A massive Golden Eagle swooped over the shores of Middle Foy's Lake, which is just about ice-free. The Goldeneye Ducks seem to have paired up, as have the Mallards. The Canadian Geese are much more numerous around Firehouse Pond. The Skunk sneaked under the barrier the other evening -- gotta fix that before we have an unpleasant incident.

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: 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 Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!
NEW! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

Charity Alert: Make a Post-Equinox resolution to click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: Still sick as a Dawg, but new updates are coming to the Hockaday Museum of Art's Website.

Media Watch: Book TV: Alexander Cockburn held forth for three hours on In Depth. He has standards, a point of view, and a dedication to Reality which is depressingly rare nowadays. I hardly agree with everything he says, but he is worth listening to, and tries to act as a good example of what Journalism purports itself to be. He runs a website called Counterpunch. One assertation of his with which I concur is that the Popular Media are in the pocket of the Right Wing for a lot of economic and social reasons, to the detriment of their quality and credibility. He also had some words of caution to a 16 year old about how limiting Cynicism could be, and counselled making common cause with others when trying to solve problems. He was spot-on in describing how candidates for public office, especially the Presidency, spend months demonstrating how beholden they are to the current system. (My perspective: as if they are asking permission before putting themselves forward for what is ironically supposedly a job for a leader.)
I'm having a hard time watching After Words, featuring Jerry Scahill's report on the terrifying phenomenon of the Blackwater mercinary army. It is hard to avoid the feeling of despair in the face of so much money and power devoted to the destruction of our country's laws and interests. There are thousands of these mercinaries under arms in the Middle East, working for Blackwater and other contractors. What kind of monstrosities are we going to leave behind us in Iraq? Are they coming home with our troops? They are not subject to our laws, so what is their place in our country's future?
Actor Johnathan Rhys-Meyers is all over Showtime Networks. He played a fairly good Elvis Presley in a grim melodrama which traced the career of the first Rock & Roll Star from truck driver, to musician, to cultural phenomenon, through the U.S. Army, to a dead-end movie career, and finally a redeeming return to performing music. Everybody now knows that life on The Road killed him less than ten years later, but I remember those promising days when he rediscovered the talent which put him on top in the first place. It's a damn shame that he couldn't restructure his own life to sustain his health, or bring him happiness. His entourage may bear some blame in the matter, but nobody really knows exactly when Presley lost command of himself. The two concert movies he put out in the early 70's show a less-than-concerned lounge lizard, but his satellite concert from Hawaii in 1973 was pretty darn good, corny as it may have been. Presley's last TV broadcast in 1977 was nothing less than a horror show -- he looked like a man about to die -- a familiar voice climbing out of a grotesque sack of fat, topped by greasy hair, whose mottled skin had fallen away from it's old anchor points.
Right now I'm watching an turgid interpretation of James Goldman's Lion In Winter with the great Glenn Close, the admirable Patrick Stewart, and whole lotta bad decisions bringing the whole production down, including Rhys-Meyers' cookie-cutter characterization of a courtier/prince.
The intrigues around the life stories of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine are dizzying in their far-ranging importance in history. That living members of one family had so much to fight each other for beggars the imagination. Their interfamilial wars began with the suspicious death of William II, continuing through the first three Crusades, and civil strife which marked Stephen's reign. Henry I's heir through Matilda and Richard Plantagenet became Henry II, a hyper-ambitious feudal lord who gambled big -- win or lose. The exraordinarily ruthless Richard I was the most powerful of his sons when he died. War and disease did more than any dramatic tet a tetes or silly plots set forth in Goldman's play to establish the succession. Childless Richard spared the life of his treasonous, but procreative, brother John I, who nearly lost the throne at Rundemeade. Nearly-as-weak Henry III was desposed, yet restored by his remarkable son Edward I, who was almost the reincarnation of his great-grandfather Henry II in wit, strength, and fortune. "Longshanks" conquered most of his neighboring lands, whether he had feudal rights or not. He couldn't hold them all, but was unstoppable on the battlefield until he died of natural causes going after Robert Bruce in Scotland.
The same bloody high-stakes game of feudal treachery took the life of Edward II -- whose son (almost by error) Edward III seemed to over-compensate by starting the disasterous Hundred Years War, as if the Great Plague wasn't enough affliction for England and France. English Royalty won many battles, but in the end they lost their holdings on the continent, and the patrilineage of their family. Edward III outlived the Black Prince, but grandson Richard II was desposed and died in the morass of his own personal treacheries. The remaining Plantagenet relatives battled between heirs often named Lancaster and York, aided and abetted by cousins on both sides. Henry Tudor (VII) was a descendent of Edward III (through his mother) -- so was his trophy-queen. I stand by my assertion that the remaining English nobility, amalgamated as Parliament, wanted no more of these stupid wars of succession and supported this remaining branch of Royalty through thick and thin, even when they had a chance to shed the Monarchy after egomaniacal Charles I refused to keep his bargains.
Oliver Cromwell's republic was a singularity in British History, but I believe it represented the ultimate decisive power of Parliament, which reached back to the establishment of the Tudor Dynasty -- even absolute despots required cooperation by the nobility to enforce their rule. The fact that Queen Mary's consort Phillip II of Spain was kept from England's throne speaks volumes for Parliament's actual influence over events, as did the statesmanlike Restoration a century later -- and even more statesmanlike Glorious Revolution after Charles II's dumb arrogant brother loused things up again. Parliament eventually stripped all ruling powers from the Royal House, making the peace of the realm less vulnerable to inter-family feuds. Our American Revolution was partially caused by King George III and his cronies meddling in governmental affairs. Wise English politicians have tried to keep the Royals at arms-length since then.
Guess What? Showtime is featuring Johnathan Rhys-Davis as Henry VIII in a mini-series called The Tudors, starting later -- good luck making that scary, brutal Renaissance man into a romantic lead! Maybe this story should be attempted though -- his reign was the foundation of the Protestant English state which became the British Empire. The hulking daunting physique and impetuously dire intelligence of that relentless man were components of Henry VIII's dominating character -- I can't really see him as a skinny hollow-eyed 21st Century stock actor.
The History Channel re-ran their overview of the often-ridiculous back-stories in Dan Brown's DaVinci Code. My friend Clara McBride does theatrical events in Paris set around locations found in Brown's book, so there has been some useful fun generated by that second-rate thriller. The City of Lights is an intriguing character in other works of literature, high and low, so her company has a lot of material to play with!
The things you'll watch when you're sick -- TCM showed a string of Charlie Chase movies from the 20's. I remember when Chase hosted his own films on TV in the late 50's/ early 60's in a syndicated series called the Funny Manns , pretending he was showing home movies of relatives named Mann. Maybe he wasn't the most famous silent clown, but he sure was good at silly-assed visual slapstick.

