Kos Katalogue up and running for your holiday shopping

"Never Summer Sunset" in Rocky Mountain National Park by Gilpin County, Colorado, photographer Les Barstow in the Kos Katalogue

It may not be shopping totally locally, but it's the next best thing. By shopping at the Kos Katalogue, you buy handmade goods from honest-to-goodness Progressives. Go to Kos Katalogue -- Where the 99% Shops with the 99%!

Grist: Locally-based arts can save our towns and cities

According to Grist, the arts are being recast as a revitalization strategy for our urban areas.

Roberta Brandes Gratz, a longtime student of cities and author of The Battle for Gotham: New York in the Shadow of Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs, says that this is a refreshing approach. "Usually in the past, money went into creating big cultural venues -- that's not what nurtures the arts. These big venues are good for importing big productions, but for the arts to be of real economic value, it needs to be local."

In other words, if you’re thinking of building a huge symphony hall or museum, forget it. You are much better off nurturing local artists, arts councils, and smaller performance and exhibit venues. Libraries too. And don’t forget about your writers.

Read entire article at http://www.grist.org/cities/2011-11-03-can-save-the-arts-struggling-cities

Art Design & Dine adds venues for "Cheyenne's In Town Art Tours" on Nov. 10 and Dec. 8

More arts and food venues added to the Art Design & Dine schedule. Music too!

Helpful graphic: Tea Party vs. Occupy Wall Street

http://www.facebook.com/ReclaimAmericafromTheLunaticFringe

"Buy American" is something we can all agree on

http://www.facebook.com/bringbackamericanjobs

Think and buy locally as you go a-wassailing and a-caroling and a-gifting this holiday season

The work of Wyoming glass artist Laurie Thal is exhibited and utilized worldwide.  But you can go out to her Teton County studio and gallery and buy locally crafted gifts for under $100. On Saturday, I bought a pair of handmade drinking glasses for $50 and am happy to report that they each one is just right for a 12-ounce Pako IPA handcrafted by the Snake River Brewing in Jackson. What could be more Wyoming than that? In photo above, Laurie is shown at her furnace that is filled with molten glass. To book glass studio tours and workshops, go to www.thalglass.com

Hummingbirdminds is about a lot of things. It is about your blowhard editor regaling you with his deeply held beliefs. It is about progressive politics. It is about fine food and great craft beers. It is about snark.

Most of all, it is about my community. I am a locavore, as much as I can be in high-and-dry-and-cold Wyoming. I also love and promote locallit, localart and localtunes. And what better time to support all that than during this holiday season when all of us will be a-wassailing, a-caroling and a-buying gifts for our loved ones?

I spied the following post by Joseph Segal on the Rebuild the Dream Facebook page. It sums up the “buy local” theme for me this holiday season. As I read it, I kept trying to tally those local businesses that I had patronized the past month or so. Ariel Casiano and his crew aerated my lawn and trimmed my trees. Our family dined at the Morris House Bistro, owned and operated by local entrepreneurs. I got my hair cut last week by local stylists who happen to make their living via the CostCutters chain. I ate at Shadows Brewpub downtown which makes its own beers.

The list is long. Read this and find other ways to help your local economy:

Christmas 2011 -- Birth of a New Tradition

As the holidays approach, the giant Asian factories are kicking into high gear to provide Americans with monstrous piles of cheaply produced goods. Merchandise that has been produced at the expense of American labor.

This year will be different. This year Americans will give the gift of genuine concern for other Americans. There is no longer an excuse that, at gift giving time, nothing can be found that is produced by American hands. Yes there is!

It's time to think outside the box, people. Who says a gift needs to fit in a shirt box, wrapped in Chinese produced wrapping paper?

Everyone -- yes EVERYONE gets their hair cut. How about gift certificates from your local American hair salon or barber?

Gym membership? It's appropriate for all ages who are thinking about some health improvement.

Who wouldn't appreciate getting their car detailed? Small, American owned detail shops and car washes would love to sell you a gift certificate or a book of gift certificates.

Are you one of those extravagant givers who think nothing of plunking down the Benjamins on a Chinese made flat-screen? Perhaps that grateful gift receiver would like his driveway sealed, or lawn mowed for the summer, or driveway plowed all winter, or games at the local golf course.

There are a bazillion owner-run restaurants -- all offering gift certificates. And, if your intended isn't the fancy eatery sort, what about a half dozen breakfasts at the local breakfast joint. Remember, folks this isn't about big National chains -- this is about supporting your home town
Americans with their financial lives on the line to keep their doors open.

