If it was up to me, I would put up one of those automated solar-charged animal-crossing lights I saw in Yellowstone at the corner of Woodland Drive and South Woodland -- "Buck" and his deer family were schlepping across the highway there at dusk last night, heading towards Dry Bridge Slough. It was a little warmer this AM, but the valley reeks of smoke and you can't see the mountains.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from MySpace (Looked at some of my artwork.); Portland, Oregon (Searching online for the late George Kugler); Santa Barbara, California; and Brooklyn, New York

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
UPDATED! 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!
Read my latest Spitfires in Context essay.

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: Keep that resolution to click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: With any luck at all, we'll get the Inuit Art show installed at the Hockaday Museum of Art this weekend.

Media Watch: OK -- we'll see what the Sci-Fi Channel's version of Flash Gordon does to Alex Raymond's Hawkmen this weekend. (They are calling them Dactyls.) My educated guess is that whatever they do will be done on a low budget.
I caught an episode of a strange series called Painkiller Jane on the same network last week -- it borrowed the "Id Monster" from Forbidden Planet. The whole thing actually resembled La Femme Nikita without the Nikita's upscale style, but I couldn't quite make out if it was Pro-Fascist, uh ... Republican, or Anti-Fascist in it's viewpoint.


(Clockwise starting in the Upper Left) From 1936 -- Priscilla Lawson as Princess Aura, Jean Rogers as Dale Arden, Buster Crabbe as Flash Gordon, John Lipson as King Vultan of the Hawkmen, Charles Middleton as Emperor Ming, Ornella Muti as Aura in 1980, Brian Blessed (Foreground) as Vultan in 1980, Unidentified Movie Extra (Background) in 1980, and Alex Raymond's Hawkmen circa 1935. That cross-like image of hawk wings at the top, Dale's denial of Flash, and his subsequent torture have some oddly Biblical implications. Luckily, Aura will show up with one of those Un-Biblical ray guns and save our hero's life again soon.

Gotta run my furnace in the mornings now -- almost 0 Degrees (C) as I woke up today.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from MySpace and the U.K. -- the latter was looking for "Tina Sparkle," a fictional character in the Australian movie Strictly Ballroom. I've used that monicker in reference to Stacy Keebler and Aussie-born Kym Johnson on Dancing with the Stars AKA Trash A Go Go.

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
UPDATED! 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!
Read my latest Spitfires in Context essay.

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: Keep that resolution to click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: Wonderfully stylized animals and scenes -- the Inuit Art show is still in the process of going up at the Hockaday Museum of Art. I'm doing some more work on my Salon entry.

Media Watch: Remember those nice guys in Freekbass? Here's their schedule for the next few weeks: September 15 -- TONY'S 392 West Main Street; Friday, September 21: Bobby J's / Louisville, KY; Saturday, September 22: Barley's Taproom / Knoxville, TN; Friday, September 28: The Empty Glass / Charleston, WV; Saturday, September 29:Spaghettifest / Mt.Solon, VA; Friday, October 5 : Cavestock @ Shawnee Cave Amphitheater / Murphysboro, IL; Saturday, October 6 : Mid City Grill / Fort Wayne, IN; Friday, October 12 : Nate and Wally’s Fishbowl / Bowling Green, OH; Saturday, October 13 : Fall Hookah in the Hills / Athens, OH; Friday, October 19 : Mousetrap / Indianapolis, IN; Friday, October 26 : Stir Fry Cafe / Johnson City, TN; Saturday, October 27 : V Club / Huntington, WV Halloween Show!


Fun Scenes You'll Likely Never See: The band Freekbass performs in the orchestra pit for a Can Can line made up of Bluebelle Girls from Paris. EV'RY BODY DANCE NOW!

Cool mornings still -- the days are warm, so how do you dress? It's not Monday but the post-moving experience still SUX! (I finally got my phone working, so I can begin to compute at home.)

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Emeryville, California; Elmont, New York; and the local neighborhood.

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
UPDATED! 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!
Read my latest Spitfires in Context essay.

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: Keep that resolution to click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: The new Inuit Art show is going up at the Hockaday Museum of Art throughout this week, but the formal opening isn't until October.

