Happy Belated Wedding Anniversary Susan And George!

I visited my sister Susan and brother-in-law George up in Fort Collins Saturday evening and realized that in all the excitement of my trip down to Florida, I forgot to mention in this Blog that their 46th wedding anniversary was that same weekend in August. And so now, I want to wish them a belated Happy Anniversary. And as you can see from the photograph on the left, they haven't changed a bit over the years (see yesterday's Blog).  This photograph was taken outside the Office of the Justice of the Peace in Evanston, Illinois, where they were married back in 1969.  Afterwards, we went to the Cape Cod Room in the Drake Hotel to celebrate.  That was when I first learned - at the tender age of 16 - that some restrooms actually have attendants that expect to be tipped.  It was a very traumatic experience.  But I digress.  After dinner, Susan asked if they could borrow my father's 1963 Pontiac Grand Prix to drive up to Wisconsin for their honeymoon.  And that is how my mother, father, grandmother, and I wound up taking the Illinois Central (the IC) home that evening, having to wait at the Homewood Station for my cousin Betty to come pick us up.  Not that I'm bitter about something that happened 46 years ago.  No way.  Not me.

Dinner With Susan And George

I drove up to Fort Collins Sunday afternoon to have dinner with my sister Susan and brother-in-law George. Just as I took the above photograph, my camera went dead.  I changed the battery and it still didn't work. My sister said "good riddance" and seemed much cheerier the rest of the evening.  Which brings up the age-old question - what is the deal with people not wanting their photograph taken?  I find that especially true with the chronologically challenged.  In any case, my batteries just needed to be recharged, and so once again I have my camera with me 24/7.  Watch out world - here I come!

The Last Rockies Home Game of the Season!

Yes - I admit it.  I attended the last Colorado Rockies home game of the season, even though the team is once again one of the worst teams in baseball.  But, on the bright side, they are now mathematically eliminated from losing 100 games, and so will not go down as one of the worst teams in baseball history. Plus, not only was it a nice afternoon, the Rockies actually won the game and afterwards circled the ballpark to say goodbye to their fans.  I was sitting in left field this year, and was able to take photographs of some of the Rockies players interacting with fans. In the photograph above, starting at the top left and going clockwise, are start Carlos Gonzales, Nolan Arenado, outfielder Charlie Blackmon, and coach Eric Young, who hit the first home run at Mile High Stadium back in 1993.  And so what if the team stinks.  Wait'll  next year, guys!

The Great American Beer Festival

This weekend the Great American Beer Festival took place at the Denver Convention Center, and as usual, it was sold out for all three days (Thursday thru Saturday) within minutes of tickets going on sale.  It is a pretty pricey event, and so I have never actually attended - surprise! - but it seems to take over the media spotlight here in Denver every year.  There are something like 200 (or possibly 2000) breweries represented, and you are given a mug so that you can sample each one.  It attracts people from all over the country, as well as all the world for all I know.  And it is the out-of-towners who I am most worried about. Denverites already know that there is a huge blue bear peering into the convention center window (top left photograph), but visitors to Denver do not.  What happens after they sample all 2,000 brews, step out into the lobby, and see that?  I hope there were plenty of paramedics on hand.

Final Friday September!

Yes, hard as it is to believe, but yesterday was the last Friday in September, and October will soon be upon us. And, since I had the night off from my part-time job at a local outlet of a chain drugstore (think Chia Pets), I was able to attend last night's Final Friday events at the Denver Art Museum (The DAM).  As you can see from the photos on the left, the DAM is divided into two buildings: the recently constructed Hamilton Building in the photo on the top, and the Ponte Building in the photo on the bottom.  The Hamilton Building is of course very modern in its design, while the Ponte Building is for some reason designed to look  like a French Fort.  In point of fact, it looks exactly like the fort used in the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. In fact, I am not convinced those scenes were not shot here.  I'll have to look into that.

In any case, my first stop was at the buffet table. After all, I am myself an an "Artiste" and I need to keep up my strength.  When I first started attending these events, they actually provided hot horderves such as meatballs and chicken wings.  I really used to fill up on that stuff back then and make that my main meal.  Then, right after I started attending, they dropped the hot horderves and provided only snacks.  Probably just a coincidence.

