Rally Shop Local | Spring | 2017

SPRING2017

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What makes CASPER SO UNIQUE are the people who reside here. The LOCAL shops, restaurants, bars and events are a CULMINATION OF THE CULTURAL flavor ONLY CASPER CAN PROVIDE. RALLY’S MISSION is to feature LOCAL BUSINESS in, what we feel, is a perspective that flows with that CULTURE. We believe in SUPPORTING LOCAL above all else, and that by cross promoting each other, we build a STRONG LOCAL COMMUNITY.

Editorial MIRANDA BERDAHL editor SEAN INGLEDEW copy writer/ copy editor MAT CRABB copy writer Art Department NICOLE CRABB art director RAYMOND CRAIG photo editor DANA MILLER photographer AMY HARRIS fashion editor Hair & Makeup SHAYLEE HERSHMAN beauty editor | hair Contact us MIRANDA BERDAHL 307.258.7931 RallyShopLocal@gmail.com NICOLE CRABB 303.587.5387 RallyShopLocal@gmail.com

SEAN INGLEDEW blogger & podcaster RAYMOND CRAIG podcaster JOE HARRIS podcaster THOMAS FOOLERY blogger CONNIE LINGUS blogger AMMA blogger

// online schedule monday

#KNOWLEDGEMONDAYS HORSE TROUGH TIME MACHINE blogger SEAN INGLEDEW CINEMA DANGER DUO PODCAST podcasters MIRANDA BERDAHL & RAYMOND CRAIG

tuesday

#LOCALTUESDAYS instagram PHOTOS TAKEN FROM OUR LOCAL HANGOUTS.

wednesday

#WEEKENDWEDNESDAYS facebook SHARING LOCAL EVENTS

thursday

#RHETORICTHURSDAYS THOMAS FOOLERY blogger NO LABEL ROUNDTABLE podcasters MIRANDA BERDAHL, SEAN INGLEDEW & JOE HARRIS

friday #FREAKYFRIDAYS

20 17 Fashion

// shopLocal

Inspire

Pretty Pioneers

LOCATION Downtown Casper DANCERS 307 Dance 225 N Wolcott St 307danceacademy.com

LOCATION River FLOWERS Nate’s Flowers 1042 East 2nd Street natesflowers.com

the tunnels LOCATION Wyoming Camera Outfitters 128 W. 2nd Street wyomingcameraoutfitters.com

Cinema Danger Duo

Miranda

Raymond

A bi-weekly podcast with two friends, Ray and Miranda, who have had too much time on their hands and have watched far too many movies. Together they review three different films for each episode covering a wide gamut

of genres. Their spoiler-heavy discussion is less of a critique and more of a jumping off point for discussion. *Warning some explicit language

RallySHOPLOCAL.com FOLLOW US

PODCAST EPISODE 14 In this episode, Ray and Miranda are joined by their guest Joe Harris to discuss the films and Netflix TV series, The Nice Guys, Kubo and The Two Strings and Stranger Things.

No Label Roundtable

Joe, Miranda & Sean

PODCAST EPISODE 20 In this episode, we are joined by the well spoken and all around amazing Jacquie from Jacquie’s Bistro, Brunch and Bar in Casper, WY. We had such a great time talking with her about her business, as well as local businesses and the future.

A bi-weekly podcast produced by three close friends: Casper locals Miranda, Sean, and Joe. Join the inquisitive trio as they seek to learn, educate, and foment cultural enthusiasm through roundtable discussions,

interviews, and the unrehearsed amusement that is a talk among friends. There are no scripts; there are no labels. Speakers and headphones are chairs at this table. *Warning some explicit language

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Eat luxuriously local & for less.

Photos from individual facebook unkown photographers

Not sure if you have noticed (and judging by lack of representation at the lunch table, you haven’t) there are quite a few local eateries that are well worth exploring. To start, we need to acknowledge the elephant in the room; that which the corporations that feed us are doing anything but (creating addicts to chemically produced sustenance that only sustains a steady flow of junkies and patients). Our best bet at taking back our health and wellness lay in that which we allow to interact with our bodies in the most intimate of fashions. Additionally, what are we allowing into the very vessels that are our children. I hear the excuse at the expense, however, there are several local options that not only provide home-made, real food, that was created with the

caress of human hands, but are cost effective as well. For an individual adult to eat fast food and be “full” we are looking at anywhere between $7-$10, and that’s Taco Bell, McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Subway, etc.

For that same dent on the pocketbook as going to Subway, I could dine on homemade soup and a sandwich from The Cottage, and be fairly certain that that raw materials that made up that which is coursing through my veins was ripe, recently harvested, and real food.

