"American Exotic" films use magic realism to illuminate the fringes of American society

I like indie movies for the places and the characters that they portray.

They can be USA places, or somewhere far away, such as Bombay or a Ukrainian village or some remote Chinese outpost.

That’s probably the short story writer in me speaking aloud. My stories are set in a place, usually Wyoming or Colorado, and they are about the dilemmas of real people. There is not a single super-hero or mutant battleship-on-steroids in any of my stories. They are about real people. Period.

I am delighted to read this piece by Tom Shone on Slate. He has the same complaints about movies! They are planetized, bland entertainments. And boring as hell to anyone with half a brain or an ounce of empathy.

No longer the indigenous film industry of North America, Hollywood is now the world’s jukebox, pumping out what Michael Eisner once called “planetized entertainment.” It’s one reason the Oscars have turned into such a mad scramble of late, even fishing overseas for quality crowd-pleasers—The Artist, The King’s Speech, Slumdog Millionaire—while reserving a spot on the nominations list for something flinty and home-spun from the indie world. Two years ago it was Winter’s Bone, which plunged audiences into the meth labs of the Ozarks. This year it is most likely to be Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild, which takes us deep into the swamplands of Louisiana. Together they almost amount to a new genre: the American Exotic, mixing myth and magic realism to trawl the furthermost reaches of the American disaster zone for wide-eyed urban audiences, the same way they used to trawl the Third World.

He then takes the next step. Many indie movies now employ the magic realism elements of the Latin American master novelists – Cortazar, Marquez, Borges, and the rest – to portray the fringes of American society, what he calls "American Exotic.” The hot new film, “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” fits in this category.

Even the genre is telling: Magic realism used to be the genre of South America, not North, the way storytellers make sense of the everyday absurdities and violent disparities of the developing world. That the genre has found any purchase on the northern American continent is a subtle but damning indictment, both of how broken down America has gotten around its edges, but also of just how foreign the country now seems, even to Americans. It’s a whole other world out there. Somebody really ought to make a movie about it.

What movies, large and small, actually rely on a real place and time and real people to make its point? I think of the films by Victor Nunez, who lives and works in Tallahassee, Fla. He made the great “Ulee’s Gold” and “Ruby in Paradise.” The latter film starred a young Ashley Judd and gave viewers a stark and strange and funny view of Panama City Beach during the off-season. “Little Miss Sunshine” portrayed a family full of exotic, down-on-their-luck Americans from Albuquerque who accompany their young one to southern Cal to compete in a beauty pageant. Albuquerque – you can’t get any more Americana than that. Just ask Walt in “Breaking Bad.”

Real people in real places in real situations. Is that too much to ask? He does finds some Hollywood exceptions:

Among their generation, maybe only the Coens are out there taking soil samples, dirtying their mud flaps in Mississippi in the 1930s (Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?), Arkansas in the 1880s (True Grit), LA in the 1940s (Barton Fink), Minnesota in the 1960s (A Serious Man),Texas in the 1980s (Blood Simple, No Country for Old Men), and—in their latest—the Greenwich Village folk scene of the 1960s (Inside Llewyn Davis).

Read the rest at http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2012/07/john_ford_s_westerns_hitchcock_s_north_by_northwest_woody_allen_s_upper_east_side_remember_when_american_movies_were_set_in_america_.2.html

House Republicans, including Wyoming's Cynthia Lummis, vote themselves health care for life while voting against health care for the rest of us

This article comes from Michael McAuliff in the Huffington Post. Make sure to watch the video in which Rep. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming is asked by a reporter: "Why did you just vote yourself health care for life?" Lummis screamed response: "What?" Lummis is one of the wealthiest members of the U.S. Congress:

Democrats are mocking Republicans in the House of Representatives for voting to repeal the health care reform law and keep their own enhanced medical care. 

