Being sick is harder at work, when you have to function. I managed, but it sure wasn't fun. I cheered up considerably when I heard from my friend Clara McBride in Paris -- she works with an improvisational group called The Improfessionals, among her many projects. She's also been making films.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Abingdon, Maryland; Preston, UK; Boulder, Colorado; Clifton, New Jersey; Brooklyn, New York; Ottawa, Ontario; Riihimki, Southern Finland; Stockport, UK; Sacramento, California; Zanesville, Ohio; Paris, Ile-de-France (That you, Clara?); Budapest, Hungary; Reno, Nevada; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Chatham, UK, and Baltimore, Maryland.

New revisions 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 including my efforts on his Flash Gordon Resources Page -- along with actual creators like Alex Raymond, Al Williamson, and others!


Charity Alert: Play the FreeRice Game -- improve your vocabulary, and donate food to the United Nations. 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. BTW -- AIDtoCHILDREN.com is a bit simpler than FreeRice Game.

In The Community: The Hockaday Museum of Art's Autumn Salon, with 116 pieces on display. We also have Crown of the Continent and Ace of Diamonds gracing our walls. Looks like the art run to Eastern Montana in December was revised again.
I'm gathering some CDs together for my lecture next week on Black Music in the U.S.A.
It's Art Walk tonight, but I'm not risking my recovery by going anywhere, or spreading this damn cold.

Media Watch: Montana Public Radio was celebrating the life and music of John Lennon tonight. He was my favorite Beatle in general, and my favorite solo artist from the group -- yes, he could be self-indulgent, like the rest of them, but his high points acheived great heights indeed.

Iceland's Peace Tower commemorates John Lennon with light,as it holds Wagner's Waulkuries at bay in the darkness. Thank you, Yoko!

Ch-ch-changes: The great 1950's model Bettie Page has suffered a heart attack, and her odds of making it aren't very good at her age. There are many reasons to buy her products at www.bettiepage.com NOW, especially helping her out when she needs it.

First-rate model Bettie Page did all her great work for an industry that literally flited with illegality. Although she worked for legitimate publishers and photographers, some of her employment resulted in a congressional supoeana, and official destructon of many of her films and pictures. It turns out that most everything survived one way or another, and if you are THAT obsessed, you can get your own copy of even the most distasteful products which featured this talented lady. In her later years, when she acknowledged her career, she only signed the things she did that had merit, though.

Speaking of the 50's, Forrest J. Ackerman passed away recently at 92. He built bridges between Science Fiction/Fantasy publishers, movie makers, writers, illustrators, and their fans, especially by editing the magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland. I still have copies of his less-successful venture Spacemen, with lots of Buster Crabbe photos. Less well-known was his involvement in the first (abortive) attempt to make an animated film out of Lord of the Rings -- he's mentioned by name in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. His greatest contribution to modern society was probably the early patronage of young, struggling Ray Bradbury. His editorial tastes often tended towards the shallow and vulgar, but fans like me had a lot of fun because of his efforts to make a buck off his beloved Sci-Fi field. The publishers of Famous Monsters later did magazine-sized comic strip anthologies by first-rate artists, like Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella, and even reprinted The Spirit by Will Eisner.

I have this very magazine, and several of its brothers. The romance of space travel and its hard cold practicality were always an awkward fit -- Flash Gordon was featured in several issues, but not THIS one. Ask me if I care (I don't) -- Jean Rogers as hypnotized Dale Arden, Larry "Buster Crabbe as Larry "Flash" Gordon, and Priscilla Lawson as the overly passionate Princess Aura.

Still inside, still sick -- no snow outside yet. I think I'll go to work in the morning.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Randolph, New Jersey; Montreal, Quebec; Dothan, Alabama; Indaiatuba, Brazil; Newark, New Jersey; Stary Jicin, Czech Republic; New Hyde Park, New York; Oakland, California; Cleveland, Ohio; Zagreb, Croatia; Paris, France; Ankara, Turkey; Saravan, Iran; Besanon, France; Christchurch, New Zealand; Prague, Czech Republic; Goldsboro, North Carolina and Toronto, Ontario.

New revisions 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 including my efforts on his Flash Gordon Resources Page -- along with actual creators like Alex Raymond, Al Williamson, and others!


Charity Alert: Play the FreeRice Game -- improve your vocabulary, and donate food to the United Nations. 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. BTW -- AIDtoCHILDREN.com is a bit simpler than FreeRice Game.

In The Community: The Hockaday Museum of Art's Autumn Salon, with 116 pieces on display. We also have Crown of the Continent and Ace of Diamonds gracing our walls. Looks like the art run to Eastern Montana in December is being revised again.
I'm gathering some CDs together for a lecture next week on Black Music in the U.S.A. -- it is too big a subject on its own, but I'm going to concentrate on FUNK, which touches all genres of the field -- and even transcends it.

