Thanks for the cordial invitation, Pikes Peak Writers Conference

One of my Cheyenne critique group colleagues, Liz Roadifer, received this e-letter from the Pikes Peak Writers organization. Liz has been involved with this group for awhile and says they put on a great conference each spring. I may attend in 2012 for the first time. Some fine writers on the PPWC presenters' list, including Champion Mojo Storyteller Joe R. Lansdale and Robert "Elvis Cole" Crais. 

The link below takes you to a user-friendly web site.

This is such a simple and appealing invitation. Maybe other regional writing groups could take a page from PPWC: 

Dear Elizabeth,

You're cordially invited to the 20th Annual Pikes Peak Writers Conference, which will be held April 19-22, 2012, at the Colorado Springs Marriott.

Come help us celebrate 20 years of success with four jam-packed days of informative workshops, motivational speeches, networking opportunities, Read & Critique sessions, and the chance to pitch your manuscript to some of the most sought-after editors and agents in the business.

Some of this year's featured speakers* are:

Robert Crais
Jeffery Deaver
Susan Wiggs
Joe R. Lansdale
Donald Maass
...and more!

*Faculty roster subject to change without notice.

Find out why PPWC is known as one of the friendliest and best- organized writers conferences. 

Registration is now open

Questions? Contact registrar@pikepikespeakwriters.com

"Dr. Dirt" makes art by cleaning shapes into filthy urban surfaces

From Grist: Street artist Moose Benjamin Curtis doesn't use spray paint or wallpaper paste -- the usual tools of this trade. Instead, he wields scrub brushes, old socks, cleaning fluid, and, when he's living large, a high-pressure hose. He creates images by cleaning shapes into filthy urban surfaces such as retaining walls, signs, and tunnels. People have called it "reverse graffiti," "clean graffiti," and "negative space." Moose prefers "grime writing." He has called himself "a professor of dirt." For more: http://www.grist.org/cities/2011-11-04-dr.-dirt-street-artist-scrubs-images-into-the-urban-landscape

Moose's work at the Broadway Tunnel in San Francisco in 2009

Ol' Blue Eyes says (sings) it all about "New York, New York" in 2011

Chemical weapons used on peaceful UC Davis protesters

The wars come home: UC Davis Police Lt. John Pike uses pepper spray to move Occupy UC Davis protesters who were blocking officers' attempts to remove arrested protesters from the Quad on Friday afternoon. FMI: http://www.davisenterprise.com/... Photo credit: Wayne Tilcock/Enterprise photo

GA for Occupy Cheyenne Nov. 21 in Mylar Park

I can walk to this one... I'll bring a traveler of coffee to share.

Creativity is Occupy Movement's middle name

I didn't see "Cheyenne" or "Wyoming" flash on this building but maybe next time...

Here's what this is all about:

One of the most impressive moments of yesterday's Occupy Wall Street marches, was when someone projected a giant 99% "bat signal" on the side of one of lower Manhattan's skyscrapers as thousands of people swarmed across the nearby Brooklyn Bridge. New Yorkers know the Verizon Building as the windowless, concrete eyesore that looms over the bridge and mars the downtown skyline, so seeing it used is such a way certainly got a lot of attention. 

But who did it? And how were they able to project the stories-high words on the building just as the protesters made their way over the span? Boing Boing's Xeni Jardin spoke to Mark Read, one of the Occupy Wall Street organizer who pulled together a team of friends and artists that arranged for the projection to happen. 

Read says he got help from two video projection artists, Max Nova and JR Skola, who used a 12,000 lumen projector and programmed the software needed to properly program the message. He also found an apartment in a nearby housing project from where they safely angle the projection on to the building. He says he offered to rent the apartment from a single mother of three, but when she found out what they wanted to use it for — and saw what happened during the eviction of Zuccotti Park — she refused to take their money.

Music by Hans Zimmer, To Know My Enemy. 

Some of this is new to me. There is now a category known as "video projection artists?" And a 12,000-lumen projector? It must be huge. 

