Springlike day -- sunny, not too cold, perfect for the Pro-Glacier rally at Flathead Valley Community College today. The evenings have been pretty light -- I'm usually seeing Deer in the mornings when I leave, rather than on my way home after working late. (Doing a lotta THAT!)

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 Spring resolution to click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: The Children's and High School Art reception at Hockaday Museum of Art went off well. Last night's fundraiser to help rebuild the trails in Glacier National Park devastated by last Autumn's extreme weather was very well-attended -- thanks to all our speakers, their stunning photographs, and especially to organizers Jane, Mary, and Michael, plus the volunteers who stuck around to help clean the place up afterward and make it look like an Art Museum again.
At the college from 1-3 PM today, there is a rally and community photo to support the National Day of Climate Action as part of a nationwide campaign entitled Step It Up 2007 that is directed toward the United States Congress to build awareness of global warming issues. After all, what WILL we name Glacier National Park if all the glaciers are gone?

Media Watch: It's Saturday, so that means OPERA on our local National Public Radio station! This week they're featuring a Zeferelli production of Pucinni's last great hit Turnadot from the mid 1920's. Of course we couldn't see Franco's lavish visuals, but Nessun Dorma always makes my speakers ring so beautifully. One of the best broadcasts this season was a performance featuring Maria Callas from 1958 -- let's see, I was in third grade when it was recorded, and Howdy Doody was still on TV. Young as I was, I enjoyed the Firestone Theater, which featured classical music in primetime back then.
Elizabeth Berkeley was on MSNBC, talking about rebuilding her career after the Showgirls debacle in the mid-90's. It was a lousy movie for sure, but it wasn't HER fault that the script, direction, and point-of-view were so unpleasantly sleazy that any truth about LaLa Land's playground, Las Vegas, was buried under mean-spirited male fantasies which entertained nobody. It COULD have been successful in many ways, but wasn't. I've noticed that Berkeley's co-star Gina Gershon has restored her own career too, but it's taken them over a decade. Neither one is on my list of favorite actors, since I haven't seen much of their work, but they never deserved the treatment they got in the wake of a bad break that wasn't their making. (NOTE: I have written some good words about the movie Picture Claire with Ms. Gershon and Juliett Lewis.)


(L to R) Gina Gershon and Elizabeth Berkeley in Showgirls;
A.K.A. Verhoeven & Eszterhas' Folly

Sunny day, but cold as all get-out. We're still in luck -- much of the Midwestern USA is covered in snow.

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.
(*Still hard to call this weather Spring.)

In The Community: Children's and High School Art shows opening tonight at Hockaday Museum of Art. I have a fund-raiser there tomorrow night too -- helping to rebuild trails in Glacier National Park damaged by last Autumn's extreme weather.

Media Watch: Trash A-Go-Go -- Slimey talk-show host Leeza Gibbons is OFF Dancing With The Stars. Long-time social pollutant and shock-jock Don Imus opened his dirty, racist mouth one too many times and was booted off TV. (Update -- and CBS radio.) May we hope that fellow dung-piles like Rush Limbaugh, Mike Savage, and Glenn Beck will be held to account for their ugly bigotry too?
Real Books -- One of the U.S.A.'s finest humanitarian writers just passed away -- Kurt Vonnegut (1923-2007). From In These Times, May 10, 2004:
But I know now that there is not a chance in hell of America’s becoming humane and reasonable. Because power corrupts us, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Human beings are chimpanzees who get crazy drunk on power. By saying that our leaders are power-drunk chimpanzees, am I in danger of wrecking the morale of our soldiers fighting and dying in the Middle East? Their morale, like so many bodies, is already shot to pieces. They are being treated, as I never was, like toys a rich kid got for Christmas.
These are the words of a man who survived the Great Depression, capture by the German army at the Battle of the Bulge, and the soul-searing, useless fire-bombing of Dresden in 1945. If he had a mantra, it was "Be Kind."
As a young teenage Science Fiction fan, I read a few of his short stories, and tackled Sirens of Titan to my great delight. The literary quality of his work made me realize that he was more of a distinguished visitor to the genre rather than one of the yarn-spinners I was used to reading. As the 60's progressed, his star rose ever higher in literary skies. Later, when he wrote less, he still wrote very well, saying things which needed to be said.
I once met him at a book signing inside Elliot Bay Books in Seattle in 1990 -- he was friendly, humorous, and witty, without any pretentions. He will be missed, but his writings will endure. Here are some web pages and multimedia featuring Vonnegut:
http://www.pbs.org/now/arts/vonnegut.html
http://www.wnyc.org/search/?q=vonnegut&x=0&y=0
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/episodes/2005/09/27#segment52117

This oughta cheer us up!


