I drove from Ogden to Herriman yesterday, and back -- about 130 miles. The weather was clear and warm. I spent some time at Ken Sanders Books and saw poet/performer Alex Caldiero again. There was much more going on but I'll write about it all below.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Oakland, California; Emeryville, California; Whitefish, Montana; MySpace and Helena, Montana

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
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!





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: Make an Autumnal Equinoxial Resolution to click on The Hunger Site every day. Also check into Terra Sigilata blog -- donate $$$ to cancer patients just by clicking onto the site.

In The Community: Visit the Hockaday Museum of Art in Kalispell, Montana if you are up there.

Media Watch: I was able to help that FVCC student find information about Montana artists via MySpace yesterday -- she thanked me in the Comments Column.
I was on a fifth row aisle seat while Sinead O'Connor sang at the Capitol Theater in Salt Lake City last night. I stood up to applaud many times. I got my money's worth when she nailed her club hit Stretched On Your Grave -- Acappella at first, then bringing in her wonderful band and their masterful drummer. They made high-energy music together for an hour and more afterward, loaded with lyrics which painted pictures drawn from the greatest books ever written, and O'Connor's own incisive poetry.
The whole scene was incredible -- the Capitol Theater has hosted many classical music masters in its long history, and Sinead O'Connor stood right up to join them. Her music is high art in it's construction. Her emotion-laden songs stirred everybody in the audience who had ever felt anything.
If you hear Rock Music as acrobatics, I heard an Olympic Decathalete when Sinead O'Connor worked her beautiful voice at the front of that hundred-year-old Opera House in the Rocky Mountains last night.
If musicianship is your forte, her drummer was a symphony in himself, her lead guitarist was consistently bright. Her keyboardist flavored and colored her backgrounds tastefully, and played sax riffs on an over-sized tin whistle. A lady played bass, and another lady played electronic cello. These two sang beautifully with O'Connor, and stood up well with their bandmates, playing solos of their own.
They came out as a group, without apparent ceremony, acknowledged the relaxed and comfortable not-sold-out audience, went to their instruments, and kicked up a churning, synth-driven rhythm that just plain ROCKED. The lyrics started flying, and all that party/dance music turned into electronic chamber accompaniment of a poet, as Sinead illuminated corners of her heart to an open-eared audience whose ages spanned teens and retirees. She was obviously pregnant and physically energetic through the whole show.
As the concert progressed, the power and range of O'Connor's voice made it almost a character in itself, independent of the artist who wielded it so well, to my incredibly happy ears. I'm certain she has full control of her music, but I swear that every new breath she drew involved risk and surprise as she sang or spoke. She GIVES like few performers I've ever seen.



Sinead O'Connor's voice escaping the bounds of her body in ecto-plasmo-sonic form. What made Stretched On Your Grave a dance hit was the drum loop behind Sinead's dire vocal. It was sampled from Clyde Stubblefield's solo on James Brown's Cold Sweat (1967). How did last night's drummer do? John Reynolds was FUNKY through the whole song. He branched out in many stylistic directions that night, and day-um he was good!

Ogden, Utah looked good yesterday -- we cruised 25th Street, once known as "Two Bit Street." It fed into the old Union Pacific station, but was derelict for many, many years. There are restaurants, art galleries and specialty stores amongst the old second-hand stores and historical bars. They were renovating a building with a glaring Chinese Dragon sign out front.

Sitemeter Sez: Someone from Kalispell, Montana looked in here yesterday while I was downtown!


I bought this postcard of a COLD day on Two Bit Street on a lovely pre-Autumn afternoon -- image from a painting by local artist Mac Stevenson.

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: Make an Autumnal Equinox Resolution to click on The Hunger Site every day. Also check into Terra Sigilata blog -- donate $$$ to cancer patients just by clicking onto the site.

In The Community: Visit the Hockaday Museum of Art in Kalispell, Montana if you are up there.

