I'm not complaining, just reporting -- another inch of snow overnight.

Sitemeter Sez: Louth, Ireland; Krefeld, Germany; Honolulu, Hawaii; Banja Luka, Bosnia; Miami Beach, Florida; Salt Lake City, Utah; Lindon, Utah and Toronto, Canada.

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!





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: Keep that Resolution to click on The Hunger Site every day. Also check into Terra Sigilata blog -- donate $$$ to cancer patients just by clicking onto the site.

In The Community: The Hockaday Museum of Art is hosting Art Mixer: A Duet for Art Lovers -- Friday night, with the Swan String Quartet of the Glacier Symphony and the Liquid Jazz Quartet (featuring conductor John Zoltek). Hors d'oeuvres, champagne, martinis and wine will be served, and the event will feature the presentation of the First Annual "Hearts for the Arts" Awards. I'll be working it as well --stone cold SOBER!
Check out Fall for Glacier too -- a fundraiser for several programs that make Glacier National Park even better!

Media Watch: The almost two dozen primary elections on Super Tuesday coincided with Mardi Gras, but the big news is that the presidental nominations in both parties are far from set, and more people than ever are voting.

Making an Ash Outta Wednesday!


Carnival in Rio continues until all the Samba Krewes go through the stadium, and the winners are chosen, so it's probably going on as I write this. This is a digitized interpretation of multiple images found on carnivalservice.com. Is that Brunhilde gettin' down in the lower left? Are those more Valkyries parading behind her?

A little snow falls every day. Gotta check to see if that Bald Eagle is lurking around the college.

Sitemeter Sez: Brussels, Belgium; Jersey City, New Jersey; Keyport, New Jersey; Berlin, Connecticut; Nuremberg, Germany; Wichita, Kansas; New Haven, Connecticut and Oregonia, Ohio. (They were looking at my Flash Gordon stuff -- Thanks Jim!)

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!





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: Keep that Resolution to click on The Hunger Site every day. Also check into Terra Sigilata blog -- donate $$$ to cancer patients just by clicking onto the site.

In The Community: The Hockaday Museum of Art's Artist to Artist Brown Bag Lunch at Flathead Valley Community College on February 13, March 12, and April 9 Noon to 1:30 PM. Check out Fall for Glacier too -- a fundraiser for several programs that make Glacier National Park even better!

Media Watch: Sad but true -- (via George Clinton's MySpace page) Sly Stone and George Clinton on stage Jan 24,2008
Who would have thought these 2 funklegends would share the stage again :)
from www.slystonebook.com -- Sly & George Clinton make appearance at the Voices of Latin Rock Show -- Voices of Latin Rock show turns funky at end by Shay Quillen - The Mercury News - January 25, 2008

It had the makings of one of those dream musical moments. Los Lobos were performing Thursday on stage at Bimbo's, the unannounced final act on the fourth annual Voices of Latin Rock benefit show. After paying homage to honoree Ritchie Valens and romping through some of their own classics, the band paused around 11:30 as DJ Chuy Varela came out to announce two surprise guests:
George Clinton and Sly Stone.
The Wolves launched into the signature groove of "Thank You Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin" and Clinton came out before the excited crowd, but … no Sly.
Clinton peered off stage, urging Sly to come on, haltingly sang the first verse, sang the chorus for a while, led the crowd in some P-Funk choruses, clowned around.
Sly finally emerged, skinny and hunched over and sporting a giant white Kangol hat, and wandered over to a Yamaha keyboard, which he plunked at to no discernible effect. Eventually the groove petered out, and Sly started plunking out "I Want to Take You Higher" on the keyboard. He sang the first line, no one picked up the second, he picked the lyrics up again, belted out the chorus in the real genuine soulful Sly voice we all wanted to hear, then grabbed the hand of the audience member and led a train through the crowd, out the door, and into a white van parked out front. And that was that.
It was a weird ending to a fun night of music.
(earlier related stuff) ...Past and present members ... came and went as part of the monster Voices of Latin Rock all-star band (with Greg Errico of the Family Stone on drums)...North Beach native Sal Valentino joined the fun to sang "Laugh Laugh," one of the big hits from his great '60s band the Beau Brummels.