As usual, one of the highlights of the evening was the Buntport Theater Company presenting "The Joan and Charlie Show,"  based on one of the museum's quirky paintings.  This couple are highly entertaining and very funny.  They keep mentioning at the end of their performance that you can attend other performances at their nearby theater, but I think you might have to pay money for that.

The highlight of the evening was strolling through the new exhibit at the DAM, entitled In Bloom: Painting Flowers in the Age of Impressionism.  There were paintings of flowers by Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, as well as other rock stars from the age of impressionism. The best part was that the museum had its time machine working again, and you could take a stroll through Monet's garden back in 1800s France and meet Monet himself (see photo at right). At least I think that's what happened.  Must have had a few beers.

Good Times At The Jolly Sailor Pub

I was cleaning up my apartment the other day and ran across the photograph on the left, taken of myself, my mother Mary, and sister Susan outside the Jolly Sailor Pub in downtown Stuart, Florida.  It was taken a number of years ago, but I can't remember just when.  The Jolly Sailor Pub always used to have a London Cab parked in front of the place, and was quite a favorite with the locals. However, downtown Stuart soon became very popular and trendy, and as a result, the rents went up and the Jolly Sailor Pub disappeared.  What I didn't realize until this past August - sitting at an outdoor bar alongside a marina, watching the sun set over the St. Lucie River - was that the Jolly Sailor Pub did not go out of business, but simply moved.  I shrewdly looked over the entrance to the bar this past August and saw the iconic Jolly Sailor Pub sign hanging there. It looked very familiar, but it took some background info from the couple sitting next to me to remember the place, and where it was originally located.  And as far as I'm concerned, downtown Stuart is pretty nice, but sitting at an outside bar watching the sun set over the St. Lucie River is a much better place to be, even if there aren't any trendy boutiques nearby.

A Return To The DAM

I'm afraid I have not been able to visit the Denver Art Museum (The DAM, seen in the background of the above photograph) as often as I would have liked this year.  Due to working a part-time job in the evenings, I have missed a lot of Final Fridays, the monthly event the museum puts on with all kinds of lectures, events, and most importantly, free food.  One Final Friday, as loyal Blog readers will remember, I actually saw Fidel Castro and his wife Posh (probably a second marriage) at the museum, and overheard that they were looking to buy a house in the Denver area. Granted, it was Halloween, but I still think he was the real deal.  In any case, the new schedule came out for my part-time job and I am off until next Tuesday night.  And tomorrow is - you guessed it - Final Friday at the DAM.  Let the good times roll!  Perhaps Fidel and Posh will be there too.  One can only hope.

The Governor's Wife

I am currently reading Michael Harvey's latest Chicago private eye novel, featuring PI Michael Kelly, titled The Governor's Wife.  As usual, it is a pretty good read, and makes me very nostalgic for Chicago.  Of course, most if not all of the story takes place on Chicago's North Side, but those of us from the South Side of Chicago are used to that kind of North Side  prejudice.  As humorist Jean Shepherd once said, do you know what it's like to be a South Sider in a world of North Siders?  Well, let me tell you about that...

Catching A Rockies Game With Mark

I went to Coors Field to see the Colorado Rockies play the Pittsburgh Pirates last night with my friend Mark, who works at the University of Denver's Penrose Library (The Academic Commons).  And just as on the previous night watching football with Stuart - when the talk quickly turned to baseball - last night as we watched the baseball game, the talk quickly turned to soccer. What's the deal with that?  Perhaps because the Rockies stink.  They lost 9 to 3, and the game wasn't nearly as close as the score indicates.  In any case, Mark is off on a vacation to Russia in a couple of weeks.  He is going to try and bring back a Putin Bobblehead Doll as a souvenir for me.  Hopefully he can buy one from a street vendor before they are both carted away by the KGB, or it's modern equivalent. But I'm sure it is a much kinder and gentler KGB these days, so no problem.

