Whenever I head out to the mountains I’m appalled at how much I’ve lost touch with the Earth – with Nature. I feel like a foreigner out there.
I suppose most City Folks could say that.
So I was very surprised to see a group (Pod? Herd?) of Mountain Goats
along the side of the road near Radium Hot Springs.
It used to be very rare to see a Mountain Goat.
Now it’s become fairly common.
???
Why have they come down from their lofty heights?
Climate change?
Something has changed …
A little further on …
Sheep
It’s a parade!
The Eye of the Needle – through a glass darkly
Another iconic Landmark.
The Pass to Radium Hot Springs.
Ever had sunstroke? I have. Sunstroke can kill you.
Trust me.
Back in the early 70’s I got a job on road construction – Asphalt Paving.
It was 85 F the first 2 days. I got sunstroke.
This profoundly damaged my central nervous system.
I couldn’t get proper sleep for months.
Often it would take me up to 4 hours just GET to sleep.
Even then I didn’t get any rest.
Finally it abated. But that was a very tough time for me.
Don’t underestimate this kind of thing.
There’s a saying:
Tip: Let God in on the planning.
Things can then exceed anything YOU had in mind.
Heat that Kills
Severe Heat Alerts continue across the NW
Why we never go to Arizona in the Summer.
You gotta know that a RECORD breaking Heatwave is going to profoundly affect everything you do – or plan. We saw the Heatwave coming, but we had already booked our accommodations in Kimberley weeks before so we couldn’t really change our plans without losing a pile of money.
We decided to go – hoping for the best.
And it turned out to be a really good idea.
Why?
Because in Kimberley we had air conditioned accommodations.
At home we didn’t. The heat back in our poor uninsulated house
was intolerable.
Staying in Kimberley allowed us to get valuable rest – in comfort.
That would not have been the case in Calgary.
On the Way to Kimberley
We see familiar icons.
The Rocky MountainsThe Three Sisters at Canmore, AlbertaCascade Mountain, Banff National Park, AlbertaCastle Mountain / Mount Eisenhower, Banff, Alberta
And some mountains I can’t name …
Unidentified Mountain 2, Banff National Park, AlbertaUnidentified Mountain, Canadian RockiesUnidentified Mountains, Canadian RockiesUnidentified Mountain 3, Canadian Rockies
We’re heading out to the British Columbia mountains for 4 days
– to a small town called Kimberley.
There’s 2 routes from Calgary to Kimberley.
The Blue route and the Grey route.
Not sure which way we’ll take,
but the Blue route is 4 minutes shorter!
LoL!
So what are we going to do there?
I hope to at least take a side trip to a place
I visited many years ago called Fort Steele. Fort Steeleis an historical pioneer park.
It might still be closed because of Covid, but I’ve submitted my Covid Clearance Check and acquired a printout for admittance ???
So we’ll see.
Geez … I’ll sure be happy when this Covid thing is over.
Anyway … we’ll be back soon with a lot of pics …
Stay safe.
Along with Clint Eastwood’s Pale Rider, Lawrence Kasdan’s Silverado was supposed to breathe new life into the western genre in the mid-80s. It failed to do so. Reviews were positive, but moviegoers where underwhelmed. It did a lot better when released on video casette and was one of those movies that drew Hollywood’s attention to this new market.
The film’s story is classic western stuff: A cowboy named Emmett saves a man called Paden, who was left behind in the desert by bandits who had stolen all his possessions, including his horse and (worst of all) his hat. Emmett and Paden head for the town of Silverado, were Emmett was born. En route they pick up Emmett’s younger brother Jake, a womanizer and gunslinger, who invariably gets into trouble by courting the ladies and shooting their lovers (in self-defense, of course). They are joined by a fourth man, Mal, a former slave turned farmer, who is looking for the murderers of his father. The town of Silverado is dominated by the McKendriks clan, long-time enemies of Emmett’s and Jake’s family. The sheriff is one of Paden’s old ‘pals’, a guy with a very dubious background, and Mal also thinks the men he’s looking for are hiding out in the town of Silverado …
Silverado is a lot of fun to watch. The mosaic script may cause some confusion, but there’s plenty of action and in spite of a running time of more than two hours the movie is over before you know it. But if a movie aspires to revive a moribund genre, it must shed a new light on traditional genre elements, and this is exactly what Silverado fails to do. Like I have stated before, movies reflect as much the time in which they were made as the time in which they are set. If Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunchwas the prototypical American western of the late sixties, Silverado is the prototypical American western of the mid-eighties.
The Sixties were a period of change and turmoil, and the best westerns from the late Sixties, early Seventies, were preoccupied with themes such as the closing of the frontier and the transition to a new era (The Wild Bunch, Monte Walsh), the outlaw as a folk hero (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid) or the plight of the red man (Soldier Blue, Little Big Man, Ulzana’s Raid). The excessive violence in some of these movies was often interpreted as a reaction to the Vietnam war. It’s significant that several movies from the period featured juvenile character who were exposed to dangerous situations (The Culpepper Cattle Company, Bad Company).
