View from the Northern Border

2009-12-30T23:26:00.006-07:00

Thanks to all my steady readers and linkers -- Sitemeter tells me you've been visiting!

It took awhile, but I finally published a chronicle of the Great Salt Lake Mime Troupe, which includes glimpses of the scene in which we worked in the early to late 70's. My goal was to have it done before the Holidays, and I did it -- but the people involved have been busy with seasonal responsibilities, so I'm just going to have to wait for the feedback to really begin.
Check out the Handy Table of Contents.

Due to several requests, I've also created a team blog, open to all participants in the Great SL Mime Troupe, and our fellow-travelers.

The Mime Troupe Online Saga and MORE: 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

2009-11-05T18:33:00.007-07:00

The Theater X-Net project is very important, and takes a lot of my attention, as a result this blog is going on hiatus for an indefinite period of time, at least for new postings. As always, feel free to link from this site!

The Mime Troupe Saga continues: 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

2009-11-04T12:58:00.005-07:00

Beautiful Autumn weather and full Hunter's Moon. A report of a Bald Eagle at the slough as well.

Sitemeter Sez: Marseille, France; New Braunfels, Texas; Oostburg, Netherlands; Hyde Park, New York, and San Luis Obispo, California

The Mime Troupe Saga continues: 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

2009-11-02T13:31:00.005-07:00

The weather has been actually OK, for Autumn -- I'll take it!

I did an out-and-back drive to Ferney, Canada yesterday. It was pretty funny sight at the border when the mountains turned bright white on the Canadian side.

A Mountain Sheep overlooking the Elk River off of Highway 3, near Ferney, B.C.

Sitemeter Sez: Ft Mitchell, Kentucky; Somewhere, Canada; Glenwood Landing, New York; South San Francisco, California (stayed a LONG time); Woodbridge, Virginia; Downingtown, Pennsylvania; Middlesbrough, UK (been there -- on the edge of the North York Moors), and Anchorage, Alaska.

The Mime Troupe Saga continues: 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

2009-10-30T13:39:00.006-06:00

Gray and cold all week, with very dark mornings which will get even DARKER after DST ends this Sunday. The Deer have been greeting me on Woodland Drive again.

Sitemeter Sez: Anchorage, Alaska; East Greenville, Pennsylvania; Oakland, California; Borden, Ontario; Belgrade, Montana, and Morgantown, West Virginia.

The Mime Troupe Saga continues: 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

2009-10-27T09:45:00.009-06:00

Ugh! Snowing today -- at least it's late October rather than early October.

Sitemeter Sez: Woodbridge, Virginia; Newark, Delaware; Everett, Washington; Fairbanks, Alaska; Salt Lake City, Utah; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Great Falls, Montana and Mesa, Arizona.

The Mime Troupe Saga continues: 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

2009-10-23T10:13:00.005-06:00

Nice, but gradually darkening, Autumn weather. I haven't looked for, or seen, much wildlife lately.

Sitemeter Sez: Santa Rosa, California; Columbia Falls, Montana; Mountain View, California; Fresh Meadows, New York; Richland, Washington; San Diego, California, and Los Angeles, California.

The Mime Troupe Saga continues: 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

2009-10-19T11:26:00.011-06:00

The New Moon is upon us, and fine Autumn weather. I've been able to winterize my house now that it isn't a death-sentence on my throat to go outside.

Sitemeter Sez: Vienna, Austria and Montreal, Quebec.

The Mime Troupe Saga continues: 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

2009-10-17T11:27:00.009-06:00

It looks a little more like Autumn, but our leaves were blighted by the near-zero cold, and may not change color that much before falling. The thumbnail-thin waning moon was sure beautiful yesterday morning!

Sitemeter Sez: Burlington, New Jersey; Mountain View, California (showing up a lot); South Pasadena, California; Columbus, Ohio, and Sherman, Texas.

The Mime Troupe Saga continues: 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

2009-10-13T08:32:00.005-06:00

WOW! That was a nasty cold snap -- broke an outdoor water pipe at my house (fixed now), and generally messed up Autumn. I had to plug in my car for a few nights too.

Sitemeter Sez: My unknown pal from Louth, Ireland; Trenton, New Jersey; Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, Anchorage, Alaska; Silver Spring, Maryland; Columbia Falls, Montana; Somewhere in the UK, and Mountain View, California.

The Mime Troupe Saga continues: 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

2009-10-08T11:16:00.009-06:00

Still too cold for early Autumn. Sleet and snow yesterday, something nasty moving in today.

Sitemeter Sez: Los Angeles, California; Mililani, Hawaii; El Centro, California; Mountain View, California; Elmendorf Afb, Alaska; Vigo, Spain; Columbia Falls, Montana; Richmond, Indiana; Harrison Township, Michigan, and Saint Charles, Illinois.

The Mime Troupe Saga continues: 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

2009-10-05T13:13:00.005-06:00

Drat! It's way too cold for an early Autumn day. Single digit temperatures were forecast for this week, and I hope the weatherperson's wrong.

Sitemeter Sez: Columbia Falls, Montana; Richmond, Indiana; Harrison Township, Michigan; Saint Charles, Illinois; Sydney, Australia; Fairbanks, Alaska, and Topeka, Kansas.

The Mime Troupe Saga continues: 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

2009-10-03T09:05:00.008-06:00

Autumn is certainly in force -- snow on our mountains and leaves which are changing colors. Eagles sighted, instead of Ospreys.

Sitemeter Sez: Mountain View, California; Clichy, Ile-de-France; Kongsvinger, Norway; South Burlington, Vermont; Albany, New York; Montreal, Quebec; Vilnius, Lithuania; Newark, Delaware; Oakland, California; Anchorage, Alaska; Oxford, UK; Charleston, West Virginia; Paris, Ile-de-France; Doha, Qatar, and Warsaw, Poland.

The Mime Troupe Saga continues: 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

2009-10-02T10:19:00.007-06:00

It has been gray and somewhat rainy all week -- considering we had lightning-caused forest fires nearby, that a good thing, although frost on my windshield yesterday was kind of depressing..

Sitemeter Sez: Clichy, Ile-de-France; Kongsvinger, Norway; South Burlington, Vermont; Albany, New York; Montreal, Quebec; Vilnius, Lithuania; Newark, Delaware; Oakland, California; Mountain View, California; Anchorage, Alaska; Oxford, UK; Charleston, West Virginia; Paris, Ile-de-France; Doha, Qatar, and Warsaw, Poland.

The Mime Troupe Saga continues: 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

2009-09-23T11:31:00.006-06:00

Another week of Mondays, like next week promises to be. The Geese are flying south and the Osprey are starting to vacate their nests.

Sitemeter Sez: Baltimore, Maryland; Boston, Massachusetts; Blonay, Switzerland; Louth, Ireland (I love ya' -- whomever you are); Seattle, Washington; Anchorage, Alaska; Presque Isle, Maine; Irvine, California; Herndon, Virginia; Gerda Reeb in New Zealand; Sundsvall, Sweden; Lake Jackson, Texas, and Phoenix, Arizona.

The Mime Troupe Saga continues: 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

2009-09-19T21:31:00.004-06:00

Arghh, Matey! It's been another long week -- a fast thunderstorm gave us some drama, and brought out the first of the Autumn leaves, knocking some off the trees in the process.
Today is Talk Like A Pirate Day also.

Sitemeter Sez: Phoenix, Arizona; Kailua Kona, Hawaii; Naperville, Illinois; Sundsvall, Sweden; High Wycombe, UK; Hempstead, New York; Merrick, New York; Levittown, New York; City of London, UK; Staten Island, New York; Lund, Sweden; Staten Island, New York; Carle Place, New York, and Anchorage, Alaska.

The Mime Troupe Saga continues: 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

2009-09-12T11:03:00.008-06:00

Is it the weekend already? That was a short but active interval from the last one!
Over 2000 students came down with H1N1 (Swine Flu) at Washington State University, about 400 miles away from here. Luckily, they were all minor, but annoying, cases and nobody was hospitalized or died. Did I mention that the community college where I work has its highest enrollment ever?

