NEWS
MOVEMENT TO TRANSFER FEDERAL LANDS TO STATE CONTROL RAISES PUBLIC ACCESS FEARS
LEE SILLIMAN’S SUPER-SIZED GALACTIC FARMS FOOD STAMPS HELP A ARTS OPINION HOW NEWS PHOTOS OF YELLOWSTONE LANDS ON CAMPUS STRUGGLING UM STUDENT
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NEWS
MOVEMENT TO TRANSFER FEDERAL LANDS TO STATE CONTROL RAISES PUBLIC ACCESS FEARS
LEE SILLIMAN’S SUPER-SIZED GALACTIC FARMS FOOD STAMPS HELP A ARTS OPINION HOW NEWS PHOTOS OF YELLOWSTONE LANDS ON CAMPUS STRUGGLING UM STUDENT
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[2] Missoula Independent • February 5–February 12, 2015
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cover illustration by Kou Moua
News
Voices/Letters Climate change, water compact and Medicaid .......................................4 The Week in Review Jon Tester, “Saturday Night Live” and human trafficking.............6 Briefs Urban trees, Galactic Farms and beer...................................................................6 Etc. So you want to build another pipeline? ...................................................................7 News Transfer movement raises fears over public access ...............................................8 Opinion Downtown ban on cheap booze avoids the real problem .............................10 Opinion Montana master’s candidate explains the reality of food stamps ..................11 Feature Guide to the 12th annual Big Sky Documentary Film Festival .........................14
Arts & Entertainment
Arts Lee Silliman’s super-sized images of Yellowstone..................................................20 Music Catamount, Sphynx and Ryan Bingham .............................................................22 Music Locksaw Cartel experiments with the boundaries of songs ...............................23 Film The Boy Next Door does what it does...................................................................24 Movie Shorts Independent takes on current films ......................................................25 Flash in the Pan What’s the beef?.................................................................................26 Happiest Hour Worden’s pizza.....................................................................................28 8 Days a Week Still pissed Oscar snubbed The Overnighters and Life Itself ...............29 Mountain High Traveling through the Gates of the Arctic...........................................31 Agenda Love Fest...........................................................................................................38
Exclusives
Street Talk .......................................................................................................................4 In Other News ..............................................................................................................12 Classifieds....................................................................................................................C-1 The Advice Goddess ...................................................................................................C-2 Free Will Astrology......................................................................................................C-4 Crossword Puzzle .......................................................................................................C-6 This Modern World...................................................................................................C-12 PUBLISHER Lynne Foland EDITOR Skylar Browning PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Joe Weston ADVERTISING SALES MANAGER Heidi Starrett CIRCULATION & BUSINESS MANAGER Adrian Vatoussis DIRECTOR OF SPECIAL PROJECTS Christie Anderson ARTS EDITOR Erika Fredrickson PHOTO EDITOR Cathrine L. Walters CALENDAR EDITOR Kate Whittle STAFF REPORTERS Kate Whittle, Alex Sakariassen, Ted McDermott COPY EDITOR Kate Whittle EDITORIAL INTERNS Courtney Anderson, Kellen Beck ART DIRECTOR Kou Moua GRAPHIC DESIGNER Pumpernickel Stewart CIRCULATION ASSISTANT MANAGER Ryan Springer ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES Steven Kirst, Tracy Lopez, Will Peterson ADMIN, PROMO & EVENTS COORDINATOR Leif Christian CLASSIFIED SALES REPRESENTATIVE Tami Allen FRONT DESK Lorie Rustvold CONTRIBUTORS Ari LeVaux, Scott Renshaw, Nick Davis, Ednor Therriault, Jule Banville, Matthew Frank, Molly Laich, Dan Brooks, Melissa Mylchreest, Rob Rusignola, Migizi Pensoneau, Brooks Johnson, Sarah Aswell
Mailing address: P.O. Box 8275 Missoula, MT 59807 Street address: 317 S. Orange St. Missoula, MT 59801 Phone number: 406-543-6609 Fax number: 406-543-4367 E-mail address: independent@missoulanews.com
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missoulanews.com • February 5–February 12, 2015 [3]
[voices]
Just say no
STREET TALK
by Cathrine L. Walters
Asked Tuesday, Feb. 3, near the corner of Broadway and Higgins. This week the Indy previews the 12th annual Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. What is the best documentary you’ve ever seen? Follow-up: Have you ever attended the BSDFF, and if so, what was your most memorable moment? Jesse Driscoll: I saw one a few months ago called The Act of Killing about the guys who came to power in the Philippines. The themes of media control and history told from the point of view from the dictators had a big impact on me. Higher learning: A few years ago there was a film about fish farming at the festival. It was an alarming documentary about the hazards of salmon farming and that just stuck with me. I feel like Missoulians look to the BSDFF like continuing adult education.
Mariesa Nelson: I just watched the one on the K2 climbing expedition, called The Summit, about climbing the second highest peak in the world. Cliffhanger: I haven’t been but I plan to at some point, I usually have to work.
Ken Furrow: I’ve seen so many memorable ones. One that stands out is Chasing Ice. It’s about the importance of climate change and how we need to understand to deal with it. It’s an impressive film to make with the time lapse technique. Behind the scenes: As the festival’s technical director, tactical issues over the years have been stressful, but I love seeing friends get overstimulated by all the films during the 10 days. It’s outstanding. It’s also funny to see the volunteers cry at the end of the week because they’re sad it’s almost over.
Brooke Trainer: Grizzly Man. The one with the guy who went to Alaska to live with the bears and then got eaten. Flashforward: I haven’t gone yet. I live in Thompson Falls and won’t be able to go this year but plan to go next year.
Tom Aldrich: Senna. It’s a film about Ayrton Senna, a Brazilian Formula One racing driver in the ’80s. It’s an inspirational film. Two thumbs up: It’s more about the sheer volume of high quality work that people are producing. I’m really excited to see And We Were Young by Andy Smetanka. (Editor’s note: Read more about Andy’s film on page 16.)
[4] Missoula Independent • February 5–February 12, 2015
Again I find myself questioning my state and federal government’s thought process regarding the controversial 2015 CSKT Water Compact. Fellow ranchers and state legislators have somehow decided that my family’s ranch is less important than that of my neighbors, purely because of acreage or the need to work two jobs to cover the expenses of raising a family in modern-day America. Again the political aspirations of our representatives are casting a shadow on the little man, dismissing the importance of small business and its potential. Recent studies and articles in various publications have described the impossible task of a successful agriculture in our current economy. I believe the words they utilized over and over were impossible. No thriving farming/ranching operation was handed down to our family. We chose to build a successful operation ourselves that required great personal sacrifice, hard work, long hours, along with a determination to succeed. All small business starts with dream, a desire to create something, offer something to themselves and those around them. We as an agricultural family have lost the ability to “play” in any normal sense of the word, but have mastered the art of getting a job done as a family. Our children know the meaning of work ethic and the strength behind a promise and a handshake. Small business is what has built our great nation and families working two or more jobs to make ends meet is a cold reality. We as a family put 100 percent into every task and responsibility and while we as an agriculture community are tending to family, stock, water and land, we count that those elected to represent us perform in the same manner. Our family tends to every irrigation ditch, hand line and wheel line, recognizing the importance of every drop of water flowing through. The thought of not being able to produce enough feed for our stock due to water uncertainty is as painful as the thought of not being able to feed our children at the table each night. We touch and care for every calf as it touches the ground and our stock are more like family than an income source. We mourn every loss as a newborn or its mother surrenders its life back to whatever greatness allows us to lead this life, all the while trying to remember that this is a growing business. We, no matter our size, are helping to care for millions of American families every day. So again I ask: Why are my family’s opinions or needs any less important than that of “corporate” agriculture? I argue to you that they are not, regardless of political opinions. I argue that we are the definition of what America’s values were built upon. We are vested, valuable Montana citizens and I once again ask my representatives to stand for small business agriculture. Protect it, cherish it, encourage it, learn from it—we are not “hobby farmers”! We are
investors in our future, our children’s future and the future of agriculture. Me and my family are small business America and I do not support the current version of the CSKT compact. This compact does not clearly quantify, determine or justify the amount of water that could or would be delivered to my land for future and present use. “Trust Me” is not an option here. A forever contract needs to be specific. Our legislators cannot repeat “Obamacare” and pass yet another document to find out what’s in it at a later date. The compact is controversial in its complexity and I ask my representatives to say “no” to the 2015 CSKT water compact. Johanna Clark St. Ignatius
“Why wouldn’t we bring our own tax dollars back home, help our poorer fellow citizens live healthier lives and boost our state’s economy?”
Deny the deniers On Sun., Jan. 11, the Missoulian editorial page offered two opposing columns on climate change, one from an “energy economist” denier named Roger Bezdak, and the other from a professor at Indiana University, Dr. Kenneth Richards. Bezdak stated in his column; “There is no evidence for significant climate effects of rising CO2 levels.” Richards argued for a carbon tax on polluters, with a simultaneous lowering of income taxes to offset the revenue gains from the polluters. My question is this: What good is a strong economy if the planet is uninhabitable? After finishing Naomi Klein’s brilliant book, This Changes Everything, about climate change and capitalism, I have a big problem with any journalistic agency that gives deniers a platform for seeming legitimacy. On this topic Klein wrote, “In the short term, you might be able to argue that the economic costs of taking action are greater than allowing climate change to play out for a few more decades ... But most people don’t actually like it when their children’s lives are ‘discounted’ in some one else’s Excel spreadsheet, and they tend to have a moral aversion to the idea of allowing whole countries to disappear be-
cause saving them would be too expensive.” From her chapter titled “Dimming the Sun,” in which scientists contemplate spraying sulfates into the stratosphere, just as volcanoes do, in order to cool the planet by mitigating the heat from sunshine, she writes, “We would have a roof, not a sky—a milky geo-engineered ceiling gazing down on a dying acidified sea.” Finally, do climate change deniers wonder how their own descendants will view this intransigence? Klein’s view is this: “We have options. ... To fail to exercise those options— which is exactly what we are collectively doing—knowing full well that the failure could force government to rationalize “risking” turning whole nations, even subcontinents, into sacrificed zones, is a decision our children may judge as humanity’s single most immoral act.” Beth Taylor Wilson Missoula
Makes no sense Try as I might, I cannot think of a rational reason why anybody would oppose Medicaid expansion for the 70,000 low-income Montanans who are without health care. Besides helping those of our fellow citizens who need it most, who live in fear of getting sick and being financially crushed by it, it would create thousands of jobs (and which politician isn’t pounding the table on jobs?) and bring billions of dollars to our state over the next several years. The clincher, of course, is that the federal government will pay 100 percent of the cost for the next two years, and after that they will cover 90 percent. Poor Montanans who can’t afford a doctor’s visit now wait until their condition gets so bad that they end up in the emergency room, when earlier intervention would have been much more effective, medically and financially. Expanded Medicaid would not only improve health outcomes, but would also reduce Montana’s uncompensated care expenses, which cost hospitals and the state over $400 million each year. Twenty-eight other states have expanded Medicaid, including “red” states like North Dakota, Arkansas, Kentucky, Indiana and Arizona, hardly hotbeds of liberalism. Their leaders understand that providing health care for their poorer citizens and improving their state’s economy is simply good government and not just an excuse for a political brawl. Montana’s taxpayers are already paying for expanded health care, but for people in in 27 other states. Why wouldn’t we bring our own tax dollars back home, help our poorer fellow citizens live healthier lives and boost our state’s economy? I’m with Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who recently told Republican lawmakers: “I gotta tell you, [refusing to return] your money back to Montana on an ideological basis, when people can lose their lives because they get no help, doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.” Klaus von Stutterheim Seeley Lake
missoulanews.com • February 5–February 12, 2015 [5]
[news]
WEEK IN REVIEW
VIEWFINDER
by Cathrine L. Walters
Wednesday, January 28 Federal prosecutors ask a judge to dismiss Jordan Linn Graham’s appeal of her seconddegree murder conviction and 30-year sentence for pushing her husband off a cliff in Glacier National Park in 2013.
Thursday, January 29 After hitting vehicles and leading police on a brief pursuit, Carol Ann Burrafato drives a Chevy Malibu the wrong way down Front Street and crashes into a Jeep. Burrafato breaks both of her ankles and will face four felony charges.
Friday, January 30 Early in the morning, two masked men steal an ATM from a Polson bank. The machine is later found alongside Highway 28, between Elmo and Hot Springs, with cash missing, but the suspects are not identified.
Saturday, January 31 University of Montana alumnus and Oscarnominee J.K. Simmons hosts “Saturday Night Live” for the first time, starring as a man baffled by Microsoft Word, a stressedout high school principal and the legendary rapper Nas.
Sunday, February 1 Montana Public Radio broadcasts Sen. Jon Tester’s appearance on the NPR quiz show “Wait, Wait ... Don’t Tell Me!” Host Peter Sagal introduces the Big Sandy farmer as the only senator “to regularly travel to Washington with a 40-pound suitcase filled with meat he butchered himself.”
Monday, February 2 Missoula state Rep. Kim Dudik introduces House Bill 89 to the House Judiciary Committee. The law would strengthen penalties for perpetrators of human trafficking and also increase funding and protections for victims.
Tuesday, February 3 Knitting Factory announces two big additions to Big Sky Brewing’s Summer Concert Series: On May 24, former Missoulian Colin Meloy will bring the Decemberists to town. Five days later, alt-country rocker Ryan Adams will perform.
Lindsey Schwickert, front, performs with Headwaters Dance Company during Mamalode Magazine’s Burning (mini)Van event at Flanagan Motors on Jan. 30. Attendees were encouraged to write down regrets and hopes to toss into the “van” before lighting it on fire.
Breweries
Legislative showdown looms After an industry dispute late last year prompted several members of the Alcohol Beverage Coalition to publicly leave the group, the promise of a showdown during the 2015 Legislature over potential changes to Montana’s brewery laws seemed imminent. Now the Montana Beer and Wine Distributors Association and a collection of independent brewers have officially countered the “stacked license” proposal favored by the Alcohol Beverage Coalition with a one-page bill aimed simply at increasing the existing barrel limit on craft beer production. Blackfoot River Brewing co-owner Brad Simshaw sees that counter offer—sponsored by Rep. Doc Moore, R-Missoula—as a “much more cautious attempt” at change. He and other members of the socalled “Coalition for Beer Fairness” have gone so far as to nickname it the “Pro-Beer Act.” “Simply put, [House Bill] 336 is a very simple bill,” Simshaw says. “It just increases the cap from 10,000 to 60,000 without attaching another limitation on it as
is found in the stacking bill.” But John Iverson, lobbyist for the Montana Tavern Association, sees fewer businesses in the state ultimately benefiting from HB 336 than from the Alcohol Beverage Coalition’s HB 326. The MTA and the Montana Brewers Association have long been at odds, Iverson says, but have managed to find common ground in allowing breweries and bars alike to stack retail and brewing licenses. “I think what’s compelling about 326 is it provides two pathways to growth for existing breweries, and also creates a pathway of opportunity for [bar] license holders looking to grow their business,” Iverson says. “[HB] 336 only creates one type of pathway for one type of brewery.” Iverson adds that he has several “exciting, young tavern owners” prepared to testify in the legislature regarding their intent to start brewing beer. HB 336 proponents, however, argue that HB 326 will ultimately benefit bars far more than brewers due to the limited availability of retail licenses in certain communities resulting from Montana’s quota system. As Dennis Himmelberger of Himmelberger Brewing in
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[6] Missoula Independent • February 5–February 12, 2015
Billings stated in a release from the Coalition for Beer Fairness, “The stacked license bill seems slanted to the benefit of the MTA owners. That bill allows them to buy a brewery, it inflates the value of their licenses, (and) it increases MTA membership.” Both bills are scheduled for hearings before the House Business and Labor Committee Feb. 6. Simshaw doesn’t anticipate the debate becoming as contentious as in previous legislative sessions, noting that social media has so far been much quieter on the issue than in past years. “I think both sides will take it as an opportunity to tell their side of the story,” he says, “and—I hope, anyway—not so much ripping into the other side.” Alex Sakariassen
Urban Forest
Making a plan A recent meeting to discuss a nearly complete draft of Missoula’s new Urban Forest Management Master Plan didn’t get off to the most inspiring start. “If you feel the need to fall asleep, by all means
[news]
feel free to do it,” said Chris Boza, Missoula’s city forester, as the lights went down and the PowerPoint presentation began. It was the first of two public open-house meetings the city was hosting in a Southgate Mall conference room on a recent Thursday, and at least one attendee accepted Boza’s permission to doze off. Most in the small audience, however, seemed deeply engaged as Boza described the city’s urgent need to develop a comprehensive strategy for planting and maintaining its trees. According to Boza, the city’s been skating by without a plan or sufficient funds for far too long. Missoula’s urban tree population is small and sick, Boza said, and if we don’t act soon, we could lose what canopy we do have. An ongoing census suggests there are some 30,000 trees on city property, including along roads and trails and in parks. Of those, about 9,000 are Norway maples, most of which were planted in the late 19th century, when white settlers began putting down roots in what was then a treeless valley. Since many of those maples were planted at the same time, they are all reaching the ends of their lifespans at approximately the same time. “Over a third of our urban forest is going to be dying out in the next few years,” Boza said. The Urban Forest Management Master Plan, which city council authorized in December 2013, provides a blueprint for how the city can replace the trees with a more diverse, healthy and well-distributed canopy. Implementing such a strategy isn’t just a matter of adding shade, Boza said. There’s also substantial economic benefit to be accrued from reducing energy expenditures, increasing air quality and improving the city’s aesthetics. According to the draft plan, the annual economic benefit of the city’s trees comes out to just under $2.5 million. The plan enumerates 14 goals, which range from establishing an “aggressive planting program” to managing “insect pests in a proactive manner.” But achieving those goals requires increasing the current urban forestry budget of $375,129, though Boza can’t yet exactly say by how much. Hence, Goal 13: “Investigate funding sources to ensure the urban forest is properly managed and maintained.” Could the city sell carbon
credits to raise money? What about a 1-cent local gas tax? Will the city start a licensing system for bicyclists to generate income? All of these options, and others, are suggested in the plan. After Boza’s presentation, while attendees were putting stickers on poster-size charts to indicate their priorities for the plan and for spending, Karen Sippy talked about the need to encourage greater public involvement in, and awareness of, the city’s urban forest. Sippy is the executive director of the nonprofit Trees for Missoula, and she says her group is eager to do what it can to spread information, raise money and organize volunteers to assist the city with the huge job of managing its trees. “[The urban forest] is going to be devastated if we don’t start on this 20 years ago,” Sippy said. “But it’s never too late.” Ted McDermott
Agriculture
Lettuce on Mars Jeff Pernell says his “pie-in-the-sky dream is to put farms in space.” That is why he founded Galactic Farms, a company devoted to developing futuristic agricultural technology and techniques. For now, however, he’s starting here on Earth—and specifically, in the University of Montana’s Lommasson Center. There, Pernell has partnered with UM Dining to install the SPACE 200 in the Corner Store. SPACE stands for Sustainable Probiotic Aquaponics Cultivation Ecosystem. “It’s very geeky,” Pernell says of the acronym. “But it basically describes exactly what it is.” At its most basic level, the SPACE 200 is a big, plastic-and-metal structure that circulates water as a means of efficiently growing food. The water begins in a 200gallon tank filled with perch. The fish are fed worms from UM Dining’s nearby garden. Once the perch’s effluent, either in the form of air or solid waste, has been filtered to rid it of bacteria, a sump pump moves the nutrient-rich water to the top of the structure and lets it flow down a series of metal towers. A variety of leafy greens are planted vertically in the towers, in a soilless substance, and the water feeds their roots on its way back down to the fish tank. The plants also receive sustenance from a series of pink LED lights that imbue the system with an appropriately otherworldly glow. While Pernell says the SPACE 200 isn’t the perfect closed system he’s aiming to create—it relies on external electricity to pump the water and power the lights;
BY THE NUMBERS
1
Official tackles registered by former Griz standout Brock Coyle in Super Bowl XLIX. Coyle, a rookie linebacker for Seattle, is the first University of Montana alumnus to play in a Super Bowl.