Media Watch: According to NME.com, the three surviving members of Led Zeppelin will be performing in London on November 26. Jason Bonham will be their designated drummer. It's part of a fund-raiser for a foundation named in honor of the great talent scout and record company executive Ahmet Ertegun.
Yesterday was 9/11/2007 -- there was a lot of mourning going on, especially since the wounds from that day in 2001 haven't healed. Osama Bin Laden is still active, and America's basic social institutions are in danger because of gross corruption in it's ruling elite. Steps we are taking to heal are slow and difficult, but resignation to things as they are is unacceptable.

Lightening Up:


My Salon entry this year is stacked with Chorus Ladies -- this is a digitized re-interpretation of a program cover and promotional photo from Las Vegas' Dunes Hotel circa 1966.

Cool mornings -- Autumn is short here. The Deer are active in the late afternoons -- I've seen several little groups as early as 6 PM. It's Monday and moving still SUX!

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from London, England; Ransdorp, North Holland; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and two peek-ins from MySpace -- anywhere USA.

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
UPDATED! 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!
Read my latest Spitfires in Context essay.

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: Keep that resolution to click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: A new Inuit Art show will be going up at the Hockaday Museum of Art this week.

Media Watch: Sublime -- A two-hour special about the career of Luciano Pavarotti on Montana NPR last night. It was a documentary about his 70th Birthday/Farewell Tour which ended at the Torino Olympics, but might have gone on for quite awhile if cancer would have left him alone. There was one opera where a Tenor aria required a natural F above high C -- luckily, it was recorded in 1974 when Luciano was closer to thirty. The announcer also made the point that he maintained his diction, and sang it pretty. It DID sound like the Soprano (Joan Sutherland in this case.) was interrupting, but no, it was Pavarotti.
Ridiculous -- Britney Spears revisited MTV's Video Music Awards, but wasn't really prepared for such a high-pressure gig in the wake of her overly-publicized personal problems. OK, I may be projecting, but the proof was all on the stage! Whomever costumed her should have flattered her, rather than have her look so undistinguished IMHO. Britney wasn't wearing much, and showed an OK beach-body, which was far from bad, considering she'd just had two children over the last two years. I don't mind a dancer flirting with nudity at all, but I can think of a half-dozen ways they could have made her look sexier. Looking good was a minor issue compared to Spears' lackluster performance -- the lip-synching was BAD, and her dancing was WORSE, thus my observation about her lack of preparation. Britney's a talented dancer, whatever else is said about her, but she didn't show it at the VMAs.
The choreography was pretty unimaginative too -- I noticed Kid Rock in the audience, and the faux-pole dancing looked like it might have come from his vulgar stage show. He later took home a citation from the Las Vegas police for assaulting professional door-knob Tommy Lee.
I remember when Paula Abdul did a half-baked number on the VMAs over a decade ago. The bloom was off her career at the time too, but to see her actually goof up was embarrassing. She had a few more hits afterward, so her fans forgave her. (Maybe because MTV never showed that mistake-ridden mess again -- I wonder what will be the fate of Britney's on-air misfire?) Ms. Spears' career may yet recover, but she'll need to: 1) Choose good material; 2) Rehearse it.

Theater/Theatre: Here's what fabulous dancer Katie Duck and her Magpie gang are doing after Spain --
VARIA 2007 - IMPROVISATION FESTIVAL 19th - 24th OF NOVEMBER SWEDEN GOTHENBURG - THE THEATRE ATALANTE

23 Friday Workshop* Magpie Music Dance Company 11:00 – 15:00
23 Friday Magpie Music Dance Company Performance 19:30
24 Saturday Conversation day “In the spirit of improvising” presentations - VARIA, Magpie, PRODUKT - video, discussions, coffee 12:00 – 15:00
24 Saturday Performance Nordic group & Magpie Music Dance Company and guests 19:30
24 Saturday Finishing of party at the theatre – around 21:30

Registration workshop - varia07@hotmail.com
More info about VARIA2007 - http://varia07.blogg.se
Tickets & info - www.atalante.org or +46 (0) 31 7118200


Ms. Spears, Ms. Abdul and Ms. Aguileria have all had their bright and dark moments on the tube. Some of the innumerable other performers who have both triumphed on TV, and blown it bad include Jackie Gleason, Judy Garland, Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, The Beach Boys, and Tiny Tim.