Sitemeter's working for me again: Welcome Dublin, Ireland (Love 'ya too, Eavan!); Limoges, France; Israel (looking for Ida Rubinstein); Berkeley, California; and New York, New York!
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.
Charity Alert: Keep that resolution to click on The Hunger Site every day.
In The Community: We are having MANY special events over the next month at the Hockaday Museum of Art -- A Poetry Reading, a Lecture/Reception, Museums & Music, and an Unveiling of a Special Painting. Check 'em out! (I spent what was normally my day off making some changes to the place.)
Media Watch: I went out to the Bigfork Summer Playhouse to see their production of the 1940s Radio Hour. It's supposed to be a professional venture, but what I saw was definitely an amateur effort -- at least 66% of it. About another third was OK -- when the singing was good. The acting was rather underplayed, but that was a plus, because nobody showed much character, and those few moments where someone actually came across as someone else were very pleasant.
The womens' costumes were excellent 40's recreations -- especially their hairdos. Every woman's hair was different in color and shape. Some were close, but still distinctive enough.
The men were more sketchy than authentic -- pretty good comb-ups and grease jobs without going 50's on us, but mostly generic shirtsleeve office-wear instead of identifiable styles from 1942.
The Coca-Cola machine was also vintage 60's rather than WWII, but I'm not sure that meant anything at all. My parents were young teenagers during that period, so my knowledge of that time is all second-hand. Mass Entertainment was important then -- Movies and Radio had grown up to be cultural Leviathans after WWI.
The Swing Dance craze from the late 90's should have reminded everyone that although there were some GREAT songs and records from the 40's, there were mountains of drek under those peak moments. This show was primarily a musical revue, featuring many once-called "standards" from that era.
Unfortunately, after an introductory scene, the "broadcast' started in the cesspool of "I Got A Gal In Kalamazoo." NOBODY sang well in that overblown group vocal, featuring more than a dozen people, possibly because of the key or rhythm. (I've always hated that crappy song anyway.)
The play's arrangements had a lot of syncopation and sophisticated modulations in general, but the company's singers rarely maintained their concentration throughout a whole number. "How About You" was one success, "I've Got It Bad" was another. The classically stupid Pepsi-Cola commercial was pretty funny -- hit the spot, you might say.
At intermission, I went for a short walk and heard some more 40's Music coming out of the Bigfork Inn -- didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Anti-Rock radio stations used to call that stuff Music of your Life when I was a teenager, but they weren't talking to ME when they said it! On my way back to my car, after the play, I heard a band at the Garden Bar doing Van Morrison's Brown Eyed Girl -- a song from 40 years ago. I was glad to also hear some Hip Hop booming from a side street, so I knew I wasn't in a time-warp!
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