I took a look at the Flathead River yesterday -- brown water flowing right up to the top of its banks, with lots of debris swirking about. The Stillwater, behind the college, is high, but it sits pretty deep in its course. However, there are places where people live next to it. The crooks who sell houses in floodplains should have to pay for damages. I feel sorry for the dumbasses who buy them.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Missoula, Montana (That you, Alicia?); Moss Point, Mississippi; Frankfurt Am Main, Germany; Friday Harbor, Washington (No Mondays there!); The Bronx, New York (Saw a bit of NY Mets vs. NY Yankees last night); Tunis, Tunisia -- near the original Carthage, and Saint Auggie's Hippo.

ROCK against Reaganomics 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!
NEW --Launching NOW! Outre Space Cinema -- Featuring: 1930's Rocketry, Spitfires of the Spaceways and Cellulose to Celluloid, Flash Gordon in the Saturday Matinees and Sunday Comics.





Many 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: Check into Terra Sigilata blog -- donate $$$ to cancer patients just by clicking onto the site. Keep that Resolution to click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: Two new shows going up at the Hockaday Museum of Art.
Check out Fall for Glacier -- a fundraiser for several programs that make Glacier National Park even better!

Real Books: I have been reading about 19th/20th Century Superstar Sarah Bernhardt, who personified the concept of Theatre to most of the world in her time. She was very much like Elvis Presley in many ways, except that she lived to be over 80. Bernhardt was famous for her unforgettable voice, a dazzling physical presence, and a spectacular repertory of over-the-top romantic roles that her public loved. Her success created a template which was followed by actresses like by Lillian Gish, Eleonora Duse, Margaret Anglin, Gabrielle Réjane, Tallulah Bankhead, Eva Le Gallienne, Isabelle Adjani, Ida Rubinstein, Theda Bara, and even Greta Garbo.



Sarah Bernhardt was born in Paris in 1844 to a Dutch/Jewish courtesan, Judith van Hard. She entered the Comédie Française at 18 but did not stay long. She returned in 1872 following her remarkable role as the Queen Marie in Victor Hugo's play Ruy Blas at the Théatre de l'Odéon. She became a member of the Comédie Française in 1875. She was well known for her classical roles -- Racine's Phedre, Voltaire's Zaïre, as well as outsized melodramas like Victorien Sardou's Fedora, Theodora, and La Tosca. She left the Comédie Française in 1880 and started a series of long international tours.
The book I read reported how she returned to Paris from these excursions in possession of millions of dollars, but somehow went broke again and again because of an extravagent lifestyle, and bad professional choices.
Her later life intertwined with that of Ida Rubinstein, High Patroness of this Blog, through the flamboyant Count Robert de Montesquiou. After Bernhardt's death, Ida re-created La Dame aux Camélias onstage as a successful tribute to her friend. Unfortunately, as noted by her biographers, the Divine Sarah's theatrical style had been superceeded by less florid works by Ibsen, Shaw, or Chechkov. Ida's further forays into high drama were dismissed as passé.


(You MUST enlarge this image to appreciate it -- click and enjoy!)
Sarah Bernhardt in La Dame aux Camélias, a mid-90's revival of her 1880's triumph, made immortal by Alphonse Mucha's poster.

As Director of the Renaissance Theatre Bernhardt played in Medea and La Dame aux Camélias. She rented the Théatre des Nations in 1898, and it became Théatre Sarah Bernhardt after about 1900. It was located on the Place du Châtelet in the fourth district. In 1968, it was called Théatre de la Ville.
Bernhardt continued to act in spite of having her right leg amputated when she was 71 years old. (Ida Rubinstein reportedly paying for the operation in 1915.) She died in Paris on March 26, 1923. In spite of changing its name, Théatre de la Ville will always be the Theatre of Sarah Bernhardt.