The snow stopped, the temperature dropped -- I went out a little as possible.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Hong Kong, China; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Larkollen, Norway; Lystrup, Denmark; Edmonton, Alberta; Baltimore, Maryland; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Haaksbergen, Holland; Landen, Belgium; Grand Prairie, Texas; Elk Grove Village, Illinois; Madrid, Spain; Houston, Texas; Onondaga, Michigan; Woodstock, New York (That you, Clip?); Vienna, Austria; Oldeboorn, Holland; Sierra Vista, Arizona; Swifterbant, Holland; Carpenedolo, Italy; Delft, Holland; Mill Valley, California; Brussels, Belgium; Heesch, Holland; Brooklyn, New York; Downers Grove, Illinois; Longboat Key, Florida; Neeroeteren, Belgium; Spartanburg, South Carolina; Antwerp, Belgium; Chula Vista, California (San Diego); Sebastian, Florida; Toronto, Ontario and Warsaw, Poland.

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 finishes up THIS WEEK. We will likely change Crown of the Continent a little, and continue Ace of Diamonds. The art run to Eastern Montana in December is finally set -- I was originally scheduled to go on the days when the state had its first winter blizzard, and a literally fatal cold snap!

Media Watch: The Metropolitan Opera broadcast was only FOUR hours instead of five this week -- Thaïs by Frenchman Jules Massenet (1885) starring champion soprano Renée Fleming and Spokane's handsome baritone Thomas Hampson. There were a lot of vocal acrobatics in this one, but I was MOST impressed by the way Massenet utilized his beautiful melody Meditation in and out of the drama. I understand that it was something of a multi-media event at the time -- the elite of Paris supposedly showed up to the opera "fashionably late" in time to see dancers perform, and then remained to watch the principals die at the end. (What do you expect from Opera, a happy ending?)

Live Theater: Bob Fosse's near-flop Chicago (1975) slowly found it's dancing legs over two decades, thanks in part to community theater companies like the one at my college.
Michelle Keener, the actress who played Velma Kelly, had a wonderful voice, moved well, and played her part to perfection. Jillian Vashro, who played Roxie Hart is one of our graduates, and continues to help guide younger actors. I was glad to see her in a leading role again -- knocking them dead, so to speak. The singing was generally excellent -- Billy Flynn had an amazing voice. The women all wore lingerie, while the men wore pants and shirts (sometimes tank tops), so it was abstractly Brecht-like, and somewhat surreal -- which is how this play works best in my humble opinion.

(L to R) Chita Rivera and Gwen Verdon as Velma and Roxie in 1975.
(Digital relief & color by ME, from a B&W photo by Martha Swope.)
Besides Bob Fosse, Chicago was written by Fred Ebb, with music by Ebb and John Kander. It was likely too sensual and satirical for Broadway theatergoers of the time. Gwen Verdon LOOKED 'way younger that she should have, and Chita Rivera was in the full bloom of her youth. Jerry (Billy Flynn) Ohrbach was Broadway's best actor, but his audiences were still pretty cold towards this play the first time around. Fosse put out a revue called Dancing, backed by popular recordings, to avoid bankruptcy. When he suffered a heart attack, he made his cinematic masterpiece All That Jazz from the experience.

It has snowed almost constantly this week -- once for about 36 hours straight. I was greeted by a Deer at the Conrad Mansion last night, watching the Christmas lights.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Las Vegas, Nevada (snowing there as well); Tacoma, Washington; Northwich, UK; Carle Place, New York; Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania; Waelder, Texas; Charlotte, North Carolina; Rome, Italy; Clarksville, Tennessee; Chicago, Illinois (NO! I have nothing to do with that governor); Englewood, Colorado; Marietta, Georgia; Littleton, Colorado; Damascus, Syria; Tucson, Arizona; Houston, Texas; La Mirada, California; Farmington, Michigan; Huntingtown, Maryland; Baltimore, Maryland; Jacksonville, Florida (That you George or Stephanie Clinton?); Kansas City, Missouri; Charlotte, North Carolina; Bogota, Colombia; New York, New York; Brooklyn, New York; Phoenix, Arizona and Virginia Beach, Virginia. Many many searches for Lisa Rinna, since her cosmetic surgery seems to be a media item (shudder) -- I have an exaggerated caricature of that hard-working lady posted online from awhile back.

