March seems to have gone on vacation, but %$#@! January took its place. It has been near zero (F!) for over a week, even in the day.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Mcallen, Texas; Ward, Arkansas; Los Angeles, California; Chicopee, Massachusetts; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Kent, Ohio; Laguna Niguel, California; Black Eagle, Montana; West Liberty, Ohio; Elizabeth, New Jersey; Richardson, Texas; Somewhere in Belgium; Sunderland, Massachusetts; North Arlington, New Jersey; Pueblo Nuevo, Panama; Honolulu, Hawaii (Hi, Dave!); Quincy, Illinois; New London, Ohio, and Middlefield, Connecticut.

Check out: 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!
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.

In The Community: The Hockaday Museum of Art has Seldom Seen, from the Permanent Collection, First Nations Artists -- Contemporary / Traditional, Crown of the Continent, and Ace of Diamonds. Dan Fagre's new show about the vanishing glaciers of Glacier National Park is a true labor of love by himself and other scientists from the USGS. Here's another website comparing glacier photos from the early 20th Century and now. Things will be changing soon -- like tomorrow!

FVCC's Honors Symposium featured China’s Strategic Relations—Short Arms/Slow Legs by Brigadier General Russ Howard (retired), now teaching at the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center, University of Montana. He outlined the strengths of China's mighty infantry-centered army, and how they still have to import the high technology needed for their air force and navy.
My thoughts -- every powerful nation needs to assess its flexibility, because time changes EVERYTHING relentlessly.

Coming Up -- March 19 — “China’s Economy — The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” presented by Dr. Terry Weidner, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center, The University of Montana;
March 26 — “Communist China — The Cultural Revolution” presented by Major Kwok Chiu, United States Military Academy at West Point;
April 2 — “China Today” presented by Eric Pei, FVCC Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence; Visiting Professor, Liaoning University, Shenyang, China.

Media Watch: Ridiculous to Sublime Time -- Britney Spears is doing stunts again, which makes sense, since she's fairly successful when she does them. This time it is a song called If You Seek Amy (Say it out loud) -- the same trick was used by AC/DC thirty years ago in their song If You See Kay??

This stunt was much funnier.

Lady GaGa wore a bow made out of hair, hers or wig material, in London and Paris a few weeks ago. GaGa may run a Pop act too, but her whole thing is fun and original! NOTE: This image was digitally derived from news photos -- Lady GaGa's tresses reflects her real hairstyle, but the rest of the face and body are bloody well MADE UP! Ms. Germanotta at no time thumbed her nose at paparazzi, or anyone else. Except for the hair-knot, this is a work of artistic fantasy.

