downtown Billings

Recent Posts

Dazzling variety of films celebrate Montana

Ruggiero

If you’re reading this and it’s warm and sunny outside, you might want to stop right here and continue later. That’s because I want to tell you about a collection of one-minute films that attempt to capture various aspects of Montana, and you’re liable to think, as I did, “What’s the harm in watching a few one-minute films?” (more…) Continue Reading →

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Downtown backers making best of a bad situation

Avenue

Editor’s note: The editors of Noise & Color, Billings’ independent monthly magazine of culture and entertainment, asked me to write them a piece expanding on my recent column about downtown Billings, and the intense reaction to a certain column about the downtown that appeared in the Billings Gazette. (more…) Continue Reading →

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Young blood, new energy fuel downtown renaissance

Studio

Like a lot of people born and raised in Billings, Matt Blakeslee was used to looking to other cities for arts, culture and entertainment generally. Billings was a good place to make money and it was the biggest city in Montana, “but it had never felt like the most cultural or vibrant community,” he said. (more…) Continue Reading →

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Downtown living and the best of both worlds

Garage.

I live in Montana. Most people, hearing that, especially if they weren’t from around here, would probably picture a log cabin surrounded by towering pine trees, alongside a racing stream, with snow-clad peaks over yonder. Not quite. I live on the second floor of a century-old converted warehouse 100 feet from the railroad tracks in the heart of the biggest city in the state. Out my windows I can just see the tops of the forest of pipes and stacks rising from the Phillips 66 refinery. Continue Reading →

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