Repeated snow storms -- lots of them. NO travel for me over those very dangerous mountains.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Butler, Pennsylvania; New Rochelle, New York; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Melbourne, Victoria; Kosice, Slovakia; Louth, Ireland (Ya' gonna answer over there? Chris? Eavan? Roseanne? Rachelle?); Granite Quarry, North Carolina; Babylon, New York; Melbourne, Australia (stayed a long while); San Antonio, Texas; Sacramento, California; Los Angeles, California; New York City, New York, Rome, Italy; Napa, California (That you, Cedric?), and Dallas, Texas.

Watch for 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 is getting ready for new shows. We will likely change Crown of the Continent a little, and continue Ace of Diamonds. The Charles Russell Museum is handling the art run -- 1/2 day of travel for them, 3 days for me in this awful weather.

Media Watch: Stars themselves do not a movie make. I saw two examples from opposite sides of the Atlantic recently.
1) Don't Stop Dreaming, including Bollywood professionals Suniel Shetty and Rishi Kapoor, perhaps helping his relative Aditya Kapoor, who directed that terrible mess and shot it around Birmingham, England. (I kind of wish Birmingham would have shot back.)
2) The Aviator, starring Cate Blanchett, one of the best actors in the world, supporting Leo DiCaprio. The movie outlined some elements of the early career of wealthy recluse Howard Hughes, before mental illness dominated his life. Blanchett played Katherine Hepburn, yet another great movie actor and character in her own right. Director Martin Scorsese mixed firm dates with vague timeframes, and real people with composite characters. The film was far from a mess, but lost its focus, and unnecessarily repeated points which had been made earlier.
Both movies had too-abrupt endings which were very unsatisfying, except that Dreaming could have been MUCH shorter. In fact it would have been better if it wasn't made at all.

Concert Watch: George Clinton and the P-Funk All-Stars in Los Angeles January 2, 2009
With an unscheduled appearence by Sly Stone
(Thanks to P-FunkJazz)
Really just a so-so show, but it's LA so it's a fun homecoming. The band was up to let it hang but the sound system blew. (AS in blew OUT -- the concert was performed without monitor speakers, according to Ritchie "Shakin" Nagan.) This was the Club Nokia debut so let's blame it on the house.
The setlist wasn't all that interesting. Lots of adlibbing and vamping. George was magnificent on "Nig#g*erish". Pretty much the same ol bunch of songs. We had a ball sangin' aloud "I Got a Thang". Sly waltzed in all wrapped up incognito. He rapped a poem in tribute to George. Them two fools hugged and mugged. Sly tried to sang "If You want Me to Stay' then some humdrum makeshift mutterings and the band revs up for "Thank you". Sly came back in and got into the grrove but faded soon afterwards. Show was supposed to end at 12:30 AM, but George ran thangs up to 1:45 AM. Curfew violations in LA will wipe out your profit.
No sign of Blackbyrd (I didn't expect it) and a lot of the LA maggots were not to be found. Then again, I was nowhere around on the last two LA/OC shows. Mike was in good cheer, but cut his solo on "Bop Gun" with the first blow-out. Rouse was tearing thangs up including his guitar strings. That also a different song. Kim was on rollerskates for "Red Hot Momma". Kendra did "Bounce" and Shonda did "Somethin' Stank". I was on the opposite side with Mike and didn't get my usual pics of the funkdivas. George mentioned the "Gangstas" disc, but didn't play anything off it.
I did a "street-cop" off Danny's bag o' funk for the 2 disc SLEAZIEST OF THE GREAZE and his Teresa Jiminez GET STEREO disc. Vendor table was loaded down with shirts, CDs and DVDs. Lige had a new disc and they had the Shauna Hall DVD. I used my last $10 to cop the live Kendra DVD. Didn't see "Gangstas" on the table.
It was Lakers home game night and parking gets ramped up to $20. I wasn't paying that and hiked in from 6 blocks out. Draft beers were $6 and bottles were $8. That breaks my bank so I hope they don't come back to this venue again...Oh. Sheila E came out twice to invite us down to conga room for after party.

