By ALYSE BACKUS

DeLynn Colvert paces around the basement of the Joker’s Wild casino, chatting with people as he straightens out cribbage boards and hands out scorecards. After everyone has taken their seats on opposite sides of the wooden boards, Colvert makes the announcement.

The cribbage tournament is underway and with a quick shuffle of the deck of cards, Colvert is off.

When Colvert was young, his aunt taught him how to play cribbage, a card game that uses a little board and pegs to keep track of points. Colvert watched thousands of cribbage games, and every time one of those pegs moved forward on the wooden board, the wheels turned in his head.

“That was back before we had TV,” he says. “That’s when people played cards for entertainment.”

He would go on to become one of the experts in the game. In 1980, he published a book titled “Playing Winning Cribbage,” now its fourth edition. The book details a strategies of every type of deception and psychology.

Considered one of the top players in the world, DeLynn Colvert inspects his hand.

Colvert didn’t write the book on a whim. He is considered the highest-ranked cribbage player in the world. He has claimed the national cribbage champion four times, and he is the president of the American Cribbage Congress. So in other words, his advice is highly regarded by cribbage players everywhere.

“I know of at least one other national champion who credits my book to his success,” says Colvert. “It’s the only book that tells when to play certain things.”

Before Colvert took on the world of competitive cribbage, he had another love: art. As part of his fine arts thesis at The University of Montana, he completed a mural that sits on the edge of campus on Arthur Street. The mural helped achieve the first fine arts master degree given at The University of Montana.

He then became a technical illustrator for the U.S. Forest Service.

“I did every thing in pen and ink,” says Colvert. “Now days, everything is done with computers.”

When he retired, the Forest Service hung his illustrations up in three of the building’s rooms.

Since his retirement, Colvert threw himself into cribbage. When he was trying to get his book published, he came across the American Cribbage Congress.

“I really didn’t know how to get my book published. So I was putting ads in magazines and such,” he says. “Then one day I got a call from the president at the time of the American Cribbage Congress in Connecticut. He said I should start a chapter in Montana. I became the only player, and then I been the director of the Montana chapter for 31 years. Now there [are] several hundred players around the state.”

Each year, Colvert travels over 40,000 miles to different tournaments around the country and in Mexico and Canada.

“I put 549,00 miles on a Honda,” he says. “I gave that one away as charity. Then I got a Toyota that I have put 186,00 miles on in five years. I like to drive. I really enjoy all the travel.”

Colvert hosts two annual tournaments a year in Missoula. He also is the editor of the monthly magazine “Cribbage World.” He is the only player to ever be awarded the status of Life Master Three Stars from the American Cribbage Congress.

I went to the market to find a skirt steak for a sunny Sunday dinner. I was in the mood for intense flavor, robust seasoning, and high heat and figured that the hard working muscle from the animal’s core would do the trick.

The local, independent grocery store I prefer to shop at does not often carry a skirt steak, so I decided to try the nearby Safeway store hoping they would have a better selection. Fortunately for me, I had no such luck. Yes, Safeway did have a wide variety of grill-ables that would have sufficed, but no skirt steak.

My fallback, Plan B was to find a nice beef tri-tip which also meets my prerequisites but it also not to be found. I went into panic mode and started rifling through the remaining packages for anything that could salvage my concept of dinner. In reality, meat was just an excuse for me to buy avocados and justify making guacamole, so at this point, anything that worked well with avocado would suffice.

Carne Asada with Grilled Veggies and Guacamole. Easy grilling...and oh so yummy!

I ended up finding a pre-marinaded beef cut labeled simply as “carne asada”. I read the ingredients and seasonings and decided to take a chance. The mysterious carne asada claimed to be from the sirloin flap which I had previously never heard of. Wikipedia tells me that it consists of the obliquus internus abdominis muscle from the bottom sirloin butt which means little to me other than it comes from the really good tasting part of the cow.

When I unpacked the meat, it turned out that what I had originally thought was a roast, unraveled into large, thin slices. The peppery seasoning looked and smelled fantastic and I let it come up to room temperature as my grill was heating up.

I slowly roasted some bell peppers and sweet onion over a raised grate until the sweet flavors intensified. When they were about ready, I finished them quickly with a charring sear for some color and additional flavor. My grill had stabilized at around 500 degrees and the cast-iron grate was ready for some hot and fast grilling.

For 90 seconds, I let the thin meat sizzle over the smoky lump charcoal and then turned it 45 degrees for some dramatic grill marks. Without flipping, I let the meat cook for another 90 seconds and then put it on a nearby plate to rest. My grill had cooled a bit, so I let it come back up to temperature before I reintroduced the meat to the heat for two minutes on side two. The meat went to a neutral corner to rest.

