Happy New Year! The mixed fog, snow, and rain continues for the third day. We cancelled our reservations for dinner because we'd prefer to stay OFF icy roads after sunset. I shot some after-dark photos of the Hockaday last night, while the Christmas lights are still up, and it was almost too slippery to walk around here, much less drive.
We have been visited by Coyotes, Raccoons, and Deer, plus Pheasants, Bald Eagles, Magpies, Blue Jays, Flickers, and Hairy Woodpeckers. Small birds have included Finches, Chickadees, and beautiful charcoal-colored Juncos.

Updates are coming: Theater X-Net

Featuring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!

Charity Alert: Resolve to click on The Hunger Siteevery day you go online this year!

In The Community: It was my turn to walk through the Hockaday today, even though we are closed until Tuesday. I changed a couple of floodlights, but everything else was fine. (I noticed that the director had been painting during the break.) Hockaday Museum of Art

Media Watch: All sorts of stuff -- I lost last night's post to a computer lock-up, so I'm going to wait before I review it all. I watched C-Span today in between NFL Football games, and enjoyed David Denby's conversation with Brian Lamb about his memoir Great Books.

Ladies of Flash Gordon and the influence of Edgar Rice Burroughs! See the newly-added pictures in my previous posts!

Updates are coming: Theater X-Net

Featuring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!

Wildlife and Weather: A wonderful, but wet, snowfall continues from yesterday. A Great Blue Heron just spent a half-hour on Middle Foy's Lake.

Charity Alert: The Hunger Site can use your clicks.

Media Watch: The History Channel was running a show about the culture and history of vaguely-known Gauls, calling them Celts. Well the ancient Greeks and Romans may have named certain groups of barbarian invaders Gauls, but that doesn't mean they were Celts. The scholars point to a very wide range of diversity amongst the sub-cultures found in the scant and scattered archeological records of my ancestors, and I don't think we have any reason to be sure about what we know and don't know about them as a group. They didn't use writing themselves, and what was written about them was by the hands of their enemies. Their mysteries remain unsolved in the tantalizing mists of time.


From those same folks who brought you Beowulf!
Late Pagan Anglo-Saxon Art -- East Anglia circa 625 A.D.
The same filmmakers also tackled the subject of England in the Dark Ages -- an ugly violent period of tribal migrations, piracy on land and sea, illiteracy, periodic famine and ruin, which came to an end in Britain with the arbitrary milestone of the Norman Invasion and the ascendency of the somewhat-literate trans-European cultural milieu we now call the Middle Ages. There were more of the same afflictions, but fewer migrations. The Black Death, Mongol Invasions, and Ottoman Empire didn't destroy what existed of European civilization, thanks to dumb luck and Providence.
The filmmakers were able to cram what few facts are known about the British Isles between 409 A.D. and 1066 A.D. in an hour-long show. For most of Europe it would have been a tougher task -- the outlying Irish monastaries provided a frail structure for literacy to endure in the North, and the written history of Britain has fewer gaps as a result. (Gaps I said? They are actually CHASMS of ignorance. We still do a lot of guessing.)


A face from the Dark Ages -- 7th Century bronze helmet
from the Sutton Hoo ship burial site in East Anglia (England)
One of Charlemange's few lasting accomplishments was a firm establishment of written language on the continent after 800 A.D. -- good for our civilization, because the entire British Isles were suffering Viking attacks for another two centuries or more. (Those ancestors of mine -- always fighting amongst themselves.)

Wildlife: A big male Whitetail Deer crested the hill over Foy's Lake Road yesterday. He bounded down the slope and took two fences in two leaps at the bottom. We slowed our car down to watch him cross the road in front of us.

Watch for Updates: Theater X-Net

Featuring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!

Weather: Dark all day, but still above freezing. A beautiful snowfall began at twilight.

Media Watch: We saw the DVD version of Bride and Prejudice with Ashwarya Rai the other night. One of the movie companies involved with the production is Pathe -- that name has been around for almost 100 years. The director Gurinder Chadha really dropped the ball right at the beginning with her characterization of the leading man. He possessed more negatives than the viewer could reasonably forgive later in the movie when she tried to turn him into a worthy match for Ms. Rai's character. The English lyrics mixed with Bollywood-style songs were kind of lame too. We are still hoping for a popular breakthrough for this genre. B&P was far from being a bad movie, but it wasn't strong enough to break any barriers.
Those Flash Gordon serials make great time-fillers during laid-back Holiday afternoons. I noticed many influences from Edgar Rice Burroughs -- especially from the Mars stories, which made sense in the 1930's, when Tarzan was a huge hit in the movies too.
Flash was an intentional competitor of Buck Rogers -- a Space Opera from the pages of Amazing Stories featuring a 20th Century aviator (resembling popular hero Charles Lindbergh) who awakens from suspended animation 500 years in the future. Buck rockets about a space-faring society resembling Zane Grey's Wild West and Raphael Sabatini's Spanish Main.
Flash is more of a heroic explorer. He just falls into his original mission to save the Earth (or rather accidentally parachutes onto Dr. Zarkov's estate) with Dale Arden clinging to his shoulders. After they blast off to Planet Mongo, the Earth people cope with one emergency after another, much like Edgar Rice Burroughs' characters do as they discover new worlds, lands, and peoples. There are old labyrinthine palaces, wastelands inhabited by monsters, primitive tribesmen, kings, emperors, princesses, mad scientists, and secret caves and tunnels connecting all of them. Powerful, mysterious rays do fantastic things!