Lady GaGa in North America, Spring 2009 --

3/14/2009 Mezzanine San Francisco, CA

3/16/2009 The Showbox Seattle, WA

3/17/2009 Wonder Ballroom Portland, OR

3/18/2009 Commodore Ballroom Vancouver, BC, CAN

3/21/2009 Gothic Theatre Denver, CO, United States

3/23/2009 Fine Line Music Cafe Minneapolis, MN, United States

3/24/2009 House of Blues- Chicago Chicago, IL, United States

3/24/2009 House of Blues- Chicago Chicago, IL, United States

3/25/2009 Royal Oak Music Theatre Royal Oak, MI

3/26/2009 Elements Kitchener, CAN

3/26/2009 ZuBar Burlington, CAN

3/27/2009 Bronson Centre Ottawa, CAN

3/27/2009 Tila Tequila Ottawa, CAN

3/28/2009 Metropolis Montreal, CAN

3/28/2009 Moomba Club Centropolis, CAN

3/30/2009 House of Blues Boston, MA

3/31/2009 Terminal 5 New York, NY

3/31/2009 Terminal 5 New York, NY

4/1/2009 Electric Factory Philadelphia, PA

4/2/2009 9:30 Club Washington, DC

4/2/2009 9:30 Club Washington, DC

4/3/2009 Toad's Place Richmond Richmond, VA

4/4/2009 Palm Springs Convention Center Palm Springs, CA, United States

4/6/2009 House of Blues Orlando Orlando, FL

4/7/2009 The Ritz Ybor Tampa, FL

4/8/2009 Revolution Fort Lauderdale, FL

4/9/2009 Center Stage Theatre Atlanta, GA

4/11/2009 Palm Springs Convention Center Palm Springs, CA, United States

I finally moved Nancy Cawdrey's American Silk Road touring exhibition from the Charles M. Russell Museum in Great Falls, Montana to Cawdrey's studio near Bigfork, Montana. The weather has been snowing and/or blowing since last week, but there was a slight lull in the stormy action on Monday, so I left the house at 7:30 AM and got home again by 8:30 PM. Wildlife seen along the way -- Deer, Ravens, Vultures, and Rough-Legged Hawks.
The highways were wind-swept with blowing snow in Flathead Valley, but the pavement was fairly ice-free. In the Rocky Mountains, there was a lot of ice, sand, and snow mixed together, plus narrow, rutted roads. Needless to say, I had to drive slowly, both coming and going, around Glacier National Park. The Blackfeet Reservation had dangerous driving conditions between Marias Pass and Browning, Montana -- after that I was able to go 75 MPH on clear, dry pavement all the way into Great Falls. In fact, the only time I had any real inconvenience was on Riverside Drive, at the end of the day -- there was new snow blowing over a narrow, winding, rural road and I crept along at 5 MPH as I found Cawdrey Studios.
Many thanks to Kim Smith at the CM Russell for all the help, plus the personal tour of artwork for their upcoming auction!

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Werkendam, Noord-Brabant; Oakland, California; Coram, New York; Louth, Ireland; Sacramento, California; Hayward, California; Gloucester, Massachusetts, Bedford, UK (Bedfordshire, no less); Denver, Colorado and Silver Spring, Maryland.

Check out: 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!
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.

In The Community: The Hockaday Museum of Art has Seldom Seen, from the Permanent Collection, First Nations Artists -- Contemporary / Traditional, Crown of the Continent, and Ace of Diamonds. Dan Fagre's new show about the vanishing glaciers of Glacier National Park is a true labor of love by himself and other scientists from the USGS. Here's another website comparing glacier photos from the early 20th Century and now. HURRY! Things will be changing soon.

This Thursday at FVCC's Honors Symposium we have China’s Strategic Relations—Short Arms/Slow Legs presented by Brigadier General Russ Howard, retired, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center, The University of Montana.
Coming Up -- March 19 — “China’s Economy — The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” presented by Dr. Terry Weidner, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center, The University of Montana;
March 26 — “Communist China — The Cultural Revolution” presented by Major Kwok Chiu, United States Military Academy at West Point;
April 2 — “China Today” presented by Eric Pei, FVCC Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence; Visiting Professor, Liaoning University, Shenyang, China.

Theatre/Theater: Our cyber-friend Toni Bentley is speaking at Harvard University next month about Ida Rubinstein, High Patroness of this Blog as part of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, 1909-1929: Twenty Years that Changed the World of Art.
Speakers -- Joan Acocella, New York City, Staff Writer, The New Yorker Ballerino: Androgyny in the Ballets Russes and After (Keynote address)

John Bell, Director, Ballard Museum of Puppetry, Storrs, Connecticut Traditional Forms Made Modern: The Ballets Russes and the Rediscovery of Masks and Puppets

Toni Bentley, Los Angeles, California., Author and Former Dancer, New York City Ballet Ida Rubinstein: Diaghilev's Cleopatra and the Economics of Art

Jody Blake, Curator, Tobin Theatre Collection, McNay Museum of Art, San Antonio, Texas Natalia Goncharova: Betweem Costume and Scenery

Julie Buckler, Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University The Dying Swan Lives On: Michel Fokine and the Afterlife of the Nineteenth Century

Mary E. Davis, Associate Professor of Music, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio The Ballets Russes and the Fashion for Russia

Samuel N. Dorf, Department of Music, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois The Ballets Russes and the ‘Greek’ Dance in Paris.

