How many Democrats would it take to fill in "The Hole" in downtown Cheyenne?

The mayor spoke to a small gathering of the Laramie County Democratic Grassroots Coalitions on Thursday night. He was supposed to keep his remarks to a half hour as he wanted to leave some time for questions and get home after a long day. We also wanted to get at those homemade cupcakes that Katherine brought to the gathering. 

Hizzoner brought a Power Point presentation. Normally this is cause for dread, as Powerpoints can be deadly dull. But his was quite interesting. All about the rebuilding of Cheyenne's infrastructure and planning for the future.

The good news? Cheyenne is growing at a rate of 1.5% to 2.5% a year. None of the Dems in the room asked what percentage of those are Democrats. About one-third, I'd say, as that's about the current rate of registered Democrats in Laramie County. Cheyenne is the Dem stronghold while the county's many Republicans tend to water down our influence, especially when it comes to writing wacky letters to the local paper.

This all gets a little dicey as I'm not very good with math, despite Sister Norbert's endless algebra drills. What would this problem look like on a quiz?

The City of Cheyenne has a 2012 populations of 61,303. The average growth rate is 2 percent. Thirty-four percent of those are Democrats. If newly-arrived Dems were used for some practical purpose, such as filling in The Hole downtown, how long would it take to fill in The Hole?

First of all, I'd have to know the dimensions of The Hole and those of your average Democrat, 18 and older. Once I had those numbers, the solution would be a breeze. Even English majors such as myself might be able to do the calculations.

But let's save that for another day. What we really want to talk about is progress. Cheyenne voters approved a big batch of public works projects during the most recent election. We have a new and improved Botanic Gardens in the works, as well as a new public safety building downtown. The "West Edge" project (already underway) will redesign that part of downtown with parks and parkways. Developers have already approached the city about housing and retail options, according to the mayor. We have a new airport in the works, as well as new downtown street lighting. Pershing Blvd., named for Blackjack himself, is being totally revamped. A new roundabout will debut in November that will solve the quandary of collisions at the intersection of three of the city's main drags. Why we have three major streets converging at one spot is probably a question for city historians. A new Safeway is planned for that neighborhood, and we'll be getting a new Wal-Mart at I-80 and College Dr. New sewer and water lines are being built to connect the Swan Ranch development with Cheyenne.

Everything's up to date in Cheyenne City.

This does not please everyone. Some people are wildly indignant about the roundabout. Others complain about all the streets being torn up. Some don't want to see Cheyenne grow at all, afraid it will lost its "Old West" feel. We don't want to be like Denver, some say about this other "Old West" town that long ago decided to live in the present instead of the past.

Remember: Wyoming is what America was. That's one of our old state tourism mottos. I'm glad it was retired.

Now, can anyone help me with this math problem. Just how many square feet cubic feet is your average incoming immigrating Democrat, anyway?
  

Hang out on the air during Banned Books Week

Banned Books Week, Sept. 22-28:

Hangouts on Air: Check out the awesome Hangout on Air schedule we have planned for Banned Books Week. Feel free to reshare the events and invite your circles. We’d appreciate any and all support to help spread the word.

9/23: PEN American Center and the ALA Presents: A Live Hangout On Air with Sherman Alexie

9/23: Banned Books Week event: Author Mark Vonnegut reads from Slaughterhouse-Five and discusses his father’s experiences with censorship 

9/24: Google+ and BookTrib Presents: A Live Hangout On Air with Jay Asher, 

9/24: Celebrate Banned Books Week - Discover What You’re Missing 

9/24: CBLDF Presents: Brad Meltzer on Banned Books Week, a Google+ Hang Out! 

9/25: Lauren Oliver and Friends: Banned Books Week 

9/26: PEN American Center Presents: A Live Hangout On Air with Erica Jong

The bounty of the neighborhood

Ruminations on the first full day of fall...

Our next door neighbor (let's call her "M") came over yesterday bearing carrots unearthed from her garden. The carrots were rotund and healthy looking, coated with dirt. Their tops were bushy. She has a bumper crop of veggies this year, plenty to cook and preserve and share. She brought me over to her garden to show that she'd only planted one-third of her newly-manicured plot. She's landscaped the plot with a dozen raised beds surrounded by brick and gravel walkways. Her three tomato plants have produced cherries and big juicy beefsteaks aplenty. Her pumpkin patch has jumped the garden fence and is heading for my house. Plump orange pumpkins are visible beneath the greenery. Her garden features three groupings of corn, the only corn I've seen hereabouts. I've never grown corn successfully, so I'm impressed.

We talked tomatoes. She has pureed, sliced, diced, stuffed and eaten them right off the vine.

"It's been a good year for tomatoes," I said. I have sliced, diced, pureed, put them on salads and eaten many cherries right off the vine. I've given them away. Sometimes I come home for lunch, stand out in the garden, and graze. Biting into a sun-warmed tomato sends shock waves to the brain's pleasure center. Someone happening upon me in this exalted state might be alarmed. They may wonder about my mental state, my state of sobriety. But I am high -- on tomatoes.

For dinner, I wrapped M's corn in aluminum foil and put them on the grill. I sliced the carrots and put them on a sheet of foil. Added snippets of my rosemary and basil, plus some olive oil and cinnamon. Wrapped it all up. Fired up the grill and put the corn and carrots on the fire. Marinated two Pacific salmon steaks. Put them on the grill for ten minutes. While waiting, drank a Pumpkick beer from New Belgium. This put me in the proper mood for dinner, which was marvelous.

It's Sunday morning and I'm still thinking about it.

September Colorado floods spawn toxic sludge

Wyoming writer Laura Pritchett surveyed the Colorado floods as a passenger in a small plane. Her article appeared today on OnEarth. Also on board the plane was a camera crew from CNN. The big story is one that's been almost ignored by the media -- how the flooding affected fracking wells in Weld County, the sprawling swatch of land just to the south of Laramie County in southeast Wyoming (my home). Great article, and scary for all of us on the High Plains. Read it at http://www.onearth.org/articles/2013/09/a-view-from-above-shows-how-the-colorado-superstorm-damaged-fracking-facilities

It's not good fences that make good neighbors

Neighbors.

Our tomcat Teddy chases my neighbor M's cat and, in return, M's tomcat sneaks in our pet door in the dead of night to eat Teddy's food.

We hear our neighbors' dogs barking but (we are thankful) not in the wee hours. The barking reminds me of our dog Coco, whom we had to put to sleep during the summer. Kind of a neighborly thing, really, dogs asking: "Why isn't Coco barking back as she used to do?" If it wasn't for our cat, the squirrels would be inundating our backyard. Coco's daily exercise was chasing the neighborhood's legion of squirrels.

Beyond the back fence are our neighbors from India. They've been in the U.S. for awhile -- their children speak as Americans while their parents have that Brit-inspired lilt of Indian speech. The wife occasionally holds garage sales with members of her church. I always drop by the purchase small items: a 1980s Denver Broncos' glass from Burger King; cartoonish alligator slippers that I wear during Florida Gators football games; some old plates emblazoned with a lightning bolt "S" as in "Shay." The husband works at our hospital. I was surprised when he was the one who conducted the most recent ultrasound of my heart. The family has put up a "Dead End" sign informing motorists that their odd little street that seems like an alley does not go through.