Chessmen of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
J. Allen St. John's cover for the hardback book 1922 (Left)
Argosy cover by P.J. Monahan 1922 (Right)
St. John's eclectic mixture of the extraterrestrial and ancient in Burroughs' version of Mars inspired Flash Gordon comics and movies.
Burroughs was a leader in popular fiction, and he was followed by many disciples. Harold Foster (Tarzan) and Alex Raymond (Flash Gordon) were two of the best, drawing vivid newspaper comics from his inspiration. The movies made from these characters were only shadows of his creations, but they resonated with the public over many generations.
In 1940 Flash Gordon was about to be brought down to Earth, by command of King Features Syndicate. Raymond was turning more and more work over to his assistant Austin Briggs. Flash's last movie serial looked backward rather than forward -- those tailored Robin Hood/Prisoner of Zenda costumes told of subdued aesthetics compared to the barbaric armor plate of earlier series. Those same Tesla Coils and Van der Graff Generators in the labs told of a stasis of imagination, reinforced by the ten year old Rocket Ships.
Actual reality was pretty scary that year -- World War II darkened China and Europe, and modern technology was killing people by the thousands. Emotionally wounded Charles Lindbergh was making Isolationist speeches. 'The Future' was not the same pleasant fantasy it had been a decade earlier. Juvenile chapter serials wouldn't disappear for a decade more, but they had passed their creative peak.


Frank Frazetta paints Flash Gordon's archetype cavorting in Edgar Rice Burroughs' Lost Continent (Beyond Forty), with an ingenue from Savage Pellucidar and some lions from Tarzan's Africa circa 1964.

Merry Christmas! An incident in our neighborhood was mentioned in the Law Enforcement section of the local paper today -- Last Friday, while I was shopping, my wife saw a pair of Labrador Retrievers trapped in the near-freezing waters of the aereation pond on Middle Foy's Lake -- the rain-slick ice made it impossible for them to escape. She quickly called the right people and both animals were saved. She was also still shaken by the near-tragedy when I got home.

Updates are coming: Theater X-Net

Featuring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!

Weather: Low 30's (F) and gray skies again -- banks of icy fog rolling through. I see stars as I write, but I hope that doesn't mean a deep freeze.

Charity Alert: Make your holidays merrier by clicking on The Hunger Site.

Wildlife: More gross stuff, plus a possible answer to an earlier question. We heard Coyotes howling right after I wrote yesterday's blogpost. I grabbed a flashlight and looked out the back, but my neighbor had beaten me to the punch, waving a big powerful floodlight back and forth over the lake -- I saw no Coyotes, but I saw some inert lumpy things near the same neighbor's ice-fishing spot. I thought nothing of it until this morning, when those lumps turned out to be another deer carcass. Yuck! It's possible that the Coyotes are responsible for last week's body too. We wondered why the Bald Eagle couple by the pond didn't feed on these things like the Magpies did. Was it because the carrion was too close to people's houses?

Media Watch: Whatever else, the day started on a sublime note -- literally!
Montana Public Radio played a complete performance of Vivaldi's Gloria, sung by an all-woman Norweigian choir. (It was originally written for a convent in Venice.) I just stayed in bed until the beautiful singing was over.
There was only one NFL Football game on TV today -- Chicago isn't perfect, but it has a better team than Green Bay this year, and the Bears beat the Packers in Wisconsin during their approximately 150th matchup. (No pregame show, I was busy cooking.)
In the kitchen, I watched part of the third Flash Gordon serial (1940). Errol Flynn's Robin Hood and Sigmund Romburg's Student Prince inspired the costumes -- both in the movie and in Alex Raymond's original strips of the time. The good guys started out smart, fast, and effective, but something happened halfway through and they began bumbling around, getting captured, and otherwise padding the plot. (Uh oh, is THAT it?)
There was a nasty spy named Lady Sonja, but the women's characters were generally passive to a fault. Prince Barin and Princess Aura were portrayed by other actors -- the Prince was much slimmer and quicker, but this version of the Princess had no charisma whatsoever.
You are STILL missed, Priscilla Lawson -- Princess Diana (Wonder Woman's given name), Princess Leia, and Xena, Warrior Princess, all benefitted from your leadership as Princess Aura!


Carol Hughes as Dale Arden (Left) strikes at evil Lady Sonja (Right)
played by Anne Gwynne. Later Dale gets the best of Sonja, but a gas
bomb knocks her out cold the next second, and she's captured again.
Inset above is Shirley Deane as Princess Aura (in name only).
Inset below is Queen Frija of Frigia played by an as-yet-unknown actress.

