Heroes / by Angu / written by David Bowie

Paladins, Paladins … where doth thou Roam?

In keeping with my recent theme of Paladins …

There are 12 Spiritual Cities exist on this Planet.
Each operates in service to the Spiritual Hierarchy.
These cities exist on a supraphysical level –
essentially unknown, invisible, and inaccessible.
Shambala is the likely the most famous.

More and more, we find that the Legends and Myths of old
have substance and historical merit.

Statue of King Arthur at Tintagel Castle, Cornwall England:

So, what relevance and influence might such Legends have for us today?

I still know nothing.

“And sometimes thro’ the mirror blue
The knights come riding two and two:
She hath no loyal knight and true,
 The Lady of Shalott.”
– Alfred, Lord Tennyson

I’ve been stuck for nearly 2 weeks.
Some would call this ‘Writers Block’.
I’ll call it Blog Block.
(It has a better ring to it anyway)
So I’m working on a least 4 posts,
but nothing will come together.
They just won’t.
Not that I don’t have the inspiration … I do.

But now I’m going to Prince Edward Island for 10 days.
This will be my big event for this Summer!

I will eventually break through.
Then I hope to go on a rampage.
We’ll see …

I see your true colors
Shining through
I see your true colors
And that’s why I love you
So don’t be afraid to let them show
Your true colors
True colors are beautiful
Like a rainbow

Bluebirds over the Mountains / Ronnie Hawkins & The Hawks / 1965

The Common Grackle / Quiscalus quiscula

The Grackles drop by our bird feeder twice a year.
Once in Spring … and well … Today.
It’s easy to miss them.
They never announce their visit.
They just show up, eat a bunch of seeds, then fly off.
We’re lucky to see them at all!
But this year we were lucky:

Grackles … where they come and go.

Apples Dipped in Candy / Mickey Newbury / 1975

My favorite Newbury song.

Milton Sims “Mickey” Newbury Jr.
(May 19, 1940 – September 29, 2002)
Member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Mickey wrote over 500 songs.

Time gets us all.
Over time, a lot of my old posts have become corrupted .
I don’t monitor them as I should.
Unless somebody Comments on one.
Then I’m spurred to fix it.
And Repost it.

 The Ballad of Jeremiah Johnson – Tim McIntire

Jeremiah Johnson made his way into the mountains
Bettin’ on forgettin’ all  the troubles that he knew
The trail was wide and narrow
And the eagle  or the sparrow
Showed the path he was to follow as they flew.
A  mountain man’s a lonely man
And he leaves a life behind
It ought to  have been different,
but oftimes you will find,
That the story doesn’t  always
go that way you had in mind.
Jeremiah’s story was that kind. . .
Jeremiah’s story was that kind.

The Way that you Wander … Tim McIntire

The way that you wander is the way  that you choose,
The day that you tarry is the day that you lose.
Sunshine or thunder, a man will always wonder.
Where the fair wind blows.

Jeremiah Johnson (Vocal Mix #2): Tim McIntire

An Indian says you search in vain
for what you cannot find.
He says  you’ll find a thousand ways
for runnin’ down your time.
An Indian didn’t  scream it, he said it in a song,
And he’s never been known to be wrong.
He’s never been known to be wrong.

Tim McIntire’s songs were a wonderful and perfect fit.

Could use you right now Abe.

Prince Valiant / Paladin
‘Prince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur’

In my exploration of Paladins in history and modern culture
I discovered an interesting coincidence with one of my childhood icons:
Prince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur

“Universally acclaimed as the most stunningly gorgeous adventure comic strip of all time, Prince Valiant ran for 35 years under the virtuoso pen of its creator, Hal Foster. (Such was its popularity that today, decades after Foster’s death, it continues to run under different hands.)”

“Prince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur, often simply called Prince Valiant, is an American comic strip created by Hal Foster in 1937. It is an epic adventure that has told a continuous story during its entire history, and the full stretch of that story now totals more than 4600 Sunday strips. The strip appears weekly in more than 300 American newspapers, according to its distributor, King Features Syndicate.”

The interesting coincidence I refer to, of course, is the similarity
of Paladins/Have Gun Will Travel Knight chess piece
and Prince Valiant’s chosen icon of the red horse.