I ask Slim: "Why are Tea Party people so damn mean?"

I asked Tea Party Slim, "What makes you people so damn mean?"

Slim seemed taken aback. "Mean?"

"You're doing pretty well, aren't you?" I said, feeling a need to elaborate and/or rub it in. "Many of you are retired. Your homes are paid off and you have cars and RVs. You can visit your grandkids any time you want. Some, like you, are veterans and have the entire VA medical system at your disposal."

Slim appeared thoughtful. "We worked hard for our money. And some of us slogged through rice paddies protecting our freedoms."

"Were you ever actually in a rice paddy, Slim?"

He seemed to blush a bit. "You know what I mean. Some of us served."

I had come to grips with my non-service during the Vietnam era. Apparently Slim had not. "But you're doing pretty well now, right? No a rice paddy in sight here in Wyoming."

"We're taxed to death. I wouldn't say that's 'well off' "

"Just how are you taxed to death? We don't have a state income tax. Property taxes are low. Sales taxes are 5 percent...."

"But they tack on that 1 percent to pay for things we don't need."

"Like road improvements?"

"They are always working on the roads but nothing gets improved. And how come sand trucks take all day to 'improve' the roads every winter?"

I had to admit he had some good points. "But overall, our roads are good. No muddy quagmires to get bogged down in, right?"

Slim shrugged.

"Sewer and water system improvements. Flood control. New landfill. New library. I know that you and the misses use our library."

"All right, all right. The 1 percent added tax isn't so bad."

"There's no regressive grocery tax."

"We buy our groceries at the base BX."

"Like I said..."

"You wouldn't deny a veteran his benefits, would you?"

"I'm happy to pay my taxes so that you get those benefits." I smiled. It was my Cheshire Cat grin.

"Federal taxes are too high. Government too big."

Slim often digs these holes for himself. We sat there for several minutes while his words drifted through the air.

"Government...." I began.

"O.K., I was a government employee most of my life," Slim sputtered. "We all know that. But government is way too big. You wouldn't believe the waste that I saw. Taxpayer money isn't being spent wisely."

"At last we can agree on something," I said. Then I was silent as a Buddha. I felt like crawling out of my chair and sitting cross-legged on the floor. I would have too, if my knees weren't so ancient and bad.

Slim broke the silence. "Mr. Anti-War Pinko," he said.

"Make that Mr. Bleeding Heart Anti-War Pinko."

"Done."

"You call me names. Why is that?"

"You call us names. Teabaggers, filthy things like that."

"But that's a sexual term. And you guys yourselves used that, at least in the beginning."

"No we didn't."

"Maybe not. But the words you direct at Occupy Wall Street are so much more hurtful."

"They're bums," spat Slim.

"See what I mean? They're kids just trying to make a living."

"Why aren't they making a living? They're out on the streets throwing bricks at cops."

"First of all, they're not throwing bricks at cops. The protesters are nonviolent. The cops are the violent ones."

"They have to protect themselves!"

"From what -- peace, love and understanding?"

"A cop in San Francisco -- your favorite hippie town -- was slashed by a razor during a demonstration."

"I heard about that. There have been a thousand of these Occupy events and that's all you have?"

"There have been thousands of violent acts."

"Name them -- all of them."

Slim stared at me.

"You can't, can you? Meanwhile, you Tea Party guys pack heat to your demos and the cops look on meekly."

"Second amendment."

"Spare me," I said. "Name one incident where there was gunplay at an Occupy event." I could tell that Slim was replaying in his head hours upon hours of Fox broadcasts. "If this was a violent revolution by a bunch of wild-eyed radicals, don't you think there would have been gunplay by now?"

"Just wait," said Slim. "It will happen." He grinned. "And when it does, the cops can count on us loyally armed citizens to back them up."

I had a mental image of thousands of well-armed geezers taking to the streets. A cop's worst nightmare.

"I keep asking the same question but don't get an answer: Why are you so damn mean?"

