry, Virgil moved back to Colton, CA. After recovering, keep in mind his left arm was permantly crippled, he was elected the first marshal of the town of Colton. His time as marshal in Colton was nothing like Tombstone where he faced gunmen and cattle rustlers on a daily basis. It was a lot more routine with him doing menial jobs and making simple arrests. He eventually left that job and tried to start a business in nearby San Bernadino.

During his time in Colton he had purchased a house that is still standing. I have been near this house a few times. I do have pictures of it, but I decided I will not post them here. I have a rule with this blog, that except for special circumstances, I do not like to post pictures of houses that are privately owned with people currently living in them. I know they have been working on the house and were doing so when I was recently there.

Instead, I decided to just post the historical picture of the house. Right here:
Since the location is published in so many official books and on the internet I will just go ahead and say that it is at 528 West "H" Street. You will be able to recognize the house as it is today from the above picture. If you do go to this location please be quiet and respectful. I suggest you just "pass by" on the street.

I'll get back to more Earp family locations some other time. My next entry will deal with one of my favorite movie locations.

Rest in Peace Morgan Earp (The Earp Family Series)

(GPS: N34 04.465 W117 20.835)

Morgan Earp (Apr. 24, 1851-Mar. 18, 1882)

 

(Edit: March 18, 2010. I decided to revise this video in HD. I used the more common picture thought to be Morgan Earp, but I will keep the other picture on here for reference purposes. I make note of that below.)

RIP Morgan Earp (Youtube Version)

 

Here is an old west related location that many in my area do not know about. The Earp family was originally from Iowa. They came to California during the Civil War. They eventually went back east, but throughout their lives California played an important role as their home.

 

Wyatt Earp is the most famous of the Earp brothers. There were a few others, but the other two of major significance in old west history are Virgil and Morgan Earp. Both of these guys had were important in the locations I will be writing about. I will come back to Virgil in another entry.

 

It turns out I am not a hardcore fan of the Wyatt Earp history and legend. I do not think it is a bad thing, but the story has been told so many times that I just have burned out of every single movie and story of it. Whenever I look to anything regarding the old west, it turns out that when it comes to 19th century western law enforcement the first thing that is talked about is Wyatt Earp. This is understandable, but I do not think it is a good thing to exclude other personalities of historical significance. I am just a person that needs variation.

 

In other words, Wyatt Earp is cool, but obsessing over him at the expense of other persons and other histories is not something you will see me do. The one thing that I have found more interesting about Wyatt Earp is he went to so many locations that I have lived near or gone to. Then, those I have not been too, I have relatives that have lived near them. I mentioned the movie Warlock a few entries ago in that it is the Wyatt Earp legend turned around with different names. Henry Fonda hires himself out as a marshal and drifts from town to town. Wyatt Earp is the drifter model in western cinema. I needed to get some of that out of the way before I talk about the person this really is about. Morgan was the younger brother. He was one of the participants at the Gunfight at the OK Corral. Rather than rehash that story let me just refer to the wikipedia entry for anyone that doesn't really know much about it. Also, the movie Tombstone is pretty good in this regard if you want the background, the gunfight, and including what this entry is about. A picture of Morgan taken from The Earp Clan: The Southern California Years by Nicholas R. Cataldo (and like a lot of old west pictures this one is disputed):

This other one (edit: added 3/17/10) is the more commonly accepted picture of Morgan. A few months later Virgil Earp was shot in the streets of Tombstone, AZ. He was injured, but survived. Another entry, next time. Unfortunately, Morgan was not so lucky. He was shot while playing pool with brother Wyatt at Campbell and Hatch Billiard parlor on Tombstone's Allen Street around 10pm on Saturday, March 18, 1882. He was killed.