Merry Christmas! A wildlife sing-along -- 12 Mourning Doves, 11 red Finches, 10 swirling Starlings ... 5 gorgeous Pheasants, 4 hungry Magpies, 3 Hairy Woodpeckers, 2 California Blue Jays, and a Bald Eagle on Middle Foy's Lake!

Updates are coming: Theater X-Net

Featuring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!

Weather: Low 30's (F) and gray skies, but I had my sunglasses around my neck just in case.

Charity Alert: Give by simply clicking on The Hunger Site.

Out and About: I walked into Pier One Imports with my latte in hand, and the manager asked where hers was. After she helped me find what I wanted to buy, I went to the nearby Seattle's Best Coffee shop and came back with lattes for the three hard-working staffers at Pier One. Their Christmas Eve was a 10 hour workday.
I was standing in line at a "Dollar Store," waiting to buy some cool gift bags, but it didn't seem to be moving. My biggest fear was that I'd hear "PRICE CHECK" from the register at the front of the line. ("Hmm -- I wonder how much THIS costs?")

Media Watch: I saw about 20 total minutes of NFL Football today -- Kansas City skunked San Diego, Washington did the same to the NY Giants, and Indianapolis was resting their starters in Seattle. (Good idea -- the playoffs are much more important now.) MAD-TV's Frank had Christmas carolers singing the comedy, and Jillian wore a lightweight, almost summery, dress -- her loosely-hanging skirt was cut to drop slightly below the knees at the back while rising slightly above her knees in front. She's wearing that style often lately.
While wrapping presents I had the first Flash Gordon serial running on DVD. Another invitation to: Michael's Montana Web Archive
My future Spitfires of the Spaceways webpage looks like it will need a few more episodes featuring Princess Aura, as played by Priscilla Lawson, than I originally thought. Dale Arden and Wilma Deering each have their all-too-rare moments of decisive action, but Lawson's character had much more fun and excitement before twenty years of censorship in Hollywood supressed not only sensuality, but self-reliance and initiative in women's roles. Early Flash Gordon is just ONE example -- in a silly context, perhaps -- but an example nevertheless.


Priscilla Lawson from the 1930's:
As spitfire Princess Aura (Left) -- saving Flash's life;
A publicity shot (Right) about the time she signed to MGM.

Updates are coming: Theater X-Net

Featuring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!

Wildlife and Weather: The Bald Eagle perched by the aereation pond at first light this morning. The widespread meltwaters might have made it difficult to spot. The temperature was nearly 40 degrees (F), and everything was slushy. The roads were driveable, at least, but there were big puddles of runoff at every intersection. Big banks of clouds shrouded the mountains, and I hope it was snowing up there!

Charity Alert: Soak up some good karma with a contributing click on The Hunger Site.

In The Community: The Hockaday Museum of Art and Flathead Valley Community College are both CLOSED for the rest of the year 2005. I'm going to get another nighttime photo of the Hockaday before we take the lights down, though.

Media Watch: I was busy today, and didn't sit in one place very long. Last night I saw a program on the History Channel about the origins of the Christmas story -- there were many of the same faces I saw on 48 Hours earlier in the week talking about the same subject, only THIS time they included the contradictions with history resident in those miraculous gospels and traditional tales.
While I was getting ready to go out this morning, I flipped through Fox's morning show from Los Angeles and there was Jillian Barbarie doing "The Weather!" Why is that expression in quotes? Her maps and forecasts were showing on the screen, but she wasn't saying anything -- she danced around gleefully while a visiting choir sang an acapella Christmas song. I figure that dance she was doing was called "The Weather." It was actually heartfelt and cute -- she's best when she's spontaneous. There will be NFL football on TV for the next three days, but who knows if I'll have time to catch her act later?
There were some beautiful selections of classical and pre-classical music playing on Montana Public Radio as I drove around.

Out and About: Christmas shopping means crowded stores and dangerous parking lots, but it also means chance meetings with friends and moments of delight when you find what you're looking for. I read the local paper during lunch and the editorial page was full of letters from incensed dupes going on about their putative war on Christmas which rages in their OWN minds and sours their OWN bowels.
I'll take visions of sugarplums for myself -- Merry Christmas!

Wildlife: Two small family groups of deer were grazing around the neighborhood as I drove home last night.

New Website: Theater X-Net

Featuring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!

Weather and Charity Alert: Freezing rain over already-icy roads. I couldn't leave for work until after sunrise, and even then I slid in a few places. No tire ever invented can grip these surfaces. Click on The Hunger Site rather than drive your car AT ALL today.

