Ninety years ago today, the guns fell silent on the killing fields of World War One. The British blockade of Germany would continue until the Central Powers signed humiliating terms of peace, which almost guaranteed hostilities in the next generation. The Ch'ing Dynasty had fallen, as had the German, Austria/Hungary, Ottoman, and Russian Empires. The French and British Empires would never recover their former strength. The U.S. and Japanese Empires were ruled by creditor states, but the spreading worldwide depression would affect them in just over a decade. An Influenza pandemic was killing millions of people with germs, as the so-called Great War had killed millions more with steel, lead, and famine. On the Western Front, anywhere from 5000 to 50,000 soldiers had died almost every day for over four years. It was worth celebrating the end of THAT particular slaughter with a holiday, but our world is still embroiled in some deadly messes inherited from those days, compounded by our cultures' seeming inability to learn from their old imperialist mistakes.
I think the best way to honor our veterans is to keep our society's promises to them when they return from duty, and even more importantly, run our various nations with wisdom and compassion.
U.S. President-Elect Barack Obama said these words last Tuesday: 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.

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


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's Autumn Salon, with 116 pieces on display. We also have Crown of the Continent and Ace of Diamonds gracing our walls.

THE RAPE OF EUROPA returns to Signature’s Stadium 14 Theaters Thursday, November 20
Showtimes: 3:30pm & 6:00pm


Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer by Gustave Klimdt -- one of the featured stories in Rape of Europa.

The Hockaday Museum of Art presented the film on November 2; however, problems with equipment prevented a full run of the 117 minute feature. Signature Theaters is donating its largest auditorium for the Nov 20 showings.
The Hockaday Museum and Signature Theaters extend their apologies to all who purchased tickets for the November 2 event, and will honor their ticket stubs for admission to either showing (3:30pm / 6:00pm) on November 20
Tickets may be purchased in advance at Signature Theatres. They may also be purchased at the door. General admission $15 / H.S. & College students $5
The Hockaday Museum thanks Signature Theaters, Bet Harim Jewish Community of the Flathead Valley, The Flathead Beacon, Ernest & Anne Steiner, Tedrowe & Jill Watkins, Anonymous donor, J. Scott Wheeler, Rabbi Allen Secher and Buz Meyer for their sponsorship and support!
Additional information: Produced in 2007, “The Rape of Europa” takes the audience on an epic journey through seven countries and into the violent whirlwind of ideological fanaticism, greed, and warfare that threatened to wipe out the artistic heritage of Europe. For twelve long years, the Nazis looted and destroyed art on a scale unprecedented in history. Fighting back, heroic young museum officials and art historians from America and across Europe mounted a miraculous campaign to rescue and return the millions of art works displaced by the war. Now more than sixty years later, the legacy of this tragic history continues to play out as families of looted collectors recover major works of art, conservators repair battle damage, and nations fight over the fate of ill-gotten spoils of war. Joan Allen narrates this breathtaking chronicle about the battle over the very survival of centuries of western culture.
Also portrayed, the untold story of the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives section of the military. Known by other GI’s as the “Monument Men” this section was formed by the US military to help identify and protect Europe ’s art and monuments from damage during the war. Civilian museum directors, curators and art historians, volunteered for service and were attached to units on the front line. They were among the first troops to arrive in war zones to effect temporary repairs to damaged structures and remove art from further risk. The Monument Men ultimately participated in what became the greatest treasure hunt in history, finding tens of thousands of artworks stolen by Hitler for the museum he intended to build in Linz , Austria . Robert Edsel, producer of “The Rape of Europa” said of the Monument Men, “Their role in protecting, rescuing and returning Europe ’s greatest art treasures is the last untold chapter of World War II. It is time to tell their story.”

Media Watch: Trash A Go Go -- Brooke Burke danced very well. The only contest remaining is for Number Two, and I think it is wide open. None of the remaining men are consistent. I read that Kym Johnson had an injured shoulder, but danced anyway -- she WAS good, but then again, she's a true professional. Many strong men "danced" with Warren Sapp on the football field and suffered much more than injured shoulders.