More Friday Family Blogging

It's been awhile since I posted some pictures of little Emma, so let's rectify that situation. Above you see Emma working on an ice cream cone from the bottom up. Below, she's striking a chic pose, the better to show off her jewelry.

Friday Family Blogging

I recently came across this photo of Dad working his lathe out in the workshop, and realized how much I missed this formerly common scene in the years since he passed away. I wish I knew what it was he was turning; maybe a piece for a toy for one of the grandkids, or a replacement part for some broken piece of furniture. He certainly was a master craftsman.

Friday Philosophy

Rene Descartes (1596-1650) may be the most famous philosopher since the classical age, largely for the sentiment expressed in the middle of the following quote. I thought you might like to see it the slightly broader context through which it was originally expressed (allowing for the fact that even this passage was a segment of a much longer work):

"I observed that, whilst I thus wished to think
that all was false, it was absolutely necessary
that I, who thus thought, should be somewhat;
and as I observed that this truth, I think, hence
I am was so certain and of such evidence, that
no ground of doubt, however extravagant,
could be alleged by the sceptics capable of
shaking it, I concluded that I might, without
scruple, accept it as the first principle of the
philosophy of which I am in search."

Funny Clip

I'm a big fan of the movie Christmas Story (you know, the one where little Ralphie wants a Red Ryder BB Gun) based on the reminisces of radio personality Jean Shepherd. I always wondered why there was no sequel, but apparently there was. Here's a clip from Ollie Hopnoodles Haven of Bliss, in which the family evidently is enjoying their summer vacation. I'll have to look and see if I can find the whole thing on DVD, but in the meantime, I hope you enjoy this snippet as much as I did:

Funny Article

I remember in graduate school hearing various campus legends about things that had happened on those, no doubt rare, occasions when our esteemed professors had perhaps imbibed a bit too many spirits and proceeded to conduct business in their inebriated state. I'm guessing such stories are common on virtually every large campus, and maybe the small ones too. Anyway, this story from The Onion, is a very funny take on how such a story might play out.

Historical Comment

Back in 1856, the country was deeply embroiled in the slavery question. The issue had exploded into violence in Kansas as emigrants to that territory competed to determine whether it would eventually enter the union as a slave or free state, resulting in multiple murders, assaults, the burning of towns and homes, and other wanton destruction. As the violence threatened to completely spin out of control, Senator Charles Sumner of New York stood up in Congress one day and made a speech denouncing the violence and holding pro-slavery forces largely responsible for the carnage. The next day, Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina entered the Senate chamber, walked up to Sumner, and proceeded to beat him mercilessly about the head with a cane. Sumner was rendered an invalid for the next several years (though he would re-emerge as a leading proponent of African-American rights during the post Civil War Reconstruction period). Within days, Brooks was inundated with gifts from his constituents-- replacements for the cane he broke as he pummeled his Congressional counterpart.

Twenty odd years before that, John C. Calhoun of South Carolina allowed a personal beef with President Andrew Jackson to escalate to the point where he nearly caused his state to secede from the union, compelling Jackson to send troops to the border to stop them. Luckily cooler heads prevailed and a compromise in Congress allowed the Civil War to be put off for another quarter century.

Oh yeah, and by the way, it was South Carolina hotheads who decided Abraham Lincoln's removal of federal troops from on-shore installations to an island near Charleston Harbor was not a good enough sign of his desire for peace, and so shelled Fort Sumner, irretrievably dragging the entire nation into Civil War.

Rep. Joe Wilson's idiotic (and, what a surprise, erroneous) outburst during President Obama's speech last night certainly doesn't sink to the depths of these earlier instances, but it does make me wonder: what is the deal with South Carolinians and the apparent inability of so many of their leaders to behave like adults?

Quote of the Day

William Morris (1836-1896) was a renowned English critic and cultural commentator in his day. Here's a statement that bears repeating and thinking about:

"If you want a golden rule that will
fit everybody, this is it: Have nothing
in your home that you do not know
to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."