In The Community: Flathead Valley Community College is open because we have one more day of finals. How do you reschedule THEM?
I'm off the hook for painting at the Hockaday today because of the weather, plus we lost a staff member yesterday to a full-time job elsewhere -- the first week of January is gonna be busy! (I have this premonition of the director calling me on Dec. 28th asking if I feel like painting...) Hockaday Museum of Art

Media Watch: I'm reading a collection of essays by Ray Bradbury -- Bradbury Speaks : Too Soon from the Cave, Too Far from the Stars (William Morrow 2005) His colorful poetic words are always a joy for me to read -- these short pieces are very personal and conversational, but I continue to learn and be inspired by this enthusiastic, eloquent man.
Excerpt of an excerpt -- all rights reserved by HarperCollins Publishers:
About Writing -- My Demon, Not Afraid of Happiness (undated)
I have a strange and incredible muse that, unseen, has engulfed me during my lifetime. I have renamed my muse. In a Frederick Seidel poem, I found a perfect replacement, where he tells of "A Demon not afraid of happiness."
This perfectly describes the Demon that sits now on one shoulder, now on the other, and whispers things that no one else hears.
My Demon warned me one night years ago when I saw some glum theater at UCLA. Later I said to the director, "You want me to stick my wet finger in a wall socket for electrocution. Instead I will screw a brighter bulb in the same socket and light the room."
So my Demon warned me off such encounters and provided invisible material for my future life.
Dandelion Wine, for example, began as an essay in Gourmet magazine in 1953, and over the years my Demon tripped me, sprawling, into a novel to be read in American schools.
On my twenty-fourth birthday, I discovered Winesburg, Ohio, which is indeed not a novel but a short-story collection by Sherwood Anderson. How fine, I thought, if someday I could birth similar grotesques to inhabit Mars.
My Demon, provoked, secretly made travel plans to landfall Mars, live there, and arrive at an unplanned novel, The Martian Chronicles...
A short tale, "The Black Ferris,"melded itself into a screenplay for Gene Kelly, and when Kelly couldn't find the money for the film, I spent three years turning the screenplay into the novel Something Wicked This Way Comes.
Then at last there is my late-on offspring From the Dust Returned, commenced when I drew skeletons, age six, to scare my cousins, continued in secret when I helped redecorate my grandparents' house with Halloween broomsticks, and ended with a gothic story, "Homecoming," rejected by Weird Tales as needful of Marley's ghost and lacking Poe. I sold the story to Mademoiselle, and over the years it grew in rain and mist and arrived in fogs as a novel just last year.
What we have here, then, is a very unusual approach to writing and discovering, not knowing the outcome. To move ahead on a blind journey, running fast, putting down thoughts as they occur.
And along the way my inner voice advised:
If you must write of assassinations, rapes, and Ophelia suicides, speak the speech, I pray thee, poetry in your breath, metaphors on your tongue. Remember how glad Iago was to think on Othello's fall. How, with smiles, Hamlet prepared his uncle's death.
Shakespeare and my Demon schooled me so: Be not afraid of happiness. It is often the soul of murder.
"Speak your love!" he advised an audience on Book TV earlier this year, and told the story of how a blown-down roller coaster at Santa Monica Pier turned into The Foghorn, which led to John Huston taking him to Ireland to write the movie version of Moby Dick, further leading to worldwide recognition of his vast talent.
He tells the tale in Too Soon from the Cave, Too Far from the Stars about how post-WWII public school students educated their teachers about him and other "Science Fiction" authors by taking these books to school and convincing their instructors to read them. A simple and true story -- I was one of those myriad students, and I was exceedingly proud to see Dandelion Wine and Fahrenheit 451 as part of our curriculum by the time I got to high school.


J. Allen St. John succeeded Frank Schoonover
as illustrator of Edgar Rice Burroughs' fanastic novels. Warlord of Mars is mentioned by Bradbury in Too Soon from the Cave, and this is probably the cover he saw as a youngster.

Charity Alert: Click on The Hunger Site rather than drive your car needlessly today.

New Website: Theater X-Net

Featuring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!

Wildlife and Weather: 33 degrees (F), freezing rain, and crazy drivers who pick THESE kinda days to play Mad Max on the highways. There was a thirty foot swath of blood spread out at the bottom of Buckboard Lane, with a deer's body crumpled at the trailing end. It takes a long time to stop in this weather.

In The Community: The Hockaday Museum will be closed for the Holidays -- all HAIL will break loose after New Year's Day -- three galleries to strip down and fill back up in a week. Hockaday Museum of Art

Media Watch: 48 Hours did a show comparing the biblical accounts of the Christmas story with our many traditional retellings. It also tried to present the pathetically few facts backing up any of these largely supernatural tales, while downplaying the serious errors of history committed by their long-dead authors. The broadcast was full of faces I normally only see on the History Channel. Christmas is a lot like it's symbolic tree -- many things can be hung from it's branches, but it's main intent is CELEBRATION!


(L) Coca Cola's version of Santa Claus, painted over two generations
by Chicago's Haddon Sundblom (1899-1974)
(R) Part of Sundblom's cover for Playboy,
another long-time Chicago institution, from 1972
A History of St. Nicholas/Santa Claus

Wildlife and Weather: One Bald Eagle stuck around by the aereation pond until it was almost too dark to see him/her fly away, like about 5 PM. The days are so short that the temperature doesn't have time to change -- it was 10 degrees (F) at 6 PM and 10 degrees (F) at 7 AM.

