It's hot again -- no rain, but it's a holiday weekend, so nobody's complaining. I'm moving into a house, so I'm not complaining about the weather either. High temperatures just mean I work slower -- rain ruins my stuff, especially delicate artworks.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from -- Belleville, Michigan; Emeryville, California; Saint Louis, Missouri; Los Angeles, California; Millwall, Newham UK; and NYC, New York.

Remembering my friend George-O 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!
Spitfires of the Spaceways
UPDATED! Wilma Deering & Dale Arden to the rescue; Bodacious Princess Aura I; Hapless Aura II; The fiery Emperor Ming; The Orson Welles Rumor Debunked; and BOTH incarnations of Jean Rogers!
Read my latest Spitfires in Context essay.

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 his recommendations -- HERE!

Charity Alert: Keep that resolution to click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: We've been teaching the teachers how to use their new equipment at Flathead Valley Community College. The new fully-equiped lecture hall will mean fewer load-ins and load-outs for me, although I kind of LIKE doing remote events if they are spread out a little. I'll be doing a series of movies about Inuit (Eskimo) Art there next month in conjunction with the Hockaday Museum of Art.

Media Watch: I rented The Notorious Bettie Page and watched it while I was packing -- not bad! They captured the cigarette-smoke-stained atmosphere of the 50's to a remarkable extent. Gretchen Mol did very convincing work as an actor. In order to portray Bettie's image, she followed the lead of one of the most talented photographic models of all time. Creating her elusive character was a lot more difficult -- congrats to her and writer/director Mary Harron, writer Guinevere Turner, and costume designer John Dunn. Miami-based model - turned - photographer Bunny Yeager was portrayed as sensible and dignified -- they even recreated Yeager and Page's sessions with real Leopards!



Bettie Page herself in a redigitized collage of filmed images from the mid-50's. Mary Harron was awfully kind to the memory of Irving Klaw -- I think the central image of Bettie undressing was shot in his office -- he sold photos of movie stars out front. I see Clark Gable, Elizabeth Taylor, maybe Arlene Dahl, and maybe Judy Holliday on the walls. Inset are scenes from Varietease, an Irving Klaw film which starred Burlesque Queen Lili St. Cyr. Ms. Page was a featured co-star, and Grechen Mol said she mimiced her silly dancing from this obscure novelty during the credits. Like me, the filmmakers probably saw it on a Something Weird Video. Klaw was a well-entrenched New York businessman, and the Mafia unfortunately had a lot to say about who was allowed to deal in hard and soft-core pornography and burlesque. The sophistication of the Klaw family was beyond Ms. Page's comprehension I believe, and I still don't hesitate to call him sleazy because of his various associates in high and low places.