March seems to have gone on vacation, but %$#@! January took its place. It has been near zero (F!) for over a week, even in the day.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Mcallen, Texas; Ward, Arkansas; Los Angeles, California; Chicopee, Massachusetts; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Kent, Ohio; Laguna Niguel, California; Black Eagle, Montana; West Liberty, Ohio; Elizabeth, New Jersey; Richardson, Texas; Somewhere in Belgium; Sunderland, Massachusetts; North Arlington, New Jersey; Pueblo Nuevo, Panama; Honolulu, Hawaii (Hi, Dave!); Quincy, Illinois; New London, Ohio, and Middlefield, Connecticut.

Check out: 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: The Hockaday Museum of Art has Seldom Seen, from the Permanent Collection, First Nations Artists -- Contemporary / Traditional, Crown of the Continent, and Ace of Diamonds. Dan Fagre's new show about the vanishing glaciers of Glacier National Park is a true labor of love by himself and other scientists from the USGS. Here's another website comparing glacier photos from the early 20th Century and now. Things will be changing soon -- like tomorrow!

FVCC's Honors Symposium featured China’s Strategic Relations—Short Arms/Slow Legs by Brigadier General Russ Howard (retired), now teaching at the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center, University of Montana. He outlined the strengths of China's mighty infantry-centered army, and how they still have to import the high technology needed for their air force and navy.
My thoughts -- every powerful nation needs to assess its flexibility, because time changes EVERYTHING relentlessly.

Coming Up -- March 19 — “China’s Economy — The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” presented by Dr. Terry Weidner, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center, The University of Montana;
March 26 — “Communist China — The Cultural Revolution” presented by Major Kwok Chiu, United States Military Academy at West Point;
April 2 — “China Today” presented by Eric Pei, FVCC Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence; Visiting Professor, Liaoning University, Shenyang, China.

Media Watch: Ridiculous to Sublime Time -- Britney Spears is doing stunts again, which makes sense, since she's fairly successful when she does them. This time it is a song called If You Seek Amy (Say it out loud) -- the same trick was used by AC/DC thirty years ago in their song If You See Kay??

This stunt was much funnier.

Lady GaGa wore a bow made out of hair, hers or wig material, in London and Paris a few weeks ago. GaGa may run a Pop act too, but her whole thing is fun and original! NOTE: This image was digitally derived from news photos -- Lady GaGa's tresses reflects her real hairstyle, but the rest of the face and body are bloody well MADE UP! Ms. Germanotta at no time thumbed her nose at paparazzi, or anyone else. Except for the hair-knot, this is a work of artistic fantasy.

Lady GaGa in North America, Spring 2009 --

3/14/2009 Mezzanine San Francisco, CA

3/16/2009 The Showbox Seattle, WA

3/17/2009 Wonder Ballroom Portland, OR

3/18/2009 Commodore Ballroom Vancouver, BC, CAN

3/21/2009 Gothic Theatre Denver, CO, United States

3/23/2009 Fine Line Music Cafe Minneapolis, MN, United States

3/24/2009 House of Blues- Chicago Chicago, IL, United States

3/24/2009 House of Blues- Chicago Chicago, IL, United States

3/25/2009 Royal Oak Music Theatre Royal Oak, MI

3/26/2009 Elements Kitchener, CAN

3/26/2009 ZuBar Burlington, CAN

3/27/2009 Bronson Centre Ottawa, CAN

3/27/2009 Tila Tequila Ottawa, CAN

3/28/2009 Metropolis Montreal, CAN

3/28/2009 Moomba Club Centropolis, CAN

3/30/2009 House of Blues Boston, MA

3/31/2009 Terminal 5 New York, NY

3/31/2009 Terminal 5 New York, NY

4/1/2009 Electric Factory Philadelphia, PA

4/2/2009 9:30 Club Washington, DC

4/2/2009 9:30 Club Washington, DC

4/3/2009 Toad's Place Richmond Richmond, VA

4/4/2009 Palm Springs Convention Center Palm Springs, CA, United States

4/6/2009 House of Blues Orlando Orlando, FL

4/7/2009 The Ritz Ybor Tampa, FL

4/8/2009 Revolution Fort Lauderdale, FL

4/9/2009 Center Stage Theatre Atlanta, GA

4/11/2009 Palm Springs Convention Center Palm Springs, CA, United States

I finally moved Nancy Cawdrey's American Silk Road touring exhibition from the Charles M. Russell Museum in Great Falls, Montana to Cawdrey's studio near Bigfork, Montana. The weather has been snowing and/or blowing since last week, but there was a slight lull in the stormy action on Monday, so I left the house at 7:30 AM and got home again by 8:30 PM. Wildlife seen along the way -- Deer, Ravens, Vultures, and Rough-Legged Hawks.
The highways were wind-swept with blowing snow in Flathead Valley, but the pavement was fairly ice-free. In the Rocky Mountains, there was a lot of ice, sand, and snow mixed together, plus narrow, rutted roads. Needless to say, I had to drive slowly, both coming and going, around Glacier National Park. The Blackfeet Reservation had dangerous driving conditions between Marias Pass and Browning, Montana -- after that I was able to go 75 MPH on clear, dry pavement all the way into Great Falls. In fact, the only time I had any real inconvenience was on Riverside Drive, at the end of the day -- there was new snow blowing over a narrow, winding, rural road and I crept along at 5 MPH as I found Cawdrey Studios.
Many thanks to Kim Smith at the CM Russell for all the help, plus the personal tour of artwork for their upcoming auction!