I wouldn’t say for certain that Paladin borrowed
the Prince Valiant symbol, but even if he did,
it was a pretty good idea.

Coming:
Paladins of modern culture.
– and more

Big Iron
Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins, Will Dudley
–  written by Marty Robbins.

The most Photogenic celebrity I ever saw was John Wayne.
The least was Richard Nixon.

In 1957 I was 9 years old.
TVs were Black and White.
Number of Channels? 3 (maybe).

Have Gun – Will Travel was big.
Richard Boone was Paladin.

In TV and Film, Star Power is everything.
It drives the Industry/Art.
Richard Boone had done a lot of work in Film and TV
before he became Paladin.
In Westerns he’d mostly played  Badguys.
So in Have Gun Will Travel it always seemed to me
like he was chosen to ‘Play against Type’ as they say.
BUT was absolutely perfect for the role.
To the point where and I can’t imagine anybody better.

Coming:
Paladins in modern culture.
– more

1964

Don’t take your Guns to Town / Steve Earle
Written Johnny Cash

“The way a man dies is less important than the way he lives.”
– Paladin

PALADINS SWORD:
Paladins main weapon was a
.45 caliber Colt Single Action Army Cavalry Model revolver
with a 7.5″ rifled barrel.

“The balance is perfect. This trigger responds to a pressure of one ounce. If you look carefully in the barrel you’ll see the lines of the rifling. It’s a rarity in a hand weapon. This gun was handcrafted to my specifications and I rarely draw it unless I mean to use it.”

Paladins backup weapon was his
Remington Model 95, double-barrel pocket pistol.
Commonly called a Derringer.

Coming:
Paladin Images
– Paladins in modern culture.
– more

PALADIN’s ICON:

“I played in eleven movie Westerns and was kicked or shot or hanged and nobody noticed me,” said Boone. “Then I played the biggest villain of all time, Pontius Pilate, in The Robe. Nobody cared. So you can guess how grateful I am to Paladin, who made me respectable.”

ANTI-HERO?

Saw someone who thought that Paladin was an Anti-Hero?
Anti-Hero Definition (Wikipedia) :
“One who may lack some conventional heroic qualities and attributes,
such as idealism and morality.”
Well …
Only The Lone Ranger could shoot the gun out of a badguys hand.
(heck of a knack I’d say!) And yeah, Paladin did kill a few people (Badguys). And he also wore a black hat. (black everything actually!)
BUT …
I’d say Paladin was highly “moral” and often/usually
resisted violence if reason could be achieved.
He was a Goodguy – A Hero.
A Paladin:
“A knight without armour” the song goes.

His ICON:

“A chess knight of silver is his badge of trust”

On the Chess Board I’d say that Paladin was always the White.

What do you think?

Coming:
– Paladins Sword
– Paladins in modern culture.
– more

Paladin was no light weight:
In Episode 82 of Have Gun – Will Travel, “The Posse”
(October 3, 1959 – wtitten by Gene Roddenberry (Star Trek)
Paladin (Boone) quotes Greek Historian Herodotus:
“And in his third essay, Herodotus said,
“We can contend with the evil that men do in the name of evil,
but Heaven protect us from what they do in the name of good.“

Sounds somewhat prophetic doesn’t it?

The Ballad of Paladin

Written by Johnny Western, Richard Boone, and Sam Rolfe
– performed by Duane Eddy

Many Western TV shows and Films have been boosted
by a great Theme Song:
Gunfight at OK Corral; Maverick; Bonanza;
A Fist Full Of Dollars: The Man who Shot Liberty Valance;
Rawhide; Maverick; The Lone Ranger …
The list is long …

But none were greater and more popular than
The BALLAD of PALADIN

Richard Boone was ‘All In’ with the concept of Paladin and the series.
And it’s interesting to note that Boone had a hand
in the writing of the song.

Boone quote:

“We deliberately set out to create an elegantly deadly character as different as possible from any other mustache,” said Boone. “It was sort of the spice in the stew. We gave him an education, with a knowledge of foreign languages and the classics so he wouldn’t appear to be just another guy who had spent his entire life on the main street of Dodge City. He’s not ashamed to take a drink or make a pass at a doll and even his judgment of right from wrong is based on his own personal ethics. I think he’s quite a character.”

