Tag: montana/Archives

PechaKucha

What do Stockholm, Amsterdam, Phoenix, and Bozeman have in common? Well, they’re all having PechaKucha Nights on Wednesday October 19.

PechaKucha logo: 20x20PechaKucha is “an event for designers to meet, network, and show their work in public. The presentation format is based on a simple idea: 20 images x 20 seconds.” Six minutes and forty seconds of slideshow to introduce an audience to your concept, artwork or endeavor.

In Japanese “pecha kucha” means “chit chat.” Here’s an oh-so-cute pronunciation (by Forvo user: Akiko / mp3):

PechaKucha Bozeman has its first night October 19 at the Story Mansion. Doors open at 6:30p.m. with the first PK promptly at 7:20p.m. (Admission: $5 | Facebook | PDF flyer). Presenters— Presentations include: More…

The Yodeler

Boulder MT 9-year-old, Brigid Reedy, may be young, but she can yodel with the best of ’em. Mountain West Voices, a new series by producer Clay Scott, presents a radio portrait of this pre-teen musical tour-de-force, “The Yodeler” (5:00 mp3):

The MtnWVox site has nice photos of Brigid in full yodel, and with the animals on her fam’s farm. While there, check these other series eps: “The Pastor” and “The Returning Warriors.”

Brigid Reedy playing violin

Dave Arnott R.I.P

[UPDATE: Added Paul Rose’s memorial song.]

Lost another friend and great keyboardist, Dave Arnott (Band Universal and & Triumphant, FOG ) died at 49yo.

One early 1980s night, I was leaving KGLT about 3am, and this wild, ethereal piano was echoing up the stone stairwell. Odd, since the building had been closed for hours. Tracked it down to the grand in the 1st floor lounge, being played by one very serious and very accomplished young man. I introduced myself, so did he: Dave Arnott.

He was (as I recall) on a break from helping sound-wire the Student Union Theatre. I sat and listened. He played another half-hour.

I’ve seen some of this land’s best musicians of many genres in excellent venues across USA. But that pre-dawn Dave solo performance, to an audience that had just increased from 0 to 1, was among the most memorable concerts I’ve ever attended.

Music (“Yellow Jacket” by FOG from Rain) and Footage by David Arnott. Edited by Tol. Additional Footage by Tol, Blue, and Mike. More…

Burning Men

Trouble ahead:
Rasing a wooden curved A-frame structure

Trouble mounts:
Structure assembled

Trouble arrives:
Stucture aflame, at night

Just another Saturday night at the compound. ‘Course trouble’s nuthin’ new out here — this shot’s from Friday night:
Black bear in tree
Black bear in neighbor’s tree, ’round midnight.

Photos by Ben.

Scat, Bear

Several age-old questions have long plagued man’s mind. Today we discovered the definitive answer to one of them:

Q: Does a bear shit in the woods?

A. Yes. Quite a bit, especially during chokecherry season:
Bear scat with chokecherry seeds
Bear scat with ample amount of chokecherry seeds,
Bear Trap Canyon Wilderness, Madison River, Montana

Sweetgrass

A new movie on MT mtn sheep-herders, “ Sweetgrass“:

An unsentimental elegy to the American West, “Sweetgrass” follows the last modern-day cowboys to lead their flocks of sheep up into Montana’s breathtaking and often dangerous Absaroka-Beartooth mountains for summer pasture. This astonishingly beautiful yet unsparing film reveals a world in which nature and culture, animals and humans, vulnerability and violence are all intimately meshed.

via Linda Iverson.

Montana Mitzvah

Officer and dog on Capitol stepsThe NYTImes caught this canine-capitol-Chanukah connection: “Montana Rabbi Lends an Ear to an Officer and His Dog“. The article commences with this misleading lede:

In Montana, a rabbi is an unusual sight. So when a Hasidic one walked into the State Capitol last December, with his long beard, black hat and long black coat, a police officer grabbed his bomb-sniffing German shepherd and went to ask the exotic visitor a few questions.

via Kalish.

Mtn Music Film

The new movie “The Mountain Music Project” (by HV producer Jack Chance) is “A Musical Odyssey from Appalachia to Himalaya.” The film screens Sunday December 6th at 7PM at the Emerson Center, Bozeman MT. Families and Fiddles welcome.

The flick looks/sounds superb: just played to a packed house at National Geographic’s Grosvenor Auditorium, DC. Now it makes it’s Montana debut.

The Mountain Music Project- Trailer

Emerson Ctr for Arts & Culture | Mountain Music Project

Fiddler Danny Knicely with a traditional Nepalese musician; © Jack Chance:

American and Nepalese musicians

Bear in Back

Q (at dawn): Why was my dog backing like crazy early this morn?

