Hey, Y'all!    The King was spotted en route to Jacob's Island near Mount Sentinel by the mouth of HellGate Canyon.  What's that you say?  The King is dead?  To that I say, "Hah!" and scoff at that old and dusty rumor.  Besides;  there are many Kings.  For instances there was an Elvis contest in Denver once where there were 1,137 Kings running around with guitars strapped to their backs.  And then we have the King of Sweden, Prussia, an   an  others.   This particular King is kingofhollywood@something?.com.  He was observed chatting with some beautiful maiden who was, no doubt, looking for a talent scout from tinsel town.  Jacob's Island is in the HellGate River,  more commonly, the Clark Fork River as it emerges from Hellgate Canyon by my Ivory Tower alma mater, the dreamy University of Montana.
     There are interesting stories about Hell Gate.  Later.  Here's the Mouth of the Canyon.  During the last Ice Age, when-I-wuz-married, waters from three rivers filled this valley with a HUGE inland Lake which was over a thousand feet deep, because Glacial Ice plugged the waters egress to the Columbia River in Washington State, and on thru the Dalles to Portland. (Some folks theorize the Columbia emptied into Baja Bay before it broke thru the Dalles.)  Anyone who has traveled through Western Washington must have noticed HUGE boulders as big as houses out on the lava flats where they look out of place - because they are.   The Ice "Plug"  in Northwest Montana melted more than once emptying this Glacial Lake Missoula which stretched from Darby, MT up toward the Canadian border.  Around us, here in this valley, we see on the Mountains surrounding us, like Mt. Sentinel and on Mount Jumbo (in the first picture below) the water lines from the waves washing action. (See Glacial Lake Missoula in Wikipedia). 
....

The scene in the first vid below is looking up the Gorge through Hellgate Canyon.  The name comes from the action of Blackfoot Indians blocking the Hellgate and collecting "toll" one way or another, from other Indians wanting to pass through Hellgate.  It was Hell if they didn't pay up.

Now, Here comes the 'kingofhollywood@ something.com.  Here, I was photographing The Bridge, Mt. Sentinal, a Blue Heron or an Osprey and a fellow pilgrim, Jamie.  This Bridge is famous for the beautiful female students that use it.  Why weren't women this gorgeous when I was in High School?  

Brought to you be 'The Scenic Missoula Valley Club' and 'The Bring-Back-the-Sixties-NOW! Club' of which I am a Charter Member.  These local community clubs are expected to double in size soon, (if Jamie Joins)
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        The area around the Old Milwaukee Railroad Station, the area around both ends of Higgins Avenue Bridge and  the Janet Rankin Peace Center is populated by University Students and other enlightened people, some from a generation or two ago.  Yeah.   And everybody knows that Bernice's Bakery is best.  Yup.

Hey!!! Speaking of the 60's, Joan Baez in Concert at the University of Montana Theater on March 24th.  Number One in my private pantheon of Goddesses.    How Sweet it is!!!

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Comming tomorrow:  Beat Cultures decendents,  The Sixties can save us if we get b---s enuf to use the 60"s modality;  Soon.

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   The Sixties:  What it was and Why it is important NOW!

   "The Sixties was a mixture of  cultural and political trends and changes, particularly in the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Brazil, Australia, Italy and Spain. Social and political upheaval was not limited to these countries, but included such nations as Japan, Mexico and many others.  The whole planet was shocking and rocking to changes that "The People" wanted everywhere.  Humans wanted to break the bonds of tradition which limited freedom.  Prejudice against blacks in America, against equality for women in jobs, wages, attitude and a woman's control of her own body (not legislated control) regarding birth control and abortion, against lesbians and gays and Latinos and much more.  In general, just simply "FREEDOM."  The yearning of the Human Spirit to not be oppressed by their government and by the 'culture' of the majority or "those in control."