Catching Some Football With Stuart

My friend Stuart came over to my place with a pizza yesterday afternoon to watch Sunday night football. The game was pretty boring - the score stayed the same for about 4 hours and there was a contested play every 5 minutes.  Not that that can't be fun. But in any case, the talk quickly turned to baseball, since Stuart is a died in the wool Chicago Cubs fan and it looks like the Cubs might very well make the playoffs this year. Hard as it is for a White Sox fan from the South Side of Chicago to throw in with the NorthSiders, I'm afraid I will have to root for the Cubs in the playoffs this year.  Anybody have any playoff tickets for sale?

The Rocky Mountain Showdown

I took the light rail train down to Mile High Stadium to see if I could get a cheap ticket from a scalper for the University of Colorado - Colorado State football game last night.  Since I saw on a web site that student tickets cost $25 and were sold out, I didn't even want to think what the ticket price was for big people.  I got to the stadium right as the second half began, but there were no scalpers to be found. Maybe they don't have scalpers in football, or perhaps there is some sort of law against selling college football tickets outside the stadium.  There were certainly plenty of police around to enforce that rule, if true.  In any case, as I was making my way around the perimeter of the stadium, I ran across Brooklyn's, a local bar and grill located under the 15th Street viaduct and which has been there forever, and decided to stop in.  The place was packed, and everyone was very enthusiastic about their team.  As far as I could tell, the crowd was evenly divided between CU and CSU fans.  I watched the 4th quarter of the game there.  It was very close, and went into overtime, with CU finally winning it on a field goal.  Very exciting, but still not worth $25 for a nosebleed ticket, though.

What The Hell Happened To Summer?

Sunset is coming earlier and earlier these days, and fall starts this coming Wednesday.  It seems hard to believe that summer is almost over.  In my mind, it was raining like hell here in Denver all through May, the rains stopped and it got a little warmer for a few days, and now it is fall.  I don't know if the birds circling the sky around the parking lot of the Bookstore where I work in the photograph above are vultures or bluebirds, but I wish I did.  I am sure it must be some kind of sign.  In any case, I bet a rabid Chicago Cubs fan with whom I worked at my part time job (and who is originally from Chicago's northern suburbs) that the Chicago White Sox would have a better record than the Chicago Cubs by the end of the season.  We former South Siders have to stick up for our team, after all.  Now the end of the season is less than 2 weeks away.  The Chicago Cubs are playoff bound, while the White Sox are once again wallowing in the mud, with a record similar or even worse (if that is possible) than the Colorado Rockies.  In other works, still another bill soon coming due.

Is Heaven Really At 85th And May Streets In Chicago?

Okay.  Okay!  You've had enough nostalgia for the week - or possibly the year.  However, I was thinking about my cousin Shirley the other day, with whom my mother kept in close contact.  After my mother passed away, I too kept in contact with Shirley until she, too, passed away.  Shirley told me a short time before she died that she believed heaven was on the front porch of the family's home at 85th and May Streets on the South Side of Chicago.  Shirley had a sister Betty, and younger brother Byron (who is still around, by the way), who lived with her mother Babe, father Byron, and Grandfather St. Pierre (who lived in the basement) at that address.  My Grandmother Louise was Babe's sister, and she and my mother were always very close to their family.  My sister used to stop by and visit on her way home from Calumet High School each afternoon.  Our family, as regular Blog readers are sick of hearing, lived at 9314 Sough Aberdeen Street, in the South Side Brainerd neighborhood of Chicago.  Shirley told me to look for her on the porch of her house at 85th and May Streets after she was gone, and after I retire in 2 1/2 years I intend to do just that.  My own theory is that heaven is located on the back porch of 9314 South Aberdeen Street (seen in the photograph above of my mother Mary, father Nelson, and dog Irma in 1964), and I intend to test that theory out, too.   My only worry is having to knock on the door of that house on Aberdeen and explain to the person that answers that I am looking for heaven and wish to come in.

