That long gradual snowfall left a slurry of micro-marbles on the pavements -- lots of spinouts. Moving that big honkin' crate through the alley was a challenge -- luckily we only had to deal with less than a hundred yards of ice, snow, and black muck from the cars. I wanted to have a bonfire instead, but cooler heads prevailed.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors Jakarta, Indonesia; Mars, Pennsylvania (no kidding!); Edmonds, Washington; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Marseilles, France (from John Kilby's site); Oakland, California; Seattle, Washington; Brampton, Ontario.

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!
NEW --Launching NOW! Outre Space Cinema -- Featuring: 1930's Rocketry, Spitfires of the Spaceways and Cellulose to Celluloid, Flash Gordon in the Saturday Matinees and Sunday Comics!





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: A big opening reception tonight at the Hockaday Museum of Art -- Nancy Cawdrey's American Silk Road; The Montana Collective Tour, and Old West, New Visions, featuring those artistic contrasts I talked about yesterday. We got the Call of the Mountains paintings back from the restorer, put 'em on the walls, and are ready to go! One question -- shall we clean up the beleagured floors BEFORE the event, or wait until half the county finishes tracking through the place tonight?

Ch-ch Changes: The dean of Jazz pianists Oscar Peterson passed away at the age of 82 a few weeks ago. I thoroughly enjoyed his regular BBC show in the 70's, when I lived in England -- Louie Belson was his drummer for that gig. Sonic Heaven!

Media Watch: The Oscar Peterson Trio on Montana PBS last night -- several live, often-funky albums back to back. One of my favorite Oscar Peterson records has to be Trio + 1 with flugelhorn master Clark Terry AND his eccentric singing. One cut named Mumbles was actually a HIT single in 1964. I was fond of Incoherent Blues as well. Siteen years later I saw Mumbles on a jukebox at Crompton's Roadhouse, and had a good time introducing it to the small Emigration Canyon crowd which frequented the place, including Bob McFerrin, the great Jazz singer, a few years before he broke out to become an international star. Thank you Dave (Crompton) for buying that jukebox!

And now for my OWN Media!


Visit Cellulose to Celluloid
Here's a full-color sample from my compare-and-contrast site. I put up a monochrome first draft a few weeks ago, but this one's better -- click on the image for a larger view. (Above) We see Alex Raymond's tempestuous Azura, Witch Queen of Mongo bowling over Flash and the Good Guys with a well-aimed gas bomb in 1935. (Below) Former Miss New York Beatrice Roberts, as Azura, Queen of Magic plays a similar trick in 1938 during Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars.