The Month Of Photography - The Last Weekend...

This is the last weekend in March, and so yesterday I made a point of touring a few more art galleries featuring photography exhibits in honor of Denver's Month of Photography, a biannual celebration of all things photographic.  I started with the intention of visiting Gallery M, which was featuring "Landmarks of 20th Century Photography."  That sounded truly impressive, and so I was anxious to see what they had on display.  However, when I arrived at the address listed in the paper, it turned out to be a condo building.  I googled Gallery M on my phone to see if there was some sort of error, but no - this is where the gallery is actually located, as seen in the photo on the left. However, it was not open. The gallery's website features very high end works of art, priced in the thousands of dollars (be sure to check it out at https://www.gallerym.com/).  No doubt the owners have the gallery in their home so that they can guard it at night with automatic weapons near their bedside tables, just in case. Very prudent.

My next stop was the Michael Warren Gallery on Santa Fe Drive, which is another high end gallery which was featuring several series of photographs this month, one a little too abstract for my taste. They did feature a spectacular black and white photograph by Kely McClung, titled Falling Up - Chicago #32, as well as a series of modern western American landscapes by Paul Sisson, which were also quite good.  You can find these works at https://www.michaelwarrencontemporary.com/.

My final stop was in Lower Downtown Denver (LoDo), at the Robischon Gallery, which was featuring photographs highlighting the fragile state of our natural environment by photographers David Maisel, Kevin O'Connell, and filmmaker James Benning.  Maisel's photographs of landscapes marred by industry were a bit too abstract for me.  O'Connell's photographs of the plains of Colorado and Wyoming (O'Connell is a fellow University of Denver alum, by the way) I found much more appealing.  As for Benning, his documentary film featuring a round trip journey between California and Louisiana looked pretty interesting, but being in downtown Denver, I had limited time on my parking meter and had to get back to my car.  Such is the burden of being a cheapskate.  You ca check out their work at https://www.robischongallery.com/.

Final Friday At The DAM

Yesterday was the last Friday in March, and so I drove down to the Denver Art Museum last night for their Final Friday event. The theme was Homeward Unbound and featured "deconstructed post-colonial narratives." In plain English, the evening had an Indian theme.  Since it was a cold and rainy night, I thought the crowd would be small, but it turned out that a lot of people had showed up, even if the free buffet table was no longer a part (a big part, for me) of these events.  There was a food truck from Little India out front, but you actually had to pay for that.  The nerve.

In any case, one of the first events was a dance from the Bollywood movie Devdas, performed by Sumitra Mattai, as seen in the photograph on the right. It was a fairly short dance, which was probably a good thing, since I was standing along the wall near the front and the crowd was so big I would not have been able to sneak out even if I wanted to.  The evening was hosted by Suchitra Mattai, and so I assume that the dancer was a relative, but that is only a guess.  In any case, Suchitra Mattai did not appear in the program as hosting a talk or a tour, and so I don't even know if she was there that evening.  Nobody tells me anything these days.  Is it because I'm retired, or what?

The next thing on the program was a "Decolonized Art Tour" of the museum's Berger Collection, which consists of British art from medieval times through the 19th century.  One of the two tour guides had a family emergency and could not attend, and so the other guide had to give the entire talk herself, mainly by reading off an i-pad. I had trouble hearing her, but since I arrived at 6:00 and had an hour to kill, I had looked at all the paintings already and knew what she was trying to say.  The portrait of the woman in the photograph on the left was part of a family that made it's money in the slave trade, and the painting was commissioned so it could be placed in the dining hall of their manor house just outside of Liverpool.  In other words, this work of art, and possibly many others in the room, were paid for by bringing slaves to the Americas.  Not a pretty picture, to say the least - figuratively speaking, of course.  After that, I decided to head home, bypassing the food truck parked outside.  Indian food is good, but pricey, and as everyone knows, I can't stomach pricey .

Nostalgia Time!

When my sister Susan and I were growing up on the south side of Chicago, we had a very large extended family, all living fairly close to each other. Back then, that was the case for most families.  However, as children began to move across the country seeking job opportunities, families began to scatter, and all that changed.  Although I still keep in contact with my Uncle Jack (my father's brother) and his children (my cousins), and have recently resumed contact with Carrie, my 2nd cousin on my mother's side, I long for that time all our grandparents, uncles and aunts, and cousins were alive and living close by.  That is a long gone era, and the photograph above, from 1968, is one of the last taken when we were all still alive and together. It shows (from left to right) my great Aunt Babe (my Grandmother Spillard's sister), their long time friend Viola Miller, and my Grandmother Louise Spillard (my mother Mary's mother) on the couch of our family's home in south suburban Country Club Hills, about 30 miles south of downtown Chicago.  Babe, my grandmother Louise, their sister Irene (who passed away a few years earlier), another sister, Addie (who remained in Quebec when the family moved to Chicago), and their brother Eddie (who died young), had a hard childhood, but persevered to live a happy life on the south side of Chicago.  Call me a sentimental fool (or for that matter, just a fool), but those to me were the good old days, even though I didn't realize it at the time.

The Baseball Season Begins!

The 2019 baseball season has begun at last.  The Colorado Rockies, Chicago White Sox, and Chicago Cubs all begin play today, and I personally believe that this will be the first "subway" World Series in Chicago since 1906, back when my friend Stuart - a Cubs fan and northsider - was a mere child.  I myself, who was born and raised in the south side Brainerd neighborhood of Chicago, have always been a White Sox fan, and am also convinced the White Sox will prevail over the Cubs in 7 games during that fall classic. And no, I have no intention of placing any bets on this.  I am a dedicated fan, but I am not stupid.  By the way, the above photograph shows legendary baseball announcer Harry Caray in the broadcast booth at Comiskey Park, leading the crowd in singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," back when he and Jimmy Piersall were broadcasting Chicago White games. I took that photograph back in 1980 at that classic south side ballpark, which is now sadly gone.  But no matter - winning it all will help alleviate that loss.

Wolf Pack

I just finished reading Wolf Pack, the latest Joe Pickett novel by C.J. Box.  The story centers around an ex-mobster who testified against his former mafia family and is relocated to Wyoming, where an assassination team called the Wolf Pack travels to take him and his family out.  This is an exciting read, and I highly recommend it.  As usual, Joe Pickett and his friend Nate Romanowski are in the thick of it all. It is amazing to me how much mayhem can take place in such a rural and remote place, but there your go.  And needless to say, the story has a big finish. Pick up a copy at your local bookseller, or put your name on the waiting list for it at your local library today.

The March Mutt of the Month

I took the above photograph of the March Mutt of the Month tied up just outside the patio of the Vine Street Pub, located on 17th Street here in Denver. I have eaten at the Vine Street Pub in the past, as well as it's sister pub, the Mountain Sun Brewery up in Boulder.  Both have excellent beers and good food, but they do not accept credit cards, which to a person like me - who hasn't carried cash since about 1985 - can be quite stressful.  I remember my friend Stuart and I once went to this place for dinner, each ordered beers, and when we realized we could not use plastic, desperately pooled our cash to pay for those beers and then find a place that took credit cards.  We narrowly avoided spending the evening washing dishes, no doubt the establishment's strategy to keep labor costs low.  And it must be working - they have been around a long time.