Theatre/Theater: BINDLESTIFF FAMILY CIRKUS at The Roxbury Arts Group
April 21, 2007 Roxbury, NY ROXBURY ARTS GROUP Vega Mountain Road, Roxbury, NY 12474
Family show at 2 pm, Adult show at 8 pm. For more information call (607) 326-7908
The Cirkus is coming to Roxbury, NY. Bindlestiff will present two performances. An afternoon show that is the perfect family event. The evening show is disigned for an older audience. Joine Mr. Pennygaff, Philomena, and Benjamin Ickies for a spectacular evening of entertainment. For the young audience: Cirkus Variety show at 2 pm. $5 children under 12 and $10 for adults.

For adults: "From the Gutter To the Glitter: A Night Out with the Bindlestiffs", a raucous look into the history of America's illegitimate theater traditions: circus, sideshow, vaudeville, burlesque, medicine shows, casino shows, and television game shows. 8 pm $12



The 2007 Bindlestiff Family Cirkus and Magic Hat Summer Variety Show Tour will be hitting the road this June. They will be touring the eastern United States Summer June/July/September.
Image of Ringmistress Philomena from a video on The Bindlestiff's Website.

The ice on Middle Foy's Lake is breaking up -- wide gaps appear and then shift around. The wind often pushes frozen chunks together. The Ducks swim in transitional channels or walk where they just finished diving. More ice disappears daily, but re-appears in the early mornings. It will likely be gone by next Saturday.

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: 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 Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!
NEW! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

Charity Alert: Make a post-Equinox resolution to click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: I got that %$#@! cold that's been going around the Flathead Valley. I hope it doesn't last more than a few days. (It didn't fade away -- I'm still very sick on Friday.) New updates soon at Hockaday Museum of Art's Website.