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 finishes up THIS WEEK. We will likely change Crown of the Continent a little, and continue Ace of Diamonds. The art run to Eastern Montana in December is finally set -- I was originally scheduled to go on days when the state had its first winter blizzard, and a literally fatal cold snap!

Media Watch: Parineeta (2005) by director Pradeep Sarkar, starring the ever-charismatic Sanjay Dutt in a fairly restrained role, Saif Ali Khan as a total nerd who EARNS his share of acute emotional distress, and beautiful Vidya Balan as the severely put-upon good-hearted ingenue. It is set in Calcutta for a change, and there is also an odd nightclub scene featuring a retro-Pop tune sung by the famous entertainer Rekha (Bhanurekha).

Nightclub Rekha, in a digitally-altered clip from Parineeta. She also played the ghost of the murdered woman who took over Urmilla's body to wreak her vengeance in Bhoot -- there's a couple of Bollywood bhooties for you!

Zero degrees (F!) Lots of F'ing this and F'ing that with this ultra-cold weather. Strangely enough, the Flathead Valley had the HIGHEST temperatures in the state of Montana today.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Cuiab, Brazil; Tucson, Arizona; Welwyn Garden City, UK; Sutton, UK; Rotterdam, Holland; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Stoney Creek, Ontario; Toronto, Ontario; Marseille, France; Spokane, Washington; Green Bay, Wisconsin; Duluth, Minnesota; Littleton, Colorado; San Leandro, California; Worthington Springs, Florida; Atlanta, Georgia; Brooklyn, New York (Reading about Olympia Dukakis -- could have been her, or her family); Aguascalientes, Mexico (In Caliente); Las Vegas, Nevada; Lublin, Poland; Caldas Da Rainha, and Lisbon Portugal; Caracas, Venezuela; Plainfield, New Jersey (Original home of Parliament/Funkadelic); Fremont, California; Bronx, New York; Salt Lake City, Utah (Original home of ME -- someone was searching for Wooley Waldron, the 60's/70's DJ); Scottsdale, Arizona, and Gresham, Oregon

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 has one more week to run. We will likely change Crown of the Continent a little, and continue Ace of Diamonds. The art run to Eastern Montana in December is finally set.

Media Watch: The late, great Leonard Bernstein (August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) performing a Concert for Berlin with musicians from all over Germany, Europe, and America -- featuring a superb rendition of Bethoven's 9th Symphony, including Ode to Joy with four soloists, a full conventional choir, and a young womens choir from Dresden.
From Wikipedia -- On Christmas Day, December 25, 1989, Bernstein conducted the Beethoven Symphony No. 9 in East Berlin's Schauspielhaus (Playhouse) as part of a celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The concert was broadcast live in more than twenty countries to an estimated audience of 100 million people. For the occasion, Bernstein reworded Friedrich Schiller's text of the Ode to Joy, substituting the word Freiheit (freedom) for Freude (joy). Bernstein, in the introduction to the program, said that they had "taken the liberty" of doing this because of a "most likely phony" story, apparently believed in some quarters, that Schiller wrote an "Ode to Freedom" that is now presumed lost. Bernstein's comment was, 'I'm sure that Beethoven would have given us his blessing."
(Oh, I don't know about THAT, Lenny!)
Ludwig first presented his ninth, and final, symphonic masterpiece in 1824 -- the same year he met Franz Liszt and declared him his own successor. (Liszt actually earned Beethoven's blessing over the years.)
Bernstein conducted his final performance August 19, 1990, and died of pneumonia about two months later, not quite a year after the Concert for Berlin.

Sing along with Lenny!
(Substitute Freiheit for Freude if you wish, or dare.)