Iris Fanger, Boston, Massachusetts, Theatre and Dance Critic Sharing a Time, Stage, and Mentor: Léonide Massine and George Balanchine at the Diaghilev Ballets Russes, 1925-1928

Charles M. Joseph, Professor of Music, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York The Ballets Russes: Stravinsky's Home Away from Home

Thomas Forrest Kelly, Professor of Music, Harvard University The First Night of The Rite of Spring (Special presentation)

Roy Kimmey, Harvard University The Truth About The Truth About the Russian Dancers

Anna Kisselgoff, New York City, Chief Dance Critic, The New York Times (1977-2005) Art for Art's Sake: The Ballets Russes as Embodiment of a Mir Iskusstva Ideal

John E. Malmstad, Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University
Back to the Future: The Ballets Russes and the World of Art

Joy Melville, London, England, Writer, Biographer of Diaghilev (2009) Diaghilev and His Angels

Jean-Michel Nectoux, Paris, France, Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art Diaghilev Before Diaghilev: Diaghilev in Russia

Julia Randel, Assistant Professor of Music, Hope College, Holland, Michigan It Would Be Very Spanish: Picasso, de Falla, and Diaghilev's Ballets Espagnols

Christine Ruane, Professor of History, University of Tulsa, Oklahoma Léon Bakst, the Ballets Russes, and Russian Fashion

Alexander Schouvaloff, London, England, Curator, Theatre Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum (retired) The Measure of Diaghilev (Keynote address)

Carl B. Schmidt, Professor of Music, Towson University, Maryland Georges Auric and the Ballets Russes

Laurence Senelick, Professor of Drama and Oratory, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts and Honorary Curator of Russian Theatre, Harvard Theatre Collection
Models of a Modern Impresario: Diaghilev's Russian Antecedents

Basil Twist, New York City, Puppeteer Behind the Scenes with Basil Twist's Petrushka: demonstration, performance, and discussion

David Witten, Associate Professor of Music, Montclair State University, New Jersey
Nikolai Tcherepnin and the Ballets Russe

Toni was very excited when she saw this painting (above) and sketch (below) of Ida in her Cleopatra heyday by Valentin Alexandrovich Serov. She's the model for this Rape of Europa image, but she seems not at all discomfited on the bull's back, and looks much more like an Egyptian queen than a Phoenician princess.

Cold wind from the North brought a nasty zero degree (F!) snowstorm and dangerous drifts. We still had about 180 people at the Honors Symposium (see below).

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Monroe, North Carolina; Alexandria, Virginia; Honolulu, Hawaii (Hi Dave!); San Diego, California; Palm Bay, Florida; Olathe, Kansas; Nijmegen, Holland; Houston, Texas; Orange, France; Cagliari, Italy (Don't call no doctor in Caligari.); Roskilde, Denmark; Woodbridge, Ontario; Groton, Massachusetts, and Greenfield Park, New York

Check out: 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!
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.

In The Community: The Hockaday Museum of Art has Seldom Seen, from the Permanent Collection, First Nations Artists -- Contemporary / Traditional, Crown of the Continent, and Ace of Diamonds. Dan Fagre's new show about the vanishing glaciers of Glacier National Park is a true labor of love by himself and other scientists from the USGS. Here's another website comparing glacier photos from the early 20th Century and now. HURRY! Things will be changing soon.

Tonight at FVCC's Honors Symposium we had Chinese Foreign Policy—China Shakes the World by Dr. Steven Levine, associate director of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center at The University of Montana.
The remaining lectures of the series include:
March 12 — “China’s Strategic Relations—Short Arms/Slow Legs” presented by Brigadier General Russ Howard, retired, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center, The University of Montana;
March 19 — “China’s Economy — The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” presented by Dr. Terry Weidner, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center, The University of Montana;
March 26 — “Communist China — The Cultural Revolution” presented by Major Kwok Chiu, United States Military Academy at West Point;
April 2 — “China Today” presented by Eric Pei, FVCC Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence; Visiting Professor, Liaoning University, Shenyang, China.

