The Big Sky was gray and dark with forest fire smoke -- it was this way all over Idaho and Western Canada too. A temperature inversion meant that alpine Glacier National Park was fairly clear, but the valleys were socked-in with grime.

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; The Orson Welles Rumor Debunked; and BOTH incarnations of Jean Rogers!
Read my latest Spitfires in Context essay.

Thanks to Jim Keefe (Visit his Website) -- the LAST Flash Gordon illustrator of the 20th Century, and Flash's first illustrator of the 21st, for his recommendations -- HERE!

Charity Alert: Keep that resolution to click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: I'm working at the Hockaday Museum of Art again -- today's agenda includes moving Hugh Hockaday portraits, and putting up antique maps of the aforementioned Glacier National Park in their place. I should give a thought to our Ace Powell reception on Thursday too -- the grounds need some attention, plus I'm driving out to Whitefish tomorrow morning to exchange some borrowed items with their resident theater company for our Museums & Music event at the end of the month. (Gotta take that stuff BACK afterwards!)

Media Watch: The new Flash Gordon is limping along to mostly-bad reviews on the Sci-Fi Channel. A strikingly beautiful female character named Baylin is creating some buzz simply by being stranded on Planet Earth -- she's funny and charismatic as well. That's all well and good, but Flash and Dale are supposed to provide the thrills on Planet Mongo. The producers put this thing together backwards. BTW -- Baylin looks very much like the other women in this show, what's striking is that she has a fun part to play.


This is a picture of Baylin, re-digitized from the Sci Fi Channel's Website. She's played by an actor named Karen Cliche.
(I swear I didn't make that up!)

Time Passages: The late Max Roach (1924-2007) was one of the original BeBop players -- and one of the best Jazz musicians of all time. His revolutionary generation was never really supplanted or excelled. Other things came along, but nobody ever took the music apart the way Parker, Gillespie, Christian, Monk, Davis, Coltrane, and Roach did -- and put it back together in startling new forms. (Some names, like Mingus, are missing from my list, but I hope y'all get the point!)