Lively Times: Feature Article

Fifteen years ago, we were watching our inaugural issue of Lively Times peel off the press, after months of peddling ads and selling subscriptions to a paper that was still curled up inside of us – more dream than substance.

After 15 years, substance is what we’ve become: a sprightly amalgam of info about Montana’s flourishing arts scene, unfolding each month in hands across the state. We have readers in the smallest of Montana’s small towns, places like Wibaux and Hobson and our own petite burg of Charlo. And of course, we have devoted readers in each megalopolis, from Billings to Missoula and from Butte to Great Falls, where people still appreciate a monthly snapshot of artful offerings in their own town and beyond.

It’s the Montana way: we travel (even with gas prices almost $4 a gallon) to visit kin and friends, to watch our kids play school sports, or just to go somewhere that isn’t home and have fun while we’re at it. Over the years, Lively Times has become a roadmap for these excursions.

When those first pages rolled off the press, the internet was an infant. We relied on fax, phone and myriad road trips to compile each issue. Now, much of the info that fills our pages is gleaned from email and web cruising.

Thanks to web maestro Brian Kopper and crew, we’re about to unveil a new, more interactive generation of our website. Generation Two (it’s like having a 20-something college kid in our midst) is helping publishers who were rooted in 20th century print technology tumble forward, with our readers, into the 21st century.

But not to worry: we’re still partial to newsprint. The ink stains on our fingers, turning pages, circling the stuff that catches our eye with a red pen. It’s what we know and love.

We also know and love this staff of intrepid info-gatherers, salespeople, proofreaders and all-around paper-makers that makes this enterprise possible each month.

Mariss McTucker, who has graced us from day-one with her astonishing eye for detail, and now puts her humor, years of experience as a professional musician and formidable word-power to work on music reviews, while wooing advertisers as well;

Brenda Steiner, who was a loyal reader before becoming a gifted salesperson and info-gatherer, an essential part of our ad-production crew (all two members of it), and a sparkplug for new endeavors;

Judy Shafter, who sells ads, gathers info and is a true arts ambassador, from spearheading the Charlo Fine Art Camp, to helping the National Folk Festival winnow its list of performers and weekly excursions to all manner of cultural outings;

Kathy Senkler, who applies her calm, kind demeanor to any task we set before her, from ferreting out hard-to-find info from around the state to reeling in books and CDs (and making fabulous birthday cakes);

Candi Gallagher, whose flying fingers (along with Kathy’s) pour all this info you see before you into our database;

Alisha Bynum, who takes the odd assortment of ingredients we send her and transforms them into elegant, eye-catching front pages; newcomer Crystal Stipe, who helps us out with writing and editing projects; and our loyal and intrepid crew of delivery folk, who – like Pony Express riders – gallop across the state each month, fresh issues in hand.

Without them, we would not be … and without our esteemed advertisers, who value Lively Times as a means of reaching customers throughout Montana, there would be no birthdays.

So if you appreciate Lively Times, all 15 years of her, thank an advertiser. And if you want to celebrate our birthday right along with us, pull up a seat at Montana’s cultural banquet and enjoy.

It’s the Lively Way.

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