How many people couldn't use an oil change for their car, truck or motorcycle, done at a shop run by the American working guy?

Thinking about a heartfelt gift for mom? Mom would LOVE the services of a local cleaning lady for a day.

My computer could use a tune-up, and I KNOW I can find some young guy who is struggling to get his repair business up and running.

OK, you were looking for something more personal. Local crafts people spin their own wool and knit them into scarves. They make jewelry, and pottery and beautiful wooden boxes.

Plan your holiday outings at local, owner operated restaurants and leave your server a nice tip. And, how about going out to see a play or ballet at your hometown theatre.

Musicians need love too, so find a venue showcasing local bands.

Honestly, people, do you REALLY need to buy another ten thousand Chinese lights for the house? When you buy a five dollar string of light, about fifty cents stays in the community. If you have those kinds of bucks to burn, leave the mailman, trash guy or babysitter a nice BIG tip.

You see, Christmas is no longer about draining American pockets so that China can build another glittering city. Christmas is now about caring about US, encouraging American small businesses to keep plugging away to follow their dreams. And, when we care about other Americans, we care about our communities, and the benefits come back to us in ways we couldn't imagine.

THIS is the new American Christmas tradition

Rep. Cynthia Lummis: Grover Norquist is not in my district!

But he is in my head!

From the Casper Star-Tribune:

U.S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., joined dozens of federal lawmakers from both parties on Tuesday in pressing Congress’ special debt reduction committee to consider all options, including higher revenues, and shoot for $4 trillion in savings

--clip—

Like all but three of the 40 GOP signatories, Lummis has also signed the pledge by anti-tax activist Grover Norquist to oppose tax increases. Lummis said she did so when she was first elected in 2008, but did not sign it last year.

“Grover Norquist is not in my district,” she said. “I represent the state of Wyoming and its people.”

Read more: http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/wyoming-u-s-rep-lummis-debt-committee-should-consider-revenues/article_277e2f5e-4022-5f17-9e1d-fbc233c04187.html#ixzz1cheKEoL8

Bring Change 2 Mind teams up with "Extreme Makeover Home Edition" to provide a home to vet with PTSD

I'm not a big fan of reality shows. But "Extreme Makeover Home Edition" is one of the better ones. It's less about strange behavior and more about helping people. Producers select a deserving family and builds a new one or fully renovates the old one on camera. EMHE brings in its own team of designers and builders and enlists an array of local contractors. It has a green slant, with lots of effort to use alternative energy sources and recycled materials. The show's host is the energetic Ty Pennington. Watching the show, I imagined that Ty was a hyperactive kid who drove his family and teachers crazy. He's his own alternative energy source.

The next EMHE is co-sponsored by one of my favorite orgs, Bring Change 2 Mind. Its goal is to remove the stigma of mental illness. BC2M has a video, directed by Ron Howard, that shows a crowd in a subway station (Grand Central?). One man wears a white T-shirt that reads "Post Traumatic Street Disorder" and he's accompanied by his "Battle Buddy." A woman wears a "Depression" T-shirt and is hugged by her "Better Half." Glenn Close, "Sister," poses with her real sister, "Bipolar." The video ends with the labels disappearing from the T-shirts and people going about their business.

Glenn partners up with Pennington and company on the most recent EMHE project, this one for a veteran with PTSD and his family.

There's no bigger mental health issue now than the challenges faced by our returning veterans. That includes PTSD.

Marion Mealing sends this from the National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health:

This Friday, November 4 at 8 p.m. (ET) “Extreme Makeover Home Edition” is featuring an organization about which I feel strongly: Bring Change 2 Mind. 

Bring Change 2 Mind is an organization dedicated to fighting the stigma of mental illness, and providing information and support to those living with mental illness.  Bring Change 2 Mind has been a partner with the National Federation in the fight against mental health stigma.

The two-hour show will take you through how Extreme Makeover Home Edition built a home that better meets the needs of Allen, who is living with PTSD, , his wife Gina, their children, Makale and Dreyson, and their dog Frankie. Throughout the episode, Glenn Close (Bring Change 2 Mind's founder) talks about the organization and their mission.

Will you join me and tune in for what promises to be a heartwarming story?

http://bringchange2mind.org/ehme

Occupy Cheyenne sez: Nov. 5 is bank transfer day

Stymie the 1% on Nov. 5. Transfer
your account to a credit union. Go to
www.CUlookup.com

No Day of the Dead Nov. 1 for Occupy Cheyenne -- it's Day of the Living

Occupy Cheyenne 10/15/11

General Assembly for Occupy Cheyenne

Tuesday, Nov. 1, 6:30 p.m.

