Been awhile -- been busy!
Weather: First snowfall over this weekend. We are supposed to be getting a new roof -- hmmmm.
Wildlife: Bald Eagle hunting over Middle Foy's Lake. Snow Goose migrating with the Canadian Honkers. Huge rooster Pheasants grazing in the front and back yards.
Charity Alert: The Animal Rescue Site : Feed an Animal in Need
The One Book Montana Project:
Some Thoughts on James Welch's Fools Crow
By Michael Evans (mevans@fvcc.edu)
My apologies for having another appointment this evening, but I wanted to contribute a little something to the "One Book Montana" discussion anyway, so I'm writing down a few impressions from my reading of Fool's Crow.
(I was having FUN! I saw Repertory Dance Theater on tour that night and met my ol' friend Linda C. Smith again. Repertory Dance Theatre)
While dealing with the first chapter I realized that I would have to identify people and places by names which were short phrases instead of proper nouns. I was skeptical, but got used to the trick well enough to employ it as an aid to accepting a story about 1870's Montana from the point of view of the Blackfeet (Pikuni), as personified in the protagonist, White Man's Dog/Fools Crow.
Welch was immediately successful in depicting his Lone Eaters band of Pikuni as human beings, with their own recognizable needs and desires, and a particular way of life that unfolded in the first of many journeys in the book. By the end of this initial journey, our young, ill-favored protagonist establishes himself within the hierarchy of his band. It is an archetypical tale, with antecedents in many cultures, and his progress in taking on the responsibilities of manhood with attendant joys and disappointments is well-structured.
Since the Blackfeet were hunters and gatherers, the many journeys of Welch's characters are a reasonable method of painting the scenes in which the historical, fictional, and even fantastic action takes place. Welch's word-painting resembles watercolors done with broad brushstrokes -- there are a few key details, but the work derives its overall color from a limited palette, and distant impressions, rather than clear portraits, seem to characterize this novel for me.
To Welch's credit, he did not impose too much obvious meaning onto his narraratives. My forbearers, the Napikwans, or white men, are pictured as ruthless, violent, pushy, and uncaring -- indeed, many Whites behaved in those ways towards native people, especially after the Civil War. Fools Crow's band, as buffalo hunters, would be doomed to conflict with ranchers and town-builders. Other Blackfeet coped with traders from the east to some extent, but this book tells little about them.
Native Americans from other nations are named largely by insults, and they are either targets of the Blackfeet's mischief or wrath. The initial defining episodes of the book involve two attacks on the Crow tribe in central Montana. The first raid, where our protagonist wins patriarchal acceptance by the Lone Eaters, involves the theft of a substantial herd of horses, and the murder of hapless Crow guards. Cruel, but somewhat understandable retribution by the Crow's chief, considering losses which threaten his people's well-being, provokes a bigger attack by a confederation of Blackfeet bands, whereby White Man's Dog earns the name Fools Crow in battle. The ruinous stupidity of such gang-like behavior, while ignoring the threat of foreign invaders, who are hostile to everything the native people know, is left up to the reader to perceive.
The fragility of the Plains Indian's way of life is brought into relief during one of our protagonist's early journeys, while he's visiting the remnants of Little Dog's band -- a chief assassinated by his own people for being over-accommodating to the demands of U.S. soldiers.
Look around you...do you see many of our young men? No, they are off hunting for themselves, or drunk with the white men's water, or stealing their horses. They do not bring anything back to their people. There is no center here. That's why we have become such a pitiful sight to you.
Welch does not mention the fact that horses and guns were fairly recent additions to the lives of native people on the Great Plains. These tools made living off of buffalo herds much easier, but they were not as traditional as the context of the book might make them appear. The possession of them exacerbated rivalry and warfare, and the desire for more of them became ends in themselves. I personally believe that the free-roaming buffalo would have become extinct in another generation or two, without the extreme hastening effects of the railroad, and westward expansion of European immigrants -- who supplied guns and horses in the first place.
Fools Crow's resolution is only implied -- surrender to the power of the encroaching Whites, with survival of the Blackfeet's children as a tangible, but ill-defined goal. It is masked in spiritual visions, and awkward accommodating speech. Resignation to this degree must have been a painful experience to all members of a once-independent people, but their livelihood was outright doomed. How they survived the terrors of starvation, disease, and continuing hostility (disguised as neglect) by U. S. authorities is another subject, though.
