Arts included in stimulus funds for Wyoming

As I've said many times, my day job is as an arts worker in the Wyoming Arts Council. The WAC is receiving $290,000 of stimulus funds that was included in the $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts funds in Pres. Obama's stimulus bill. All three members of Wyoming's Congressional delegation voted against economic stimulus. One, Rep. Cynthia Lummis from Cheyenne, called the NEA appropriation "crazy." Other Wyomingites have questioned the funding.

WAC Board Chair wrote an article last week called "Arts Mean Business." He makes a great case, and I don't say this just because he's our board chair.

Read the entire article at http://wyomingarts.blogspot.com/2009/03/arts-mean-business-and-economic.html

Live HD opera comes to the big screen

I've never seen a live opera. Never really interested me. Besides, to actually see one, I have to travel to the spiffy new opera house in Denver, pay a fortune for tickets, get dressed up, and probably pay for a fancy dinner. If it was a priority, I'd do it.

Today, I traveled to Cinemark in Fort Collins to see a simulcast of the Metropolitan Opera's "La Sonnambula." My friend Bob lives in Fort Collins and is a long-time opera fan. He spends part of each summer at the Santa Fe Opera. He has season tickets to Colorado Opera. He goes to the Met's simulcasts. He's an opera "Deadhead," travelling across the West, following Verdi and Bellini and even Wagner. I admire that sort of dedication.

I met Bob and his neighbor Art at the Cinemark. Art used to sing opera as a hobby when he was an engineering professor at Ohio State (a.k.a. The Ohio State). Art saw opera at La Scala in Milan in 1973. La Scala is to opera what City Lights Books in North Beach is to beat poets. Or Ryman Auditorium is to C/W musicians. You get the picture. Bob, of course, has seen dozens of operas and studies up on it in his semi-retirement. I'm a novice. Still educating myself in the fine arts -- a lifelong pursuit.

I paid $20 and joined 200-some people to see the opera on-screen. As we have always suspected, technology is a wonderful things for the arts. Sure, we've seen dire warnings about our teens' brains turning to jelly from playing too many rounds of "Halo" or "Resident Evil." But tech geeks also invented the HD camera and iPods and LCD projectors to enhance the artistic experience.

As I watched a 300-year-old opera live in high-def, I thought to myself: "Technology could help opera make a comeback." Yes, most of the people in the crowd were older than my 58 years. And yes, the graying of the performing arts audience is a major concern of arts groups all over the world. Whenever I go to a local symphony performance, the sound of old people snoring competes with strains of Beethoven and Mozart.

But things may be looking up. Did you know that opera has its own version of "American Idol?" It's true. At today's simulcast, we saw a preview of "The Audition," a documentary based on a 2007 nationwide search for the next big opera voice. The singers were almost all in their 20s, with one man coming in at the ripe old age of 30. They all have wonderful voices. The search has conducted regional auditions and the winners all go to the U.S. competition. That winner gets to sing at the Met.

I haven't spoken much about the opera itself. Bellini set his original in a small 17th-century town in the Swiss Alps. The new version takes place in a NYC rehearsal space, with the players dressed in contemporary clothes rehearsing for a performance of "La Sonnambula" set in a Swiss village. Kooky.

But what impressed me most is how the Metropolitan Opera, one of the oldest and stodgiest institutions in one of the oldest and stodgiest areas in the performing arts, is modernizing through technology and by borrowing ideas from reality shows such as "American Idol." Purists will be shocked. Bob tells me that the Mary Zimmerman, director of this new version of "La Sonnambula," was booed when introduced at opening night The Met. However, the place was filled to capacity for today's performance. And much applause was flung at the leading tenor and soprano. Even Bob, an old-line opera lover, loved the changes. And if we learned anything in our most recent past, change is good.

Ex-Veep Cheney still talking nonsense

On the March 18 "Daily Show," Jon Stewart skewered this John King "interview" of Wyoming's Dick Cheney. What's not to skewer? Go to http://crooksandliars.com/taxonomy/term/205

LCDGC plans book as 2010 fund-raiser

The Laramie County Democratic Grassroots Coalition (LCDGC) is compiling a book of recipes, pictures, anecdotes and poetry about -- and from -- Democrats in Laramie County.