To the south, our born-again neighbor who's a teacher holds a Wednesday prayer rally. Cars line both sides of the street and I wonder how all of those people fit into that tiny house. Yet another miracle, I suppose.

To the north live my Mormon neighbors. The Mister is also a colonel out at Warren AFB. My wife and I were once quizzed about him by government agents doing background checks for a security clearance. We both gave him high marks for being a good neighbor. He must be a church elder too because he leads the Mormon handcart brigade down Capitol Ave. during the summer's Frontier Days parade. The Misses walks with him. They both dress in old-timey Mormon clothes. She is a terrific cook who bakes us Christmas goodies every year and who made me lentil soup after my heart attack.

Our neighborhood's only other known Democrat is T, M's wife. She's lugging around an oxygen tank these days. T knit us an afghan one Christmas. We rarely talk about politics.

Our tomcats carry on their little game. When shopping last night, I bought an extra bag of cat food. Teddy loves to chase M's cat when they are both outside. But when he comes to our house to dine, Teddy just sits and watches. Just his way of being neighborly.

Comic book writers are writers by any other name

I spent last weekend hobnobbing with writers and poets and editors.

One of the most intriguing ones was Kelly Sue DeConnick. She writes for Marvel Comics. Once upon a time I would have said that wasn't real writing. Comic books? Nah!

I've changed my mind. Not because I've read a bunch of recently-published comic books. I will, I swear, just as soon as I get over to the local comic book store. But it was DeConnick's talk at the Casper College Literary Conference that got me thinking about the comics and the literary world.

The literary world is M.F.A./fiction workshops/writers' retreats/coffee house poetry readings/small presses/chapbooks/NEA/grants/fellowships. Maybe some graphic novels based on cool books or short stories. But not comic books. 

The non-literary world is blockbuster best-sellers/romance/hobby writers/agents/New York Times Book Review/hard-boiled mysteries/big publishers/Barnes & Noble/advertising/marketing/film rights. And comic books.

We turn comic book superheroes into special effects-laden films. Batman/Superman/Spiderman/Avengers/The Incredible Hulk. And so on.

Kelly Sue DeConnick told a literary conference audience on Friday that she got her first jobs in comic books "by being a loudmouth on social media."

DeConnick is not only is on Facebook and Twitter (with 20,000 followers). She has a cool Tumblr site at kellysue.tumblr.com and her stand-alone western, "Pretty Deadly," which is set for an Oct. 23 release, is at pretty-deadly.com.

DeConnick, 43, grew up on military bases. "Very much a part of military culture to have comic books," she said. "It makes sense that people who sign up to give their lives for their country might see themselves in the heroic themes of comic books."

She loved "Wonder Woman" comics, although she noted that "Wonder Woman spent a lot of time in chains in the '70s."

Which brings us to the gender issue. Male writers and illustrators might feel compelled to portray a female superhero in bondage. DeConnick, now a member of the Comic Book Boys Club, has no such inclinations.

She writes Captain Marvel and Avengers Assemble for Marvel Comics. The Captain is now a woman, Carol Danvers. DeConnick wanted Danvers to be a real woman, one with flaws and good female friends, one who could also set right the universe when necessary.

This Captain Marvel in a long line of Captain Marvels began to gain a following. A group of fans called the "Carol Corps" grew with each issue. They submitted fan art based on the character, and they began to send Carol Danvers stories to DeConnick.

Then came the merch, such a Carol hoodies and dogtags.

"I got a letter from a civil rights attorney who wears Captain Marvel dogtags under her clothes every time she goes to court," DeConnick said. "I've heard from a doctor who wears dogtags when she goes into surgery."

The Carol Corps raised $2,000 online for the Red Cross after Hurricane Sandy. And it appears that a CarolCon-style ComicCon is in the works.

Issue No. 15 is out and DeConnick is working on the next installments. "The Internet doesn't know this, but she [Carol Danvers] gets her first kiss in issue 17."

DeConnick said that she works hard to present real women in her comics. She tries to avoid the Smurfette Principle -- the lone female character must represent all female traits. To avoid stereotyping, she applies the Sexy Lamp Test to her stories: "If I can replace one of my female characters with a sexy lamp and the plot still functions, I might need another draft."

DeConnick seems to enjoy her role as one of the few female comic book writers. Of the top 300 books produced in June, 6 percent were produced by women. Some of them were written by the same women, so DeConnick estimates that women might make up 2 percent of her industry.

However, when Marvel Comics asked her in 2009 to write the next saga of Norman Osborn, a.k.a. the Green Goblin, she was "proud to have been asked to pitch on a boy book." The result was "Osborn: Evil Incarcerated."

Still, it gets a bit old always being asked the same question: "What does it feel like to be a woman writing in a man's field?"

"I used to joke -- 'I write through my vagina'."

She's married to another comic book writer, Matt Fraction. who's never asked similar questions.

"I don't want to be He-Hulk," she said, "I want to be She-Hulk."

As is the case with most writers, DeConnick wrote a lot before getting published. She said that she may leave the comic book world behind some day in favor of novel-writing.

She often gets letters from young writers who ask how to get started in the biz."I ask them what they're written and they'll say 'nothing.' Nobody is going to ask you to fix a sink if you've only washed your hands."

What's up with those Dems?

Upcoming events on the local Democratic Party calendar:

Next meeting of the Laramie County Democrats Grassroots Coalition is Sept. 26, 6:30 p.m., in the Sunflower Room of the Laramie County Public Library. Guest speaker is Cheyenne Mayor Rick Kaysen.

Next meeting of the Laramie County Democrats is Monday, Oct. 21, at the IBEW Union Hall, Cheyenne. Go right now and "like" the Laramie County Dems Facebook page. 

Oct. 24: LCDGC sponsors a chili dinner fundraiser on Oct. 24 in the Old Community House in Lions Park in Cheyenne. Chili, hot dogs and fruit pies on the menu. Come by, eat and donate to the cause.

This isn't local, unless you're in Sublette County, but the Wyoming Democratic Party's annual Roosevelt/Kennedy Dinner will be held at the library in Pinedale on Oct. 26. Guest speaker is outspoken progressive Wyoming blogger Rev. Rodger McDaniel, author of “Dying for Joe McCarthy’s Sins -- The Suicide of Wyoming Senator Lester Hunt.”

Nov. 16: Casino Night in the Casablanca Room at The Suite Bistro in downtown Cheyenne. A fund-raiser, of course, but fun for all. More details forthcoming....

In late October or early November, a local planning committee of Dems will sponsor an Affordable Care Act Town Hall at the Laramie County Library. Lori Brand is organizing this and is looking for volunteers. Leave a comment if you're interested.

