I've got to buy a new Rainbird sprinkler, my two others don't turn when they should, and the damn yard needs water. A variety of flowers are popping up one after another. The early bulbs are about done, and the poppies are beginning.

Sitemeter Sez: Paris, Ile-de-France; Venice, California; Louth, Ireland (Hi Mystery Pal!); Frankfurt Am Main, Germany; Herndon, Virginia; Las Vegas, Nevada, and Salt Lake City, Utah.

NEW Mime Troupe History 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!
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: Seldom Seen II and Larry Johnson's photos of local characters are on display at the Hockaday Museum of Art, but everything's making way for the Plein-Aire paint-off at the start of June. Dan Fagre's show is up again -- about the vanishing glaciers of Glacier National Park, it is a true labor of love by scientists from the USGS. Here's another website comparing glacier photos from the early 20th Century and recent decades.
The Hockaday Museum of Art's Face Book Site

Last week, I ran sound for Carol Buchanan's public discussion of her historical novel God's Thunderbolt -- The Vigilantes of Montana at the community college. Here's the link to a live-blog of the event.

Concerts: Danny Bedrosian, P-Funk keyboardist reports --
We had a blast in Argentina. I send all my love and respect to our friends and fans over in Buenos Aires for all their support.

We sold out three nights at La Trastienda. It was great. All three sets were slightly different and I cant remember all the songs, but it was a lot of what you would expect. Some rarities too though.

The entire crowd knew ALL the words, it was incredible. They were READY for the P for real!!!!!!

There is this one chant that the crowds specifically in Argentina do in between songs. On the third night, the crowd kept doing it (its a sign of respect from the crowd to a band they love) and we went into the chant that the crowd was doing, and turned it into a jam. It was DOPE. MANY MANY of my Argentine friends said that this has NEVER happened (that usually the band would just go into the next song, as this is a common thing that Argentine audiences do in between songs at concerts they like.) The chant was FONKY that they do too. REALLY FONKY.

I just want to send much love to all our fans in Argentina once again. It was a life changing experience and we all loved it

In Chile now, by the time this tour is over, including opening sets, it will have been 31 shows in 33 days for me.

BY THE WAY on the AMERICAN run on this tour, EVEN MORE amazing P-Funk rarities were played; If yall missed em, better ASK SOMEBODY!
Stinkfinger
Stillness in Motion
Black Beach
Back in Our Minds
Sir Nose D'VoidofFunk
Still Tight
Viagra
Handcuffs
Let's Take it to the People
Baby I Owe You Something Good
Stuffs and Thangs
I'll Stay

HOPE YOU DONT MISS IT NEXT TIME! MUCH LOVE TO THE BOARD! CHECK OUT MY NEW ALBUM MUZZLE MOOSICK!!
www.dannybedrosian.com

Digitized image from a YouTube video of George Clinton and the P-Funk All-Stars in Buenos Aires, Argentina last week.

Media Watch: THIS was an unlooked-for pleasure (see below). I got a number of Buck Rogers comic strips from 1958. I was in third grade when I read them fifty-two years ago. The Salt Lake City papers relegated this strip to the bottom of the "want ad" pages, along with the silly Etta Kett, Lank Leonard's archaic Mickey Finn, John Cullen Murphy's realistic Big Ben Bolt, and my favorite -- Walt Kelly's magnificent satire Pogo.
I was given a wonderfully noisy ray gun toy the previous year that had the letters Buck Rogers emblazoned on it, and the name was thrown about on television, where I had seen space operas for much of my young life, like Space Patrol, Commando Cody, and two versions of Flash Gordon. I liked Buster Crabbe's adventures, but was somewhat puzzled by Steve Holland's escapades. The former had much more attractive women, as well. It was very satisfying to finally learn who and what Buck Rogers actually WAS! I joined the Rocket Rangers too, by sending a torn-out scrap of the newspaper. I received a map of the Solar System and a membership card by return mail.

(Click for a larger image.)
Just one strip from Murphy Anderson's brief second run as artist of Buck Rogers 1958-59. I happen to remember these very panels -- It was the end of a storyline, and I learned the word "famished" when Buck asked the good Doctor Polaris out for a dinner date after a near-fatal space battle with furry Martian spacefarers. I guess I should have noticed Murphy Anderson's signature, because he worked on some of my favorite comics -- especially Adam Strange, but I missed those kinds of things in elementary school. Anderson's clean silhouettes and deft inking are still impressive to me -- I think aspects of this respected, but far-from famous commercial artist's aesthetics sank in to my conciousness over the years.