Media Watch: I'm 'way behind in knowing about the embarrassing media stunts on YouTube and MySpace -- but there was a show on VH1 which covered some of them, plus Keith Olbermann made sure I knew about some others. Gee thanks, guys! (I think.)
Herman Leonard's life and smoke-laden atmospheric photography were featured in a movie called Saving Jazz (2006). After a long working career in magazines, his Jazz photos became famous in the late 80's. Unfortunately, some of his property was in New Orleans when the dual disasters of Hurricane Katrina and the Bush Administration hit the town. His own uphill task of re-creating his archives was featured in part, but he was more concerned with the community at large. There are only 20 or so High School Marching Bands active, instead of the 117 that existed before the storm -- these organizations are the keys to New Orleans music.
Jazz, Pop, Funk, Folk, Zeydeco, and R&B all came off the streets in these kinds of groups. Places where people can play are still rare, though. Mardi Gras still goes on -- you have to start somewhere! Ace studio singer Irma Thomas was featured in the celebration, returning from temporary exile, so was the Marsalis family. The feathered "crewes" of African Americans came back again too. The wreck of Lower 9th Ward stands as an indictment of the criminal stupidity of our present government, whose corrupt operatives stood by while one of America's oldest cities drowned, and it's people starved and died as the president laughingly ate birthday cake and barbeque only a few hundred miles away "on vacation."


Let's get away to Europe:


My friend Katie is still knockin' them down in Amsterdan, Holland -- mixing Modern Dance and Jazz in a theatrical synthesis which carries the viewer away!
MATCHING MONDAYS - BIMHUIS Piet Heinkade 3 Amsterdam / Entrance free, 20.30 hrs - café opens at 19.00 hrs Dance: Pierre-Yves Diacon, Katie Duck, Melvin Fraenk, Nora Heilmann Music: Philip Zoubek (piano), Wilbert de Joode (bass), Viljam Nybacka (e-bass, electronics) Light: Ellen Knops info@bimhuis.nl / www.Bimhuis.nl
March 31 - April 1/April 7-8 13:00-16:00/ Two weekend improvisation sessions with Katie Duck / Saturdays and Sundays - www.katie@katieduck.com These sessions are geared for dancers, performers and musicians who would like to break their weekly schedule of classes with improvisation sessions. These are not lead workshops. Katie (Magpie) organizes the space and the artists who arrive share the rental fee. This is a Magpie initiative; organizing space in Amsterdam on a regular basis for artists to meet and work. Please contact Katie if this interests you (katie@katieduck.com). Katie would like to create a mailing list of artists who she would contact when space is booked rather than place it on the total mailing list.
Digital image from a Magpie promotional video by Alex Fischer via justinmorrison.net

Those damn Coyotes are still prowling the neighborhood at night. Firehouse Pond is ice-free, and there are dozens of families of water birds setting up nests on the little islands there. Our lake is thawing, but it's still covered over by ice except for about 25%. A huge Bald Eagle soared overhead in the early afternoon.

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: 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 Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!
NEW! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

Charity Alert: Make a resolution after the Vernal Equinox to click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: Friday's Auction of Miniatures at the Hockaday Museum was exhausting, but fun, and the weather was excellent. We had enough helping hands, but things got a little crazy sometimes. (We sold almost 90% of the items.) There were LIVE auctions on top of the silent auctions for every piece. We gave a local politician a microphone, and he did the rest. I dragged myself back there on Saturday and helped with the cleaning-up. The walls are stripped and ready for new shows to go up starting Monday. Watch the Hockaday Museum of Art's Website for details.

Media Watch: Stoned, a movie about the short life of Brian Jones, was too shallow to be either instructive or entertaining -- shots of young flesh not withstanding. Everybody's going to die one day, but very few are going to be part of a worldwide phenomenon like the Rolling Stones. What were the things which made him successful before his fall? These Celebrity Death Flicks completely miss the point most of the time.
Real books -- Agincourt was a historical account of young Henry V and his first successful invasion of France. Thanks for extending the ruinous Hundred Years War for two more generations, Your Royal Ego-besottedness!
I can say that he was nothing like either Shakespeare's majestic hero or young wastrel. He WAS a canny Mideavel general, though -- which meant misery for all of his neighbors. I think he was relativly sane and sober, unlike many of his contemporaries in the ruling class of the time, who seemed to be psycho or sociopaths in my estimation. The heavily-armored French infanty's suicidal attempt to charge through knee-deep mud at Agincourt, and their abandonment by the equally-handicapped French cavalry demonstrated wide-ranging stupidity and perfidy amongst their captains.
Aftermath: Henry V re-invaded France, and wedded the French Princess Royal. His infant son was declared heir to the throne of France, but "King Harry" died at war soon afterwards. Henry VI grew up weak, beset by attacks of mental illness. England lost all it's holdings on the continent, despite ongoing treachery by the French nobility against each other. The sad tale of Joan of Arc illustrated how firmly the French populace rejected domination by would-be English overlords by banding together to crown the hated, corrupt, but still-legitimate Dauphin at Orleans. The Middle Ages weren't much fun, but the Dark Ages were over, and countries were forming.
Henry V's young queen was rescued from her accommodation, er -- prison, in an English castle by a dashing commoner named Owen Tudor. One of their grandsons became Henry VII at the end of the bloody family feud known as War of the Roses, and every king and queen of England since then has been a descendent of the Tudors.