Wyoming Democratic Party looking for interns

College students can get four credit hours and a semester's worth of learning progressive politics from the inside by applying to be an intern with the Wyoming Democratic Party. The Dems are looking for people interested in the following areas: research, communications, new/digital media, voter contact, constituency outreach, resource development, polling, campaign management. More fun that taking another dry political science course. You also will meet battle-hardened veterans of the Wyoming political wars. We promise not to bore you with stories of how we did it back in ought-eight. Go to http://www.wyodems.org/internship

Isn't The Equality State the proper place for civil rights activists and racists to meet?

The weekend's summit meeting in Casper between the NAACP and the KKK is kicking up a fuss.

The Independent in the UK gave it big play as did a slew of my fellow bloggers (go here and here).

Adding to the drama is the fact that NAACP higher-ups apparently did not approve of the meeting, which seems silly to me. My colleagues at the NAACP Casper branch came off looking cordial and knowledgeable in Jeremy Fugleberg's excellent Casper Star-Tribune article. KKK Kleagle John Abarr seemed a bit cluelesss, but redeemed himself by joining the NAACP and even kicking in an additional $20 donation. This is a good thing for an organization that has a tough time recruiting members and raising funds in a place that's subtitled "The Equality State" and often falls short of living up to that vaunted title.

The CST's Fugleberg is following the continuing drama on Twitter. You can too.

Lest you think that the KKK is the quaint little Christian social organization portrayed by Abarr, read deeper into the many media articles.

Not quite sure about the KKK's history in Wyoming (little help here, Phil Roberts!). But I do know a bit about the Klan in Colorado. It was a powerful organization in Denver during the 1920s. Unable to find enough blacks to torment, the KKK picked on Irish and Italians and Chicanos -- all Catholics targeted by the Nativist "100% American" elements in the KKK. Hooded Klansmen burned crosses in my Irish grandfather's South Denver neighborhood, in Italian Pueblo and throughout the state. Hipsters in Denver's pricey Wash Park may not know this, but people who once occupied their renovated houses used to avoid walking around their own neighborhood. My mom and her brother and sister were chased home from their Catholic school by protestant kids from South High. They threw rocks at them and called them "rednecks" because the Irish tended to have sunburned necks from working out in the sun all day. They labored on the railroad and on construction projects and on farms east of town.

The Klan elected a Governor and had the Denver mayor and a passel of Republican legislators in their pocket. But their power waned as people grew tired of their hateful, regressive agenda.

Hard to imagine solidly Democratic Denver as a Klan bastion. It's hard to believe that the Klan still exists in 2013. Let's hope the dialogue that started in Casper continues.

Hope.

350Cheyenne screens award-winning "Chasing Ice" Sept. 12

This announcement comes from writer and Wyoming Tribune-Eagle columnist Edith Cook:

We are showing the film Chasing Ice at the Laramie County Library in Cheyenne on Thursday, September 12, 2013, at 6:30 PM.

The event is free of charge, sponsored by 350Cheyenne. 

This film of electrifying beauty documents the quest of one man (National Geographic photographer James Bolag) to explore glaciers and ice-sheets worldwide; he wished to determine how and why they melt. 

Winner of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, Roger Ebert labeled the film “heart-stopping.” The New York Times made it its Critic’s Pick and the NY Daily News gave it a five-star rating.  Please attend if you can do so.

NAACP and KKK reps meet in Casper

As a human, a writer and a card-carrying member of the NAACP, I find this story fascinating: John Abarr of the Ku Klux Klan (Klans of America) and Jimmy Simmons of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People meet in Casper. Result: Simmons schools Abarr on the history of the KKK, and Abarr joins the NAACP. Casper Star-Tribune reporter Jeremy Fugleberg has an eye for detail and an ear for dialogue which makes this piece rise above the usual daily newspaper fare. I read the version reprinted in the Billings Gazette. Go here.

One fascinating fact: Did you know that the Klan wants the northwest states of Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, Washington and Oregon to secede from the union? The states are predominately white so the Klan apparently figures that WyWaMtIdOr will make an ideal Caucasian country. Abarr says that African-Americans and other people of color will be allowed to stay but others will not be admitted. How would that work, exactly? No non-white inventors, artists, CEOs, pilots, poets, soldiers, athletes, legislators, moms, dads or kids allowed in Whitelandia? What a bland place this would be.

Front Rangers combine the love of art and sports

As we say farewell to August and say hey to September, my thoughts turn to fall. And that's not just because my wife Chris and I watched our first college football game last night, Clemson vs. Georgia. And how about those Pokes? It is one of the reasons, though. The Denver Broncos open their regular season Thursday night. They play the Baltimore Ravens, the team that eked out a win over the Broncos last year to go to the Super Bowl and beat San Francisco. The Broncos are spoiling for a fight. Maybe they'll settle for a win to launch the season which may include a trip to the Super Bowl in New Jersey.

New Jersey?

Denver Post sports columnist Vic Lombardi has been painting porn mustaches on posters of Ravens' quarterback Joe Flacco that the NFL plastered all over Denver in advance of Thursday's opener. There's nothing that says "Die, you gravy-sucking pigs" like a porn mustache. Still, it's nice to see street art combined with a love for the game. Two of Denver's major industries are arts and sports. In that order. Opera fans are less likely to wear hundreds of dollars of merch, yell wildly and puke on your shoulder during Sunday performances, even if it's Wagner's entire Ring Cycle. But opera and emo rock and theatre and book sales and art museum visits all contribute as much to the metro area's GNP as Broncos and Rockies and Avalanche and Nuggets. You could look it up.

So what's happening in September other than football?

Cheech Marin of Cheech and Chong fame comes to Laramie this week to open an exhibition at the UW Art Museum. Marin is one of the world's foremost collectors of Chicano art. He also will be on hand for a tour of the exhibit and a public lecture.

Marin will speak about art at 4 p.m., Friday, Sept. 6, in the Wyoming Union Ballroom, followed by a book signing. The title of his talk is “Chicano Art: Cultivating the Chicano Future”. On Saturday, Sept. 7, at 10:30 a.m. he will give an informal gallery walk-through at the UW Art Museum. Both programs are free and open to the public.

Another multicultural event, with a twist, will take place on Tuesday, Sept. 3. As it says on its Facebook page, the PhinDeli Coffee Shop will open at the old mini-mart and gas station at Buford along I-80.

Buford PhinDeli Coffee Shop will serve Free Super Clean Filter Coffee of Vietnam to everyone who visit from Sept. 3rd, 2013.

Will this first Vietnamese coffee shop in the U.S. create a tidal wave of interest or will it just be a flash in the pan? I plan on stopping by to get some Free Super Clean Filter Coffee. 

Speaking of coffee.... At the Cheyenne Farmers' Market on Saturday, I discovered that Cheyenne now has its own coffee roaster. Higher Grounds Cafe & Roastery is located at 15th St. and Thomes Ave. downtown. It's open from 7 a.m.-5:30 p.m. weekdays. I plan on going by to check out some of its Ethiopean varieties -- and smell the coffee roasting. 

I wrote the other day about the Casper College Literary Conference Sept. 13-14 and its fine offerings. I won't repeat myself. Check it out here.