"It's our God-given right as American citizens," said Slim.

"God, I'm sure, will be pleased to hear that."

EPA Chief: Pavillion tests are "of concern" and fracking may be the culprit

This just in from the Casper Star-Tribune:

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency says high levels of methane, benzene and chemicals found in two Wyoming water-monitoring wells are “of concern” and said hydraulic fracturing may be responsible.

In an interview set to air on the Bloomberg cable news channel Saturday and Sunday, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said the agency discussed results from two monitoring wells in the Pavillion area with state and local officials. The well data was released to the public last week.

Read more: http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/epa-chief-wyoming-water-well-results-of-concern/article_0aacd635-c62a-5eae-9f79-e6ae14eb1906.html#ixzz1e3vm0Cwo

I know that Rep. Cynthia "Kill the EPA" Lummis will pooh-pooh these findings to cater to her Know Nothing base, but the finding are the results of sound science and should be listened to. Do we really want to poison our fellow Wyomingites, such as John Fenton, a Pavillion rancher and member of Pavillion Area Concerned Citizens? John and his family were featured in the documentary “Gasland” (go to www,gaslandthemovie.com)

Howard Dean: "Where will you be Nov. 17?"

It appears that not everyone in the Democratic establishment has abandoned Occupy Wall Street

Butte, Montana, native Barbara Ehrenreich: Dem establishment has abandoned OWS

Barbara Ehrenreich, 2008 photo by Jay Westcott/Rapport

Barbara Ehrenreich knows something about America’s working people. She grew up in the hard-knock western mining town of Butte (Wyomingites know something about tough mining towns). Her best-known book is “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America.” She’s a life-long Democrat and an advocate for the “get out and vote” school of social change.

After watching the Democratic Party’s weak-kneed, lily-livered support for the Occupy movement, she may be changing her tune. I’ve been thinking along these same lines. Why should I support Pres. Obama when he turns a blind eye to those of us taking risks to advocate for real “change.” Why should America’s young people work for Obama’s reelection when he seems to be complicit in the overreaction to peaceful street protests, some of them visible from the White House? Why should I turn out to vote for any of those Democratic mayors and governors (I’m looking at you, John Hickenlooper of Colorado) who have used heavy-handed tactics against Occupiers?

Go to: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/15/barbara-ehrenreich-occupy-wall-street

Also read Ehrenreich’s essay about OWS in Oct. 12 issue of The Progressive: http://www.progressive.org/one_percent_barbara_ehrenreich.html

JH Weekly: Wyoming downwinders nervous (again) after two incidents at Idaho facility

Jake Nichols reports about two separate incidents at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) nuke facility across the border in Idaho. Read all about it here

In new "Over It (for the 99%)" video, Dane Clark says: "Stand up for yourself today"

Performance poet M.L. Liebler of Detroit sent the above link along with this news:

This just in from my musical partner Peter Lewis and his pal Dane Clark (John Mellencamp's drummer & Moby Grape producer). From the heart of Indiana. Peter is playing some guitar on the track. Dig We Must!

M.L. and Peter Lewis performed in Cheyenne last March and served as judges for the Wyoming Poetry Out Loud competition. Two very talented performers. Two big-hearted human beings. And great vid, Mr. Clark.

Why have the police resorted to violence against Occupy Wall Street protesters?

Following last month's police brutality in Oakland, and today's summary eviction of the Occupy Wall Street camp (and don't forget Seattle and Denver -- see above photo from Oct. 29 by Craig F. Walker of The Denver Post), American activists are reaching the conclusion that "police protect the 1%". More at Police Violence Reveals a Corrupt System (The Guardian via Common Dreams).

