From Wyofile

Mad Dog and the Pilgrim Booksellers

Sweetwater Station, Wyo.—If you blink once or your attention drifts for an instant on the two-lane highway between Muddy Gap and the Lander, Wyoming, you may miss one of the world’s great road signs, a weathered, wooden square flanked by an American flag:  “Old Books Fresh Eggs For Sale.”

And if you don’t stop and go inside the two-story, structurally-reinforced, climate-controlled book barn stuffed with more than 75,000 hardback volumes ranging from leather-bound Balzac to first-edition Beatrix Potter, you will miss one of Wyoming’s and the Mountain West’s hidden treats.

Owners Lynda “Mad Dog” German and Polly “The Pilgrim” Hinds moved their Mad Dog and The Pilgrim Booksellers from Denver to Sweetwater Station in 2000 after an unpleasant encounter with the Aurora, Colorado, Police Department.

Missoula Music Event

Concert n’ Jam Session: Shane Clouse, Tom Catmull, and More

Montana Matters, a collaboration between the International Wildlife Film Festival/Media Center and the Montana Wildlife Federation, will put on a benefit concert and jam session featuring headliner Shane Clouse and other top Montana musicians, including Tom Catmull, John Floridis, Jack Gladstone, Jess Kilroy and Bob Wire.

Here are details from Montana Matters, a group that promotes Montana's wildlands:

-- Missoula native and country music great Shane Clouse will be the headliner when “Montana Matters” presents Songs of Montana: Concert and Jam Session Friday, September 18 at 7 p.m. (doors open at 6 p.m.) at the Wilma Theater in Missoula. The concert is a benefit and public debut for the Montana Matters campaign. For more about Montana Matters, click here.

Missoula Film Premier

Food, Inc., to Debut in Missoula, Shreds Big Ag

What's for dinner?

If you're like most Americans, it's probably chicken, beef or pork from a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO), those huge factory farms with, say, 10,000 hogs -- enough to produce as much waste in one day as a town of 25,000 people, according to the Sierra Club. And that's just the start of the nation's food-production troubles, since Big Farming alternately involves genetically modified crops or things like water pollution, air pollution, fossil fuel use and economic woes.

The new documentary Food, Inc., from filmmaker Robert Kenner -- which premiers in Missoula August 14 at the Wilma Theatre, at 7 p.m. -- features noted food experts and looks at how the food we eat today is gnawing at our health.

Kudos

Caring Deeply: Missoula Couple Working to Dig a Well in Zanzibar

Clean water. For Missoula residents Said and Sara Hemed, it would be a dream come true if they could finish digging a well in Said’s native Zanzibar village so people there could have water to drink and use for washing -- without having to walk a mile to a water pump and haul it back in buckets.

Said (pronounced sye'-dee) and his wife, Sara, a Montana native, have other dreams too. They want to provide classes for adults and children on the six acres Said owns in Mchekeni, a village of about 300 people in Zanzibar, a small island off the coast of Tanzania.

Along the way, they’ve launched a group, Artisans for Africa, and are selling handmade arts and crafts -- batik purses, screen-printed fabrics, leather baby booties, jewelry -- to raise the money needed to finish digging a well on the property.

Montana Debut

Film Premiere: A Journey of Understanding in Mississippi Queen

“When I first fell in love I was 17, and it happened to be with a girl. The news hit hard. They’d pray and pray and pray over me. There was a lot of anger and fear. And even a gun. In the South I was taught to love God first and then you love your family second, and I did. And I was really good at it.”

So begins the heartfelt and gripping documentary Mississippi Queen from Missoula filmmaker Paige Williams. The award-winning film, which follows Williams as she delves into her past and fits the jagged pieces into a livable whole, has its Montana premiere tonight as part of Pride Week activities.

The event at the Wilma Theatre kicks off at 7 p.m. and includes live music by Mississippi Queen composer John Floridis and Jenn Adams, whose music is also featured in the film.

The hour-long movie starts at 7:30 p.m. Admission is $5 and includes appetizers and talkback following the screening. The film will also be shown June 20 at the Red Lion Fireside Room in Kalispell, at noon. Proceeds will benefit Montana PRIDE 2009.

Untimely Death

Buck’s Club/Other Side Owner Tom Reed Dead of Apparent Heart Attack

Tom Reed, the owner of Buck's Club and The Other Side, died yesterday of an apparent heart attack, leaving friends, family, and the Missoula music scene in mourning. He was 55, and would have celebrated his 56th birthday today.

Cheryl Fullerton, owner of Demonlily Entertainment, who says she has worked with Reed since the 1980s, said she spoke with Reed yesterday by phone at about 4 p.m., then left messages for him and didn’t hear back. “It must have happened right around then,” Fullerton said, distraught.

Jesus Christ Superstar Draws Crowds in Missoula

The Missoula Children’s Theatre’s production of the classic rock musical Jesus Christ Superstar by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber opened on October 24 in Missoula to sold-out crowds.

In his third production of the musical, director Jim Caron continues to explore the intricacies of the piece while managing a cast of 95, the largest ever assembled under the MCT roof in downtown Missoula.

New West photographer Graham Coppes spent time with the cast and crew of Jesus Christ Superstar capturing a behind-the-scenes look at this emotional, and often controversial, musical.

The Missoula Children’s Theatre production of Jesus Christ Superstar runs through November 9. Tickets can be purchased online or at the MCT box office downtown.

multimedia

Conversations with Missoula Artists: Meet Nan Bovingdon

Missoula is home to a plethora of artists who express themselves in a variety of media. Alexia Beckerling is venturing into the studios and performance venues of a handful of local artists and bringing back multimedia glimpses into their creative worlds.

Meet Nan Bovingdon, a Missoula folk musician who brings a musical perspective to America's history by playing a variety of antique instruments.

Multimedia

Conversations with Missoula Artists: Meet Valentina LaPier

Missoula is home to a plethora of artists who express themselves in a variety of media. Alexia Beckerling is venturing into the studios and performance venues of a handful of local artists and bringing back multimedia glimpses into their creative worlds.

This week, meet Valentina LaPier, an enrolled member of the Blackfoot tribe who sold her first painting at the age of 14 and is currently working and exhibiting at the Hanging Art Gallery in Arlee.