When Congress passed the health care law, it required members of Congress to get their insurance on exchanges with the rest of the public. But in voting to repeal that law, Republicans and a handful of Democrats were also voting to go back to the old system where the lawmakers get a sweeter deal than most of the rest of the country..

They also voted against a Democratic motion that said members of Congress who support repealing the health care law must also repeal the good stuff they get, such as lifetime care and insurance regardless of pre-existing conditions.

Democrats tried to demonstrate how Republicans distanced themselves from voting to protect their own deal by capturing a slew of GOP members on video saying they didn't vote to protect their own care, as seen below. The clip features a number of Republicans in tight races this year, as well as GOP budget guru, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.

“House Republicans refuse to admit they voted to give themselves taxpayer funded lifetime guaranteed health care instead of having the same health care as their constituents,” said Jesse Ferguson, spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, referring to the fact that members of Congress are eligible for retirement benefits after just five years.

“House Republicans didn’t just vote to protect insurance company campaign donor profits this time, they’re even helping themselves to lifetime taxpayer-funded government health care and now they need to be honest with their constituents and admit it,” Ferguson said.

Dear Gov. Mead: Make Wyoming a healthier place by embracing Medicaid expansion

When Rodger McDaniel writes about mental health and substance abuse treatment in Wyoming, he knows his subjects. Under Gov. Dave Freudenthal, the Rev. McDaniel was Director of the Mental Health Health and Substance Abuse Division of the Wyoming Health Department. Today in his blog (and on the op-ed pages of the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle), he makes the modest proposal that the Great Conservative State of Wyoming should embrace Medicaid expansion. It's a hard sell because Wyoming and its Governor were parties to the Affordable Care Act lawsuit that recently was spured by the conservative-dominated Supreme Court. Read on:

The enormous investment Wyoming made in mental health and substance abuse treatment in the last decade puts the state in a position to cash in big on the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Governor Mead and state legislators should weigh the opportunity before rushing to join other Republican governors rejecting federal funding of Medicaid expansion. 

Today Wyoming taxpayers spend more than 95 million dollars each budget period on mental health and substance abuse services. If Wyoming implements the Medicaid expansion under Obamacare, most of that money can be returned to the general fund.

Read the rest here.

Wyoming is not always a trailblazer when it comes to mental health and substance abuse programs. But its Children's Medicaid Waiver has been a godsend to many Wyoming families in crisis. The Medicaid Waiver has helped both uninsured and underinsured families who've sent their children to a treatment program that is usually hours away from home, often out-of-state. When our daughter was diagnosed as bipolar, we had to send her to treatment for four months in Colorado and seven months in Casper. We signed her up for the Medicaid Waiver which kicked in when our insurance company limited her treatment. Before Obamacare, insurance companies either placed caps on mental health treatment or disallowed it as a pre-exisiting condition. The same held true for substance abuse treatment. When our son needed help for substance abuse almost ten years ago, our insurance lapsed after 50 treatment sessions. Since he was in a residential center and had daily sessions, the insurance was up way before the therapy could bear fruit -- nine months before he successfully returned home, clean and sober. We spent my father's inheritance to pay for some of the treatment and our son worked on the center's landscaping crew to pay for the rest. Expensive but worth it.


Many other families share our experience. Others will face problems in the future. The Medicaid Waiver helped pay for our daughter's treatment and for the "wraparound care" that followed her return to the home. A treatment team of parents, siblings, relatives, friends -- led by a certified mental health professional -- guided her back into her community. This beats the old approach of letting our teens sink or swim on their own, which didn't work our too well. Teens with mental illnesses or substance abuse problems have enough problems without having to readjust to school and home and work all by themselves.


Many families never use the Medicaid Waiver or similar programs because they don't know about it. There's a great statewide organization, UPLIFT, that is a resource for these services. I'm on the UPLIFT board and that's how I found out about the waiver. Get more info by calling UPLIFT at 307-778-8686. And be not afraid to go directly to the source at the Wyoming state offices. Yes, I know, it's a big state agency located in a monolithic grey building. But you can talk to real people there -- I did.