Anita Pallenberg as the Black Queen in Roger Vadim's interpretation of DeForrest's Barbarella circa 1968. She was romantically involved with Brian Jones for awhile, but later had a number of children with Keith Richards. The last time I read about her, she was fond of bicycling, and performing some sort of serious social work in London.

BOING! That is the sound of Spring's official arrival -- we celebrated here in NW Montana with cold winds and hailstorms. Early Daylight Savings Time has been a royal pain with our computers, but the bright evenings are wonderful. Venus and the New Moon have been dancing together in the Western sky. I hate to report it, but a pack of damn Coyotes are prowling the neighborhood -- we heard them right after dark last night. Our cats are staying inside until after 9 AM for the time being.

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: 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 Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!
NEW! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

Charity Alert: Make a resolution after the Vernal Equinox to click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: The Honors Symposium has been interesting in that the audiences are bringing their own controversies with them -- Feminism 101 by Brooke Barnett prompted a 40 minute post-lecture discussion after a fairly diagramatic overview of various forms of Feminism over the last 200 years or so. (Mary Wollstonecraft included!)
Biological Differences by Dr. Steven Gaulin said more in it's implications than his careful correlation of the physiological trait of spatial recognition being directly related to amounts of androgyns between human sexes. Body height, muscle mass, and aggression also correlate in similar ways. These tested, objective criteria do little to solve any disputes between Nature vs. Nurture however, or slow down people with agendas. The few facts may say something about our species being Polygynis in certain important ways, but Gaulin also made an important point that the most numerically significant human cultures are largely Monogamous.
So many people had their minds made up, and Gaulin's subject matter was so narrowly focused, that the big guns of preconception started booming right away, and continued the next morning on local talk radio.
This weekend at the Honors Symposium: Twelfth Night — Gender in the Shakespeare Theatre -— Brian Bechtold, Department of English and British Literature -- Flathead Valley Community College, Free lecture from 6-6:30 p.m. followed by FVCC theatre department production of Twelfth Night at 7 p.m.
That's a BIG subject, Brian! Our Theatre Dept. is handling the whole thing -- I'll be at the Hockaday!
Auction of Miniatures bid lists and bid forms at Hockaday Museum of Art's Website. The real thing is TOMORROW -- I'll be meeting, greeting, and then running away to the wrap-up room to pack things up as we sell them. It takes a crew of about a dozen folks to make an auction work efficiently.

Media Watch: Let's get the sad stuff over -- one of our students in the video class made mainsteam news by passing away while celebrating St. Patrick's Day in nearby Spokane, Washington. Priscilla Wetzel was a friendly, vivacious lady and I'll always remember her for those qualities!
Trash A Go Go Go Go -- The FOURTH season of Dancing with the Stars! Only two couples showed some flair -- Joey Fatone & Austrailia's own Kym (Tina Sparkle) Johnson and Apolo Anton Ohno & Julianne Hough. Ms. Hough is only 18, but she is a remarkably accomplished dancer, and an excellent teacher. Most of the other couples started rather tentatively, but only one celebrity was actually bad -- Billy Ray (Achy Breaky Legs) Cyrus.
I sent an email to Robert Edsel's site congratulating him for his Book TV presentation, and a question about Ida Rubinstein. (High Patroness of this Blog). I got an answer back the very next day! I was able to pay them back by giving them a few facts about my own Art History professor Lennox Tierney and his own team's efforts in Postwar Japan. They sent me a return email which read in part:
Yes, I saw your wonderful website! She was a rather amazing woman! I have made note of the website and your email address in my database in case I ever encounter any references to Ida's confiscated items.