Sitemeter Sez: Hicksville, New York; (Yes, there IS such a place.) Hempstead, New York; Hampton, Virginia; Oakland, California; Anchorage, Alaska; Aldeburgh, UK; Oakland, California, and Cramlington, UK.

The Mime Troupe Saga continues: 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

2009-09-06T19:53:00.005-06:00

The week of of Mondays is over, they even borrowed one from the following week -- tomorrow is the USA's version of Labor Day.

Sitemeter Sez: Toms River, New Jersey; Montreal, Quebec; Detroit, Michigan; Birmingham, UK, and my secret admirer in Louth, Ireland.

The Mime Troupe Saga continues: 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

2009-09-03T15:17:00.008-06:00

A whole WEEK of Mondays as we start classes at the community college!
Then and Now -- Disappearing Glaciers of Glacier National Park.

Sitemeter Sez: Salt Lake City, Utah (Brine Shrimp seeker); Rock Hill, South Carolina; Baltimore, Maryland; New Delhi, India; Lancaster, Pennsylvania; Madrid, Spain; Paris, Ile-de-France; Castro Valley, California; Fort Worth, Texas, and Middletown, New Jersey.

The Mime Troupe Saga continues: 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

2009-08-30T18:22:00.003-06:00

Hot today -- went up to Glacier National Park to shoot some video, but didn't see any major wildlife. Trail of the Cedars was lovely as always.
Then and Now -- Disappearing Glaciers of Glacier National Park.

Sitemeter Sez: Paris, Ile-de-France; City of London, UK; District Heights, Maryland; Mountain View, California; Lisbon, Portugal; Portland, Oregon; Los Angeles, California; San Andreas, California; Sidney, Ohio; Bozeman, Montana; Brandon, Florida; Dublin, Ireland (Eavan? Izzat you?); Flower Mound, Texas (Bluebells of course), and Anchorage, Alaska.

Another Mime Troupe Saga chapter: 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

2009-08-26T21:09:00.004-06:00

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

2009-08-18T22:07:00.005-06:00

The weather got sunny by Monday, and warmed up a bit. There is a little nest of Killdeer (Plovers) in the field outside my office window.

Sitemeter Sez: Dusseldorf, Germany; Leasburg, Missouri; Dallas, Texas; Reseda, California; Oxford, UK; Rome, Italy; Maiden, North Carolina; Lees Summit, Missouri; Jacksonville, North Carolina; Menomonie, Wisconsin, and Corvallis, Montana.

New IMPROVED Mime Troupe Saga Chapter 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

2009-08-15T21:50:00.010-06:00

It's still raining, it's still pouring, and I ain't going to Polebridge, that's for sure! Start without me, Freekbass.

Sitemeter Sez: Modesto, California; Rome, Italy; San Francisco, California; Houston, Texas; Manchester, UK; Hopland, California; Ile-de-France; Kronobergs, Sweden; Hiwassee, Virginia, and Shanghai, China (All stopping by to see Flash Gordon)

New IMPROVED Mime Troupe Saga Chapter 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

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: Mark Ogle's remarkable retrospective is still up at the Hockaday Museum of Art, plus Dan Fagre and Lisa McKeon's show is on the first level -- 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 (There's a link to the conventional website there.)

I was running the tech for guest speaker Joseph Lisle Williams when he presented a lecture at my college about surviving a bear attack in Glacier National Park 50 years ago. Don Dayton, the ranger who shot the bear and saved the young man's life was at the event too. If you want to read more about it, his sister wrote a blog about her brother and the lecture HERE.

The other month, 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.

A statewide "town meeting" style videoconference about the USA's health care crisis. There were many advocates from different political views, and a few ignoramuses, but the consensus was clear: No more bankruptcies or losing homes because of injury or illness!

Tears and Laughter about our broken health care system HERE

Media Watch: Alan Hovaness on the radio! He was sure a fun classical composer -- made Seattle a brighter place when I lived there, and before, and after. RIP

Deepa Mehta's movie Fire (1996). A rather modest character study with adept observations about disfunction. Yes, there's a plot about two women loving each other too. Good flick! I thought Earth (1998) was better, but they're very different from one another. Ms. Mehta deserves many accolades for her courage, and filmmaking skills.

Hoo Boy: Bob Dylan was detained in New Jersy because he told some cop he was Bob Dylan. Shah Rukh Khan was detained at the Newark airport because he told some customs agent he was a movie star. Moving on to sanity now ...

Looking Back: A memory of Woodstock by someone who was THERE.

3 Days (+14,610) of Peace and Music by N in Seattle
Sat Aug 15, 2009 at 02:50:12 PM PDT (From Daily Kos)

I was at Woodstock.
There, I said it. I'm well aware that the number of people who'll tell you that they attended momentous events always vastly exceeds the actual count. It's often noted that, for example, that a couple of million people were among the 34,320 fans in the Polo Grounds on October 3, 1951 when Bobby Thomson hit the Shot Heard 'Round the World. (Parenthetically, Hall of Famer Dave Winfield was born on that very same day, in St. Paul MN.) In my case, though, it's the god's honest truth.
My experience of Woodstock was a bit different from what's usually reported. Yes, we had some difficulty getting to Bethel NY, but we were fortunate to have started the drive from Hartford, not South Jersey (where I lived at the time). So we didn't have to go to and through New York City. We ran into a lot of traffic, but we didn't run into anything like Arlo's bemused observation that "the New York State Thruway's closed, man!". My brother (then 15) and I had flown up to Hartford to travel to the festival with my Dartmouth buddies David and Bob. Unlike most of those who went there, we actually had tickets to the event ... my brother still has them.
We didn't have a really good idea of exactly where we were going. We had a roadmap, of course, but it had very little detail of the rural upstate area we were visiting. Somehow, though, we got to within a few miles of Yasgur's Farm. We pulled our tents out of the car, set up a little camp by the side of the road, and started walking with the crowd. We figured somebody had to know where to go.
Well, obviously somebody did, because we eventually arrived at the hillside on Max Yasgur's farm. The fences that were supposed to have separated ticketholders from everyone else had long since been trampled down, so we swung past the stage and began to work our way toward a piece of open ground. At exactly the time we stepped onto the grounds, the first percussive notes of Richie Havens's guitar rang out. As always with Richie, it was impossible to tell exactly which song was about to be played. According to Wikipedia, Richie's opener was High Flyin' Bird, but I couldn't find any video of that song. But the looooong intro in the Woodstock video below (Handsome Johnny) might have just as easily become High Flyin' Bird or any of the other songs in his set:
Friday's set ended in the dark of night, with Joan Baez leading the crowd in We Shall Overcome (video below). It had drizzled just a bit during the evening, but it wasn't really a problem that night. The entire crowd wandered off the hill afterwards. I have not the slightest idea how we were able to locate our campsite, but I know we did get there.
Many people were much the worse for wear as we headed back to Yasgur's farm on Saturday. Water and food were scarce -- the stores in the little village nearby, the site of the famed pond full of naked people, had long since sold out of everything. Thankfully, any number of the people living on the country roads between our camp and the venue generously offered water from their garden hoses to the endless stream of sunburned "freaks" walking past their homes.
We settled in for a long, wondrous, amazing day and night (and, it turned out, morning) of music that day. In the daytime, we heard (among others) Country Joe, John Sebastian, Santana, and Canned Heat. This was the first time I'd ever heard of, much less heard, Santana, and their set absolutely blew me away. It was rock combined with world music, with Carlos Santana's jazzy guitar and young Michael Shrieve's drumkit, creating an astonishing sound unlike anything I'd previously known.
The nighttime set was even better, except for one disappointment. This, as it turns out, was the only time I ever saw The Dead in concert, and they were, ummm, terrible. They made several attempts to start some of the tunes before they could figure them out. Unfortunate... But the rest of the night was sublime -- Creedence was clean and concise, Janis Joplin wailed out her set, Sly & the Family Stone generated enough energy and funk to power a city, and The Who played Tommy in its entirety as the sky went from darkness into daylight. The poor unfortunate Airplane was left to play its set to an exhausted crowd in the early morning daylight.