This web site is a good place to start: http://www.health.wyo.gov/mhsa/treatment/SystemofCare.html. As you'll see, the waiver program is now focused on keeping the child in the community by providing that wraparound care I talked about earlier.


I do not know how Obamacare, with or without Medicaid expansion, will affect these programs. But in a time of budget cuts in state funds, more Medicaid money from the Feds is a good thing, is it not?


No surprise that health care will be a major topic at this week's National Governors Association conference in Virginia. Also on the agenda is a discussion about the needs of military members returning home from the wars. Gov. Mead co-chairs the NGA committee addressing this issue. Some of the most pressing needs involved mental health care, not only for veterans but their families. The Veteran's Administration Hospital in Cheyenne recently expanded its services by hiring four new psychologists. 

Cheyenne's "Bibles & Beer" featured in USA Today

My Liberal Wyoming pals Rev. Rodger McDaniel and Jason Bloomberg. Rodger started "Bibles & Beer" at Uncle Charlie's Tavern last year and it was featured in today's USA Today. I love the final line of the story:  McDaniel says he got questions in the beginning from people concerned about associating alcohol with the Bible. His answer: "Jesus didn't change wine into water."

Wyoming gets creative with its roadside public art

"Wind Code," Stan Dolega

Mountain range or snow fence or mountain range fashioned from snow fence building blocks: Stan Dolega's cool new sculpture, WIND CODE, will be installed at the Southeast Wyoming Welcome Center this coming Monday, July 16. The sculpture is composed of welded steel and natural rock, and resembles the classic and iconic Wyoming snow fence. The Welcome Center will be open to the public late this summer. This is a Wyoming 1 Percent for Art Project. The Welcome Center is a work of art in itself.

Southeast Wyoming Welcome Center, south of Cheyenne on I-25

Happy 100th birthday, Woody Guthrie -- "He loved writing!"

On the eve of Woody Guthrie's 100th birthday, Nora Guthrie talks about her father's love for writing in an NPR piece: "He loved writing — he loved it. My mother would say, 'He loved the feeling of a pen on paper' — just that visceral experience. He loved that. It was his energy coming out of his fingertips." Pictured is one of Woody's notebooks (circa 1942) from his extensive archive.

Save the Date: Dinner in Jackson July 12 with Mitt and Dick and Lynne for only $30,000

Courtesy of jh underground, which shares with us the address of Dick and Lynne, 4205 W. Greens Place, just in case you lost the invitation.

"Love Can Build a Bridge" concert July 12 in Laramie, July 13 in Denver

From the Matthew Shepard Foundation:

The Matthew Shepard Foundation is proud to present Love Can Build a Bridge featuring the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus and the Denver Gay Men’s Chorus. July 12 the choruses will present a concert in Laramie, WY at the the University of Wyoming at the Fine Arts Building, 1000 E. University Ave, 8PM. You can by your tickets for that concert here. July 13 they will perform at St. Johns Episcopal Cathedral in Denver, CO, 1350 Washington Street, 7:30PM. You can buy tickets for this concert in our store. If you have any questions about tickets or the event, please call (303) 830-7400 ext 16

Note that a portion of ticket proceeds will go to Wyoming Equality, an organization that works tirelessly for LGBT equality in our state. Check out the WY Equality web site.

Check out the new Wyoming Democratic Party web site and blog

The new Wyoming Democratic Party web site is a lively change from the old static site. It was launched yesterday during the grand opening of the new WDP headquarters at 1909 Warren Ave. in Cheyenne. Read Ken McCauley's "push back" against against Republican Sen. John Barrasso's recent radio address blasting the Supreme Court's ACA decision. In the "Featured Democrat" section, read about retired airline pilot Patrick Vann and his bid to re-energize his fellow Goshen County Dems. There's a comprehensive list of county parties with contact info. Find Democratic Party candidates running in this year's elections. There's a blog by Communications Director Brodie Farquhar that will need constant feeding -- you know how those blogs are! Links to political articles and op-eds in WY media outlets. Make sure you check it out and add your comments. Find the WY Dems on Facebook and Twitter, too.