Grant Street Grocery has a fabulous ready-to-eat aspect of their establishment. Eating á la carte at several restaurants could lead to a larger yield; you are crazy to go to Taco Bell, or even Pancho’s (which makes homemade tortillas) when you can go through Don Juan’s and walk

out with just as much quantity as the chains. Even if you are a burger and fries kind of persons, Peaches French fries are notoriously addictive, and again, made of real food that feeds the body and the soul; you just helped your community by keeping your dollars here, all the while performing nothing more significant than that of procuring your basic needs. The point being, for the same amount of effort and money that is spent on fast ‘food,’ here in Casper we can (and a lot of us do) eat real food for real cheap; we also get to meet and support some of the very best Casper has. to offer, her people.

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The Cottage Cafe

Don Juan Mexican Restaurant

arepa barn

116 S Lincoln Street

Monday - Friday 11am - 1:30pm 307-234-1157

CottageCafeCasper.com view menu

144 S Center St

Monday - Friday 11am - 9pm (307) 234-0903

follow on facebook

1040 N Center St

Sunday - Friday 8am - 8pm (307) 337-4990

follow on facebook

Enjoy Local URBAN BOTTLE WINE & SPIRITS 410 S ASH ST | (307) 333-6424 URBANBOTTLEWYO.COM

My

So, for those of you who have grown up in the Casper area and spent any time near the Washington Park neighborhood, Grant Street Grocery was a staple. I used to go flying down the hill on my bike (or sled depending on the time of year and propulsion I was able to create) with the ultimate goal of ending up at the corner store; they had everything, and although my friends would spend their money on candy, I always the odd one, got a soda and some kind of dried meat (jerky of differing origins … like a dried smorgasbord for carnivores). One of the saddest

days of my life was the day Grant Street closed. Now, the resurrection, those glorious folk down the street, at the bottom of the hill, have expanded on that bastion of bad-assness in the land of families and friends, just shy of the artistic oasis of Casper’s Downtown and Yellowstone Districts. Grant Street Grocery still brings in the best meats, seafood, and cheeses, but also provides great lunch and dinner options for those in the area, and again, for a lesser impact on your pocket; we all want to live healthy and well, but C.R.E.A.M. y’all, and the more money you

can hang onto, and re-invest into our community, the better (we create more of a symbiotic relationship, fighting the right fight by simply feeding our instinctive desire in nutrition and community). The expertise at Grant Street is beyond compare. The goal, again, is to bring expertise in one of the most intimate interactions an individual can have, the sustaining of ones body and mind, through community oriented service with opulent style and grace, for a blue-collar prize.

Christine Malmberg, the store manager brings great perspective and understanding of product that is sure to be an invaluable resource when

planning any event or any size and demographic.

Head Chef Matt Sissman has a similar experience as me, growing up in the Casper area, and having much of that history set amongst the neighborhood store, and has brought his expertise back home. The lunch and dinner menu rivals any to be had anywhere in town, or the state for that matter. Josh Barhaug is a artist with an edged tool, and will take care of any cut you may need.

oming y W

Food

thought for

Interview with Jamie Purcell

By MAt Crabb

There are communities across our

nation, and world for that matter, that offer specific benefits to living within their influence.

Casper is no different in that regard, however, more directly, Casper Wyoming has within her confines a fabulous array of people that are intricately interconnected. The Casper community is one of infinite potential in virtually endless capacities. One stands out; how we treat those in need, and consequently how we hold each other up. This is really something to see. Our community is large-hearted, and we celebrate those whom make it their work to perpetuate those values that Casper most holds dear.

As I said, our community is riddled with semi-divine entities being what some merely proclaim in rhetoric. Food For Thought, here in Casper, qualifies as the epitome of the aforementioned.

I was fortunate enough to sit down with Jaime Purcell and absorb an energy and influence that radiates from her and the people representing Food For Thought; you know when they are in the vicinity, as this overwhelming feeling of gratitude permeates everything. Their whole

reason for existence is to serve others, especially those most in need of the most basic of needs.

After a restructuring at the Food Bank, she and a colleague contacted the school district after finding out that the program had a limited future, in an attempt to keep our children fed.

They were able to use their insight to see the pitfalls of the “macro-solution” to feeding our youth, and also the benefits of using local, community-based solutions. Recognizing the vast potential that Casper continues to provide, that is exactly what they set out to do. They are grassroots funded, grassroots operated, independent and are therefore allowed to take action when and where they see fit. “You see a need, you fill a need,” as Mrs. Purcell quotes some of the brilliance that can be attained from watching children’s movies. But is that not exactly the purpose of a community, and those individuals and organizations within a community?

Since January of 2013, Food For Thought has distributed food bags for some of our most vulnerable of students; they have done this every weekend since, year round, and I have seen this with my own eyes. The impact it has on the lives of these kids goes well beyond simply feed-

“find your love and your talents, and look beyond yourself.”