The same weekend, writer Sherwin Bitsui, who grew up on the Navajo Reservation and now lives in Tucson, will stage a public reading of his work at UW. It will be in the Wyoming Union Senate Chambers at 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 13. 

BeatGrass helps kick off the Freedom's Edge Brewing Company's Forever West Fest Friday, Sept. 6, at 7 p.m., in Cheyenne. Drink locally made craft beers and enjoy locally made bluegrass. 

The band Gooding is very proud of its Wichita, Kan., roots. They should be. I spent some of my formative years in Wichita and look how I turned out. Gooding will be in Cheyenne Sept. 3 for a financial literacy presentation for students at Central H.S. The band will play Sept. 7 at Midtown Tavern. You can catch their funky homemade video here. I like the fact that the band brags about using a real woman and actress from Wichita in the video instead of an anorectic model from who-knows-where. Very real. Very cool.

Finally, the Pokes return to Laramie Saturday to play Idaho. Let's see how they fare playing a non-ranked opponent on their home field.

"Writing Away the Stigma" with true stories

Pittsburgh's Lee Gutkind is a fine writer. He specializes in health topics and is the author of Stuck in Time: The Tragedy of Childhood Mental Illness and Many Sleepless Nights. 

Lee is the fine editor of Creative Nonfiction magazine and numerous anthologies.

Lee also is an accomplished leader of writing workshops. He's conducted quite a few of them in Wyoming, a state he first explored by motorcycle when researching his first book, Bike Fever. I've attended workshops by Lee at the Casper College Literary Conference, at the Big Red Barn at the Ucross Foundation, and at the Writers' Summit that used to be held at the old church retreat complex on Harriman Road between Cheyenne and Laramie. This guy can inspire you to new heights in your writing.

His latest project is an intriguing one: "Writing Away the Sigma: With True Stories Well Told." Here's the plan:

Each year, 1 in 4 American adults will endure the trials of a mental health condition. But while many Americans have experienced a mental illness--either firsthand or through a family member or friend--the stigma of mental illness remains. In an effort to help correct this situation, the Creative Nonfiction and Staunton Farm Foundations have partnered to offer residents of Southwestern Pennsylvania a unique opportunity to tell their stories.

Writing Away the Stigma: With True Stories Well Told will provide support for 12 individuals to study, free of charge, with the founder and editor of Creative Nonfiction magazine, Lee Gutkind, recognized by Vanity Fair as "the Godfather behind creative nonfiction." Selected writing fellows will attend five weekly workshops led by Lee, which will cover the entire writing process from idea to final product.

All 12 participants will conceive their stories, learn the creative nonfiction craft, and write first and follow-up drafts. The final session will focus on how to get published.

The catch is that you have to be a resident of one of 10 southwestern Pennsylvania counties. That's not to say we can't one day lure Lee West to lead a similar workshop.

As is the case with thousands of my fellow Wyomingites, I'm a consumer of mental health services. I also have plenty of company when it comes to dealing with mental health issues faced by family members. Due to our status as a rural state, it's tough to find help. When you do find it, it's a long way away. Some of that is being addressed by electronics. My Cheyenne psychiatrist has a gigantic view screen in his office that connects him via a Skype-like system with patients in Lusk and Big Piney and other far-flung locales. It's almost as good as being there. Almost. 

The stigma wanes but never disappears.

Find out more about "Writing Away the Stigma" at https://www.creativenonfiction.org/study-lee-gutkind

Spider-Man's nemesis, steampunk fiction, edgy poetry and hair-raising memoirs all part of Casper literary conference

For a sparsely populated state, we have an amazing amount of arts events. Casper College and ARTCORE have been putting on their fine literary conference for 27 years. This time out, organizers have seized on the college's 2013 theme of "Powerful Women!" and have planned presenters that embody that theme in some interesting ways. Kelly Sue DeConnick, for instance is the top woman writer at Marvel Comics. She is thriving in this male-dominated world with “Osborn: Evil Incarcerated,” featuring Spider Man’s arch-enemy, and a series of Japanese manga adapted into English. Tiffany Trent is best known for her steampunk novel, “The Unnaturalists.” that gives new meaning to "alternative energy." Connie May Fowler writes fantastic novels but will talk at the conference about memoir writing. She’s brought her own experience with an abusive relationship into a powerful memoir and support for orgs that support abused women. Annette Chaudet runs her own successful small press out of small-town Wyoming and Layli Long Soldier transforms her experience on a South Dakota Reservation into edgy poetry.

Quite a line-up.

The 2013 Casper College/ARTCORE Literary Conference will be held Sept. 13-14 in Casper. The events are free and open to the public.

Here's the schedule:

Friday, September 13

Craft Talks:  Second floor, Gateway Building

9–10  AM: Annette Chaudet  Session

10–11 AM: Kelly Sue DeConnick  Session

11–12  AM: Tiffany Trent Session

11-12 AM: Layli Long Soldier Session

Lunch on your own

2–4 PM: WAC creative writing fellowship winners Mary Beth Baptiste, Chad Hanson and Heather Jensen join fellowship judge Connie May Fowler for a reading, Second floor, Gateway Building. FMI: Michael Shay at 307-777-5234 or mike.shay@wyo.gov

7 PM: Tiffany Trent event at the Natrona County Public Library

8 PM: Poetry Slam MC’d by George Vlastos at Metro Coffee downtown

Saturday, September 14

Workshops:  10 AM to Noon, Second Floor, Gateway building. Workshops are free, but space is limited. Please contact jcampbell@caspercollege.edu to sign up for workshop in poetry (Layli Long Soldier) or fiction (Tiffany Trent or Kelly Sue DeConnick).

Participants can sign up to take a workshop with one of the following authors:

Tiffany Trent  (fiction):  Author of YA novel, The Unnaturalists, from Simon & Schuster

Kelly Sue DeConnick (fiction/scripting):  Writer of Marvel Comics’ “Captain Marvel,” “Avengers Assemble” and creator-owned comic, “Pretty Deadly.”

Layli Long Soldier (poetry):  Postmodern Poet, author of the chapbook Chromosomory (Q Ave Press, 2010)

Noon-2 PM:  Artist Talk by Jeanne Stern, “Book Art,”  with reception-style lunch in the Goodstein Gallery

2–3:30 PM: Young Authors award ceremony and reading w/George Vlastos at the Star Lane Center

4-5 PM: Connie May Fowler Master class, “Lifewriting,” Second Floor, Gateway Building

A family story: Strange turn of events at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center

My sister Mary went to M.D, Anderson Cancer Center in Houston to save our brother's life by donating stem cells for his bone marrow transplant.

But in the end, he saved her life.

How? Read the story here.

Nicely written, Mary. From the heart!

Tell the EPA that you want clean Wyoming air

Cheyenne writer Edith Cook writes thoughtful op-ed pieces for our local paper, the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle. Her favorite subject is the environment, mostly how Wyoming stacks up against the rest of the world when it comes to environmental protections, renewable energy, recycling, etc.

In Friday's WTE, she issued a call for the implementation of new Environmental Protection Agency clean air standards for outdated Wyoming power plants. These standards are opposed by our Governor and legislature and our entire Congressional delegation.