My note -- Laugh Laugh was produced by Sylvester (Sly Stone) Stewart when he had firm control of his music, his studio, his mind and emotions.


I Wanna Take You HIGHER!
Sly and the Family Stone at Woodstock in 1969, along with two dancers patched in from the same festival. He was suffering a nervous breakdown, but was still able to perform while there were cameras and tape on hand to capture the reasons why Sly Stewart was a STAR.

A little snow overnight. More Raccoons at Dry Bridge Slough.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Jamaica, New York and Hamburg, Germany.

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!





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: Keep that Resolution to click on The Hunger Site every day. Also check into Terra Sigilata blog -- donate $$$ to cancer patients just by clicking onto the site.

In The Community: The Hockaday Museum of Art is involved with the upcoming Artist to Artist Brown Bag Lunch at Flathead Valley Community College's new Arts & Technology Building, Room 144 on February 13, March 12, and April 9 Noon to 1:30 PM.
Check out Fall for Glacier -- a fundraiser for several programs that make Glacier National Park even better.

Media Watch: Super Bowl XLII (42) was a real competitive slugfest! The New York Giants were a few steps faster and a touch more lucky than the New England Patriots, winning by three points. The prolific, but somewhat derivative Tom Petty $ The Heartbreakers performed at halftime.

(Cross-posted from the P-Funk Boardroom)
I happened to stumble on one of these competition shows that saturate the media nowadays. This one exploited the grassroots "dance crew" movement that still plows on -- long after it came to light in the 70's as 'break dancing.'
The show itself wasn't too bad -- it was mostly young people doing their routines, but one act stood out for me on a whole other level than dancing:
A San Diego group called "Jabberwocky" consisted of six guys who all wore white masks, and featured isolation moves. In other words, I saw a half dozen Bucketheads, without KFC hats.
Their act was pretty damn good too -- they had their reasons for the masks, and were nearly Cirque de Soliel in quality. I hope that our mystery West Coast funky firehose guitarist is pleased by them.
If you want to see them for yourselves, take a look at MTV and search for the names Mario Lopez and Randy Jackson. I'm not exactly recommending a show that I can't remember the name of, but there's some funky culture there that someone else may find interesting.


William (Bootsy) Collins and Brian (Buckethead) Carroll
(Click to see a slightly larger image.)
There is also an unidentified event hostess, and my friend Bernie Worrell (inset), who often plays with Bootsy and Buckethead in the group Praxis.

Not much snow today, but WATCH OUT -- the forecast says MORE! A Bald Eagle was hunting over the Stillwater River next to the college yesterday.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Independence, Ohio; Moreno Valley, California; Los Angeles, California; Dallas, Texas and Gainesboro, Tennessee.

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!





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: Keep that Resolution to click on The Hunger Site every day. Also check into Terra Sigilata blog -- donate $$$ to cancer patients just by clicking onto the site.

In The Community: Nancy Cawdrey's American Silk Road, The Collective Caravan, and Old West -- New Visions at the Hockaday Museum of Art -- also Fall for Glacier -- a fundraiser for several programs that make Glacier National Park even better. I shot a full cast picture for Mary Reckin's production of Notable Heroines of America last night.

Media Watch: Live from the Metropolitan Opera -- Die Walküre by Richard Wagner, thanks to Montana Public Radio. I made sure I heard the start of Act III where eight women singers join Brunnhilde for the epic Ride of the Valkyries. It is awe-inspiring the way the high, keening woodwinds and violins swirl around the symphonic brass as they play that mighty, and mightily familiar, tune. Weaving various sopranos, mezzo-sopranos, and contraltos into the sonic fabric is a stunning aural experience. The additional voice of Sieglinde makes ten women in all. I just closed my eyes and listened as Gerhilde, Ortlinde, Waltraute, Schwertleite, Helmwige, Siegrune, Grimgerde, Rossweisse, and the other two ladies made all that beautifully excessive music. Wotan's distant baritone brought the soaring scene to an end, but Sieglinde escaped, thanks to Brunnhilde's reckless bravery.


