Weather: Yesterday's temperature of 92 degrees Fahrenheit was hot, no matter where you live. There was a very pleasant rain shower at about 2 AM this morning.

Wildlife: The flowers and hanging pots have been much superior to sugar-water feeders in attracting Hummingbirds. The damn hanging pots need to be messed with regularly because the plants get rootbound, stop draining water, and start to rot -- %$#@ work!

Charity Alert: The Breast Cancer Site : Fund Mammograms for Free

Media Watch: Finished John Krakauer's Under The Banner of Heaven. The focus of the book is the horrible Lafferty murders in the early 80's, and I have a weak stomach for that kind of stuff, so I skipped over big chunks of narrarative. I get depressed reading about the rampant child abuse among the Mormon Fundamentalist patriarchy, knowing they continue to prosper under our corrupt legal system. Krakauer's rage showed through his prose on this subject, perhaps blunting his point.
Reviews etc. of this book: Random House
An Interview: Book Report Interview with John Krakauer
Child abuse is a serious problem in the "regular" Mormon church too. Like the Catholics, the LDS hierarchy protects criminals in it's midst while the innocent suffer.
I'm still ashamed to have been a member of this dreadful cult, even though I was only a kid and had no real choice in the matter. I thankfully never suffered any sexual abuse myself, but my nearly-next-door-neighbor did, and became an abuser too -- finally going to prison after betraying the trust of dozens of young boys as an LDS leader.
I'm still trying to get off of all the hangups I developed by going to their meetings, participating in their services, and especially those which resulted from my own disorganized lashing-out against the whole ugly institution.
Hey! The movie Brigham Young was on FMC last weekend -- Vincent Price as founding LDS (Mormon) prophet Joseph Smith -- what could be scarier than that!?
The Jeopardy guy from Utah won over a million bucks -- he's going to give 10 percent to those lousy Mormon pirates -- smart as he may be, he's still delusional about some things.
And now for something completely different: Hedwig and the Angry Itch was on the satellite. This very dark comedy isn't to everyone's taste, but it's a better-than-average movie, especially if you like Rock n' Roll.

Charity Alert -- easier is impossible: The Hunger Site : Give Food for Free to Hungry People in the World

Weather: Blue skies -- hot day ahead. It didn't rain at all yesterday.

Wildlife: A lot of noise outside last night! It was impossible to see what was going on without a moon, but the warm temperature brought out some kind of prowling thing. (Unh uh -- no skunk-smell)

Media Watch: Queer Eye for the Straight Guy UK Version -- I don't know if this show was a pilot or not, but the crew seemed to get in each others' way. The interior designer worked hardest, of course, but the characters and roles of the makeover guys were not readily distinct. The client was an engaging personality, and cleaned up handsomely.
Damn! London is sure a concrete jungle (as is New York). It would be depressing to have to live in a place where anything green or growing is present only by neglect, accident, or extraordinary work.

In the Community: The local stamp collectors club had a special after-hours meeting at the Hockaday Museum of Art and had a grand time absorbing the Graceful Envelope show. Hockaday Museum of Art - Prime visual arts resource in Flathead Valley of Northwest Montana.

Weather: Getting almost hot for this place -- high humidity makes it feel worse. The wind damn near blew away the Summer Theatre last weekend at the college. Today it's clouding over -- virga dangling everywhere, but no rain hitting the ground -- makes sense, they'd be squalls then, wouldn't they?

Wildlife: Eagles in the morning, the cries of Loons at daybreak, Greibes fishing all day, and various families of ducklings coming ashore to graze beneath the hanging feeder in our back yard.

Charity Alert: The Animal Rescue Site : Feed an Animal in Need

Media Watch: Yeah, we're tuning into Jeopardy to watch that guy from Salt Lake City shoot for a million bucks too.
Speaking of Salt Lake City -- John Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven gives an accurate, if slightly over-heated, history of the Mormon Church. It ain't a peaceful, mainstream religion folks. Believing that stuff can't help but play tricks with your mind!
I finished reading David Bodanis' History of E=MC^2
Author's website: David Bodanis : the official site
Here's a blogger who's read it (I think he's Dutch): alextreme's weblog
We're culling our collection of Bollywood flicks -- the grossly violent or uncaptioned stuff's gotta go! We'd never watch it anyway. However there are a few crime and war movies we're keeping, because they're well-made.
Speaking of crime movies: Little Caesar was on TCM. It made Edward G. Robinson a star in 1931. (Al Capone was still operating at the time.)
Mickey Spillane was PLAYING Mike Hammer in The Girl Hunters from 1963 on FMC. It wasn't bad, either -- a minor B&W Cinemascope film noir -- it wasn't great art by any means, but what do you expect from Mickey Spillane?

