Welcome Toni Bentley! Take a look at: Theater X-Net

Featuring: The illustrated story of Ida Rubinstein
Russian/Judaic Princess of Belle Epoch Parisian Theatre.

I sent emails to all three of the authors who I quoted in my project. Toni Bentley, author of The Sisters of Salome wrote back to me -- she wants to look at Ida's illustrated chronology on http://theatrex.net but the URL I sent her via email wouldn't work. (Day-um!) I replied with some alternate ways of getting there -- including visiting this blog!
Sad to say, but Michael DeCossart, Ida's pioneer biographer, passed away a few years ago according to his publisher. I wonder if Vicki Woolf will contact me through her publisher too? She's a busy BBC actress who just might have a multi-level firewall between her and the general public. (I hope she's proud enough of her book to sneak a peek, though.)



Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!

Wildlife: A huge Redtailed Hawk was watching Buckboard Lane from atop the high-tension tower. Pheasant families were strolling through the neighbor's yards.

Weather: The cursed temperature inversion continues -- dark, cold, just above freezing, and trying to snow under low gray clouds.

Charity Alert: Click on The Hunger Site every day to help out a bit.

Media Watch: Turkey Day Television -- starting with NFL Football while cooking Thanksgiving dinner. The Detroit game was a one-sided blowout, which Altlanta won without much effort. The Dallas game was pretty hard-fought. The Denver Broncos were the better team, but Dallas found ways of fooling them, and then matching their physicality to hold the score to a tie at the end of regulation play. The overtime period was a hoot when the referee blew the first coin-toss, and they had to throw it again. Denver got the ball first, gave it to a fresh backup running-back who nearly ran the entire field, and then kicked an easy field-goal to win. The cast of MAD-TV made me laugh with their impersonations again during the pre-game show.
(I sure miss the Mystery Science Theater 3000 marathons that Comedy Central used to run on Thanksgiving.)
One TV interviewer I have a hard time with is Charlie Rose on PBS. (Tavis Smiley also turns me off most of the time, and vice-versa.) Last night, while in a vegetative state after cooking, eating, and cleaning-up, I watched columnist Maureen Dowd and musician Roger Waters on Rose's show.
Maureen Dowd has written an observational, hopefully humorous, book called Are Men Necessary?


The cover is a 50's style painting of a red-haired, red-clothed lady (resembling conventionally good-looking Dowd) standing in a subway car, surrounded by ogling men. Rose kept saying, "Let's talk about sex," but he never really started a conversation about Dowd's book. She cracked a couple of jokes, but seemed to eventually resign herself to Rose's ignorance. (I doubt Rose had even opened the cover of her book.) What WAS interesting were the times when she spoke out about the deceptions of our government which led to the horrible Iraq war.
Roger Waters was articulate as always when he talked about There is Hope, an opera he wrote over the last 15+ years. When asked if Pink Floyd fans might like it, he said "It definitely has my voice," with an amused smile. It IS an opera, and it's sung by operatically-trained singers. If Waters' audience of somewhat-discerning twenty-somethings and retro-rock fans warm up to something like this, I'll be VERY surprised.