Wyoming Food for Thought Project is an independently run, local non-profit 501(c)(3) organization founded on the idea that a local solution to hunger is possible. Donate here ing them. These ‘vessels’ Jaime and Food For Thought send out are exactly that, a means of transporting hope, hope for a better tomorrow, hope for chance to get through today, hope that things will get better. This means that it can’t simply be about handing out food bags and building dependency. There has to be a way to change the manner in which we nourish ourselves physically and emotionally. Always looking locally, Jaime and her crew set their sites on opportunities to tap into that wealth of talent within the Casper area.

In the summer of 2013, Food For Thought took over the Downtown Farmer’s Market, “as a way to empower our community around food.” They have already seen venders outgrow the market and continue to see success, to point of seeing venders sold in Whole Foods.

Success for one vender is success for the entire community. Food For Thought believes strongly in our community and has benefited from the symbiotic relationships between businesses. Their first garden was the result of turning a fallow planter into their first free produce garden, receiving plants, mulch, seed, etc. from a local bank. Food For Thought just

wants to recognize our community, continue to excel in areas, and fill the needs that it sees.

In North Casper, there was a church community raising a community garden. As the population aged, Food For Thought was asked if they were interested in taking over the reigns and care for the building; they did exactly that, and created some of their first community gardens.

These create and teach our youth the intimate relationship we should have with that which we nourish our bodies, minds, and souls. They bring closeness and respect amongst our generations. And, there is no greater teacher of the mandatory nature of interconnectedness to all things, especially amongst species in shared environments. After school programs sprung up via Missy Knack in N. Casper and started connecting kids to the holistic approach to creating gardens, from constructing beds to learning about produce to introduce, to overall care of ones labor. Even over the summer students were always seen caring for that which cares for us. These kids were giving tours and doing that which we train our youth to do as a career.

They teach us the importance of working together and recognizing the brilliant diversity

that can be harnessed for greatness.

In order to strengthen a community, we must build and help build self-reliance as a community and look to local interventions utilizing local work forces. Food For Thought has done all this without having to rely on huge grants, rather local support and hustle. They are looking to add a “mobile famers’ market” to take the show on the road, teaching and providing nutrition intervention. Jaime claims, “I know a guy who knows a guy who has this diesel bus …,” and there you go, find your solution through whom you know; all parties benefit.

She says to just find your love and your talents, and look beyond just yourself. There are so many talented, amazing people and programs out there, just within arms’ reach that have shared goals and values. Food For Thought are a conglomerate of people whose hearts and souls are beyond measure, and go about their philanthropy with seemingly euphoria that is infective; perhaps this is the secret to their success; simplistic, altruism manifested through the community and connections they make.

SATURDAy May 20

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10am-5pm atPetuniaz

615S.durbin food.Beer.Music.Vendors

available at

funkyjunk MAy20th event details

of

Liverpools

Local tee shirt designer

SEAN INGLEDEW

Support

Local artist &

Ga ller i es

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Art 321

SCARLOW'S GALLERY

nicOLAYSEN ART MUSEUM

321 W Midwest Ave Wed, Fri, Sat 10am - 4pm Tues and Thurs 10AM–4PM, 6–8PM 307.265.2655 Art321.org

122 W 2ND ST Mon - Fri 9am - 5:30pm Sat 10am-3pm 307.237.8390

400 E Collins Dr Tues - Sat 10am - 5pm Sat 12pm-4pm 307.235.5247

GoedickesCasperArt.com

TheNic.org

by AMMA

A bi-weekly fashion blog about culture and fashion. *Warning some explicit language

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War and Fashion:: The Dressmaker of Khair Khana

BY AMMA ILLUSTRATION BY SEAN INGLEDEW

“Kamila and her sisters also feared for my safety.

‘Aren’t you worried? What does your family say?’ Kamila’s older sister Malika asked, ‘It is very dangerous here for foreigners right now.’ I reminded them all that they had lived through much worse and had never stopped working, Why should I? They tried to protest, but they knew that I was right: they had kept going during the Taliban years despite the risks, not just because they had to but because they believed in what they were doing. So did I.” Rarely is there a book that so vividly describes the day-to-day lives of those who live in a reality so far removed from ours. Years on end has Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, reporter extraordinaire and veritable Wonder Woman, visited the family in Khair Khana, one of Kabul’s neighborhoods, living through periods of intense conflict and taking incredible risks to continue building the puzzle of women-entrepreneurs in war-ridden countries. What was meant to be an interview for the Financial Times, and a case study for her Harvard MBA, became a testament of women’s ingenuity in war zones, “a particularly intrepid and inspiring form of entrepreneurship that happens regularly right in the heart of the world’s most dangerous conflicts – and their aftermath.”