This gave me a chance to slice the grilled vegetables with tomato and grill off some tortillas. Just before serving, I sliced the meat thinly against the grain, imagining how a street vendor would cut the meat in a tropical paradise. It was rolled up in the tortilla and we enjoyed Carne Asada with Grilled Veggies and Guacamole.

I was very excited about how this cook turned out, but more excited about how easy it really was. Yes, I fussed a bit about some of the temperatures and ingredients, but could not help thinking about how delicious this could be while camping, tailgating, or just picnicking in the park.

This could be the be...

Grilling the veggies...

The grilled, diced-u...

A high temperature i...

The carne hits the g...

Let the meat rest a ...

Grill the tortillas ...

Slice the meat thinl...

That right there is ...

****************

Check out Paul’s other tasty summer grilling recipe, Grilled Shrimp & Veggies on Rosemary Skewers and stay tuned for more delicious grilling recipes all summer long!

****************

Paul moved to Montana in 1996 with about a dozen friends from Lyndon State College in Vermont. He is still reluctantly paying his student loans and has carved out a career working as a supplier representative for various food and beverage products. Paul enjoys grilling after a day on the water or an afternoon in the garden where he has been known to grow heirloom tomatoes and peppers out of spite. Often cooking for extended family and friends, he takes a whimsical approach to cooking simple, seasonal dishes, while not taking it too seriously.

Are you wasting those carefully planned advertising investments?

The most expensive investment we can make is one that’s wasted.

You’ve studied, sifted and listened intently to figure out the perfect message for a certain group of people interested in what you make or do.

As you hoped, it resonates with just the right people at just the right time. Lots of folks are calling, stopping by your store, and visiting your website.

Minutes later, all the positive you’ve created can be gone… POOF!

At speaking engagements, I’ll often mention the importance of following up with the people you meet at a trade show (you *do* follow up, right?) and recall a trade show story about a major personal electronics manufacturer. During the show, they collected contact information from almost 30,000 people who said “Hey, I am interested in this new product”. Numbers like that are a big win, even for a global electronics company. Yet they wasted it by not following up with those people.

We’ve said enough of the right things to gain someone’s interest and then….what?

Saying the right things to the right people isn’t enough
We spend a lot of time tracking our marketing investments so we know what works and what doesn’t. We spend time making sure we’re delivering just the right message to just the right people by studying their demographics (facts/figures like gender and age) and psychographics (what they do, read, etc) and fitting our message to the reader.

But that isn’t the entire equation.

When we say the right things to the right people at about the right time, it usually results in “high-quality leads”. What exactly does that marketing-ese mean? To me, it means “people who have raised their hand to say they’re interested in what you have to offer – and are ready to buy now or soon if it’s the right fit”.

So then we turn our sales staff loose on them.

What makes this advertising so expensive?
Whether we’re a big company or a mom-and-pop, we have to sell. Ideally, we sell by helping them arrive at “Yep, this is what I need” or “You’re right, I really need something else”. Whether they buy or not, you’re creating trust for the next time they need what you sell…creating a customer, becoming an informed advocate for them, not just chasing a sale.

What sometimes gets lost in the sales process is congruency between the marketing message and what sales says and does. If sales’ behavior and words are disconnected from our marketing, we have a problem. If the sales team that prospects talk to in our business are “those kinds of salespeople”, all the trust we earned can be lost with a single sentence, like “Honey, we’ll talk price when you bring your husband to the dealership.”

When things like that happen, the expensive, finely-tuned message that we spent good money on is damaged, possibly for good. You might lose the sale now and the customer for life.

If the marketing-to-sales transition is where you most often lose them, there’s good and bad news:

• The bad news: All the advertising investment that attracted those folks was wasted. That’s the most expensive marketing ever.
• The good news: That’s a reasonably easy thing to fix in most cases.

Trust, The Final Frontier
We ask ourselves “How much do I like the salesperson?”, “Do I believe them? and/or “How much do I trust this product/brand/manufacturer?” before we finally buy. All of this comes down to “Do I trust this business?”

“We don’t like to be sold but we love to buy.” says Jeffrey Gitomer. We buy from people we like and trust.

Because the trust earned over time by some “institutions” is crumbling, that lack of confidence can seep into people’s ability to trust your business, something that’s already at risk in most sales situations. It’s no less damaging in a sales situation than the differences between a candidate’s promises and what they later do as an elected official.

Your entire staff must be aware (and regularly reminded) that reputations are built (or damaged) and trust is earned (or lost) with every single transaction and every single interaction. Keeping your reputation’s momentum headed in the right direction is everyone’s job.

Want to learn more about Mark or ask him to write about a strategic, operations or marketing problem? See Mark’s site, contact him on Twitter, or email him at mriffey@flatheadbeacon.com.

