I can't see! Oh, I see -- ICEEEY windshield! The Wild Turkey family were making their rounds on South Woodland. I've seen plenty of Deer tracks, but no Deer.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Chicago, Illinois; San Antonio, Texas; Las Vegas, Nevada; Sofia, Bulgaria; Hayden, Alabama; City of London, UK; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Taipei, Taiwan; Madrid, Spain; Dallas, Texas; Hong Kong, China; Lees Summit, Missouri; Caurieux, France; Cohoes, New York; Lisbon, Portugal; Oakland, California; Great Falls, Montana; Saint-Laurent-du-Var, France; Lake Mary, Florida; Seattle, Washington; Collingswood, New Jersey (Dark Shadows? No, that was Collinswood, New England); Vacaville, California; Louth, Ireland (Hey Hey!); Peoria, Arizona; Atlanta, Georgia; Hampshire, Illinois; Medelln, Colombia; Heerbrugg, Switzerland; New York City, New York, and Victorville, California.

Check out 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.





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: 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.

In The Community: The Hockaday Museum of Art's Autumn Salon is finally UP -- with 116 pieces on display. We also have Crown of the Continent and Ace of Diamonds. The Climate Change Series is done at the college, but there are other public events on the schedule.

Media Watch: Trash A Go Go -- The cast is banged up or otherwise medically-impaired. Julianne Hough went to the hospital, and Edyta will take a turn with her partner. Front-running Brooke is injured, Lucci is injured, and Cloris is still 82 -- her comedy wasn't enough to keep her on the show. I liked the Pussycat Dolls and Missy Elliot, but the funnier they are, the better they are -- this one could have been funnier.
Barack Obama's half-hour prime-time infomercial Wednesday night basically stated that it is time to take action on the problems we all know our country has. He was his usual calm self, but I projected some anger in his voice when he spoke of his mother's final days, and how she had to deal with insurance companies who tried to avoid paying for her treatments as she suffered from cancer. I know I'm angry about that kind of thing.

A digital painting made from an online video of The Pussycat Dolls' latest appearance on Trash A Go Go. Their current lineup is: Excellent lead singer Nicole Scherzinger, Jessica Sutta, Kimberly Wyatt, Melody Thornton, and Ashley Roberts. Their offstage choreographer/leader is Robin Antin, and the whole gang has talent. This act is definitely Pop Art, with High Art in service to Low Art.

Ice on the windshield time again, plus occasional cold winds -- LOOKS good outside, though. I saw the Wild Turkey family yesterday evening and the chicks are almost as big as mom.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from my home town of Salt Lake City, Utah; Bountiful, Utah (just north of my old neighborhood); Brummen, Holland; Eaton Park, Florida; Pau, France; Milton, Ontario; New York City, New York; Rome, Italy; Toronto, Ontario; Clarksville, Tennessee (famous for the Monkees' first hit); Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Owings Mills, Maryland; Fredericksburg, Virginia (Is it REALLY America? Palin and McShame are total sleazeballs for trying to divide our country); Freeman, South Dakota; Line, Czech Republic, and Szczecin, Poland. We're seeing hundreds of visitors a week here -- THANKS!

Check out 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.





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 his recommendations -- HERE!

Charity Alert: 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.

In The Community: The Hockaday Museum of Art's Autumn Salon is finally UP -- with 117 pieces on display. We also have Crown of the Continent and Ace of Diamonds. Ironically, I'm missing the reception tonight because I'm doing tech for a community hearing tonight at the college. Speaking of which, the Climate Change seminars have been quite well attended, and the last one is on October 28.

Media Watch: Trash A Go Go (time shifted because of my insane schedule this week) sent graceful singer Toni Braxton packing. She has heart problems, which surprised me, so maybe it was for the best. I'll surmise that her fans don't watch that show in large numbers. Lucci and Leachman are far worse dancers, but at least Cloris is funny. Derek Hough and Brooke were excellent, but Julliane Hough and her eighteen year old student were almost as good. I'm still rooting for Warren Sapp to reach the final. Maurice and Lance seem to have learning disabilities with ballroom dancing, but they did better than normal this week.

Real Books: The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler (1939) didn't put me to sleep, unfortunately, since I picked it up for that purpose. I noticed that Robert Mitchum's movie, filmed in England, followed the plot much more closely than versions set in the original Los Angeles, however the plot is so ridiculous I can't blame anybody for tampering with it. There are four beguiling women in the story -- too bad they are all ridiculous too. Ex-Martha Graham dancer Richard Boone stole the show as a psychopathic trigger man.

