Will my Flu shot protect me this year? Only time will tell. The Deer have been all over the place -- that now-gone snow might have scared them into eating more while they can.

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Ida's Places in Paris, from my jet-lagged first day by the Seine.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley
Click on Exceptionally Yours to find 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 Winter sneaks around on us! Click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: I'm updating the Hockaday Museum of Art's Website this afternoon. I'm also looking through my archives for "people pictures" to use in publicity.

Media Watch: As Fred Neil once sang: Everybody's talkin' at me ... reminding all of us that Saturday is November 11th -- A.K.A. Veteran's Day or Rememberance Day. There are only 14 living US veterans of that War To End All Wars.
My contribution to Viet Nam-Era U.S. politics was Draft Resistance -- and not only for myself. I still believe that every person I helped keep out of combat then was a tiny drop of medicine for our diseased society.
Sometimes war is inevitable, but our current debacle in Iraq certainly wasn't. The people who chose to unleash this evil folly should be discredited so that it cannot happen the same way again. How this administration treats the soldiers who have fought on their say-so is criminal, and should be punished too. I can only hope that our new Congress and Senate will undertake their new responsibilities with the seriousness they deserve.
Here's what we're celebrating in Europe and Amerika -- on November 11, 1918 four-plus years of senseless slaughter came to an end in the trenches of Europe. The devastating British blockade of Germany would continue until the ruinous Versailles Treaty was signed. A Flu pandemic started to spread over the world and killed millions more people. The Ottoman Empire, Russian Empire, German Empire, and Austrio-Hungarian Empire all fell. The Manchu Empire in China was already gone, but the Japanese Empire was expanding. France and England still had empires, but they were nearly ruined by World War One, and were decaying fast. The U.S. didn't SAY their colonies were part of an empire, but undertook violent counter-action if their rule was challenged.
With several centuries worth of political institutions dead, or severely wounded, international economic collapse further added to the misery of humankind. The worldwide shipping industry fell apart, and localized ruin became planet-wide ruin. Since the USA was one of the few creditor nations, our enonomy didn't formally fall apart until 1929. We remembered the faux-summer of the "Roaring 20's" as a glimmer of hope during the near-glacial winter of the Great Depression and World War Two.
Among the crimes of the radical right wing is their resurrection of the social sickness called "Empire." The Iraq War is an overt takeover of a foriegn country for express economic and political objectives: 14 permanent US bases, and a Super-Embassy in Baghdad, all to be paid for by Iraqi oil revenues -- on the record. THIS is the course the Bush Administration intends to "stay," and why they multiplied the national debt to levels which are beyond insanity, hoping for a big payoff.
These goals are not only immoral, but impossible, and need to be repudiated by Congress, and the citizens of the USA. No one likes to lose, but we've already lost because of the fundamental dishonesty of our government's actions, coupled with incompetence and delusion. So the armies of the UK and US were stronger than Saddam Hussien's army -- that only applies to battlefields. There are no battlefields in Iraq any more -- just somebody else's country, which is occupied by our soldiers for nobody's benefit, except war profiteers who are paid with borrowed money.
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS -- BRING THEM HOME!


Red Cross by Romaine Brooks. Model Ida Rubinstein turned the Hotel Carlton in Paris into a hospital for French soldiers during WWI, and actually performed nursing duties there, as well as appearing at fund-raisers in her uniform, designed by Leon Bakst.

I mis-spoke yesterday. That Pacific rain DID cause local damage! Glacier National Park has lost roads, bridges, and critical infrastructure to flooding. It's going to cost millions to clean up that mess -- including a very high steep section of Going To The Sun Road which has slid down the mountain on the east side of Logan Pass.

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Ida's Places in Paris, from my jet-lagged first day by the Seine.
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 Winter sneaks around on us! Click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: I visited the Wheelers last night and expressed my admiration to them for sacrificing their time and money to run for public office. Since the election went to their opponent, they will be spared the additional sacrifices of a winter in Helena, Montana. Scott's website will be off the World Wide Web by the end of the month.

