Boycott Dancing with the Stars! (See post from 11-06-2007) American Thanksgiving was steel-gray and cold, like the day before, and today.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Chemainus, British Columbia; Louth, Ireland; Macon, Georgia; Bydgoszcz, Poland; Somerset, New Jersey; Jonesville, North Carolina; Hmeenlinna, Finland; Dallas, Texas and Long Beach, California. (Investigating my "Boycott" schtick -- maybe a staffer for Trash A Go Go -- fix yer dumb system, dolts!)

REAL SLC Punk, not the movie, 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 Holiday 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 was decorating the Hockaday Museum of Art outside in near-zero temperatures (F). The staff inside had a warmer time of it -- I was also inside long enough to shoot a couple of pictures that are due to appear in the local paper.

Media Watch: Macy's Department Store -- uh -- THANKSGIVING Day Parade first thing Thursday morning -- I DO like seeing those huge balloons between the skyscrapers of New York.
There has been a lotta bogus history on the air because of the holiday. The Congregationalist "Pilgrims" had a celebration after their first year in the Plymouth Colony -- they also had harvest celebrations in the countries where they had lived before. They had their SURVIVAL to celebrate in 1621 -- damn near perished the first winter. The exaggerated legend of Squanto masks the sad fact that they were treacherously hostile to their neighbors. They also landed the same year when the first African slaves were sold in Virginia -- more of that messy rubble around our old foundations, eh?
Beowulf is out as a CGI movie -- read the primordial story yourself HERE, and leave those video-game pastiches on the couch where they belong.
Professor J.R.R. Tolkien always liked a good tale, and played a part in calling the 20th Century's attention to this echo of the Dark Ages:
(From Medieval Forum)On 25 November 1936, Tolkien delivered “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics” to the British Academy, and it was published the next year in the Academy's proceedings. The essay was a redaction of lectures that Tolkien wrote between 1933 and 1936, “Beowulf and the Critics.” ...
This careful scholar avoided direct imitation of the Northern Classics in his own writings, but his heroes generally partook of Beowulf's daring, self-sacrificing spirit, and he owes a nod towards the water-dwelling Grendel clan for some aspects of Gollum. Tolkien's dragons tend to speak, unlike Wulfie's bestial worm.


An extensive redigitization of Frazetta illustrating Eowyn/Dernhelm slaying her OWN version of a Dark Ages dragon in Tolkien's Return of the King. It was good for the story when the otherwise too-powerful Ringwraiths, and their winged steeds, turned out to have exploitable weaknesses.

Boycott Dancing with the Stars! (See post from 11-06-2007) Cold temperatures (-10 C) -- Frozen ground will be with us for awhile now. Dry Bridge Slough is frozen, with a skiff of snowflakes laying on top of the surface.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Herndon, Virginia; Ulverstone, Tasmania (searching for Kipling's God of our Fathers -- you also get Quicksilver's Pride of Man in the bargain); Wausau, Wisconsin; Lugano, Ticino; Cincinnati, Ohio (Hi Patti!); Jamaica, New York; Oakdale, Illinois; Sudbury, Canada and Minneapolis, Minnesota.

REAL SLC Punk, not the movie, 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 Holiday 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: Winterizing the Hockaday Museum of Art as the temperatures drop, and the century-old building leaks heat from every seam.

Media Watch: Positives, Negatives, and WTF -- Damnedable crook Maggie Thatcher on Book TV (shudder); Marie Osmond is reportedly in the Trash A Go Go finals -- smell that Fan Factor. A PBS two-parter: Athens: The Dawn of Democracy. Good-looking presenter* Bettany Hughes, who also did Helen of Troy and The Spartans takes a little time to dally with the weirdities of ancient Greek culture, rubble amongst the foundation blocks of our modern civilization, like it or not. *Nothing wrong with good looks -- Michael Wood did excellent historical documentaries too.
From the PBS Website:
(Hughes) explores the contradictions of the "Golden Age" of ancient Athens, where democracy emerged nearly 2,500 years ago. Far from an environment of peace and tranquility, democratic Athens was a bloody, tumultuous place of both brilliant ideas and a repressive regime. While the period saw the rise of philosophy, the flourishing of the arts and the creation of a great political ideal, Athens also became a warlike state that carved out an empire to enrich itself, an empire that couldn't tolerate criticism. At the same time Athenians reached new intellectual heights, they practiced "black magic" and created a society where one in three Athenians was a slave. Women were denied the vote and rhetoricians practiced modern "spin control" as an integral part of democracy. No two years went by that Athenians didn't vote to go to war. Eventually the empire withered, to be crushed finally by Alexander the Great. It would be another 2,000 years before society was once again able to tolerate the idea of democracy - rule by the people.
The competing concept of REPUBLIC has endured, in many bizarre forms, for two millennia since Plato's book -- we often ignore the fact that it's intention is ANTI-democratic. The shotgun wedding we have in Amerika between the two is in need of serious therapy.


