Wildlife and Weather: The Bald Eagles came back to Middle Foy's Lake, once the ugly rowboat went away. They were there all day yesterday, and we saw them fly in during a soft snowfall at first light this morning.

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!

Charity Alert: Keep that resolution! Click on The Hunger Site once a day.

Media Watch: Dancing with the Stars again! Last week we voted for "Sticks," AKA Kenny Mayne, the quick-witted ESPN announcer. No, he wasn't very good, but at least he TRIED. Master P and George Hamilton both just "dawged" their dances. Sad to say, Mayne and his lovely partner Andrea Hale ended up dead last.
Louis van Amstel, the Dutch sad-sack who was first out with The Bachelorette last season has a better partner with Lisa Rinna. She's an announcer on the Soap Channel, with a good voice, but bad taste in cosmetic surgery. Edyta Sliwinska is a flashy soloist -- I know that because she's paired with comic actor George Hamilton, who is 66 years old and injured. He's charming his way through, but I think they should have an old guy who isn't so banged-up in his place. Jonathan Roberts and Giselle Fernandez are interesting -- she's a middle-aged TV journalist, but very lean and athletic -- they are scoring big with the judges. Ashly DelGrosso (from UTAH!) drew the most inept partner in Master P Miller -- his attitude is her biggest problem. She had a fabulous mate in the first season -- Joey from NKOB had APTITUDE instead, and enjoyed learning from her. Max Chmerkovskiy and new mother Tia Carrere are cute together. She always had a pleasant personality. Nick Kosovich and Tatum O'Neal could possibly win -- she's trying real hard, almost too hard. Anna Trebunskaya needs to "sic" a hypnotist on Jerry Rice -- his head is literally in the wrong place when he dances -- except for that, he's awesome from the neck on down. Tony Dovolani was the luckiest professional dancer -- his partner is the graceful, athletic, ballet-trained Stacy Keibler. I think she's looking for a more respectable gig than her professional wrestling job. Do you remember the character Tina Sparkle in Strictly Ballroom? She was tall, elegant, with a good figure, and wore the skimpiest costumes -- Ms. Kiebler seems to be her clone.
The dynamic Cheryl Burke teamed up with another ex-Boy Band performer named Drew Lachey. (The group was 98 Degrees, a mostly-forgotten bunch from the early 90's.) We voted for them -- she is good, and he has a lot of talent. They are the best-synchronized couple on the show, we think.


We voted for (L) Drew Lachey and (R) Cheryl Burke after the second show, since Kenny "Sticks" Mayne didn't make the first cut.

Wildlife and Weather: The wind was blowing steadily for the last two days on Middle Foy's Lake, and the ice was melting in the unseasonably warm weather between snow flurries. That ugly rowboat slid backwards into the aereation pond, and was gradually blown through the thinning ice until it beached on the east shore. Maybe the Bald Eagles will come back now!

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!

Charity Alert: Keep that resolution! Click on The Hunger Site once a day.

Media Watch: TCM ran The Big Store, a Marx Brothers comedy from 1941. Their skill level was probably at it's peak. Groucho was moving almost constantly -- that silly walk of his was used in a long song-and-dance number. Harpo's musicianship and comedy were exquisite. Chico was funny in places, but he was a follower rather than a leader in this flick.
The production design was textbook 1940's -- the hairstyles and gowns for the women were surreal. I have yet to see that particular look "come back" utilizing it's basic forms, unlike the 20's or 30's. I guess Joan Crawford exemplifies that style best, but she was CREEE-PY! Betty Grable and Alice Faye sported that look too, and retired before the end of the decade.


Ginger Rogers and Caesar Romero in Tales of Manhattan (1943)
Ginger's got a serious case of "Forties Hair!"

Wildlife: The Whitetail Deer don't mind the fresh greenery showing randomly through snow patches in this odd winter.

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: The rain/sun/snow/rain/freeze/thaw cycle continues --
we got tht sunshine I wanted too.

Charity Alert: Keep that resolution! Click on The Hunger Site once a day.

