We had a light snow yesterday evening, but it's supposed to get colder -- as if Zero (F) isn't cold enough. New suet in the feeders keeps the Woodpeckers coming around -- they'll wait out the Magpies.

MORE Footbarn Pictures 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!
NEW! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

Charity Alert: Make a resolution as the days get brighter to click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: The encore presentation of my Footsbarn slide show was better paced. A strange coincidence occurred: A young student named Claudia was in the audience who's from the SAME region of France. She was happy to see sights from her home.
Those %$#@! Ace Powell miniatures should be on the Museum wall at last today. We are implementing ing new security measures. Hockaday Museum of Art

Media Watch: I watched a movie called Ballet Russes, about the twisted, branching, but still-traceable history of of the St. Petersburg dance company which brought Ballet into the 20th Century, and transplanted this magnificent art form across the globe.
Ida Rubenstein, patroness of this blog, seduced Paris, France during Ballet Russes premiere in 1909. After founder Diaghilev's death, George Ballanchine became famous in the West by coming in and going out of the company, which later split into two competing groups, and -- Hell, watch the frickin' movie -- it has it's own BALLET RUSSES WEBSITE, which is very much worth a perusal.

Ain't this a kick in the head?
Yvonne Craig (Then and Now) joined the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in 1954 at the age of 16, danced in the Corps de Ballet, and was promoted to soloist. After leaving in 1957, she went to Hollywood, appearing in 16 films and over 60 TV series. She is best known for her role as Batgirl on television.


Yvonne Craig choreographed her own stunts, which was smart. Bruce Lee was re-writing the stuntperson's manual on the same stages playing Cato on Craig's sister-production Green Hornet. If only the writing was better -- but it wasn't. Julie Catwoman Newmar watches her fellow dancer kicking high. Ms. Craig was never the sensual dynamo that Ms. Newmar was, but that's true for damn near every other actress in the world!

Damn near ZERO degrees (F) this morning -- that's -18 (C)! I really felt the trek between buildings today at work. It was overcast, but that was just mountain fog between us and the Sun -- a North wind made things worse. A half a dozen Pheasants greeted me when I went out to recharge their Sunflower seeds yesterday.

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: 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!
NEW! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

Charity Alert: Make a resolution as the days get brighter to click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: I'm doing an encore presentation of my Footsbarn slide show tomorrow at noon in the Board Room at FVCC. Enthusiasm got me through the first one, let's see if I can control my pace better this time.
Hooray! The Hockaday is getting it's own data projector so we can do more presentations. We are also starting to use Power Point to electronically "open" old books and pamphlets in our display cases, rather than have them sit there all closed up. They can't take too much handling, but what they have inside them is wonderful to see! Hockaday Museum of Art

Media Watch: I've been watching Festival Dailys on the Sundance Channel. I've had some of the best times of my life in and around Park City, Utah, so I'm happy to revisit the place on TV. To tell the truth, though, this little show is about as shallow as a meltwater puddle. The Sundance Festival carries on from the funky old Park City Film Festival I knew as a twenty-something. I'm glad that Robert Redford saved the festival from bankruptcy and oblivion, but it slowly swirls towards the maelstrom of Celebrity Voyeurism if left to drift. I saw the eccentric Crispin Glover, the friend of a friend, pimping his new film, but I didn't see our mutual friend in any of the scenes.
Dick Clark as a MOVIE STAR? It was true for two early-60's films -- Young Doctors and Because They're Young. The latter film was on TCM, but it played like a downer TV show. The theme song, performed by Duane Eddy, King of the Twanging Guitar, is EXCELLENT. The score was by John Williams, who "scored big" with Star Wars fifteen or so years later. Clark tried some TV acting too, but he was wise enough to know his limitations, and largely stuck with producing and announcing, except for the occasional loon-out.

Did somebody mention Footsbarn Theatre?


Shakespeare rejoins the company for a revival of this madcap farce. Rosenbaum described the Bard's plays as "Bottom-less," in his Shakespeare Wars, but he was just playing with words too. Footsbarn will likely perform it in French, which won't make it any more or less farcical.

When it's sunny it's COLD, when it's gray, it's warmer, but still cold. The Deer don't seem to know if it's day or night -- they only have eyes for food.

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: 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!
NEW! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

Charity Alert: Make a resolution as the days get brighter to click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: We had an interesting turn-out for the "opening" of the Travelling Medicine Trunk Show last Friday night. Native American cultures are complex and deep. The Blackfeet artists had many stories to tell, and our docents will have their hands full explaining their artwork and artifacts. We got it all on videotape, for a start, thanks to Ken and Marita Combs. Hockaday Museum of Art

Media Watch: NFL Football -- The Superbowl is between Indianapolis and Chicago. BOTH teams have African-American head coaches. The "old boy" club, meaning "whites only" in management, is fading into the past. Good riddance.
BET re-ran a tribute to Aretha Franklin last night -- all sorts of good singing in honor of the Queen of Soul: Mary J. Blige, Alicia Keys, Norah Jones, Chaka Khan, Ronald Isley, Yolanda Adams (EX - cellent!), and a talented young English lady named Joss Stone. She looks better as a brunette, and has a refreshingly direct way of singing a song. Ms. Franklin was sitting dead-center in the low balcony. Don't try any foolish tricks in front of the First Lady, as George Clinton once named her!
Book TV showed Alan Dershowitz and Jimmy Carter at Brandeis University -- kind of a "He said -- He said" thing over the issues between Palestinians and Israelis. They separately spoke and answered questions for an hour or so each. Carter was fairly calm, Dershowitz wasn't. Nobody has all the answers, but Dershowitz's rage and fear exemplified the deadly problems there, rather than providing any guidance towards potential solutions.
CSPAN also covered the 2007 March Against the Iraq War on Saturday -- I stumbled on the end of the live coverage around 2pm EST. There were a helluva lot of people there! I saw all sorts of signs and animated puppets -- like the "Backbone," and a white dove getting ready to spread it's wings on Constitution Ave. When the speeches were over, an interesting rap artist entertained the departing crowd, introduced by the mother of a slain US soldier. His poem used the refrain "Blood On Our Hands."
The disorganization of the scene, as far as making a "show" went, was alright with me -- I think the march itself deserved the most attention. I'm going to see if there were any cameras along the route during the re-runs, and will watch out for the effect public demonstrations may or may not have nowadays. Gateway to various witnesses HERE.
I know I was moved -- I'm also still impressed by seeing live events from 3000 miles away.

Fight The Power!


Car Stereo Heaven -- I have been enjoying a collection of obscure singles and B-sides by the Isley Brothers from Scepter/Wand Records about 1962-63 -- Nobody But Me is definitely my favorite, but there are other tunes like The Snake, Never Leave Me Baby, Twist & Shout, Twisting with Linda, et al, which are FUNKY to the MAX! Pictured above are: (Clockwise from Left) Isley Brother-in-law Chris Jasper, O'Kelly Isley Junior, Marvin Isley, Rudolph Isley, Ernie Isley, and lead singer Ronald Isley from a decade later.