Media Watch: Speaking of the Hockaday, I got an enquiry from a student at FVCC about influential Montana artists who weren't named Charlie Russell, so I recommended Winold Reiss, John Fery, Ace Powell, and Joe Abbrescia. I also sent her to the museum, and told her I was on vacation.
I watched the movie 300 last night -- it says much more about Frank Miller's hang-ups than anything historical. The Graphic Novel was better, because I expect fantasy in a comic book.
Sparta had been a long-time ally of the Persian Empire, and knew their tactics well. They also didn't want huge Asiatic armies on their side of the Aegean Sea. I happen to think that the Greeks believed they could dishearten the Persians by defeating their troops by land and sea at Thermopylae, but the sea battle was indecisive, and Xerxes did not back off after the initial slaughter of his land troops. Persian scouts would have found the route to the rear of the pass with or without help. I think the Greeks' orderly retreat shows they had a plan in case their initial resistance failed. The Spartans and Thebans acted very bravely by staying behind as a rear guard, knowing they were doomed. The abandonment of the city of Athens was also noteworthy, because I doubt that Xerxes' ships would have fallen into Themistocles' trap at Salamis if the invaders hadn't been so over-confident.
Nobody really knows how History might have changed if European Greece had been conquered by the Persian Empire. However, I guarantee that Athens wouldn't have had it's "Golden Age." Subtract the accomplishments of that period from our culture and ...


(R) Greek art BEFORE the Persian War -- (L) Greek Art AFTER the Persian War. Any questions?

Blogging from OGDEN, Utah -- thirty miles (45km) north of Salt Lake City proper. Damn oil refineries were pumping out the pollution from Bountiful when I flew in last evening.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from MySpace (more all the time); Ohio, California, Chicago (again), Denver, and Missoula, Montana.

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: Make an Autumnal Exuinox Resolution to click on The Hunger Site every day. Also check into Terra Sigilata blog -- donate $$$ to cancer patients just by clicking onto the site.

In The Community: We scrambled yesterday to set up a special event in the morning at the Hockaday Museum, and then I went back to packing for my trip. The exhibit, Inuit: A History Told in Art, is remarkable! Visit us, or see our website: Hockaday Museum of Art. I'll spend most of a week doing various public events surrounding it when I get back from my vacation.

Media Watch: YARR! It's Talk Like A Pirate Day, me hearties.
(See picture below.)
Just like I suspected, Vultan and his flying warriors were LOWWW budget versions of Alex Raymond's idea on Sci-Fi's Channel's tepid version of Flash Gordon. There was a typically ridiculous escape, plus their bewildered version of Princess Aura, and a little suspense, but there was an awful lot of standing around, especially with the normally-active character of Balin. Did I mention cheap to the point of parsimonious production values? (Steve Holland's laughable 50's series looks well-financed compared to this sometimes.)


The great Robert Newton's performance in Blackbeard the Pirate (1952) was SUPPOSED to be villainous, but it sure was funny too -- he stirred massive amounts of humor into everything.

If I blog at all, it will be from Salt Lake City, Utah during the next two weeks -- I need a vacation, and I'm going there to see my family.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from MySpace, California, France (searching for Footsbarn), and 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. Also check into a blog called Terra Sigilata -- donate $$$ to cancer patients just by clicking onto their site.

In The Community: We installed Inuit: A History Told in Art at the Hockaday Museum of Art last Saturday, despite some difficulties.

Media Watch: The Chicago Symphony played Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov over the radio last night while I was unpacking books and putting them on shelves -- PERFECT music for tasks like that! (Makes me forget about swearing.)
I'm not really in a hurry to watch the revised Vultan on Flash Gordon (2007) this week -- see it yourself on the Sci-Fi Network's website. (Note to future readers: This link will probably expire when this silly TV series does!)

Look What I Missed Last Summer!


The Monterey Pop Festival was as influential an event as any in the 60's and deserved a commemoration. Many of these bands had important ex-members missing who passed on over the years, left a long time ago, or retired from the music biz altogether. Moby Grape, Quicksilver, and It's A Beautiful Day were San Francisco stalwarts when the original festival took place. I notice that electric violinist David LaFlamme performed there with a renamed Day behind him -- he was an aquaintence of mine in Salt Lake (his original home town).