ktravula – a travelogue!

The Lovejoy Connection (2)

Elijah Lovejoy (after whom the Library at the Southern Illinois University was named) became the first (white) victim of the American Civil War when he was killed by a mob in Alton in 1837.

He was thirty-five years old, a Presbyterian minister, publisher and activist.

These are pictures from a visit to the Elijah Lovejoy monument (and city cemetery), about twenty minutes away from here.

The cemetery had some of the most peculiar European names we had ever seen, some long, some short. Many of them are most likely no longer used. It also boasts of a certain serenity guarded by a few commemorative plinths overlooking the cemetery and the Mississippi river down below.

The Lovejoy Connection (2) was published on January 21st, 2012, with the tags , , , , , under the adventures, Observations, Travelling category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.

Meeting Ken Burns

The famous American Civil War documentarian and multi Emmy Award filmmaker Ken Burns came to campus today as a guest of the once-in-a-semester Arts & Issues event. Past guests to the event include the Count Bassie Orchestra, Frank Warren of Post Secret, poet laureate Maya Angelou among others.  The event, of course, sold out many weeks in advance, and this blogger was left at his wits end to find a way into the packed auditorium where the man who “more Americans get their history from than any other source” was going to be speaking. It looked like an impossible task in the beginning, but turned out well in the end. Let me see how best I can tell the story in very few words.

Okay, I can’t. It’s a long story. It started with a despairing email to the faculty of the foreign language department and ended with me sitting beside the visitor in an upstairs reception room and assisting him sign books for the scores of people who had come to see him talk, and listen to the way he has influenced American perception of history, especially the Civil War which started 150 years ago. He also looked young for someone who had been in the film business for more than thirty years.

I should probably write a longer post about the event itself, my perception of the man, and the power of storytelling, especially the medium of film. This has always been a favourite interest.

Meeting Ken Burns was published on April 20th, 2011, with the tags , , , , , , under the adventures, Fun category. There are currently 4 comments on this article so far.

Going Back to 1861

This week on campus, there was a re-enactment of the camp and battle scenes from the American Civil War in celebration of 150 years since the war started. Here are a few pictures we took there. More than the very surreal feeling of being back in time to when the fate of the country’s unity lay in a balance, subjected to the force of will and rhetoric from the two divides, there was also a good feeling of being able to talk to men descended from real life veterans of the war. The half hour we spent in their company was jolly, and very educative. They do know their history, and many of them have spent decades researching it, and collecting artifacts and relics from the time.

And then we posed for pictures wearing some of their military fatigues, and even trying out the military pose with the gun and bayonet as new recruits would, in those days. One of the “officers” looked at us and warned, in a voice so reminiscent of a real commander. “Be careful boys. If you get too far from camp and you get into the hands of those damned Confederates, I won’t be responsible for whatever happens to you.”

The events will round off this week with a talk on campus by famous Civil War film maker/documentarian Ken Burns at the Merridean Ballroom on Wednesday. The event had already sold out since months ago. But by some luck and persistence, your sincerely has found a way to get into the event without a ticket, with help from some connected people. Don’t ask me how, but I might tell you after the event. I hear that Mr. Burns is one of the most famous documentarians on the Civil War with two Academy Award nominations to his name, and seven Emmy Awards.

Going Back to 1861 was published on April 17th, 2011, with the tags , , , , under the adventures, Fun category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.