We couldn't even see the mountains yesterday afternoon because of forest fire smoke. The wan morning sun looked like a used red lollipop as it struggled to shed some light on the Flathead Valley today. At least the woods aren't burning HERE!

NEW LAYOUT! Footsbarn Thirty-Five at: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley
Look for the NEW main-page link to 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 Autumn rushes toward us! Click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: Yep, I'm going to be doing the Hockaday Museum of Art website again. I made some progress on my Autumn Salon piece too -- I think I'm going to rely on photos of the parade at Montluçon for the up-and-down medieval look of that town.

Media Watch: PBS Satellite showed an old American Masters episode featuring Leonard Bernstein (1918 - 1990) -- when I was growing up, Bernstein might just as well have been Magnetic North, as far as music went. Any time of day or night, watching him, listening to him, or reading him could help anybody find their way around, no matter what types of music they may have liked or not liked. As a performer he was a super-star, and he was a damn good composer as well. There were many scenes of him flailing away at an orchestra in his most flamboyant style, but there was also one sequence where he conducted the Vienna Symphony Orchestra without a baton -- just turning and smiling, with his arms at his side.
This film helped me, one of his average viewers, get back in touch with the inspirational energy he extruded in the 50's and 60's, not to mention the years before and after those decades:
In the beginning was the Note, and
the note was with God; and
whosoever can reach for that Note,
reach high, and bring it back to
us on earth...and to the extent
of his reach, partakes of the divine.

Theater/Theatre: Speaking of Montluçon:


Juliet hands out affiches to the townspeople, while her Korean friend spins that long white ribbon from her hat on the streets of Montluçon, France. August 4, 2006

The hazy yellow full moon groped it's way through the soupy old forest fire smoke last night. Was that a vulture flying over my neighbor's deck? Sure was -- look at that scrawny little head between those huge chocolate wings!

NEW LAYOUT! Footsbarn Thirty-Five at: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley
Look for the NEW main-page link to 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 Autumn chases toward us! Click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: Ed Gilliland's landscape photographs have this deep, rich blue color because he printed them using copper. See his show, opening soon at the Hockaday Museum of Art. I'm doing a piece for the Autumn Salon, based on (surprise!) my Footsbarn photos.

Theater/Theatre: (NO Footsbarn today -- my wild Circus/Sideshow allies from New York City instead.) Bindlestiff Family Cirkus in NYC

This September the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus will be presenting shows throughout the month under the Big Top. Come down to the South Street Seaport in Manhattan and experience a grand spectacle in the memorable Spiegeltent at the Fulton Street Fish Market, South Street under the Brooklyn Bridge, Pier 17, NYC.

Six shows for all ages. September 7, 8, 9, 21, 22, 23 at 4 pm. One show for adults only, September 20 at 10 pm.

September 20 at 10 pm
BINDLESTIFF FAMILY CIRKUS and MAGIC HAT BREWING COMPANY Celebrate the end of the First Summer Variety Show Tour at a gala event at the beautiful Spiegeltent at the Fulton Fish Market. Dress in your finest, the velvet swags, stained glass, carved booths and gorgeous dance floor of this tented ballroom will bring you back to the decadent days of the Belle Epoque! Featuring Special Guests: Scotty the Blue Bunny, A.J. Silver, Musical Genius Sxip Shirey and more TBA!
ADULTS ONLY (and they're not kidding) 10pm Show www.spiegelworld.com for directions/info Tickets $15 call Ticket Central: 212-279-4200

September 7, 8, 9, 21, 22 and 23 at 4 pm.
Bindlestiff Family Cirkus for All Ages. Bindlestiff presents it's unique hybrid of Circus, Sideshow, and Vaudeville in a Variety Show suitable for all ages at the beautiful Spiegeltent at the Fulton Fish Market. ALL-AGES at 4pm shows. Tickets $15 adults/$10 ages 16 and under. Ticket Central: 212-279-4200.


My fanciful amalgamation of images, placing Ringmistress Philomenia inside the Spiegeltent (where they MAY or MAY NOT allow fire-breathing).

The moon rose nearly full, but very yellow in the forest fire smoke last night. (Same moon that rode above Dublin -- looked like a cheese pizza in Montana!) The spotty Fawn cruised by the Chokecherry Tree again, looking for Sunflower seeds spilled by the rapidly-maturing Blackbirds.

NEW LAYOUT! Footsbarn Thirty-Five at: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley
Look for the NEW main-page link to 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 Autumn chases toward us! Click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: We are putting up Ed Gilliland's photography show at the Hockaday Museum of Art. It looks like I'm taking over the website again -- Linda's right-hand lady, Jeanna Nixon, is leaving for Colorado. (sniff)

Media Watch: Still reading The Story of English. Ebonic master-blaster and P-Funk graphic artist, Stozo The Clown, wrote back to me:
Thanks you are awesome pal -- in Hollywood as I speak doing finnishing of "The Musical Adventures Of Stozo The Clown" a life long project/documentary featuring some of your most favorite funk heroes and me of course ...a funk classic!
will it be finnished i my life time?
who noze but the stoze..... stay toon pal!
Stozo The Infamous Clown!
welcome to myspace -- cool to be the only clown on yo top 10 and to start your funk rollin!
I also "joined" Stozo's sometime employer George Clinton's MySpace to see confirmed tour dates -- it's almost too much work to do for something that's supposed to just be fun.

Let's go back to Footsbarn again!