I linked up with NYC Dancer/DJ/Singer and true Funkateer Lady Miss Kier via our mutual MySpace sites. She acted as an important catalyst for the P-Funk revival during the 90's. Miss Kier is pictured alongside Bootsy's Rubber Band, and (Upper Inset) in Dee-Lite's Groove Is In The Heart video with Maceo Parker, who really needed the work while James Brown was in prison. The lower inset shows her with fellow MySpacer George Clinton. She'll be touring Brazil later this month.

Cold and rainy again -- it's that time of year. "April Showers" and all that ... We have a large stable population of Goldeneye Ducks on Middle Foy's Lake. The Canadian Geese are haunting Firehouse Pond with it's islands -- just right for nesting.

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: The Honors Symposium was tentative, but lively -- Dr. Holly Anderson spoke about Is There A Boy's Crisis In Education? One thing I am sure of is that the rigid teach-to-the-test ideologies embodied in the meaningless platitudes of No Child Left Behind are going to make more problems for all sexes. A new design for the Hockaday Museum of Art's Website is under way. I'm also assisting Prof. Christie Kabler with a presentation on perceptions of womenhood and witchcraft. (see below)

Funky News: It's Eddie Hazel's birthday today -- he was Funkadelic's original lead guitarist, and passed away in 1992 from stomach cancer.
George Clinton and the P-Funk All Stars On Tour --
Apr 21 2007 8:00P Houston International Festival Houston, Texas
May 4 2007 8:00P Grant Street Lafayette, Louisiana
May 5 2007 8:00P The Republic New Orleans, Louisiana
May 8 2007 8:00P The Orpheum St. Louis, Missouri
May 9 2007 8:00P Crossroads Kansas City, Kansas
May 10 2007 8:00P House of Blues Dallas, Texas
May 11 2007 8:00P Stubbs Bar B Que Austin, Texas
May 12 2007 8:00P Soul Kitchen Mobile, Alabama
May 18 2007 8:00P Jannus Landing St. Petersburg, Florida
May 20 2007 8:00P The Neighborhood Charlotte, North Carolina
May 26 2007 8:00P Riverfest Little Rock, Arkansas
Jun 9 2007 8:00P Rythm and Blues Festival Plainfield, New Jersey
Jun 23 2007 8:00P Country Club Hills Chicago, Illinois
(Whirlwind) European Tour --
June 29 - San Javier, Spain
June 30 - Athens, Greece
July 01 - Hilversum. Netherlands
July 03 - Istanbul, Turkey
July 05 - Dublin, Ireland
July 06 - Tivoli, Denmark
July 07 - Embrum, France
"Back In The USA" (Mostly) --
Jul 10 2007 8:00P Ottowa Festival Ottowa
Aug 10 2007 8:00P Gathering of the Vibes Bridgeport, Connecticut
Aug 16 2007 8:00P San Manuel Casino Highland, California
Aug 17 2007 8:00P Orleans Casino Las Vegas, Nevada
Aug 18 2007 8:00P The Greek Theater Los Angeles, California

Media Watch: Trash A-Go-Go -- Dancing With The Stars is starting to shake out the good couples from the schlubs. Kym Johnson, Julliette Hough, and Cheryl Burke are doing better with their partners. Big Maxim still has a chance to improve. Tony Dovolani and his professional partner Elena Grinienko are stuck with a couple of stiffs. Ace soloist Edyta Slivynska didn't fool the judges -- her partner John Ratzenberger was caught flatfooted.
There have been a couple of gossip shows on BBC America about the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. The former went pretty easy on the 'Stones, but sketched a fairly accurate history of their early recording career. The latter wallowed too much -- especially in the dives of Hamburg. Klaus Voorman's eyewitness drawings were vivid and welcome enhancements to this show, though. They spent a lot of time speculating when they had plenty of sleazy facts to report. One important thing was rightly emphasized -- Brian Epstein was an indispensible element of the Beatles' success. When John Lennon heard about Epstein's death, he reportedly said, "We're Fooked!" Although I hate wallowing, I also think they painted too rosy a picture of Lennon's sojourn in Los Angeles during the early 70's -- he was a very troubled man at the time. His music went down the crapper, and he almost died from drug and alcohol abuse.