Wyatt Earp sent his brother's body back to the family in Colton, CA. Originally, it was buried near Slover Mountain, but the Southern Pacific Railroad was found to have the right away through the cemetary area. So, in 1892 the remains were sent to the new Hermosa Cemetery. Here is the tombstone dedicated in his honor:

I do not want this to be a major issue. It really isn't because I understand the spirit of why it was put there. This tombstone was added in 1991. It says U.S. Deputy Marshal. There isn't any evidence of Morgan having that authority. It would take some time to explain the difference between a sheriff, city marshal, and a federal marshal; it was actually one of the problems related to what happened in Tombstone, AZ. Virgil was given this status in Tombstone. Wyatt would get the status later after Virgil was shot. Wyatt could have deputized Morgan (and others like Doc Holliday), but Morgan did not have the actual status given by the local U.S. Marshal Dake. I don't want to sweat the small stuff, but just in case someone sees the above and is puzzled. Slover Mountain Cemetery area would be the near the moundlike structure in the middle right of the picture. That would be where the body originally was until it was sent here in 1892. So, next time you read about Wyatt Earp or see movies, like Tombstone, this was the ending location for Morgan Earp. For me, I get a kick out of this only being less than an hour from where I live. It is amazing to be standing over the gravesite of a man who was a participant of the most well known gunfight in the west, but also seeing what caused Wyatt Earp to go on his vendetta ride against the cowboys! A classic case of, "I will avenge you!"

One final note. I actually know of a bunch of gravesites of historical persons, as well as, movie celebrities. That is part of location hunting. It is not something I talk about too much because I think being obsessed with gravesites is a tad morbid. I will on occasion try to find some of them, but it is not something I try to make a habit of. Some are unique and personal to me too. Once in a while I might mention or show one, but it isn't something you will see me posting too many of.

For more on the Earps during their time in California check out The Earp Clan: The Southern California Years by Nicholas R. Cataldo (2006).

My Favorite Westerns

I was tempted into calling these last two entries, Diary of a Madman, parts 1-2, Due to the length. I wrote them to get some ideas out, but if someone is not in the mood for that then I bold faced all the westerns so one can skip to what he or she wants to read. I just did not want to make a list which leads to my next paragraph.

One thing I purposely avoid doing online is rating my favorite movies on a top 5, top 10, top 100 movies, etc. list. On the links I list on the right side of my blog there is usually many threads and messages dedicated to this sort of thing. One thing I have seen on IMDB is just about every variation of a “top something” list. I might take a cursory look at some messages, but those really do not tell me much. This is why I started with the last entry where I wanted to clarify what I mean by a “western” and some really broad criteria as to what I look for in judging my favorites.

Something I did not mention, but I think I should mention here is related to the storytelling. I good western does not take that long to tell the story. The reason for this goes back to the B-western era where the movie was only about an hour long. The movie was short enough to support the A-movie playing on the same night. Eventually, these B-movies evolved into co-features and, by the end of the evening, you would have seen about 3 hours of movies. Since westerns tend to be more visual than depend on the spoken word they do not really need hours to be told. In my view, a good western can be told in less than an 1 1/2 hours long. Any western that goes beyond this time length has to do more to justify its extended use of time. This goes contrary to a lot of recent western movies where over 2 1/2 hours are used to tell the story. There are some good reasons they do this, but I will not go into it here.

Relating to what I just mentioning, let me start this by mentioning one of the best western director/actor teams of all time. That would be director John Ford and actor John Wayne. These men made a lot of really good movies. You can not talk about westerns without these men. This may come as a shock to those who have read this blog in the past, but I am not most hardcore fan of those type of westerns. I have watched them in the past and on occasions will do so in the future. The problem is they tend to be a little too epic with storylines that I do not have interest in. The main story I find interesting, but then there is usually something I do not care about that takes up a lot of the movie. So, I would encourage people to watch the Ford/Wayne epic movies, but those are not my favorites. Watch Stagecoach, The Searchers, My Darling Clementine, and Fort Apache. Those tend to be the most talked about of the Ford/Wayne team. I can not honestly say I could watch these over and over again like I can some others, but they are some good ones. A lot of those have Monument Valley in them which is a very awesome scenery location.