No hurricanoes for "King Lear" but plenty of rain

Yesterday I joked about watching King Lear rail against "thunderbolts and hurricanoes" while the real thing was happening. The Weather Channel predicted a 60 percent chance of rain with possible flash floods.

The Wyoming Shakespeare Festival Company did perform "King Lear" yesterday evening at the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens during a rapidly escalating storm. The lightning and thunder did arrive before cue -- act one instead of act three -- but it only added to the anticipation. The actors persevered as the rain waxed and waned and finally just poured down. The bodies of Lear and Cordelia and all the rest (living and dead) were soaked by the time the curtain came down about 7:15 on the 13th season performance of the Lander company.

The audience was a bit drier under umbrellas and ponchos. We were appreciative, giving the cast a rousing round of applause before we headed to our cars. Thanks to Diane Springford and her cast for a great performance and a demonstration of what it takes to be part of a traveling acting troupe. The show must go on!

A final note: Botanic Gardens Director Shane Smith introduced the performance and spoke about the upcoming vote Aug. 21 for additions and renovations to the facility. Interesting to note that interior spaces large enough for theatre performances are included in the plan. Although Shakespeare in the rain is an experience not to be missed, it would be nice to have a place to keep performers and audience members warm and dry. A number of people gave up and left midway through the play, which was a shame.

Shakespeare in the Botanic Gardens -- as long as the thunderbolts and hurricanoes stay away

Cassie Marple as Cordelia and Dave Geible as King Lear

Barring a monsoon downpour to rival the storm that’s part of the play, the Wyoming Shakespeare Festival Company performs "King Lear" at 5 p.m. this evening at the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens. Based in Lander, the company enters its thirteenth Summer Season bringing great classical theater with an entertaining Wyoming twist to audiences throughout the state. Last night they performed in Torrington's city park. Saturday's performance occurs north of the Botanic Gardens greenhouse and south of Discovery Pond on the lawn. This event is FREE thanks to Cheyenne, Light, Fuel and Power, Holiday Inn and Davis and Cannon LLP Attorneys. Donations to the troupe will also be accepted.


King Lear during the storm in Act III, Scene II:


Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks!
You sulphurous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,
Smite flat the thick rotundity o' the world!

So where is Wyoming's Health Exchange?

Ever since the SCOTUS ruling on the Affordable Care Act, healthcare topics have been back in the headlines -- with a vengeance. Rodger McDaniel writes today about the Wyoming Health Exchange, and why it's important that the state's lawmakers get busy on this issue. They've already wasted a lot of time in the hopes that the Supreme Court would make the ACA magically disappear. That didn't happen!

Governor Mead earned his spurs opposing the Affordable Care Act. So when he says it's now time to roll up our sleeves and get to work, the Legislature should listen.

Are you listening, Republican-dominated Legislature? I have my doubts...


And Barb Rea of Casper reminds us on Facebook that there will be a public forum about healthcare and Medicaid expansion on Tuesday, July 10, 5-7 p.m., at Laramie County Community College in Cheyenne. The stakes are high.

If Wyoming decides to opt out of the Medicaid expansion 30,000 low income adults will be left again, with no where to go for insurance contributing to the same cost drviers that are plaguing the entire system. The state is conducting surveys about "the cost drivers of Medicaid and evaluate design options for Medicaid programs mandated by the ACA" (whatever that means).

Whatever that means. That's the problem, isn't it? These are complicated yet crucial issues. Get out to the forum and make your voice heard.