We couldn't stick around for the rain-soaked, muddy Sunday sets. No Cocker, no Ten Years After, no Band, no BS&T, no CSN&Y, no Hendrix. We didn't have to deal with the worst of the weather or the worst of the traffic jams in trying to get out of Bethel.

The reason? Because we college students had to get back to our summer jobs on Monday morning. I'd already begged off on Thursday and Friday, and it would be very bad form to miss Monday as well. For the record, I worked that summer at the Frankford Arsenal. I was, in the summer of 1969, a civilian employee of the United States Army. I rationalized it as "subverting from within", but I was participating in basic research on the protective effects of metal plating on steel when exposed to high ambient temperature and humidity. In other words, helping the Army figure out how to keep its weapons and materiel from falling apart in the jungles of Vietnam and Cambodia.
Woodstock was an irreproducible event. 3 Days of Peace and Music turned out to be exactly as advertised (and much, much more), despite logistical nightmares and serious weather problems. Unfortunately, the excitingly positive vibes generated by those 3 Days of Peace and Music couldn't last. The Woodstock Nation, born on August 15-17, 1969, came to an end less than four months later, at the Altamont Speedway on December 6, 1969.

Update [2009-8-15 18:21:15 by N in Seattle]:

In a post on my blog five years ago, I wrote a paragraph about Yasgur's farm five years on: I visited Max Yasgur’s farm. It was five years to the day after 450,000 of us celebrated those wondrous Three Days of Peace and Music. I recall that it took me a little while to get my bearings sufficiently to find the place ... I was now driving along roads I’d previously walked. There was no sign that anything momentous had ever happened on those grounds, just a big empty field. Nostalgia-seekers wouldn’t start descending on the site for another 15 or more years. On August 15, 1974, then, I walked into the middle of the Woodstock site and sat down, with absolutely no one else in sight. Nothing to disturb my recollections except the whisper of a breeze through waving grasses and the buzzing of insects. I drank in the quietude for a few reflective minutes, envisioning the vibe of five years earlier, and took my leave of that hallowed ground.

Dancing to good music is a primordial activity that's even deeper than tradition. Do it today. Do it tomorrow.
We did it yesterday!
Sunday update -- While it's on my mind, I want to mention meeting a man who PLAYED at the Woodstock Festival. Mike Heron was a Scottish-born musician who'd sold a lot of albums as co-founder of the Incredible String Band. He was a very pleasant man who made the effort to come to our own show in 1975. He enjoyed our work very much, and told us so. Validation like that from a major creative inspiration like Heron meant a lot to me then, and still does now!

2009-08-14T10:54:00.003-06:00

It's raining, it's pouring, and I may change my mind about going to Polebridge tomorrow.

Sitemeter Sez: Menomonie, Wisconsin; Someone from Sweden, and Corvallis, Montana.

NEW Mime Troupe Saga Chapter 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

2009-08-13T09:42:00.003-06:00

It rained yesterday, and is raining today -- GOOD!

Sitemeter Sez: Stockholm, Sweden (looking at Ida's biography); Columbia Falls, Montana; Herndon, Virginia; Amsterdam, Holland; Austin, Texas; Indianapolis, Indiana; Nice, France, and Soldotna, Alaska.

NEW Mime Troupe Saga Chapter 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

2009-08-09T09:30:00.005-06:00

I wish the weather gods would make up their minds about rain or sunshine, instead of neither. Whatever, it's time to mow the lawn anyway.

Sitemeter Sez: Mountain View, California; Bombay, India (read below); Oakland, California; Bloomington, Illinois; Port Saint Lucie, Florida; Lewiston, Idaho; Santa Cruz, California; West Jordan, Utah; Nampa, Idaho; Chicago, Illinois, Denver, Colorado;
San Francisco, California; Houston, Texas; Manchester, UK, and Hopland, California.

MORE 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

2009-08-03T09:09:00.006-06:00

Hot on Saturday, but it cooled down enough for gardening on Sunday. The Deer Family greeted me across from the Conrad Mansion.

Sitemeter Sez: Athens, Greece; Seattle, Washington, and Thief River Falls, Minnesota. Tuning in to Flash Gordon were Hopland, California; Neuilly-sur-Seine, Ile-de-France; Vxj, Sweden; Hiwassee, Virginia; Shanghai, China, and Birmingham, UK. I had an email back-and-forth with some fans over Princess Aura's skin color in the Sunday pages. (Lemon yellow through 1936 at least, like it or not.)

MORE 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

2009-08-01T11:27:00.003-06:00

It is going to be hot today. The forest fire smoke from Canada is making itself known in the nose and eyes.

Sitemeter Sez: Louth, Ireland (Love ya' -- who are you?); Ballwin, Missouri; Whitney Point, New York; Portsmouth, UK; Atlanta, Georgia; Toronto, Ontario, and La Mesa, California (Justin?).

MORE 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

2009-07-30T10:56:00.003-06:00

Big clouds, cool wind, no rain, but FLOCKS of Magpies!

Sitemeter Sez: Little Rock, Arkansas (Hey there, Tari DeWille!); Vxj, near Kronobergs, Sweden; Wroclaw, Poland; Chelmsford, UK; Jamaica, New York (Bindlesiffs!); Granger, Indiana; Hamilton, Ontario, and Yerevan, Armenia.

MORE 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

Dear Mr. President by Hunter Sat Jul 25, 2009 at 02:20:04 PM PDT from Daily Kos

Dear Mr. President: I am writing you today because I am outraged at the notion of involving government in healthcare decisions like they do in other countries. I believe healthcare decisions should be between myself and my doctor.
Well, that is not strictly true. I believe healthcare decisions should be between myself, my doctor, and my insurance company, which provides me a list of which doctors I can see, which specialists I can see, and has a strict policy outlining when I can and can't see those specialists, for what symptoms, and what tests my doctors can or cannot perform for a given set of symptoms. That seems fair, because the insurance company needs to make a profit; they're not in the business of just keeping people alive for free.
Oh, and also my employer. My employer decides what health insurance company and plans will be available to me in the first place. If I quit that job and find another, my heath insurance will be different, and I may or may not be able to see the same doctor as I had been seeing before, or receive the same treatments, or obtain the same medicines. So I believe my healthcare decisions should be between myself, the company I work for, my insurance company, and my doctor. Assuming I'm employed, which is a tough go in the current economy...Hmm, but that's still a little simplistic. I suppose we should clarify.

More Tears and Laughter HERE

Real Books: Toni Bentley's Winter Season: A Dancer's Journal from 1982 was a true delight. The introduction was especially interesting, being written 20 years after the original manuscript.
I have this silly habit of "hearing" an author's "voice" as I read -- I'm well aware that it is a subjective game at best and projection at worst. I was surprised to "hear" a deferential voice from the normally fearless Toni Bentley as she approached George Balanchine, but it made complete sense once I read the journal itself. I "heard" that steady, familiar note of bravery, however, in the descriptions of Balanchine's partner Leon Kirstein, and lead dancer Suzanne Farrell, even though Bentley wrote about other emotions she felt at the time. Winter Season is a beautiful love letter to Mr. Balanchine, and the art of Ballet, even though there is so much more to the book.

Media Watch: F****! Sometimes I just hate television. I think I'll shoot some video for Katie Duck and make my OWN mistakes.

Ida Rubinstein's biographer, author Toni Bentley, also an emBEDded reporter from the World of Ballet, and valued cyber-pal of mine. Her shoes are off in this engaging, elegant picture. Among the many interesting things she wrote in Winter Season: A Dancer's Journal was (paraphrased) "Ballet dancers spend a lot of time apologizing to their feet."

2009-07-29T08:55:00.005-06:00

The rain went south of us last night, but there was a cool wind blowing from the west this morning.

Sitemeter Sez: Herndon, Virginia; Columbia Falls, Montana; Wichita, Kansas, and Lyse, Norway.