Barbie On The Rocks

I took the above photograph behind the Spark Art Gallery at 9th and Santa Fe Boulevard here in Denver a year or so ago. One of the artists who rents studio space in that gallery really seems to have it in for Barbie. In her studio are - or were, if she has packed up and left by now - similar works of "Barbie art" for sale.  I do understand the people who say that Barbie represents an ideal most women can't meet, but still, mean is mean. It makes me think of that infamous 1987 Pantene commercial, which starts with the model saying "Don't Hate Me Because I'm Beautiful " (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I45-zWJtvfM).  They only ran a single commercial using that phrase, and I don't think the model ever worked again.  But don't worry - we never did hate you.  Right people?

Timothy Hallinan Rules!

I have just finished Breathing Water, one of Timothy Hallinan's Poke Rafferty adventure / mystery novels, and really enjoyed it.  The books take place in Bangkok, Thailand, and Hallinan paints a vivid portrait of that city and the people there.  As I have mentioned before, years ago I read all of Hallinan's Simeon Grist mysteries, and loved them all.  Then the series ended, and I didn't read another of his books until I came across an advanced reading copy of the latest Poke Rafferty adventure.  And once again, I advise mystery and adventure novel lovers to pick up some of these books and give them a try.  And I'm not even getting paid to promote his books on this Blog.  Yet.

Tuk Tuk Possibilities

I ran across the Tuk Tuk in the photograph above at the Denver Zoo last week and began to wonder why these vehicles - so popular in Asia - are not used here in the United States.  Think how fun it would be to zip around Denver in one of these babies, winding in and out of city traffic, getting your passengers to their destination as fast as possible.  It would be almost as much fun as riding a roller coaster, and I'm sure people would pay a premium for ths service.  Perhaps I could invest a few bucks, buy some of these vehicles, hire some of my friends as drivers, and start The Denver Tuk Tuk company.  I could be just like Louie in the old Taxi Television Series - "You know the rules, Stuart - that'll cost you 50 bucks."  Fun Times Ahead!

A Denver Speakeasy!

This past Saturday night - being the Hipster that I am -  I decided to check out Green Russell, a speakeasy located right on Denver's ultra-hip Larimer Square.  I've been meaning to stop by there for the past 10 or 12 years now, but as Regular Blog Reader's know, I have quite a tight schedule these days. In any case, I went down the stairs and down a hallway, and told the hostess I was just there to have a beer at the bar.  I sat down, ordered a beer, and was highly underwhelmed by the place. I asked the bartender if the place wasn't supposed to be like a speakeasy, and he told me the speakeasy was in a different area and I needed to talk to the hostess.  I got up, talked to the hostess, and she lead me through a door marked "Kitchen" into a very dark and crowded bar that indeed looked like a speakeasy.  It was a really nice, lively place, and I will definitely come back. Visiting this bar reminded me of another speakeasy I went to down in Deerfield Beach, Florida called Cap's Place.  It is located on an island in the Intercoastal Waterway.  You have to take a boat to get there, and it truly was once a speakeasy. According  to a travel guidebook, a chatty bartender told the travel writer that John F. Kennedy, Winston Churchill, and Marilyn Monroe have all dined there, but not at the same time.

Nostalgia At The Beach

Nostalgia is like a potato chip - you can't just stop at one.  Beer, too, although that's a whole different story. In any case, yesterday I featured my father Nelson at the Winn Dixie Grocery Store in Stuart, Florida back in the 1970s, and thought it only fair that I include a photograph of my mother Mary (on the left) and sister Susan (in the middle), along with my father Nelson (on the right) from that same time period.  The above photograph was taken - I think - on Jupiter Island, and as you can probably tell from looking at it, my family was (and in my sister's case, still is) highly eccentric.  My mother is posing for the camera, while it looks like my sister is looking at my father and thinking "my hero."  My father, as usual, is glancing straight at the camera, and I think the fact that he was quite the character, with a wonderful sense of humor, shines right through. One of my big regrets in life is that I never inherited that family eccentricity, and as a result am such a bland character today.  I'm sorry?  What did you say?

Nostalgia About Grocery Stores? You Betcha!

