Weather: Cold with high, whispy clouds -- it sure is nice to see a sunrise, though!

Wildlife: Those damn cats gotta stop bringing in dead birds -- leave 'em outside for the Magpies!
I have to watch out about the deer hanging around day and night. The neighbors are afraid of Mountain Lions following them from out of the forest.

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

Media Alert: OK, Janet Jackson's admitted that her stunt was planned. At least one person isn't lying anymore. I hope the FCC just leaves that dumb debacle in the past, but I can't expect it. The football game on Superbowl Sunday has been relegated to third in importance behind halftime, during which I did my laundry, and the commercials, which I intentionally skipped this year.
Ridley Scott's Gladiator was run in "prime time" on ABC. Day-um! What a violent show!
Today's spectacle entertainment may be silly at worst, but the Roman arena was demented. We still have bullfighting, sad to say, but wholesale death and dismemberment are thankfully illegal. (Movies and Video Games aren't real, remember?)
Russell Crowe earned the Academy Award, and gave the BEST speech I've ever heard from an an actor when he accepted his Oscar.
Reasonably good fan site: Maximum Russell Crowe
Scott sometimes has a social message in his films -- Blade Runner and Thelma and Louise for instance, but if there is one here, it's hidden -- unless the message is "Life sucked in ancient times too."
Here's one fairly-informative site: Ridley Scott @ Filmbug
The movie is set in the reign of Commodus, generally acknowledged as the start of the Decline of the Roman Empire: The Roman Empire
Here's some paraphrased quotes: Like Nero, Emperor Commodus' private life was a disgrace and his public extravagances outageous; like Nero, he fancied himself in the circus; and like Nero, he died an undignified death - a professional athlete was hired to strangle him in his bed in AD 192.
177 Marcus Aurelius makes Commodus co-emperor; 180 Death of Marcus Aurelius. Accession of Commodus, who retreats to Rome from Germany; 183 Plot to kill Commodus discovered. Power of favourite Perennis. 186 Fall of Perennis. Power of favourite Cleander; 189 Fall of Cleander; 192 Death of Commodus.
The previous 84 years had seen just five emperors; during the next 104 years Rome should endure no less than 29.
My take on this historical matter -- the people of the Mediterranian were so impoverished then by 200 years of Roman thievery, that repeated warfare and treachery among the ruling class went unchallenged, and doomed this civilization to collapse. I'm amazed that it took another 150 years, plus generations of repeated Barbarian invasions to really kill the empire in Western Europe. After Eastern Emperor Justinian's few victories in the mid-Sixth Century, there wasn't much left to fight over, and the Lombards just came to stay.
That was just a rough sketch of the facts -- Ridley Scott's Movie Empire is an English Empire, stocked with English actors -- Derek (I Claudius) Jacobi is even in the film! The plot is ridiculously untrue, but his sketch of 2nd Century Rome has verisimilitude. I don't think anyone today could present the real horrors of the Colosseum, and I hope nobody tries.
A psychologist might write something about the fascination with perversion and violence that drenches almost every Roman movie -- or why the written record seems to dote on these themes as well, but not I.

Follow Up:
Al Kooper answered my email in less than a day (See Feb. 2)--
Thanks for your kind words & support
Its what keeps the old man goin'
al kooper
Check out his website: AL KOOPER
He's a good prose writer. His mini-diaries and commentaries are very well done, and convey the unique insight of a musician with humor and clarity. You can also catch up with the 40 year career of one of American Pop Music's more important studio men without my irrelevant input.
He also turned 60, and did a concert at the Berklee School of Music on January 31!

Weather: A sprinkling of snow. It's also a lot colder than yesterday. I wanted to wash/wax the car on Sunday, but the commercial, automated place was closed! ($#@!)

Wildlife: The two eagles had to share the aereation pond with ice fishermen nearby -- I think the birds ate the cleanings afterward.

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

Media Alert: I managed to get through most of the Superbowl while switching to CSPAN during the commercials. It was actually worth the effort -- Oliver Sacks was speaking on Book TV. I enjoyed the game VERY much, and spoke to my brother via long-distance before and afterward. Score: New England -- 32 Carolina -- 29.
The halftime show just confirmed general preconceptions -- popular artists strutted their lip-synched stuff in an audio/visual cacophany. If ya' liked 'em, ya' liked the show, if ya' didn't, ya' didn't. With that being said -- I was liking Janet Jackson's "Rhythm Nation," until Justin Timberlake showed up. He's danced better in the past, and I've never liked his singing anyway.
BUSTED: That final grab at Janet's boob-cover was obviously planned. Neither leather, vinyl, nor spandex tears away that easy. Women entertainers don't wear nipple-covers* unless they expect their breasts to show either. BTW -- that incident barely lasted a second -- If you could see it* you were replaying it on slo-mo or pause --- HA HA HA!