Highlands Presbyterian Church

2390 Pattison, Cheyenne

Get directions here

Discussion item: Occupy Cheyenne Black Friday – who, what, when, where, why and how. Other upcoming Occupy events, including Nov. 5.

All are welcome

All will be heard

Keep checking Occupy Wyoming and Occupy Cheyenne

We are the 99%

Keep your eyes peeled for UPLIFT's new billboards

Keep your eyes peeled for a series of billboard that will soon be displayed in Casper, Buffalo and Riverton. Thanks to the generosity of Lamar Advertising (a $2,400 in-kind donation), UPLIFT is able to advertise on five billboards around the state. I am a board member of UPLIFT. Lamar developed the graphic displays and is donating the billboard rental for the Casper boards.  The photo above shows one of the designs that will be used for this advertising program. 

This roadside advertising effort coincides with UPLIFT’s annual fund-raising appeal. This is especially important this year as the federal and state funding that fuels the organization’s crucial programs will be cut.

Here are the location and schedule of the displays.

Casper from October 31 – December 26:

1.       Collins & Poplar

2.       CY Ave. & Oxford

3.       Hwy. 20/26 & 6 Mile Rd

Buffalo from November 7 – December 4:

1.       Hwy. 16 & I-25

Riverton from November 14 – December 11:

1.        Hwy. 26 & Airport Rd.

Community support takes many forms. Thank you, Lamar Advertising.

Donate to UPLIFT by going here.

Denver Police overreact (again) at Occupy Denver

Here's how my hometown of Denver looks to the world right now. This photo comes from Westword and was shot by Kelsey Whipple. It shows cops aiming guns filled with pepper bullets at protesters. Photos like this were in newspapers worldwide. Here's the view from the London Daily Mail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2055243/Occupy-Denver-Police-use-rubber-bullets-pepper-spray-protesters.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

My gun is bigger than your nonviolence: Police raise weapons while making an arrest during the Occupy Denver protest in Denver on Saturday. (Craig F. Walker, The Denver Post). Photos like this were on the pages of newspapers throughout the world today.

Read more:Occupy Denver protesters, law enforcement officers clash; 20 arrested - The Denver Posthttp://www.denverpost.com/commented/ci_19223274?source=commented-news#ixzz1cHOwYtyh

Outnumbered and outgunned but unstoppable -- progressive bloggers in the West

Meg Lanker-Simons

Our roundtable session Saturday at the John R. Milton Writers' Conference at the University of South Dakota was entitled, “Snarky Slacktivists or Online Outlaws?: Leftie Bloggers in Red State Wyoming.”

Presenters were Michael Shay (me), hummingbirdminds prop.; Jeran Artery, author and editor of Out in Wyoming; and Meg Lanker-Simons, the power behind Cognitive Dissonance. The fourth member of our team, Rodger McDaniel of Blowing in the Wyoming Wind, couldn't make it to USD due to a family emergency.

We were a bit of an odd fit at a writers' conference. Even though its theme was "Outlaw: Law and (Dis)Order in the American West," ours was the only roundtable session in a schedule of literary readings and academic papers. Attendance was sparse. Yet we raged on. Our session even had a soundtrack.

I was appointed chair of the session so I dutifully chaired it (and what fine chairs they have at the new USD student center). The last time I presented at this conference, events were scattered all over campus. The U now has a second floor conference center that includes a ballroom. It reminded me of the conference center facilities UW added to its student center during its renovation several years ago.

Meg's blog came out of her "Cognitive Dissonance" show on KOCA Radio in Laramie. Meg is probably the most outspoken one in this ragtag band. A neo-Marxist who says she would fit right in in Berkeley but is a little out of her element in Laramie, Still, she believes strongly in the issues and has to speak out. She's almost as angry with Wyoming liberals as she is with conservatives due o the fact that they don't speak out and give in so easily to criticism from the roaring conservative majority. Recently, one of our merry band, Rodger McDaniel, has blogged and editorialized about the death of the Wyoming Democratic Party.

Meg is a techie and knows how to set up a radio show playlist. On her blog, her posts are an amalgam of writing, video, photos, music and animation. She actually knows how to push blogging limits. I am a writer who blogs. Meg is an activist who uses blog as bullhorn, maxing out her message with all the tools of technology. She also does her research, which drives her critics crazy.