I definitely feel very nostalgic about grocery stores.  As a child - not to mention as an adult - I would accompany my mother and/or father to these stores on a regular basis.  When I was very young, my mother would take me to the High Lo Food Store in downtown Brainerd, the South Side Chicago neighborhood where I grew up, and later on we would go The Jewel, Chicago's grocery leader.  After my parents moved down to Stuart, Florida, and my sister and I visited, we would make almost daily trips to the Downtown Stuart Publix and the local Winn Dixie.  I took the above photograph of my father sometime in the early 1980s, on a trip to the Winn Dixie to pick up something absolutely essential.  And so yes, you can be nostalgic about grocery stores.  Or maybe I am just very eccentric.  Or perhaps both.

Look Out Paris! Here Comes Lakewood!

My friend Stuart and I had burgers and beers on the rooftop deck of the Old Chicago Restaurant in beautiful and exotic Lakewood, Colorado Monday night.  Stuart claims that Lakewood, Colorado is one of the most beautiful and exciting cities in the world, although personally I am still trying to wrap my mind around that concept.  I mentioned to Stuart that Beat Generation writer Jack Kerouac bought a house in Lakewood back in the 1950s and moved his family there from New York City.  After just a month, his entire family moved back to New York, and Kerouac sold the place.  Stuart tells me they were probably not used to the level of excitement that is Lakewood, and had to move back to a calmer environment, such as Manhattan. And as for being one of the most beautiful cities in the world, perhaps I have just never seen Lakewood's finer neighborhoods. Although I have to say, I don't think Paris has too much to worry about for now.

Burgers And Beers With Stuart At - You Guessed It - Old Chicago!

I had burgers and beers with my friend Stuart on the rooftop patio at the Old Chicago restaurant in beautiful Lakewood, Colorado Monday night.  Not only did we have a fabulous view of exotic Lakewood, but there was even a widescreen TV up there televising the Cubs game from Chicago.  As regular Blog readers know, Stuart is from the North Side of Chicago and a great Chicago Cubs fan, and the Cubs have an excellent chance of making the playoffs this year.  I, of course, am from the South Side of Chicago, and our team, the White Sox, is once again wallowing in the mud.  Time to grudgingly cheer on the Cubs, I guess, although I must say this would be a great opportunity to place a few bets with all those enthusiastic Cubs fans.  After all, the Cubs haven't been in a World Series since 1945.  A great opportunity to make some serious dollars, people!

A Final (For Now) Denver Zoo Photo

As regular Blog Readers know, I am all about "cute," and therefore am today featuring a photograph of one of the Denver Zoo's Red Pandas.  Everyone at the Denver Zoo this past Saturday afternoon was enthralled by this creature, and every child who saw him wanted to bring him home.  And I think this would be a great idea. The zoo could breed a bunch of these Red Pandas and sell them to zoo patrons as pets.  These Pandas seem very gentle, and the little guy in the photograph above actually posed for me the entire time I was taking photos.  For a while there I thought the Milwaukee Zoo was doing the same thing with lions, but after watching the videos, experts now say the Milwaukee Lion, seen wandering around the streets of that Wisconsin city, is most likely a cougar and somebody's pet.  And I am sure cougars would make great pets, too.  What could possibly go wrong?

Do Monkey's Really Like To Be Encountered?

I took the photographs above and to the left this past Saturday afternoon when I went to the Denver Zoo.  It was Labor Day Weekend, and the zoo was packed with families taking their children to see all the animals.  The children - and their parents - seemed to be having a great time, but l'm not so sure the monkeys were enjoying it quite as much.  Apes and monkeys are highly intelligent creatures and are the ones most likely to realize that they are locked up and doing life without parole.  The Black-Crested Macaque in the photographs seems to be showing a bit of irritation, and perhaps even hostility, toward his admiring fans. Kind of like Alec Baldwin encountering the paparazzi.

Labor Day Weekend At The Zoo

I spent last Saturday afternoon at the Denver Zoo, hoping to have a "Giraffe Encounter."  As usual, the sign said "tummies are full" and there would be no more feedings for the day.  And if you don't have food for them, you can kiss off any kind of giraffe encounter whatsoever.  This is in contrast to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo down in Colorado Springs, where there is a whole herd of giraffes that run back and forth across a huge compound and can be fed 24/7.   However, the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is an hour and a half's drive from Denver and it costs a bloody fortune to get in, and so I opted for an encounter with the zebras. I took the above photograph of two disappointed young giraffe devotees visiting with the baby zebra instead. The zoo employee at the Giraffe Encounter told me that there are only two feedings a day, and that the food tokens sell out within 15 minutes.  The early bird gets the best photos, as the old saying goes.