Check out the Make it Missoula’s Tips for Starting a Business in Missoula, MT and other Business information.

**************************

Want to learn more about Mark or ask him to write about a business, operations, or marketing problem? See Mark’s site, contact him on Twitter, or email him at mriffey@flatheadbeacon.com.

Check out the Flathead Beacon archive of all of Mark’s blogs.

By ERIK ANDERSON

Dave Strohmaier wants to be Montana’s next congressman and he wants to do it without running against his hometown of Missoula.

Missoula is widely known as an unusually liberal part of the Treasure State, voting solidly Democrat in statewide contests and supporting often progressive local ordinances.

Fellow Democrat Dave Wanzenreid, a state senator who briefly flirted with a run for governor, says candidates from Missoula face clear challenges.

“The most significant obstacle, I guess, is that it’s pretty well known that people around Montana regard public servants from Missoula different than other people,” says Wanzenreid, who has been active in statewide politics since 1974. “I’ve concluded that Montanans regard Missoulians in the same light as Californians; we don’t know why we don’t like them, but we just don’t.”

Strohmaier disagrees, saying his work on the Missoula City Council demonstrates he understands the core philosophy of Montanans.

“Part of the message I’ve been sharing with folks is that we need to see ourselves as one Montana; whether you’re east or west, young or old,” he says.

U.S. House candidate Dave Strohmaier with his family.

Strohmaier joined the city council in January 2005, working to implement the Missoula Greater Downtown Master Plan, developing a transportation infrastructure plan for the Rattlesnake Valley and managing Missoula’s parks.

He has also advocated cracking down on driving under the influence and restoring Amtrak service to Missoula and southern Montana.

But he says his proudest moment was co-sponsoring Missoula’s Anti-Discrimination Ordinance. The ordinance is the first in Montana to protect people from getting fired from their jobs or denied housing because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

“I think [the ordinance] epitomizes a Montanan value whether you’re on the right or left end of the political spectrum,” he said.

Strohmaier is now running for Congress stressing that authenticity. He says he hopes to excite the Democratic voters across the state, something he says hasn’t been done in past campaigns.

Despite Wanzenreid’s contention about Montana’s view of Missoula, Strohmaier says he is not concerned, but also adds he finds inspiration for his campaign from many parts of the state.

He often cites a story from Chester, Montana as representing his attitude about community.

In the town of Chester, a small group of farmers had seen their economy stimulated be the development of a new grain elevator and Strohmaier says he liked the idea of adding value to a product that already existed; in this case the grain elevator benefited the agricultural economy. He argues the answer to economic problems can be found by looking at what we already have in Montana and capitalizing on it, rather than looking for a new radically different enterprise.

“That really was a very real and tangible way that showed me something could be replicated in other ways throughout Montana,” he said. “It’s adding value to a component already in place.”

Even as Strohmaier casts himself as a practical problem-solver, James Lopach, a professor of American Government and author of the book “We the People of Montana…”, says it will be difficult for Strohmaier to overcome the Missoula stigma in other parts of the state. Missoula, he argues, has always been regarded as a Democratic city, going so far as to call it a “hotbed of liberalism.”

Lopach says just the presence of the university in Missoula has negative connotations for statewide political hopefuls.

“The University is seen as being associated with anti-war, gay rights, strict environmental regulation, anti-economy development, animal rights, and things like that,” he says. “That’s why I think when a city council member from Missoula runs state-wide they run into opposition right away.”

In his book, Lopach suggests that one of Montana’s most famous features, its size, may be the one of the most important factors for first-time campaigners.

“Montana’s distances and population sparseness pose a special handicap for candidates, especially those seeking office for the first time,” he writes in the book, “Incumbents enjoy an advantage over challengers in that their time in office has acquainted voters with their names and credentials.”

Strohmaier admits this is one of his major challenges, saying every time he takes a campaign trip it costs at least $50 to fill up his car. For a campaign already struggling to raise cash, these costs can add up.

The Missoula Democrat has only raised $72,163 for his campaign and according to the most recent filing only had $15,160 in the bank, fourth among Democrats and far behind Republican Steve Daines who had $630,561 as of the end of 2011.

“It’s a little unsettling when you have to start campaigning a year in advance to garner the resources you need to run a campaign,” Strohmaier says.

Strohmaier by no means has lost the House seat yet, but trailing in the money race and having the label of “liberal Missoulian” hasn’t helped. Still Strohmaier intends to show the state that people from Missoula can break out of their stereotypes.

“I’m a lifelong hunter, fisherman, and outdoorsman. It’s part of who I am,” he said “It’s a matter of being true to who I am and offering myself in a way that breaks through the stereotypes of being a liberal Missoulian.”

