Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Butte Art Walk

Hello everyone,

I'v been busy the past few weeks working some part-time jobs and looking for a good full-time job. I'm also considering returning to school for my Master's.



I worked at the Charles Clark Art Chateau for a week and a half. It's the most haunted place I've ever been. I'm not really into ghosts (I hate horror/thriller type movies), but this place spurred my imagination.



This is a wonderful gallery at the Main Stope Gallery on Park Street. These black and white photographs of old miners and company workers show so much character in their faces. I got a shot of one of the men as he was checking out his own photograph for the first time.



This is my friend Steve Nordgren. He's a skilled glass artist. He made this painting on Montana and Park, but it was eventually painted over. He has a thing with including genitalia in his art work.


Some abstract artwork in the Dead Cat Cafe. You'll have to pardon the darkness of the photos as I haven't photoshopped them yet.



Erica Yakawich and Ray Campeau, Butte Art Walk organizers



Jim Nikodyn plays guitar in front of Studio 41 on Park Street.



An excitable crowd hung out at the Dead Cat Cafe after the Ark Walk. I'm not sure where the next reception will be, but if you're at the Art Walk you'll probably find out pretty easy.

The Dead Cat Cafe is run by a couple of the Butteniks Ensemble. Zach Thomas used to be Butte Central's quarterback back when I was in high school. He's usually behind the bar there. The Dead Cat Cafe was named appropriately after a dead cat, which people found there when they were cleaning it out. Dead cats are one of the nastiest dead animals you'll ever smell, trust me I know.

For Evel Knievel Days a motorbike jumper is going to try to eclipse the world record for longest jump. I'll be posting pictures of that on here next month. Stay tuned for that.

I'll also have a cd of some of my music available soon. It's home-produced, but I kind of like it like that (besides the cheapness).

I got into an interesting conversation with an elder gent last night. He was into this new band called Arcade Fire. I was really surprised at the other music he had passed up and the stuff he was interested in. He said he was into alternative and I mentioned Radiohead (the thinking man's band) and he wasn't into that at all. It just kind of reinforced my belief at how nieve people are with music. In other news: Elliot Smith is on top of the college radio charts with a new posthumous album. Dinosaur Jr. is back. Poison's new album of cover songs got a better rating in Rolling Stone than Chris Cornell's new album (which includes a Michael Jackson cover). Paul McCartney's new album was rated the same as Marilyn Manson's.

It's all so ironic how the music industry is playing out anymore. All at the hands of the corporate leader in pop culture magazines (Rolling Stone). As much as I sometimes enjoy the liberal-leaning political articles, the new politics of the music industry disgusts me. Just like the older guy I was talking to last night.

I don't really understand why people like what they do. The new folk movement should be getting more ink in music magazines, newspapers and everything else. Of course in the true tradition of folk, that doesn't happen. Check out a couple of my favorite new artists if you get the chance:
http://www.myspace.com/ironandwine
http://www.myspace.com/devendrabanhart

Why more people are interested in unoriginal music like Arcade Fire and Fall Out Boy instead of this type of music is beyond me. By adding those extra guitars it might make them sound more dynamic (ear candy), but that doesn't necessarily mean it communicates a more dynamic meaning within the music. After all, that's why most of us listen anyways right?