We've had a number of real snowstorms since the last post -- its that time of year again, and they are welcome. Whenever the ol' Big Sky is clear enough to see Planet Mars, the temperature is too damn cold to enjoy it. That exploding comet is fairly dim now.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Connersville, Indiana; Denver, Colorado (A shout-out to beautiful Tari DeWille!); Cape Coral, Florida; Louth, Ireland; South Jordan, Utah; Jamaica, New York (That you, Stozo?); Huntington, Utah; San Diego, California; Georgetown, Guyana; Walldrn, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany and Cincinnati, Ohio.

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: The Hockaday Museum of Art is closed until January 2 -- I've been there doing walk-throughs, and hanging one of the next round of shows. The website has been getting updated too.

Media Watch: Bollywood movies are good on winter nights, even if they may be bonehead comedies -- Sanjay Duit or Madhuri Dixit are excellent in almost any role. Last weekend there was an ambitious opera by Prokofiev based on War and Peace. Darn thing lasted for most of four hours! This week it was the lackluster Hansel & Gretel by Engelbert Humperdink -- not the English lounge-lizard crooner, but the German composer.

Spitfires Preview: Beware Planet Mongo's Queen of Magic!

Azura, Witch Queen of Mongo, as she was introduced by Alex Raymond in 1935. (Those birds aren't doves of peace.)

The so-called Legion of Decency not only censored Hollywood, but supressed most of the Mass Media from the mid-30's until the mid-60's. Former beauty pagent contestant Beatrice Roberts later concealed her charms under a velvet fur-trimmed cape as the Martian version of Azura. Before the Hearst Syndicate (King Features) fully accommodated the censors, there was year of fabulously-drawn Flash Gordon Sunday pages which competed strongly with Harold Foster's non-lunkheaded Tarzan. Raymond's long, sinuous ink lines are the hallmarks of this high-barbaric epoch of newspaper comics.

Merry Christmas! Planet Mars is still glowing bright -- it is both the Morning Star and the Evening Star, and I declare it the XMAS STAR this year. When I said its getting farther from Earth for awhile, I meant at opposition. HAIL! It's on the other side of the Sun for months at a time. We are getting a little snow -- enough to scare drivers into going slow, I hope. Wandering deer are activating the garage light at night.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Bellevue, Nebraska; Marlton, New Jersey; Scarsdale, New York; Jamaica, New York; Hamilton, Montana and Washington, District of Columbia USA.

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: The Hockaday Museum of Art is closed until January 2 -- I'll be there later this week getting a jump on hanging some BIG pictures for the next show, because there will be a deivery of a touring exhibit right after we open. The college is all shuttered down until the New Year, but then we'll be hittin' it HARD!

Media Watch: Kinky Boots was a well-acted movie. The plot rang a couple of false notes, and almost ran aground near the end, but the good spirit of the thing carried it through.

Spitfires Preview: Dale Arden's Censored Spitfire Past!
Two panels from the second Flash Gordon Sunday page (1934). In the first panel, A panicking Dr. Hans Zarkov throttles Flash Gordon, but does not see Dale Arden running up, brandishing a wrench.


Watch out for Wenches with Wrenches!
The second panel obviously follows an implied or expurgated scene where she clobbers the mad scientist on the left (far) side of his noggin -- giving Flash a chance to get to his feet and knock the crazy sonuvabitch outta commission. Dale showed some spunk and self-reliance in the original scenario, but Flash Gordon's many creators imprisoned her in the role of "Damsel In Distress" far too often. Zarkov was later rehabilitated in the comic strip, and became an avuncular co-hero in the movie serials.