Wildlife: A huge bird flew over Middle Foy's Lake yesterday evening. A couple of small Cowbirds harrassed it from above, so I said "Eagle Alert!" WRONG -- it was a harmless Blue Heron. He landed at the top of a pine tree, and looked back over the lake as if to say "What'd I do?"



Visit: A Tale of Two Movies

Weather: Plenty of sunshine -- it's starting to look like June.

Charity Alert: The Animal Rescue Site Goal: 2.7 million bowls of food this month -- help them with a click please.

Media Watch: OK, I'll admit to watching Dancing With The Stars on ABC, and having fun with it. Bachelorette Trista Sutter and overly-intense Dutchman Louis van Amstel went away first. Hardworking model Rachel Hunter and Jonathan Roberts are doing well, even though she is about an inch taller than he. Versatile soap-opera actor Kelly Monaco and Alec Mazo are the best-coordinated couple, but the judges slam them hard. Former NKOB Joey McIntyre and snappy Ashly DelGrosso get better every time. (Note: The Blockheads were fairly good dancers.) Personable, but clumsy, boxer Evander Holyfield shouldn't have been on the show at all. He and his unfortunate partner, the elegant Edyta Sliwinska, seemed to have fun last night before the audience voted them off. John O'Hurley, the comic actor who's at least my age, has been superb -- but he over-mugged last night. His partner Charlotte (Shar-lott-uh) Jorgensen is a good teacher, and ought to slap some of that silly out of him. Dancing With The Stars' Website
I saw a documentary about Juliette Lewis touring with her rock band on VH1. (Much like Gina Gershon does -- remember when I wrote about seeing them both acting in the excellent movie Picture Claire?)
This film, the recording, and the touring looked like they were NO FUN for Lewis. Sometimes these career tangents seem to take on a parasitic life of their own.
BTW -- Gershon's once-buried movie, Prey For Rock and Roll, finally saw daylight on the cable/satellite movie channels. Gershon gigged on the toilet-bowl club circuit as a musician when it was first made, trying in vain to promote a film which lacked a distributer back then. She and her band were a minor success, though, and the video which was shot during that gruelling experience fit together well enough to sell as a cable TV series.
NBA Playoffs -- Detroit played a rousing game on their home court and beat San Antonio. Seven-game sports series can have their moments.

Wildlife: We saw a long-eared Griebe swimming on Middle Foy's Lake yesterday -- it means our nesting pair is back again this year.



Visit: A Tale of Two Movies

Weather: Sun and rain, sun and rain -- I'll take both.

Charity Alert: The Animal Rescue Site is trying to give 2.7 million bowls of food this month, but they're not even halfway to their goal yet.

Garage Sale Booty: A hand-autographed picture of John Lithgow, and the cast of the very silly TV comedy Third Rock From The Sun. Lithgow owns a vacation home in nearby Lakeside, and is actually a fine, accomplished actor. (I like Kristen Johnson too.) It's a bad idea to hold actors' roles against them -- just watch how well they do their WORK.
A hardbound edition of A Summer Book by Tove Jansson, Finnish author of the great 'Moomin' stories.
A half-dozen almost-new plastic water-catchers for fifty cents.

In The Community: I saw Renata Reiss and her son Henry one last time at the Hockaday yesterday. They are flying home this morning. Those newspaper articles I mentioned brought dozens of people to the museum on Sunday and Monday -- days which are usually slow. My friend Vanessa Peck came in several times -- she loves the Winold Reiss portraits! Hockaday Museum of Art
Hmm -- there's a Hockaday member's meeting tonight at the Chamber of Commerce building. Maybe I oughta go as a spectator for a change.