New Website: Theater X-Net

Featuring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!

Charity Alert: Click on The Hunger Site for an easy way to lift somebody's spirits.

In The Community: Somebody's collection of works by a Blackfeet artist was just donated to the Hockaday -- no wonder the director wants those shelves ready before Christmas! We'll announce it to the media soon. Hockaday Museum of Art

Media Watch: Ted Allen of the Fab Five was on NPR today, talking about Christmas dinners. I wasn't really fond of Queer Eye's wedding show the other day -- too extravagent, with less-than-insightful decisions all the way around, but I'll always listen to Ted when he talks about cooking -- he can be a confidence-builder. The Food You Want to Eat, Allen's current cookbook on NPR
Monday Night Football had one of the sorriest games I've ever looked at. The Ravens won 48-3 over the Green Bay Packers in Baltimore, but I'd already seen enough by the end of the first quarter. Interested in the playoffs?
Associated Press report 12/19/05 The two-time defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots clinched the AFC East this weekend, then the Cincinnati Bengals took the AFC North. The Denver Broncos also assured themselves a spot in the playoffs.
After New England blanked Tampa Bay 28-0 on Saturday, improving to 9-5, it eliminated Miami from taking the division crown. The Dolphins fell out of the playoff chase despite a 24-20 win over the New York Jets on Sunday. Denver also won Saturday, beating Buffalo 28-17. That was enough to guarantee the Broncos (11-3) at least an AFC wild-card berth. They lead the West by two games over San Diego, and will clinch the division with one more win or a Chargers loss. Cincinnati's 41-17 rout of Detroit moved the Bengals into the postseason for the first time in 15 years.
Indianapolis and Seattle already were in. The Colts (13-1) have home-field advantage in the AFC, even though their perfect season ended with a 26-17 loss to San Diego. The Seahawks (12-2) took their 10th straight victory, 28-24 at Tennessee, earning them a first-round bye. They own the NFC West title.
I turned the TV over to CSPAN -- Vint Cerf, Google's Chief Internet Evangelist, chatting about the importance of open networks and widespread universal access to the Internet. He's one of the true founders of the Information Superhighway, who led ARAPNET off of Defense Dept. computers to become the hubless public network we know today, with the World Wide Web being just one branch of it.
I saw a King Kong ad just before I changed the channel -- big deal, except it wasn't for the movie. The product was an interactive game where the user could roam Kong Island playing one of the white guys in the flick, or even being Kong himself. I notice that the movie is doing alright, but with it's $200 Million budget it will need darn near everybody in the world to see it twice before it makes a profit.


Faye Wray (1907–2004), the great Hollywood personality best known for one single movie, although she starred in others.
On the viewing deck of the Empire State Building in 2004 (Left)
Notice that same "look" in the publicity still from 1932 (Right)

Wildlife and Weather: Two Coyotes were strolling across our lake in the long gray morning before the sun rose above the mist. It was minus 9 degrees (F). I'm sorry to see them or hear them -- very opportunistic predators. We are keeping the cats inside until midday for awhile. (Not that they want to stay outside in this brutal cold.)

New Website: Theater X-Net

Featuring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!

Charity Alert: Cold schmold -- click on The Hunger Site. We went to Costco and bought a load of dog and cat food for the local animal shelter today. I was in a very good mood, unlike last week, but the press of people in the stores still creates situations where someone is always seems to be in someone else's way. Saying Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays are great ways of lifting everybody's spirits.

In The Community: FINALS WEEK at the college -- all slackers emerge from the woodwork and get it over please! Besides that, there's two video students who are finishing their projects tommorrow, and Current Events is behind schedule, so it will be simpler than planned. I have to finish making that shelving in the Hockaday Museum's vaults, and still find time for holiday preparations.

Media Watch: While Christmas shopping, I saw an anthology called The American Pinup from Taschen, a publisher of popular art books. The cover was from a calendar circa 1940. I see these kitchy artifacts from many generations all over the antique stores.
One of many Websites devoted to Pinup Images
Book TV showed a panel discussion from November 15, with Nadine Strossen, Ariel Levy, Kay Hymowitz, Nelson George and moderator Catherine Orenstein at the Center for Communications New School University which was remarkable in the fact that all half-dozen or so participants actually spoke in turn, and listened to one another. The subject was the nature of sexual content in the mass media -- music videos, advertising, and so forth. The featured panelist was a lady named Pamela Paul who authored a book called Pornified; How the Culture of Pornography is Transforming Our Lives, Our Relationships and Our Families, which is starting to make a buzz. She was personable and polite too. Ms. Paul's Website
Everyone generally agreed that sexual imagery had definite effects on society, but they were complex, and censorship often made bad effects worse. MTV Networks also ran a show about sexual harrassment and music videos.
Hmmm -- was something going on today, or am I just looking for these kinds of discussions?
NFL Football -- Pregame Madness was cut short by shopping. Penn & Teller did a bit with MAD-TV's Frank which wasn't particularly funny, considering all that talent on camera. (I should mention that Penn & Teller's series Bullshit on Showtime is mostly that very thing -- don't waste your time.)
I missed Jillian Barbarie's segment. Is that why I sought solace in cheesecake pictures published when my late father was only a young lad?