Fredericka Haytor's organic archway -- the formal entrance to Footsbarn's 35th Anniversary -- A Celebration of Theatre. They are kneeling down to read the schedule, but there is a lot more information available under that stripey tent (Billetterie) in the distance.

HELLO Dublin! (I had an email from there this morning.) The rapidly-waxing moon brought out a whole lot of furry creatures last night -- it seemed my cats said MAOWWW! to every one of them. Gawddam range and forest fires are getting worse, and so is the air.

NEW LAYOUT! Footbarn 35 at: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley
Look for the NEW main-page link to 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 Autumn chases toward us! Click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: It's the first day of classes at Flathead Valley Community College. All slackers report for duty! Uhh -- sometime, whatever... (Note: staff and faculty may be included in this classification.)

Media Watch: I'm reading The Story of English, with Robert McNeil as co-author/editor. They say many nice things about the contributions of Irish speakers and writers to the language. The chapter on Black English may be a generation old, but the big cities continue to exert major influences on speech -- I notice now that Spanish linguistics show up in modern Hip Hop.
Speaking of amazing Black American wordsmiths -- I got a message from one of the field's master practitioners -- Ronald (Stozo Da' Klown) Edwards, of P-Funk fame, sent a reply to an old post of mine. His news is new, though, and those links work:
Uncle Hyphy said...
Thanks Mike E!
Yo Pal The Infamous Stozo The Clown
keep up wit da klown!
"The Musical Adventure Of Stozo The Clown and a New DigiDonz are
comming to town ...one day soon
so...stay toon!
www.myspace.com/stozo
www.myspace.com/thedigidonz
The past post quoted a review of his very fine Digi Donz CD:
Review by Robert "Maggot Minister" Ward -- STOZO THE CLOWN PRESENTS DigiDonz 'The Lower East Side Story Vol.1 DAYUM! Stozo's DigiDonz is the funk done with digital horns,all kind of guitar noise on top of some fonkyass beats.This one will put a hump in yo back. Known for his legendary album covers for Funkadelic,The Horny Horns,Fuzzy Haskins,Zapp and Parlet just to name a few,Ronald P."Stozo" Edwards is funkin' in clownred,and now filling those album sleeves with some FUNK !Not to be confused with just a borrowed sample but ample,right from scratch with no scratching.Hatching a modernmaggots class-sick! The DigiDonz scartoon minds and multicolored sound has gone not only from visual to audio but into some new territory.FUNK has always been accused of being futuristic or ahead of it's time in time,but the sound of the DigiDonz is new even for the Funk. IT jumps off with a serious instrumental with Stozo the Clown on guitar and bass.Psychodelic as his good friend Eddie Hazel,and a Jimi influence but the whole thang is in a new context with Zo also on the digital horns.While instrumentals fuel this collection of streetwise mackadelic funk,'She Freaked Me Out!'has some flow on the track Kenya D.O.G.,while Stozo dropped some p-fied backing vocals,over a slick bass track by Brian Vasquez.The beats are plain stoopid enough to keep a party jumpin' as the colors are filled in with that carnival like atmospheratic mastery that says it was laid down by the funkiest clown around.But,'Guitar In The Closet' is just on a grand funkmatization level with some in-perspirational organ keys.9/11 Emergency is some laid back groove with Stozo hangin' way out there on lead guitar sounds.Hangin' on the roof.The bass on the whole thang is monster. The cover art depicts the 'Lower East Side' night skyline and under such conditions you drift with the groove that is the soundtrack for million stories of the naked city.All endowed with technical wizardry fused and fussing with some old analog getback, as only the funk can bring.In the tradition of concept meets music meets a tale of the LO-E-SO!
Stozo is also a REAL clown -- in fact he's the real deal all around, which brings us to his soulmates across the Atlantic...

Your Footsbarn Picture For Today!


Mareike Schmiller and Pierre Byland are anything but neutral in "Masque Neutrale" during Confusion, a homage to the late theatrical master Jacques Lecoq, founder of Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris, where the core of Footsbarn was trained.

WELCOME! Since there are many persistent new readers from Dublin, according to Sitemeter. I'll try to be bit more prolific here. A little spotty Fawn and it's mom were grazing underneath the Chokecherry tree yesterday morning. The forest fire smoke will remain in the air until prolonged rains extinguish all those blazes south of here from Missoula to Dillon to Idaho. We've only had one partial day of rain since I returned from France.

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley
Look for the NEW main-page link to 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 Autumn runs toward us! Click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: Sunday means Hockaday Museum of Art this year. We tried another antique show and appraisal event in Whitefish as a fund-raiser this year, and it appeared to be successful. I took pictures of the merchant booths and Antiques Roadshow veteran J. Michael Flanagan. Listening to him is a pleasure, even when he's hedging his bets -- if he doesn't know about an antique, he'll try to help you find somebody who does. I also ordered a hardbound first edition of Toni Bentley's Dancer's Journal at the event from booksellers Gene & Barb Allen of Helena, Montana for a future signature. (I have her autograph on a paperback reprint of The Surrender I got in Paris, but I prefer original hardbacks.)

Media Watch: Speaking of Toni Bentley, her late boss George Balanchine choreographed a ballet suite called Jewels, and a taped version from the Paris Opera was shown on PBS over the weekend. I also replayed Bill Lasiwell's all-world jam from Soundstage while I was canning salsa -- Pharoah Sanders, Buckethead, and Bootsy Collins? YEAH!

Theater/Theatre: Footsbarn pictures anybody?!


Puca and the Koreans lead our Footsbarn troupers in a charge along the Aumance River at about a quarter of a kilometer an hour in gorgeous Herrison, France.