Happy Halloween!

Today is Halloween, and I am featuring a collage of Halloween photographs that I took at the University of Denver Bookstore before it was outsourced to Follett Higher Education Group.  After we were outsourced, I don't remember anybody dressing up for Halloween anymore.  It was, among many other things, not a "fun" kind of place.  Come to think of it, I don't remember anyone dressing up for Halloween at the Tattered Cover Bookstore, either.  No matter - I can just keep on recycling these photos, right?  And in the collage photos (going clockwise from the upper left) are Donovan (the computer guy) and Tristy (the store manager); Stephanie, a work study student, being strangled by Victoria, the information desk person; my friend Wally, the Operations Manager; Doug, the assistant textbook buyer; and Marty, the Textbook Manager.  Ah, the good old days...

The October Mutts Of The Month

Yes!  It's true.  This month it is a tie - there are two October Mutts of the Month.  And why is this earth shaking event occurring?  Because, of course, I was able to get the photographs of two dogs instead of just one this month. I took the photo on the left in the doorway of a shop in Denver's Larimer Square, but I have no idea which one. I assume it is guarding the place against unruly hipsters, and will lunge into action at the slightest misstep.

And the photograph on the right was taken on the 16th Street Mall, in front of a restaurant or bar.  It was no doubt left on it's own while the owner was inside imbibing God knows what.  And as I have mentioned before, there are a lot of restaurants going out of business here in Denver, but especially on the 16th Street Mall.  I am worried we don't have enough hipsters here to support them all.  So if you are reading this and are a hipster, please move here and support your local bistros.

The Last Colorado Rapids (Not To Mention Baseball) Game Of The Season

I went with my friend Mark to see the last Colorado Rapids soccer game of the season yesterday. It was a very pleasant afternoon, sunny and 75 degrees, and so it was a good day to watch a game.  And I learned several things, too.  The first is that if the ball goes into the stands, unlike in baseball, you have to give it back, or else they come after you with tasers (these are, after all, soccer fans).  And secondly, after the last game of the season, the players walk around the field to thanks the fans, just like at Coors Field.  I don't know who any of these guys in the above photo are, but it is a nice gesture nonetheless.

In any case, I took the photograph of Mark after the game as a very weird soccer ritual was taking place on the field. You enter your name online, agree to be called about buying season tickets, and then are entered in a contest that, if selected, allows you to go onto the field and receive a players jersey.  They call it "giving you the shirt off their back," but they don't actually take off their shirt and throw it at you, but simply hand you a different jersey. To me, that is a violation of truth in advertising, but that is just me.  And last but not least, later that evening, on television, I saw the Boston Red Sox win the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers in 5 games, marking the end of the 2018 baseball season.  Now that's sad.

Dinner With The DU Gang

I got together last night at Darrel and Linda's townhouse with the former DU Bookstore gang and their spouses.  It was a very pleasant evening, and we had a lot of catching up to do since we last got together this past August at my place for one of my famous pool parties (no swimming allowed).  Going counterclockwise from the right in the above photograph are Darrel, the former Accounts Payable Supervisor at the University of Denver Bookstore and now happily retired; Valarie, former Operations Manager at the DU Bookstore, also now happily retired;  Valarie's husband Jake, who now spends his days in his workshop; Jim, husband of Chris (the former Accounts Payable Assistant at the bookstore) and who is actually still working. What's the deal with that, Jim?  Chris, who still works at the University of Denver in the Chemistry Department, and last but not least Linda - Darrel's wife - who is a retired operating room nurse. And I have to say that this was the first time we all got together and did not discuss the DU Bookstore.  I think we can give Donald Trump full credit for that one.

The Final "Final Friday" Of The Year

I attended the Final Friday event at the Denver Art Museum (the DAM) last night, since it the last such event they will hold until next year.  Since the last Fridays of the month in November and December are during the holiday season, they must assume no one will attend, especially since they eliminated the free buffet table.  In any case, I wasn't expecting much, since the last few Final Fridays I attended were pretty boring, but I was pleasantly surprised to find it was actually pretty entertaining.