Media Watch: NFL Football --
Saturday January 14, 2006
Washington @ Seattle 4:30 pm EST
New England @ Denver 8:00 pm EST
Sunday January 15, 2006
Pittsburgh @ Indianapolis 1:00 pm EST
Carolina @ Chicago 4:30 pm EST

Kim Manning of George Clinton's P-Funk All-Stars didn't get sent home from VH1's Flavor of Love -- yet. I hope it's soon, while she still has her dignity. There was a fair amount of roller skating on the show. Flavor Flav and five women, including Manning, had their moment on skates. She was very quiet, except for a few seconds where she sang and strummed a guitar.
The show doted on typical ugly-talk and back-biting crap, but one sequence surprised me pleasantly -- Flav had to "speed-date" 15 women for ten minutes each. (150 minutes = 2 1/2 hours) Needless to say, they couldn't show more than a flash of each encounter. The whistle-blowing in between each "date" got to be pretty funny. This sequence was shot in a spa, so there were lots of bathing suits and a little requisite vulgarity, but it wasn't too bad, considering the rest of the show. I hope Kim's guitar survived those humid conditions beside her hot tub.


Kim Manning sings the Funkadelic classic Never Gonna Tell It
in her solo spot with George Clinton & the P-Funk All-Stars
Besides the original Parliaments, this song was sung by
Phillip Wynne when he joined P-Funk after his stint with the Spinners.

The Hockaday art exhibits were all up on schedule! Congratulations to our director and everybody on the staff. (Reception January 19th) Hockaday Museum of Art

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: The rain/sun/snow/rain/freeze/thaw cycle continues --
a little more warm sun in the mix would be welcome.

Wildlife: Some numbnuts parked their rowboat next to the aereation pond, so they can fish inside the 12 foot circle in the ice. It seems to scare the Bald Eagles away. Like most evenings when I drive home in the twilight, there was a small family of Whitetail Deer along Lakeshore Drive.

Charity Alert: Keep that resolution! Click on The Hunger Site once a day.

Theater/Theatre: Katie in Amsterdam will be traveling in February:
Katie Duck two weekends of Improvisation workshops
Bordeaux, France Sunday. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday February 5, 6 7, 8
Bookings & enquiries les Ateliers de la Manutention, 13 rue de la manutention. 33000 Bordeaux - France
(33) (0) 5 56 93 84 27 /la-manu@wanadoo.fr/www.ateliersdelamanutention.com

Edinburgh, Scotland Saturday and Sunday February 18 and 19
Bookings & enquiries: Dance Base National Centre for Dance 14-16 Grassmarket Edinburgh EH1 2JU
Phone +44 (0) 131 225 5525, fax +44 (0) 131 225 5234 email dance@dancebase.co.uk


From Dance Base's site in Edinburgh --
Katie will have something to show 'em!
P.S: Those photos are from B&W videos shot in 1975.

Here's a related event from her studio:
DECAMARONE festival - 3 Days - 10 Artists - 30 Stories - 3 Days - 10 Artists
12 - 13 - 14 January 2006 / Overtoom 301 - Amsterdam
www.decamarone.com
http://squat.net/overtoom301/pages/events.html
As they enter the building, audiences are welcomed as guests into the Oekolos: the living space of a community of artists who fled the Bird Flu virus. With installations forming its functional interior, the Oekolos resembles an ecosystem that actively relates the whole space, the performers and the audience to each other. The audience witnesses the performances from within this alternate reality.
Boccaccio’s original Decamarone (1351), a frame story about the plague in medieval Florence, heralded a new era in Western Europe through it’s collection of critical and satirical stories told by the independent voices of ten young people, who paint a lively and transparent picture of their world. This festival version of the Decamarone, besides giving a powerful context for a diverse collection of short performances, sets a stage for contemporary voices to speak.


A proto-Renaissance mural inspired by Boccaccio circa 1400 A.D.
(Note Katie and Matt in the lower center panel.)
It couldn't have been THAT long ago! Could it?