Media Watch: I finished watching the DVD version of the Buck Rogers serial from 1938 last night.
Buster (Flash Gordon) Crabbe played Flash's space-opera predecessor, in what must have been a confusing production for the myriad fans of Nowlan and Calkins' pioneering spaceman. Visually, there was no mistaking Buck Rogers for Flash Gordon in the newspapers. Alex Raymond's elegant draftsmanship overpowered his competitor's crude doodles, but the inventive, rolicking wild-west adventurousness of Buck Rogers was only IMITATED in the panels of Flash Gordon, and every fan of action movies, books, and comics knew it.
The leaden hand of Ford Beebee weighs heavily on this formulaic merry-go-round -- these chapter serials are literal sideshows relative to the carnival of 30's Cinema. There are opportunities for humor, surprise, and suspense, but they sit in the mind of the viewer of today, unexplored by filmmakers who weren't very imaginative. I may be accused of favoritism, but Crabbe's three other Flash serials all show more exuberance, despite Beebee's ubiquitous prescence.
The only time I saw these particular chapters on television was in 1967, when I was in high school, at the beginning of my career as a comics enthusiast. Even though I wanted to like them, there wasn't much to grab my attention -- they seemed too derivative of the oft-seen Flash Gordon serials, without any fundamental differences to make them special. Unfortunately, Buck Rogers was the LAST chapter serial our local TV stations played in their early morning/late afternoon slots. I enjoyed them while growing up, and I didn't mind studying them as a young adult, despite their weaknesses, but an era passed away right before my eyes, even though it was made up of pre-WWII reruns.
Constance Moore played Wilma Deering, the female protagonist in Buck Rogers. Although she is often criticized as 'passive' or 'un-sexy' in this role, there ARE moments where she is actually alluring, with her fine figure on display beneath that dumpy riding costume and flight helmet. (Accurately reproducing Wilma's uniform in the comic strip.) She even takes off her gilded "shower cap" at least once, sporting a thick mane of curled, dark blonde, neck-length hair. Late in the serial, she also fights effectively -- kicking some serious ass, and swinging a mean ray gun -- while busting Buck (and herself) out of Killer Kane's deepest dungeons. As far as a 'platonic' relationship with her male leading man goes, the final scene of the serial shows Wilma ready to lock loins with him -- or at least enjoy a passionate smooch -- once the cameras stop rolling. Her body language is unmistakable, and the script even declares their mutual intention to embrace!
Ms. Moore was a hard-working big band singer when she wasn't making movies in the Mid-20th Century. Whatever anyone may say about her now, she was an experienced entertainer who knew her craft.
Here's a well-written essay about Buster Crabbe's serials: FLASH GORDON AND HIS UNIVERSAL SERIAL COMPATRIOTS A Critical and Sentimental Perspective - by Tom Aldridge

Fair Warning: I'm going to add some new pages to A Tale of Two Movies -- There's more to say about movie spaceships and re-used footage from Just Imagine.

Wildlife: We have a CHAMPION! A Red-Headed Duck mom proudly escorts a dozen lively chicks around Middle Foy's Lake, and sometimes parks them in a long row on the log by our bedroom.



Visit: A Tale of Two Movies

Weather: Alternating sun in the AM, with rain in the PM. We are just barely able to plant a garden.

Charity Alert: The Animal Rescue Site is trying to give over 2 million bowls of food this month.

Media Watch: The Big Bang, by Simon Singh -- I saw him on CSPAN a few months ago. His book is a decent chronicle about major aspects of scientific history, especially when they relate to Cosmology.
Singh paints a sympathetic portrait of steady-state advocate Fred Hoyle, who ironically coined the term Big Bang while trying, in vain, to discredit George Gamow's 'dynamic universe' theory.
I enjoyed Hoyle's S-F novel The Black Cloud when I was in fourth grade. I was also too old for his style of storytelling by fifth grade. He was a lousy novelist, I must say, but seems to have been a witty, engaging person, and a great scientist, who could have been even greater by admitting defeat when one or two of his many useful theories were proven wrong.
NBA Finals -- San Antonio absolutely dominated Detroit in the first two games. I know those events are past history now, but it looks bad for the champs as they head home to Michigan. (Last year's losing coach, Phil Jackson, is building a fancy house near Flathead Lake, but has signed with the L.A. Lakers again.)

Wildlife: I have seen more Whitetail Deer from the road in the last week than I saw all last month. The male Pheasant continues to eat from the box feeder on our deck every morning.



Visit: A Tale of Two Movies

Weather: The sky was blue on Friday morning, but a boiling black storm blew in from the south, and dropped a cloudburst on us in the afternoon. We still see alternating rain clouds and sun.

Charity Alert: The Hunger Site A simple click helps a lot.

