Wyomingarts on the road this week to take the pulse of the state's art scene

My pal, Wyomingarts, is on the road this week taking the pulse of the state's arts scene. Go here to read His/Her/Its communique from Jackson at http://wyomingarts.blogspot.com/2011/07/suzanne-morlocks-work-is-popd-from.html. Pinedale at http://wyomingarts.blogspot.com/2011/07/must-be-something-in-that-sublette.html

Ligorano/Reese "temporary monument" illustrates plight of the melting middle class

On June 18, 2011 artists Ligorano/Reese presented a temporary monument in the garden of Jim Kempner Fine Art in NYC called "Morning In America." The installation was witnessed by hundreds and lasted a total of 8 hours throughout the hot day.

...A THOUSAND CUTS is a timelapse video of the event. The soundtrack was inspired by an excerpt from Senator Bernie Sanders 8 hour filibuster on the U.S. Senate floor against the extension of the Bush tax cuts and the effects on the middle class. It is orchestrated to music by composer/violinist Michael Galasso.

Special Thanks
Dru Arstark, Anthony Caputo, Dan Walworth, Okamoto Studio, Postworks NY

The entire text of Senator Sanders speech is available as a book, published by Nation Books, The Speech: A Historic Filibuster on Corporate Greed and the Decline of Our Middle Class,

For more information about Michael Galasso's music and soundtrackshttp://michaelgalasso.com.

For more information on the artists, see http://ligoranoreese.net

This video is licensed under Creative Commons,
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/

Thanks to Brooklyn artist Nancy Bowen for tipping me off to this project.

Richard Wall urges CFD to return to its morally pure past

As promised, local Radical Right activist Richard Wall blessed us with the second of two columns today in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle.

Some promises really should be broken.

He hammers away at Cheynne Frontier Days for its links with the Susan. G. Komen for the Cure Foundation.

He doesn't think that CFD cowboys and cowgirls are "tough enough to wear pink."

In the course of his 750-some words, Wall provides not a shred of evidence that Komen supports abortion services through Planned Parenthood or embryonic stem cell research.

"Some local residents have defended the CFD-Komen link by saying that no money from our rodeo has gone to Planned Parenthood or embryonic stem cell research. 

"But even if true, that fact is irrelevant. Cheyenne's local Komen group still is affiliated with the larger Komen organization."

That's the problem with moral purity as practiced by Wall and others of his ilk. If the facts don't fit, call them irrelevant or just make them up. This, of course, will satisfy his followers who get their world-view from Morally Pure Rupert Murdoch's Fox News and/or Tea Part rallies.

Rumor has it that Mr. Wall plans to run for the state legislature in 2012. If so, he will be answering the call by anti-abortion group WyWatch to purge the RINOs (Republicans in Name Only) from the Wyoming Legislature, those representatives of the people who did what the people asked and voted down bills that would force pregnant women to watch videos of their fetuses before going through with the procedure. Another morally pure bill would have enforced biases against married LGBT citizens. Even my freshman Republican state senator voted against the governmental intrusion authorized by these bills.

One more clue that Mr. Wall is more motivated by Radical Right political purity than factual accuracy: Obamacare. You only have to say it once to prejudice yourself, Mr. Wall. It's called the Affordable Care Act. Maybe you didn't research this part of your presentation. You can do that here.

On the same op-ed page today is long-time Wyoming newspaperman and columnist Bill Sniffin. Mr. Sniffin is a moderate Republican from Lander. He once ran for governor. In the long run, common-sense moderate Republicans such as Sniffin and Sue Wallis and Cale Case and Al Simpson will determine the future of Wyoming. Democrats won't be able to do it in my lifetime -- they are too few and too disorganized. That hasn't stopped us -- and the Dem 14 in the legislature -- from plugging away.