The LCDGC has set March 1, 2010, as the deadline to have the book completed and ready for distribution. It will serve as a fund-raiser to help candidates during the 2010 election, which also includes the gubernatorial race.

All Dems in the county are encouraged to be a part of this project.

Mary Lou Marcum is in charge. Submit work to her at "Cookbook," c/o M.L. Marcum, 2598 Tranquility Road, Cheyenne, WY 82009.

FMI: Mary Lou at 307-635-3464 or windywyo@bresnan.net.

Six years on, anti-war poems still stand as witness

In the early part of 2003, I was mightily pissed that we were set to invade Iraq. So, angry, in fact, that I wrote a poem and sent it into Poets Against the War, which eventually became Poets Against War. It wasn’t the greatest poem in the world, but it was heartfelt and relied a lot on the talents of P.B. Shelley. It didn’t make it into the "Poets Against the War" anthology, but it was one of 13,000 poems presented to Congress on March 5, 2003, by PAW rabble-rousers Sam Hamill, Terry Tempest Williams, and several others. So, I mark the anniversary of 2,190 days of pointless war with a poem.

Ozymandias Exploded

With apologies to P.B. Shelley

"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings,
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
stand in the desert.
Near them, on the sand, half sunk,
a shattered visage lies,
tells lies and more lies
about the desert war,
last stand in the desert,
last stand for oil in the desert.

Near them, on the sand, half sunk,
a shattered visage lies
whose frown and
wrinkled lips and
sneer of cold command
stand in the desert
keep standing in the desert,
stand for nothing in the desert.

I met a traveller
(might have been a poet)
from an antique land
or maybe from the future.
She came upon a statue in the desert
and on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is George Bush, King of Kings,
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains.

Nothing stands in the desert
nothing beside remains
but to take a stand about the war
in the desert;
nothing beside remains
round the decay of that colossal wreck
boundless and bare,
the lone and level sands stretch far away.

See the poem on-site at http://www.poetsagainstwar.net/displaypoem.asp?AuthorID=5733#453063245

"Flogging Molly" is the best

Rich still make out fine under Obama plan

This chart is for the wingnuts and whiny-babies (sometimes the same thing) who are complaining about Pres. Obama's rollback of Bush's tax breaks for the wealthy. Courtesy of MoveOn:

You say "pork," I say "infusion of capital"

Wyoming’s two senators and one representative brought home the bacon this week.

The $410 billion Omnibus Spending Bill passed by Congress and signed by Pres. Obama includes $14.5 million in spending for Wyoming, all projects requested by the delegation. That includes millions for highway construction and improvements, $1.9 million for a pathways system in Grand Teton National Park, $3.42 million for a biology research lab at UW, almost $1 million for various health and drug prevention programs, $300,000 for renovation of a water treatment plant in Lincoln County and $285,000 for literacy and math programs on the Wind River Reservation. All reasonable requests that serve the public good. It’s almost as if Senators Enzi and Barrasso and Representative Lummis were community activists, even though they’re Republicans.

Included in the bill are a number of programs to boost Wyoming’s creative economy. They include $190,000 (requested by former Rep. Barbara Cubin) for the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody for digitizing and editing historic papers of William F. Cody. TV pundits have had a lot of fun criticizing this particular earmark (dare we call them earmarks?), going so far as to make fun of Buffalo Bill. One pundit, who shall remain nameless, referred to Bill as a horse thief and a philatelist, which are fighting words in Cody’s hometown of Cody. Why stamp-collecting is regarded with such low esteem in Park County is a long story and will have to wait for another time. Suffice to say, the barflies at the Irma Hotel Bar tonight are damn mad and are just about ready to shoot somebody, preferably a pointy-headed Democrat.

Here’s another cultural earmark: $114,000 to the Ark Memorial Foundation in Laramie for construction of Creative Arts Center. This was another project promoted by Cubin. The Creative Arts Program at Ark serves mentally challenged teens and young adults. The organization is a trailblazer in theatre and visual arts programs that feature the talents of people thought by some to have no talents. That’s why Ark won a Governor’s Arts Award three years ago.