And the lyrics of the song truly do inspire the ideal of a Paladin – a singular and mystical medieval knight mercenary
who championed the good.

Johnny Western recorded the original original 45 rpm single version in 1958 that was the regular theme to the television show
Have Gun – Will Travel from the second season on.

Over the years, several Artists have done cover versions:
I chose a couple:

Coming:
-‘Have Gun – Will Travel‘ icons
– Paladins in modern culture.
– more

The Ballad of Paladin
Written by Johnny Western, Richard Boone, and Sam Rolfe
– performed by Duane Eddy

Typically, a project I start turns into a monster – with many heads.
And sometimes becomes so huge that I often don’t finish it at all.
WHY?
Because I really dislike making HUGE Posts.
I figure that people these days, don’t have the time or energy
to wade through stuff like that.
Therefore, I use images as much as possible to convey my message – as they communcate directly, simply, and powerfully.

So …

The Paladin:

As a 9 year old kid who grew up in the

(My Golden Age would be the 40’s and 50’s)
Back then, I had no idea what a ‘Paladin‘ was.

I’m sure most of us still don’t.

Did you?

The original Paladins, were 12 legendary medieval (8th century) French Knights – whose traditions and ideal were later adopted by other cultures -perhaps most notably to us as the Knights of the Round Table
in the Arthurian (Camelot/Lancelot) romance.
And we see their iconic images throughout the centuries.

Further:
AI definition:

The Paladin, often associated with chess due to the knight piece, is a character who is both a warrior and a cleric. They often represent virtue, justice, and honor, and their abilities include fighting, healing, and providing support to allies. The Paladin’s connection to chess, specifically the Knight piece, is symbolic of their versatile and unpredictable nature in battle, similar to the knight’s unique movement on the chessboard.

Real Paladins:

The magnitude, power and importance of the Paladin icon/archetype image cannot be understated. It has been prominent for Ages.

So … Paladins truly once existed.
And their iconic persona has been revered, emulated
and borrowed in many cultures over time.

Just ask Joseph Campbell:
Book: “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” (1949)
Book: “The Hero’s Journey: Joseph Campbell on His Life and Work”(1990).
– Phil Cousineau

Coming:
– Paladin, Paladin … where do you roam? Part 2:
– ‘Have Gun – Will Travel‘
– Paladins in modern culture.

I’m sure I’ve informed you before of how inept I am technically.
And since I recently installed Windows 11 some of my programs
don’t seem to work like they did before?
I’m having trouble just to post a few simple photos.

I haven’t figured it out yet … but I will.
It’s been frustrating.

As well, I had get a new camera. I broke my last 2.
Dropped one in the creek up at Sheep River Falls.
Dropped the other one in the sand at the beach.
They couldn’t be fixed.
That’s over a 1000 dollars.
Not something I can readily afford.

Now I’m trying to figure out my new camera …

Saw three gals sliding down the kayak sluice.
I asked if I could take a pic. They said SURE!

That looks like fun!

Let it flow …

Surf’s UP !!

Easy going.

Late Spring … feels like Summer already.

Still some Spring blossoms though.

Heading out.
See you there.

On This Memorial Day

Remember those who served before.
Remember those who are no more.
Remember those who serve today.
Remember them as we eat and play.
Remember our protectors
who are not home today.
Remember them all on Memorial Day.

– Emily Toma

RAINMAKER
by Michael Nesmith and The First National Band / 1971
Songwriters: Bill Martin / Harry Nilsson

It’s been raining for 7 days here.
Before this it had only rained once this Spring,
and we worried about drought.

Rainin’ 
Bob Darin / 1966

What have they done to the Rain
The Searchers / 1964
written by Malvina Reynolds
Original by Marianne Faithfull

Who’ll Stop the Rain / 2018
John Fogerty with Bob Seger
written by John Fogerty 1970

Have You Ever Seen The Rain
Willie Nelson with daughter Paula Nelson / 2013

But … the sun will shine again …

Here comes that Rainbow again
Kris Krisifferson and the Highwaymen –
Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson.