Tag: Arts & Culture

Gene Autry: How ‘America’s Favorite Singing Cowboy’ Exemplified the Unique Entrepreneurial Spirit of America

Gene Autry’s life story reads like a great American novel. Known as “America’s favorite singing cowboy,” the country star paired his entrepreneurial spirit with his love of entertaining audiences and became one of the country-western genre’s most unique and beloved figures. After amassing an audience with a slew of performances throughout the 1920s, he signed…


Vacation in Billings: A Refreshing Family Adventure

Commentary “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” St. Augustine wrote this now-popular travel quote before the fall of the Roman Empire, which I’m sure most people would offhandedly acknowledge as true. However, a poignant experience can reinforce a concept you’ve frequently heard and make its significance…


Is Your Life a Career or a Mission?

In “Live Life in Crescendo: Your Most Important Work Is Always Ahead of You,” Stephen Covey set out to answer questions such as “How can you pull yourself out of a midlife crisis?” and “How can you contribute once you’ve achieved success?” Covey died before finishing “Crescendo,” but his daughter, Cynthia Haller, who had worked…


History Off the Beaten Path: Slice of Life

While traveling last summer from the East Coast to Montana and back in our 1969 restored Shasta camper, my husband and I spent hours playing a history trivia game. One of the questions was, “Who invented sliced bread?” Neither of us knew, but we learned that a man named Otto Rohwedder was behind the machine…


Against All Odds: Surviving the Holocaust | Documentary

This cinematic film focuses on Holocaust survivor stories outside the concentration camps and the living among the general population. Each day was uncertain, and Jews were hunted like animals. Discovery almost always meant death. …


Persepolis: The Persian Paradise | Arkeo Ep11 | Documentary

Nestled in the Iranian highlands lies the cradle of the Persian Empire. Persians built the city of Persepolis, an architectural masterpiece. Recent discoveries are nevertheless shedding new light on Persepolis. …


Film Review: ‘The Alpinist’: Like ‘Free Solo’ but Significantly More Insane

PG-13 | 1h 32m | Sport, Documentary | 2021 Rock climbing and alpinism have exploded into the public consciousness since climbing’s Yosemite Valley golden era of the late 1960s. The groundbreaking climbers of those days were a peculiar type of long-haired, unwashed hippies, with killer abs, Popeye forearms, and Spiderman lats. And unlike their soft-male ’70s counterparts, they…


The Royal Palace in Stockholm: Grand Swedish Architecture With Italian and French Flair

Since the 13th century, Swedish monarchs have called the Royal Palace in Stockholm home. Baroque architect Nicodemus Tessin the Younger designed the current 600-room, Roman-style palace after a fire destroyed the previous structure in 1697. When Tessin died, architect Carl Harleman completed the structure. Tessin’s Royal Palace design exemplifies the Tessin Gold Baroque style. The…


The Sheriff Who Cleaned Up Deadwood: Seth Bullock

Seth Bullock was not a well-known frontiersman prior to the 2004 HBO television series “Deadwood,” which featured him as its main character. However, historians before and since the show’s brief three-season run have always recognized the sheriff as fascinating. Portrayed on the show as a decent man whose inherent goodness was often contradicted by a…


Pachacamac: The Lourdes of the Pre-Columbian Era | Arkeo Ep10 | Documentary

In Peru, an Inca city buried under the desert sands has intrigued archaeologists for almost a hundred years. This ancient city is known as “Pachacamac.” Archaeologist Peter Eeckhout has finally discovered the reason for this strange desertion. …