Activity Watch: Thank goodness for Public Radio -- lots of variety. That "White Album" listening party was doled out in hour-long bites, and I had my say last week on this blog. I haven't even had the energy for NFL Football this weekend. That's kind of like admitting to being too drunk to fish. I matted a couple of artworks, and may do some more. My bills are all current, but today's dishes aren't done. Talking on the phone was fun, but my throat hurts.
I was out and about a little yesterday, getting some necessary chores done, and saw a relatively new melodrama about humble Mary and Joseph being advertised around town. The faces of the two young players were on the poster, and they had VERY humble looks indeed, at least as they were printed.
Since medieval times images of the New Testament Holy Family have been the reflections of local populations, but I rarely see anyone out and about as unfavored by fate as those kids in those pictures (shudder). I'll blame the photographer/graphic artist. Except for rightwing talk-show hosts, there's nobody THAT ugly around here, especially among our teenagers.
I'm very stoked about Katie's visit to the USA, but she and Justin are a thousand miles away, and I'd still be sick if I was in San Diego -- too many others would catch this cold.

Let's Visit Southern California! Click to enlarge the image

From Suite One by Johann Sebastian Bach
Justin Morrison used this video of Katie's duet with Alex Waterman (cello) to promote her workshop this Thursday. It was shot at the Holland Dance Festival in 2004.
Watch the whole thing HERE

I've stayed in over the holiday weekend trying to recover from this $#@! cold, but I've enjoyed some fine phone conversations with friends and some dynamite emails!

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Montreal, Quebec; Glencoe, Ontario; Burlington, Vermont; Houston, Texas; Anchorage, Alaska; Arvada, Colorado; Jamaica, New York; Dartford, Kent; Franchere, Alberta; Liverpool, New York; Melbourne, Australia; Virginia Beach, Virginia; Grand Meadow, Minnesota; Calgary, Alberta (sniff -- still sick); Kamloops, British Columbia; Sacramento, California; Dublin, Ireland (That you, Eavan?); Tampa, Florida; Guadalajara, Mexico; Spanaway, Washington; Lake Bluff, Illinois; San Diego, California (Yo Justin! Yo Katie!); Moscow, Russia; Villahermosa, Mexico; San Antonio, Texas; Portland, Oregon; Meridian, Idaho; Brooklyn, New York; Tacoma, Washington; Columbus, Ohio; City of London, UK, and Kerhonkson, New York.

New revisions 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 including my efforts on his Flash Gordon Resources Page -- along with actual creators like Alex Raymond, Al Williamson, and others!


Charity Alert: Play the FreeRice Game -- improve your vocabulary, and donate food to the United Nations. 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. BTW -- AIDtoCHILDREN.com is a bit simpler than FreeRice Game.

In The Community: The Hockaday Museum of Art's Autumn Salon, with 116 pieces on display. We also have Crown of the Continent and Ace of Diamonds gracing our walls. Looks like the art run to Eastern Montana in December is being revised again.

Media Watch: The Damnation of Faust by Hector Berlioz (1846) -- not as dark and dynamic as Gunod's Faust, but there was some absolutely beautiful choral work by NYC's Metropolitan Opera behind Marguerite (Susan Graham), Faust (Marcello Giordani), and Méphistophélès (John Relyea). The male singers dominated the work, but hapless Marguerite finally went to Heaven after spending the whole Opera stuck between that horny old philosopher and the Devil himself.

Many Meetings: Thanks to the Internet and telephone, I had a long pleasant conversation with my friend Katie Duck -- Modern Dance's equivalent of Keith Jarrett. She will be in the USA for another week, so we'll speak again. I was so excited, I called other friends from my theatrical days. I had a nice long chat with Nina Cheney in Wisconsin, and Katie's right-hand dancer Patsy Droubay in Salt Lake (Bountiful, actually but only Utahns know where that place is located.) Fellow Sagittarius Ruth Arrington called me today to brighten up a gray day of recovery, and I sent out an indirect message to help find my friend Pooja in Bombay. We also talked about Mumbai on another web site, since Leopold's defiantly opened after the terrorist assault was finally defeated. All I could contribute was my enthusiasm about Bollywood movies, but that subject REALLY brightened the conversation, as a way of bringing a tiny bit of Mumbai into people's homes.

Move Over Velveteen Elvis Impersonators -- There's NEW Kitsch In Town!

Scary enough for you?
My friend Nina Cheney (inset) played Sarah Palin for Halloween this year -- she's trained in classical mask techniques, and all she needed was a shiny jacket, a quick hair job, glasses, and a certain uh -- attitude to impersonate Alaska's shamelessly self-absorbed governor. (Lower Left) In the Upper Left, a brave Alaskan demonstrates against the 2008 Republican ticket in Anchorage.