America's Best Idea...

Even though the Ken Burns' documentary style has stretched beyond PBS to many different video formats, the content of the documentary still makes a difference. I have two recommendations: If you aren't watching "The National Parks," you should be. If you aren't watching them on HighDefinition television, you ought to go get one. It wasn't invented to give us a wide-eyed Tiger Woods or Brett Favre hitting the open Viking. The grandeur and sweep of this video presentation is likely to make every living room eerily quiet, a bit like a walk in a Park.

Carrie Ellen and I were lucky enough to experience Yosemite earlier this year. We took a long bike ride, surveyed the valley walls, listened to the quiet moments--and thanks to Yosemite Falls, the overpowering sounds of spring. We also learned they had great cocktails at the Owahnee Lodge, not likely one of the high points of Ken Burns' video efforts. Standing in a national park, whether Yosemite, Yellowstone or the Grande Tetons always reminds me that once upon a time others stood exactly where I was, hoping "can we build a ratty hotel here and bring in the tourists" before they wondered what would happen 150 years later.

Of course the series has the politically correct debate questioning how white men could "discover" something that Native Americans had found generations before the first horse stumbled off a sailing ship onto dry land. PBS simply can't let go when it grabs that concept. At times, it can be a bit like Monday Night Football, better with the sound off.

I hope the remainder of the series is as touching as the start...with Parks that will hold special attraction for others in the same way that Yosemite holds me. Check your local listings, as they say on the news, because you'll be sorry that others have seen your favorite park and you were catching up on the World Series of Poker.

Oh...and the question of the day. If John Muir was such a recluse, who was the unlucky guy following him around with a massive camera & drape, tri-pod and negative plates with individually emulsified surfaces? How come we have so much ancient photography of Muir staring off into the wild? Ansel Adams didn't come along until much later...