Day: August 11, 2022

by Travis Mateer

I could tell after a few minutes of conversation with one of my street contacts that his ability to track what I was saying was being impacted by symptoms of alcohol withdrawal. It wasn’t yet 9am, so I asked him if he’d had a drink yet. No, he told me. What would you prefer, I asked. Colt 45 or Hurricane, he replied. I skated off and selected the latter at Wordens for his morning fix.

After returning with a cold can of slow death, and opening it for him, we chatted for a few minutes. I told him about my most recent article tracking the community impacts of helping Costner produce Yellowstone, and he told me about a scruffy looking homeless dude being approached to be an extra in the show, though he couldn’t remember the dude’s name.

Another piece of speculation I received concerns the nice-looking copper now adorning the doors of the County Courthouse. Was this a result of the filming? Did the Missoula County Courthouse get a door upgrade for providing a space to allow valuable FICTIONS to be created?

I called the Montana Film Office (1-800-553-4563) to follow up on this lead, and to ALSO inform them that Mark Weatherford’s phone number is NOT functional, resulting in the film office acting as a defacto messaging service for this “Key Assistant Location Manager”. As an aside, I later learned this is not unusual, thanks to a LONG time contributor to the Montana blogosphere I can totally vouch for, who said this:

Thank you JC for the excellent insight!

Back to The Doors; the woman I spoke with was very helpful, and seemed to actively listen as I explained my motivations in confirming whether or not the doors to our Courthouse are copper coated due to the transactional access peddled by our public officials. At least I HOPE she was listening as I explained that the experiences of survivors and family members dealing with atrocious injustices are NOT made any better with prettier looking doors to a building where such deplorable leadership resides.

With a little time to kill before an important Lego-related meeting, I decided to see if the Phoenix security guys at the front desk in the Courthouse could be helpful on this matter, and they were by putting down the rumor I had heard, saying those doors are beautiful originals.

The REAL magic of this whole inquiry actually came as I approached the Courthouse and saw Congressional candidate, Monica Tranel, speaking to a small group of supporters. Instead of any direct engagement, I decided to place a copy of my newsletter (which she snubbed earlier this week) under the windshield wiper of her notorious minivan, and I even had the pleasure of watching her sidekick grab it after they wrapped up their little event.

So, in summary, wrong numbers can be strategic, copper doors at the Courthouse are original, and Monica Tranel has a copy of the Zoom Chron Bulletin ready to go from minivan to trashcan.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

At this point I hope Fire and Ice productions understands that when the orange cones go up with the Yellowstone brand, I will be there, on the periphery, asking questions. And if I find out notices are being distributed to those impacted by a week of lost parking outside of their businesses, well, I’m going to find a copy and report on it.

The images I’m sharing below come from the filming notification I got a copy of yesterday after doing one of my signature on-the-ground reports. Here is the geographic location impacted:

As you check out the location, you might be wondering what the waving cops signify. Here are more details from the flyer to answer that question:

While the filming isn’t actually happening until next Monday, the cones have already been up for a few days, and they stay up into the night, denying customers of the businesses in the area the ability to park. In an attempt to get ahead of frustration, here’s the letter portion of the flyer attempting to alleviate concerns:

That number you see at the bottom of the flyer isn’t actually in service, so I wasn’t able to speak with Mark Weatherford, but I did call the number of the Montana Film Office and the woman I spoke with assured me she would pass along my inquiries to the Fire and Ice contact, which I assume is Mr. Weatherford. There is also an email listed, so maybe I’ll drop him a link to this post after it’s published.

The woman I spoke with about my concerns that the economic impact being touted by our local luminaries DOES NOT translate far and wide enough to counter the disruptions directed me to a report (PDF) that I’m assuming makes the case that EVERYTHING IS AWESOME, to borrow a phrase from the Lego Movie.

Here is a portion of the nice cover page of the report to tantalize you into delving into the number, because I’m not going to do it.

Instead I’ll just quote a portion of the “executive summary” to give you a flavor of the narrative aspect of this report:

Film industry activity has grown significantly in Montana in recent years. Since the enactment of the Montana Economic Development Industry Advancement (MEDIA) Act on July 1, 2019, there has been a 70 percent increase in content production from ten years ago. Despite that increase, the footprint of the industry remains modest, and knowledge of the scope and nature of its activities is limited. Certainly, we are all consumers of the output of the film and entertainment industries, but awareness of what takes place to produce that content is not common in our state.

This study is aimed at addressing that situation. By examining the actual activities of a major television production carried out in the Bitterroot Valley, we not only can learn how those activities combine to make the Montana economy larger and more prosperous. We also achieve a better understanding of what a major production like the television show Yellowstone entails, and why its presence within the state makes such significant economic contributions.

What this study is NOT tracking is the politics being played by Yellowstone and its patriarchal star, Kevin Costner. Those politics involve making tax breaks for filming in Montana BIGGER, and wearing shirts that support Liz Cheney.

With Costner playing very visible politics right now, it’s interesting to recall how a very popular local conservative was put in front of the cameras during the season 4 finale episode.

While the Montana Film Office takes calls for the Fire and Ice Assistant Location Manager, who can’t even get a working phone number out to local businesses, I’m going to continue tracking the more difficult to quantify impacts of what Costner and his $1.2 million dollar pay day PER EPISODE means to the little people who take the inconveniences as they are handed out by the influencers in the hopes they won’t be snuffed out like so many businesses were during the scamdemic.

Now, here’s the clip I recorded yesterday as the crew worked behind me. It’s important to note I don’t have any issues with people working their jobs behind the scenes (unless you’re the private security guy who tried physically intimating me after hours).

https://player.vimeo.com/video/738339601?h=ff5de1921f&badge=0&autopause=0&player_id=0&app_id=58479

Thanks for reading!