Ken Burns Fans....

ScottM

ScottM

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For all of you who are fans of this man's work, documentaries such as Jazz, Baseball, The Civil War, WW2, etc. I had a really neat honor last night. I got to attend an intimate, forty people, cocktail reception and preview of his new film. I also got to have drinks and talk with the man himself Ken Burns.

First, his new movie is on Prohibition. Saw several excerpts from it and it looks great. It is very timely as well as we are entering a political season and the wrangling that went on to pass prohibition was amazing. It made for some very strange bedfellows: unions and robber barons, social conservatives and progressives, etc. A lot of things such as our current income tax, woman's voting rights, direct election of senators, etc. are a result of deals made to pass this amendment. He also covers what saloons were to the common man. A great line was that the WASPs had their exclusives clubs but the working man had a saloon. The saloons were owned and operated by the large breweries and they offered free lunches to get people to drink more. He also covers the beer wars and Al Capone in a very interesting way.

One thing I did not know about Capone was that he bought and paid for one of the mayors of Chicago. It was a Republican at the time so don't go all Democratic machine, that happened as a result of these event. The guy actually ran on the platform of having police not enforce the law about alcohol and got a quarter of million dollars from Capone to run his campaign!! Capone had three pictures up in is office. George Washington, Abe Lincoln, and Chicago Mayor Bill Thompson, the last Republican mayor of Chicago.

Ken Burns himself is amazing. There are only a handful of writers that I think can paint a picture of words. Charles Dickens is of course the master of this, but Ken Burns, while not a writer, speaks in such a way and uses words so eloquently that he is in that elite group of writers. I do also have to say he was taller that I pictured, probably 5'9". He also mentioned that he is currently working on his next project which is a series on Franklin and Elanor Roosevelt.

At any rate that was my evening last night and my pitch to watch his new film.
 
Dear Scott,

You suck.

Signed,
Chris
 
Scott, that is really cool!! Excellent opportunity, I look forward to the release. :cheerswine:

Gary
 
Pretty neat. But from Ken's own work, the first income tax was levied during the Civil War.

Or are you saying that income tax was in some way fundamentally different than the one he's now referring to in his Prohibition film? :)
 
denverpilot said:
Pretty neat. But from Ken's own work, the first income tax was levied during the Civil War.

Or are you saying that income tax was in some way fundamentally different than the one he's now referring to in his Prohibition film? :)
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I and Ken Burns are refering to the 16th Amendment of the US Constitution. Passed in 1913 and it made income tax permanent. It was also part of the political wrangling, along with the 17th Amendment that made passage of the 18th Amendment possible according to Ken Burns.
 
ScottM said:
I and Ken Burns are refering to the 16th Amendment of the US Constitution. Passed in 1913 and it made income tax permanent. It was also part of the political wrangling, along with the 17th Amendment that made passage of the 18th Amendment possible according to Ken Burns.
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Actually, the 16th made different forms of Income Tax legal.

Taxes on regular income (earned from labour) had been ruled to be indirect taxes already, and as such not subject to the Apportionment Clause. The issue was with taxes on income earned not from labour, but from assets (stuff like capital gains and dividends). Those were ruled to be "direct" taxes, and as such, before the 16th, had to be apportioned among the states in proportion to their population.

[See, I can keep a potentially heated political topic dry and factual outside the Spin Zone! :yesnod:]
 
I love Ken Burns' works. Very cool that you got hang out with him. Good story.
 
It's interesting this came up when it did. Just finished Ken's "The Civil War", which like all the other works, was excellent.

Don't know why I hadn't seen it prior to now, just something brought it to mind and I have been watching an episode or two a night via Netflix streaming on the living room TV for a few weeks now.

It would be fascinating to meet him, but I would have no idea what I would even ask him if given an opportunity for a short discussion.

I noted that he heavily credits a family member, I believe his brother. I might ask him if he would have been as successful without him. It's always interesting to know the people behind the people, so to speak.

He also credits his father's library in the movie credits, which says something about the role upbringing plays in future success. Without that library, would he have found his passion in reading about and presenting history to others?

Always interesting to find out how much of a person's success is self-motivated, circumstance, and just whoever they were lucky enough to run into along the way.

"The Civil War" is impressive not only because of Ken's talents, but also because of the talents of the people who were already well known voices, who lent those voices to historical figures.

How he was able to enjoin them is part of the story of his greatness, and something other's probably couldn't duplicate if they tried.

What would the movie be without Garrison Keillor's voice as Walt Whitman, or Morgan Freeman's voice as Frederick Douglass? Interesting, yes. But not the masterpiece that it is, without those others.

As I type this, my TV has gone silent and is showing me my favorite personal photos via the Ken Burn's Effect as it's "screensaver".

Pretty neat...

It looks particularly nice on a photo out the window of the Skylane over snow covered southern Colorado mountains -- you know, the standard Cessna photo with the wing strut in the way that gives away that it wasn't taken from an airliner.

Good stuff.
 
I watched part 1 of Prohibition tonight. AWESOME!!! If you missed it I am sure it will be replayed this week sometime on your local PBS channel. The story is as interesting as politics is today. There are a lot of parallels to how things are going into today's political climate. That pretty much fits with my belief that there is no such thing as new history. It is all the same story retold in each generation, we are condemned to constantly make the same mistakes.

BTW during the show I had a very nice Tuscan red wine, a 2004, that I got at the local meat and wine mart. It was fruity with a nice cinnamon bouquet. Not too heavy at all. It was a mixture of 70% San Giovesei and 30% Syrrah grapes.
 
ScottM said:
I watched part 1 of Prohibition tonight. AWESOME!!! If you missed it I am sure it will be replayed this week sometime on your local PBS channel. The story is as interesting as politics is today. There are a lot of parallels to how things are going into today's political climate. That pretty much fits with my belief that there is no such thing as new history. It is all the same story retold in each generation, we are condemned to constantly make the same mistakes.
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So when is Civil War II?
 
denverpilot said:
So when is Civil War II?
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I think you mean when is Civil War 3?

When one considers that most of the American Revolution was British subjects fighting the British army and navy, one could argue that it was a Civil War. The revolutionaries won in that case, unlike the 2nd American Civil War.

But to answer your question. How should I know? I never claimed to be a psychic.
 
ScottM said:
I think you mean when is Civil War 3?

When one considers that most of the American Revolution was British subjects fighting the British army and navy, one could argue that it was a Civil War. The revolutionaries won in that case, unlike the 2nd American Civil War.

But to answer your question. How should I know? I never claimed to be a psychic.
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;) Point taken on the American Revolution.

I'm pretty sure you're right -- we will repeat the mistakes.
 
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