FRONTLINE; The Pursuaders caught my eyes and ears last night on PBS. I'll examine it's issues below.

New Website: Theater X-Net

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

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!

Wildlife: Those two Bald Eagles are definitely nesting at Middle Foy's Lake again this year.

Weather: It is gray again today, after a sunny, but not-too-cold day after following Monday's blizzard. I hope those are snow clouds I see coming from the west, and not more gloomy fogbanks.

Charity Alert: Six clicks make significant differences on The Hunger Site's Web pages.

Media Watch: By the mid-60's, We the Public thought we were aware of the nature of the media barrage which rained down upon us. Marshall McLuhan spelled out a new vocabulary for human interactions with books, magazines, radio, movies, and television. He even popularized the very term "media," which now means nothing, everything, and alot in between. He was an inspirational pioneer.
The economic forces which pay big dividends to media manipulators form themselves into meandering streams that make old McLuhanesque maps of the cultural landscape outdated, and waylay travelers who don't even know they are lost.
We are slow to identify overriding patterns, but even so it is instructive to know the ways in which we are had -- for instance, this show introduces us to Frank Luntz, who researches the power of certain words for political campaigns. One of his major claims to fame, and big consulting fees, is Newt Gingrich's infamous Contract With America -- a list of misrepresentations and lies which stands as a major case study in how the Public can be buffaloed into voting against their own interests.
There is a big difference between putting up with a little harmless humbuggery, ballyhoo, or hype when making choices about what to buy, compared to enduring an onslaught of lies from criminals who are trying to rob us.

Watch the show and participate on the Website: FRONTLINE; The Pursuaders


Madison Avenue and Kodak were media allies for many years.
The Kodak Girl on the far left is Cybill Shepherd circa 1966.

Wildlife: A Rough-Legged Hawk visited the campus of Flathead Valley Community College yesterday. I hope all the new construction won't drive it away. We heard coyotes howling last night at Foy's Lake also -- Shoo!

New Website: Theater X-Net

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

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!

Weather: Snowy and beautiful -- not too awfully cold (for here). I think I'll shoot some background video for Current Events.

Charity Alert: Contribute with a click on The Hunger Site.

Media Watch: I have a new Casablanca Prestige editing system. I'll be putting it through it's paces, making some pretty videos for the local cable access channel -- I'm going to PLAY with various effects and specialities while they're new! (I'll tone it down later, but ...)

In The Community: Here's a shot of the Valley Voices Choir on the steps of the Hockaday Museum of Art during the Kalispell Art Walk last December 2nd:


Happy Holidays!
(Every single one of 'em.)

Toni Bentley, author and dancer, graciously consented to a link exchange on my new Website: Theater X-Net

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

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!

Wildlife: Grossness Alert! Some neighborhood dog was moving the body of a dead deer around Middle Foy's Lake over the weekend. The carcass was gone by midday Sunday, but YUCK! The Ravens, Eagles, and Magpies checked out some of the resting places in it's disgusting journey, but didn't get much sustenance out of the incident.

Weather: A temperature inversion is holding this murky cold, chilly fog close to the ground. The recent arctic blast did something to our septic system too -- our tank alarm went off Saturday night. It looked like the pump couldn't empty the tank, even though it had been running for hours -- something's broken. The pumping truck will be here tomorrow, and we are conserving water. The grossness continues.

Charity Alert: Click on The Hunger Site, if you still have an appetite -- somebody can use the donation.

Media Watch: Ice skating on TV again -- plus ice skating on the lake. (They just scraped off a neighborhood hockey rink.) Kurt Browning really showed a dandy mix of fancy footwork and high jumps from standing positions in two separate broadcasts.
NFL Football -- Let's get the pre-game madness over with first. MAD-TV's Frank was rather mean-spirited as Dr. Phil today, and not too funny either. Normally he's hilarious with that particular impersonation. Jillian Barbarie was quick-witted, in good voice, and wore a pretty, lightweight, almost strapless, dress that was nearly long enough to be a gown. Her look-of-today came close to Maureen Dowd's Academy Award description of Hollywood's modern interchangeable female archetype -- which resembles a busty melting candle. Was that chiffon over her chest, or just long necklaces with jewels here and there? (I'm not staring -- it's just easy to look at her. Uh -- she's so good looking it's hard to miss seeing her? Uh -- OK, I was staring!)


