No Direction Home - Dylan documentary
This was an amazing piece of telly. Dylan, usually reticent, tackles the difficult years of his turning his back on the folk scene and embracing poetry against the 'topical' song. Loads of clips keep the pace going and some really good versions of some of his classic works appear - some of it live, some in the studio. I had forgotten what a true original Dylan was/is and this work showed him in his prime; besuited in beatle boots, getting booed by the northern lads and lasses who in little glimpses seem like children compared to the godlike Bob. The looseness of the sound created by Bob and the Band is well demonstrated with unusual by contextually correct versions of the songs if you know what I mean. Other folk and Blues performers get a mention - there is even a 5 second burst of the Wolf doing Spoonful at the Newport Folk Festival.
While in the mood here's my top 5 Dylan songs at this second in time
Obviously Five Believers
From a Buick 6
Visions of Johanna
Watching the River Flow
Highway 61

Giant squid Photographed in its natural habitat
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8064

New York Dolls on 'Don Kirschner's Rock Concert'
I have only just seen this performance - another of the web's joys... a tv show from 1975 - it is just brilliant. It knocks into a cocked hat any theory that the NYD's weren't the best band of the 70s - the energy and passion present alone make them the best rock thing America had produced up til that time. Thunders' doing Chatterbox is phenomenal especially compared to the later renditions and Johansen pouts and preens himself throughout. Jerry Nolan fans get to see him drumming centre stage behind the singer and he is all arms - a veritable squiddley diddley.

No Direction Home
I admit to being a Dylan fan - at least the classic period which this documentary covers - 1961-66. I'm looking forward to it immensely actually - does that make me really unfashionable? as my kids tell me Dylan is about as unfashionable as it comes due to him not being dead and all that. Anyway
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/dylan/
or http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/bobdylan/

Powell & Pressburger
This week a couple of classics have been screened - a Matter of Life and Death' and 'Life and Death of Colonel Blimp' - both featuring the excellent Roger Livesey. It's hard to put the appeal of these films into words - their high production values show what might have been if Britain had been blessed with a Hollywood system - these films are essentially British but also first class - something that few British films can be. This site http://www.powell-pressburger.org/Reviews/index.html has a lot of good stuff on these best of British filmmakers.

Haitian history
one anniversary that slipped by me was the anniversary of the Republic of Haiti in 1804 - an amazing tale well worth reading about - check out http://www.kreyol.com/history.html for a start. I've always thought the story of Toussaint L'Ouverture could make a good movie and one that could bring positive light on the history of this brave endeavour. A shortened version of key events are here http://www.answers.com/topic/history-of-haiti
An article on Dessalines is here http://www.discoverhaiti.com/history00_10_1.htm

Jean Lafitte
I was talking to Dave Allen about my New Orleans battle idea and it wasn't going to well until I mentioned there were French pirates there...but it was Talk Like a Pirate Day which seems to have really got this country going . Here's a piece on Jean Lafitte
http://www.crimelibrary.com/americana/lafitte/main.htm

The 9eme legere
Those of you who are reenactors may despair at the lack of progress of your unit but take heart - it wasn't that long ago that this unit were just a core of two or three people - now look at them. It goes to show that if you stick with something and get it right then it will all fall into place. This group are on a bicentennial scheme following the changes in uniform as it goes.
http://www.9eme.com/pages/932974/index.htm

Blowing the Blues: A History of Blues Harmonica by Various Artists
this is a fantastic 3 cd set on the history of blues harmonica - tracklisting and samples here
http://www.mmguide.musicmatch.com/album/album.cgi?ALBUMID=1439841
the first 2 cds are absolute gems with the legends of pre war harp such as Noah Lewis, Jaybird Coleman and Jazz Gillum. The 2nd cd deals with the golden age if you like - the Sonny Boys, Little Walter, Big Walter - you know them - includes some great harp work. Cd 3 is a little less indespensible but who knows - maybe it'll grow on me.

Howl's Moving Castle
This week sees the release at the cinema in the UK of this new title from Studio Ghibli - the people who brought you 'Spirited Away' and many other superior family animation classics. Set in a Victorian world the trailer may be seen here http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/howls_moving_castle/
Based on the book by Diana Wynne Jones it has been redubbed with many Hollywood biggies lending their vocal talents.
Official website http://www.howl-movie.com/
To learn more about the work of the creator Hayao Miyazaki go to http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/

Slim Harpo
Occasionally I'm going to feature some of the greats of Louisiana's musical heritage which is so rich and diverse as to have produced so many good records and artists in the 20th century.
The region's influence is everywhere - even in music like Slim Harpo's electric blues. On paper Slim, aka James Moore, from Baton Rouge was an imitator; most of his material is a take on the Jimmy Reed style from Chicago - lazy guitar boogies over racked harp and even lazier singing but Slim Harpo brought something else with him - the tonality and rhythms of Louisiana.
His repertoire of r&b hits encompasses some of the most covered of all blues songs 'I'm a King Bee', 'Got Love If you want it', 'Shake Your Hips', all with their original echoey recording sound and their sparse, unusual percussion. Moore's nasal vocal style is infectious as is his style of songwriting - minimalistic and somehow desolate. Witness the great swamp pop of 'Raining in my heart' or 'Baby Scratch My Back'. Anyway - listen to some clips on amazon - you might like it - you might even grow to love it. 'Wondering' and Worrying' is a personal favourite with probably the best intro I've ever heard.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000005KPX/ref=pd_sim_music_3/104-3613371-7612762?v=glance&s=music