Casting call for Cheyenne Reality TV show

Alan O'Hashi's Wyoming Community Media makes fine films, launched the Cheyenne International Film Festival and is the impetus behind long-range planning for the Hynds Building in downtown Cheyenne. This guy's the real thing. He also has a sense of fun: 

Wyoming Community Media is casting locally for a TV show pilot. Please pass the info on to 100 of your closest friends. You don't need to be an actor or actress. This is reality TV!

Do you want a chance to be on TV? WCM is working with a New York City based television production company is looking for regular people to drive taxicabs for Cheyenne Frontier Days. 

This is an opportunity to drive for a local cab company, with the potential to participate in a new reality television show. If you appear between the ages of 25-45, and have a valid driver’s license, please send your name, location, phone number, a photo, and a brief description of yourself to cabcasting@gmail.com

Wyoming Dems open new HQ in Cheyenne

From the Wyoming Democratic Party: 

The Wyoming Democratic Party has moved its headquarters and staff from Casper to Cheyenne. For the first time in a decade, Party HQ will be just a few blocks from the Capital, ready to support our Democratic Legislators. To celebrate the move, come for a chili cookoff, see our new website, meet staff, candidates and friends for an afternoon of fun! Beginning at 3 p.m. on Saturday, July 7, 1909 Warren Ave.

BTW, I've seen to the test site of the WDP's new web presence. A vast improvement, with actual up-to-date material and a place for us prog-bloggers to sound off. Come to the party tomorrow and check it out.

Summer is the time to relish good books

When I was a kid, books were my constant companions. I also lived in a house filled with other constant companions -- my family -- which included two parents, four brothers, four sisters, and and an assortment of dogs, cats, lizards and gerbils. That was one crowded house.

I mentioned books first. They weren't more important than Mom and Dad and Molly and Tim and Shannon the dog and Polonius the cat. But books did enable me to escape the sometimes frantic pace of daily life. They also helped me understand some odd human behavior. My brother Tommy, for instance, liked to sit down to a bowl of sweet pickle relish for breakfast. While the rest of us munched on Cheerios, Tommy relished his relish. In the beginning, we gave him a hard time, as siblings do. But after awhile, we just had to accept this quirky behavior as you might if coming across something similar in a Dickens' novel.

Summer reading was especially important. We had chores to do and we played baseball and went swimming and spent as much time outdoors as humanly possible. But at some point during the day, I needed time with books. I don't remember official summer reading programs. But Mom took us to the library as often as we needed to recharge the book supply. In elementary school, I read my way through the Hardy Boys series and had a special fondness for dog books ("Lad a Dog," etc.). In junior high, sci-fi was king. I started with the classics -- Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, the Tom Swift series -- and then moved on to the harder stuff. Nothing like spending a lazy summer afternoon sprawled under a cottonwood tree while I traveled to exotic worlds with Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke or Ray Bradbury.     

We moved a lot, so I got to know a libraries in a dozen different places. Just entering a library gave me a feeling of belonging in a strange new town. Whether it was Denver's big main library or the tiny one in Moses Lake, Washington, the books were all arranged in the same order and the card catalogs (remember those?) all looked the same. The librarians, too, all had that schoolmarmish look, or that's how this 11-year-old boy saw them, anyway. 

I was in our local Cheyenne library on Tuesday evening. I selected two novels from the "new books" shelf, and then my laptop and I spent several hours on the third floor revising a short story. The third floor at the Laramie County Public Library is the quiet floor. Back in the day, every floor of a library was quiet (or else!). But libraries are a bit more freewheeling these days, more interactive, and a bit more hectic. So I was working on a story, the gentle tapping of my laptop keys the only sound. A storm blew in and I watched from the big window as lightning snaked across the sky. Below, a mom and her kids clasped their summer books and made a mad dash for the car. At closing time, I checked out my books and realized I hadn't signed up for the summer reading program. I sign up every year, buy a T-shirt, fill in the scorecard to earn ice cream cones and various discounts at local businesses. There wasn't time to do that on this library trip (the guy on the P.A. system was telling me to check out my books as the library was closing), but I knew I would return soon. I always come back to the library.