On the other hand, let me give an epic movie that really is worth the extra time. That would be Red River directed by Howard Hawks with John Wayne. This is the best movie I can think of that illustrates the big cattle drive. I will mention a few others, but I think this is my favorite in this regard. Like a lot of old movies and westerns, sometimes the endings are weak to create a happy ending, or the old Hays Code would prevent the director from creating a downbeat satisfying ending. This is the case here, but this should not stop one from enjoying the whole movie.

Another one often listed is the movie Shane. This is a must see. Alan Ladd plays the iconic gunfighter versus the evil Jack Palance gunfighter. What I really like, and I think this is part of Alan Ladd’s acting, and probably his personality, is his slowness. This is a tradition in western movies that the gunfighter is really slow and does not speak much. Then at the very last second he has lightning fast reflexes when he pulls his gun out. Meanwhile, Jack Palance is considered by many to have the best western villain role with this movie. The thing that is interesting is, in some ways, the two gunfighters are very similar to each other. Van Heflin and Jean Arthur have good roles as the parents of the young boy, Joey. A lot of the movie is seen through the young boy’s eyes. The bonding Shane and Joey have is really “cute.” I think that is the best way to describe it since Joey, like most young boys and girls, has a very sincere way of dealing with Shane. The ending of this movie fits perfectly with this and may bring a tear or two to the eye. Finally, the Grand Tetons in Wyoming are a beauty to see.

High Noon with Gary Cooper is a classic. There are lots of stories out there about why this movie is left-wing politically; do a google search. From what I have been told this is the most requested movie of an President in office. I do not really look at this movie politically though, nor do I look at this movie as the realistic old west. I mentioned in my last entry why this would not bother me. Here is why it is great. If you have ever been in stressful situation where you think the world is not on your side then this is the movie for you. Guess what, you will have a clock in just about every scene letting you know that time is running down on our hero. The movie is almost in real time. You can check the clock and see what time it is. Can Will Kane convince others to help him against the villain who will reach his men in town at noon? One thing interesting about me liking this movie, is that there really is not scenery since it takes place all in town. What is cool though is the one chance you get at real scenery you do not really want to see it because it means the villain might arrive soon. The claustrophobia works really well here. The movie is not relaxed and filled with open scenery. This is an example of where scenery was not used and it works. The music helps create the tension, along with the Tex Ritter sung theme.

I wanted to get out some of the 5-6 classic western movies that I do not think one can skip. The movies listed above are the most common ones talked about being the “Greatest Westerns Ever.” Just writing about them makes me want to watch them again.

Another team of classic movies are the ones from director Anthony Mann and actor Jimmy Stewart. Winchester ’73, Bend of the River, The Far Country, The Man from Laramie, and The Naked Spur. Stewart has some nice emotional moments in these movies, “Oh, You Scum!” from The Man From Laramie. The Naked Spur might be the one I like the most, but I can not say for sure. The others lesser known Mann movies that are classics are The Man of the West with Gary Cooper. Originally, it was intended to be another Stewart movie. This will get a dvd release in May, 2008. Another being The Tin Star with Henry Fonda and Anthony Perkins. The Tin Star is a nice one with Fonda showing Perkins the ropes of being a lawman. I like the practical advice he gives.

Now, let me give my absolute favorite team, Director Budd Boetticher and actor Randolph Scott. Seven Men From Now, The Tall T, Ride Lonesome, Comanche Station, Decision at Sundown, and Buchanon Rides Alone. Anyone that has read my blog knows I have talked about the first four repeatedly. I know the exact locations for those movies almost inside and out, and if not, I can tell you the general area where they took place. They specifically filmed these movies with the scenery being an important part of the storyline. They would create new scenes just to film extra scenery. Someone online criticized Ride Lonesome as one of the worst westerns of the 50’s. Then he said, only the cinematography of the Eastern Sierra is the highlight. Imagine being in a court of law and a defense attorney says, “Apart from your eyewitnesses, the prosecution's case is very poor!” That is they way I felt when I read that review of the movie. The way I see it, the first five movies I mentioned are variations of the same story. The story is simple. Randolph Scott is dealing with the death of his wife. There is usually another woman he bonds with, but she is usually already married. Darn! The villains are charismatic themselves. Sometimes old friends of Scott’s. Boetticher’s strength is making the most out of simplicity. The movies are only about 80 minutes long. Burt Kennedy wrote and reused a lot of the dialogue in different ways, but it is not a real talky series. There are key conversations, but just enough to figure things out and keep the movie going. Unfortunately, only Seven Men From Now is officially released on dvd. The rest are seen on Encore Westerns and sometimes on TCM.

