Spring Fever -- but the semester isn't over until the end of THIS week. Final tests and projects are still going to be due! I got some photos of Wild Turkeys and an Osprey on Sunday. (See picture below)


Wild Turkeys on Conrad Drive; Kalispell, Montana -- May 13, 2007

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 Summer approaches to click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: Check out Hockaday Museum of Art's online preview of the 4th Annual Spring for Glacier Auction on May 25, 2007 in Glacier National Park! Jeff Walker's formal opening was fun -- avid Walker collector Bernie from Big Sandy showed up to see his stuff, as did Jeff and his wife Julie.

Media Watch: Another movie in another theater, with a REAL audience. This time it was Georgia Rule, starring the still - controversial but excellent Jane Fonda and long-time screen actor Lindsay Lohan, who has yet to see her 25th birthday. The audience repeatedly laughed out loud at the mention of "blow job," "boner," and other such things, but the story was supposed to be about alcoholism and child abuse. Former comedy director Garry Marshall and his screenwriter never got close to the devastating reality about those extremely serious matters. Desperate Housewives co-star Felicity Huffman looked like she COULD be Fonda's daughter in a number of scenes, but a lot of visual magic was made with large-lensed sunglasses. I didn't even recognize Cary Elwes as the loathsome stepfather, and the rest of the cast did OK too. Lohan's career is in danger from the celebrity meat-grinder -- she doesn't need to feed the ever-hungry publicity machine if she just does her job. THAT is tough enough! Another big writing flaw was setting the story in a supposedly "Mormon" community. The young male lead's future "mission" was the only plot point which justified THAT, but it was almost irrelevant. Unfaithfulness to his absent fiance was much more important. The filmakers would have done better without even naming a local church or religion -- there was almost no verisimilitude in their depiction of what a Mormon community is like, in Idaho, or anywhere else. Whatever -- from the box-office lists, it looks like 10 times more people paid to see Spider Man III rather than Georgia Rule.

Theater/Theatre: Maribor, Slovenija -- Workshop improvisation for dancers and musicians June 22 – June 27, 2007 Katie Duck (dance) Wilbert de Joode (music – counter bass) -- Workshop takes place daily from 11:00 to 15:00 / Performance at the end of the workshop period by the workshop participant. UNION building, Partizanska cesta 5, 2000 Maribor (in the city center) -- rooms Zelena dvorana 2nd floor and V 2 in the basement. You can apply and pay on arrival. However, the number of participants is limited to 10 dancers and 5 musicians. We suggest you apply in advance by email in order to insure your place in the workshop. You need to take care for your accommodations. We will gladly assist you with making reservations.
To register and for more information go to: zulk@zulk.sli
More information about the artists: www.katiedauck.com / http://www.doek.org/wDeJoode.html
This workshop is supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Ljubljana, JSKD, Plesna izba Maribor, JSKD OI Maribor and KPC Narodni dom Maribor.


A layered collage from videos found on http://justinmorrison.net -- that's Justin dancing with Katie Duck in the center. If ya' look, there are dancers Makiko Ito and Eileen Standley in the mix. Wilbert de Joode is over to the left at the back.

Big Blue Skies -- the mountain snow is still deep for now. I saw a Mountain Blue Bird in the neighborhood, and a Red Tail Hawk soaring over the nearby fields.


Mountain Blue Bird -- May 6, 2007
Little Foy's Lake, Montana USA

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 Summer approaches to click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: Check out Hockaday Museum of Art's online preview of the 4th Annual Spring for Glacier Auction on May 25, 2007 in Glacier National Park! Jeff Walker's formal opening is Thursday, May 10, 2007 -- the next night is open to the public with no admission charge.

Media Watch: Queen Elizabeth II was in the US for a few days, watching the Kentucky Derby, getting Bush-wacked in Washington, and commemorating the 400th anniverary of the Jamestown Colony. Her lineage tangles up with the Tudors and Stuarts via Hanover, Germany. Virginia was named after "Virgin Queen " Elizabeth I of England, whose cousin's son King James VI of Scotland succeeded to her throne as James I of Great Britain -- Jamestown was named after him. (I have stayed at Ascot, home of QEII's favorite racetrack, if that counts for anything.) Helen Mirren is shooting a movie in South Dakota and can't accept hasty invitations from the White House or Buckingham Palace, so London's Daily Mail can go straight to bloody 'ell for slandering one of their country's greatest actresses.