the perch can’t be harvested—he’s excited about the opportunity to test his somewhat radical ideas about sustainable agriculture. He believes this system, and others like it, will allow farmers to prolong the growing season in inhospitable climates, thereby expanding opportunities for local cultivation around the world— and beyond it. Pernell, a former teacher who first experimented with these ideas while enrolled in the university’s Environmental Studies program, also hopes his system will spark the involvement of others. Though UM Dining only officially unveiled the SPACE 200 in January, interest in the project is spreading. Natasha Hegmann, UM Dining’s garden manager, says she’s “had lots of student interest already” and plans to hire an intern to help manage the project in the near future. In the meantime, Pernell and Hegmann, who’s helping manage the system, are focused on their first crop of SPACE-grown lettuce, Swiss chard, nasturtiums, kale, bok choy and basil. The plants are growing somewhat unevenly in their upright rows, but Hegmann is optimistic the first harvests will occur sometime this month. When that happens, the greens will be used in the university’s dining system. “Now, it’s just a big experiment,” Hegmann says. “We get to figure out what all we can grow in here, how fast we can grow it, how much of it we can grow. There’s just a lot of potential. We’re right at the beginning right now.” Though Pernell is trying to stay grounded and says his primary goal is to improve “life on this earth,” he has big dreams about where the project might lead. He can’t help think about the extraterrestrial potential, despite the challenges. He says he’s already experimenting at home with how to use vacuums to circulate water in low-gravity environments. “In the future, it’s my hope, if I get really lucky, I’ll be able to send something up [into space] with some project,” Pernell says. “They’re already talking about putting lettuce on Mars. That kind of stuff just lights my fire. I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, there’s people putting a salad bar on Mars already.’ I don’t know why that makes me super excited, but it does.” Ted McDermott
ETC. As the U.S. Senate inched closer to approving TransCanada’s Keystone XL proposal last week, cleanup crews continued to wrestle with the latest oil pipeline disaster on the Yellowstone River. Updates from the Montana Department of Environmental Quality were less than encouraging. Of the estimated 735 barrels in the waterway itself, the agency was reporting successful recovery of only 41. Warm weather and shifting ice conditions complicated the state’s spill response even as Sens. Jon Tester and Steve Daines voted in favor of the Keystone XL and hailed its Jan. 29 passage. It’s taken Montana just four years and one river to spin a cautionary tome about the pitfalls of oil pipelines. Some Keystone proponents argue the spills and leaks of recent years are due to aging infrastructure, and the new pipeline’s design should alleviate any concerns. But such arguments seem to ignore the industry’s apparent inability to learn from its mistakes. Take the 2011 Silvertip Pipeline rupture near Laurel, which released some 1,509 barrels of oil into the Yellowstone and, according to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, caused an estimated $135 million in property damage. City officials had repeatedly cautioned ExxonMobil that seasonal flooding could expose the pipeline underwater and undermine its integrity. While PHMSA’s investigation concluded the company had taken “reasonable precautions” to address those concerns, the problems presented by that specific environmental factor don’t appear to have translated downstream. During the latest cleanup, DEQ found the Poplar Pipeline—owned by Wyoming-based Bridger Pipeline LLC—exposed on the riverbed. The depth of the pipeline was last confirmed in fall 2011. The Poplar spill isn’t the first for Bridger either. The company purchased its pipeline network from Shell back in 2003, and has since recorded some 258 barrels of oil released in seven separate incidents. Most were small, though PHMSA records reveal one incident in 2012 involving 150 barrels spilled and $71,290 in property damage. Bridger was fined by PHMSA in 2009 for procedural violations, but the penalty was eventually knocked from $70,000 down to $45,000. Outrage over the passage of the Keystone XL— and Tester’s vote in favor of it—was palpable on social media last week. No wonder. The Yellowstone alone has seen two major spills, the latest of which temporarily fouled the municipal water supply in Glendive. TransCanada can guarantee safety all it wants, but until the industry and our regulatory agencies prove they can finally learn from an oft-repeated lesson, the public is justified in questioning the addition of 1,179 miles of pipe to the equation.
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missoulanews.com • February 5–February 12, 2015 [7]
Beverage Drinkers’ Profile
[news]
Ari Deann Rebecca
Family In February
Land lapse Transfer movement raises fears over public access by Alex Sakariassen
What brings you to the Iron Horse? We’re driving a new car from Washington to Kalispell. We’re celebrating Rebecca’s b-day on our way. Plus, we have a picky eater and we all love the fries here!
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[8] Missoula Independent • February 5–February 12, 2015
The Nature Conservancy late last month closed an $85 million deal for 117,152 acres along the Blackfoot River, building on nearly a decade and a half of work securing long-term protections for parcels formerly held by Plum Creek Timber. Wildland advocates, sportsmen and elected officials hailed the purchase as a boon for conservation, public access and economic opportunity. But those same voices have grown increasingly concerned that a political movement gaining momentum throughout the West could result in a major backslide for public land ownership. Over the past few years, Republican lawmakers in a number of western states have expressed a desire to see Congress transfer tens of millions of acres of federal lands into state hands. The movement is spearheaded largely by the American Lands Council and its founder, Utah Rep. Ken Ivory, who in 2012 authored the first and so far only transfer of public lands bill to pass into law. In Montana, the idea has caught on not only among some county governments but a number of state legislators as well. The Montana Republican Party last year voted to include transfer of public lands as a plank in its official platform. “The folks that understand the issue support it pretty broadly,” says Sen. Jennifer Fielder, R-Thompson Falls, whose agenda for the 2015 Montana Legislature is in part focused on exploring the transfer of public lands. “There’s resource specialists, there’s county commissioners, there’s general citizens, sportsmen. We see what’s going on on the landscape out there and it’s not good. Federal lands are being locked up, they’re being mismanaged. The policies coming out of Washington, D.C., have basically failed.” The issue became a flashpoint for the legislature’s Environmental Quality Council over the past two years as it conducted an interim study of federal land management in Montana. Hundreds of state residents submitted comments expressing everything from outrage to embarrassment that a takeover of federal lands was even being considered. Fielder says the study highlighted a host of problem areas in federal management, from wildfire control to public access. She adds the study’s findings prompted her to request several bills in 2015, including a measure to launch another interim study, this one aimed specifically at transfer of public lands. In response to Fielder’s proposals and the movement in general, the Montana Wilderness Association plans to hold a rally outside the state Capitol Feb. 16 opposing
the transfer of public lands. The nonprofit is one of many voices arguing that the financial burden resulting from such a move would inevitably force the state to sell off vast acres of property. U.S. Sen. Jon Tester stands firmly against the transfer idea for that very reason, as does Gov. Steve Bullock. “It’s unrealistic to think that we could take all of these lands in and that this legislature would have an appetite to pay for the management of those lands,” Bullock tells the Independent. Proponents of the land transfer have often bolstered their position by repeating Bullock’s comments about shortcomings in federal land management in Montana. The American Lands Council in 2013 released a
formed, and it’s not locally grown. The last point there is the thing that bothers me the most about it. This is a conversation that’s been generated by the American Lands Council and sold to a legislator to carry. That’s not a Montana way, and that’s certainly not how Montanans operate.” Fielder says she doesn’t buy into the fear that a transfer would reverse the work of groups like TNC and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and result in public lands passing into private hands. Despite estimates from Bullock’s office that state ownership of federal lands could result in a $40 million annual increase in firefighting costs alone, Fielder believes the land and its resources can fund itself. It’s Con-
photo courtesy of Kenton Rowe
The Nature Conservancy hopes to transition more than 117,000 acres of Plum Creek land purchased near the Blackfoot River last month into public hands. But some now fear the movement to transfer federal lands to state control will result in more private holdings and less public access.
heavily edited video of Bullock outlining those complaints before the Western Governors’ Association, a video Bullock says “amused” him. “By and large, it seems to me like it’s still something that a small group are speaking of,” he says, “and something that is irresponsible for the long-term best interests of our state.” Conservation advocates like TNC, however, are far from entertained. Given the widespread public acclaim garnered by the latest purchase and its predecessor, the 310,000-acre Montana Legacy Project, TNC land conservation specialist Mary Hollow questions just how much public support the transfer of public lands has in the state. She adds that small communities like those along the Blackfoot River are the people who have approached TNC about acquiring private property for public ownership in the first place. “It’s a very disappointing dialogue in my opinion,” Hollow says. “It is not well in-
gress, she says, that’s attempting to sell public lands to the highest bidder. She doesn’t want to see those lands sold, she adds, and is “going to take some steps to prevent the sales” during this session. Fielder claims she knows numerous hunters and anglers who support the transfer of public lands. But Joe Perry, a barley farmer, hunter and co-founder of the Montana Sportsmen Alliance, says he knows of no one in the sportsmen community supporting the idea. After all the work various groups have put into securing land for public access, Perry considers the transfer debate frustrating and “very real.” “They want the people of the United States—that’s all people of the United States—to give land to the state of Montana and other states,” he says. “What about those other people that live in other states? I can’t hardly imagine they’d be very tickled about that.” asakariassen@missoulanews.com
missoulanews.com • February 5–February 12, 2015 [9]
[opinion]
Charming the snake A downtown ban on cheap booze avoids the real issue by Dan Brooks
On Tuesday, Mayor John Engen’s Downtown Advisory Committee took up a proposal to restrict the sale downtown of tall boys and pint vodka. Deputy City Attorney Keith Worthington said participating retailers would volunteer not to sell Colt 45 and other cheap liquors, as well as be provided with a “no-sell” list of people who were prohibited from drinking after criminal offenses. The word “homeless” did not appear in this proposal. The Missoulian described it as appealing to “those with their eye on ridding downtown Missoula of unwanted behavior and problematic individuals.” I assume they mean me. There’s nothing I like better than loading up on King Cobra and traveling from business to business helping people understand my unique perspective. I call it Charming the Snake or, when that brand is unavailable, Steeling the Reserve. Both plans start and end the same way: I first become extremely funny and charismatic, then spend as much money as possible before vomiting. I can see how the city would want to discourage such behavior. The intermediary step—after funny but before vomit—is usually to eat a pound of huckleberry fudge, purchase a bronze statue of a trout, seduce the mannequin at Desmond’s or otherwise patronize a downtown business. If the Business Improvement District could keep me from reaching the vomit stage so quickly, the local economy would probably benefit. But my concern is that in its haste to stem the reckless behavior of freespending individuals like myself, this measure might accidentally affect people for whom $3 worth of Natural Ice is the capstone purchase of the day. It’s the same way that the prohibition against sitting downtown—intended to keep shoppers from collapsing on the sidewalk under the weight of their purchases— inadvertently punished people with no money who were very, very tired. I’m worried that this measure, intended for all of us, will disproportionately impact a small and vulnerable minority.
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[10] Missoula Independent • February 5–February 12, 2015
I daresay those people have suffered enough. Problematic though they may be, with their low purchasing power and periodic bouts of oratory, their behavior has already been amply punished. These people are the opposite of me: cheap liquor is not the cause of their suffering but a brief escape from it.
“If the city wants to discourage us from getting wasted downtown, it should ensure that more of us have the opportunity to get wasted at home.” People drinking on the street is a problem, but I’m not sure the problem is drinking. If the city wants to discourage us from getting wasted downtown, it should ensure that more of us have the opportunity to get wasted at home. To that end, I draw your attention to the other big story in where to drink King Cobra this week: the opening of eight new units in the John Lynn Apartments. Intended for people who have been homeless and suffer from disabilities, the apartments rent for $250 a month and attracted 55 applicants in three days. Many of those applicants were living in cars or at the Poverello Center. Chances are some of the money they weren’t spending on rent went to tall boys and pint vodka. Ac-
cording to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Annual Homeless Assessment Report, 35 percent of people who lived in shelters in 2010 had chronic substance abuse problems. Maybe those people would stop drinking if they had apartments. Maybe they would just pound tall boys and yell in the comfort of their own homes. Either way, they would not be drunk downtown. I think the Downtown Advisory Committee’s liquor proposal has a lot of merit. There’s no question that cheap liquor can make people unpleasant, even if it also makes us funnier and subtly but significantly taller. But what makes people want cheap liquor? Two things: fundamental defects of character, and the knowledge that sooner or later, they will have to go to sleep on the ground. In its ongoing effort to regulate those of us in the defective character population, the city should be careful not to accidentally punish the ground sleepers. The only reliable way to do that is to get them into homes. Otherwise, we risk giving the impression that our main objection to people living on the streets is that they keep demanding our attention. I think anyone with a downtown business or sunroof will agree that people should stop selling me malt liquor. Binge drinking is among my top six problems. The catch is that for some people, drinking is not even a shortlist problem. It’s a solution. If we intend to deny such people tall boys, we should give them another way to stop thinking about how cold and sad and desperate they are. Two kinds of people get drunk downtown, and I am the kind we want to discourage: the kind with something better to do. If we want to improve downtown without accidentally punishing the other kind, we need to give them somewhere else to go. Dan Brooks writes about politics, culture and stuck-up mannequins at combatblog.net.
[opinion]
Starving students Montana master’s candidate explains the reality of food stamps by Erica Langston
I am my father’s pride and joy, a graduate of the University of Florida, a Fulbright scholar, a master’s degree candidate at the University of Montana and a food stamp recipient. Without that assistance, I wouldn’t be at college; I’d probably be working at a restaurant, coffee bar or supermarket. This year marks another wave of food stamp reductions as a result of President Obama’s decision to sign the Farm Bill that Congress passed early last year, which promises to cut $8.6 billion to the program over the next decade. It was one of the few actions of Obama’s presidency my father applauded. A 62-year-old retired warehouse worker, my father thinks of himself as bluecollar and often says that every man should earn his “fat.” Not long ago, I interrupted his rejoicing over the recent cutbacks and asked him how many people he knew who used food stamps. He immediately listed welfare queens, crack addicts and too many undeserving illegal immigrants. I repeated my question, “But how many do you know?” He searched his mental Rolodex before our eyes found each other. “That’s right,” I said. “One.” Several students in my graduate program are also on food stamps. A few are single mothers with young children, some are returning to school after 15 years of cubicle life, while others simply can’t close the gap between earning a minimum wage and the cost of living. We know that our situations are temporary, and one day, we hope, our higher education will help us secure a job that contributes heftily to the tax base.
But right now, we would be starving college students, or almost-starving students, or even not be students at all, were it not for food stamps. The students I know who rely on this government assistance all live frugal lives; they have roommates, drive older vehicles and have reliable work histories, during which they contributed their share of taxes.
“My father is hardly alone in making sweeping assumptions about welfare recipients.” Some of us do some teaching at the university, others make lattes and bus tables while balancing full course loads. We reuse plastic grocery bags as trash bin liners. We wash and reuse foil, pickle jars and Ziploc baggies. We have few addictions, the most common being cycling. When we entered the workforce with bachelor’s degrees in hand, we expected to find job security, benefits and a wage that could help us pay back student loans. What
we found was part-time work, no sick leave and a salary that couldn’t support even the most austere lifestyle. My father is hardly alone in making sweeping assumptions about welfare recipients. But while I have no doubt that some people abuse the food stamp system the way many others cheat and try to avoid paying their taxes, or the way that wealthy bankers try to game the banking system, I am convinced that there are countless families and individuals who would suffer without it. It may sound like a cliché, but food stamps function as a true safety net. When the program works the way it should, food stamps allow people the opportunity to transition away from government assistance and toward a more secure future. When I graduate in May 2015, I will have earned a master’s degree with the aid of government assistance, and with that degree I plan to join my community as a financially independent, stable, contributing taxpayer. While my father may continue to think that I did this by working hard and pulling myself up by my own bootstraps, as the saying goes, of course, he knows the truth: I was poor, I needed the federal government to keep me afloat while I got educated, and it was there to help me. Erica Langston is a contributor to Writers on the Range, a column service of High Country News (hcn.org ). She will graduate from UM in May with a Master of Science degree in Environmental Studies.
missoulanews.com • February 5–February 12, 2015 [11]
[quirks]
CURSES, FOILED AGAIN - Police said Eric Frey, 29, handed a pizza shop employee in Uniontown, Pa., a note written on toilet paper. “I have a gun,” it read. “Give me $300.” The worker hit the silent alarm, summoning police before Frey could leave. He explained that a bearded man had confronted him in a nearby alley and forced his action, but officers who searched Frey’s apartment found a newly opened roll of toilet paper with a pen impression from Frey’s note on the top sheet. (Associated Press) A masked man tried to rob a convenience store in New Haven, Conn., by pointing a finger at the clerk to “simulate” that he had a gun, police Officer David Hartman reported, noting, “But he didn’t have his hand in his pocket.” The clerk “grabbed the man’s finger and told him he’d break it if he didn’t get out of his shop,” Hartman said after the would-be robber fled. (New Haven Independent)
NON-SURPRISE OF THE WEEK - The Central Intelligence Agency admitted that at least half of the reported UFO sightings in the 1950s and 1960s were actually test flights of its super-secret U-2 spy plane. (United Press International) SECOND-AMENDMENT FOLLIES - Veronica J. Rutledge, 29, died after her 2-year-old son reached into her purse, grabbed her concealed gun and shot her in the head at a Wal-Mart store in Hayden, Idaho. (Associated Press) Tony Roe, 23, was shot in the chest at a home in Largo, Fla., while he and Dylan Harvey, 19, were playing a game with a loaded revolver. It involved rolling the chamber and then taking turns pointing the gun at each other, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies said Harvey was holding the weapon when it fired. (Tampa Bay Times) Former police officer Darrell Smith, 58, accidentally shot off his finger with a .380-caliber handgun at a gun store in Glasgow, Ky. He asked to see the weapon and was examining it when it fired. Even though Smith didn’t do a safety check on the gun before handling it, he insisted the employee who handed it to him should have, so he’s suing Barren Outdoors for negligence. (Bowling Green’s WBKO-TV)
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Authorities said that Michael Foster, 43, saw Clarence Daniels, 62, getting out of his vehicle in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart store in Brandon, Fla., and noticed he had a gun in a hip holster under his coat. Foster followed Daniels inside, put him in a chokehold and yelled that Daniels had a gun. Daniels shouted that he had a permit. Sheriff’s deputies arrested Foster and charged him with battery. “We understand it’s alarming for people to see other people with guns,” sheriff’s official Larry McKinnon said, “but Florida has a large population of concealed weapons permit holders.” (Tampa Bay Times)
SAVING BUTTER - Researchers investigating reports of Canadian lobsters off England’s northern coast concluded that passengers on cruise ships have been ordering live lobsters and then, in an animal-rights gesture, asking their waiters to throw the shellfish overboard. Local fishermen have even found some of the lobsters with rubber bands around their claws. Removed from their native habitat, however, the lobsters “won’t last much longer than if the passengers had eaten them for dinner,” according to Mike Cohen of Holderness Fishing Industry Group. (Britain’s Daily Mail)
BITTERROOT R OO
DROP IN THE BUCKET - The Government Accountability Office decided that taxpayers should stop providing federal employees who bring their lunch to work with “disposable cups, plates and cutlery” because the items “clearly constitute a personal expense.” The decision stems from a Department of Commerce policy of supplying hand sanitizer, paper goods and plastic ware to National Weather Service workers that began during a 2009 flu outbreak. When the Commerce Department stopped providing the goods in 2013, NWS employees filed an official complaint. “There’s no way this could cost them more than $5,000 or $10,000,” Dan Sobien, president of the NWS employee organization, said after the GAO ruling. (The Washington Post)
SERIES
WHEN GUNS ARE OUTLAWED - Irish police Detective Paul Johnson thwarted two men he observed robbing a convenience store in Dublin by arming himself with a traffic cone, which he used to push the men down when they exited. (The Irish Times) An Alabama middle school principal asked students to bring canned food to school to throw at possible intruders. In a letter to parents, Priscilla Holley of W.F. Burns Middle School in Valley said an 8-ounce can of peas or corn “could stun the intruder or even knock him out until the police arrive. The canned food item will give the students a sense of empowerment to protect themselves.” (Associated Press) Police arrested Jeremiah Genesis Taylor, 25, after he argued with his pregnant girlfriend in Millington, Tenn., and hit her in the face and chest with some steaks. (Memphis’s WHBQ-TV) Workers at a reptile pet shop in Delray Beach, Fla., accused owner Benjamin Siegel, 40, of slapping them with a bearded dragon lizard. The victims said Siegel placed the lizard in his mouth and began hitting them with it. He also threw Gatorade at them, and tossed the large lizard into the air and swung it around. Siegel was arrested on battery and animal cruelty charges. (Broward-Palm Beach New Times)
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[12] Missoula Independent • February 5–February 12, 2015
FRUITS OF THEIR LABORS - Oklahoma lawmakers are at odds over the state’s produce. Sen. Nathan Dahm introduced a measure to repeal watermelon’s title as Oklahoma’s official vegetable, an honor lawmakers bestowed in 2007. Dahm pointed out that watermelon is a fruit, not a vegetable, but the state fruit title isn’t available because it was awarded to the strawberry. Dahm said watermelon could be named the state’s seasonal fruit or the state’s melon, but Rep. Scooter Park denounced such a move, declaring, “We will defend, support and make sure it is upheld as the state vegetable for Oklahoma.” (Tulsa World) SLIPPERY SLOPES - China earmarked nearly $90 million to divert water to make snow in Chongli, a provincial town in an arid region on the edge of the Gobi Desert, in an effort to win its bid for the 2022 winter Olympics. As a result of the government’s recent emphasis on winter sports, the number of skiers in China has risen from 10,000 in 1996 to 20 million, according to the Chinese Ski Association. High water demand for snowmaking by existing ski facilities around Beijing has led to a government crackdown on new golf courses. (The Economist)
missoulanews.com • February 5–February 12, 2015 [13]
n its 12th year, the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival looks more and more like the multimedia world we see around us. It’s not that the classic interview/footage kind of documentary is gone—far from it. Stories about underground punk rock in Cambodia, straight investigative features on political cover-ups and in-depth profiles on oddball artists will never go out of style. But the form is changing in new and exciting ways. As evidence, this year’s festival includes a retrospective of experimental filmmaker Sam Green’s live-scored works and a wildly intricate stop-motion feature animation by Missoula artist Andy Smetanka. Legendary photographer, filmmaker and music producer John Cohen, who’s worked with Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie, as well as documented traditional Appalachian music, exhibits his work at The Brink Gallery and plays a concert with Missoula’s Scrapyard Lullaby. Besides the multimedia events, this year’s festival offers 125-plus short and feature non-fiction films, plus concerts, parties and Q&As with directors. As usual, the 11-day schedule offers too much for us to cover everything. But we’ve singled out a few award favorites and surprise sleepers for review, and spoken with three fascinating filmmakers who are doing their best to push the limits of documentaries.