In the Community: Real mellow opening reception at the Hockaday -- Hockaday Museum of Art - Prime visual arts resource in Flathead Valley of Northwest Montana.
More to tell later -- for now, read about this fine organization: The Working Group
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
Monday, October 11, 2004
I've been away from the Blog-O-Sphere since I lost my rant&rave about Africa and literature TWICE! Trust me, it was a good essay -- maybe I'll reconstruct it sometime, but not today.
Charity Alert: The Hunger Site : Give Food for Free to Hungry People in the World
Weather: A very mild Autumn in the Flathead Valley this year -- maybe a little too much rain for the wheat farmers though.
Wildlife: Deer, deer, and more deer -- I'm glad that our gardens are behind fences. The bucks still have their antlers.
In the Community: I'm running a data projector for a new PBS documentary about our area called The Fire Next Time. It is produced by a company called "The Working Group" out of Oakland, California.
From PBS' Not In Our Town Project.
I'll be at the Liberty Theater in Kalispell all Wednesday afternoon and evening, then in Columbia Falls at their Community Center, 235 Nucleus Avenue, from 5 P.M. onward.
Besides that, we are hosting an opening at the Hockaday Museum of Art on October 14 from 5:30 to 7:30 P.M. Hockaday Museum of Art - Prime visual arts resource in Flathead Valley of Northwest Montana.
Also on the night of Oct. 14 -- Harmonica wizard Norton Buffalo with slide guitarist Roy Rodgers -- I'm not sure I'll make it, but I'd like to be there!
Media Watch: The Devil Bat (1945) with Bella Lugosi on TCM last night! We taped a Josephine Baker movie from 1935 (Princess Tam Tam -- French with English sub-titles) The dance sequences had riffs overtly stolen from Busby Berkeley, but that's alright!
Debates? What debates? Just tune in to JibJab.com for all the dirt they REALLY want to throw.
Charity Alert: The Hunger Site : Give Food for Free to Hungry People in the World
Weather: A very mild Autumn in the Flathead Valley this year -- maybe a little too much rain for the wheat farmers though.
Wildlife: Deer, deer, and more deer -- I'm glad that our gardens are behind fences. The bucks still have their antlers.
In the Community: I'm running a data projector for a new PBS documentary about our area called The Fire Next Time. It is produced by a company called "The Working Group" out of Oakland, California.
From PBS' Not In Our Town Project.
I'll be at the Liberty Theater in Kalispell all Wednesday afternoon and evening, then in Columbia Falls at their Community Center, 235 Nucleus Avenue, from 5 P.M. onward.
Besides that, we are hosting an opening at the Hockaday Museum of Art on October 14 from 5:30 to 7:30 P.M. Hockaday Museum of Art - Prime visual arts resource in Flathead Valley of Northwest Montana.
Also on the night of Oct. 14 -- Harmonica wizard Norton Buffalo with slide guitarist Roy Rodgers -- I'm not sure I'll make it, but I'd like to be there!
Media Watch: The Devil Bat (1945) with Bella Lugosi on TCM last night! We taped a Josephine Baker movie from 1935 (Princess Tam Tam -- French with English sub-titles) The dance sequences had riffs overtly stolen from Busby Berkeley, but that's alright!
Debates? What debates? Just tune in to JibJab.com for all the dirt they REALLY want to throw.
Friday, September 17, 2004
Charity Alert: The Rainforest Site: Help Save Our Rainforests!
Weather: Ragged blue to slate gray skies all week!
Wildlife: The two tiny deer grazed by our bedroom window, and brought their mom with them.
Overheard on Campus: We were getting drunk, and I called her a bitch and she called me a whore, and we haven't been on the best of terms since then. Hmmm - makes sense.
Weather: Ragged blue to slate gray skies all week!
Wildlife: The two tiny deer grazed by our bedroom window, and brought their mom with them.
Overheard on Campus: We were getting drunk, and I called her a bitch and she called me a whore, and we haven't been on the best of terms since then. Hmmm - makes sense.
