Introduction

Good day, I’m Bob Bates from the Black Hills Amp. I’ve been the Development Director for the Amp since the middle of July. The Amp is a new venue; one that I’m extremely excited about for all of the Black Hills and Spearfish, SD. It’s the former Black Hills Passion Play, which ran for 70-some years. It’s an exciting venue in that there is an almost 6,000 seat capacity. We have dinner theater four nights per week. We have, on the main stage, high profile acts from around the country and the world. We have a very aggressive schedule for 2010.

My blog is really designed to enlighten you, sometimes entertain you, and sometimes just inform you. Some of the comments in the blog are to be taken tongue-in-cheek, as they will be my limited attempt toward humor. The inspiration and excitement of doing a blog is not new to me as I currently have a blog where I highlight my mission trips and mission activity. In saying that however, this is new to me in the extent of the large audience that I’ll be reaching and the types of feedback that I’ll be looking forward to receiving.

I Love a Mystery

I love a mystery. It's the thrill that seems to excite me when I try to figure out who did what. Mystery doesn't necessarily have to be that someone was killed, missing, or has met with a bad fate. A mystery can be, “Where’d I put my keys?” At my age, I have that mystery far too often. Or it could be as simple as “Who is that new person who moved in down the block? They seem kind of strange. I wonder what is going on down there?” That is a mystery. And there are real, horrible mysteries, which reminds me of one from the famous poem by Robert Service,

‘The Cremation of Sam McGee’

There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.

Now Sam McGee was from Tennessee,
where the cotton blooms and blows.
Why he left his home in the South to roam
‘round the Pole, God only knows.
He was always cold, but the land of gold
seemed to hold him like a spell;
Though he’d often say in his homely way
that “he’d sooner live in hell.”

On a Christmas Day we were mushing our way
over the Dawson trail.
Talk of your cold, through the parka’s fold
it stabbed like a driven nail..........

Now this is a real mystery, as a matter of fact there are a number of mysteries here. What brought Sam McGee all the way from Tennessee to Canada to mine for gold? Was it because of a lost love? Was it because of an insatiable desire to be rich, or did he just seek adventure? Another mystery is, even though the title talks about cremating Sam McGee, was he actually cremated? Now I didn’t finish the poem because I want that to be figured out by you, the reader. If he wasn’t cremated, what happened to Sam McGee? Did the barge sink before it could happen? Was it impossible to get the boiler hot enough for the cremation to take place? We won’t know unless we finish the story.

That’s why ‘Meal and a Mystery’ is going to be so important for you to come, to try to figure out the story. Will you figure it out between your main course, and dessert? Or will you figure it out as soon as you sit down, just because of your intuitiveness? Or possibly you won’t understand even after the story has been told to you because it may seem so outrageous. It may seem impossible, implausible that that could actually be the mystery that unfolded in front of you. The only way to know, the only way to be in the game, is to attend ‘Meal and a Mystery’. It will be held every Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday evening from October 21st to November 14th at the Black Hills Amp.

See ya at the Amp!

Prairiegrass Music Festival

Prairiegrass headliners

This time of the year in South Dakota we think about harvest time. We think about the abundance of food that comes off the land and the beauty of the crops, turning to a golden color. In eastern South Dakota, what we call East River, we see the tall corn, soybeans and hay fields. Western South Dakota, or West River displays wheat, small grains, cattle grazing in grass up to their bellies, and farmers harvesting the native prairie grasses.

We also think about the blessing we have for such an abundance of food, abundance of open prairie, beautiful blue sky stretching as far as you can see. The further west you get you run into the Black Hills; jutting up out of the ground, with their pine trees, creeks, rivers and lakes. In thinking about this blessing we have put together a wonderful time of enjoyment for you at the Black Hills Amphitheater in Spearfish, South Dakota. Prairiegrass is a bluegrass festival unlike what you've seen before. It will be on Saturday, the 5th of September. The gates open at noon, performances start at 1 o'clock, and continue on through dark. It will be non-stop music (alternating between the two stages), the side stage will feature progressive music, and the main stage will feature our headliners. This is a large amphitheater, holding over 5,000 people. The second stage area seats about 500 people. Due to the way it is configured, even when you sit in the small stage area you will be able to hear music from the large stage and vice versa.

Tickets in advance are $25, and the day of the show are $30. The young people are invited to bring a school ID card to receive $5 off the ticket price. Kids 12 and under are free. We know you'll enjoy yourself.

See ya @ the Amp!