When my son started kindergarten at Paxson Elementary, one of the things I was most excited for him to be part of was the Paxson Running Club.

Paxson has won the Riverbank Run School Challenge for the past 13 years. They get more kids than any other elementary school (approximately 125 kids) to run in the Riverbank Run at the end of April each year—and it’s largely because of Glenn Moffatt, their PE teacher.

The Paxson Running Club meets for a half hour before school starts for about eight weeks, twice a week, leading up to the Riverbank Run. Getting to school early was a stretch for Milo and me because Milo is a late sleeper and we’re normally rushing out the door to get to school on time. But soon we were getting up earlier and Milo was excited for running club days.

We’d meet in the gym and the younger kids would run laps indoors while the older kids ran outside around the school. We escorted the younger ones once or twice a morning so they could do a lap around the school with the older kids and even led them on a run to Bonner Park a couple of blocks away. On any given day there would be between 40 and 80 kids at Paxson Running Club.

Eva and Glenn hand out participation certificates to the Paxon Elementary kids' running club.

Mr. Moffatt made running fun by organizing relay races, playing loud music in the gym, and passing out pedometers so the kids could track their miles. The kids’ eyes lit up when their pedometers read over one mile. The younger ones begged to run outside and when they did they returned to the gym with their cheeks flushed, out of breath, but happy to be challenging themselves.

The older kids kept track of their miles each morning and when they reached 6.2 miles they got their names on the wall as part of the “Galloway Club,” named after Olympian Jeff Galloway who ran the 10K and visited their school this winter. Every child got a certificate from Glenn on the last day of Running Club.

Glenn says he started Paxson’s Running Club on a whim. “[I] just wanted to give kids extra time for fitness since they get so little PE time,” he says. “Kids want to move.”

“They pick up extra activity time and improve their fitness,” Glenn continues. “They begin to develop a healthy habit. They get to be a part of something that only requires a pair of gym shoes. Some go on to participate in track and cross-country, two no-cut sports.”

The kids also get to experience what it’s like to work hard to train for something and to complete their goals.

Eva's son, Milo, and two of his friends proudly show off their Missoula River Bank Run ribbons.

As I stood at the starting line of the Riverbank One Mile Run with Milo on April 28, I looked around in the crowd of hundreds of kids and saw smiling and familiar faces from Paxson Running Club.

Milo had done this race a couple of times before, but he had never trained for it and he had never experienced what it’s like to train with a community of friends for eight weeks. As we ran, we saw friends and felt encouragement all the way to the finish line.

Finishing a race and getting rewarded with a T-shirt, healthy snacks, and a finisher ribbon can make an impression on a child that will likely last their lifetime. They experience the satisfaction of working hard to complete their goals.

Whether the kids who participated in Paxson Running Club and the Riverbank Run continue running throughout their childhood and beyond doesn’t matter. I hope they will continue to work hard with the support of mentors and peers to accomplish their goals whether they are athletic, academic or personal.

Many of Missoula’s elementary schools have running clubs organized by teachers or parents. Contact your school administrators to find out more.

Do you want to start a running club? Find out more about running clubs for youth through the Road Runners Club of America’s Kids Run the Nation program.

Missoula has so many youth running opportunities. My next blog will be about Missoula Youth Track.

****************

Planning to run the 2012 Missoula Marathon? Check out Eva’s post about the marathon training program.

Stay in the loop with Missoula’s running community! Check out the Run/Walk It archives for more posts from Eva and other Missoula runners and walkers.

*************

Eva Dunn-Froebig is the executive director of Run Wild Missoula and has been running since the seventh grade. She moved to Missoula 12 years ago from upstate New York to attend the University of Montana’s Journalism School graduate program. Eva never dreamed that she would have a running-related job and feels lucky to be a participant in Missoula’s vibrant running community.

For the third year in a row, I missed Maggotfest.

It is becoming a curse: Events beyond my control, coupled with my inability to read an analog clock correctly, have led me to either show up late, early, or miss the festival completely.

This year, I was determined to fully attend both days, to be the first to Fort Missoula and the last to pack it in, but by the time I arrived on Saturday, the crowds were trickling down and the UM Jester’s club had been relegated to garbage duty.

I crossed my fingers Sunday wouldn’t let me down and circled to leave the lot, only to be held up by a topless woman and the pack of sunburned rugby players nipping at her heels. Maybe I didn’t miss much after all.

–

Despite the best efforts of the Fates, I made it to Maggotfest early enough on Sunday to get a taste of what I missed the day prior, and a teaser for what I can look forward to next year.