Sir Douglas Quintet do the Kinks

I first discovered the Sir Douglas Quintet around the time their Border Wave album came out in 1980 (though they'd been around for about fifteen years by that point). Here's the first cut off that album performed live on Austin City Limits, a remake of the Kinks Klassic (you always have to throw in some extra "K's" when you write about the Kinks), "Who'll Be the Next in Line:"

Today's Quote

Honore Gabriel Riquetti, Comte de Mirabeau was a French statesman during the period of the French Revolution. I think this statement remains relevant today:

"The freedom of conscience is a
right so sacred that even the
name of tolerance involves a
species of tyranny"

If I Were in Buffalo, I'd Go See This...

This weekend, the Burchfield-Penney Art Center in Buffalo will be hosting a couple of screenings of a documentary called The Guest of Cindy Sherman, introduced by Paul H-O, the guy who made it. You can find more information about the film here. Cindy Sherman is one of the founders of the Hallwalls Gallery, and one of the most fascinating contemporary artists out there, working primarily in photography. I know that if I were back east I'd be attending one of the screenings, and I'm hoping that one of my Western New York readers might check it out and send me a review. Somehow I doubt I'll get a chance to see it out here in Montana [sigh].

Endless Summer

I've never surfed, and I doubt I ever will. But I love Bruce Brown's classic surf documentary Endless Summer (1964). I showed it last semester in the honors seminar I co-taught on Sport & Society as an example of a kind of purely aesthetic athleticism that had little to do with competition as we typically think of it. The film follows a couple of young surfers as they travel around the world (literally) looking for the perfect wave. The place where they found it was west of Cape Horn in South Africa, as seen in the following clip. After Labor Day yesterday, another summer is winding down (the thermometer here in Dillon dipped below freezing last night), but watching this might just make you think it goes on, somewhere if not here.

Happy Birthday Helen!

It's a big day for my niece Helen-- the first day of pre-school and her fourth birthday! As usual, I can only celebrate from a distance with a little photo tribute to a kid who is always on the go.

Helen was born a couple months prematurely, and I'm convinced it was because she couldn't wait to start checking things out.

She's always on the go, and can't keep from climbing all over everything...

... even if it's only the rod in a closet:

She does a good job of making friends wherever she goes...

... keeps everyone around her entertained...

... while always having a good time herself.

She's comfortable out in the woods...

... down by the river...

... or playing in the snow.

She's pretty much always has a smile on her face...

... even if it's just because she's wearing big shoes.

When she was born, I played a song on the radio for her, and the only one I could find with the name Helen in it was "Helen Wheels" by Wings, and darned if that didn't prove to be predictive.

I hope you have a lot of fun today, Helen; I wish I could be there to give you a big birthday hug!

Tuesday's Quotation

Today's quotation comes from the eminent French mathematician and physicist Henri Poincare (1854-1912). It seems particularly apt in relation to various debates currently underway in our society:

"Science is facts. Just as houses are made
of stones, so is science made of facts. But a
pile of stones is not a house, and a collection
of facts is not necessarily science."

The Gants

As mentioned earlier, the Gants scored the first upset in the battle of the bands competition I set up for my radio show. It occurred to me that the group is hardly a familiar name, so here's a video of the song that did in Grand Funk. I should add that the way we're playing it, the idea is for the judges to pick the song that makes the most positive immediate impression on hearing them back- to-back. This means that on another night, in another mood, things could've gone the other way. Our goal in setting it up like that is to try and replicate the "sporting" notion that on any given day anything can happen. So here are the Gants-- feel free to comment on whether you think this song is really better than "We're an American Band."

Classic W.C. Fields

Speaking of misanthropic comedy (as I was in the previous post), I was reminded that I haven't posted any W.C. Fields clips in awhile. To rectify that situation, here's a cool sequence from The Bank Dick. Now this is funny stuff.