The first event I attended was the tour of the Stampede exhibit by "acclaimed art critics" Mitch and Jess.  Stampede is all about how animals are portrayed in art, and it seems like it has been at the museum now for months if not years.   And it is going to remain on exhibit for another excruciating 7 months.  But I digress.  The guided tour by Mitch and Jess was very funny and a lot of fun.  I don't know if they are a comedy team at one of the local theaters, but if not, they should be. They certainly did a great job of poking fun at Stampede. And yes, that is Georgia O'Keeffe dressed up as Whistler's mother in the painting in the photograph on the right along with Mitch and Jess.

I also attended a showing of short films by Marcy Saude in the auditorium in the basement.  They were pretty damn strange, but interesting.  The most important thing I took out of it was to avoid spending any time in Ward, Colorado if at all possible. The museum is currently preparing for a new exhibit on the second floor, and so much of that floor has been closed off from the public, as can be seen in the photograph on the left.  The new exhibit is called Dior: From Paris to the World, and opens November 19th.  And once again I have to ask if this is really art?  It is an exhibit of high fashion clothing, after all.  I suspect the only reason they have shows like this is that it attracts a larger audience than just plain old fashioned art.  Not too long ago there was an exhibit of costumes from Star Wars, and it attracted a huge audience.  Perhaps they need shows like this to bring in enough money to reopen the free buffet table.  If so, more power to them.

As I was leaving, I stopped in the lobby area to check out the scene. There is a bar and tables there, and a lot of people were mingling around, drinks in hand.  And no, it was not an open bar.  If so, most of the city would have been there. The crowd was being entertained by a rap singer.  The museum seems to feel that rap music is art, too.  Once again I feel that it is just a way to boost attendance among the younger set.  And walking around, I must say that there are a lot of strange rangers that attend Final Fridays.  It is difficult to photograph them, however, since they would probably wind up hitting me, or even worse, breaking my camera.  But in any case, I was not sure if the person in the photograph on the right wearing a hat and cape was wearing a Halloween costume, or if that is just how he dresses.  I imagine I could have gone up and asked him, but he might take it the wrong way.  And so that is it for this year's Final Fridays at the DAM.  If you missed it, you'll have to wait until next year.

Florida At The End Of October

The end of October thru December is the best time of year to be in Stuart, Florida.  The snowbirds are only starting to arrive, the weather is starting to get cool, and restaurants are not too crowded. Stuart (as well as the rest of Martin County) is a beautiful place with very strict environmental regulations, making it one of the last wide open spaces on the east coast of Florida.  You can't beat that.  In the photograph on the left my mother is posing on the beach next to the House of Refuge, a maritime rescue station built on a coral bluff along the beach back in 1876.  It is a beautiful , peaceful place, and I miss it very much, and I especially miss being able to fly down to Florida several times a year to visit my mother.  She is long gone now, and my sister Susan and I have rented her condo full-time in order to keep it in the family.   And will we one day return there?  You can bet on it.  Especially in that magical time from October to December.

Halloween At The Zoo

The Denver Zoo has always been a very popular place to take the kids, and last Friday was no exception. Weekends are far busier, but there were still plenty of families wandering the grounds Friday afternoon.  As for free days at the zoo, you can tell that is what is happening by the long stream of parents and their children making the mile long trek from the City Park parking lots to the zoo, where there is not a single space to be found.  The children on the left, by the way, are watching the Cape Buffalo, considered the most dangerous animals in Africa. And why are these animals more dangerous than lions and tigers, you might ask?  I have no idea - it is just what I've heard on public television.  And that means it has to be true, right?

The month of October is especially popular with parents and their children due to the approach of Halloween. Every weekend during the month of October the zoo host's both Enchanted Hollows (a kind of ghost walk for teens and adults) and Boo at the Zoo, for the younger kids, although I have to say that I attended this event last year, and found just as many parents as children dressed in costume.  There are frequent trick or treat stations, where young children can collect candy and their parents stand back, knowing that they can also share in those treats by teaching their children the value of sharing.  Clever. This year I am tempted to rent a child and take him or her to this event, dividing the booty between us. Would this really be wrong?  Don't answer.

The Zoo Dilema

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, I went to the Denver Zoo Friday afternoon to take photographs of the animals, and actually took some pretty good shots.  However, as much as I enjoy doing this, you cannot avoid the fact that these animals are locked up, in prison for the rest of their lives.  You can just imagine how hard this is on these creatures when you look at the photograph on the left, showing a poor monkey looking out from it's prison.