This year’s festival brought back a fan-favorite club from across the pond, Australia’s Outback Barbarians. Winners of Best Play in 2010 and undefeated at this year’s tournament, the Barbarians schooled the Maggots 71-5 Thursday evening (the host team went 1-2 for the weekend) on their way to securing the award for Best Club on the Pitch 2012.

The Hooligans Highwaymen Club, a conglomeration of northwest rugby players whose sole purpose is to make it to Maggotfest and hopefully back to their respective homes alive, received the Most Honored Club 2012 award.

The Highwaymen are notorious for rabble-rousing, and this year was no different. After completing their third game Sunday afternoon, the club promptly donned monkey suits and took off for the beer garden. After a quick battle chant they made their way back through the crowd, throwing bananas with prejudice (I took one in the shoulder) and scaring any poor soul who wasn’t paying attention to the stampede behind them.

Unbeknownst to me, the ballerina tutus and gorilla costumes are a tradition dating back to the Highwaymen’s initial appearance at Maggotfest. According to the Highwaymen, some players woke up that first Sunday morning still in costume after the debauchery of the traditional Saturday night party, which this photographer was too meek to shoot. Refusing to change, they ended up playing the weekend’s final game in hula dancer costumes, a gimmick that has now overflowed to nearly every team in attendance.

Clubs from all over the world bring their traditions to Maggotfest. One group from Alaska can be easily located by the 6-foot red- and white-striped North Pole they make and bring every year. The club refuses to take the Pole on their return trip, favoring instead to ditch it on the pitch. There was a problem this year, however, when an Alaskan spotted 2011’s North Pole being hoisted by a non-club member; much like the golden eagle of Roman legions, there is an unwritten code for who gets to carry on these traditions, and consequences for the ignorant.

After missing so much this year, I made a vow as I walked to my car Sunday that I will put aside all other obligations in 2013. Next year, I will be there Saturday morning at 9:30 a.m. sharp for the 37th rendition of Maggotfest. I will be the first to arrive, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and the last to leave, sunburned and broken.

I hope.

UM Jesters throw in ...

Canadian players loo...

A Barbarian forward ...

The Hooligan Highway...

A Missoula couple en...

Barbarian Dave Wrigh...

A young VMI player a...

A scrum towards the ...

VMI makes an extra p...

A ruck develops as V...

A VMI player looks d...

Two Canadian players...

A Missoulian shows o...

An attendee's u...

Highwaymen supporter...

Adorned with a massi...

The Maggotfest MC lo...

A representative of ...

**************

Austin Smith is a 21-year resident of the Missoula area, and an ardent fisherman, hunter, and snowboarder. When not working on the University of Montana campus, taking classes in the Journalism program, or contributing to the social media efforts of several local organizations, he enjoys spending time outdoors with his Akita and his family.

Josh Farmer plays Earth Day at Caras Park

On stage at Sean Kelly’s on the last semi-final night there is a heavy metal pealing guitar band performing. It is body to body at the low-ceiling venue. For most there is energy of excitement but for some the air feels dense.

Back toward the kitchen in his multi-colored beanie hat, Josh Farmer’s eyes are closed, he is sitting with his back against the wall where his head rests.

One hour earlier, he played for the week long Jazz Festival, Jazzoula. Josh rushed to Sean Kelly’s and needed time to get centered, feel, and breathe. Later Josh says, “I need to do it often, or I’d lose it.”

If someone approaches Josh and tells him they look forward to hearing him play, Josh replies, “I look forward to playing for you.” You know it is genuine. Upon complimenting the slight young man with his long distinct nose, and opal charcoal eyes he will meet your eye, automatically put his left hand to his heart, and say “Thank you.”

He has a soft, earthy, spiritual sense about him. When Josh gets onstage, his enigmatic impression carries over with a breezy yet dynamic and intensified energy of smooth, sensual funk and jazz.

The Josh Farmer Band: Josh Farmer on keyboards, Jesse Christian on bass, Valley Lopez on drums, and electric guitarist Tommy Pertis.

Josh plays the electric keyboard and as he starts the music he lifts his left hand off the piano on the upward beat.

He sways in a circle, like the top of a tall cottonwood tree spilling its cotton dancing to the vibrations of the wind. He wipes his hand on his pants and kicks out his left leg to the beat while his long fingers play the keys.

He looks to his band members: Valley Lopez on drums, Jesse Christian on base, and electric guitarist Tommy Pertis whom Josh has worked with in Jazz for three years.

Tommy takes it away, lifting his body up and down to the beat, mouth open.

The band builds rhythmic pressure steadily, slowly, like filling a water balloon.

You feel it grow, swell, then burst to spray over the audience as Josh sings, “Hold my hand and say, let’s be unafraid.  No, no more regrets.”