Jeran Artery

Jaren is also an LGTB activist who blogs. He grew up in Wheatland, one of the most conservative communities in our part of the state. He was married, the father of a daughter, a successful financial adviser, when he came out. His friends and family were critical yet supportive. "What took you so long," was the message he got from most of them. He moved south 70 miles to Cheyenne, where he runs his company and also is director of social change of Wyoming Equality. I got to know Jeran this past winter during the struggles against anti-human legislation proposed by our whackadoodle legislators. That's when Jeran began blogging. He's an actor and artist and not necessarily a writer. He used photos and videos to make his points. His main target has been WY Watch, a group of right-wing fundie nuts who were behind most of the anti-gay, anti-immigrant and anti-women legislation. WY Watch stalks all of our blogs and we will be seeing its minions at the upcoming legislative session. They better be ready for another fight.

My presentation centered around a writer's metamorphosis into a blogger. The outline of my presentation is presented below for your edification.

I love my fellow bloggers. We spend our time speaking out about important issues. We all are tiny voices in an immense state. Outnumbered and outgunned yet unstoppable -- we wouldn't want it any other way.

We have talked about making presentations locally about our roles as denizens in Wyoming's underpopulated progressive blogosphere. Any suggestions on possible venues?

One more thing: thanks to our supporters who contributed to the ChipIn! campaign to send us to the Milton conference. Meg lists the contributors on her blog. We thank you all.

Here's the draft outline of my presentation, "Return of the Diary of a Failed Blogger::

I created a blog on Blogger in 2001. It looked interesting and I thought it could serve some purpose in my writing career, such as it was at the time. 

I prowled around the blogs or web logs as they were originally called. Most of them were on-line journals featuring the detailed doings of 15-year-olds in the suburbs. Shopping at the mall. Who likes (and doesn’t like) whom. Teen angst. The precursor to a lot of what you eventually saw on Facebook and Twitter.

In 2005, political blogs began popping up. I was interested on the ones from a Liberal or Progressive perspective: Daily Kos, Digby, Bartcop, Talking Points Memo, Left in the West from Missoula. I began to blog about Wyoming politics, writing, ADHD, etc. At work, I transferred my e-mail newsletter for writers – WyoLitMail – to a blog. It was a place to showcase WAC programs for writers and to billboard literary events around the state. It wasn't really exciting. We have a better blog now called Wyomingarts that I edit.

My personal blog was hit or miss at this time. In the summer of 2006, the events planner of a writing organization in Denver contacted me about appearing on a panel about “Writers Who Blog.” Leslie Petrovski had a blog about knitting and it was booming. The other presenter was writer and musician Larry Borowsky, founded of Viva El Birdos, a St. Louis Cardinals site (Cards flying high this weekened, eh Larry?). I looked at both of their blogs and they were wildly popular. I looked at my blog and saw tumbleweeds rolling across the screen surface. Not much action.

My 15-minute talk to the Denver group was entitled “Diary of a Failed Blogger.” It was funny, I guess, but also a little sad. But through my knitting and baseball colleagues, I learned a few things about getting and holding readers.  Find you focus and write original stuff on that topic.

I subtitled my blog “Prog-blogging Wyoming.” That was some sort of focus. I zeroed in on the state’s crazy politics as seen in the eyes of a lifelong Democrat, one of the few self-proclaimed Liberals in a truly Red State. I was an officer in the county Democratic Party but I tried to keep my independence from the party line. In the spring of 2008, Howard Dean sent me a nice video saying that I had been chosen to blog from the floor of the Democratic National Convention in Denver. That was a great opportunity to meet my fellow prog-bloggers and exchange tips. We put each other’s links on our blogrolls and exchanged info. Over the next couple years, other progressive bloggers began popping up in Wyoming. Now we have a great group of people blogging from southeast Wyoming, some of whom are up her with me today. 

Last spring, I was voted in as a scholarship recipient at Netroots Nation in Minneapolis. It's great to be a scholarship student at the ripe old age of 60. At NN11, I was among my people. I plan on returning to NN12 in Providence, this time with my fellow outlaw bloggers. 

I blog on Daily Kos as Cheyenne Mike. In August, Chris Cillizza, editor of the Washington Post’s political blog “The Fix,” recently named Hummingbirdminds one of the best of the state-based political blogs in the U.S. Not bad for a failed blogger.

Now here comes the hard part. My fellow writers in my critique group in Cheyenne get on me often about spending too much time blogging and not enough time on my book projects. They are correct. However, I see blogging as a publishing project. Most of it is original work and not re-posting. I’ve started to put together chapbooks featuring my work through Blog2Print. My first effort is the chapbook, “The Chronicles of Tea Party Slim”). The idea is to use these chapbooks as thematic showcases of political essays, satire, humor and even short fiction. I can have them at readings and either sell them at cost or steer people toward the online publishing link where they can order copies for $18.99. It’s good to have your work out there, no matter in what form.