Seattle activist Dorli Rainey, 84, reacts after being hit with pepper spray during an Occupy Seattle protest on Tuesday, November 15, at Westlake Park. Protesters gathered in the intersection of 5th Avenue and Pine Street after marching from their camp at Seattle Central Community College in support of Occupy Wall Street. Many refused to move from the intersection after being ordered by police. Police then began spraying pepper spray into the gathered crowd hitting dozens of people. A pregnant woman was taken from the melee in an ambulance after being struck with spray. Photo: JOSHUA TRUJILLO / SEATTLEPI.COM

Retired cop tells NYPD: "Don't be Wall Street Mercenaries"

Captain Ray Lewis (Ret.) of the Philadelphia police has joined Occupy Wall Street. His sign is perfect: “NYPD: Don’t Be Wall Street Mercenaries!” That's exactly what the NYPD has become, as we witnessed throughout the day today. (Thanks to Cognitive Dissonance in Laramie for the photo.)

NEA Chair Rocco Landesman gets a taste of the SD/WY Black Hills this week

The Heritage Center at Red Cloud Indian School will be showcasing the musical group Scatter Their Own at the reception for National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Rocco Landesman on Thursday, Nov. 17, 10 a.m. at The Dahl Center in Rapid City. Juliana, the bass player, is a recent honors graduate of Red Cloud High School on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Landesman will be in S.D. to talk about “Creative Placemaking in the Black Hills Region.” Last time we looked at a map, some of that Black Hills region was in Wyoming. And it still is! Some of our Black Hills artists and arts group reps might want to traipse over to Rapid on Thursday to what’s cooking, creative placemaking-wise.

Call for entries: Open Window online literary magazine

Lori Howe sends out a call to writers in Wyoming:

Open Window, the new on-line literary magazine of LCCC’s Albany County Campus in Laramie, invites you to submit your creative work for publication in its inaugural issue. 

Open Window is a literary magazine that publishes three regular issues and one special topics issue each year. We publish new and established writers, and invite you to submit in one or more of the following categories:

*Fiction: up to 5 pages of fiction

*Non-fiction: up to 5 pages of non-fiction

*Poetry: up to three poems or one long poem

*Please submit your creative work via email as an attachment in MS Word document format; work submitted in any other form will not be considered for publication. Submit your work by NOVEMBER 25, 2011, to openwindow.howe78@gmail.com

*Please observe the standard of numbering your pages and using 12-point font.

*Simultaneous submissions are acceptable with immediate notification of alternate publication.

*Please include a short cover page with bio, along with your work; in it should be your full name, some information about yourself, and a description of the work you are submitting for consideration, so that it will be read by the appropriate editor.

There are no reading or submission fees at Open Window. 

The first issue of Open Window will be published the third week of December, 2011. Acceptance/rejection notices will be sent via email before this date. 

Open Window Launch Party/Reading: A gala opening of Open Window, with a reading by the writers published in the first issue, will be held in the reading space above Night Heron Books in Downtown Laramie the week before Christmas, 2011. All of our writers are invited to participate and bring friends and family to help celebrate the occasion with appetizers and desserts by The Cakelady.

LCCC Theatre Club sponsors open mic night Nov. 17

The Laramie County Community College Theatre Club is sponsoring an open mic night on Thursday, Nov. 17, 7 p.m., at the LCCC Theatre in Cheyenne. Show up and sign up to go on stage with your original work. No admission fee, but donations of canned food items are appreciated and will be donated to local charities for the holidays. Coffee provided. More info on LCCC Theatre Club Facebook page.

Evening at Bas Bleu Theatre on Nov. 17 will help the homeless

Bas Bleu in Fort Collins is one of the best theatres in the region. Bas Bleu does good work, and it does good works. For more: Evening at Bas Bleu will help the homeless

Militarized police continue to attack unarmed Occupy protesters

Illustration of the continued militarization of our police forces. While this may look like a phalanx of armed soldiers closing in on a nest of well-armed jihadis in Afghanistan, it is instead armed Chapel Hill police moving against a handful of unarmed Occupy Chapel Hill "sympathizers." More disturbing details here.

You can "harumph" all you want, but a generational shift is underway in the arts world

Argentango is one of the many artists and
arts groups seen on Old Town Fort Collins
street corners during "Streetmospheres."

