Sunday started out dark and cold, but brightened up in the middle of the day. The wildlife are out seeing what there is to eat -- we keep the feeders full this time of year, since the Winter has depleted natural foods. The skunk barrier is put in place each night to prevent accidental visitors.

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 during the Vernal Equinox to click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: Auction of Miniatures bid lists and bid forms at Hockaday Museum of Art's Website.
The real thing is this Friday!

Media Watch: Book TV -- Robert Edsel gave a GREAT lecture based on his book Rescuing DaVinci -- incredible but true adventures of Allied soldiers tracking down the great artistic treasures of Europe which were systemetically plundered by the Nazis. Think of your favorite famous painting -- it was was likely hidden in a salt mine in Germany during WWII, or abandoned by a fleeing SS officer because he couldn't find a truck which was large enough to haul it. Art historians and museum directors found themselves drafted into the service and saving buildings, furniture, books, paintings, and sculptures from the ravages of a worldwide war. General Patton wanted to destroy Nazi Headquarters in Munich, but it was being used by the "Monument Officers" as a warehouse for recovered artworks, and they had the power to stop him. Edsel showed a slide of dashing Langdon Warner, and a similar pic of Indiana Jones, but briefly told how Warner saved the cities of Kyoto and Nara from General LeMay's firebombs. Edsel has also made a film about these complicated stories called The Rape of Europa. He's spent a considerable amount of his own money to inform the world, and help find the various Raphaels et cetera which are still missing. She's only a minor case in the overall picture, but Ida Rubinstein's collection was looted in Paris, and I wonder what Mr. Edsel might have to say about all those Leon Baskt pictures? http://robertedselblog.com
Boogie Nights was on the satellite/cable. It made former rapper 'Marky Mark' Wahlberg a movie star, but told a sad sleazy tale doing it. There was some truth in it's fictional characters from the 70's and 80's. I give it credit for avoiding the worst aspects of filth-wallowing or sanctimonious admonishment about sex movies. The filmmakers had witnessed many of the scenes they depicted around them in mainstream Hollywood, and seemed to have some sensitivity about people seriously falling down in their lives -- but it's still not a fun flick. Gawd Day-um! They're running Wonderland afterwards -- ace actor Val Kilmer playing porn prince John Holmes in one more sad tale which wallows and admonishes, but misses essential truths. Like the long-gone Mr. Holmes, that flick is a loser -- no offense to any of the cast.
TIME TO LIGHTEN UP -- The MTV Movie Awards nominated Wahlberg's penile prosthesis for a technical award in 1998. However Rick Baker's "Head on a Stick" from Men In Black won, and the television audience was treated to a tirade from Boogie Nights' losing "member," wearing a miniature top hat and tails.
Speaking of obscenity -- David Horowitz was wasting your time and mine on Book TV. He's paid to lie, and that's all anyone really needs to know about him nowadays. His funding from the radical Right Wing is unlimited, and his plan is to wear people down when they stand up to refute his discredited untruths hundreds of times and more. CSPAN shouldn't give liars free media time. One side or another may be mistaken in a debate, but discourse does not exist when someone intentionally lies. Read this recent Daily Kos diary by Philosleft -- among other things, she states in the comments: His right to freedom of speech IS my right to challenge the content of his claims.
What was that about lightening things up? Thank goodness for PBS -- a whole show on buildings made in the shape of Milk Bottles, Ducks, Coffee Pots, Dogs, Teepees, Catsup Bottles, Shoes, and Doughnuts, not to mention the Corn Palace we visited in 2004 -- there seemed to be no end to the variations. In Salt Lake City, where I grew up, there was a fried chicken restaurant shaped like a rude charicature of an African American chef on Highland Drive. It's name contained a racist slur which I won't repeat. To make things worse, it was part of a chain -- when the degrading thing burned down in the early 60's, I doubt that anybody seriously thought of rebuilding it.
(Oops, gotta lighten up again!) Spokane boasted TWO three-story milk-bottle buildings when I lived there -- one of them was used in the movie Benny & Joon.


Mary Carey makes her living in the sex-movie industry of today, but ran for Governor of California against ANOTHER actor a year or two ago. Star-struck voters made the wrong choice.
Digital collage from political campaign images,
used for satirical purposes in the context of the review above.