The Last Movie I Saw

I have to admit that I find Mike Judge an oddly enigmatic talent. Most everything he does revolves around the idea that people are rather stupid, yet it seems to me that he harbors a great deal of affection for his characters, regardless of their almost universal dimness. In short bursts, as in the Beavis and Butthead cartoons that made his reputation, there was no time for the latter tendency to temper the first, resulting in some truly cutting comic gems. In the long form of a feature picture, like the new Extract which I saw this past weekend, these tendencies almost cancel each other out. Instead of a viciously misanthropic black comedy, we get a mostly mundane narrative with a feel-good ending, made only intermittently funny by a couple of inspired performances (Ben Affleck, Dustin Milligan, and especially Gene Simmons-- yes, that Gene Simmons) and set pieces (like the session with Affleck's intimidating drug buddy or the legal negotiations over an employee's workplace injury). I hesitate to say that this makes a bad film-- there's something almost endearing about the way things are appropriately resolved for virtually every character. I guess these traits shouldn't have surprised me, as I felt the same way about Judge's earlier Office Space (I missed Idiocracy, which some have told me is pretty good). But, based on Beavis and Butthead especially, I keep thinking he's got the capacity to produce a really laugh-out-loud darkly hilarious classic, and Extract surely is not that.

Battle of the Bands Update

The Gants (surprise first round victors)

We had our first upset in the Battle of the Bands unfolding on Dr. John's Record Shelf this week. In matchups pairing the number 2 and 15 seeds in the Northeast and Midwest brackets, the Lovin' Spoonful (2) easily knocked off the Fugs, and, from out of nowhere, the Gants (15) toppled Grand Funk Railroad.

The Lovin' Spoonful

Most remarkable about the Gants' upset was that they were pitted against "We're an American Band" by Grand Funk-- which would've seemed practically an automatic advance against virtually any competition. But "I Wonder" by the Gants just struck a chord with two of the judges on this particular evening and so the Gants move on to Round 2 (where they will be represented by a different song). The Spoonful won behind "Summer in the City" while the vanquished Fugs played "Slum Goddess." In addition to Art Vandelay and myself, our third judge was my sister Sally, via the magic of pre-recorded audio technology.

If you are a newcomer to the blog, and want to see the four regional brackets in our little competition, you can find them here, here, here, and here. In earlier action, The Byrds and Creedence Clearwater Revival already advanced. The whole competition will unfold over the next ten months, on my radio show, which can be heard at 90.9 fm if you happen to be in SW Montana.

This Week's Top Five

Here's the Top Five List from last night's episode of Dr. John's Record Shelf. This isn't one of our better efforts, but it's hard to think of stuff to rank week in and week out. Anyway, maybe it'll give you a chuckle:

Labor Day Quote

It seems appropriate, given the holiday, to offer up this statement from Samuel Gompers, founder of the American Federation of Labor:

"What does labor want? We want more schoolhouses

and less jails; more books and less arsenals; more
learning and less vice; more leisure and less greed;
more justice and less revenge; in fact, more of the
opportunities to cultivate our better natures, to
make manhood more noble, womanhood more
beautiful, and childhood more happy and bright."

My New Favorite Band

Just in case you wondered if anyone still makes great rock and roll, let me call your attention to the Skybombers. Loud, fast, a little snotty-- some first rate guitar-based noise. Check it out:

Nice Tribute to a Great Athlete

When I was a kid, the first name that I associated with tennis was Pancho Gonzales. When I started to play the game, my first racket was a Pancho Gonzales signature model, to which I remained loyal through two or three replacements. I don't play much anymore, as my knees started giving out a couple years ago, but I'm often tempted to get out there regardless, especially when I remember that Gonzales was a competitive pro until he was about fifty. Anyway, there was a really nice article in this morning's New York Times on Gonzales as he is being memorialized at the US Open currently underway, and I thought, if you are a fan too, you might want to check it out.

Sunday Funnies

The Katzenjammer Kids was a particular favorite of mine in the Sunday funnies when I was a kid. I was fascinated by the dialect spoken by the characters, and the strange nature of their relationship to one another (for example, I never figured out if the Captain was the father of Hans and Fritz, or who exactly the Inspector was). They also seemed to inhabit a world in some nether region between the past and the present, but mostly removed from any place familiar to me from experience, TV or other strips.