I wanted to say one more thing about the movie Decision at Sundown. This movie is looked at as one of the lesser efforts compared to the other movies. By itself, this maybe true. I see it as a High Noon turned upside down. It one looks at it from this perspective then they may appreciate it more.

Three other Alabama Hills movies I want to mention are The Violent Men, Rawhide (1951), and The Yellow Sky. I love those movies. Rawhide, with Jack Elam giving my favorite villain role in westerns, will get a dvd release in May. I have said some in the past and will do more in the future. I have tons of location stuff on those movies, but since I do a lot of that in other entries I will skip here.

Sam Peckinpah was a great film director that many know because of his ultra-violent movies like The Wild Bunch. My favorite is Ride the High Country. This was partially filmed in Mammoth for the nice scenery and the town was filmed at Bronson Canyon. It ended up being Randolph Scott's retirement movie. As far as I am concerned this was the last golden age western. A nice realistic western gunfight at the end, as well as, the final picture shot with the Joel McCrea with the mountain behind him makes me like this one right up there with the Boetticher movies. I can watch this one over and over. I like Peckinpah’s Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid a lot too.

Audie Murphy, our most decorated WW2 veteran, is one of my favorite western actors. He, like Randolph Scott, acts in pretty much a way you can expect in every movie. The advantage he had was that he actually had seen violence in the real world. The classic movie that is his best role is No Name on the Bullet. He walks into a town and everyone freaks out since no one knows who is going to kill. He did three in the Alabama Hills that I have mentioned before and intend to do more of in the future: Hell Bent For Leather, Showdown, and Posse From Hell.

Robert Mitchum is always cool to watch. The Man with the Gun will be coming out on dvd in May. Pursued is tad long, but good. Blood on the Moon is a favorite, but not on dvd. The above three are black and white noir westerns.

Speaking of noir westerns, The Gunfighter, with Gregory Peck, is a nice gloomy one about a gunfighter trying to settle down with his wife and son. It is getting a dvd release in May. In westerns there is that old gunfighter that tries to retire, but can not escape is past.

The Shootist, deals with the theme that I just mentioned. John Wayne plays an aging gunfighter who is dying of cancer. What really makes this movie is Wayne was going through the same problem with his real life problems with cancer. If I had to throw out every western John Wayne ever did, but could only keep one this would be it. With that said, True Grit, Rooster Cogburn, The Sons of Katie Elder, and Hondo are some others I come back to every few years.

The Ox-Bow Incident and Silver Lode are my anti-mob favorite movies. I am not a big fan of mob justice in the old west. This probably deserves another entry, but I am not a big fan of “let’s gang up on people,” or the idea that a fair fight is 10 on 1. These two movies show the problems of “mob justice.”

My two favorite Steve McQueen westerns are Nevada Smith and Tom Horn. Nevada Smith is a revenge story with many locations I have been to. Tom Horn is based on the end of the life of the hired gunman.

Vera Cruz with Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster as gunfighter mercenaries in Mexico is important viewing for people that like European Spaghetti Westerns. Made in 1954, it is the master plan for those movies.

The Professionals with Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan, Jack Palance, and Claudia Cardinale is a good one with use of Death Valley and other desert areas.

3:10 to Yuma (1957) with Glenn Ford and Van Heflin is a classic. I talked about this movie a over a year ago on a message forum, and did not get much response because no one knew what I was talking about. I suspect now most know the recent movie was a remake. The opening song is good for that period of movie. The problem this movie and the remake had is trying to figure out how to end it. I can live with the original ending, but I do not know of a way to do it any better.

