Life near the big woods -- those Bald Eagles continue to get TOO close to the back deck, and my cats, in the mornings. (See picture below.) The suet feeders are welcome to Flickers, Woodpeckers, Magpies, and Chickadees. I don't mind the Deer gleaning a few extra Sunflower seeds, but I'm throwing them under rocks and logs so the Pheasants have a chance of having some when they visit.


A mid-December morning on Middle Foy's Lake, with a Bald Eagle parked on the ice about thirty yards from my back deck, after he/she had dived low overhead a few minutes earlier.

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: 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! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

Charity Alert: Make a resolution as the days get longer to click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: I am going to update the Hockaday Museum of Art's Website over the next week and a half, otherwise I'm off work until 2007! The Hockaday published a slick-cover annual report this year for the first time since I've been there. Most of the photos were by me -- which makes sense, since that's a major part of my job.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year: Yes, I did it again -- went shopping on a pre-Christmas weekend. Smiles and patience are the best strategies for getting through crowds of people on foot. Cars though -- patience kept me alive and insurable in slow/stop traffic, and John Coltrane's Giant Steps with Mr. PC kept that smile on my face through those backed-up parking lots. Gotta do wut Preznunt Bush sez -- buy more crap. Speaking of which, why are there so many horror/slasher movies coming out in theaters NOW? Those ads are all over the TV -- reminds me how much I like Halloween, but REALLY...

Media Watch: Sam Raimi's Evil Dead 2 was on the satellite -- the lead actor did a great job of slapstick clowning in a horror movie context. Raimi has given the movie-going public a lot of fun over the last 20-plus years since this sophomore film. Most of his work shows a personal and humorous point of view. Hercules -- The Legendary Journeys and Xena, Warrior Princess had their unique moments on TV. He was ideal as director of the Spider Man movies, in my opinion, the first one showing on prime-time TV Christmas Eve.
Real Books -- Adventures from the Technology Underground by William Gurstelle describes people who love to create sparkling, noisy Tesla coils, model rockets that are too damn big, flame-throwers, dangerously destructive machinery, and various catapulting machines -- the latter gathered in Deleware for "Punkin' Chunkin'" competitions. Burning Man gets a mention, plus some of the San Francisco artists who enjoy playing with fire and blowing s*** up! Crimson Rose, the Naked Fire Goddess, and Burning Man administrator is not mentioned, but a number of her friends are.
Henry Louis Gates was on Book TV talking about the Encyclopedia Africana project he undertook under the posthumous influence of W.E.B. DuBois, who originally proclaimed this idea after a vivid dream in 1909 -- the lecture was funny poigniant., and even scholarly. (The Encyclopedia Judaica created enormously positive effects worldwide for another dispersed ethnicity in 1907.) Gates sure liked the multi-media embedded in his now-published encyclopedia, which was something that DuBois probably never "dreamed" about. Ironically, DuBois died the night before Martin Luther King gave the I Have A Dream speech during the March On Washington in 1963. His last telegraphed words were read to the crowd immediately afterwards.
This program was followed by a discussion about author interviews in the Paris Review -- pieces which stand on their own, even in the glare of reflected glory. On another CSPAN channel, PBS veterans Cokie Roberts, Linda Wertheimer, and Nina Totenberg shared a panel about Journalism -- they had a lot to say, but it was too bad how deeply they were in denial about their unfortunate roles as conduits of governmental and corporate propaganda (so-called talking points) in return for too-easy access to the corridors of power.
"First with a sound bite" doesn't wash as a scoop -- and accomodating corrupt right-wing apparatchiks who despise you and your employer doesn't wash as a survival tactic.
I'm dissing Roberts the most, I will never forgive her for that vile "values voters" abomination she channeled for Karl Rove in 2004, unless she apologizes one day. Twenty five years of integrity in trade for introducing a Dan Quayle-like hand-me-down cynical joke on public sensibility -- bad deal, Miss Boggs!
Totenberg has been much more timorous since she was threatened with arrest over a congressional corruption leak. Wertheimer ramblingly admitted to feeling more fear -- sad all way around.
Lightening up with NFL Football -- Winners go to the playoffs, losers go home during this part of the season. Running back Reggie Bush of New Orleans is cleansing some of the stains off of his surname. The New England Patriots are no longer unstoppable, but still dam' tough. Commercials are still dam' obnoxious -- talking boogers anyone? (Thought not.)
Snowy and cold in Denver, the alternative would be cold and snowy in Cincinatti. San Diego looked pretty strong against Seattle, but I wouldn't want to jinx anybody. I continued to calm down with the wonderfully vulgar and funny Triumph the Insult Dog plus Web Junk 2006 -- host Patrice O'Neil has the knack of milking laughs out of dorky video clips in the latter show.
Monday Night Football was played in rainy Miami, Florida. As Patrice O'Neil himself might say: The teams showed some 'TUDE! -- Ineptitude!
Zero to zero for most of the game, and when the rain slackened, both squads started scoring until time ran out for one of them.

