I drove from Ogden to Herriman yesterday, and back -- about 130 miles. The weather was clear and warm. I spent some time at Ken Sanders Books and saw poet/performer Alex Caldiero again. There was much more going on but I'll write about it all below.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Oakland, California; Emeryville, California; Whitefish, Montana; MySpace and Helena, 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
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!





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 Equinoxial 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: Visit the Hockaday Museum of Art in Kalispell, Montana if you are up there.

Media Watch: I was able to help that FVCC student find information about Montana artists via MySpace yesterday -- she thanked me in the Comments Column.
I was on a fifth row aisle seat while Sinead O'Connor sang at the Capitol Theater in Salt Lake City last night. I stood up to applaud many times. I got my money's worth when she nailed her club hit Stretched On Your Grave -- Acappella at first, then bringing in her wonderful band and their masterful drummer. They made high-energy music together for an hour and more afterward, loaded with lyrics which painted pictures drawn from the greatest books ever written, and O'Connor's own incisive poetry.
The whole scene was incredible -- the Capitol Theater has hosted many classical music masters in its long history, and Sinead O'Connor stood right up to join them. Her music is high art in it's construction. Her emotion-laden songs stirred everybody in the audience who had ever felt anything.
If you hear Rock Music as acrobatics, I heard an Olympic Decathalete when Sinead O'Connor worked her beautiful voice at the front of that hundred-year-old Opera House in the Rocky Mountains last night.
If musicianship is your forte, her drummer was a symphony in himself, her lead guitarist was consistently bright. Her keyboardist flavored and colored her backgrounds tastefully, and played sax riffs on an over-sized tin whistle. A lady played bass, and another lady played electronic cello. These two sang beautifully with O'Connor, and stood up well with their bandmates, playing solos of their own.
They came out as a group, without apparent ceremony, acknowledged the relaxed and comfortable not-sold-out audience, went to their instruments, and kicked up a churning, synth-driven rhythm that just plain ROCKED. The lyrics started flying, and all that party/dance music turned into electronic chamber accompaniment of a poet, as Sinead illuminated corners of her heart to an open-eared audience whose ages spanned teens and retirees. She was obviously pregnant and physically energetic through the whole show.
As the concert progressed, the power and range of O'Connor's voice made it almost a character in itself, independent of the artist who wielded it so well, to my incredibly happy ears. I'm certain she has full control of her music, but I swear that every new breath she drew involved risk and surprise as she sang or spoke. She GIVES like few performers I've ever seen.



Sinead O'Connor's voice escaping the bounds of her body in ecto-plasmo-sonic form. What made Stretched On Your Grave a dance hit was the drum loop behind Sinead's dire vocal. It was sampled from Clyde Stubblefield's solo on James Brown's Cold Sweat (1967). How did last night's drummer do? John Reynolds was FUNKY through the whole song. He branched out in many stylistic directions that night, and day-um he was good!