Our winter weather is mild relative to the deep snows and sub-zero temperatures in the Eastern USA this week. Snowy mornings feel safer to me while driving in these Montana winter mornings -- the other cars go slow and take their time braking. Hey guys and gals -- those 4 wheel drives make you go fast enough to KILL yourself or somebody else! (It takes a lot longer to stop at higher speeds.) I notice the Deer are grazing under trees which have green patches around them -- the grasses are slowly growing again.

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: Fresh updates on the Hockaday Museum of Art's Website, take a quick look at what Travel Montana has online about us! I'm moving a few cafe tables over to the Central School Museum this afternoon, plus returning some pedestals from the Hockaday. Thanks to Gil Jordan, their director. I hope the weather doesn't mess us up.

Media Watch: America's Ballroom Challenge on PBS isn't exactly Junk TV, but it borrows a few aspects here and there. What's good is seeing Tony Dovolani dancing with his professional partner Elena Grinenko. (Instead of hapless country singer Sarah Evans, sadly-betrayed candidate of Tom Delay's KKKristian Koalition.)
Our favorite couple were immigrants Emmanuel Pierre-Antoine and Joanna Zacharewicz. They won the "Show Dance" category, but Dovolani and Grinenko won the overall round -- that was alright.


A composite picture of Emmanuel Pierre-Antoine, Tony Dovolani, Elena Grinenko, and Joanna Zacharewicz in action
on PBS's America's Ballroom Challenge.
Non-commercial digital re-interpretation by M.E.
From images © Moreno/Lyons Productions, LLC.

Soggy soft snow with the ice thankfully melting off the roads. A whole flock of Pheasants greeted me as I drove home from the Hockaday last evening -- there was an Bald Eagle haunting the lake until after sunset.

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: Updates on the Hockaday Museum of Art's Website, take another look at what Travel Montana has online about us!

Media Watch: Bindlestiff Stuff -- Go and see them if you live on the East Coast!
Bindlestiff Family Cirkus Cabaret at Staten Island Underground Theatre Festival
VMH Playhouse, Snug Harbor Cultural Center 1000 Richmond Terrace Staten Island, NY Tickets: $15 Snug Harbor, Staten Island Saturday, Feb. 10, 2007 at 10 pm
The Bindlestiff Family Cirkus comes to Staten Island for one night and one night only. This late night cabaret is hosted by Ringmistress Philomena. The cast for the night features Scotty the Blue Bunny (ice breaker), Ravi the Scorpion Mystic (contortion), Little Brooklyn (Burlesque Clown), and Mr. Pennygaff (sword swallower). Live cirkus music performed by Benjamin Ickies.
The Underground Theatre Festival also boasts an interactive murder mystery, Kill Me Again, Sam; an indie rock band, Dead Rabbit; the edgy and seductively suggestive Bindlestiff Cirkus Cabaret; plus the musical cult-classic Reefer Madness! Festival admission includes an open bar sponsored by Martini Red. The festival runs all weekend, but the Cirkus is one night and one night only. Visit www.snug-harbor.org for more information.

Bindlestiff Family Cirkus at BAM, Brooklyn, NY -- Brooklyn Next Festival Galapagos Art Space Presents: A Night of Marching Bands and Circus Antics Fri, Feb 23 at 9:30pm featuring the Hungry Marching Band and the Binldestiff Family Cirkus at BAM Cafe, Peter Jay Sharp Building, 30 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, NY. Admission is Free.
Called the "best anarchist parade group!" by the Village Voice, Brooklyn-based Hungry March Band maniacally performs New Orleans street music, Gypsy/Roma classics, and just about anything else they can get their hands on. The Bindlestiff Family Cirkus is heir to New York's grand traditions of circus, sideshow, vaudeville, and burlesque. Meanwhile, Galapagos' own resident burlesque DJ, Tikka Masala, spins Bhangra, hip-hop, and all of your dance-pop favorites. The Bindlestiffs performances will feature Ringmistress Philomena, Mr. Pennygaff, Nicholas Flair, and Benjamin Ickies.
For more details, http://bam.org/events/bamcafelive.aspx or 718-636-4100.


