Day: May 8, 2023

by Travis Mateer

The walls of my studio are covered with old newspapers and other ephemera, like this FINAL issue of the Missoula Independent distributed one last time here in Missoula before Matt Gibson helped Lee Enterprises kill it in 2018. I commemorated the 4 year anniversary of this death last September 11th with this post.

Why hasn’t anyone attempted to replace our weekly publication in Missoula? Since I didn’t go to school for journalism–opting instead for an even MORE worthless English degree–I can’t speak to what is taught at J-School, I can only see the resulting products, like Hunter Pauli, and his sentiment about Lee Enterprises effectively killing its already skeletal Montana reporting capacity.

And where was this sentiment expressed? Twitter, of course. Here’s my exchange with this Montana free lance journalist:

If I wasn’t still trying to recoup the cost of dropping $1,200 dollars on a dumpster to remove Todd’s meth shack behind Missoula College, then I might seriously consider making a donation to the stop-@paulimeth-from-being-an-impotent-complainer fund.

I was curious about some of the content Pauli has put out recently, so I checked out Muck Rack and found some articles I’m glad I haven’t read:

Maybe as a contributor to the decline of print media by giving you digital readers all this great free content to consume, I should be more empathetic to the plight of @paulimeth. But with another incident of local risk to my already-agitated morning, I’m all out of empathy.

More on that incident later. Until then, please consider supporting Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF), or making a donation at my about page.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

Below is an image from the Tarkio boat launch, west of Missoula. It is my understanding, from multiple sources, that the body of Joey Thompson was found by a property owner somewhere between this point and the Forest Grove boat launch.

The picture at the bottom of the post is graffiti on the concrete wall where Joey Thompson was allegedly last seen. There is also a cheesy pentagram and “I love Satan” tag that looks very high school.

Sometimes things can be accomplished in verse when more conventional forms of communication can’t be used. Is this one of those times? Or am I just a poet who likes to rhyme?

a million little Mansons
like meth rats on the scene
the west it is not Jolly
the west is getting mean

don't you wet the whistle 
of the missile men who flex
pulling down the pillars
for caverns they call sex 

echo is the vibe now
shards of mirror cut
thin reflection isn't twin
fearful lungs will shut

down in river run-through town
where crosses are a joke
where shanty shacks and knife attacks
stem from friends of woke

shit, bro, are you triggered 
can you guess what's next
will I jigger ups a rhyme 
to bring down harshest hex?

witches they are busy
showing boys the knife 
deconstruction everything
now Zooey wants a wife

Joey, on the other hand
waits for crime lab fucks 
well dressed on the stand
but going cluck, cluck, cluck

which, I guess, is better
than going quack, quack, quack
at the Poverello Duck Pond
with red on white and black

hmmm, what am I saying here?
ask Detective Guy
ask about the LifeGuards 
and who controls the time

when it comes to puppy dogs
sniffing out the blood
and little Russian flower girls
with petals on the run

why am I so angry?
lots of people ask
because I pay attention
speak up, then I act

and you?  how about you
sneaking off the hook
is it too uncomfortable
to take a fucking look?

I have said enough
watch out for the rest
the boots I wear are tough
Lord, I did my best

If you haven’t made a donation to support my work, you can do so at my about page, or Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF) is another way to target my energies toward local action!

Thanks for reading!