Follow-ups:
I wrote a "fan letter" by email to Al Kooper last night, since I've been enjoying his Michael Bloomfield collaborations on CD. (See Jan. 26, 2004) While tracking him down online, I found that he has serious vision problems now, but he's perseveres through them -- good man! AL KOOPER
I found a list of the studio musicians who played on the Box Tops' records. (The Box Tops road band is listed on the Alex Chilton page -- See Jan. 30, 2004) They are: Reggie Young, guitar; Bobby Wood, piano; Bobby Emmons, organ; Tommy Cogbill, bass; Gene Crissman, drums; Mike Leech and Glen Spreen, horn and string arrangements, and the great Wayne Jackson, with his Memphis Horns. Wayne Carson Thompson wrote their biggest songs, Penn and Oldham wrote some other singles. Tommy Cogbill co-produced Dimensions, their best album.

Weather: The thaw continues -- rain on top of ice, and melting snowpack. My eaves are clear of ice where I used the commercial melting mush, so that water doesn't back up behind "ice dams" and drain into our house.

Wildlife: The deer family was bedded down around the bird feeder this morning.

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

At the College: Digitizing some overhead transparencies to go onto CDs later today. Those data projectors are getting used! Hmmm -- Will I have to make them all into Power Point slides? Maybe so -- some photo display software packages are no damn good, and each display computer is configured differently. They all have Power Point, though.

Might as well write about "Global Friends" later today -- we have a young lady from Kenya (Kikuyu nationality), and a lady even older than I, who has been around Guatemamla and Chiapas a lot lately. Last time we talked about languages and odd specific sounds that aren't used in English. LATER IS NOW: Prof. Gerda Reeb told about her life growing up in the grim Soviet satellite nation of Romania, especially under the kleptomaniac rule of Charcesceau (sp?). She told how her family was ransomed by relatives and the West German government, after waiting 21 years, by the additional bribe of a remote-controlled TV set to a bureaucrat in 1986. After a few years in Europe, she chose to attend college in Eugene, Oregon -- luckily one of the most accepting, easy-to-live communities in the whole USA.
We talked about how repression and corruption attacked the souls of societies, and heard examples from Chiapas, and Kenya. On a positive note, we spoke of a spring fair and a website devoted to regional arts before adjourning.
Gerda also mentioned hearing English for the first time via TV shows like Dallas and Dynasty. Sharon grew up using Kikuyu in her neighborhood, English in school, and Swahili in big cites like Nairobi.

Media Watch: I was a lazy slug last night -- no reading, snoozed completely thru the NPR news, and watched some televised drek called "Awesomely Bad Videos" on VH1. It was a string of catty C-list comedians beating up on the folks who star in those kind of unfortunate, misbegotten productions -- which might be fair if the celebrities mentioned had any control, but often they don't -- that's a whole other subject, though. The mean-spirited syndicated series' "Behind the Music that Sucks" and "Videos that Suck" are actually funnier that the VH1 show.
Football: Super Bowl this Sunday! I'm "betting" on New England, but I'm always hoping for a well-played, close game.
I don't give a rat's ass about the commercials -- $4.6 Million per minute is obscene. I'm going to write to CBS and tell them that I'm planning to change channels at every commercial on purpose -- people with that kind of money don't need any of mine! (NOTE: I did write and tell them.)
Car Stereo: (Here's a new subject) Best of the Box Tops -- bought it on tape for a buck, and am enjoying almost every track. It's late-60's pop-rock with a soulful edge, courtesy of producers Chips Moman, Dan Penn, Spooner Oldham, and singer Alex Chilton, who was only 16 years old when The Letter was recorded. My favorites are Soul Deep, and Neon Rainbow. I wish Midnight Angel was in this collection. It's also sad that Chilton and his bandmates got almost no money and little respect for their fine work -- they COULD play up to the standards of the fine Memphis studio musicians who did the backgrounds on these records.
Here's one telling of Chilton's story:
Alex Chilton: A brief history of rock and roll's influential "high priest"

Weather: RAIN! On top of lotsa snow -- get home early and STAY there before the roads freeze tonight.
BTW --- the snowpack is still below average -- so sayeth the Weather Bureau. Rain isn't going to help, unless it stays snowy in the upper altitudes.

Wildlife: The deer scrounge day and night. The two eagles frequent the open water, but I haven't seen them catch anything yet.

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

At the College: Power Point use is more and more frequent. We are hustling data projectors around on wheeled carts, and also installing them in classrooms. Many visitors are bringing their own, and one of these broke down last night -- luckily we had a spare! Data projectors are also fairly good for showing movies on larger screens -- just run a video output from the in-class VCR/DVD player into the projector, select Video One, and ya' gotta show! Prof. Gerda Reeb showed Himalaya last night for the Intercultural Club (Global Friends) by using this method.
Here's some info about the flick:
HIMALAYA, a film by Eric Valli

