Saturday, November 15, 2008

Getting colder -- we've missed snow in the valley so far, but Winter is settling in. The slough has hosted migratory waterfowl, but it is slowly freezing. At least we had an Autumn that lasted a reasonable time.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Chittenango, New York; Somewhere in the United Kingdom; Hradec Krlov, Czech Republic; Lansing, Michigan; Fairfield, Alabama; West Point, New York (reading my Armastice Day post); Oakland, California; Jamaica, New York; Moncton, New Brunswick; Oxford Junction, Nova Scotia; Columbia Falls, Montana; Bratislava, Slovakia; Columbus, Ohio; Rockville Centre, New York; Abu Dhabi, UAE; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Cortlandt Manor, New York; Columbia Falls, Montana; Barcelona, Spain; Petaling Jaya, Maylaya; Sydney, Australia; Baltimore, Maryland; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Wilkesboro, North Carolina; Los Altos, California; Atlanta, Georgia; Fort Lee, New Jersey and Newport, Rhode Island.

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: 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.

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.

We hosted a web-based Positive Aging Conference at the college which showed that Internet technology itself is far from mature. There was one funny anecdote told about supposed long-living inhabitants of the Cacasus Mountains -- it was easy to lie about one's age on the census in early Soviet times, so many 20-somethings avoided impressment in the Red Army by recording their birthdays as happening 40 years earlier. When rumors of numerous 100 year olds circulated in the 1960s, investigators found a lot of men who weren't quite THAT old.
The keys to long life seem to be purposeful living, mild climate, physical activity, lots of vegetables, preventitive medicine, and lucky genetics. Only a few small population around the globe are fortunate to experience all these factors in their local cultures -- but the rest of us are certainly able to learn from them.

Media Watch: National Public Radio was kind of a downer this Saturday morning -- besides news about the world economic crisis, there was an analysis of Buddy Can You Spare A Dime, the lamenting hit song from the Great Depression. The Department of Homeland Security was one of the sponsors, pushing a program to rat-out, uh -- identify employability of immigrants. Soon afterwards, PBS and NPR's outspoken enemy and nemesis Newt Gingrich was spewing his partisan lies unchallenged, as if he was somebody different from the corrupt, divisive snake he's always been. Next, the Houston Opera presented Samuel Barber's Billy Budd -- for which I have little patience. It still sounds like a comedy troupe's parody of an opera to me.
Let's lighten up with Trash A Go Go, punctuated by expensive prime-time adverts featuring Dance Music Diva Lady GaGa. Maurice was eliminated, so Cheryl Burke's going to do guest spots with competent partners. Julianne Hough got out of the hospital for a jitterbug with her brother, who has the inside track for winning it all this season.
Pimping ABC's Country Music Association Awards, Brad Paisley was the musical guest. During Paisley's first number, Lacey and Benji Schwimmer did a sibling dance that was every bit as good as the Houghs' duet in Paisley's second performance. Paisley plays a very clever, nuanced lead guitar, which saved his dull-assed opening song. Afterward he dug into Louis Jordan's classic boogie-woogie Let The Good Times Roll and rocked the airwaves. I've noticed that the Country Music Fashion Police seem to be enforcing images of "Anorexic Blonde" for women, featuring VERY DEEP cleavage, and "Hat Rack" for men, featuring VERY BIG hats. There are a few exceptions, but they ARE exceptions, or legacies, like the fans' beloved Reba McIntyre.



(Click to enlarge)
Digitally-redrawn images of New York musician and singer Stefani Germanotta performing her ever-evolving persona of Lady GaGa. It seems like she's been gradually covering up her body since the obviously hot summer of 2007 -- in her latest commercial she wore a red cat-suit, styled like a super heroine. I wouldn't be surprised to learn she was related to The Incredibles. Her self-proclaimed exhibitionism may turn heads at first, but her main appeal relies on good songs and good singing, so I wish her nothing but success in her quest to conquer the entertainment world "one sequin at a time!"

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

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.

Sitemeter Sez: A visitor from England posted a very nice comment -- Guildford said ... I just came across your blog about and wanted to drop you a note telling you how impressed I was with the information you have posted here. I have a site Guildford Eye http://www.guildfordeye.com/index.php so I know what I'm talking about when I say your site is top-notch! Keep up the great work, you are providing a great resource on the Internet here! Thank You!