Michael Shay

I remember fondly the former poet laureate of Denver, Lalo Delgado. Lalo passed away 10 years ago. To my knowledge, he never blogged. Yet he published his own work in photocopied chapbooks. He sold them at his readings and gave them away. He went to events and wrote poems on the spot. On a trip to Wyoming in 1999, he and I were driving to a gig at Central High School when we witnessed a plane crash a few blocks away. A girl referred to as “America’s youngest pilot” crash-landed on take-off from the Cheyenne airport. She and her flight instructor were killed. At the end of the day, Lalo had written a poem about it and was reading it to another group of kids.

Lalo Delgado probably would be having a great time with social media if he were alive today. He was already doing it, you see. It was called “being a writer.”

Outlaws ain't what they used to be

What does it takes to be an outlaw in the modern West?

That's been the topic today at the John R. Milton Writers' Conference at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion.

In the West, outlaws have been the quintessential badmen (one word). They rob trains and banks. Terrrorize law-abiding citizens. Kill for no discernible reasons.

Lawmen (one word) were the antithesis of badmen. At least in old movies and old books. Later, that changed. It was the 1960s and '70s. Time of the anti-hero, or maybe the unveiling of charlatans, or the humanizing of the mythic. Custer and Wyatt Earp and Buffalo Bill and Bat Masterson and the entire litany of white Western heroes were being colored in shades of gray. We began to look at history from many angles and not just one. It got complicated. Outlaws were lawbreakers and the good guys were out to set things right. Now the good guys were breaking moral and ethical laws in the Jim Crow South and in Vietnam and on Wall Street. The powerless --Southern blacks, the V.C., advocates of Brown Power and women's rights and Native American traditions -- they were out on streets and occupying buildings and generally raising a ruckus.

Today at the conference, speakers have looked at the legacies of a variety of Western characters: Buffalo Bill Cody, pioneers, 19th-century western melodramas, the fictional creations of Louis L'Amour, Walter White in "Breaking Bad," the sheriff and townspeople in "High Noon," Hollywood horse operas, Hollywood space operas, and even the hard-boiled creations of western-based mystery writers such as Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett.

Fascinating discussions. But we are left with the questions: who are the outlaws of 2011? Can a blogger be an outlaw, or just a slacktivist with time on his/her hands? If you take to the streets in a nonviolent protest against the powers-that-be and are beaten senseless by the kindly neighborhood cop in riot gear, are you the bad guy or is he? Are you the outlaw for defying conventions? Or is he the outlaw for resorting to violence? Are you both beyond the pale?

Stay tuned...

Impromptu sculpture marks site of Oakland chaos

Who says that public art has to be planned? From the Oakland Tribune blogs: What's really attracting attention is a stack of cyclone fence, the remnants of a barrier that had been erected around the lawn area but was torn down by protesters. The stack of fencing resembles a sculpture and many people are walking up to take pictures of it. A police officer just went over to snap a shot as well. In photo, City of Oakland worker Norman Hall looks for tent stakes in the ground at Frank Ogawa Plaza at the site of the Occupy Oakland movement in downtown Oakland, Calif. (Kristopher Skinner photo).

Pres. Obama tackles student loan crisis during Denver speech

Pres. Obama seems to like Denver. He returned to the Mile High City today to talk about plans for relieving the student loan crisis. Great news for all of us still paying off loans -- and for our children and grandchildren. Details at http://www.barackobama.com/news/student-loan-reform-cant-wait

Lawmakers always give coal companies a break

Wyoming's coal industry giants taxed unfairly?

Give me a break.

They own our state legislators, guys like Republican Rep. Pat Childers of Park County.

FMI: WPR: Lawmakers consider changing coal tax structure

Suicide solutions in Wyoming should go beyond the glib “it’s a mental health issue”

Thanks to the Casper Star-Tribune, and to reporter Tom Morton, for keeping alive the issue of Wyoming’s high suicide rates.

The Wyoming Survey & Analysis Center reports an average of 107 people a year completed suicides from 2007-2009. Of those completed suicides, 72 percent were accomplished by firearms.

Generally, only 1 percent or 2 percent of people attempt suicide with firearms, but firearms are 85 percent to 90 percent lethal. Other methods, even hanging, can give a person a window to reconsider and get help. Guns by their very nature are lethal. If they weren't, people wouldn't use them for self defense.

