Cold and sunny all weekend, and now it's starting to snow. We heard the Coyotes last week, and saw another gory deer carcass on the ice -- in front of someone ELSE's house this time.

Updating this week: 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!

Charity Alert: Keep that resolution in February too! Click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: The Thousand Yard Stare on Ariana Huffington's blogsite. A video of Jim Soular reading his poem Gold Star Mother -- about a dozen visitors a day come by. The top two will have hundreds of thousands of viewers at the end of the month, but I'm still glad we did this.
Huffington Post -- Contagious Festival.

Media Watch: Frivolity Rules! "Hammy" George was voted off Dancing with the Stars. I think America's millions of football fans came to Jerry Rice's rescue. However, his partner is a fine, personable dancer, like Hammy's, and that may have made a difference. Lisa "Lips" Rinna has been working very hard, but all that plastic surgery creeps me out -- her partner, Louis Van Amstel is a rather cold technician too, but the judges like this couple. Rice will need to surprise everyone to have a chance next week.
America's Ballroom Challenge on PBS was reasonably fun. We are seeing some of these dancers doing guest-shots on ABC's Stars -- Tony Dovolani took second place in the overall judging on PBS, and he is the lucky man who has Stacy (Tina Sparkle) Kiebler as his celebrity partner. I'm supporting Drew & Cheryl, but DAY-UM! Tony and Stacy are good.
Book TV -- John Prevas' thoughtful discussion of Envy of the Gods: Alexander the Great's Ill-Fated Journey across Asia was the sort of thing that makes my weekend. Chris Patten was speaking at the often-reactionary Brookings Institution about Cousins and Strangers: America, Britain, and the Europe in a New Century. He was a stodgy, conservative Englishman, bred to run the old empire, but he knew what he was talking about, which is far too rare nowadays.
Bollywood Movies -- A dorky remake of Ellen Barkin's Switch. The original wasn't very good, and this Indian crib was only a pale copy. It had the WORST soundtrack I've ever heard in any Indian film. We accidentally recorded over part of it, but no matter -- this one's a waste of time.