A (after sunrise): Bear in backyard, prints all over neighborhood&heliip;

Bear prints in snow

Health Care Tea Party

Bozeman Tea Party members with signsScenes from the Health Care controversy: President Obama and the WH press corps flew into Belgrade, Montana last Friday, for a Town Hall, held in an airport hanger.

The event lasted an hour. The president spoke, took a few questions, then POTUSA and posse headed off to the next stops in their weekend media invasion of the West: Yellowstone, Grand Junction Junction, Colorado, the Grand Canyon, then back to DC.

Meanwhile, one half mile away, those who didn’t have or didn’t want Town Hall tickets began gathering at dawn in a farmer’s field, the designated a free speech zone. Thousands showed up: protesters and Tea Party-ers next to pro-health care reformers and single-payer proponents. They stayed for hours, thru rain, hail, and thunder. They shouted slogans. They listened to speakers. They listened to the President over the radio. Occasionally, they listened to each other. It was a day of division, debate, and democracy.

“Day of Democracy” (8:31 mp3):

Voices include Chief Bill Dove, Linda Kenoyer, Tom Hunter, Don McClarty, Bob Adney, Alene Brackman, John Chaffer, Kent Madin, Lance Criaghead, Henry Kriegel, Joanne Kessler, Tammy Hall, and Bob Folsick.

Local talk-radio host Henry Kriegel rousing the T-Party:
Speaker on top of fire truck with Bozeman Tea Party signs

Here in Montana we start ’em early:
Kids with anti-socialism signs More…

Pie Ribbons

Fort Benton Summer Celebration logoBreaking News: Ben Lloyd, artitect, intellect, and corn-crust wizard of Comma Q, has swept the Fort Benton MT Summer Celebration Pie Contest, winning:

  • First Place Fruit
  • First Place Cream
  • +
  • BEST OF SHOW!

Needless to say, this is causing quite a stir among the locals, especially in light of last year’s pastry-based controversy reported in the Great Falls Tribune.

Medieval in Montana

City of Bozeman sealLooks like my hometown is finally letting loose it’s requirement that government job applicant’s turn over all their FaceSpaceTwit passwords, buddy lists, and secret Santa names (“Commission eliminates Facebook policy“). However, city fathers still hold onto their claim in an older policy which reserves them the right to “deflower” the first-born of any municipal employee.

Elk Season

A classic Montana scenario: Just got this email & photo from my hike-ski buddy Jim, about why he hasn’t been able to hike-ski w/ me of late. Lottie, mentioned below, is Jim’s daughter…

Got one, now we can leave this particular project behind and move on to XC skiing. Getting an elk this year was mighty hard. Finally was able to line Lottie up on a shot with the help of nephew Jake. She is pretty proud of herself. I’m off to work till the 20th, then will commence to moving around thru the woods without heavy weaponry.

HV033- Political People

Election electoral vote maps, 1968-2004Hearing Voices from NPR®
033 Political People: On the Campaign Trail
Host: Barrett Golding of Hearing Voices
Airs week of: 2010-10-13 (Originally: 2008-10-15)

“Political People” (52:00 mp3):

In 1992 producer Barrett Golding found remnants of Jefferson’s theories and Toqueville’s writings still very much in play, as he followed Montana’s two incumbents US Representatives, one Democrat, one Republican. Due to re-apportionment, they were vying for the state’s one remaining Congressional seat, on a yearlong statewide game of political musical chairs. (Image above-right: Presidential Electoral Vote map, 1968-2008, animated, see full-size here.)

And Jonathan Menjivar documents Harold Washington College and University of Chicago students discussing “Dreams of Democracy” (audible | PRX) part of the WBEZ series Chicago Matters: Our Next Generation.

Original songs by Greg Keeler and instrumental music by Jeff Arntsen of Racket Ship.

Mt Blackmore

Up Mount Blackmore the other day, 10,128 ft (Hyalite Range, Gallatin Forest). That’s me, Pogo, and Gus, with Capt. James Ortman workin’ the Nikon. Walked in snow the whole way. At the top guys were skiing. Fall equinox everywhere else, but here high in MT it’s the first taste of winter:

BG and dogs on mountain top in snow

Chris Pazder

Chris Pazder photoCame back from our bike trip to learn Chris Pazder, an old friend, died this week, climbing in the Tetons. Slipped and slid down a snowfield, off a cliff. Not the first friend to go this way, and likely not the last. Kinda weird this mountain life we’ve chosen, but none, I believe, would switch for another. Be missin’ ya, Chris.