Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/author/edkemmick/page/76/)
It’s a good thing I’m not pretending to be a professional art critic, or even a thorough chronicler. Mrs. Kemmick and I were already planning to take in the ArtWalk in downtown Billings on Friday night, and at the last minute she suggested I take photos at as many venues as possible. (more…) Continue Reading →
I was a little surprised this morning when I saw the headline shown above on this story in the Gazette. Or, I should say that the headline surprised me after I read the first paragraph and learned that the robbery took place at a Holiday Station. I thought I knew the South Side fairly well, and I couldn’t picture a Holiday Station there. Then I remembered the one at South Billings Boulevard and King Avenue East. I wasn’t sure that qualified as the South Side (technically, it is within the boundaries of the Southwest Corridor Task Force), but still, close enough. Continue Reading →
Since its launch three years ago, Noise & Color has sometimes been a hard magazine to pigeonhole, but founding publisher Bryce Turcotte did have a consistent vision for it. “My unofficial slogan for it was always, ‘Cool shit for cool people,’” he said. (more…) Continue Reading →
Mary Queen of Peace, 3411 Third Ave. S.
Service: 9 a.m., Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Length of service: 39 minutes. Length of sermon: 6 minutes
For this, my final church visit, I decided to go back to my roots. As I explained in the essay introducing this series, I used to attend Mass six days a week as a young Catholic. (more…) Continue Reading →
Ed Kemmick is suffering a case, a very bad case, of equinox fever and was unable to complete his Prairie Lights column this week. (more…) Continue Reading →
“A Post on the Prairie,” a new piece by Billings playwright Ryan Gage, was inspired by a setting and by Gage’s love of post-apocalyptic fiction. The play takes place around a campfire, just as Gage’s first one-act play did when he wrote it eight years ago. “Part of me always wanted to return to that,” he said, “but with something bigger.” (more…) Continue Reading →
If you weren’t one of the 5,000 people thronging the grandstand at MetraPark in Billings on Sunday, take my advice: you’ll want to be there next year for the finale of the All Nations Indian Relay Championships. It’s a spectacle like no other, with all the crazy bravado of a Mountain Dew-fueled extreme sport, complete with frenetic announcers, blaring rock music, a giant instant-replay screen and screaming fans. (more…) Continue Reading →
Elevation Church, 711 Fourth Ave. N.
Service: 11 a.m., Sunday, March 15, 2015
Length of service: 1 hour, 22 minutes. Length of sermon: 40 minutes
During the first 22 minutes of the service at Elevation Church, my sympathies were with an elderly woman sitting in the row of chairs behind me. She had her hands over her ears all that time, while the Rev. Dave Carroll and his band cranked out the four loudest songs I had yet encountered on my church visits. (more…) Continue Reading →
I was recently asked by a community group that will be interviewing Billings City Council candidates if I had any questions for the candidates. My suggestion wasn’t really a question, it was this: “Name your three favorite books.” (more…) Continue Reading →
Business Insider released its list of the 30 best hotels in the world this week, and if you scroll down through its gallery of photos it’s not hard to understand why most of the swank joints made the list. There are magnificent beachside accommodations in Indonesia, Maldives, Mexico and St. Lucia, luxurious digs in cities like Paris, Prague and Chicago, and castles and palaces in Ireland, Italy and Hungary. (more…) Continue Reading →
