The ice on Middle Foy's Lake is breaking up -- wide gaps appear and then shift around. The wind often pushes frozen chunks together. The Ducks swim in transitional channels or walk where they just finished diving. More ice disappears daily, but re-appears in the early mornings. It will likely be gone by next Saturday.

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 post-Equinox resolution to click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: I got that %$#@! cold that's been going around the Flathead Valley. I hope it doesn't last more than a few days. (It didn't fade away -- I'm still very sick on Friday.) New updates soon at Hockaday Museum of Art's Website.

Media Watch: I'm 'way behind in knowing about the embarrassing media stunts on YouTube and MySpace -- but there was a show on VH1 which covered some of them, plus Keith Olbermann made sure I knew about some others. Gee thanks, guys! (I think.)
Herman Leonard's life and smoke-laden atmospheric photography were featured in a movie called Saving Jazz (2006). After a long working career in magazines, his Jazz photos became famous in the late 80's. Unfortunately, some of his property was in New Orleans when the dual disasters of Hurricane Katrina and the Bush Administration hit the town. His own uphill task of re-creating his archives was featured in part, but he was more concerned with the community at large. There are only 20 or so High School Marching Bands active, instead of the 117 that existed before the storm -- these organizations are the keys to New Orleans music.
Jazz, Pop, Funk, Folk, Zeydeco, and R&B all came off the streets in these kinds of groups. Places where people can play are still rare, though. Mardi Gras still goes on -- you have to start somewhere! Ace studio singer Irma Thomas was featured in the celebration, returning from temporary exile, so was the Marsalis family. The feathered "crewes" of African Americans came back again too. The wreck of Lower 9th Ward stands as an indictment of the criminal stupidity of our present government, whose corrupt operatives stood by while one of America's oldest cities drowned, and it's people starved and died as the president laughingly ate birthday cake and barbeque only a few hundred miles away "on vacation."


Let's get away to Europe:


My friend Katie is still knockin' them down in Amsterdan, Holland -- mixing Modern Dance and Jazz in a theatrical synthesis which carries the viewer away!
MATCHING MONDAYS - BIMHUIS Piet Heinkade 3 Amsterdam / Entrance free, 20.30 hrs - café opens at 19.00 hrs Dance: Pierre-Yves Diacon, Katie Duck, Melvin Fraenk, Nora Heilmann Music: Philip Zoubek (piano), Wilbert de Joode (bass), Viljam Nybacka (e-bass, electronics) Light: Ellen Knops info@bimhuis.nl / www.Bimhuis.nl
March 31 - April 1/April 7-8 13:00-16:00/ Two weekend improvisation sessions with Katie Duck / Saturdays and Sundays - www.katie@katieduck.com These sessions are geared for dancers, performers and musicians who would like to break their weekly schedule of classes with improvisation sessions. These are not lead workshops. Katie (Magpie) organizes the space and the artists who arrive share the rental fee. This is a Magpie initiative; organizing space in Amsterdam on a regular basis for artists to meet and work. Please contact Katie if this interests you (katie@katieduck.com). Katie would like to create a mailing list of artists who she would contact when space is booked rather than place it on the total mailing list.
Digital image from a Magpie promotional video by Alex Fischer via justinmorrison.net