Thursdays clouds meant thunderstorms alright, but not until about 1 AM. (Woke everybody up.) Those Osprey are catching fish at the slough regularly -- that's good, we can spare as many planted trout as those hungry birds can catch before they migrate south.

Remembering my friend Georgio at: 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!
Spitfires of the Spaceways
UPDATED! Wilma Deering & Dale Arden to the rescue; Bodacious Princess Aura I; Hapless Aura II; The fiery Emperor Ming; and BOTH incarnations of Jean Rogers!
Read the latest Spitfires in Context essay.

Charity Alert: Make a resolution this Summer to click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: Some new revisions on the Hockaday Museum of Art's website. I'll be working there at noon today. I stopped by on Saturday to drop some stuff off, and there was a commercial tour bus parked outside with about 50 passengers swarming around the museum!

Media Watch: Alberto Contador of Spain won the Tour de France -- TV is harping on the scandals involved in the race, which are serious indeed. It is a wonderful event, and fun to watch -- when whole communities are involved, like it was when I lived in Europe, and how it is developing in the USA now, it's as good as Football!
I drove up to the Whitefish Mountain Resort to see Elvin Bishop -- and brought him a copy of the review I wrote for his show in 2000. (Read it HERE)
Bishop had almost the same band -- which was excellent, and played the opening spot again. His music is real Roots-Rock, moving blithely between blues, funk, pop, gospel, and even a little pop & jazz. It is always a satisfying experience to hear such bright, self-confident and timelessly soulful singing and playing.
The headliner was Lou Gramm, who had enough radio hits to fill his entire 90-minute show just as the lead singer of Foreigner, a major arena band from the 70's/80's. His music was really well-crafted, but it DEMANDED amped-up vocal cords to carry off the arrangements, and Gramm's every bit as old as I am. He started out with a first-rate version of Double Vision, but fell down later with a run of love-to-hate songs -- I've Been Waiting... to Cold as Ice. He picked himself up and won the crowd back, but I wish there was some musical way to play WITH this kind of Pop-Rock so that it could age and mature as well as Bishop's. I enjoyed Foreigner's blend of American and British Rock aesthetics, and would hate to see those elements lost under the treads of time.


Chicago's Butterfield Blues Band in 1966 -- I was in High School when I read an interview with the Yardbird's Jeff Beck recommending them. I followed his suggestion, and became a very enthusiastic fan! (L to R) Billy Davenport, Mark Naftalin, Michael Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield, Elvin Bishop, and Jerome Arnold. Mr. Bishop doesn't look too much different forty-plus years later -- his hair may be graying, but he's still lean, and smiles most of the time.
(Digital adaptaion of an original photo by Elektra Record's prolific William S. Harvey.)