Repeated shallow snowfalls all weekend long. We saw a pair of Bald Eagles in a tree next to Highway 93 as we drove north to the movie theater in Whitefish. They were having their Winter Carnival, but it seemed like they were "snowed out." Actually the main parades and other lunacy went on last night

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: We have our new shows up at the Hockaday Museum of Art, which means that we start getting ready for the Auction of Miniatures next month.

Media Watch: We drove through a minor snowstorm to see Helen Mirren's recent movie The Queen. It was an obviously-fictionalized version of events inside England's Royal Family at the time of Princess Diana Spencer's death and funeral. In general, Mirren plays a woman who changes her mind in a positive way because of various circumstances. Since that selfsame woman happened to be the still-living Queen of England, it helped make Mirren's performance remarkable in it's combination of amazing physical impersonation on one hand, and authentic emotional communication with an unseen movie audience on the other hand. However, I didn't quite get the symbolic significance of that 14-point Stag in Scotland.
Mirren's Queen spoke one line to the Tony Blair character, warning him about sudden losses of popularity -- which made a point about today. The REAL Tony Blair seems to have succumed to "old boy" corruption, and may even face criminal charges. He has agreed to stand down from the office of Prime Minister in the spring, even if there are no more scandals, but the Labour Party is still going to face Hell regaining their prestige and power in the wake of former-leader Blair's degrading himself as "Bush's Poodle" -- using lies to stampede his country and ours into invading Iraq. His personal fall may be sad, but the innumerable useless deaths caused by his craven sycophantic folly are sadder.
NFL Football -- the Super Bowl was in rainy, misty Miami, Florida. There were fumbles and miscues galore! Prince Rogers Nelson played the halftime show, with a couple of dancers, a small combo, and a Southern USA African-American marching band. I was hoping to see my friend Greg Boyer playing in Prince's horn section, but it looks like they didn't bring the whole touring group. Prince got soaking wet out there in mid-field. I hope it was lip-sync -- live electricity would have been dangerous.
BTW -- The Indianapolis Colts regained their composure and won, but I've never seen so many turnovers in a league championship game. There are those who say that the Super Bowl should be held only under perfect conditions, as a pure athletic contest, but I kinda enjoyed the sloppy randomness the soggy weather brought to the game this year.

Thinking of Summertime...


Mas Sogeng taking my picture while I'm taking his picture taking my picture in Herriston, France -- I'm wearing a helmet with fake eyespots on my sunglasses. Just call me a cross-eyed barbarian!