Josh is unaware; he is inside the music as he sings his original song titled, “Unafraid”:

Here it comes, the times they are a changing

weather’s getting stranger, people all wonder

who’s in charge — you’re in charge.

As the fire’s rage, I catch a glimpse in your direction,

to wander your perception add it

into my collection of your thoughts.

Oh but come Judgement day, why we still

running away?  Let’s be unafraid.

Coming from a place of fear or being in a victim role is no longer what Josh Farmer is about. Josh admittedly says, “I thought it was because of other people that I didn’t have what I want. My parents’ fault. My loneliness too. I had a lack of motivation. I watched TV, wasted time. I was not engaged in life. I was waiting for something to happen instead of making it happen.”

After a miserable freshman year at the UofM, Josh enrolled in NYU and drove by himself to New York City. He took Jazz classes, got a job, and was madly in love with this girl, Danielle. The first song he ever wrote was due to her rejection of him. Josh went to the music building alone, to write.  Josh says, “It was so wonderful because it was so painful.”

He wrote the song “Heaven Knows,” germinating the seed of confidence. Josh knew he loved playing music and performing, but was always waiting for confirmation from someone outside of himself. Josh states, “That was where my life began to shift.”

Josh Farmer.

Composer, and Josh’s mentor, Rich Shemaria was a “wise piano teacher” who taught Josh to see where he was at. Shemaria told Josh to “do it your own way but learn from others.”

Farmer didn’t attend many lessons with Shemaria and was at NYU a short five months. He missed Montana, the fresh air. He returned to Missoula and returned to the UM where he met great close friends.

He decided in 2009 to quit school. He felt he was not making anything of his life. Josh says, “It was an awakening period for me.”

With his dad’s support of his decision, Josh decided to work his craft full-time. His father prepared him to become individually responsible and helped him out for a year after he quit school. On his 21^st birthday Josh “figured it was time to become more responsible” and adopted a mutt German Shepherd/ Boxer mix and named him Jude.

Doing what Josh loves most, he began to realize that when he got out of his own way he was taken care of. Farmer says, “I stopped needing material things. I spend time taking care of my vegetable and flower garden. I don’t need a lot of stuff. It’s not what’s important, or who I am. It was a cleansing. Relationships are what are important to me.”

Josh talks about Matthew 6:28, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. In the King James Version of the Bible it reads, “consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin.” Josh humbly says, “I may quote this somewhat wrong, but it says something like; look at the lilies of the field, and God clothes you, takes care of you.”

Strumming and composing on his guitar are how most of his favorite original songs are developed. Josh relays, “Writing on a guitar is more natural, you can feel vibrations coming out.  Composing music is different every time and it is still very elusive to me.”

He vamps grooves and chords-changes first. He then listens to the chords and writes the lyrics to go with the melody. “Sometimes it flows right out and sometimes a song will take months.”

Josh at this point has written “around 45 songs” some are not played out or finished.  Most songs are written out; some are in a journal that he keeps by his bedside along with books by Paulo Coelho, Khalil Gibran’s The Prophet, and Calvin and Hobbes. A few lyrics are on scraps of paper.

Josh says “I recently wrote a song on an envelope” recognizing that he grabs whatever he can get his hands on when inspiration comes to him; he gives a generous smile and reaches his hand to his chest.

Around his neck, lying on his chest is a dark brown/black and soft grey marked egg-shaped Shiva Lingam stone. The Narmada River in India where you find this type of stone is considered sacred. The belief is that the stone resonates with energies of all the four main elements, earth, fire, water, air.  The Lingam represents harmony and balance within the hearts of all of us, reflecting the light that shines from within. The stones vibrations have a different action, depending on where you place it.

This stone lies at Josh Farmer’s heart.

———————————————————————————————————————–

Sean Kelly’s Top of the Mic Final Results: 

1st Place – The Hasslers

2nd Place – Josh Farmer Band

3rd Place – John Floridis

Regular Open Mic begins this Thursday, May 17 at 8:30 p.m. If you want to sign up to perform at Open Mic Night call Sean Kelly’s at 8:30am and reserve a slot to get on the schedule for that night.

*****************

Read more of Leisa’s stories about the Missoula music scene.

*****************

Call her a big city girl at heart, finding and satiating that appetite in the city of Missoula. Born in Butte and raised in Missoula, she is fascinated by people and looks for interesting characters to write about.  Everyone has a story to tell, or not, but the people and places in Missoula are unique.

Moving fast in life (for that big city feel) Leisa’s passions bounce around music, theater, food, art, family, and  friends that’s supported by an IV line of dark roasted coffee. Single and a recent graduate from the University of Montana with a BA in Creative Writing, she learned what it was like to be a co-ed in her 40s.