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.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Gray and cool all weekend -- no snow in the valley, but I expect totally white mountains when the clouds finally roll away.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Louisville, Kentucky; Anchorage, Alaska; Houston, Texas; Kobenhavn, Denmark; NYC, New York; Strathpine, Australia; Orlando, Florida; Evansville, Indiana; Miami Beach, Florida; Portsmouth, New Hampshire; Tokyo, Japan; Richland, Washington; Cincinnati, Ohio; Montreal, Quebec; Columbia Falls, Montana; Loma Linda, California; West Bloomfield, Michigan; Las Vegas, Nevada; San Diego, California; Oakland, California; Portland, Connecticut; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Needham, Massachusetts; Cleveland, Ohio; New Rochelle, New York; Columbus, Georgia; North Royalton, Ohio; Fort Worth, Texas; Portland, Oregon and East Brunswick, New Jersey.

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: Over the last two nights I watched 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later. I like dawg-assed movies as much as anyone, but these require too much STOOPID to make them work. There are more plot-holes than plot in the first flick, and Ultra-STOOPID actions by the characters are necessary to the plot of the second. There are many thefts from George Romero's original Dead trilogy, or rather variations on themes -- underwhelming.

Ch-Ch-Changes: Miriam Makeba, the great South African singer, and activist for social justice, died of a heart attack earlier today at the age of 76.
I remember seeing her on TV in the late 50's/early 60's on late-night shows, sunday morning shows, and other outliers like Hootenanny. Her short natural hairdo stood out in those white-bread times, and her beautiful voice cut through all barriers of race and language. Later in that decade, she ripped up Pop Radio with the abstract dance hit Pata Pata, sung in her native Xhosa:
Sat wuguga sat ju benga sat SEE pata pat
Sat wuguga sat ju benga sat SEE pata pat
Sat wuguga sat ju benga sat SEE pata pat
Sat wuguga sat ju benga sat SEE pata

Hihi ha mama, hi-a-ma sat SEE pata
Hihi ha mama, hi-a-ma sat SEE pat
A-hihi ha mama, hi-a-ma sat SEE pata pat
A-hihi ha mama, hi-a-ma sat SEE pat

Aya sat wuguga sat ju benga sat SEE pata
A sat wuguga sat ju benga sat SEE pat
A sat wuguga sat ju benga sat SEE pata
A sat wuguga sat ju benga sat SEE pata

Pata Pata is the name of a dance ... we do down Johannesburg way.
And everybody ... starts to move ... as soon as Pata Pata starts to play
Hoo, every Friday and Saturday night ... it's Pata Pata time.
The dance keeps going all night long ... till the morning sun begins to shine - wheee!
(Repeat and DANCE YOUR ASS OFF!)


Miriam Makeba (1932-2008)

I was frankly in tears this morning, thinking about her daughter who died young, and the fact that Mekeba was gone, but I tuned in to various versions of Pata Pata, and started laughing instead.
Here's a funky color version by Makeba herself, but the volume is low:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCc61z9IFu4
Here's the international dance hit, with a slideshow:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pygqt0uwnuc&NR=1
Makeba on South American TV, with a damn fine rhythm guitarist:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-VrfadKbco&feature=related
Let's get silly with a Latin singer named Thalia:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D4t4xCIKog&feature=related
Yamboo is even sillier, and a bit too voyeuristic for my taste:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ki7CYME3O1A&feature=related
Silly to the MAX, and even sexist, Blue Monster gets DOWN:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNcJuOr8mXg&feature=related
This one by Daúde is a LOT better:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SsF7odS80w&feature=related
Is Sugar Love a pro, an impersonator, karaoke, or all three?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fVIeIJF6aQ&feature=related
There are a lot of videos with young ladies just dancing to this fabulous song. Some are better at it than others, but that's all the comment you'll get from me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=689FQdxfc_I&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKpy-Rr2fW0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVV-Di1hyAM&feature=related
Couples doing a Salsa dance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQDbNNX-pCc&feature=related
Cute cats and excruciating Kitsch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtYjFD0jD78&feature=related