JH Underground – news, sports and music blog from Jackson Hole, Wyoming news, sports and music blog from Jackson Hole, Wyoming

David Sirota will sign his new book, The Uprising, this evening at Valley Books starting at 7. Sirota is a leading voice among upcoming independent American political thinkers.

Sirota has been a critical player in the recent political enlightenment of the West, helping elect Montana governor Brian Schweitzer by educating voters on how the modern pro-corporate, anti-worker GOP undermines the West’s libertarian values.

Since his Schweitzer victory, Sirota has concentrated on a story that corporate-owned media cannot be expected to cover: Normal people have had their fill of robber-baron greed, corrupt politicians and the lazy, overpaid national press that keeps them in power. The Uprising includes the hefty subtitle “An Unauthorized Tour of the Populist Revolt Scaring Wall Street and Washington.”

Sirota’s weekly column appears Mondays in the Jackson Hole Daily.

Posted under Democratic Party, Media, Politics, Republican Party

Just back from cycling through the Alps, correspondent Favio Snimp went over to Driggs last week for his first taste of the Music on Main free concert series, and promptly had his mind blown. Here’s his account of a two-night bender with the best band to come out of Britain lately.

Photographs by David Swift © 2008. Click to enlarge.

Music on Main, Driggs, ID, August 2008 -- photo by David Swift.

I defer to Jim Stanford’s ample research for specifics about The New Mastersounds, even if he has yet to establish whether or not the band’s name is intended to be ironic.

I’m not sure why they blew me away — why, that’s the very definition of art! — but there I was, dragging myself to the Moose well after bedtime Friday to catch their second local show after NMS had rocked Driggs Thursday night. Because there is plenty of room on the Internets, allow me to dwell on what makes The New Mastersounds one of the best live bands I’ve ever heard.

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Posted under Music

The New Mastersounds continued their conquest of America with two gigs in the Tetons, kicking off a spree of music that arrives at just the right time.

On Thursday night the booty-shaking Brits rocked the free Music on Main concert in Driggs, an event that quickly has mushroomed into a pillar of community. (Jackson Town Council, are you listening?)

Last night the lads from Leeds conducted an exercise in “tension and release” at the Mangy Moose. Borrowing from The Meters, Sly and the Family Stone and, if I’m not mistaken, even Lionel Richie, the group let loose and turned what could have been a slow night before a small crowd into an outrageous funk party. The release was akin to the Snake River pouring through Jackson Lake Dam.

With a full moon shining over the mountains, and shooting stars streaking across the sky, it was a perfect summer night (even if some yahoo dancing with a beautiful girl got a little too carried away with the tambourine at the end).

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Posted under Music

From Talking Points Memo, another gem from the esteemed senator from the Gem State.

Drill it, mine it, log it, dam it. How this clown continues to wield any clout is a tribute to the state of the U.S. Congress.

Posted under Environment, Politics, Republican Party

Edward Rothstein of The New York Times writes a thoughtful essay about his visit to the National Museum of Wildlife Art.

Rothstein probes the meaning behind pastoral depictions of wilderness:

There is some fantasy in this, a simplification that can lead the way
into kitsch. But if taxidermy, hunting and painting are modes of capture, they are also modes of tribute. The moose heads mounted on walls or sold for thousands of dollars in souvenir shops in Jackson are affirmations of the hunter’s power and prowess. But like many paintings at this museum they are also monuments to a particular kind of encounter with the wild, in the wild. Environmentalism and hunting and painting become strange bedfellows.

Rothstein more vividly experiences the wild from the trails of Grand Teton park.

Posted under Art

I’ve added a link to the new Jenny Lake climbing ranger site, where mountaineers can get updates on popular climbing and hiking routes in the Tetons. There’s also a lot of information about backcountry camping in the park. (Alas, no permits online.)

DG at The Snaz has the scoop.

Hard to believe we’re a week past the Fourth of July, and still so much snow in the mountains. Won’t be long before it begins piling up again.

I’m holding onto summer as long as I can.

Posted under Environment, Sports