The deer were checking out the same neighborhood garage sale we were visiting! A mama and her baby loped right in front of us as we left. The weather is pleasant and warm for the official first day of Autumn this year.

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

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 settles in. Click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: Saturday at the Hockaday Museum of Art -- updating the website, and taking down a banner advertising the antique show, 'way down in Somers.

Media Watch: PBS' American Masters had a well-documented program about Andy Warhol. I attended one of those events where he "mass produced" himself for the lecture circuit by sending out a bunch of imposters around 1967. The University of Utah wanted their money back!
The documentary rubbed me the wrong way once or twice -- Jeff Koons would NEVER be my choice for Warhol voice-overs, and it isn't accurate to divide his life into pre-shooting and post-shooting halves -- just convenient. The name Joe Delasandro never came up once, although it was great seeing Paul Morissey, Billy Name, and other Warhol associates. (Why in the HELL wasn't Mary Woronov interviewed? She was on the scene at The Factory too, and went on to success without Warhol's gang. Screw them -- visit her website, if you haven't already -- she's fabulous!)

Leonard Cohen says: What I'll Give You Since You Asked ...


Masques On Parade, at the Hockaday Museum of Art.
My entry to the Autumn Salon of 2006 -- it is a digital watercolor composed from a half dozen photographs taken at Footsbarn's parade in Montluçon, France. Oh yeah, that's me holding it.

The weather cleared up alright -- until the afternoon. It rained hard until midnight at least. Good thing I was driving slow after dark in my neighborhood -- a rather foolish Whitetail sauntered right in front of me. You can't hunt around Foy's Lake, but a lot of animals die from collisions there.

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

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 settles in. Click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: Almost 200 people braved the sloppy rain to show up at the Hockaday Museum of Art for Ed Gilliland's lecture and reception last night.

Media Watch: Another book about books and media -- The Monsters: Mary Shelley and the Curse of Frankenstein by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler. This tome is mostly gossip so far -- about Percy Shelly, Harriet Shelly, Mary W. (Godwin) Shelly, Claire Godwin, and we'll soon get to the prolifigate Lord Byron, Dr. Poldori, and Lake Geneva. The cover picture is Fuseli's famous Nightmare, the same image Ken Russell used to advertise Gothic, his less-than-excellent dramatization of Frankenstein's genesis.
Mary Shelly's famous book is not only a major Gothic Novel, but it's also the FIRST actual Science Fiction novel -- so says my friend Brian W. Aldiss in The Trillion Year Spree, to my complete agreement.
It's theme of unintended consequences still resonates deeply in human society, and overwhelms the ridiculous plot.

On a lighter note: Merrily we roll along ... roll along ... roll along!


Clara (front) and Eavan (back) "carting around" with Pierre's son and Sharon's son during Footsbarn's Celebration of Theatre at sunset. They not only worked dawn to dusk, but sometimes dawn to dawn.

The weather cleared up a little. Fall has still fallen. I wish I could identify those gray-brown ducks on our lake, but I never seem to have my spotting scope, an ID book, sufficient light, and the ducks all together at the same time.

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

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 setles in. Click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: The Hockaday Museum of Art features Ed Gilliland's lecture and reception TONIGHT -- it will probably be one of my last. I'm likely going to move to Fort Collins, Colorado soon, but I'm NOT going to give the Director my notice this evening and spoil a good time.

Media Watch: I'm reading a book King Kong; the history of a movie icon from Fay Wray to Peter Jackson by Ray Morton. about the making of King Kong -- not just the original, but ALL the misbegotten remakes and sequels. Mighty Joe Young has a special place in the Kong Kanon because it was a success, and helped launch Ray Harryhausen's career.
King Kong (1933) THE classic of dawg-assed escapist cinema. Merian C. Cooper deserves a lot of credit, but the whole genre of movie monsters running amok in modern cities comes from Willis O'Brien -- starting with The Lost World in 1925.
Son of Kong (1933) The author likes this thing more than it really deserves.
Morton rightly points out the connection between Kong and the Gojiro (Godzilla) franchise. Willis O'Brien even deserves credit for the ideas which led to the following Japanese gigglers:
King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962) Japanese men in rubber suits, wrestling on soundstages full of miniatures -- bust 'em up, boys!
Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966) Starring Godzilla, but written for Kong -- ahh, studio politics!
King Kong Escapes (1967) Yeah, but Toho Studios caught him again! The book delineates O'Brien's link to the two Gargantua movies as well -- one of G's rubber villains, Barugon, also fought Gamera, but we'll leave THAT alone for now!
RKO refused to authorize remakes while they had legal standing in the matter -- turned out to be a good policy. Look what happened:
King Kong (1976) Jessica Lange's career almost ended before it began. Morton tries to speak well of this flick, but he's full of Gorilla shit.
King Kong Lives (1986). An even WORSE sequel than the '76 remake, starring Linda Hamilton, who might have felt like following Lange's footsteps over a career-crippling cliff was a bad idea. (Thank goodness for the cult TV series Beauty and the Beast -- I don't think Hamilton would have had another crack at the Terminator without that particular break.)
King Kong (2005) by New Zealand's CGI-man, Peter Jackson. (Buy the video game, anybody can make up better stories than him!) Oh yeah, almost forgot, Naomi Watts played Fay Wray's character.
BTW -- Kong's Wikipedia Page is delightful!


Kong's Ladies' Klub -- (L to R) Naomi Watts, Linda Hamilton, and Jessica Lange. Fay Wray might have been unfairly typecast after her success in the original, but these actors have thankfully gone on to "bigger and better things."

More gray and rainy weather in the Flathead Valley. It cleared up a little in the late afternoon. The Autumnal Equinox is this Friday, but Fall has taken off it's shoes and made itself at home already.

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

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 setles in. Click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: My digital watercolor made from Footsbarn parade images, Masques On Parade, was formally entered into the Members Only! Autumn Salon 2006 at the Hockaday Museum of Art yesterday. Y'know? I ought to take a shot, inside the circusy frame, and post it here. I'll shoot a picture of me and my artwork tomorrow, since I'll be there (early) for Ed Gilliland's lecture and reception.

Media Watch: Trash-O-Rama! I read through Edgar Rice Burroughs' The Eternal Savage. It features Lord (Tarzan) Greystoke as a secondary character in this ridiculous tale of reincarnation and time travel in ERB's version of Africa -- starring handsome troglodyte Nu of the Niocene, his beautiful long-lost mate Nu-tal, and Oo the Sabertooth Tiger -- who dies early, but whose skull is carted around the whole damn book.


As Jimmy Castor used to say: We're going back -- 'way back! ...Cave Men, Cave WOMEN -- troglodytes! Three versions of Edgar Rice Burroughs' non-series potboiler with a cameo by John (Tarzan) Clayton as a British colonial landholder. Left to right: illustrations by P.J. Monahan (1915), J. Allen St. John (1927), and Roy G. Krenkel (1963).

Avast Matey! It's Talk Like A Pirate Day -- the weather is gray and rainy in the Flathead Valley. The migrating Canadian Geese sure made a racket after sunset last night. The Autumnal Equinox is later this week, but it was awfully dark under the low clouds this morning -- I kept the cats in, just to be safe. No need to fool with Coyotes.

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

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.

Media Watch: What the bloody 'ell is this 'ere malarky about Talk Like A Pirate Day? I call it a tribute to the great character actor Robert Newton. He starred in Blackbeard the Pirate, Walt Disney's Treasure Island, and an Australian TV series/movie where he reprised his distinctive over-the-top version of Long John Silver as an exuberant Bristol seafaring man with a heart of gold, and near-fatal lust for the same precious metal. As far as non-pirate fare goes, I saw Soldiers Three the other week, and Newton was hilarious -- even Stewart Grainger and David Niven were funny. I HAVE to mention Newton's portrayal of camp-follower Pistol in Henry V one more time -- he had Sir Lawrence Olivier on the verge of cracking up!
The only Newton mis-fire I've seen is Jamaica Inn, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, co-starring Maureen O'Hara, in her screen debut, and Charles Laughton, one of Newton's few equals in the art of over-acting. It may read like a winner, but it's a weak walk-through of a movie. They must have been rationing ham in England that year.

