New West Network

<< Newer articles <<    Home     >> Older articles >>

Saving Snow, Saving Lives

Sam Porter is on to something; if you want a skier’s attention, talk about snow. Porter (Porterhouse Productions) is about to take this attention-grabber to a whole new level.

Avalaunch – Porter’s latest “medium for change” through the arts and environment– begins this week at the Salt Lake City Outdoor Retailer Show at The Depot, January 24, 25 and 26. The hybrid event is the launching pad for what Porter hopes will be a nation-wide tour through 21 major North American ski communities bringing entertainment, education and sustainability together in an effort to save lives and snow.

“There are 200 million skiers all over the world,” Porter says. “I know skiers that almost love snow more than their kids. Snow reaches a demographic of this planet that is incredibly passionate about this world because they love it.”

The focus of Avalaunch is two-fold: raising avalanche awareness and reducing global warming contributions from the many, many people who rely on snow for fun and survival. [more]

February 14-20, 2008

Official selections for the 2008 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival are now on-line, here. See complete list after the jump.

From February 14 - 20, 2008, the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival celebrates its 5th year by showcasing 98 films from 40 countries. The official selections represent a broad array of filmmaking styles, formats and production dates, from classics to World Premieres. The 2008 films were selected from nearly 1000 submissions from across the globe. [more]

The Time of Their Lives (Again)

However perfect or awful one’s prom may have been, the Bozeman Adult Prom proves that with enough willing, nostalgic partners, it’s never too late to experience the big night all over again. For those who never graced the dimly lit gymnasium floor in high school, the Adult Prom provides a perfect chance to unleash those pent up dance moves and ultra-cool attitudes buried deep inside for so long.

The original adult prom went down at a Bozeman house party. The event soon got so big that founder Phil Baribeau had to move the dance to its present home, the Eagles Lodge in downtown Bozeman. After Baribeau moved, current organizers Caitlin Magbee and Julianne Scuman happily took the helm of the prom committee.

The 2007 Adult Prom was unforgettable. There were corsages, crimped hairdos and hairsprayed bangs. There were flasks, frilled shirts, Max Headroom sunglasses and mascara-smeared faces. Glittery bodies grooved to synthesizer beats, and best of all, there was plenty of making out and no chaperones to stop it.

Click here or on the image to view photos from this very special night. [more]

Two Bozeman Shows Saturday

You have to love the indie music community and the speed at which unassuming but talented, dedicated musicians can rise through its ranks. Take, for example, Band of Horses: Ben Bridwell moves from South Carolina to Seattle where he at one point becomes happily homeless, works at the legendary Crocodile Café, plays in an obscure band for awhile, forms a new band with fellow southerners, joins longtime friend Sam Beam of Iron & Wine at a Subpop Records dinner and within months has a record deal. And not only has a record deal, but also goes on to produce a really, really good album that everybody loves.

Such is the life now of Ben Bridwell and Band of Horses. The band just released another great album—Cease to Begin—and are in the first stages of a tour that will take them to Bozeman this Saturday and then across the U.S. and Europe.

Bridwell’s Southern sentiment and love of straightforward rock and roll render a decidedly simple, gritty, guitar-driven sound, and his echoing, sheer voice cuts to the chase of his words. On Cease to Begin, Bridwell fully takes the sound formed in Seattle back to his Southern roots. [more]

Three Beer Awards on the Wall, Three Beer Awards…

Montanans are not afraid of beer, nor are they afraid to brew the stuff. There are 18 breweries in Montana, and though it may not seem like a huge number, it is significant for a state with less than one million citizens. Per capita, only Nevada, North Dakota and New Hampshire consume more beer per capita than Montana.

One brewery in particular is celebrating one of the top brewing honors in the United States: the Montana Brewing Company in Billings recently won the “Small Brewpub and Small Brewpub Brewer of the Year” award at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colorado. The Billings brewery also took home a gold medal for its Whitetail Wheat and two silvers for its Custer’s Last Stout and its Sandbagger Gold Ale.

For head brewer Travis Zeilstra, brewing doesn’t get any better. “This is the ultimate goal, to be one of the brewers of the year,” Zeilstra says. “Not many people can say they’ve done that.” [more]

many scenes too rude to mention

Just ask a husband to go to a performance of “My Fair Lady” and note his facial expression, which will be universal for “oh please no don’t make me.”

Then ask him to accompany you to Monty Python’s SPAMALOT, the musical based on the film “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”, and see what you get. My musical-loathing guy said yes.

If yours isn’t quite convinced, tell him there will be flatulent Frenchmen, killer rabbits, and a legless knight, live on stage. [more]

The possibilities of more than one mind

Creativity: using imagination to develop new and original ideas; sometimes preformed unaccompanied, but more invigorating when collaborated with others.

Bozeman is home to “creative live wires,” a plethora of professionals in the marketing, advertising, architecture, media and design fields. Hence, the creation of Off the Grid, a forum to network Bozeman’s professional creative arts community.

“This is a chance for everyone in our field to get together, celebrate, collaborate and put Bozeman on the map,” said Jeff Welch of Mercury Advertising.

Off the Grid is hosting their first event with Alex Bogusky, the innovative mind behind the global ad campaigns like Mini Cooper, Burger King and The Truth on September 2.

Update: Last night was a success, filling the Emerson Ballroom with a diverse group who are keen on cultivating the creative community within Bozeman. Stay tuned for more speakers, workshops and networking with Off the Grid. And if any ideas cross your mind on the future direction of this group, contact . [more]

montana festival of the book

Want a chance to mingle with novelists, poets, and playwrights from around the West? To hear Governor Brian Schweitzer read a children’s book in Caras Park? To find out if Missoula Mayor John Engen can correctly define "peripatetic"?

Then check out the eighth annual Montana Festival of the Book, which will be held in and around downtown Missoula September 13-15.

Festival Coordinator Kim Anderson of Humanities Montana says that along with the usual readings and panel discussions this year’s bookfest is offering many new and unique events.

The festival "is just such a Missoula event," Mayor John Engen says. "There are more and better writers here per capita than you’ll find anywhere else in the West." [more]

Everyone should know their Bard

“Measure for Measure” has been characterized by English professors for generations as one of Shakespeare’s “problem plays,” meaning that academics who make a living by condescendingly making categories (for the supposedly less astute) need to leave their thumbprints on plays neither wholly comedic or tragic. Morally ambiguous, laughable, weepy literature can be called instead by a more straightforward term: “tragicomedy.” A perceptive Shakespeare theatergoer, in Boise or London, could probably correctly detect plentiful instances of tragedy and comedy intermingled throughout Shakespeare’s entire body of works. No problem, is there?

Why do categories matter when faced with any Shakespeare production? [more]

Race against the forces of nature

The world’s largest adventure race, Primal Quest, is weighing-up the Big Sky vicinity for their 2008 five-day race.

Montana is one of four states in consideration for the June 21-July 2 dates, along with Wyoming, Colorado and Idaho. Ninety teams representing 17 countries are registered for next year’s event.

The announcement will be made in mid-September, awaiting conversation with the state agencies for permitting of their “secret course” in the Gallatin National Forest, which will be bearing over 350 racers, not including their support network and checkpoint staff. [more]

<< Newer articles <<    Home     >> Older articles >>