One of the themes running through Edith's piece is the traditional tug-of-war between the state's two major industries: Energy extraction and tourism. Tourists prefer pretty landscapes and clean air. Energy companies tend to dig up landscapes and pollute the air. When writers or musicians or artists bring up these uncomfortable facts, all heck breaks loose. 

But the EPA wants to hear from Wyomingites on these new clean air standards. You can bypass the middleman and write an e-mail or a letter to the following (thanks to Edith for this info). Be sure to comment by tomorrow (Aug. 26) and reference Docket ID No. EPA–R08–OAR–2012–0026:

visit http://www.regulations.gov and follow the simple instructions for submitting comments;

email comments to: r8airrulemakings@epa.gov;

fax comments to: (303) 312–6064;

snail-mail comments to: Carl Daly, Director, Air Program, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region 8, Mailcode 8P– AR, 1595 Wynkoop Street, Denver, Colorado 80202–1129.

Colorado county considers attaching itself to Wyoming

The Craig (Colo.) Daily Press reports that 

Moffat County could be moving toward secession from Colorado under the 51st State Initiative.

Moffat County Commissioner John Kinkaid announced his intention Tuesday to write the ballot language that would ask local voters whether they want to join the secession movement.

“It’s up to people like us to make a statement that we’re not happy, and we want to go in a different direction,” Kinkaid said during Tuesday’s commission meeting.

--clip--

The 51st State Initiative made headlines when five counties in eastern Colorado approved putting the question of secession to voters.

“The goal is to form a 51st state,” said Jeffrey Hare, executive director of the 51st State Initiative.

 “The net result would be a state that better reflects the values of those outside the Denver/Boulder corridor.”

And here's the fun part:

Kinkaid said Moffat County, under the referendum, would either join up with the 51st state or maybe become part of Wyoming.

Wyo. Gov. Matt Mead is having none of this, according to an AP story in the Billings Gazette:

Officials in Wyoming were not amused.

"The country and our state face many significant challenges at this time. This discussion does not move us forward," said Renny MacKay, spokesman for Gov. Matt Mead.

Wyoming might come out ahead on the deal. We'd gain a big chunk of real estate (4,751 square miles) without adding a lot of people (13,795). Sure, most are Republicans but that won't matter much in this Republican-dominated state. We would inherit the lion's share of Dinosaur National Monument. It would make a nice bookend to our other national monument -- Devils Tower -- in the northwest corner of the state. We'd get a nice new batch of oil and gas leases (and accompanying mineral royalties). Our borders would creep closer to all that great skiing at Steamboat, the closest major ski area to all of us in Wyoming's southern tier.

If those addled, secession-minded Moffat Countians come knocking, Gov. Mead, I think you should answer. Let's hear what they have to say.

ISLE Journal issues a "call to writers" on behalf of climate change

Saw this call for entries on the Facebook page of author and environmental activist Terry Tempest Williams. Terry divides her time among Utah, Wyoming and assorted worldwide destinations. She will be the closing keynote speaker at the Wyoming Arts Conference in Jackson Oct. 12-14. I'm really looking forward to her talk, as are many others. Register for the conference here. 

This "Call to Writers" on behalf of climate change by Kathleen Moore and Scott Slovic for the ISLE (Interdisciplinary Studies of Literature and the Environment) Journal.

A Call to Writers

As the true fury of global warming begins to kick in — forests flash to ashes, storms tear away coastal villages, cities swelter in record-breaking heat, drought singes the Southwest, the Arctic melts — we come face to face with the full meaning of the environmental emergency: If climate change continues unchecked, scientists tell us, the world’s life-support systems will be irretrievably damaged by the time our children reach middle-age. The need for action is urgent and unprecedented.

We here issue a call to writers, who have been given the gift of powerful voices that can change the world. For the sake of all the plants and animals on the planet, for the sake of intergenerational justice, for the sake of the children, we call on writers to set aside their ordinary work and step up to do the work of the moment, which is to stop the reckless and profligate fossil fuel economy that is causing climate chaos.

That work may be outside the academy, in the streets, in the halls of politics and power, in the new street theaters of creative disruption, all aimed at stopping industry from continuing to make huge profits by bringing down the systems that sustain life on Earth. These activist efforts need the voices of writers, the genius of thought-leaders, the energy of words.

But there is essential work to be done also in our roles as academics and writers, empowered by creative imagination, moral clarity, and the strength of true witness. Write as if your reader were dying, Annie Dillard advised. “What would you say to a dying person that would not enrage by its triviality?” Now we must write as if the planet were dying. What would you say to a planet in a spasm of extinction?[2] What would you say to those who are paying the costs of climate change in the currency of death? Surely in a world dangerously slipping away, we need courageously and honestly to ask again the questions every author asks, Who is my audience—now, today, in this world? What is my purpose? 

Some kinds of writing are morally impossible in a state of emergency: Anything written solely for tenure. Anything written solely for promotion. Any shamelessly solipsistic project. Anything, in short, that isn’t the most significant use of a writer’s life and talents. Otherwise, how could it ever be forgiven by the ones who follow us, who will expect us finally to have escaped the narrow self-interest of our economy and our age?

Some kinds of writing will be essential. We here invite creative thought about new or renewed forms our writing can take. Perhaps some of these:

The drum-head pamphlet. Like Thomas Paine, writing on the head of a Revolutionary War drum, lay it out. Lay out the reasons why extractive cultures must change their ways. Lay out the reasons that inspire the activists. Lay out the reasons that shame the politicians. Lay out the reasons that are a template for decision-makers.

The “broken-hearted hallelujah.” Like Leonard Cohen, singing of loss and love, make clear the beauty of what we stand to lose or what we have already destroyed. Celebrate the microscopic sea-angels. Celebrate the children who live in the cold doorways and shanty camps. Celebrate the swamp at the end of the road. Leave no doubt of the magnitude of their value and the enormity of the crime, to let them pass away unnoticed. These are elegies, these are praise songs, these are love stories.

The witness. Like Cassandra howling at the gates of Troy, bear witness to what you know to be true. Tell the truths that have been bent by skilled advertising. Tell the truths that have been concealed by adroit regulations. Tell the truths that have been denied by fear or complacency. Go to the tarfields, go to the broken pipelines. Tell that story. Be the noisy gong and clanging cymbals, and be the love.

The narrative of the moral imagination. With stories and novels and poems, take the reader inside the minds and hearts of those who live the consequences of global warming. Who are they? How do they live? What consoles them? Powerful stories teach empathy, build the power to imagine oneself into another’s place, to feel others’ sorrow, and so take readers outside the self-absorption that allows the destruction to continue.

The radical imaginary. Re-imagine the world. Push out the boundaries of the human imagination, too long hog-tied by mass media, to create the open space where new ideas can flourish. Maybe it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism or fossil fuels or terminal selfishness. But this is the work that calls us—to imagine new life-ways into existence. Writers may not be able to save the old world, but they can help create the new one.