I keep getting Google inquiries about "Mickey Hagarity," a name I mis-spelled once in connection with my Something Weird Video Collection. The real man has passed away: (from Yahoo.com) Mickey Hargitay, the actor and world champion bodybuilder who was married to 1950s sex siren Jayne Mansfield and whose daughter is Emmy-winning actress Mariska Hargitay, has died. He was 80. Born Miklos Hargitay in 1926, he emigrated from his native Hungary to the United States after World War II. He became interested in bodybuilding in the 1950s and was named Mr. Universe, Mr. America and Mr. Olympia in 1955. He parlayed his perfect physique into a performing career when Mae West tapped him to be one of the musclemen in her stage show. It was there that Hargitay met Mansfield, whom he married in 1957. That same year, he made his big-screen debut in "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue." He went on to star opposite his wife in three films: "The Loves of Hercules," "Promises! Promises!" and "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" The couple had three children together, including Mariska, before divorcing in 1964. (Their relationship was hounded to death by bottom-feeders who we now call the Papparazzi and Mainstream Media. IMHO)
Mansfield died in a car crash in 1967.


(Left to Right)Jayne Mansfield in a mid-50's publicity shot; Her hard-fighting show business predecessor Mae West, standing next to Mansfield's future husband, bodybuilding champion Mickey Hargitay, in West's nightclub revue circa 1956.

Two deer and a skunk dispersed their little meeting as our car drove by last evening. There were two Whitetail fawns at the same place this morning. The weather is partly cloudy, with lots of sun, but it was close to freezing last night. Greetings to: Cedar Rapids, Iowa (Ian Sholes AKA Merle Kessler); Schaumburg, Illinois (Hardcore Punk-Rock from SLC, Utah); Canon City, Colorado (Hockaday info!) and Kaysville, Utah (Street Legal Theater). Wherefore art thou, Dublin?

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

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: I'm framing my digital watercolor Masques On Parade today for the Autumn Salon at the Hockaday Museum of Art. I need to get some extra matte board for gifts too -- Clara McBride deserves one, Eavan Brennan is front and center, and I'll send another to Paddy and Fredericka Haytor.

Media Watch: Book TV featured Robert Rosen, who disputed, in public, the mean-spirited unsubstantiated belief that President Franklin D. Roosevelt abandoned the Jews in Europe. In his book, Saving the Jews: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Holocaust, Rosen argued that President Roosevelt was not a passive bystander to the deaths of Jewish people but led an administration that dealt with Nazi persecution instead. Mr. Rosen believes President Roosevelt was unfairly criticized for 1) failure to save the Jewish passengers aboard the St. Louis in 1939, 2) failure to change immigration laws, 3) failure to speak against the Holocaust, and 4) refusal to bomb Auschwitz.
I am no micro-historian, but I knew enough to know it was bullshit to accuse Roosevelt of being an accomplice in the Shoah (Holocaust). It's very sad that those false allegations were left to fester in the popular press for a generation before they were seriously refuted -- real scholars, and people with living memories to the contrary spoke up twenty years ago, but they weren't as sensational as the smug revisionists, so guess who got played up by the Media?
One thing I will say -- Jewish refugees suffered, sometimes hideously, at the hands of anti-Nazi allies -- things could have/should have been handled better, but they weren't.

Let's think about other things, like Footsbarn's Celebration of Theatre:


Theatre Company Minduelle from South Korea put on a bright, engaging show called Eunusong, which was actually a tragedy about true love going wrong -- very wrong, under the pressures of corruption in the world. The young, energetic cast lent the sounds and color of their native country to our parades around neighboring towns.