The bill also included $95,000 to the Carbon County Museum Foundation for construction of multi-use museum, $171,000 to Citizens for Civic Auditorium for planning and construction of Casper Civic Auditorium and $380,000 to the City of Evanston for improvements to the Historic Evanston Roundhouse and Railyard. All these projects were a long time coming and will be a boost to their communities. Anyone who’s been to Evanston’s historic downtown knows what I’m talking about. Renovations to the Roundhouse and railyards and the museum have turned the town into a destination instead of just another pit stop along I-80.

All these projects are a boon to Wyoming, which is trying to reshape itself from the country’s "energy sacrifice zone" into a place with scores of vibrant arts and cultural amenities. These earmarks all mark progress.

You’d think the members of our Congressional delegation would be proud of their ability to help Wyoming plan for the future. But no, they’d rather play pitiful partisan games. All three voted to kill the $410 billion omnibus federal spending bill, calling it "fiscally irresponsible" and "pork-laden." Pork-barrel spending, too.

Pork-barrel my ass.

Bill Luckett, director for the Wyoming Democratic Party, told the Casper Star-Tribune:

The delegation's pointed criticism of earmarks while securing funding for their own pet projects is "blatant hypocrisy."

"It's an insult to the intelligence of Wyoming's people that they scream about earmarks out of one side of their mouth while they stick earmarks in the spending bill with the other side," Luckett said.

"It was Jesus Christ who said, 'Let he who is without sin cast the first stone,' " he added.

Wyomingites happy, yet vaguely troubled

Wyoming received mixed messages today from national organizations. We all know how distressing mixed messages can be. Makes you want to go out and write a really sad poem.

First, the good news. Wyoming is the third-happiest state, trailing only our brethren and sistren in neighboring Utah, and the sun-drenched residents of Hawaii. This comes from a survey of Americans' well-being, conducted by Gallup in partnership with Healthways and America's Health Insurance Plans.

The bottom three were Mississippi, Kentucky and, at dead last, West Virginia.

The beach-goers and mountaineers of the West obviously are happier than the mountaineers of West Virginia. In fact, the saddest states are in the South. Coincidence? Without all that sorrow, how would they breed such excellent and sorrow-drenched writers as William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor (drenched in sorrow yet darkly humorous)?

According to an AP story:

Jim Harter, a researcher at Gallup, said he was reluctant to explain regional differences without more study, but he suspected that some of the variations are explained by income. For example, when people were asked to examine their status in life now and five years from now, wealthier people tended to score higher.

The survey attempts to measure people's well-being. It examines their eating and exercise habits, work environment and access to basic necessities, just to name some of the criteria.

The massive survey involved more than 350,000 interviews. Examples of the questions include: Did you smile or laugh a lot yesterday? Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with your job or the work you do? Did you eat healthy all day yesterday? Do you feel safe walking alone at night in the city or area where you live? See the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index at http://www.well-beingindex.com

So, Wyomingites are happy. We see amazing joyfulness every day. Although we may be only imagining it.

On Wyoming Public Radio this afternoon, there was a piece about Wyoming’s low mental health grades. The National Alliance on Mental Illness gave Wyoming a grade of "D" in 2006 and an "F" this year. The state lost points for its shortage of psychiatrists or affordable housing for people with mental health issues.

Both of these problems are real. Moreover, there’s not a single practicing child psychiatrist in the entire state. In case you’re too giddy to take in such a woeful statistic, I’ll spell it out in numbers – Wyoming has exactly 0.0 child psychiatrists for its 520,000 people, maybe 200,000 of them under 18. There are psychiatrists trained to treat adults, and there are psychologists and therapists and counselors. Physicians in small- to medium-sized towns in the state see young people with mental health issues and prescribe medication. But they are not trained in child psychiatry.

So we have a problem. Roger McDaniel sees it as a byproduct of Wyoming’s rural nature. He’s probably right. McDaniel oversees mental health for the state Department of Health. He told the WPR reporter: "To the extent that you try to grade Wyoming against more urban states, we're always going to fare poorly."He added that Wyoming has doubled its funding for mental health, and expanded its regional care.

But here in the Great Wide Open, many mentally ill people go untreated. That’s a sad state of affairs.

But I’m too damn happy to notice.

Lummis judges meat on "Colbert Report"

By now, you've seen (or heard about) Wyoming Rep. Cynthia Lummis's appearance on "The Colbert Report." Here's a link to the clip:

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/221062/march-09-2009/better-know-a-district---wyoming-s-at-large---cynthia-lummis

Plans proceed for Cheyenne supercomputer

We are all very excited about the new supercomputer that's planned for a site outside Cheyenne.

