Hello!

Yup. That’s a picture of Billings from Sword Park. It’s city park on top of what are “The Rims.” They’re rimrocks made up of sandstone. And yes – my shot of Billings doesn’t look like typical Montana photos. They tend to feature the great outdoors and wide open spaces with never ending skies.

Except a thing that I love about Billings? It is what it is. A great example is the 27th Street entrance into town: You first see a big ole sugar beet factor. And a little further into town? The Montana Visitor’s Center is next to the Montana State Women’s Prison. This is refreshing compared to Los Angeles that pretended to be something that it’s not.

And even though Billings is Montana’s largest city? The annual San Diego ComicCon has more visitors PER DAY than the total people living in the greater Billings area.

This is also my third time living in Billings. Yes. I tend to return after I burn myself out on other adventures in other places. But since the bulk of my family lives here? It’s a good place to rest my head for a minute. I’ve also decided that I will always divide my time between Billings and wherever else that I choose to live. Holidays with family is a must.

Billings is also the perfect location for my smaller film projects that I’m starting this year. It’s great for that.

I’m also excited that there are multiple poetry open mics. I’ve gone fairly consistently to the third Friday of the month one at This House of Books. I’ve been more hit and miss about the first and third Thursday at Kirk’s Grocery but I’m changing that. I’m also going to get going with the Reader’s Theatre on the first Sunday of each month at the Nova Performing Arts center along with their Cabaret Club on the third Sunday of the month. Barjon Books is also a metaphysical and community center bookstore. I held some breathwork sessions there.

Billings also has a wonderful performing arts center called the Alberta Bair Theater where I’ve seen George Winston perform and other cool performances. If you’ve never heard George, you need to change that. He could play the piano so fast that his hand was a blur while not missing a note. Another cool things? He would always collect canned food at EVERY performance to give to local food banks. Yes. He did this when I saw him perform just outside of Los Angeles.

The Yellowstone Art Museum is also here. To tell you about the museum? They once had an Andy Warhol exhibit along with other cool shows. Yes. It’s primarily modern art.

I can’t forget about the High Plains Books Awards. My mom was the chair for a long time. I even ran an open poetry mic many years ago at the very cool Moss Mansion. And I was a community reader for the 2025 festival.

They also have country western two step lessons at the local bar called the High Horse. I’ve taken a class from the teacher Steve through Adult Community Education. Fun fact about Steve: He taught the Prince of Monaco how to two step when my mom worked at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming, forever ago. I can also attest that their steaks are as good as Morton’s Steak House in Beverly Hills and Taylor’s Steakhouse in Koreatown, Los Angeles.

See… People tend to think about Missoula or Bozeman when they talk about the arts in Montana cuz there’s a whole lot of marketing around them. Sure. Billings can easily be said that it looks like Montana’s arm pit when it comes to city planning. But these arts and culture things mentioned in here? They arere only the the beginning since Billings also has things like Rimrock Opera. As Billings is also high desert, it also tends to have milder winters. It also lacks the air inversion of Missoula or colder than shit for longer of Bozeman.

Cost of living is also reasonable here. My TWO BEDROOM apartment is the same price that I paid for a single bedroom in a shared space right in the heart of South Central Los Angeles.

So… I’m happy to call Billings home. And it’s also a good place while I get my shit together. It’s also easy enough to get in and out of in terms of travel.

How about your town? Any hidden gems that you want to share about?

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