Milestones: One of the greatest artists of the 20th Century passed away over the Christmas weekend -- James Brown lived up to all those hyperbolic titles like: Hardest Working Man In Show Business; Mister Dynamite; Soul Brother Number One; and Godfather of Funk. He was an electrifying singer, dancer, and songwriter. He also led some of the best show bands in history, with the able help of Jimmy Ellis, Bobby Bird, John Starks, Bernard Odom, Melvin Parker, and the fabulous Maceo Parker -- to pick out a few names among many.
In my own white-bread life, James Brown's groundbreaking single Papa's Got A Brand New Bag was unlike anything else on the charts in 1965. His rise to super-stardom in the wake of the Civil Rights Act was testimony to a fundamental change in U.S. culture, and his hard-driving music presented a creative challenge to the entire world in it's excellence and originality. I Feel Good (I Got You) secured his status as a star. His ever-developing rhythmic style co-opted the term Funk, and he turned it into a popular genre of it's own, as listening to Cold Sweat and Sex Machine will prove.
Clyde Stubblefield's drum solo on Cold Sweat itself is a classic -- and the "Funky Drummer" is still gigging in the Midwest. Cincinatti brothers Bootsy and Phelps Collins stood next to Brown onstage when they were barely out of high school -- after J.B. fired them, George Clinton needed their services badly and P-Funk made a quantumm leap when they signed on and started writing songs with George and Bernie Worrell. Maceo Parker even played with both Brown's band and P-Funk in the 70's and 80's.
As my informational tangents demonstrate, James Brown was a focus-point of creative energy, and his influence radiated throughout musical culture until the end -- his inspiration will continue, and I'll always appreciate him.

Happy Holidays! It's the eighth day of Channuka, Christmas is on Monday (Oy vey, I hope that day of the week doesn't jinx it!), and New Year's Day is a week later. It's nice to think about the nice warm tropics during Kwanza too. I'll toss up at least ONE blog from home before I come back to work on January 3, 2007. There were three small Whitetails standing on the hillside overlooking the junction of Foy's Lake Road and Buckboard Lane -- the middle-sized one had at least four points on either side of his rack of antlers. Males aren't usually smaller than the females, unless they are yearlings.

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: 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! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

Charity Alert: Make a new resolution as the days slowly get longer to click on The Hunger Site.

In The Community: Alright! The Minnesota Historical Society is sending the Hockaday Museum of Art fifty pages of Winold Reiss' correspondance about his formal and informal art schools in Glacier National Park from 1931 to 1938. Many thanks to Hampton Smith, their Reference Librarian.

Media Watch: My reaction to the minor, but loud, Miss USA/Miss Teen USA media flap is a personal indictment of the organization which "handles" these newly-minted celebrities. First of all, the members of their massive professional entrourages should be fired for attending those adults-only nightspots with their underage charges in tow -- violating the contracts of their clients, and exposing them (in many ways) to a predatory press who delights in tearing down the reputations of attractive young women. Second, having well-documented promiscuous horn-dog Donald Trump acting a ANYBODY'S judge is a prima facae dirty joke -- surely they could have appointed a less notorious, more appropriate, spokesperson to relay their corporate decisions to the media. These "Beauty Queens" have been criticized for bad choices, but I think their (and their parent's) worst choice was trusting in a so-called system that flagrantly exploits youth and beauty for someone else's profit. I think another business model is needed -- the cost of being famous seems to be getting too high for too many "objects" of public attention.