Later I found out that this was one of the oldest, continuously running strip (even more so today), created by Rudolph Dirks back around the turn of the twentieth century. Dirks was apparently lured away to a competing newspaper (it seems to me William Randolph Hearst was involved), but the characters belonged to his former employer. There was a big court battle, and the end result was two strips with the same characters, Dirks being forced to call his The Captain and the Kids, while H.H. Knerr took over the original title. Both ran for many years, and I wonder how many readers who saw both realized they were by different artists (the selections here represent both).

Of course, both Knerr and Dirks were long gone by tht etime I began reading the strip, but little changed in the basic set-up. Hans and Fritz made life miserable for the Captain, the Captain's little pal the Inspector, and more indirectly their Mama. Unlike a lot of other strips though, sometimes the kids got away with it and sometimes they didn't, setting up endless cycles of revenge.

Looking back, I recognize an element of the strip that must have appealed to immigrants to the US. The broad physical, even violent, comedy had counterparts in vaudeville and on radio, and required little in the way of book learning to "get."

There's also something endlessly reassuring about the mischievous kids constantly poking away at the authority figures. It pretty much symbolizes the rebellious streak in the American character. Hence, Hans and Fritz daily demonstrated a strange bond between those seeking to become Americans and those who could trace their heritage back to the Revolution.

But really, the appeal was watching the little guys come out on top, as the Captain was something of a bully to the Kids. What's more American than cheering for the underdog, even if they're a couple of brats?

Sunday Philosophy

Kabir was a 15th century (literally: he was born in 1400 and died in 1499) Hindu philosopher and reformer who apparently commanded the respect of Muslims and Sikhs as well. Here's something he is supposed to have said that still bears consideration today:

"Men have always looked before and after,
and rebelled against the existing order.
But for their divine discontent men would
not have been men, and there would
have been no progress in human affairs."

Heroes of the Small Screen

Back in the seventies, Norman Lear created a somewhat controversial soap opera parody called Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. That program was set in the fictional hamlet of Fernwood, USA, one of whose denizens was the rather nasty Garth Gimble, who had a twin brother named Barth (both were played by Martin Mull). Barth was the host of a locally produced TV talk show in Fernwood called Fernwood 2 Night, which became the summer replacement (remember those?) for Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. On the show, Barth had an announcer/sidekick (ala Ed McMahon on the Tonight Show) named Jerry Hubbard (Fred Willard playing exquisite cluelessness in his inimitible way), and it is Mr. Hubbard I mostly want to celebrate in this space today with the following clips. You may feel free to laugh at the other characters as well, and be sure to also dig the crazy sounds of Happy Kyne and the Mirthmakers::

Soup Diary 090905

A week ago, I lucked out with some soup at a fast food chain, so I thought I'd try again and see if I could get a streak going. No such luck. I had the Broccoli Cheddar (there it was again-- the other choice was, as usual, chicken noodle) at Quizno's in Bozeman, and while it was a reasonable alternative to fries or chips as accompaniment to my sandwich (roast turkey and swiss ranch, which was also so-so), it wasn't any more memorable. My plan was to go back to the Soup Shack, but found myself hungry on the wrong side of town with limited time before catching a movie. Oh well, next time I'll be sure to budget my time better. I have to add that my soup haven of choice, Fables, sure feels far, far away these days.... I've been to five or six different places in the past few weeks, and I have yet to have an option other than chicken noodle/rice, broccoli, tomato or chili. I guess it's time to pull down the old cook book and make my own destiny, eh?

Saturday Morning Cartoon

I can't remember on what show we watched the stable of Terrytoons characters (Mighty Mouse, Deputy Dog, etc.), but I definitely remember they were part of the Saturday morning line-up at some point. So, here's a representative sample, starring the talking magpies Heckle and Jeckle. Enjoy:

Saturday's Words of Wisdom

William O. Douglas (1898-1980) was the longest serving Supreme Court Justice in American history (over 36 years). He was also a renowned advocate of the Bill of Rights, which is evident in this statement:

"Restriction of free thought and free speech
is the most dangerous of all subversions.
It is the one un-American act that
could most easily defeat us."

