Garden And Gun Magazine

I dropped off my car at an autobody shop here in Denver a few weeks ago to have the bumper replaced, and while waiting for the service person, spotted Garden and Gun Magazine on a table in the waiting room. And I thought to myself, "Oh sure, some damn redneck publication glorifying guns and the Second Amendment." I did not have time to look at it, but when I returned to pick up the car, I was able to go through a couple of issues and saw that my original impression was quite wrong. This magazine was started in 2007 by the Evening Post Publishing Company, located in Charleston, South Carolina, and the name comes from a popular 1970s era Charleston disco called the Garden and Gun Club. Garden and Gun is actually all about the South, and covers "art, skeet-shooting, gardens, Southern tradition, and land conservation." I looked through several older issues with articles such as "A Quail Hunting Revival in 'Bama," "Get Lost on Georgia's Ossabow Island," "Our Favorite Antiquing Towns," and "New Twists on the Old-Fashioned." In other words, kind of like a Southern version of Chicago Magazine. And on November 1st, the second annual edition of G and C Weddings: Celebrate in Southern Style, comes out. I do have to note that the title of this special edition is G and C Weddings, not Garden and Gun Weddings, which to me would imply it was about another Southern tradition, the shotgun wedding. Now THAT would be a very interesting issue.

Walking The DU Campus With Stuart

My friend Stuart and I had lunch at QDOBA Mexican Eats here in Denver yesterday afternoon and afterwards, just for old times' sake, decided to walk the University of Denver campus. Stuart got a master's degree at DU back in the early 1980s, and I myself got an MBA while working as the Finance Manager of the University of Denver Bookstore. DU was $30 million under budget last year and this year had to reduce staff and cut expenses in order to achieve a balanced fiscal 2027 budget. Nevertheless, the campus itself still looks really good. This is Homecoming Week at DU, and Stuart and I were originally planning to attend the Homecoming Pregame Party this Saturday. I attended this event a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it. At that time, you could hang out at the party with the option of buying food and drink tickets if you so chose, but this year I read that you have to purchase a $20 ticket to gain entrance to the event, and so we decided to skip it. Having to pay $20 to be able to mix with fellow alums does not sound like a bargain to me. But no matter - it was still fun just to walk around the campus. Stuart was very impressed with the new buildings, especially the student center, which has great views of the campus and the mountains from the 4th floor rooftop deck. And yes, that is indeed Stuart in the photograph above, with University Hall, built in 1892 and the first building to be built on this campus, in the background. I suggested to Stuart that he make a donation to his old alma mater to help it through its financial difficulties, but he did not seem enthusiastic about it. As for me, I worked at the DU Bookstore for almost 30 years and feel I have already donated enough.

The Oriental Theater: Still Weird After All These Years

I took the photograph above of the Oriental Theater this past Saturday while attending the Tennyson Fall Fest. The festival took place on Tennyson Street in Denver's Berkley neighborhood, and since the Oriental was only half a block away, I decided to check it out. This theater opened in 1927 as a movie theater but closed in 1960. After standing empty for 45 years, it was purchased by Scott Labarbera, who turned it into a live music venue in 2005. It closed for renovations for a period of time after part of the structure almost fell on concert goers, which is almost always a negative, but reopened in 2012, which was the year I went to the theater for the first and only time to see a documentary called Grandma Goth. This documentary was about Suelynn Gustafson, the owner of an antique and costume store on South Broadway here in Denver called Flossy McGrew's, which she decorated with several coffins, skeletons, and skulls. Suelynn was an acquaintance of my friend Valarie, who was the Operations Manager of the University of Denver Bookstore when I worked there and invited me to attend. As I recall, there was a bit of a controversy that night because Gustafson did not attend. Valarie was not pleased. And the documentary? Definitely kind of weird. And as I looked at the Oriental's marquee this past Saturday, I saw that Lords of Acid are appearing there tonight. I looked up Lords of Acid on Wikipedia, which says that "the band is known for their provocative lyrics, blending techno, acid house, and industrial music with themes of sexuality, drug use, and hedonism." Glad to know the Oriental is still as weird as ever. And as a public service, I checked online and found that the doors open at 6:30 P.M., the show starts at 7:30, and YES! -  tickets are still available. And it is an "All Ages" event, so bring the kids! Like I said - weird.

Gaia Masala and Burger

My friend Mark, sister Susan (seen in the photograph above) and I went to Gaia Masala and Burger Saturday night at 6th and Grant Street in central Denver. This is an Indian restaurant which also offers American style burgers, and has 9 locations across the U.S., from New York to San Francisco. The parking lot was packed with cars, and we were lucky to get a spot by the Wendy' s located in the same shopping center. The restaurant was filled with a very diverse group of dinners when we arrived - people of Indian descent, families with children, older couples, bikers with their helmets still on, and us, too. Mark loves Indian food, and no surprise, that is what he ordered. Susan and I both had hamburgers (obviously, we are not adventurous eaters), but I must say, those hamburgers were very good indeed. They even had IPA on tap, so what could be better? I can definitely recommend giving this place a try, and Mark says it is one of his favorite Indian restaurants. So there you go - what more reason do you need?

