Wildlife: I opened the garage door this morning to take out the cat litter, and other pre-work chores. A Big Mama Deer was right in front of me. She turned and bounded away immediately, but I was wide awake before I drank any coffee at all.



Visit: A Tale of Two Movies
Watch for the Update SOON -- very very soon!

Weather: A perfect Labor Day weekend, but it was close to freezing this morning.

Charity Alert: The Hunger Site Click and click some more -- the need is greater than ever.

In The Community: The Antiques Fair in Whitefish to benefit the Hockaday Museum was a lot of fun. My off-the-cuff remark about the appraiser examining people's old junk was unfortunately too true. A few small pieces had some value, like a Viennese bronze paperweight, but the "Roadshow" segment was pretty undistinguished until five minutes before it was scheduled to end.
A lady and her teenaged kids wheeled in a plastic garden cart full of 18th and 19th century New England samplers, an early Audubon print, original turn-of-the-century water colors, and a silver Tiffany tea set.
The denoument was a pair of sculpted Bohemian Glass horns from the court of the Austria-Hungary emperors, via an ex-servant who immigrated to the U.S. after World War I. (Nobody wanted to leave for an hour after we were supposed to close.)

Media Watch: George Clinton and the P-Funk All Stars have a NEW CD!
How Late Do You Have To Be Before You're Absent? It's their first major label release in ten years. It's a two CD set -- one of the two was supposed come out on now-defunct Mammoth Records in 1999.
George's Website
Good news from the P-Funk Bulletin Board, an Internet site I've visited since 1998 --
I am OK (New Orleans)
Posted by webmistress melissa on 9/2/2005, 6:01 pm 68.111.57.142
Hi, fellow funkateers and P-Funk family. I know it has been some time since you really heard from me, but you are always in my hearts and I appreciate the emails and outpouring of love and concern for me and my fellow citizens in New Orleans. I am very grateful to be able to write to you today.
I am safe at a family member's home in St. James, Louisiana, (about 2 hours from New Orleans, my home). Power has been out since Monday and we just got it back here in St. James today. It has been uncomfortable with no lights or air conditioning, but the fact that I am alive and that we had safe, running water (albeit not hot water) makes me feel like I am in a mansion.
I cannot say the same for the people who were not lucky enough to evacuate from New Orleans and several neighboring areas. My home city will never, ever be the same. There are rampant fires, whole neighborhoods under water, no communication (cell phone coverage is non existent), some people turning to violence and theft, dead people and animals floating in the streets, hungry people, dying children. I keep wondering when I am going to wake up from the nightmare so that I can dance to music again.
I have no idea what my neighborhood is like in Uptown New Orleans. I think it fared well as far as water. But who knows if a tree fell on top of it or if some looters broke in to steal or set it on fire.
All of my friends and family are displaced. I don't know where anyone is. City officials say we can't come back for several months. Last Friday, I enjoyed a great job as a Marketing Director at a non-profit arts center and had a successful hobby as a funk radio and club DJ. Today, I have neither of those. I don't know where I will work and have considered relocating - New Orleans and its people will never, ever be the same. It's bad, folks. But I am not complaining, mind you. Praise and thank God that I am still alive to help others.
I am praying for my community and city that I love, hoping that I have a home and if it's still there that there aren't any snakes and other flooded animals swimming inside, that I will be able to relocate and find work that I love. I am so scared that I will learn of friends who have died like so many others. I am praying for all of my fellow citizens. Many have lost everything.
Please love each other and do not take any moment for granted because you never know when it will all turn around.
Please pray for us New Orleanians and, if you can, help us please via the Red Cross funds. I am one of the lucky ones in that I did not have to wait days on a roof for a helicopter to whisk me to safety (the dangerous, uninhabitable Superdome shelter). There are so many who need you and I am speaking for them now.
love, melissa dj soul sister*new orleans*usa djsoulsister.com


George Clinton and the P-Funk All Stars
How Late Do You Have To Be Before You're Absent?
Artwork by Overton Loyd (Nice guy -- that's how he spells it.)