Now for something completely different!


I personally wish a safe and happy Holiday Season for EVERYONE!
Here's a somewhat-distant shot of Masques On Parade, as seen from the branches of our Christmas tree at the Hockaday Museum of Art. This scene is especially dedicated to Eavan and Clara as they are visiting La Chaussee to party with Footsbarn Theatre.
(They are in the foreground of Masques.)

I thought it was just a rumor, but instruments recorded wind gusts of over 160 MPH (200 KPH) on the ridgetops of Glacier National Park Friday night. Thank goodness we didn't feel any effects down in the valley to the west of the park here. There were seriously destructive winds in my old neighborhood near Seattle, Washington -- many tall trees fell down, and killed some individuals. Power was knocked out for over a million people in the Puget Sound area. I mention it because we were part of that same storm system -- again. We've shared some nasty weather with the West Coast this winter! In the clear, cold early afternoon sunshine on Sunday, I saw a Bald Eagle eating a fish on the lake. A Deer family was snooping for Sunflowers while my little cat Buttercup stood six feet away on the back deck -- they looked each other in the eyes, sniffed, and went about their business.

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: 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! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

Charity Alert: Keep that resolution as Winter settles in. Click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: Flathead Valley Community College had it's annual Christmas party. I was able to go because Art Walk was two weeks earlier, instead of the same night. My boss synthesized a game show called Who Wants To Be A Genius? which was one of the best participatory events I've ever seen in these circumstances. I had a small cameo part as big-voiced "Howie" from Deal Or No Deal. Next year we'll host this "do" in our own building. Speaking of which, the Hockaday Museum of Art is on it's way towards it's OWN addition to the century-old Carnagie Library building which houses us.