How the West Was Won is okay to watch. It combines three generations of stories with different directors into a huge epic story. I really like parts of it. Visually, part of the problem with it is the old dvd has a 3 frame view. One feels they are watching three parts of the same movie combined. There is supposed to be a new remastered version of this coming out this year correcting this problem. If someone fixes that then I eagerly await seeing the Indian raid in all its glory. One of these days I have to head back to Convict Lake to show where Jimmy Stewart met up with the Indians at the beginning. Wait, I thought Nevada Smith was there? They both were.

I like Henry Fonda in most westerns he has done. Warlock, with Richard Widmark and Anthony Quinn is a good psychological western. It is a bit long, but here is why I like it. It is a Wyatt Earp fictional film. Change the names around, but it is essentially the Wyatt Earp legend. Sometime soon I will talk about how I feel about the Wyatt Earp history legend. The relationship between Fonda and Quinn is seen by some as controversial. I really do not believe it is anymore than Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday’s friendship. There was a certain dependence on the each other to survive in the west.

I have said very little about European Spaghetti Westerns. I mentioned them in the last entry and regarding Vera Cruz. I am not the biggest fan of them compared to when I was younger. Of the 500 made, I only like, at the most, about 25-50 of them. I haven’t seen all of them, but from what I have read, talked to others about, and seen I would rather spend my time on other movies. A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West, and Duck, You Sucker! are good, but I have seen them so many times since I was kid I would rather spend my time on other movies. Sergio Corbucci would be the other director I like because he had some good scenery in his movies. The Great Silence is my favorite of his. It takes place all in the snow with a mute gunfighter who fights bounty hunters. The ending puts people off, but this is a western where everything is turned upside down. There are a few others, but I need more than violent action to sustain my interest.

This leads me to the 1970’s. I am going to put Will Penny in this category even though it was made in 1968. At this point, most American Westerns took the “realistic” turn. I am not the biggest fan of this time period. A lot of these westerns are meant to be dirty, depressing, and un-heroic. Will Penny is probably my favorite of these movies. The Culpepper Cattle Co., Bad Company, Mr. McCabe & Mrs. Miller, and Heaven’s Gate all have something worth seeing in them. Again, I refer you to my last entry on this. The recent The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is much like this. That actually had good use of cinematography, but did not feel like a western to me.

Jeremiah Johnson, with Robert Redford, is the best mountain man movie out there. I love this one since the first 20 minutes reminds me of some of the places I have hiked, but during the summer.

High Plain's Drifter is probably my favorite Clint Eastwood, apart from his Leone movies. It is as if High Noon went wrong. It is sort of like High Noon 2: The Nightmare. Filmed exclusively at Mono Lake I usually visit the old area, or drive by it once a summer.

Progressing a little further to 1988, the tv mini-series, Lonesome Dove, is much like the above showing the ugly conditions of the western era. It is good, kept my interest, but not something I want to watch too much of.

Up into this point, I have thrown out mentioning any b-westerns of the 1930-40’s. I’ll just say that Hopalong Cassidy movies are really good to watch along with the kids. Nice visuals with Hopalong Cassidy and his sidekicks helping western society. About half of the 66 movies were filmed at the Alabama Hills. Tim Holt was another cool b-movie western hero.

Finally, my favorite tv series is Richard Boone’s Have Gun, Will Travel. Richard Boone easily made one of the coolest roles in the history of television. A gunfighter who is well traveled and well read in the classics hires himself out to those who need him. Even though this show is over 50 years old now I am still amazed with the writing they did on this show. Some of those Gene Roddenberry (Star Trek creator) episodes continue to amaze me.

Writing long entries like this is rare thing for me. Somewhere down the line I need to do a few more of these on other topics. One on comedy westerns I skipped, any other westerns I have forgotten, and one on my martial arts movies interests. My next entry will be back to normal. In the meantime, get the netflix queue filled up, watch TCM, Encore Westerns, and FOX Movie Channel.