Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Dry season
Found a highly interesting post in Lorna Dee Cervantes's blog, on the history and origins of Thanksgiving, considered from the standpoint of Native American people who were there then, and the historical meaning the day has come to have. Lorna's blogpost is here.
A note at the bottom of Lorna's post indicates copyright by Oyate -- in the Oyate website is a complete list of their literature and educational materials on history and culture from Native American perspectives.
The Oyate website also includes a short list of "books to avoid," with reviews detailing why the books are specifically not recommended. I found there, and read and particularly appreciated, a review of "Little House on the Prairie," one of the series of books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, ostensibly written for children, on which the insipid TV series was loosely based.
One of my favorite stories about Hollywood, TV, corporate media, and all of that, was in a short article I read years ago, shortly before the "Little House on the Prairie" TV show started on TV. (I can't remember now specifically where I read it, though I think it was in one of the local newspapers here in Minneapolis.)
The show was big news among Chamber of Commerce booster types here when it first was on TV, because it was set in southwestern Minnesota. According to the newspaper article, the production crew came to the region of Minnesota where the show was to take place, to film some footage to use for outdoor scenes. But when they got there, they decided it didn't look enough like the Minnesota prairie in the 1800's.
So they went to Oregon to film the outdoor footage. But when they got there, it was summer -- the dry time of the year, at least in the part of Oregon where they were -- and all the tree leaves were dried up and yellowing. (Contrary to Minnesota, where it's usually green in the summer.)
So they spray-painted the Oregon tree leaves green and filmed the exterior shots, then went back to their production studios in southern California.
Once again, the public saved from reality by the quick thinking of the media-industrial complex...
A note at the bottom of Lorna's post indicates copyright by Oyate -- in the Oyate website is a complete list of their literature and educational materials on history and culture from Native American perspectives.
The Oyate website also includes a short list of "books to avoid," with reviews detailing why the books are specifically not recommended. I found there, and read and particularly appreciated, a review of "Little House on the Prairie," one of the series of books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, ostensibly written for children, on which the insipid TV series was loosely based.
One of my favorite stories about Hollywood, TV, corporate media, and all of that, was in a short article I read years ago, shortly before the "Little House on the Prairie" TV show started on TV. (I can't remember now specifically where I read it, though I think it was in one of the local newspapers here in Minneapolis.)
The show was big news among Chamber of Commerce booster types here when it first was on TV, because it was set in southwestern Minnesota. According to the newspaper article, the production crew came to the region of Minnesota where the show was to take place, to film some footage to use for outdoor scenes. But when they got there, they decided it didn't look enough like the Minnesota prairie in the 1800's.
So they went to Oregon to film the outdoor footage. But when they got there, it was summer -- the dry time of the year, at least in the part of Oregon where they were -- and all the tree leaves were dried up and yellowing. (Contrary to Minnesota, where it's usually green in the summer.)
So they spray-painted the Oregon tree leaves green and filmed the exterior shots, then went back to their production studios in southern California.
Once again, the public saved from reality by the quick thinking of the media-industrial complex...
# posted by Lyle Daggett @ 7:05 PM 
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Have you read Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee? The author was the father of my first husband's friend. He wrote children's books and this was to be another. His publisher saw it and told him it would be a wonderful adult book and so it came into being that way. I haven't read it now since I was in my twenties but remembered it as being so good then.
As far as tv goes, I don't think we see much reality except on Ophra and we see waaay more than I care to there:-)
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As far as tv goes, I don't think we see much reality except on Ophra and we see waaay more than I care to there:-)
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