Gayle Lemmon and Kamila Sidiqi, the real-life Dressmaker of Khair Khana’s friendship and shared story debunk many of the prejudices we probably didn’t even realize we had about the Arab culture, and offer a candid, yet balanced look into the recent history of Afghanistan, the effects of the Taliban invasion, and the silent rebellion of the “women who supported one another when the world outside had forgotten them.” Perhaps indirectly it is also a story about holding on to one’s identity through fashion, even in its most conservative forms.

Threading the needle Kamila Sidiqi’s destiny to become a serial entrepreneur, role-model, speaker and visionary, was set on course the day she picked her diploma up from the Sayed Jamaluddin Teacher Training Institute in Kabul. “I hear they are coming today”, she heard someone whisper while passing the line of women waiting to receive their own diplomas from the school administrator’s office. She was a teenager who had completed her studies by dodging bombings and the onslaught of civil war, and was two years shy of earning her Bachelor’s and beginning a teaching career in literature.

Soon she would be confined to her home, forbidden to continue her education or even walk the streets without a mabram (pre-pubescent child) or male companion, and forced to cover every inch of her body in order to avoid getting beaten in the street and incarcerated for indecency by the “Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue

and Suppression: “The impact was immediate and devastating, particularly for the thirty thousand Kabul families that were said to be headed by widows”.

Kamila and her sisters’ inventiveness and ability to mobilize the community started out of boredom, at first: half a dozen restless young girls confined to their home, forbidden to listen to music or make loud conversations, and tired of rereading the same novels, they started trading books with the other girls in the neighborhood. Soon, they had turned the sitting room into “an informal trading floor”, where all of their female neighbors sat in a circle, snacking on pistachios, drinking chai and egging each other on to read their favorite authors. They tried to make the best of the worst, but the worst was yet to come.

As the regime grew stronger, so did the danger of being jailed for having collaborated with the previous government - for older men -, or that of being kidnapped and sent to fight for the Taliban - for younger men. Kamila’s father and oldest brother, the family’s main providers, were thus forced to go into hiding to keep themselves and the girls’ honor safe, leaving the youngest boy, Rahim, as the only member of the family who could freely move around town. Every day, after school, he would run errands, shop for food, and act as chaperone whenever his sisters needed to go out, all without complaint. Whoever said that only the women had it hard?

The few savings they had to live off of soon ran lower and lower, and out of desperation, Kamila asked for her sister Malika’s help. A high-school teacher by day, Malika had been making money on the side by tailoring suits for her neighbors - a skill that not only she had mastered, but that also came very much in handy ever since women had been forbidden to hold jobs. Kamila learned how to make a simple dress the first day, then “held the garment up to her shoulders” and “for just a moment allowed her imagination to run, envisioning the woman who might wear it someday for a special occasion.”

She would soon embark on the perilous journey to try and sell that one dress; perhaps even get an order for more dresses, as “interactions between male shopkeepers and their female customers were closely monitored. Women kept their conversation to a minimum as they picked out and paid for their good. Even asking after family, as polite Afghan society demanded, could create suspicion.” To protect her identity and her family with it, she gave out a false name, Roya, and imposed strict rules on herself and her sisters in order to avoid unwanted attention.

In no time, Kamila had turned the living room into a production facility, had more orders than she and her sisters could fulfill for multiple stores, and enough money to keep her family fed. And as the word of her success in business reached her neighbors’ ears, she was soon flood-

ed with requests from their daughters to come work for her, learn the craft and save their own families. The small home business turned into a craft school for women to undertake paid apprenticeships and then start businesses on their own. Believe it or not, this was just the beginning…

Make do and Mend When Gayle met Kamila in 2005, she had already reported on how Rwandan women, representing three-quarters of the entire population past the 1994 genocide, were rebuilding their country by creating business opportunities for themselves and their communities. She was told by officials that all women did was sell fruit and handicrafts on the side of the street, but instead she found “women who owned gas stations and ran hotels”, fruit sellers that ran exporting businesses to Europe, and one woman who was selling her baskets to Macy’s, the famous New York department store chain.

Gayle had reasons to believe that Afghani women, long considered “silent – and passive – prisoners waiting out their prolonged house arrests”, might have actually learned how to work the system and even thrive in it: “Driven by the need to earn money for their families and loved ones when Kabul’s economy collapsed under the weight of war and mismanagement, they turned small openings into large opportunities and invented ways around the rules.” Kamila is only one of many female entrepreneurs in the area, but a lot of her peers she has herself taught how to run businesses.

