Happy New Year's Weekend! We saw about a dozen Whitetail Deer on their customary turf below the painted "F" on the hillside above our neighborhood. There was a short thaw which might have exposed some fodder for them. Right now it's close to -20 C (+5 F) and the air is murky. Frost coats the branches of trees and the peanuts on our back deck, but doesn't slow down the Flickers, Magpies, and Woodpeckers. One of the Bald Eagles caught a fish in the aereation pond, and devoured it on the ice.

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Ida's Places in Paris -- from my first jet-lagged day by the Seine.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!
NEW! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

Charity Alert: Make a resolution as the days get longer to click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: Look for updates on the Hockaday Museum of Art's Website this week.

Media Watch: I happened to tune in to a live broadcast of James Brown's funeral in Augusta, Georgia around noon on Saturday. I still think it's miraculous that we are able to share events like this via electronic communications. His manager related one personal story of how Brown wrote Say It Loud (I'm Black and I'm Proud) from the podium. Mr. Brown's last wish was for people to try to love one another and do their best to raise themselves up. Al Sharpton relayed his words to Jesse Jackson and Michael Jackson -- convincing the latter to interrupt his exile in Dubai to attend the service. I can put aside my issues with certain celebrities to accept Brown's wish as my own for the New Year. I also checked out BET's Soul Brother No. 1 -- James Brown special for another look at his career. They played P-Funk music, quoted Bootsy Collins, and spent time with other musical successors too -- as well they should!

I read The Lord of the Rings every year around this time. J.R.R. Tolkien's fantastical spell still works for me as I willing suspend my disbelief for the experience of visiting Middle Earth. The magic begins in Tolkien's very personal forward to the 1966 edition -- names and scenarios from the author's long tale tantalizingly appear as he sketches out the chronology of how he wrote it. I think he was addressing those who had read the hardbound edition published ten years before, but those vivid glimpses also piqued his new readers' curiosity. The forward especially illuminates the character of the storyteller -- introduced in the third person by Prof. Tolkien, as well as a couple of personal insights into the gentleman himself as he laments lapses of copyright law and briefly addresses his critics and fans.
His storyteller persona unifies the entire sprawling narrative. The character of this storyteller is most perceivable in the Prologue and Book One, but gradually blends into the evolving tapestry of the novel, and is always there. The same storyteller guided his readers through The Hobbit as well, but was more prominent in the earlier novel. Tolkien's voice, derived from his real-life roles as father, friend, drinking buddy, and scholarly colleague is at the core of the story's appeal. Contrary to conventional cynicism, I believe that his avuncular personality was also a major factor in marketing the authorized version of Lord of the Rings to a public who were free to choose other publishers, but who made a phenomenal international success of the Ballantine paperbacks.
Tolkien, as author and public figure, astoundingly declared in his 1966 forward to the Ballantine edition: The most critical reader of all, myself, now finds many defects, major and minor, but being fortunately under no obligation either to review the book or write it again, he will pass over these in silence ...
I have had a lot of fun with this line over the years, and actually enjoy spotting fancied defects here and there. The overall momentum of the story survives them all. The quotation above actually finishes with this comment: ...except one that has been noted by others: the book is too short. I choose to think he was pulling our collective leg, but only his surviving family knows for sure if that's the way he felt.
Some of the Lord of the Rings' most dramatic creations are the Ringwraiths, or Black Riders. They intrude on Frodo's idyllic walk through the Shire as his long adventure begins, and the Ringbearer spends much of the first book running away from them. These dark pursuers are compelling in their mysterious menace. There are limits on their power, though, otherwise our naive little heroes would have NO chance against them. Exactly what comprises their strengths and weaknesses are only hinted at by the storyteller. This long pursuit is my favorite part of the novel because of the way it introduces the landscapes and powers resident in Tolkien's world to the reader. It was MY introduction to Middle Earth, and the visual images I conjured in my mind's eye during that very first reading during those long winter nights of forty years ago have never been supplanted.
Later on, the Ringwraiths take to the air, becoming much more aggressive and almost too powerful to credibly challenge or defeat. In the wonderful appendix Tale of the Years, these Nazgul were even mightier, but never as terrifying or charismatic as at the beginning.

...like a simple-minded hobbit I feel that it is, while I am still alive, my property in justice unaffected by copyright laws. It seems to me a grave discourtesy, to say no more, to issue my book without even a polite note informing me of the project; dealings one might expect of Saruman in his decay rather than defenders of the West. -- J.R.R. Tolkien

Here are Jack Gaughan's covers for the (in)famous Ace reprints of Lord of the Rings. The opportunistic cut-rate American Science-Fiction publisher previously struck gold with unauthorized Edgar Rice Burroughs reprints a few years earlier. They took advantage of a technicality to put out this softcover version of Tolkien's best-seller about a decade after it's hardback release.
I saw these first on local retail shelves as a teenager, and put the book on my "future reading" list. Rival Ballantine Books negotiated an authorized edition with still-living J.R.R. Tolkien, as they had previously done with the late Burroughs' remaining family. The author's personal appeal was printed on the cover, and convinced me to buy it on sight. The media controversy itself helped introduce this remarkable work to an international audience, who embraced Tolkien, and his preferred publishers, in astoundingly unforseen numbers.
Tolkien's success prompted a huge income tax bill a few years later, which the professor settled by selling the movie rights to his unfilmable story. Even though both animated and mixed live-action flicks have been made, they do little justice to the original. HOWEVER -- millions more people buy and read Tolkien's books as a result.

Raccoon out on the rear deck -- mooching on bird food and a dish of cat crunchies we put out for the stray. We had some snow flurries after Christmas, some light rain, and some sunshine. I'm doing my driving mid-day, before the roads glaze over from that lethal combination at night.

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Ida's Places in Paris -- from my first jet-lagged day by the Seine.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!
NEW! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

Charity Alert: Make a resolution as the days get longer to click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: Look for updates on theHockaday Museum of Art's Website this week.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year: Gotta do wut Preznunt Bush sez -- bought a buncha crap, and now I'm gonna take it back.

Media Watch: Ex-President Gerald Ford died at the age of 93. There's stories all over the media about him now. He replaced the corrupt Spiro Agnew as Vice President, and slept in the White House after Nixon resigned. For a year and a half the tititular heads of the USA were Ford and Rockefeller (Gerry and Nelson). I was out of the country for most of that time, but when I came back the corrosive so-called "Generation Gap" had mostly healed over. That was something, otherwise his tenure in office was pretty undistinguished -- in fact, the very Presidency was diminished by the abuses of Nixon and Johnson -- Ford was just the first in a parade of people who were just not big enough for the job. Carter was too narrow in those days to lead the way out of Amerika's morrass in the 70's, Reagan was a shallow frontman for thieves, while aides like Casey, Schultz, and Weinberger ran the government. Bush One was even worse, as the treasury was looted under the command of James Baker. Clinton might have been smart enough, but his party was too hopelessly compromised to wield power. Newt Gingrich took over Congress and tried to literally handcuff the president with perpetual Ken Starr investigations, while trying to prevent Clinton from functioning as Chief Executive by accusing him of creating diversions whenever a real crisis took place in the world. "Wag the dog!" was the smug Republican mantra. Clinton tried accomodating his enemies, but all they desired was to disgrace him. Bush Two was the sad result of the right wing's methodical tearing down of American institutions. "Tax and Spend Liberalism" became "Borrow and Steal Conservatism." The country as a whole is now reeling from graft and incompetence, and our ability to function in the world is seriously damaged -- the consequences are dire, and will get worse unless those whom we have chosen to lead include REALITY on their agendas.
In the meantime, the office of President of the United States continues to be held by a stooge, and the act of running for that office has become a humiliating dog and pony show where the candidates grovel for money and spout focus-group nonsense for cynical media who are only interested in sound-bites. Brilliant people like Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rev. Jesse Jackson bray like jackasses when they go on display in this putrid arena. They, and others, undermine their good works by playing egotistical games, when they should be paying attention to the problems they are paid to solve. We need a whole new paradigm for the Presidency, and election to the office. Coarse circumstances will force changes if a responsible society doesn't decide what is best for themselves.

Some positive notes: Betty Ford is still alive, and has made enormous contributions to our society by her courage and integrity. The way she used her high social station to help repair addiction's damage to countless lives, including her own, demonstrated uncommon bravery. I will also say that Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter grew a great deal after the madness which is and was the White House almost destroyed them and their family. I'll even note that Nancy Reagan learned much from the ordeal with her husband's Alzheimer's Disease.


(Left) White House Press Secretary Ron Nessen announcing Nixon's imminent resignation in July 1974, as drawn by me from the TV screen in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. (Right) A fantasy sketch, done the next moment, of soon-to-be President Ford laughing his ass off about it all.

Life near the big woods -- those Bald Eagles continue to get TOO close to the back deck, and my cats, in the mornings. (See picture below.) The suet feeders are welcome to Flickers, Woodpeckers, Magpies, and Chickadees. I don't mind the Deer gleaning a few extra Sunflower seeds, but I'm throwing them under rocks and logs so the Pheasants have a chance of having some when they visit.


A mid-December morning on Middle Foy's Lake, with a Bald Eagle parked on the ice about thirty yards from my back deck, after he/she had dived low overhead a few minutes earlier.

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Ida's Places in Paris -- from my first jet-lagged day by the Seine.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!
NEW! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

Charity Alert: Make a resolution as the days get longer to click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: I am going to update the Hockaday Museum of Art's Website over the next week and a half, otherwise I'm off work until 2007! The Hockaday published a slick-cover annual report this year for the first time since I've been there. Most of the photos were by me -- which makes sense, since that's a major part of my job.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year: Yes, I did it again -- went shopping on a pre-Christmas weekend. Smiles and patience are the best strategies for getting through crowds of people on foot. Cars though -- patience kept me alive and insurable in slow/stop traffic, and John Coltrane's Giant Steps with Mr. PC kept that smile on my face through those backed-up parking lots. Gotta do wut Preznunt Bush sez -- buy more crap. Speaking of which, why are there so many horror/slasher movies coming out in theaters NOW? Those ads are all over the TV -- reminds me how much I like Halloween, but REALLY...

Media Watch: Sam Raimi's Evil Dead 2 was on the satellite -- the lead actor did a great job of slapstick clowning in a horror movie context. Raimi has given the movie-going public a lot of fun over the last 20-plus years since this sophomore film. Most of his work shows a personal and humorous point of view. Hercules -- The Legendary Journeys and Xena, Warrior Princess had their unique moments on TV. He was ideal as director of the Spider Man movies, in my opinion, the first one showing on prime-time TV Christmas Eve.
Real Books -- Adventures from the Technology Underground by William Gurstelle describes people who love to create sparkling, noisy Tesla coils, model rockets that are too damn big, flame-throwers, dangerously destructive machinery, and various catapulting machines -- the latter gathered in Deleware for "Punkin' Chunkin'" competitions. Burning Man gets a mention, plus some of the San Francisco artists who enjoy playing with fire and blowing s*** up! Crimson Rose, the Naked Fire Goddess, and Burning Man administrator is not mentioned, but a number of her friends are.
Henry Louis Gates was on Book TV talking about the Encyclopedia Africana project he undertook under the posthumous influence of W.E.B. DuBois, who originally proclaimed this idea after a vivid dream in 1909 -- the lecture was funny poigniant., and even scholarly. (The Encyclopedia Judaica created enormously positive effects worldwide for another dispersed ethnicity in 1907.) Gates sure liked the multi-media embedded in his now-published encyclopedia, which was something that DuBois probably never "dreamed" about. Ironically, DuBois died the night before Martin Luther King gave the I Have A Dream speech during the March On Washington in 1963. His last telegraphed words were read to the crowd immediately afterwards.
This program was followed by a discussion about author interviews in the Paris Review -- pieces which stand on their own, even in the glare of reflected glory. On another CSPAN channel, PBS veterans Cokie Roberts, Linda Wertheimer, and Nina Totenberg shared a panel about Journalism -- they had a lot to say, but it was too bad how deeply they were in denial about their unfortunate roles as conduits of governmental and corporate propaganda (so-called talking points) in return for too-easy access to the corridors of power.
"First with a sound bite" doesn't wash as a scoop -- and accomodating corrupt right-wing apparatchiks who despise you and your employer doesn't wash as a survival tactic.
I'm dissing Roberts the most, I will never forgive her for that vile "values voters" abomination she channeled for Karl Rove in 2004, unless she apologizes one day. Twenty five years of integrity in trade for introducing a Dan Quayle-like hand-me-down cynical joke on public sensibility -- bad deal, Miss Boggs!
Totenberg has been much more timorous since she was threatened with arrest over a congressional corruption leak. Wertheimer ramblingly admitted to feeling more fear -- sad all way around.
Lightening up with NFL Football -- Winners go to the playoffs, losers go home during this part of the season. Running back Reggie Bush of New Orleans is cleansing some of the stains off of his surname. The New England Patriots are no longer unstoppable, but still dam' tough. Commercials are still dam' obnoxious -- talking boogers anyone? (Thought not.)
Snowy and cold in Denver, the alternative would be cold and snowy in Cincinatti. San Diego looked pretty strong against Seattle, but I wouldn't want to jinx anybody. I continued to calm down with the wonderfully vulgar and funny Triumph the Insult Dog plus Web Junk 2006 -- host Patrice O'Neil has the knack of milking laughs out of dorky video clips in the latter show.
Monday Night Football was played in rainy Miami, Florida. As Patrice O'Neil himself might say: The teams showed some 'TUDE! -- Ineptitude!
Zero to zero for most of the game, and when the rain slackened, both squads started scoring until time ran out for one of them.

Milestones: One of the greatest artists of the 20th Century passed away over the Christmas weekend -- James Brown lived up to all those hyperbolic titles like: Hardest Working Man In Show Business; Mister Dynamite; Soul Brother Number One; and Godfather of Funk. He was an electrifying singer, dancer, and songwriter. He also led some of the best show bands in history, with the able help of Jimmy Ellis, Bobby Bird, John Starks, Bernard Odom, Melvin Parker, and the fabulous Maceo Parker -- to pick out a few names among many.
In my own white-bread life, James Brown's groundbreaking single Papa's Got A Brand New Bag was unlike anything else on the charts in 1965. His rise to super-stardom in the wake of the Civil Rights Act was testimony to a fundamental change in U.S. culture, and his hard-driving music presented a creative challenge to the entire world in it's excellence and originality. I Feel Good (I Got You) secured his status as a star. His ever-developing rhythmic style co-opted the term Funk, and he turned it into a popular genre of it's own, as listening to Cold Sweat and Sex Machine will prove.
Clyde Stubblefield's drum solo on Cold Sweat itself is a classic -- and the "Funky Drummer" is still gigging in the Midwest. Cincinatti brothers Bootsy and Phelps Collins stood next to Brown onstage when they were barely out of high school -- after J.B. fired them, George Clinton needed their services badly and P-Funk made a quantumm leap when they signed on and started writing songs with George and Bernie Worrell. Maceo Parker even played with both Brown's band and P-Funk in the 70's and 80's.
As my informational tangents demonstrate, James Brown was a focus-point of creative energy, and his influence radiated throughout musical culture until the end -- his inspiration will continue, and I'll always appreciate him.

Happy Holidays! It's the eighth day of Channuka, Christmas is on Monday (Oy vey, I hope that day of the week doesn't jinx it!), and New Year's Day is a week later. It's nice to think about the nice warm tropics during Kwanza too. I'll toss up at least ONE blog from home before I come back to work on January 3, 2007. There were three small Whitetails standing on the hillside overlooking the junction of Foy's Lake Road and Buckboard Lane -- the middle-sized one had at least four points on either side of his rack of antlers. Males aren't usually smaller than the females, unless they are yearlings.

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Ida's Places in Paris -- from my first jet-lagged day by the Seine.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!
NEW! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

Charity Alert: Make a new resolution as the days slowly get longer to click on The Hunger Site.

In The Community: Alright! The Minnesota Historical Society is sending the Hockaday Museum of Art fifty pages of Winold Reiss' correspondance about his formal and informal art schools in Glacier National Park from 1931 to 1938. Many thanks to Hampton Smith, their Reference Librarian.

Media Watch: My reaction to the minor, but loud, Miss USA/Miss Teen USA media flap is a personal indictment of the organization which "handles" these newly-minted celebrities. First of all, the members of their massive professional entrourages should be fired for attending those adults-only nightspots with their underage charges in tow -- violating the contracts of their clients, and exposing them (in many ways) to a predatory press who delights in tearing down the reputations of attractive young women. Second, having well-documented promiscuous horn-dog Donald Trump acting a ANYBODY'S judge is a prima facae dirty joke -- surely they could have appointed a less notorious, more appropriate, spokesperson to relay their corporate decisions to the media. These "Beauty Queens" have been criticized for bad choices, but I think their (and their parent's) worst choice was trusting in a so-called system that flagrantly exploits youth and beauty for someone else's profit. I think another business model is needed -- the cost of being famous seems to be getting too high for too many "objects" of public attention.


Now for something completely different!


I personally wish a safe and happy Holiday Season for EVERYONE!
Here's a somewhat-distant shot of Masques On Parade, as seen from the branches of our Christmas tree at the Hockaday Museum of Art. This scene is especially dedicated to Eavan and Clara as they are visiting La Chaussee to party with Footsbarn Theatre.
(They are in the foreground of Masques.)

I thought it was just a rumor, but instruments recorded wind gusts of over 160 MPH (200 KPH) on the ridgetops of Glacier National Park Friday night. Thank goodness we didn't feel any effects down in the valley to the west of the park here. There were seriously destructive winds in my old neighborhood near Seattle, Washington -- many tall trees fell down, and killed some individuals. Power was knocked out for over a million people in the Puget Sound area. I mention it because we were part of that same storm system -- again. We've shared some nasty weather with the West Coast this winter! In the clear, cold early afternoon sunshine on Sunday, I saw a Bald Eagle eating a fish on the lake. A Deer family was snooping for Sunflowers while my little cat Buttercup stood six feet away on the back deck -- they looked each other in the eyes, sniffed, and went about their business.

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Ida's Places in Paris -- from my first jet-lagged day by the Seine.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!
NEW! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

Charity Alert: Keep that resolution as Winter settles in. Click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: Flathead Valley Community College had it's annual Christmas party. I was able to go because Art Walk was two weeks earlier, instead of the same night. My boss synthesized a game show called Who Wants To Be A Genius? which was one of the best participatory events I've ever seen in these circumstances. I had a small cameo part as big-voiced "Howie" from Deal Or No Deal. Next year we'll host this "do" in our own building. Speaking of which, the Hockaday Museum of Art is on it's way towards it's OWN addition to the century-old Carnagie Library building which houses us.

Media Watch: Cecil B. DeMented by John Waters was on IFC. I think I've blogged about this film before, but it was shown between jumps to Sunset Boulevard and In A Lonely Place on TCM. All three are movies about the movie industry. C. B. DeMented definitely counts as minor John Waters, but there's a discernably unique spirit in this particular production. I don't have any trouble praising or dismissing Melanie Griffith's acting, and I think she's excellent in this film. (Sam Waterson and Kathleen Turner were also good in Waters' equally preposterous Serial Mom.) A bit of inside humor I missed in previous viewings was gun-toting, gold-bricking Teamsters going after non-union idealists on C.B.'s crew -- fictional porn star Cherish temporarily saves everybody's lives by taking refuge in a skid-row theater, which happens to be showing her movies, and enlisting the assistance of her moaning, ecstatic fans. It's worth noting that Tracy Lords shot two movies with Waters, the making of which gave her a "leg up" out of the sex-movie trade, and led to a much more rewarding career in the entertainment industry at large. Patricia Hearst played the mother of one of C.B.'s crew -- I wonder what she thought about being in a movie whose main plot-point was Melanie (Honey Whitlock) Griffith's kidnapping? Honey's "mainsteam" movie also resembled Cherish's "pornographic" film, with minor exceptions of course. There were many jokes about celebrity and stardom, which both Griffith and Waters know something about, but they were mostly sad jokes.
One kind of misbegotten movie derided by C.B.'s possee has gotta be George Cukor's lugubrious My Fair Lady, also shown on TCM this weekend. Production values aside, it deprived posterity of a visual transcription of the great Broadway hit which made Julie Andrews a star. The chemistry between her and Rex Harrison had to be astonishing, but Audrey Hepburn, for all her talent and beauty, was cynically inserted into the flick as a voiced-over clothes horse. Andrews showed the whole world how excellent an actor she was in The Americanization of Emily. She also showed the gawdamn bean-counters how overwhelmingly popular she could be in Mary Poppins and Sound of Music. Love 'em or hate 'em, Julie Andrews is GREAT in musicals!
Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard is sometimes called a black comedy -- maybe it is, but it also counts as a 50's film noir. What Kenneth Anger called "the evil star system" squirms in front of the viewer's eyes as Wilder turns the underside of Hollywood's rock over for a brief moment. C.B. DeMille was very much alive at this time, and I wonder what he thought about the way his name was used in this film. I also wonder if he still socialized with his ex-compatriots Eric Von Stroheim and Gloria Swanson. I will take this opportunity to mention that Andrew Lloyd Weber's musical version of Sunset Boulevard was a triumph on Broadway for first-rate movie actress Glenn Close not too long ago.
In A Lonely Place was made by Humphrey Bogart's production company, and took a couple of risks, considering it was a post-WWII film with an expensive major star. Since it's in black and white, and tells an unpleasant crime story featuring a talented, but violent Hollywood writer (Bogart) it qualifies as yet another film noir. Co-star Gloria Graham was young, beautiful, and sexy -- her husband at the time was also the director of this movie, Nicholas Ray, who made sure the audience knew just how lucky he was. After the show, TCM told a story about Graham divorcing Ray, and marrying his son. Prolific filmmaker Nicholas Ray has been described by others as a "Multi-sexual Hollywood creature." He had a none-too-savory role in the blighted career of Natalie Wood, and goodness knows what else. (As if goodness has anything at all to do with sociopathic power-mongering.)
Another story TCM could have told was how Humphrey Bogart had a wife in the 40's who drunkenly bragged all over Hollywood how she was going to murder him. Bogart wasn't particularly promiscuous by movie star standards, and began his famous lifelong romance with Lauren Bacall after he was safely out of the power of the scary ex-Mrs. Bogart. His character in Lonely Place was a mean drunk, who, though innocent of one certain murder, was a clear and present danger to the ingenue who loved him at first, but learned to fear for her life as she witnessed his repeated rages. Whose life was imitated by who's art? I can't leave this discussion without mentioning Alfred Hitchcock's proto-noir movie Suspicion. It is much less gritty, but has a similar vibe, with another stellar movie actor (Cary Grant) as another contemptible leading man.


Time Magazine's Person of the Year is YOU -- particularly the vast population of the world who interact online. I choose to treat their choice as a marketing ploy, much like 1967's 25 and Under. It's worth a load of laughs, though, and I'm glad to join in the fun -- here we go! This is the second time in 40 years that the cover of Time has been devoted to ME -- here's a montage of "real" Time covers interspersed with versions featuring my OWN face, from High School and the 21st Century. I even entered it on Huffington Post's Contagious Festival.
Time Magazine's logo and content are property of their copyright holders. This graphic is satirical comment, protected by US law, and is not to be confused with any actual Time/Warner productions.

More dangerous driving! Ice layers on the roads every morning from rain and snow falling all night. The college was especially icy because of the river and mists -- the crew has a hard time keeping up with things.

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Ida's Places in Paris -- from my first jet-lagged day by the Seine.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!
NEW! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

Charity Alert: Keep that resolution as Winter decorates the Holidays with snow. Click on The Hunger Site every day.

Media Watch: NFL Football -- Dawg-assed visiting team San Francisco put the big hurt on playoff-bound Seattle, playing at home. The 49ers' defense only allowed one score until the last minute. The Seahawks underestimated their opponents for sure.
Real Books --Sailing from Byzantium: How a Lost Empire Shaped the World by Colin Wells.
Constantinople/Byzantium was the center of a beleaguered Christian empire for a thousand years. This author spins three threads of it's long, convoluted history. I finished the first about reintroducing knowledge of Ancient Greek to Western Europe via Italy, despite the barbaric depradations of fellow-Christian Crusaders, and the valiant failures of pioneers Boccaccio and Petrarch. It was well worth trying again and again. Next is their long defeat against the Four Caliphs, Umayyads, Abbasids, Seljuk and Ottoman Turks as they led Islamic armies over what we now call the Middle East. To further compound the Eastern Empire's troubles, the Slavs invaded from Central Europe, repopulating the Balkans and points north. Greek scholarship eventually won out to some degree, even though the hapless Byzantine political leaders lost most of the time, and the physical seat of Eastern Orthodoxy fell under Islamic political rule after 1453. (Except for Mt. Athos, it's still that way.) The Russian Czars tried to gain hegemony over Eastern Orthodoxy, but it was too damned big for them -- St. Cyrill's alphabet triggered a mighty cultural achievement.

Damn dangerous driving this morning! Ice layered with rain and snow -- saw more doughnuts and spin-outs than I've seen all year! The giant Christmas Cactus keeps rockin' on! (see picture)



Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Ida's Places in Paris -- from my first jet-lagged day by the Seine.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!
NEW! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

Charity Alert: Keep that resolution as Winter decorates the Holidays with snow. Click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: I'm "pouring wine" at a fund-raiser for the Hockaday Museum of Art tonight. (I can be more laid-back than I would be if I were designated a "bartender.") We are going to need a lotta funds, if what I'm thinking is what we're actually going to do! We got some wonderful xerox copies of letters to/from Winold Reiss and Louis Hill via the Hill Museum in St. Paul, Minnesota, thanks to curator Eileen McCormack.

Media Watch: The Narrow Margin (1952) a pretty good film noir by director Richard Fleischer -- TCM sez: A tough cop meets his match when he has to guard a gangster's moll on a tense train ride. Cast: Charles McGraw, Marie Windsor, Jacqueline White. This thing is a rather unflattering, but accurate, snapshot of the early 50's USA, simply because they wanted to save some money and did a lot of location shooting in railroad stations, the streets of Los Angeles, and outlying once-small communities like Cucamonga. The also used real contemporary railway equipment for set-scenes. Even the "nice" characters are flawed by stupidity, cowardice, and resignation to a gray cruel world.
Fleischer's films tended to be Comic Book-like, which is a compliment coming from me. How his work rates as Art is a matter of personal opinion. Here's his Wikipedia Article. I sure wish that Tora Tora Tora had been finished by the fired Akira Kurosawa, instead of Fleischer, Kinji Fukasaku, and Toshio Masuda -- there might have been a little more meaning in that film, whose main point seemed to be "Oh man, we really f***ed up!" The action scenes and empathetic portraits of enemies are noteworthy, though.

Hairy and Downey Woodpeckers are feasting at the suet feeders. The Flickers show up a couple of times a day, in between the Magpies. There is a small flock of beautiful Pheasants which seem to travel eight at a time -- males and females. We are seeing Nuthatches as well as Chickadees -- they look almost the same, except the Nuthatches are smaller and have subtle yellows, oranges, and blues in their feathers. The Juncos eat right off the deck -- watch out for that stray cat, birdies!