On the other hand, you have to admit that a lot of these creatures don't seem to be bothered by their confinement, and actually seem to be having fun, such as the two most recent additions to the Denver Zoo - two young Asian elephants who are seen "roughhousing" in the photograph on the right.  I believe these two are Chuck and Jake, even though the Denver Zoo website (https://www.denverzoo.org/) claims that they are being kept "behind the scenes" until they get used to the place. My reasoning for this is that all the other elephants at the zoo are too old to roughhouse, while Chuck and Jake, at ages 6 and 8, are still more or less little kids in elephant years.  And what is my conclusion about whether zoos are good things or bad?  As I have often said before, that is way above my pay grade.

Back To The Zoo...

I decided to spend a few hours at the Denver Zoo Friday afternoon and was able to get some pretty good animal portraits, if I do say so myself.  It was a pleasant afternoon, not too hot and not too cold, and most of the animals were out and about, and more than happy to pose for photographs.  It was a perfect day, with my only complaint being that the Great Apes were being kept inside instead of out in their compounds.  I am not sure why that is, but sadly (start violin music here) my camera is not sophisticated enough to take photographs of the animals in those dark cells they keep them in.  What's the deal with that, Denver Zoo?
Inquiring minds want to know.

Back To Biking

This past Saturday was a beautiful fall day, and so I decided to take a bike ride from my condo to Larimer Square in downtown Denver.  My route took me through Washington Park and many of Denver's old neighborhoods.  Since it was Saturday afternoon and not Sunday, I had to walk my bike down the 16th Street Mall, which was all right, since it made people watching that much easier. It was pretty damn busy on the mall, and as a special treat, the Brothers of Brass were performing in front of Marlowe's Restaurant for tips.  Marlowe's will soon be closing it's doors, by the way, joining the Paramount Cafe next door, which closed last month.  It appears to be a tough time for restaurants these days in Denver.  Too many restaurants, not enough hipsters.

As I have mentioned before, they are building new apartment buildings on almost every block here in Denver.  All of them seem to be luxury units, too, and I am not sure how  these developers expect to fill them.  I suspect the real estate boom will soon burst, and people who now have to live with 10 or 12 roommates may soon be able to afford their own place.  In the photo on the right is a recently completed apartment complex consisting of twin 32 story towers called Country Club Towers. Prices start at a mere $2,000 per month for a one bedroom, one bath unit, and for some reason there still seems to be a lot of vacancies.  These two towers, by the way, were plunked down in the middle of a residential neighborhood, no doubt to the great joy of the neighbors.  They probably comfort themselves with the thought that traffic can't possibly get any worse than it is now.  I say to check with a recent California transplant on that one.

During my ride, I was happy to see that our recent snowstorm did not end the fall colors here in the city.  Since I assume that storm can be considered our "first frost," that means we are now well into Indian Summer (or is it Native American Summer these days?).  In any case, the temperatures are expected to remain in the 60s and 70s for the foreseeable future.  Which means plenty of bike riding opportunities.  Let the good times roll.

Living The Good Life...

My cousin John and his wife Barb just moved into their new home overlooking Tacoma, Washington.  Barb recently posted the above photograph on Facebook of the view from their bedroom at sunrise, which is stunning to say the least.  Someone posted a question on her Facebook page as to whether the view was as good in the "cousins" room, and she replied that it was.  Hey! I am, in point of fact, an actual, honest to God, legally certified cousin, too.  And therefore it sounds like I have a room there.  Perfect! Should I call first or just show up with my suitcase?  Probably best to just surprise them. I would only stay 6 months or so.  After all, as the old saying goes, "fish and visitors stink after 6 months." Or something like that.