Last week, The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) announced the selection of an architectural design team for "a supercomputing center dedicated to advancing scientists' understanding of climate, weather, and other Earth and atmospheric processes."

NCAR sent along this digital version of the proposed design:



Here's sneak peek at some of the equipment that will be used at this super-high-tech facility:





"We are pleased to be moving forward on this world-class, collaborative endeavor," says NCAR Director Eric Barron. "We are advancing an era of scientific progress and discovery through a partnership that will deliver top-notch resources to the world's research community."

We live in exciting times.

Legislature vanishes in the night

Odd not to have the Legislature in town on Friday. They wrapped up the session late on Thursday and melted into the night -- the same way they had arrived way back in January. Tumbleweeds tumbling through the streets, no doubt rolling through the abandoned law-making chambers that used to resound with carefree laughter and the rustling of newly-minted bills. Parking was easy to find. No lobbyists hanging around on street corners, cadging quarters from passers-by. Eerie. But nice.

Poet wraps up 2009 Wyoming Legislature

The Wyoming Legislature ended its 2009 session with a reading -- and a bit of accordion playing -- from our poet laureate, David Romtvedt of Buffalo.

David's one of those multi-talented guys who writes great poetry, plays an assortment of musical instruments (solo and with his band, Fireants), teaches a broad array of college courses and is bilingual. He's attempting to become multilingual, taking courses in the Basque language. It's not an easy language, having roots back to Europe's earliest (and now defunct) tongues. David just returned from the Basque County and had a new song for the legislature.

It was a fandango, which he played on a new Basque accordion and sang in the native language. Members of the Wyoming House and senate were attentive as David performed, and then read a new poem, "The Age of Risk." He also thanked the legislature for their ongoing support of the arts, arts education and the Wyoming Arts Council.

This is the fifth year David's been a guest at the legislature. Usually he performs earlier in the session in order to charge up its members for any arts-related bills on the docket. He may be a good luck charm, as the Wyoming Arts Council's budget has gone up during that same time. And it has nothing to do with multimillion-dollar budget surpluses due to taxes on extractive energy projects. Just a coincidence...

This evening, David was set to talk poetry and accordion at Hobbs Elementary School's "Night of Arts," along with Aussie storyteller Paul Taylor from Laramie and several other artists. That's the school my kids attended. While there, they received a good background in the arts. My son played the trumpet and my daughter, the violin. Lots of writing in the classroom, as well as Young Authors and "Letters About Literature" contests.

After David's legislative appearance, I asked him about the Basque song. He said it was a song by a Basque songwriting team. The subject was the first woman Palestinian suicide bomber who died during the Arab-Israeli clashes. He translated the words, and noted that there is no judgement in the song, no taking sides on whether the bomber was good or bad. Just the story of her dying. It seemed an odd song to be playing to our very conservative legislature. David said he would have told them what it was about, but nobody asked.

Legislature: Not a cent for children's health needs, but lots of dough for pet projects

Joan Barron reports in today's Casper Star-Tribune that Gov. Freudenthal is "puzzled at the overall thrust of the legislative session that wraps up tonight."

He said he was disappointed that the Wyoming House last week rejected a bill to set up a health care reform pilot program financed with tobacco fund money, and another proposal for $90,000 to expand the children's health insurance program.

"I think there's some ideological stuff going on, particularly in the House. They want to meddle in your personal life. Somehow the government can do that, but it can't help kids get insurance," Freudenthal said. "That doesn't fit for me, particularly when we are heading into these economic times."

He said health care costs are not coming down, which is he why he liked the health care reform pilot program. The pilot may not have worked but it could have provided the state with information about what might work, he said. "I don't know if it's just ideologically without rudder and it's just kind of the winds and the mood of the House or whether there's a purpose," he added.

The Legislature, dominated by Republicans, spent an inordinate amount of time on some of the Far Right's favorite topics -- gay rights (very much against), guns (FOR!), abortion (against) and "fetal rights" (FOR!). They socked away more money that we don't have, as budget surplusses have shriveled with falling energy prices. But it's more important for Republicans to sock away money than to spend it on children's health needs.

Sk(r)ewed priorities.

