Matter Journal 13

While I was in Boulder over Thanksgiving weekend, I happened upon the new Matter Journal while roaming down Pearl Street. Matter is a semi-annual literary journal published by Wolverine Publications in Fort Collins, CO, and their newest issue, Numero 13, is dedicated to the life and times of Cactus Ed.Wolverine was nice enough to send Cold Splinters a copy, and, trust us, it's a humdinger. It's huge, full of great stories, pictures and all that good stuff that, if you're here and reading this, you'll enjoy.Buy it here and then read a much better review at the wonderful High Country News.

PADDLE TO THE SEA

From the Nat'l Film Board of Canada:

Based on Holling C. Holling's book of the same name, Paddle to the Sea is Bill Mason's film adaptation of the classic tale of an Indian boy who sets out to carve a man and a canoe. Calling the man "Paddle to the Sea," he sets his carving down on a frozen stream to await spring’s arrival. The film follows the adventures that befall the canoe on its long odyssey from Lake Superior to the sea.

I remember being shown this film in probably fifth grade. This 1966 film, originally intended to be only for the educational market, was eventually released on 35mm and received an Oscar Nominataion in the Best Short Subject Category. The film was directed by Bill Mason, Canoeist/Artist/Filmmaker responsible for so many great shorts in the 60's-80's (see: The Rise and Fall of the Great Lakes).Watch: Paddle to the Sea

HOLD FAST

This documentary looks like it was shot with a point and shoot camera because it was. This is the story of a small group of self-taught sailors that, after haggling a derelict fiberglass sailboat in Florida, rebuilt the vessel and then sailed to the Bahamas, essentially learning to sail along the way. The film is so raw and real, waterspouts, bludgeoning mahi mahi, and swimming out anchors. Virtually everything is done "under sail" without a working motor. It takes a second to get into, but hold in there. You can download and watch it for free, but help these guys out and pick one up.

OUR LIVES IN OUR HANDS

From Folkstreams.net ...

This 1986 film examines the traditional Native American craft of split ash basketmaking as a means of economic and cultural survival for Aroostook Micmac Indians of northern Maine. This documentary of rural off-reservation Indian artisans aims to break down stereotypical images. Basketmakers are filmed at their craft in their homes, at work on local potato farms and at business meetings of the Basket Bank, a cooperative formed by the Aroostook Micmac Council. First person commentaries are augmented by authentic 17th century Micmac music.

Watch it at Folkstreams!

Buck Season At Bear Meadow Sunset



It's always a real good time to wade through Folkstreams, and last night, while eating spinach pizza and packing for a trip to Colorado, I watched BUCK SEASON AT BEAR MEADOW, a 1984 documentary about a camp in Northern Appalachia where the men hunt the "traditional" way, driving the deer, drinking loads of whiskey and beer, telling jokes and laughing without many teeth. Just in time for eating turkey.Enjoy the preview above and watch it in full here.

BRADFORD ANGIER

Known in the seventies by some as “Mr. Outdoors”, Bradford Angier along with his wife Vena authored and illustrated more than 35 books on topics ranging from foraging wild foods to several how-to’s on building your home in the woods. The couple left their home in the city in 1947 in search of a life reflecting Thoreau’s Walden-pond vision, and eventually restored an old prospector’s cabin with salvaged materials in Hudson’s Hope, BC. You can grab most any of their books at your local bookstore for next to nothing. Those covers on the old paperbacks are golden.

ROCINANTE

Steinbeck's famous camper from Travels With Charley:

“I wanted a three-quarter ton pickup truck, and on this truck I wanted a little house, built like the cabin of small boat”.The truck, we know now, was a new model GMC, with a V6 engine, an automatic transmission, and an oversized generator. The camper was provided by the Wolverine Camper Company of Glaswin, Michigan.The truck was delivered in August, 1961, and, because of satiric remarks from friends was named Rocinante, after Don Quixote’s horse.After Steinbeck's Travels with Charley ended, Rocinante was put up for sale in New York where she was purchased by Mr. William Plate for light work on Maiden Point Farm on the Maryland coast.In February of 1990, the Plates donated Rocinante to the National Steinbeck Center in Steinbeck’s home town of Salinas California. The truck was shipped to Salinas and was “lovingly restored to its original glory by Gene Cochetti”.

And If Live At The Fillmore had been out while Mr. Steinbeck was driving around from coast to coast, I'm sure he would have had it on. Maybe.MP3: Allman Brothers - Done Somebody Wrong

Do It With Joy (1976)



Orca Productions:

British Columbia has a reforestation program to restock vast tracts of land stripped by logging companies. DO IT WITH JOY is about a unique community: a group of people from widely varying backgrounds who come together each spring to plant trees in the vast logged areas of northern British Columbia.
For all of them, tree planting is a source of income, but more importantly it is a chance to share in the building of a self-sufficient community for the few months of the planting season.British Columbia has a reforestation program to restock vast tracts of land stripped by logging companies. DO IT WITH JOY is about a unique community: a group of people from widely varying backgrounds who come together each spring to plant trees in the vast logged areas of northern British Columbia.For all of them, tree planting is a source of income, but more importantly it is a chance to share in the building of a self-sufficient community for the few months of the planting season.

(via BTBN)

Baidarka + The Starship and The Canoe

Baidarka is the name sometimes used for an Aleutian style sea kayak. A prominent feature of a baidarka is its forked bow (bifurcated bow). Very lightweight and maneuverable, it was made out of seal skin sewed only by Aleut women, over a frame made strictly of driftwood (since no trees grow in the Aleutian Islands), bone and sinew. It was treated as a living being by Aleut men (it was taboo for women to handle them).George Dyson, son of astrophysicist Freeman Dyson, is often credited with the revival of the baidarka, through his company Dyson, Baidarka & Company, though Dyson's Baidarkas are made from modern materials such as aluminium for the frame and coated polyester fabric for the skin.. Dyson and his boats were the subject of Kenneth Brower's book The Starship and the Canoe, a book I just finished reading and the obvious reason for this post. Brower's story chronicles Freeman, who is trying to build an inexpensive spaceship to travel the cosmos, and George, who is living in a tree in British Columbia, building a kayak to travel the coast. Awful title, wonderful book.MP3: The Doobie Brothers - It Keeps You Runnin'

Butch Cassidy + Aron Ralston

The Robbers Roost was an outlaw hideout in southeastern Utah that was used mostly by Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch gang. It was considered ideal because of the rough terrain and large amount of lookout points. Robbers Roost was easily defended, difficult to navigate into without detection, and excellent when the gang needed a month or longer to rest and lay low following a robbery.The Robbers Roost is also where, in May 2003, Aron Ralston was canyoneering when a boulder pinned his arm to the wall, forcing him to cut the limb off in order to survive. Danny Boyle has gone done and made a movie about Ralston called 127 hours, and the trailer, courtesy of The Adventure Life (Mr. Casimiro worked on the movie), can be viewed after the jump...MP3: Burt Bacharach - Come Touch The Sun

Winters Of My Life

For the last 35 years, Howard Weamer has been a hutkeeper at Ostrander Hut, 8,500 feet high, 10 miles from the closest motor vehicle access. The hut was built in 1941 by the Civilian Conservation Corp for cross-country skiers. Johnny Burhop, a producer for Discovery Channel, National Geographic and Animal Planet has made a short documentary, Winters of My Life, about Weamer and the winter trips he takes to the Yosemite backcountry year after year.MP3: Tim Bluhm - California Way