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Post by oldredfox on Jul 2, 2008 15:49:21 GMT -5
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Post by stuart on Jul 3, 2008 6:33:08 GMT -5
A good one that; we could do with more like it. Has anybody interviewed Doc?
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Post by Allen Wiener on Jul 3, 2008 8:56:54 GMT -5
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Post by alamonorth on Sept 27, 2008 21:43:49 GMT -5
Like most of us, I am at the stage where I have to make decisions , and I am going through my library and evaluating.. Accordingly, I would like to send my suggestions. The Mexican side of the Texas Revolution by Carlos Castenada. Even in the 1920's there was another side to this story. Walter lord's A time to Stand. It not only told us what had come before but it inspired a generation of Alamo researchers. Alamo Images by Susan Pendergast, it was in essence, a homage to the generation that Lord gave birth to' but showed off what we had learned and accumulated. Alamo Movies by Frank Thompson, it is unfortunate ,but pop culture did play a major part in our attachment and commitment to the Alamo. For the last two,I would pick Thomas Lindley's Alamo Traces and Mark Lemon's The Illustrated Alamo 1836 because they lead us into the 21st century, which shows that the Alamo is still not a question of being able to recite all that has come before but to understand that and to move forward.
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Post by bobdurham on Oct 1, 2008 18:07:32 GMT -5
I just picked up a copy of Buddy Levy's Crockett book, American Legend: The Real-Life Adventures of David Crockett. How do you Crockett experts (Jim and Allen?) on this site rate this one?
Bob
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Post by Jim Boylston on Oct 1, 2008 18:48:39 GMT -5
I just picked up a copy of Buddy Levy's Crockett book, American Legend: The Real-Life Adventures of David Crockett. How do you Crockett experts (Jim and Allen?) on this site rate this one? Bob It's fairly well written, but doesn't contain any new scholarship...most of Levy's sources are other Crockett bios. I'd recommend Derr's "The Frontiersman" over Levy's book and would probably recommend the Crockett chapters in "Three Roads" over both of them, but Davis and Derr both utilized primary sources in their research. Our Crockett book should be out in the fall of '09, by the way. We'll offer up some more info soon! How's that for a shameless plug? Jim
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Post by Allen Wiener on Oct 2, 2008 6:23:20 GMT -5
I agree with Jim's assessment of the Crockett bios. I've certainly spent more time with Derr and Davis than the others, and that includes Shackford by the way. And, of course, this provides me an additional opportunity to shamelessly plug our work (2 authors are better than one! ). AW
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Post by sloanrodgers on Oct 12, 2008 9:32:08 GMT -5
Great interview with the two docs.
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Post by majorevans08 on Nov 30, 2008 19:31:24 GMT -5
New member Major Evans here, from Missouri in real life. Lemon's book is wonderful in any case: are there any plans to "populate" the diorama with defenders?
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Post by Jim Boylston on Nov 30, 2008 20:46:27 GMT -5
New member Major Evans here, from Missouri in real life. Lemon's book is wonderful in any case: are there any plans to "populate" the diorama with defenders? Welcome, Major! I know at one time it was Mark's plan to photoshop defenders into the pictures. I don't recall why he changed his mind, but Mark's online here often and I'm sure he can fill you in! Jim
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Post by marklemon on Nov 30, 2008 22:38:08 GMT -5
Hello Major, Thanks for the kind "review" of my book. The issue of people in the compound is one to which I gave much thought.
First, I was aware of many, many "dioramas" of the Alamo, and while they are exciting and interesting in many ways, to my mind, they were never convincing when the toy soldiers were placed in them. The human eye, trained or not, has an uncanny knack for recognizing others of the same species, and when the item in question is simply a tiny replica of the real thing, the eye spots it immediately, and cries: "AHA! A MODEL!" I had considered placing them there, and even made some test shots, but all were disappointing. Now then, when Gary Foreman got involved, after the major shooting (photography) for my book was complete, we seriously discussed having correctly uniformed reenactors photographed and photo-shopped in. Gary made a few test shots which were promising, but we were slammed up against a printing deadline, and there just was no time to do this. Placing a number of figures with all shadows and angles correctly depicted, would have been very time consuming...bottom line, just no time to do it. Now, that having been said, there have been a good many people say to me that the lack of people gave it a ghostly effect, and was sort of a silent, grim reminder of what had happened there. Mark
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Post by majorevans08 on Dec 3, 2008 19:17:33 GMT -5
Mark Lemon,
Yes, I can see the pitfalls of adding defenders--what time is portrayed, who is where, is anyone indoors, are any of the cannons being fired, etc.
MajorEvans (aka Evan)
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Post by Rich Curilla on Dec 3, 2008 22:15:04 GMT -5
As I believe I said to Mark at an earlier time, I think placing figures on his model, thus in Gary's photos, would have subverted the whole scheme. I don't think there is any difficulty in figuring out scale in the pictures, and that was the only reason that I could see for adding people. It's just not what the presentation was about. And it ROCKS as is.
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Post by Rich Curilla on Dec 3, 2008 22:16:49 GMT -5
Oh yes, and welcome Major Evans. Don't blow up any gunpowder.
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Post by stuart on Dec 4, 2008 1:34:54 GMT -5
Still think it would be nice just to have one - simply to illustrate how stretched the defenders were
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