--snip—

On personal note, I'm also a survivor of a suicide attempt. I used pills and alcohol. If I had a gun, I wouldn't be here. Preventing suicide by firearm involves many of the practices one finds in hunter safety and the NRA's Eddie Eagle programs. The precautions of storing ammo and firearms separately or using gun locks equals "banning guns."

This scourge of suicide by firearm has become a sad political debate instead of its recognition as a terrible personal and social tragedy needing solutions beyond a glib "it's a mental health issue." And so I'll end with a question: If someone told you s/he was considering suicide and had immediate access to a gun, what would you do? Call a mental health professional for an appointment? Look for antidepressants in the medicine cabinet? I doubt it.

I would hope you would dial 911. I also hope you would do whatever you could to take the gun away from the person as soon as possible.

Banning guns is not an option. Gun safety helps, as do education programs and access to suicide hotlines. The gun is a very final solution to what can often be a passing call to end it all.

Read more: http://trib.com/news/opinion/blogs/morton/touching-the-third-rail-of-wyoming-culture-guns-and-suicide/article_b8558df4-1e90-5ff5-90c2-4622c6381e67.html

My laptop was not purchased from a local artisan -- but my coffee cup and cereal bowl were

Hummingbirdminds couldn't agree more with this graphic. Will I buy every Christmas gift from a local artist, writer, crafter or designer? No, as it's not possible to buy an iPad from my neighbor (even though he's very creative). However, the world is a more local place if I buy some of my gifts in Cheyenne. I did that last year at the Cheyenne Winter Market at Depot Plaza. Will do more of that this year. This graphic comes from the Colorado Creative Industries Facebook page. 

Casper comes together to decide on "art space" details

When I was at the Casper College Literary Conference last month, I dropped by the Sunshine Apartments’ construction site across from the Nicolaysen Art Museum. This is one of the more interesting projects in the state. A years-long struggle over removing a slumlord’s run-down property has culminated in a community-wide effort to build affordable “green” housing with arts and education as its centerpiece.

The Nicolaysen Art Museum, in partnership with the Wyoming Community Development Authority, the city of Casper and Grimshaw Investments, received a $50,000 NEA grant to build an “art space” into the Sunshine II Apartments on the corner of Beech Street and Collins Drive.  

Now all the partners are coming together to decide the scope of the project. On Thursday, Oct. 27, 5:30-7 p.m., the public is invited to a town hall forum, “Creating Communities Through Art and Housing,” in the Nic lobby.

At Thursday’s forum, those attending will meet the three artist groups who were selected as finalists from 86 who submitted requests for credentials to a selection panel in the summer. The finalists are the pair of Gail Simpson and Aristotle Georgiades of Actual Size Artworks, Stoughton, Wis.; Sulkang Zhao of New York; and Matthew Dehaemers of Kansas City, Kan.

From yesterday's Casper Star-Tribune:

WCDA Director David Haney said roughly 30 days after the site visit and forum, the finalists will have mock-ups ready of their idea for Casper, based in part on the feedback they receive at the forum. 

“We want something interactive, multigenerational, something that reflects Wyoming culture and Casper’s character. We want it to be practical and educational and reflect sustainability. We don’t want something that isn’t going to reflect Wyoming values. Beyond that, we don’t know what we want, and that’s the purpose of Thursday,” Haney said. 

Those in attendance will be welcome to ask questions of the artist finalists as well as the project partners.

Interesting that so many entities have worked together to change this blighted piece of downtown real estate. It's only fitting that the public is being invited to decide on the next step. Casper's downtown seems to be changing faster than Cheyenne's. New streetscapes are already being built, and traffic rerouted. The Nic is one of the state's best art museums. But the affordable housing units and their art space tied it into the neighborhood. It works the other way too -- people who live in the development will be tied into the Nic and the city's arts community. That's how it should be. 

There some public/private efforts to turn Cheyenne's Hynds Building into a live/work space for artists. That would be a welcome addition to downtown. The big challenge is how to tie it all together -- live/work spaces. galleries, museums, retailers, performing venues, parking, etc. The community will have to meet on this just as they're doing in Casper. 