There are a lot of lessons to be taken away from this book, and the one I feel most strongly about is the importance of education for women and the human kind. Mr. Sidiqi, Kamila’s father, was determined that all of his children – the nine girls as well as two boys – would enjoy the privilege of school: “As a young man, he had worked in a state-of-the-art $25 million Swiss textile mill in his hometown of Gulbahar. He has watched the European women working alongside their husbands and Afghan colleagues. All that separated these women who had jobs and an income from those in his own family was education, a reality he would never forget.” Education singlehandedly empowers women, breaks down cultural barriers and allows our society to evolve as we strive to reach our full potential as individuals.

Learning from history could be another, if only to better understand where people come from. It took almost 40 years from the first attempts of the monarchy to embrace the voluntary unveiling of their countrywomen for the public to fully accept it, “but it wasn’t until 1959, when the prime minister’s own wife appeared at a national independence day celebration wearing a headscarf rather than the full chadri [N.B. the blue sheet we usually associate Afghani women with], that the change finally took hold. That one gesture stunned the crowd and marked a

PAst blogs men in skirts I was going to write an article about men wearing skirts. Heterosexual cisgendered men, that is, meaning that they’ve never questioned the match between their personal identity (read more)

The Tabloidization of Fashion It’s the day before the inauguration ceremony of President Trump, and I’m pondering upon (read more)

forgot about Christmas So you forgot about Christmas…

So what?(read more)

cultural turning point in the capital. Kabul’s next generation of women had gone to become teachers, factory workers, doctors, and civil servants”, they “glided through the urbane capital in European-style skirt suits and smart matching head-scarves. By the 1970s, Kabul University students shocked their more conservative rural countrymen with knee-skimming miniskirts and stylish pumps.”

It’s hardly a surprise that the Taliban thought of the capital “like a modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah”. Most of the soldiers enrolled in their army were orphaned as a result of Soviet bombs, and had grown up in refugee camps where they had never interacted with women, or even people from other regions. Their fear of the unknown drives them, as it does all humans. It is fundamental that we educate ourselves before we try to teach and preach, that we recognize our own society’s extremist tendencies, and that we acknowledge, discuss, debate and resolve them, or we risk turning into precisely the oppressors we critique.

The resilience of the female spirit is another valuable lesson. It seems that women are the ones who often have to pick up the pieces, and it is only through love and support that we can forward our destinies. It’s high time we set cattiness aside, embraced this global sisterhood we were born in and helped lift each other in what sometimes feels like an unfair competition between the sexes.

To sew it all up Perhaps the most subtle of lessons this book has to offer has to do with the importance of fashion as a means to express our own identity.

I’ve often asked myself throughout the book: why did dressmaking continue to survive in such dire conditions? At a time when food was scarce, employment was dangerous and

almost impossible to get into, and extreme clothing restrictions were imposed, how is it that the sartorial art was one of the few business endeavors that Afghani women could find customers for?

One answer could be hiding in Gayle’s observation that “male tailors could no longer measure women for dresses, since this could lead to immoral thoughts and was a violation of the complete segregation of men and women who were unrelated by family or marriage.” It is to be expected that in an occupation that ended up lasting for 4 years, clothes would eventually start falling apart and would require mending and replacing, something that not everyone was skilled at. But I don’t believe that’s it.

My hunch is that women were striving for a normal life even when confined between the walls of their houses. Marriages and celebrations still took place, so families made an effort to liven up the air of gloom and poverty, and preserve some sense of normalcy, to feel the joy of preparations, to receive a compliment from a friend on the rare occasion of a visit, to be admired by their husbands.

It may very well be that fashion and the sense of identity that it offers is what kept these beautiful women strong and motivated in overcoming some of the most difficult trials imaginable.

Book Review for WIND CITY BOOKS 152 S. CENTER STREET WindCityBooks.com Purchase book

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in

O l d S c h o o l A pa r t m e n t s 218 E 7th Street | 307-267-9023 c h e c k f o r ava i l a b i l i t y

Wayward wares Vintage

OWNER ALEXANDRA CAROLIN ETSY.COM/SHOP/WAYWARDWARESVINTAGE SHOP NOW

Wayward Wares Vintage Clothing operates right running down the street, one would be encased in style and antiquity. out of Casper. The company owner, Alex, operates in a manner that is difficult to distinguish her work from her life; her store/her camper, a warehouse in all actuality, where the awe-inspiring mosaic of current and past lives collide. Alex travels all over the region and country collecting hidden treasures discarded in one locale, only to be resurrected in another. Alex collects aspects of lives past that retain their grace and class to rub their influence upon another, thus maintaining their quasi-immortality. Alex’s pieces harken back to eras in our past when even

Vintage is so much more than an old shirt, or wore-down heels, the term constitutes a craftsmanship, an expectation that what is created was done so with the integrity to last generations, not keep customers coming back to replace dilapidated pieces. These items literally came from another time, and another soul that loved them, cared for them, and hoped that they would carry on to comfort another. Like a couture Indiana Jones, finding treasures of fashion’s past to be used to re-invent another.