Media Watch: Tee-RASH A Go Go (Again) -- Dancing with the Stars is down to Mario Lopez and Emmitt Smith. Joey Lawrence is going on a national tour with other ex-contestants and dancing professionals. From the preview it looks like hyper-energetic Lisa (Lips) Renna is the stage-boss, with my least-favorite pro Louis Van Amstel as choreographer. If you like these people's work, don't let ME stop you from having a good time -- go see 'em.
Amongst the variey entertainment and outright padding, London's ultra-boring, uh -- artistically jaded -- Pet Shop Boys performed their best song West End Girls on the Results Show last night.
While I was driving out to the Wheeler's house, I had a second-hand compilation of B.J. Thomas' hits playing on the stereo -- cost me all of 70 cents up in Canada.
I'm going to write a paragraph about the B.J. Thomas records I LIKE:
When I was in High School, he had his first big hit with I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry. I appreciated the sound of his rich resonant voice, and neither suspected it was written by Hank Williams, nor cared when I found out. Passing over other hits and misses in silence -- the next record of his which caught my ears favorably was Eyes of a New York Woman. In fact the reason I bought this tape was to hear that song again. I'm afraid it has been forgotten since the follow-up was so huge -- Hooked On A Feeling, with it's ridiculous drug references and faux-sitar guitar, on top of the admittedly Class-A Memphis arrangement and full-out vocal performance. The former record has all the qualities of the latter, without the bad-taste lyrics. I'll plead guilty to liking the sentimental Rock & Roll Lullaby too. Thomas became a "big name" after recording two of Bacharach and David's last hits, but they are not part of this "like" paragraph. I will give any song of B.J. Thomas' at least one listen, and heartily endorse his later covers of the Beach Boys' Don't Worry Baby, and Don Williams' Gypsy Woman. I even enjoy some of his Gospel recordings.


Composite hopped-up images of some of my favorite Trash A-Go-Go pro dancers -- Kym Johnson, Australia's Tina Sparkle of this season; Karina Smirnoff, five-time U.S. Champion, may win this time with Mario Lopez; Cheryl Burke won last season, and is in the final round with Emmitt Smith; Edyta Sliwinska and Kym continue to do guest appearences, win or lose.

After days of low clouds and rainy weather we are seeing sunshine and cold winds. (This is Montana, dagnabbit!) We have been spared most of the flooding suffered by out neighbors in Washington and Oregon. I transplanted some flowering Pepper plants indoors.

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Ida's Places in Paris, from my jet-lagged first day by the Seine.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley
Click on Exceptionally Yours to find 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 Winter sneaks up on us! Click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: I showed up for live-blogging at the Knead Cafe last night. I'm going out to see my friends the Wheelers tonight, even though Scott wasn't elected. I did the Wheeler for Legislature Website, and I'm proud of it. I am happy to be involved in an overall victorious campaign for Reality-based Politics.

Mercury Watch: Telescopes on the lawn of Flathead Valley Community College -- tracking the transit of Planet Mercury across the face of the Sun. There were some HUGE sunspots on the edge!


The little dot on the lower left is Mercury crossing the Sun, just about as I saw it at 1:30 P.M. today through a heavily-filtered telescope. The big dots on the Solar Equator are sunspots -- over four times the size of our own planet.
NASA Photo

Election Day! Vote for SANITY, please. There was a Mama Deer and two Fawns off the back deck this morning while we were dragging our own tails off to the polls. It was dark, wet, and warmish under the thick clouds. We had to wait in line about a half hour to vote -- two years ago it was well over 2 hours.

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Ida's Places in Paris, from my jet-lagged first day by the Seine.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley
Click on Exceptionally Yours to find 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 Winter sneaks up on us! Click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: I am thinking of showing up at a live-blogging event tonight at the Knead Cafe. I can contribute a photo of the scene while Doug does all the keyboarding. I'm also going out to see my friends the Wheelers tomorrow. I did Scott's Wheeler for Legislature Website, and so I'm hoping he'll win, and win big.

Media Watch: Simon Winchester's The Day The World Exploded, about the Krakatoa eruption of 1883. There's a lot of stories sketched out in this book -- The Dutch East India Company; Co-founding evolutionist Alfred Wallace and his Asia/Australia biological boundary line; Meteorologist Alfred Wegener, the long pursuit of proof for Continental Drift, plus his posthumous vindication; Even the subject of atmospheric disturbances adding to the multiple miseries of the Dark Ages, because of a possible (but unproven) Krakatoa eruption in the 6th Century A.D. (I mentioned a PBS show about that theory on this blog recently -- it addressed the thesis of the book Catastrophe by David Keys -- Ken Wohletz's analysis HERE)
One observation impresses me -- the collision of relativly light continental masses and heavy oceanic tectonic plates under the Spice Islands creates particularly explosive and violent volcanos.

