NOT a morning person, but I was up before 6 AM to make sure we were ready for a 7 AM event. I need COFFEE!

(Back Later)

Oh, that was GOOD! Where was I?

Sitemeter Sez: Many visitors from MySpace, and/or search engines that don't track. Someone viewed my picture of lovely Lisa Schaus.

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
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!





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. Also check into Terra Sigilata blog -- donate $$$ to cancer patients just by clicking onto the site.

In The Community: Back to work, with a vengence! Many public events at the Hockaday Museum of Art AND Flathead Valley Community College this week -- several associated with the Inuit Art exhibit.

Media Watch: REAL Books -- I finished re-reading Joy Chant's Red Moon and Black Mountain, but didn't like it as much as I did 35 years ago. She owes a LOT to Andrew Lang, and I'd guess that the Inklings were part of her reading list too, although she didn't acknowledge them in the author-blurb. However, she has an enjoyable writing style, and I thought she did a good job with The High Kings.
Speaking of key books in the development of Fantasy, ever-exploitive Ace Books reprinted Alan Garner's The Weirdstone of Brisingamen* in the late 60's, explicitly trying to capitalize on the "Tolkien Tradition," since they were foxed out of exploiting Tolkien by the old professor himself. Garner was/is a much more original writer, one of the best storytellers and wordsmiths in the Fantasy Genre, and I recommend his books very highly -- read the Wikipedia entry about him, and follow the links!
*The Moon of Gomrath is something of a sequel to Weirdstone, except that the two books don't really rely on one another. Garner's ability to criss-cross the borders of Faerie with grace and ease is remarkable. I also say that both he and Joy Chant owe much to Evelyn Nesbitt's fantastic novels about children in strange worlds, as did C.S. Lewis.


Jack Gaughan's cover of Ace Books' late 60's reprint of The Weirdstone of Brisingamen (1960) -- Andre Norton's testimonial is interesting in that she also dabbled in Nesbitt-like heroic fantasies in her Witch World series from the same publisher. This illustration portrays the Mara, minor but dangerous antagonists in Garner's book. Another version of these monsters showed up a decade later in the half-baked movie Prophecy, but I'll bet this author had nothing to do with that!