TOO hot for this time of year -- praying for some rainfall. The Killdeer are setting up their nests -- sometimes called Plovers, they are cheery, ground-dwelling birds that resemble little barber poles.

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 Summer approaches to click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: I got Lyle Olsen's Views of India hung at the Hockaday Museum of Art. He covers holy men, common worshippers, and the stark contrasts of very rich and desperately poor in the vast subcontinent via his photographs.

Media Watch: Forty years ago today -- Sgt. Pepper was the disc to play! Unlike much of the USA, we heard it all over the AM stations in my hometown of Salt Lake City. The Summer of Love was in full swing in San Francisco, and the breezes of the REAL 60's were blowing through dusty corners of the universe like Utah. My friend Michael G. Cavanaugh played A Day In The Life every night on KCPX Radio that summer, allowing the long final fading chord to rumble on for almost a minute.
Whatever else might have happened, the standards of Popular Music rose to much higher levels after Sgt. Pepper. The powers-that-were tried to slow things down or exert their control, but lowly record buyers like me went out looking for more albums which were creative and stimulating. Groups like the Incredible String Band and Moody Blues found their audiences. The rough and tumble Velvet Underground & Nico was a masterpiece in it's own right. Previously-neglected artists like the Doors and Buffalo Springfield (Neil Young + Steven Stills) were rediscovered, and unknowns like Jimi Hendrix and Cream became stars by the next year. All this ferment had been bubbling for years, but Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band remains a special vintage on the shelves of recording history.


Within the same year, Frank Zappa put out We're Only In It For The Money, an incisive, but sneering, satire about counter-cultural delusions. He used Sgt. Pepper's basic cover design, but literally turned it inside-out!