The Bonnie Brae Brigade

It isn't actually a brigade - more like a group - but I like the alliteration when I use brigade.  So there. In any case, a number of us former and current University of Denver employees got together last night for food and beer at the Bonnie Brae Tavern, located - logically enough - in Denver's Bonnie Brae neighborhood. We all had a lot of catching up to do since we last got together.  It seems everyone has a lot going on these days (except for me, of course).  Going around the table counterclockwise  in the above photograph, starting at the bottom right, is Holly, the girlfriend of Wally and Linda's son Peter (who works in San Francisco and will be back in town this weekend for a visit).  Next to her is Mark, who works at DU's Anderson Academic Commons (the library) and recently had his car totaled coming back from grocery shopping.  Mark is a car buff, and a member of Denver's Jaguar Club. It seems logical to me that Mark should buy a new Jaguar, right?  He is not convinced.  We all finally decided he should buy an Alfa Romeo. Working at DU he can certainly afford it.

Next is Wally, who says he hates traveling, but who travels more often than anyone I know.  Wally recently got back from an 18 day or so road trip to the upper peninsula of Michigan to help his sister move to a new home, and who flew out to San Francisco the day after he returned to attend a non-stop, 24 hour reading of Moby Dick at the Maritime Museum there (his son Peter read one of the chapters).  Wally was the Operations Manager at the DU Bookstore when I worked there, and stayed on after the bookstore was outsourced to Follett Higher Education Group.  A few months ago he checked the schedule and was not on it for the following week, and so decided to "retire."  He is still not sure if he really retired or was fired. Follett is such a strange, secretive organization they won't even acknowledge your employment status.

Next to Wally is Bill, who used to be the DU Bookstore's Operations Coordinator (but is now happily retired), and his wife Renee, who works at REI, the outdoor cooperative.  Bill and Renee recently returned from Bill's 50th high school reunion in Los Angeles, where they had a really great time and are singing the praises of El Segundo, which I have never heard of until last night.  They also drove to California last April and told of great (and reasonably priced) places they visited near the Monterrey Peninsula (I took notes). And last but not least is Linda, Wally's wife, who works for Denver Public Schools and wants the world to know that she does not have a high opinion of Follett Higher Education Group (she didn't exactly put it that way but I am trying to be tactful).  And then there is me, waiting to file for social security in a couple of months so that I too can finally lead the good life.  I know this is a long blog, but it is Saturday, after all, so you should be able to make time to read it.  Right?  Right?

A New Photo Project?

It has been a number of years since my last photo project, when I put together a "Blurb" book documenting a trip from Rome to Granada.  Things got pretty hectic after that, and I barely had time to take photographs for my blog, let alone work on anything else.  However, now that I am retired I thought I might put together a "Blurb" book about my Great Aunt Viola, who (to the best of my knowledge) is pictured in the photograph on the left.  Back in the late 1960s, as my father Nelson was preparing to sell his parent's home in the South Side Brainerd neighborhood of Chicago, I went through the crawlspace in the basement and found not only a whole bunch of books (many of which my sister Susan seized, but I am not bitter about that), but also a photo album/postcard book that belonged to Viola Thayer of Clear Lake, Iowa.  I asked my father about it, and he told me it belonged to his father's half sister, who died back in 1910 at the age of 17.  Evidently the album was thrown in the crawlspace after she died and never taken out again until I stumbled onto it.  It has been in boxes, or just sitting around the various apartments I have lived in, ever since.  I always though it would be an interesting project to work on, but as I said, I just never got around to it.  Until now.  Maybe.

Visiting Rocky Mountain National Park - Part II

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, my friend Stuart and I visited Rocky Mountain Park this past Tuesday, and it was a perfect day for it - not a cloud in the sky and very mild (for the mountains, that is).  As we headed toward Bear Lake, there were a number of cars parked on the side of the road, and so we stopped to see what everybody was looking at.  It turns out it was a herd of elk, and I was able to photograph the elk in the photograph on the left in an unguarded moment. Alas, no moose were in sight, and we did not spot a single moose the entire day.  Why is it that every night on the local television news they show people being head-butted by moose, moose trying to stomp small dogs, and all manner of bears going through everyone's trash, but yet when you head out into the wilds yourself, you never see a thing?  It is damn unfair.

I guess I will just have to be happy looking at the scenery, which is pretty damn spectacular, if I say so myself. As we were about to head back down Trail Ridge Road to leave the park, I snapped the photograph on the right, showing the afternoon clouds rolling in over the mountaintops.  As I have mentioned many time before, my brother-in-law George loved to go hiking up into those clouds, and the snow would get deeper and deeper. And then, at the point where we could no longer see more than a few feet, my then wife Lisa would start sobbing and demand we turn around.  We would then head back to the car and down to Estes Park and drink beer.  When you have a routine that works, you need to stick with it, right?