The indictment. Like Jefferson listing the repeated injuries and usurpations, let facts be submitted to a candid world. This is the literature of outrage. How did we come to embrace an economic system that would wreck the world? What iniquity allows it to continue?

The apologia. Finally this: Write to the future. Try to explain how we could allow the devastation of the world, how we could leave those who follow us only an impoverished, stripped, and dangerously unstable time. Ask their forgiveness. This is the literature of prayer. Is it possible to write on your knees, weeping?

And a Specific Invitation

In the case of global climate change—or, to put it directly, global warming—the importance of this call to the world’s most eloquent voices and most powerful imaginations cannot be overstated. The virtue of applying literary—and more broadly humanistic—voices to this issue is, in part, the fundamental pluralism of such voices. Our goal is not to ask for a single, unified perspective, but to draw forth a chorus of diverse responses to global warming. At this time, we urge our colleagues to apply their talents and their wisdom to the phenomenon that is altering the inhabitability of this planet more profoundly than any other anthropogenic impact. What do you have to say on the subject of global warming? How might your poetic, narrative, philosophical, teacherly, or scholarly voice make a difference?

Are you a poet or a storyteller? A philosopher or an ecocritic? A journalist or a script writer for film? Perhaps a literary essayist who weaves together many different modes of expression? Or is your medium the letter to the editor or the course syllabus? Recognizing the diverse forms of writing employed by writers throughout the world—and perhaps the need to invent or reinvent forms of writing equal to the emergency of global warming—we call upon you not only to feel the heat we all feel in this warming world, but to think about the heat and to find find le mot juste to match this unparalleled environmental and social challenge.

We have previously published climate-related articles and literary work in the pages of ISLE, but there has never been a focused cluster devoted to this essential topic. Now, with a short turn-round time that reflects the unprecedented urgency of this challenge, we invite readers of ISLE to send us scholarly and creative work for a global-warming cluster that will appear in the Winter 2014 issue of the journal. We can consider work received by September 30. Please contact us if you have any questions (kmoore@oregonstate.edu and slovic@uidaho.edu).

We also wish to encourage our students and colleagues throughout the world to devote their efforts to this pressing issue with an eye toward publishing in future issues of ISLE; in other scholarly, creative, or popular forums; and through untraditional and even non-public media, such as behind-the-scenes letters to elected officials or corporate leaders.

Your voice is needed. We call upon you to put your mind to the meaning of climate change. Do you have something better to do?

Kathleen Dean Moore and Scott Slovic

Tim Kaine in Jackson: "Come engage in a real dialogue with a member of the U.S. Senate"

Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia may be running for president in 2016 -- but who isn't? Hanging out with a Virginia Democrat will be a darn sight more illuminating that going to Glenrock to hear our own Sen. Enzi, who wants to shut down the gubment due to the fact that America picked Obamacare over Enzicare. One reason for Kaine's trip is to meet some Liberal high-rollers spending the last weeks of summer at their mountainside vacation homes. But one must go where the dough is. And who knows -- maybe newbie Jackson resident Liz Cheney will stop by for some campaigning tips.

Brando: Very few people care enough to be a witness to life

From Artists Supporting the Arts in Public Schools on Facebook:

Acting -- all of the arts -- is about observation. As Tennessee [Williams] said, it is about being a witness. Very few people can do this. Very few people care enough to do this. The actor, the writer, the artist, the musician witnesses the world and its people -- and then he tells the stories he has remembered, overheard, surmised. Always attempt to be a witness. Remember those you've loved; those who moved you. In almost every performance I've ever given -- and of which I've been somewhat proud -- I've had a piece of my mother, overwhelmed by life, consumed by sadness, poisoned by alcohol, but still reaching out to me and rubbing my forehead until I fell asleep. I take that memory and I implant it in every character I play. I honor her efforts through gangsters and emperors and brutes and saints. The loving hand on the forehead, when the fist of life is bashing her own head. --Marlon Brando/Interview with James Grissom/1990

Democrat-o-thon in Cheyenne on Aug. 18 w/update

Kathleen Petersen, secretary of the Laramie County Democrats Grassroots Coalition, sends this:

The Laramie County Democrats Grassroots Coalition is hosting a Garden Party and Concert at Joe Corrigan's house, 3626 Dover Street in Cheyenne, on Sunday, August 18, with music presented by Dave Shaul and Friends. The festivity begins at 6 p.m. and goes until 9 p.m. There will be finger food and silent auction items and music. Please bring a lawn chair so you can sit and enjoy the music, bring a beverage of your choice and bring a friend too! For more information call Kathleen at 307-421-4496.

Earlier in the day, the Laramie County Democrats are holding a bowl-a-thon at Two Bar Bowl in Cheyenne. More details later...

More details later... The bowl-a-thon has been postponed for a later date. See you at the garden party!

Meet a Democratic U.S. Senator when Jon Tester comes to Wyoming Aug. 27

Spend an evening with farmer, former school teacher and Montana U.S. Senator Jon Tester when the Wyoming Democrats bring him to Sheridan on Aug. 27. The reception and fund-raiser will be held at Black Tooth Brewery, one of the state's best brewpubs in one of Wyoming's liveliest downtowns. Dems are all about brewpubs and the arts and fellow Dems and thriving communities and creative placemaking and shopping locally and supporting our local progressives. Tix are $75. FMI: http://www.wyodems.org/event/evening-senator-jon-tester

Sen. Enzi seeks out liberal bastions in Wyoming during August listening tour

Nancy S at Veterans for Peace Wyoming Chapter 65 has been paying attention to Sen. Enzi's listening tour schedule during the Congressional recess. Note that Sen. Enzi will be listening at all of these liberal bastions in WYO:

Wednesday August 14th, Glenrock: Senator Enzi will be in town for an hour, tell him what for.  2:30 PM, Senior Center, 615 W. Deer St.   Info:  www.enzi.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2013/8/enzi-announces-august-listening-sessions.  Free. 
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Friday August 16th, Buffalo: Senator Enzi will be in town for an hour, tell him what for.  10 AM, Public Library, 171 N. Adams Ave.  Info:  www.enzi.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2013/8/enzi-announces-august-listening-sessions.  Free. 
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Thursday August 22nd, Worland: Senator Enzi will be in town for an hour, tell him what for.  1:30 PM, Museum & Cultural Center, 2200 Big Horn Ave.  Info:  www.enzi.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2013/8/enzi-announces-august-listening-sessions.  Free. 
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Thursday August 22nd, Greybull: Senator Enzi will be in town for an hour, tell him what for.  4 PM, Community Hall, 527 1st Ave. South.  Info:  www.enzi.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2013/8/enzi-announces-august-listening-sessions.  Free.

P.S.: The counties -- Big Horn, Converse, Johnson and Washakie -- that house the above-mentioned towns cast an average 80% of their votes for Mitt Romney (remember him?) in the 2012 presidential elections. Some guy named Obama got most of the remainder. Wonder what happened to him....

Living foods do not bite back

The Cheyenne Tuesday Farmers Market has a nifty web site that gives details about the farmers, handmade food purveyors and artisans that sell their wares at the Sears parking lot off of Dell Range.