Concert Review: That "Band of Bandleaders" includes young women nowadays!
George Clinton and the P-Funk All-Stars by Gridhead from Charlotte N.C. February 28, 2009
It was an awesome show. A big Thank You to George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic for that performance. The house was packed. Kendra was the opening act and she absolutely killed it. Her set started a little after 9:30pm. Her backing band started out with Rico, Mike Hampton, Lige, and Danny. Steve Boyd and Garry joined them later in the set. She sung some old Funkadelic songs, plus did a few of her own. Her setlist is kind of sketchy in my mind, but here's what I remember:

Baby, I Owe You Something Good
I'll Stay
Let's Take It To the People
This World
Possession-Free Philosophy

Kendra Foster with my friend Michael Hampton.
I may be missing a song or two. Shider, Hampton, and Danny did some kick ass solos in her set.

The P-Funk personnel that I remember seeing on stage:
George Clinton
Garry Shider
"Boogie" Mosson
Mike Hampton
Lige Curry
Carlos "Sir Nose" McMurray
Shaunna Hall
Ricky Rouse
Ronkat Spearman
Frankie Waddy
Rico Lewis
Michael "Clip" Payne
Danny Bedrosian
Jerome Rodgers
Robert "Peanut" Johnson
Tracey Lewis
Poo Poo Man
Steve Boyd
Sativa
Kendra Foster
Kim Manning
Patty Walker
Belita Woods
No Horn players. There was also a male vocalist I didn't recognize. It may have been Paul Hill. I don't know.

P-Funk's set started around 10:30pm and ended shortly after 1:30am. The band was tighter than rusty lug nuts on a 57 Chevy. George was on stage for 90% of the show, which is something I haven't seen in a long time. The setlist once again, is sketchy in my mind. I was into the show and didn't think about the setlist until midway through.
-- They opened with Standing on the Verge, tore that up and went into
-- Pumping It Up
The rest of the setlist that I can remember, in no particular order:
-- Rumplesteelskin - that was the bomb right there. The band showed out.
-- Tear the Roof off the Sucker
-- U.S. Custom Coast Guard Dope Dog (George and Steve Boyd)
-- Up For the Downstroke
-- Maggot Brain (Reggae Version) - this was the highlight of the set for me. Several women near me were dancing like crazy to that version. As a matter of fact, a lot of people were dancing to that version. No disrespect to the original version, but they took us to church with the reggae version last night. Michael Hampton is truly a guitar god. Rouse was pretty laid-back. He didn't do all the "theatrics" like he did last year. I liked last night's Ricky Rouse much better. He's a helluva guitar player.
-- Red Hot Mama
-- Let's Take It To the Stage
-- One Nation Under A Groove
-- Bounce To This
-- Flashlight
-- Knee Deep
-- Sativa's Hard as Steel rap, Get Da f**k Out, and a rap by Tracey about a girl named Sherrie and catching the clap. ???
-- Sentimental Journey
-- Big Payback (Poo Poo Man)
-- Atomic Dog
-- They closed out the show with that rift from Hardcore Jollies
I wished they'd done some tracks from the Gangsters of Love CD. All in all a great show. An A+ for everyone in the band. The crowd was great and into the show...

Kim Manning singing Red Hot Mama -- Photos by Gridhead.
Ms. Manning's on tour with her OWN group:
(From the P-Board, where she posts as "Peaches.")
Hey Funkateers- I'll be on tour with Lantz Lazwell as soon as the Mothership drops me off- so spread the word and come out and party with my band. I promise will do a couple of p-funk tunes for you
Tues, March 3rd- Willits, CA at Shanachie Pub 8pm
Wed, March 4th- Chico, CA at Lost on Main with 2 me 9pm
Thurs, March 5th- San Francisco, CA at the Great American Music Hall-Feat Pam Parker,Bernadette, and Valarie Orth. 856 O'Farrell Street, 8pm
Fri, March 6th- Sacramento- Marilyns on K with Honey Spot 9pm
Sat, March 14th- Hollywood, CA at Cranes. 1611 El Centro, 90028 11:30pm
Sat, March 28th- Santa Monica at Rusty's Surf Ranch, 11pm, 256 Santa Monica Pier 11pm

Also , I will have a new project coming out soon- It's Called Baked Goods and is a EP and a DVD
Love and Light
Kim Manning

That new snow is melting fast! We had rain last night, which froze all over everything, so the morning drive was hazardous as HELL.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Dodge, Nebraska; Farnham, Quebec; Kissimmee, Florida (George Clinton? Stephanie Clinton?); Tewksbury, Massachusetts; Fairhaven, Massachusetts; Courcouronnes, France; Louth, Ireland (stuck around and caught up); Montreal, Quebec; City of London, UK; Winter Park, Florida; Chandler, Arizona; Los Angeles, California; Toronto, Ontario, and Bozeman, Montana.

