Those big clouds I mentioned yesterday had some rain in them! Good thing -- it was smelling pretty ashy around the valley, but after some showers, the air was clean and sweet-smelling for the reception at the Hockaday Museum. (see below)

Remembering my friend George-O 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: The Ace Powell reception at the Hockaday Museum of Art was excellent in every way. Dr. Nelson's stories about Mr. Powell were vivid, informative, and provided the key to Ace's most enduring quality -- his prolific, accurate witnessing of lives and times now changed forever. Thelma Powell, his widow, was very moved at the sight of the hundred or so people who showed up to honor her late husband's memory. "I was afraid he'd be forgotten when he died, but you have shown me that his memory will last.."


Dr. Van Kirke Nelson and Thelma Powell at the Hockaday Museum -- there's a photo of Ace Powell circa 1957 at the right.

Media Watch: Blues on the Move over the local NPR station -- host Bob Presthus played one of my favorite album cuts from the mid-60's -- Muddy Waters' Two Trains Running by the Blues Project off of Projections. I used to be able to play along on bass and harmonica for all 11 minutes and 35 seconds, which was the same amount of time the Rolling Stones took for their jam Goin' Home on Aftermath. There were also other great cuts on that album: Wake Me, Shake Me; I Can't Keep From Crying; Steve's Song; Cheryl's Going Home; and Caress Me Baby.
The Blues Project packed a lot of talent into a five man group -- Leonard Bernstein featured their guitarist Danny Kalb in his CBS special about Pop music, along with Andy Kulberg and Roy Blumenfield taking off on Flute Thing. Steve Katz co-founded the original Blood, Sweat & Tears, along with ace organist Al Kooper -- most noted for the sound of Bob Dylan's Like A Rolling Stone -- a VERY influential sound indeed! The Blues Project broke up during 1967 -- Kooper did some successful albums with Michael Bloomfield later, but his singing voice never tickled the public's fancy, and BS&T replaced him. He had a long career as a producer, though, and taught at the Berklee School of Music. Katz later went into sound engineering. Kulberg and Blumenfield carried on with the excellent, though underrated, Sea Train. Kalb did a fair album with guitar legend Stephan Grossman, but his later recorded work was less than stellar, to put it mildly. He has been known to put on some remarkable solo performances in the San Francisco area, so he's worth a listen live.


A digitized re-interpretation of the great Victor Moscoso's Matrix poster, featuring a performance of the Blues Project in early 1967.