(More) Family Slides.
Several months ago, I posted some of the slides I scanned from my father’s family collection. Recently my mother’s family slides were unearthed as well, so today I took to scanning them too. Here are some of the gems.
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Giro
The Giro d’Italia began today. I know I have been posting a lot about cycling lately, but this is truly the best time of year to ride a bike and watch bicycle racing, from the spring classics to the grand tours.
The Greatest Show on Earth, a documentary of the 1974 Giro (won by the great Eddy Merckx), is definitely the best cycling film I have ever seen. Give it a look, below.
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DamNation.
Back in October, I posted about an upcoming film project by Felt Soul Media, the team behind several excellent fly fishing films and the 2008 documentary of the proposed Pebble Mine project near Bristol Bay, AK, Red Gold.
Now, Felt Soul Media’s new film has a title (DamNation) and synopsis (below). I am definitely looking forward to this one!
From Felt Soul Media
From Felt Soul Media
DamNation synopsis:
Ninety-nine years after Olympic National Park’s Elwha River was illegally dammed, wild Chinook salmon still instinctively gather at the foot of the lower dam as if they sense a change in the current. Upstream, the usual low rumble of antique turbines generating electricity has faded, and the piercing sound of an excavator-mounted jackhammer reverberates off the 210-foot tall Glines Canyon Dam. De-construction crews have begun the painstaking process of chipping away at its mossy, con-caved facade. This moment marks the beginning of the largest dam removal in US history, unveiling the best opportunity for wild salmon recovery in the Country.
Dam removal is no longer the work of a fictional Monkey Wrench Gang. It’s real, upon us, a cornerstone of the modern environmental and cultural movements. The benefits from dams, including hydropower, urban water supply, irrigation, and flood protection have played a critical role in the development of the United States—but river ecosystems and Native American heritage suffered greatly. Now, many of these antiquated relics of the industrial revolution are classified as public safety hazards by the Army Corps of Engineers.
The short-sighted development of a bygone era is growing more prevalent—In many cases, the high cost of retrofitting an aging dam, and meeting current environmental standards has led to a surprising shift in thinking: Dam owners, impacted communities, and politicians are now reevaluating the usefulness of certain dams and often advocating for decommissioning and removal. Some call it a movement, others call it a generational shift in values. Regardless of what it’s dubbed, an undeniable momentum behind river restoration has begun.
DamNation is a collection of empassioned voices and spirited stories from the people entrenched on both sides of this devisive issue. Examining the history and controversy behind current and proposed dam removal projects, DamNation presents a dynamic perspective on Man’s attempt to harness and control the power of water at the expense of nature. Nothing lasts forever, not even the concrete monoliths that have impounded America’s free flowing rivers in the name of “progress” for ages.
—Ben Knight
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Hudson River Project
James Bowthorpe has been busy lately. Known for his 2009 record breaking circumnavigation of the globe via bike, he has been working on multiple projects lately with filmmaker Antony Crook. (Including a recent Rapha film, Knock for Knock).
Now, they are turning their attention to the Hudson River, building a boat from scrap materials and navigating the Hudson from headwaters to city. Here is the description for the Hudson River Project:
Hudson River Project: Build a boat from a city’s waste, take it to the source of the city’s river – the river without which the city would not exist – and row the boat back.
This story connects the source of the Hudson River to NYC, the great city that sits at its mouth.
The film follows a man as he makes a boat from NYC’s waste, the detritus of a modern megalopolis, and takes it to the source of the Hudson River high in the Adirondack Mountains, at Lake Tear of the Clouds.
He rows the boat back to NYC, through wilderness, countryside, farms, towns and industry, all of which rely on the mighty river that flows past, all of which are threads of the river’s story.
Hudson River Project from Hudson River Project on Vimeo.
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Good MPG Lately.
A little smug maybe, but I’ve had some run-ins with vehicles lately that have made me a little bitter.
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Antiquities Act “Handcuffed”
Since it was enacted by Congress in 1906, the Antiquities Act has helped preserve some of North America’s most valued, well-visited, and beautiful natural treasures. Now, with the passage of HB 4089 (4/17/12), this important legislation could be made essentially toothless. While proponents of the bill argued that the legislation was in defense of hunter/fisher access, the consequences of the bill will more likely promote short-term “development” (extraction) and other ecologically damaging activities on the last remaining wild treasures in the U.S.
Republican Teddy Roosevelt was the first to exercise the Antiquities Act, forever protecting the Grand Canyon (at the time, as a National Monument) from mining development and likely subsequent degradation. It is impossible to know, but I would wager tourism revenues from that particular invocation of the Antiquities Act are more widely distributed and outweigh the short-term profits of a mine. In the end, can anyone imagine the Grand Canyon as an open pit mine? Do you want to?
Ironically…“[The] language drew the support of groups including the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP), but it failed to mollify environmentalists and Democrats, who warned the term “intended” would not stand up in a court of law.”
Critics said the bill was carefully crafted to split sportsmen and conservationists, two constituencies that have aligned on many natural resource issues.
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Horse Feathers – Cynic’s New Year
Portland’s Horse Feathers are back with a new album (their fourth). Check out the first single from ‘Cynic’s New Year’, Fit Against the Country. Doesn’t get much better than this. You can also stream the entire album right now at NPR.
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Van Diemen’s Land
Rapha keeps upping the production value on their Continental project, with this stunningly well-crafted gem. It captures the tonal journey of a ride beautifully, with a mixture of the relaxed joy and the surprisingly frightening bitterness of a “wild” ride. I am looking forward to this year’s Continental films, particularly if this sets the precedent for what’s to come.
Van Diemen’s Land from RAPHA on Vimeo.
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Bear Country
“While we’re out there, I remember something Andrea said to me in the car, about why Yellowstone is so powerful. ‘Doug’s theory is that the element of risk is what’s important. It’s what makes wilderness wild.’ We’re so quiet I can hear my own quick, scared, rabbity breaths, and as I revel in my own fear I realize they’re right.”
Having lived in Wyoming for the first 18 years of my life, I came to understand the proximity to danger in the wild…rattle snakes, bears, the occasional moose charge. The concept of “the wild” in Wyoming is very interesting…it is, indisputably, why many people choose to live there, particularly near Yellowstone, about 60 miles from which I was born.
Grizzly bears, for example, have a different status than wolves, to many Wyoming residents. Some say it is because wolves “kill for sport.” Or “they are pure evil”. Something about wolves, and their proximity to the places we choose to live (in the “wild” areas), sets people off in a different way than grizzlies.
Federal vs. state management, ranching (economics), and personal political persuasions regarding both come into play in force when faced with situations both particular and abstract when it comes to the wild. But I think the simple question is always the same and always relevant…do you want to live in a world that has some wild left? Or not?
This article from Slate lays out a brilliant case regarding grizzlies in Yellowstone. It is long, but a must read for those interested in National Parks and management concerns.
Photograph: James Yule
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