A later elaboration on Aphrodite of Cnidos, originally ascribed to master sculptor Praxiteles, who lived in 4th Century Athens, at the height of its glories and follies. Bettany Hughes demonstrated how the naturalism of classical Greek art required casting, measuring, and other not-so-romantic but necessary techniques during her film.

Boycott Dancing with the Stars! (See post from 11-06-2007) Prediction -- 16 inches of snow; Reality -- anout 2mm of snowfall so far today. DAMN big Raptor hunting over Highway 93 yesterday morning -- maybe a Red Tailed Hawk migrating through or a Rough Legged Hawk migrating in.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Meridian, Mississippi; Melbourne, Australia; Federal Way, Washington (searching for the 420 Funk Mob in Tacoma); Las Vegas, Nevada (not CNN, I hope) and Upper Marlboro, Maryland.

REAL SLC Punk, not the movie, 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: Donna Gans and the Members' Salon; A first-rate ceramics sale, and the "Round Up" wreath auction (get it?)at the Hockaday Museum of Art.

Media Watch: NFL Football -- Mis-matches and wipe-outs, nothing worth reporting IMHO. The Montana university teams had their own set-to Saturday, and Missoula beat Bozeman. Thank goodness for Book TV.

InSanity Clauses: SubUrbans is a sure 'nuff Sci-Fi Cataclysm Novella -- I'm gonna split the Great Rift Valley apart and sink Big Oil to boot! My Worldwide City will end up with some of it's neighborhoods in serious disrepair. Damn that Ultra-Extractor!

On The Road: Chris and the nice people of Freekbass are doing a benefit for a fellow musician this week:
Freekbass, with special performances by SHAG and Animal Crackers.
Hosted by Bootsy & Patti Collins.
With silent auction to benefit Chris Walker.
Wednesday, November 21, Thanksgiving Eve. 20TH Century Theatre
3021 Madison Rd. Cincinnati, OH 45209 513-731-8000
Doors: 7pm Showtime: 8pm All ages. $10 Advance / $12 Day of show
Ticketmaster or available at 20th Century Box Office.
An evening of Funk & Love for Chris Walker.Animal Crackers opens the event at 8pm, followed by the funk grooves of "CEA Nominee" and six time winner, Freekbass! But the night doesn't end there... SHAG reunites for one night only! Funk lengend, Bootsy Collins and wife, Patti Collins will host the event. A silent auction will feature generous donations from local businesses and national music artists to benefit Cincinnati bassist, Chris Walker. Come prepared to dance and bid!
Some donated items:
- BC Rich "Outlaw" guitar, donated by BC Rich, to be autographed by Bootsy Collins during event by winners choice
- Two, '66 Dart Amps, donated by Kustom Amplification
- Cincinnati Reds tickets and autographed Bronson Arroyo baseball, donated by The Cincinnati Reds
- Autographed music memorbilia & cds from Bootsy Collins, Dave Grohl, Kelly Clarkson, Sarah McLachlan, Bernie Worrell, Mike Gordon, Ekoostik Hookah, and the local music community
- D'Addario bass accessories package, donated by D'Addario
- Subscriptions to Guitar Player, Bass Player, Relix and Global Rythm Magazines
- Starbucks, Perfect North Slopes, Avalon Salon, Dewey's Pizza and more!

Silent auction proceeds and a portion of ticket sales and will benefit Chris Walker. Cash, check, Visa & Matercard accepted for auction payment.
Donations for Chris Walker may also be made at any US Bank to "Friends for Chris Walker".

This Friday (November 23) Freekbass
Winchester Music Hall 12112 Madison Avenue Cleveland, OH 44107 216.226.5681
Freekbass won for Best R&B/Funk act at the 2007 Cincinnati Entertainment Awards (CEAs). This is the sixth year in a row Freekbass has won in this catagory. Thank you so much to everyone who voted and for your continued support !


My friend Bernie Worrell (L) jamming with Chris Sherman (R), leader of Freekbass -- extensivly redigitized from the band's MySpace site. Chris is a protege of Bernie's best friend Bootsy Collins, and a member in good standing of the extensive P-Funk Network of Players/Bandleaders.