One thing that Democrats can do is speak out loudly and strongly when they see Wyoming principles being sacrificed. We can also ally ourselves with sensible legislators, no matter the political party. And we can write letters to the editors. Lots and lots of letters to the editor. People like me and you still read newspapers.

BTW: Great op-ed page today WTE. Wall, Sniffin, Rodger McDaniel, funny editorial cartoon and a great staff editorial calling on the City Council to grant one of its available liquor licenses to a downtown establishment, notably the Cheyenne Depot Museum. It says that retail liquor license,s the most valuable variety at the city's disposal, "be used as tools for economic development." Since a vibrant downtown is crucial to the city's future, one of these licenses needs to go downtown.

Let 'em buck -- but don't dress 'em in pink!

Local Radical Right scold Richard Wall writes an op-ed in this morning's Wyoming Tribune-Eagle.

What is Richard incensed about now, you might ask?

I already knew, since his anti-Susan G. Komen letter to the CFD has been circulating for a week. It was first illuminated among the local blogosphere by the always-alert Jeran Artery at Out in Wyoming.

Mr. Wall's op-ed skills are quite good. He takes his time working himself into a lather over the real message. Condom posters in Frontier Park restrooms! Public drunkenness! Scantily clad photos of Miss Frontier and her Lady in Waiting! Dogs and cats, living together!

Forget the last one. I just had a "Ghostbusters" flashback.

Wall's main target is the relationship between Cheyenne Frontier Days, "The Daddy of 'Em All," and the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation. CFD works with Komen to promote the fight against breast cancer. To that end, Thursday's CFD activities carry to motto "Tough Enough to Wear Pink."

There were lots of cowboys and cowgirls wearing pink for cancer research the last time I attended the CFD rodeo. They looked pretty tough to me riding buckin' broncs and racing steeds around barrels at breakneck speeds.

Wall objects to Komen's alleged ties with Planned Parenthood and stem cell research. He contends that "25 percent of the money raised by its local affiliate go to Komen's national offices, which permits or takes part in these abuses." He is not clear what those abuses are, but he does say that it involves those "who respect all human life... must steer a wide berth around the Komen organization."

"Respect human life?" Code words for the anti-abortion movement. When they say "all human life," they mean "fetuses."  Once that fetus is actually born, they wash their hands of its fate unless its 80 years later and that sick and aging person is on life support (like Terry Schiavo) and should never be taken off to end the suffering.

These same people support the death penalty and pointless wars that kills innocent civilians including pregnant mothers and their fetuses. They also want to do away with the government's social safety net that prevents starvation in mothers and children. Every sperm is sacred!

They don't like gays either, dressed in pink or not.

How I do go on.

Please read Mr. Wall's screed and let CFD know that they shouldn't cave in to to the Radical Right, especially when our 115-year-old tradition carries such a proud legacy of supporting local causes.

O.K., CFD isn't perfect, especially if you're a vegan or a PETA member or Sheryl Crow or you just don't like mainstream country music. But if we're going to apply a purity test to CFD or any of our organizations, none will come up smelling like a rose. We Lefties are goofy on this too. We have shows such as "Portlandia" and numerous blogs to remind us how strangely human we all are.

Wall is human so give him a break, eh? I would, but he's attempting to insert his narrow-minded agenda into a place where it doesn't belong. Let him talk and write op-eds. But let's not let him bully our CFD.

Some dirty deeds afoot this summer at the Old-Fashioned Melodrama in Cheyenne

"Dirty Deeds at the Depot" is the Cheyenne Old-Fashioned Melodrama for this year.

Cheyenne Little Theatre presents the 55th Annual Old-Fashioned Melodrama with "Dirty Deeds at the Depot." Return to the glory days of the Depot with our Heroine, Lacie Camisole, the dastardly Professor Thaddeus Mack and the kind Station Master, Justin Tyme. Enjoy a taste of the old west with CLTP!

Produced in cooperation with www.heroandvillian.com

Directed by Barb Jalonen

Atlas Theatre

July 14-17, 2011 @  7:00 p.m.

