I've got to buy a new Rainbird sprinkler, my two others don't turn when they should, and the damn yard needs water. A variety of flowers are popping up one after another. The early bulbs are about done, and the poppies are beginning.

Sitemeter Sez: Paris, Ile-de-France; Venice, California; Louth, Ireland (Hi Mystery Pal!); Frankfurt Am Main, Germany; Herndon, Virginia; Las Vegas, Nevada, and Salt Lake City, Utah.

NEW Mime Troupe History 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!
MORE UPDATES! Outre Space Cinema -- Featuring: 1930's Rocketry, Spitfires of the Spaceways and especially Cellulose to Celluloid, Even more Flash Gordon comparisons from 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: Seldom Seen II and Larry Johnson's photos of local characters are on display at the Hockaday Museum of Art, but everything's making way for the Plein-Aire paint-off at the start of June. Dan Fagre's show is up again -- about the vanishing glaciers of Glacier National Park, it is a true labor of love by scientists from the USGS. Here's another website comparing glacier photos from the early 20th Century and recent decades.
The Hockaday Museum of Art's Face Book Site

Last week, I ran sound for Carol Buchanan's public discussion of her historical novel God's Thunderbolt -- The Vigilantes of Montana at the community college. Here's the link to a live-blog of the event.

Concerts: Danny Bedrosian, P-Funk keyboardist reports --
We had a blast in Argentina. I send all my love and respect to our friends and fans over in Buenos Aires for all their support.

We sold out three nights at La Trastienda. It was great. All three sets were slightly different and I cant remember all the songs, but it was a lot of what you would expect. Some rarities too though.

The entire crowd knew ALL the words, it was incredible. They were READY for the P for real!!!!!!

There is this one chant that the crowds specifically in Argentina do in between songs. On the third night, the crowd kept doing it (its a sign of respect from the crowd to a band they love) and we went into the chant that the crowd was doing, and turned it into a jam. It was DOPE. MANY MANY of my Argentine friends said that this has NEVER happened (that usually the band would just go into the next song, as this is a common thing that Argentine audiences do in between songs at concerts they like.) The chant was FONKY that they do too. REALLY FONKY.

I just want to send much love to all our fans in Argentina once again. It was a life changing experience and we all loved it

In Chile now, by the time this tour is over, including opening sets, it will have been 31 shows in 33 days for me.

BY THE WAY on the AMERICAN run on this tour, EVEN MORE amazing P-Funk rarities were played; If yall missed em, better ASK SOMEBODY!
Stinkfinger
Stillness in Motion
Black Beach
Back in Our Minds
Sir Nose D'VoidofFunk
Still Tight
Viagra
Handcuffs
Let's Take it to the People
Baby I Owe You Something Good
Stuffs and Thangs
I'll Stay

HOPE YOU DONT MISS IT NEXT TIME! MUCH LOVE TO THE BOARD! CHECK OUT MY NEW ALBUM MUZZLE MOOSICK!!
www.dannybedrosian.com

Digitized image from a YouTube video of George Clinton and the P-Funk All-Stars in Buenos Aires, Argentina last week.

Media Watch: THIS was an unlooked-for pleasure (see below). I got a number of Buck Rogers comic strips from 1958. I was in third grade when I read them fifty-two years ago. The Salt Lake City papers relegated this strip to the bottom of the "want ad" pages, along with the silly Etta Kett, Lank Leonard's archaic Mickey Finn, John Cullen Murphy's realistic Big Ben Bolt, and my favorite -- Walt Kelly's magnificent satire Pogo.
I was given a wonderfully noisy ray gun toy the previous year that had the letters Buck Rogers emblazoned on it, and the name was thrown about on television, where I had seen space operas for much of my young life, like Space Patrol, Commando Cody, and two versions of Flash Gordon. I liked Buster Crabbe's adventures, but was somewhat puzzled by Steve Holland's escapades. The former had much more attractive women, as well. It was very satisfying to finally learn who and what Buck Rogers actually WAS! I joined the Rocket Rangers too, by sending a torn-out scrap of the newspaper. I received a map of the Solar System and a membership card by return mail.

(Click for a larger image.)
Just one strip from Murphy Anderson's brief second run as artist of Buck Rogers 1958-59. I happen to remember these very panels -- It was the end of a storyline, and I learned the word "famished" when Buck asked the good Doctor Polaris out for a dinner date after a near-fatal space battle with furry Martian spacefarers. I guess I should have noticed Murphy Anderson's signature, because he worked on some of my favorite comics -- especially Adam Strange, but I missed those kinds of things in elementary school. Anderson's clean silhouettes and deft inking are still impressive to me -- I think aspects of this respected, but far-from famous commercial artist's aesthetics sank in to my conciousness over the years.