Click for a Larger Image
Actors as clones from Scorsese's Aviator -- 1st Row: Kate Hepburn, next to Cate Blanchett's portrayal of Hepburn; 2nd Row: Kate Beckinsale playing Ava Gardner instead of a vampire, followed by Ava Gardner; 3rd Row: Jean Harlow, alongside singer Gwen Stephani, playing Jean Harlow.

Repeated snow storms, but with warmish days in between. I don't miss ultra-cold temperatures. We saw a Great Blue Heron slowing down to land in the slough, which is frozen over.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Greenbrae, California; Conyers, Georgia; Tokyo, Japan; Oakland, California; Houston, Ohio (Hello Tari DeVille!); Redmond, Oregon; North Arlington, New Jersey; Madrid, Spain; Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania, and Indianapolis, Indiana.

Watch for 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 is getting ready for new shows. We will likely change Crown of the Continent a little, and continue Ace of Diamonds. The art run to Eastern Montana is scheduled for Friday and Saturday -- pray for me.

Concert Watch: Sylvester Stewart AKA Sly Stone December 28, 2008
(Thanks to "Drednut" in Long Beach, California)


I never go to shows all early and wait with anticipation, just P Funk and now this show. They had us waiting and waiting in line outside, then once they let people in there was a dj spinning for a long time. Finally the band came on, nobody original from the Family Stone in the band, youngish guys, don't remember any of their names, but his daughter Novena Carmel "Stone" (who has the band Baby Stone) was one of the singers, so I guess technically she is from the Stone Family;)
They played Dance to the Music without Sly, then they did this acapella beat box thing and got the audience to do it, and kept doing it for a really long time, and I thought "this shit is gonna drop into something really good, why else would they do this on the second song?" And then they just stopped! Weird.
Sly came out and cameras were everywhere! He sang If You Want Me to Stay, and it was nice, my first time seeing Sly live! He sounded real good, and was changing up some of the words.
Later they announced that it was a family affair and that Sly's sister Rose was in the house, so she came up and sang a few with them. Super sweet! The only thing is they would only play a couple minutes of each song and then Sly would stop the band! Plus, at this point it sounded very loose and unrehearsed. All the cats in the band could play their asses off, but it was still a loose show.
Part of the show that was weird was that they announced that they were going to be taking ideas from people in the audience, song ideas, hooks, and Sly would do something with it. These 3 people came out and sang a little thing on the mic, Sly talked a lot, and he messed around a little with the ideas on stage with the keyboard he was using (a small Korg keyboard, I think a microkorg with vocoder) while everyone in the audeince waited. The ideas weren't all that cool to me, so it was odd just having the audience wait and wait while he noodled around with the ideas.
Then he said he was gonna go backstage and make a song from them.
They took a break, then the band came back on stage without Sly, and they were just up there for a long ass time before they played. They did an original song of Novena's band Baby Stone, then I think a new original Sly song (without Sly). Then they said that we had some badass musicians in the house as the bassist started Thankyoufallletin me and George Johnson (Brothers Johnson) comes up! He's dressed all nice in a tie, and he gets up there and talks a whole lot, how he met Sly, someone bring me my guitar, help me with the settings on the amp, blah blah. Finally after like 5 minutes of talking they start jamming on Thankyou, but it has a distinct Brothers Johnson sound, which was cool to hear. Then they said (I forgot his name, not an original member I believe) from Graham Central Station was in the house, a brotha with grey dreads. He got up there on bass and sounded just like Larry Graham on the Jam, he was pretty bad. And George Johnson was still up there. Then Sly came back out and they were all up there together. That was cool as hell, but then he left real quick.
The guests came off stage and then Sly came back later. He had the people from the audience who gave their ideas come back and he had put together some song on a laptop and brought it on stage and played it in the house. Then these guys did their ideas and Sly kinda sang with them too. It was a long process. He also told some long-ass joke/riddle that was pretty anti-climactic.
All in all, it was cool as hell to see Sly live, and in a really small venue (probably 200-300 capacity tops) and he was on stage for a good part of the show. I was prepared for a no-show or a song or two, but got a lot more plus the guests. However, it was very loose, very unrehearsed, lots and lots of dead time and talking and confusing starts and stops, and it often seemed like I was watching a Sly and the Family Stone cover band. I'm glad I went tho!