(Frontier Days) July 21-23, 25-30 2011 @ 7:00 p.m. & 9:00 p.m., July 24 & 31, 2011 @ 7:00 p.m.

August 4-7, 2011 @ 7:00 p.m.

I write about this event because I'm a volunteer, both in the front of the house and on stage. On Saturday, I will be the show's emcee while my wife Chris works the box office. Summers in Cheyenne are made for volunteering and many people do just that. Hundreds of them. Many of them serve as ushers and parade marshals and clean-up crew for Cheyenne Frontier Days. Others are emcees or olio entertainers or barkeeps for the melodrama. Pick your poison -- lots to do, and much fun to be had.

In reality, it takes hundreds and maybe thousands of people to make a city work. It takes everyone.

Question of the day: "Has the G.O.P. gone insane?"

From Paul Krugman's excellent column in yesterday's NYT:

A number of commentators seem shocked at how unreasonable Republicans are being. “Has the G.O.P. gone insane?” they ask.

Why, yes, it has. But this isn’t something that just happened, it’s the culmination of a process that has been going on for decades. Anyone surprised by the extremism and irresponsibility now on display either hasn’t been paying attention, or has been deliberately turning a blind eye.

Republicans want to get back to the imaginary past as fast as possible

WY Rep. Cynthia Lummis? Thanks to my pal Meg at Cognitive Dissonance for sharing this image

Not nice to fool Mother Nature -- or the Internet

On Monday, I was musing about my garden and telling you folks out home about my wonderful high plains strawberries. I ended the post with this: "Now if we can just keep the hail at bay..."

You know what happened on Tuesday. A torrent of golfball-sized hail destroyed gardens and roofs and cars. Nobody hurt, thank goodness.

Except for the strawberries. They were shredded. I have a few plants with leaves and blossoms remaining. I plucked a half-dozen ripe fruits from the wreckage. As I surveyed the carnage, I thought about how it's not nice to fool Mother Nature. Or tempt her with a hail challenge.

Maybe it was the Internet's fault. Perhaps we have underestimated its power.

From now on, this blog will only spell out things like h-a-i-l and t-o-r-n-a-d-o.

Art Design & Dine adds a creative jolt to downtown Cheyenne

The Art Design & Dine Art Tour happens tomorrow evening, Thursday, July 14, 5-8 p.m., in Cheyenne.

During this very fine local event, art venues open their doors to anyone interested in browsing and possibly buying art in a friendly atmosphere.

Participating galleries:

Participating food venues include Suite 1901, the Laramie County Public Library Cafe and Ruby Juice.

AD&D is two years old now and getting better all the time. Some great shows for July, including:

Clay Paper Scissors presents watercolors, prints, two kinds each of ceramics and tote bags! This show features Amy Misle, Amy Iribarren, Kandice Starbuck, K.K. Hamblin, Meggan Stordahl and Steve Schrepferman!

This month will feature live music and literature at two locations:

The Fiddlers on the Range (the Bob Mathews family fiddlers) will be at DeSelms Fine Art from 6-7:30 p.m and local writer Mike Shay (that's me) and will be at Clay Paper Scissors Gallery & Studio from 5-6 p.m. I will read excerpts from my work. I rehearsed with my ukelele accompanist Linda Coatney Tuesday night but, on Wednesday, she was called out of town on a family emergency. She will be replaced with a hologram.

It's a little unusual to stage a reading in a locale where everyone is coming and going. But I will come up with something appropriate.

Thanks to the Cheyenne Arts Council for providing the entertainment. More performances will enliven future AD&D events. AD&D provides another jolt of energy and creativity to downtown Cheyenne. The Lights On! Project is providing another needed jolt to downtown, so is the new construction. And a big welcome to the Morris House Bistro and its Carolina Low County Cuisine. Can't have enough innovative eateries in the downtown area.