It seems fitting that local food and art are being sold in the shadow of the mall, home to enough Made in China stuff to stock every garage in Cheyenne. I don't have a garage, so someone will have to take my share.

At the Saturday market at Depot Plaza, I've been buying some of Yoga Oasis's delicious cashew cheese pate and healthy flatbreads made from "sprouted nuts, seeds and grains," some with fruit and veggies. Yoga practitioner, artist and chef Debbie Matthew is the proprietor and sometimes is accompanied to the market by her son, who also makes a mean banana bread. I haven't purchased any of her art, nor do I plan to travel to Laramie for yoga classes, but I am eating her homemade "living foods." Too early to tell if they're good for me, but they do not bite back like some other things I've eaten.

Since my heart attack in January, I've been searching out foods that won't contribute to another one. I eat heartily on vegetables from my garden and the farmers' market. I'd eat my lawn if I thought it had any nutritional value. I've cut way back on the salt and the red meat. I eat fewer snacks. My ice cream cravings have been tempered by the memory of constantly beeping hospital room monitors. Too bad -- I love ice cream.

I am trying to be good. I spend countless hours clogging up the grocery store food aisles while I try to grok the sodium and saturated fat contents on food labels. I am beginning to understand that the grocery store may not be the best place to find edibles. Eighty percent of the store's foodstuffs are bad for you.

It's clear that I can only buy some foods from farmers markets. The season is short in the Rockies and budgets are lean.

If you haven't already, go to the market today from 3-6:30 p.m.

Is Cheyenne on the map yet?

Dan Danbom was waxing quite eloquently Thursday in The Denver Post about "putting Denver on the map." It was a clever piece about the phrase "putting ______ on the map," the ______ in this case being Denver.

I am a Denver native and I know Denver's need to be on the map, to be a part of the national conversation. Denver has always had a knack for keeping itself on the map. When the Union Pacific bypassed the burgeoning mining supply town in favor of a Wyoming cross-continent route, William Byers and fellow civic boosters cajoled politicians into getting a spur built from Cheyenne to Denver. Byers was the founder of The Rocky Mountain News and newspapers needed growth for advertising revenue and transportation was essential for that. The railroad beat the heck out of thousand-mile covered-wagon or horseback treks or just plain walking.

Denver had already proven itself to be a breeding ground for hucksters with the great gold rush of 1859. Gold was discovered along Cherry Creek and Denver City entrepreneurs blared the news to the rubes back East, who had no clear idea of the difference between an actual gold field and golds flecks embedded in a river bank. The madding crowd rushed to Cherry Creek with their picks and shovels, only to find that the gold was way up yonder in Central City and Gold Hill and Idaho Springs. While you're in Denver, prospector, why not avail yourself of our white lightning and fleshpots and buy some supplies while you're at it?

Denver was born, and got a place on the map.

By the time I was born in Mercy Hospital almost 100 years later, Denver had not only managed to survive but thrive. It had weathered the boom and bust cycle a dozen times and, in 1950, was booming, thanks to all those WWII vets who had trained in Colorado, liked it and decided to desert their villages in Illinois and New York for life at 5,280 feet. The suburbs and the ski industry was born, which eventually led to the birthing of many Baby Boomers such as myself. We transformed Denver into a pretty cool place to be in the sixties and seventies. Boulder became a counterculture Nirvana and Denver a sports-loving, ski-crazy city with Red Rocks and Rainbow Music Hall and a singles scene with lots of wet T-shirt contests. Gentrification followed, and then came the lattes and craft beers and the Broncos, at long last, winning a Super Bowl and putting Denver on the sports map.

I digress.

I'm not sure why Danbom needed to write about putting Denver on the map at this late date, unless it was to cast stones at other, less map-worthy burgs such as Cheyenne. Here's his comment about Cheyenne:

You have to wonder: Why does Denver have to be on the map? When someone promises that something will put us on the map, the implication is that we are currently not on the map and instead in some sort of obscure, anonymous place that no one has ever heard about and therefore is destined to dry up and blow away. Like Cheyenne.

Danbom may not have been up north in awhile. But Cheyenne is still here. Yes, it is dry and the wind blows, but thus far it has not picked up Cheyenne and blasted it to smithereens -- or to Nebraska. We are pretty well anchored here in southeast Wyoming, just across the border from Colorado. We don't plan on going away any time soon.

Yes, life is slow in Cheyenne. We are a Capital City just like you, but growth is slow in this place and that is how many Wyomingites like it. Not me, but, to borrow a nicely-turned phrase from the Pope, "Who am I to judge?"

Wyoming has always gone its own way. If growth comes at all, it comes slowly. The search for oil and gas and precious minerals often fuel the booms. Just look at Gillette. If the coal gives out, or those dern Obama EPA bureaucrats get their way, Gillette may be as ephemeral as Jeffrey City, the uranium boom town that has pretty much dried up and blown away, except for the crazy artists at Monking Bird Pottery and the barflies across the street at the Split Rock Bar & Cafe.

Cheyenne has been on the map for many years, but maybe not for the reasons that urban hipsters imagine. No, not for Cheyenne Frontier Days, although that's what the organizers imagined when they nicknamed it "The Daddy of 'em All." And no, not for our legislature which has become one of the nuttiest in the West.

We got on the map big time during The Cold War, when the Russkis had Cheyenne and its nukes as one of its primary targets. That's one heck of a map. It may be getting a bit frayed around the edges since The Wall came tumbling down. But maybe not. Putin's Syrian policies and Mr. Snowden and Pussy Riot and anti-gay legislation could dust off those old maps and give us all a reason to live again.

Live, or die.

Thanks to Ken Jorgustin at the Modern Survival Blog for this cool map. Here's what he had to say: "Oh, and there is no way I would want to be living near the three large zones in Montana, North Dakota, and the corner of Wyoming-Nebraska-Colorado where there are evidently numerous nuclear missile silos."

Republicans agree on one thing -- denying health care to our neighbors

Including thousands of our friends and neighbors in Wyoming. Read more about Pres. Obama's Friday press conference at  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/09/obama-obamacare_n_3733933.html

Cardiac Chronicles: Heart blockages happen

I spent much of my blogging time in the mid-2000s giving grief to Pres. George W. Bush. Samples may be read here and here.

And now he has a stent, as do I.

Docs in Houston caught Pres. Bush's arterial blockage before he had a heart attack. This is a good thing, as about a third of first-time heart attacks kill. Seven of ten heart attacks are by first-timers, with fewer than 200,000 repeaters.

The big three risk factors are high blood pressure, high cholesterol (LDL) levels and smoking. I was guilty of one of three -- high cholesterol levels. I have never had high blood pressure, except when watching Republican debates while off my meds. I quite smoking 29 years ago, when my wife Chris was informed that she was pregnant. After almost three decades, you'd think that the bad effects of smoking would have wended their way out of me. Every time I go to the doctors, I'm asked if I smoke. I always answer "Yes, but I quit 29 years ago."

I watch the nurse type in "Ex-smoker."

I wonder: "Why are you an ex-smoker whether you quit smoking 29 years ago or 29 weeks ago or 29 days ago?"