Monday, September 13, 2004
Weather: Damn house is NEVER gonna get painted with all this rain.
Wildlife: Two extremely small baby Whitetail Deer were grazing just off the back deck the other morning. We thought they might be dogs at first.
Charity Alert: The Animal Rescue Site : Feed an Animal in Need
In the Community: We got free passes for a valley-wide home show. It was fun! I'll tell you that the Habitat For Humanity house had a floor plan that was equal to other, more expensive, homes and better than some others. There's a dichotomy here in this under-regulated area between poorly-planned housing developments and poorly-planned mansions in the woods. Poor planning will bite all property owners no matter how much money they might have had before they bought their houses.
Media Watch: The very talented Urmila Matondkar in Ek Haseena Thi, co-starring with Saif Ali Khan. It was a Bollywood crime movie, with a slow start and a belabored, crappy ending, but the acting was very good. Fan sites for Bollywood actors can be obsessional or stupid, but these are somewhat informative --
Urmila Matondkar - Actress
Urmila Matondkar - OK fan site
Yet another book about the Roman Empire -- it's a textbook actually, that I bought at a garage sale -- fairly linear and straightforward, with much-appreciated paragraphs about original sources. I find myself reading more about the Caesars and gradual disintegration of the Hellenistic civilization in my middle age than I read about the rise of the empire when I was young.
The author emphasized the historical mystery of what caused the Roman Empire to fall. I wonder why it was so strong for so long a time. Most of what we read today are stories of treachery within and conflicts without.
This particular author points to the half-century between the ruin of the Severan Dynasty (AD 235) and the reorganization of the empire by Diocletan (AD 284) as a critical period where the abovementioned forces became such a part of the Mediterranean world's existence that the temporary recoveries of Diocletian and Constantine did little or nothing to reverse the depopulation, thieving, invasions, and civil warfare which marked those times.
One thing that supports his point is the degradation of sculpture that shows in the examples of the portrait busts from Marcus Aurelius (circa AD 170) to Caracalla (AD 211) to Constantine (AD 324). Elegance and surity of craft gradually disappears -- quite a few art historians solemnly declare the Arch of Constantine to be proof that the ancient world itself had passed away by the early 4th Century A.D.
(They may be exaggerating, and the author of this book disagrees with them.)
I personally see the actual extinction of the craftspeople and artists who made the great classical monuments from these examples. Their skills were lost in Europe until they were painstakingly re-created the 15th Century A.D.
The author also wrote about the negative effect of wealthy upper classes in the Imperium literally bribing their way out of contributing to public needs or services, and shifting the burden to the general public -- ruining whatever middle classes were in existence.
I have a sinking feeling about today's society as our government takes on the supposedly-discredited folly of empire, and an all-too-similar class war occurs right now. It's dangerous to draw parallels with modern problems and the Roman world, but basic math works in this case, or any other case in history.
My opinion of Severus and his progeny is that they were active contributors to every problem that afflicted the long-suffering people of the empire. Severus showed up as a strongman after the assassination of Commodus, but subjected the Mediterranean to warfare without relief -- primarily to maintain his own power.
(There are African-American scholars who hold up Lucius Septimius Severus as an example of an ancient African of distinction -- I'm not sure of his race, or if that even means anything, but he WAS from North Africa.)
Those scholars who point to the death of Marcus Aurelius (last of the "Good Emperors" and Commodus' father) in AD 180 as the beginning of the empire's decline might just be the most correct, but it took almost 300 more years before total collapse ensued in the west -- meaning that short-lived, brutal German kingdoms finally took over the map of Europe. Ignorance, superstition, misery, poverty, and chaos became the way of life, and we call those times "Dark Ages" with good reason. My ancestors sure made a botch of things, despite the ugly things written about the Romans and their heirs.
