Blogging from OGDEN, Utah -- thirty miles (45km) north of Salt Lake City proper. Damn oil refineries were pumping out the pollution from Bountiful when I flew in last evening.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from MySpace (more all the time); Ohio, California, Chicago (again), Denver, and Missoula, Montana.

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: Make an Autumnal Exuinox Resolution to click on The Hunger Site every day. Also check into Terra Sigilata blog -- donate $$$ to cancer patients just by clicking onto the site.

In The Community: We scrambled yesterday to set up a special event in the morning at the Hockaday Museum, and then I went back to packing for my trip. The exhibit, Inuit: A History Told in Art, is remarkable! Visit us, or see our website: Hockaday Museum of Art. I'll spend most of a week doing various public events surrounding it when I get back from my vacation.

Media Watch: YARR! It's Talk Like A Pirate Day, me hearties.
(See picture below.)
Just like I suspected, Vultan and his flying warriors were LOWWW budget versions of Alex Raymond's idea on Sci-Fi's Channel's tepid version of Flash Gordon. There was a typically ridiculous escape, plus their bewildered version of Princess Aura, and a little suspense, but there was an awful lot of standing around, especially with the normally-active character of Balin. Did I mention cheap to the point of parsimonious production values? (Steve Holland's laughable 50's series looks well-financed compared to this sometimes.)


The great Robert Newton's performance in Blackbeard the Pirate (1952) was SUPPOSED to be villainous, but it sure was funny too -- he stirred massive amounts of humor into everything.