Oh Man! It's been almost ten days, and I haven't posted anything here. The weather has been excellent, the college is getting ready to start classes early this year, I have some projects moving forward, but the wildlife haven't caught my eye much -- heckuva new waxing moon the last few nights, though.

Sitemeter Sez: Columbus, Ohio; Oakland, California; Rabat, Morocco; Paris, Ile-de-France; Maule, France; Sacramento, California; Flushing, New York; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Trondheim, Norway (origin of my mother's maternal family) and Manchester, UK.

Another Mime Troupe Saga chapter tonight: 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

Many thanks to Toni -- she sent me an autographed copy of Winter Season; A Dancer's Journal (1982) for making a video of her presentation at Harvard University about Ida!




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: I photographed the Duck Races up at Whitefish, Montana last weekend -- good silly fun for a variety of charities.

Ch-ch-ch Changes: Senator Edward Kennedy died today from brain cancer at 77 years old. President Barack Obama honored him in an email sent to me as a member of Organizing For America.
The magnificent songwriter Ellie Greenwhich also passed away. She was able to sing quite well, but never caught on as a performer, as fellow Brill Building inmate Carole King did. Greenwich had a minor hit as a member of The Raindrops, but great songs like You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling and River Deep, Mountain High will be her true legacy.

Media Watch: Bollywood backwash -- Mere Baap Pehle Aap (2008). What do these good actors talk about when they go home after working in something like this? Akshaye Khanna in another Cary Grant-styled comedy, but not a very good one. Khanna repeated the essence of his spiel about love from 1999's Aa Ab Laut Chalen -- sad, sad. Paresh Rawal and Om Puri as dumb-ass clowns. Beautiful Genelia D'Souza as a not-very-admirable ingenue. Archana Puran Singh as a mean police inspector, and East/West ambassador Naseeruddin Shah as D'Souza's manipulative father. Plot? The less said the better. Lots of European woman dancers in the song sections, well maybe Aussies and Americans too. They're OK, but a certain 'flavor' was missing in the small movements, compared to Indian women -- something about their training, rather than their looks.

The Great Salt Lake Mime Troupe Saga Continues!

An illustration from Samuel Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Gustave Dore. I borrowed this image for a poster in the early spring of 1975, advertising our "Special Concert Prior To European Tour." We couldn't use the word "benefit," and were subject to other restrictions, but some very nice people helped us out in our time of need, and these angels were my tribute to THEM. The current online saga completes my account of our California Tour, and this picture belongs in the next chapter -- our coast to coast trek to NYC and the charter flight to Europe on Capitol Airlines.