Watermark

Astonishment

A few weeks ago I got an email from the photo editor at NewWest, offering to purchase 'the use of' one of my photos.

This one:

Now, I know I'm just a snapshotter, and this really exciting experience brought home to me a lesson I've seen mentioned in several places -- that often a photo sells, not because it's a great photo, but because it fits a very specific need. In this case, something emblematic of our town, that could be altered to suit the new banner design for NewWest's Missoula page.

This one fit, and was in the right place -- the NewWest flickr group -- at the right time.

I'm not planning an attempt at a new career, but it was very fun to feel like a 'pro', even for a moment -- and, actually, for several moments to come.

Please do consider this a promotion for NewWest, a site I've mentioned several times before, and read every day. It offers news and intelligent commentary for residents of Montana, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming.

Oh, and it has a great banner!

Meet the Montana Political Bloggers

  Montana’s online activists are changing the balance of power in Democratic politics. Would you let these men drive your campaign?

Thus asks the Missoula Independent, in an article by John S. Adams, available online. The article is based on a birthday party for Jon Tester, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, so most of the bloggers present were from that side of the political spectrum -- but the article is broader than that:

Democrats across the country are taking notice of the new power-shifting movement within their party. The netroots are doing a better job of organizing grassroots support and framing issues than many highly paid political consultants, and they’re doing it for almost nothing. In a Montana U.S. Senate campaign that could see spending top $10 million (most of that coming from Burns’ war chest) Tester has embraced that movement and is relying heavily on the netroots to help him defeat the incumbent come November.

There are photos and profiles of several folks with whom we are familiar, if not personally, then blogally: Wulfgar!, Shane Mason, Pogie, Eric Coobs, Matt Singer, and Touchstone.

Hmm, no women. Interesting.

[Crossposted from The Big Sky Blog]

A picture worth a thousand jobs...

This photo is from Sarpy Sam, who says:

When I put a submersible pump in a well I hang it on black plastic but a few metal pieces are always required. When I put the pump in the new well with the big tank the other day I noticed the place of origin of all the metal pieces and had to take a picture of it. Italy, Canada, Thailand and Taiwan. The hired man said it was an international well. I wondered about American manufacturing. Just found the whole thing interesting. Taken 6/14/2006.

this life

sweet and bitter
sugar and salt

    this life

for moos

Montana Website Awards

The votes are in, and Wulfgar! has tabulated them. Before I get to that, though, I feel compelled to comment on an anonymous email he received, accusing him of offering this contest in order to drive traffic to his website.

I assume that this email was not sent by a Montanan. I assume this for two reasons. First, because most of us, even townies, understand the importance of community in rural areas, and appreciate the community-building efforts of our neighbors. Second, Montanans generally are quite willing to put our names to our opinions.

With that out of the way, on to the winners. I'm not going to list the Montana State sites, because even though they are useful, I find them boring. Go to A Chicken Is Not Pillage for those and for further details and notes on the polling.

Here ya go:

Left In The West & A Chicken Is Not Pillage:  Best Montana Political Websites [tie]

Left In The West:  Best Left Leaning Political Website

MTPolitics:  Best Right Leaning Political Website

Dave Budge: Best Libertarian/Constitutional/Independent Website

Tester Time:  Best Political Candidate’s Website

Karbon Kounty Moos: Best Lifestyle Website

Thoughts From The Middle of Nowhere:  Most Exemplifies a Montana Lifestyle

Watermark: Best Culture Website  Thanks to all who voted for me!

Better Living Through Blogging: Best Pop-Culture Website

City Lights: Most Web Gravitas (Best Read) Website; Best Online Media Sponsored Website [with the most votes for any candidate in any category]

New West Network: Best Website For Montana News; Most Informative Website About Montana And Montana Concerns; Best Montana Media Website; Best Online Magazine

Bitterroot and Bergamot & Thoughts From the Middle of Nowhere:  Best Websites For Montana Photos [tie]

Prairie Mary & Thoughts From the Middle of Nowhere: Best Websites For Montana Tales and Stories

A Secular Franciscan Life:  Most Humorous Montana Website [by a landslide]

The Billings Gazette: Best Online Newspaper

Prairie Mary: Most Historical Montana Website

Big Sky Blog: Best Montana Community Website

The Monkey Cage: Most Missed Montana Website Not Being Updated Or On Hiatus [and now back!]

Revolving Duck: Best Personal Montana Website

Finally, and I love this:

Spun and Spinning won BOTH Montana Survivor:  Website you’d most like to be voted off the mountains AND The Montana Website You Would Choose To Read Everyday.

And that tells you everything you need to know about Montana.

MONTANA WEBSITE AWARDS

C'mon you guys -- tomorrow's the deadline! If you haven't yet voted, go do it now! What if no one else votes for me? What if Wulfgar's votes for Watermark are the only ones I get? What if we Montana bloggers become dismayed and discouraged?