Way back in the previous century -- 1998 I think it was -- Fort Collins, Colo., sent out the call for a new motto. The old one was getting frayed around the edges.

The city received lots of ideas. But this is the one I remember best: "Fort Collins: Where Cheyenne Shops."

It was meant tongue and cheek and wasn't adopted. Without looking it up, I cannot tell you the current motto of F.C. This points out that they are probably unnecessary and a waste of the citizenry's time. It also illustrates the fact that there are any number of truisms attached to a city that probably don't belong -- or won't fit -- on its web site banner. I can think of several for Fort Collins:

• Where Cheyenne and Laramie shop
• Where Cheyenne and Laramie teens go to party and see indie bands on weekends
• Where Mike Shay and his beloved wife go to dine
• Where Wyoming craft beer fans go to refill their growlers
• Where Cheyenne people go to marvel at a vibrant downtown that doesn't have a huge hole as its centerpiece
• Where Cheyenne people go to get their hail-damaged cars repaired because we can't wait until February 2013 for an appointment

I could go on, but won't. The whole shopping thing is not as true in 2011 as it was in 1998. Cheyenne has many of the same big box stores that line College Avenue in Fort Collins. We have chain restaurants by the score. Our arts and entertainment offerings are growing.

But we live in the era of thriving downtowns. Fort Collins has one of the best in the West. It has that odd diagonal parking scheme in the middle of the street. It has galleries and funky shops and concert venues and sidewalk cafes.

You just can't get this in Cheyenne. Cheyennites say that it's just so much easier to travel 45 minutes to Fort Collins (or 90 minutes to Denver) than create something similar in our own downtown.

Harumph, harumph.

Part of that is a generational thing. Cheyenne gets high marks from Old Codger Magazine as a great place for retirement. Low crime rate! Low taxes! Low energy level! Cheyenne gets high marks from Old Military Codger Magazine as one of the top ten places for military retirees. Military base amenities and two-for-one hip replacements at the VA! Retirees of all stripes have a future (albeit a limited one) in Cheyenne!

Zzzzzzz....

Meanwhile, down in the city named after a fort that never existed, young people gather. Hipster.com recommends F.C. highly for its many hipster hangouts. Bust Your Head Wide Open mag calls the place one of "America's dream towns" for its active outdoor sports culture. The signature label at New Belgium Brewery is Fat Tire and it's brewed by wind power and tended by goatee-sporting brewmeisters. Almost 30,000 young people attend CSU and many grads stick around to start businesses in a town known for its entrepreneurship.

So it's only natural that Fort Collins entities have banded together to create the Arts Incubator of the Rockies. Those of us at the AIR meeting this past week in F.C. were anything but hipsters. Our median age may have been 45. But we're all looking ahead rather than behind. Our futures depend on it.

Traditional art forms are on the decline, and have been for at least a decade. Symphonies, opera, ballet, art museums, and all the rest see declining attendance. The audiences that remain are older. Expenses continue to climb. Even a math-challenged person such as myself (age 60.9163) can see that this is a losing proposition.

On the other hand, art schools continue to crank out record numbers of artists and writers and musicians. The supply side is thriving. The traditional demand side is shrinking. But a survey by Julliard shows that only 10 percent of music grads stay in the industry. Wonder how other university departments would look at such dismal statistics. "UW School of Geology: 90 percent of our grads work at McDonald's!" "CSU Veterinary School: Only 10 percent of our grads have anything to do with animals!"

Beet Street in Fort Collins is trying to breathe some new life into both the creation and the presentation of the arts. They are joined in this regional endeavor by the CSU School of the Arts and the City of Fort Collins. They were partners in a successful National Endowment for the Arts' Our Town grant that brings $100,000 to the AIR effort. The Western States Arts Federation in Denver and nine state arts agencies gathered in F.C. last week to discuss our involvement.

