Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/author/edkemmick/page/130/)
Will Bruder was the man of the hour Saturday during dedication ceremonies for the new Billings Public Library. Bruder is the Phoenix-based architect chiefly responsible for the eye-catching library that has attracted thousands of people since it opened on Jan. 6. (more…) Continue Reading →
Contrary to mistaken indications from the city of Billings, the big hand of government is not poised to come down on backyard get-togethers. The confusion arose from a display ad the city placed on the Billings Gazette website. The ad copy read: “New noise and open container laws are now in effect in the City limits.” (more…) Continue Reading →
The last time I started writing a column, the first thing we had to do was come up with a name. It was late in 1999 and my editors had proposed that my weekly column would debut in the Billings Gazette on the first Sunday in 2000. To find a name, I indulged in a blue-sky exercise, which involves coming up with as many ideas as you can as quickly as you can. You are supposed to turn off any filters, too, giving free rein to your unconscious mind. (more…) Continue Reading →
Let Them Paddle: Coming of Age on the Water, by Alan S. Kesselheim, 2012. Fulcrum Publishing, 320 pages, $19.95
People who are raising or have raised children should be warned about reading this book: Chances are good that it is going to make you feel very inadequate. (more…) Continue Reading →
At the Montana Folk Festival in Butte last summer, I stumbled on the works of Ben Pease at the festival’s First Peoples Market. I’d been to at least a portion of the three National Folk Festivals when they were in Butte, and I’ve made two of the three since they became the Montana Folk Festival, which is without question the event of the summer in this state. (more…) Continue Reading →
Ben Pease says “Last Good Man,” his many-layered portrait of Crow Chief Plenty Coups, is his signature piece. It is the richest expression of a style of painting he calls “American Indian Narrative,” in which a portrait sits in the midst of other images, other media, other forms of storytelling. Pease himself has a chief-like bearing. He is tall and solidly built, like the college football player he once was, but at the age of 24 he carries himself with a calm gracefulness, and his habitual smile can be disarming. His portrait of Plenty Coups is on display at Mr. A’s Fine Art Gallery in Hardin, along with other of his works. Continue Reading →
Montana is the fourth-largest state, but only Wyoming and Alaska have fewer people per square mile. Maybe that gives our stories room to grow. Or maybe all that space between people makes our stories more necessary, makes them a binding agent that holds us together. (more…) Continue Reading →