Media Watch: Cecil B. DeMented by John Waters was on IFC. I think I've blogged about this film before, but it was shown between jumps to Sunset Boulevard and In A Lonely Place on TCM. All three are movies about the movie industry. C. B. DeMented definitely counts as minor John Waters, but there's a discernably unique spirit in this particular production. I don't have any trouble praising or dismissing Melanie Griffith's acting, and I think she's excellent in this film. (Sam Waterson and Kathleen Turner were also good in Waters' equally preposterous Serial Mom.) A bit of inside humor I missed in previous viewings was gun-toting, gold-bricking Teamsters going after non-union idealists on C.B.'s crew -- fictional porn star Cherish temporarily saves everybody's lives by taking refuge in a skid-row theater, which happens to be showing her movies, and enlisting the assistance of her moaning, ecstatic fans. It's worth noting that Tracy Lords shot two movies with Waters, the making of which gave her a "leg up" out of the sex-movie trade, and led to a much more rewarding career in the entertainment industry at large. Patricia Hearst played the mother of one of C.B.'s crew -- I wonder what she thought about being in a movie whose main plot-point was Melanie (Honey Whitlock) Griffith's kidnapping? Honey's "mainsteam" movie also resembled Cherish's "pornographic" film, with minor exceptions of course. There were many jokes about celebrity and stardom, which both Griffith and Waters know something about, but they were mostly sad jokes.
One kind of misbegotten movie derided by C.B.'s possee has gotta be George Cukor's lugubrious My Fair Lady, also shown on TCM this weekend. Production values aside, it deprived posterity of a visual transcription of the great Broadway hit which made Julie Andrews a star. The chemistry between her and Rex Harrison had to be astonishing, but Audrey Hepburn, for all her talent and beauty, was cynically inserted into the flick as a voiced-over clothes horse. Andrews showed the whole world how excellent an actor she was in The Americanization of Emily. She also showed the gawdamn bean-counters how overwhelmingly popular she could be in Mary Poppins and Sound of Music. Love 'em or hate 'em, Julie Andrews is GREAT in musicals!
Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard is sometimes called a black comedy -- maybe it is, but it also counts as a 50's film noir. What Kenneth Anger called "the evil star system" squirms in front of the viewer's eyes as Wilder turns the underside of Hollywood's rock over for a brief moment. C.B. DeMille was very much alive at this time, and I wonder what he thought about the way his name was used in this film. I also wonder if he still socialized with his ex-compatriots Eric Von Stroheim and Gloria Swanson. I will take this opportunity to mention that Andrew Lloyd Weber's musical version of Sunset Boulevard was a triumph on Broadway for first-rate movie actress Glenn Close not too long ago.
In A Lonely Place was made by Humphrey Bogart's production company, and took a couple of risks, considering it was a post-WWII film with an expensive major star. Since it's in black and white, and tells an unpleasant crime story featuring a talented, but violent Hollywood writer (Bogart) it qualifies as yet another film noir. Co-star Gloria Graham was young, beautiful, and sexy -- her husband at the time was also the director of this movie, Nicholas Ray, who made sure the audience knew just how lucky he was. After the show, TCM told a story about Graham divorcing Ray, and marrying his son. Prolific filmmaker Nicholas Ray has been described by others as a "Multi-sexual Hollywood creature." He had a none-too-savory role in the blighted career of Natalie Wood, and goodness knows what else. (As if goodness has anything at all to do with sociopathic power-mongering.)
Another story TCM could have told was how Humphrey Bogart had a wife in the 40's who drunkenly bragged all over Hollywood how she was going to murder him. Bogart wasn't particularly promiscuous by movie star standards, and began his famous lifelong romance with Lauren Bacall after he was safely out of the power of the scary ex-Mrs. Bogart. His character in Lonely Place was a mean drunk, who, though innocent of one certain murder, was a clear and present danger to the ingenue who loved him at first, but learned to fear for her life as she witnessed his repeated rages. Whose life was imitated by who's art? I can't leave this discussion without mentioning Alfred Hitchcock's proto-noir movie Suspicion. It is much less gritty, but has a similar vibe, with another stellar movie actor (Cary Grant) as another contemptible leading man.


Time Magazine's Person of the Year is YOU -- particularly the vast population of the world who interact online. I choose to treat their choice as a marketing ploy, much like 1967's 25 and Under. It's worth a load of laughs, though, and I'm glad to join in the fun -- here we go! This is the second time in 40 years that the cover of Time has been devoted to ME -- here's a montage of "real" Time covers interspersed with versions featuring my OWN face, from High School and the 21st Century. I even entered it on Huffington Post's Contagious Festival.
Time Magazine's logo and content are property of their copyright holders. This graphic is satirical comment, protected by US law, and is not to be confused with any actual Time/Warner productions.

More dangerous driving! Ice layers on the roads every morning from rain and snow falling all night. The college was especially icy because of the river and mists -- the crew has a hard time keeping up with things.

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: 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! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

Charity Alert: Keep that resolution as Winter decorates the Holidays with snow. Click on The Hunger Site every day.

Media Watch: NFL Football -- Dawg-assed visiting team San Francisco put the big hurt on playoff-bound Seattle, playing at home. The 49ers' defense only allowed one score until the last minute. The Seahawks underestimated their opponents for sure.
Real Books --Sailing from Byzantium: How a Lost Empire Shaped the World by Colin Wells.
Constantinople/Byzantium was the center of a beleaguered Christian empire for a thousand years. This author spins three threads of it's long, convoluted history. I finished the first about reintroducing knowledge of Ancient Greek to Western Europe via Italy, despite the barbaric depradations of fellow-Christian Crusaders, and the valiant failures of pioneers Boccaccio and Petrarch. It was well worth trying again and again. Next is their long defeat against the Four Caliphs, Umayyads, Abbasids, Seljuk and Ottoman Turks as they led Islamic armies over what we now call the Middle East. To further compound the Eastern Empire's troubles, the Slavs invaded from Central Europe, repopulating the Balkans and points north. Greek scholarship eventually won out to some degree, even though the hapless Byzantine political leaders lost most of the time, and the physical seat of Eastern Orthodoxy fell under Islamic political rule after 1453. (Except for Mt. Athos, it's still that way.) The Russian Czars tried to gain hegemony over Eastern Orthodoxy, but it was too damned big for them -- St. Cyrill's alphabet triggered a mighty cultural achievement.

