If you plan to use Django as an API server, you might be interested in Lightweight Django (http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920032502.do), which shows you how to design and build an API server using Django, Django Rest Framework (another great Django related project) and Backbone on the front-end.
Half-implemented, broken and cool is more fun than solid and battle-tested, and that's perfectly fine so long as you don't get yourself fired over a bad choice - have a great time. Honestly, I used to be more novelty-driven, too. But battle-tested and boring has its place.
Admittedly but Backbone is _still_ a good intro to Front-end frameworks because it has a steep learning curve upfront instead of, say, angular that seems easy enough to pick up until you try to tackle non trivial applications.