Spring is finally here, and I'm watering my newly-mown lawn. Killdeer (Plovers) are singing all over the college.

Sitemeter Sez: Venice, California; Louth, Ireland (My mystery pal, who's always welcome); Frankfurt Am Main, Germany; Herndon, Virginia; Las Vegas, Nevada, and Salt Lake City, Utah.

NEW Mime Troupe History 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!
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: Seldom Seen II and Larry Johnson's photos of local characters are on display at the Hockaday Museum of Art, but everything's making way for the Plein-Aire paint-off at the start of June. Dan Fagre's show is up again -- about the vanishing glaciers of Glacier National Park, it is a true labor of love by scientists from the USGS. Here's another website comparing glacier photos from the early 20th Century and recent decades.

Last week, I ran sound for Carol Buchanan's public discussion of her historical novel God's Thunderbolt -- The Vigilantes of Montana at the community college. Here's the link to a live-blog of the event.

Ch-Ch-Changes: A Los Angeles judge gave record producer Phil Spector nineteen years to life for killing B-movie actress Lana Clarkson. He bullied people for decades with his handguns, in and out of the workplace, and it says terrible things about our society that he eventually murdered a beautiful young woman while indulging his violent power trips. One day I'll write about the positive things Spector did, but they all happened a long time ago, and I don't feel like doing it now.

Media Watch: My OWN media -- I'm putting the finishing touches on a video made from Toni Bentley's power point slides and a sound recording of her lecture at Harvard about dancer Ida Rubinstein for the 100th Anniversary of the Ballet Russes debut in Paris. If it plays without any technical problems, it goes to Toni for her feedback and eventual approval.

Ida Rubinstein, High Patroness of this Blog, as she appeared before WWI, re-creating her onstage dancing for the camera.

Perfect spring weather, with all sorts of birdlife at the Slough, and an occasional deer.

Sitemeter Sez: Lyon, Rhone-Alpes; Bren, Germany; Oakland, California; Littleton, New Hampshire; Valencia, Spain and Warsaw, Poland.

NEW Mime Troupe History 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!
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: Seldom Seen II and Larry Johnson's photos of local characters are on display at the Hockaday Museum of Art, and the school show is making way for the Plein-Aire paint-off at the start of June. Dan Fagre's show will go up again next week -- it is about the vanishing glaciers of Glacier National Park, and a true labor of love by Fagre and other scientists from the USGS. Here's another website comparing glacier photos from the early 20th Century and recent decades.

Last week, I ran sound for Carol Buchanan's public discussion of her historical novel God's Thunderbolt -- The Vigilantes of Montana at the community college. Here's the link to a live-blog of the event.

Media Watch: Montana Public Radio has run serious Memorial Day programming since 10 AM. The first Decoration Day was celebrated by the Grand Army of the Republic in 1868. There is a two-hour special on the air about music from different wars. So far, the story of bandleader Glenn Miller in WWII has been the most amazing. He survived German bombs in England, but he and his airplane disappeared over the channel on his way to France as the fighting was winding down. Adrian Kronauer spoke and played a couple of Viet Nam era tunes.
The program has deteriorated into lousy propaganda about Gulf War I, skipping the Reagan years when Oliver North took Ayatollah Khomenhi's money and ambushed Nicaruagan coffee pickers with it, after the Ayatolla sent a suicide bomber to kill nearly 200 U.S. Marines in Beruit.
Support Our Troops -- Bring Them Home!

(I've put Mongo Santamaria on the CD player.)

Movies: Another "Kultur" video, from the company which produced the Baryshnikov tape reviewed yesterday, only this one is about J.R.R. Tolkien and the roots of his success with The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. There are short interviews with the old professor himself, one of his sons, and a daughter. Biographer Humphrey Carpenter has several scenes where he uncomfortably expresses his opinion. Rayner Unwin of Unwin & Unwin, the first reader of The Hobbit outside of Tolkien's family gets a few minutes too. He was paid a shilling for writing his book report -- "The best shilling our company ever spent!" he says smiling. There are also many stills featuring Tolkien's own competent illustrations, plus many more by the Brothers Hildebrandt.
This very flawed tape ignores an all-too-important fact about J.R.R. Tolkien -- he was an avid reader of Fairy Tales and Fantasy, besides his studies in ancient poems and sagas. He and his literary friends exchanged letters about near-contemporaries like David Lindsay and Lord Dunsany, plus he acknowledged Andrew Lang explicity in Tree and Leaf, as well as the Brothers Grimm. His fellow-Inkling Jack (C.S.) Lewis was a devotee of Science Fiction, and based his character Ransom on his friend "Tollers." The persistant pressure of the Inklings as a major force in finishing Lord of the Rings is never even mentioned.
What IS mentioned is the wretched animated features made from his works, but they are properly dismissed as wretched, and the point is made that Tolkien never lived to see them. BTW -- Christopher Tolkien, an Inkling himself, is correct in stating that his father would have disliked Saul Zaentz/Peter Jackson's films too.