Media Watch: Many versions of El Manisero (The Peanut Vendor) by Moisés Simons, and an authoritative discussion about the early international success of this song, and Afro-Cuban music, on NPR's AfroPop Worldwide. My favorite version of the song was a syncopated masterpiece from 1937.
African Music, African Music Albums, African Musicians, African Bands, Reviews, Labels, Discographies, and more, from Afropop Worldwide, the experts on African music
I've been reading a little: The Rough Guide to Reggae --The Definitive Guide to Jamaican Music, from Ska Through Roots to Ragga by Steve Barrow; Peter Dalton; and Orla Duane
The Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame was the subject of a story on NPR this morning: Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame -- Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame
I saw an abyssimal dawg-assed S-F horror movie over the weekend from the mid-60's. It had Basil Rathbone, Dennis Hopper, plus borrowed footage from a Russian space flick. It was a space-vampire story, and REALLY SUCKED! I doubt that it's in the Hall of Fame. You might find it here: THE ASTOUNDING B MONSTER

Charity Alert: The Rainforest Site: Help Save Our Rainforests!

Weather: Rained like heck last night -- Robin's Egg Blue sky this morning.

Wildlife: The Yellowhead Blackbirds gathered around and chased a Magpie away from the hanging feeder in the Chokecherry tree. What a noise they made!
The small, yellow-spotted Mallard ducklings feeding on the ground below didn't seem to care though.

It was a long 4th of July weekend, I was sick, and here comes alotta stuff!

Wildlife: Two Horned Griebes were out on Middle Foy's Lake with their two new chicks riding on Mrs. Griebe's back, while Mr. Griebe was diving and feeding them all! Three Loons have taken residence in our lake since the 4th, making beautiful music. A Bald Eagle flies over the lake every morning. Two families of ducklings regularly visit our feeder. We sighted our first deer in months across the lake, near a neighbor's paddle-boat, and a fairly rare Goldfinch (for us) right outside the kitchen window.

Weather: Rain almost every night -- we're still officially in a drought, but the local moisture is helping keep the fire danger down for sure.

Charity Alert: The Child Health Site : Help a Child in Need Lead a Healthy, Active Life

Media Watch: Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital is definitely on life-support. Some things kinda happened in Episode 11, but not even the return of the headless guy could enliven Episode 12. I'm hoping they edit-out all their worthless padding and do one or two wrap-up episodes so the show can die with dignity, for Lars Van Trier's sake, if not King's.
Queer Eye For The Straight Guy took on beer and poker. Carson finally dressed someone up so they didn't look like they were going in for a job interview at Ringling Brothers Circus.
CSpan's Book TV doesn't go well with fevers and body aches -- talk about a blur of opinions. I couldn't read a damn thing either. I could finally lie still enough for Nicholas and Alexandra, thirty-odd years after it's making. Tom (Dr. Who) Baker was an oddly charming Rasputin, otherwise it was mediocre history, and an unconvincing try at humanizing a family of unfortunately doomed people who were probably clinically qualified as psychopathic isolates. "A pale, unromantic imitation of David Lean's Dr. Zhivago," has been said, and I agree.
The History Channel told the story of the wreck of the whaler Essex in 1820. I very much doubt that a Sperm Whale actually ATTACKED the ship, but it crashed into the ship twice, and stove in the side. (My guess is panic on the creature's part -- and bad sailorship on the part of the men.) I skipped the details of the horrific trip in longboats, where the few survivors only lived because of cannibalism.
We eventually got the book Moby Dick out of this terrible occurance after Herman Melville read a crewman's memoir.

Media Watch: That Bollywood crib of Strangers on A Train is called Soca -- The Thought That Kills "Soca to me! Soca to me! It ended up being a pretty lousy movie.
Speaking of "Sock It To Me!" I enjoy seeing Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In on Trio Network. The earlier shows are MUCH funnier than the later ones -- they started "Jumping the Shark" by 1970. Jump The Shark - Chronicling the Moments of When TV Shows go Downhill
Lily Tomlin breathed a little life into it, but she's critical of her contributions, saying: "I think there was something in the water then."
Ain't nearly as bad as Pink Lady and Jeff from the late 70's, which Trio is running as part of FLOPS Month. Jump The Shark - Click on SEARCH - they have this show as one of the WORST!
Tomlin was a major stage and screen star when that waste of video was on the air, but she damn near sank her career doing a crappy flick with John Travolta, though. Luckily she was in Nine to Five and All of Me before the 80's were over.

Charity Alert: The Hunger Site : Give Food for Free to Hungry People in the World

Weather: Thunderstorms and rain seemed to wake up EVERYBODY last night. More on the way!

Wildlife: Bears were sighted near the Old Steel Bridge public fishing spot on the Flathead River, about five miles to the east of us.