Don't forget that the Cheyenne Old-Fashioned Summer Melodrama launches its 2011 season Thursday night. My wife Chris and I will be volunteering at the Atlas Theatre. Come on down, buy a ticket and prepare to be interactively entertained. We have beer too!

Real Dems Are Kicking It in WI: See Ya'll Aug 9th: There Is Nothing So Winning As Winning!

Real Democrats beat Fake Democrats in Wisconsin! Another step along the road to getting rid of the Know Nothings (talking about you, Scott Walker!) who have attempted to ruin The Badger State with their Radical Right (and corporate-funded) agenda. From my pals at Daily Kos: Real Dems Are Kicking It in WI: See Ya'll Aug 9th: There Is Nothing So Winning As Winning! For on-the-ground reports from WI progressive bloggers, go to http://www.bluecheddar.net/ or http://democurmudgeon.blogspot.com/. These bloggers are making a difference in the fate of their state.

NEA"s "Our Town" grants supports creativity in our towns

Artist's rendering of Casper's Sunshine II development that will include an arts space for resident and neighbors

Here's a whole lot of creative placemaking that will be supported by almost $7 million in "Our Town" grants from the National Endowment for the Arts: http://www.arts.gov/grants/recent/11grants/Our-Town.html

One of those is a $50,000 grant for Casper to develop a public art space alongside the 26-unit Sunshine Apartments II development now under construction. The site is across from the Nicolaysen Art Museum and just west of where the now-demolished KC Apartments were located. Some of you may remember the rundown KC Apartments as a slumlord-run blight on the neighborhood that mercifully was closed down by the city and then demolished.    

The new Sunshine II low-income development feature LEED-certified buildings and now an arts space. 

Project organizers envision the space as a gathering spot for apartment residents and the surrounding community. The museum also intends to create educational and outreach programs for the site. 

“It’s part and parcel with a whole mindset or plan for downtown Casper on how to integrate arts with our everyday lives,” said museum Curator Lisa Hatchadoorian. 

--clip--

Hatchadoorian isn’t aware of any other public art spaces in Wyoming tied to low-income housing. Organizers hope their project will encourage similar efforts in other parts of the state.

“It’s a community-building experience,” she said. “A lot of times, when you have a public art space where people can interact, it just brings everyone ... it makes the community more available to each other. It just makes a better place to live.”

Read more: http://trib.com/news/local/casper/article_b59063b2-7991-51f2-8698-204d1b7b01fc.html#ixzz1RxrMkUst

Another one of the NEA's "Our Town" grants goes to a neat "arts incubator" project just down the road from Cheyenne in Fort Collins, Colo.:

To support the creation of the Rocky Mountain Regional Arts Incubator (RMRAI) in the historic Carnegie building in downtown Fort Collins. The RMRAI will offer students and professionals a multitude of services to assist them in creating, redefining, and sustaining their creative careers in the new economy, including educational courses, internships, continuing education for practicing artists, and gallery and performance spaces.

The project is a collaboration among the non-profit Beet Street, the City of Fort Collins Cultural Services Department and the Colorado State University School of the Arts. The incubator will be located in the Carnegie Building in the city's Library Park.

The Beet Street web site doesn't say, but the org's name probably trades on Fort Collins' aggie reputation, namely its years as a center of sugar beet production. CSU got its start as Colorado A&M, home of a fantastic veterinary school and lots of farming and ranching courses. That's what the big "A" up on the mountain stands for. CSU grew into a place where the arts shared a campus with the aggie arts. What's interesting is that the university (my alma mater) now is investing heavily in green technology and sustainable agriculture, putting the A&M back into the name in new and interesting ways.

Every act of creativity negates an attempt to send humankind back to the Dark Ages

I am always astonished at the many ways people find to be creative.

