I was bumped off my flight from Salt Lake to Missoula, so I hopped on the waiting plane to Kalispell, then drove my car the 2 1/2 hours south to see Elton John and his awe-inspiring band yesterday. I drove back this afternoon. On the way I saw an Osprey by Flathead Lake -- they haven't all migrated yet.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Madrid, Spain (Magpie Music/Dance I think); Palmerston North, New Zealand; Dublin, Ireland (Here's a virtual kiss on the cheek, Eavan).

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 a 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: I'll have a couple of events at the Hockaday Museum of Art this week, associated with the Inuit Art exhibit.

Live On Stage: Elton John and his wonderful band! Two and a half hours of high-energy Rock Music, leavened by Church Music and Pop Music -- all burnishing Bernie Taupin's gorgeous lyrics, plus a few words written by others. Paul Buckmaster's groundbreaking orchestrations were also played, thanks to the synthesizer. He acknowledged his original bass player Dee Murray when he introduced the rest of the group: Maryland's Guy Babylon - keyboards; Michigan's Bob Birch - bass guitar, vocals; Scotland's Davey Johnstone - guitar, vocals; Ohio's John Mahon - percussion, vocals; England's Nigel Olsson - drums, vocals. The spectacle was impressive, as good Rock should be, but the quality of the Art itself was very high, and pure communication was shared by performers and audience.


The artist formerly known as Reginald Dwight stands on Elton John's Yamaha piano in Missoula, Montana. It was the beginning of the latest tour, and his voice was excellent all night. (Image extensively re-digitized from The Missoulian newspaper.)

Last full day in Utah this vacation -- I'll be flying to Missoula, Montana for Elton John's concert tomorrow. (NOTE: Somehow I overwrote my entry for Wednesday with Thursday's musings. I will blog in real time after I return to Montana.)

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from -- Well, the same places they came from yesterday. Saint Peters, Missouri; Darlington, UK; Emeryville, California; Woodbridge, New Jersey; Brighton, UK; Si Dua Besar, Malaysia.


Speaking of yesterday, here's a snapshot of the Autumn foliage in North Ogden Canyon about 11 AM -- photo by Gary Gentry.

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 a 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.

Theater/Theatre: Another theatrical giant passed away this week -- Marcel Marceau combined Deburau's theatrical character of "Pierrot" with Chaplin's cinematic "Little Tramp" after WWII into a new creation he named "Bip." Marceau was a magnificently trained actor with a double-jointed body who could make an audience crack up for two hours without saying a word. Among the curiosities of his long career was a speaking part in Mel Brooks' Silent Movie, and a record album entitled The Best of Marcel Marceau, where each side is silent for about 15 minutes, followed by live clapping in a theater. The great sequential/comics artist Alejandro Jodorosky worked with him in the 60's.


L) A sketch by the late Al Hirschfeld. (R) Marceau himself onstage. (Images re-digitized from a YouTube Video.)
The best way of honoring Marceau and the craft of silent acting was to avoid imitating his moves and his scenarios, and revise your own stuff if you found similarities, no matter how logical or inadvertent they might have been. Unfortunately, he became unfairly identified with the plethora of less-talented imitators who followed his success. His teacher Étienne Decroux was famous as well, but the latter's stringent ideals of Corporeal Mime were ignored by hundreds of would-be Marceau clones who made the word Mime a laughingstock, or a synonym for obnoxious, under-trained street performers, hiding behind whiteface.
My theater company met some nice people playing that imitation game who were disciplined and charismatic, but the public eventually turned away from them too. There are great original silent actors and mimetic dancers in the US and Europe -- just follow some of my links in the margin. Some of Decroux's concepts are carried on by the Dell'Arte School and disciples of Jacques Le Coq -- you'll find them embedded in the works of successful contemporary organizations like Blue Man and Cirque De Soleil.

I have been doing a lot of driving! During my travels, I saw the Ririe/Woodbury Dance Company; Park City, Utah; The Saturday Farmers Market and 9th & 9th in Salt Lake, and George Thorogood & the Destroyers at the Union Pacific depot in my old home town.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Swift Current, Saskatchewan; Saint Paul, Minnesota; Chesapeake, Virginia; Rome, Italy.

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: My friend Jon Ludwig gave me some copies of VERY obscure albums from over 40 years ago. I enjoyed P.J. Proby's Enigma, and was pleased to read that he still has a career driving his fans and detractors crazy in England.
I am also enjoying listening to San Francisco's vastly-underrated Beau Brummels on those long freeway excursions. Their best songs were so original and well-done that I can handle a few clinkers.
The drummer, Jon Andersen, later had a couple of hit singles with Harpers Bizarre, but the core of the Brummels were singer Sal Valentino and guitarist Ron Elliot. The latter became a Warner Brothers studio musician behind Randy Newman to mention just one of his superb associations. He also put out the excellent album From the City to the Sea under his own name. Valentino paid his bills with Stoneground in LA during the mid-70's. The Beau Brummels reformed in the late 70's with their original Irish rhythm guitarist/bassist. Their epynomous album was excellent, and holds up well today, but that was the last I heard of them.


The historic Union Pacific Depot in Salt Lake. George Thorogood performed upstairs in The Depot Club, built into the north wing, which disappears from this re-digitized picture to the right.