ETSY.COM/SHOP/WAYWARDWARESVINTAGE SHOP NOW

Connie Lingus

The 2017 (and potentially longer) survival guide: 2016 sucked. But you know what else sucks so far? 2017.

BY CONNIE LINGUS ILLUSTRATION BY SEAN INGLEDEW

A bi-weekly sex blog about culture, politics from a Pansexual’s view . *Warning some explicit language

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1.

Hoard IUD’s and birth control the way some Americans hoard assault rifles, heavy weaponry, and false information.

2.

When attending the holidays with your conservative family members, spike your (highly) alcoholic beverage with a heavy dose of prescription strength anti-anxiety meds and try not to talk about anything controversial like basic human rights.

3.

Participate in the various protests taking place around you because this might be the only way to truly stop the storm of racism, sexism, and chaos that will constantly be swarming around you.

4.

Even when some of the world seems to forget it, remember that science really is a thing, and there are people who put faith in its existence.

5.

Lie face down on the ground, slow your breathing, cover your neck with your hands, and play dead.

6.

Wine.

7.

Maybe read a book that’s not by a white guy..

8.

See if you can get citizenship someplace with more promising prospects such as Canada, Anywhere, Chernobyl, or Hell.

9.

Learn how to hunt, catch, and skin your own tofu.

10.

Stand in solidarity with people of marginalized groups and remember that movements that aren’t inclusive aren’t real movements at all.

11.

If you’re a woman, find ways to cope with the fact that half of the country thinks that electing a president who talked about non-consensually “grabbing your pussy” is an adequate candidate. And then try and cope with the idea that some people think that this somehow doesn’t prove the fact that sexism exists. And then try and find a way to cope with the knowledge that everybody making choices about your body doesn’t know anything about your body other than that it can produce babies and serve as a vessel for what (to them) is likely a blundering, one-sided sexual encounter consisting of a few thrusts followed almost immediately by ejaculation.

12.

Maybe just light yourself on fire.

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The Toyota Prius This hybrid, a technologically advanced and energy efficient vehicle, is small enough to maintain its environmentally conscious vibe and yet, as I realized one vacation in North Carolina, (read more)

Our Sexually Un-gratifying Experiences with Douchebags I knew weeks before this failed attempt that I wanted to have a one-night stand. (read more)

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STYLE

FEATURING sarah Rudkin OCCUPATION: I work as the Digital Strategist at Adbay here in Casper.

WHAT PROJECT ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF? One of the most exciting projects I have been proud to work on is for Knowyo.org in the state of Wyoming. We put together a digital ad campaign for the client that encourages residents of Wyoming to sign up for a free voucher to get tested for an STD, or sign up for free condoms delivered privately to their home. The response was great and the client had trouble keeping up with demand. It made me really happy to have helped make a difference in reducing the stigma and fear of maintaining sexual health of our state.

NATIVE OR TRANSPLANT? I’m a transplant from Indianapolis, Indiana. I moved here 2 years ago with my husband, Collin.

WHAT DO YOU DO FOR FUN IN CASPER? I love our thrift stores here. There are so many good finds! I also love going out for drinks with friends at our awesome coffee shops and bars. My husband’s entire family lives here in town so we spend a lot of time with them going to movies and taking trips up the mountain as well. I’m not super athletic, so the most adventurous thing I can do in the snow is ride on a snowmobile or snowshoe, but I’m trying to get better at snowshoeing! I love enjoying the quietness of the mountain. At home I love to sew, garden, and try my hand at home decorating.

DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONAL STYLE? Definitely eclectic – pretty much all clearance rack or thrift store finds. I love searching for a great deal; I don’t even really know how to enter a store and look at things that aren’t in the clearance aisle. I love mixing textures and fabrics, but for the most part I wear neutrals or muted colors. I would rather play with texture than bright colors or patterns in my outfits. I love leather, suede, flannel and super soft cottons. Layers are a must – working in an office, somedays its freezing and other days it’s super warm, so I like wearing sweaters or a scarf that can change with the temperature. I mainly just want to be comfortable, but I’m most comfortable when I feel good about how I look and feel good in it. If it’s scratchy, tight or needs dry cleaning, it doesn’t make the cut. Some of my favorite pieces are simple, great-fitting black tee shirts, high waisted jeans, leather ankle boots and turquoise jewelry. Also recently I’ve started getting more into makeup, and I feel like I’m getting braver with my lip colors – I never went beyond a light nude lip – but now I’m trying deep reds and browns and they are super fun and empowering to wear!