Classic Pinups by (L to R):
Zoë Mozert, Earl Moran, Alberto Vargas, and George Petty

San Diego handed Indianapolis it's first defeat of the season -- the Colts are going to be sorry if they continue to allow Peyton Manning to take lickings like he did this week and last week. Washington surprised Dallas at every turn, and I mostly did chores in the afternoon rather than watch such a lopsided drubbing. I tuned in to the Chicago game in the evening while also doing other things -- it was near 0 degrees (F) and the Atlanta team was out of it's element. If you like defense, Chicago's your team. They don't have much at the quarterback position, but it's rare when they do. That town just abuses anyone who ever gets the job, and regional rivals like Green Bay, Minneapolis, Indianapolis, St. Louis, and Detroit hate them --- and well, they can't seem to win, even if they win games -- ask Jim McMahon.

Wildlife: The Pheasants are so colorful against the snow --- even the females show gold and red. There was a large flock of Robins flying through the neighborhood too -- obviously slow or lost in their migration.

New Website: Theater X-Net

Featuring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!

Weather: A sunny day after a snowfall is usually a cold day, and today was not an exception.

Charity Alert: Cure the outdoor cold by warming your heart with a click on The Hunger Site.

Media Watch: I'm reading a book called The Future of Music -- Manifesto for the Digital Music Revolution by David Kusek and Gerd Leonhard. Recordings as "product" are losing their prominence -- the way the record industry continues to rob creators of music makes that fact good news. Live musical performances are still vital, profitable endeavors, and audience attendance is growing overall, but THE ROAD is a HELL of a way to make a living, as I can attest. The thesis of the book is "music like water" not free, but not expensive, and readily available via media "taps." Networks of media can help creative people a lot if the vast public pays a little for learning, absorbing, and enjoying music in its many forms. (I could say the same about other arts.) For musicians, getting money from other sources besides live gigs helps them make better performances, more stable lives, and enjoy longer careers.
Future of Music Website
NFL Football on Saturday -- Pre-game madness featured MAD-TV's Frank Calliendo in the studio on Fox. His live voice impersonations were mostly good, but his comedy was more than a bit off. If Jillian Barbarie attempted comedy today, I didn't laugh at anything in her segment. She was well-dressed in an off-the-shoulders ensemble a lot like the one in those photos I posted earlier in the week, except with an above-the-knee skirt. It was definitely warm-weather fashion. (Did I mention how cold it was today?)
New England shut out the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to clinch the AFC East Division. The Bucs are a better-than-average team, but even with injuries, the Patriots are still the champs unless they lose in the post-season. Kansas City gave the NY Giants a hard time at the frigid Meadowlands in New Jersey, but they still lost to the home team.
Yes! That is Aishwarya Rai as a model in an eyeliner commercial. I hope she makes more appearences in the American/European media.

In The Community: An Art Museum takes WORK sometimes!
Gotta get ready for next year. Hockaday Museum of Art

New Website: Theater X-Net

Featuring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!

Wildlife: Middle Foy's Lake is quite a gathering place with that open water. We saw a report about "killer deer" on network news last night -- some of it taped in Helena, Montana. The local bucks will lose their horns soon -- real real soon.

Weather: A beautiful soft snowfall.

Charity Alert: Six clicks on The Hunger Site will brighten any day.

Media Watch: National Public radio made it sound like Saul Zaenz sold Fantasy Records. There are new owners at that label they say. Zaenz made an obscene amount of money as producer of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings. He bought the movie rights forty years ago for something like 50 grand when J.R.R. Tolkien needed some fast cash for taxes. Zaenz bankrolled Ralph Bakshi's half-baked animated version in the late 70's, which has it's fans, I must say, but I'm not one of their number. If you read Tolkein's Letters, there's some tidbits about another animated film attempted in the late 50's or early 60's, with the involvement of Forrest J. Ackerman -- publisher of Famous Monsters of Filmland. The makers of Yellow Submarine made some public noises about their plans to animate Lord of the Rings, but they obviously came to naught.
Back to the original point -- because of new ownership at Fantasy, John Fogarty is finally able to release a collection of hits now, after 35 years of contentious litigation between Zaenz and himself. NPR -- John Fogarty.


The Hockaday's Cowboy Christmas Tree
Merry Christmas!

FRONTLINE; The Pursuaders caught my eyes and ears last night on PBS. I'll examine it's issues below.

New Website: Theater X-Net

Featuring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!

Wildlife: Those two Bald Eagles are definitely nesting at Middle Foy's Lake again this year.

