{"id":4735,"date":"2022-01-28T09:10:44","date_gmt":"2022-01-28T09:10:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=4735"},"modified":"2023-01-22T22:09:05","modified_gmt":"2023-01-22T22:09:05","slug":"media-waterwalker-1984","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=4735","title":{"rendered":"MEDiA: Waterwalker, 1984"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"525\" height=\"296\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Dq7CqhbzPUs?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-GB&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Wow! I do love YouTube, for giving us all the chance to stumble across gems such as this. Thanks also to the NFB, or National Film Board of Canada. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bill Mason, who made this film, and \u2018stars\u2019 in it, is Canadian. I have Canadian family and ancestry, on my dad\u2019s side. So these facts set up something of a sympathetic resonance for me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then there\u2019s Bill Mason himself, the man: he is, or rather <em>was<\/em>, an outdoorsman and artist, who made, I\u2019ve subsequently discovered, numerous utterly gorgeous and fascinating films, of which this is one of the best. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The chief charms of this are simple yet kaleidoscopically rich, like the environment in which the film is set, on and around Lake Superior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the things Bill addresses, a vexed issue for me, is spirituality. This was the only note struck in this otherwise perfect reverie of sound and vision, nature and culture, that &#8211; if not necessarily jarring &#8211; gave me pause for some (Indian!?) reservations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But I\u2019d like to take this post as an opportunity to consider a few things, and there are many, that this film either touches upon directly, or stirred in me by association. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First there are the \u2018renaissance man\u2019 and self-reliance aspects. Bill, who formerly worked as a \u2018commercial artist\u2019, was a conservationist, famed canoeist, artist, writer, family man, and all sorts. I love all of  that! I have my own aspirations to living a multi-faceted life. Richer, one hopes -not fiscally perhaps, but in other better more important ways &#8211; than the monomaniac furrows our society drills us into pursuing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, there are many things Bill\u2019s example encourages: to spend more time in, and pay more attention to, nature, and indeed all our environments. Art, get up, and out, and make some. Buy or build a canoe; get out and start messing about in the water!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was also interesting to learn that Bill\u2019s health wasn\u2019t terrific. A sickly child, he has severe asthma all his life. And yet he didn\u2019t allow this to stop him from adventuring. Maybe his derring-do contributed to his early demise? But then again, maybe not? And at least he lived a rich and inspiring life while he lived. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some might laugh reading this next bit. And it may indeed sound facile. But I truly couldn\u2019t care less! And that\u2019s the fact that I <em>like his style<\/em>. And I\u2019ve gone as far as to add elements of it &#8211; some were already there, others just a little tweak in already beloved themes &#8211; to my own sartorial repertoire. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I already had the neckerchiefs (though mine are too small!), and brown leather walking boots, and many a checked shirt. But the red outdoorsman socks are new! And so too is the very particular red and black check \u2018lumberjack\u2019 shirt!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bill\u2019s particular style of art &#8211; he favours palette knives over brushes, and cites J. M. W. Turner as his chief inspiration and influence &#8211; is terrific, albeit not entirely to my normal tastes. But that he does it all, is inspiration. It was interesting to see that he, like myself and several artists I\u2019ve known personally, is highly self-critical bout his work, and often destroys what others. Might regard as decent work, because he\u2019s unhappy with it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then there\u2019s music. In other Mason films he strums guitar or plays harmonica.  It amazingly, one might add. And his family aren\u2019t exactly fulsome in their appreciation (does this remind any of us of our own domestic musical life? Or is it just me!?). But for Waterwalker, the music is supplied by (?) and (?). (?) is a star in his own right. And the music totally suits the subject!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some of it, such as the actual \u2018theme tune\u2019, might induce cringing amongst some listeners. I\u2019d understand why. It has a \u2018new agey\u2019 earnestness. But I love it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another facet of the whole thing that some might find they react to differently than I do, is the whole tenor of it all. It\u2019s definitely dreamy, romantic, and perhaps even somewhat solipsistic? And it\u2019s no surprise such movies helped created a cult of Bill Mason. But as a \u2018fellow traveller\u2019, and sympathetic romantic introvert soul-mate, I love it all. As did critics, numerous of his films, inc\u2019 this one, winning a variety of awards and accolades. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also interesting to me, is how stuff like this leaches into other areas. For example, I noticed, whilst watching a recent Jack Stratton \u2018Holy Trinity\u2019 episode, on YouTube, that he had created a logo and a whole invented Vulf Films thing suspiciously akin to the Canadian NFB (National Film Board) doodad.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Just as Bill Mason\u2019s film is simultaneously about following one\u2019s own individual and sometimes lonely paths, it\u2019s also about connections. Be they to nature, or each other, immediate or indirect. Love it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wow! I do love YouTube, for giving us all the chance to stumble across gems such as this. Thanks also to the NFB, or National Film Board of Canada. Bill Mason, who made this film, and \u2018stars\u2019 in it, is Canadian. I have Canadian family and ancestry, on my dad\u2019s side. So these facts set &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=4735\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;MEDiA: Waterwalker, 1984&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[21,78,73,81,77,15,75,20,22,58,71,69],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paGwUa-1en","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4735"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4735"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8138,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4735\/revisions\/8138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}