Autumn is certainly in force -- snow on our mountains and leaves which are changing colors. Eagles sighted, instead of Ospreys.

Sitemeter Sez: Mountain View, California; Clichy, Ile-de-France; Kongsvinger, Norway; South Burlington, Vermont; Albany, New York; Montreal, Quebec; Vilnius, Lithuania; Newark, Delaware; Oakland, California; Anchorage, Alaska; Oxford, UK; Charleston, West Virginia; Paris, Ile-de-France; Doha, Qatar, and Warsaw, Poland.

The Mime Troupe Saga continues: 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

Many thanks to Toni -- she sent me an autographed copy of Winter Season; A Dancer's Journal (1982) for making a video of her presentation at Harvard University about Ida!




Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!
MORE UPDATES! Outre Space Cinema -- Featuring: 1930's Rocketry, Spitfires of the Spaceways and especially Cellulose to Celluloid, Even more Flash Gordon comparisons from 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.

News and Events at Flathead Community College New website for the Hockaday Museum. (I'm working on my Autumn Salon artwork, with Katie Duck as my muse.)

Then and Now -- Disappearing Glaciers of Glacier National Park.

Tears and Laughter about our broken health care system HERE

Media Watch: Fame (2009) directed by Kevin Tancharoen and what appeared to be a committee of market researchers and ass-kissers. Alan Parker's original back in 1980 had an engaging spirit, which is almost totally missing in this tediously manipulative remake. There is an echo in the unlikely, but fun, cafeteria sequence, though. I liked the performances of young actors Collins Pennie, Anna Maria Perez de Tagle, and Naturi Naughton. Show-biz veterans Bebe Neuwirth, Debbie Allen, Kelsey Grammar, and Charles Dutton were alright. I was very disappointed at the shallowness of the role played by first-class dancer Kherington Payne -- the choreography was second rate, her few lines were cringingly banal, and there were almost no plot points connecting her character's appearances. The very WORST aspect of this lousy film was the repeated riff that teachers chose their jobs because they couldn't succeed in the 'real world.' Attractive personalities Kherington and Anna Maria both portrayed students who quit their exclusive school, or flunked out, because they got good jobs in the entertainment industry. Fuck those stupid sentiments! Renowned teacher Debbie Allen wouldn't even have a career if she wasn't a good dancer to begin with. I wonder what she thinks about working in a movie which brands her a failure? (She had no control over the film, of course -- very few actors do.)

Commercials with flashes of Kherington Payne's dancing led me to give 2009's version of Fame a try. I have damned it with the proverbial faint praise (above), but if you MUST see that thing, wait for the DVD and rent it -- I doubt you'll have to wait very long.

It has been gray and somewhat rainy all week -- considering we had lightning-caused forest fires nearby, that a good thing, although frost on my windshield yesterday was kind of depressing..

Sitemeter Sez: Clichy, Ile-de-France; Kongsvinger, Norway; South Burlington, Vermont; Albany, New York; Montreal, Quebec; Vilnius, Lithuania; Newark, Delaware; Oakland, California; Mountain View, California; Anchorage, Alaska; Oxford, UK; Charleston, West Virginia; Paris, Ile-de-France; Doha, Qatar, and Warsaw, Poland.

The Mime Troupe Saga continues: 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

Many thanks to Toni -- she sent me an autographed copy of Winter Season; A Dancer's Journal (1982) for making a video of her presentation at Harvard University about Ida!




Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!
MORE UPDATES! Outre Space Cinema -- Featuring: 1930's Rocketry, Spitfires of the Spaceways and especially Cellulose to Celluloid, Even more Flash Gordon comparisons from 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.

News and Events at Flathead Community College New website for the Hockaday Museum. (I'm working on my Autumn Salon artwork.)

Then and Now -- Disappearing Glaciers of Glacier National Park.

Tears and Laughter about our broken health care system HERE

Media Watch: Bollywood movies -- Hamesha (1997) by director Sanjay Gupta (NOT the CNN doctor/commentator.) The high-quality cast sent Gupta's ridiculous reincarnated-lovers plot far into the background. Saif Ali Khan was the leading man, beautiful Kajol Mukherjee was excellent as the leading lady, and Aditya Pancholi played a truly loathsome villain. Although he is and was an accomplished filmmaker by any standard, Gupta's penchant for sadism and bleak violence was apparent a decade ago. There were several tributes to Alfred Hitchcock throughout the film -- especially references to Vertigo. Farah Khan, Shah Rukh Khan's current director of choice (no, they're not related), was the choreographer. Kajol Mukherjee's career has been justly successful -- she, her sister Tanisha, and her cousin Rani are real actors, transcending their good looks in creating believable characters. Kajol is also married to another versatile actor, Ajay Devgan. Bollywood may have its quirks, but the acting in its movies has always appealed to me.

Trash A Go Go -- Is Bug Man still on Dancing With The Stars? I'm not tuning in until that corrupt bastard is GONE! The other dancing show was pretty good in showing how auditions work -- Cat Deeley was very appealing when she goofed around with prospective contestants in the waiting line, dressed for comfort.

The Dancer and the Clown

(left) Katie Appenzeller started using the professional name Katie Duck sometime in 1976, about the time this picture was taken. (Right) Stan Edwards used the name Jango long before I ever met him. I am personally responsible for beginning the fateful alliance of Friends Roadshow and Great Salt Lake Mime Troupe in 1974 at the International Mime Festival in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. Stan believed in us, we went to Europe because of his efforts on our behalf. Katie Duck & Jango performed many times together as a team. I have been in cyber-touch with Katie for many years now, and have recently joined Jango's Face Book site. I'm doing two art projects concerning Katie and her work also.