Weather: It is gray again today, after a sunny, but not-too-cold day after following Monday's blizzard. I hope those are snow clouds I see coming from the west, and not more gloomy fogbanks.

Charity Alert: Six clicks make significant differences on The Hunger Site's Web pages.

Media Watch: By the mid-60's, We the Public thought we were aware of the nature of the media barrage which rained down upon us. Marshall McLuhan spelled out a new vocabulary for human interactions with books, magazines, radio, movies, and television. He even popularized the very term "media," which now means nothing, everything, and alot in between. He was an inspirational pioneer.
The economic forces which pay big dividends to media manipulators form themselves into meandering streams that make old McLuhanesque maps of the cultural landscape outdated, and waylay travelers who don't even know they are lost.
We are slow to identify overriding patterns, but even so it is instructive to know the ways in which we are had -- for instance, this show introduces us to Frank Luntz, who researches the power of certain words for political campaigns. One of his major claims to fame, and big consulting fees, is Newt Gingrich's infamous Contract With America -- a list of misrepresentations and lies which stands as a major case study in how the Public can be buffaloed into voting against their own interests.
There is a big difference between putting up with a little harmless humbuggery, ballyhoo, or hype when making choices about what to buy, compared to enduring an onslaught of lies from criminals who are trying to rob us.

Watch the show and participate on the Website: FRONTLINE; The Pursuaders


Madison Avenue and Kodak were media allies for many years.
The Kodak Girl on the far left is Cybill Shepherd circa 1966.

Wildlife: A Rough-Legged Hawk visited the campus of Flathead Valley Community College yesterday. I hope all the new construction won't drive it away. We heard coyotes howling last night at Foy's Lake also -- Shoo!

New Website: Theater X-Net

Featuring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!

Weather: Snowy and beautiful -- not too awfully cold (for here). I think I'll shoot some background video for Current Events.

Charity Alert: Contribute with a click on The Hunger Site.

Media Watch: I have a new Casablanca Prestige editing system. I'll be putting it through it's paces, making some pretty videos for the local cable access channel -- I'm going to PLAY with various effects and specialities while they're new! (I'll tone it down later, but ...)

In The Community: Here's a shot of the Valley Voices Choir on the steps of the Hockaday Museum of Art during the Kalispell Art Walk last December 2nd:


Happy Holidays!
(Every single one of 'em.)

Toni Bentley, author and dancer, graciously consented to a link exchange on my new Website: Theater X-Net

Featuring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!

Wildlife: Grossness Alert! Some neighborhood dog was moving the body of a dead deer around Middle Foy's Lake over the weekend. The carcass was gone by midday Sunday, but YUCK! The Ravens, Eagles, and Magpies checked out some of the resting places in it's disgusting journey, but didn't get much sustenance out of the incident.

Weather: A temperature inversion is holding this murky cold, chilly fog close to the ground. The recent arctic blast did something to our septic system too -- our tank alarm went off Saturday night. It looked like the pump couldn't empty the tank, even though it had been running for hours -- something's broken. The pumping truck will be here tomorrow, and we are conserving water. The grossness continues.

Charity Alert: Click on The Hunger Site, if you still have an appetite -- somebody can use the donation.

Media Watch: Ice skating on TV again -- plus ice skating on the lake. (They just scraped off a neighborhood hockey rink.) Kurt Browning really showed a dandy mix of fancy footwork and high jumps from standing positions in two separate broadcasts.
NFL Football -- Let's get the pre-game madness over with first. MAD-TV's Frank was rather mean-spirited as Dr. Phil today, and not too funny either. Normally he's hilarious with that particular impersonation. Jillian Barbarie was quick-witted, in good voice, and wore a pretty, lightweight, almost strapless, dress that was nearly long enough to be a gown. Her look-of-today came close to Maureen Dowd's Academy Award description of Hollywood's modern interchangeable female archetype -- which resembles a busty melting candle. Was that chiffon over her chest, or just long necklaces with jewels here and there? (I'm not staring -- it's just easy to look at her. Uh -- she's so good looking it's hard to miss seeing her? Uh -- OK, I was staring!)


Jillian (Warry) Barbarie on The NFL Today in 2004
Jillian's Wikipedia Entry

Philadelphia is only fighting for pride's sake now, but they almost beat the NY Giants. The Giants' place kicker did NOT miss in overtime this week! The Steelers have lost a couple of tough ones lately, but they smothered playoff-bound Chicago during a televised blizzard from Pittsburgh this morning. Unbeaten Indianapolis won, but quarterback Peyton Manning got knocked around more than he, or coach Tony Dungey wanted. The players from Superbowl champ New England are starting to recover from early-season injuries. If that team is healthy in the playoffs -- watch out everybody.
All of Me was on the satellite -- best movie Lilly Tomlin or Steve Martin ever made!
R.I.P. Richard Pryor -- One of the truest and funniest comedians of my lifetime.

Wildlife: A new visitor -- a larger-than-ordinary Bald Eagle caught a fish about 9:30 this morning out of the lake.