Those first 29 days are the hardest. Followed by the next 29 days. And then the next. And so on. It's easier once you get to years.

So I send healing thoughts and prayers to Pres. Bush. He plagued my waking and sleeping hours for eight years. But mortality comes to us all. We share that.

Coming soon to Wyoming: Ca phe da at 8,000 feet

Billboard for Wyoming's newest roadside attraction

An entrepreneur from a city named for a Southeast Asian revolutionary whose heroes were George Washington and Thomas Jefferson buys a tiny town and its convenience store at 8,000 feet in Wyoming's windswept Laramie Range with the plan of cornering the U.S. coffee market with healthy servings of ca phe da.

If this isn't an illustration of the American/Vietnamese Dream, I don't know what is.

Pham Dinh Nguyen of Ho Chi Minh City bought Buford (pop. 1) last year for $900,000. On Sept. 3, he will debut Buford PhinDeli Town. It will dispense coffee and gasoline, not necessarily in that order.

I am curious and plan on stopping by. How about you?

Art Design and Dine lights up Cheyenne on Aug. 8

Art Design and Dine gets cranking this Thursday, Aug. 8, 5-8 p.m. Fine art to peruse all around town. Down on 15th Street, within spitting distance of the railroad tracks, is Clay Paper Scissors Studio and Gallery. Featured artist is Luke Anderson -- get a peek at his artwork above.

And remember that the Ancient Sage at 18th and Capitol is now the Art Corner Co-op. Drop by and see the array of work by co-op members.

Get more info at http://artdesigndine.org.

"Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" and "Even Cowboys Carry Cell Phones"

This anthology debuts Sept. 15 with one of my short stories and work by Wyoming pals Echo Roy Klaproth of Shoshoni (our new poet laureate) and Rick Kempa of Rock Springs. Reserve your copy now at http://www.upcolorado.com/book/New_Titles/2894

My piece is called -- appropriately enough -- "Cowboy Stories." It has a little something to do with Cheyenne and Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys and PETA and drinking and branding and a few other things Western.

Homegrown tomatoes a hard row to hoe in Wyoming

Only two things that money can't buy
That's true love & homegrown tomatoes

So sings Guy Clark in "Homegrown Tomatoes." He'll be in Wyoming next weekend, playing at the Targhee Bluegrass Festival at the Grand Targhee Resort at 7,850 feet on the west slope of the Tetons. Not many maters grown at that altitude. Not many grown anywhere in Wyoming.

One two things guaranteed in WYO
High altitude and a short growing season

And, sometimes, hail in July.

So I'm no Guy Clark. But you know what I'm talking about. Homegrown tomatoes are a tough chore here, even if you live in a Banana Belt community such as Lander or Buffalo.

This urban gardener has six plants this year. Plenty of fruit on the vine. Barring a hailstorm or Biblical plague, I expect a fair crop this year. Best not to get too optimistic. Not exactly sure how farmers deal with the vagaries of growing things on a large scale. I was reading yesterday about a hailstorm that decimated the barley crop in Wyoming's Big Horn Basin. The barley plant is at its peak and ready to harvest just when hail season is at its peak. That doesn't seem fair, does it? The blooming barley is delicate and ripe for destruction. Mother Nature is a cruel mistress. Barley, of course, is one of beer's main ingredients. The barley crop in the Basin is bound for big brewers, craft brewers, and home brewers. Whiskey distillers, too, such as Wyoming Whiskey in Kirby.

No barley, no beer. I weep.

Hailstorms tend to be localized so it's likely that some plants survived when the wind tore through the barley. We send our best wishes to the Basin barley growers.

And now, for this gardener, there are tomatoes to tend.

Wyoming Equality hopes to set new attendance record at Rendezvous on Aug. 7-11

Joe Corrigan at Wyoming Equality sends this notice about next weekend's annual Rendezvous in the Laramie Range:

Rendezvous is fast approaching, (Aug 7-11) and we want to let you know that you have an opportunity to participate in what we’re hoping will be the biggest and best Rendezvous ever! Online and mail in registrations have been unprecedented! We are really hoping to beat our old attendance record of 450.

And it’s no wonder folks are lining up to help celebrate the 21^st anniversary of this camp out! Have you seen the agenda?  This year we are featuring live entertainment every single day!  We will have everything from singing around the camp fire, karaoke, the bluegrass band “Beatgrass” will be performing Saturday, and of course our headliner this year is nationally known comedienne Vickie Shaw!

The forest looks green and plush and should make for excellent flora and fauna hikes, ATV rides, kayaking and everything else the Medicine Bow National Forest has to offer!

So what are you waiting for? Get your camping gear together and help us make this year’s Rendezvous historic and record breaking!

Text, email or Facebook your friends.  Let’s make this another record breaking year!

Text, e-mail, Facebook and blog! Here it is, Joe... 

Register at Wyoming Equality.

Cheyenne salutes Laramie's food-loving, coffee-loving, book-loving locals

Night Heron Books in downtown Laramie is now publicly growing some of its own food in a mini-greenhouse on the sidewalk in front of the store. Funding came from a grant through Feeding Laramie Valley, a nonprofit "dedicated to achieving local food equality and justice." Night Heron staff grows greens for salads, basil for homemade pesto, and herbs and spinach for soups and sandwiches. So, you can eat some yummy local greens with some locally made bread while you read one of Wyoming's excellent authors. Tastes great in August but will really taste great in January as wicked wind-driven snow attempts to rip your face off on your way into the store's warm confines. You have to admire the resourcefulness and creativity of our pals who live at 7,200 feet. By comparison, those of us on the other side of the hill in Cheyenne attempt to grow things at a mere 6,200 feet. 

 

  

 

New vid from Wyoming Democrats: "Wyoming GOP Too Extreme"

WYO wingnuts to stage "Impeach Obama" protests

Some people are hot under the collar and will stage an anti-Obama protest tomorrow from highway overpasses in Casper. This news comes from the Billings Gazette:

Jacqueline Judd, Wyoming leader of Overpasses for Obama’s Impeachment, said participants in the national movement want the president of the United States to answer for his “tyrannical, treasonous, unconstitutional actions.”

--clip--

Judd... said there’s proof Obama forged his birth certificate, declared war on Libya and funded the Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaida. They want Obama impeached now because they fear he will revoke the right to vote by next fall and seek a third presidential term.

“Many of us believe that if we wait until election time for senators and representatives, we the people will be no more,” Judd said. “We will be under a socialist, communist country, no doubt in my mind.”

Lest you think that Casper will be the only place in Wyoming with wingnuts waving signs from highway overpasses, Judd says that Cheyenne will also hold an overpass protest. Plan on being there from noon-7 p.m. And remember to stay hydrated, people.

You all are a big late with the overpass idea. The innovative Overpass Light Brigade has been stringing lighted protest signs over highways for years. Here's a neat one from Madison, Wisc.:

Thanks to Meg Lanker-Simons at Cognitive Dissonance who tipped me off on the Casper protest. I'm going to miss you, Meg. Give 'em hell in law school.