I
Live and in-person Sam Green on the liberated world of filmmaking by Sarah Aswell
Tell me how you got into documentary filmmaking. Sam Green: I grew up in Michigan. I went to journalism school at UC Berkley and I just happened to take a class in documentary films and totally fell in love with it. I’ve been making films ever since. And that was about 20 years ago.
struggling with it. Someone asked me to do a presentation about the project while I was in the middle of editing it. So I decided to show some clips and talk and to make things fancier, I’d get my friend, Dave, to do some live music. I was very charmed by that form. It worked. It did all the things I wanted the film to do. There was a liveness and a collective experience to it that I found very striking. For filmmakers these days, you have to accept that people are watching your film on a laptop while they’re checking Facebook. Or on the subway. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I really love the magic of cinema, the experience of the theater, the lights go down, you’re with strangers, you turn your phone off, you give yourself over to this bigger experience. I still want my work to be experienced in that way.
Why live documentaries? SG: I was making an experimental documentary about utopia and I was
Do you worry that your live documentaries can’t be easily accessed or watched?
Sam Green, a San Francisco- and New York-based multimedia filmmaker, unleashes two films at this year’s festival, both of which he will narrate live. One, The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller, is live-scored by popular experimental rockers Yo La Tengo (it marks the second time the band has scored a film at BSDFF). The other is The Measure of All Things, live scored by T. Griffin, Catherine McRae and Brendan Canty of Fugazi. We spoke with Green about the promising art of documentary filmmaking in a world of new media.
[14] Missoula Independent • April 13–April 20, 2012
SG: It is a tradeoff for sure. By doing live stuff, I can’t just send people a link. And someone in Tempe, Ariz., can’t check out my movie in the middle of the night. It’s a smaller audience. But I’d say I’m more interested in a smaller number of people having a more meaningful experience than a lot of people having a less meaningful experience. That’s better than having a million people click on it and then go on to the next YouTube video. What kinds of stories and themes inspire you to make films? What ties your films together? SG: I’m interested in hope and idealism and the difficulty of having those things in the world today ... The Weather Underground is about people trying to do the right thing under difficult and complex circumstances and muddling through that, in some ways nobly and some ways not. Buckminster Fuller is also about somebody utterly determined to change the world and sort of succeed-
Sam Green
photo courtesy of Joanna Eldredge Morrissey
ing and sort of not. There’s hopefulness and melancholy. Tell me a bit more about The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller.
SG: I love that piece, if you can say that about your own work. Buckminster Fuller is such a wonderful figure and I’m fond of him. All of the material is out of his archives, so it’s a collage of the stuff
he saved over the years. And Yo La Tango is just so great. Their music in my mind perfectly captures an emotional tone. I always enjoy doing it and we change it each time to incorporate some local stuff. When we did a show in Boston, Buckminster Fuller was from Boston so we worked in a lot of Boston material. We’ve done 20 or 25 shows and I thought Missoula, Mont., would be the first place where I’m going to get shut out. But just yesterday I learned that he spoke at the University of Montana in ’75 or ’76. And I got a contact sheet of photos of him speaking there. I’m really excited about that.
REVIEWS Love and Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere This film had the weird effect of making me want to move to the small, isolated town of Chadron, Neb. High aerial shots of houses surrounded by so much beige nothing, combined with the odd,
who has autism. Ballantine (that’s the author’s pen name) shares an intimate story of his own suicidal ideation. He had moved to Chadron as a lonely, failed writer intent on killing himself— until he started to feel a little better. The question of loneliness and suicide are woven through this picture with
and indomitable spirit dominated the film, and it became one of the Sundance Film Festival’s darlings of that year. It’s hilarious, but uplifting and inspiring to see someone doing what they love. In Kung Fu Elliot, the new documentary by Matthew Bauckman and Jaret Belliveau, the main character, Elliot, is also
That sounds like another benefit of the live documentary. SG: Yes, they change all the time, and I am always making them better. Hopefully. You will be showing movies featuring live music. How’s that experience? SG: There are some films where the director and composer barely ever see each other. With Yo La Tango, I went out to their practice studio in Hoboken and we put the whole thing all together. It happened really fast. Same with The Measure of All Things. We did that in my friend’s basement. I’m fascinated by how musicians work and how they create music. I also think the end product is much stronger. We make things that pop. The music and the images have much more of a rich relationship because it comes out of this intense and organic process of being in the room together. What’s going on in the world of documentary filmmaking that has you excited right now? SG: Man, I am super excited about the world of documentary filmmaking! In a sense, it’s in a moment of great flux and opening. For a lot of people this is a slightly traumatic moment, because for 70 years, filmmaking has been done in roughly the same way. We’re at a moment where everything is coming apart. Some of it does suck. The economics have fallen through the floor, and that’s not good. But the image has been totally liberated. I see my own work also as part of this. As opening up a conversation about what documentary form can be. In some ways, I am referencing much older forms in filmmaking. In early cinema, there was live music and live narrative. At the same time, it’s only been a couple of years where I could travel to Missoula with my laptop and show, in a very flexible way, great images on a screen. It’s a whole huge world. Sam Green presents The Love Song of Buckminster Fuller with Yo La Tengo at the Wilma Wed., Feb. 11, at 8 PM, and The Measure of All Things with Brendan Canty, T. Griffin and Catherine McRae at the Dennison Theatre Sat., Feb. 14, at 8 PM.
Love and Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere
eloquent people interviewed made me feel as though if I lived there, I would be known. And if by chance someday they found my scorched body tied to a tree in the hills under mysterious circumstances, the people of Chadron would wonder what had happened to me. This is the subject of Dave Jannetta’s feature length documentary Love and Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere, based on the book of the same name by author Poe Ballantine. The book concerns itself with the 2006 disappearance of Steven Haataja, who had moved to the town just three months prior to teach math at the state college. We have at the center of this thing a death that can be explained by two prevailing narratives: Either Haataja marched up the inhospitable path in order to kill himself, or he was murdered. Given the circumstances and what little evidence we have, neither story makes any damn sense. And of course there are any number of variations, like maybe he had help. But who? The film interviews several of Haataja’s friends and colleagues from the university, as well as members of law enforcement and a few random interested parties for good measure. Through these interviews we learn surprisingly little about the victim. He had a history of suicidal depression, yet he didn’t seem so depressed in the months leading up to his death. He was a nerdy math guy who seemed to be adjusting relatively well to his new life. He’s almost a dead end. Thankfully the scope of this picture has the good sense to meander some into the lives of other citizens of Chadron. We spend a lot of time getting to know the book’s author and his family, which includes his Mexican wife and their son,
an affable amateur filmmaker with a drive that inspires others around him. In Elliot’s case, though, he doesn’t want to make a horror movie, he wants to be Canada’s first real action star, a la Jackie Chan, Chuck Norris or Jean-Claude Van Damme. And though the film takes place in Canada, the American Dream themes of drive, vision and spirit abound. Kung Fu Elliot is hilarious, but unlike American Movie, not inspiring. In fact, the film takes some dark and surprising turns. The film begins with Elliot in Nova Scotia, already having developed a bit of a cult following. He’s working on his third film, a huge martial arts mess called Blood Drive. Through interviews with Elliot, his cast and his tiny crew, mostly made up of his best friend and his girlfriend, the film explores Elliot’s life, both past and present. For the first two acts, this exploration brings a lot of sympathy, and one can’t help but cheer for Elliot and his ridiculous dream, insipid though it may be. But as the film turns to the third act, and Elliot’s character is stripped down, the film gets ugly really fast. It’s not cool to throw spoilers out into the world, but suffice it to say secrets come out, and Elliot’s behavior becomes
Need to know WHEN: The festival runs Fri., Feb. 6, through Mon., Feb. 16 WHERE: All screenings are at the Wilma Theatre, Crystal Theatre or the Top Hat Lounge HOW MUCH: All-access pass: $299 All-screening pass: $149 Five-screening punch card: $32 Individual film tickets: $8/$6 students and seniors John Cohen with Scrapyard Lullaby at the Top Hat: $12/$10 advance Sam Green and Yo La Tengo present The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller at the Wilma: $28/$25 advance. $10 off for passholders. Sam Green with Brendan Canty, T. Griffin and Catherine McRae present The Measure of All Things at the Dennison Theater: $15/$12 advance. Tickets available online and at the Wilma box office. Visit bigskyfilmfest.org for more info.
a poetry you rarely find in documentaries. Love and Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere should not be missed. (Molly Laich) Love and Terror screens at the Wilma Fri., Feb. 6, at 10 PM and Sun., Feb. 8, at 2:15 PM. Big Sky Award competition.
Kung Fu Elliot In 1999, a flick named American Movie came out. It was a small documentary about an affable amateur filmmaker trying to make a horror movie called Coven. American themes of drive, vision
Kung Fu Elliot
missoulanews.com • February 5–February 12, 2015 [15]
more and more erratic, leading to an ending that’s incredibly shocking for an independent documentary. The ending is so surprising, and the story so nicely wrapped up, that one has to wonder if it was orchestrated somehow. Regardless, it’s an intriguing movie to watch as, in the end, it’s not about a man trying to make good. Rather, it’s about a man totally incapable of making good, and the complete collapse of his stupid, awful, B-movie dream. (Migizi Pensoneau) Kung Fu Elliot screens at the Wilma Sat., Feb. 7, at 9:15 PM.
The Possibilities Are Endless Every rock star should be so lucky as Edwyn Collins, a tough concept considering a bleed in his brain made him unable to do things like cut his own nails or strum his guitar. The thing is, he met this woman when he was in his prime. This was in the mid-’80s, after his Glasgow-based band
side Collins’ thoughts, some of which he can say and some of which are half there. In that way, this asks a lot of the audience. There’s a tiny taste of who Collins was, followed by at least 20 minutes of lovely/plodding nature footage under meandering/profound audio that turns out to be Collins and Maxwell. It’s quite the setup to what follows, which is a slightly more traditional, yet still artful telling of how Collins emerges. Acts I (lovely/plodding) and II (clearbut-arty) are separated by Collins repeating the name of the film several times. It turns out that when Collins woke up during his six-month hospital stay, he could only say and repeat the words “no,” “yes,” “Grace Maxwell” and “the possibilities are endless.” Maxwell took him home, to the place he grew up in Scotland, and helped him learn the rest. She’d put a pencil in his hand and he wouldn’t know what to do. Then he’d figure out how to draw a man, would draw him over and over, until Maxwell would say, “Could you draw me
Steady as he goes Andy Smetanka’s brutal but beautiful war by Erika Fredrickson Missoula filmmaker Andy Smetanka describes his art studio as being like Horton Hears a Who, the Dr. Seuss story of an elephant who discovers a tiny planet occupied by the community of Whoville. In fact, Smetanka’s space inside the Zootown Arts Community Center seems commonplace at first glance. There’s a computer and piles of papers, a light board and boxes
“I remember something [filmmaker] Guy Maddin told me,” Smetanka says. “He said it was the last war to be designed expressly for the delight of children, with its pointy helmets and steampunk tanks and funny gas masks.” And We Were Young balances that indulgence in aesthetics with the bleak reality of war. The narration—provided by locals like Al Pils, Andrew Rizzo, Roger Hedden and Jeff Medley—has been strung together from real life accounts of doughboys. It’s an impressionistic view of the war, where all the individual voices paint a shared portrait of the WWI experience. “I didn’t want the movie to be absolutely jam-packed with narration,” Smetanka says, “but what narration there is tells
And We Were Young
The Possibilities Are Endless
Orange Juice hit No. 8 on the UK chart with “Rip It Up” and before his solo hit, “Never Met a Girl Like You Before,” that groovy-hooky song you thought was in Pulp Fiction, but only should have been. (It was actually in Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle. Sorry.) This woman, Grace Maxwell, super dug him. He was quick and funny and preferred her company to others. And that’s where he got lucky. That story—the one about a rock star who goes on the radio and admits he’s not feeling great two days before a severe cerebral hemorrhage, who then climbs his way back to a semblance of himself with the help of his wife and his music—that’s the stuff of a watchable documentary. And, in fact, that got made as a half-hour BBC show not unlike “Behind the Music.” The Possibilities Are Endless isn’t that. This documentary takes a more properly artful approach, with scenes imagined in-
a bird?” That pushing happened enough that he became more like himself, writing lyrics again, then singing and being interviewed and performing. But he’s older now, 55, and more serious. So is she. They’re changed. She still digs him. He’s still lucky. Cue the sound of the sea. ( Jule Banville) The Possibilities Are Endless screens at the Wilma Mon., Feb. 9, at 6 PM.
Meet the Hitlers Director Matthew Ogens’s feature documentary Meet the Hitlers tackles the age-old question “What’s in a name?” by exploring the lives of a handful of subjects who share maybe the most provocative name in western civilization. They include an American teenager named Emily Hittler; Hitler Gutierrez, a South American immigrant living in Connecti-
[16] Missoula Independent • February 5–February 12, 2015
full of files lining several shelves. But inside the boxes, you can see what he means: Each file holds tiny paper silhouettes of people and objects—enough to feel like they could fill an entire planet, though perhaps one too dark for Seuss. “To start, we’ve got French ruins,” Smetanka says, reading the titles on the folders. “Airplanes, barbed wire, Paris inprogress and windows—all sorts.” There’s a file each for headless Germans, cameramen, mangled doughboys, mortars, casualties rolled in blankets, chlorine puffs, machine guns and tripods, fingers, bones and limbs, looting, open lifeboats, roosting blackbirds and crows, running dogs, manure piles, sailors, locust leaves and sprigs, American windmills, cars, skulls, ambulances, playing cards—and it goes on and on. This is the landscape of Smetanka’s new film, And We Were Young, which he describes succinctly as a “Super-8 stop-motion silhouette animation oral history of American doughboys in World War I.” “Who that is going to appeal to I have no idea,” he adds, laughing. “But that’s exactly what it is.” The feature documentary will be one of the more unusual offerings at the festival this year. So many historical documentaries are created through gritty photographs and raw footage, but the silhouette animation landscape Smetanka uses emphasizes a war that, oddly enough, had an artistic aesthetic. It was the last war where the United States dispatched poets and painters to document the field and the last to use artful propaganda posters. Even the war equipment had a certain appealing architecture.
the story of the average American who went to war and did it for adventure—who did it because his buddies were going or who did it out of maybe some lofty or high-minded idealism. And throughout the course of the movie they are gradually disabused of these innocent notions and they realize the cliché: war is hell.” Though Smetanka has built a reputation in Missoula on creating silhouette films—including a 2004 music video for The Decemberists—And We Were Young is by far his biggest project yet. It’s taken him three years since his 2011 Kickstarter campaign to meticulously cut the silhouettes, shoot each frame with a Super-8, collect the oral histories from memoirs and letters, record voiceovers and, all the while, apply for funding. Not just anyone could have the patience for such things. “It was an obsession,” Smetanka says. “It had to be an obsession. Now that I reflect on it it’s pretty weird, slightly reminiscent of that scene in The Shining when Wendy is going through all of what Jack’s been typing all winter: ‘All work and no play...’ “It could have happened slower,” Smetanka adds, “but I don’t think it could have happened much faster. Then again, if I’d known it was going to take this long—I think I would have done it anyway, but who can say? But I think one side effect is that anything else I do in the future will seem a little bit less enormous.” And We Were Young screens at the Wilma Mon., Feb. 16, at 6 PM.
tity as it intersects with a modern world that can never fully be rid of the past. (Molly Laich) Meet the Hitlers screens at the Wilma Sat., Feb. 14, at 11:30 AM and at the Crystal Theatre Sun., Feb. 15, at 5 PM. Feature competition.
There Will Be No Stay
Meet the Hitlers
cut; Gene Hitler, an affable old man from Salt Lake City; and Luaki Hitler, a native German who works as a helmsman on the ships. On the periphery, we also meet an artist named Jim Riswold out of Portland, Ore., who uses Hitler collectables in his satirical art projects. For some real-time, if not somewhat anti-climactic action, Ogens’s camera follows British journalist David Gardner as he researches the last living descendants of Adolf, who have long-since changed
their name and are living incognito somewhere in America. But it’s the neo-Nazi couple in New Jersey who really run away with this thing. Heath and Deborah Campbell garnered national attention in 2009 when a local grocery story refused to make a cake for their son that said, “Happy Birthday Adolf Hitler.” The Campbells saw it as an infringement of their basic rights, whereas the nation looked on in horror at a family who have gleefully branded their children into a culture of hate and discrimination.
Eventually child protective services got involved and began seizing each little Nazinamed youth as fast as their mother could have them. The couple attempts to take on the government by protesting the deplorable conditions of the American foster care system. You almost start to feel for them, until the dad gets on the horn and starts talking about how the system specifically discriminates against white children—let’s just say that it’s clear these people perceive the world through some funny-colored lenses.