Lake George French and Indian war tactical - keeping it real
Can you imagine reenacting the French and Indian war in the historic backdrop where it took place, away from the public in a 'wargame' situation - scouting, ambushing and so on for a good few days? Well that's what the Lake George tactical is all about. Read about it here http://reenacting.net/lgt/index.html I was lucky enough thanks to Dubois to attend this event in 99 and it is a real eye-opener and worth attending. I'd love to take a party over from Europe - just the experience of living on jerky and lake water waiting for a possible Ranger ambush is amazing. It's usually in October so flights aren't expensive and there's nothing to spend money on once you're on the the expansive Lake and its environs. Highlights for me were a night scout when we canoed around the myriad islands under the northern lights and the various treks when we outscouted the Brits and took their flag. The weather's pretty mild in comparison to the UK at this time and it is certain you'll never be quite the same again. Read the journals and so on at the webpage above and maybe make a date for 2006?

250th anniversary redcoats - the 44th Foot
As mentioned elsewhere on this blog this year is the 250th anniversary of 1755 - a year in which the world war known as the Seven Years War kicked off. There seems to be some confusion among reenactors as to what British redcoats looked like in the American theatre and in Europe so I thought it interesting to feature the 44th regiment of foot, from the US. who were originally participants in the great Braddock disaster at Monogahela. Their wesbite is here http://44thregiment.itgo.com/ - the image left is from their website and is their webdesigner Ryan Gale.
If you are a francophile and want to see the French side of this picturesque conflict you won't have long to wait for more features.

Is this the best 18th century reenactment group in the world?
This Milan-based group recreating the Garde Francoises of the Seven Years War are in my opinion the best 18thc society. Their leader and tailor Gabriele Mendella is certainly one of those rare people in reenactment - someone who knows what they're talking about - he's inspected and handled pretty much all the existing uniforms and painstakingly recreates them. They may have a webpage of their own by now but in the meantime check out www.ageofreason.tk for more

my children got to meet their tv chef idol Gary Rhodes in Bath today promoting his new book 'Keeping it Simple' - the usual Rhodes' mixture of common-sense cooking and ingenuity. He must win an award for being the least annoying tv chef ... so far

Review; Italeri 1/72 indian warriors (American Independence war)

I have always liked small plastic figures. I like them for a number of reasons, some of them nostalgic - the opening of a new box is a pleasure that goes right back to way back in my childhood, but I also like the sculpting, animation and availability of them too. Recently many new companies have increased the depth of subjects covered and the overall accuracy of the figures has improved incredibly. Leaders in the market include eastern European manufacturer Zvezda whose Samurai warriors have raised the boom in quality and accuracy and companies like Emhar and HaT industries have brought new ideas and useful poses into the frame.
A site that is so valuable in taking the guesswork out of buying these figures by reviewing the figures and categorising them by time period and manufacturer is the Plastic Soldier Review - visit this site and be amazed at the range of figures now available to the modeller or wargamer.
Indian Warriors
As someone interested in the frontier period in American history I was looking forward to these woodland indians from Italeri and whilst they aren't perfect they certainly do the job of recreating the allies of the British in the American Revolution. OK so the sculptor doesnt really know anything about ballheaded clubs - that much is eveident - and the gunstock clubs are a little too prevalent showing the influence of the 'Mohicans' movie on the choice of weapons. A lot of the poses are kind of strange - one holding a scalp aloft being one and some very odd waving stances being some that come to mind. None of the warriors look like they know how to fire a musket which would be erroneous in that most woodland indians were expert marksmen and none are using the bow or woodland spear. It is another case of the box art being so much better than the contents but they are worth a paintjob and coupled with the other Revolution or Seven Years war figures enable people to recreate battles of the French and Indian wars pretty cheaply. Imex are planning releases of Mohawks and Rogers Rangers to add to their already impressive range of settlers, wagons and stagecoaches in their American History series - one set includes wigwams and camp equipment for 'Eastern Friendly Natives'.
So there you have it - the future is plastic - check out the Plastic soldier Review for the all-important 'sprue shots' http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Index.html

Cossacks 2 looks good
check out the gallery for this new Napoleonic realtime strategy pc game - looks good but then I'm a fan of Cossacks and American Conquest the predecessors - also watch out for the American civil war version of the latter
http://www.cossacks2.de/index.php?m=gallery&lang=en#screen54

http://www.cossacks2.de/

http://www.americanconquest.com/

Testard de Montigny
This is a French group recreating the Compagnie franches de la marine in North America. These were colonial soldiers garrisoning the forts up and down the various rivers and lakes in Canada and beyond http://www.membres.lycos.fr/ciefranchedelamarine/

If you thought this was all cavalry, this war of 1920 had a fascinating armoured car column made of converted Model T Fords - go to this site to read about it and see pictures of the vehicles
http://derela.republika.pl/kovel.htm

Battle of Komarów 1920
As a cavalry fan I was pleased to have an account of this battle come through the post today. It's the last big decisive cavalry battle in history and it could be credited as being the battle that saved the rest of Europe from the Bolshevik peril. It certainly was bad for the hitherto invincible Budenny and his cavalry army - but Polish cavalry have never been a push over - they could be credited as having saved Europe in 1685 relieving the siege of Vienna but that's another story - to read about the miracle on the Vistula go here
http://www.firstworldwar.com/features/brokensabres.htm
or here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Komarów