I really don't have to write about November 22, 1963 but I will. For some reason, I was uncharacteristically late for history class at Jackson Junior High School in Salt Lake City, Utah when my neighbor Cal Noyce, standing in the strangely-empty halls said "President Kennedy is dead!" I wanted to punch him in the mouth, since he often pulled stupid practical jokes, but he was serious, and put up with my own stupid state of denial long enough to convince me of the truth. When I got to class, the girls were all crying and everyone was in shock -- the next few days were a leaden haze of sadness as Oswald was killed, and the whole funeral was televised. What I remember most about the interminable telecast was Charles DeGaulle leading a group of dignitaries as they walked behind the cassion bearing Kennedy's body through Washington DC. At Arlington Cemetary, the bugler made some errors playing Taps, but I never heard anyone say anything about it then, or since.
Most of our Junior High, including myself, had seen John F. Kennedy in person when his motorcade drove near our school the previous month. We lined US Highway 40 two blocks south of us, and cheered as he stood up in his convertable as he approached a freeway underpass. He was a remarkably handsome man -- much better looking than most pictures show him, and he waved joyfully at the kids waiting to see him on that sunny October morning.
A few weeks after JFK's visit, the President of South Viet Nam, and his brother, were assassinated by their fellow U.S. allies. Four and a half years afterward we lost Martin Luther King to a racist's bullet, and Robert Kennedy's senseless`murder on the night of my high school graduation guaranteed that thousands more Americans would die unnecessarily in Southeast Asia. Sadly and ironically, I had seen RFK speak at a campaign rally barely six weeks earlier, promising to get us out of Viet Nam. After the police riots in Chicago that summer, I was definitely radicalized by late 1968.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Waterloo, Ontario; Edmonton, Alberta; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Winchester, Massachusetts; Washington, DC; Igualada, Spain (near Barcelona); Bucharest, Romania; New York City, New York; Bridgewater, Massachusetts; Sydney, Australia; Tappan, New York; Los Angeles, California; London, Ontario; Orlando, Florida; Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island (nice place!); Riverside, California; Columbia Falls, Montana; Vancouver, British Columbia; San Francisco, California (my favorite big city); Windsor, Ontario (Detroit's next door neighbor); Tokyo, Japan; Queen Creek, Arizona; Seattle, Washington; Birkirkara, Malta, Saint-Dizier, France and Fort Washington, Maryland.

New revisions 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 including my efforts on his Flash Gordon Resources Page -- along with actual creators like Alex Raymond, Al Williamson, and others!


Charity Alert: Play the FreeRice Game -- improve your vocabulary, and donate food to the United Nations. 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. BTW -- AIDtoCHILDREN.com is a bit simpler than FreeRice Game.

In The Community: The Hockaday Museum of Art's Autumn Salon, with 116 pieces on display. We also have Crown of the Continent and Ace of Diamonds gracing our walls. Looks like another art run to Eastern Montana in mid-December.

Media Watch: The Laramie Project on DVD -- even better with professional actors, but I must say that the stage play continues to affect hearts and minds in very positive ways wherever it is performed. Matthew Shepard's life has made a difference in the world.
Inexplicably, the vile Phelps homophobe cult is still around, despite his many defeats at the hands of decent people across the political spectrum -- once they demonstrated at performances of The Laramie Project, but now they make nasty scenes at the funerals of our country's young soldiers. Why anybody wants to spread and deepen hatred is beyond my understanding.

U.S. President-Elect Barack Obama said these words November 4, 2008: This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were.

Lightening Up: I heard from an old friend named Crimson Rose over a deep chasm in time -- she attended the International Mime Festival in 1974, along with me, my theater company, Friends Roadshow, and other visually-oriented artists. Among other things, she took a look at my web page of the event and made a nice comment. I am very impressed that she could spare the time -- she enjoys a distinguished career as a member of the LLC for Black Rock City (Burning Man), and is their Director of Art Management. She's also a director of Black Rock Arts Foundation, the non-profit wing of Burning Man. At night she performs with real fire, singly and in groups. Her work has inspired uncounted thousands of people to get up and make their expressions concrete and real. I'm honored to renew her acquaintence.

Shamanistically Yours ...

Crimson Rose in her incarnation as Fire Goddess, reinterpreted from a website entitled Play with Fire. I encourage you to look at her relaxed, easy-on-the-eye watercolors too.