Re: John Muir in the New World ~ PBS on Monday 4/18

"John Muir in the New World"

PBS on Monday night, April 18 after Antiques Roadshow. Show is called "American Masters." Link to the PBS website:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/john-muir-in-the-new-world/about-the-film/1789/

Thanks for the heads-up, Vince...Just set the DVR to record it.

I demand we de-fund PBS. After all what do you think the Nation Endowment for the Arts is anyway? Some kind of resource that lets stuff like this get on TV??

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Old Dude

mrcondron, Your view is meaningless when you condemn something before you even see it!

Good God man, don't you know sarcasm when you see it??

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Old Dude

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mrcondron
Good God man, don't you know sarcasm when you see it??

I knew somebody was going to fall for it as soon as I saw your post.

LOL.

Smack the Old Dude around!

He deserves it!

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I think I am going to miss it. I hope they will re-air it or have it available online.

Thanks. Going to try to catch it.

Sooooooo! Is everybody happy?

I missed it. Had to be at work last minute. How did you like it Max?

Thought it was excellent. Not Ken Burns but excellent. It gave his life story from childhood until his death. I enjoyed getting his full life story since I haven't done any reading about Muir. I plan on finding a good book about him now. Learning about his adventures was a lot of fun. Wow... 1000 mile walk from Minnesota to the gulf. Also enjoyed the great video of Yosemite.

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Max
I plan on finding a good book about him now.

One by John Muir: http://yosemitenews.info/forum/read.php?1,9582,9582#msg-9582

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eeek

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Max
I plan on finding a good book about him now.

One by John Muir: http://yosemitenews.info/forum/read.php?1,9582,9582#msg-9582

Thanks eeek! I'll start there.

If you want to read a biography of Muir, I think Donald Worster's A Passion for Nature, The Life of John Muir is excellent. Worster was interviewed in the PBS show.

Anybody know if it is going to be re-aired or online anywhere?

The full program is available on the PBS American Experience website

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/john-muir-in-the-new-world/watch-the-full-documentary-film/1823/

Enjoy!

Great. I'll check it out during my lunch break.

Thanks for the link. I saw it last night and enjoyed it very much. I never knew John Muir was an engineer/inventor turned into a naturalist! I have a lot of respect for the man.

Thanks for the link. I enjoyed it very much and learned a lot about John. I wonder how long it took for all those shots in Yosemite.

Thanks Mark. Just saw it this morning. Wonderful special.

Great video, but the adobe player sucks big time. I can't seem to pause it on my computer. I accidentally try a few times and the whole documentary would restart!

Thanks Vincey.

If you love The Yosemite as much as I do... you owe it to yourself to watch it.

It's very moving

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As a biography, I actually thought this fell a bit short, mostly insofar as it glossed over some details that I think add immeasurably to the overall story...the ongoing fight with Josiah Whitney over Muir's theory of glaciation (the show made it seem a bit like Muir came up with the idea and everybody said "wow...that's brilliant!" ), no mention of his first summer herding sheep in the High Sierra (again, the show made it sound like he just sort of waltzed in to the Valley right after he got off the boat and stayed for years), the on-again/off-again nature of the Hetch Hetchy battle (although, given the limited length of the show, I thought this was covered reasonably well), just to name a few. I'm not saying it fell short in the sense of being inaccurate, just that I'd have liked to have seen some of these sorts of details mentioned (obviously there wasn't time to go in them in detail).

What I loved most about the show and which I think they did a great job with, was creating a sense of the reverential awe with which Muir was overcome with whenever he was in Yosemite. I also loved that they took the time to film outside of the Valley. SO many shows about Yosemite use the same handful of shots over and over again (Gates of the Valley, Yosemite Falls, Half Dome from on or near Sentinel Bridge). Those are all beautiful but I knew this one was going to be a bit different when the first shot of Yosemite you get is NOT Gates of the Valley but rather the Grand Staircase.

Overall, I enjoyed this very much and, for anyone who missed it, I'd recommend taking some time to hunt it down and watch it.

--David

WOW!

In all the YEARS I've been going to Yosemite I've never seen "Valley View" referred to as "Gates of the Valley"

How'd I miss that?

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qumqats
WOW!

In all the YEARS I've been going to Yosemite I've never seen "Valley View" referred to as "Gates of the Valley"

How'd I miss that?

Valley View and Gates of the Valley are different views.
Valley View is the classic with Bridalveil and The Merced located on Northside Drive.
Gates is on Southside just north of Bridalveil where the road is really wide and you get an
incredible view of El Cap.
i.e.:

My pict. was taken explicitly to get the "Gates" sign in the frame.

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I googled "Gates of the Valley".
Every link I went to had a picture of "Valley View" that was labeled as "Gates of the Valley" including one on the Ansel Adams Museum Graphics site.
GATES OF THE VALLEY, YOSEMITE VALLEY, CA, c 1938

Well, you can see the "Gates" from Valley View.

There's two sign with Gates of The Valley, here's the one you can see above:


and here's the sign at Valley View:


If I find the time this weekend I'll go to the visitors center and ask what's up.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/21/2011 10:00PM by chick-on.

Did you every find the answer?

I need to start watching this. Thanks for the link Max

Thanks for the video link. I will try to watch it tonight.

This video has made me very excited about my trip. 6 more weeks!

Any other recommended books or videos about John Muir or Yosemite?

Thanks for the video!!! I missed it but now I get to watch it, hopefully this weekend.