The Ida Rubinstein Ballet performing Ravel's La Valse in Monte Carlo circa 1929. Choreography by Bronislava Nijinska.
False theatrical color by M.E.
Adapted from www.balletto.net

Sunday started out dark and cold, but brightened up in the middle of the day. The wildlife are out seeing what there is to eat -- we keep the feeders full this time of year, since the Winter has depleted natural foods. The skunk barrier is put in place each night to prevent accidental visitors.

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: 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 Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!
NEW! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

Charity Alert: Make a resolution during the Vernal Equinox to click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: Auction of Miniatures bid lists and bid forms at Hockaday Museum of Art's Website.
The real thing is this Friday!

Media Watch: Book TV -- Robert Edsel gave a GREAT lecture based on his book Rescuing DaVinci -- incredible but true adventures of Allied soldiers tracking down the great artistic treasures of Europe which were systemetically plundered by the Nazis. Think of your favorite famous painting -- it was was likely hidden in a salt mine in Germany during WWII, or abandoned by a fleeing SS officer because he couldn't find a truck which was large enough to haul it. Art historians and museum directors found themselves drafted into the service and saving buildings, furniture, books, paintings, and sculptures from the ravages of a worldwide war. General Patton wanted to destroy Nazi Headquarters in Munich, but it was being used by the "Monument Officers" as a warehouse for recovered artworks, and they had the power to stop him. Edsel showed a slide of dashing Langdon Warner, and a similar pic of Indiana Jones, but briefly told how Warner saved the cities of Kyoto and Nara from General LeMay's firebombs. Edsel has also made a film about these complicated stories called The Rape of Europa. He's spent a considerable amount of his own money to inform the world, and help find the various Raphaels et cetera which are still missing. She's only a minor case in the overall picture, but Ida Rubinstein's collection was looted in Paris, and I wonder what Mr. Edsel might have to say about all those Leon Baskt pictures? http://robertedselblog.com
Boogie Nights was on the satellite/cable. It made former rapper 'Marky Mark' Wahlberg a movie star, but told a sad sleazy tale doing it. There was some truth in it's fictional characters from the 70's and 80's. I give it credit for avoiding the worst aspects of filth-wallowing or sanctimonious admonishment about sex movies. The filmmakers had witnessed many of the scenes they depicted around them in mainstream Hollywood, and seemed to have some sensitivity about people seriously falling down in their lives -- but it's still not a fun flick. Gawd Day-um! They're running Wonderland afterwards -- ace actor Val Kilmer playing porn prince John Holmes in one more sad tale which wallows and admonishes, but misses essential truths. Like the long-gone Mr. Holmes, that flick is a loser -- no offense to any of the cast.
TIME TO LIGHTEN UP -- The MTV Movie Awards nominated Wahlberg's penile prosthesis for a technical award in 1998. However Rick Baker's "Head on a Stick" from Men In Black won, and the television audience was treated to a tirade from Boogie Nights' losing "member," wearing a miniature top hat and tails.
Speaking of obscenity -- David Horowitz was wasting your time and mine on Book TV. He's paid to lie, and that's all anyone really needs to know about him nowadays. His funding from the radical Right Wing is unlimited, and his plan is to wear people down when they stand up to refute his discredited untruths hundreds of times and more. CSPAN shouldn't give liars free media time. One side or another may be mistaken in a debate, but discourse does not exist when someone intentionally lies. Read this recent Daily Kos diary by Philosleft -- among other things, she states in the comments: His right to freedom of speech IS my right to challenge the content of his claims.
What was that about lightening things up? Thank goodness for PBS -- a whole show on buildings made in the shape of Milk Bottles, Ducks, Coffee Pots, Dogs, Teepees, Catsup Bottles, Shoes, and Doughnuts, not to mention the Corn Palace we visited in 2004 -- there seemed to be no end to the variations. In Salt Lake City, where I grew up, there was a fried chicken restaurant shaped like a rude charicature of an African American chef on Highland Drive. It's name contained a racist slur which I won't repeat. To make things worse, it was part of a chain -- when the degrading thing burned down in the early 60's, I doubt that anybody seriously thought of rebuilding it.
(Oops, gotta lighten up again!) Spokane boasted TWO three-story milk-bottle buildings when I lived there -- one of them was used in the movie Benny & Joon.


Mary Carey makes her living in the sex-movie industry of today, but ran for Governor of California against ANOTHER actor a year or two ago. Star-struck voters made the wrong choice.
Digital collage from political campaign images,
used for satirical purposes in the context of the review above.