Those movies weren’t all masterpieces, but they were thought-provoking, and dared to be dirty and violent. The American society was re-inventing itself, and so was that American genre par excellence, the western. The eighties were a decade characterized by a new national (nationalist) awareness. It also was a typical ‘bourgeois’ decade, hostile to true art. Like Roland Barthes stipulated in his classic study Mythologies, bourgeois society has two ways of dealing with art that challenges its nature: it either denies it, or tries to convert it. Silverado is very much a conversion, bourgeois style, of what the western had been in the previous decades. Instead of challenging and thought-provoking, Silverado is reassuring; it’s crammed with action, but it’s never dirty or nasty, it’s all clean fun for the entire family. People who usually do not love westerns, tend to love it more that fans of the genre.
The four leads are fine, but their motivations and actions are purely rhetorical. No wonder some of the supporting actors steal the show: Jeff Goldblume is well-cast as a perfidious card player and Brian Dennehy is a true delight as the corrupt sheriff of Silverado. There are also a nice cameo appearances by Linda Hunt and especially John Cleese as a sheriff who’s definitely not from these parts.
⭐⭐⭐½
(1985 – Dir: Lawrence Kasdan – Cast: Kevin Kline (Paden), Scott Glenn (Emmett), Kevin Costner (Jake), Danny Glover (Mal), John Cleese, Jeff Goldblume, Rosanna Arquette, Brian Dennehy, Linda Hunt) Note: * (1)Don’t get this wrong: Art has no specific political color, it can be either left-wing or right-wing, but it is by definition challenging, thought-provoking.
Back in 2014, Rose and I did a flash tour of Joshua Tree National Park
near Palm Springs, California.
It’s a large Park.The High Desert from ‘on high’.
Sadly, we only had a limited time that day
so missed out on a lot of things here.
Too bad – because we’re not likely to get back.
Make the most of your moments folks.
But it was still good.
Below: The Sign
I look sorta like Fred Couples – without the money.
Neither the graffiti or the bullet holes are mine Officer.
Now THAT is a hell of a Joshua Tree.
Joshua Tree National Park is famed for it’s amazing rock formations.
Many of them are named.
I named this one Rose’s Noodle.
I doubt that will catch on.
Beautiful
Chuckawalla Lizard
You can see a long ways in the high desert.
I could climb around in this stuff all day.
So what do you do after a hot day in the desert?
Dumb question.
Hope we can get back there and see all the stuff that we missed.
I cannot recall any Hockey team winning a Hockey Tournament after losing it’s first 3 games in Round Robin competition.
Can you?
If you ever needed any proof that Heart, Will, Desire and Hard Work
are more important that Skill, Talent, and Experience,
it was just provided by a group of Canadian Hockey Players
who just won the IIHF 2021 World Hockey Tournament
(International Ice Hockey Federation)
in Riga, Latvia.
Video Highlights:
After losing the first 3 games, these guys – most of whom I’ve never heard of? (they were NOT Stars!) -proceeded to win every game from then on – usually in Overtime or by a single goal.
A truly amazing feat.
Once in the dream of a night I stood
Lone in the light of a magical wood,
Soul-deep in visions that poppy-like sprang;
And spirits of Truth were the birds that sang,
And spirits of Love were the stars that glowed,
And spirits of Peace were the streams that flowed
In that magical wood in the land of sleep.
– Sarojini Naidu
When you go for a walk, take seeds with you, poppies, rainbow chard, rocket. Plant them among the weeds in patches of wasteland. See what happens.
– Tom Hodgkinson
The great events of life often leave one unmoved; they pass out of consciousness, and, when thinks of them, become unreal. Even the scarlet flowers of passion seem to grow in the same meadow as the poppies of oblivion. We reject the burden of their memory, and have anodynes against them. But the little things, the things of no moment, remain with us. In some tiny ivory cell the brain stores the most delicate, and the most fleeting impressions.
– Oscar Wilde
Or, bide thou where the poppy blows With windflowers fail and fair.
– William C. Bryant
The poppies hung Dew-dabbled on their stalks.
– John Keats
Back in the late 70’s (or early 80’s?) I went swimming at Oak Creek Crossing in Sedona, Arizona. But I believe a few people thought a was exaggerating because much of the time Oak Creek Crossing is shallow and there’s no obvious place you can swim. Yet I recently discovered several photos that prove my case.
Don’t forget your sunscreen / Net PhotoThe water can be cool … but that’s good / Net PhotoIt’s no secret anymore / Net PhotoNet Photo
When I came here back in the 70’s I had Spiritual experiences here – and it was still pretty well unspoiled. I climbed up to Cathedral Rock and I felt like it was a secluded sacred moment – like nobody had ever been up here before. Now there are hiking trails that go up here and people all over the place. The Spell of Solitude is long gone.
Net Photo
But it’s beauty and mystique can never completely be destroyed.
Because of it’s eminent re-watchability
I place Silverado as a Western Classic.
That’s how I judge these things.
Time usually tells the story.
Other opinions:
IMDB: “7.2” Not bad.