Dante Gabriel Rossetti's Lady Lilith -- amalgamating sensuous model Fanny Cornforth and demure Alexa Wilding. As Rossetti himself wrote:
Of Adam's first wife, Lilith, it is told (The witch he loved before the gift of Eve,) That, ere the snake's, her sweet tongue could deceive, And her enchanted hair was the first gold.
And still she sits, young while the earth is old, And, subtly of herself contemplative, Draws men to watch the bright web she can weave, Till heart and body and life are in its hold.
The rose and poppy are her flower; for where Is he not found, O Lilith, whom shed scent And soft-shed kisses and soft sleep shall snare?
Lo! as that youth's eyes burned at thine, so went Thy spell through him, and left his straight neck bent And round his heart one strangling golden hair.

Raining like it's Springtime -- GOOD! They're getting snow on the Great Plains to the east of us. The Deer are grazing in small family groups again -- that's supposed to mean they're finding enough food. I hate to mention it, but I'm going to have to call the County -- there's a Deer carcass floating in Middle Foy's Lake.

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: Still sick, but a new design for the Hockaday Museum of Art's Website is under way. I have Honors Symposium at the Red Lion Hotel tonight -- Vitamin C, Espresso, Tylenol, and now Cortizone inhalers are my friends and allies!

Media Watch: Nobody likes dawg-assed horror movies more than I, but some misbegotten 50's films were too bad to even rank as dawg-assed. Beast With A Million Eyes was tacked onto a short series of "cult" movies on TCM -- Roger Corman's mildly-interesting A Bucket of Blood and deadly-dull The Terror (despite Boris Karloff and Jack Nicholson bouncing off their castle walls without a decent script). Beast was an unrelated ultra-cheapie, shot in a bizzare isolated palm grove, somewhere in the deserts of postwar California. The acting, writing, direction, effects etc. were too morbid and unpleasant to even be ineptly funny. I fast-forwarded right to the "climax," where the vampire-bat doll and superimposed zooming eye were peeking out of the top of the garbage-can spaceship. I'm guessing Beast was sold as an imitation of William Cameron Menzies' Invaders from Mars. The only thing at all interesting in that gawdawful flick was a huge 1948 "woodie" style ranch wagon.
The contemporary English invasion movie Devil Girl from Mars is often slagged for lacking in humor, but it was a Marx Brothers classic compared to Beast With A Million Eyes. The much-maligned Ed Wood had wit and ingenuity many cuts above his fellow low-rent filmmakers -- crapola like Beast demonstrates that Wood was very far from being the "Worst Director of All Time."
Greatest Dancers on BET was a lot more fun -- here's a sample of their results (with my humble opinions):
1) James Brown (Deservedly so -- RIP); 2) Michael Jackson (Top Ten for sure); 3) Nicholas Brothers (DEFINITLY Top Five); 7) MC Hammer (Raised the bar in Hip-Hop); 8) Savion Glover (Should be higher); 9) Beyonce (She's just about the most popular young diva in the world, and she dances well, but ...); 10) The Temptations (OK, they deserve some credit -- at least as good examples.) 12) Alvin Ailey (Boo-YEAH!); 16) Shakira (She's good and popular and belongs on a current list like this.) 17) Cab Calloway (He was FUNKY before they called it that.) 19) Tina Turner (Since I saw her in person, I can testify that she was a DAMN good dancer!); 21) Gregory Hines (Higher folks, this guy was extraordinarily good!); 22) Rosie Perez (Nice lady -- glad she's being honored.)



Maila Syrjäniemi Nurmi was a model for artistic greats Alberto Vargas and Man Ray before hosting horror movies on late-night TV in Los Angeles during the 50's as Vampira. This is a fanciful lobby card for Ed Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space, in which she appeared with wrestler Tor Swedish Angel Johnson. I guess we could dub her the Finnish Succubus, since she was born in Scandanavia too. Read about her career in the Wikipedia.