Damn Deer walked right in front of me on South Woodland -- I stopped cold, and blinked my lights to warn oncoming cars. It's trying to snow here in the Flathead Valley, but hasn't succeeded yet.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Somewhere in Greece; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Austin, Texas; Eola, Texas; Columbus, Ohio; Sandviken, Sweden; Broomfield, Colorado; Odenton, Maryland; Chahar Mahall va Bakhtiari, Iran; Tilburg, Holland; Seattle, Washington; Medford, New Jersey; Fort McMurray, Alberta; Torrance, California; San Rafael, California; Hamilton, Ohio; Omaha, Nebraska; Racine, Wisconsin; Overland Park, Kansas; Guildford, UK; Medford, Oregon; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Dallas, Texas; NYC, New York; Athens, Greece; Jacksonville, Florida; Saint Cloud, Minnesota (Stayed overnight there on the upper Mississippi River); Pinckney, Michigan; Evansville, Indiana; Greenwood, South Carolina; Sochaczew, Poland; Portland, Oregon; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (feel free), and Winnipeg, Manitoba.

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.

Media Watch: Trash A Go Go -- Susan Lucci's gone back to the day job she never left. I saw a lot of MUCH better break dancing than they showed on their Legends of Dance sequence when I was in Portland, Oregon last month. -- shoulda had JabbaWokeeZ on instead.

Non-Bollywood Movies: Aishwarya Rai in The Last Legion (2006) -- filmed in Tunisia, Slovokia, and Great Britain. It spun a ridiculous yarn incorporating the King Arthur legend into the mostly-unknown tale of hapless Romulus Augustus -- last person to bear the title Emperor of the Western Roman Empire. Names like Vortigern and Odoacer are thrown into the mix, but historical timelines are completely ignored. Sir Ben Kingsley and Colin Frith are wasted in lead roles, and Aishwarya Rai plays a martial artist from India who slays dozens of barbarians at a time. (No -- she doesn't screen-kiss Frith, or anybody else!)
The Dark Ages can be pretty fertile fields for adventure -- Germanic general Odoacer defeated Roman rebel Orestes, and deposed his facetiously-named son (above). The Roman Senate sent the Emperor's crown and vestments to Constantinople because the German king declined the office in 476 A.D. Vortigern unwisely invited the Saxons to Britain, and died a generation before Odoacer took over Italy. (The latter was killed by Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths, in the 490's.)

The Eyes Have It!

Aishwarya Rai as "Mina" in the ridiculous Last Legion. She dances and does action scenes in Bombay too, so she was convincing enough in this Low-Medieval fantasy.

Unwillingly racing with a Deer last night on South Woodland -- I kept slowing down until it finally turned away from the road. The weather has been gray and drizzly since yesterday.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Greenville, South Carolina; Hackettstown, New Jersey; Cruger, Mississippi; Cancn, Mexico; Onamia, Minnesota; Oakland, California (hey Matt, Hey Caroline!); Buenos Aires, Argentina; Somers, Montana and Stockport, UK.

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.

Media Watch: All elections, all the time on the media. Drive-time radio played an assortment of odd items from the past, like a speech of John F. Kennedy mixed with a full chorus -- good speech, but pure Kitsch as a record. They ran Stout Hearted Men rewritten as a Goldwater jingle from 1964, and a hilarious take-off on History Repeats Itself, a sentimental rap that crept onto TV and Radio after JFK's assassination. One thing I'll say is that Cab Calloway got some long-overdue airplay because of HIS version. The parody compared Lyndon B. Johnson with Batman, who was the star of an excruciatingly camp TV show at the time.

My favorite stars of ABC's goofy Batman series: Ballet Russes dancer Yvonne Craig (foreground) and Broadway dancer Julie Newmar (background)

I'm proud to say that the people of the United States, including myself, elected Barack Hussein Obama as the 44th President. I haven't been this happy about politics since I was in 5th Grade at the end of 1960, when John F. Kennedy won. When I heard that Obama had carried Ohio over NPR at 7:30 Mountain Time, I went and bought some champagne. Later I visited the local Obama office, and the bar next door where the local Democratic Party was celebrating. I didn't drink much, but I walked home anyway.

Michael -- I'm about to head to Grant Park to talk to everyone gathered there, but I wanted to write to you first. We just made history. And I don't want you to forget how we did it. You made history every single day during this campaign -- every day you knocked on doors, made a donation, or talked to your family, friends, and neighbors about why you believe it's time for change. I want to thank all of you who gave your time, talent, and passion to this campaign. We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I'll be in touch soon about what comes next. But I want to be very clear about one thing...
All of this happened because of you.
Thank you,
Barack
So he sent this same email to millions of others,
he sent this one to ME!