OK -- I vacationed on a volcano in 1976. The island of Stromboli, which is always erupting from the northwest side, or the crater. It rises over 3000 feet out of the Mediterranean Sea. There are two white-washed villlages standing there on either side of the black pumice cone. From the top, there are other volcanos as far as you can see.



VOLCANIC PASSION! Ingrid Bergman was the star of Roberto Rosselinni's half-baked movie Stromboli (1950). Whatever artistic statement they wanted to make was drowned out by the public furor over their private lives. A much finer result of their collaboration was talented daughter Isabella. All kidding aside, Stromboli had been seriously depopulated by a disasterous eruption in 1939. Things were still pretty bad when they made this film in 1949. I'm not sure where Rossellini got his destruction footage, but it could have been from a decade earlier. When I was there in the mid-70's, almost a fourth of the houses on the Northeast side were still damaged by hot ash from the skies. It wasn't difficult at all to cross the island from one village to another -- Bergman must have been slowed down by the camera crew in this shot. (Day-um! There I go, kidding again.)

Bald Eagles harassing the poor Ducks on Middle Foy's Lake. I thought they were scavengers more than hunters. A Raccoon sighted on the back deck -- as long as the Coyotes and Skunks stay away, I don't mind. The weather warmed up a little after last week's snowfall, and the roads are no longer icy. Most of the Autumn leaves have fallen -- including the golden needles off the Tamarack (Larch) trees.

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Ida's Places in Paris, from my jet-lagged first day by the Seine.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley
Click on Exceptionally Yours to find 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 Winter sneaks up on us! Click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: Updates at the Hockaday Museum of Art's website -- especially Upcoming Exhibits. I am personally excited about our big Summer show -- The Winold Reiss Art School -- a heroic effort on behalf of the Great Northern Railway to cope with simultanious effects of the Great Depression and construction of the Going To The Sun Road. I will be researching between the Hill Museum in St. Paul, Minnesota, the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, Alberta, and many points elsewhere. Speaking of other Hockaday events, FVCC's Christmas party will NOT happen on Art Walk night this year -- YAY!

Media Watch: NFL Football -- Jillian Barbarie is a newlywed -- good for her! She's back on Fox's pregame show, but I don't have any comedy reports today. I guess I should say something about the sport -- it just may be the Indianapolis Colts' year. Tony Dungey is one of the NFL's best coaches, and Quarterback Peyton Manning is at height of his powers.
As far as a bigger game goes, some of the Mainsteam Media are trying to make their viewers believe they haven't been collaborators in the terrible mess the so-called GOP has made out of our national institutions. Tuesday's mid-term election will be an unusually important event.
Book TV showed conversations with John Dean and Gore Vidal Saturday night, plus Bob Herbert and Barak Obama on Sunday. Ray Kurzweil, famous computer pioneer, held forth on In Depth. He has created some amazing applications over his career -- especially with sound. Stevie Wonder uses his inventions to both make music, and read books.
Actual books -- Voodoo Science; The Road from Foolishness to Fraud by Robert Park was a good read -- there was no mere sputtering outrage in his stories of various Perpetual Motion scams, but he kept a measured tone which devastated the enablers of these various schemers -- members of Congress and news organizations, who should know better, but are too lazy to investigate. Dr. Park outlined the "Cold" Fusion impetuosities of Fleischman and Pons, the quantum double-talk of otherwise talented writer Depak Chopra, and calmly pointed out how Edward Teller stole billions of dollars by fronting for never-proven X-Ray Lasers and Reagan's "Star Wars" (SDI) boondoggle.
To be fair, I'll mention Park's reasoned objections to the International Space Station, and the Space Shuttle too. He is very correct about the scientific superiority of robotic space exploration, but the human factor is so appealing to our imaginations -- as the movie Right Stuff stated so well: No bucks without Buck Rogers!. The Gawd-awful waste of money attendant to our existing manned exploration programs is a serious problem by any standard, and I wish I had a solution that assuaged both the practical and romantic aspects of my nature.

Footsbarn In Action


(L to R) Actors par excellence Davy Johnson and Joey Cunningham at La Chaussee, France. Dave and Margaret split from Footsbarn to form Ton und Kirschen in the mid-80's. Even though they are based in Potsdam, Germany, the two international companies remain very close in mission and spirit, plus raise each other's children.