She currently works as an Office Manager at Inter-State Studio and Publishing, working on school photos and yearbooks. Her personal life and nightlife is where she discovers and creates creative non-fiction stories. She has four supportive, loving children:  Dustin, Michael, Jalynn, and Mark (adopted through marriage to Dustin) who are all artistically creative in writing, theater, dance, and singing.  Leisa likes to think she moves faster than they do.

On Thursday afternoon an eighty-three year old tried to park her mini-van a little too close to Missoula’s Orange Street Food Farm.

According to the Missoulian, at 2:45 pm an elderly woman drove her beige Toyota Sienna into the front of the grocery store.

Assistant manager Tom Hendrix, who was interviewed in the Missoulian article said the woman was seen driving at a high rate of speed through the grocery store’s parking seconds before her vehicle crashed into the front of the store.

Alex Fisher was operating the store’s cash register when he heard the crash and jumped out of the way. Orange Street Food Farm Floor Manager Venessa Hendrix stated to KPAX.com that she “looked over and (she) could see the ice machine moving into the soda display, into the beer display, and then into the wine display. So it was a terrible domino effect that happened. And you can hear the tires spinning and there was smoke all over.”

The mini-van, driven by the eighty-three year old woman entered the store just left of the entrance pedestrians use. While the photos show what looks like extensive damage, the vehicle was removed by firefighters in less than an hour, as reported in the Missoulian article.

The driver of the vehicle was not cited for the incident according to the KPAX.com story, and fortunately the only casualties sustained were to an Alaskan Black IPA beer display and some Shooting Star wine. The driver, store employees, and other patrons all remained unscathed.

After some mopping and sweeping by the stores employees and repairs to the front window the store was back on track and ready for a busy weekend.

***************

Each week, Tom Diddel recaps the week’s most talked-about story in Missoula. Visit the Make it Missoula News & Opinion section for more talk of the town.

***************

Tom Diddel has lived in Missoula on and off for nearly thirty-eight years. He enjoys skiing, hiking, and many other outdoor activities. He holds a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Montana and is currently working as a Freelance Writer and a Para-Educator.

Here are this week’s top picks from the Morning Trail with Robert and Mike.

Monday

Live Music: The Mickey Hart Band

Mickey is one of the former drummers from the Grateful Dead. The band also includes Dave Schools from Widesread Panic

Doors 7:00 PM Show @ 8:00 AM, The Wilma Theater 

Tickets $30 @ Rockin’ Rudy’s and Vootie

Tuesday

Documentary Film: “Code of the West” Screening and Panel Discussion

7:00 PM @ The Wilma Theater 

“Code of the West” is the story of Montana’s medical marijuana political debate.

Former Congressman Pat Williams will moderate a panel discussion among with the film makers, local officials and proponents of Medical Marijuana.

$7.00 @ Brown Paper Tickets

Wednesday

Bike Walk Alliance of Missoula will host the worldwide event called The Ride of Silence. This bike ride will commemorate those cyclists who have been killed or injured on our roads. Riders of all abilities welcomed. It will be a 7 mile slow, silent, and solemn ride through Missoula which will start at the County Courthouse at 630pm. Helmets are required to participate.

Thursday

Live Music: John Adam Smith

John is a multi-instrumentalist who plays uplifting acoustic roots music.

Draught Works Brewery, 915 Toole Ave, Free

Friday

Live Music: Chele Bandulu plays Reggae @ the Union Club

208 East Main Street, Missoula

Free

Saturday Mornings, All Summer Long

In the words of the great Michael Pollan, you can “Shake the hand that feeds you.” at the Missoula’s Farmer’s Markets. See where Missoula spends its weekends!

Clark Fork River Market

Missoula Farmers’ Market

Coming this summer!

Recently announced on the Trail 103.3: WILCO will playing our Summer Concert Series at Big Sky Brewery in Missoula on Thursday, June 28.

Tickets are $44 and available at Big Sky Brewery, Rockin’ Rudy’s, and online at TicketFly.

Listen to the Trail 103.3 on Friday @ 9:00 AM and about 5:20 PM and we will set you up for the weekend with Weekend Tips. Hear the live radio version of “Make It Missoula Monday” every Monday at 9:00 AM on Missoula’s Quality Rock, The Trail 103.3.

Mike, Rob, and their trusty sidekick, Sunny.

By DILLON KATO

When Matt McQuilkin and Jim Chapman first told their friends that they would be opening a premium coffee roaster in Missoula in the midst of a weak economy, the reaction was almost universal: Are you crazy?

More than 18 months after opening the doors of Black Coffee Roasting Company, after developing coffee blends with beans from all over the world and distribution deals with more than a dozen local businesses, they can safely answer they are not.

“We believed that it would work out, but the has just been more than we could have ever suspected,” Chapman said.