In the United States, "The Sixties", as they are known in popular culture, is a term used by historians, journalists, and other objective academics; in some cases nostalgically to describe the counter-culture and social revolution; and pejoratively to describe the era as one of irresponsible excess and flamboyance. The decade was also labeled the Swinging Sixties because of the libertine attitudes that emerged during this decade. Rampant drug use has become inextricably associated with the counter-culture of the era.  Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane sang "White Rabbit" in 1969 at WOODSTOCK co-founder Paul Kanter mentions: "If you can remember anything about the sixties, you weren't really there." (some paraphrase from wiki)

The 1960s have become synonymous with all the new, exciting, radical, and subversive events and trends of the period, which continued to develop in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and beyond. In Africa the 1960s was a period of radical political change as 32 countries gained independence from their European colonial rulers.

   Consider this:  Totalitarian control of populations by governments around the world has always been the greatest evil in Human existence throughout history.  (see wiki -Karl Popper).  BUT SOMETHING IS DIFFERENT NOW.  TECHNOLOGY.  What Fascists like Adolph Hitler, Benito Mussolini of Italy, Francisco Franco of Spain, would not have given for the High Technology in the world today.  Mega Police forces everywhere, armed to the teeth, and prisons and jails rapidly growing everywhere, but especially in the United States of America; "Land of the Free and Home of the Brave."  Here in the US we have (in another year)2.5 million people locked up out of a population of 300 million. That's a little less than one percent of the population.  Ho, Ho; but there's more.  How many million more are under direct supervision of the police in the US?    (question; How do you create criminals?)

   How can a government get its citizens to pay more taxes to build more prisons?  The same way governments get Mom and Dad to send their children off to get killed in some other country; FEAR, of course!  Control the news media from tv stations to newspapers and spread fear.  Politicians line up to 'build more prisons than their opponents.'  In these United States, we have increased the number of prison cells by ~500 % in the last 30 years and the population has grown by 34 % in the same period.  What's wrong with this picture.  It is YOUR Damned World: Is it important to you? Why?

 Painting in Butterfly Herbs.

Now let's talk Coffee Beans.  Liberal Coffee? I like it already!

I'll edit that Sixties stuff tomorrow. tired zzzzzzzzz

Missoula's "Spirit of the Sixties"
    The 1960's has been,  and is usually,  referred to as "The 60's Revolution."  And it was.  But it was much more. The era was more like a human awakening.  It was everywhere, and it's still happening, but more quietly now.  Too quietly.

    Sure, it was pushed aside in the later 70's, was battered and bruised in the 80's, was remembered wistfully in the 90's, and had to go underground in first near-decade 2000's.   But the "Spirit of the Sixties" sure as hell never died, and there are millions of us still carrying the Sixties Torch.  We remember "Love" and "The Human Spirit" when People "Dared to Dream," as the goddess Enya sang.  People dared to say the word LOVE right out loud.  Shouted it, in fact.  Love has always been expressed in songs and poems, whispered in intimate moments between lovers and love has always been expressed to children, though not nearly often enough.  Greed and massive corruption have been promotted and accepted by too many as the human norm, and human freedom is in peril.  Totallitarianism is nearly accomplished if people do not wake up NOW.  Anyone remember Karl Popper? (see Wiki)  The next few years may be a defining period for Humanity.  Sustaining Hope for Humanity is so very important;  Hope that Love can survive. 
    Therefore:  Pockets of  "Sixties Underground" right on main street are precious.  Between Helgate High School and the XXXs at the R.R. Depot on Higgins Avenue "THE SPIRIT" is alive and well.  One day, about a year ago, the High School Students suddenly arose as one, picked up signs and posters saying, "STOP THE WAR NOW" and marched peacefully across the River to the XXXs and back to their desks.  I was SO VERY PROUD of them, and told them so.
   This "Spirit of the Sixties" exists in some businesses, like Bernice's Bakery, some art galleries and Bitterroot Herbs.  I'm going to try again tomorrow to capture a bit it the essence there, but till then, here's a vid of the stamped ceiling that I like so much.  (grin)

   "Herbs" is a much bigger subject than this little word seems.

