Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Espoo, Finland; Pinckney, Michigan; Encinitas, California; Watertown, Connecticut; Saunderstown, Rhode Island; Izmir (Smyrna), Turkey; San Antonio, Texas; Toronto, Ontario (Ida fan); Bryne, Norway; Jamaica, New York; Hermitage, Pennsylvania; San Francisco, California; Moulineaux, France and Princeton, New Jersey.
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: Bollywood movie time! Saawariya (Beloved) was a re-interpretation of Dostoevski's White Nights from 1848. In THIS East Indian version (There are at least two others)) the director was Sanjay Leela Bhansali, and it was more about the production than the stars -- Salman Khan had a tiny, important role, Rani Mukerji was excellent, but supporting actress Zohra Sehgal was the BEST. The two leads were both named Kapoor, and did their jobs.
Saawariya pretty much delivered everything it had in the first forty minutes -- set, music, and imagery. I liked how it tried to evoke a red light district with some sad verisimilitude, but I got tired of the gimmicks long before the interval, and used fast-forward to hit the few high points towards the end.
VH1's Rock Honors The Who had too much ass-kissing to suit me, plus too many performances by other groups that were off-key because of the high registers in which they tried to sing.
Townshend and Daltrey made the right decision by continuing The Who as a duet (with very skilled backup musicians). Guest spots by Chris Stamp and others who knew them back in the day were priceless. If I ever met these guys and could share my OWN memories with them, without boring them to death, I'd mention their astounding performances on Shindig in the 60's, and their long string of quality singles which brightened up AM Radio in my teenage years. I was glad when they captured the 70's generation of rock fans too, but their overall story is laced with sadness. BTW -- I liked Roger Daltrey as an actor on Rude Awakening. That series featured some wonderful performances by Sherylyn Fenn, Lynn Redgrave, Tim Curry, and others.
Buster Keaton's Sherlock Jr. (1924) was fun to see on TCM -- dangerous stunts and trick photography abounded!
X-Men and X-Women
X-Men III was alright. I knew as a teenager (see above) that the idea of alienated mutant youth was a gold mine -- with the right storyteller at the helm. Unfortunately, the series was often used for training new Marvel bullpeners until writer Chris Claremont rose to the challenge after one of Marvel's bankruptcies.
Beautiful Famke Jansson died (again) in this movie, along with Patrick Stewart (who has only died once so far). Super Villain Extraordinaire Magneto (Ian McKellan) survived, though, and there were plenty of other first-rate actors looning it up in this fantastical nonsense to give it uh, should we say, wings -- just remember to respect the basic material. Magneto made the initial 60's series special, and there are over two generations of ideas with which to play.
Halle Berry's Storm survived X-Men III, so one arguable candidate for Most Beautiful Woman In The World will continue to star in future X-Men adventures -- the former term being as hyperbolically ridiculous as any superhero fantasy. So to honor reality, my congratulations to Ms. Berry for successfully giving birth recently.
Speaking of Comic Book Flicks -- the new Batman: Dark Knight movie looks like the hit of this summer! The History Channel showed a bunch of psychologists, rabbis, sociologists, and comics professionals analyzing this 70 year old character. (Some of the best comedy is straight-faced.)
Guillermo Del Toro's Hellboy II did very well, as did Jon Favreau's Iron Man, and the ever-green Hulk.
Star-driven superhero films featuring Angelina Jolie and Will Smith did some business too, but I bet they were awfully EXPENSIVE to make. If Hollywood paces these things properly, they can avoid burning out this genre. I'm hoping for the best, but there's no telling what greed can do to louse up good (or simply fun) things. I wish ALL movies were good, no matter WHAT their genres might be!
