Coyotes are still howling at night -- the neighborhood dogs bark back, but there's not much else they can do. I'm not sure what those three huge birds were who hovered over Middle Foy's Lake yesterday, but they weren't Ospreys -- Vultures maybe. I saw a flock of about two dozen Magpies on Buckboard Lane. Usually they gather in much smaller groups. I wonder if something big has died in the tall grass somewhere nearby?

DANCE at the Hole In The Wall: Theater X-Net

Starring: 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!
NEW! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

Charity Alert: Keep that resolution as Autumn approaches! Click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: The last Sunday shift for me at the Hockaday Museum of Art this year! I traded days around to make sure I was clear for my trip to France. I am pleased by what we have on the walls here, especially since I was relieved of doing this particular tear-down and installation for almost the first time in seven years -- David Secrest is a modern metal sculptor with wit and charm in every piece; Francis Senska had a long and productive career. We are showing first-rate ceramics, expressionistic lithographs, drawings and paintings by this great lady of Montana art; We have a half-dozen paintings by late local legend Ace Powell; and we have updated our Crown of the Continent exhibit with a couple of Glacier National Park landscapes by the fastidiously detailed Nicholas Oberling.
Flathead Valley Community College won first place for it's float in the parade which I videotaped in a jet-lagged haze last Friday. It was simple and effective -- as the music of the Village People boomed through speakers on a flatbed hay truck, we had riders dressed as the many types of people who take classes at our community college -- which is EVERY kind of person who lives here.
It's fun to go to F-V-C-C!

Media Watch: Richard (Riff-Raff) O'Brien's misbegotten follow-up to The Rocky Horror Picture Show was on the cable, so I recorded it. It's called Shock Treatment, and features Barry (Brad) Bostwick and cult movie star Jessica (Suspiria) Harper. These facts don't mean that the movie is any good, however. I'm pretty sure O'Brien relented his sensibilities under various pressures, in this case.
Allen Toffler was on CSPAN, but the host was Newt Gingrich -- I can't watch any program with the likes of him or Grover Norquist directing conversations while pretending to be polite in the company of borrowed intelligence (rather than their own immoral, predatory, cunning opportunism).

Theater/Theatre: Stay tuned for another Footsbarn picture! I have about 2000 of 'em, and will post one as soon as I am on a machine that will let me.


As promised -- from the midway at La Chaussee. Rachelle gets up close and personal with friendly Mr. Pucca. She portrays a "Lady In Distress" to his "Dragon" during one of our pre-show parades. A trick horse rider from Circus Werdyn will soon show up, dressed as "St. George," to carry her away to safety.