I love people places and things of mystery and romance
Butterfly Herbs on Higgins Avenue is in the center of town.
It is a place of mystery and romance; as a place, because the 'things' in the store, from the herbs, and sundry thingys like translucent little stones, bangles and bobbles and doodads; some funky jewelry, and because of the people that go there and work there.  A piece of the 1960's survives here and it's not subtle, because you can feel it, smell it and taste it.  The coffee beans for sales and the coffee bar.  Jimmy Hendricks is wailing away, my goddesses of the 60's like Joan Baez, Janice Joplin, Grace Slick just sang White Rabbit, Bob Dylan lurks here.  The people who work here have the spirit of optimism, love and, Hey! Smell all those spices.  One gets drunk on nostaligia, or better said, experiences a reaffirmation and renewal of the spirit and soul. Check this place out; take a deep breath; can you smell the spices?  My TrueLove awaits me here, somewhere;  there is a trace of Silver in her hair and, Oh, my -- a touch of sadness in her eyes.

 
  This Lady is an Herbalist.  A touch of ....        This is a better idea of the early 1900s with
  She "knows" about the "Sixties" and why          the long narrow store, rolling ladders along   .   they are important today.                               the  wall.                                          

I'm back.  Mama needs me.  We will see how the stick floats; how the mop flops, how ... things will be.

I thought I had a really good video of Bitterroot Herbs talking with a young guy dressed in a Beattles "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"  outfit.  Somehow, I lost it. Damn! It was precious.  I'll get things ironed out soon, although I will be gone to see my ailing, maybe failing mother who lives 186 miles from here. I'll stay 7 to 10 days, this time, and hope she recovers some.
   It is hard for me to believe I have been in ONE TOWN for thirty years!!! ME!! The ittenerant teacher and wandering minstrel.  I've had two year contract jobs, but never more till I became a single parent raising two sons, who are grown and gone.  I don't play music in Honky Tonk Bars anymore.  I don't chase women anymore.  I mean, I still remember HOW to chase 'em but, ... I don't remember why.  My greatest pleasure now is reading a good book in bed: the book in one hand, and snacks in the other.  It seems I remember soom other use for the bed, but, well, maybe it's better that it's all getting fuzzy now.  AAAAAGGGGHHHHH!  I was just kidding!
You guys have been writing about BAD BAD NIGHTMARES:  Well I guess that's my daymare.
   Really, though;  walking around this very unique town that occupys beautiful niche in the Rocky Mountain Chain and in River Valleys of Three Rivers that come together here is really fun and healthy exercise.  I take my camera.  The three rivers are, the Clark Fork, from Butte, MT, the Blackfoot, from the Bob Marshall Wilderness Area, just south of Glacier Park, (home to the threeway watershed of North America) and the third river comes from the Big Hole direction, from Darby, MT and is named; ... YES!  The Bitterroot River.  It is named after a small flowering plant that is both beautiful when in bloom, and whose Root, the Bitterroot, has been used for food by Native Americans for everrrrrr as a delicacy The roots were consumed by local tribes (Shoshone and Flathead Indian Tribes) as an infrequent delicacy.  It grows in dry soils, and is the Montana State Flower.
  

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The sacred coffee beans in action.   Yea,  Team!

      

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WOODEN HEART

I charmed a pixie's heart once

And hoped she would be mine

She brought me love and laughter

She caused the sun to shine

I helped her in her sorrow then

Sometimes she would smile

That smile would drive the clouds away

And linger for awhile

I charmed a Pixie's heart once

It was delicate and frail

Though bruised and broke, it mended

For I loved her without fail

Love can heal a broken heart

And love I had aplenty

I gave it all to her then,

Though she gave me back not any

I charmed a Pixie's heart once

Then she put it in a box

Sheltered and protected

Secured by tricky locks

But then it could not grow or breathe

Without TrueLove to nourish

Slowly turning harder

Too sheltered there to flourish

Oh, I charmed a Pixie's heart once

By herself she simply couldn't

And harder now that heart is

Becoming slowly wooden

A Pixie's heart is special

Only TrueLove will do

I know because I have one

Now I leave it here with you

                                             L.G.C. 1992

---------       -------------     --------     ------------        --------

 ( I left her a little red wooden

heart-pendant I had carved on a

chain. She spurned my love,

the uncaring wench...)(smile)

=   =   =   =   (`V`)   =   =   =   =

OK - So I made two of them - one for me

she is gone, but I still wear my Wooden Heart

( smile 2X )