Check out: 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!
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.

In The Community: The Hockaday Museum of Art has Seldom Seen, from the Permanent Collection, First Nations Artists -- Contemporary / Traditional, Crown of the Continent, and Ace of Diamonds. Dan Fagre's new show about the vanishing glaciers of Glacier National Park is a true labor of love by himself and other scientists from the USGS. Here's another website comparing glacier photos from the early 20th Century and now. HURRY! Things will be changing soon.

This upcoming Thursday in FVCC's Honors Symposium is Chinese Foreign Policy—China Shakes the World by Dr. Steven Levine, associate director of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center at The University of Montana.
The remaining lectures of the series include:
March 12 — “China’s Strategic Relations—Short Arms/Slow Legs” presented by Brigadier General Russ Howard, retired, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center, The University of Montana;
March 19 — “China’s Economy — The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” presented by Dr. Terry Weidner, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center, The University of Montana;
March 26 — “Communist China — The Cultural Revolution” presented by Major Kwok Chiu, United States Military Academy at West Point;
April 2 — “China Today” presented by Eric Pei, FVCC Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence; Visiting Professor, Liaoning University, Shenyang, China.

Media Watch: Man On Wire (2008), an Academy Award winner for documentary film. I happen to know Phillipe Petit, the person at the center of the whole thing, who balanced the Oscar statuette on his chin. I hung out with him for about a week during the summer of 1983 in Denver, Colorado -- almost a decade after he became famous for wire-walking between the twin towers of New York's Trade Center for most of an hour. He had gone to Jacques LeCoq's school and knew Paddy, Rod, and Margret from Footsbarn Theatre. I thought the main power of the movie came from the audacity of Phillipe's incomparable feat. There was a lot of craft involved in pulling the scattered contemporary films together and creating credible reenactments of key events, though. I would have liked it better if the filmmakers would have sketched out the next 35 years of Petit's career, or even his community service "punishment" -- a wire-walk over Belvedere Lake/Turtle Pond in Central Park. One criticism I'd level at the film is that it ended too abruptly.

Pay No Attention To That Crazy Frenchman Up Above!

Click to see a larger image.
(L to R) Gregg Moore, Rod Goodall, and Patrick "Paddy" Haytor at the International Theater Festival, Denver, Colorado in 1983; Margaret Beyiere, Rod, and Paddy in Amsterdam, Holland 1976; Joe Cunningham and Margaret in Denver 1983. After getting big bucks for one high-wire performance, Phillipe Petit stuck around, doing street theater for spare change, while renewing friendships with his peers, and meeting prospective employers. He gave me a high-five one night at an outdoor party when I got an American keg working after so many Europeans failed. I became de facto bartender that evening, but I never understood why they wanted to drink that lousy Coors anyway.

The heavy, deeply-packed snow was melting away when we got hit with another winter storm. It is STILL winter in Montana. Driving was hazardous, but the Honors Symposium at the college still had over 200 people in attendance. (see below)

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Jamaica, New York; Brooklyn, New York; Granite Falls, North Carolina; Houston, Texas; Antelope, California; Killeen, Texas; Bangkok, Thailand; Oakland, California; Cary, North Carolina; Louth, Ireland; Lake Bluff, Illinois; Findlay, Ohio; Edinburgh, Scotland and Toronto, Ontario.

Check out: 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!
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.

In The Community: The Hockaday Museum of Art has Seldom Seen, from the Permanent Collection, First Nations Artists -- Contemporary / Traditional, Crown of the Continent, and Ace of Diamonds. Dan Fagre's new show about the vanishing glaciers of Glacier National Park is a true labor of love by himself and other scientists from the USGS. Here's another website comparing glacier photos from the early 20th Century and now. HURRY! Things will be changing soon.