Jillian (Warry) Barbarie on The NFL Today in 2004
Jillian's Wikipedia Entry

Philadelphia is only fighting for pride's sake now, but they almost beat the NY Giants. The Giants' place kicker did NOT miss in overtime this week! The Steelers have lost a couple of tough ones lately, but they smothered playoff-bound Chicago during a televised blizzard from Pittsburgh this morning. Unbeaten Indianapolis won, but quarterback Peyton Manning got knocked around more than he, or coach Tony Dungey wanted. The players from Superbowl champ New England are starting to recover from early-season injuries. If that team is healthy in the playoffs -- watch out everybody.
All of Me was on the satellite -- best movie Lilly Tomlin or Steve Martin ever made!
R.I.P. Richard Pryor -- One of the truest and funniest comedians of my lifetime.

Wildlife: A new visitor -- a larger-than-ordinary Bald Eagle caught a fish about 9:30 this morning out of the lake.

NEW Web Site: Theater X-Net

Featuring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!

Weather: There was a lot of cold mist and fog banks underneath a blue sky while the temperature stayed around 15 degrees (F) during the day and even the night.

Charity Alert: Click on The Hunger Site to feel warmer.

In The Community: The Hockaday Museum is going to do some student outreach days this winter -- especially reaching out to Flathead Valley Community College students. There is a Flathead Valley Educators exhibit starting next month, so we'll build on that.
Speaking of which, it's ironically funny hearing lame excuses about deadlines from adult teachers who have to hear those same lame excuses from adolescent students.
That Christmas party for the college employees was videotaped (not by me). I will be burning over a dozen DVDs of it before I'm done. We are even streaming the dam' silly thing over our (secure) network. While there are warm feelings going on, we're going to recruit for NEXT year's party.

Media Watch: Ice skating on TV -- ice skating on the lake too, but not as masterful.
We watched The Giant Gila Monster, and Bela Lugosi Meets A Brooklyn Gorilla last night. If you like 50's cars, the former is right up your alley, uh -- drag-strip. The latter is a shameful waste of film promoting an inept pair of Martin & Lewis imitators.

Movie Review, with Cool Car Pics!
This photo belongs to the aforementioned site,
and is used simply to motivate the viewer to visit there.

(Cross-posted on DailyKos.com) I shouldn't have let the following get me down so badly, but it did -- the local newspaper published a letter to the editor today, purportedly written by an eleven year old. The kid was whining about Christmas being threatened, and pleading to not have his or her Christmas taken away. There's no way of knowing if it was from a real child with those concerns, but I am absolutely certain the letter resulted from the phony "War on Christmas" hysteria promulgated by the American Taliban -- the only campaign about our traditional Holiday Season that even exists is by them. There is no other.
(I do not choose to say the names of Fox's biggest blowhard, or the (Im)Moral Majority's former spokesmouth.)
What saddens me is "Happy Holidays," or Merry Christmas" are now given and taken as offensive statements for the first time in my life. There is a lesson here in the power of propaganda, but it is ugly. This unnecessary rage and unprovoked defensiveness during a time of year when people want to be happy is part of a deliberate public campaign. I can't understand why someone would want to inflict these bad feeling on their neighbors, but they have.
It is as if they've chosen to pour kerosene in the public water supply, so that everybody has to share a vile taste in their mouths and suffer digestive problems -- for no other reason than they wanted to exercise their power to make them feel that way. The answer would be to take that kind of power from such mean-spirited vandals with legal action.
As far as public media goes, such stomach-turning manipulators should lose their credibility immediately, but the public happens to believe in free speech first, and are slow to take sanctions against the worst abusers of this privilege. I would prefer to hear them laughed off of TV and radio, but nobody's laughing.
I now propose everyone say "Happy Holidays," "Merry Christmas," Happy New Year," and every good thing we can think of to every stranger and acquaintance we meet -- I hope every single holiday YOU have will be happy!

Wildlife: How did those three deer get into my boss' garden? Either an open gate, broken fence, or they leapt over six-plus feet of wire -- none of which are good news.