A Visit To Rocky Mountain National Park

My friend Stuart and I drove up to Rocky Mountain National Park yesterday to check out the scenery, and as usual it was spectacular.  This was the first time I have been back to the park since I bought my senior pass, which allows everyone over 62 to get into all the national parks for free.  That has to have been well over a year ago now.  And why haven't I visited more often since it is now free and Rocky Mountain National Park is a mere hour and forty-five minutes away?  The same reason people live five miles from the ocean and never visit.  It know it will always be there, but you just never get around to going.  In any case, our first stop was Bear Lake, one of the the park's most popular sites, where I snapped the photograph of Stuart on the left.

Bear Lake is a very pretty area, and there is a relatively easy hiking trail that goes around it, making it a popular spot for tourists.  As you can see from the photograph on the right, the lake is partially frozen, and there is a fair amount of snow on the ground this time of year.  After visiting Bear Lake, we headed down the mountain a mile or so to Glacier Gorge Trail, my favorite place to hike in the park.  It was a little muddy, and neither of us brought hiking boots, and so we decided to head up Trail Ridge Road to the point where it is closed due to heavy snow until next year.  I suggested that Stuart lift up the gate so we could drive onward, but since he was not enthusiastic about the idea, we turned around and parked at the overlook a short distance back instead.

The photo on the left is actually an optical illusion.  When standing at the overlook, you can see across the valley to the snow covered peaks beyond. However, if you stand far enough away from the overlook and take the photograph with a zoom lens, it looks as though the people standing there can actually touch those mountains, making for a very dramatic shot.  This technique, as well as many others used by photographers such as Ansel Adams, have been applied long before anyone ever thought of Photoshop. Just my little reminder that manipulating photographs is nothing new. And after admiring the views, Stuart and I left the park and stopped on the way back in Boulder, dining at The Post Brewing Company.  They have great beer and great chicken sandwiches there, by the way, and you can never beat the fun atmosphere of a college town like Boulder.  A perfect end to the day.

Our Non-Anniversary

Today is the day my ex-wife Lisa and I got married in Golden, Colorado back in 1982.  It is not technically an anniversary, but certainly a day I remember each year. I am not sure what to call it, but always like to recognize the day on this blog with a photograph.  The one on the left is a cropped image from a larger photograph taken of us around 1984 at Rocky Mountain National Park. A very long time ago for sure.  We are both two different people now.  Ironically, my friend Stuart and I are driving up to Rocky Mountain Park today.  Since the photo of Lisa and I was taken in August, and Stuart and I are driving up there in mid-October, I imagine there will probably be a lot more snow on the ground today. In any case, if you see reports on television of two hikers lost in the wilds, don't worry.  It couldn't be us. We are both from Chicago (Stuart from the North Side and me from the South Side), and so we know our way around.  I think.

Winter Returns

We had what I consider Denver's first measurable snowfall yesterday, although officially our first snowfall was on October 6th, when half an inch fell on Denver International Airport.  The airport is technically part of Denver, but since it is now located close to the Kansas State Line, I personally don't consider that valid. And so I am featuring a photograph of the pool at my condo, with all the white stuff surrounding it, which I took on my way out the door on the way to Fort Collins.

Since it was 68 degrees the day before, the snow, which measured only about 3 inches, did not stick on the streets, and so it was an easy drive up to the "fort." When I got to my sister Susan's place, it looked to me like they received about the same amount of snow, although the trees certainly dropped a lot of leaves throughout the neighborhood, including on my late brother-in-law George's car. Hopefully there will be enough leaves left on the trees to change color in the next week or two.

And just for fun I took a photograph out the window of Susan's living room, showing the snow on the patio table outside.  Since both newspapers and television stations have cut back on photographers these days, newspaper reporters are now supplied with cameras to take their own photographs and the local television news programs ask viewers to send in their photographs.  I remember reading a few years back that a television news anchor actually criticized viewers for sending in photographs like the one on the left, instructing them to send in something more original. You get what you pay for, guys, as do blog readers for that matter, but I am including the photograph anyway.

