Happy New Year! We even get to skip Monday as a working day tomorrow.

Updates are coming: Theater X-Net

Featuring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
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!

Weather: Warm enough to melt ice and snow for most of the last 24 hours. It may be safe to drive tomorrow.

Wildlife: The critters seem to enjoy the Holidays too. The Raccoons are raiding the box feeder again. The Deer are snooping around for spilled seeds. We heard the Coyotes a few nights ago, and so did my neighbor -- he swept the surface of the lake with a spotlight, but they were somewhere else. We saw that light again this evening, but it was just a Deer crunching along in the styrofoam snow on the lake. A lone Canadian Goose took a rest by the open water at midday.

Charity Alert: Resolve again to visit The Hunger Site once a day and click away.

Media Watch: More Holiday bits and pieces (mostly about music) --
George Clinton and the P-Funk All Stars were on BET's 25 Years celebration. Snoop Dog was the MC of their segment, which was right, since he used their tracks behind his greatest hit records. Bootsy Collins played his awesome bass with the group again, but didn't sing. Kim Manning was singing and gyrating on ROLLER SKATES. She will be in the cast of VH1's Flavor of Love starting tonight. Flavor Flav's other Reality shows on this network have not only been outrageous, but more than a little humiliating. I'm hoping for the best concerning Ms. Manning.


Singer Kim Manning won a recent songwriting competition,
and appears on VH1's weekly Flavor of Love.
Besides her own career, she sings with George Clinton & The P-Funk All-Stars
Review: VH1's Flavor of Love is as phony and degrading as any other Reality show. Ms. Manning didn't initiate any of the gross self-humiliation that some of the other cast members put themselves through. In fact, she hardly spoke a word. Except for being nicknamed "Peaches," her dignity was largely intact at the end of the first episode. I'm frankly hoping that Kim will NOT continue for very long. Two other "quiet contestants" left with the first five, but Manning remained on the show with fifteen others. Hey lady -- the real LOSERS in this game are the ones who stick around for more degradation.
Previews show the usual fights and bleeped-over swearing common to this genre, plus other stupid stuff. Media masochist Brigitte Nielsen will appear in a "future" installment too. Whomever "wins" will just be sneered at and called "Brigitte's Substitute."
During Nielsen's last Celeb-Reality series with Flavor Flav, he turned to her and said Do you HAVE to be drunk to be with me? in a seemingly genuine moment of exasperation.


Brigitte Nielsen in Monte Carlo circa 1987
Detail from a photo by the late Helmut Newton
Larry King Live featured the children of Ricky Nelson, along with his great lead guitarist James Burton. Somehow the L.A. studio musician Glen Campbell was on too, although he was only a minor participant in Nelson's career. Ricky Nelson was undoubtedly Elvis Presley's most successful imitator/competitor. His parents' popular TV show, his good looks, and undoubted talent made an unbeatable combination.
James Burton was always nearby, playing tasty, if short, guitar solos. He later appeared as one of the Shindogs, along with Delaney Bramlett. He made quality records with Judy Collins, Elvis, Emmylou Harris, and many other acts. My favorite James Burton performance is Susie Q by Dale Hawkins, one of the few white singers on Chess Records. Credence Clearwater Revival's version may be more famous, but it's not nearly as FUNKY! (John Fogarty liked Ricky Nelson's music, and vice versa.)
Think Tank with Ben Wattenburg had a show about the great songwriter Irving Berlin, with his daughter as a guest. Born Israel Balin, he was one of the most important cultural influences of the early 20th Century. He dropped out of public life sometime in the late 50's, which might have been his own business, but an unfortunate result was that very few books were ever written about his remarkably productive life because he allowed nobody access to himself or his papers. He lived to be over a hundred years old, so there was a lot to tell. I hope the rapidly-dwindling number of people who knew him keep talking while they are alive!