Later he spoke to EVERYBODY --
Hello, Chicago. If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.
It's the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen, by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different, that their voices could be that difference.
It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled. Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states.
We are, and always will be, the United States of America.
It's the answer that led those who've been told for so long by so many to be cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day. It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this date in this election at this defining moment change has come to America.
A little bit earlier this evening, I received an extraordinarily gracious call from Sen. McCain. Sen. McCain fought long and hard in this campaign. And he's fought even longer and harder for the country that he loves. He has endured sacrifices for America that most of us cannot begin to imagine. We are better off for the service rendered by this brave and selfless leader.
I congratulate him; I congratulate Gov. Palin for all that they've achieved. And I look forward to working with them to renew this nation's promise in the months ahead.
I want to thank my partner in this journey, a man who campaigned from his heart, and spoke for the men and women he grew up with on the streets of Scranton and rode with on the train home to Delaware, the vice president-elect of the United States, Joe Biden.
And I would not be standing here tonight without the unyielding support of my best friend for the last 16 years the rock of our family, the love of my life, the nation's next first lady Michelle Obama.
Sasha and Malia I love you both more than you can imagine. And you have earned the new puppy that's coming with us to the new White House.
And while she's no longer with us, I know my grandmother's watching, along with the family that made me who I am. I miss them tonight. I know that my debt to them is beyond measure.
To my sister Maya, my sister Alma, all my other brothers and sisters, thank you so much for all the support that you've given me. I am grateful to them.
And to my campaign manager, David Plouffe, the unsung hero of this campaign, who built the best -- the best political campaign, I think, in the history of the United States of America. To my chief strategist David Axelrod who's been a partner with me every step of the way. To the best campaign team ever assembled in the history of politics you made this happen, and I am forever grateful for what you've sacrificed to get it done.
But above all, I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to. It belongs to you. It belongs to you.
I was never the likeliest candidate for this office. We didn't start with much money or many endorsements. Our campaign was not hatched in the halls of Washington. It began in the backyards of Des Moines and the living rooms of Concord and the front porches of Charleston. It was built by working men and women who dug into what little savings they had to give $5 and $10 and $20 to the cause.
It grew strength from the young people who rejected the myth of their generation's apathy who left their homes and their families for jobs that offered little pay and less sleep.
It drew strength from the not-so-young people who braved the bitter cold and scorching heat to knock on doors of perfect strangers, and from the millions of Americans who volunteered and organized and proved that more than two centuries later a government of the people, by the people, and for the people has not perished from the Earth.
This is your victory.
And I know you didn't do this just to win an election. And I know you didn't do it for me. You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead. For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime -- two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century.
Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us.
There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after the children fall asleep and wonder how they'll make the mortgage or pay their doctors' bills or save enough for their child's college education.
There's new energy to harness, new jobs to be created, new schools to build, and threats to meet, alliances to repair.
The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there.
I promise you, we as a people will get there. There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won't agree with every decision or policy I make as president. And we know the government can't solve every problem.
But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And, above all, I will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation, the only way it's been done in America for 221 years -- block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.
What began 21 months ago in the depths of winter cannot end on this autumn night.

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.

It can't happen without you, without a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice. So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other. Let us remember that, if this financial crisis taught us anything, it's that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers.
In this country, we rise or fall as one nation, as one people. Let's resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long.
Let's remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House, a party founded on the values of self-reliance and individual liberty and national unity.
Those are values that we all share. And while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress.
As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, we are not enemies but friends. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.
And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices. I need your help. And I will be your president, too.
And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces, to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world, our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand.
To those -- to those who would tear the world down: We will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security: We support you. And to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright: Tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope.
That's the true genius of America: that America can change. Our union can be perfected. What we've already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that's on my mind tonight's about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She's a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing: Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.
She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons -- because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.
And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America -- the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with that American creed:

Yes we can.

At a time when women's voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot.

Yes we can.

When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs, a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can.
When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can.
She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that "We Shall Overcome."

Yes we can.

A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination.
And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change.

Yes we can.

America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves -- if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?
This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment.
This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people:

Yes, we can.

Thank you. God bless you. And may God bless the United States of America.