Most of the Hilters Ogen speaks to are kind, family-oriented people with no extreme political affiliations to speak of. Talking to them, you get the sense that they have overcome and are even empowered by their distinct name. When asked what makes the name precious to him, Gene Hitler says, “Well that’s a philosophical question. I never thought of that.” Finally he concludes, “Because it was given to me by my parents.” Meet the Hitlers is an engrossing, surprisingly warm film about family and iden-
What does it take to erode the rockhard psyches of two ex-Marines? Or to shake the resolve of a man of God? What demons could possibly bring a former prison warden to the verge of tears, resurfacing in nightmares throughout his life? There Will Be No Stay frames these questions against the stirring tableau of our nation’s death penalty—or, as writer, producer, director and narrator Patty Dillon calls it, the “premeditated ritual of legal homicide.” As of last June, the United States had formally executed 1,379 people. According to Amnesty International, 39 of those took place in 2013 alone, ranking the U.S. fifth in the world for executions behind Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and China. But Dillon’s film isn’t centered on statistics or controversy. Instead, There Will Be No Stay comes off as a raw, soulwrenching take on the fallout for those forced by government policy to stare death in the face time and again. Fair
The comeback Missoula filmmaker Rachel Stevens grabs life by the horns by Kate Whittle In January 2013, Missoula filmmaker Rachel Stevens hit a tree, face-first, while skiing near Bozeman. “I had 40 stitches in my face,” Stevens says. “Broke my nose and my cheekbone and my lip. It was just a mess.” Doctors also feared that she had permanently damaged her brain, and she said goodbye to her boyfriend before she was airlifted to a Missoula hospital. Fortunately, the damage wasn’t as bad as they’d first thought—her doctors compared it to chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which is found in football players and other athletes who experience frequent brain trauma. While serious, it was better news than they’d first expected. After the accident, Stevens was “in survival mode,” dealing with mixed-up emotions, paying hefty medical bills and going through therapy. A graphic designer by day, she had also been exploring her burgeoning interest in filmmaking, which she’d discovered while working on a master’s in media arts at the University of Montana. But in recovery, she found it difficult to be creative. Around the one-year anniversary of the ski accident, Stevens says she emerged from the fog and decided to make her comeback. Shortly after, she made the film that many Missoulians might be familiar with, a quirky “mockumentary” about Montgomery Distillery. Introducing Montgomery, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Gin depicts an off-kilter distillery crew that reads bad poetry, proclaims themselves to be nihilists and does cocktail yoga.
Rachel Stevens
Oddly enough, Stevens says she’s never thought about making a film about her experience. Rather, she often portrays other people’s struggles with lifealtering accidents or disabilities. As a storyteller, she likes to dig in and examine what she calls “the beauty of the mundane.” Her next short, 20/Nothing, focuses on her boyfriend of five years, Evan, who lost an eye in a childhood accident involving a two-by-four. The film shows how despite his lack of depth percep-
photo by Cathrine L. Walters
tion, Evan still climbs, bikes and skis—but also how he’s come to accept his missing eye, and calmly deal with people who are rude about it. Stevens finds lessons in self-acceptance in how Evan handles his life in monovision, although she admits that making her boyfriend the subject of a film was a test of their relationship. In an experimental twist, the entirety of 20/Nothing is split-screen, with one side showing the main narrative thread, and another showing hazy scenes
of sky and sun. Stevens says it was their way of trying to mimic a distorted depth perception without being too literal about it. The result is a little disorienting, but effective. The film premiered at the Hot Docs Festival in Toronto, where it won the PBS American Documentary POV Award, and it screens as part of the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival this week. Another Stevens film, For All: How Missoula Created a Playground for Everyone, makes its premiere at BSDFF this week. It follows seven children with disabilities who helped design the new All-Abilities Playground in McCormick Park. The playground was spearheaded by Jenny and Ryan Montgomery, from the distillery, who have a son with cerebral palsy. “Kids are hard,” Stevens says, adding that they were often shy in front of the camera. She wishes she could have spent more hours getting comfortable with the kids, but she’s ultimately “really proud” of the final 12-minute film. Stevens says she isn’t sure what project she might take on next; she’s looking forward to graduating this May, and soon she’ll be leaving Missoula to accept a new job at an advertising firm in Bozeman. Looking back, her intention to “grab life by the horns” is paying off. “And then I had the best year of my life,” she says. 20/Nothing screens at the Wilma on Sat., Feb. 7, at 3:30 PM. For All screens at the Wilma Sun., Feb. 8, at 2 PM, and at the Top Hat on Sun., Feb. 15 at 2 PM.
missoulanews.com • February 5–February 12, 2015 [17]
granted. The idealism of those 1970s activists seems to have become as retro as bell-bottoms and sideburns. (Kate Whittle) 1971 screens at the Wilma Sat., Feb. 7, at 7:30 PM and at the Top Hat Mon., Feb. 16, at 2:30 PM. Feature competition.
Now En Español
There Will Be No Stay
warning: The stories they recount will gnaw at you long after the credits roll. These aren’t murderers or sadists or hapless switch-throwers. These are men haunted by countless individuals others have deemed too evil to draw breath, men who found themselves turned ever so gradually against the justice system they swore to serve simply because it asked too much of them. Terry Bracey and Craig Baxley, the aforementioned Marines-turned-executioners, bear this out as they recount their parallel paths from naïve new prison employees to tortured and unsuccessful litigants. Baxley’s decades of legal killing have torn his family apart and left him dependent on therapy and pills; Bracey still fears that a “monster” lurks within. The execution chamber has left similar scars on Texas minister Carroll Pickett and retired Georgia warden Allen Ault. None seem able to wrap their heads around the paradox of answering death with death. All now stand firmly against it. The final chapter of Dillon’s documentary, ultimately, centers not on pain but on forgiveness: The son who comes to forgive his mother’s killer, the deathrow inmate who absolves his executioners. It’s a fitting, albeit slightly predictable theme to end on for such a film. But the question Dillon’s examination leaves unresolved is whether those who have carried out society’s darkest deeds can forgive themselves. (Alex Sakariassen) There Will Be No Stay screens at the Wilma Thu., Feb. 12, at 6 PM and Sun., Feb. 15, at 10 AM. Feature competition.
formants infiltrating everything from antiwar rallies to feminist support groups. The citizens who exposed the FBI’s wrongdoing were never caught, but they’ve now come forward to speak publicly in Johanna Hamilton’s engaging new documentary 1971. The director interviews people who believed citizen action and peaceful protest could stop the war in Vietnam and win the battle for civil rights. They also believed they were being watched. “It was clear that the FBI was sending in agents provocateurs when you spotted guys with crewcuts, wingtips and a tie-dye shirt,” says one interviewee. A small group of Philadelphia-area activists named themselves the Citizens’
1971 In March of 1971, burglars stole hundreds of documents from an FBI office in Media, Pa., a suburb of Philadelphia. The memos and letters revealed that the FBI was conducting an extensive operation spying on Americans, with undercover in-
1971
[18] Missoula Independent • February 5–February 12, 2015
Commission to Investigate the FBI, and decided to put their freedom, safety and families at risk in order to break into the FBI office and find out what it was up to. Here, the film uses archival footage and reenactments to show how the Citizens’ Commission pulled off their incredible stunt. The group uncovered shocking evidence of the FBI’s illegal activities, and photocopied the documents and mailed them to major papers and politicians. The film also portrays an FBI that was infallible; even Congress was terrified to cross J. Edgar Hoover. Some congressmen, upon receiving photocopies of the FBI documents, immediately sent the pages back to the bureau, saying they wouldn’t have anything to do with it. The
New York Times and Los Angeles Times did the same, saying whoever stole the pages had committed a crime. The Washington Post, however, chose to run a front-page story about the crimes the documents proved, like illegal surveillance. The break-in led to more than the Citizens’ Commission could have imagined: It spawned a massive congressional investigation and passage of laws that restricted the FBI’s power. But it also, as one burglar says, “raised the level of cynicism in this country.” Hamilton portrays a more optimistic time in the consciousness of the American public, in those pre-Watergate, Pentagon Papers or WikiLeaks days, when everyone’s sense of outrage wasn’t routinely exhausted and personal privacy was taken for
It turns out that a few of the qualities needed to enjoy watching a ridiculous show like “Desperate Housewives” come in handy if you’re an actress dubbing it into Spanish: A sense of humor. Friends who can go over plot twists while drinking copious wine. The ability to tune back in even after unbelievable drama. Now En Español chronicles the lives of the women who dubbed the women of Wisteria Lane in a way that’s both obvious and clever. The show, which aired on ABC for eight seasons (outlasting star Eva Longoria’s marriage to Tony Parker), has among its gimmicks the omniscient narrator: Mary Alice. The documentary has Marabina Jaimes, who started dubbing Mary Alice (Brenda Strong) in 2005. That’s when ABC decided to do what other networks weren’t: pay actors to voice-over its popular shows for America’s Spanishspeaking TV watchers. “Dubbing a hit network show with all its associated glamour brought us tantalizingly close to the big time,” Jaimes intones in a familiar way over bouncy “Housewives” music. “But when you get that close to your dream, being stuck on one side of the glass can lead to your very own moments of [pause] desperation.” So the theme here? Compelling and not exactly subtle. Kinda like the show! This setup continues to send up “Housewives” with clips from the show paralleling what’s happening with the ac-
Now En Español
tresses. It sounds clunkier than it comes off and doesn’t require viewers to have Wikipedic knowledge of the show. That’s in large part because the women of the doc turn out to be more interesting than the glammed-up ladies they dub. What Now En Español focuses on and gets right is how real and how hard it is to be a Latina actor trying to get paid in L.A. About halfway in and after some nice work has been done to establish the women’s back stories and personalities, there’s a clip from season five of “Housewives” when—spoiler—Edie (Nicolette Sheridan) steps in a puddle and bites it via electrocution.
The filmmakers partner that scene with what happens when the actress dubbing Edie, a glass-half-full blonde who grew up in Mexico City, gets her own shock: a door knock that leads to her eviction. If, at this point, you were still bouncing around these ladies’ lives, you now genuinely start to care about them. It’s heavy and continues to dig deeper, but don’t worry because the film does what Papa Troll in Frozen does when he first meets Elsa (Sorry. Seen it so many times): It leaves the fun. ( Jule Banville) Now En Español screens at the Crystal Wed., Feb. 11, at 7:30 PM and at the Wilma Sun., Feb. 15, at 4 PM. Feature competition.
Keeping score Three sports docs crowd the Best Feature competition by Skylar Browning Watch enough sports documentaries and a certain formula for suc- get distracted by their consultants’ (i.e., the filmmakers’) business incess emerges. There has to be an underdog. A villain. An unexpected terests. That’s problematic when you’re looking to develop a rooting twist that adds to an already suffocating amount of adversity and pres- interest in a film. I can’t help but wonder how the same story would’ve sure. At least one scene that raises the hair on the back of your neck. been told by a filmmaker not directly invested in the team. Boys with Broken Ears suffers no similar issue with commercial At least one other scene that brings tears to your eyes. And, in recent years, there must be one extended sequence scored by atmospheric sheen or potentially mixed motives. This straightforward film follows young wrestlers in Iran, all of whom come from the country’s most deguitar, a la Explosions in the Sky in “Friday Night Lights.” Three of the 10 selections up for this year’s Best Feature award are pressed areas. The future does not hold much promise for these boys— sports documentaries that rely on these elements—including the music. unless, they believe, they can win on the mat. Director Nima Shayeghi does an excellent job of conveying just how But after watching all three, it’s clear that, even with the right compohollow a dream these boys hold. Wrestling, in fact, offers no escape from nents, not all sports docs are created equal. Personal Gold goes heavy with the underdog theme. The U.S. women’s cycling team is underfunded, understaffed and mostly irrelevant in the lead-up to the 2012 London Olympics. No one expects much from Dotsie Bausch, Jennie Reed and Sarah Hammer, especially as their sport gets dragged through an international doping scandal headlined by America’s own Lance Armstrong. Their team has one coach and no support staff; their husbands must learn to do everything from tune the bikes to clean the laundry to rub them down after practice. On the track, they trail the favorites by as much as 10 seconds, an eternity in the velodrome. Enter Sky Christopherson, a former Olympian cyclist turned tech guy, and his snappy motto: “Data not doping.” Christopherson is a devotee to Dr. Eric Topol, a leading practitioner of digital medicine, and believes he can essentially use emerging technology to transform Bausch, Reed Personal Gold and Hammer into medal contenders in a matter of months. He recruits a ton of experts, analysts and doctors—Topol included—to poverty and little fame. Past champions warn of this reality. Current volunteer their time and expertise to the team, all virtually. Through coaches talk of working second jobs and living with their parents. If anythe film, Christopherson ends up logging more Skype time than some thing, the sport is a brutal distraction from school and, with the cost and time needed for training, a burden on the athletes’ already taxed long-distance lovebirds. Personal Gold provides a cool setup, full of real drama. The odds families. Nevertheless, the boys know no better than to pursue glory. Boys with Broken Ears is at its best when it explores the socioecoseem insurmountable, and the personal sacrifice intense. Even the interpersonal relationships, like the husbands banding together, make for nomic and cultural issues facing these teenagers, and provides an intimate good storylines. But something seems off whenever the camera turns look at parts of the country rarely seen. But like all sports docs, this one to Christopherson. As he dives into the science and rationale behind his ends in the drama of a competition. In this case, it’s the World Junior approach, the film takes the look and feel of an infomercial. It’s as simple Championships, and the same boys we’ve followed through dilapidated as the angle and lighting of his interviews, and filters down to his pol- gyms and rudimentary dorm rooms enter the arena against much wealthished catchphrases and salesman persona. There are scenes of Personal ier nations. It’s neat to finally see the modest Iranians stacked up against other wrestlers, but there’s a major issue with this drawn-out third act: Gold that wouldn’t look out of place on cable at 3 a.m. Christopherson’s wife, Tamara, herself a former Olympian, directed we’ve already been told it doesn’t matter. Win, lose or forfeit (the latter the film. The couple, along with most of the experts who appear in comes into play if an Iranian draws an Israeli competitor), we know it Personal Gold, now run OAthletes Inc., a company that’s capitalizing means little to their livelihood. And pride? Sure, that’s a major driving on its pre-London success and, according to its website, continues to force for the boys, and usually enough reason for the audience to cheer, expand its “technology ecosystem.” While elements of the data mining but it’s hard to muster the enthusiasm when the rest of the film raises are truly fascinating, I started to lose sight of the athletes’ pursuits and the stakes so much higher—and has already revealed the ultimate result.
Of the three sports docs in the Best Feature competition, Top Spin provides the best payoff. The subject matter alone is enough to pull in an audience: Olympic table tennis, better known as ping pong to you and me. Directors Sara Newens and Mina T. Son focus on three American hopefuls, Ariel Hsing, Michael Landers and Lily Zhang. All three are normal teenagers save for the fact that they compete at an international level in a sport their friends usually play in a basement. That is, if they have friends—constant tournaments, travel and training make social interaction a challenge. It doesn’t help that the U.S. is historically awful at the sport. Since table tennis became a medal sport in 1988, the U.S. has failed to win anything. Just to qualify for the London games, players must win at the U.S. trials and then against Canada in the North American trials. Only three men and three women from the two countries get to go to the Olympics. Newens and Son make all of this easy to follow with crisp graphics throughout the film. Even more impressive is the super-slow motion video of the players in action, where we get to see the athleticism and grace within the sport, as well as, most notably, the precise spin of the ball on every shot. Like Personal Gold, it makes a fringe sport easily accessible to the average viewer. The heart of Top Spin, however, remains with the plight of its three main characters. Landers is on the cusp of greatness, with a New York Times profile under his belt, his picture about to appear on a cereal box and David Letterman’s people calling about an appearance on the show. The kid runs himself ragged during training sessions and throughout a humbling trip to China. But when you see his hotel room during a different training camp in California, it’s littered with Sour Patch Kids and empty cereal boxes. During a Skype session his sister just wants to know if he’s lonely. Then there’s Hsing and Zhang, who hardly seem old enough to be facing similar pressures. There are still Little Mermaid posters on their walls and games of Wii to be played. All of this backstory feeds perfectly into the North America trials, when these three underdog Americans get one chance to achieve their goals. The villains are played by older, cagier Canadians standing in their way. There are twists, and comebacks, and improbable shots, and an ending that you will not see coming. Unless, that is, you’ve seen enough sports documentaries to know that there’s always some way to end on a hopeful note. Boys with Broken Ears screens Sat., Feb. 7, at 10:15 AM at the Crystal and Sun., Feb. 8, at 7 PM at the Crystal. Personal Gold screens Wed., Feb. 11, at 5:30 PM at the Crystal and Mon., Feb. 16, at 10 AM at the Wilma. Top Spin screens Thu., Feb. 12, at 4 PM and Sun., Feb. 15, at 5:15 PM, both at the Wilma.
missoulanews.com • February 5–February 12, 2015 [19]
[arts]
“Pickup Sticks Pool.”
“The Ghost.”
F/22 and be there Lee Silliman’s large-format photography requires painstaking patience— and a little help from his friends by Erika Fredrickson
F
ourteen years ago I got to see photographer Lee Silliman in action. In the middle of a petrified forest in Yellowstone National Park, he unpacked his giant old-fashioned-looking camera, an 8x10 custom-made Wisner made of mahogany and brass. He locked it onto a large tripod, pointed the lens toward the beautifully textured rock and waited for the light to change. It was a strange sight: Silliman’s head hidden under the dark cloth behind the camera as he peered through the lens, like one of those portrait photographers from the 1800s. Only it was the early 2000s, the age of digital cameras, and there we were in the backcountry lugging around 30 pounds of film equipment. Silliman, 69, has been photographing parks and wilderness since 1979, and he’s spent three weeks annually over 17 years capturing thermal pools, mountains, rock formations and other features in Yellowstone Park. He’s an ardent fan of Ansel Adams, who similarly made pictures of the park with an open lens—albeit in the 1940s and 1950s. And he prefers Yellowstone to Glacier, which surprises a lot of people. “Yellowstone has so much more variety,” he says. “It has mountains that can rival Glacier, though less of them. But then it has the thermal areas and it has the unparalleled wildlife. Then there’s all these ancillary things of interest like the fossil forests and Indian wickiups—these unusual things.”
He pauses. “It’s like how some people like Chevys and some people like Fords.” Silliman finds family, friends and acquaintances to go with him on his trips (I went with my dad and his friend, who is also friends with Silliman). He doesn’t pay anyone to go, but the colorfully illustrated itinerary he prints out for his companions for each trip hints at why people agree to help him. It’s an adventure, led
gear. The trips he takes often begin with five or so days spent at a car campground and involve day hikes. The other five days require pack mules to carry food and camping equipment to a site far into the backcountry. But all that work has never tempted him to go digital or find a smaller camera. When he does get a photo it’s hard-earned. And the best photos of the bunch are so sharp and detailed, so exquisite in contrast that there’s nothing like them.
