A Night to Remember
For a Night, Kalispell Gets an Urban Touch
Alex Athy and his band will play at "A Night to Remember" at Red's Wines and Blues in Kalispell. - Lido Vizzutti/Flathead Beacon
When musician Alex Athy moved from Los Angeles back to Kalispell, he was greeted by a neighbor’s bumper sticker: “Keep Cali out of Kalispell.”
The 2000 Flathead High School graduate wasn’t totally surprised – “There’s a definite stigma here toward that state,” he said – and in many ways he doesn’t disagree.
John Dunnigan
Strumming Heartstrings and Tickling Funny Bones
Steve Bodick, left, and Carmen Bellusci dance to the music of John Dunnigan at the Great Northern Bar and Grill in Whitefish. - Lido Vizzutti/Flathead Beacon
A 5-foot-something man with blond hair and a big grin strums his guitar for a cheering crowd. He wears a Rastafarian-style hat fitted with dreadlocks.
“I’m too white to sing reggae,” John Dunnigan croons. “I’m too white to sing blues. I’m too white to sing anything but Barry Manilow tunes!”
Whitefish Theatre Company
Rocking the Schoolhouse
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Jesse Walburn grimaces with hair spray. --Becky Lomax, for the Beacon |
Starting Friday night, kids plan on rocking the schoolhouse when Whitefish Theatre Company presents their annual kids musical. In a take off of the Emmy Award winning 1970s educational cartoon, kids do a hip romp through school subjects, singing about math, grammar, history, and biology.
In the last rehearsal before opening night, 31 antsy cast members walk through the finale for School House Rock Live! Junior. They take their places as Director April Dawn Vogel adjusts the look of the scene. Four boys on spotlights practice focusing beams on the cast, and the actors learn to bow before hitting the dressing rooms to put on costumes for the full show—a preview for families.
Artist to Speak at Arbor Day celebration
American Indian Art in a New, Bright Light
"Red Earth Ponies," by Monte Yellow Bird Sr. is a mixed medium piece with oil, quill work medicine wheel and beads. - Photo courtesy of Monte Yellow Bird Sr.
Monte Yellow Bird Sr.’s life is full of color.
It’s in his paintings, coated on his ceramics and constantly on his mind. This week Yellow Bird, a well-known artist who also goes by the name of Black Pinto Horse, is sharing his colorful view of the world with people in the Flathead Valley, speaking at local schools, including Flathead Valley Community College, and at an Arbor Day celebration at Glacier Bank in Columbia Falls on May 3.
Whitefish Gallery Nights Launches Season
Flathead Clay Artists Showcase Work
“It’s an exciting way to kick off First Thursdays,” said Tom Gilfillan, owner of The Stillwater Gallery and Whitefish Pottery. Gilfillan has rustled up nearly 30 Flathead Valley potters for a celebration of clay for the 2008 opening of Whitefish Gallery Nights.
This Thursday, May 1, kicks off the first in the series of six evenings when 14 Whitefish galleries open late for receptions. It’s a buzzing social event in Whitefish as friends and neighbors migrate from gallery to gallery to take in the shows, share a glass of wine, meet artists, and view paintings, drawings, sculptures, jewelry, and ceramics.
The Stillwater Gallery may also have the biggest party that night. Rather than charging ceramicists an entry fee for the show, Gilfillan requires them to bring their favorite hors d’oeuvre to the opening night reception from 6-9 p.m.
Whitefish Pottery prepares for 14th Anniversary
Ceramics Born in the Mountains
Production potter Joseph Pesina throws a clay bowl at Whitefish Pottery's production studio off Twin Bridges Road. - Lido Vizzutti/Flathead Beacon
WHITEFISH – Joseph Pesina makes 21 symmetrical clay mugs each morning to get warmed up. It takes him about 40 minutes.
Then he tackles his to-do list, which will keep his hands busy on the potter’s wheel for at least seven more hours at Whitefish Pottery’s ceramic studio, a bustling little workshop owned by Tom Gilfillan and nestled in the mountains five miles west of Whitefish.
War Games
Local Entertainment Business Builds Laser Tag Park
Charles Overcash, left, and his brother Andrew Overcash check their line of sight from a center bunker at a new laser tag course. - Lido Vizzutti/Flathead Beacon
Seven-year-old Elizabeth Overcash may be a little too young to appreciate it right now, but her parents are building one of the coolest backyards any kid could hope for: a 4.5-acre laser tag park.
“I figure around third or fourth grade she’ll start asking for a lot of sleepovers with say, oh, 25 kids,” Charles Overcash said as he showed off a matching camouflage outfit he’d recently bought his daughter.
Plumm Summer
Gov. Schweitzer to Make Film Debut Friday
HELENA – Gov. Brian Schweitzer will make his silver screen debut Friday when the independent film "A Plumm Summer" is released in several Montana cities.
The film, directed by Caroline Zelder and written by Billings native TJ Lynch, is about the innocence of an idyllic Montana town that is disrupted when celebrity puppet 'Froggy Doo' is kidnapped and held for ransom. Schweitzer plays the role of Sheriff Strunk.