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Werkendam, Noord-Brabant; Oakland, California; Coram, New York; Louth, Ireland; Sacramento, California; Hayward, California; Gloucester, Massachusetts, Bedford, UK (Bedfordshire, no less); Denver, Colorado and Silver Spring, Maryland.

Check out: 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: The Hockaday Museum of Art has Seldom Seen, from the Permanent Collection, First Nations Artists -- Contemporary / Traditional, Crown of the Continent, and Ace of Diamonds. Dan Fagre's new show about the vanishing glaciers of Glacier National Park is a true labor of love by himself and other scientists from the USGS. Here's another website comparing glacier photos from the early 20th Century and now. HURRY! Things will be changing soon.

This Thursday at FVCC's Honors Symposium we have China’s Strategic Relations—Short Arms/Slow Legs presented by Brigadier General Russ Howard, retired, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center, The University of Montana.
Coming Up -- March 19 — “China’s Economy — The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” presented by Dr. Terry Weidner, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center, The University of Montana;
March 26 — “Communist China — The Cultural Revolution” presented by Major Kwok Chiu, United States Military Academy at West Point;
April 2 — “China Today” presented by Eric Pei, FVCC Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence; Visiting Professor, Liaoning University, Shenyang, China.

Theatre/Theater: Our cyber-friend Toni Bentley is speaking at Harvard University next month about Ida Rubinstein, High Patroness of this Blog as part of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, 1909-1929: Twenty Years that Changed the World of Art.
Speakers -- Joan Acocella, New York City, Staff Writer, The New Yorker Ballerino: Androgyny in the Ballets Russes and After (Keynote address)

John Bell, Director, Ballard Museum of Puppetry, Storrs, Connecticut Traditional Forms Made Modern: The Ballets Russes and the Rediscovery of Masks and Puppets

Toni Bentley, Los Angeles, California., Author and Former Dancer, New York City Ballet Ida Rubinstein: Diaghilev's Cleopatra and the Economics of Art

Jody Blake, Curator, Tobin Theatre Collection, McNay Museum of Art, San Antonio, Texas Natalia Goncharova: Betweem Costume and Scenery

Julie Buckler, Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University The Dying Swan Lives On: Michel Fokine and the Afterlife of the Nineteenth Century

Mary E. Davis, Associate Professor of Music, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio The Ballets Russes and the Fashion for Russia

Samuel N. Dorf, Department of Music, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois The Ballets Russes and the ‘Greek’ Dance in Paris.

Iris Fanger, Boston, Massachusetts, Theatre and Dance Critic Sharing a Time, Stage, and Mentor: Léonide Massine and George Balanchine at the Diaghilev Ballets Russes, 1925-1928

Charles M. Joseph, Professor of Music, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York The Ballets Russes: Stravinsky's Home Away from Home

Thomas Forrest Kelly, Professor of Music, Harvard University The First Night of The Rite of Spring (Special presentation)

Roy Kimmey, Harvard University The Truth About The Truth About the Russian Dancers

Anna Kisselgoff, New York City, Chief Dance Critic, The New York Times (1977-2005) Art for Art's Sake: The Ballets Russes as Embodiment of a Mir Iskusstva Ideal

John E. Malmstad, Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University
Back to the Future: The Ballets Russes and the World of Art

Joy Melville, London, England, Writer, Biographer of Diaghilev (2009) Diaghilev and His Angels

Jean-Michel Nectoux, Paris, France, Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art Diaghilev Before Diaghilev: Diaghilev in Russia

Julia Randel, Assistant Professor of Music, Hope College, Holland, Michigan It Would Be Very Spanish: Picasso, de Falla, and Diaghilev's Ballets Espagnols

Christine Ruane, Professor of History, University of Tulsa, Oklahoma Léon Bakst, the Ballets Russes, and Russian Fashion

Alexander Schouvaloff, London, England, Curator, Theatre Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum (retired) The Measure of Diaghilev (Keynote address)

Carl B. Schmidt, Professor of Music, Towson University, Maryland Georges Auric and the Ballets Russes

Laurence Senelick, Professor of Drama and Oratory, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts and Honorary Curator of Russian Theatre, Harvard Theatre Collection
Models of a Modern Impresario: Diaghilev's Russian Antecedents

Basil Twist, New York City, Puppeteer Behind the Scenes with Basil Twist's Petrushka: demonstration, performance, and discussion

David Witten, Associate Professor of Music, Montclair State University, New Jersey
Nikolai Tcherepnin and the Ballets Russe

Toni was very excited when she saw this painting (above) and sketch (below) of Ida in her Cleopatra heyday by Valentin Alexandrovich Serov. She's the model for this Rape of Europa image, but she seems not at all discomfited on the bull's back, and looks much more like an Egyptian queen than a Phoenician princess.