“This is the Rolls Royce, the Cadillac, the Ferrari of cameras.” by a knowledgable guide with an eye for beauty, and a strange camera, to boot. “I cannot do any of this solo,” he says. “I am always soliciting friends for help and I always seem to come up with somebody. I shake the bushes.” The photographic process Silliman uses is slow and meticulous and expensive. He estimates it costs him at least $5 each time he trips the shutter. Not only that, but in the backcountry he can only take 24 photos before he runs out of film, so he takes his time. (He usually averages 16 photos a trip, of which two or three will be keepers.) He needs at least one other person—three people is ideal—to help him carry his
[20] Missoula Independent • February 5–February 12, 2015
“This is the Rolls Royce, the Cadillac, the Ferrari of cameras,” he says. “And the contact print from an 8x10 negative is the crème de la crème. It is the epitome of photographic excellence, and that’s why I put up with it.” Silliman has the mild demeanor of Fred Rogers and a dedication to organization that far exceeds most artists of any ilk. His basement looks like a pre-Internet library when people found books via card catalog. Inside a wooden cabinet are drawers where he keeps numbered index cards providing the negative record for each photograph: date, camera settings and type of lens, plus a small sketch of the photo. With that num-
ber he can also find other information. He has a notebook filled with GPS coordinates for each photo site, binders with copies of the photos and a journal with entries from each trip. With his industrial-style sewing machine, Silliman makes bags to carry his equipment as well as other accessories, like the rock sling that hangs down from the center of his tripod. “Sometimes I want to put a rock in there if it’s windy or if I’m on the edge of a cliff and I want to lower the center of gravity,” he says. “I had my old 4x5 camera blow over in the wind on location in Yellowstone so that made me think, I want to make sure this one never tips over.” The scrupulous cataloging and insistence on order betrays his background as a science teacher. “I was a physics, chemistry and math teacher,” he says. “And yet I have loved art since I was a preschooler. I remember going through the World Book of Encyclopedia and looking at the paintings sections and saying to my mother, ‘Read me the picture.’ I have always been fascinated with visual art. It’s just a natural for me.” Silliman has shown his work all across Montana, as well as in Missouri and Wyoming, and often takes the opportunity to showcase his collections of other people’s works, including his collection of over 600 antique engravings from magazines like Harper’s Weekly. His exhibit Yellowstone: Then And Now, for instance, includes antique engravings from sites all
[arts]
photo by Cathrine L. Walters
Lee Silliman has used his 8x10 camera for the last 25 years to photograph backcountry landscapes.
around the park paired with his own photographs of those same sites. “Most ‘Then and Now’ exhibits are done by photographers who take the original photograph from 100 years ago or so and then they go find that spot and take their own picture,” Silliman says. “I did exactly the opposite of what you would think. I took all of my photographs—because I wanted to photograph these things—and then afterwards I began finding the engravings of the same thing. And because I’d taken so many photographs, I was bound to find them.” In 2006, after 17 years of photographing Yellowstone, Silliman stopped going. He’d photographed waterfalls (including one he discovered and got to name), wickiups, wolf dens, hoodoos and other strange formations, thermal pools and mountains of all kinds. He felt like he’d done it all. “There were still a few trails way down in the southeast corner I didn’t get to and a few others in the northwest, but the trails I didn’t hike were pretty much just trails through the trees,” he says. “I have been to practically all of the backcountry thermal fea-
tures. There was one area I didn’t get because the trail is very iffy and that’s the Mirror Plateau in the eastern quadrant of the park, and there’s a lot of bears there.” His new backcountry trips take him to the red deserts of Utah and New Mexico, though he still takes small trips around Montana wilderness. The photos he takes are part of what he sees as a time-honored tradition of hikers going into the wilderness and bringing back a piece of it. The final photo matters, but so does the adventure itself. “My philosophy is ‘F/22 and be there,’” he says, referring to the open aperture for good landscape photography. “You don’t ever know what you’re going to find—what the light will be like, what the subject is going to be like. You just got to go and hopefully you’ll arrive and make a good picture.” Lee Silliman’s exhibit Jewels in the Crown: Yellowstone’s Thermal Features opens at Montana Art and Framing, 709 Ronan St., with a reception Fri., Feb. 6, from 5 to 9 PM. efredrickson@missoulanews.com
“Mound Spring, Sentinel Meadows.”
missoulanews.com • February 5–February 12, 2015 [21]
show them THE love with a gift card from Sorella’s
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[music]
Minus the whine Catamount balances skills with mischievousness Catamount’s music reminds me of doing slightly illegal things in high school, like skipping class to cruise in my grandmother’s Oldsmobile and listen to Early November, or sneaking swigs of cooking wine in Home Economics. Lyrically, Catamount dangerously skirts this angsty, smartass corner of pop-punk with songs like “So, Yeah, I Get It,� but at its heart the record is about skilled musicians making something to get you on your feet. Despite saxophonist Ryan Parks’ recent departure, there are plenty of components at work in the trio’s new mouthful-of-an-album, Marta Elena Cortez-Neavel. Where a band of lesser talent might shroud imperfections in clamorous drum/guitar breakouts, Catamount likes to isolate instruments and let them speak for themselves. You get the feeling they want you to hear their proficiency and appreciate it. Technical, rising drum phrases build into climactic harmonizing by frontman Brady Schwertfeger, then cut to meadows of dreamy, solitary reverb. Something about the record sounds mischievous, but in a controlled, finely tuned way. At times, Catamount’s songs threaten to visit those tired tropes of fleeting relationships and teenage philosophizing, like in “This Won’t Work in Different States, and I Know That,� but Marta is a bit more matured. The record stays balanced, and tracks
Catamount
like “It’s a Wave,� with its spectrum of high and low intensity, are equally danceable and mellow. A cover of Jamie Cullum’s “Wheels� provides a welcome interpretation, swapping a piano for fast-paced riffs and elevated vocals. Overall, Marta is packed with tunes that make you want to move—without all the whiny, adolescent qualities associated with some pop-minded offshoots of punk. (Micah Fields) Catamount plays an album release show at The Real Lounge Fri., Feb. 6, at 9 PM, along with No Fancy and Dead Hipster. No cover.
Sphynx Dance-pop is shaped by a paradox. It must be felt: Club music works when it moves you to dance or sing along. But pop is also uncool, by virtue of being popular, so dance-pop must be vaguely ironic. You can hear this tension in “Hunger,� the new single from Austin’s Sphynx, whose louche opening lines are “I love the way you walk/ and talk and walk and talk.� Here is a band that understands the ridiculous elements of its project. Yet those elements are also the areas in which Sphynx excels. Witness the giddy pitch-bender fills at the beginning of both “Carpe Noctem� and “Razberry Wine�—as uncritically ecstatic
as anything Passion Pit ever released. But the spelling of the latter title introduces irony again, as does the lyric “we claim this night so we can be so right/ holding you so tight as we stay up all night.� That’s a pattern. Sphynx consistently pulls out the stops to create big, anthemic pop jams, then pairs them with lyrics silly enough to make us feel safe. We all know better. It’s just that we want to cut loose tonight, to dance to this one song. Like all the best dance bands, Sphynx is an enabler. (Dan Brooks) Sphynx play Monk’s Bar Tue., Feb. 10, and Wed., Feb. 11, at 9 PM. Free.
Ryan Bingham, Fear and Saturday Night It’s unfair to Ryan Bingham that I compare each record he produces to his 2007 debut, Mescalito, because it is a true favorite of mine. His latest, Fear and Saturday Night, is his fourth since. In between, he’s only won a Grammy, an Oscar and a Golden Globe (on the strength of his song “The Weary Kind� from the Jeff Bridges vehicle, Crazy Heart), but that still hasn’t been good enough for me. He’s never been a “country� artist; he’s always stood with a foot in both the country and rock ’n’ roll camps. Still, by 2012’s Tomorrowland I was a little cold. I felt he was trying a too hard to court the attentions of a sort of music fan I can’t hang with.
[22] Missoula Independent • February 5–February 12, 2015
Saturday Night may not be the elusive Mescalito II, nor should it be. Bingham will never be accused of being a great singer, but he has a gorgeous, life-worn voice that is far better than any technical fireworks. Right out of the gate “Nobody Knows My Trouble� shows that the man hasn’t lost the emotive songwriting knack that won over so many mainstream fans with “The Weary Kind.� Meanwhile, “Top Shelf Drug,� with its fuzzy riff and in-the-pocket swagger, shows his more rock ’n’ roll efforts are no affectation. This could easily be the favorite record to a new fan, listening late at night deep into a long road trip, which Mescalito was for me. (Chris La Tray)
[music]
Cross-pollinators Locksaw Cartel pushes the boundary of song by Jed Nussbaum
photo by Cathrine L. Walters
Locksaw Cartel is not your average party band.
The Top Hat stage is bathed in muted shades of red and blue and the dance floor filled with eager onlookers—but the audience seems in rapture. On stage, Locksaw Cartel’s guitarist Chris DuParri’s fluid leads scatter across the atmospheric sounds spilling out of Ben Schuberg’s complex keyboards, as drummer Matt Mischke pounds out a steady beat flirting with downtempo EDM nuances. Singer Ruth Dada, steps away from her microphone and a blissful expression takes over her face as she raises her arms above her head, body moving to the beat. All seems calm—as they say in the movies, too calm—but in a flash the charging, distorted lap-steel riffage of the group’s song “Sneaky Little Sister� wakes the crowd from its trance and the room surges with energy. For Locksaw, forsaking accessible dance grooves in favor of an experimental experience is parfor-the-course. This clearly isn’t your average weekend night party band. “I just want [the audience] to feel something different that they haven’t felt in a while,� DuParri says. Maybe it makes them sad, or excited. We just want to take them on an adventure as opposed to just playing songs.� Dada and DuParri, the band’s primary songwriters, met as members of a much more conventional Missoula weekend staple, blues and R&B outfit Zeppo, known for packing shows at venues like the Union Club. Eventually, differing creative interests led the pair to try a new project, combining forces with other musicians including original fretless bassist Tal Slaughter, recently replaced by Ed Wrzesien. What started as a project aspiring to the styles of Morcheeba and Portishead evolved into something more cross-pollinated. “The first few songs were like that,� DuParri says, “and then it was like, ‘No, these songs are really moving on their own.’ So we thought we’d just follow that. Instead of ‘This chord works with this chord,’ it’s more like ‘play the song, let it happen, let it work.’� That openness to exploration rings out like a mission statement for the group. Songs are equal parts rock, downtempo, jazz, prog, soul and psychedelia, bridging between Massive Attack and Porcupine
Tree. A glance around the eclectic setting of their downtown practice space serves as a visual reference point for the group. Frank Zappa posters intermingle with Dr. Dre stickers. Full-body Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costumes hang in random spaces. Behind a speaker cab, a life-size cardboard figurine of saxwielding Bill Clinton peers out, adorned with a skeleton mask. Through the band’s writing process, they explore links between songs and often stitch multiple tunes together to create one continuous beast. The group’s new eponymous album plays much like one of their setlists in that sense. Tracks bleed into each other, blurring the lines between where one stops and another starts. The album has a dramatic emotional arch that gets stranger as it progresses, moving from the opener “Breeze� (deceptively upbeat for a song about the danger of falling trees in a windstorm) to the slowbuilding, seven-minute, psychedelic rocker “Cocoon� to the chilling, keys-driven closer “Scary Animals.� “It’s better as a cohesive piece than as a bunch of songs put together,� says Dada. “It’s more fun to listen to as a complete piece of music.� It’s an ambitious project in an era of rapidly diminishing attention spans, but it seems to be working. Show attendance has grown from friends and fellow musicians to a significant number of fans that show up and stay until the end—impressive for a band that makes no promises to keep you dancing all the way through. This fall, Locksaw Cartel opened for the sold-out Freeman show, and sharing the stage with the former Ween frontman was a major highlight for Dada, the self-professed “biggest Ween fan in the world.� That show and the release of their album are milestones for the band, but DuParri is focused on the next step. “Making this album just so we can get more gigs has been the most frustrating part,� he says with a laugh. “I’m glad we’re finally starting to kick it in the ass.� Locksaw Cartel plays an album release show at the Top Hat Fri., Feb. 6, at 10 PM. $5.
these are the good old days.
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Partially Located on National Forest Lands Photo Š Barclay
arts@missoulanews.com
missoulanews.com • February 5–February 12, 2015 [23]
[film]
Dear movie The Boy Next Door does what it does by Molly Laich
More midrift please!
An open letter to the men and women behind the making of The Boy Next Door: Thank you. You didn’t have to, but you did. After Oscar season, I am all set on Nazis, civil uprisings and thoughtful space exploration. Come January, I just want to settle in and see a movie that’s a literal expression of its title. With this picture, we know a boy lives next door and that he will seduce our protagonist and then inexplicably terrorize her. This is what we came to see, so why beat around the bush or stray even one iota away from the formula. Your film stars Jennifer Lopez as a high school English teacher who focuses on “the classics,” which, okay. We first meet Claire Peterson and her perfect midriff running through the woods near her California home. It’s an ominous beginning, as movie logic dictates that whenever a woman’s out for a run in the first act, she’s going to be in a fight to the death by the end. We soon learn that JLo’s nursing a broken heart over the separation of her cheating husband, played by the blandly contrite John Corbett. (Viewers may remember him as Chris from “Northern Exposure” and Aiden from “Sex and the City,” the guy Carrie didn’t marry.) Kristin Chenoweth as Vice Principal Vicky Lansing shows up as a woman whose singular focus in life is to feed off Mrs. Peterson’s personal drama. She looks a little like Amy Sedaris, so I guess my first criticism is that I wish you had instead cast Amy Sedaris. Then there’s JLo’s teenage son Kevin (Ian Nelson). In real life he’d probably be a cool, attractive kid, but here, when compared with the boy next door, he seems puny and eager to please. Finally, we meet heartthrob Noah Sandborn, who introduces himself as an “almost 20-year-old” transfer junior, played by 27-year-old actor Ryan Guzman. Dead parents (or something) meant Noah had to go away for a while but now he’s back, living next door in an upstairs bedroom with no curtains, shirtless. School’s starting up in a week (or something) and Noah will incredibly be allowed to attend classes with a school full of minors. The sexual chemistry between JLo and Noah is palpable and immediate, but it’s not all collarbone closeups and sweaty biceps; they connect as well on deep, literary levels. We know for sure these two are going to bone when Noah brings JLo a “first edition” copy of The Iliad. At this point I’d like to extend a special thanks to screenwriter Barbara Curry and really every-
[24] Missoula Independent • February 5–February 12, 2015
one on crew who failed to voice an objection to including the “first edition” of a book that was written thousands of years before the first printing press. You didn’t have to, but you did. Finally, we get the big erotic encounter we’ve all paid to see, and big surprise, it’s super hot. Kevin’s on a camping trip and there’s a thunderstorm raging outside. She’s had a little too much to drink but thankfully had the foresight to wear matching underwear. Sprinkled throughout the seduction are many vague cries of “no, please, stop” on JLo’s part, which we really could have done without. Forever clad in maxi dresses and sleek silhouettes, JLo’s both stunning and age appropriate. She does everything right except for this one late night indiscretion, and while I know the movie repeatedly reminds us he is “nearly 20,” we are all plainly responding on a physiological level to a nearly 30-year-old man, so who can blame her. You could have done the gutsy thing and cast someone with childlike features that actually plays into societal taboos on a gut level, but hey, you didn’t. Big ups to the pacing of this film, which at a brisk 91 minutes, has Noah shifting from kind, charming seducer to obsessive, family-minded psychopathic stalker in the span of about nine seconds. He punches walls, vandalizes property and acts with the baffling, singleminded obsession of a character who seems to know he’s not long for this world. JLo’s breasts are painstakingly covered, but we get a blink-and-you-miss-it scene of Noah up in Kevin’s girlfriend’s titties. Regarding smut and violence, I’m thinking more, please. You’ve committed to the R rating, so what’s with the dismal body count and prudish orange turtleneck for the climactic showdown in the burning barn? Minor quibbles aside, I can’t complain. You made a movie in 25 days with a $4 million dollar budget and a big star attached. With an opening weekend of $6 million in the U.S. alone, you’ve already made your money back. Thanks to pioneers in the field like you, Rob Cohen (director of The Fast and the Furious and other great films), we live in a world where movies like this make economic sense. Can’t thank you enough. Keep up the good work. Sincerely. The Boy Next Door has a final screening at the Carmike 12 Thu., Feb. 5. arts@missoulanews.com
[film] a lady turns up dead. Starring Karl Urban, James Marsden and Wentworth Miller. Rated R. Carmike 12.
OPENING THIS WEEK 2015 OSCAR NOMINATED ANIMATION SHORTS Pixar animations and indie hand-drawn pieces compete for this year’s Academy Award. Wilma.
PADDINGTON A London family is surprised to find that inviting a talking bear to their home causes more comedic trouble than they expected. Starring Hugh “Lord Grantham” Bonneville, Sally Hawkins and Julie Walters. Rated PG. Carmike 12, Pharaohplex.
2015 OSCAR NOMINATED LIVE ACTION SHORTS This year’s offerings include international dramas and comedies set in Tibet, Northern Ireland and Jerusalem. Wilma.
PROJECT ALMANAC When teens build a homemade time machine, things start to go awry. Kids these days! Starring Amy Landecker, Sofia Black-D’Elia and Virginia Gardner. Rated PG-13. Carmike 12, Pharaohplex, Showboat.
JUPITER ASCENDING A genetically engineered warrior-hunk and predestined heroine get together to fight bad guys and change the cosmos. They probably also make out at some point. Starring Channing Tatum, Mila Kunis and Eddie Redmayne. Rated PG-13. Carmike 12, Pharaohplex.
STRANGE MAGIC Goblins, elves and other magical critters battle over a potent potion, in a kids’ musical animation inspired by A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Featuring the voices of Evan Rachel Wood, Elijah Kelley and Kristin Chenoweth. Rated PG. Carmike 12, Pharaohplex.
OVER THE EDGE Restless teens in a boring small town clash violently with parents and authority. Starring Matt Dillon, Michael Eric Kramer and Pamela Ludwig. Screening at KBGA’s Trash and Treasure night at the Roxy Thu., Feb. 5, at 7 PM.
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING In Stephen Hawking’s college days, his developing illness tests his relationship with his wife. Starring Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones and Tom Prior. Rated PG-13. Carmike 12.
RESERVOIR DOGS Somebody gets stuck in the middle after a consortium of criminals suspects a rat in their midst. Starring Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth and Michael Madsen. Screening at the Roxy Thu., Feb. 5, at 7:15 PM, as a kickoff to the Know Your Tarantino series. THE SEVENTH SON A young dude who’s destiny is to fight evil spirits must first do battle with the badass witch lady Mother Malkin. Starring Ben Barnes, Julianne Moore and Kit “Know Nothing Jon Snow” Harington. Rated PG-13. Carmike 12. SONG OF THE SEA A young girl who can transform into a seal makes a journey to rescue fairy creatures. Featuring the voices of Brendan Gleeson, Fionnula Flanagan and David Rawle. Rated PG. Screening at the Roxy Fri., Feb. 6–Sun., Feb. 8, at 7:15 PM, plus Saturday matinee at 5:15. THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE: SPONGE OUT OF WATER The Square One embarks on a quest for a stolen recipe that takes him onto dry land. Starring Tom Kenny, Antonio Banderas and Bill Fagerbakke. Rated PG. Carmike 12, Pharaohplex, Showboat. TRANSIT The 2013 Filipino drama portrays migrant workers in Tel Aviv trying to prevent Israel from de-
WHIPLASH Our homeboy J.K. Simmons stars as a music instructor who’s merciless to promising young students. Also starring Miles Teller and Melissa Benoist. Rated R. Wilma. Capsule reviews by Kate Whittle. “Eyebrows are overrated. Come here and I’ll shave yours off, too.” Seventh Son opens Friday at Carmike 12.
porting their children. Screening at the Roxy Sun., Feb. 8, at 5 PM.
NOW PLAYING AMERICAN SNIPER Clint Eastwood directs the based-on-a-true-story tale of legendary Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle. Starring Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller and Kyle Gallner. Rated R. Carmike 12, Pharaohplex, Showboat. BLACK OR WHITE Kevin Costner stars as a clueless grandfather battling for custody of his young granddaughter. Also starring Octavia Spencer and Gillian Jacobs. Rated PG-13. Carmike 12.
BOYHOOD Watch a kid literally grow up in Richard Linklater’s 12years-in-the-making epic. Starring Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke. Rated R. Screening at the Roxy Fri., Feb. 6–Thu., Feb. 12, at 7 PM. THE IMITATION GAME Benedict Cumberbatch plays computer genius Alan Turing. Guest Reviewer Kate’s Mom says, “Just when I think I never want to see another WWII movie, this blew me away. I’ll see it again when the DVD comes out, feel like I missed a lot with the annoying uber jerk squeaking his chair behind me.” Rated PG-13. Carmike 12, Pharaohplex.
Planning your outing to the cinema? Visit the arts section of missoulanews.com to find up-to-date movie times for theaters in the area. You can also contact theaters to spare yourself any grief and/or parking lot profanities. Theater phone numbers: Carmike 12 at 541-7469; The Roxy at 728-9380; Wilma at 728-2521; Pharaohplex in Hamilton at 961FILM; Showboat in Polson and Entertainer in Ronan at 883-5603.
