Driggs Drive-In Goes Digital - Local News Story - KIFI Idaho Falls

Driggs Drive-In Goes Digital - Local News Story - KIFI Idaho Falls

By Brett Crandall, Local News 8 Reporter

POSTED: 5:12 pm MDT July 9, 2010

UPDATED: 10:06 pm MDT July 9, 2010

DRIGGS, Idaho -- While most drive-in movie theaters across the country are going under, the Spud Drive-In in Driggs is getting an upgrade. The 50's-themed theater is finally entering the 21st century.When you go to the movies it’s not just for the popcorn, the candy or the drinks, but to see the picture on the larger than life screen.That’s why the Spud Drive-In has invested in becoming America’s first digital drive-in."It’s just unbelievable,” said drive-in manager Keith Zednik. “I mean if you've ever watched a Blu-ray player at home on your plasma or high definition television, you now get to see that on this 34 foot high, 76 foot wide screen. It’s just amazing."For 57 years, the drive-in has become a big part of the small community and Zednik wants it to last for 50 more."It’s definitely an expense we didn't even think twice about,” said Zednik. "It’s definitely worthwhile."The new digital system not only gives a more crisp and clear picture but also allows you to arrange the videos and trailers in any sequence you want, unlike a roll of 35 mm film.While three weeks ago, "Toy Story 3" came on five reels of film, this week, "Despicable Me" came on a computer hard drive.Zednik said 20 years down the road when someone Googles first digital drive-ins, the Spud Drive-In in Driggs, Idaho, will be the one to remember."Just being the first, just being on the frontier, we don't want to be the guys left behind,” said Zednik. "You don't want to be the guys who has the 100th digital drive-in, there's really no nostalgia to that."But despite now being the first to go digital, Zednik said its the nostalgic atmosphere that sets his drive-in apart."It brings you back to the 1950s but yet everything we've done is 21st century," said Zednik.The drive-in will also be the first outdoor theater to show movies in 3-D when its new projector arrives next month.Zednik also hopes to eventually open a museum featuring the drive-in's history."Despicable Me" and "Robin Hood" will be on tonight’s first showing in digital format.For more information on the country’s first outdoor digital theater go to http://spuddrivein.com/

I scream, you scream - ValleyCitizen - Teton Valley's Local News Source

I scream, you scream - ValleyCitizen - Teton Valley's Local News Source

Teton Valley Creamery keeps it real.

LEFT: Grace Lowe and Kris Malling will continue to run the show at the new Teton Valley Creamery in Driggs as the operation adds cheese to the menu. CITIZEN PHOTO / HOPE STRONG

Many have marveled with mounting curiosity as the site of the old Driggs City Hall has been transformed over the past weeks. The iconic art deco building in downtown Driggs received a green racing stripe last week, punctuating an impressive remodel for a business that will capitalize on local flavors to develop dessert and cheeses worth waiting for.

Open the door to Teton Valley Creamery and find quickly that what’s happening inside the building is even more impressive than what has happened to the outside. A quick tour of the facility by Dairy Technologist Fons Smits reveals that the first of three huge walk-ins is used to store local milk from Steve Wright’s dairy, the sole source of the Creamery’s main ingredient.

The second walk-in is cold enough to make even a valley winter night blush. Kept at -25 degrees, the flash freezer is used to keep the Creamery’s primary product crystallized. Different than regular ice cream, Smits has worked with Creamery manager Kris Malling to develop gelato, Italian-style ice cream that is made exclusively with whole milk rather than cream, reducing butterfat content of the finished product from around 14 percent to just under 3 percent.

“This is just the first start,” Smits said with a hint of his native Netherlands. “We are still in the stage of testing flavors, but it all about getting the best ingredients together with the right equipment.”

Smits, who is married to a cousin of the Hoken family that owns the Creamery, runs his own show at Traders Point Creamery in Indiana. He has produced award-winning cheeses and received international acclaim in the industry, and that will translate into a sweet reward for local residents. Under the tutelage of Smits, Malling with keep Teton Valley in gelato and cheeses long after Smits returns east.

