Beautiful snow all weekend in short bursts. Driving was pretty dangerous on Monday. A solitary Bald Eagle seems to have taken over the aereation pond where the old pair used to hunt -- I haven't seen him/her catch anything yet.

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Ida's Places in Paris -- from my first jet-lagged 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: Make a resolution as the days get brighter to click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: I moved those cafe tables and spare pedestals over to the Central School Museum in a steady, but light, snowfall on Friday. Gil Jordan told me about their Saturday night music sessions. See what WE are doing at the Hockaday Museum of Art's Website, and take a look at some of my photos on Travel Montana's website.

Theatre/Theater: Joan Merwyn saw my illustrated memoir of 1974's International Mime Festival and wrote to me from New York. There's a drawing of her on that page. I remembered her very well, but her old boyfriend had to tell me her name. Like me and my posse, she went to Europe to learn what Movement Theater was REALLY about. She now teaches and performs in the Big Apple -- check out Joan Merwyn's Website.



Joan Merwyn: (Left) My drawing of her taking Bari Rolfe's mask workshop in LaCrosse Wisconsin, 1974 and (Right) a digitized reinterpretation of Joan performing Siren in Montreal Canada, a whole lot more recently, from an image on her website.

Media Watch: I saw some of the Grammy Awards performances -- Christina Aguilera always pleases me when she sings; Colombia's Shakira was All-World Professional; Earth Wind & Fire with Mary J. Blige and Ludacris was moving; Prince ran a piece thanking his audience for tuning in to his Superbowl performance, and congratulating the crowd in the stadium for putting up with the rain; I enjoyed the reunion of The Police -- one of the best trios in Rock History; There was a good In Memorium sequence -- I didn't know that Desmond Dekker passed away. He was Jamaica's first male international star, leading a fine vocal group called The Four Aces, featuring his brothers. This presentation ended with James Brown's incredible dancing on the T.A.M.I. Show from 1964 -- a live dancer duplicated Brown's sinuous moves in the auditorium -- showing what an incredible talent we lost last Christmas; Despite the use of modern techno-tricks to fuel his popularity, Justin Timberlake resembles Donny Osmond more and more. If that sounds like I'm damning him with faint praise, so be it. George Michael is/was a better Osmond Clone IMHO; On a very positive note, the Dixie Chicks -- Emily Robison, Natalie Maines, and Martie Maguire won five major trophies, and sang very well. HEY CONGRESS! The people are speaking -- end that stupid war in Iraq!