THE LOFT Five married guys realize that their secret sexxx penthouse is gonna get them in trouble when
missoulanews.com • February 5–February 12, 2015 [25]
[dish]
photo by Cathrine L. Walters
What’s the beef? by Ari LeVaux
SATURDAYS 4PM-9PM
MONDAYS & THURSDAYS ALL DAY
$1
SUSHI Not available for To-Go orders
[26] Missoula Independent • February 5–February 12, 2015
The prevailing rhetoric coming from the environmental, dietary and vegetarian communities paints cattle as perfectly designed agents of personal and planetary demise. From both ends of a cow’s alimentary canal, a climate toxin—methane—spews forth that is so heat-trapping, it makes carbon dioxide look like an amateur. The flesh and mammary secretions of bovines will make you fat, give you heart disease and sour your soul with bad karma. Simply put: If you want to die, go to hell and take the whole world with you, all in one obscene gesture, then go eat a cheeseburger. Although beef consumption is down in the U.S. in recent decades, worldwide consumption of meat, beef included, is set to double by 2050. This projected increase, along with perceived environmental damages caused by cattle—chief among them being methane pollution—is why beef eating is becoming less and less PC in the green community. Climate-fearing omnivores have long sought out grass-fed beef, believing it less taxing to the Earth, but even some scientists are now arguing that grain-fed, feedlot beef may actually be more climate friendly than free-range beef. The idea that grass-fed cattle are a burden on the Earth at all, much less worse for the planet than grainfed beef is, in so many words, udder b.s., according to Nicolette Hahn Niman, author of the new book Defending Beef. But it’s an idea that she bought into herself, during college in the 1980s, and held onto for years. “I drank the Kool-Aid. I quit eating beef and enthusiastically embraced the attitude that no beef was good beef,” Niman writes. She went on to become a practicing environmental lawyer. Then she married a rancher. Then she became one herself. Today, Niman believes, and argues, that cattle are good to have around for many reasons. They can improve biodiversity on a landscape and increase the biomass of an ecosystem. These improvements, she writes, can lead to the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Raising cattle can also be good for many human societies, in part, she argues, because beef is a healthy form of protein. And while still a vegetarian herself, Niman told me it’s because meat doesn’t taste good to her anymore. Her children love their beef, and she gladly feeds it to them. Obviously, there are some red flags when a rancher chimes in on a debate over whether ranching is good or evil. But the book is full of citations in scientific journals in support of her claims, and she makes some compelling arguments. To those concerned about global warming, the methane issue is the most concerning threat posed by beef. Niman’s read on the evidence is that improved landscapes created by properly raised cattle will absorb enough carbon dioxide to offset the methane they emit. She also discusses research into
FLASH IN THE PAN
different ways that cattle methane emissions can be reduced—such as by adding nutrients to salt licks. But many in the scientific and environmental advocacy communities don’t buy the argument that cattle could be climate friendly. Emily Cassidy, a research analyst at the Environmental Working Group, acknowledged via email that cattle can have beneficial impacts on the soil. But, she writes, “There are a lot of scientific leaps to be assumed from [improved] soil fertility to offsetting the methane emissions from cattle.” The main problem with grass-fed beef, she wrote, is the cows “take at least twice as long to reach slaughter weight [than grain-fed beef], and during this time beef cattle continue to emit methane, a greenhouse gas ~30 times as potent as carbon dioxide.” That’s why Cassidy and many other environmentalists believe, somewhat counterintuitively, that feeding grain to cattle can be better for the climate than grazing them. If this debate has demonstrated anything to me, it’s that the methane question hasn’t been settled either way. According to a 2011 study published by the Union of Concerned Scientists, “Raising the Steaks,” the amounts of carbon sequestration by pasture, and methane emissions by cows, are not set in stone. The report concludes that managing forage crops to improve their nutritional quality could reduce methane emissions by as much as 30 percent, and that improvements in forage species could help cattle reach marketable weight sooner, resulting in shorter cow life spans, and less methane. Corn is a very efficient feed, said the study’s author, Doug Gurian-Sherman. This is why many studies show that Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation, or CAFO, beef produces less methane. But some forage plants are more efficient than corn, he said, and there is a huge amount of untapped potential in this field. “Corn efficiency has gone up tremendously after receiving decades of serious investment. We’ve done almost no research in improving forage crops,” GurianSherman told me. “I’ve no doubt that we could improve forage crops if we put some effort into it.” Thus, he believes it’s plausible pastured beef could outperform feedlot beef in the climate department. While in terms of other impacts, such as on animal welfare, water quality, various human society impacts and nutritional content of the meat, grass-fed beef is a slam-dunk winner over feedlot beef. Whether or not grass-fed beef can actually be climate-friendly isn’t settled. But beef consumption is going up, no matter what a bunch of environmentalists have to say about it. This reality makes Niman’s prescriptions for how to maximize the upsides of cattle on the land, while reducing their harm, worth exploring, whatever the exact carbon cost of cattle may be.
[dish] Bernice’s Bakery 190 South 3rd West 728-1358 Bernice’s is committed to keepin’ Missoula sweet and there is no better time to share our treasures than Valentines. Tempt her with a strawberries-n-cream cream puff. Hold her hand and share a Red Velvet Heart Cake. Show the office how much you love ´em and get ´em a dozen roses. Rose cupcakes that is! Mini and full size. The infamous hand-frosted sugar cookie awaits with a special message or choose our new Vintage Valentine design. So much to choose from. What better way to say I love you than to stop by Bernice’s and buy Missoula’s signature sweet treats for your sweetheart. xoxo bernice. www.bernicesbakerymt.com p.s. Ordering ahead is always appreciated. $-$$ Biga Pizza 241 W. Main Street 728-2579 Biga Pizza offers a modern, downtown dining environment combined with traditional brick oven pizza, calzones, salads, sandwiches, specials and desserts. All dough is made using a “biga” (pronounced bee-ga) which is a time-honored Italian method of bread making. Biga Pizza uses local products, the freshest produce as well as artisan meats and cheeses. Featuring seasonal menus. Lunch and dinner, Mon-Sat. Beer & Wine available. $-$$ Black Coffee Roasting Co. 1515 Wyoming St., Suite 200 541-3700 Black Coffee Roasting Company is located in the heart of Missoula. Our roastery is open Mon.–Fri., 7:30–4, Sat. 84. In addition to fresh roasted coffee beans we offer a full service espresso bar, drip coffee, pour-overs and more. The suspension of coffee beans in water is our specialty. $ The Bridge Pizza Corner of S. 4th & S. Higgins 542-0002 A popular local eatery on Missoula’s Hip Strip. Featuring handcrafted artisan brick oven pizza, pasta, sandwiches, soups, & salads made with fresh, seasonal ingredients. Missoula’s place for pizza by the slice. A unique selection of regional microbrews and gourmet sodas. Dine-in, drive-thru, & delivery. Open everyday 11 to 10:30 pm. $-$$ Brooks & Browns Inside Holiday Inn Downtown 200 S. Pattee St. 532-2056 Martini Mania with $4 martinis every Monday. The Griz Coaches Radio Show LIVE every Tuesday at 6pm, Burger & Beer special $8 every Tuesday. $2 well drinks & $2 PBR tall boys every Wednesday. Big Brains Trivia every Thursday at 8pm. Have you discovered Brooks & Browns? Inside the Holiday Inn, Downtown Missoula $-$$ Burns Street Bistro 1500 Burns St. 543-0719 burnsstbistro.com We cook the freshest local ingredients as a matter of pride. Our relationship with local farmers, ranchers and other businesses allows us to bring quality, scratch cooking and fresh-brewed Black Coffee Roasting Co. coffee and espresso to Missoula’s historic westside neighborhood. Handmade breads & pastries, soups, salads & sandwiches change with the seasons, but our commitment to delicious, affordable food and over-the-top fun and friendly service does not. Mon-Fri 7 AM – 2 PM. Sat and Sun Brunch 9 AM – 2 PM. Reservations for Prix Fixe dinners on Fri and Sat nights. $-$$ Butterfly Herbs 232 N. Higgins 728-8780 Celebrating 42 years of great coffees and teas. Truly the “essence of Missoula.” Offering fresh coffees, teas (Evening in Missoula), bulk spices and botanicals, fine toiletries & gifts. Our cafe features homemade soups, fresh salads, and coffee ice cream specialties. In the heart of historic downtown, we are Missoula’s first and favorite Espresso Bar. Open 7 Days. $
Cafe Zydeco 2101 Brooks 406-926-2578 cafezydeco.com GIT’ SOME SOUTH IN YOUR MOUTH! Authentic cajun cuisine, with an upbeat zydeco atmosphere in the heart of Missoula. Indoor and outdoor seating. Breakfast served all day. Featuring Jambalaya, Gumbo, Étouffée, Po-boys and more. Beignets served ALL DAY! Open Monday 9am-3pm, Tuesday-Saturday 11am-8pm, Closed Sundays. Doc’s Gourmet Sandwiches 214 N. Higgins Ave. • 542-7414 Doc’s is an extremely popular gathering spot for diners who appreciate the great ambiance, personal service and generous sandwiches made with the freshest ingredients. Whether you’re heading out for a power lunch, meeting friends or family or just grabbing a quick takeout, Doc’s is always an excellent choice. Delivery in the greater Missoula area. We also offer custom catering!...everything from gourmet appetizers to all of our menu items. $-$$ Eagles Lodge #32 Missoula 2420 South Avenue 543-6346 Tailgate with us before each Griz home game, and get a FREE ride to the game on our shuttle. Soup, salad and burgers served for lunch Monday thru Friday 11:00am to 2:30pm. Don’t forget to stop in for our Thursday Night Matadors & Friday Night Burgers, 6:00 to 8:00pm both nights. Live music EVERY Friday and Saturday night and admission is always FREE! El Cazador 101 S. Higgins Ave. 728-3657 Missoula Independent readers’ choice for Best Mexican Restaurant. Come taste Alfredo’s original recipes for authentic Mexican food where we cook with love. From seafood to carne asada, enjoy dinner or stop by for our daily lunch specials. We are a locally owned Mexican family restaurant, and we want to make your visit with us one to remember. Open daily for lunch and dinner. $-$$ The Empanada Joint 123 E. Main St. • 926-2038 FREE DELIVERY DOWNTOWN. Offering authentic empanadas BAKED FRESH DAILY! 9 different flavors, including vegetarian and gluten-free options. NOW SERVING BREAKFAST Empanadas! Ask us about our Take and Bake Service! Plus Argentine side dishes and desserts. Super quick and super delicious! Get your healthy hearty lunch or dinner here! Wi-Fi, Soccer on the Big Screen, and a rich sound system featuring music from Argentina and the Caribbean. Mon-Thurs 11 am - 6 pm. Friday and Sat 11-8 pm Downtown Missoula. $ Good Food Store 1600 S. 3rd West • 541-FOOD The GFS Deli features made-to-order sandwiches, Fire Deck pizza & calzones, rice & noodle wok bowls, an award-winning salad bar, an olive & antipasto bar and a self-serve hot bar offering a variety of housemade breakfast, lunch and dinner entrées. A seasonally-changing selection of deli salads and rotisserie-roasted chickens are also available. Locally-roasted coffee/espresso drinks and an extensive fresh juice and smoothie menu complement bakery goods from the GFS ovens and Missoula’s favorite bakeries. Indoor and patio seating. Open every day 7am-10pm $-$$
Mon-Fri 7am - 4pm
(Breakfast ‘til Noon)
531 S. Higgins
541-4622
Sat & Sun 8am - 4pm
(Breakfast all day)
Bring in this coupon for
$5 off any purchase of $10 or more. Expires 2/14/15
2101 Brooks • 926-2578 • www.cafezydeco.com Mon 9am - 3pm • Tues-Sat 11am - 8 pm • Closed Sundays
Grizzly Liquor 110 W Spruce St. 549-7723 www.grizzlyliquor.com Voted Missoula’s Best Liquor Store! Largest selection of spirits in the Northwest, including all Montana microdistilleries. Your headquarters for unique spirits and wines! Free customer parking. Open Monday-Saturday 9-7:30 www.grizzlyliquor.com. $-$$$ Hob Nob on Higgins 531 S. Higgins • 541-4622 hobnobonhiggins.com Come visit our friendly staff & experience Missoula’s best little breakfast & lunch spot. All our food is made from scratch, we feature homemade corn beef hash, sourdough pancakes, sandwiches, salads, espresso & desserts. MC/V $-$$
$…Under $5 $–$$…$5–$15 $$–$$$…$15 and over
missoulanews.com • February 5–February 12, 2015 [27]
[dish]
Worden’s pizza HANGRIEST HOUR What you’re eating: A big, foldable slice of New York-style pizza made with lots of fresh ingredients and warmed up in the oven just for you.
on the pies.” The result is a thin-crust pizza that’s way too good to scarf down after a night of drinking—even if it is just exactly what you want on your way between bars or, better yet, on your way home.
When you’re eating: Instead of competing with What it’s going to restaurants for the dinner photo by Cathrine L. Walters cost: Pepperoni and crowd, Worden’s pizza is targeting those who go out afterward. To that end, Margherita are $3.50 per slice. Or, for $4, you they start serving at 8 p.m. and don’t stop “until can get a piece of one of the rotating specialty the customers stop coming,” says chef pies. On a recent Saturday, the options inDamien Ritter. That could be as late as 2:30 cluded the veggie (sautéed mushrooms, a.m.—and likely will be in the summer—but Rit- spinach, banana peppers, etc.) and the Mama ter says so far close has come before bartime. Miá (sausage, roasted red peppers, fresh In part, that’s because after 11, when Worden’s basil, mascarpone, etc.). closes, pizza is served through a window and, Where you’re eating: Worden’s, which as Ritter says, “eating in the street at midnight calls itself “Missoula’s first grocery store” (esor 1 a.m. is less ideal in a blizzard.” tablished “around 1883”), is downtown, on How it’s made: Ritter says everything the corner of Higgins and Spruce. —Ted McDermott about the pizza is made with deliberation and care, from the crushed instead of stewed Hangriest Hour serves up fresh details on tomatoes he uses for the sauces to the dough he proofs for 24 hours to give it “body.” “Be- western Montana eats. To recommend a cause we’ve got such a limited menu,” Ritter restaurant, dish or chef for Hangriest Hour, says, “we can throw a lot of good ingredients email editor@missoulanews.com.
Iron Horse Brew Pub 501 N. Higgins 728-8866 www.ironhorsebrewpub.com We’re the perfect place for lunch, appetizers, or dinner. Enjoy nightly specials, our fantastic beverage selection and friendly, attentive service. Stop by & stay awhile! No matter what you are looking for, we’ll give you something to smile about. $$-$$$ Iza 529 S. Higgins • 830-3237 www.izarestaurant.com Contemporary Asian cuisine featuring local, vegan, gluten free and organic options as well as wild caught seafood, Idaho trout and buffalo. Join us for lunch and dinner. Happy Hour 3-6 weekdays with specials on food and drink. Extensive sake, wine and tea menu. Closed Sundays. Open Mon-Fri: Lunch 11:303pm, Happy Hour 3-6pm, Dinner 5pm-close. Sat: Dinner 5pm-close. $-$$ Jimmy John’s 420 N. Higgins 542-1100 jimmyjohns.com Jimmy John’s - America’s Favorite Sandwich Delivery Guys! Unlike any other sub shop, Jimmy John’s is all about the freshest ingredients and fastest service. Freaky Fast, Freaky Good - that’s Jimmy John’s. Order online, call for delivery or visit us on Higgins. $-$$ Le Petit Outre 129 S. 4th West 543-3311 Twelve thousand pounds of oven mass…Bread of integrity, pastry of distinction, yes indeed, European hand-crafted baked goods, Pain de Campagne, Ciabatta, Cocodrillo, Pain au Chocolat, Palmiers, and Brioche. Several more baked options and the finest espresso available. Please find our goods at the finest grocers across Missoula. Saturday 8-3, Sunday 8-2, Monday-Friday 7-6. $ Market on Front 201 E. Front St. marketonfront.com The Market on Front is more than a market with a restaurant. It is an energetic marketplace which offers an epicurean experience to excite the senses. It is also an energetic, vibrant marketplace creating an opportunity to taste and take home the products of artisans who create excellent products at awesome prices. This community centered specialty food destination features gourmet yet traditional prepared foods, sandwiches, salads, specialty cheeses, charcuterie, local brews, wines, espresso and so much more! $-$$ Missoula Senior Center 705 S. Higgins Ave. (on the hip strip) 543-7154 themissoulaseniorcenter.org Did you know that the Missoula Senior Center serves delicious hearty lunches every weekday for only $3? (Missoula County residents over 60: $3, only $6 if younger and just stopping by) Anyone is welcome to join us from 11:30-12:30 Monday- Friday for delicious food and great conversation. For a full menu, visit our website. $ The Mustard Seed Asian Cafe Southgate Mall 542-7333 Contemporary Asian fusion cuisine. Original recipes and fresh ingredients combine the best of Japanese, Chinese, Polynesian, and Southeast Asian influences. Full menu available at the bar. Award winning desserts made fresh daily , local and regional micro brews, fine wines & signature cocktails. Vegetarian and Gluten free menu available. Takeout & delivery. $$-$$$ Korean Bar-B-Que & Sushi 3075 N. Reserve 327-0731 We invite you to visit our contemporary Korean-Japanese restaurant and enjoy it’s warm atmosphere. Full
Sushi Bar. Korean bar-b-que at your table. Beer and Wine. $$-$$$ Orange Street Food Farm 701 S. Orange St. 543-3188 www.orangestreetfoodfarm.com Experience The Farm today!!! Voted number one Supermarket & Retail Beer Selection. Fried chicken, fresh meat, great produce, vegan, gluten free, all natural, a HUGE beer and wine selection, and ROCKIN’ music. What deal will you find today? $-$$$ Pearl Cafe 231 E. Front St. 541-0231 pearlcafe.us Country French meets the Northwest. Idaho Trout with Dungeness Crab, Rabbit with Wild Mushroom Ragout, Snake River Farms Beef, Fresh Seafood Specials Daily. House Made Charcuterie, Sourdough Bread & Delectable Desserts. Extensive wine list; 18 wines by the glass and local beers on draft. Reservations recommended for the intimate dining areas. Visit our website Pearlcafe.us to check out our nightly specials, make reservations, or buy gift certificates. Open Mon-Sat at 5:00. $$-$$$ Pita Pit 130 N Higgins 541-PITA (7482) pitapitusa.com Fresh Thinking Healthy Eating. Enjoy a pita rolled just for you. Hot meat and cool fresh veggies topped with your favorite sauce. Try our Chicken Caesar, Gyro, Philly Steak, Breakfast Pita, or Vegetarian Falafel to name just a few. For your convenience we are open until 3am 7 nights a week. Call if you need us to deliver! $-$$ Plonk 322 N Higgins 926-1791 www.plonkwine.com Plonk is an excursion into the world of fine wine, food, cocktails, service and atmosphere. With an environment designed to engage the senses, the downtown establishment blends quality and creativity in an all-encompassing dining experience. Described as an urban hot spot dropped into the heart of the Missoula Valley and lifestyle, Plonk embodies metropolitan personalities driven by Montana passions. Ruby’s Cafe 2101 Regent St. at Brooks 728-9890 True American Diner! Come join us at the counter, grab a booth or find a table. Breakfast all day, Lunch & Dinner. Homemade Pies. Homemade Soups. Mon-Sat 6am - 9pm and Sun 8am - 3pm. “You keep us cookin!” $-$$ Taco Sano 115 1/2 S. 4th Street West 1515 Fairview Ave inside City Life 541-7570 • tacosano.net Once you find us you’ll keep coming back. Breakfast Burritos served all day, Quesadillas, Burritos and Tacos. Let us dress up your food with our unique selection of toppings, salsas, and sauces. Open 10am-9am 7 days a week. WE DELIVER. $-$$ Ten Spoon Vineyard + Winery 4175 Rattlesnake Dr. 549-8703 www.tenspoon.com Made in Montana, award-winning organic wines, no added sulfites. Tasting hours: Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, 5 to 9 pm. Soak in the harvest sunshine with a view of the vineyard, or cozy up with a glass of wine inside the winery. Wine sold by the flight or glass. Bottles sold to take home or to ship to friends and relatives. $$ Westside Lanes 1615 Wyoming 721-5263 Visit us for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner served 8 AM to 9 PM. Try our homemade soups, pizzas, and specials. We serve 100% Angus beef and use fryer oil with zero trans fats, so visit us any time for great food and good fun. $-$$
$…Under $5 $–$$…$5–$15 $$–$$$…$15 and over
[28] Missoula Independent • February 5–February 12, 2015
The Missoula One Billion Rising group is putting on a flashmob-style dance to raise awareness of the global epidemic of violence against women. Learn the dance with practice sessions at the Missoula Senior Center on Feb. 3, 5, 10, 11, or 12, from 6-7 PM. Take note the Feb. 12 practice is for men and boys only. Dances are downtown on Feb. 6 and at the UC Atrium on Feb. 13. Find Missoula One Billion Rising on Facebook to learn more.
