The Canadian Geese are migrating through, as are Mallard Ducks and Pintail Ducks. Instead of Coyotes last night we heard DOGS -- that'll keep 'em a little further away, I hope. We are off to Canada ourselves for the weekend -- a relaxing getaway or reverse migration?

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Ida's Places in Paris, from my jet-lagged first 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!
NEW! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

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

In The Community: Gotta update the Hockaday Museum of Art's webpage before I go North. We signed up a lot of new members last Thursday!

Media Watch: I was loading up and testing my new laptop computer at home with the TV running in the background -- Detroit literally "dropped the ball," against St. Louis in Game 4 of the World Series. Too many errors lost the game, and being down 1-3 won't help them win the series either.
PBS -- A scientist explored his theory about a global cooling event during the Sixth Century A.D. He needs more evidence, for sure, but the Dark Ages might just have been as cold as they were "dark."
Western Europe's situation sucked bad enough with whole populations migrating all over the still-rotting corpse of the Roman Empire, but China and Asia were also trying to climb out of the mess left in the wake of the fall of the later Chin Dynasty. Sassannian Persia acted as a stabilizing force -- their existance enabled the "Silk Road" to continue, for instance. Buddhism and Christianity met at the Sassannian crossroads, but this promising cultural tapestry was forcibly torn apart by the violent rise of Islam in the Seventh Century. The Caliphs did NOT abandon Civilization, but they altered it considerably, plus aided and abetted it's destruction at certain times and places during the expansion of their empire.


There REALLY was a Brunhilde -- not a Valkrie, but a warrior/queen of sorts who did a pretty good job overseeing a small country on the Rhine River during the Dark Ages. Her name was remembered when people started writing again, and she became a character in many a mythic romance. This is my own version of a post-classical tile portrait, based on Arthur Rackham's portrayal of her.