Building bicycles that make smoothies, to name one small thing. I reported in early June about the "Upcycling 101" festival held in Casper. Local Gen-Y artist, performer and entrepreneur Betsy Bower transformed a cast-off kid's bike into a conveyance that also makes smoothies. She mounted a blender on a wooden platform on the rear bumper, ran a vertical axle to to the top of the rear tire, which drove the blender and made smoothies. Betsy also is taking old bikes and making them new with skills she learned at her father's welding business. Read the full post at http://hummingbirdminds.blogspot.com/2011/06/recycling-and-creativity-on-display-at.html

Meanwhile, our two Republican U.S, senators push for a "Save the Edison Light Bulb" bill that would negate energy-saving standards. What's the expression -- don't try to force your past on my future? Our Republican leaders want to turn back the clock and send us back to the horse-and-buggy days. One of these senators is younger than this blogger. Shame on you, college-educated Dr. Sen. John Barrasso, party hack.

So many innovative ideas out there powered by innovative thinkers.

This comes from Grist:

Passengers using a newly retrofitted light-rail station in downtown Phoenix, Ariz., can press a button to be showered in cool air, powered by solar energy and cold water from an efficient district cooling system. The system, which was inspired by similar installations in Dubai, uses solar power to run fans that blow cool air. The cool air itself comes from a system of chilled water that has been running in Phoenix's business district since 2001. It's called district cooling: A central plant run by NRG Thermal cools the water, which is then piped to nearby buildings to be used in lieu of less-efficient conventional air-conditioning systems. Car-free transport, distributed solar power, and district energy: It’s a triple play worthy of the Scandinavians, only it's happening in what would otherwise seem to be one of America's least sustainable cities. What is it about extreme conditions that turns desert communities [such as Phoenix and El Paso]  into hotbeds of efficiency and innovation?

So many other examples. I'll share them as I come across them, with an emphasis on Wyoming and the West, especially the big red states with regressive leaders. You know who you are.

Here's another example, this by British land artist Chris Drury and his new installation at UW in Laramie: http://uwartmuseum.blogspot.com/2011/07/new-sculpture-installation-for.html

High Plains gardening is a waiting game

Ogallala strawberries (mine kind of look like these)

Something to say about picking fresh Ogallala and Quinalt strawberries in the garden, combining them with a handful of fresh mint, and passing this around to your guests.

Hand-picked dessert.

Washed down with an Old Belgium Ranger IPA. A Belgian White like White Rascal, the one made by Avery of Boulder, might be better -- maybe even a red wine. But I don't know my wines like I know my beers.

The garden grows well. Tomatoes appearing on the vine and they'll be ripening eventually. Lettuce and rocket and spinach galore. Wait for the rest. That's what high-plains gardeners do a lot of -- waiting.

I'm a gardener in training, spending every summer learning more about what grows best. I'm also nurturing my soil with lots of compost -- can't have too much of that. Soon my soil will be comparable to those in the more hospitable growing climes, places like eastern Iowa and Missouri. I'll live so long...

The rains have been a Godsend but my garden needs a bit more hot days to really produce. That's what we lack -- long, hot days for the tomatoes and beans and squash. I wither under that kind of heat but mid-summer garden veggies thrive.

Now if we can just keep the hail at bay...

Public art innovator Walter Hood speaks in Jackson July 26

Speaking of public art projects...

Jackson Hole's Public Art Initiative is still young but has launched some neat projects, with more in the works. The program recently announced that "Sky Play" (see artist's rendering above), by Wisconsin artist Don Rambadt, will be featured in the bike path underpass at the National Museum of Wildlife Art site north of town.

Renowned landscape architect Walter Hood, designer of the National Museum of Wildlife Art ’s under-construction sculpture trail, will discuss “Art in Public Places” at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, July 26 at the museum in Jackson. The event is free and open to the public. Known for his innovative and people-friendly designs of such high-profile public spaces as the grounds for the De Young Museum in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, Hood is expected to "share insight into his philosophy about creating multitasking public spaces that are both respectful of the land and rooted in their communities."