I’m a big fan of Rotten Tomatoes Reviews
because they also show the ‘Audience Score’
who aren’t encumbered by intellect.
They just know what they like.
MetaCritic: “64” out of 100.
Audience: “8” out of 10.
The audience got it.
The spectacular Silveradoensemble cast is revealed:
Here’s an alphabetical listing of opening SilveradoCredits and Billing:
Rosanna Arquette John Cleese Kevin Costner Brian Dennehy Scott Glenn Danny Glover Jeff Goldblum Linda Hunt Lawrence Kasdan Kevin Kline Question/Quiz:
The Quiz question is: Without looking below, what order would you Bill the above Actors in the opening Silverado Screen Credits? I ask this question because the Billing order is very often not what you’d figure it would be. Try this quiz and you’ll see.
To me the order of Billing is always interesting.
Who gets Top Bill? – and the succeeding order.
It’s often not what you would think it would be.
Screen Images rom “THE MOVIE STILLS COLLECTION” website: (http://annyas.com/screenshots/updates/silverado-1985-lawrence-kasdan/)
A Critical Showdown
Because of it’s eminent re-watchability
I place Silverado a Western Classic.
That’s how I judge these things.
Time usually tells the story.
Other opinions:
IMDB: “7.2” Not bad.
I’m a big fan of Rotten Tomatoes Reviews
because they also show the ‘Audience Score’
who aren’t encumbered by intellect.
They just know what they like.
MetaCritic: “64” out of 100.
Audience: “8” out of 10.
The audience got it.
Kevin Costner & Modern West from their Album Untold Truths
I recently said some negative things about Kevin Costner on another Blog. I deeply regret those knee jerk remarks. Snap judgements. What do I really know about anybody else? Not a damn thing. I hope to become less judgmental in future.
And I really like what he says here. Not a bad song either.
Besides the world being turned upside down,
My personal life is changing as well.
I’d been wondering for a while if my time at Home Depot was winding down.
Was it over?
I didn’t know for sure.
What was the right thing to do? Right now?
It’s been 8 years and I can surely stay longer.
But THEN, my wife Rose came to me and said
“I want you to retire.”
That was a pretty direct answer to my question
I had never presented to her.
Other things happened:
My computer blew up.
I re-installed Win 10 and all my other stuff.
Then my monitor failed.
I went out and bought a new one.
my new BENQ monitor
It’s beautiful.
Then …
I had been dreaming for a quite a while that I’d like to have a KIA Soul.
I just like that vehicle.
It suits me.
But I never really thought I would ever have one.
Then Rose noticed a great deal on a second-hand Soul.
We went and looked
It was immaculate.
Gorgeous.
Fully loaded – sun roof and everything.
We bought it. Rose and I aren’t rich. Money wise.
But I’m 72 now.
And I don’t plan and taking anything with me.
I just want to enjoy the last part of this lifetime.
In the making the original Star Wars
some of the Stars used to laugh at George Lucas behind his back – that they were involved in such a crazy project.
Above: Young George Lucas with Alec Guinness / 1977
Below: Star Wars lineup 1977
I met a gal who said she had gone to see the original movie 13 times.
When they camp out that means it’s a hit.
The Steal of the Century
George Lucas offered 20th Century (Fox) Studios to keep his salary for Star Wars at $150,000
in exchange for two seemingly insignificant requests:
#1) That he retain all merchandising rights,
#2) that he would retain the rights to any sequels.
How One Brilliant Decision In 1973 Made George Lucas A Multi-Billionaire Today
” … But the real money for George didn’t come from box office receipts. Between 1977 and 1978, Star Wars sold $100 million worth of toys. 35 years later and Star Wars themed toys have generated $12 billion in revenue. Today, Star Wars licensed toys produce $3 billion a year in revenues. And keep in mind, after the first film George owned 100% of the rights to the entire franchise. The next five Star Wars movies would go on to earn an additional $3.5 billion at the box office. In total, the Star Wars empire has sold $4 billion worth of DVDs and VHS, $3 billion worth of video games, $2 billion worth of books and another $1.3 billion through various other licensing deals. That brings the grand grand revenue total after 35 years worth of Star Wars licensing to $27 billion. After expenses, taxes, fees, etc. George Lucas had earned himself an impressive $3.3 billion net worth by 2012. Then, Disney came calling.
Back in 2012, Disney paid George $4 billion to purchase the entire franchise outright …
… for that single brilliant decision made back in 1973. George Lucas essentially traded $350,000 for more than $5 billion.
George Lucas is a very rich man. In fact, out of all the extremely rich celebrities on the planet, George Lucas is the most extremely rich celebrity, with a personal net worth of $5.4 billion. ”
If this had all never really happened who would believe it ?
The fires are just starting and will involve most of Western North America.
Beautiful
I could climb around in this stuff all day.
That’s GOLD Baby!
IMDB: “7.2” Not bad.
I’m a big fan of Rotten Tomatoes Reviews
MetaCritic: “64” out of 100.
ALLMOVIE: “4.5” out of 5.
I’ll just pop a couple of meds …
