It started raining yesterday, first in short showers, then gradually clouding over and getting all persistent about it. I hope the roads will be suitable for high-speed Eastern Montana driving.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Garrucha, Spain; Aberdeen, Washington; Las Vegas, Nevada; Orange Park, Florida; Indianapolis, Indiana; Cherry Hill, New Jersey; Somewhere in Germany; Madrid, Spain; Jamaica, New York; Norristown, Pennsylvania; Buffalo, New York; Manchester, UK; Mineola, New York; Stockton, California; Toronto, Ontario; Groningen, Holland; Bristol, UK (Long John Silver's hometown); Speer, Illinois; Singapore; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Hamilton, Ontario, and Karlsruhe, Germany.

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.
My road trip to Lewistown and Chester, Montana is happening tomorrow.
My community college is hosting a writers' conference, and I'm doing tech for it all day Saturday. They've had workshops the last three days, and are very nice people. One class launched over a half-dozen new bloggers on this very same service!

Media Watch: I saw the Vice Presidential debate -- so did nearly 70 Million others. Within ninety minutes after it was done, there were polls and statistics all over the media which showed public win/loss perceptions -- Among Dems/GOPs: Their side 80%, the other side 20%; Among Undecideds/Independents: Biden 70%, Palin 30%;
The amount of data gathered and correlated in such a short time astounded me.

Foggy San Francisco, one of America's cultural hubs.

Montana Public Radio is playing Handel's Aridante (1735) from the San Francisco Opera. Ah! The transition of Baroque Music into Classical Music in Europe during the so-called Enlightenment, when the despots er, kings and queens stopped being enlightened and started partying, but turned their governments over to smarties, if they were lucky, or sycophants, which was likely, and debauched their way to the Revolutionary Era.
This opera is set in a violent fantasy Neverland called Scotland, but is not quite the mad romp that Lucia di Lammermoor was. It has its charms however --
Act I True Love, Treachery, and a Masked Ball.
Act II Denunciation, Madness, Suicide, and a Ballet.
Act III Return of the Good Guy, and Sword Fights.

Crazy Lucia premiered in 1835, as did Aridante, but Donizetti revised his score for this French version which debuted in 1839 at the Théâtre de la Renaissance in Paris.