The Roman Empire
AFTERTHOUGHTS: When I was a teenager I read the novel Julian by Gore Vidal. It was a best-seller at the time, and painted a vivid portrait of the late empire in middle-brow prose. Looking back, I see Vidal's picture of the 4th Century as a mirror-image of his own privileged society in the 20th Century, but he's not the only one to project his world onto the lost Roman world! Others include General Lew Wallace, the Durant brothers, Robert Graves, Lloyd C. Douglas, and innumerable bathrobes-and-slippers movie-makers like C.B. DeMille, Delmer Daves (Demetrius & the Gladiators with fabulous Julie Newmar dancing the "timeless hoochie-koo"), and even Ridley Scott, who should have known better. (At least Russell Crowe became a star as a result of Scott's morbid fantasy Gladiator.)
Wildlife: Two extremely small baby Whitetail Deer were grazing just off the back deck the other morning. We thought they might be dogs at first.
Charity Alert: The Animal Rescue Site : Feed an Animal in Need
In the Community: We got free passes for a valley-wide home show. It was fun! I'll tell you that the Habitat For Humanity house had a floor plan that was equal to other, more expensive, homes and better than some others. There's a dichotomy here in this under-regulated area between poorly-planned housing developments and poorly-planned mansions in the woods. Poor planning will bite all property owners no matter how much money they might have had before they bought their houses.
Media Watch: The very talented Urmila Matondkar in Ek Haseena Thi, co-starring with Saif Ali Khan. It was a Bollywood crime movie, with a slow start and a belabored, crappy ending, but the acting was very good. Fan sites for Bollywood actors can be obsessional or stupid, but these are somewhat informative --
Urmila Matondkar - Actress
Urmila Matondkar - OK fan site
Yet another book about the Roman Empire -- it's a textbook actually, that I bought at a garage sale -- fairly linear and straightforward, with much-appreciated paragraphs about original sources. I find myself reading more about the Caesars and gradual disintegration of the Hellenistic civilization in my middle age than I read about the rise of the empire when I was young.
The author emphasized the historical mystery of what caused the Roman Empire to fall. I wonder why it was so strong for so long a time. Most of what we read today are stories of treachery within and conflicts without.
This particular author points to the half-century between the ruin of the Severan Dynasty (AD 235) and the reorganization of the empire by Diocletan (AD 284) as a critical period where the abovementioned forces became such a part of the Mediterranean world's existence that the temporary recoveries of Diocletian and Constantine did little or nothing to reverse the depopulation, thieving, invasions, and civil warfare which marked those times.
One thing that supports his point is the degradation of sculpture that shows in the examples of the portrait busts from Marcus Aurelius (circa AD 170) to Caracalla (AD 211) to Constantine (AD 324). Elegance and surity of craft gradually disappears -- quite a few art historians solemnly declare the Arch of Constantine to be proof that the ancient world itself had passed away by the early 4th Century A.D.
(They may be exaggerating, and the author of this book disagrees with them.)
I personally see the actual extinction of the craftspeople and artists who made the great classical monuments from these examples. Their skills were lost in Europe until they were painstakingly re-created the 15th Century A.D.
The author also wrote about the negative effect of wealthy upper classes in the Imperium literally bribing their way out of contributing to public needs or services, and shifting the burden to the general public -- ruining whatever middle classes were in existence.
I have a sinking feeling about today's society as our government takes on the supposedly-discredited folly of empire, and an all-too-similar class war occurs right now. It's dangerous to draw parallels with modern problems and the Roman world, but basic math works in this case, or any other case in history.
My opinion of Severus and his progeny is that they were active contributors to every problem that afflicted the long-suffering people of the empire. Severus showed up as a strongman after the assassination of Commodus, but subjected the Mediterranean to warfare without relief -- primarily to maintain his own power.
(There are African-American scholars who hold up Lucius Septimius Severus as an example of an ancient African of distinction -- I'm not sure of his race, or if that even means anything, but he WAS from North Africa.)
Those scholars who point to the death of Marcus Aurelius (last of the "Good Emperors" and Commodus' father) in AD 180 as the beginning of the empire's decline might just be the most correct, but it took almost 300 more years before total collapse ensued in the west -- meaning that short-lived, brutal German kingdoms finally took over the map of Europe. Ignorance, superstition, misery, poverty, and chaos became the way of life, and we call those times "Dark Ages" with good reason. My ancestors sure made a botch of things, despite the ugly things written about the Romans and their heirs.
The Roman Empire
AFTERTHOUGHTS: When I was a teenager I read the novel Julian by Gore Vidal. It was a best-seller at the time, and painted a vivid portrait of the late empire in middle-brow prose. Looking back, I see Vidal's picture of the 4th Century as a mirror-image of his own privileged society in the 20th Century, but he's not the only one to project his world onto the lost Roman world! Others include General Lew Wallace, the Durant brothers, Robert Graves, Lloyd C. Douglas, and innumerable bathrobes-and-slippers movie-makers like C.B. DeMille, Delmer Daves (Demetrius & the Gladiators with fabulous Julie Newmar dancing the "timeless hoochie-koo"), and even Ridley Scott, who should have known better. (At least Russell Crowe became a star as a result of Scott's morbid fantasy Gladiator.)
Friday, September 10, 2004
Charity Alert: One-click wonder -- The Hunger Site : Give Food for Free to Hungry People in the World
Weather: Perfect Autumn days, too bad it's only early September. It gets cold too early here in NW Montana.
Wildlife: The Redwing Blackbirds are gathering in flocks of three dozen or more.
In the Community: I found myself at the Museum at Central School when news photographer Karen Nichols was given this tip: Honoring the more than 1,000 American military men and women who have died in the Iraq war, a group of about 20 Flathead Valley residents gathered at Depot Park on Thursday evening to reflect on and pray for the dead soldiers and their families. Candlelight vigils were held across the country Thursday evening to remember the dead. From left are Dianne Grove, Peggy Casey, Marion Gerrish, Lynn Stanley, Andy Shirtliff, Pauline Sjordal and Donna Harrison. According to the Associated Press, an estimated 10,000 to 30,000 Iraqis have been killed since the United States invaded in March 2003.
The Daily Internet: The Daily Inter Lake Newspaper, Kalispell, Montana
Media Watch: The movie Lagaan, Once Upon A Time In India is a good melodrama, but the intermission sure was welcome. It was nominated for a Foreign Language Academy Award in 2002 -- along with "Amélie" from France, "Elling" from Norway, "No Man's Land" from Bosnia & Herzegovina (the winner), and "Son of the Bride" from Argentina. Lagaan's web site
MTV Video Music Awards rerun -- a pretty dull show this year, especially in the wake of this same company's embarassingly lousy job at the Super Bowl. I heard the name Christina Aguilera and held my thumb off the remote. I like to hear her sing. She did a full-production duet with rapper Nelly that was dazzling! Nelly was out of his class, but since he has none, I guess it didn't matter so much. Here's her official website. (There's plenty of unofficial sites out there too with tacky pictures and stuff. I guess that talent alone is not enough.) CHRISTINA AGUILERA
Weather: Perfect Autumn days, too bad it's only early September. It gets cold too early here in NW Montana.
Wildlife: The Redwing Blackbirds are gathering in flocks of three dozen or more.
In the Community: I found myself at the Museum at Central School when news photographer Karen Nichols was given this tip: Honoring the more than 1,000 American military men and women who have died in the Iraq war, a group of about 20 Flathead Valley residents gathered at Depot Park on Thursday evening to reflect on and pray for the dead soldiers and their families. Candlelight vigils were held across the country Thursday evening to remember the dead. From left are Dianne Grove, Peggy Casey, Marion Gerrish, Lynn Stanley, Andy Shirtliff, Pauline Sjordal and Donna Harrison. According to the Associated Press, an estimated 10,000 to 30,000 Iraqis have been killed since the United States invaded in March 2003.
The Daily Internet: The Daily Inter Lake Newspaper, Kalispell, Montana
Media Watch: The movie Lagaan, Once Upon A Time In India is a good melodrama, but the intermission sure was welcome. It was nominated for a Foreign Language Academy Award in 2002 -- along with "Amélie" from France, "Elling" from Norway, "No Man's Land" from Bosnia & Herzegovina (the winner), and "Son of the Bride" from Argentina. Lagaan's web site
MTV Video Music Awards rerun -- a pretty dull show this year, especially in the wake of this same company's embarassingly lousy job at the Super Bowl. I heard the name Christina Aguilera and held my thumb off the remote. I like to hear her sing. She did a full-production duet with rapper Nelly that was dazzling! Nelly was out of his class, but since he has none, I guess it didn't matter so much. Here's her official website. (There's plenty of unofficial sites out there too with tacky pictures and stuff. I guess that talent alone is not enough.) CHRISTINA AGUILERA
Thursday, September 09, 2004
Wildlife: Muskrats are becoming active on the lake in the evening as Autumn develops.
