Wildlife: We saw a full-circle rainbow over Middle Foy's Lake last evening, the bright, colorful, sometimes-doubled arc in the sky reflected by water.
(See the picture below -- there's a duck swimming, if ya' wanna quibble about wildlife.)



Visit: A Tale of Two Movies

Weather: Rained all night again -- June 2005 is officially the wettest month EVER here in the Flathead Valley.

Charity Alert: The Animal Rescue Site Goal: 2.7 million bowls of food this month -- keep helping them -- I don't know if they'll reach their goal, but let's feed some critters with your clicks anyway.

Media Watch: Dancing With The Stars on ABC -- down to the semi-finals! John O'Hurley and Charlotte Jorgensen did the best dances, and got the highest scores. (Mr. Hurley was dead-on correct in saying that Ms. Jorgenson was one of the best teachers there is.) The hard-driving Soap Opera actor Kelly Monaco, and her partner Alec Mazo, out-danced Joey McIntyre and Ashly DelGrosso, but the latter couple were GOOD -- even though they came in third.
TCM showed a number of Ray Harryhausen films last night -- real obscure short numbers from the 40's and early 50's. One of them was a strange thing called Guadacanal, inspired by the pivitol invasion of the Solomon Islands during WWII. There were no people represented in this stop-animated flick -- just buildings putting themselves up, pilotless planes sinking unoccupied ships, cannons firing on their own, and driverless jeeps -- lotsa explosions though!
Afterward TCM played other Harryhausen works: Mighty Joe Young from 1949 and Mysterious Island from 1961. (Which wasn't nearly as good as 7th Voyage of Sindbad a year or two earlier.)
Here's a site with some comments about this minor Harryhausen effort: Mysterious Island
I taped Lionel Barrymore's movie from 1929 -- THE Mysterious Island -- and I'll write something after I see it.
Jules Verne's book of the same name is only notable for it's attempt to fill-in the story of Captain Nemo (AKA Prince Dakkar), before and after 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. Nemo (Latin for 'nobody') is one famous example of the rich hubristic super-inventor in literature, with Utopian visions beyond the grasp of his science. Verne re-used the archetype thirty years later, in the much less compelling Robur the Conquerer/Master of the World.
The schlockmeisters at American International Pictures made a Vincent Price movie out of Verne's rehash: 1000 Misspent Hours -- 'Master of the World'...20,000 Leagues Under the Sea in a zeppelin...
Robert Osborn announced they are going to show another one of their TCM specials soon -- this time about sci-fi flicks -- called Watch The Skies! Ahhhh -- sweet vindication for the beleaguered pleasures of my youth.


Rainbow on Middle Foy's Lake -- June 29, 2005