OT--Ken Burns' "The National Parks"

[Patty Winter]

Those of you who love Wilderness Lodge at WDW will be in heaven
at all the western scenery in this series. And yes, there are
some shots of the western lodges.

And Disneyland fans will enjoy tonight's Ferde Grofe music (and
a photo of him) during one of the Grand Canyon sequences.


Patty

[Steve Russo]

Post by Patty Winter
Those of you who love Wilderness Lodge at WDW will be in heaven
at all the western scenery in this series. And yes, there are
some shots of the western lodges.
And Disneyland fans will enjoy tonight's Ferde Grofe music (and
a photo of him) during one of the Grand Canyon sequences.

And there's a "Behind the Scenes" special available free on iTunes.

[Ginny Favers]

Post by Steve Russo

Post by Patty Winter
Those of you who love Wilderness Lodge at WDW will be in heaven
at all the western scenery in this series. And yes, there are
some shots of the western lodges.
And Disneyland fans will enjoy tonight's Ferde Grofe music (and
a photo of him) during one of the Grand Canyon sequences.

And there's a "Behind the Scenes" special available free on iTunes.

It must just be us, but we were so bored by this series we stopped
watching it last night. Too little information on the geology and
ecology of the parks and way too much information on political figures.

I get what Burns is trying to do, but he's got about 20 minutes of good
college lecture material spread out over 2 hours. I've never been a fan
of this kind of "Important Men and Women of America" play by play of who
decided what when in politics. It's too myopic of a viewpoint, history
in its driest form.

~Amanda

[Patty Winter]

In article <ha2l42$fi7$***@news.eternal-september.org>,
Ginny Favers <***@gmail.com> wrote:

[older text deleted]

Post by Ginny Favers
It must just be us, but we were so bored by this series we stopped
watching it last night. Too little information on the geology and
ecology of the parks and way too much information on political figures.
I get what Burns is trying to do, but he's got about 20 minutes of good
college lecture material spread out over 2 hours. I've never been a fan
of this kind of "Important Men and Women of America" play by play of who
decided what when in politics. It's too myopic of a viewpoint, history
in its driest form.

Different strokes...as much as I like geology and natural history,
I'm glad that Burns uses a more personal approach and is NOT trying
to do a college lecture. I've learned new things even about people
I was fairly familiar with before, such as James Hutchings. And there
have already been a number of people mentioned (such as Hutchings
and Muir) who aren't political figures; there will be even more as
the series goes on.

Remember, the first few episodes have been about establishing the
first national parks and creating the National Park Service; of
course there's going to be lots of politics in that. And there's
always politics involved in getting a new park approved. But gee,
I didn't find the parts about Teddy Roosevelt or Stephen Mather
boring at all, even though those people were directly involved
with politics. The story of Roosevelt escaping his entourage to
spend a couple of days with John Muir was wonderful, and the idea
that photos and stories of Yosemite and other parks brought Stephen
Mather back from a nervous breakdown was very poignant.

But you've also already heard (unless you missed them) a couple of
magical stories from ranger Shelton Johnson, and there are more
stories coming up from ordinary citizens.

Ken Burns has always been known for focusing on people, not on
the dry facts of places or events. I guess if you don't like that
approach, then indeed, this series is not for you. PBS and National
Geographic Channel have done shows about the geology of the national
parks that you could track down and watch.


Patty

[Ginny Favers]

Post by Patty Winter
[older text deleted]

Post by Ginny Favers
It must just be us, but we were so bored by this series we stopped
watching it last night. Too little information on the geology and
ecology of the parks and way too much information on political figures.
I get what Burns is trying to do, but he's got about 20 minutes of good
college lecture material spread out over 2 hours. I've never been a fan
of this kind of "Important Men and Women of America" play by play of who
decided what when in politics. It's too myopic of a viewpoint, history
in its driest form.

Different strokes...as much as I like geology and natural history,
I'm glad that Burns uses a more personal approach and is NOT trying
to do a college lecture. I've learned new things even about people
I was fairly familiar with before, such as James Hutchings. And there
have already been a number of people mentioned (such as Hutchings
and Muir) who aren't political figures; there will be even more as
the series goes on.
Remember, the first few episodes have been about establishing the
first national parks and creating the National Park Service; of
course there's going to be lots of politics in that. And there's
always politics involved in getting a new park approved. But gee,
I didn't find the parts about Teddy Roosevelt or Stephen Mather
boring at all, even though those people were directly involved
with politics. The story of Roosevelt escaping his entourage to
spend a couple of days with John Muir was wonderful, and the idea
that photos and stories of Yosemite and other parks brought Stephen
Mather back from a nervous breakdown was very poignant.
But you've also already heard (unless you missed them) a couple of
magical stories from ranger Shelton Johnson, and there are more
stories coming up from ordinary citizens.
Ken Burns has always been known for focusing on people, not on
the dry facts of places or events. I guess if you don't like that
approach, then indeed, this series is not for you. PBS and National
Geographic Channel have done shows about the geology of the national
parks that you could track down and watch.
Patty

Don't you find the pace a little slow?

I already knew almost all of the information in these early episodes,
about Roosevelt, Muir, etc. That may be part of the snooze effect for me.

~Amanda