February 5–February 12, 2015
Bust out the epee for a Foray into Fencing class at Missoula Fencing Association, 1200 Shakespeare, Ste. A. 6:30-7:30 PM. Ages 9 and up are welcome to join in; just wear gym clothes and bring a water bottle. Free, but limited to first 16 people. Visit missoulafencing.net or call 251-4623 with questions. Legendary photographer and filmmaker John Cohen presents “From Still Photographs to Moving Pictures” as part of Big Sky Documentary Film Festival festivities. Rocky Mountain School of Photography, Studio B, 216 N. Higgins Ave. 7 PM. Seating is limited. Find out what shenanigans your legislators are up to with the Montana Environmental Information Center’s Legislative Update and Community Social, where lobbyists will chat about threats to the Smith River, renewable energy and more at the ZACC, 7-9 PM. Free. Beer, wine and snacks included. Bust out a little geetar, tunesmiths, at the Open Mic with Cheree at the Eagles Lodge Missoula, 2420 South Ave. W. Runs 7:30-10:30 PM. Impress ‘em enough and you could get paid $50 as a showcased performer. Text 406396-5934 to sign up early. The Montana Rep Theatre puts on the green light for Simon Levy’s stage adaptation of The Great Gatsby. Performances at the Montana Theatre, Jan. 29-31 and Feb. 5 and 7 at 7:30 PM. Saturday matinee on Jan. 31 at 2 PM. $10-$20. Visit montanarep.org. Funnyman Brian Regan chats about his homeboy David Letterman and other topics of amusement at the Dennison Theatre. 7:30 PM. $42.50. Visit umt.edu/dennisontheatre for tickets and info.
Sunny disposition. Leftover Salmon plays the Top Hat Wed., Feb. 11, along with Hot Buttered Rum. 8 PM. $22/$20 in advance at the Top Hat and Rockin Rudy’s.
THURSDAYFEB05 As part of the Open Country Reading Series, poets and novelists including Erika Wurth, M.L. Smoker and Heather Cahoon present “Voices from Indian Country” at the Crystal. Adam Sings in the Timber and his band provide some tunes, too. 7 PM. Free.
nightlife Dozens of influential prints just might make an impression at the reception for the exhibits Robert Schwieger: The Dakotah Series and Selections from the Montana Museum of Art & Culture Ackerman Print Collection. Gallery of Visual Arts in the Social Sciences building, 5-6:30 PM.
Warm up and kick back with Tom Catmull, providing tuneage at Draught Works, 915 Toole Ave., from 5-8 PM. No cover. Mary Place and Blue Moon heat it up at the Union Club every Thursday from 5:30-8 PM. Free. The citizens of Missoula Moves To Amend host a chili feed and legislative roundup about the latest in corporate malfeasance. St. Paul’s Lutheran, 202 Brooks St. 6-9 PM.
International relations expert Kelly Greenhill presents “Weapons of Mass Migration: Forced Displacement as an Instrument of Foreign Policy,” part of the President’s Lecture Series. University Center Ballroom. 8 PM. Free. Shake that moneymaker at the J. Sherri residency, with a gaggle of groovemeisters, arty types and “carnal delights” at the VFW, starting at 10 PM. Cover charge TBA. Slide on a blazer (don’t forget to roll up the sleeves) and drop some “In Soviet Russia” jokes at Missoula’s Homegrown Stand-Up Comedy at the Union Club. Sign up by 9:30 PM to perform. Free.
missoulanews.com • February 5–February 12, 2015 [29]
[calendar] Don’t fear the reef-er, lol, when Denver’s Coral Thief delivers a hit of reggae-rock at the Top Hat. 10 PM. No cover.
FRIDAYFEB06 The UM School of Theatre and Dance high-kicks into gear for the annual ACDA Benefit Concert, which features contemporary and sultry jazz styles. Open Space in the PARTV Center, Feb. 6–7 at 7:30 PM. $5 suggested donation.
UM’s Advocacy Day panels and workshops will be held in room 123 in the Gallagher Business Building, with speakers chatting about how legislative issues will affect people with disabilities, traumatic brain injuries, Down’s syndrome, and more. 9 AM2 PM. Visit the SCHWA-MT Facebook page to learn more. Toddlers ages 1-3 are welcome to bring their respective adults for a four-week course in basic American Sign Language, which can help enrich your communication. Simply Signing, 800 Kensington Ave., on Fridays from
9-10 AM through Feb. 27. $50 for adult and child to attend four-week series. Call 218-8695 or find the Simply Signing Facebook page for more info.
nightlife Hot giggity, it’s the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival once again, featuring a slew of thought-provoking films, performances and special guests like Yo La Tengo. Feb. 6-16 at venues including the Wilma, Top Hat, Crystal and Dennison. Visit bigskyfilmfest.org. $299 for all-access pass/$149 for all-screening pass/$32
FIRST FRIDAY Adventurous photographer Neil Moore and painter works, where you can also peruse woodwork, watercolor David Jacobson depict flora and fauna from Montana and paintings and more. 145 W. Main St., reception from 5-8 the Arctic in Naturalists as Artists, on display at the Mon- PM. tana Natural History Center. Reception from 4:30-6:30 Bigfork painter Dana Berardinis’ lush and impresPM. sionistic landscapes are highlighted at the Dana Gallery’s Graphic designer Nik Dumroese’s exhibition The Art shindig, 5-8 PM. of Politics: Young, Hip and Engaged is on display from 5 Photographer Colin Hartwell displays photos from PM-8 PM, as a grand opening for Forward Montana’s new his adventures in major cities of India at Bhavana, 101 E. location on 136 E. Broadway St. #1. Broadway, 5-8 PM, along with live tunes from the UM Jazz The Monte Dolack Gallery presents paintings, prints Duo. and posters of mountain ranges of the Rockies and Mon- Jackson Pollack would totally recommend the Splattana prairies. Reception from 5 PM-8 PM with music and ter, Drip and Composition exhibit at Loose Moose, 137 E. refreshments. Main St., which features mixed-media pieces on canvas. Reception from 5-9 PM. The delightful Elisha Harteis shows her whimsiArtists are doin’ it live cal (and a smidgen creepy, at Impromptu: A Totally but maybe that’s just me) Spontaneous Art Exhibit ceramic and fiberglass and group collaboration at sculptures at Blaque Owl e3 Convergence Gallery, Tattoo, with reception from 229 W. Main St. 5-9 PM, 5-8 PM. with tunes from Maiah Wynne. Acrylic artist Nancy Seiler demontrates her Intrepid photographer eye for natural beauty with Lee Silliman digs up an an exhibit hosted by the archive of richly tinted Prudential Real Estate Ofblack-and-white phofice, 314 N. Higgins. Receptos for Jewels in the tion from 5-8 PM. Crown: Yellowstone’s Thermal Features, on disGet all wrapped up when play at Montana Art and Stevensville fiber artist Heidi Framing, 709 Ronan St. Zielinski presents Making Reception from 5-9 PM. My Mark, an exhibit of fiber (See Arts.) art feauturing hand-painted, felted and stitched wall More than 30 artists hangings. Artists’ Shop, 127 Dana Berardini’s “Revival” is part of a featured exhibit are highlighted in the N. Higgins Ave. 5-8 PM. Clay Studio’s All About at the Dana Gallery’s First Friday reception, 5-8 PM. Porcelain, an exhibit juried Susanna Andersen celeby none of than Beth Lo. brates all things Northwest with vivid paintings at the Lake Missoula Tea 1106 Hawthorne St., Ste. A. Reception from 5:30-9 PM. Company, 126 E. Broadway Ave. 5-8 PM, with tea tasting Landscape painter David Peterson presents highlights and tunes from Maren Christensen. of his body of work at the Missoula Community Food CoThe Brink Gallery hosts a special exhibit featuring Op, 1500 Burns St. Reception starts at 5:30 PM, with tasty John Cohen’s rare candid photos of folks you may have snacks and beverages provided. heard of like Bob Dylan, Jack Kerouac and Woody Guthrie. Dewdrops? Roses? Whiskers on kittens? Libby-based 111 W. Front St. 5-8 PM. artist Karen Jorgenson shows off Some of My Favorite The Killdeer Artisans’ Guild brings the Mission Valley Things at Frame of Mind, 1706 Brooks St., with a reception goodness down to Missoula for a group exhibit and re- from 5:30-9 PM. ception at the Loft, 119 W. Main St., from 5-8 PM, with That Jack Metcalf fella is back in action with antunes from Jerry Downey. other thought-provoking exhibit, Gesamtkunstwerk, Ceramicist (that is what you call ‘em, right?) Karlene which I dare you to pronounce correctly. Guest artists will Kantner presents her earthy vessels at Betty’s Divine new be improving thrift store paintings, attendees can join in the interactive shooting range and win prizes, and Metcalf location, 509 Higgins. 5-8 PM. Marvel at the fine motor skills of artists including Shar- displays his latest works, “Mechanical Reproduction in the rey Doré, Pam Caiden, Albert Chaney, April Hale and Digital Age.” 1205 Defoe St. No. 1., across from the Clay Karen Chesna in Adornment 3: Expressions in Contem- Studio, “behind a creepy yellow van.” 6-10 PM. Bundle up and venture to FrontierSpace, the alley porary Jewelry, on display at 4 Ravens Gallery. 5-8 PM. Artists including Louise Lamontagne, William Joseph gallery that highlights clay and wood installation artist and Adam Birely are highlighted at Northmann Knife- Jonathan Fitz from 6-9 PM.
[30] Missoula Independent • February 5–February 12, 2015
[calendar] for five-film punch card/$8 for individual films. (See Feature.) Sip a Guinness and be whisked away to the Emerald Isle with the Irish Music Session, every Friday at the Union Club from 6-9 PM. No cover. The good eggs of CASA present the annual Light of Hope banquet, with dinner, auctions and keynote speaker David Marin, author of This Is US: The New American Family. DoubleTree. 6 PM. $75. Visit casamissoula.org. Spokane-based author Sharma Shields gets wild and woolly with The Sasquatch Hunter’s Almanac. Reading at Shakespeare and Co, 103 S. Third St., at 7 PM (as you may recall from our nifty cover feature about it last week.) Hanna and Harry Heart’s romantic evening is cut short by a dinner guest’s demise, and you can help solve it at the interactive Til Death Do We Part Valentines Murder Mystery Party, with menu and full bar. Stensrud Playhouse, Feb. 6-7 and 13-at 7 PM. $39/$70 for two/$128 for four. Visit stensrudplayhouse.com for more info and tickets. Calling all sexy lumberjacks, the annual Forester’s Ball is back for a pine-scented evening of revelry with tunes from Shane Clouse and Stomping Ground, can-can girls, chili dinner and more at Schreiber Gym. Feb. 6-7, from 7 PM-midnight. Tickets available at the UC Source.
Guitar-wielding Colorado gals Liz Barnez and Rebecca Folsom play high and lonesome tunes at Rooted Music, 100 Skeels Ave., Ste. A., in Hamilton. 7:30 PM. $12. Walk on the wild side when Missoula rock outfit Catamount releases their album, Marta Elena Cortez-Neavel, and parties down with No Fancy and Dead Hipster at the Real Lounge, 112 Front St. 9 PM. (See Music.) May the odds be in your favor at the three-week Battle of the Bands, Feb. 6, 13 and 20 at the Palace, with semifinalists including Time to Kill and Boston Tea Party duking it out. Doors at 9 PM. $12/$10 advance. 18plus. Visit tanzer4.com for tickets. You’ll say Friday was just a blur after Band in Motion gets all bluesy like at the Union Club, starting at 9:30 PM. No cover. Locksaw Cartel smuggles in the funky rhythm and rock to the Top Hat, starting at 10 PM, to celebrate their new CD release. $5.
The Valentine’s Day One Stop Shop includes local arts and crafts, a table for kids to make Valentine’s cards and other such lovey stuff at Ruby’s Inn, 4825 N. Reserve St. 9 AM-2 PM. Sea what’s going on at the fifth annual Hooked On Art just for the halibut, with local arts ‘n crafts at Bonner School from 10 AM-4 PM. Free to attend. Pet Phillip Burgess joins the latest Winter Storytelling Series to chat about a black family’s experience fleeing the racist south to find independence in the Missouri River valley. Traveler’s Rest State Park, 11 AM. $5/free for TRPHA members and kids under 18. Take Your Child to the Library Day offers special treats and activities for every kiddo at Missoula Public Library, 11 AM-4 PM. Free.
SATURDAYFEB07
The guild that sews together, stays together, so join Selvedge Studio, 509 S. Higgins Ave., at Craft Vigilantes, its monthly Modern Quilt Guild for beginners and pros alike. 12–5 PM. $20 (first few sign-ups are free).
Discover some gems at the Ruby Jubilee Art Auction and Dinner, as part of the annual shindig to benefit Missoula Art Museum. Things go down at the UC Ballroom; doors at 5 PM, dinner at 7, and live auction starting at 7:30. $125/$100 for members. Visit missoulaartmuseum.org.
East meets West when the Rocky Mountain Ballet Theatre shares the stage with China’s Shaanxi Performing Arts Group to perform Shadows of China, including a shadow puppet piece. MCT Center for the Performing Arts. Shows at 1 and 7 PM, with demonstrations of puppet making before the show. $12 for matinee,
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[calendar] $25 for the evening. Tickets available at the HUB, 140 N. Higgins, or call 543-3300. Don’t beet around the bush when the Missoula Community Food and Agriculture Coalition hosts a Choose Local exhibit, highlighting local foods available in these dark winter months. Rosauer’s Supermarket, 3-6 PM. Free.
nightlife Hot giggity, it’s the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival once again, featuring a slew of thought-provoking films, performances and special guests like Yo La Tengo. Feb. 6-16 at venues including the Wilma, Top Hat,
Crystal and Dennison. Visit bigskyfilmfest.org. $299 for all-access pass/$149 for all-screening pass/$32 for five-film punch card/$8 for individual films. (See Feature.) Missoula honky-tonker Aran Buzzas plays a little gee-tar at Lolo Peak Brewing, 6-8 PM. No cover. Butte, America’s Smokestack and the Foothill Fury jump bail to play juke-joint country and blues at Draught Works, 6-8 PM. No cover. Get a little lubricated while Headwaters provides tunes at Ten Spoon Vineyard, 4175 Rattlesnake Drive. Tasting starts at 4, tunes from 6-8 PM. No cover. Hanna and Harry Heart’s romantic evening is cut short by a dinner guest’s demise, and you can help solve it at the interactive Til Death Do We Part Valentines Murder Mystery Party, with menu and full bar. Stensrud Playhouse, Feb. 6-7 and 13-14 at 7 PM. $39/$70 for two/$128 for four. The Feb. 14 date is already sold out, so cruise over to stensrudplayhouse.com pronto for more info and tickets.. The UM School of Theatre and Dance high-kicks into gear for the annual ACDA Benefit Concert, which features eight original pieces including contemporary and sultry jazz styles. Open Space in the PARTV Center, Feb. 6–7 at 7:30 PM. $5 suggested donation. Proceeds benefit the school’s trip to the annual American College Dance Association conference. The Missoula Folklore Society Dance invites one and all to cut loose at the Union Hall, with tunes from Fadely and Joyner. Mark Matthews has the call. 7:30 PM. $9/$6 for members and students/free for volunteers and kids. The Montana Rep Theatre puts on the green light for Simon Levy’s stage adaptation of The Great Gatsby. Performances at the Montana Theatre, Jan. 29-31 and Feb. 5 and 7 at
[32] Missoula Independent • February 5–February 12, 2015
7:30 PM. Saturday matinee on Jan. 31 at 2 PM. $10-$20. Visit montanarep.org. Bluesy dudes Kevin Van Dort (KVD! KVD!) and Andre Floyd do their thang at the Stevensville Playhouse, 319 Main St. 7:30 PM. $20/$15 in advance. Tickets at Rockin Rudy’s, Rooted Music and Chapter 1 Books. Turkuaz funks up the joint with tunes at the Top Hat, starting at 8 PM. $10. The cool cats of KBGA College Radio celebrate another festive radiothon by kickin’ it at End-of-Thon, which features tunes from Enzymes, Paravoid and Thug Nasties, as well as comedians Matthew Kettelhake and Rochelle Cote. Plus there will be cake! And lasers! And a fog machine! Stage 112. 8:30 PM. $8/$10 for ages 18-20. Cash for Junkers spins Fireball shots into an evening of pure gold at the Union Club, starting at 9:30 PM. No cover.
SUNDAYFEB08 Get ready for some football! The other kind! When The American Outlaws: Missoula(unofficial) Chapter hosts a watch party for the US Women Vs France and Men Vs Panama at Thomas Meagher Bar. 10 AM-4 PM. (The chapter is seeking members in order to become an official group, so learn more at 337-304-6760, or just show up.)
nightlife Hot giggity, it’s the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival once again, featuring a slew of thought-provoking films, performances and special guests like Yo La Tengo. Feb. 6-16 at venues including the Wilma, Top Hat, Crystal and Dennison. Visit bigskyfilmfest.org. $299 for all-access
[calendar] pass/$149 for all-screening pass/$32 for five-film punch card/$8 for individual films. (See Feature.)
guitar heroes
Let the weekend linger a little longer while the Matt Austin Jazz Quartet winds away the evening at Draught Works, 5-7 PM. No cover. Here’s your chance to listen in when photographer and musician John Cohen (of New Lost City Ramblers) presents a live performance and film screening at the Top Hat, starting at 5 PM. $12/$10 in advance at the Top Hat and Rockin Rudy’s. The 18-piece Ed Norton Big Band puts some swing in the month’s second Sunday when it plays the Missoula Winery, 5646 Harrier Way, from 6–8 PM. $7. Polish your steps with $5 swing lessons prior at 4:45 PM. Visit missoulawinery.com. There’s no such thing as a free lunch, but sometimes there is a free dinner when the Missoula Community Food Cooperative and the North Missoula Community Development Corporation provide a tasty winter stew for the Westside Community Dinner. Burns St. Community Center, 1500 Burns St. Non alcoholic drinks and a kids’ play area provided. Free. Mark the Sabbath with some Black Sabbath or whatever else twangs your heartstrings at the Sunday Funday evening karaoke at the Lucky Strike, 1515 Dearborn Ave., featuring $1 domestic drafts and wells. Free.
MONDAYFEB09 In a stunning blast from the past, Frederick Krueger and the Sweet Dreamers play a birthday show for Cyrus that’s sure to be full of dignity, restraint and Ramones covers, along with Buddy Jackson and “You Can Call Me Al” Petunia. Palace. 9 PM. No cover. Share the warm fuzzies at Love Fest, which features workshops on yoga, communication, self-respect and boundaries throughout the day at the University Center, 10 AM-5 PM. Visit the UM Advocates for Non-Violence Facebook page to learn more.
nightlife Hot giggity, it’s the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival once again, featuring a slew of thought-provoking films, performances and special guests like Yo La Tengo. Feb. 6-16 at venues including the Wilma, Top Hat, Crystal and Dennison. Visit bigskyfilmfest.org. $299 for all-access pass/$149 for all-screening pass/$32 for five-film punch card/$8 for individual films. (See Feature.)