Our big Christmas Cactus continues to erupt!

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Ida's Places in Paris -- from my first jet-lagged day by the Seine.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!
NEW! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

Charity Alert: Keep that resolution as Winter decorates the Holidays with snow. Click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: Museum workshops at the Hockaday Museum of Art all this week. I'm pouring wine at a reception on Wednesday night too. At the college, it's SLACKER Week -- all sorts of last-minute projects dumped at my door. It's nice to be needed, I guess. Over the Christmas break, we'll be participating in the annual Audubon Society bird count again.

Media Watch: Pros and cons of the Google Print Project on Book TV -- pretty contentious. The Internet has beseiged the walls of traditonal publishing for over ten years now -- kind of like the Trojan War. Is there any wonder why publishers and authors are suspicious of "nerds" bearing "gifts?"
American Football -- I'm a little sorry I said anything about the Indianapolis Colts -- they've lost three of their last four games since I said it might be their year to win it all. The University of Montana lost their playoff match last Friday. Maybe there will be fewer colds going around with one less outdoor game in this dark gray weather.
We had a "White Elephant" Christmas party for the Hockaday staff. My contribution was a pair of dawg-assed DVDs -- The Manster, made in Japan around 1959, and Flash Gordon Conquers The Universe from 1940. (Carol Hughes plays a lab-assistant version of Dale Arden who TRIES to be feisty, but is very ineffectual due to rock-headed guards and exploding bombs.) Call 'em Black-and-White Elephants!


These animations are fun!
This screen-capture is from the wonderful
Tony LaBue's Flash Gordon website. He has pictures, credits, and even documentation about the MUSIC from these serials!

"Spike" the Whitetail buck visited us again. (See his picture below!) The very air is condensing into ice crystals on the roads and sidewalks under this cold, cold fog.



"Spike" scrounges around our old Sunflowers on December 7, 2006.

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Ida's Places in Paris -- from my first jet-lagged day by the Seine.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!
NEW! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

Charity Alert: Keep that resolution as Winter decorates for the Holidays with snow. Click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: We're going to have to give the Minnesota Historical Society some money to research the Winold Reiss School. It WILL be cheaper than going there myself -- something like this also puts a price tag on how well one communicates with strangers. Hockaday Museum of Art

Media Watch: Thursday Night Football was two groups of men fighting on a frozen tundra at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Would have been just as bad at the other team's field in Cleveland, Ohio.) My TV looked like it was frosting up just by tuning in, or was that ESPN's cameras? Speaking of which, that same network is showing the University of Montana/University of Massachusetts AA College Football Championship game tonight about 120 miles away in Missoula, Montana.
The History Channel ruminated at length about the Seven Wonders of the World -- ancient world, that is. The Gizeh Pyramids are all that are left today, and there are disputes about whether the Hanging Gardens were in Babylon or Nineveh. An earthquake knocked the Pharos down, but we just might recover some of it one day. The Mausoleum and Temple of Diana may have a fragment or two lying around, but we know their sites, as we know the location of Zeus' temple in Olympia. The Colossus of Rhodes seems to have the most questions about it.
Damn! Did Christian Emperor Theodosius the Great really strip and destroy Zeus' statue at Olympia? That was a mean, heartless thing to do. He probably paid his largely-Barbarian armies with the loot -- those same armies which later sacked Rome and almost took over the Eastern Empire during the reigns of his two worthless sons.
A century earlier, Diocletian ended the Olympic games, claiming that their homoeroticism affronted the Gods -- old Zeus must not have had any pull any more.

Mornings are pretty dark. We saw a young "spiked" Whitetail buck mooching around our backyard last night. Speaking of which the Deer should stop congregating on the roads in the AM -- there's nothing to eat there, but plenty of cars to collide with.

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Ida's Places in Paris -- from my first jet-lagged day by the Seine.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!
NEW! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

Charity Alert: Keep that resolution as Winter decorates for the Holidays with snow. Click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: Susan Arthur Guthrie's loose photographic watercolor was voted First Place in the Members Only Salon at the Hockaday. Jennifer Li's blind-stitch-brushed oil painting took Second, and Margaret Voermans' copper piece was Third. Hockaday Museum of Art

Media Watch: December 7 -- In 1941 it was "A day which will live in infamy," according to Franklin D. Roosevelt. My father was 15 years old, my mother wasn't even thirteen, and they wouldn't meet until long after WWII was over. There was NO conspiracy on the part of the president or his government to allow an attack on Pearl Harbor. Admiral Yamamoto simply took us by surprise. The fact that US aircraft carriers were away on manuevers surprised HIM, to our eventual salvation. Misfortune, incompetence, and arrogance are neither recent afflictions of our leaders, nor restricted to our country.
We bought a more durable DVD player and watched Bluffmaster, a ree-dick-yoo-luss Bollywood comedy/suspense flick starring Abhishek Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra, and Ritesh Deshmukh, with direction and production by Rohan and Ramesh Sippy. These good actors must have a hard time getting out of bed sometimes to make silly fare like this. I have yet to see a Bollywood flick which isn't a budget copy, so good playback equipment sure helps. Dhoom (meaning BLAST) is the second feature of this 2-in-1 set. Have I written that Uday Chopra's clown character in the first movie was much more interesting than he was in Dhoom 2?


Here's our giant Christmas Cactus -- well over a hundred flowers are starting to bloom in time for the Holiday Season. Stay tuned to watch them develop!

A big Rough Legged Hawk is hunting around Flathead Valley Community College today. The "big sky" is battleship gray, but it's not even minus 5 (C), unlike last week.

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Ida's Places in Paris -- from my first jet-lagged day by the Seine.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!
NEW! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

Charity Alert: Keep that resolution as Winter decorates for the Holidays. Click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: I contacted the Minnesota Historical Society about their Great Northern Railway archives. Hockaday Museum of Art

Media Watch: Complicated Women and "pre-code" Hollywood movies on TCM -- Sex, drugs, alcohol, divorce, seduction, Busby Berkley, Norma Shearer, Jean Harlot uh -- Harlow, the young, sexy Ginger Rogers, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo & John Gilbert, Mae West, the great Joan Blondell, and all sorts of good fun. Billy Sunday and the Catholic Legions of (sic) Decency may have closed down this era in movies, but not the human stories they told. One strong point made by this documentary was that women's roles were much more restricted, less interesting, and stupidly fantastical under censorship. I'll mention a couple of exceptions -- The Good Earth and Gone With The Wind. Read a review of Mick Lasalle's book HERE.
Topsy Turvy was a movie about W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan creating The Mikado for the Savoy Theatre in 1885 London. This comic operetta says more about Victorian fantasies than it ever says about Japan. My father sang the part of Pooh Bah and my uncle Max sang the Mikado's role in the only live version I saw of it, when I was six or seven years old. Japanese outfits were VERY cheap and common in suburban USA during the 50's, because of the occupation of Japan and the Korean war, so this local church production was brightly costumed at least. A decade later I watched an entertaining TV special which featured Groucho Marx as Ko Ko, the Lord High Executioner.
I can't say I know how much of Topsy Turvy is fact or not, but I always give backstage dramas a second look. This one had some scenes that were crazy enough to be true -- like the chorus successfully pleading for the Mikado's song to be left in the show, despite Gilbert's desire to remove it. The Victorian costumes were a hoot, but I find it hard to believe that gentleman kept their overcoats on all the time, or posed so much while conversing. There WAS social stratification to an absurd extent, but ... I dunno.