Walter Hood

If you're in Jackson this summer, the museum offers "hard hat tours" of its sculpture trail daily at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. through September. The new sculpture trail is set to open September 2012. The tours are free and open to the public and will meet in front of the Museum Shop.

Goal of the National Museum of Wildlife Art's new multimillion-dollar Sculpture Trail:

Further integrate the national museum’s collection with its natural Wyoming setting. The trail also will connect to a recently constructed Jackson-to-Grand Teton National Park pathway via a new underpass for easy biker and hiker access. 

Important sculptures planned for the new outdoor space include a casting of Simon Gudgeon’s streamlined bronze bird form “Isis” that was installed in London’s Hyde Park in 2009, a life-size elk bronze titled “Black Timber Bugler” by Tim Shinabarger, and eight larger-than-life bison in a sculpture by Richard Loffler called "Buffalo Trail" to be installed on the hillside with its own separate path.

Public art celebrates creativity and innovation and heritage and open minds

"Triangle" by Kirsten Kokkin in Loveland, Colo.

Public art can become a very personal thing.

I work in the arts, so know how one little statue can blow up into a huge controversy.

Today's Denver Post explored that city's public art program, and similar programs in Loveland, Colorado Springs and Grand Junction. The Denver percent for art program has been in place since 1977, which gives the city 34 years of perspective on art in the public eye. The most recent controversy raged around the bucking mustang sculpture with the crazy eyes that greets motorists at DIA. As many of you know, this is the sculpture that killed its creator. I'm not being facetious. The sculpture-in-progress fell on New Mexico artist Luis Jiminez and killed him. Now many Coloradans consider it cursed. Its nicknames include "Blucifer" and "Satan's Steed." The mustang is now legend.

To Denver's credit, its program mandates that an artwork stays up for five years once it's installed. The work passes through a review process before it's made and installed. It's not cheap to install a 32-foot horse along a public roadway. You don't want to take it down and put it back up every few months.

And then there's naked people. Loveland, epicenter of public sculpture, installed a bronze called "Triangle" by Kirsten Kokkin at a major intersection. It features three naked humans forming a triangle, thus the piece's name. My fear would have been that every teen boy in town would be climbing the sculpture searching for the naughty bits. But who needs sculpture when teen boys can prowl live sex sites via their home computer?

The "Triangle" artist has obviously studied the human form with the same attention to detail that motivated Michelangelo. I'm often amazed that people continue to care about putting sculptures in the parks and along their roads. But they do. And as in Michelangelo's time, public patrons provide the impetus and funding to do so. There may be some tussles along the way, but once a public work of art catches hold, it becomes a landmark. Witness downtown Denver's Big Blue Bear sculpture by Lawrence Argent. Witness the Lane Frost sculpture at Cheyenne's CFD Old West Museum. Witness the Chief Washakie sculpture in front of the Washakie Dining Hall at UW in Laramie. Witness Robert Russin's Abraham Lincoln head at welcome center on I-80 celebrating The Lincoln Highway. Witness the UW Art Museum and its "Sculpture: A Wyoming Invitational" with its many innovative works. Some of those sculptures were not meant to last, as in Patrick Dougherty's sculpture made of locally harvested saplings. Witness the entire city of Loveland, Colo., once a sleepy enclave between Denver and Fort Collins, home to commuters and retirees, to a lively city filled with sculptures and international sculpture shows (coming up in August).

Patrick Dougherty, "Short Cut," 2008

Many Wyoming cities have gone gaga over sculpture. Every corner in Sheridan's historic downtown features a work of art. Gillette has an Avenue of Sculpture. Cheyenne is planning the same thing along Capitol Avenue between the State Capitol and the Historic Train Depot. The newly renovated Capitol Plaza features statues of suffragist Esther Hobart Morris and Shoshone leader Chief Washakie. Across the street on the grounds of the Wyoming Arts Council, a sculpture of iconic Western artist William Gollings paints the scene (his painting of the Capitol is on the wall inside the building). At the other end of the street, a new sculpture of a pioneer woman carrying a valise and disembarking from a train celebrates Wyoming's "Equality State" moniker. In Wyoming, "Equality State" is always a work in progress.

