It has been raining, but I haven't got all those books undercover, or on the shelves yet. The Deer are grazing more in the city limits now that hunting season has begun.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Dover, Pennsylvania; Los Angeles, California; Lillehammer, Norway; Ottawa, Canada (Clara McBride, I hope); and La Crosse, Wisconsin. (Hey! That investigator from the 'Bay the other day WAS Elaine -- she got in touch with me.)

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: Keep that 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: Yep! Working at the Hockaday Museum of Art every afternoon. I'm just one cog in the machine though. Members Only Salon starts next Thursday, along with Donna Gans' witty paintings and installations -- we STILL do Modern Art occasionally!


Autumn at the Hockaday 2007 -- photo by ME

Media Watch: Alright! Queer Eye for the Straight Guy is on again for at least one more season -- I've taped two shows, but haven't watched 'em yet.

It's clouding over and looks like it will RAIN! (Please let me get all those books undercover first.)

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Lancaster, Pennsylvania (Searching for Sal Valentino of the Beau Brummels); Oakland, California (googling my friend Elaine); Utah and 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: Keep that 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 be at the Hockaday Museum of Art every working day for the next week and a half. I finally got that cussed glass clean over my Members Only Salon painting/print.

Media Watch: I've seen some bad singing on Dancing with the Stars, but last night was the WORST when Wayne Newton did Danke Schone for his thirty thousandth time. I NEVER liked him anyway, but his voice was terrible -- no pitch, no timbre, no music at all coming from his throat. I hope he was just suffering a bad night, but there are people who spend a lot of money to see his shows, and I feel more sorry for them than I ever did before. Drew Lachet and Cheryl Burke danced well in front of him, but it was still ugly. Earlier in the show, someone sang a Gloria Estafan song very well indeed, while some of the show's professional dancers did an entertaining number. Oh yeah, the boxer was voted off the show after a fairly good performance. He seemed like a nice guy, and he had fast feet, but that was all. He would have gone soon anyway -- I hope the sports team owner is next. Half-nude Edyta finally got her soap-opera partner to move respectably for a change, without relying on her considerable dazzle to save the show. Sabrina, one of Disney Channel's Cheetah Girl's, is by far the best celeb dancer this season. If there is a number two, she's 'way back in the pack. The menfolk are fairly blah this go-round.



(Left) Actor Jane Seymour is a contestant on Dancing with the Stars (AKA Trash A Go Go) this season. She shares the name of one of Henry VIII's queens (Right). The original Jane gave birth to the short-lived Edward VI and supposedly shares Henry's grave. I have OUR Jane escaping from that Late Renaissance mess and time-travelling to Hollywood.

What was that BIG Hawk hunting along the Slough last evening? It seemed darker than a Red Tail, but that thing was almost as large as an Eagle.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Tijuana, Mexico; Craig, Colorado; Emeryville, California; South Hadley, Massachusetts; Oakland, California; Chante-Alouette, Auvergne, France (John Kilby maybe!); Kaysville, Utah; and my pal Eavan Brennan in Dublin, Ireland.

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: Keep that 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: Inuit -- A History Told In Art is in it's last hours at the Hockaday Museum of Art. I'll be there every working day for the next week or so, moving and removing things. Muhtha Murphy struck again! There's a tiny grain of matte board between the glass and my Members Only Salon painting/print. It even casts a shadow -- I discovered it after I sealed the whole thing up, dust cover and all. It will only take twenty minutes or so to clean up, but %$#@! I hate to turn those things over until the glass is secure, so Murphy bit me on the ass for not checking.


Another detail from A Century of Changing -- And More of the Same. Those "bubbles" are artifacts of Photoshop's lens flare feature.

Media Watch: Halloween Movie Time! Frank Langella's version of Dracula (1979) showed up on the cable/satellite again. I finally realized who Langella resembles -- Harpo Marx! His acting style was just too restrained for me, though -- Langella's, I mean NOT Marx's. Some actors seem to get away with being a "blank slate," like Michael J. Pollard or Keanu Reaves, but if it's all they do, I get bored really fast.
I notice Cate Blanchett is reprising her interpretation of Elizabeth I on the big screen -- this time against the Spanish Armada. Spain's Phillip II was Elizabeth's brother-in-law for awhile, when he was married to her Catholic half-sister Mary I (known to history as Bloody Mary for her violent religious intolerance). Even though Parliament never recognized him as king, he considered England his property. After Mary's premature death, when Protestant Elizabeth Tudor was crowned, the English fought Phillip II directly and indirectly for decades. The disasterous fate of his Invincible Armada in 1588 was an important turning point in European History, but unheroic fire ships did much more damage than the ragtag pirates and merchantmen who made up Elizabeth's navy at the time. Their dogged resistance helped prevent resupply landings, though, and fatally delayed Phillip's plan for linking up with his formidible land troops in the rebellious Netherlands. Protestant Europe just plain lucked out when North Sea storms struck His Most Catholic Majesty's fleet before they could regroup after the fire attack.
The first Elizabeth movie was only fair, and owed a lot to Coppola's The Godfather, but Blanchett's acting was excellent, and made that silly costume parade worth watching once or twice. If this franchise scores big a second time, I'm afraid we'll be seeing Essex or even Shakespeare in Ol' Lady Liz, or something like that. I can hear 'em in the board meeting -- How about doing Elizabeth Part III as Godfather II, with an attempted coup followed by another vengeful bloodbath of Elizabeth's royal relatives?
Speaking of Blanchett, I saw her playing a backwoods southerner from the USA in a strange crime movie co-starring Keanu Reaves. He actually ACTED, rather than his normal routine of detachedly reacting to the other players -- in a villainous role as well. Good for him!