Facebook Exchange Crossed Ethical, But Not Legal, Lines

Written by Eric Zimmer

A few weeks ago, a Rapid City soldier - a front-lines veteran of the War in Afghanistan - returned home to the Black Hills for some R and R. While he was here, a confrontation took place on the social networking site Facebook, when a sarcastic comment from one of the soldier's contemporaries led to a strident haranguing by the soldier and a few members of his families, biological and military. After viewing the exchange, Dakota Day printed a sanitized version of the dialog, and challenged readers to consider the soldier's comments, form their own opinions, and discuss the larger ramifications of the event. What (if anything) does the exchange say about the U.S. military, professional conduct therein, and the possibility of the U.S. completing a successful campaign of counterinsurgency in Afghanistan?, we asked.

By Eric Zimmer 11 August 2010 Full Article

Rapid City Soldier Comes Home from Afghanistan with Plenty to Say

By Eric Zimmer

When a high school classmate replied to a U.S. Soldier's online Facebook status earlier this month, a colorful, and, at times, shocking exchange unfolded. DakotaDay presents the following transcript without the intent to chastise any one individual, military or civilian. Rather, our intent is to shed light on a very aggressive, very political, and very public exchange that took place between a member of the U.S. Army, a member of the U.S. Air Force, and two citizens. All parties in the exchange, though stripped of any identifying information, are local to the Rapid City, South Dakota area, and all other aspects of the conversation appear as they did when posted on Facebook earlier this month with the single difference that DakotaDay has edited the original profanity of the soldier and his defenders.

Enlisted U.S. Army Soldier (Soldier): America is by far the greatest country ever and english is the onlky real language. everyone else can go eat a d**k

July 13 at 9:43pm

5 people like this.

By Eric Zimmer 29 July 2010 Full Article

Exhibition of Darrel Nelson Sculpture Opens At Dahl Arts Center July 23—Curators Call for Public Participation

EDITOR'S NOTE: Imagine hiking in the Black Hills National Forest on a cold spring morning, ice still on the creeks, and coming across a strange wooden globe pushed by the current up against an ice shelf. Do you pick it up? Take it home? Is it someone else's piece of valuable sculpture? How did it get in the creek?

Imagine you are part of a salvage crew wood chipping your way through a slash pile. You quit work one day with the stump of a large tree lying in the dirt. A week later you come back and instead of the stump there is a finely crafted wooden egg.

Imagine walking through the forest one day watching an eagle soar through the sky when your eyes settle on a beautiful wooden sphere perched on the top of a fifteen foot tall tree stump.

You get the picture. Something isn't right in the forest. Man has been there. But why? What's he doing?

Sometimes the globes are hidden in plain, everyday sight: Leave your car windows down on a hot day, come back and find an orb in the passenger seat. Stop to lay flowers at the site of a roadside traffic accident and find an enormous polished egg in the grass. Dig a fence hole in your backyard, take a lunch break, and come back to find a gorgeous wooden sphere at the bottom of the hole.

If you are lucky enough to have stumbled across one of Darrel Nelson's sculptures.

Want to know more? An exhibition and celebration of Nelson's work entitled "What Am I Doing Here?" will be on display at the Ruth Brennan Gallery of the Dahl Arts Center from July 23 through October 2.

Now here's the fun part. On September 11 the Dahl invites the public and everyone who has found one of Nelson's crafted globes to bring their sculpture to the Dahl, meet Nelson, and share the story of how they found one of these miraculous pieces of art.

Until then, enjoy Denise Du Broy's interview with Darrel Nelson.

By Denise Du Broy 13 July 2010 Read Full Interview

Young Artists Discover the Masters of Sculpture in Dahl Summer Camp

Great art is almost always derivative. The more original an artist claims to be the more likely it is that she has built her work on the shoulders of an artist who went before. Start a conversation with an artist and the subject of "influences" almost always comes up. And so, when a group of young Rapid City artists gathered recently to present the results of their summer art camp at the Dahl Arts Center, they set themselves squarely in the presence of masters; Picasso, Claes Oldenburg, Andy Goldsworthy, and Deborah Butterfield. The week long camp "Creative Sculpture Investigators" was taught by Mary Wipf, included hands-on sessions for the eleven young artists with sculptor Marshall Raeburn, whose exhibition of found-object sculpture "Stuff I Made out of Junk" is on display in the Inez and Milton Shaver Gallery through September 4. In addition to individual projects, the young artists also collaborated on several group projects, including their found-object sculpture "Unihorsemoollamalope" inspired by Deborah Butterfield and their wall mural of woven sticks inspired by Andy Goldsworthy. The exhibition of camp projects will be on display at the Dahl through August.-Sam Hurst

By Sam Hurst 07 July 2010 See More!