Theatre/Theater: THIS counts! Dee-Lite-ful MySpacer Lady Miss Kier performed in South America last month. Here's a few comments from the lucky witnesses:
i couldn't believe you were dropping cuts from the first Deee-Lite album, live vocals and all. unreal. you were definitely the hidden gem of the whole weekend, and it was an honor to see you still doing your thing, phenominally as always ;) keep bumpin' it, kid, and don't evva change!!!

I wanted to stop bye and thank you for coming out to Coachella this year. It's been almost a decade since I have seen you perform...and you looked absolutely beautiful!!!! Thanks for the memories Lady K


DJ/Singer/Dancer Lady Miss Kier watches herself work at a festival in Coachella. Standing next to her is the photographer "Henri." Digital magic is by ME! As Bootsy Collins once said: Groove IS in the heart, and Dee-Lite has been known to SMOKE!
Onstage, that is -- shhhh, shhhh!

Another Big Blue Sky -- I'd settle for some more mountain snow though. The squacky Yellow Head Blackbirds are nesting again around our lake, and I saw another family of Canadian Geese on Firehouse Pond.


Yellow Head Blackbirds -- May 7, 2007
Middle Foy's Lake, Montana USA

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 Spring finally gets into gear to click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: The Hockaday Museum of Art's online preview of the 4th Annual Spring for Glacier Auction on May 25, 2007 in Glacier National Park page is worth a look. Jeff Walker's formal opening is this Thursday, May 10, 2007 -- the next night is open to the public with no admission charge.

Media Watch: The ultra-dull NASA channel had an interesting panel about a Super-Nova called SN 2006gy -- they've been viewing it since last September, and it's HUGE, something like 150 times the size of our Sun. It's millions of light-years away, so it means the explosion happened millions of years ago, but we can still study it NOW!

Theater/Theatre: July 7-16 / Improvisation for performers and musicians - Katie Duck - 220 euro
This is a 10 day workshop. If you can not do the entire event you can let us know and receive a discount for the time you can do. There is a gig for the workshop group on the Friday July 13 at the OT301. Please send a letter with your details about how many days you can do. You can register by emailing katie@katieduck.com


Not really a collage, but part of a re-digitized sequence featuring Katie Duck dancing with Michael Schumacher from a Magpie video on Justin's site.
Justin Morrison recently wrote: Michael, I think the collage work you've done is brilliant. Thanks for helping to get the word out on me and the Magpie gang. I've got some new video up from recent work. Feel free to click around http://justinmorrison.net and stay tuned for more over the coming days. BTW -- Justin's new work is excellent!

It rained all day yesterday, except on the east side of the Flathead Valley -- where it snowed. The Canadian Geese have Goslings swimming on Firehouse Pond! (See photo below from last Sunday.)



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 Spring finally gets into gear to click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: The Hockaday Museum of Art's two-week preview of the 4th Annual Spring for Glacier Auction on May 25, 2007 in Glacier National Park is taking over the lower gallery, starting this weekend -- once we finish getting Jeff Walker's 70+ etchings and paintings on the walls upstairs!

Media Watch: I got a tip about a website that engages in some online observations about how ridiculous Comic Books could and can be. It is almost TOO obvious an idea, but it takes REAL fans of the medium to care enough to do it. Their main theme is "Superman is a dick," and they prove it by many examples. (Maybe it was the fault of his editors.) Other features of this site include Sexual Innuendo, Stupor Powers, Propaganda, Stupid Comics, Weird Science (NOT the EC type!), Suffering Sappho, and Frames & Pages. Their comments are pretty funny most of the time -- variations of "...if this isn't intentional..." abound.


Clark Kent/Superman tells off childhood sweetheart Lana Lang and long-suffering Lois on this mean-spirited cover from Lois Lane #63 (1966). Art: Kurt Schaffenberger and Wayne Boring; Script: Leo Dorfman; Editor: Mort Weisinger.
Characters copyright by Time/Warners Inc.
I remember reading a story in a fan magazine (Trumpet perhaps) around 1969 with this interesting angle: If I'm Superman when I'm wearing tights, and I'm Clark Kent when wearing a suit, then who am I when I'm naked, sitting on the bed writing these words?

During the out-and-back to Big Sandy, Montana yesterday, the temperature got HOT! It was even warmer when we got back to the Flathead Valley. A brilliant Full Moon rode through the night sky. We saw well over a half-dozen Pronghorn Antelope on the Great Plains.

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 Spring finally gets into gear to click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: The Hockaday Museum of Art is re-hanging nearly everything for a two-week preview of the 4th Annual Spring for Glacier Auction on May 25, 2007 in Glacier National Park. (More about the crazy Jeff Walker art-collecting drive later!)