Sieglinde stands with Brunnhilde (sword), waiting for the eight other Valkyries, as the two ill-fated women flee the wrath of their War-Father Wotan.
(Click to see a larger image.)
Ride of the Valkyries is a cultural nexus where High Art and Kitsch coincide. The bombastic beauty and power of the piece is undeniable, but the image of woman warriors riding sky-horses is fraught with symptoms of psychological distress, especially when they carry dead bodies of male warriors with them. True, Wagner borrowed the Valkyries from Norse legends, but they were the product of an unlettered, violent, and self-destructive Dark Ages culture. Somehow grim barbarity also infected influential social elements in otherwise highly-civilized Germany, leading to some very deadly wars between 1870 and 1945. Wagner's Ring operas often celebrated violence and power, while his artistic patrons practiced REAL violence for the sake of extending their OWN power. Brunnhilde sacrificed herself to save her half-sister, but she wasn't exactly rewarded for her heroism. The Rock Music-like dynamics of Ride of the Valkyries make it easy to remember, but those same repetitions, high energy attacks, and literal one-to-one leitmotifs are anything but subtle. I group the Ring operas under 'Art as Athletics.' They may have shallow or non-existant depths, or even be ridiculously pseudo-romantic in Wagner's case, but they sure can be beautiful on their surfaces!

Snow every day still, but with short periods of melting and evaporation.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Mexico City, Mexico; Staten Island, New York; Portland, Oregon; Louth, Ireland; Herndon, Virginia; Jamaica, New York; Brooklyn, New York and Chandler, Arizona.

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!





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: Keep that Resolution to click on The Hunger Site every day. Also check into Terra Sigilata blog -- donate $$$ to cancer patients just by clicking onto the site.

In The Community: Nancy Cawdrey's American Silk Road, The Collective Caravan, and Old West -- New Visions at the Hockaday Museum of Art -- also Fall for Glacier -- a fundraiser for several programs that make Glacier National Park even better.

Media Watch: Marvel Comics, which killed off veteran superhero Captain America almost a year ago, brought him back to life this week -- sort of -- Captain America's alter ego, Steve Rogers, is still resting in peace at Arlington National Cemetery, having been done in by assassins last March. But his good buddy and sidekick from the 1940s, Bucky Barnes, has picked up the bulletproof Captain America shield, put on a new uniform and taken his place.
What's that you say? Wouldn't Bucky be about 85 years old now?
Well, yeah. But remember, this is the comic book world we're talking about. Bucky was put in suspended animation by the evil Russians and stayed that way for the better part of 60 years. "So he's probably in his late 20s right now," jokes Marvel Editor in Chief Joe Quesada, who decided to promote him to Captain America.
Rogers's old sidekick had already returned to the Marvel pantheon of heroes some time back as the rugged Winter Soldier, redeeming himself for the years he'd spent under the control of the bad guys.

My OWN thoughts, cross-posted from Daily Kos --

MSM and 'Captain America' Again
In what shouldn't be a surprise at all, the Mainstream Media is giving ink to Marvel's resurrection of Captain America.
THIS incarnation of the "Living Legend of World War Two" has an odder history than usual, even for comic characters.
Follow me back to the "Golden Age of Comic Books" below the fold.