In The Community: The local newspaper sent a reporter and a photographer to our opening reception last Thursday, and published their story on the front page of the Sunday edition. They were interested in K. D. Swan: Splendid Was The Trail, a collection of Forest Service photos from the early 20th Century. Theresa, the USFS ranger who helped us the most with this particular show, lent welcome hands and valuable assistance on just about the busiest night I've seen at our museum. Kalispell's Daily Inter Lake
That Winold Reiss exhibit sure monopolized my time last week -- Mr. Wheeler's lecture on Friday afternoon was a real challenge, especially after we moved the venue to the theater upstairs at the KM Building -- but everything worked out well. Hockaday Museum of Art
Speaking of the old Kalispell Merchantile Building -- I joined my boss, Linda Grady, and the Reiss family for a drink and eats at the KM's new bar/restaurant "Red's" the previous night, after we finally locked up the Hockaday.
(I think its short for Red's Wines and Blues, but don't quote me.)
They had a full house, live music, and very slow service as a result. I saw people there from many walks of life, and from all over the Flathead. A few attendees from our earlier reception were there. Strangely enough, the Sunday paper printed an article about THIS place too.

Media Watch: I watched some dawg-assed movies on video tape when I finally had some time off: The Ring -- Fairly good recent flick, but derivative, with a less-than-stellar ending. Wild, Wild Planet -- An Italian trash can special from 1965, with all sorts of 60's hair, miniskirts, and cool fiberglass runabout cars. Devil Doll -- One of Tod Browning's creepy efforts from the mid-30's, with Lionel Barrymore and Maureen O'Sullivan. It had some pretty good matte work for the times. They also built some gargantuan props for scenes where "miniature" actors had to climb up "normal" stairs and furniture to perform their nefarious deeds.
None of these movies were as fine or funky as George Melies' Voyage To The Moon from 1902 -- with french-accented narration instead of title cards. This fifteen-minute, theatrical bit of whimsey owed as much to H.G. Wells as to Jules Verne, and they were both alive when it was made. (I wonder if they ever saw it?)

Wildlife: Two Whitetail Deer ran right in front of me as I turned out of my driveway.



Visit: A Tale of Two Movies

Weather: The Flathead Valley was overcast yesterday, but the rain only fell when really dark low clouds roiled underneath the gray dome of the sky. It looks like we have the same conditions today.

In The Community: The Reiss family are a polite, fun-loving group of people. Meeting them at the reception at Leonard Lopp's old residence on Flathead Lake was a pleasure. Tonight is the opening of Winold Reiss: Artist of the Great Northern Railway at the Hockaday Museum of Art. We couldn't have put this show together without the good graces of Renata Reiss.

Media Watch: Yeek! While I drove to and from Lakeside for the reception, I listened to Happy Trails by Quicksilver Messenger Service -- the most elegant of the great 60's San Francisco bands.
I saw them in Salt Lake City when they were touring in support of their first album in 1969. "Numenor Productions" promoted the concert. Michael G. Cavanaugh was the MC. That team raised the culture level of SLC by several hundred percent between 1968 and 1972. Their problem was accomodating ever-increasing crowds, and finding venues where good, loud music could sound both loud AND good.
Quicksilver performed at the Valley Music Hall. (Now a large Mormon wardhouse.)
It was built as a theater-in-the-round, with a revolving stage. Quicksilver played their first set rotating at a steady rate, but before the second set started, Michael G. asked the audience to re-gather on the north side of the hall -- the band couldn't take the spinning anymore.
Quicksilver relied on Folk-Rock and popular blues for their songs. Either Gary Duncan or David Frieberg sang many folk-club standards like Robert Johnson's Walking Blues or Buffy St. Marie's Codine. They performed a few new tunes from their own album as well. A better-looking group of four young men would have been hard to find. Frontmen Duncan and Frieberg had full, dark, curly hair, each with a distinctive cut. Reclusive drummer Greg Elmore had long light locks, and a well-trimmed beard.
The visual and sonic centerpiece of Quicksilver Messenger Service was their lead guitarist, John Cippolina. He was thin and handsome, with long straight blond hair which cascaded over his shoulders and upper back. He never said a word, but stood next to a massive stack of Marshall amps, capped with brass horns, playing his Gibson, which did all the talking for him.
The climax of their second set in Salt Lake was an original song, The Fool, which was mostly solo Cippolina. He made a high, keening, slighly-dissonant sound that combined Jeff Beck's snarling overdrive distortions with Jimi Hendrix's poetic sensuality on his wah-wah pedal. I can truly say he made his guitar wail, but in a gentle, singing way.
Happy Trails is almost all live tracks recorded over the weekend of my 20th birthday in San Francisco. My best friend Jon Ludwig was in the audience for one of these performances, which made the album doubly special, since he had seen them with me in Salt Lake earlier the same year. ("I saw QUICKSILVER over Thanksgiving," he bragged, one cold December day on the steps of the University of Utah library.)
The album is built on two of Bo Diddley's most famous jams -- Who Do You Love, and Mona. There's good rhythm, bass, and rolling drums ,of course, and the largely-baritone singing is alright, but Cippolina's guitar is the main show -- almost 40 minutes of plaintive, screaming hard-rocking, ultra-boosted guitar in the hands of an electronic wizard.
It would also be the LAST album of it's kind. Quicksilver originally formed as songwriter Dino Valenti's band. Why he was missing from their first two albums is still a mystery to me, but Duncan later left the group to perform as a duo with Valenti, so they toured as a trio for awhile. An album called Shady Grove landed in the record stores, like a wrecked oil tanker, with Frieberg, Elmore, and Cippolina, definite, credited vocals by Duncan, and a new soloist -- prolific English studio pianist Nicky Hopkins. (Who also toured with Jefferson Airplane and the Rolling Stones.) He tore up the second side of Grove with his composition Edward, The Mad Shirt Grinder, but Cippolina was almost invisible as a player. A situation which lasted throughout the rest of his recording career.
Dino Valenti officially (re)joined Quicksilver, and they made two hit albums as a sextet -- Just For Love and What About Me. The Nixon administration banned the title single of the latter album from the airwaves for "promoting drug use."
(The dynamic flute of guest-musician Martin Fierro is enough to recommend this record to any hall of fame you may choose. It's a great song, too -- Valenti also wrote Get Together and Hey Joe.)
John Cippolina left the group around 1973, and died in the late 80's from Emphysema. He spent the last decade of his life jamming with other Bay Area musicians in various aggregations named "Copperhead," "The Dinosaurs," "Thunder & Lightning," etc.