We had some snow Friday, but it all melted Saturday -- St. Patrick's Day! It almost looked like Spring, after the fog burned off at noon. The aereation pond is expanding, ice is melting on the smaller lakes, and the sounds of Canadian Geese are in the air. Two Mallards skimmed some leftover seeds on the back lawn. We went walking with our three cats, but no skunks interrupted the neighborhood tour this time.

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: 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 Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!
NEW! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

Charity Alert: Make a resolution as the Equinox settles in to click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: Auction of Miniatures bid lists and bid forms at Hockaday Museum of Art's Website.
The real thing is this Friday!

Media Watch: A Guinness-pouring demonstration on CNN -- better than some other things they could have shown. I doubt St. Patrick would approve polluting good brown beer with lousy green food coloring, or praying to porcelain gods on a day meant to honor him. Merwyn (Bishop Patrolicus) was not the first Christian missionary in Dark Ages Ireland, but he was the most famous by far. His generation of somewhat-Romanized Britons were the first to establish a written language in the Emerald Isle between about 400 to 440 A.D. Their so-called Vulgar Latin survived just outside the neglected Northwest corner of the fast-crumbling Western Empire. When St. Columba converted the Celtic bards over a century later and started Irish monastaries offshore, an important wave of literacy began to spread over benighted Europe. By 800 A.D. Karl Der Gross (Charlemange) recruited key Irishmen in his successful efforts to re-establish literacy over his sprawling domains. Ireland itself, though, faced fearsome Viking invasions for another several hundred years. When they were done, the Normans attacked from England, and eventually took over. History has indicted the English as unworthy stewards. The EU gave that beleaguered country some hope, and perhaps bygones can truly be bygones over the whole island.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction show was presented on (edited) tape-delay. As usual, the first segment was pretty good -- The Ronettes, featuring Veronica Bennett, her sister, and cousin singing Be My Baby, with Paul Schaeffer re-creating the massive Jack Nietzche Wall of Sound behind them. Ronnie's producer and long-divorced husband Phil Spector is facing murder charges in Los Angeles, but Schaeffer read a 'congratulations' message from him. It might have been an act of artistic justice, but my guess is that it was spliced-in after Ms. Bennett was gone -- the whole world is now aware of the danger she faced living with a controlling madman like him.
Spector almost caused an ugly Hall of Fame scene in the 90's when Ike Turner was his impromptu guest -- Turner deserved his props, as did Anna Mae Bullock (Tina Turner), but some pre-arrangements would certainly have been appropriate, rather than nervous private security guards posturing against one another.
Ahmet Ertegun deserved all tributes bestowed on him -- especially from Aretha Franklin. He was responsible for recording a large percentage of the best music I ever heard during my life. Patti Smith, and her group also deserved their induction into the Hall of Fame -- she was lucky to live through her initial noteriety, but survived to fuse Rock and Literature as well as anyone else has done. She mentioned her late husband Fred "Sonic" Smith (nice guy, I met him once), and sang OK during the finale too. (People Have The Power, with nice solos by Keith Richard and Stephen Stills.) Lenny Kaye played a tasteful guitar, especially during Because the Night. I agree on the induction of R.E.M. -- time for New Wave! Van Halen (the group) reshaped Heavy Metal and deserved recognition for their successes -- including bringing Sammy Hagar up from Rock's AAA to the Major Leagues. Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five were the first major stars of Hip-Hop -- they took what The Last Poets, Gil Scott-Heron, Scotty, Big Youth, and King Tubby had started, and brought it off of the inner city streets of Amerika to EVERYONE, whether they wanted it's truth or not.

I posted this little graphic on one of FVCC's students' MySpace sites. C.S. Lewis published a trilogy almost a decade before his good friend J.R.R. Tolkien made history with the form a decade later. It was actually three related S-F novels rather than one long book. Out of the Silent Planet began as a friendly race between Lewis and Tolkien to each write a Science Fiction novel, but the latter abandoned his project, although it evolved as the fall of Numenor in the back-story of Lord of the Rings.

The first novel is reportedly a portrayal of Tolkien's character on a fabulous journey to Planet Mars. The second amalgamates two of the Inklings' favorite fantasy novels -- David Lindsay's sexually-charged Voyage to Arcturus and E.R. Eddison's language-rich Worm Ouroboros. The third was a tribute to the Apocalyptic novels of fellow-Inkling Charles Williams who died after WWII.