Tuesday, April 11, 2006

The Great Blue Heron has returned to Middle Foy's Lake! We also had a male Pheasant eating right out of our box feeder on the deck this morning.

NEW -- Modern Dance at: Theater X-Net




Featuring: 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!

Charity Alert: Keep that resolution during Springtime too! Click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: A Rotary Club seminar on Business Ethics (and cynicism) at Flathead Valley Community College. We went out over ITV to Libby, Montana -- about 90 miles away. Our guests were John Johnstone, CEO of D.A. Davidson & Company and Dr. Dane Scott of the University of Montana. Dr. Scott Wheeler, retired History professor from West Point was the co-presenter, along with our president Jane Karas.

Media Watch: On TCM (from their web site) -- Anna May Wong (1905-1961) in Piccadilly (1929). A British production, directed by the German filmmaker E. A. Dupont. Wong steals the show as Shosho, a scullery maid in the club who becomes the star attraction. Wong is cool, confident, manipulative, and frankly sensual - a performance that is all the more remarkable at a time when Asian women (including Wong herself) were usually stereotyped in films as evil Dragon Ladies or submissive Lotus Blossoms.
Wong was born Wong Liu Tsong (her name means "Frosted Yellow Willows") in Los Angeles, where her parents ran a laundry. Fascinated by films from an early age, she began acting at 14. A small role in Douglas Fairbanks' The Thief of Bagdad (1924) led to stardom, but fed up with the stereotypical "exotic Oriental" roles, Wong went to Europe in 1928, hoping for better parts. After making two films in Germany, she was cast in Piccadilly by Dupont, who had been working in Britain since 1926.
E. A. Dupont, a film critic turned screenwriter and director, had demonstrated a brilliant visual flair with the German film Variete (1925), and had been signed to a contract by Universal. But his stint in Hollywood was unsuccessful, and he returned to Europe. Like Variete, and his earlier British film, Moulin Rouge (1928), Piccadilly demonstrated Dupont's mastery of camera movement and lighting. From the opening scenes, shot in art director Alfred Junge's enormous and complex nightclub set, through noirish scenes of London streets and alleys, Dupont's direction and Werner Brandes's fluid camerawork are stunning.


Ida Rubenstein as Creatrice de La Pisanelle (1913)
From the painting by de La Gandara (in progress at the time), gown by her favorite dressmakers at the House of Worth.
La Pisanelle was a deliberately decadent fantasy co-created by Gabrielle D'Annunzio where Ida's character was smothered by rose pedals during the finale. The alternate title was Death by Perfume. It was her last major extravaganza before WWI, but she would continue staging her elaborate theatrical pieces from the 20's into the 30's.
Many thanks to Xavier Mathieu at La Gandara's Web Site

Monday, April 10, 2006

Middle Foys Lake is ice-free. Firehouse Pond is ice-free. Little Foy's Lake is ice-free. We saw a pair of Common Mergansers yesterday, and a Great Blue Heron on Saturday. No Bluebirds in our neighborhood yet, but we sighted some by Ashley Creek.

NEW -- Modern Dance at: Theater X-Net




Featuring: 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!

Webmaster's Notes: Xavier Mathieu wrote to me about my Ida Rubinstein site -- he made a nice website about Antonio de La Gandara, the portraitist who was a friend of both Ida and Sarah Bernhardt. Xavier's de La Gandara Website

Charity Alert: Keep that resolution for Springtime too! Click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: AmeriCorps had a statewide meeting at our college over the weekend, and I worked every morning, even though I was sick with a lingering cold. (I'm better now.) It is amazing how these post-teens can grow when they are given their own projects to oversee and worthy tasks to do! Thanks to insightful Bill Clinton for starting this program, curses on stupid George Bush for trying to end it.
Tonight I'm running the tech for a seminar on Business Ethics. (No cynical remarks, please.) Besides sound and slideware, we are going out over ITV to Libby, Montana -- about 90 miles away. Our guests are John Johnstone of D.A. Davidson & Company, Dr. Dane Scott of the U of M, and Dr. Scott Wheeler, retired History professor from West Point.

Media Watch: I had to sleep this sickness off during the last week, so I didn't catch much TV -- I did see Antonio Banderas' Take the Lead last night in a real movie theater, though. It is inspired by the story of Pierre Dulaine, an inspiring energetic Ballroom Dance instructor in New York City who is teaching this art form to High Schoolers there with great success. It was an entertaining, albiet VERY fictional feel-good flick.


My friend Katie Duck, and dancers Vincent Cacialano, Justin Morrison, & Eileen Standley are lighting it up again onstage in Amsterdam, Holland -- with musicians Rozemarie Heggen (contrabass), Colin McLean (electronics), Michael Moore (alto sax, clarinet), & Mary Oliver (violin, viola), plus lights by Ellen Knops.