They call it Indian Summer -- meaning perhaps that Autumn is stalking us unawares. The trees are barely starting to turn, but people are gathering wood in the forest.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Hazard, Kentucky (Day-UM! There really IS a place called Hazard)

Catherine Bach played Daisy Duke as a good-hearted young woman who was rarely involved in the shenanigans of her madcap relatives -- Jessica Simpson's writers weren't nearly so kind to the version of Daisy she played thirty years later.

Also -- Berkeley, California; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Phoenix, Arizona; Tucson, Arizona; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Centereach, New York; Austin, Texas; Split, Croatia (Old Roman town); Warsaw, Poland; Kentville, Nova Scotia; Lebanon, Connecticut; Tegucigalpa, Hondoras; Boylston, Massachusetts; Bucak, Turkey; Culver City, California; Yonkers, New York; Indianapolis, Indiana; Orlando, Florida; East Hampton, New York; Winterport, Maine; Centerville, Massachusetts; Park Ridge, New Jersey; Crawley, UK; Rochester, Indiana; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Plover, Wisconsin. I've added Big Sky Blogroll to my Friendly Sites list.

Check out 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: Current shows at the Hockaday Museum of Art include 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.
The Shroud of Turin forensic chemistry lecture lost most of its audience to a beautiful Saturday afternoon.

Media Watch: Music from the Hearts Of Space is honoring sonic pioneers Esquival and Martin Denny on the radio as I write this.

Taking A Chance: If you change your mind,
I'm the first in line
Honey I´m still free
Take a chance on me
If you need me, let me know, gonna be around
If you got no place to go when you're feeling down

I paid good money to see Mamma Mia in a big-screen movie theater. After seeing Olympia Dukakis' adaptation of Shakespeare's Tempest so recently, I saw a whole set of parallels in Meryl Streep's role -- a person who raises a daughter on a distant island meets the distant past face to face as the daughter betrothes herself to a young man.

If you're all alone when the birds have flown
Honey I'm still free
Take a chance on me
Gonna do my very best and it ain't no lie
If you put me to the test, if you let me try
Take a chance on me
Take a chance on me

That being said, Mamma Mia depends completly on infectious silly fun, while ABBA's great tunes fuel the entertainment. Meryl Streep is marvelous as a singing actor. Her sidekicks Julie Walters and Christine Baranski are also very good. There are so many roles that all those other actors really don't get much screen time. The excellent Pierce Brosnan is an appealing leading man, but unfortunately his singing is dreadful -- especially in the extended SOS scene, a misapplication of one of my favorite ABBA hits. (It was on the radio when I first arrived in England.)

We can go dancing, we can go walking, as long as we're together
Listen to some music, maybe just talking, get to know you better
'Cause you know I've got So much that I wanna do, when I dream I'm alone with you
It's magic!
You want me to leave it there -- afraid of a love affair
But I think you know -- that I can't let go

If you change your mind, I'm the first in line
Honey, I´m still free -- Take a chance on me ...

OK -- enough criticism, Mamma Mia reminded me of a Bollywood movie in it's sentimentality, colorful production numbers, and complete lack of logic. I hope that sounds like praise, since I enjoyed myself almost all the time -- especially during both versions of Streep, Waters, and Baranski looning out to Dancing Queen.

Oh you can take your time baby, I'm in no hurry, know I'm gonna get you
You don't wanna hurt me, baby don't worry, I ain't gonna let you
My love is strong enough to last when things are rough
It's magic
You say that I waste my time but I can't get you off my mind
No I can't let go -- 'cause I love you so

If you change your mind, I'm the first in line
Honey, I´m still free
Take a chance on me ...

High Hollywood Goofiness

(L to R) Baranski, Streep, and Waters throw themselves into their roles in the movie version of Mamma Mia.