A Blue Heron, and later a Bald Eagle, were flying over Middle Foy's Lake in the golden hours before sunset yesterday. It has been overcast, windy, and rainy since early morning today.

Funk Master Bernie Worrell at: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

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Sitemaster Sez: Serbia/Montenegro was surfing for Ida Rubinstein, Raleigh, North Carolina was looking for Tanya, Unspecified USA was seeking Herman Schnitzmeyer -- whose photos were on display for the first time at the Hockaday Museum of Art earlier this year.

Media Watch: Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress (1959) was on IFC's Samurai Saturday, where it actually belongs. There are some critics who praise this film, but I don't think it compares well against Kurosawa's half-dozen masterpieces, or even his Underworld Movies. In my opinion, it is a Comic-Book Flick or Samurai Western, neither of which are unworthy genres to me, nor are they the highest forms of art either.
Fortress's primary importance in cinema history is it's admitted influence on George Lucas while he was developing Star Wars.
The audience mostly sees Fortress from the perspective of Tahei and Matakishi, two peasant characters -- mirrored later by R2D2 and 3CPO. The trouble is that Kurosawa's two "clowns" are cowardly, greedy, treacherous, and altogether loathsome, without any redeeming character traits. I find it insulting to think that that average viewers, including myself, are supposed to identify with them, or think their constant fuck-ups and crimes are humorous.
Toshiro Mifune portrayed General Rokurota Makabe, an idealized medieval Samurai, with his typical grace and ease -- looking like a Kuniyoshi print in action. Mifune was very comical as a commoner in Seven Samurai -- much more so than either of the dimwitted stooges in Fortress, which leads me to consider them Kurosawa's mis-steps. General Rokurota was such a larger-than-life hero that he was big enough to split into Luke Skywalker and Obi Wan Konobe in Star Wars.
Han Solo had a vague counterpart in General Tadokoro, who surprised everyone with his sudden heroics near the end. If there was ever a firm correlation between the Death Star and this movie's hidden fortress, I can only GUESS what it might have been. They had completely different purposes -- one was the location for an (important) incident in the middle of Kurosawa's rambling tale of escape, the other was the focus of George Lucas' whole plot.
Misa Uehara played Princess Yuki -- as feisty as Princess Leia nearly 20 years later, but ridiculously spoiled and insensitive at first. Ms. Uehara was made-up and dressed in an un-historic, contemporary style through most of the film, and she was stunningly beautiful that way. Her character changed for the better, revealed by an episode where she initiated a tavern-girl's rescue. The two women were unusually active for actresses in a Japanese movie -- but cultural issues held them down, like similar issues held down their female counterparts in Europe and America.


(Center) Misa Uehara as Princess Yuki; (Clockwise from Upper Right) Actors Minoru Chiaki and Kamatari Fujiwara as Kurosawa's pathetic clowns; Ms. Uehara on horseback; Princess Yuki, incognito, as a mute servant. Toshiro Mifune on the movie poster, as General Rokurota, with a tiny mounted Princess Yuki below the title.