My friend Scott Wheeler, retired professor of European history and United States military history at West Point took on the subject Historical Roots of Chinese Worldview. He outlined differences between European and Chinese traditions, sketched a brief timeline of the dynasties, and encapsulated the major ideas of Confucius, Mencius, Xun Zi, and Zhu Xi in The Great Learning. He even got in some basic Buddhism in his description of the T'ang Dynasty. Good work, Scott!

Winterscape by Ma Yuan circa 1200 A.D. --
a near-contemporary of Zhu Xi.
Next is a lecture entitled, “Chinese Foreign Policy—China Shakes the World” by Dr. Steven Levine, associate director of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center at The University of Montana. (Mar. 5) The remaining lectures of the series include:

March 12 — “China’s Strategic Relations—Short Arms/Slow Legs” presented by Brigadier General Russ Howard, retired, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center, The University of Montana;

March 19 — “China’s Economy — The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” presented by Dr. Terry Weidner, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center, The University of Montana;

March 26 — “Communist China — The Cultural Revolution” presented by Major Kwok Chiu, United States Military Academy at West Point;

April 2 — “China Today” presented by Eric Pei, FVCC Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence; Visiting Professor, Liaoning University, Shenyang, China.

Media Watch: Yeah, I saw the Academy Awards broadcast last Sunday -- I was glad they tried to do things differently. It was too bad they failed so many times -- my wife wondered if the tech designer planned those wandering-camera segments for large-scale HD screens and forgot that most people still use 3 by 4 TVs.
Hugh Jackman might have imitated the late, great Peter Allen a bit too often -- I think his experience as "Boy from Oz" limited him last Sunday. He sang MUCH better after his voice warmed up, and especially when Beyonce Knowles made her own sweet musical sounds. I would have liked the song-and-dance stuff much more if the jokes hadn't had been so bleepin' lame.
I was rooting for Slumdog Millionaire -- I even endured the Golden Globes for that movie's sake. They told their story well, which every movie should do. It was remarkable that the filmmakers could use fantasy to utilize such ugly, but real, situations as the backdrop for a beautiful movie. Rahman's Jai Ho! was an excellent choice for best song, and I enjoyed seeing him perform.

Dancer, Dancer in the Hall -- Who's the REAL Star after All?

The best actor in the Flash Gordon serials was Charles Middleton as Emperor Ming (upper left). The newest page in my strip/serial comparison features the arch-villain, and also the dancing women who occasionally graced the feature, providing sort of a 'censorship barometer.' The image above was drawn by Alex Raymond in 1935. See the rest of the page HERE.

The late winter weather has been fairly gentle, so we went to Canada to find some cold temperatures. It was around zero degrees (F!) when I stood in line to buy thermal underwear at the Hudson Bay store on Banff Avenue.

Banff National Park from a roadside lookout over the Bow River, February 15, 2009.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Berlin,Germany; Cleveland, Ohio; Breaux Bridge, Louisiana; Mountain View, California; Bombay, India; Porto Alegre, Brazil; Louth, Ireland; Saint Martinville, Louisiana; Sterling Heights, Michigan; Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and Calgary, Alberta.

Check out: 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 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.

In The Community: The Hockaday Museum of Art has Seldom Seen, from the Permanent Collection, First Nations Artists -- Contemporary / Traditional, Crown of the Continent, and Ace of Diamonds. Dan Fagre's new show about the vanishing glaciers of Glacier National Park is a true labor of love by himself and other scientists from the USGS. Here's another website comparing glacier photos from the early 20th Century and now.

Media Watch: Dreams From My Father (1994) by now-President Barack Obama on DVD while traveling in the car -- read by the author. Our president has a talent for accents and idioms that I wasn't aware of before.
The details of his story came alive when his warm voice evoked Hawaii, Indonesia, the urban USA, and finally Nairobi, plus the Luo region of Kenya, by vividly describing the lives of the people who LIVE in these far-flung places. His keynote speech from the 2004 Democratic Convention was also on the CD, as well as an excellent Prologue and Afterword.

Barack Hussein Obama, President of the United States of America, January 20, 2009. Taken from live TV in my office. I have previously quoted his speech from that day on this blog.