Cold mornings and warmish sunny days -- the Larch trees are changing color on the foothills. At least three Bears died over the first weekend of Montana's Deer hunt. There are a LOT of people in and around the woods, and anything can happen.
Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Seattle, Washington; Bethlehem, Georgia; Dublin, Ireland (Wavin' a kiss your way, Eavan!); Reykjavk, Iceland; Lexington, Kentucky; An unknown town in Kent, England; Tempe, Arizona; Tallahassee, Florida (Maybe George Clinton's office?); Reston, Virginia; Maple Park, Illinois; and Sevilla, Spain.
REAL SLC Punk, not the movie, at:
Theater X-Net
Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Ida's Places in Paris -- from my first jet-lagged day by the Seine.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley
Visit: Michael's Montana Web ArchiveTheater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!
Spitfires of the SpacewaysWilma Deering & Dale Arden to the rescue; Bodacious Princess Aura I; Hapless Aura II; The fiery Emperor Ming; The Orson Welles Rumor Debunked; and BOTH incarnations of Jean Rogers!
Thanks to Jim Keefe (
Visit his Website) -- the LAST Flash Gordon illustrator of the 20th Century, and Flash's first illustrator of the 21st, for his recommendations --
HERE!
Charity Alert: Keep that Resolution to click on
The Hunger Site every day. Also check into
Terra Sigilata blog -- donate $$$ to cancer patients just by clicking onto the site.
In The Community: Donna Gans and the
Autumn Salon are up until Christmas at the
Hockaday Museum of Art.
Media Watch: I'm listening to Kitaro's new album on Montana PBS as I write this -- an eclectic New Age ear show. I've been re-reading
The British Invasion by an American named Nicholas Schaffner. The book features long illustrated essays about the careers of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, Pink Floyd, T-Rex, and David Bowie, at least until the early 80's, when it was published. Schaffner writes from a fan's perspective, and admits it -- he researched
16 Magazine in America and the
New Musical Express in England, plus looked at the charts. That's what we all did as fans in those days, except that it was hard for me to find
NME. He makes an important point about English LPs being better than versions released in the USA, in quality of material, volume of material, and innovative ideas. We bought those things whenever we saw them into the early 70's.
We Americans got a lot of inspiration from the very creative English music scene for many years, and although there is some truth in the fan-angle, as far as names and dates on various charts are concerned, I sure wish session people like Jimmy Page or Brian Auger were writing eye-witness accounts about the clubs and recording studios, and how various creators worked apart or together before they're all dead!
Schaffner chose his subjects as exemplars of various time periods and fashions. I'm glad he picked The Kinks -- Ray Davies' lyrics are High Art, and although he and his group might not have been one of the biggest, they were very influential in raising everybody's standards. He actually wrote about the Kinks' Anglo-centricity the most, but that's valid. I like David Bowie's music quite a bit, and am glad he became a star -- it damn near killed him, but I'm happy he survived with most of his sanity intact. The tale of Marc Bolan is just F'd up. Schaffner seems to see him as I saw Gram Parsons, and he may be correct in some aspects of his life, but Bolan did NOT create a whole sub-genre of Rock before drugs and pressure drove him off the cliff of irresponsibility. Bolan's work garnered some real admiration in America BEFORE
Bang A Gong. That big hit opened up vast possibilities, but he blew his good Karma all by himself when he toured as an opener for Three Dog Night without a rehearsed show, or observing his audiences. His cynical string of sound-alike singles afterward was outright insulting, and nobody in America cared to see him again. Bowie did some stupid things too, but I believe the latter was able to rise above them by some previous rigor and discipline in his background, which came to the fore when he needed them.
I was sorry to hear about Bolan's fatal car accident, in that he'd never have a chance to build a respectable career. I LOVED the music of his wife Gloria Jones, by the way, and remain sorriest for her, even though she survived the wreck.
Schaffner finishes off his book with a gang-written encyclopedia called
The British Hot Hundred, and if you think I'm going to list more than a fraction of them ...
First Rank -- Jeff Beck, Black Sabbath, Cream, Dire Straits, Fleetwood Mac, Genesis, The Hollies, Incredible String Band, Jethro Tull, Elton John (and his wonderful band), Joe Jackson, King Crimson, Led Zeppelin, Manfred Mann, Moody Blues, The Police, Queen, Steeleye Span, Cat Stevens, Rod Stewart, Them/Van Morrison, Traffic/Steve Winwood, The Yardbirds, The Zombies.
Second Rank -- Fond pleasures of mine like Ultravox, Mott the Hoople, Souixie and the Banshees, Donovan, Fairport Convention, Humble Pie/Faces, and Bad Company, plus an "honourable" mention of oftimes-dreary Roxy Music for the excellent musicianship of Phil Manzanera, Andy Mackay, and the genius of Brian Eno.
The so-called "British Invasion" revitalized Rock and Roll for a start, and was the harbinger of massive cultural redefinitions in the world at large. For teenagers like me at the time it was just fun! On the left we have London's top model Twiggy (Leslie Hornby) looking out over Carol Shelyne and the other Shindig Dancers, choreographed by Antonia Basilotta (Toni Basil). On the right we have blonde fury Lada Edmunds Junior cage-dancing on Hullabaloo, while Boston's Barry and the Remains cover Bo Diddley's Diddy Wah Diddy. Captain Beefheart's West Coast version, with Ry Cooder, was better!
Images freely redigitized from Rewind The Fifties and the Internet.