A Musical Interlude

Here's a cool scene from the classic Howard Hawks motion picture Ball of Fire (1941). Gary Cooper plays a professor collecting examples of modern slang for an encyclopedia; Barbara Stanwyck is the girl singer who volunteers to help. In this scene however, the real stars are Gene Krupa and his band (including Roy Eldridge on trumpet). If you get the chance, check out the rest of the flick:

Friday Family Blogging Quiz

Today's quiz is to identify where the above photo-- with Joseph, Thomas and Ben enjoying an ice cream cone-- was taken. Be as specific as possible. Place your answers in the comments section.

Two weeks ago, I asked you to identify the spot where Dad was shooting some scenic video. It took a little longer than usual, but eventually Sally got it: the picture was taken in Yosemite National Park in California during the trip when Dad and I more or less circumnavigated the country.

Last week, the quiz required you to identify the owner of the feet visible in a picture of Nicky and Natalie. Ben and Raechelle knew they belonged to Sara (Ben's Mom/Raechelle's aunt)-- but Lil Sis (Sara's sister) knew that too, and said it first. Thanks to all who played and good luck with this week's brain teaser!

More Friday Family Blogging

Here's another [slightly] oldie but goodie of Thomas, Scott, Sara and Catie. Is Thomas getting goosed by his mom?

Friday Family Blogging

It's not the highest quality photo (a bit grainy), but I like this shot of Richard and Marenka. Funny, Marenka doesn't look anything like this anymore (well, maybe the smile), but her dad looks pretty much the same ;-)

Quote of the Day

Here's a passage from the English poet Francis Quarles (1592-1644):

"Gaze not on beauty too much, lest it blast

thee; nor too long, lest it blind thee; nor
too near, lest it burn thee; if thou like it,
it deceives thee; if thou love it, it disturbs
thee; if thou lust after it, it destroys thee;
if virtue accompany it, it is the heart's
paradise; if vice associate it, it is the
soul's purgatory; it is the wise man's
bonfire, and the fool's furnace."

Interesting Article

Last month when filmmaker John Hughes died, I didn't post anything because, even though I like many of his films, I didn't have much to add to the numerous eulogies that popped up elsewhere. But today I stumbled across this little essay which I found quite fascinating. It compares the trajectory of the careers of Hughes and the great Preston Sturges, who made a series of classic films in the 1940s. Ironically, they died on the same day, August 6, fifty years apart at virtually the same age. That's just the first common element addressed in the piece, and it goes on from there to recognize some other relevant shared traits. Anyway, if you are interested in film history, or a fan of either filmmaker, you ought to give it a look.

Funny Stuff

Here's some wonderful physical comedy courtesy of George Carl on The Tonight Show, I'm guessing from sometime back in the 1980s. I don't know if Carl is still alive, but if not, there may not be anyone anymore who does this kind of stuff. Luckily we still have clips like this one:

Interesting Article

Matt Taibbi strikes me as one of the few national reporters out there who seems to take the idea of public service through journalism seriously. I see him as working in the tradition of such muckrakers as Lincoln Steffens, George Seldes and I.F. Stone. He has a long article out at Rollingstone.com on the current state of the health care reform effort in Congress, which I think is worth a look.

Quotation for Thursday

Maybe you need to be a historian to fully appreciate the profundity of this remark. On first glance, it's merely witty, as was much of what Mark Twain said and wrote; but if you spend a little time thinking about it, you'll realize just how accurate it is:

"History does not repeat itself,
but it rhymes."

Incredible Guitar Work by Richard Thompson

I think I posted a clip of this song some months ago as performed by Mary Lou Lord (but I'm too lazy at the moment to check). Anyway, here it is again, this time by its composer, Richard Thompson, who many years ago was one of the founding members of Fairport Convention (where I first discovered him), and whose name came up in conversation earlier today with one of my colleagues (prompting this post). I hope you like it.