NEW Web Site: Theater X-Net

Featuring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!

Weather: There was a lot of cold mist and fog banks underneath a blue sky while the temperature stayed around 15 degrees (F) during the day and even the night.

Charity Alert: Click on The Hunger Site to feel warmer.

In The Community: The Hockaday Museum is going to do some student outreach days this winter -- especially reaching out to Flathead Valley Community College students. There is a Flathead Valley Educators exhibit starting next month, so we'll build on that.
Speaking of which, it's ironically funny hearing lame excuses about deadlines from adult teachers who have to hear those same lame excuses from adolescent students.
That Christmas party for the college employees was videotaped (not by me). I will be burning over a dozen DVDs of it before I'm done. We are even streaming the dam' silly thing over our (secure) network. While there are warm feelings going on, we're going to recruit for NEXT year's party.

Media Watch: Ice skating on TV -- ice skating on the lake too, but not as masterful.
We watched The Giant Gila Monster, and Bela Lugosi Meets A Brooklyn Gorilla last night. If you like 50's cars, the former is right up your alley, uh -- drag-strip. The latter is a shameful waste of film promoting an inept pair of Martin & Lewis imitators.

Movie Review, with Cool Car Pics!
This photo belongs to the aforementioned site,
and is used simply to motivate the viewer to visit there.

(Cross-posted on DailyKos.com) I shouldn't have let the following get me down so badly, but it did -- the local newspaper published a letter to the editor today, purportedly written by an eleven year old. The kid was whining about Christmas being threatened, and pleading to not have his or her Christmas taken away. There's no way of knowing if it was from a real child with those concerns, but I am absolutely certain the letter resulted from the phony "War on Christmas" hysteria promulgated by the American Taliban -- the only campaign about our traditional Holiday Season that even exists is by them. There is no other.
(I do not choose to say the names of Fox's biggest blowhard, or the (Im)Moral Majority's former spokesmouth.)
What saddens me is "Happy Holidays," or Merry Christmas" are now given and taken as offensive statements for the first time in my life. There is a lesson here in the power of propaganda, but it is ugly. This unnecessary rage and unprovoked defensiveness during a time of year when people want to be happy is part of a deliberate public campaign. I can't understand why someone would want to inflict these bad feeling on their neighbors, but they have.
It is as if they've chosen to pour kerosene in the public water supply, so that everybody has to share a vile taste in their mouths and suffer digestive problems -- for no other reason than they wanted to exercise their power to make them feel that way. The answer would be to take that kind of power from such mean-spirited vandals with legal action.
As far as public media goes, such stomach-turning manipulators should lose their credibility immediately, but the public happens to believe in free speech first, and are slow to take sanctions against the worst abusers of this privilege. I would prefer to hear them laughed off of TV and radio, but nobody's laughing.
I now propose everyone say "Happy Holidays," "Merry Christmas," Happy New Year," and every good thing we can think of to every stranger and acquaintance we meet -- I hope every single holiday YOU have will be happy!

Wildlife: How did those three deer get into my boss' garden? Either an open gate, broken fence, or they leapt over six-plus feet of wire -- none of which are good news.

NEW Web Site: Theater X-Net

Featuring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!

Weather: Temperatures in the teens and twenties today. The overcast sky is a little depressing, but the newly-gravelled roads are a somewhat safer.

Charity Alert: Take a longer walk after clicking on The Hunger Site today!

Media Watch: Lotsa John Lennon on radio and TV yesterday, but I said my piece about him already. Fox Movie Channel surprised me by showing Porky's in primetime last night. In fact, I saw Kim Cattrall in her famous early movie role as the clownish "Lassie" while I was clicking through. I can put up with vulgarity if it is part of a funny script or scene, but vulgarity isn't necessarily funny on it's own, as this movie painfully demonstrates. Revenge of the Nerds followed, and the same observation applies to it.
It is funny that one arm of the Fox media octopus shills for the humorless American Taliban while another arm pimps these Jr. High School smirk-fests.
Ironically, there were two John Waters movies on another network -- Cecil B. Demented and the brilliant Polyester. Vulgarity is only ONE of Waters' many tools in filmmaking -- he mostly trades in wit and satire.
Strangely enough, Beavis and Butthead was recycling on MTV2 -- new videos interspersed with decade-old cartoon clips. I hope Thursday isn't supposed to be "Vulgar Night" on satellite TV.


Kim Catrall in City Limits (1985), as mocked on Mystery Science Theater 3000 in Season 4 (1992-93). Joel (silhouette center) is preserving what little there is of Ms. Cattrell's modesty with a convenient umbrella. Crow T. Robot (R) and Tom Servo (L) help with the wisecracks. Kim Cattrall actually visited their studios near Minneapolis to congratulate them on the witty way they took that movie down, and how Crow T. Robot "fell in love with her" in the framing sequence. The MST 3K crew rarely had to face the objects of their derision, and I bet it made them squirm a little when she was so nice to them. (They tell this story in their book.)