Rocky's rocky road leads it to the Net

As noted on these e-pages last week, Denver's Rocky Mountain News published its final edition last Friday.

Some of its out-of-work reporters and columnists now write on I Want My Rocky. Mary Voelz Chandler still covers the arts beat and wrote a piece about Colorado's Arts Advocacy Day taking place on Friday, March 6. On that day, the Colorado Council on the Arts will meet to talk about its drastic state budget cuts (25 percent) -- and decide how to spend $314,000 it will receive from the 2009 Economic Stimulus American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. It has to send an application for that money to the National Endowment for the Arts by Friday, May 13.

In Cheyenne, all of us at the Wyoming Arts Council heard today that our cut of the stimulus package is about $290,000. We only have ten days to assemble an application.

To read more of Chandler's IWMR column, go to http://www.iwantmyrocky.com/2009/03/03/arts-advocacy-day-a-chance-to-consider-saving-jobs/

And you thought Wyomingites stood up to bullies like Limbaugh...

Video clip from Heather via Crooks & Liars:

Registration opens for Wyoming Coalition for the Homeless "Walk in My Shoes"

Here's a great way to help out a good cause -- and get a bit of exercise.

WALK IN MY SHOES, presented by Beacon Hills Baptist Church, Saturday, June 13, 2009.

Walk begins at the Wyoming Coalition for the Homeless building, 907 Logan Avenue, Cheyenne. Check-in time 8 a.m. Walk begins at 9 a.m.

Pre-registration fee is $12. Registration on day of walk is $15.

Ghost walkers are welcome, which are people who have a conflict on that day, and can’t walk, but want to help. Ghost Walkers are eligible for door prize drawings. Fill out the registration form below and mail it with your check to the address below.

WALK IN MY SHOES 2009 REGISTRATION FORM
(Copy and paste this form onto a MS Word document, print it and fill it out.)

Make check(s) out to:
Beacon Hill Baptist Church (mark "WALK")
MAIL TO:
Walk In My Shoes
c/o Beacon Hill Baptist Church
110 Central Avenue

Name: _____________________________

Address:____________________________

Telephone:__________________________

Walker: _________ Ghost Walker_________

Waiver: I hereby waive all claims against Beacon Hill Baptist Church, the City of Cheyenne, the Cheyenne Parks and Recreation Department, SHY-WY Amateur Radio Club, the Wyoming Coalition for the Homeless, their board members, volunteers, event sponsors and other personnel involved in the event for any injury I might suffer in this event. I attest that I am physically fit and prepared for this event. I grant full permission for organizers to use photographs of me and quotations of and from me in legitimate accounts and promotion of this event.

Signature:___________________________
(participant or parent/guardian)

Wear a dark suit and march down to the coal-fired protest

Another weekend of big confabs and protests in Washington, D.C....

Some 10,000 college students are in D.C. this weekend for Power Shift '09, an event meant to energize young people (and at some future point, their elders) into making the big switch from coal- and gas-powered energy to alternative energy. I took a look at the Power Shift '09 web site map to see if any Wyoming students were registered. The map showed two registrants from Laramie, presumably from UW. After attending the creativity conference at UW this past week and hearing about scores of innovative student projects (Evolve Revolve, Pokes Vote, etc), I'm a bit surprised more didn't travel to this D.C. event. But it's expensive to travel and with spring will come more and numerous opportunities to network and protest in our nation's capital.

There is a protest on Monday on Capitol Hill against the coal-fired plant that powers Congress. It was organized by environmental writer Bill McKibben and well-known Luddite essayist Wendell Berry. This event is sponsored by Capitol Climate Action. McKibben had asked protestors to dress less like, well, hippie-dippy protestors and more like Congressional reps. I like the idea. Imagine the impressive sight of thousands of men and women in dark suits (not yet time for spring wardrobe changes) marching in cadence, swinging their laptop cases.