A noir-bleu image of lovely Joan Collins. She played the English version of Chandler's lust-inducing, but hapless, grifter who somehow got involved with four nasty murders. The book's version was a blonde who skipped town with some of Phillip Marlowe's money. Collins played the role as a brunette with class, but cursed with a tragic sensuality. Mitchum's Marlowe was convincing too.

The weather unfroze over the last little while -- looks and feels like Autumn again.
I have driven from here to the West Coast and back since my last post, and there is a funkload to write about!

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Istanbul, Turkey; Saint Joseph, Michigan; Louth, Ireland (Love 'ya Rachelle, or is it Roseanne?); Edwardsville, Illinois; Jamaica, New York; Makawao, Hawaii; Vera Cruz, Mexico; San Jose, Costa Rica; Knoxville, Tennessee; Trindade, Brazil; City of London, UK (a small borough of the megalopolis); Cologne, Germany; Carlisle, UK; Ile-de-France (a small borough of Paris); Leeuwarden, Netherlands (They call it Friesland up there -- Famke Jansson's home turf); Omaha, Nebraska; Cincinnati, Ohio; Miami, Florida; Milan, Italy; Zagreb, Croatia; Stockholm, Sweden; Madison, Alabama; Austin, Texas; NYC, New York; Boston, Massachusetts (Sorry about those Red Sox); Caracas, Venezuela; Denver, Colorado; Tuskegee, Alabama; Prague, Czech Republic; Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Warsaw, Poland.

Check out 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.





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 his recommendations -- HERE!

Charity Alert: 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.

In The Community: The Hockaday Museum of Art is half empty this morning, after I spent all weekend (with help) taking the old shows down. We still have Crown of the Continent and Ace of Diamonds in place, but the Autumn Salon, with over a hundred pieces, is going up. I am also doing three public events at the college, so the extra help is welcome.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes: Levi Stubbs, the fabulous lead singer of the Four Tops finally succumbed to the bad health which plagued his final decade of life in his home town of Detroit, Michigan. He gave so much to Popular Music with his skill and sincerity over the decades -- a truly consummate performer whose voice always lifted my spirits.

Media Watch: The schlubs are almost gone on Trash A Go Go -- too bad Misty May-Traynor popped her Achilles Tendon during practice. Macksim danced with Edyta in her honor, because it's unlikely Misty'll be back anytime soon. Bubbly Australian Kym Johnson finally has a chance at the finals with the remarkably light-footed Warren Sapp. Dereck did an outstanding performance with Brooke, but those stupid judges played the handicap game again -- STOP IT!
The last Presidential Debate bandied about someone called Joe the Plumber, who turned out to be a rather banal impostor, whose first name wasn't even Joe. I say Joe Mama to that sorry spectacle!
Time for a Bollywood movie -- how about Bhoot, an Exorcist crib with the excellent Urmila Matondkar and Ajay Devgan? These actors can make almost anything interesting -- including this derivative thriller.

ANOTHER Road Trip: Central Montana had over a foot of snow, but I went in the opposite direction. The highways were littered with chunks of ice from big trucks coming from the East, but everything was warm and dry as we headed West towards Portland, Oregon. We spent the first night on the Columbia River, then visited friends in Washington State the next day.
Tuesday night we went to see JabbaWokeeZ starring in the roadshow of America's Best Dance Crew. They were something to experience live -- their depth and subtlety were truly satisfying as they matched moves with athletic rivals (phonetically) Super Crew, Brake Skate, Acid, and Fanny Pak, plus took everybody higher with their artistry.


The audience was mostly teens, with a few early-twenties, and a scattering of other ages. We were amazed to see that we weren't the oldest there. The crowd SCREAMED at every bright moment, so they screamed alot! The music was so loud that my pantlegs pulsed with the bass notes, even when I stood still. The kids were tuned-in, well-behaved, and totally enthusiastic. One important thing I noticed was that ALL races were represented -- in the crowd and onstage. THIS kind of thing is when America really becomes America!
Just before the show, we went out to an Indian restaurant for dinner in the artistically vibrant Southeast corner of Portland. Along the way we noticed that the Bagdad Theater was doing live performances, and that X-model Famke Jansson (see above) would be starring in a play on October 30! The old Cat Store was still there, as was an auxillary Powell's Books outlet. Earlier in the day we picked up some Bollywood movies.
Still riding a high from that excellent concert, we left Portland at 7 AM and made it back to Kalispell by 7PM -- beautiful weather all the way.