By the way, if you haven't yet signed up for "Dream Big," LCLS's summer reading celebration, you can by going here. 

Nora Ephron: "Reading is everything"

Flash mob to swarm downtown to query city candidates

Picked this up on Facebook via Wyoming Community Media:

Flash mob! Meet and greet the candidates for Cheyenne mayor and city council on Sunday, July 1, 3-5 p.m., 415 W. 17^th St., downtown Cheyenne

Stop by and visit about the issues facing the broader community with the Mayoral and City Council candidates for each of the three wards:
* Downtown Development
* Optional Sales Tax Projects
* Streets, Water Rates
* Police and Fire Protection Issues
* The Kitchen Sink

While this is primarily an event for municipal candidates, other local, statewide and national candidates are welcome!

If you can or can't make it, this is a flash mob, social media activity, so please invite 100 of your closest friends and family members to attend the event!

See a play in Fort Collins, donate to firefighters

The Bas Bleu Theatre Company in Fort Collins is only one of many arts organizations coming up with ways to support local firefighters who have been battling the devestating High Park fire. Ticket sales for tonight's Bas Bleu presentation of "Buffalo Gal" at 7:30 p.m. will go to the Rist Canyon Volunteer Fire Department. See a play and donate to a great cause. Get tickets at http://www.centerstageticketing.com/sites/basbleu/showdates.php?s_id=202

Governor's Capitol Art Exhibition at the Hynds Building downtown this weekend

For the first time, the Governor’s Capitol Art Exhibition will be held at the Hynds Building in downtown Cheyenne. It features 70 artistic pieces by artists from throughout the state. The exhibit will be open to the public on Saturday and Sunday, June 30 and July 1, from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Eight of the artists have received purchase awards and will be recognized during the show’s awards presentation ceremony Saturday, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. 

These eight artists include: Mack Brislawn, of Laramie, for his painting “Somewhere in the Powder River Basin;” Travis Ivey, of Laramie, for his painting “Spring Thaw on the Little Laramie;” Tony James, of Cheyenne, for his photograph “High Plains Thunder;” and Georgia Rowswell, of Cheyenne, for her mixed media composition “Paint Pot – Yellowstone.”

GCAE purchase award: Georgia Rowswell, Cheyenne, "Paint Pot - Yellowstone,"
mixed media - compressed fiber, 21" x 21", $1,500.00

Also included are Shane Steiss, of Green River, for his mixed media composition “Aspen #14;” Michele Farrier, of Alta, for her pastel “Stateline Road;” Michael Flicek of Casper for his photograph “Prehistory Revealed;” and Joy Keown, of Laramie, for her painting “Rising From the Plains.”

“In a Hard Place,” a painting by Laramie’s Jerry Glass, received the Juror’s Choice Award.

David Newell, curator of art at the Wyoming State Museum, put this show together.

Take time out this weekend to drop in on this exhibit. Meet the artists and buy some original "Made in Wyoming" artwork.

Democrat Joe Fender kicks off Campaign for Wyoming Legislature June 29

Joe Fender is a Democrat running for the Legislature in House District 7. He's a firefighter, a working guy who says on his web site that he's "a public servant" who looks at this as a way "to give back to the community that has been so good to me and my family." He pledges to stand up for the workers of Wyoming and strengthen worker retirements. He'd have my vote on these issues alone. We need someone who will stand up to the extremists who want to gut the state retirement system. Alas, I'm not in Joe's district but an adjacent one. So I can donate and volunteer. And party, too. Joe's having a "Meet, Eat and Greet Kickoff Party" on Friday, June 29, at 5 p.m. at his home, 92 E. Ole Maverick Road (Yellowstone and E. Ole Maverick). Go to his web site for more: http://www.joefender.com