Spring was almost a month late, but it has arrived -- April showers will continue into May, and we'll likely see more snow. A big buck Whitetail Deer was grazing in Dry Bridge Park yesterday evening.

Sitemeter Sez: Impruneta, Italy (Near Florence -- looking for a dance Foundation in Bilbao, Spain); Portland, Oregon; Kildare, Ireland (Saw a nice pic of Eavan & Camille); Scranton, Pennsylvania and Anderson, Indiana.

ROCK against Reaganomics 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.





Many 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: Check into Terra Sigilata blog -- donate $$$ to cancer patients just by clicking onto the site. Keep that Resolution to click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: More wrapping at the Hockaday Museum of Art, had to get some more packing tape. I'll be tech'ing for a presentation by artist Monty Yellow Bird (Black Pinto Horse) at the Community College tonight.
Check out Fall for Glacier -- a fundraiser for several programs that make Glacier National Park even better!

Concert Review: Fairly good news about Sylvester (Sly Stone) Stewart

LLL Nutt wrote -- Speechless.
We caught the Friday show in Anaheim.
Unreal.
I'm still in awe, can't do justice to a proper review right now,
but i'll try.
The curtain finally opened around 10:30 and there was SLY, front & center stage behind his keyboards, decked out in bondage boots, a plaid kilt with a bushy black mohawk. "Do you guys remember how to sing a simple song?" They busted into that, followed by Dance To the Music & Family Affair. Shit was so good, i got tears in my eyes. If Jerry Martini, Cynthia, & Sister Rose Stone sounded excellent, Sly's voice sounds just like the records, and seemed to be loving it up there. He joked that everybody made it to rehearsal but him "but i made to the gig, ha hahaha!" crowd went nuts. Let's see, they also did Stand, teasers of Hot Fun… and Don't Call Me… During Thank you… Sly changed it up a bit to say "thank you fallettinme B mice elf ONCE AGAIN."
At one point he said "okay, i'm going to the bathroom." I know i wasn't the only one thinking "alright then, good to see you SLY"… In his absence the band tore up Thank You…Africa. Then they (and) Sly took us Higher & strolled through the whole building shaking hands and singing. He did a little bit of his new joint "i'm the real model, not the role model" which has a hip hop influence, and had the crowd going.
The set lasted about an hour and ten minutes. I am still high from the experience. I had many chances to see JB before he left the planet, but never did. Seeing Sly in this triumphant return was mosdef one of the high marks in my 30+ years as a concert goer.

My OWN Thoughts: I wish Syl Stewart all the best, and was glad that his family and former bandmates gathered around to help him. Speaking of the bolded text above, I hope he rehearses and practices, like fellow-genius Brian Wilson gradually learned to do after his own repeated nervous breakdowns -- otherwise I fear he might turn into Funk's version of David Helfgott, the guy in the movie Shine. Mental illness may be "mental," but it's also illness.


A digital impression of Legendary Syl Stewart, who had an amazing career as a producer and performer, including collaborations with George Clinton, who gave Sly & the Family Stone's induction speech for the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame. My friend Wanda Day jammed with him a decade before she co-founded Four Non-Blondes.