Damn freezing weather has started again -- couldn't wait for October to end, could it?

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Cranston, Rhode Island; Paisley, Renfrewshire, UK; Seattle, Washington; Brooklyn, New York; Davenport, Iowa; Houston, Texas; Warsaw, Poland; Kankakee, Illinois; Oneonta, New York; Union City, California; Cachoeirinha, Brazil; Los Angeles, California; Lexington, Virginia; Miami, Florida; Zurich, Switzerland; Sofia, Bulgaria; Zaanstad, North Holland; Moscow, Russia; Fresno, California; Easton, Pennsylvania; Missoula, Montana; Chicago, Illinois; Courcouronnes, France (Britanny); Ankara, Turkey; Jamaica, New York (Yo Stozo!); Vancouver, British Columbia; San Diego, California (Yo Justin!); Buffalo, New York; Denver, Colorado; Somerville, Massachusetts, and Chartres, France.

Check out 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.





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 his recommendations -- HERE!

Charity Alert: 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.

In The Community: Current shows at the Hockaday Museum of Art include Rails, Trails, and A Road -- honoring the 75th Anniversary of Going To The Sun Road in Glacier National Park, plus Ace Powell -- Ace of Diamonds and Native American Interpretations from our permanent collection.
High school seniors all over the community college today. I was running sound in one room, and missed most of the seminars, but our near-future students were all pumped up and enthusiastic.
The Climate Change series drew a few people on the night of the Presidental debate. Dr. Dominick DelaSalla was excellent, and the crowd was pretty thoughtful. The ever-decreasing jackass contingent is slowly learning that nobody's taking the trouble to attend these lectures in order to drink saccharine kool-aid, stirred with waters of denial.

Road Trip: It started out rainy, and there was new snow on the Rocky Mountains, but once I cleared Marias Pass the weather was sunny and warm throughout Eastern Montana. Lewistown is an oasis of green on the high plains -- the downtown seemed vibrant and the houses were well-kept. There was also an ESPRESSO BAR on Main Street!

The tiny Lewistown Art Center, just across from the big courthouse.
I saw Raptors hunting in the neighboring fields, a few Deer, Pheasants, and migrating Geese. I listened to a couple of fairly substantial Verdi operas off the satellite -- Macbeth and Masked Ball, the latter featuring tenor Jan Pierce of New York City, whose long streak of performances singing the Star Spangled Banner at Yankee Stadium will never be broken. I stumbled on the tail end of a Samuel Barber number with a nice chourus, but true to form, a couple of over-wrought lines of atonal English ruined everything.

Historic Fort Benton, Montana, navigational head of the Missouri River in the days of steam. Acting Governor Meagher, an Irish/American patriot, died under mysterious circumstances, falling from a boat like this one, moored at about this same spot around 1870. It's likely he was just drunk, but he'd made a lot of enemies out in the Wild West to boot.
Oldies DJ Cousin Brucie featured Dion DiMucci promoting his latest album, but although I never really liked that guy's singing very much, it was worth listening because he experienced Rock & Roll up close during its golden era -- I never knew he did Abraham, Martin, and John in one take -- good job! I rather enjoyed Dion's performance of that song on the Smothers Brothers TV show when it was new, but I also liked 'Moms' Mabley's serio-comic version a few months later too.

Nancy Cawdrey's American Silk Road exhibition was safely delivered to its temporary home at Liberty Village Art Center in Chester, Montana.
Media Watch: Speaking of opera, Lucia di Lammermoor is on the radio tomorrow! Let's see this programme again!

Crazy Lucia redefined Grand Opera in the mid-18th Century. Neither Verdi, nor Wagner, nor Puccini boiled over the top with as much tragic style as Donizetti did in his masterpiece -- it is SO tragic it seems like black comedy, but those melodies are nice!

It started raining yesterday, first in short showers, then gradually clouding over and getting all persistent about it. I hope the roads will be suitable for high-speed Eastern Montana driving.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Garrucha, Spain; Aberdeen, Washington; Las Vegas, Nevada; Orange Park, Florida; Indianapolis, Indiana; Cherry Hill, New Jersey; Somewhere in Germany; Madrid, Spain; Jamaica, New York; Norristown, Pennsylvania; Buffalo, New York; Manchester, UK; Mineola, New York; Stockton, California; Toronto, Ontario; Groningen, Holland; Bristol, UK (Long John Silver's hometown); Speer, Illinois; Singapore; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Hamilton, Ontario, and Karlsruhe, Germany.