The small team of milk processors anxiously awaits cheese-making equipment from Europe, at which time the new operation will be fully transformed, producing not only gelato but also a variety of cheeses.

“We now have cheese curds or sweet cheese, but that is just the start of it,” Smits said. “Our cheeses will all be based on raw milk, with a variety of products aged from two or three months to longer-aged cheeses that will need eight months before they are ready.”

The third walk-in in the Creamery awaits a specific piece of equipment that will control the temperature, humidity and every other element important to aging cheese. Much more involved than just letting it sit, Malling will handle the cheeses throughout the aging process to ensure a consistent product of the highest quality.

While cheese is somewhat in the future for the new Creamery in Driggs, their frozen confections are creating quite a buzz in the community that has translated into a booming little business. Mallings’ girlfriend, Grace Lowe, has watched lines form out the door as people satisfy their curiosity and their sweet tooth as she waits for them to figure out that a pick-up window was installed on the south wall for quick access.

Sold out of huckleberry this week, Malling and Smits are working to establish a steady supplier of the elusive berry. One flavor down, the Creamery is flush with Deep, Dark Chocolate that hovers somewhere between pudding and brownies. Also on the board is Brown Sugar Vanilla, Strawberry, Dulce de Leche and Cappuccino Dream that is made with coffee from neighboring Pendl’s Bakery.

“It is the local part that is taking over the food sector,” Smits said. “We are finding out what kind of stuff we can get locally here in the valley to incorporate into our products. Local honey, red raspberries and cherries are on the list, but it’s impossible to think of everything yourself. We are open to suggestions.”

As a small operation, Teton Valley Creamery is open to creating small batches custom flavors for specific events or creating flavors people may want with ingredients they provide. Teton Thai, for example, will provide the green tea used in a gelato of the same name featured at the popular restaurant in Driggs.

“We are looking forward to thinking outside the box,” Smits said. “We want to be creative with seasonal flavors. Maybe we will do a batch using pumpkin in October.”

Whatever comes out of Teton Valley Creamery is sure to be the icing on the cake for a block in Driggs that keeps growing with businesses fine-tuned to specific tastes.

Music on Main - Starts Tonight! Get down to Victor ID

Teton Valley and Jackson Hole residents and visitors - get out and dance tonight!

Music on Main kicks off tonight at Victor City Park.

The concert series is free and runs from 6.30pm to 9.30pm all summer long. Tonight's concert will be opened by Rotating Superstructure, a local Jackson indie rock band. Calle Mambo are the feature act of the night and are renowned as the Premier Afro-Cuban, Latin, Salsa band in the Rocky Mountain Region. Calle Mambo has blended several musical styles, Dance, Latin, Rhythm, Jazz, Salsa. Get out there and enjoy some great, free music!

For info on upcoming bands and dates, go to http://www.tetonvalleyfoundation.org/music-on-main.php

Stump branches out - ValleyCitizen - Teton Valley's Local News Source

Stump branches out - ValleyCitizen - Teton Valley's Local News Source

July 07, 2010
By Mike Polhamus

Local extreme ski cinematographer produces historical documentary.

LEFT: Gregory Stump in his Victor studio, where for the past three years he has labored to create his magnum opus. COURTESY PHOTO

After spending his early years on the world cup freestyle ski circuit before traveling the world to document what was then the sport’s most extreme limits, legendary filmmaker Greg Stump has settled down in Victor, where he is currently working deep into the night on his first new ski film in over a decade. Stump’s later work runs the Hollywood gamut, from music productions for Willie Nelson to Superbowl commercials for Disney, but he said he needed to make one final ski film before he can move on.

Legend of Aahhhs (the name comes from the most widely hailed work in his oeuvre, Blizzard of Aahhhs), slated for release this fall, is Stump’s parting tribute to the ski film genre, he said. Reputed to have introduced extreme skiing to the American lexicon, Stump is once again attempting to redefine ski cinematography, this time with a historical documentary of the ski film itself.

“I’m trying to create a piece of entertainment,” he said. “Something enjoyable to watch. Something you want to watch. That’s goal number one. The second thing is to tell the history of this particular story – the story of ski movies. For the most part, it’s true.”