MORE 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

Dear Mr. President by Hunter Sat Jul 25, 2009 at 02:20:04 PM PDT from Daily Kos

Dear Mr. President: I am writing you today because I am outraged at the notion of involving government in healthcare decisions like they do in other countries. I believe healthcare decisions should be between myself and my doctor.
Well, that is not strictly true. I believe healthcare decisions should be between myself, my doctor, and my insurance company, which provides me a list of which doctors I can see, which specialists I can see, and has a strict policy outlining when I can and can't see those specialists, for what symptoms, and what tests my doctors can or cannot perform for a given set of symptoms. That seems fair, because the insurance company needs to make a profit; they're not in the business of just keeping people alive for free.
Oh, and also my employer. My employer decides what health insurance company and plans will be available to me in the first place. If I quit that job and find another, my heath insurance will be different, and I may or may not be able to see the same doctor as I had been seeing before, or receive the same treatments, or obtain the same medicines. So I believe my healthcare decisions should be between myself, the company I work for, my insurance company, and my doctor. Assuming I'm employed, which is a tough go in the current economy...Hmm, but that's still a little simplistic. I suppose we should clarify.

More Tears and Laughter HERE

Real Books: I'm reading Toni Bentley's Winter Season: A Dancer's Journal from 1982. Her new introduction, written for the 2003 edition describes how she told George Balanchine himself about her project, and some key responses to her book by the top of New York City Ballet's hierarchy.
It was sad that Reaganomics progressively undermined the major leagues of the USA's finest arts during the same era that Toni writes about in her memoir, but the NTCB still continues today.

Media Watch: GAWD! That America's Got Talent show last night was a disgrace -- SYCO TV (SImon COwell, get it?) should be totally ashamed of themselves for putting on an hour of the judges accepting and rejecting people in various ways. The audience knows this stuff goes on, and the necessity of it all, but they don't turn on the TV to f***in' WATCH it! Show us some of the acts, please -- they were all good enough to win at least one round.

That calls for a dose of the REAL STUFF!

Bindlestiff Family Cirkus Update - July 29, 2009

Bindlestiff Family Cirkus at the Spiegel Palais at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY August 1 at 3:30 pm and 8:30 pm August 2 at 3:30 pm. The 3:30 pm performances on August 1 and 2 are Fun for the Whole Family.
The 8:30 pm performance on August 1 is for Adults Only!
For tickets, directions and more information: http://fishercenter.bard.edu/spiegeltent

Experience the Cirkus in the most luxurious of venues!
The Bindlestiff Family Cirkus returns to the SpiegelPalais for the Summerscape Festival at Bard College. The Bindlestiffs promise another round of vaudevillain fun. Cirkus co-founders Stephanie Monseu and Keith Nelson head up a crew of world-class artists whose performances feature aerial artistry, juggling, bawdy physical comedy, surprising moments of audience participation, and live original music.
The troupe includes Jonathan Nosan (acrobat), Joel Jeske (physical comedian), Amanda Topaz (aerialist), Sean Blue (juggler) and the Mystic Band (Francisco Monroy, Gino Pinto and Zacarias Vacanti).

Bindlestiff Family Variety Arts, Inc. in Partnership with Galapagos Art Space presents: Open Stage Variety Show -- The Best Entertainment Bargain in New York City.
Open Variety Stage Show at Galapagos Arts Space, 16 Main Street, Dumbo, Brooklyn, NY
First Monday of Every Month at 8PM Next Show is this Monday, August 3. Door $5

Come to Dumbo Brooklyn where a five spot still offers you a spectacular night of tap dancing bears, Kung Fu juggling, clown bands, aerialists suspended above your beverage while you are carefully suspended over a body of water, sword swallowers, physical comedy, contortionists and cowboys.
Galapagos Art Space has dedicating the first Monday of every month to New York City's variety, vaudeville, aerial, and circus artists. Celebrating works in progress, emerging artists, and professionals trying something new, this night promises many surprises.
If you would like to be on the stage, email keith@bindlestiff.org. Write 'Open Variety' in the subject line!
For more information and to buy tickets go to http://www.galapagosartspace.com

Variety Arts School & Theater in New York (stay tuned)

So an acrobat, a ventriloquist, and a Burlesque queen walked into a building.... We're spearheading an effort to create a performance, practice, and research space devoted to the Variety Arts. The space will focus on the specific needs of the local Variety Arts community and will attract artists from around the world. This exciting project is still in the early stages, but it is moving rapidly. If you're interested in getting involved, would like to pledge your financial (or physical, intellectual, or emotional) support, or you happen to know of a large, conveniently located empty space, please let us know!

Bindlestiff Family Cirkus Webisodes On-line, Episode 10 is coming soon! Travel with the Cirkus. Episode 9 is now online. http://www.thebindlestiffs.com

Stephanie (Philomena) Monseau warming up before a show, digitized from a scene in one of their Webisodes -- They're GOOD! Send 'em some money -- Bindlestiff Family Variety Arts, Inc. is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization devoted to the preservation and evolution of the variety arts. Bindlestiff Family Cirkus PO Box 1917 New York, NY 10009 1-877-BINDLES www.bindlestiff.org

2009-07-27T19:44:00.006-06:00

The rain has caused some damage here and there -- Summer can bring severe thunderstorms. Killdeer sightings at the college.

Sitemeter Sez: Surgoinsville, Tennessee; Pozzuoli, Italy, and Stafford, Virginia.

MORE 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

Dear Mr. President by Hunter Sat Jul 25, 2009 at 02:20:04 PM PDT from Daily Kos

Dear Mr. President: I am writing you today because I am outraged at the notion of involving government in healthcare decisions like they do in other countries. I believe healthcare decisions should be between myself and my doctor.
Well, that is not strictly true. I believe healthcare decisions should be between myself, my doctor, and my insurance company, which provides me a list of which doctors I can see, which specialists I can see, and has a strict policy outlining when I can and can't see those specialists, for what symptoms, and what tests my doctors can or cannot perform for a given set of symptoms. That seems fair, because the insurance company needs to make a profit; they're not in the business of just keeping people alive for free.
Oh, and also my employer. My employer decides what health insurance company and plans will be available to me in the first place. If I quit that job and find another, my heath insurance will be different, and I may or may not be able to see the same doctor as I had been seeing before, or receive the same treatments, or obtain the same medicines. So I believe my healthcare decisions should be between myself, the company I work for, my insurance company, and my doctor. Assuming I'm employed, which is a tough go in the current economy.

Hmm, but that's still a little simplistic. I suppose we should clarify.

More Tears and Laughter HERE

George Clinton and the P-Funk All-Stars in Concert:

Posted by RichK (He was there, and I wasn't, but watch out for onstage monitor sound.): 25 Jul Sat, 2009 2:15 pm Dewey Beach 7/23 -- A lot went right in their 3 hour 45-minute show, but an equal part of same-ole same-ole took place as well. I pretty much stood directly under Jerome's keyboard to the right of the stage (looking out) and listened to the show primarily through through Lige, Jerome & the drummers monitors. Before I go any further - Foley is a true funkadelic and one bad mother, I can't emphasize this enough, the man is an absolute beast on the drums.
The band eased nicely into their set with a breeezy Funkentelechy. Boogie picked up a guitar to play on the opener but didn't do much with it, wandered around a little then disappeared. With Steve Boyd & Bop Gun things began to heat up. There's very little in the history of music entertainment that equals P-Funk's performance of Cosmic Slop, especially when accompanied by GC's entrance to the stage. Wedding attired Andre Foxxe appeared during Slop. Other than Maggot Brain, the show peaked early, though George's energy was pretty doggone good and he sang a lot. Much different from a year ago at the same venue when Garry pretty much lead the show as George waved to the audience for an-hour then headed for the door.
Michael Hampton wasn't on stage too much, but when he was he was gettin after it. His accompaniment for Maggot Brain was real sparse - all Kidd Funkadelic, decked out in a full-length cloak & hockey mask. Jerome's keyboard playing and an early Red Hot Mama were other highlights. Other than that it was road dogs goin thru the motions. Low points as well: "Bounce to This is" in particular drug on way too long then peetered out (how we miss Byrd). There was a young female singer who oversang an out of place blues standard that appealed to the American Idol crowd. But Kim's screeching on Knee Deep is an automatic low of lows.
By night's end I was quite happy to have been where I was. Unlike Bennie, I didn't sleep a wink during the show. I enjoyed my vanatge point as I care less and less what's going on over on the vocalists side of the stage.

Enroute to Europe, P-Funk performs in Dewey Beach, N.J. (L to R) Ricky Rouse, Shauna Hall, Foley, Garry (Diaperman) Shider, Kim (Red Hot Mama) Manning, and Ronkat Spearman. Live photo from the gig by Snabby.

2009-07-26T21:31:00.004-06:00

Rain has taken the edge off the heat of Summer -- good thing. The Osprey were hunting over the slough, and catching fish. Cherry season here in the Flathead Valley (see below).

Sitemeter Sez: Dubrovnic, Croatia; Fayetteville, North Carolina; Barcelona, Spain; Choteau, Montana; Hamburg, Germany; Erie, Colorado; Bippus, Indiana, and Saint Petersburg, Russia.

MORE 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

Dear Mr. President by Hunter Sat Jul 25, 2009 at 02:20:04 PM PDT from Daily Kos

Dear Mr. President: I am writing you today because I am outraged at the notion of involving government in healthcare decisions like they do in other countries. I believe healthcare decisions should be between myself and my doctor.
Well, that is not strictly true. I believe healthcare decisions should be between myself, my doctor, and my insurance company, which provides me a list of which doctors I can see, which specialists I can see, and has a strict policy outlining when I can and can't see those specialists, for what symptoms, and what tests my doctors can or cannot perform for a given set of symptoms. That seems fair, because the insurance company needs to make a profit; they're not in the business of just keeping people alive for free.
Oh, and also my employer. My employer decides what health insurance company and plans will be available to me in the first place. If I quit that job and find another, my heath insurance will be different, and I may or may not be able to see the same doctor as I had been seeing before, or receive the same treatments, or obtain the same medicines. So I believe my healthcare decisions should be between myself, the company I work for, my insurance company, and my doctor. Assuming I'm employed, which is a tough go in the current economy.

Hmm, but that's still a little simplistic. I suppose we should clarify.

More Tears and Laughter HERE

Many thanks to Toni Bentley -- 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 Rubinstein, High Patroness of Our Blog. Toni is not just a Class Act, she is Class in and of itself, and that's no act!

Media Watch: Bollywood movies are excellent for pitting and freezing cherries. The goofy plots and magnificent music spectacles are easy to catch up with, and the high standards of acting make for some surprises when the stars make more of their sometimes stupid roles than the writers intended. I've written about Bobolli and Bunti before -- good entertainment with Rani Mukerji and the Bachchan Clan. Shah Rukh Khan led a very good cast in a hyper-colorful soap-opera flick set in New York City called Kal Ho Naa Ho [Tomorrow May Never Come] (2003) Saif Ali Khan and Preity Zinta did wonderful work turning their ridiculous roles into warm characters. I actually enjoyed the Bollywood-ized version of Pretty Woman near the beginning of the film. Another movie set in exotic London was I See You (2006), starring the very talented Arjun Rampal. The plot was f***ing stupid, but I enjoyed the locales and musical numbers a lot. Comic actor Chunky Pandey actually had some good moments too. Beautiful Urmila Matondkar was excellent in the not-particularly-great movie Banaras (2006) with handsome Ashmit Patel as the Urmila's doomed lover. The film shot high -- that religion itself does not protect us from human folly is a worthy theme, and the scenes of nearby Sarnath, where Siddhārtha Gautama Buddha found enlightenment, were beautiful, not to mention Benares or Varanasi, the great city of a thousand temples itself as a background. The veteran cast did as well as anybody could, but I did not think the script really redeemed any of its good ideas, though.

A digital sketch of classic beauty Urmila Matondkar from one of her myriad swimsuit poses. She's most of all an excellent dancer and actor -- one of India's gifts to the entire world.

2009-07-23T10:22:00.004-06:00

Summer is Summer, and it's been fairly hot, but nothing like the 100+ temperatures of a few years back. Lots of Ospreys over the slough!

Sitemeter Sez: Oakland, California; Herndon, Virginia; Helena, Montana; Middletown, New Jersey; Helsingborg, Sweden; Mountain View, California; Chicago, Illinois; Wellington, New Zealand (Hi, Gerda); Orange, California; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Granger, Iowa; Oceanside, New York; Columbia Falls, Montana; Hartford, Connecticut; Palermo, Maine; Leighton Buzzard, UK; Pecs, Hungary; Watford, UK (been there); Washington, District of Columbia; Jacksonville, Florida, and Appleton, Wisconsin.

MORE 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: Don't miss Arts In The Park this weekend! Mark Ogle's remarkable retrospective at the Hockaday Museum of Art, plus Dan Fagre and Lisa McKeon's show is on the first level -- 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 (There's a link to the conventional website there.)

A statewide "town meeting" style videoconference about the USA's health care crisis. There were many advocates from different political views, and a few ignoramuses, but the consensus was clear: No more bankruptcies or losing homes because of injury or illness!

I was running the tech for guest speaker Joseph Lisle Williams when he presented a lecture at my college about surviving a bear attack in Glacier National Park 50 years ago. Don Dayton, the ranger who shot the bear and saved the young man's life was at the event too. If you want to read more about it, his sister wrote a blog about her brother and the lecture HERE.

The other month, 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.

Media Watch: I've already said a lot about Bob Fosse's All That Jazz, one of the best ten movies ever made IMHO, but I saw it again and wish to acknowledge some of the performers and their performances in that film: Ann Reinking was very brave in portraying a woman in a situation which was awfully similar to her real-life relationship with Fosse. Young Erzsebet Foldi was perfect in the role of a talented daughter of two brilliant dance artists. I understand she later worked with Twila Tharp. Leland Palmer wasn't Gwen Verdon, but she portrayed the choreographer's artistic soulmate with incredible power and emotional depth. Aerotica is simply one of the best filmed dances EVER, and I'd never dug into the cast list enough to realize that Sandahl Bergman sang and danced the lead in that fabulous piece. I've always wished her well, but I'm very happy that she has a secure place in Cinema History -- in the best sense.

Dancer Sandahl Bergman has had a varied career in entertainment, including sword-and-sorcery movies. Her debut in All That Jazz proved that she was an artist first and foremost.

So You Think You Can Dance? has a big problem -- the final four women are all better than the final four men. It is time to do eliminations which AREN'T based on a dancer's gender.

Speaking of trash television, America's Got Talent highlighted Susan Boyle last night in an interview with Meredith Vieira. Ms. Boyle was the British show's one significant discovery, and if she's able to make it on her talent, that would be a very good thing. They DID accept two break dance crews which I especially enjoyed from the MTV series -- Brake SK8 and Status Quo, AKA SQ Entertainment now. I will go on record saying that I very much dislike seeing so many failures and put-ons in a videotaped program. I don't think they're funny, and I'd rather see more of the good entertainers.

President Obama laid out the urgency of Health Care reform at his press conference last night. Most of the so-called reporters in the room looked like goddamned fools afterward, with their ignorant accusations and dimwitted comments disguised as questions. The insurance companies and big pharmaceutical companies are spending over 1.4 million dollars a day to derail reform, and it shows in the paid-off traditional media. I was glad the president said something about the stupid Louis Gates incident and its larger context too.

2009-07-18T11:03:00.010-06:00

Summer is here, and I have to mow the African Veldt, uh -- my lawn today after leaving it alone for two weeks while I was on vacation. Thank goodness for timely rains while I was away.

Sitemeter Sez: Berlin, Germany; Columbia Falls, Montana; Belle Plaine, Minnesota; Kalundborg, Denmark; Austin, Texas; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Folsom, California ('zat you, Catherine?) Rexburg, Idaho; Kirkland, Washington (Day-um! I used to live there.) San Ramon, California; Birmingham, Alabama; Salt Lake City, Utah (Are they after me?) Madras, India; Monroe, Michigan; Encino, California; Las Vegas, Nevada; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Louisville, Kentucky; Provo, Utah (Hi, Ruth!) Livonia, Michigan; Louth, Ireland (My most constant reader, comment whydoncha -- let me know who you are!) and Manchester, UK.

MORE 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: Mark Ogle's remarkable retrospective at the Hockaday Museum of Art, plus Dan Fagre and Lisa McKeon's show is on the first level -- 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 (There's a link to the conventional website there.) Oh yes -- don't miss Arts In The Park next weekend!

A statewide "town meeting" style videoconference about the USA's health care crisis. There were many advocates from different political views, and a few ignoramuses, but the consensus was clear: No more bankruptcies or losing homes because of injury or illness!

I was running the tech for guest speaker Joseph Lisle Williams when he presented a lecture at my college about surviving a bear attack in Glacier National Park 50 years ago. Don Dayton, the ranger who shot the bear and saved the young man's life was at the event too. If you want to read more about it, his sister wrote a blog about her brother and the lecture HERE.

The other month, 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.

Media Watch: Before we start looking back, the L.A. Opera is doing Wagner's Die Walkure -- Magic! Incest! Murder! Curses! Betrayal! Passion! Lust! Rebellion! Not to mention TEN woman singers in the famous Ride of the Valkyries sequence. Me and Robert Duval will have the radio turned 'way up for that one. I can't see the Avant Garde sets or costumes through the radio, though. Let's try a photo from the production:

Hapless heroine Sieglinde and Valkyrie Brünnhilde are surrounded by Valkyries Gerhilde, Ortlinde, Waltraute, Schwertleite, Helmwige, Siegrune, Grimgerde, and Rossweisse. Siegfried is present in utero, and dreaded All-Father Wotan will soon put a stop to all the fun.
Photo by Monika Ritterhaus, from the L.A. Opera's Website

Ch-ch-changes: 40 years ago, the crewmen of Apollo 11 went to the moon. Leading the TV coverage on CBS were trusted newsman Walter Cronkite and transcendent Science-Fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, the latter renowned for his contibutions to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, a new film at the time. The world lost Mr. Clarke a few years back, but Mr. Cronkite passed away just yesterday, as NASA was celebrating the Apollo 11 mission. S-F does not have to look back for greatness, there are giants, old and young, living today, and NASA is doing great work with its barely-funded unmanned interplanetary probes.
The news industry, though, has lost what once made it special -- namely trust. The callow propaganda and shallow infotainment that pollutes our airwaves may even be fatally poisoning our newspapers. Even in retirement, Walter Cronkite was called the most trusted man in America. If people are correct in saying that we will never see another like him, it will be very depressing, and a symptom of societial rot.

Recent NASA photo of the Apollo 11 landing site, with our Earth-junk still littering the place. Taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera -- see the link HERE.

2009-07-15T08:53:00.007-06:00

Back from UTAH! The Deer off Woodland Drive greeted me yesterday evening. Lots of Hawks and Eagles along the route back and forth.

View outside my base camp in Ogden Utah, looking north and west towards the Great Salt Lake and historic Promontory Point.
Sitemeter Sez: New York, New York; Oldsmar, Florida; Marshall, Virginia; Middletown, New Jersey; Sango, Brazil; Paris, Ile-de-France; Scottsdale, Arizona; Kaysville, Utah; Westminster, Maryland; Stafford, Virginia; Salt Lake City, Utah; Springfield, Massachusetts; Cairo, Egypt; Whitefish, Montana; Oakland, California; Layton, Utah; Winter Park, Florida; Farmington, Michigan; Vancouver, British Columbia; Dublin, Ireland; Washington, District of Columbia; Oschersleben, Germany; Melbourne, Florida; Dallas, Texas; Pasadena, California, and Saint Louis, Missouri.

MORE 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: Mark Ogle's remarkable retrospective at the Hockaday Museum of Art, plus Dan Fagre and Lisa McKeon's show is on the first level -- 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 (There's a link to the conventional website there.)

A statewide "town meeting" style videoconference about the USA's health care crisis. There were many advocates from different political views, and a few ignoramuses, but the consensus was clear: No more bankruptcies or losing homes because of injury or illness!

I was running the tech for guest speaker Joseph Lisle Williams when he presented a lecture at my college about surviving a bear attack in Glacier National Park 50 years ago. Don Dayton, the ranger who shot the bear and saved the young man's life was at the event too. If you want to read more about it, his sister wrote a blog about her brother and the lecture HERE.

The other month, 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.

What Was Happening In Utah (?): I saw/heard Joan Baez singing like an angel; Tower of Power pounding out the Funk, and Spira Gyra playing clean, clear, and entertaining Jazz. Last Saturday I went to THREE festivals -- The Saturday Farmer's Market in Salt Lake, The Scottish Festival in Payson, and the Utah Jazz Festival in Salt Lake. The mountains were still green from abundant rains, and I walked many miles 'way above 8000 feet.
On late night TV, I saw a BBC video from 1975 featuring Lynrd Skynrd on The Old Grey Whistle Test, a live concert program I saw when I lived in England at the same time it was recorded. They weren't my favorite group by any means, but they played Southern Rock as well as anyone did. Too bad so many of them have died -- most of the 'front line' has passed on. Guitarist Gary Rossington is the only one living among those four.
Like about a billion others, I saw and appreciated the live tribute to Michael Jackson -- some very fine music played and sung in his honor. It's sobering to think that the last time I caught up with Jackson on live TV was at James Brown's funeral a number of years ago on CSPAN. He looked sick and frail then -- I thought it was just a bad case of jet-lag at the time, perhaps I was wrong.
I saw a couple of oddball films on TV as well -- Lou Adler's Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains (1981) with young Laura Dern and Diane Lane in a movie which wasn't exactly great, but had a few moments of truth here and there. One of my favorite artist/filmmakers, Frank Miller, stepped in a pile of poo when he made The Spirit (2008). The only good thing about this terrible movie was the lack of racist 40's stereotype Ebony White. Perhaps Samuel L. Jackson as crime-master Octopus was a substitute. Better luck next time, Mr. Miller!

THAT'S The Spirit!

Will Eisner's great years of The Spirit were between 1945 and 1952 when he worked with Jules Feiffer, Jerry Grandenetti, and other great craftsmen, to refine his vision of movies-on-paper in weekly comic sections. Eisner's character P'Gell (above) was played by beautiful Eva Mendes in Frank Miller's film adaptation, but the flick had nothing substantial at it's core and failed miserably, IMHO.

2009-07-02T21:09:00.003-06:00

Last post before my Utah trip. It feels like it's actually getting hot. I hope that Salt Lake isn't an oven, but they don't call it a high desert for nothing.

Sitemeter Sez: Suquamish, Washington; Washington, DC; Yotsukaido, Japan; Villers-le-Bouillet, Belgium; Cincinnati, Ohio (Bootsy? Patti? Freekbass?); ?? Australia; ?? South Africa; Cary, North Carolina, and Chandler, Arizona.

MORE 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

2009-06-30T22:43:00.005-06:00

Dry and warm -- cool nights, marauding deer going for flowers. I'm heading out for Utah this weekend. We visited Waterton/Glacier National Park(s) last Saturday, and got some great shots along the way:

Sitemeter Sez: Louth, Ireland (Dammit pal, COMMENT sometime -- who are you?); Erie, Colorado; Dublin, Ireland (Ahh -- that you, Eavan?); San Leandro, California; Lancaster, Massachusetts; Munich, Germany; Houston, Texas; Bombay, India (Movie person? I've sure slagged those older Bollywood films I've watched lately), and North Hampton, New Hampshire.

MORE 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

2009-06-26T21:46:00.004-06:00

A little rain, a little sunshine, and life is good. The Farmer's Market has vegetables at last!

Sitemeter Sez: The Flash Gordon Gang -- Midrand, South Africa; Middletown, Connecticut; Staten Island, New York; Evansville, Indiana; Amboy, Indiana; Warrenton, Virginia; Park City, Utah; Newark, New Jersey; Bors, Sweden; Richardson, Texas; Allentown, Pennsylvania; Madrid, Spain; Gainesville, Florida, and Las Vegas, Nevada.

MORE 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: Mark Ogle's retrospective at the Hockaday Museum of Art had a wonderful reception. Dan Fagre and Lisa McKeon's show is on the first level -- 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 (There's a link to the conventional website there.)

Last Friday, I was running the tech for guest speaker Joseph Lisle Williams when he presented a lecture at my college about surviving a bear attack in Glacier National Park 50 years ago. Don Dayton, the ranger who shot the bear and saved the young man's life was at the event too. If you want to read more about it, his sister wrote a blog about her brother and the lecture HERE.

The other 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.

Media Watch: Another old Bollywood movie starring ace actors Madhuri Dixit, Sanjay Duit, and Salman Khan from maybe the early 90's. Too bad it was a rather lousy version of Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac (1897). Duit didn't play a psycho, like Rostand's Cyrano, but he WAS supposed to be a poet, who won the heart of a fair maid by his good heart and good words. A Netflix reviwer complained about the costumes -- so could I, but the overall moviemaking was just SO bad. I wouldn't know where to start.

Ch-Ch-Changes: Michael Jackson died yesterday -- he wasn't even fifty-one. All joking aside, he hasn't looked like himself for a long time. His physical frailty frankly scared me. I'm not going to speculate, but I'll be surprised if his fatal coronary wasn't directly related to the medical games he played with his body. The last time I saw him on TV was at James Brown's funeral a number of years back, where he shook hands with Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton as they all mourned the passing of a friend. M.J. did not look well, and I thought it might have been jet-lag, because he'd flown in from Bahrain.
That being said, he was one of the most talented performers to have ever mounted a stage. Tracing back, I liked his record Black & White in the early 90's, although the video didn't really make it with me; Man in the Mirror during the late 80's; The albums Thriller and Off the Wall when he first became a man, and more than half of the Jackson 5 recordings. We Are The World was a worthy effort, but I MUCH prefered Bob Geldoff's Do They Know It's Christmas. I happened to see Michael Jackson's 3D movie Captain E-O at Disneyland, around 1988, and had a very good time watching it.
May you be at peace, Mr. Jackson.

What was that about something completely different?

A redigitized portrait of Madhuri Dixit -- first-rate dancer and excellent movie actor. I heard that she lives in Denver, Colorado now, but she made a "comeback" film not too long ago for her loyal Bollywood fans.

2009-06-21T22:54:00.015-06:00

Happy Summer Solstice! (see below) We've had some much-needed rain over the last few days too.

Sitemeter Sez: Atlanta, Georgia; Des Plaines, Illinois; Auckland, New Zealand; Suncook, New Hampshire; Frederiksborg, Denmark; Columbia Falls, Montana; Lima, Ohio; Tampere, Western Finland; Lumberton, New Jersey; Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Whitefish, Montana.

MORE 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: Mark Ogle's retrospective is going up at the Hockaday Museum of Art. Dan Fagre and Lisa McKeon's show is on the first level -- 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 (There's a link to the conventional website there.)

Last Friday, I was running the tech for guest speaker Joseph Lisle Williams when he presented a lecture at my college about surviving a bear attack in Glacier National Park 50 years ago. Don Dayton, the ranger who shot the bear and saved the young man's life was at the event too. If you want to read more about it, his sister wrote a blog about her brother and the lecture HERE.

The other 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.

Media Watch: An old movie starring Amitabh Bachchan (1978) where he plays a character named Sikander. I can't fault the acting -- especially by the dancer/courtesan, but it didn't add up. Bachchan made so many GOOD movies like Amir, Abkar, Anthony, or even the dawg-assed violent Sholay in the early part of his career, that I think this one is best left to the completists.

Time and Timelessness

A digital sketch of a composition
I once printed on an intaglio press circa 1972.
Mysterious Stonehenge and the puzzles of Geometry stirred together by a young American art student after reading Gerald Hawkins' Stonehenge Revealed, which described how a mainframe computer analyzed the astronomical nature of this famous pre-historic monument, three or four years before I saw the place with my own eyes on Salisbury Plain while I was living in England.
Led Zeppelin's Battle of Evermore was playing on a nearby stereo:
The queen of light she took her bough
And then she turned to go,
The prince of peace embraced the gloom
And walked the night alone.
Oh, dance in the dark night,
Sing to the morning light.
The dark lord rides in force tonight
And time will tell us all.
Oh, throw down your plow and hoe,
Rest not to lock your homes.
Side by side we wait the night
Of the darkest of them all.
I hear the horses thunder
Down in the valley blow,
I'm waiting for the angels of Avalon,
Waiting for the eastern glow.
The apples of the valley hold,
The seeds of happiness,
The ground is rich from tender care,
Repay, do not forget -- no, no!
Oh, dance in the dark night,
Sing to the morning light.
The apples turn to brown and black, the tyrants face is red.
Oh, war is the common cry, lift up your swords and fly.
The sky is filled with good and bad
That mortals never know.
Oh, well, the night is long, the beads of time pass slow,
Tired eyes on the sunrise, waiting for the eastern glow.
The pain of war cannot exceed
The woe of aftermath,
The drums will shake the castle wall,
The ringwraiths ride in black -- ride on!
Sing as you raise your bow,
Shoot straighter than before!
No comfort has the fire at night
That lights the face so cold.
Oh dance in the dark night,
Sing to the morning light.
The magic runes are writ in gold
To bring the balance back -- bring it back, bring it back!
At last the sun is shining, the clouds of blue roll by,
With flames from the dragon of darkness
The sunlight blinds his eyes.

2009-06-17T13:42:00.005-06:00

It is Summer all right -- I'm complaining that we need more rain!

Sitemeter Sez: Someone from The Netherlands, searching for Josie Biereye; Madrid, Spain; Rollins, Montana (looking at Carol Buchanan's live-blog); Columbia Falls, Montana; Webster, New York; Singapore; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Grand Junction, Colorado; Cluj-Napoca, Romania; Oakland, California; Orange Beach, Alabama; Milwaukee, Wisconsin (One of the Cheney/Mills family); Portland, Oregon; Houston, Texas; Atlanta, Georgia; Chesterfield, Massachusetts; Slough, UK (between London and Heathrow Airport), and Warm Springs, Montana.

MORE 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

2009-06-11T12:13:00.007-06:00

Some cold nights with frost in some locations. The calendar SAYS it's Late Spring.

Sitemeter Sez: Gurgaon, India; Needham, Massachusetts; Renton, Washington; Albany, Oregon; Houston, Texas; Atlanta, Georgia, and Cerritos, California.

MORE 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

2009-06-08T21:02:00.006-06:00

Perfect Spring weather -- warmth followed by rain on THIS side of the Rocky Mountains, but snow on the eastern side. Welcome to Montana.

Sitemeter Sez: Pico Rivera, California; Kaysville, Utah; El Cajon, California; Gttingen, Germany; Louth, Ireland (Hey There); Pittsboro, North Carolina; Edmonds, Washington; Perryville, Missouri; Zagreb, Croatia; Lausanne, Switzerland, and Los Angeles, California.

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

2009-06-04T20:49:00.006-06:00

Oh no -- the streams and rivers are at full runoff, with local flood alerts, and they're talking drought because May was so dry towards the end.

Sitemeter Sez: Marion, Pennsylvania; Florence, Kentucky; Oakland, California; Arlington, Virginia; Stafford, Virginia; Alkmaar, Holland (nice little place in the tulip country); New York City, New York, Barcelona, Spain; Waroona, Australia; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Houston, Texas; The islands of Trinidad & Tobago, and Liege, Belgium.

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

2009-05-30T13:40:00.012-06:00

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.

2009-05-29T20:52:00.005-06:00

Spring is finally here, and I'm watering my newly-mown lawn. Killdeer (Plovers) are singing all over the college.

Sitemeter Sez: Venice, California; Louth, Ireland (My mystery pal, who's always welcome); 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

2009-05-25T20:53:00.003-06:00

Perfect spring weather, with all sorts of birdlife at the Slough, and an occasional deer.

Sitemeter Sez: Lyon, Rhone-Alpes; Bren, Germany; Oakland, California; Littleton, New Hampshire; Valencia, Spain and Warsaw, Poland.

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, and the school show is making way for the Plein-Aire paint-off at the start of June. Dan Fagre's show will go up again next week -- it is about the vanishing glaciers of Glacier National Park, and a true labor of love by Fagre and other scientists from the USGS. Here's another website comparing glacier photos from the early 20th Century and recent decades.

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.

Media Watch: Montana Public Radio has run serious Memorial Day programming since 10 AM. The first Decoration Day was celebrated by the Grand Army of the Republic in 1868. There is a two-hour special on the air about music from different wars. So far, the story of bandleader Glenn Miller in WWII has been the most amazing. He survived German bombs in England, but he and his airplane disappeared over the channel on his way to France as the fighting was winding down. Adrian Kronauer spoke and played a couple of Viet Nam era tunes.
The program has deteriorated into lousy propaganda about Gulf War I, skipping the Reagan years when Oliver North took Ayatollah Khomenhi's money and ambushed Nicaruagan coffee pickers with it, after the Ayatolla sent a suicide bomber to kill nearly 200 U.S. Marines in Beruit.
Support Our Troops -- Bring Them Home!

(I've put Mongo Santamaria on the CD player.)

Movies: Another "Kultur" video, from the company which produced the Baryshnikov tape reviewed yesterday, only this one is about J.R.R. Tolkien and the roots of his success with The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. There are short interviews with the old professor himself, one of his sons, and a daughter. Biographer Humphrey Carpenter has several scenes where he uncomfortably expresses his opinion. Rayner Unwin of Unwin & Unwin, the first reader of The Hobbit outside of Tolkien's family gets a few minutes too. He was paid a shilling for writing his book report -- "The best shilling our company ever spent!" he says smiling. There are also many stills featuring Tolkien's own competent illustrations, plus many more by the Brothers Hildebrandt.
This very flawed tape ignores an all-too-important fact about J.R.R. Tolkien -- he was an avid reader of Fairy Tales and Fantasy, besides his studies in ancient poems and sagas. He and his literary friends exchanged letters about near-contemporaries like David Lindsay and Lord Dunsany, plus he acknowledged Andrew Lang explicity in Tree and Leaf, as well as the Brothers Grimm. His fellow-Inkling Jack (C.S.) Lewis was a devotee of Science Fiction, and based his character Ransom on his friend "Tollers." The persistant pressure of the Inklings as a major force in finishing Lord of the Rings is never even mentioned.
What IS mentioned is the wretched animated features made from his works, but they are properly dismissed as wretched, and the point is made that Tolkien never lived to see them. BTW -- Christopher Tolkien, an Inkling himself, is correct in stating that his father would have disliked Saul Zaentz/Peter Jackson's films too.

Do You Like Hitchcock? by Dario Argento is NOT one of the Italian horror-maestro's best flicks. There is one fairly original scene where the abyssimally dumb protagonist narrowly escapes an evil pursuer despite a broken leg and a malfunctioning motor-scooter, but the rest of the thing is a montage of Hitchcock adaptations. This gimmick gets old too quickly to be fun, convincing, or suspenseful.

Dario Argento is equally famous nowadays for being movie star Asia Argento's father. This is a digital assemblage of beautiful Ms. Argento doing publicity for the movie Un Vieille Maîtresse by director Catherine Breillat (2007).

2009-05-24T12:46:00.006-06:00

Perfect spring weather since my last posting. Nothing new at the slough, but there are all sorts of birdlife there, and an occasional sneaky deer.

Sitemeter Sez: Auckland, New Zealand; Morristown, New Jersey; Little Rock, Arkansas; Montreal, Quebec; Oakdale, New York; Phoenix, Arizona; Valencia, Spain; Warsaw, Poland; Los Angeles, California; Quezon, Phillipines; Allentown, Pennsylvania; Chicago, Illinois; Ankara, Turkey; Ketsch, Germany (Home of the bad art movement?) and Maryville, Tennessee.

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

2009-05-21T18:59:00.008-06:00

We had some rain, and a cold wind, but it is still Spring! Lots of Mallard chicks in the Slough.

Sitemeter Sez: Dodsland, Saskatchewan, East Calais, Vermont; Fort Worth, Texas; Louth, Ireland (Hi Pal!); Liverpool, New York; Mc Lean, Virginia; San Francisco, California; Burlington, Vermont; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Poway, California, and Issoire, France (near Footsbarn).

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. Montana On The Move, New Artists, are on display at the Hockaday Museum of Art. Dan Fagre's show will go up again next week -- it is about the vanishing glaciers of Glacier National Park, and a true labor of love by Fagre and other scientists from the USGS. Here's another website comparing glacier photos from the early 20th Century and recent decades.

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.

Media Watch: Trash A Go Go ("Dancing with the Stars") finished its 8th season with a surprise -- 16 year old Shawn Johnson won the trophy. The public has spoken! I would have preferred Gilles Marie, but no matter -- Mark is now a 2-time champ like Cheryl, and his former partner Julianne. I thought the schlub-fest at the beginning of the Awards Show was tedious, and would have liked to see more pros dancing. Speaking of which, Anna the Russian will be an excellent cast member next season. Chelsie Hightower was a new pro this season, and handled herself very well with Ty the cowboy, who never really understood what he was doing.
I first heard of Lady GaGa on this show, as regular readers well know, so I was pleased to see Stefani (GaGa) Germanotta doing two numbers -- the first was a remix of Just Dance again, where she sported a piled-up plastic white wig, with spiders painted on her eyes, and a black arachnid costume covering her figure, over what appeared to be a dark body stocking showing one long naked leg. She threw a kiss to the national TV audience while sitting down afterward.
The second song Love Game was presented deep into the show. She had on a one-piece red textured costume covering her trunk and legs, with flaring Space Opera shoulders, leaving her arms bare. It was a minor detail, but the glow from her scepter-like prop, the "Disco Stick" was overwhelmed by studio lights, and it looked more like a toilet brush. For the first time I've seen her on TV, she wore a yellowish-blond wig instead of a white one. (Germanotta is a natural brunette.) She sang full-out, exhorting the audience, which is the thing I like best about her, even though there was lots of electronics going on -- whatever, she's a DJ, and is GOOD at this stuff. Speaking of which, the single of Love Game contains sonic references to Lady Miss Kier and Dee-Lite in the mix, as well as some Bollywood influences. In both songs, Lady GaGa performed with a mixed-sex, mostly-male posse, and strode around a bit more than she did before, although she did VERY well when she uncorked her own dancing.

Let's have some fun ... Lady GaGa, redigitized from the video of Love Game on her MySpace site. (Looks like she's touring Australia with the Pussycat Dolls next week.) She is more overtly sexy in the Pop Video medium than she is on conventional TV, changing costumes a lot, and dancing all over the place -- including the subway.
You GO, GaGa!

2009-05-17T08:13:00.006-06:00

A warm weekend at last! The Geese and Mallards have produced swimming chicks at Dry Bridge Slough.

Sitemeter Sez: Gdansk, Poland; Oakland, California (Hello Caroline & Matt!); Salt Lake City, Utah; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Bors, Sweden; Peoria, Arizona; Maisons-Alfort, Ile-de-France and Tacoma, Washington.

Web Pages: I have finished another page of Mime Troupe history, and will post it very soon. This phase involves making links, and minor corrections to other pages. Look for a link under Exuberant Daze & Nights (IIc) in Theatre X-Net (below)

MUCH more 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

2009-05-15T20:08:00.003-06:00

The weather is getting warmer, but slowly. The daily rain is good for the lawn, which needs cutting again. A Killdeer (Plover) sings to me daily at the college.

Sitemeter Sez: Concord, California; Chester, South Carolina; Aiea, Hawaii; Bremerton, Washington; Houston, Texas; Sandy, Utah; Mc Lean, Virginia; San Leandro, California; Tehran, Iran; Houston, Texas; Salt Lake City, Utah, and Hanover, New Hampshire.

MUCH more 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