One Depressed Looking Dog

I took the above photograph of a very depressed looking dog on the 16th Street Mall here in Denver a few weeks ago on a walk from the Tattered Cover Bookstore (where I used to work as the bookkeeper) to Denver's Union Station, where I took the light rail back to my condo.  This is one sad looking dog, and although it was starting to get pretty damn chilly outside, I think this dog has issues, and the owner definitely needs to take it to a dogie psychiatrist (at $100 an hour still a bargain) so it can work them all out.  I was planning to wait until the owner showed up so I could suggest this, but the temperature was dropping and it was getting colder by the minute, and so I said to hell with it.  And yes, I guess I am becoming a curmudgeon.

The Other Woman

I just finished reading The Other Woman, Daniel Silva's latest Gabriel Allon spy thriller.  This time Allon is on the trail of a Russian mole who has penetrated the highest levels of the western intelligence community, and the fate of the free world is at stake.  I originally put my name on the waiting list at the Denver Public Library, but when I found out I was something like number 2,000 on the waiting list, I decided to treat myself and buy a copy using my employee discount at the Tattered Cover Bookstore, on the last day of my employment there. And I have to say it was worth it.  The story was so engrossing I could hardly put the book down.  I heartily recommend it.  I suggest you buy a copy at your local bookstore immediately! And if you don't like it, feel free to mail me a copy of your receipt.  I won't reimburse you, but it might make you feel better doing it. And no thanks necessary.  That's just the kind of guy I am.

Old Chicago Memories

My friend Stuart and I had dinner last night at the Old Chicago Pizza and Taproom on Colorado Boulevard here in Southeast Denver.  We have been going to this particular Old Chicago for many years now.  In fact, we even went here before it was an Old Chicago, back when it was called Fenway Park.  The ghosts of old Red Sox fans have been replaced for many years now by boisterous Cubs fans (currently saddened by the elimination of both the Chicago Cubs and the Colorado Rockies from baseball's playoffs), but the place still seems to draw a good crowd.  And yes - Stuart is wearing his University of Denver sweatshirt to show off this allegiance to that school, where he received a Masters Degree In International Studies.  I myself am also a DU graduate, receiving an MBA back in 1989.  As regular blog readers know, I was also the Finance Manager of the DU Bookstore for almost 30 years until they outsourced the store to Follett Higher Education Group without a second thought, refusing to offer the employees alternative work at the university. And no, I myself was not wearing any DU paraphernalia last night.

Goodbye Gates - Hello Broadway Station!

Recently I took the light rail train home from Denver's Union Station and noticed as we passed the site of the old Gates rubber plant that bulldozers were digging up the ground there.  The Gates rubber plant closed years ago, after all the manufacturing moved offshore. A grand plan was announced to redevelop the area, but then the big recession of 2008 hit and the factory remained standing, a very popular target for "urban explorers." In any case, the place was finally torn down in April of 2014, which is when I took the above photograph of it in mid-demolition.  And now, after years of planning, community meetings, and negotiations with city hall, this 41 acre plot of land is being redeveloped into a mixed use, "transit oriented development" site.  The renderings on the Broadway Station website (http://www.broadwaystation.com/site-vision.html) look pretty nice, actually.  Of course, it is only 2 miles to the west of my condo, which probably means that traffic will be even worse around here, but I guess by now the neighbors are resigned to it.  How much worse can it get?  Welcome to the neighborhood, Broadway Station!

Does All The World Really Love A Clown?

Things have really changed since Judy Garland and Gene Kelly sang that particular song back in the 1940s. In fact, I would have to say that nearly half the zombies at last Saturday's Denver Zombie Crawl down on the 16th Street Mall were clowns.  Clowns really have a bad rap these days.  It wasn't always so, of course. They used to be one of the highlights of the circus when it came to town.  Often they were seen as tragic figures. My sister Susan met a number of clowns that my Grandfather Spillard knew from his days back in vaudeville. Once vaudeville died, the circus was often the only place they could get jobs, and getting laughs even there was often a struggle for them.  Now of course circuses are mostly gone, thanks to the efforts of PETA.  But, in any case, I do have to admit the zombie clowns do seem pretty damn creepy.

Denver's Zombie Crisis

Denver's zombie crisis is getting worse instead of better.  You see them all over town now, but especially on the 16th Street Mall downtown.  Often you see them walking down the street with their children, such as in the photograph on the left.

Sometimes you see zombie couples strolling about town, as in the photo on the right.  They do seem a bit skeletal, I have to say.  Probably hipster zombies trying to look fashionable thin.

You even see them in restaurants these days, perusing menus, acting and talking just like regular folk.

In fact, zombies have become so prevalent here in the Denver area that a special day has been put aside where they can celebrate their zombieness.  It is called the Denver Zombie Crawl, and it took place last Saturday on the 16th Street Mall.  They even had a zombie 'beauty" contest, and there was a stage where people could dance to zombie music, like the couple on the right.  Where will it all end?

When is President Trump going to recognize what I assume is a national crisis and do something?  Oh. Oh.  I can see a problem with that outcome by looking at the photograph on the left.  And he is wearing a button that says "Make America Dead Again." Not good.

Columbus Day - No Longer A School Holiday...

Today is Columbus Day, which is both a federal and state holiday here in Colorado, and also a day banks are closed, too.  However, whenever I think of Columbus Day, I think of getting a day off from school, which is why I am featuring a photograph of my teacher, Mrs. McCormick, taken inside our classroom at Fort Dearborn Grammar School, in the South Side Chicago Brainerd neighborhood, back in the early 1960s.  I think I might have even gotten a reprimand for taking this photograph, but I was still able to keep it and get it developed for history's sake, and also to show what I was getting a reprieve from. However, these days Columbus Day is not a school holiday in most places, since the day is now considered politically incorrect.  They still have Columbus Day parades, but even these have stirred controversy.  For a while each year the Columbus Day parade here in Denver would be protested by Native American organizations, and the event often descended into mayhem.  This hasn't happened lately, however.  In fact, the parade gets no publicity at all these days. Coincidence?

Resuming The Walk Down 17th Street

I have missed the walk I used to take from the Tattered Cover Bookstore (where I used to work as the bookkeeper) to Denver's Union Station, where I would take the light rail train home.  Therefore, this past Friday afternoon I decided to take the bus up to the corner of Colfax and Josephine and walk from there down 17th street to the light rail train, just like in the good old days. When I boarded the bus in front of my condo, it was sunny and 72 degrees, and when I got off, it was 54 degrees with a very strong (and damnably cold) wind, and so it was a chilly walk without a coat, but still tolerable.  In any case, I really enjoyed walking down 17th Street, seeing all the changes that have occurred since I last took that walk.  I noticed some really nice older buildings (like the one in the top left of the above collage), plus a huge new building that was just a hole in the ground the last time I passed by (as seen in the upper right and lower left of the collage).  What I really noticed most was that a significant number of restaurants and bars have closed their doors along my route, especially along the 16th Street Mall.  Has Denver finally reached the saturation point for hipster bars (such as the pop up one in the bottom right of the collage)?  Has the endless stream of hipsters coming to Denver finally stopped?  I hope not, since there are a huge number of apartment buildings still being built for them all over town.  This could be the start of a major crisis for Denver.  And so for God's sake, wherever you live, PLEASE SEND US YOUR HIPSTERS.  We need them now more than ever.

Another DAM Self Portrait

I took the above photo last week at the Denver Art Museum (The DAM), where I went to see Rembrandt: Painter as Printmaker,  currently on display through January 9th.  It is a very good exhibit, and I strongly recommend seeing it while it is here.  The Denver Art Museum is the sole venue for the show (made possible no doubt due to blackmail photographs), and is a collaboration with the Bibliotheque national de France. After touring it, I walked around the museum to see what else was new, and ran across an exhibit featuring Julie Buffalohead, whose work delves into issues of American Indian culture. I took took the above "selfie" (I hate that word, by the way) in front of one of her works.  I hate to be culturally insensitive, but I find her work pretty damn weird.  Would you really put that painting over your sofa?  The exhibit is sponsored by Vicki and Kent Logan, who are big donors to the contemporary art collection at the DAM. To me, most of the art work they donate to the museum is beyond strange, but that is, of course, just my opinion.  However, one of my ambitions is to come up with a contemporary art piece so weird that they will buy it from me for big bucks.  Everyone has to have a dream, after all.