As if to clarify the point, he explained that the movie’s byline is “A true fable.” The film is largely historical footage (particularly if you consider the 1980’s to be ‘historical’), from the 1930’s to the present. Stump said he shot little new action footage, in part because skiers sent him footage of their own, and in part because Stump has lost his zeal for the genre he helped invent.

“I have no desire to go out and shoot extreme stuff,” he said. “One of the reasons I got out of it was because it was just a matter of time before someone got seriously injured or died through my lens.”

“The only reason no one got hurt on my shoots was because we were lucky,” he said.

Stump said he decided to stop filming dangerous stunts after an incident involving ski legend Scot Schmidt and snowboard icon Craig Kelly.

“I’ve only been really, truly afraid three times while filming,” he said. “Those have been when I hear Scot Schmidt on the radio, and he’s afraid.”

Stump said he was filming Schmidt and Kelly (who was killed in an avalanche five years later) in British Columbia in 1995, when the skiers were trapped beneath a cliff by persistent rockfall.

“I made a pact with God,” Stump said. “I said, ‘If you get these two off this cliff safely, I will never film another ski or snowboard movie where somebody’s life is in danger’… They got down safely, and I was like, ‘That’s it, I’m done.’”

Though ski cinematography today sometimes depends on footage of risky behavior, Stump said he doesn’t need it to make a compelling ski film.

“The action, the cinematography today, it’s incredible – it’s far superior to anything I was shooting,” he said. “But the presentation, the music, the narration, the structure, as a piece of entertainment, I think has been really stagnant. The stunts are incredible, but I don’t care about the people in the movie – it’s just vapid bro-speak.”

In contrast, Stump said, The Legend of Aahhhs “is really about the story.”

Stump said he hopes the story in Legend of Aahhhs will transcend the ski movie category and gain respect as a film on its own merits, similar to the surf movie Riding Giants and the skateboard movie Dogtown and Z-Boys.

“I’m not even sure what this is, it’s so far off from a typical ski movie,” he said. “It’s sort of like sitting and having a conversation… but with the way the music is, the thing’s almost like a rock album.”

Edited from 150 hours of interviews with such historical figures as Warren Miller, Otto Lang, Dick Barrymore, Dick Durrance and John Jay, the film’s musical score showcases modern musical talent like Lukas Nelson, Hall and Oates, and Death Cab for Cutie.

“I’m old enough now that I’m not working for any other reason than to make it perfect,” Stump said.

To make it perfect, Stump has been producing the film out of his home studio in Victor for the last three years (originally slated for release last year, Stump said it’s “one of those things where you open one door and there’s ten more doors, then you open one of the ten and there’s ten more doors”); and he plans to release it this fall.

“I’ve been thinking how fortunate I am to be in a work situation like this,” he said. “I’m sitting in beautiful, pristine Victor, I don’t bother the neighbors, I go to the store, take a run, ride my bike and work here. Most projects don’t have that luxury.”

15th Annual WYDAHO Bike Race

15th Annual WYDAHO Bike Race

Saturday, July 03, 2010

The Wydaho cross country mountain bike race will start at 1:00pm on Saturday July 3rd. The race will have a expert, intermediate and beginner class races. The experts will race 3 laps of the 7 mile loop of Rick’s Basin trail, the intermediates will race 2 laps- 14 mile total and the beginners will race one 7 mile lap. The after race party will be held on the main plaza, with each racer getting a free BBQ lunch and entry into a raffle. As the adults kick back after the race it’s time for the kids to let er rip as we hold our kids race around the base area. The kids race will start at 3:30pm. We also are holding a “Huffy Bike” toss and hill climb for bikes for fun. Registration for the bike race will be the day of on the main plaza (9:00 am- 12:30 pm) the entry fee for the bike race and BBQ is $35.

General Description: Cross country (mostly single track and double track) circuit race; expert: 21 miles, intermediate: 14 miles, beginner: 7 miles. Starting elevation is 8000 feet. Helmets must be worn at all times when riding at Grand Targhee Resort.

Categories: Expert, Intermediate, Beginner and Kids 6-12

Registration: 9:00 am to 12:30 pm morning of race; $35