WHAT TREND DO YOU WISH WOULD DIE WITH THE DECADE? Haha! Well I don’t know if this counts but I wish that people would stop judging other people for what they choose to wear. Fashion is a form of expression, and I hope that sooner than the end of the decade we’ll recognize that everyone deserves the right to wear what they feel best in. I also hope that the trend of thinking that you need to “hide your size” should die. Like, no. Like the idea that if you’re a bigger person you can’t wear horizontal stripes?

Please. Or the idea that if you’re over a certain size you shouldn’t wear a bodycon style dress – bye! Let people feel beautiful in their bodies and let them express that in any way they want to! I’m all about watching stereotypes get bro-

ken and people continuing to express themselves through their personal styles in new and untraditional ways.

YOU ARE THE CREATOR OF THE CASPER FEMINIST GROUP AND ORGANIZER OF THE CASPER WOMEN’S MARCH? WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO START THE GROUP? Well, I’m co-organizer! There were a TON of people who put so much time into planning the day of the March that there’s no way I can take that kind of credit. I did create the Feminist of Casper group the day after the election, though. I think I made it as a way of reaching out in the dark trying to find others who felt as discouraged and upset as I did about the election results. I expected maybe 15-20 close friends would join, but now we have over 700 members! I’ve joked with friends that I didn’t ask for this much responsibility – but some amazing ladies have stepped up (or been dragged in – just kidding!) alongside me to help lead this group and I couldn’t be more thankful for them. I really hope that the group continues to grow, and people can feel more comfortable and confident about identifying as a feminist, even in red Wyoming. As a group, we hope to continue to advocate for gender equality, economic issues and social justice, while remaining a safe forum for people to meet friends and communicate about events in the area. We want to remain open to those who might call themselves a republican or a democrat, a pro-lifer, or a pro-choicer, guys and gals and everyone in between.

WHAT DOES BEING A FEMINIST MEAN TO YOU? Feminist simply means believing that men and women are equal. I think now it also means that those who don’t necessarily identify as a man or a woman also feel accepted and advocated for. We’re all humans – that’s what it comes down to. We’re all made of the same chemical compounds and evolved from the same ancestors. – no one’s better than another. I’ve grown into discovering what feminism means for me in different aspects of my life. In high school it meant standing up for those kids that got bullied – guys and girls – and even made fun of by teachers, not letting guys treat my girlfriends and myself like property, fighting the administration on dresscode. In college, it was getting equal critique on a design piece, having equal say in a classroom discussion or not allowing myself to be bullied by random guys at work.

As a young adult, it means having equal pay for equal work, giving myself the space to be a professional woman when the world might expect something different of me, and working

equally, on the same team, as my husband to build our lives together.

YOU HAVE ACCOMPLISHED A LOT IN A SHORT TIME. DID YOU EVER THINK YOU WOULD HAVE THIS BIG OF AN IMPACT ON A LOCAL LEVEL? Oh gosh no. As a child and teen, my mom always told me that I felt things differently than other people – I think that’s part of being an artist. You feel things more deeply, and things affect you in a very emotional way. My response to the election – making the group and helping plan the March – were emotional knee-jerk feelings. It was just a “I need this right now” or “duh, of course I’ll do that” type of response. Nothing that I thought too much about. I still don’t think about it as something that I alone have done. The Feminist of Casper group wouldn’t be what it is without the community response. Members invite friends, and we grow like a ripple effect. Of course we have our trolls, but we’re bigger than they are. I hope that the impact we have on Casper is positive and that it doesn’t circle back to just me – I can’t even begin to tell you about all the amazing people that have done this with me. Yay for new friends!

WHAT DO YOU HOPE FOR THIS GROUP TO ACCOMPLISH IN THE NEXT YEAR? I really want to see the group continue to grow.

We’re working actively to make sure that this Facebook page doesn’t just become an “echo chamber.” We have monthly meetings and try to discuss something new and educational at each one, and there are plenty of other groups that we’re affiliated with who are working hard to plan events and take action to enact change.

I hope that the members of the group don’t get burned out. I know there’s a ton of stuff going on, and for a lot of people, this is the first time they’ve ever been politically active, so I want to make sure people are taking things at their own pace and practicing self care. I hope that we can plan some great events, encourage each other to take risks and be bold.

Sometimes change doesn’t come in the form of a massive wave, it comes in the form of tiny individual “snowflakes” who build up together and make a difference that no one can ignore.

I have a quote on my desk that says, “Be brave enough to start a conversation that matters.” I hope that can be a message that all our members take with them and make big change – one by one.

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Well, after seven months of trying to prevent Creed from becoming a band, I have arrived back in present day to the underwhelming reality that my efforts were largely in vain. I was, however, able to prevent Creed from joining forces with Train to form a band called Jesus Tears. Not all heroes wear capes, ya know.

It’s been a long time since I have invited you for a tour in the Horse Trough Time Machine, so we’re going to do something fun and different; an adventure into the future of human ingenuity!