For more on this issue, go to Casper Star-Tribune Community News editor Sally Ann Shurmur’s blog at trib.com/dishin

Read more on the Oct. 27 meeting: http://trib.com/news/local/casper/nicolaysen-museum-hosts-town-hall-on-public-art-project/article_728ec980-dd09-513b-8e50-c85bf0da6710.html#ixzz1bsQIYqX9

Last chance to chip in for WY outlaw bloggers SD road trip

The ChipIn! widget goes down Wednesday, Oct. 26. We're almost at the $500 mark! Chip in now for the Wyoming outlaw bloggers road trip to the John R. Milton Writers Conference at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion. You'll be glad you did -- we will!

See the widget on the right sidebar. Or on the blogroll at Cognitive Dissonance and Out in WY.

Get the details of our trip here.

Speak your piece in peace at Occupy Cheyenne General Assembly Nov. 1

Occupy Cheyenne, Depot Plaza, 10/15/11

General Assembly for Occupy Cheyenne

Tuesday, Nov. 1, 6:30 p.m.

Highlands Presbyterian Church

2390 Pattison, Cheyenne

Get directions here

Discussion item: Occupy Cheyenne Black Friday – who, what, when, where, why and how

All are welcome

All will be heard

Keep checking Occupy Wyoming and Occupy Cheyenne 

We are the 99%

Public-private partnership aims to accelerate "creative placemaking" all across the U.S.

I, for one, like terms such as "creative placemaking." It heats up my blood, embiggens my hopes for a better America.

Some big foundations have joined with the National Endowment for the Arts (and several other federal agencies) to establish ArtPlace, a nationwide initiative "to accelerate creative placemaking across the U.S."

ArtPlace believes that art, culture and creativity expressed powerfully through place can create vibrant communities, thus increasing the desire and the economic opportunity for people to thrive in place. It is all about the local.

ArtPlace invites Letters of Inquiry from initiatives involving arts organizations, artists and designers working in partnership with local and national partners (in fields such as economic development, transportation, neighborhood development, entrepreneurship, sustainability, health, etc.) to transform communities. 

To apply: http://www.artplaceamerica.org/loi/. Requests must be submitted by November 15, 2011.

Here are some examples of some cool creative placemaking projects already underway:

Creative Work Fund in northern California

Lakota Art Market at Red Cloud Indian School on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in S.D.

Farm/Art DTour in Sauk County, Wisconsin

And this Whirligig Park in Wilson, N.C.

The Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park Project from Gerret Warner on Vimeo.

Denver in 2008: Obama clinches Dem nomination. Denver in 2011: Shame on Obama!

Occupy Denver Rally starts from the Greek theater in the Civic Center Park on Saturday. Three years ago, Barack Obama accepted the Democratic Party's nomination for president at the convention in Denver. I was there, cheering him on. Now Occupiers are holding up images of Obama that say "Shame." I was there 10/8/11. What is going on? Will Denver be the place that both launched Obama's career and also brings him down? Photo by Hyoung Chang of the The Denver Post

Just the beginning -- things getting serious at Occupy Denver

Jonny 5 from the local band the Flobots performed during a day of events organized in association with the Occupy Denver movement Oct. 22 in Denver at Civic Center Park. There were bands, speakers, a rally and a march throughout the day. Things are getting serious after overreaction by the Governor, mayor and DPD. Denver may well turn out to be the hottest Occupy site in the U.S. Photo by Leah Millis/Special to The Denver Post.

In the news: Occupy Laramie 10/22/11

Laramie County Dems meet at the IBEW hall Oct. 25

The Laramie County Democratic Party meets on Tuesday, Oct. 25, 6:30 p.m., at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) union hall, 810 Fremont Ave., Cheyenne. Network and socialize with Democrats from the county, some of whom you may know and some of whom you may not. Open to all. Menu: Chili dogs.

Snarky Slacktivists join other Wyoming presenters at 2011 Milton Conference in Vermillion, S.D.

This year's John R.Milton Writers’ Conference Oct. 27-29 at the University of South Dakota has a decidedly Wyoming flavor.

You can't get much more Wyoming that Mark Spragg of Cody, who's the keynote speaker. Mark is the author of Where Rivers Change Direction, a memoir that won the 2000 Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers award, and the novels, The Fruit of Stone, An Unfinished Life, and in 2010, Bone Fire. All four were top-ten Book Sense selections and An Unfinished Life, was chosen by the Rocky Mountain News as the Best Book of 2004. Spragg’s work has been translated into fifteen languages. He lives in Cody with his wife, Virginia, with whom he wrote the screenplay for the 2005 film version of his novel, An Unfinished Life, starring Robert Redford and Morgan Freeman.