Some of the air was let out of the protest when Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid ordered the Capitol Power Plant to finish its switch from coal to natural gas. But the protest will go on, according to McKibben writing on the Grist web site:

We'll still be protesting on Monday in D.C., but it looks like the protest may be half victory party too! Late Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent a letter off to the Capitol Architect -- the guy in charge of buildings and grounds, as well as the century-old, mainly-coal-fired power plant that Congress owns and which is located just a few blocks from the fancy dome and the National Mall. The two leaders told him to stop shoveling coal into the power plant's boiler and finish the switch to natural gas. Now, it just so happens that this is the same coal plant targeted for the first mass civil disobedience in the history of the American climate movement.... It didn't take much of a push to convince Congress that the time for change had come. It's an almost giddy feeling -- sort of like what most of America felt on election night when the voters actually chose to elect the smart guy. It feels like the system is working (sort of) the way it's supposed to.

Not to be outdone, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a right-wing think tank, has announced a counter-protest to the Capitol Climate Action, the biggest civil disobedience on climate issues in U.S. history. It's called the "Celebrate Coal! and Keep Energy Affordable" rally.

As a veteran of protests and counter-protests, I'm not fearful of collisions between warring energy factions. It is possible that the day could erupt into a melee when one group of dark-suited protestors collide with another. Laptops could get switched, Blueberries Blackberries lost, Blu-Ray headphones knocked from skulls. But who knows? Maybe some common ground will be found, some blend of goals and ideas.

I think not.

Here's McKibben:

This is one small power plant. We need to start shutting down the whole vast coal archipelago that provides half the nation's electricity. That's going to be a tough, grinding job that requires a huge movement. And it's somehow going to have to stretch around the world, to China and India and everywhere else where coal is commonplace. (That's why we've got 350.org up and running; we're not going to solve this one city at a time).

Here's part of a press release from the Competitive Enterprise Institute:

CEI has applied to the U. S. Capitol Police for a permit to hold the rally in front of the Capitol Power Plant on the south side of E Street, S. E., between South Capitol Street and New Jersey Avenue, S. E. The District of Columbia Metropolitan Police have also been notified that the rally will be held on the north side of E Street if the Capitol Police deny the permit. The anti-coal protest group, Capitol Climate Protection, has apparently not applied for a permit to protest around the Capitol Power Plant.

“The goal of Celebrate Coal! is to publicize the colossal benefits of coal-fired power and the need for access to affordable energy. If the anti-coal zealots are allowed to prevail politically, electric rates will skyrocket for most Americans and many jobs will be lost in energy-intensive industries as a result of higher power prices,” said Myron Ebell, Director of Energy and Global Warming Policy at CEI and one of the event’s organizers.

Taxes on Wyoming's coal, gas and oil pay my salary. That makes me a bit conflicted. I won't be at the D.C. protest or counter-protest, but I think it's terrific they're happening. But the real battleground on this issue will be in Wyoming. We dig millions of tons of coal out of the ground each year and send it to power plants across the U.S. and overseas. We burn some of that coal in colossal plants and send most of the power out of state. How in the world are we going to deal with that -- and find alternatives?

Saturday Night at the Movies -- "Milk"

Saw "Milk" tonight. Saturday Night at the Movies with the family. Sean Penn was terrific, as was Josh Brolin. A history/civics lesson as well as a damn fine movie. I'd forgotten about the defeat of California's Prop. 6 in 1978. Makes you wonder how Prop. 8 snuck in over the transom in 2008. Some of the same anti-human forces at work today.

Elton John performs benefit concert in Laramie on April 3

Elton John has announced that he will perform April 3 in Laramie at UW's Arena Auditorium. It's a benefit concert for the Matthew Shepard Foundation, an organization founded by Judy Shepard after the murder of her gay son, Matthew.

Tickets for the Laramie show, $35-$85, will go on sale at 8 a.m. Monday, March 2, at wyomingathletics.com.

Here's a statement about the event from Judy Shepard:

"Ten years ago, Sir Elton did a concert in Laramie to benefit the Foundation. It was wonderful beyond description. He is a gracious and generous human being. We are sincerely grateful for his continuing support."

The Friday evening concert will be held amidst the proceedings of the Public Art Symposium set for April 2-4 at the UW Conference Center. So all you Wyoming artists out there can come to the symposium on Thursday, Friday and Saturday -- and spend a little time with Sir Elton on Friday night.

Photo: Elton John's 1971 album, "Tumbleweed Connection," with lyrics by Bernie Taupin. "Where to Now, St. Peter?", "Ballad of a Well-Known Gun," and "Burn Down the Mission." Western themes explored by Brits, with amazing results. My favorite Elton John album.