Damn dangerous driving this morning! Ice layered with rain and snow -- saw more doughnuts and spin-outs than I've seen all year! The giant Christmas Cactus keeps rockin' on! (see picture)



Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: 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! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

Charity Alert: Keep that resolution as Winter decorates the Holidays with snow. Click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: I'm "pouring wine" at a fund-raiser for the Hockaday Museum of Art tonight. (I can be more laid-back than I would be if I were designated a "bartender.") We are going to need a lotta funds, if what I'm thinking is what we're actually going to do! We got some wonderful xerox copies of letters to/from Winold Reiss and Louis Hill via the Hill Museum in St. Paul, Minnesota, thanks to curator Eileen McCormack.

Media Watch: The Narrow Margin (1952) a pretty good film noir by director Richard Fleischer -- TCM sez: A tough cop meets his match when he has to guard a gangster's moll on a tense train ride. Cast: Charles McGraw, Marie Windsor, Jacqueline White. This thing is a rather unflattering, but accurate, snapshot of the early 50's USA, simply because they wanted to save some money and did a lot of location shooting in railroad stations, the streets of Los Angeles, and outlying once-small communities like Cucamonga. The also used real contemporary railway equipment for set-scenes. Even the "nice" characters are flawed by stupidity, cowardice, and resignation to a gray cruel world.
Fleischer's films tended to be Comic Book-like, which is a compliment coming from me. How his work rates as Art is a matter of personal opinion. Here's his Wikipedia Article. I sure wish that Tora Tora Tora had been finished by the fired Akira Kurosawa, instead of Fleischer, Kinji Fukasaku, and Toshio Masuda -- there might have been a little more meaning in that film, whose main point seemed to be "Oh man, we really f***ed up!" The action scenes and empathetic portraits of enemies are noteworthy, though.

Hairy and Downey Woodpeckers are feasting at the suet feeders. The Flickers show up a couple of times a day, in between the Magpies. There is a small flock of beautiful Pheasants which seem to travel eight at a time -- males and females. We are seeing Nuthatches as well as Chickadees -- they look almost the same, except the Nuthatches are smaller and have subtle yellows, oranges, and blues in their feathers. The Juncos eat right off the deck -- watch out for that stray cat, birdies!


Our big Christmas Cactus continues to erupt!

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: 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! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

Charity Alert: Keep that resolution as Winter decorates the Holidays with snow. Click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: Museum workshops at the Hockaday Museum of Art all this week. I'm pouring wine at a reception on Wednesday night too. At the college, it's SLACKER Week -- all sorts of last-minute projects dumped at my door. It's nice to be needed, I guess. Over the Christmas break, we'll be participating in the annual Audubon Society bird count again.

Media Watch: Pros and cons of the Google Print Project on Book TV -- pretty contentious. The Internet has beseiged the walls of traditonal publishing for over ten years now -- kind of like the Trojan War. Is there any wonder why publishers and authors are suspicious of "nerds" bearing "gifts?"
American Football -- I'm a little sorry I said anything about the Indianapolis Colts -- they've lost three of their last four games since I said it might be their year to win it all. The University of Montana lost their playoff match last Friday. Maybe there will be fewer colds going around with one less outdoor game in this dark gray weather.
We had a "White Elephant" Christmas party for the Hockaday staff. My contribution was a pair of dawg-assed DVDs -- The Manster, made in Japan around 1959, and Flash Gordon Conquers The Universe from 1940. (Carol Hughes plays a lab-assistant version of Dale Arden who TRIES to be feisty, but is very ineffectual due to rock-headed guards and exploding bombs.) Call 'em Black-and-White Elephants!


These animations are fun!
This screen-capture is from the wonderful
Tony LaBue's Flash Gordon website. He has pictures, credits, and even documentation about the MUSIC from these serials!