This trip was inspired by a Trivia Night experience at Backwards Distilling Co., when one of the categories put forth by the Backwards team alluded to this very subject. On February 22nd, astronomers discovered that a solar system just 39 lightyears away from us, called TRAPPIST-1, is home to 7 Earth-sized planets. Three of these planets are thought to be within the

“habitable zone” or “Goldilocks Zone”, and it is possible that all 7 may contain liquid water. In observation of this incredible discovery, I will do what the good folks at Backwards did, and I will shed some light on another forthcoming development in the realm of space pioneering; the Mars 2020 Rover.

The Mars 2020 Rover is still in its developmental stages, but as the name suggests, NASA hopes to have it ready to launch in 2020. This is primarily contingent on its estimated $1.9 Billion price tag. The rover will join its two predecessors, Spirit and Curiosity, on the Red Planet in early 2021 if everything goes according to plan.

One thing that’s already remarkable about the Mars 2020 Rover is the overwhelming amount of interest in the project by the global science community. NASA began a contest in September of 2013 asking scientists, technologists, academics, and other industries from around the world to submit their ideas and inventions for

consideration in the project. NASA received 58 proposals from interested parties, twice the number usually received for instrumentation projects akin to this one.

NASA’s John Grunsfeld said of the response, “Proposal writing for science missions is extremely difficult and time consuming. We truly appreciate this overwhelming response by the worldwide science and technical community and are humbled by the support and enthusiasm for this unique mission. We fully expect to be able to select an instrument suite that will

THE MASTCAM-Z is an advanced camera system that offers panoramic and stereoscopic imaging with the ability to zoom, and whose Principal Investigator is James Bell of Arizona State University.

return exciting science and advance space ex- mental composition of Martian surface ploration on Mars.” materials. PIXL’s Principal Investigator is Abigail Allwood of the Jet Propulsion In a time when the world can seem hostile, di- Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, CA. vided, or otherwise out of balance, the advancement of human understanding is a dependably uniting endeavor. The scientific community is beautiful in its ability to transcend the trivial differences that tend to shape our global politics. The Mars 2020 Rover is a prime example of this inclusion, as demonstrated by the instruments that were selected to be on board.

THE PLANETARY INSTRUMENT for X-ray Lithochemistry

(PIXL) is an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer that will also boast a high-resolution imager to determine the fine scale elemental composition of Martian surface materials. PIXL’s Principal Investigator is Abigail Allwood of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, CA.

THE PLANETARY INSTRUMENT FOR X-RAY LITHOCHEMISTRY (PIXL)

is an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer that will also boast a high-resolution imager to determine the fine scale elemental composition of Martian surface materials. PIXL’s Principal Investigator is Abigail Allwood of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, CA.

SUPERCAM is another advanced

piece of imaging equipment that will analyze the chemical composition and mineralogy of the Martian soil. SuperCam’s Principal Investigator is Roger Wiens of Los Alamos National Laboratory, NM. The SuperCam project is made possible through significant contributions from France’s space program, CNES.

MARS OXYGEN IN-SITU THE PLANETARY INSTRURESOURCES UTILIZATION MENT for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL) EXPERIMENT (MOXIE) is an is an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer that will also boast a high-resolution imager to determine the fine scale ele-

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on Mars, which could be used as a fuel source to bring spacecraft and humans back to Earth. MOXIE is funded by Nasa’s human space flight division, and the Principal Investigator is Michael Hecht of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

MARS ENVIRONMENTAL DYNAMICS ANALYZER (MEDA)

contains a set of sensors that provide measurements of temperature, wind speed and direction, barometric pressure, relative humidity, and dust particle size and shape. Its Principal Investigator is Jose Rodriguez-Manfredi of Spain’s Center of Astrobiology.

THE RADAR IMAGER FOR MARS’ SUBSURFACE EXPLORATION (RIMFAX)

harnesses the power of a ground-penetrating radar that will provide centimeter-scale resolution of geological structure of the martian subsurface.

The Principal Investigator is Svein-Erik Hamran of Norway’s Forsavarets Forskning Institute.

The Mars 2020 Rover will use the same incredible landing technology (like the Sky Crane!) that Curiosity used in 2012, with a few additional upgrades of course. It will also utilize several new technologies to help it move about the Martian surface, all of which were inspired learned experiences from the Curiosity Rover.

This will be a very exciting time in the story of human evolution. Space exploration is tangible evidence of the power of cooperation. This is all the proof any of us should need that our imaginations are both the birthplace and the limit of any endeavor we wish to undertake. I’m thankful for all of the scientists who are carrying the torch of human innovation for the good of us all. Keep your eyes open for more intrigue as this project develops! And as Neil deGrasse Tyson always says, “Keep looking up!”

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