An die Freude (To Joy)
by Johann Christoph Friedrich Schiller (1785)

Freude, schoener Goetterfunken, Tochter aus Elysium, wir betreten feuertrunken, Himmlische, dein Heiligtum. Deine zauber binden wieder was der Mode Schwert geteilt bettler werden Fuerstenbrueder wo dein sanfter Fluegel weilt.

Joy, beautiful spark of Gods, daughter of Elysium, we enter -- fire-imbibed -- heavenly, thy sanctuary.
Thy magic powers re-unite what custom's sword has divided -- beggars become princes' brothers, where thy gentle wing abides.

Seid umschlungen, Millionen! Diesen Kuss der ganzen Welt! Brueder - ueber'm Sternenzelt muss ein lieber Vater wohnen. Wem der grosse Wurf gelungen, eines Freundes Freund zu sein, wer ein holdes Weib errungen, mische seinen Jubel ein! Ja - wer auch nur eine Seele sein nennt auf dem Erdenrund! Und wer's nie gekonnt, der stehle weinend sich aus diesem Bund.

Be embraced, millions! This kiss to the entire world! Brothers - above the starry canopy a loving father must dwell. Whoever has had the great fortune, to be a friend's friend, whoever has won the love of a devoted wife, add his to our jubilation! Yes - whoever can call even one soul his own on this earth! And whoever is unable, must creep, tearfully away from this circle.

Was den grossen Ring bewohnet, Huldige der Sympathie! Zu den Sternen leitet sie, wo der Unbekannte thronet. Freude trinken alle Wesen an den Bruesten der Natur, Alle Guten, alle Boesen, folgen ihrer Rosenspur. Kuesse gab sie uns, und Reben, Einen Freund, geprueft im Tod, wollust ward dem Wurm gegeben, und der Cherub steht vor Gott.

Those who dwell in the great circle, pay homage to sympathy! It leads to the stars, where the Unknown reigns. Joy all creatures drink at Nature's bosoms; All, just and unjust, follow her rose-pedaled path. Kisses she gave us, and wine, a friend, proven in death, pleasure was given, even to the worm, and the Cherub stands before God.


Ihr stuerzt nieder, Millionen? Ahndest du den Schoepfer, Welt? Such ihn ueberm Sternenzelt. Ueber Sternen muss er wohnen. Freude heisst die starke Feder In der ewigen Natur. Freude, Freude, treibt die Raeder in der grossen Weltenuhr. Blumen lockt sie aus den Keimen, Sonnen aus dem Firmament, Sphaeren rollt sie in den Raeumen, die des Sehers Rohr nicht kennt.

You bow down, millions? Can you sense the Creator, world? Seek him above the starry canopy.
Above the stars he must dwell. Joy is called the strong motivation in eternal nature. Joy, Joy moves the wheels in the universal machine of time. Flowers it calls forth from their buds, suns from the Firmament, spheres it moves far out in Space, where our telescopes cannot reach.

Froh, wie seine Sonnen fliegen durch des Himmels praecht'gen Plan Laufet, Brueder, eure Bahn, Freudig wie ein Held zum Siegen. Aus der Wahrheit Feuerspiegel laechelt sie den Forscher an. Zu der Tugend steilem Huegel leitet sie des Dulders Bahn. Auf des Glaubens Sonnenberge Sieht man ihre Fahnen wehn, durch den Riss gesprengter Saerge sie im Chor der Engel stehn.

Joyful, as his suns are flying, across the Firmament's splendid design. Run, brothers, run your race, joyful, as a hero going to conquest. As truth's fiery reflection, it smiles at the scientist. To virtue's steep hill it leads the sufferer on. Atop faith's lofty summit one sees its flags in the wind, through the cracks of burst-open coffins, one sees it stand in the angels' chorus.