Philomenia in Buckaroo Bindlestiff's Wild West Jamboree
Visit the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus HERE
Digital reinterpretation of a photo ©2004 by Maike Schulz
Rhinebeck, NY -- Saturday, Feb. 24, 2007 at 11 am. Buckaroo Bindlestiff's Wild West Jamboree Rhinebeck Center for the Performing Arts, Rhinebeck, NY Tickets are $5 for kids, $8 for adults. All seats go on sale at the door one hour prior to show, and are general admission seating. Show is approximately 50 minutes long.
Join Mr. Pennygaff and Miss Philly for a boot-stompin' romp thru the Wild West. Learn how many cultures mingled on the plains to shape America as we know it. Marvel at precision target whipcracking, dandy rope spinning, knife throwing, fancy gun spinning, and even a mini-rodeo!
For directions and general information, see:
http://www.centerforperformingarts.org/direct.htm

That Arctic Blast which is devastating the central USA is a thousand miles east of us -- we've had our share of that ugly stuff. Our own soft snow came with temperatures above freezing, I'm glad to say. The deer herds are still small in our neighborhood -- that's supposed to be a sign that they're surviving the winter. We haven't seen the Eagles as often -- I think the fish left in the lake are smarter than the ones the Eagles caught.

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: Besides keeping your eye on Hockaday Museum of Art's Website, take a look at what Travel Montana has online about us!

Media Watch: There was a young lady substituting for Keith Olbermann on MSNBC's Countdown last night. Among the important stories, there was one ridiculous trying-to-be-funny-but-failing number about Prince's performance of Purple Rain during the halftime of Super Bowl XLI. ANYBODY who plays a Hendrix-like electric guitar looks phallic -- going on about it makes the commenter look like a putz. Trying to embarass a woman announcer with penile synonyms is acting like a prick. Got it, schmuck?

What's Katie up to in Amsterdam?
WORKSHOPS - Studio 7 - Eerste Nausastraat 7
March 24-25 /March 31 - April 1/ April 7-8 : Three weekend improvisation workshops with Katie Duck / Saturdays and Sundays / 13:00-16:00 / 45 euro / Katie's Website.
This workshop is geared for dancers and performers who would like to break their weekly schedule with classes and sessions in improvisation. End of winter and heading toward the spring in Amsterdam is a good timing to stretch your improvisation legs. Katie will offer discounts for anyone who takes more than one weekend.


Purple Reign
Katie Duck -- Modern Dance's improvisation master, is this artistic field's own version of Duke Ellington or John Coltrane -- She's shown in a digitized frame from a video by fellow dancer Justin Morrison. Check out more of Justin's work at his own wonderful Website.

Repeated shallow snowfalls all weekend long. We saw a pair of Bald Eagles in a tree next to Highway 93 as we drove north to the movie theater in Whitefish. They were having their Winter Carnival, but it seemed like they were "snowed out." Actually the main parades and other lunacy went on last night

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 have our new shows up at the Hockaday Museum of Art, which means that we start getting ready for the Auction of Miniatures next month.

Media Watch: We drove through a minor snowstorm to see Helen Mirren's recent movie The Queen. It was an obviously-fictionalized version of events inside England's Royal Family at the time of Princess Diana Spencer's death and funeral. In general, Mirren plays a woman who changes her mind in a positive way because of various circumstances. Since that selfsame woman happened to be the still-living Queen of England, it helped make Mirren's performance remarkable in it's combination of amazing physical impersonation on one hand, and authentic emotional communication with an unseen movie audience on the other hand. However, I didn't quite get the symbolic significance of that 14-point Stag in Scotland.
Mirren's Queen spoke one line to the Tony Blair character, warning him about sudden losses of popularity -- which made a point about today. The REAL Tony Blair seems to have succumed to "old boy" corruption, and may even face criminal charges. He has agreed to stand down from the office of Prime Minister in the spring, even if there are no more scandals, but the Labour Party is still going to face Hell regaining their prestige and power in the wake of former-leader Blair's degrading himself as "Bush's Poodle" -- using lies to stampede his country and ours into invading Iraq. His personal fall may be sad, but the innumerable useless deaths caused by his craven sycophantic folly are sadder.
NFL Football -- the Super Bowl was in rainy, misty Miami, Florida. There were fumbles and miscues galore! Prince Rogers Nelson played the halftime show, with a couple of dancers, a small combo, and a Southern USA African-American marching band. I was hoping to see my friend Greg Boyer playing in Prince's horn section, but it looks like they didn't bring the whole touring group. Prince got soaking wet out there in mid-field. I hope it was lip-sync -- live electricity would have been dangerous.
BTW -- The Indianapolis Colts regained their composure and won, but I've never seen so many turnovers in a league championship game. There are those who say that the Super Bowl should be held only under perfect conditions, as a pure athletic contest, but I kinda enjoyed the sloppy randomness the soggy weather brought to the game this year.

Thinking of Summertime...


Mas Sogeng taking my picture while I'm taking his picture taking my picture in Herriston, France -- I'm wearing a helmet with fake eyespots on my sunglasses. Just call me a cross-eyed barbarian!