That's also true for public art. Always a work in progress. New work goes up to admire and gawk at and maybe even complain about.

From May through October, tourist buses arrive daily in downtown Cheyenne. Groups of Japanese and Russians and Chinese tourists swarm over the Capitol grounds. They take each other's pictures by the Bison and by Esther and by the cowboy on the bucking bronco. They might go into the Capitol (if it's open) but time is short and they need some memories of their travels. Artwork on the Capitol grounds provides that.

Some of our legislators and public servants feel that art is a frill, that it provides no real benefit to Wyomingites and to the tourists that stoke the state's number two industry.

Buffalo soldier statue near Warren AFB in Cheyenne (USAF photo)

These people are short-sighted and possibly blinded by Tea Party rhetoric. The Governor of Kansas was so blinded by it that he eliminated the state arts council. Others, such as the Governor of Maine, banish works of art that they don't agree with. This negates one of the main goals of public art, which is to get the viewer to think about the site's culture and heritage. A mural of union workers can do that (although people in Maine have been spared that experience). A statue of a mountain lion can do that, as will the new sculpture at the Wyoming Vistitors' Center on I-90 near Hulett. The statue and commemorative plaques celebrating the buffalo soldier near Warren AFB's main gate opens up a new chapter in frontier and African-American history. Some of these soldiers came out West post-slavery to find more opportunities and less prejudice. It also brings up the fact that the U.S. military was officially desegregated by Pres. Truman in 1948, way before schools and businesses and transportation and your local Woolworth's counter.

It's tough to keep an open mind in these most close-minded of times. But our future depends on it.

Christian, Jewish and Muslim views of Noah and the flood Monday at "Bibles and Beer"

Noah's Ark, oil on canvas painting by Edward Hicks, 1846, Philadelphia Museum of Art (Wikimedia Commons)

From Rodger McDaniel, Cheyenne's indefatigable minister and activist:

"Bibles and Beer" on Monday, July 11, 5:30 p.m. at Uncle Charlie’s Grill & Tavern in Cheyenne. Happy hour Bible study... inviting all open-minded over 21 persons interested in learning what the Bible says! We are talking about Noah and the Flood...the Christian view as well as the Jewish and Muslim. Join us!

Look up Rodger on Facebook and RSVP.

Do some good this summer at Habitat house build and UPLIFT's mega-gigantic parking lot sale

Habitat volunteers

Some good local causes to support this summer:

Turned on Channel 5's morning show today to see Misty Heil and Kyle Aiton promoting the Habitat for Humanity house build. This new duplex is going up at 3823 Messenger Court. Habitat encourages volunteers to wear work-appropriate clothing and closed-toed shoes. Food and beverages will be provided for volunteers on Saturdays. Beverages are provided on Sundays.

Come out and pound some nails or tote some wallboard or sweep up the joint. The Laramie County Democrats will be swarming the site on July 17.  Get more info at http://www.cheyennehabitat.org or contact Elizabeth Williams at 307-637-8067.

On Saturday, Aug. 6, 8 a.m.-noon., UPLIFT of Wyoming is holding its Cheyenne Yard Sale in the parking lot of the Oregon Trail Bank on the corner of College Drive and Lincolnway. Lots of goods for sale. Prizes, and a car wash too. This is UPLIFT"s big fund-raiser for 2011. I've been a board member of this very active non-profit organization since 1998. UPLIFT's mission: "Encouraging success and stability for children and youth with or at risk of emotional, behavioral, learning, developmental, or physical disorders at home, school and in the community." A tall order, considering the huge needs in this very rural state of 97,000 square miles. UPLIFT has offices statewide and, in the past six months, its small staff has assisted 576 youth in 21 counties. Those are kids that would fall through the cracks if it wasn't for UPLIFT services funded by state and federal government agencies and donations from good people like you. A true public-private partnership. Come to this yard/parking lot sale or donate online at http://www.upliftwy.org.