Before starting BCRC, McQuilkin and Chapman worked together at the Good Food Store, but each had been mulling the idea of opening a roasting house in Missoula. They had independently gone so far as to enroll in the same coffee roasting course. McQuilkin said that when they told one another of their plans, teaming up seemed natural.

“The start-up costs were a little daunting, and we felt that it would be hard to both try to do this at the same time, so we spent about a year writing a business plan together,” he said.

After securing funding from Missoula Federal Credit Union, Black Coffee opened August 2010. It has remained fairly small, with only seven employees counting Chapman and McQuilkin.

But it was a small group that took coffee roasting seriously. They said it is like trying to solve a puzzle.

Consider it the America’s Test Kitchen of coffee. They roast each type of bean an average of 15 to 20 different ways, keeping track of every variable along the way, everything from the time and temperature to the volume of beans.

Matt McQuilkin waits on a batch of Single-Origin Mexican beans to finish cooling.

“So the difference between two types of coffee might come down to the heat curve,” McQuilkin said, “some coffee likes a little heat at the beginning of the roasting and then ramping it way up right at the end, as opposed to others that do better with a more regular temperature.”

Throughout much of the 1990s and the 2000s, Chapman and McQuilkin said, American coffee trended toward very dark roasting, with companies like Starbucks leading the way. In recent years drinkers have sought lighter roasts, which allows companies like BCRC to experiment more with flavors.

For Chapman, complex questions of flavor are nothing new having worked in the wine industry for several years.

“Coffee for Matt and I is like bread, it should be fresh, and when you buy really fresh bread you can instantly tell the difference,” he said.

Black Coffee puts the roast date on all of their coffee bags so that customers know how fresh their beans are.

But selling coffee directly to customers is only a part of their business; BCRC also has developed deals with coffee shops like Zoo City Brew and stores like Le Petit Outre to serve its coffee.

One of BCRC’s largest partnership deals is with the UC Market at the University of Montana.

Tyler Swank, an assistant manager at the Market who handles its buying, said the deal was a natural one.

“We find that stuff that’s made in Montana, or even better locally in Missoula, comes fresher and it will contain less preservatives. Sometimes we can get it at a better price, and all those things are good for students,” Swank said.

He said that the UC Market now goes through about 100 pounds of beans during an average school week, with 70 pounds of that being espresso. Now, the store cycles between serving the BCRC Mexico blend and a roast called Vinyl, created especially for The Market.

But BCRC’s gain was another Montana company’s loss.

“We lost a bit of Montana Coffee Traders, which we had used heavily before,” Swank said. “[W]e made a decision that we wanted to give another local company that was based here in Missoula a boost.”

Last fall, Black Coffee decided to add a special roast to its mix, paying for a batch of beans from El Salvador that had been given the coveted international Cup of Excellence award. Each year a Cup of Excellence competition is held in each of the membership countries of the Alliance of Coffee Excellence, where specially trained judges cup — the technical term for judging coffee — offerings from various farms around that nation. At the end, the top finishers are branded Cup of Excellence coffee, and are sold at a large premium to import companies from other nations.

Chapman said that demand for the Cup of Excellence coffee was high after BCRC teased its availability on Facebook, where it keeps fans up to date on the goings-on at the shop.

“It’s a specialty coffee sure, but it’s also limited, and one of the best in the world. People wanted it,” he said.

Jon Lewis, the Membership Liaison for Cup of Excellence, a four-person operation based in Missoula, said that, partly because of the premium price, most of the coffee ends up in the hands of small roasters like Black Coffee.

According to the International Coffee Organization, the United States uses almost 22,000 150-pound bags of coffee each year, more than any other single country. That means the average American drinks nine pounds worth of coffee beans annually. And those numbers have been steadily increasing.

Although only a fraction of that is high-end coffee like that roasted by BCRC, Lewis said that he hopes the movement of people caring about where the source of their food comes to mean more people discover that coffee is more than just something to get you up in the morning. It is small-batch roasters, he said, that are pioneering that shift.

“I think that a lot of the small roasters will only go up from here, introducing people to a new taste. Wine has paved the way, beer followed, and I think that coffee is the next great craft and artisan thing that people are going to discover,” Lewis said.

Chapman and McQuilkin agree. Where wine, they said, has a few hundred flavor indicators, coffee has 1,000.

And they plan to solve the puzzle of each and every one.

Two pieces of Black ...

A new shipment of ba...

A box of stamps and ...

Bags of BCRC's ...

Twelve-ounce bags of...

Matt McQuilkin, one ...

Matt McQuilkin stand...

BCRC has the tools t...

Matt McQuilkin pulls...

A shot of Single-Ori...

Matt Mcquilkin holds...

Checking a three-rin...