Here is a fun "pre-code" animated clip from Busby Berkeley's By A Waterfall sequence near the end of yet ANOTHER backstage musical, Footlight Parade thanks to: classicmoviefavorites.com

The Deer cruise the neighborhood more aggressivly since in the snow. There's enough variety of terrain to feed them, if they move along. (See picture.)


A Whitetail yearling grazing in our front yard at Middle Foy's Lake -- December 4, 2006

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Ida's Places in Paris -- from my first jet-lagged day by the Seine.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!
NEW! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

Charity Alert: Keep that resolution as Winter settles in. Click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: I'm still looking for artwork for Summer's Winold Reiss Art School 1934-37 exhibit. (Note the corrected dates!) I have to call the Minnesota Historical Society next.
Hockaday Museum of Art

Media Watch: Monday Night Football was kind of inept, but fun in a way. Donovan McNabb is out with injuries again this season, but his Philadelphia Eagles won -- barely.
Keith Olberman is one of the few bright spots in TV News, but I could have happily missed seeing Jessica Simpson lousing up her performance at the Kennedy Center. She's not on my list of favorite singers, but I have no ill-will towards her. Catherine Bach played her comical Daisy Duke character with integrity. She left all the slapstick stupidity to the men, and conducted herself with as much dignity as her skimpy Wonder Woman-like outfit allowed. Simpson's version is neither dignified nor funny.

Lots of Wildlife sightings to talk about: The aereation pond is back on Middle Foy's Lake and the Bald Eagles are haunting the place, and even catching fish. We also have the Sharp-shinned Hawk staking out our back yard -- he/she really kept other birds from our feeders last year. I'm afraid that he/she might have been culpable when that panicked Dove broke it's poor neck flying into the rear glass door on Friday -- these birds have never crashed there before. The suet feeders are up and the Magpies are loving them -- save some for the Woodpeckers and Jays you greedy b*****ds! The Deer and Pheasants are eating sunflower seeds which spill out of the feeders.

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Ida's Places in Paris -- from my first jet-lagged day by the Seine.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!
NEW! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

Charity Alert: Keep that resolution as Winter settles in. Click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: This year's Kalispell Art Walk was the biggest one yet -- the most participating businesses ever, plus special receptions for many local artists at places that do not usually display their work, like Gini Ogle and Carol Sweeny at the Conrad Mansion, and Karen Leigh at Alpine Lighting. We had well over 300 visitors at the Hockaday -- many came to hear the choir sing, which is beginning to be something of a tradition. It wasn't near as cold or miserable as other nights have been, so it was a rewarding time for everyone who braved the Winter. We also got a response already to our request for research help on our website, concerning Summer's Winold Reiss Art School 1930-34 exhibit. Hockaday Museum of Art

Media Watch: Bollywood Movies -- It had to happen sometime! Shah Rukh Khan goes to jail for stealing the bride in Veer-Zaara, our most recently purchased DVD featuring this rascally East Indian Casanova. I also put up with a mostly good, but sometimes lousy Hindi-western called Sholay which owed an awful lot to the Seven Samurai, but went artistically bankrupt before any pay-back took place.
Book TV had a Q&A with ex-Senator John Edwards, plus a recitation program of famous speeches in New York City, and three hours with Jimmy Carter, our best ex-president ever.
Real books -- Catch A Wave by Peter Ames Carlin -- yet another tome about the family fight known as Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys. This one is a somewhat younger fan's view of the story. I read it because the author covered the recent resurrection of Smile, but he said little that wasn't shown in the video, except for one or two elaborations about Danny Hutton, the talented singer who founded Three Dog Night. There's a lot of gossip that doesn't always add up, and it might be true, or exagerrated, or too tame, or patently false. I was pleased to read that one of my favorite Beach Boy songs, Marcella, was based on a real lady, who had a very active sex life. I think serial shaggers like these musicians SHOULD honor the women who really shared their lives. I'm afraid the deaths of Carl and Dennis Wilson have doomed any balanced account of the family's many travails. The author nails the facts that Carl was the Beach Boys' real leader for over a decade, Mike Love has called the shots in the performing band since about 1980, and there's been litigation amongst everybody involved in the enterprise. The rift between surviving cousins Brian and Mike seems depressingly wide. The book has a tantalizing email quote by Bruce Johnson about the group being "just business" for him, but nothing directly from Al Jardine. I recently saw Brian Wilson singing Good Vibrations with his fabulous touring group (Previously known as the Wondermints) on one of those strange award shows -- this time called the U.K. Music Hall of Fame. His vocals can be pretty rough nowadays, and he misses an occasional note, but I don't mind hearing Wilson's own voice in his own songs, win, lose, or draw.
IFC showed Kurosawa's original Seven Samurai on Saturday. This film is a deep well of beauty, craft, inspiration, and the drama within human strengths and weaknesses. I first saw it as a hero-worshipping post-adolescent. I was seduced by it's spectacle, and got impatient during the "slow" parts, but the film's humanism worked on me then like it works on me now. It was intended to be entertainment, and succeeded, but it delivered so much more than "good" guys beating "bad" guys. The film contains strong messages that are applicable to today's world -- especially about power requiring humility, and reality trumping delusion. There is also idealism in Kurosawa's vision which makes his vivid portraits of fear, desperation, and social malaise more bearable.
I had a chance to reflect on the state of Japan when Kurosawa made his film. Never forget that "Samurai" was used by the militarists who unleashed the brutal Japanese Empire over Asia, literally perverting the high-minded code of "Bushido" into race warfare and oppression. The Never-Never Land of Samurai movies tried to remind Japan and the world that their warriors once had ideals. History shows that the Samurai (warrior) class which ruled for 250 years under the Tokugawa Shogunate was both horribly ruthless and economically beneficial in turns, but Japan's culture was stuck in the Middle Ages until the mid-19th Century because of them. I call Tokugawa Japan an accident of history, rather than a model for anyone to follow. Saying that, the Yakusa or gangsters of modern Japan maintain their underworld under some of these old "rules," which are broken as often as they are kept. Kurosawa made movies about Japanese criminals too.
Before the movie started, the History Channel played two shows from it's Dogfights series about the air war with Japan in WWII. Interviews with actual survivors of these conflicts softened some of the jingoism, but it was there in the smug, inevitable tone of the narration, and selective context of the presentation. It doesn't take much reading to learn that Clare Chennault was a tactical genius, but a strategic moron, who was seriously compromised by his position as a mercenary for the Kumontang, one of the most viciously corrupt governments in the long history of China. The Flying Tigers were very brave, and played a significant part in defeating the Japanese Empire, but the damned Chinese Communists played a bigger part, by rallying the population of China to throw out ALL the occupiers of their country, and their agents, including us. The Chinese people paid a high price whenever the Communists made mistakes, and they made many, but they now control the biggest nation in the world, and are the U.S. government's largest creditor. It's too bad that they also prop up insane martinets like Kim Jong Il, and support criminal regimes like the Myanmar government in Burma or the Khymer Rouge. Their indirect bankrolling of the Iraq War should give us pause and make us all ashamed.
The Solomon Islands campaign in WWII was as desperate a battle as the USA ever fought, and we could have lost it many times. Nobody should ever be smug about the war in the Pacific. No one should be smug about warfare at all -- it's costs, in people and resources, are extremely high, and the debts incurred are never really forgiven. These anecdotal approches to battles are like using microscopes instead of binoculars -- you are going to miss seeing a lot of other things.