Eric Johnson and Mike Stern come from different backgrounds, but they’ve both made their mark as journeymen musicians. Stern, a legend in the jazz guitar world, has spent more than 40 years contributing his talents and touring with the likes of Miles
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Davis, Jaco Pastorius, Billy Cobham and Blood, Sweat and Tears. (Random fun fact: Stern’s half-sister is actress Kyra Sedgwick.) Johnson, on the other hand, takes his inspiration from a more rocking Hendrix-style school of thought. His 1990 album, Ah Via Musicom, went platinum and earned him a Grammy for the single “Cliffs of Dover.” (Younger fans might be familiar with it from Guitar Hero 3.) These days, the Austin-based singersongwriter also boasts considerable talents on lap steel, resonator and bass guitars. In 2009, these two six-string masters met when Johnson played on a few tracks from Stern’s album
10% Off Dansko - Keen Alegria - Merrell Big Neighborhood. They hit it off, and decided to combine their talents on an entire record. The result, Eclectic, is a diverse trip through blues to fusion-jazz to funky jams, with nimble-fingered guitar work that’s engaging for the average listener and likely inspiring for other musicians. The pair stops in Missoula to play the Top Hat this Monday. —Kate Whittle
dio, 2926 S. Third St. Mondays from 6-8 PM through May. $30. Call 529-2322 to register. Nathan Fillion fans, revv your engines, ‘cuz the Roxy is showing episodes of the cult-classic sci-fi series “Firefly,” on Mondays at 7 PM through mid-February. $5-$7. Visit theroxytheater.org. Who’s that crooner fella in the corner? Why, ‘tis Tom Catmull, amiably providing tunes at Red Bird Wine Bar, 111 N. Higgins Ave. 7-10 PM. No cover. Rock and jazz guitar heroes team up for a scorcher when Eric Johnson and Mike Stern play the Top Hat. 8 PM. $30. Tickets at the Top Hat and Rockin Rudy’s. Maintain dignity for best results at Super Trivia Freakout. Winners get cash prizes and shots after the five rounds of trivia at the Badlander. 9 PM. Free. To get those neurons sparking, here’s a question: What 1922 film is considered the first documentary ever made? Find answer in tomorrow’s nightlife.
State Poet Laureate Tami Haaland reads from her latest eyeopening collection, When We Wake in the Night. Shakespeare and Co., 103 S. Third St. 5 PM.
Your evening will be all tied up at 50 Shades of Bass, featuring DJs Crooked Cops, Chaddabox, Geeza and Skillbilliez, starting at 9:30 PM. No cover, plus free pool.
Dancer-types and anyone seeking to get into touch with their body can check out the Authentic Movement Group, where a facilitator will help you find and follow your own movement. The Barn Movement Stu-
Andy Frasco and the UN bring the diplomatic boogie to the Badlander, with local jamsters Ticket Sauce opening. Starts around 11 PM, after trivia gets done. $5.
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missoulanews.com • February 5–February 12, 2015 [33]
[34] Missoula Independent • February 5–February 12, 2015
[calendar] Center on Feb. 3, 5, 10, 11, or 12, from 6-7 PM. Take note the Feb. 12 practice is for men and boys only. Dances are downtown on Feb. 6 and at the UC Atrium on Feb. 13. Find Missoula One Billion Rising on Facebook to learn more. Slick back that pompadour for the rockabilly and bluesy stylings of Portland’s Hopeless Jack and the Handsome Devil. Doors at 9 PM. No cover.
Cultivate your inner Ebert with the classic flicks showing at Missoula Public Library’s free matinee, every second and fourth Wednesday of the month at 2 PM, except holidays. Visit missoulapubliclibrary.org or pop your head in their lobby to see what’s playing. Come right on down for the Gameshow Extravaganza art class, where young artists will learn how to
Brooklyn-based Lettuce embarks on 2015: A Funk Odyssey at the Top Hat, along with Break Science. 9 PM. $22/$20 in advance at the Top Hat Lounge and Rockin’ Rudy’s. (Trivia answer: Robert Flaherty’s Nanook of the North.)
Seeing triple. Andy Frasco and the UN play the Badlander Mon., Feb. 9, along with Ticket Sauce. 11 PM. $5.
TUESDAYFEB10 The handy dandy and unusual art of mono printing—which creates a one-of-a-kind image that can’t be recreated—is yours to capture at the ZACC, with class from 6-8 PM. $20/free for members. Visit zootownarts.org/adult or call 549-7555.
venues including the Wilma, Top Hat, Crystal and Dennison. Visit bigskyfilmfest.org. $299 for all-access pass/$149 for all-screening pass/$32 for five-film punch card/$8 for individual films. (See Feature.)
nightlife
As part of Big Sky Documentary Film Festival shenanigans, the Big Sky Interactive exhibit aims to expand your perception of what documentaries are. Reception at Missoula Art Museum, 5-8 PM.
Hot giggity, it’s the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival once again, featuring a slew of thought-provoking films, performances and special guests like Yo La Tengo. Feb. 6-16 at
Today is the introductory course for the beginner-level Aikido classes for adults, where you can discover harmony and strength. Union Hall, upstairs on the second floor. 5:30-
6:30 PM. Class meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays through March 5, $95 for series. Call 549-8387 or email jamie@aikidomissoula.com to learn more. Save water, drink beer at the Community Tap Night in honor of the Watershed Education Network, where 75 cents of every pint at Tamarack Brewing goes toward WEN’s nonprofit mission. 231 Front St., 6-9 PM. The Missoula One Billion Rising group is putting on a flashmob-style dance to raise awareness of the global epidemic of violence against women. Learn the dance with practice sessions at the Missoula Senior
Put on your red shoes and dance, baby, ‘cuz Texas synth-rock outfit Sphynx whips their hair back ‘n forth for two nights of revelry at Monk’s Bar, along with New Old Future. 9 PM. No cover. Mike Avery hosts the SingerSongwriter Showcase, now on Tuesdays at the Badlander at 9 PM. No cover. Email michael.avery @live.com ahead of time so you can sign up.
WEDNESDAYFEB11 Put on your red shoes and dance, baby, ‘cuz Texas synth-rock outfit Sphynx whips their hair back ‘n forth for two nights of revelry at Monk’s Bar, along with New Old Future. 9 PM. No cover. (See Music.)
missoulanews.com • February 5–February 12, 2015 [35]
[calendar] design their own boardgames or card games and leave with a finished product. Meets at the ZACC Wednesdays, 3:30-5:30 PM, until March 11. $90/$80 for members. Visit zootownarts.org/youngartists. Phish heads, phish heads, roly poly phish heads get together for Sharin’ In The Groove, a screening of live Phish shows with audio and video at the Top Hat. Every Wednesday at 4:30 PM, which as we all know, is just 10 minutes after 4:20. No cover.
nightlife Hot giggity, it’s the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival once again, featuring a slew of thought-provoking films, performances and special guests like Yo La Tengo. Feb. 6-16 at venues including the Wilma, Top Hat, Crystal and Dennison. Visit bigskyfilmfest.org. $299 for all-access pass/$149 for all-screening pass/$32 for fivefilm punch card/$8 for individual films. (See Feature.) Cruise on into the Northside Kettlehouse for the Wednesday pint night to benefit Missoula Nordic, the nonprofit skiing group that’s amping up for its March 19 race, Lolo to Lochsa. Pint night from 5-8 PM. Visit missoulanordic.org. Discover the world of bookbinding with the Japanese Stab Book Binding Class, which will send you off with the materials and skills to complete a few projects. 1221 Helen Ave. 5:30-8:30 PM. $35. Check out thevespiary.com. Leftover Salmon delivers a tasty Americana treat right into your ears (sorry, this metaphor got weird) at the Top Hat, along with Hot Buttered Rum. 8 PM. $22/$20 in advance at the Top Hat and Rockin Rudy’s.
THURSDAYFEB12 Think about that cuppa joe in a new light when photographer Stephanie Parker presents a coffee tasting, photography and chat about Nicaraguan coffee farmers and how the coffee rust epidemic is decimating a way of life. Buttercup Market, 1221 Helen Ave, from 3-5 PM. The Montana Law Review hosts a panel discussion about animal cruelty laws with the filmmakers of A Dog Named Gucci, a documentary about an abused puppy and his rescuer. (I was going to Google more details but I am already tearing up, so, no.) Discussion at the UM School of Law, room 101, from noon1 PM.
[36] Missoula Independent • February 5–February 12, 2015
Learn to love them lentils when vegan cookbook author JL Fields visits Missoula to share her expertise in Vegan Pressure Cooking 101, starting with a cooking class at Natural Grocers at 1 PM, book signing at Fact and Fiction, 220 N. Higgins, at 4 PM and potluck at the Missoula Vegans group, 405 University Ave., 6 PM. Free. Call 728-2100 for info.
nightlife The Djebe Community Drum and Dance class offers interactive instruction in performance traditions from nations including Guinea, Senegal, Mali, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Barn Movement Studio, 2926 S. Third St. Meets on the second Thursday of each month from 6-7:30 PM. $5 donation requested. Gill and the Spills, AKA “The strumminest, pluckinest, bowinest, shredinest, wailinest bunch of sorry sons of guns this side of Mount Jumbo,” rile up the establishment at Draught Works, 915 Toole Ave., 5-8 PM. No cover. Shake that moneymaker at the J. Sherri residency, with a gaggle of groovemeisters, arty types and “carnal delights” at the VFW, Thursdays in February, starting at 10 PM. Cover charge TBA. Bust out a little geetar, tunesmiths, at the Open Mic with Cheree at the Eagles Lodge Missoula, 2420 South Ave. W. Runs 7:30-10:30 PM. Impress ‘em enough and you could get paid $50 as a showcased performer. Text 406396-5934 to sign up early. Bottoms up at the Drop Culture Dance Party, featuring hot beats, cheap drinkies and people of assorted genders shaking their tailfeathers. Monk’s Bar. 9 PM. Small town girls, city boys and whomever that leaves out can share the night on and on and on at the Dead Hipster Dance Party of lore, at the Badlander on Thursdays. No cover, plus $1 wells from 9 PM to midnight. Ask Kalamazoo’s Fly Paper whether they’ve seen Elvis lately after the bluesy rock outfit plays the Palace, starting at 9 PM. No cover. Who watches the watchmen? Submit events at calendar@missoulanews.com at least two weeks in advance of the event. Don’t forget to include the date, time and cost. If you must, snail mail to Calapatra c/o the Independent, 317 S. Orange St., Missoula, MT 59801. You can also submit online. Just find the “submit an event” link under the Spotlight on the right corner at missoulanews.com.
[outdoors]
MOUNTAIN HIGH
I
n 1929, legendary forester and wilderness advocate Bob Marshall ventured into Alaska territory to explore the then-unknown territory of the Brooks Range. He traveled up the Koyukuk River and, along the way, dubbed two peaks the Gates of the Arctic. Today, the Gates of the Arctic region is the third-largest designated wilderness in the U.S. The glacier-carved valleys are home to sheep, grizzly, black bear, moose and wolves; the trail-less, region is a destination for dedicated backpackers, but remains just as remote and wild as when Marshall first saw it. Marshall is still an inspiration to others, including Steve Seninger and Daphne Herling, who followed in his footsteps last August, along with Bill and Bryn Cunningham of High Country Adventures. They began on
Including:
the north slope of the Brooks Range and backpacked 70 miles over Ernie’s Pass, which is the northernmost continental divide, and then paddled down the Koyukuk River, a tributary of the Yukon, for 120 miles. The adventure was partly a way to mark the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act. Seninger and Herling chat about their exploits and share stunning photos at this month’s Rocky Mountaineers meeting. —Kate Whittle
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Steve Seninger and Daphne Herling chat about their adventure through the Gates of the Arctic in Alaska, as part of the Rocky Mountaineers meeting on Tue., Feb. 10. The Trail Head, 221 E. Front St., 7 PM.
406-728-3209 • 3209 Brooks St.
photo by Cathrine L. Walters
THURSDAY FEBRUARY 5 As part of the Wilderness Speaker Series, Bob Marshall Complex Manager Deb Mucklow will chat about “Wilderness Management 101” and its challenges. Flathead Valley Community College, Art and Tech building, room 139. 7 PM.
SATURDAY FEBRUARY 7 The Cross-Country Ski Outing, hosted by the UM Outdoor Program, invites newbies and experienced folk alike to a junket up Lolo Pass, 8 AM-5 PM. $40 includes rental, instruction and transportation. Outings are on Saturdays, Jan. 3, Jan. 10, Jan. 24, Jan. 31 and Feb. 7. Call 243-5172 to learn more or register.
SUNDAY FEBRUARY 8 Become an experienced woodsman/lady at the Snowshoe and Track Identification day trip, hosted by the UM Outdoor Program, where you’ll trek into the woods and learn how to spot signs of critters. $40 covers transportation and gear. Call 243-5172 or visit mt.edu/crec/Outdoor to learn more and register. Glacier Nordic Club hosts the Carnival Classic Race, which features 1-, 4- and 12-km races cruising around the Whitefish Lake Golf Course. $5-$15 to enter, with discounts for families. As part of carnival festivities, competitors are invited to show up in a nifty costume for the chance to win a prize. Visit glaciernordicclub.com.
Brush up on those May flowers when the Montana Native Plant Society hosts a slideshow and informative talk about grassland wildflowers of western Montana. Gallagher Business Building, room L09. 7:30 PM.
TUESDAY FEBRUARY 10 As the earth tilts on its axis, the Montana Dirt Girls switch gears to host weekly hikes in the Missoula area, Tuesday evenings at 6 PM, November through March, with the chance to grab dinner afterward. Foot-grippers and headlamps advisable. Find out locations and info by signing up for the mail list at mtdirtgirls.tripod.com.
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WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 11 The Backcountry Film Festival gets wild at the Roxy Theater, with such esteemed films as The Backcountry Baker and special appearances from filmmakers and pooches. Doors at 6:30, films at 7:30 PM. $10/$8 for students and youth; take note that only cash or check is accepted. Proceeds benefit the Montana Backcountry Alliance. Check out montanabackcountry.org. Hump day just got friskier with the Wednesday Night Ski Race League, where teams of four (including at least one woman) race weekly at Snowbowl, Wednesdays from 7-10 PM until March 6. $395 per team. Contact missoulaalpinerace@gmail.com or 240-0836 for info.
THURSDAY FEBRUARY 12
Hark, the Sons of Norway present the Barneløpet cross-country ski junket for kids at Lubrecht Forest, noon-2 PM. Free. Call 549-8009 or email barnelopet@missoulanordic.org for info.
The Winter Wildlands Alliance Backcountry Film Festival marks 10 years of “Snow Less Traveled” with a screening at the Hamilton City Hall, 223 S. Second St. Doors at 6 PM, show at 7. $10.
MONDAY FEBRUARY 9
Morgan Valliant, and that is his real name, chats about the fight against weeds and the Missoula Conservation Lands Vegetation Management Program at the Gallagher Business Building, room L09. 7:30 PM.
The Winter Walking Tours series invites folks on guided winter walks/hikes through conservation lands in the Missoula area. Snowshoes provided if they’re necessary. Meets at Currents Aquatic Center on Mondays at 9 AM, with hot cocoa provided after. $5. Call 721-7275.
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missoulanews.com • February 5–February 12, 2015 [37]
[community]
Regardless of relationship status, the women of “Parks and Recreation” get together on the day before Valentine’s for a waffle brunch, gift exchange and celebration of female friendship. Since the first “Galentine’s” episode in 2010, it’s become a beloved pop-culture example of how we can take back Valentine’s and make it about celebrating everyone in our lives who supports us. Romance is great, of course, but our lives would be dark indeed without the love of our family, friends and even ourselves. Monday’s Love Fest, hosted by groups including UM Advocates for Non-Violence, celebrates alternative takes on Valentine’s with a day of exhibits and workshops on campus. Play games like “condom darts,” get your Tarot read or sample a fancy mocktini. Learn the art of self-love. (Ahem, not that kind of self-love.) On the third-floor of the University Center, workshops start at 10 minutes after the hour, beginning at 10:10 with Yoga (as in, “Yogatta Love Yo Self) and following with topics like Speed Friending, Tango
Your Way into Better Communication with the Downtown Dance Collective, Stop: Intervene in the Name of Love and Self-Care with SARC interns. Love is all around us—and it comes in many forms. —Kate Whittle Share the warm fuzzies at Love Fest, which features workshops and exhibits throughout the day at the University Center, Mon., Feb. 9, 10 AM-5 PM. Visit the UM Advocates for Non-Violence Facebook page to learn more.
[AGENDA LISTINGS] THURSDAY FEBRUARY 5 The National Alliance on Mental Illness’s Missoula chapter hosts an informal support group and meeting every Thursday at the Providence Center in Missoula, Room 109. 10 AM-noon. Email namimissoula@gmail.com to learn more. Adults with mental illness can get friendly support at NAMI Connection, every Thursday at the NAMI office in St. Paul Church, 202 Brooks St., Room 210. 1:30-3 PM. Find the “NAMI” sign on the courtyard door. Email namimissoula@gmail.com for info. Connect with other new or expecting parents at Meet the Doulas, an informational session hosted by the Missoula Birth and Postpartum network. Nursing Nook, 734 Kensington. Jan. 8, Feb. 5 and March 5 from 5:30-7:30 PM. Call 552-8319 or email melinda@thelotusprojectmt.org. The citizens of Missoula Moves To Amend host a chili feed and legislative roundup about the latest in corporate malfeasance. St. Paul’s Lutheran, 202 Brooks St. 6-9 PM. International relations expert Kelly Greenhill presents “Weapons of Mass Migration: Forced Displacement as an Instrument of Foreign Policy,” part of the President’s Lecture Series. University Center Ballroom. 8 PM. Free.
FRIDAY FEBRUARY 6 UM’s Advocacy Day panels and workshops will be held in room 123 in the Gallagher Business Building, with speakers chatting about how legislative issues will affect people with disabilities, traumatic brain injuries, Down’s syndrome, and more. 9 AM-2 PM. Visit the SCHWA-MT Facebook page to learn more. The good eggs of CASA present the annual Light of Hope banquet, with dinner, auctions and keynote speaker David Marin, author of This Is US: The New American Family. DoubleTree. 6 PM. $75. Visit casamissoula.org.
MONDAY FEBRUARY 9 Grab a cup of good coffee and sit down to chat about end-of-life issues at Hospice of Missoula’s Death Cafe, ‘cuz nobody’s getting out of here alive. Meets at Caffe Dolce from 10 AM-noon on the second Wednesday of each month to learn from community members and care providers alike.
The nonprofit Transition Missoula, puts on a screening of the Naomi Klein video This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate at Missoula Public Library 6:30-8:30 PM. Free. Call Claudia for information at 728-6049.
TUESDAY FEBRUARY 10 To learn more about Social Security benefits, join Mary Olson at Missoula Aging Services from 11:30 AM-1 PM. Small donations are suggested and participants are welcome to bring a lunch. To register in advance, call 728-7682 or visit socialsecurityquestions.eventbrite.com.
WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 11 Practice empathy with Patrick Marsolek during Compassionate Communication, a peaceful communication weekly practice group, where you’ll role-play stressful situations and practice responding calmly. Jeannette Rankin Peace Center, 519 S. Higgins Ave. Wednesdays at noon. Free. People suffering from Lyme disease, as well as their family and friends, are invited to the Lyme Disease Support Group at St. Francis Community Hall, 411 S. Fifth St. in Hamilton. Meets on the second Wednesday of every month at 1 PM. Call 360-1415 or 360-0170 for more info. People looking for help with overeating issues can come to Overeaters Anonymous meetings on the third floor of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church on Brooks St., Wednesdays. Newbies can come at 6:30 PM, and the regular meeting begins at 7 PM.
THURSDAY FEBRUARY 12 The National Alliance on Mental Illness’s Missoula chapter hosts an informal support group and meeting every Thursday at the Providence Center in Missoula, Room 109. 10 AM-noon. Email namimissoula@gmail.com to learn more. Adults with mental illness can get friendly support at NAMI Connection, every Thursday at the NAMI office in St. Paul Church, 202 Brooks St., Room 210. 1:30-3 PM. Find the “NAMI” sign on the courtyard door. Email namimissoula@gmail.com for info. Doff your top hat when poli sci prof Diana Schaub presents “Lincoln at Gettysburg: Statesmanship in Speech,” examining how Honest Abe dealt with the crises of the Civil War. Dell Brown Room of Turner Hall. 7 PM.
AGENDA is dedicated to upcoming events embodying activism, outreach and public participation. Send your who/what/when/where and why to AGENDA, c/o the Independent, 317 S. Orange, Missoula, MT 59801. You can also email entries to calendar@missoulanews.com or send a fax to (406) 543-4367. AGENDA’s deadline for editorial consideration is 10 days prior to the issue in which you’d like your information to be included. When possible, please include appropriate photos/artwork.
[38] Missoula Independent • February 5–February 12, 2015
missoulanews.com • February 5–February 12, 2015 [39]