Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/category/culture/page/25/)
“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 →
During a discussion about his new West End restaurant, chef Travis Stimpson talked about community almost as much as he talked about food. That’s because he wants his Local Kitchen & Bar to foster a sense of community and to be an important part of the community as well. He wants people to enjoy good food and drink grown and made in Montana, and he wants them to stop thinking that eating at chain restaurants has anything to do with fine dining. (more…) Continue Reading →
Paul G. Eitner left New Jersey in 1914 at age 37 and ended up in Miles City, Mont. Physicians had recommended the drier climate as a treatment for his tuberculosis. He found work as a ranch hand in Custer County and later at a liquor store. In 1918, Eitner was accused of murdering Joseph Nugent, a man who supposedly tried courting a woman Eitner was in love with. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison at Deer Lodge. Continue Reading →
James Bolenbaugh may not have known it at the time, but growing up in Billings would prove to be an instrumental factor in determining his career choice. “Billings was a great community to grow up in because there was so much beautiful scenery to grow up around,” Bolenbaugh said. “I think that was one of the things that led me to design scenery for a living.” (more…) Continue Reading →
Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town, by Jon Krakauer. Doubleday. 367 pages, hardbound. $28.95. The most notorious thing about Jon Krakauer’s latest book of investigative reporting is the title. Continue Reading →
Montana State University officials announced Wednesday that the papers of novelist Ivan Doig will return to the state. The beloved novelist’s archives will be housed at the MSU Library and be made available for public examination as well as being incorporated into the research and scholarly activities at the school. (more…) Continue Reading →
NORTH OF ASHLAND — A 22-foot-tall totem pole that traveled 1,300 miles in 10 days had very nearly completed its journey by Sunday afternoon. On a dry, dusty hill overlooking a big bend in the Tongue River near Ashland, representatives of the Lummi Nation officially turned the totem pole over to representatives of the Northern Cheyenne people. It will be displayed at a few other nearby locations before being placed on permanent display. (more…) Continue Reading →
When you think of an “artist-in-residence,” you probably picture an artist spending a certain amount of time at a museum, school or some other institution. For Livingston watercolorist Paul Tunkis, an upcoming artist-in-residence program will mean spending a little more than two weeks in a canoe on the Missouri River. (more…) Continue Reading →
HAYS-LODGE POLE —When Aloha Shortman asked her sixth-graders to find Italy on a world map during a social studies lesson last August, they couldn’t do it. One student’s finger landed on Brazil. Others grew bored and restless. Shortman quickly shifted gears, searching for a way to make a lesson on the Roman Republic relevant to a group of American Indian students in a remote Montana community. (more…) Continue Reading →
“Being Evel,” a new documentary about Butte’s most infamous son, works hard to capture Evel Knievel as he really was—a monumental daredevil and self-promoter who could also be a selfish jerk. The film presents abundant evidence for his having been a jerk. There’s talk about his pursuit of lowlife crime as a young man, and footage of a surly Knievel cursing at the press corps before his big jump over the Snake River Canyon. (more…) Continue Reading →
