The Big Sky has been threatening rain, and I hope the mountains have been intercepting some, but the valley is dry. Two Deer charged down the hill together and thundered across the Dry Bridge about an hour before sunset.

(From SPACE.com 01 August 2008)
ABOARD A JET ABOVE THE ARCTIC OCEAN – 36,000-feet above the Arctic Ocean at a point between the uninhabited northern coast of Greenland and the Norwegian island group of Svalbard...onboard an LTU Airbus A330-200 long-range jet, racing the ... the moon's 139-mile wide shadow.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Manchester, UK; Jamaica, New York; Berlin, Germany (GoBama!); Somewhere, Japan; Phoenix, Arizona; Nesbit, Mississippi; Vittorio Veneto, Italy and Picayune, Mississippi.

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: The Hockaday Museum of Art is sending me off to Sidney, Montana next weekend at the far East end of Montana, and then I'll haul an art show westward to Lewistown, near the center of the state. Rails, Trails, and A Road -- honoring the 75th Anniversary of Going To The Sun Road in Glacier National Park, plus Ace Powell -- Ace of Diamonds and Native American Interpretations from our permanent collection.
Check out Fall for Glacier -- a fundraiser for several programs that make Glacier National Park even better!

Media Watch: I'm guilty of seeing Lady GaGa's network debut on So You Think You Can Dance? Her name is Stefani Germanotta, hailing from New York City -- she sang strongly, and moved well enough to sell her number on a show devoted to dancing. I enjoy seeing young professionals making their mark.
From her website: I did this the way you are supposed to. I played every club in New York City and I bombed in every club and then killed it in every club and I found myself as an artist. I learned how to survive as an artist, get real, and how to fail and then figure out who I was as singer and performer ... I worked hard...and now, I’m just trying to change the world one sequin at a time.

A mash-up from self-declared exhibitionist Lady GaGa's intro to the TV public -- besides her oversized straight-haired white wig, she wore an outfit cut high above her hipbones, and used a headset mic which also shone a rectangular flourescent bluish-purple light on her mouth throughout the whole number. At the begining she sported a pair of high-tech specs which displayed her stage name -- the singing and dancing were excellent, and she wrote the song as well!

Real Books: More From Hollywood by DeWitt Bordeen -- a collection of short biographies, including one about Alla Nazimova and another about her nephew Val Lewton. This author was also the writer of Cat People and knew them both, so his personal perspective was interesting. Nazimova's comment "Val couldn't afford me," could only come from a private conversation. Lewton was as respected a filmmaker as Robert Wise among his peers, but he slaved for tyrants like David O. Selznik, Charles Koerner, and Dore Schary -- working himself into an early grave.
Nazimova was a first-rate stage actor whose talent was only shown on the screen in supporting roles when talkies blossomed late in her career. Yes, she was a prima donna in her private life, but gave much to the theater-going public, like Eleonora Duse did in Europe, plus introduced the roots of Stanislavsky's Method to America. They both followed the leadership of Sarah Bernhardt in running their own careers with style. I daresay Ida Rubinstein, High Patroness of this blog, wanted to rival and even exceed Nazimova's accomplishments, but made choices which took her career in other, though somewhat parallel, directions. The irony is that these larger-than-life personalities are almost equally forgotten.

Alla Nazimova as Salome in her big-budget flop from 1922 -- supposedly inspired by Beardsley's designs for Oscar Wilde's play. Rita Hayworth couldn't save a remake after WWII, and Ken Russell's attempt at the story largely failed too, so she's in good cinematic company. Ida Rubinstein crashed the theatrical gates for herself with this same role in Belle Epoch Paris with better luck, but in a much different society. Her reprise of Salome, just before WWI, with Wilde's original French dialogue, was somewhat anticlimactic. Read more in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley