Uh-oh! I saw a flock of Canadian Honkers flying south as I drove to work yesterday. I had to cover-up the tomato plants against a possible frost tonight. The Labor Day weekend is coming up, and all the tourist traps will be closing. The college is stating classes on Tuesday, and calling it Winter Semester -- too soon, too soon!

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley
Click on Exceptionally Yours to find Footsbarn Theatre

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!
NEW! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

Charity Alert: Keep that resolution as Autumn approaches! Click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: Last Sunday I took photos of a special free event put on by all three of our county museums -- yeah, I always kvetch about working on that day, but the weather was so nice, and the event, Museums & Music; A Festival of Culture, was so much fun, I just had to do it. Road warrior Rob Quist from the legendary Mission Mountain Wood Band played solo on the grounds of the Conrad Mansion. A fine electric blues band called Andre Floyd & Mood Iguana wailed on the lawn at the Central School Museum (alongside stands selling artwork that were supposed to grace the street in front of the Hockaday, but since the city didn't close the street ...) My own Hockaday Museum of Art hosted Dave Walburn in our Center Gallery -- he writes and sings some fine original songs like Find A Summer Love. He wove a ballad about a gig he did at a nudist camp near Lake Coeur D'Alene too. (Something about jaybirds, or some damn thing.) Andre Floyd was able to tackle Taj Mahal's tricky version of Corina, Corina while keeping the soul of the song intact as he threw his voice around the arrangement. Rob Quist made everybody laugh by singing his old jingle for "Levis 401" jeans, while still claiming to be a "Wranglers" man.

Media Watch: Rocky Anderson, the mayor of my ex-home town, Salt Lake City, Utah made a splash in the U.S. news media by leading a 5000-strong protest rally against G. W. Bush at City Hall. That fraudulently-elected president was speaking at an American Legion convention there. The text of Anderson's speech is HERE, if you want to read a politician telling the truth.
Here's a link to an analysis on the Huffington Post

Theater/Theatre: Let's get away to Europe instead!


A huge chateau overlooking the village of La Palisse in Central France. That's me (inset), wearing glue-spattered coveralls and a doo-rag, taking a break in the bar while my poster-pasting partner placed paramutual bets on the annual horse races at nearby Vichy racetrack. We were doing basic publicity for Footsbarn's 35th Anniversary Festival around the local towns. I took the main shot right outside the tavern door.

Red Wing Blackbird chicks are reaching their full growth. The Magpies are still flocking in groups of about eight. Mama Deer and their Fawns can be seen at any time of day. We are having the oddest weather -- forest-fire smoke plus clouds which seem invisible when straight overhead, yet drizzle localized showers underneath. A cool wind is blowing from the Southwest, and leaves are turning color. August in Montana.

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley
Click on Exceptionally Yours to find Footsbarn Theatre

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!
NEW! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

Charity Alert: Keep that resolution as Autumn approaches! Click on The Hunger Site every day.

Media Watch: Boring, but good-hearted, Elvis Costello was on Tavis Smiley with the great New Orleans player and composer Allan Toussaint. They played a snippet of their well-done remake of Toussaint's song How Do We Help Brother Get Further? A Lee Dorsey jam from the album Yes We Can (1969).
There's been some things going on which have kept me from the TV. I have nothing to say about the Karr sideshow. I'm glad fundamentalist Mormon leader Warren Jeffs is behind bars, and I hope he stays there for all the rest of his ugly, child-abusing life. I DID see a documentary on PBS about Baron Manfred Von Richthoffen, the "Bloody Red Baron," who killed 80 Allied aviators in WWI, and a somewhat more lighthearted one about archelogical diving in the offshore ruins of Alexandria, Egypt -- one of the most important cities in Western cultural history. Oh yeah -- right up there with Rome, Athens, and Constantinople. The size and shape of the Earth was first deduced there, among other scientific curiosities.

It's time for Footsbarn Photos!



(Left) Eugenio and Robin line up as Mama Fanta sells them healthy Ginger drinks and Hybiscus tea on the midway of Footsbarn's Celebration of Theatre. (Right) In the distance, James' Velocycle cruises the bars next to infamous Buckinger's Boot Marionettes with Father Seamus (pronounced "Shame-us") and his Sinful Sisters entertaining the crowds with the low-comedy tune Mah Nà Mah Nà, and more outrageous stuff & nonsense.

The Canadian Geese are still around -- it's not Autumn unless they are migrating.

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley
Click on Exceptionally Yours to find Footsbarn Theatre

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!
NEW! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

Charity Alert: Keep that resolution as Autumn approaches! Click on The Hunger Site every day.

Media Watch: (Updated 8/26/2006) OK, I watched Richard O'Brien's musical film Shock Treatment. There was even a song I liked called Little Black Dress. It stood out because it displayed some of O'Brien's wit. He worked with Jim Sharmon on the screenplay, and Richard Hartley on the musical arrangements. I was WRONG -- Uninspiring Cliff DeYoung was both Brad Majors, and his evil twin, spending most of the time bound and gagged. Nell Campbell and Charles Gray from Rocky Horror were both good in their roles.
I am going to write a little about Jessica Harper. She played "Janet Majors," with barely a word said about "Janet Weiss." She was the object of unhealthy public and private obsession in this flick. Day-um! Ms. Harper was the target of unwelcome attention in at least three movies I know of -- Phantom of the Paradise, Suspiria, and a creepy TV movie where the late, great Vic Morrow (playing one of his most loathsome villains EVER) drives Jessica's character insane with psycho-sexual torment. She was the object of Steve Martin's NEGLECT in Pennies from Heaven, but thank goodness very few people have seen that pile of poop.
Jessica Harper is a perfectly good actor, with an undeniable, if anorexic, style of beauty, but she's sure been in some odd films during her career. (NOTE: I love Suspiria, but it's not for everybody. Director Dario Argento indulges in some very violent scenes.)

Theater/Theatre: Your Footsbarn Photo for Today!


Volunteers Julie (Left) and Karine (Right) lightheartedly pose on the guylines in front of Les Voyagers chapiteau (tent), while awaiting their signal to take the customers' tickets.

A little spiked Whitetail male deer ran across the highway in front of me this morning -- meaning that Fall is on it's way. Stick around the 'hood, little fellow, they can't shoot ya' here.

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley
Click on Exceptionally Yours to find Footsbarn Theatre

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!
NEW! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

Charity Alert: Keep that resolution as Autumn approaches! Click on The Hunger Site every day.

Media Watch: All We Are Saying -- a film by Rosanna Arquette, in the same vein as Looking for Debroah Winger, meaning interviews, only this time it's Rock musicians instead of woman movie actors. There's some bitchin' pissin' and moaning, but there are other insights too. Yoko Ono is in the film, and probably signed off on the title. Young Ms. Arquette was reportedly the subject of Toto's greatest hit Rosanna.

Theater/Theatre: Another Footsbarn picture for your day!


(Center) Josephine Biereye, as Security and (Right) Caroline Piette as Interviewer simultaneously on-stage and on-camera during an especially satirical segment of Homo Haereticus. (Mas Soegeng is Cameraman at the Left).

A Kingfisher was hunting on Middle Foy's Lake last evening! He/she sat right on our log while I was washing the dishes -- first one I've seen there.

DANCE at the Hole In The Wall: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!
NEW! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

Charity Alert: Keep that resolution as Autumn approaches! Click on The Hunger Site every day.

Media Watch: Soldiers Three (1951) with David Niven and the great Robert Newton on TCM -- had to tape it. Do not confuse with Sergeants Three, a Rat Pack version of Gunga Din as a western, although Rudyard Kipling gets some of the credit for both films.

Theater/Theatre: Your Footsbarn picture of the day!


St. George and the Lady
Rachelle rides behind Christophe, Circus Werdyn's energetic stunt rider after her "rescue" from Puca on the first day of Footsbarn's 35th Anniversary Celebration, August 9, 2006.

A Bald Eagle was flying right over the deck this morning -- followed by three Magpies perched on the rail scolding us for a lack of peanuts -- let 'em complain!

DANCE at the Hole In The Wall: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!
NEW! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

Charity Alert: Keep that resolution as Autumn approaches! Click on The Hunger Site every day.

Theater/Theatre: Another Footsbarn picture -- Featuring Footsbarn Theatre itself!


Incisive satire leads to the beauty of timeless communication. Josephine Biereye, Joe Cunningham, Michel Durantin, Noelie Giraud, Vincent Gracieux, Paddy Hayter, Caroline Piette, Muriel Piquart, and Mas Soegeng in Homo Haereticus.