Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Copiap, Chile; Indianapolis, Indiana; Chicago, Illinois; Manchester, UK; Rice Lake, Wisconsin; Waterford, Michigan; San Francisco, California; NYC, New York; Biasca, Ticino (Switzerland); Lincoln Park, New Jersey; Irvine, California; Las Vegas, Nevada; Tarrytown, New York; Louth, Ireland (thought Eavan was on the road); City of London, UK; Salt Lake City, Utah; West Lafayette, IndianaDoorn, Netherlands; Columbus, Ohio; Slobozia, Romania; Pittsburg, Illinois; Tucson, Arizona; Charlestown, Rhode Island; Rolla, Missouri; L'Assomption, Quebec and Lexington, Massachusetts;
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: The Hockaday Museum of Art presents Arts In The Park this upcoming weekend! The Museum itself is still showing Rails, Trails, and A Road -- honoring the 75th Anniversary of Going To The Sun Road in Glacier National Park.
Also -- Ace Powell -- Ace of Diamonds and Native American Interpretations from our permanent collection.
Check out Fall for Glacier -- a fundraiser for several programs that make Glacier National Park even better!
Media Watch: The second season of America's Best Dance Crew has no incredible acts like Break Skate or JabbaWokeeZ, or over-the-top acrobats like Status Quo had. All those young dancers are fun to watch, but the contrast with Season One is profound! Choreographer Shane Sparks was nominated for a Grammy for his work on So You Think You Can Dance. He's an OK judge on the Crew show too.
B.C. Vacation Rambles
While we drove around the VERY big city of Vancouver B.C. we found ourselves counting Starbucks shops. We did not see the entire town by any means, but we saw more than two dozen Starbucks stores, sometimes located as close as a block from one another. There were plenty of other coffee bars around too. Methinks someone may have over-expanded their business. The company published a list of 600 franchises slated to close earlier today in the USA. Lawd knows how many will shutter-down in Canada too.
When I lived in Seattle, I caught the Espresso bug, but my favorite brand was Seattle's Best Coffee. The best places to get it were cart vendors on the streets, who had the necessary experience as baristas. There was a local outfit in Spokane, so I dealt with them when I relocated inland. I was acquainted with a former Seattle's Best employee named Simon Craven-Thompson, an Englishman who moved there soon afterward and started his own roaster and company as Craven's Coffee. He supplies many vendors here in Northwesten Montana too, and I drink his product as often as I drink the local roasts from Montana Coffee Traders. I make a lot of my own Espresso now, as prices have gone through the clouds. We even took our own machine with us on vacation.
Looking North and South from Totem Glen in idyllic Stanley Park towards the surrounding skyscrapers of bustling Vancouver, B.C. near sunset.
On our first night in Vancouver, we walked to a club named Richard's On Richards (Street) to see a long-time favorite of ours, Jonathan Richman. The house was FULL, the audience was mostly twenty-somethings, but there were people even older than they, including us, plus Richman and his drummer Tommy Larkins. They knew his songs, and enthusiastically embraced his eccentric delivery -- Spanish Guitar that night, along with Larkin's drums. His voice is unique on any stage, but ideally serves his personal expressivness. There is nobody like him. Who else sings songs about Pablo Picasso or Jan Vermeer? Who else ascends to the heights of childlike joy, then dives into the abyss of sorrow? Who else sings in three languages, or more? Who else crafts stories in song like the one below, and inspires people forty years younger than he to sing along? (Without prompting!)
Well I was dancing at a night club one Friday night / And that night club bar was a little uptight / Yeah, I was dancing all alone a little self-conscious / When some kids came up and said, "For dancing come with us." / And soon...
Four hundred sing-along voices: I was dancing in the lesbian bar, I was dancing in the lesbian bar. Ooo! Ooo! Ooo!
Well I was dancing in the lesbian bar in the industrial zone. / I was dancing with my friends and dancing alone.
Well [in] the first bar, things were all right / But in this bar, things were Friday night. / In the first bar things were just all right. / This bar things were Friday night
Four hundred sing-along voices: I was dancing in the lesbian bar, I was dancing in the lesbian bar. Ooo! Ooo! Ooo!
I was dancing in the lesbian bar way down town / I was there to check the scene and hang around / Well [in] the first bar, things were stop and stare / But in this bar, things were laissez-faire / In the first bar things, were stop and stare / In this bar, things were laissez-faire
Four hundred sing-along voices: I was dancing in the lesbian bar, I was dancing in the lesbian bar. Ooo! Ooo! Ooo!
In the first bar, folks were drinking sips / But in this bar, they could shake their hips / In the first bar they were drinking sips / In this bar they could shake their hips
Four hundred sing-along voices: I was dancing in the lesbian bar, I was dancing in the lesbian bar. Ooo! Ooo! Ooo!
Well in the first bar, things were o-kay / But in this bar, things were more my way, / In the first bar, things were just o-kay / In this bar, things were done my way
Four hundred sing-along voices: I was dancing in the lesbian bar, I was dancing in the lesbian bar. Ooo! Ooo! Ooo!
Well In the first bar, things were controlled / But in this bar, things were rock-n-roll / In the first bar things were so controlled / In this bar things were way way bold
Four hundred sing-along voices: I was dancing in the lesbian bar, I was dancing in the lesbian bar. Ooo! Ooo! Ooo!
The back-and-forth between Jonathan and Tommy kept things flowing. One might criticize the way his acoustic guitar reinforced some sameness during the two-hour show, but he faced a raucous standing ovation, and waited for a long while with a smile for the noise to die down before singing an encore. We walked back to the hotel with light feet for the experience. It was the fourth time we'd seen him live. The last time was in Seattle almost eighteen years ago, where he sang solo and played electric guitar -- a better instrument for his Pablo Picasso song. The Spanish Guitar serves him very well, and I have NO problems with it per se.