A DAM Fine Exhibit

I went to the Denver Art Museum (The DAM) last week to see the new Rembrandt exhibit.  It focuses on Rembrandt's etchings and his skill as a print-maker.  It was Final Friday, a monthly event that combines art, tours, and performances of various kinds. However, that event didn't start until 6:00 P.M., and ever since the museum discontinued the buffet table, Final Friday has lost a lot of it's charm.  And so I decided to go in the afternoon instead, when I thought I would have the place to myself.  Actually, the exhibit was crowded with both older people (in other words, my age) and students. Which was okay, of course. I guess after working all these years every day, I forgot that many people have a lot of free time during the day.

In any case, I really enjoyed seeing the Rembrandt exhibit.  The etchings were quite good, and it was pretty interesting to learn that Rembrandt concentrated on print-making so much because he could make a good living at it. I was kind of shocked, however, to find that an early Rembrandt self portrait, which I have seen many times before and is one of his most famous works, is only about 2 inches square. I had to take off my glasses to be able to see it clearly.  The thing I like most about it is that Rembrandt was able to capture my true inner feelings over 300 years before I was born.  A true genius.

Attending An Autographing With Wally And Darrel

This past Tuesday evening I got together with my old University of Denver Bookstore friends and colleagues Wally and Darrel (seen in the photograph from left to right, respectively) to attend a talk and autographing by Susan Shulten, a DU history professor on the occasion of the publication of her new book A History of America in 100 Maps.  We decided to meet first at The Goods, a restaurant and bar adjoining the Tattered Cover Bookstore, and afterwards headed next door to the event.  Darrel had just gotten back from his 50th high school reunion in Waterloo, Iowa, while Wally was about to embark on an 18 day trip to visit his sister in St. Ignace, in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and so we had much to talk about.

Afterwards, we went next door to the Tattered Cover Bookstore (my former employer, I might add) to attend the presentation by University of Denver Professor Susan Shulten.  Shulten was a favorite professor of Wally's son Peter - a DU graduate now working for a tech start-up in San Francisco - and so Wally wound up getting 2 books signed (as seen in the photo on the right), one for his son and one for him to read on the trip to Michigan. Darrel also bought a copy.  Me? No.  But on the other hand, the Tattered Cover ran out of books, and if I hadn't given the copy I was perusing to Wally, he would have been out of luck.  No thanks necessary, Wally.  It is what we cheapskates do.

Rocktober Continues!

My friend Stuart (seen in the photograph above) and I got together for dinner at the Old Chicago Restaurant in beautiful, exotic, but very strange Lakewood, Colorado Monday night and watched the last few innings of the one game tiebreaker between the Colorado Rockies and the Los Angeles Dodgers.  The Rockies lost 5 to 2, and earlier in the day the Chicago Cubs lost their tiebreaker to the Milwaukee Brewers 3 to 1.  Those two teams met last night in a one game playoff that decided who would move on to the National League Division Series.  Both Stuart and I predicted the Cubs were going to win that one.  Wrong again.  The Cubs will be joining my South Side Chicago heros the Chicago White Sox on the golf course this October while the Colorado Rockies move on to the National League Division Series.  Although it wasn't easy for them - the Rockies beat the Cubs 2 to 1 in 13 innings last night in a 5 hour contest, and head to Milwaukee to play the Brewers Thursday.  Go Rockies!

The Rockies Versus The Cubs...

Both the Colorado Rockies and the Chicago Cubs played a one game tiebreaker yesterday to decide who would win their respective divisions, and both lost (surprise!).  They will therefore meet each other today in a one game playoff at Wrigley Field (seen in the above photo back in 1935) to see who will advance to the National League Division Series.  The Cubs lost to the Milwaukee Brewers and the Rockies lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers.  The only good news is that one of them has to win tonight's game. In any case, the above photograph comes from the 2018 CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) Historical Calendar, and shows Chicago's Wrigley Field after one of the 1935 World Series games between the Chicago Cubs and Detroit Tigers.  The Cubs lost that series to Detroit 4 games to 2. Not a surprise. Of course, I should not be so hard on either the Cubs or the Rockies.  My South Side heros, the Chicago White Sox, wound up losing 100 games this year.  And no, I am not surprised at all.