My own reaction: It is good that Sly actually stuck through a whole gig, strange as the show sounded. I give him credit for trying out new ideas too. It is too bad he doesn't rehearse, though. His previous performance in Santa Rosa last October was a disaster for all concerned -- you can Google an eyewitness review if you want to read that sad story. Recovering from mental illness is difficult enough in private.

Extremely snowy weather has spread over both sides of the Continental Divide -- I am rescheduling the East Montana Art Run when we get clear roads. A pair of Raccoons visited us during our Monopoly game earlier tonight, eating the seeds and peanuts we put out for Magpies, Flickers, and Blue Jays.



Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Louth, Ireland (Dammit, Chris, Rachelle, Roseanne, or is it Eavan? Leave a bloody comment!); Kosice, Slovakia; Brno, Czech Republic; Toronto, Ontario; Whitefish, Montana; Vancouver, British Columbia, and Schenectady, New York. Visiting our Spitfires were -- Madrid, Spain; Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio; Rochdale, UK; North Arlington, New Jersey; Whitchurch-Stouffville, Ontario; Blackwood, New Jersey; Mobile, Alabama; Westford, Massachusetts; Bangkok, Thailand; Dayton, Ohio; Bern, Switzerland; Riga, Latvia; London, UK; Queretaro de Arteaga, Mexico; Morristown, New Jersey, and Plain City, Ohio.

Watch for 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 is getting ready for new shows. We will likely change Crown of the Continent a little, and continue Ace of Diamonds. The art run to Eastern Montana is officially SNOWED OUT -- white-out conditions on the roads to the east, high winds and winter snow storms.

Media Watch: Julie Taymor's production of Mozart's Magic Flute on the Metropolitan Opera broadcast. I have seen most of it on PBS, and it certainly is a thing to SEE! Wonderful masks and dancing creatures, plus the translation of the libretto is fun and easy to understand. They were hyping Taymor's DVD all through the show, and mentioning that some of the Met's recent High Definition broadcasts were available on DVD too.
Derek Jarman's stylized cinema version of The Tempest (1980) -- starring playwright/actor Heathcote Williams as Prospero, prolific actor/musician Toyah Willcox as Miranda, blue-skinned David Meyer as her Prince Ferdinand, Karl Johnson as a smouldering, anxious Ariel, and Lindsey Kemp's fellow mime/actor Jack Birkett as a damn ugly Caliban. The penultimate scene featured Elisabeth Welch singing Stormy Weather (Tempest/Storm -- get it?) with a dignity that did great honor to Ethel Waters and herself -- ten years earlier she'd starred on Broadway in Fosse's Pippen.
Some to-do has been made about gay imagery in Jarman's Tempest. Besides some frontal male nudity at the beginning, where the obviously freezing Mr. Meyer wades onto a COLD Scottish beach with his willie more prominent than I'd expect under circumstances which would normally shrivel a common male organ, there's very little else that seems to be exclusively homoerotic. Ms. Willcox displays her fullsome breasts soon afterward, with water nearby also, but she's inside by a roaring fire. Maybe the campy scene with Alonzo's sailors dancing around in crewman's whites counts, although I miss any eroticism whatsoever in that clumsy sequence -- it leads into Ms. Welch's song, after all. Compared to Jarman's homosexually-charged fantasy Sebastien, The Tempest could be made by a repressed hetero like Fellini himself. Yes, there are places where one may legitimately quibble -- Jarman's drunken castaways are certainly gay, but I think that particular image resides in Shakespeare's original text as well. The late Tudor theatre scene was as sexually ambiguous as the Royal courtiers who patronized the players. Women's roles were always played by men, and companies of boy actors were Shakespeare's strongest competitors.

Toyah Willcox is married to guitar genius Robert Fripp, and has had a long career singing, acting, and being on TV. Her characterization of Miranda was playful, dignified in her sensuality, and innocent, but she didn't get to speak lines like this:
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.