Check out 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.





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 his recommendations -- HERE!

Charity Alert: 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.

In The Community: Current shows at the Hockaday Museum of Art include Rails, Trails, and A Road -- honoring the 75th Anniversary of Going To The Sun Road in Glacier National Park, plus Ace Powell -- Ace of Diamonds and Native American Interpretations from our permanent collection.
My road trip to Lewistown and Chester, Montana is happening tomorrow.
My community college is hosting a writers' conference, and I'm doing tech for it all day Saturday. They've had workshops the last three days, and are very nice people. One class launched over a half-dozen new bloggers on this very same service!

Media Watch: I saw the Vice Presidential debate -- so did nearly 70 Million others. Within ninety minutes after it was done, there were polls and statistics all over the media which showed public win/loss perceptions -- Among Dems/GOPs: Their side 80%, the other side 20%; Among Undecideds/Independents: Biden 70%, Palin 30%;
The amount of data gathered and correlated in such a short time astounded me.

Foggy San Francisco, one of America's cultural hubs.

Montana Public Radio is playing Handel's Aridante (1735) from the San Francisco Opera. Ah! The transition of Baroque Music into Classical Music in Europe during the so-called Enlightenment, when the despots er, kings and queens stopped being enlightened and started partying, but turned their governments over to smarties, if they were lucky, or sycophants, which was likely, and debauched their way to the Revolutionary Era.
This opera is set in a violent fantasy Neverland called Scotland, but is not quite the mad romp that Lucia di Lammermoor was. It has its charms however --
Act I True Love, Treachery, and a Masked Ball.
Act II Denunciation, Madness, Suicide, and a Ballet.
Act III Return of the Good Guy, and Sword Fights.

Crazy Lucia premiered in 1835, as did Aridante, but Donizetti revised his score for this French version which debuted in 1839 at the Théâtre de la Renaissance in Paris.

More great Autumn weather, but an unconfirmed report of a Mountain Lion in my neighborhood -- Get outta there, kitty!

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from the United Kingdom; An unnamed military base in the United States; Burlington, Vermont; Houston, Texas; City of London, UK; Salamanca, Spain; Breckenridge, Texas; Lampertheim, Germany; Canberra, Australia; Chicago, Illinois; Fort Worth, Texas; Bradenton, Florida; Atlanta, Georgia; Daytona Beach, Florida; Wagga Wagga, Australia; Rochester, New York; Jacksonville, Florida; Charlotte, North Carolina and Toronto, Ontario.

Check out 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.





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 his recommendations -- HERE!

Charity Alert: 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.

In The Community: Current shows at the Hockaday Museum of Art include Rails, Trails, and A Road -- honoring the 75th Anniversary of Going To The Sun Road in Glacier National Park, plus Ace Powell -- Ace of Diamonds and Native American Interpretations from our permanent collection.
My road trip to Lewistown and Chester, Montana is set for this Sunday.
My little community college's Climate Change series featured Pastor John Lund doing a back-and-forth discussion about ethical and theological perspectives, not only about climate change, but how humanity takes on, or avoids, working towards common interests. The meeting went on for almost two hours, just because so many people had something to say about "tending the garden."
A contingent of jackasses was on hand, as usual, but their agendas were not on the agenda, and nobody was interested in fighting with them. One particularly excitable fellow tried to advocate Gavin Menzies's theory of Admiral Zhen's Ming Chinese fleet not only discovering America (completely discredited), but mapping an ice-free Arctic Ocean on their way back to China in 1421. The discussion moved on.
One thing that happened was a consensus that, no matter what was going on with the climate, society could do a lot better than it does in coping with its collective problems.

Media Watch: Trash A Go Go -- It's too bad ex-champ Mark drew such an untalented partner on Dancing With The Stars, but it's just one example of "happens to the best of them." (His ol' man is stuck with the name Corky, and Cloris Leachman to boot.) Lance Bass dominates the lady who is supposed to be his teacher -- bad move if he wants to learn, or win. Once the next few schlubs are gone, he'll be next, and he's no schlub. My current top four -- Brook, Misty, Toni, and Warren, but watch out for that kid who's dancing with Julianne Hough!

Kalispell, Montana's Conrad Mansion Museum just after sunset on Sept. 28, 2008. It's a few blocks away from my house -- if you see any Pumas lurking around, be sure to let me know!