NEW Web Site: Theater X-Net

Featuring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!

Weather: Temperatures in the teens and twenties today. The overcast sky is a little depressing, but the newly-gravelled roads are a somewhat safer.

Charity Alert: Take a longer walk after clicking on The Hunger Site today!

Media Watch: Lotsa John Lennon on radio and TV yesterday, but I said my piece about him already. Fox Movie Channel surprised me by showing Porky's in primetime last night. In fact, I saw Kim Cattrall in her famous early movie role as the clownish "Lassie" while I was clicking through. I can put up with vulgarity if it is part of a funny script or scene, but vulgarity isn't necessarily funny on it's own, as this movie painfully demonstrates. Revenge of the Nerds followed, and the same observation applies to it.
It is funny that one arm of the Fox media octopus shills for the humorless American Taliban while another arm pimps these Jr. High School smirk-fests.
Ironically, there were two John Waters movies on another network -- Cecil B. Demented and the brilliant Polyester. Vulgarity is only ONE of Waters' many tools in filmmaking -- he mostly trades in wit and satire.
Strangely enough, Beavis and Butthead was recycling on MTV2 -- new videos interspersed with decade-old cartoon clips. I hope Thursday isn't supposed to be "Vulgar Night" on satellite TV.


Kim Catrall in City Limits (1985), as mocked on Mystery Science Theater 3000 in Season 4 (1992-93). Joel (silhouette center) is preserving what little there is of Ms. Cattrell's modesty with a convenient umbrella. Crow T. Robot (R) and Tom Servo (L) help with the wisecracks. Kim Cattrall actually visited their studios near Minneapolis to congratulate them on the witty way they took that movie down, and how Crow T. Robot "fell in love with her" in the framing sequence. The MST 3K crew rarely had to face the objects of their derision, and I bet it made them squirm a little when she was so nice to them. (They tell this story in their book.)

Wildlife: The two large Bald Eagles were cavorting around the small ice-free spot on Middle Foy's Lake after sunset in the deep blue fading light.

NEW Web Site: Theater X-Net

Featuring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!

Weather: The arctic blast is ending here in Northwestern Montana. It flirted with 0 degrees (F) today, but never got quite that low. It looks like we'll have temperatures in the teens and twenties for awhile.

Charity Alert: Take a short walk after clicking on The Hunger Site!

Media Watch: John Lennon was remembered on TV and Radio today. You could tell the ones who really cared about Lennon by whether they mentioned the name of his murderer -- the guy who tried to steal fame twenty-five years ago by killing a man who had earned it. You'll never hear or read his name from me.
MY favorite John Lennon record, outside of the Beatles, was a very abstract Phil Spector production with this chorus:
Power to the people!
Power to the people!
Power to the people!
Power to the people ... Right On!
My favorite Beatles records are Dizzy Miss Lizzy, Slow Down, and Bad Boy by Larry Williams, a now-obscure New Orleans singer and songwriter, who hit it big just once with Boney Maroney. They are all sung by John Lennon.
I am also very fond of Lennon's plaintive Ticket to Ride among his many fine Beatles originals.
Let's talk about people who still live exciting lives:
YES -- Yoko Ono: A website by the Japan Society, outlining her very original artistic career. I highly recommend her book Grapefruit, first published in 1964. Here's a few excerpts:

PAINTING TO HAMMER A NAIL
Hammer a nail in the center of a piece of glass.
Send each fragment to an arbitrary address.
1962 Spring

PAINTING TO EXIST ONLY WHEN IT'S COPIED OR PHOTOGRAPHED
Let People copy or photograph your Paintings.
Destroy the originals.
1964 Spring

CLOUD PIECE
Imagine the clouds dripping.
Dig a hole in your garden to put them in.
1963 Spring

TRAVEL PIECE
Make a key.
Find a lock that fits.
If you find it, burn the house that is attached to it.
1963 Spring

ANIMAL PIECE
Take one mannerism from one kind of animal and make it yours for a week.
Take another mannerism from another kind of animal and make it yours without dropping the previously acquired mannerism.
Go on increasing mannerisms by taking them from different kinds of animals.
1963 Summer

I don't think we need a picture today -- Thanks Yoko!