A Taste Of Colorado 2015

Labor Day Weekend means A Taste of Colorado, the last big festival of summer here in Denver.  It features music (like the John Weeks Band featured in the collage on the left), weird booths, and of course food (which means Giant Turkey Legs). And just how does this event differ from The People's Fair, which takes place at the beginning of June and is Denver's first big festival of the summer?  Let me get back to you on that.  I did enjoy walking around the Taste Of Colorado for a few hours yesterday evening, but a very disturbing thought occurred to me.  If the Giant Turkey Legs don't sell, do they simply freeze them and then thaw them out for the People's Fair the following spring?  Something to think about, Giant Turkey Leg fans.

The First Friday Of September!

It is hard to believe, but this is Labor Day weekend, traditionally the unofficial end of summer.  The end of summer? Summer just started, didn't it?  It seems like it rained like hell the entire spring, finally got warm, and now it's all over.  Nature can be so cruel.  In any case, yesterday was First Friday, and since I wasn't working that evening, I decided to attend the monthly Art Walk on South Santa Fe Drive here in Denver. As usual, it was a mixture of the weird, the truly weird, and the not so bad.  And that was just my fellow art patrons.

The Geography Of Genius

I picked up an advance reading copy at the bookstore where I work of The Geography of Genius, the new book by Eric Weiner, set to be published this coming January.  His previous book, The Geography of Genius, was strongly recommended to me by my friend Valarie, and I just loved it.  It was a search for the happiest places on earth, and why everyone was so happy there. In this book he looks at the most creative places on earth and how they got that way.  I am sure The Geography of Genius will be just as entertaining as The Geography of Bliss.  Plus, I might add, not only are they entertaining, but you also learn a lot from these books.  One thing I learned from The Geography of Bliss that I will never forget is to stay out of Moldova, even if it is cheap.  Words to live by...

Dinner And Beers At the Black Sky Brew Pub

I had dinner and beers at the Black Sky Brew Pub with my friend and former DU Bookstore colleague Valarie last night.  Valarie suggested the Black Sky, but had never been there before and felt it might be a little too edgy for us after she saw it.  I told her that I had been there several times during the First Friday Art Walks, and that it was indeed a fine choice.  And it was.  Valarie and I had a great time catching up on things, and I described to her in detail my adventures in South Florida last week.  Valarie's advice to me was to sell the condo and stop working two jobs.  Let's face it - Valarie has never been a particularly sentimental person. And, I might add, we fit in just fine at the Black Sky.  After all, we are edgy too.

Better Wine Than Whining, I Guess

I took the above photograph Monday night at my part-time job at a local drugstore.  I had just finished working 80 hours over the past 5 days, and was feeling a little tired.  My sister Susan said that working 80 hours a week should be no problem for someone of my relatively young age (62), and that all I need to do is take some vitamins to boost my energy level.  I have to wonder if she was confusing vitamins with "speed," but no matter.  I have decided that I am whining way too much these days.  I am working at a second job to avoid dipping into my retirement savings, while many of my co-workers are working the midnight shift to help support large families.  They will be working long hours into the night for years, while I will be basking in the sun and living the good life.  On the other hand, they get to sleep in.

Friday Night In The (Relatively) Big City

I drove down Colfax Avenue Friday night on my first trip to the grocery store since I returned from Florida.  That was the only time off I have had before midnight since I got back to Denver, thanks to my two jobs.  However, starting today I will have 5 straight evenings off.  At last!  Thank God, at last!  Not that I'm complaining.  Regular Blog readers know that I NEVER complain.  In any case, it was fun driving down Colfax (once called America's longest, wickedest street) Friday night, giving a shout out the window to all of my peeps, grooving to the magical tunes on the car radio (Classic Rock?  Really?).  On the other hand, what does it say about my life that the highlight of the week was driving to the local King Soopers?  Best not to think about it.