Do You Like Hitchcock? by Dario Argento is NOT one of the Italian horror-maestro's best flicks. There is one fairly original scene where the abyssimally dumb protagonist narrowly escapes an evil pursuer despite a broken leg and a malfunctioning motor-scooter, but the rest of the thing is a montage of Hitchcock adaptations. This gimmick gets old too quickly to be fun, convincing, or suspenseful.

Dario Argento is equally famous nowadays for being movie star Asia Argento's father. This is a digital assemblage of beautiful Ms. Argento doing publicity for the movie Un Vieille Maîtresse by director Catherine Breillat (2007).

Perfect spring weather since my last posting. Nothing new at the slough, but there are all sorts of birdlife there, and an occasional sneaky deer.

Sitemeter Sez: Auckland, New Zealand; Morristown, New Jersey; Little Rock, Arkansas; Montreal, Quebec; Oakdale, New York; Phoenix, Arizona; Valencia, Spain; Warsaw, Poland; Los Angeles, California; Quezon, Phillipines; Allentown, Pennsylvania; Chicago, Illinois; Ankara, Turkey; Ketsch, Germany (Home of the bad art movement?) and Maryville, Tennessee.

NEW Mime Troupe History 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!
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: Seldom Seen II and Larry Johnson's photos of local characters are on display at the Hockaday Museum of Art, and the school show is making way for the Plein-Aire paint-off at the start of June. Dan Fagre's show will go up again next week -- it is about the vanishing glaciers of Glacier National Park, and a true labor of love by Fagre and other scientists from the USGS. Here's another website comparing glacier photos from the early 20th Century and recent decades.

Last week, I ran sound for Carol Buchanan's public discussion of her historical novel God's Thunderbolt -- The Vigilantes of Montana at the community college. Here's the link to a live-blog of the event.

Media Watch: The Dancer and the Dance (1983) with Mikhail Baryshnikov, Shirley MacLaine, and Marianna Tcherkassky (Baryshnikov's dance partner). It is a made-for-TV film originally shown in England. Besides chatter and biography about Baryshnikov, it was built around a new ballet in production, choreographed to a difficult Samuel Barber concerto. The young choreographer was Singapore-born Choo-San Goh. (See his Wikipedia article.) What made this video special to me was the presentation of the whole piece at the end -- beautifully photographed and edited. Unless you yourself have tried to capture Dance with a camera, you have no idea how difficult it is, or how special it is to see a quality result.

My digital reinterpretaion of Mikhail Baryshnikov onstage in his prime. Ignore the cruel discipline of Ballet, which he mastered -- he DANCED through all the posturing and athletic technique dictated by the art form. You'd think it would happen more often, but it doesn't.

We had some rain, and a cold wind, but it is still Spring! Lots of Mallard chicks in the Slough.

Sitemeter Sez: Dodsland, Saskatchewan, East Calais, Vermont; Fort Worth, Texas; Louth, Ireland (Hi Pal!); Liverpool, New York; Mc Lean, Virginia; San Francisco, California; Burlington, Vermont; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Poway, California, and Issoire, France (near Footsbarn).

NEW Mime Troupe History 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!
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: Seldom Seen II and Larry Johnson's photos of local characters. Montana On The Move, New Artists, are on display at the Hockaday Museum of Art. Dan Fagre's show will go up again next week -- it is about the vanishing glaciers of Glacier National Park, and a true labor of love by Fagre and other scientists from the USGS. Here's another website comparing glacier photos from the early 20th Century and recent decades.

I ran sound for Carol Buchanan's public discussion of her historical novel God's Thunderbolt -- The Vigilantes of Montana at the community college. Here's the link to a live-blog of the event.