Why Did The Elk Cross The Road?

You already know the answer to that question, but I do have to say that elk sightings around Evergreen, Colorado are still pretty minimal right now. I was lucky enough to take the photograph above of those two elk yesterday afternoon as I was driving on Upper Bear Creek Road, an unincorporated area just to the west of Evergreen. The elk in this area spend the summer in the high alpine and subalpine regions of Mount Blue Sky (formerly Mount Evans) and then move downhill toward Evergreen as the snow arrives, usually once it reaches a depth of about 18 inches. They seek out south-facing slopes and valley bottoms where the snow is shallower and where grass and shrubs are accessible. Since the snow totals are about 15 inches at the top of Mount Blue Sky right now, the herds should be appearing in and around Evergreen any week now. I have photographed these herds occupying large swaths of the Evergreen Golf Course, and in the vacant lots and front yards of houses along Meadow Drive, just across from the Hiwan Heritage Park and Museum. It is fun to see them in such large groups, lounging on the grass and calmly looking back at you as you take their photographs. I definitely intend to head back to Evergreen this winter to see them, as long as the weather is clear and you won't find yourself in a sudden snowstorm. These days, if you get stuck on Interstate 70 without chains or proper tires, the fines start at $600. That is far too high a price to pay to take elk photos, no matter how many there are in those herds.

Breckenridge In The Fall

The weekend before last I drove up to Breckenridge from Denver just to hang out a bit in that lovely town, and it made for a perfect Sunday afternoon. There were lots of visitors on Main Street checking out the shops, and plenty of people on the outdoor patios in front of the restaurants that line the street. I suspect, like me, most of the visitors had driven up from the Denver metro area, since this is the off season right now. Between Labor Day and the start of the ski season, out of town visitors are few and far between. Last winter's hot, dry weather resulted in ski tourism in the Rocky Mountain West declining by 6 million visitors, and ski resorts are working on providing more resort offerings other than skiing to get them to come back, no matter what the ski conditions are. But everyone is still hoping that the 2026 El Nino will bring a lot more snow to the region this season.

The drought conditions here in Colorado are still pretty severe. I walked through Blue River Plaza, filled with gold-colored aspens, as seen in the photograph on the right, to the river itself, and found that it was completely dry. Not a good situation at all. In any case, the plaza was decorated for Halloween, and lots of people were hanging out there, sitting on the benches, enjoying the view of the mountains. This plaza, by the way, is the center of Breckenridge Oktoberfest every year, with a stage set up where they actually play traditional German music during the festival, as opposed to other Oktoberfests in the state, which seem to feature only rap music and hard rock. Perhaps that is a modern-day Germanic tradition. But if so, what a bummer.

Recently I read a USA Today article listing Lending Tree's top ten most expensive small towns in America. Number one was Nantucket, number two Vineyard Haven (on Martha's Vineyard), number three Jackson, Wyoming, and number four - you guessed it - Breckenridge. The median home value is $748,200 and almost half of those dwellings are seasonal residences. I remember my ex-wife's family once owned a condo in Breckenridge back in the 1970s and went skiing there every weekend during the season. And then there were several years in a row with very little snow, and they sold it. In hindsight, it was a mistake to sell, but on the other hand, it would have meant 50 years of HOA payments and upkeep before the value of that condo reached what it is today. I myself am not going to bother calculating which alternative would have been best. The moral of the story, Breckenridge homeowners, is not to sell based on a year or two of little snow. Mother Nature will always fool you. But as far as I am concerned, making the hour and a half drive up to Breckenridge from Denver whenever you want is a much cheaper alternative than actually owning a place there. Even if you do have the $748,000 to spare. And since we are now in "America's New Golden Age," who doesn't, right?

The Tennyson Fall Fest

My sister Susan and I attended the Tennyson Fall Fest in Denver's Berkley neighborhood yesterday afternoon, and I must say I was impressed with both the size of the festival and the huge crowd it attracted. It went for four blocks along Tennyson, and there were over 150 vendors selling art, jewelry, food (of course), and lots and lots of clothing. You could find enough T-shirts there to supply you for the rest of your life. And it looked like people were in a buying mood, too. At one booth, as seen in the photograph on the left, they were selling an old Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer poster. After I saw it, the Pabst Blue Ribbon jingle from the 1950s and 60s television commercials kept going through my head the rest of the afternoon - "What'll you have, Pabst Blue Ribbon, what'll you have, Pabst Blue Ribbon"... Thanks for that, Pabst! Even Fungi Farmz had a booth, with a handwritten sign saying, "Ask me about psychedelics." We didn't ask.

It looked to me like every other person had a dog with them at this festival, which seemed a bit odd until I remembered that there was a pet parade from 10:00 until 11:00 that morning, followed by a pet costume contest. Which explains why the dog in the photograph on the right was dressed in what I think was a Halloween outfit. It reminded me of a cartoon I once saw showing a pet owner balancing a dog biscuit on his dog's nose, and a bubble over the dog with its thoughts: "This time I really am going to kill him." I wonder if that was what this particular dog was thinking as I took its photograph. In any case, this was a really great community event, and well worth attending, even if you didn't have a dog.