Duldet mutig, Millionen! Duldet fuer die bess're Welt! Droben ueber'm Sternenzelt Wird ein grosser Gott belohnen. Goettern kann man nicht vergelten, Schoen ist's, ihnen gleich zu sein.
Gram und Armut soll sich melden, Mit den Frohen sich erfreun. Groll und Rache sei vergessen, Unserm Todfeind sei verziehn, Keine Traene soll ihn pressen, Keine Reue nage ihn.

Endure courageously, millions! Endure for the better world! Above the starry canopy, a great God will reward you. Gods one cannot ever repay, it is beautiful, though, to be like them. Sorrow and Poverty, come forth and rejoice with the Joyful ones. Anger and revenge be forgotten, our deadly enemy be forgiven, not one tear shall he shed anymore, no feeling of remorse shall pain him.

Unser Schuldbuch sei vernichtet! Ausgesoehnt die ganze Welt! Brueder, ueber'm Sternenzelt richtet Gott, wie wir gerichtet. Freude sprudelt in Pokalen, in der Traube goldnem Blut trinken Sanftmut Kannibalen, die Verzweiflung Heldenmut -- Brueder, fliegt von euren Sitzen, wenn der volle Roemer kreist, lasst den Schaum zum Himmel sptruetzen: Dieses Glas dem guten Geist!

The account of our misdeeds be destroyed! Reconciled the entire world! Brothers, above the starry canopy, God judges as we judged. Joy is bubbling in the glasses, through the grapes' golden blood. Cannibals drink gentleness, and despair drinks courage -- Brothers, fly from your seats, when the full drinking cup goes around. Let the foam gush up to heaven: This glass to the good spirit!

Den der Sterne Wirbel loben den des Seraphs Hymne preist, dieses Glas dem guten Geist Ueber'm. Sternenzelt dort oben! Festen Mut in schwerem Leiden, huelfe, wo die Unschuld weint, Ewigkeit geschwornen Eiden, Wahrheit gegen Freund und Feind, Maennerstolz vor Koenigsthronen -- Brueder, gaelt es Gut und Blut. Dem Verdienste seine Kronen, Untergang der Luegenbrut!

He whom star-clusters adore, he whom the Seraphs' hymns praise, this glass to him, the good spirit.
Above the starry canopy! Resolve and courage for great suffering, help there, where innocence weeps,
Eternally may last all sworn Oaths, truth towards friend and enemy, men's pride before Kings' thrones -- Brothers, even it if meant our Life and blood. Give the deserving crowns, defeat the lying pretenders!

Schliesst den heilgen Zirkel dichter, schwoert bei diesem goldnen Wein: Dem Geluebde treu zu sein, schwoert es bei dem Sternenrichter! Rettung von Tyrannenketten, grossmut auch dem Boesewicht, hoffnung auf den Sterbebetten, gnade auf dem Hochgericht! Auch die Toten sollen leben! Brueder, trinkt und stimmet ein, allen Suendern soll vergeben, Und die Hoelle nicht mehr sein.

Close the holy circle tighter, swear by this golden wine: To remain true to the Oath, swear it by the Judge above the stars! Delivery from tyrants' chains, generosity also towards the villain, hope on the deathbeds, mercy from the final judge! Also the dead shall live! Brothers, drink and chime in -- All sinners shall be forgiven, and Hell shall be no more.

Eine heitre Abschiedsstunde! Suessen Schlaf im Leichentuch! Brueder--einen sanften Spruch aus des Totenrichters Mund.

A serene hour of farewell! Sweet rest in the shroud! Brothers--a gentle sentence from the mouth of the final judge!

Neo-Hellenistic images of Joy/Freedom, digitally personified as demigoddesses in gold. Elysium was a mythical neverland that was neither Paradise nor Hades, and I'm not sure what being a daughter of that realm really meant! Schiller and Mozart utilized images found in Freemasonry, attempting to transcend the conventional religious scope of their times. Beethoven was a social iconoclast, and deeply sympathetic to the ideals of Schiller's Pan-Classical Enlightenment, despite betrayal by Republican France, and the reactionary aristocracy of his own Germanic homeland.