You needn't be a Montanan to vote. You needn't read all Montana blogs to vote. You needn't vote in all categories to vote; I didn't, and nobody scolded me.

Go vote!

Montana Website Awards

Happy Birthday Montana!

November 8, 1889 - November 8, 2005

I missed this when it happened, but The Last Best Place blog notes that Tuesday was Montana's Birthday. And in a serendipitous coincidence, Wulfgar inaugurated the first annual Montana Website Awards.

So, in keeping with the reflective and elective mood of November, I offer the first annual Montana websphere polling. This is low-tech stuff, with no polling software, no Diebold machines, and no possessive centralization required. Here’s what I propose. I will offer several categories for voting, with no established candidates.

He has lots of categories, and lots of ways to vote. He even started us off with his own ballot, which has Watermark votes in two categories!!

You have until November 19th to vote, so go to it. This is probably the most complete list of candidates: Big Sky Bloggers -- but we grow daily, so don't feel constrained to the list. If you haven't yet discovered or explored our cowpoke/ townie / mountain/ prairie blogosphere, this is a good time to start.

Bringing the Cows Home

Friday Cat Blogging will occur later today, or possibly it will be Saturday Cat Blogging; today you get cows. And on Sunday, here at Watermark, will be The Halloween Edition of  The Carnival of the Cats! Send in your entry via the Carnival Submission Form (my preference) or email to submissions (at) carnivalofthecats.com.

Now from cousin Sue (PeeWee's person) we have cows, horses, and cousins (click images for larger view):

I love these photos; they say home.

For more critters to look at during news breaks this weekend, try:

Friday Ark
I and the Bird
Carnival of the Dogs
Carnival of the Cats

The Rascal Fair

www.flickr.com More photos in The Big Sky

Welcome to the 10th edition of The Rascal Fair! Above is a Flickr Badge of photos from The Big Sky group, founded by Dave at The Big Sky Blog, to provide a place for Big Sky Bloggers to strut their stuff. Montanans are a quirky folk, reserved and welcoming, reticent and opinionated -- as a perusal of Big Sky Blogs will quickly demonstrate.

[Warning: I get to generalize about Montanans, because I am one -- fourth generation -- if you aren't, you don't. We're like that.]

The Rascal Fair is a venue for Montana bloggers to show off their best posts; but, being natur'lly modest, they sometimes need a kick in the butt to do so. Which I didn't do this week. The result being that we have only three self-selected entries:

From Karen, we have a question and good discussion on cane vs. beet sugar -- complete with illustrations.

From Sarpy Sam, we have Who is the Criminal? -- note that Montanans are a questioning bunch.

From Randy, we have -- sadly -- Napoleon RIP, a fine tribute to a feline friend.

Now, since I didn't do my part by getting out there to round folks up, I'm going, in the best Montana tradition, hunting. There are far too many Montana bloggers for me to visit them all today, so I will stick with those I regularly read, and select my favorite posts of the past week or two.

The Last Best Place

Photo by my aunt, Bonnie Pinkerton

Today, Watermark is one of many Last Best Place[s]. As suggested by Wulfgar, and requested at the Big Sky Blog/Last Best Place:

All Montana bloggers are urged to change the name of their site to “The Last, Best Place” in symbolic protest of Lipson’s attempt to copyright the phrase for his sole commercial use.

and:

. . . most of you know about the controversy surrounding a Las Vegas businessman’s attempt to trademark the phrase “The Last, Best Place.”  This is the phrase used by William Kittredge for the title of his Montana-themed anthology.  Naturally, this does not sit well with Montanans. I think that most of us feel that it’s fine for this guy to use the phrase in his commcercial endeavors, but trying to prevent other people from using it for their own purposes is just wrong.  David Merriman has suggested one form of symbolic protest: all of us Montana bloggers should change the titles on our blogs on August 1st to “The Last, Best Place.”

Throughout the day, I will add blogs here that have joined this effort:

The Last Best Place
The Last Best Place
The Last Best Place
The Last Best Place
The Last Best Place
The Last Best Place
The Last Best Place
The Last Best Place
The Last Best Place
The Last Best Place
The Last Best Place
The Last Best Place
The Last Best Place

Please let me know of any that I've missed.

UPDATE: New West has set up a Wiki at www.savethelastbestplace.org:

The idea of a Wiki is to enable people collectively to gather information, write about and comment on a particularly topic, and we thought this might be a good way to create a kind of clearinghouse and forum for the Last Best Place controversy.

They have consulted with Bob Griffin, the Billings attorney filing the opposition to the trademark application on the state's behalf; the Wiki is offered as a place to collect information that might assist his efforts. Go take a look.