In Saturday's post, I outlined some of the core and potential programs that will be addressed by AIR. The major physical effort will be the renovation of the old Carnegie Library into a regional arts center.

We toured the building on Thursday. It's one of a cluster of historic buildings in City Park. Next door is the sprawling county library, which once was housed in the Carnegie Building, as was the case in hundreds of American towns and cities.

Exhibits, archives and storage for the Fort Collins Museum are now crammed into the Carnegie. All of it, along with the staff, will move to the new 47,000-square-foot Fort Collins Museum and Discovery Science Center by the summer. This new public-private partnership will feature interactive exhibits that blend history and science. It also has a new Digital Dome Theatre that is part planetarium and part IMAX

Meanwhile, back at the Carnegie, Beet Street's Beth Flowers tells us about the plans for the space. It will feature physical classrooms, a virtual learning center, an AIR resource center, Beet Street offices, black box theatre, gallery and other public spaces. The city owns the building so will maintain and manage it. CSU will conduct community-based continuing ed courses as well as classes that will feed into its new minor in Arts Business and Leadership and Master of Music in Arts Leadership and Administration.

"Bronwyn's Factory" by UW Prof Ricki Klages was 
selected from 1,200 entries for the prestigious
Manifest Press's inaugural
 International Painting Annual.

Yet to be decided is how neighboring states fit into the equation. We spent two days last week discussing options in the newly renovated Lincoln Center. Wyoming trains scads of artists at its lone four-year public university and its many community colleges. How will AIR serve them? The University of Wyoming could have its own CSU-like "A" for "Agricultural" on a mountain if one were close enough to campus. And that "A" could stand for "Arts." UW is in the midst of a complete revamping of its arts infrastructure. The massive new visual arts building, located strategically next to the award-winning UW Art Museum, will open in January. The old fine arts building will get a complete renovation over the course of the new two years. The English Department's creative writing program (ranked No. 30 in the nation by Poets & Writers mag) continues to be housed in the oldest building on campus (go figure).

Beefed-up endowments bring amazing performers, artists and writers to campus. Internationally-renowned dancer and choreographer Bill T. Jones wraps up his UW residency this month. Rebecca Solnit, Camille Dungy, Colson Whitehead and Salman Rushdie have taught young writers the past few years. Visual artists such as Jesus Moroles, Deborah Butterfield and Ursula von Rydingsvard have taught at UW and their sculptures have been featured on campus.

But the problem remains. UW does not have an arts administration degree program. And students still get a limited exposure to the business side of the arts. Some will get teacher certification and teach. Some will go on to master's and Ph.D. programs and teach. May others will want to make a living as artists and will have to figure it out for themselves.

We in Wyoming have an option that other regional players don't have -- we're right down the road from the AIR project in Fort Collins. Those arts business courses will be nearby. Some will be offered online, too. But since you're already traveling down snow-clogged roads to go to the hookah bar, why not take a workshop while you're there?

At last week's meeting, we talked extensively about ways that state arts agencies such as the Wyoming Arts Council could help sponsor AIR courses. Wyoming students could attend physical classes in F.C. Or maybe some of those courses could be offered at UW in some sort of cooperative agreement with border rival CSU. We talked about a partnership among regional land-grant universities -- all of our states have one.

We have hundreds of talented artists in Wyoming. We also have a problem with our college grads moving out of state to start careers in Denver, Salt Lake City, L.A., and Portland. Wouldn't it be amazing if we could find ways for our homegrown creatives to stay in Casper and Pinedale and Evanston? They will need business acumen to do so. Luck helps, too. But what's that famous saying about luck? "The harder I work the luckier I get." Maybe that should be: "The smarter I work the luckier I get."

We all need to work smarter in tough times. AIR could be one of the ways to work smarter. Wouldn't it be great if Cheyenne could claim a new motto that said: "Cheyenne: Where Fort Collins buys art and attends arts events."

Music on Cheyenne's Depot Plaza

I'll keep you posted on AIR developments. Also get updates on the Wyoming Arts Council blog.