Media Watch: Trash A Go Go ("Dancing with the Stars") finished its 8th season with a surprise -- 16 year old Shawn Johnson won the trophy. The public has spoken! I would have preferred Gilles Marie, but no matter -- Mark is now a 2-time champ like Cheryl, and his former partner Julianne. I thought the schlub-fest at the beginning of the Awards Show was tedious, and would have liked to see more pros dancing. Speaking of which, Anna the Russian will be an excellent cast member next season. Chelsie Hightower was a new pro this season, and handled herself very well with Ty the cowboy, who never really understood what he was doing.
I first heard of Lady GaGa on this show, as regular readers well know, so I was pleased to see Stefani (GaGa) Germanotta doing two numbers -- the first was a remix of Just Dance again, where she sported a piled-up plastic white wig, with spiders painted on her eyes, and a black arachnid costume covering her figure, over what appeared to be a dark body stocking showing one long naked leg. She threw a kiss to the national TV audience while sitting down afterward.
The second song Love Game was presented deep into the show. She had on a one-piece red textured costume covering her trunk and legs, with flaring Space Opera shoulders, leaving her arms bare. It was a minor detail, but the glow from her scepter-like prop, the "Disco Stick" was overwhelmed by studio lights, and it looked more like a toilet brush. For the first time I've seen her on TV, she wore a yellowish-blond wig instead of a white one. (Germanotta is a natural brunette.) She sang full-out, exhorting the audience, which is the thing I like best about her, even though there was lots of electronics going on -- whatever, she's a DJ, and is GOOD at this stuff. Speaking of which, the single of Love Game contains sonic references to Lady Miss Kier and Dee-Lite in the mix, as well as some Bollywood influences. In both songs, Lady GaGa performed with a mixed-sex, mostly-male posse, and strode around a bit more than she did before, although she did VERY well when she uncorked her own dancing.

Let's have some fun ... Lady GaGa, redigitized from the video of Love Game on her MySpace site. (Looks like she's touring Australia with the Pussycat Dolls next week.) She is more overtly sexy in the Pop Video medium than she is on conventional TV, changing costumes a lot, and dancing all over the place -- including the subway.
You GO, GaGa!

A warm weekend at last! The Geese and Mallards have produced swimming chicks at Dry Bridge Slough.

Sitemeter Sez: Gdansk, Poland; Oakland, California (Hello Caroline & Matt!); Salt Lake City, Utah; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Bors, Sweden; Peoria, Arizona; Maisons-Alfort, Ile-de-France and Tacoma, Washington.

Web Pages: I have finished another page of Mime Troupe history, and will post it very soon. This phase involves making links, and minor corrections to other pages. Look for a link under Exuberant Daze & Nights (IIc) in Theatre X-Net (below)

MUCH more history 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!
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: Seldom Seen II and Larry Johnson's photos of local characters. Montana On The Move, New Artists, are on display at the Hockaday Museum of Art.
Dan Fagre's show has come down for awhile, but will go up again next week -- it is about the vanishing glaciers of Glacier National Park, and is a true labor of love by Fagre and other scientists from the USGS. Here's another website comparing glacier photos from the early 20th Century and recent decades.

Space, the Final Frontier: OK, I watched Star Trek when it was new, liking some episodes, but disliking most of them. I still signed the famous petition which kept it on the air for a third season, and repaid me in Tribbles. The 60's were a Golden Age of Science Fiction in print, and Roddenberry's show was adolescent and regressive in comparison. However, it was better than almost every other Space Opera which had been tried on TV. The entertainment industry had taken thirty years to match the brash, but dumb, Flash Gordon serials, but Star Trek wasn't nearly as dumb, though. Its special effects were respectable for the time, and the acting wasn't all that bad. Compared with drek like Lost In Space, it was Champagne versus Ripple. When I was forced to watch Trek in syndication, I perceived many other qualities that made it enjoyable -- especially in the interactions among the cast.
I mostly enjoyed the Star Trek movies -- their strengths and weaknesses were the same as the TV show. I shall pass on expressing my observations about Next Generation etc. Patrick Stewart is a very fine actor, though, and made baldness sexy -- a feat not even Sean Connery could accomplish! I'm not all that excited about seeing Star Trek with a new cast playing the old characters -- I can wait, and probably WILL wait for quite awhile. They don't need my money anyway, that new movie is a hit.

What is REALLY going on out in Space?

A remarkable photo of Space Shuttle Atlantis approaching the Hubble Space Telescope, silhouetted against the Sun, taken May 13, 2009 through a 13 cm telescope at 1/8000th of second by astronomer Thierry Legault. Atlantis is on a maintenence and repair mission for Hubble this week.

On May 14, the European Space Agency successfully launched space observatories Herschel and Planck. This image was made from a video taken by a one-meter tracking ’scope in the Canary Islands, showing the two spacecraft together with the Sylda launch vehicle gliding across the sky a few hours after the two observatories separated from the vehicle. (The two bright objects are Herschel and Planck, and the dimmer one is the Sylda.)
Condensed from Phillip Plait's Bad Astronomy blog.