Weather: You almost could have swam in the air yesterday, if you were wearing fins. The whole Flathead Valley sloshed along under drizzling wet clouds.



Visit: A Tale of Two Movies

Wildlife: No, I didn't see any ducklings paddling above the surface of the lake -- RUNNING on the surface? Yes.

Charity Alert: The RAIN Forest Site (get it?)

In The Community: Myriad means a thousand in ancient Greek. It also means uncountably large numbers. That being said, there are a myriad of things to do when setting up an important art exhibit like Winold Reiss; Artist of the Great Northern Railway.
Hockaday Museum of Art
Tonight, there's a private reception for Rennata Reiss, Winold's daughter-in-law, down in Lakeside, Montana. She's coming out from New York, and I hope she enjoys what she sees! The official opening is tommorrow night, and there's a lecture on Friday afternoon. I keep forgetting how much work there is in having fun.

Media Watch: Contributors to the blog DailyKos spent megawatts of emotional energy yelling about marginal server ads for TBS' stupid and vulgar Real Gilligan's Island. A lot of normally- thoughful people unleashed their "inner troll" on one another with rabid implacability which reminded me of f***edcompany.com back in 2001.
Maybe there's pent-up frustration on that progressive website about the way Team Bush keeps getting their way, to everyone's disadvantage. I don't know.
Buck up, everybody! The story of the Downing Street Memo is refusing to die, and has even crept onto the front pages. I'm hoping the general electorate will get sick of all of BushCo's lying, real soon -- like today.

About twenty years ago, somebody wrote these words:

Dogs of war and men of hate
With no cause, we don't discriminate
Discovery is to be disowned
Our currency is flesh and bone
Hell opened up and put on sale
Gather 'round and haggle
For hard cash, we will lie and deceive
Even our masters don't know the web we weave

One world, it's a battleground
One world, and we will smash it down
One world ... One world

Invisible transfers, long distance calls,
Hollow laughter in marble halls
Steps have been taken, a silent uproar
Has unleashed the dogs of war
You can't stop what has begun
Signed, sealed, they deliver oblivion
We all have a dark side, to say the least
And dealing in death is the nature of the beast

One world, it's a battleground
One world, and we will smash it down
One world ... One world

The dogs of war don't negotiate
The dogs of war won't capitulate,
They will take and you will give,
And you must die so that they may live
You can knock at any door,
But wherever you go, you know they've been there before
Well winners can lose and things can get strained
But whatever you change, you know the dogs remain.

One world, it's a battleground
One world, and we will smash it down
One world ... One world

David Gilmour and Phil Manzanera