Here and now: Our Christmas Cactus plants are coming into full bloom -- this one is only half done, and we have a gigantic speciman with over a hundred flowers forming!

It's my 57th birthday today. My friend Craig Dangerfield was right on time with a wacky card too -- forty years of those things! We should all be so fortunate. I was in Calgary and Banff over the long U.S. Thanksgiving weekend. We had snow initially, until we crossed the Continental Divide over Crow's Nest Pass. It was dry, but a frigid haze blocked the sunshine and settled down on us as a light snowfall by the time we got to Calgary. For the rest of our visit the temperature stayed around minus 20 (C). We had a particularly good time shopping around for Bollywood DVDs in Calgary, and watching a new, silly, but entertaining Bollywood action flick Dhoom 2 on the big screen in a real movie theater. We saw Elk, Eagles, Bighorn Sheep, and a big black Wolf in the mountains. There was intermittent snow the whole time with occasional bursts of wind which made it feel miserable outside. Luckily, we were able to duck through various buildings as we looked around during the street party on Banff Avenue and at the World Cup race site near Lake Louise.
The weather warmed up on the way back to Montana, but a big blizzard was raging as we got back to the 'States. As a matter of fact, I'm blogging at home because we are having a "snow day" at the college.

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Ida's Places in Paris -- from my first jet-lagged day by the Seine
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!
NEW! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

Charity Alert: Keep that resolution as Winter settles in! Click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: Curator Monique Westra at Calgary's Glenbow Museum was very helpful to me when I visited there on behalf of the Hockaday. Check out the Hockaday Museum of Art's Website for Art Walk information -- this Friday night. Be sure to bundle up!

Media Watch: I'm one of those people who take Comic Art seriously, and we just lost one of our leading lights -- Jerry Bails Ph.D at the age of 73 due to a bad ticker. I am glad to be able to call him my friend, although we never met face-to-face.
Jerry Bails' Who's Who Of American Comic Books
Fellow fan and scholar Bob Hughes wrote these words: Jerry not only created the hobby of comic collecting, he created the science of it. He and the people he trained went out and patched all this history together. He applied the same techniques he used to teach science in college to comic book history. He took everything apart and put it back together again. And he never kept anything to himself. Unlike those mysterious collectors like Edward Church who left hoards of stuff secreted away, Jerry shared all of his knowledge freely with everybody. And he taught you how to do it yourself! Where others looked at the uncredited decades of comics and shrugged and said it was lost forever, Jerry rolled up his sleeves and reassembled the history of the people who created the comics. While others debated who was stronger the Thing or the Hulk, Jerry was more concerned with who created Batman, Bill Finger or Bob Kane? He took everything to the next level, and by honoring the creators as individuals, not cogs in the corporate machine, Jerry helped make comics an art form. His absence will be impossible to fill, but because he wrote it all down and shared it, his presence will remain forever.
The Grand Comics Database has a tribute to Jerry on their HOME PAGE as I write this.
Partly because of Jerry's labors, TCM shows old chapter serials like Superman vs. Atom Man on Saturday mornings. Last Saturday they also played a film about comic artists afterward! The often-drab Cartoon Alley was special, perhaps because of the holiday weekend. They showed all three of Bugs Bunny's "Tortoise and the Hare" parodies from the 1940's with Mel Blanc's slow-speaking Cecil Turtle. Credit was duly given to directors Tex Avery and Bob Clampett for a change. TCM didn't mention animator Robert McKimson, but Bugs Bunny himself did.

Bollywood Movies: Once we watched a few of these things, we noticed that remakes of "foreign" hits were common. Koi Mil Gaya was a crib of Spielberg's E.T. It had a certain charm of it's own, and a very engaging leading man named Hrithik Roshan. We just saw him again in Calgary as the star of the aformentioned Dhoom 2 -- a Mission Impossible-like romp where he was a lovable rogue, with Ashwari Rai as his lovable rogue-ette.
(Cultural Note -- Kissing used to be taboo for Indian movies. There was a screen kiss in Dhoom 2 between Roshan and Rai, but the mostly East Indian/Pakistani audience showed no extraordinary reaction to the scene at all.)
We later bought Krrish, a sequel to Koi Mil Gaya, where Roshan plays father and son characters. Day-um! That guy has muscles! His look is perfectly appropriate, since this flick is an outright super-hero movie. It holds together very well within it's preposterous context too. They shot quite a bit of it in Singapore -- I wish they would have sprung for more REAL acrobats from the very famous circus scene there.
Speaking of lovable rogues, we also bought the follow-up to the intoxicating Munna Bhai M.D.D.S. It was nowhere near as amazing -- we've already seen Sanjay Duit playing this bold-as-brass hoodlum with a heart of gold, but there was enough going on to justify the time spent watching it. I personally liked "Munna Bhai's" drunken scenes with his accomplice "Circuit" the most. It was also really odd to see Mahatma Gandhi in a Bollywood comedy, even though he was only a hallucination.


Sheena, Queen of the Jungle -- featured as the cover attraction of Jumbo Comics for the first time in 1939. By the middle of 1940, she was the unrivaled star of the whole Fox/Fiction House line of comic books -- later played on TV and in the movies by model/actresses Irish McCalla, Tanya Roberts, and Gena Lee Nolin. The art and stories were done collectively by Jerry Iger's studio. This cover is drawn and inked by Lou Fine. Without the leadership of Jerry Bails most of our knowledge about these obscure cultural threads would be lost and forgotten.

Hello Dublin! Watch that mailbox -- Clara's going to get a package in Paris soon, as well. We had an unusual visitor on Sunday -- a yearling Elk swam across Middle Foy's Lake and sauntered through the neighborhood. (Picture below!)



Our yearling Elk, out for a Sunday stroll and swim.