Other presenters with Wyoming ties: Conference director and USD creative writing program prof Lee Ann Roripaugh, Laramie native; Robert Roripaugh, Wyoming Poet Laureate emeritus; Paul Bergstraesser, poet and UW prof from Laramie; Val Pexton, Laramie; Julianne Couch, Laramie (now in Ames, Iowa); Meg Lanker, Laramie; Jeran Artery, Cheyenne; and Michael Shay, Cheyenne (me).

Yes, I realize that Wyoming is not the center of the universe. It's just the place where I look out on the universe. I also spend my days promoting the state's writers, poets, essayists, visual artists, performers and musicians. I know them pretty well after 20 years on the job. We are pleased to share our views of Wyoming with our colleagues in South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota and North Dakota.

My role at the conference is as a free-range political blogger from The Equality State. Jeran Artery and Meg Lanker will join me for the presentation: "Snarky Slacktivists or Online Outlaws: Leftie Bliggers in Red-State Wyoming." Drop in to hear us 10:30 a.m.-noon on Saturday at the conference. Details here.

The three-day literary conference will include readings and book signings by award-winning featured authors, scholarly panel sessions exploring the conference theme of “Outlaw!: Law and (Dis)order in the American West,” as well as creative writing panels and pop culture sessions.  Other conference highlights include a showcase presentation of USD graduate creative writing students, a conference book fair, as well as a poetry slam sponsored by the Vermillion Literary Project at the Muenster University Center pit lounge featuring poet Kristin Naca.

Other featured presenters are Sherwin Bitsui, Kristin Naca, Karen Shoemaker, William Trowbridge, and USD visiting writer David Chan, who will give readings and book signings along with permanent USD creative writing faculty Ed Allen and Lee Ann Roripaugh.

FMI: http://miltonconference.wordpress.com or contact the Department of English at (605) 677-5229.

Winners announced for the Wyoming Outdoor Council calendar photo contest

This photo of a Golden Eagle in Sinks Canyon, by Scott Copeland, is among the winners of the Wyoming Outdoor Council photo contest and will appear in the 2012 calendar. Buy a calendar. Support Wyoming's outdoor legacy. Join here.

Occupy Wall Street occupies your TV

High Plains Register looking for local fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, drama, art and music

This comes from Karen Cotton, one of the editors of LCCC’s literary and arts magazine, High Plains Register:

The magazine is accepting submissions from:

Writers of poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, or drama

Arists

Photographers

Musicians

DEADLINE IS OCT. 28

Here are the submission guidelines:

All submissions, up to six per person, must include a cover letter with submitter's contact information.

Writing: Send typed hardcopy or e-mail attached Word document (10 pages maximum each; double space prose)

Artwork and music: Digital files preferred (CD or e-mail attachment)

ALL LCCC student submissions will be eligible for the High Plains Register Award for Best Poem, Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Drama, Artwork or Music.

Submissions from the community also encouraged.

Send submissions to:

Liz Jackson

c/o LCCC Arts and Humanities

1400 E. College Drive

Cheyenne, WY 82001

or e-mail LJackson@lccc.wy.edu

Facebook page is http://www.facebook.com/people/HighPlains-Register/600142279

The 2012 High Plains Register release and public reading will be noon, Friday April 27, 2012 in the Student Lounge. Call 778-1330 or search for HPR at lccc.wy.edu.

Occupy Cheyenne Oct. 22 at Depot Plaza

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Occupy-Cheyenne/188084631268023

Occupy Cheyenne Oct. 21 at State Capitol

This is what I'll be doing on my lunch hour on Friday.

Info at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Occupy-Cheyenne/188084631268023

Easy to be driven to distraction by UW's "Distracted"

I have a special interest in this play:

DISTRACTED

Oct. 25-29, 7:30 p.m.; Oct. 30, 2 p.m.

In the Fine Arts Studio Theatre, UW in Laramie

 

What’s wrong with nine-year-old Jesse? He can’t sit still, he curses, he raps, and you can’t get him into—or out of—pajamas. His teacher thinks it’s Attention Deficit Disorder. The psychiatrist thinks he needs medication. Dad thinks he’s just being a boy. And Mama’s on a quest for answers. Is Jesse dysfunctional, or just different? This Off-Broadway hit by the author of GIRL, INTERRUPTED and THE WAITING ROOM is a fast-paced and disarmingly funny look at “parenting in the age of the Internet and Ritalin.” 

DISTRACTED contains language and themes that some might find objectionable.

“Witty and insightful.” — Theatermania
“A smartly comic, sharply observant and surprisingly humane play.” — Associated Press
“...an issue-driven play about parenting and pills that tickles both your brain and your funny bone” — Time Out New York

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