Wildlife: A Redtail Hawk was hunting at the crest of Buffalo Hill -- trouble is, that's also Highway 93 -- Watch out for cars and vice versa!



Visit: A Tale of Two Movies

Charity Alert: The Animal Rescue Site, and FIVE others.

Weather: Several days of almost-too-nice weather, but we got a rain shower right after sunset yesterday, and it's snowing in the mountains this morning.

In The Community: I was taking pictures at the extremely busy intersection of U.S. Highways 2 and 93. There are plans to put art work on each of the four corners, but the process is just beginning, despite all the rumors and lobbying over the last few years.
The David Shaner Exhibit is finally over at the Hockaday Musum of Art. As we were setting up our annual Auction of Miniatures, the local artists brought in their pieces, and about one person in four said "Oh, I missed seeing Shaner's show."
(We had it on display for four months -- y'all have to do YOUR part too.)
The deadline is approaching for applications for our VERY successful Arts in the Park open air exhibit/sale on the last week of July, so the procrastinators are flooding the phone lines. Most of them will be on time, but previous years are any guide, there will be people asking to be included from now until after the event is over. (It's often mistaken for other outdoor craft shows, and sometimes even the NW Montana Fair.)
Hockaday Museum of Art
The final Honors Symposium for 2005 is tonight: Public Opinion and the Media: Looking Glasses or Fun House Mirrors? by Dr. Christopher Muste, an adjunct professor at the University of Montana and stringer for the Washington Post.
I'm sure that everyone will come with an opinion -- seeing someone speak to each of those will be interesting.
(He and his wife were talking about bicycling in Glacier National Park too -- be prepared for snow, folks.)

Media Watch: Speaking of the subject above, I saw an interesting thing on CBS Evening News last night. During a report about angry Islamic radicals in England, there was a taped sequence of a bunch of loudmouths leading a chant which mostly consisted of the phrase "...Go to Hell..." The reporter's voice-over came in immediately afterward, but you could see and hear an obviously concerned Muslim gentleman telling the chanters how "shameful" their actions were -- right to their faces -- and those punk kids were back on their heels, with their ugly mouths shut, as he was admonishing them.
I frankly wonder if a producer intentionally hurried the reporter's commentary in order to emphasize the hatefulness of some individuals in the British Islamic community, while literally burying the decency of others under news-speak.
(I'm also very grateful that the older guy's response was left in, to be seen and partially heard. Some ethical technician might have counter-sabotaged someone's bad intentions.)
I've said it before, I'll say it again -- TV is a hazardous way of getting objective information because its interplay of sounds and images works strongly on viewers' emotions, and time tends to be hurried, or otherwise altered, to maintain "interest."

TCM played Elizabeth and Essex with Bette Davis and Errol Flynn last night -- Gawd! What a wretched flick -- the dialogue was as bad as Chaplin's Limelight, or a Roger Corman drive-in special. (Speaking of which, Vincent Price was one of the villans in Essex.)
I was told by an aquaintance of Ms. Davis that she bragged about loading up with excess jewelry and intentionally knocking out the drunken Mr. Flynn while filming a scene where the script required a slap. Cast morale must have been lower than Death Valley.