New West Network

My Page: Kirk Siegler

Traditions

For most families, the holiday season means gift giving, baking, eating, parties, maybe even caroling. For ours, it’s blood sport.

That’s because for the last two decades or so, Christmas day on a small pond near Missoula has been more a clash of cultures, an ideological war over ideas, terrorism on ice really, than a celebration of the joyous holiday season. For most of us, it’s the only time we’ll lace up skates the whole year... [more]

Local Music Sound Off

This week on Local Music Sound Off we're proud to offer a live cut from Missoula's Broken Valley Road Show. BVR lived up to its name last month when the six piece old-time group took its brand of mountain tunes to Portland, Oregon.

Click here to listen to Daybreak in Dixie, featuring Nate Biehl on the mandolin.

Local Music Sound Off

This week's featured artist on Local Music Sound Off is Bridget Martin - who has kindly sent us an mp3 from her new EP The Blue Bee - all the way from Guatemala.

Click here to listen to Dreamers of Lost Causes.

When she's not globetrekking, Bridget calls Missoula and Helena, Montana home. She got her start in New Zealand on the Powertool Label, where she lived for a year. Bridget says that's where most of her fan base is. But she's hoping the release of her first album - available locally at Ear Candy Music on Higgins Ave. - will help spread that growing base across the big pond as well.

Arctic Blast

Is it me or is 5 degrees F starting to feel downright comfortable? Indeed, after two days, and more impressively, three nights of sub zero temperatures, today's forecasted highs in the upper teens sounds pretty nice. But as with any "warming" trend in December in Western Montana - there's good news and bad news. Forecasters are predicting a good chance for inversions in the valleys. Whether they'll be on the scale we experienced over Thanksgiving - when a dense shroud of clouds kept us from seeing the sun for nearly two weeks - is unclear.

So that's some uplifting news.

Crime

On the stand in day three of a civil trial against him, Kalispell businessman Dick Dasen - already convicted on several criminal counts for luring numerous women into sex-for-money agreements – told the court he’s addicted to sex.

Dasen, who was originally charged with, but acquitted of sexual intercourse without consent for an alleged encounter involving two teenage girls, was in court Wednesday because one of the girls is now suing for punitive damages.

“I did suggest that I wanted to see them,� Dasen said, referring to the encounter in a Kalispell apartment two years ago. “I’m a sex addict.� [more]

Film

Here's an interesting option for your Friday planner. The Roxy Theater is screening the acclaimed documentary "We Jam Econo: the story of the Minutemen," a film about the early 80's punk band The Minutemen. The documentary tracks the group's rise from San Pedro, California, through its tragic demise in 1985, when lead singer and guitarist D. Boon died in a car accident. According to the film's website, filmmaker Tim Irwin used archival concert and interview footage, as well as dozens of new interviews, including many with Minutemen bassist Mike Watt.

Sarah Vowell of NPR's This American Life called the film lovable in the New York Times this past summer. See for yourself this Friday at the Roxy. There are two showings, 7 and 9, with local filmmaker Andy Smetanka's "The Tain" opening.

Local Music Sound Off

Well it's about time New West went country, eh? This week's featured band on Local Music Sound Off is none other than JD Smith and the 3 Legged Dog straight outta Yaak Valley, Montana.

Click here to listen to the track Up on the Mountain from 3LD's self titled 2005 release.

We think it's what might happen if Robert Earl Keen met John Hiatt and played a gig or two in the Yaak's Dirty Shame Saloon. We also think this passage from the band's website probably sums up their style best:

"Two hundred miles from any sizable city in a remote corner of northwest Montana is a place where the sound of an evolving music scene is starting to blossom. You could call it folk, rock or country, the sound reflects the mountain lifestyle and creates an honest and rugged feel. Until now, the emerging sound was witnessed only by a handful of weathered locals and a small herd of inquisitive horses."

Montana Legislature

Governor Brian Schweitzer has called the Montana Legislature into a special session to deal with the state's school funding crisis - starting December 14th. Schweitzer simultaneously announced today his own plan to reform schools. It's a roughly $227 million dollar package, the bulk of which is one-time money to help schools better recruit and retain teachers, and help them shore up ailing retirement funds for existing teachers and all public employees in the state. The Democrat's proposal comes on the heels of two additional proposals, one from Representative Monica Lindeen (D-Huntley) and Representative Bill Glaser (R-Huntley), both outlined today in the Billings Gazette.

The move is no big surprise, as Schweitzer had hinted recently he was planning on calling one, especially as a bi-partisan interim panel on school funding reform continues to deadlock on proposals, mostly on party lines.

There are four days left over from this year's regular legislative session - and every indication is the special session next week won't last very long. Democrats control the Senate, and share control of the House, but hold the powerful house speaker position there. Whether any decision made on school funding reform will pass the muster of the courts, however, remains to be seen. Late last year the Montana Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that the state of Montana is shirking its constitutional obligation of funding a quality educational system.

Forest Policy

Forest management decisions need to be made at the local level, with input from locals who will be affected, U.S. Senator Conrad Burns told an audience packed with government officials, industry leaders and environmentalists at a hearing in Missoula today.

The Republican Montana Senator called for a more unified approach by the U.S. Forest Service as it conducts forest management plan revisions across the Northern Region.

“The problem is, you’ve got people in the Forest Service with different agendas,� Burns said at the hearing for the Subcommittee on Interior and Related Agencies, of which he chairs. “There should be one philosophy, and everyone should be working toward that philosophy.�

The trouble, however, seems to be in finding one philosophy that can work in an increasingly polarized arena. [more]

December in the Rattlesnake

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