The Deer were pretty displeased with the snow -- much of their easy food was covered. The wind drifted the flurries where I live and there's big piles of snow next to bare ground. Halloween was pretty low-key because of the cold.

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
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 Winter sneaks in! Click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: My lecture Women in Science Fiction covered too much time and space, so I have to watch out for diversions during the first 2300 years. (Luckily I had over two hours of time, and still didn't use it all -- everyone was happy to go home early.) I am writing an outline for my second slide presentation about Footsbarn Theatre today -- more diesel, rope, canvas, wires, and steel for sure, but some STRUCTURE as well, beyond a mere chronological reminiscence.

Media Watch: There's a bit more wit in Gaston Leroux's Phantom of the Opera than I expected. Lotsa scene-shifting though -- more than you'd want to do in a real theater.
Go Go Go! Trash A-Go-Go -- Dancing with the Stars is looking more like a contest, except the competition is for 2nd Place. Unless Mario Lopez is injured in a wrestling accident, like Stacy Kiebler was, I don't see how he CAN'T win. Emmitt Smith is much more graceful than Jerry Rice, and he's done some fun dances with Cheryl Burke. Joey Lawrence is athletic, but somewhat musclebound and stiff. His Dracula-tango was perfectly "suited" to his style -- the costume of his partner Edyta was falling off of her, though. She had to keep pulling it back into place, something I've never seen a pro dancer have to deal with before. Thanks to their misused fan voting system, Monique Coleman is the only lady contestant left -- four weeks wasted by the inept Jerry Springer and Sara Evans pushing out capable Viveca Fox and Willa Ford damaged the credibility of the show for me. The awards show tonight features operatic "boy band" Il Divo.

Are we not men? We are DEVO!
Workin' in the coal mine , goin' down, down, down!
Can't get no satisfaction?
Sah-LUTE, General Boy!

OOPS! I meant IL DIVO -- Operaworld's answer to the Pussycat Dolls. Actually, the Dolls were GOOD on Dancing with the Stars Results Show last year -- they sang and danced a fabulous version of Sway.