Wildlife: A Bald Eagle sat on the log outside of our bedroom window yesterday morning. For some reason, the cats stayed close to the house on the deck until it flew away.



Visit: A Tale of Two Movies

Weather: Arts in the Park weekend has been absolutely perfect -- even the mild shower on Friday afternoon was welcome. The line-up of cars getting ready for the Glacier Street Rod Association's 'Rod Run' parade on Saturday backed up for over a mile into the westside neighborhood of Kalispell. Membership is restricted to cars from 1957 or earlier, so there were no multiple headlights or crazy-fins -- which reached their zany peak from 1958 to 1960 -- there were a lot of pretty vehicles, though.

Charity Alert: The Hunger Site Click six times to help six different charities!

In The Community: I'm back behind the desk at the Hockaday Museum after a photo-visit to Arts in the Park. Yesterday was one of the best-attended days in the 35 year history of the event! I'm missing the best music of the weekend too -- Steve Eckles, Tra La Gael, and Dave Walburn. The great weather has everyone smiling.
Hockaday Museum of Art (see photo below)

Media Watch: I finished my two-dollar trade edition of Goodnight, Sweet Prince by Gene Fowler, a biography of his friend John Barrymore (1882 - 1942).
Web page about the Barrymore family.
It seems as if Barrymore's last decade was hard. His memory progressivly failed him, and as his body deteriorated from the effects of alcoholism (whether he was drinking or not) he intentionally made a career out of parodying himself in his public appearences. It may have humiliated his friends, and probably wasn't helpful to his self-esteem, but the work paid the bills, which piled up with psychotic rapidity on Barrymore's part.
It seems like Grand Hotel may have been the last glimmer of his genius captured on film -- at least Greta Garbo appreciated his work in that movie -- and that means something.
Others may disagree, but I am personally far from offended at his portrayal of a seriptiously helpful police inspector in the Bulldog Drummond potboilers. He played the role so good-naturedly that he elevated potential D-movie dreariness to a higher level of joy.
His equally hard-drinking friend W.C. Fields suffered from a chronic memory problem too, especially after making Never Give A Sucker An Even Break. Many big checks were written out to him, and cashed, but Fields wasn't really able to perform successfully, despite trying, from about 1941 until his death in 1946.
My own father, who also suffered from alcoholism, was very fond of the films of W.C. Fields -- the wit of both Barrymore and Fields was inspirational to him. Whatever kinship he felt for their common affliction was something he never spoke about, and can only be guessed at, but he sure laughed like hell when he read this book.

My friend Karen Black (left) manages the espresso booth
at Arts in the Park for yet another year.