Theater/Theatre: SUGAR BABIES: The Burlesque Musical May 4 , 2007 to May 13, 2007 Fridays & Saturdays @ 8pm; Sundays @ 3pm at Snug Harbor Cultural Center (in the Music Hall), 1000 Richmond Terrace Adult: $25.00 Students/Seniors/SHCC Members: $23.00
Bindlestiff Family Cirkus co-founders Keith Nelson and Stephanie Monseu will be singing, dancing, acting, juggling, and presenting a number of their variety skills in "Sugar Babies"
...a homage to a classical American theatrical form -- NY Post
The original Broadway production starred the talented and energetic Anne Miller and Mickey Rooney in 1979. This show features actual Burlesque sketches and musical numbers. It is a historical re-enactment of one of the greatest eras of show business where America's greatest comics received their training before moving to Vaudeville, Broadway, Film and TV.



Ann Miller -- Was Too Darn HOT in Cole Porter's Kiss Me Kate movie; With Sugar Babies co-star Mickey Rooney; Ms. Miller's second banana Julia Ann in the same show; All-American Ann Miller circa 1944; and Mr. Pennygaff and Mistress Philomena, stars of the Snug Harbor Sugar Babies revival. They DO know their Burlesque!
Man:(picks up phone) Hello, Cohen, Cohen, Cohen and Cohen. Caller: Let me speak to Mr. Cohen. Man: He's dead these six years. We keep his name on the door out of respect. Caller: Then let me speak to Mr. Cohen. Man: He's on vacation. Caller: Well then, let me speak to Mr. Cohen. Man: He's out to lunch. Caller: How about Mr. Cohen? Man: Speaking.

The Big Sky is clear and blue, most of the fields are green, and it sure resembles Spring. Red Headed Ducks are swimming in pairs on Middle Foy's Lake. I have also seen a solitary Merganser, and the first of many Yellow Head Blackbirds. May Day is manana, but I won't be blogging on the out-and-back to Big Sandy, Montana.

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 Spring finally gets into gear to click on The Hunger Site every day.

In The Community: The Hockaday Museum of Art is re-hanging nearly everything for a two-week preview of the 4th Annual Spring for Glacier Auction on May 25, 2007 in Glacier National Park. Hmmm -- why did I use the third person? I'll have my hands on everything, including Jeff Walker's new show. Our crew may be small, but we help each other.

Media Watch: Book TV had a couple of scholarly shows about Jamestown, Virginia. Founded in 1607, it was the first permanent English settlement in North America. Twelve year old Pocahantas really did save the life of Captain John Smith. Her father Powhattan really forebore exterminating the English invaders when he could -- maybe because of trade goods like copper, and the hope of acquiring firearms. The history of Virginia has been critical to the history of the rest of what is now the United States of America. I refuse to watch that blowhard propagandist Chris Hitchens, singly or on a panel, so I skipped most of CSPAN's coverage of the L.A. Book Fair. Even though there are several sides to any story -- lies and self-serving distortions do not advance a discussion, whatever it may be. Saying that, his panel was supposed to be about Religion. What is the Right Wing Western Taliban think they are saying by presenting their case through an abusive alcoholic bully like Hitchens?
I went out and saw a movie in a real THEATER -- Next, based on The Golden Man by Philip K. Dick, with comic-book fan Nicholas Cage (Nick Coppola adapted his stage name from Luke Cage, Powerman) in a comic-book movie. It wasn't the worst film based on Dick's paranoid but all-too-discerning stories, but it wasn't high art either. Hollywood had a little fun with it's seeing-the-near-future angle, and it moved fast enough to keep it's bamboozlement factor intact. Julianne Moore's make-up, or lack of make-up, was noteworthy at times. It's refreshing when an actor lets down their guard, but that stuff sure beats the hell out of a person's skin! Cage's love-interest was played by Jessica Biel who is about half his age -- exercise has given him a convincing body, but make-up sure helped bridge the gap!

Speaking of Comic Books/Movies:


Over a poster of C.B. DeMille's Madam Satan (1930), I have pasted digital images of Kay Johnson* as our masked-ball heroine, Harry Lucey's bizzare comic-book villain of the same name from 1941, and Irv Novick's cover of Pep Comics #16, where Madame Satan marauded as a back-feature for less than a year. Soon afterwards, Lucey started drawing a high-school gag strip called Archie, which soon dominated it's entire publishing company, and is STILL popular. *Ms. Johnson's costume party was supposedly held in a dirigible tethered to a skyscraper in New York. Her director specialized in parting the Red Sea etc.