Missoula Rabble: September 30
Missoula Rabble started as a bet among coworkers about taking a photo a day. It has turned into one of the more entertaining Facebook pages in Montana. It recently put out its first book. The Montana Mint and Missoula Rabble are teaming up to bring the best of this page to a broader Montana audience. Be sure to check out Missoula Rabble’s Facebook page here.
Lupa
“One time in the sixth grade I got magnets stuck up my nose and had to go to the emergency room,” Lupa said. She was twelve and she was trying to make it look like she had nose piercings. “I took the ones on the outside off and the ones inside stuck together so I had to get them surgically removed,” she said. “I freaked out. All the doctors thought it was funny.” Lupa has her nose pierced, a septum piercing, and she used to have her “smiley” done, the area between the lip and nose. I asked Lupa what body modification means to her. “For me, body modification was always just about being able to take control of the way I look and accepting myself,” she said. “Putting art on your body is a great way of loving yourself. Normally you’d never be like, ‘I love this part of my arm.’ It has helped me accept a lot of my flaws.”
Sharky
Sharky built the boots you see on his feet. He was hit by a motorcycle two years ago in Texas. He was on his way to move to Belize. “I was walking across the street and a kid ran me over. He actually popped a wheelie right before he hit me,” Sharky said. “Tore everything up, broke everything. I’ll never walk again normally.” He told me he built the boots out of an old cast and snow boots. “I built them because they’re completely armored,” he said. “I have to walk straight. Now there’s really no way you can hurt my legs.” Sharky has had a lot of trouble with the medical system since he hurt his legs. “At the hospital [in Texas] they saw my ID, thought I was homeless, kicked me out, and gave me a cab out of town,” he said. “I was living outside and crawling around for six months.” Sharky’s friends in California threw him a fundraiser party and got him back to Montana. Now the trouble has just been being able to see a real doctor. “They don’t care,” he said. “You’re poor.” After two years Sharky was finally put on disability and he’s getting some false teeth to replace the ones he lost in the accident. I asked him what his feelings were about the medical system since his experience. “Incompetent,” he said. “Basic incompetence. They can’t get an X-ray from the hospital to a doctor so they charge the people. It’s not our fault.”
Greg
Greg so kindly humored me and gave me a dramatic pose. He is a musical theatre performer and has been working for the Missoula Children’s Theatre for 20 years. He’s watched it grow into what it is today. “A lot of people don’t realize that MCT is the largest touring theatre in the country and we send people all over doing plays with kids in local communities,” he said. “When I started back in ’93 we had 15 teams on the road. Now, during our peak season, we have 45 teams on the road.” He graduated from one of the top musical training programs in Cincinnati. “People that I graduated with went straight to Broadway,” he said. Greg took a different route. He attended a mass audition for several companies all over the country. “I got called back by MCT and I never considered working with kids,” he said. “When I heard what the company did I fell in love with it.” I asked him what it’s like working with kids in theatre. “It’s so humbling because they’re so open to any impulses. They’ll just go with it and just how open they are when you believe in them,” he said. “When I was touring with Wizard of Oz we would give Dorothy a 40-page script on Monday and say have this memorized by Wednesday and they did because nobody ever told them that was hard.” I asked Greg why he loves musical theatre. “It’s something I’ve always enjoyed, to be quirky and odd and strange,” he said. “I love things that are way out there and acting always gives you permission to do those things, wild and weird. Probably being so dramatic had a part in both my divorces. You take life as it comes and it’s been a fun ride.”
Gina
Missoula Rabble, Gina told me she’s been dancing since she could walk and move around. I asked her why she likes dancing. “The reason I like dancing is because it changes all the time,” she said. “I have so many different ways that I like to move and it’s my art so I’m just trying to share it with the world, same way everybody else is.” I asked Gina what the most meaningful piece she’s ever performed. “The most meaningful piece I did was for a memorial carnival for my boyfriend after he died,” she said. She choreographed it and performed it with other dancers. “I hope to bring that piece back in the future but it’s not as emotionally charged anymore.” I asked Gina to explain how dance relates to other types of art. “I think just like any art we create from places that are meaningful to us and that we’ve been moved by,” she said. “Everybody can feel how they want to feel about it.”
Cyndie
Cyndie doesn’t mind being called a meter maid. “That’s what I called them before I started doing this,” she said. She’s been doing this for 25 years. “It’s my private method of torture,” she laughed. “We call it parking enforcement because we are enforcing laws even though people want to choke us.” I asked Cyndie what she will miss about this job once she retires in a few years. “It is going to be hard,” she said. “I’ve developed many friendships. I’ve been doing this long enough to know someone as a child who now has children of their own.” I asked her how she deals with the angry people. “They start out angry, but then they find out I am a human being and I have a sense of humor. And I’m nice. We usually become friends,” she said. “You’ll decay from the inside out if you don’t forget the negative. If you want to get to me, be nice. If you’re poison, I’m gonna forget about you.”
“Missoula Rabble is proof that everyone does have a story to tell. I started to profile people on the street and the overwhelming response from the public made me realize this was going to be something special.”
– Ashley McKeee, Creator of Missoula Rabble
All Photo and content credits to Ashley McKee
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