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Ida's Places in Paris -- from my first jet-lagged day by the Seine
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!
NEW! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

Charity Alert: Keep that resolution as Winter settles in early! Click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: The Glenbow Museum in Calgary, Alberta is on my agenda this weekend. I'm spending the long Thanksgiving Weekend in and around the Canadian Rockies. Ckeck out the Hockaday Museum's Website for Art Walk information. Hey -- that's a week from Friday!

Media Watch: NFL Football and Book TV normally make up my weekends on Da' Tube. As long as TCM features Superman serials made before the George Reeves TV series, I'll watch them too. Kirk Alyn appeared suspended from wires now and then, but most of the "flying" was still done by a Fleischer-like cartoon in Superman vs. Atom-Man. Noel (Lois Lane) Neill looked almost sexy sometimes too. Me and other Grand Comics Database members are going to write letters, suggesting that the network continue running other examples of this odd entertainment form on Saturday mornings.
Speaking of the NFL, they showed some tight competitive games last Sunday.
Book TV -- Mark Kurlansky and Tom Hayden had a better-than-average discussion about the issue of Nonviolence, live from the Miami Book Fair. Kurlansky made an interesting observation about certain nations recently being "failures as diplomats."
Real books -- The Matter Myth by John Gribbin and Paul Davies is an older attempt to introduce Quantum Theory to the general public (people like me). Gribbin's recent Deep Simplicity was better. I've decided that Davies isn't a very clear writer for me, but I liked his confessional paragraphs about how he got his Ph.D via the language of math, while all the time misunderstanding scientific principles within his own spoken language. He's not alone -- there were a couple of discussion threads on Daily Kos in Darksyde's Science Friday feature where folks were trying very hard to project their religious feelings onto phenomena they obviously didn't understand.
I personally think it's IMPOSSIBLE to deal with Quantum Physics without mastery of Calculus -- which I don't possess. (Gawd knows I've tried.) What I find dramatic about Science are those cases where seemingly arcane theories repeatedly predict actual facts, which are the only things that matter. Science demands subservience to provable Reality. I think this chaps the asses of those who try to inflict their unsubstantiated assertions onto you and me. There are many ways of working with it, but ignoring or misrepresenting Reality is folly.

Welcome Dublin! I hope your French visitors had a good time. Over here, we got NO snow from the current storm front. In fact, it's warmer than it's been for a month! There were two little fawns grazing next to my garage last evening when I got home, and a couple of Whitetails were across the street when I drove off this morning. Last weeks rains caused almost $5 Million in damage to Glacier National Park.

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Ida's Places in Paris, from my jet-lagged first day by the Seine.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!
NEW! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

Charity Alert: Keep that resolution as Winter sneaks around on us! Click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: The Going-To-The Sun Road is a major economic link during the summer months. The Hockaday's Winold Reiss School exhibit is connected to the community of St. Mary's, on the other side of the park. Unfortunately, the collapse of some of that road adds over an hour each way in order to travel there -- bad luck for me (ferrying paintings) and the tourists. There are many political reasons to fix Going-To-The-Sun Road, and I think they are going to find the money.

Media Watch: I saw some great shows on Book TV over the weekend, but I'm going to take the LOW road today -- Trash A-Go-Go, uh, Dancing with the Stars had a surprise in store for their finale: Emmitt Smith and Cheryl Burke won the trophy. Good for Cheryl -- that's TWO championships on this show!
However, Mario Lopez was BY FAR the better celebrity-dancer, despite Smith's improvement over the last ten weeks. I believe the "Fan Factor" distorted the results this season. Who knows? Maybe they'll milk it with another dance-off, like they did before.


Via Cheryl Burke's Website -- a picture of the winners.

Will my Flu shot protect me this year? Only time will tell. The Deer have been all over the place -- that now-gone snow might have scared them into eating more while they can.

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Ida's Places in Paris, from my jet-lagged first day by the Seine.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley
Click on Exceptionally Yours to find Footsbarn Theatre

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!
NEW! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

Charity Alert: Keep that resolution as Winter sneaks around on us! Click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: I'm updating the Hockaday Museum of Art's Website this afternoon. I'm also looking through my archives for "people pictures" to use in publicity.

Media Watch: As Fred Neil once sang: Everybody's talkin' at me ... reminding all of us that Saturday is November 11th -- A.K.A. Veteran's Day or Rememberance Day. There are only 14 living US veterans of that War To End All Wars.
My contribution to Viet Nam-Era U.S. politics was Draft Resistance -- and not only for myself. I still believe that every person I helped keep out of combat then was a tiny drop of medicine for our diseased society.
Sometimes war is inevitable, but our current debacle in Iraq certainly wasn't. The people who chose to unleash this evil folly should be discredited so that it cannot happen the same way again. How this administration treats the soldiers who have fought on their say-so is criminal, and should be punished too. I can only hope that our new Congress and Senate will undertake their new responsibilities with the seriousness they deserve.
Here's what we're celebrating in Europe and Amerika -- on November 11, 1918 four-plus years of senseless slaughter came to an end in the trenches of Europe. The devastating British blockade of Germany would continue until the ruinous Versailles Treaty was signed. A Flu pandemic started to spread over the world and killed millions more people. The Ottoman Empire, Russian Empire, German Empire, and Austrio-Hungarian Empire all fell. The Manchu Empire in China was already gone, but the Japanese Empire was expanding. France and England still had empires, but they were nearly ruined by World War One, and were decaying fast. The U.S. didn't SAY their colonies were part of an empire, but undertook violent counter-action if their rule was challenged.
With several centuries worth of political institutions dead, or severely wounded, international economic collapse further added to the misery of humankind. The worldwide shipping industry fell apart, and localized ruin became planet-wide ruin. Since the USA was one of the few creditor nations, our enonomy didn't formally fall apart until 1929. We remembered the faux-summer of the "Roaring 20's" as a glimmer of hope during the near-glacial winter of the Great Depression and World War Two.
Among the crimes of the radical right wing is their resurrection of the social sickness called "Empire." The Iraq War is an overt takeover of a foriegn country for express economic and political objectives: 14 permanent US bases, and a Super-Embassy in Baghdad, all to be paid for by Iraqi oil revenues -- on the record. THIS is the course the Bush Administration intends to "stay," and why they multiplied the national debt to levels which are beyond insanity, hoping for a big payoff.
These goals are not only immoral, but impossible, and need to be repudiated by Congress, and the citizens of the USA. No one likes to lose, but we've already lost because of the fundamental dishonesty of our government's actions, coupled with incompetence and delusion. So the armies of the UK and US were stronger than Saddam Hussien's army -- that only applies to battlefields. There are no battlefields in Iraq any more -- just somebody else's country, which is occupied by our soldiers for nobody's benefit, except war profiteers who are paid with borrowed money.
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS -- BRING THEM HOME!


Red Cross by Romaine Brooks. Model Ida Rubinstein turned the Hotel Carlton in Paris into a hospital for French soldiers during WWI, and actually performed nursing duties there, as well as appearing at fund-raisers in her uniform, designed by Leon Bakst.