You've got to cry without weeping, talk without speaking, scream without raising your voice.

So, last night was the Gallery Walk in Livingston.

Livingston is about 20 miles east of Bozeman, and you drive up and over a beautiful, potentially perilous, mountain pass to get there.

Livingston is at the northern end of Paradise Valley, through which the Yellowstone River flows. (Odd tidbit- the three major rivers here, the Yellowstone, the Gallatin and the Madison all flow north out of Yellowtone.) Paradise Valley is the principal northern gateway into Yellowstone. Highway 89 snakes along the Yellowstone River. It is a gorgeous, wide-bottom, U-shaped valley (as opposed to the more V-shaped Gallatin Canyon on the way to Big Sky). I will post some pictures eventually. It was kind of stormy last night, so it wasn't great for pictures.

Anyway, Paradise Valley is aptly named, and due to the gorgeous setting, a number of celebrities have chosen to live in or around Paradise Valley. Dennis Quaid, Peter Fonda, Tom Brokaw, and Michael Keaton are all locals. Ted Turner has a ranch between the Gallatin and Madison rivers, and Han Solo and some other folks live down near Jackson.

Supposedly, all of the above are reputed to occasionally frequent the Gallery Walks. But more on that later.

The Gallery Walk is an event they hold on the last Friday of each month, while the weather holds. There are about a dozen galleries on the main drag. They all serve free wine and drinks, and have free appetizers, catered by the bistros. I enjoyed some olive/bacon/cucumber concoctions. People walk up and down the street with their drinks, mingling and walking in and out of the galleries.

Livingston has an odd feel. There is a strange juxtaposition of art galleries, dive bars, fancy bistros, railroad workers, movie stars, miners, hippies and artists. I saw this burly, 275 pound dude wearing a flannel shirt, with a huge chaw in his mouth excuse himself to pass between two botoxed, 50-something ladies eating brie and sipping chardonnay. I am pretty sure the burly guy was there for the free beer and not to purchase the $ 8200 lithograph. But you never know.

Everyone was amazingly friendly. We were hanging out on the stret and people were just approaching, saying hi, and engaging us in conversations. We met a lot of nice folks and had a good time.

Here is a picture of the main drag:



Here is a blurry picture of folks hanging out on the street (I tried to take it in a hurry. I felt weird. I was the only one with a camera):



We didn't see any of the aforementioned celebrities, but I have it on good authority that Meg Ryan was out, strutting her stuff, flirting with the Bozeman OG's and burly miner dudes to make Dennis Quaid jealous.

She specifically asked me to take a picture of her ass and post it on the internet, so that bastard Dennis could see what he was missing:



THERE IT IS, DENNIS! IT USED TO BE ALL YOURS, NOW IT BELONGS TO THE BOZEMAN BAXTER MEADOWS CRIPS! GO CRY IN YOUR BEER, DENNIS!