Remembering Venice

It rained here in Dillon yesterday evening, and for some reason it put me in mind of the rainy day spent last November in Venice. So I pulled out my pictures and thought I might share a few. The first, above, is a shot of the Piazza San Marco looking inland from the waterfront. The cathedral is the ornate building in the right rear.

Above is a back "alley" canal a little ways off from the Piazza San Marco.

This is a display window for a mask shop on some side street we wandered down. I'm not sure why, but masks are really big in Venice.

This vendor was hawking his wares (not too successfully it appears) outside the Duke's palace, which is alongside of the cathedral.

And last, here's another view of the Piazza, this time looking out toward the waterfront, which is just beyond the tall column with the flying lion statue on top. Boy, I hope I get another chance to visit there someday-- and maybe next time it'll be a nice warm and sunny day.

Quote of the Day

This statement is from the work entitled Monarchy, by the Italian poet Dante Alghieri (1265-1321), which was written 700 years ago. Amazing that it retains its relevance....

"Mankind is at its best when it is most free.
This will be clear if we grasp the principle of
liberty. We must recall that the basic principle
is freedom of choice, which saying many have
on their lips but few in their mind."

Classic Beatles Music

I guess if I am going to sing the praises of the Fab Four (as in the previous post), I ought to provide a little musical interlude of their work. Here's part of the scene from the film Let It Be, in which they give their last public performance... on the roof of their Apple Corps. headquarters:

Long Live the Beatles!

I just finished reading the cover story in the latest Rolling Stone on the breakup of the Beatles (which happened forty years ago this year-- though its an odd sort of anniversary to celebrate). It's a good article with at least a couple of details that I didn't know before. Another magazine that I subscribe to, Mojo, seems to have a couple of Beatles related covers every year, and they always take some heat on the letters page from readers who want them to move on. But I have to say that the Beatles phenomenon is hardly limited to those nostalgic for the sixties. You probably have heard that there is an imminent re-release of all their records, remastered and, in some cases, available in stereo for the first time (on cd). Their music is also to be featured in a new version of the popular Guitar Hero video game out shortly.

There appears little decline in the groups popularity, as each generation since their sixties heyday seems to discover them all over again, and fall in love with their music. Their's is the only entire record catalog I can think of that has remained in print continuously from first release to the present, and not only that, none of the records (to my knowledge) have ever been discounted-- that is, they continue to be priced at the prevailing price for new releases. That's an amazing signal of the consistent demand for each of their records over the past nearly five decades. A recent Pew Research Poll shows that the Beatles are popular with every generation under the age of 65, ranking no. 1 with those 50-64, and among the top four in each of the next several generations. That's an incredible testament to their enduring appeal, and speaks indirectly to just how trendsetting-- even ahead of their time-- they were back in the sixties.

I guess what I'm suggesting here is that the Beatles may represent one of the last truly unifying cultural touchstones in our increasingly divided society. There are no TV shows that virtually everyone watches (like Ed Sullivan way back when), no books that virtually everyone reads, no truly national pastime like baseball in the mid-twentieth century. But virtually everyone seems to know, and mostly like, the Beatles, year after year. Fans in the sixties believed that the group was changing the world, and it appears they knew what they were talking about.

Return of the Top Five List

With the new season of Dr. John's Record Shelf (KDWG, 90.9 FM, Sundays from 5 to 7 PM, if you're in the Beaverhead Valley), I am again compiling and broadcasting a weekly Top Five list. For your listening pleasure, here's the one that aired a couple days ago:




Also, you'll find highlights from the music playlist each week in the left column of the blog. Feel free to make requests in the comments.

Tuesday Philosophy

I guess you could argue that the following is somewhat self-serving on the part of Plato (428-348 BC). But I doubt that was his intent; and even if it was, it does not undermine the validity of his point in the least:

"Until philosophers are kings, or the kings and
princes of the world have the spirit and power of
philosophy, and political greatness and wisdom
meet in one, and those commoner natures who
pursue either to the exclusion of the other are
compelled to stand aside, cities will never have
rest from their evils-- no, nor the human race, as
I believe-- and then only will this our State have
a possibility of life and behold the light of day."