Weather: TOO MUCH rain is falling -- damaging garden crops, property, and roads.



Visit: A Tale of Two Movies

Wildlife: A big male Pheasant was eating in the box feeder this morning, perched six feet or more above the ground, while the various blackbirds awaited their turns. Good thing I reinforced it last week.

Charity Alert: Animal Rescue Site Feed a critter too!

In The Community: I delivered those six Winold Reiss paintings to the Hockaday Museum of Art without mishap after a three-day trip to Jackson Hole via West Yellowstone and Bozeman, Montana. Thanks to Christine in Wyoming, and Erin from the Nygard Gallery in Bozeman, for their help with wrapping them.


Media Watch: "Motown Monday" on Sirius Radio's Channel 6 -- helped liven up a miserable six-hour rush back to Kalispell. The "Funk Brothers," who did all those backing tracks for "Hitsville USA" made a full, near-symphonic sound with instruments usually assigned to the rhythm section of an orchestra. Whenever a producer added horns or strings, they were just sweeteners for the melody.
I noticed an echoing sound on Gordy's early records that developed into a resonant, more natural, ambience sometime in 1963 or 64. Motown kept a distictive "hiss" on their snare drum which other studios didn't seem to imitate.
My favorite studio drummer in the 60's was Al Jackson Jr. of Stax/Volt in Memphis. I heard Mustang Sally at least three times last weekend, so I got to savor the points where Motown imitated Mr. Jackson's delivery, without duplicating him, as I listened to Booker T & the MGs with the Memphis Horns backing Wilson Pickett.
Other satellite radio highlights -- Soul Makosa from the early 70's -- a super-funky international jam. Ma-ko-sa-ma-ko-sa ma-ko-sa-sa-sa! (A chant which was stolen by Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson for Pretty Young Thing, a decade later.)

Wildlife: I spotted Blue Herons, Crows, Vultures, Eagles, and Hawks from the van on the way to Jackson and West Yellowstone.



Visit: A Tale of Two Movies

Weather: The rain stopped after Flathead Lake. The blue skies charged in and drove away those low gray clouds, so driving conditions were pleasant all the way to Jackson, Wyoming. Thunderstorms rumbled after dark, but I didn't see rain again until I came back to Montana. I HAD to get gas, but huge forks of lightning were striking the ground to the north.
Just my luck that one of them would choose to hit as soon as I opened my fuel tank.
I heard no thunder, so I hoped they were too far away to hear, loaded up, and left.

Charity Alert: The Hunger Site Always a good use of our clicks.

In The Community: Why am I writing about Yellowstone and the Tetons?
I am on the road, gathering six more paintings by Winold Reiss for our grand opening this Thursday, June 9, 2005 at the Hockaday Museum of Art. The Hockaday Museum's Web Site
The first work was almost too big for the rental van, but we slid it in without any trouble.

Media Watch: Sirius satellite radio in the rental van. The signal doesn't break up in narrow canyons, so that's good:
Channel 13: All Elvis Presley performances -- broadcast from Graceland, no less.
(There should be an all-comedy channel on one side or the other of this absurd station, but no, there isn't. If a "Rat Pack" channel existed, I wouldn't tell anybody about it either.)
Channel 53: Soul Music -- Sirius proclaimed "A Philly Weekend," but played very few "Philly" tunes outside of the major "Philly" hits, so I became skeptical.
Channel 54: Black Gospel Music -- Good on a Sunday.
Channel 6: 60's Music
Channel 7: 70's Music
Channel 8: 80's Music
(Detecting a trend?)
Channel 5: Yep, some 50's Music, but lots of radio hits from other decades.
(Some programmer on Sirius likes Jackie Wilson -- good for them!)
Channel 154: BBC World Service -- a very old friend.
Channel 30: REGGAE! Big ups to this.
The Jazz channels were VERY "square." There are a group of lousy talk-radio channels, with more to come, unfortunately -- they were touting future shows by Howard Stern and Martha Stewart.
Besides the horrible potty-mouthed right-wing extremists, there was a channel supposedly geared to the "left," but I think the announcer was a double agent.
"I don't suck!" she said, then immediately played a cringingly awful novelty record, while singing along here and there with a terrible off-key voice. That was enough for me.
"You're wrong, lady!" I said, as I punched the button.

Wildlife: Sad news -- the rangers shot a black bear for nosing around West Glacier.
It was actually nosing around a couple of kids who were hiding under a car in fear.
Still sad -- but necessary in this case.



Visit: A Tale of Two Movies

Weather: The rain keeps falling, and the Weather Service predicts another band of moisture from the Pacific.

Charity Alert: The Literacy Site -- each click means a free book for somebody this week, so I'll leave this link alone.

Media Watch: A new documentary Double Dare on PBS's Independent Lens last night -- an excellent look at two women who earn their living performing stunts. Jeannie Epper did all the jumps, falls, and fighting for Lynda Carter on TV's Wonder Woman twenty-five years ago, and still works in Hollywood today. Young Zoë Bell worked as primary stunt-double for Lucy Lawless on Xena: Warrior Princess in New Zealand, then travelled to L.A. and China when that gig finished. She won an international award for Kill Bill, where she stood in for Uma Thurman, and deserved it! The film mentioned that she injured herself during Kill Bill -- enough to stay out of action for a year or more.
PBS' website about Double Dare
I woke up 'way too early, and watched first-rate movie villain Basil Rathbone playing a snobbish good-guy detective named Philo Vance in The Bishop Murder Case from 1930. I like seeing movies made in the days before drab formulas homogenized everything.
Illustrated Bishop Murder Case Synopsis
(A low-brow policeman makes a spoken reference to Sherlock Holmes in this flick -- many years before Rathbone placed his own indellible stamp on Doyle's character.)

Wildlife: More ducklings on Middle Foy's Lake! There's a family with about seven tiny Mallards.



Visit: A Tale of Two Movies

Weather: Thank you Lord! The rain started again, right after Memorial Day.

Charity Alert: The Literacy Site -- each click means a free book for somebody this week.

In The Community: The Hockaday Museum of Art starts FOUR new shows this week -- Winold Reiss: Artist for the Great Northern; Splendid Was the Trail: Photographs of the National Forests by KD Swan 1911-1947; Recent Acquisitions; Crown of the Continent: Glacier National Park Permanent Exhibition featuring photographers TJ Hileman and Herman Schnitzmeyer; Exhibits at the Hockaday
I'm taking a fast road trip this weekend to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and Bozeman, Montana to gather up five more Reiss paintings in time for the grand opening on June 9.
I'm off to run a combination web-seminar and conference call at Flathead Valley Community College. This remote stuff is taking a lot of time lately!

Media Watch: CSPAN had a re-run of a conference about Media Ownership, Media Bias that was rarely on topic, but it was interesting to see journalists discuss the various ways they get it wrong. William Keller (of the NY Times) had a lame excuse about their credulity towards Bush administration claims of Iraqi WMD. He said "Everyone else was fooled too." (Your paper simply cringed before the power of the White House and didn't do its job, Keller.)
I'm reading Stephen King's On Writing -- a mixture of autobiography and opinion by somebody with a track record.