Welcome to Bicknell. Home of the Bicknell International Film Festival – Better Living Through Bad Cinema

By Bennett Owen

Credit: My-West.com ©

WHAM! BAM! POW! BIFF! Yes, BIFF as in Bicknell International Film Festival, a southern Utah tradition since 1995.

Credit: BIFF

This weekend, Bicknell is in a B-Hive state of mind, embracing bad movies with a capital B. Each year the committee selects three films that best reflect the worst of a genre.  Past themes include:

• UFOria (1996)
• Beach Blanket Bicknell (2002)
• Big Top Bicknell (2006)

And the 10^th anniversary edition, ‘The B-er, the Better.’

This year, the festival jury has chosen superheroes…and the merriment gets underway Friday evening with the 1966 Batman movie, starring Adam West … a movie so camp you could park an RV in it. (My mom ruined the TV series for me by pointing out that he had bony knees!) 

Credit: BIFF

On Saturday, festival-goers will get a matinee look at Captain America! No, not the big budget blockbuster making its nationwide bow this weekend … rather the 1990 version, described as a “ridiculous adaptation.” This screening also features ‘audience participation’…

Credit: BIFF

And Saturday evening the festival comes to a close with a gala performance of Flash Gordon, one of the cheesiest movies ever made, complete with soundtrack by Queen.  (Flash saves the world on a treadmill!)

Credit: Sci-fimovieposters.co

But BIFF is more than just movies. Friday afternoon features the world’s fastest parade, clocking in at 55 miles per hour –

Credit: BIFF

Credit: BIFF

There’s also a Saturday Swap Meet, where people get together to … swap stuff -

And after grand finale, the BIFF “It’s a Wrap Party,” featuring music this year by the Main Street Revelators. 

Credit: BIFF

The festival venue is the 64 year-old Wayne theater, recently restored to its original … hmmm, splendor doesn’t quite seem to fit here. 

The theater holds 306 people. The population of Bicknell is 325. Its owner, Terry Davis, is in charge of BIFF. “Everyone has a superhero in them one way or another,” he observes, and he’s right of course, especially after a trip to your local Italian Deli.

Credit: BIFF

Bicknell, by the way is also the gateway to the fabulous Capitol Reef and Canyonlands National Parks, along with some of the best hiking and biking country in the west. But the film festival is something you have to see to B-lieve.

Bicknell Film Festival, July 22-23 – For more information:  www.thebiff.org

Credit: BIFF

July Fourth – The Seeds of Greatness

By Bennett Owen

Credit: Tattered and Lost Photographs

"When one has tasted watermelon, he knows what the angels eat."

-    Mark Twain         

Credit: Avaxhome

It was a yearly ritual of my youth. When we arrived at the family picnic site, the watermelons were the first thing I looked for, lying side by side, cooling in the frigid, fast running water of Billings Creek.

Herman Bolman and others eating watermelon. Credit: Oregon State University Archives.  

Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Credit: Library of Congress. 

When I was a kid, July 4th served purposes beyond merely celebrating the birth of our great nation. It was also a family reunion...and the first day day of the year in which the angels allowed us mere mortals a taste of heaven...

Montana, 1940s. Credit: My-West.com Berry Collection ©  

Montana, 1960s. Credit: My-West.com Berry Collection ©  

Montana, 1960s. Credit: My-West.com Berry Collection ©   

"Their (Americans') manner of devouring watermelon is extremely unpleasant. The huge fruit is cut into half a dozen sections of about a foot long, and then, dripping as it is with water, applied to the mouth, from either side of which pour copious streams of the fluid, while...a mouthful of the hard black seeds are shot out in all directions."

-    Frances Trollope--  Domestic Manners of the Americans (1832)         

Texas. Credit: Library of Congress    

Credit: Library of Congress

There's not much room for etiquette at a picnic. One of my Uncles would grab a butcher knife and cut big slabs of watermelon, as thick as a cut of beef. The first bite...the texture...the flavor...the seeds!

Jasper County, Iowa. Credit: Library of Congress. 

Everyone had their own way of dealing with them. Mine was simply to ignore and swallow them. My Aunt Ruth told me I'd soon have watermelons growing out of my ears.  I countered that it would more likely be corn. It took her awhile to see the humor in that.

Dead Ox Flat, Malheur County, Oregon. Credit: Library of Congress

This is the same Aunt Ruth who, in search of dishwashers, tried to lure my young uncles out from their hiding place under a bridge with offers of ‘fresh watermelon’. The temptation was so great that spies were sent out to see whether the offer was truly good or not. Alas it wasn’t and Aunt Ruth did the dishes by herself.

And now they even say watermelon is good for you. Well, if it’s good enough for angels…

Sheridan County, Kansas. Credit: Library of Congress.

"Most of my memories of Texas are of mosquitoes, watermelons, crickets and my brother teasing me."

-    Robin Wright Penn

Credit: PANA

Jasper County, Iowa. Credit: Library of Congress.  

Welcome to Cody – My oh May

By Bennett Owen

Credit: Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, Wyoming

Credit: Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, Wyoming (Photo by Jaime Peuel)

Not every traveler gets a welcome by Buffalo Bill himself when they arrive at Cody “International” Airport in the wilds of Wyoming.  But 26-year old Vanessa Schwartz and her friend, Janina Datow are no ordinary tourists. 