Remember that state and federal funds are drying up in this very strange political climate. The State of Wyoming is raking in the dough ($50 million surplus at last count) but administrators are under the gun to cut spending so that the Tea Party won't get mad and field its own slate of selfish, mean-spirited ultra-right-wingers in 2012. Not sure how the state legislature could get any more extreme, but it's possible.

Strange times, indeed.

Photo: Space Shuttle Atlantis climbs to the heavens

Cool shot by my sister Mary Powell of today's Shuttle launch

Gulf oil spill revisited on the Montana high prairie

A year after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, caused by corporate negligence, we have a similar spill on the high prairie just north of the Wyoming/Montana border.

Get the lowdown from Button Valley Bugle and 4&20 blackbirds.

While tonight's Rachel Maddow show portrayed Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer as the Hero in the White Hat standing firm against the Black Hats of Exxon-Mobil, things aren't always as they seem. Check out the blogs to see what I mean.

Stuck outside of Hogtown with those Shuttle Launch Blues again

Insignia for the first shuttle launch

We were just outside of Hogtown when the first Shuttle went up. Other cars joined us along the side of I-75 to view history. We were disappointed, not with the launch, but with the fact that we weren't on the beach at Daytona. That was our goal when my wife Chris, my brother Dan and I left Denver two days before.

Stuff happens. A batch of bad gas in Mississippi, or maybe just an aging vehicle. We were stalled for several hours at a truck stop on the Florida panhandle. The car still wasn't running right when we pulled off the highway for the launch.

An impressive sight. Heard and felt it, too. After it climbed out of sight, leaving its contrail drifting in the clear Florida sky, we looked at each other and said, "Let's go to the beach."

All three of us had viewed many launches over the years, some from the beach and some from our backyard. My father worked for the space program out of Daytona, for NASA and G.E. Chris's father used to take her and her sister down to the beach to watch the spectacles. I heard "The Eagle has landed" via the car radio as my high school girlfriend and I were parked on the beach during a July thunderstorm (yes, I was paying more attention to the moon landing than to the business at hand).

I'd like to be on the beach today. To watch the launch and to be on the beach, my old haunt. Chris is in Daytona for her high school reunion. She'll see the launch with her sister and old Seabreeze High School "Fighting Sandcrabs" pals. I don't care much for reunions. But I'm miffed that I'm missing the last Shuttle launch.

Some of my progressive colleagues don't see the value of the space program. They contend that it's too expensive. They don't see the value in the scientific research. They don't understand why we have to send actual humans into space when robots can do the work cheaper and with less risk.

But "manned flight" (lots of women in space, too) is important precisely because it's in our genes to explore. One major benefit from the Space Shuttle are the fantastic images captured by the Hubble. They have opened up the wonders and terrors of our universe like nothing else. Colliding galaxies and collapsing stars and black holes and artistically-shaped nebulae and all of that space (what's with that dark matter?). We must go there to see these wonders and to figure out what they are and what they mean.

I grew up reading Tom Swift and then Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury. Sci-fi fed my imagination. And then came the space program. I had the great good fortune to live at the epicenter of Mercury and Gemini and Apollo.

One closing note: that first shuttle launch happened 20 years to the day after the first manned space flight by the Soviet Union. In 1981, we were still going toe-to-toe with the Reds in space and on the ground (Reagan was newly elected). Now that the U.S is Shuttle-less, guess who we will depend on to get groceries and extra batteries to the space station?

Those darn Russkis. History is a funny thing.