A very wet frontal system is passing over us -- rain and occasional snow. Some flakes were almost as big as my hand, but it hasn't stuck so far. Mama Deer with triplets sighted at Dry Bridge Park.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Santiago, Chile; Louth, Ireland; Salt Lake City, Utah (How're things in the old hometown?); Los Angeles, California; Winston Salem, North Carolina; Curitiba, Brazil; Hamburg, Germany; Seattle, Washington; Madrid, Spain; Winnipeg, Manitoba; Oakland, California; New Delhi, India (Yep, looking for Rani Mukerji!); Katowice, Poland and Athens, Greece.

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.
Voting may be affected by the dreary weather, but this is our country's most important election since 1932, and the adults HAVE to win, or our future will be bleak indeed.



Media Watch: Trash A Go Go is starting to look like General Hospital, there are so many illnesses and injuries. Brooke Burke and Derek Hough deserved their score of 30. Susan Lucci has no outstanding aptitude for dancing, plus a grueling work schedule that prevents her from improving much anyway. I'm not sure the group competition is such a good idea, but it took a little less time than a second round of partner dances.
Most of the omnipresent political ads are ridiculous, libelous, or both -- I'll be glad when those things are are GONE!
Sixty Minutes returned to its tradition of insightful reporting again for a few moments with a report about neural computer controls -- a technology which is in its infancy, but can do so much for communicating with ALS and stroke victims.

Fair & Balanced -- The Adolescents:

Political satire from 2008 over originally uncopyrighted art by Robert Crumb circa 1969.

Mild Autumn weather during the days -- perfect election weather, and an excellent Halloween night.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Lubbock, Texas; Athens, Greece; Singapore, Singapore; Munich, Germany; Buffalo, New York; Morristown, New Jersey; Alexandria, Virginia; Gladwyne, Pennsylvania; New Orleans, Louisiana; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Jamaica, New York; Quaregnon, Belgium; Salt Lake City, Utah; San Antonio, Texas; Merseburg, Germany; Brisbane, Australia; Dorgaand Verkeer, Netherlands; Berlin, Germany; Rne, Sweden; Wilmington, North Carolin; Los Angeles, California; Mobile, Alabama; Longwood, Florida; Chicago, Illinois; Saint Helens, UK; Guadalajara, Mexico; NYC, New York, and Fort Worth, Texas. Hundreds have visited over the week -- THANKS!

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 movie will be rescheduled -- what I saw of it was very compelling!
There are only 100 U.S. Senators out of a population that exceeds 300,000,000 -- I shook hands with both of mine last Saturday, and not for the first time. I imagine that there are people in large-population states who never actually see their elected officials, much less become acquainted with them by repeated meetings. Small can be beautiful!

Media Watch: I've never cared a lot for Mozart's Abduction from the Sergalio, so I didn't give it much attention on Montana Public Radio Saturday afternoon. Sunday morning was entirely different with extended performances by Moira Smiley and VOCO -- a first-rate vocal group who accompanied themselves with minimal instrumentation or sang acapella at a festival in Bloomington, Indiana. The sound engineering did not separate those beautiful voices from the distant-sounding ambience, although their instruments sounded close and clear. The power of their singing came across anyway, so I'm glad it was broadcast with all its live imperfections. The following show featured Guitar Royalty -- Spanish musicians Celin Romero and Pepe Romero for an hour.

Bollywood Movies: Bunty Aur Babli starring Abhishek Bachchan, his father Amitabh Bachchan, and the beautiful Rani Mukerji. New Bachchan family member Aishwarya Rai appeared as a cabaret dancer in a drunken hallucination scene featuring Daddy as a hard-drinking cop, with Sonny trying to keep up with him. The basic theme was modelled on Bonnie and Clyde, but it was much sillier, and very light in tone. The acting was generally very good -- how these actors manage to express their craft while telling such ridiculous stories astounds me. Rani Mukerji portrayed a very young woman with the right amount of apparent shallowness and increasing depth. Like many other Bollywood movie stars, she is gorgeous in the extreme, but she knows how to convince an audience that she is the person she is playing. Abhisheck was appropriately exuberant and energetic, plus his crafty old man brought out a human dimension in a rather two-dimensional role.

Moira Smiley (Top Center) clowning around with her cohorts in VOCO -- (L to R) Jessica Catron, Christine Enns, and Jess Basta. They are ALL multi-talented, and make memorably great music together -- Folk Art in service of High Art, not to mention fun! Introduce yourself to their art at Moira Smiley's Website.