The Koberg, Germany native won an all-expense paid 10-day trip for two to Cody as the 200,000^th visitor at last summer’s Karl May Western Festival in Bad Segeburg, Germany.  They’re honored guests of the world-renowned Buffalo Bill Cody Museum. 

Credit: Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, Wyoming (Met at the airport by ‘Buffalo Phil’)

The bust of Nefertiti might have seemed a bit odd at a venue like this… it’s a mockup of the original ancient Egyptian artifact, on display in Berlin. 

Credit: Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, Wyoming

Credit: Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, Wyoming

But their itinerary also includes a Rodeo, a Plains Indian Powwow and Yellowstone among many other highlights. 

The late Karl May – 1842 – 1912 -  (pronounced “My, as in My West” Not “Mae as in Mae West”) is Germany’s most popular author ever, with hundreds of millions of books sold, many of them set in the pioneer west and featuring the Pioneer Old Shatterhand and his faithful companion Chief Winnetou.

Credit: Amazon.com

Though he never actually visited the west, he had an uncanny ability to describe the landscape and the people ... information he gleaned from biographies as he served time behind bars as a petty criminal. 

But he also made use of an amazing natural outcropping east of Dresden known as ‘Saxon Switzerland.’

Credit: Martojo

It’s not very big but with a little imagination (and Karl May had plenty of that) you could almost transport yourself to Monument Valley. 

Credit: bOOnj

The Karl May Festival in Bad Segeberg is celebrating its 60^th anniversary this year with its premier in just 10 days time.  It’s a monumental Wild West Show that would have made Buffalo Bill proud and it’s wildly popular, attracting nearly 300-thousand spectators last summer.  Here’s a taste of what keeps them coming back year after year…you’ll get the gist of it even if you don’t speak German:

Germany’s fascination with the old west is truly a cultural phenomenon.  Western theme towns dot the landscape, there are literally hundreds of western clubs and I’d wager a guess that Germany is the biggest market for country music outside the US.

The entry gate of the Karl May Museum in Radebeul. Foto: Copyright © Hyde Flippo

I make that claim based on the ratio of CDs at the average Autobahn truck stop.  And nearly a century after his death, Karl May’s books help keep the western mystique alive.  Though he never gained an English-speaking audience, translations of his novels are available.

Credit: Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, Wyoming

Colorado Burro Racing – Haulin’ Ass

By Bennett Owen

It’s said that burro racing is the only sport indigenous to Colorado and there’s even a movement a-hoof there to make it the official state sport. Here's a video of the 2008 burro race.

There are two legends on its origins. The first harkens back to two miners striking gold and racing back to the claims office. Because their burros were too small and loaded down with supplies the miners were forced to run, leading the pack animals.

Credit: Miningbureau.com

The Desert Prospector, Frederic Remington. Credit: www.bierstadt.org

Credit: Utah State Historical Society

The second legend is somewhat vague but concerns a few drunken miners at a bar in Leadville, Colorado.

Charlie Russell image. Credit: TaleWorlds.com

Actually, number two sounds more plausible. But in actual fact, this is not a sport for the faint of heart. The event in Fairplay, for instance covers 29 miles over rough terrain and an elevation gain to the 13-thousand foot summit of Mosquito pass. No ass-phalt, folks.

Photo Credit: Hal Walter

Fairplay will host its 63rd annual burro race in late July, under the logo, “get your ass up the pass.” They expect to attract 10-thousand spectators.

Now with an acronym like WPBA – you might think Women’s Professional Bowling Association – and you’d be wrong.  Welcome to the Western Pack Burro Ass-ociation… (sic) with its WPBA racing season…its WPBA Triple Crown…and its WPBA rules, including:

• A donkey is defined as being an ass
• A burro may be pushed, pulled, dragged or carried…just not ridden
• Each burro must be equipped with a regulation pack saddle packed with prospector's paraphernalia including a pick, shovel, and gold pan. These items must weigh at least 33 pounds
• No clubs or whips may be used…other than the halter rope

And to all newcomers, the WPBA offers some sage advice: “An educated ass is valuable.” Words to live by.

Photo Credit: Ed Kosmickl

For more information and a schedule of events, go to PackBurrowRacing.com

And finally, a big hat tip to My-West fan Taryn Toro who clued us in on this amazing slice of Americana.

Photo Credit: Ross Keller 

Cowboy Theme Stampedes German Carnival

by Bennett Owen

It’s over for another year. The “silly season” as it’s called in Germany. Fasching. Karneval.  You expect this kind of thing in Rio and New Orleans but the Germans have a different reputation…stolid, dour, intellectual. And stereotypes are there for a reason. So it’s all the more amazing to see the great western German cities of Mainz, Düsseldorf and Cologne in the midst of Carnival fever:

Photo courtesy of cityshake

Photo courtesy of cityshake

But take a closer look and among the revelers…a familiar pattern emerges…

Photo courtesy of cityshake

Photo courtesy of cityshake

Despite the Germans’ love-hate relationship with America, the western mystique is indeed well entrenched here.  Route 66 on a Harley…it’s the dream of freedom for many a German businessman.  And then there’s Cowboy Johnny:

All I can say is, thank God for Lent!

Photo courtesy of cityshake

Photo courtesy of lichtkriegerin