Charity Alert: The Breast Cancer Site
Weather: Cool in the morning, but sunny all day.
Media Watch: This bloody blogger site wasn't working very well yesterday, and I was fearful of losing my post about Oriana Fallaci's book, but it was still in the "Edit Posts" section today, and I got it uploaded at last.
More about current shadows from Fallaci's Interviews with History -- I finished reading it last night...
Tragically-flawed Ali Bhutto raised a remarkable daughter -- Benazir Bhutto, who became Prime Minister of Pakistan twice. Benazir Bhutto
That country's history has many dark rooms -- Ali Bhutto's execution was just one of them. Their sponsorship of the Taliban is another, but their part in nuclear proliferation may be the darkest yet. As far as the REAL war on terrorism is concerned, many of our worst enemies and best friends live within the borders of Pakistan.
Mohammed Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, preceded Ayatollah Khomeni into the fires of Hell by almost a decade. His son claims to have no desire for the Peacock Throne, and I hope he's not a sociopathic liar like his old man was. Reza Pahlavi....
Today, the government of Iran is scrambling to aquire nuclear weapons to avert an invasion by U.S. forces, or to take horrible revenge if the Bush administration initiates that madness.
NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT -- VH1 Bands Reunited tried to perform that trick with ABC, one of the most successful English "New Wave" groups. Since only two of the four guys showed up for the reunion chat, VH1 had some ace studio musicians fill-in for the missing members in a not-too-bad performance of their hits. Luckily, Martin Fry -- lead singer/songwriter, and owner of the ABC name was one of the members on board.
VH1.com : Shows : Bands Reunited : Main Page
We watched the first half of Lagaan: Once Upon A Time in India -- one of the most accessible Bollywood hit movies for "Westerners." It's a melodrama for sure, stocked with all sorts of stereotypes, including some real bastard British officers, but it's done very well. Aamir Khan is the male lead, and also the producer. Lagaan's web site
Charity Alert: The Breast Cancer Site
Weather: Cool in the morning, but sunny all day.
Media Watch: This bloody blogger site wasn't working very well yesterday, and I was fearful of losing my post about Oriana Fallaci's book, but it was still in the "Edit Posts" section today, and I got it uploaded at last.
More about current shadows from Fallaci's Interviews with History -- I finished reading it last night...
Tragically-flawed Ali Bhutto raised a remarkable daughter -- Benazir Bhutto, who became Prime Minister of Pakistan twice. Benazir Bhutto
That country's history has many dark rooms -- Ali Bhutto's execution was just one of them. Their sponsorship of the Taliban is another, but their part in nuclear proliferation may be the darkest yet. As far as the REAL war on terrorism is concerned, many of our worst enemies and best friends live within the borders of Pakistan.
Mohammed Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, preceded Ayatollah Khomeni into the fires of Hell by almost a decade. His son claims to have no desire for the Peacock Throne, and I hope he's not a sociopathic liar like his old man was. Reza Pahlavi....
Today, the government of Iran is scrambling to aquire nuclear weapons to avert an invasion by U.S. forces, or to take horrible revenge if the Bush administration initiates that madness.
NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT -- VH1 Bands Reunited tried to perform that trick with ABC, one of the most successful English "New Wave" groups. Since only two of the four guys showed up for the reunion chat, VH1 had some ace studio musicians fill-in for the missing members in a not-too-bad performance of their hits. Luckily, Martin Fry -- lead singer/songwriter, and owner of the ABC name was one of the members on board.
VH1.com : Shows : Bands Reunited : Main Page
We watched the first half of Lagaan: Once Upon A Time in India -- one of the most accessible Bollywood hit movies for "Westerners." It's a melodrama for sure, stocked with all sorts of stereotypes, including some real bastard British officers, but it's done very well. Aamir Khan is the male lead, and also the producer. Lagaan's web site
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