Media Watch: FVCC Current Events didn't show on Cable Channel Nine today -- maybe tomorrow. Carolyn G. Heilbrun's collection of essays: HAMLET'S MOTHER AND OTHER WOMEN is really fine. Thanks Prof. Kabler!
I snoozed during NPR news, and saw a little of political comedian Bill Maher on Larry King (ruefully laughing a bit) before I started reading. One story Heilbrun alluded to was Sylvia Beach's publishing of James Joyce's Ulysses.
Want a virtual tour of her bookstore, Shakespeare & Co. in Paris?:
Shakespeare and Company - Virtual Tour by Robert Jeantet
How about hearing the voice of Virgina Woolf? One essay by Heilbrun compared her works with those of James Joyce.
The Hours - Virginia Woolf - at CTF

Weather: Threats of heavy snow -- hasn't quite happened yet, but we've added to our total levels of white stuff anyway. At least it's not worth your life to drive at a given moment. CORRECTION -- Just fifteen miles north of where I live, they had 30 inches of blowing snow, and US Highway 2 was closed all night!

Wildlife: I wonder what those two eagles are eating? They're hanging around the aereation pond in our lake, so it might be fish. At night the deer use Middle Foy's Lake as a highway, it's frozen everywhere except for that one spot.

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

At the College: Christy Kabler, our literature professor, gave me a book of essays by Carolyn G. Heilbrun called HAMLET'S MOTHER AND OTHER WOMEN. I sent her the URL of this blog -- email me if you read this, please!
I'm back on cable TV! The "FVCC Current Events" tape was recorded and edited in less than a week. I'll get it down to Bresnan Communications after work.

Other Projects: Improved the John White Lecture Series page for the NW Montana Historical Society website:
The M -- Your Museum and More!
I've also updated the Hockaday Art Museum's site after a frantic New Year there (more to come):
Current Exhibits at the Hockaday Museum

Media Alert: Watched an interview with the late Ann Miller on TCM last night -- very good tap dancer, with a big ol' grin, from Hollywood's "Golden Age." Turner Classic Movies also showed a few of her movies -- she was "Too Darn Hot" in Kiss Me Kate for sure! It was great seeing clips of choreographer Bob Fosse in that film, and hearing her point of view about his early career as well.
New Hampshire Primary -- Saw a couple of speeches, heard a few pundits.
The horses are leaving the gate -- THEY'RE OFF!

Weather: No, we never set out to Missoula -- the weather was awful here, and worse down there. The roads have been icy, and the snow keeps falling. Our driveway will be dug out this morning, but there's more storms on the way. We are also beginning to develop ice dams over our frozen-full rain gutters. Will de-icer on the eaves help any?

Wildlife: I think that the big raptor who's haunting our bird feeders is a Red-tailed Hawk. The Bald Eagles are flying over the neighborhood, and hanging out in their dead tree across the lake. The deer are hungry and stressed in the deep snow.

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

Media Watch: Lawrence Olivier's version of Henry V from 1944 -- this time I recorded the whole thing! My favorite scenes still feature Robert Newton's over-the-top "Pistol" character. (See the archive for my previous words on these subjects.)
Arrrrr, Matey! Website Ahoy!: Robert Newton (1905-1956)

I read a book over the weekend: Serious Music - and All That Jazz! by Henry Pleasants (1910-2000), published in 1969. Quoting from the International Herald Tribune's web site:
Mr. Pleasants, the longtime London music critic for the International Herald Tribune, was perhaps best known for his 1955 book ''The Agony of Modern Music,'' a polemical attack on the direction taken by much of 20th-century serious music, and an argument in favor of jazz and other vernacular styles as the true music of the time, both as entertainment and as art. He developed this theme in other books, ''Death of a Music?: The Decline of the European Tradition and the Rise of Jazz'' (1961) and (my book). Beginning in 1967, he was the London music critic for the International Herald Tribune.
The author stops listing names and examples from sometime in 1967, so I think it took him over a year to publish it. (More about the content later.)
Coincidentally, I also bought a couple of CDs which were originally recorded in the very interesting time between the writing and publishing of Mr. Pleasants' book: Al Kooper and Michael Bloomfied's Super Session (Remixed) and Live at the Fillmore East. The latter's importance is Johnny Winter's first appearence in New York City as a guest. Kooper admits admits to having a bad night in the album notes, and apologizes for the mismatch between the bassist and drummer. Bloomfield plays wonderfully and vocalizes quite well -- I wish that some of the second night of their gig, with B.B. King, was released too.
It's a nice thing that all those hums and buzzes from the original masters are able to be digitally removed.
It's very sad that Michael Bloomfield's quality recordings were so few in number, but I'm glad that his family and musical partners are keeping his memory alive. The Official Mike Bloomfield Web Site

Speaking of older Pop music, I also watched several Bands Reunited on VH1, in whole or part. "Berlin" was the best -- Terry Nunn still sings those songs regularly, and the original musicians seem to possess most of their chops. "Frankie Goes to Hollywood" achieved a speaking-terms reunion, but Holly Johnson seemed to have his reasons for not performing again. He might be correct in his choice -- I liked some aspects of "Flock of Seagulls'" reunion performance, but the singing was ROUGH, 'though it gradually became tolerable. (Maybe Holly Johnson wanted his fans to remember his best moments.)