My friend, the late Jack Kirby, and his still-living partner Joe Simon created a number of Superheroes throughout their careers in comics. During the late 30's/early 40's they often followed the once-popular convention of young, almost always male, sidekicks assisting the super-humans.
Jules Feiffer said of Robin, the Boy Wonder: God, how I hated him!
As Jack Kirby and Stan Lee undertook the successful revival of Marvel Superheroes in the early 60's, they tried a sidekick named Rick Jones, who was involved in the Incredible Hulk saga. The whole riff was passe, and they knew it soon enough.
When Marvel's Avengers found Captain America in suspended animation, the back-story was that his WWII sidekick Bucky Barnes had been killed in Cap's previous adventure, which gave the reanimated relic some moments of fashionable angst and 60's-style psycho-drama. Artist Jim Steranko even tried making Rick Jones his partner for a VERY short time. I wasn't reading comic books when Cap had yet a THIRD junior sidekick.
Two generations after Captain A's revival, the Arctic ice gave up corporeal Bucky Barnes himself as the Soviet Winter Soldier -- now he's wearing the stars and stripes again.
As Jack said to me, and it bears repeating: "Marvel can use Captain America for a hundred years!"
Well, looks like it's sixty-seven and counting!



McCarthyite Captain America & Bucky in 1954. (Inset) Bucky Barnes as the Soviet Union's Winter Soldier two generations later, soon to take over Captain America's job, after DYING for the chance over 50 years ago.

One ironic note in Captain America's publishing history is that this character, and his "dead" partner were used as a shrill, Anti-Communist hit team in a short-lived series circa 1953-54. Stan Lee was the writer/editor, and John Romita did the artwork. (See illustration)
This team would later take Spider Man to the heights of popularity a decade later, but THIS Captain America/Bucky team were rank McCarthyite thugs -- when Marvel reprinted a couple of these stories during their heyday, the fans let them know how displeased they were at the coarse, intolerant, and frankly stupid attitudes expressed in them.
The irony was how Marvel was still persecuted by those same rabid right-wingers they had cringed before in these pages. We 60's fans all knew how Lee and his cousin/publisher Martin Goodman were investigated by Congress soon after printing this crap, and submitted to a so-called Comics Code Authority, rather than be censored from outside their industry.

It has snowed EVERY DAY since I last posted, even between periods of rain. Dare I even attempt to describe these roads?

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Union City, Oklahoma; San Diego, California; Calgary, Alberta (Hey Ms. Stormy Good -- hope you're still doing well up there, Pal!); Hamilton, Ontario; Viborg, Denmark; Cambridge, Massachusetts; Olympia, Washington; Fullerton, California and Ann Arbor, Michigan.

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!





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: Keep that Resolution to click on The Hunger Site every day. Also check into Terra Sigilata blog -- donate $$$ to cancer patients just by clicking onto the site.

In The Community: Nancy Cawdrey's American Silk Road, The Collective Caravan, and Old West -- New Visions at the Hockaday Museum of Art -- also Fall for Glacier helping several programs that make Glacier National Park even better.

Media Watch: Trash A Go Go Again Again! Dance Wars started off with the fun classic Land of A Thousand Dances (The Memphis arrangement crafted for Wilson Pickett in 1966 -- NOT the original funky vocal arrangement by Cannibal and the Headhunters in 1965.) The costumes were from the WRONG decade for this song, otherwise it was their best number yet. I'd hate to say this show lost focus when there wasn't much focus to lose, but it sure wasn't fair to eliminate contestants with songs that were too hard for most professionals to sing.

Ya' gotta know how to Pony!
Left: The set of NBC's Hulaballoo! in NYC 1965, with Los Angeles' own Cannibal and the Headhunters' album inserted onstage (Album cover L to R) Richard "Scar" Lopez, songwriter Frankie "Cannibal" Garcia, (Top R) Joe "YoYo" Jaramillo and (Bottom R) Bobby "Rabbit" Jaramillo. The dancer on the upper right was named Lada Edmunds Jr. Her choreographer later went on to create A Chorus Line. The vocal group still performs.

(Click for a MUCH larger image.)
Right: Hollywood's Whiskey A Go Go circa 1964. The original discotheque of the same name was founded in Paris, France about a year or so earlier.
Redigitized from info/images on www.cannibalandtheheadhunters.com & subrealities.waiting-forthe-sun.net