Denver's Month Of Photography Continues

This past Saturday I continued my quest to check out many of the art galleries participating in Denver's Month of Photography 2019, which features photographs of every imaginable kind.  I hit the larger galleries a few weeks ago, but Saturday decided to hit the smaller galleries located in different parts of the city.  I started at Vertigo Art Space, where photographer Anthony Camera, an old acquaintance from my University of Denver days, was exhibiting a series of pretty fascinating 3D photographs.  I then headed to East Colfax Avenue, just a few blocks east of the Tattered Cover Bookstore, to see Small Works, an exhibit at the Robert Anderson Gallery. This was a juried show featuring a large collection of traditional (mostly black and white) photographs, which I must say were wonderful (that particular gallery can be seen on the right side of the above photograph). The gallery is located next door to the Bluebird Theater, a music venue, and before that, an X-rated theater where Jimmy, the brother of a Hatch's Bookstore employee, once worked. Hatch's, where I was the manager of the University Hills store in my youth,  is sadly long gone, but once again, I digress. And so back to the topic at hand. My last stop was at 30th and Larimer Streets, ground zero for Denver's hipster population, where I perused Dateline Gallery's exhibition of black and white Denver street photographs, which were also quite good. And there is still time to check out these exhibits, people.  I strongly encourage you to do this before March ends, bringing April showers but no more photography shows.

Best Purchase Ever!

I am still thrilled by what I consider the best purchase I ever made.  Oh sure, I suppose buying my two bedroom condo just across from the University of Denver - before real estate prices skyrocketed - was also a good purchase, but can it compare with buying a Chicago Transit Authority shower curtain that I can look at every day?  I think not. Sitting there, I can gaze at such sights as the Forest Park end-of-the-line stop, just a couple of blocks from my first apartment, not to mention the 35th and State Street (That Great Street!) stop, located near the heart of the Illinois Institute of Technology campus, where I got my bachelor's degree. It makes me want to drive back to Chicago soon for another nostalgic homecoming. Watch out Chicago.

There Is No There There

I recently took a walk through the University of Denver campus, and found it a bit jarring that the entire north side of the Driscoll Center (the student center for the university) is now gone (as seen in the above photo), to make way for a new, improved version. When I first started working at the University of Denver Bookstore back in 1984, the store was located on two levels in the old Carnegie Library Building, and we moved into a new location in Driscoll South just before the fall semester began.  The north end of Driscoll was an entirely new building, unlike the renovated south end of the center, and there was a wall stopping you from crossing the bridge to the north end while the construction was being completed.  Kind of like now, except back then you could sneak around the barrier into the new building to have a look around, whereas now if your try that, it would be a long drop down. Ouch!  And please notice that I have not once complained in this post about DU outsourcing the bookstore to Follett Higher Education Group.  A first!

Exploring SloHi

It is hard to believe, but still another Denver neighborhood is adopting a new acronym - the SloHi neighborhood.  I assume this stands for the Sloans Lake/Highlands area, but you never know.  I used to take my mother to a seniors medical facility in this neighborhood, but haven't taken a good look at it in 10 years.  The northern part of Sloan's Lake has always been an upscale area, and morphs into the Highlands, one of the more popular neighborhoods in Denver.  The area just east of the lake was traditionally an Hispanic neighborhood, but the other day I discovered it is filled with upscale apartments, townhouses, and condos.  It is a sea change since the last time I saw it.  The biggest project is The Lake House, seen in the photograph on the left. The location reminds me of the high rises on Lincoln Park back in Chicago, which had beautiful views of both the park and the lakefront.  Of course, Sloans Lake is no Lake Michigan, but on the plus side, you can walk around it in an hour, as opposed to Lake Michigan, which could take weeks or months.

I must say, the view of the mountains from Sloans Lake is quite impressive, as seen in the photograph on the right. Which is probably why the area has become so popular with developers. And although the buildings along the lake are very impressive, most of the construction these days seems to be along West Colfax, which years ago was a very questionable area.  These new high rises being built along Colfax have names like the Regatta, evoking images of the sea. Considering that Denver is 1,000 miles from the ocean, I guess you have to take what you can get.  I mentioned all this to my sister Susan, and she wants to know why Denver doesn't have a neighborhood called LoCo.  Good question.  I am sure that particular acronym will turn up soon, and attract the true eccentrics (locos),  most probably from California.

Captive State

My sister Susan and I went to see the new movie, Captive State, up in Fort Collins the other night, and we both really enjoyed it.  The movie got rave reviews from the Chicago Sun Times film critic (the movie takes place and was filmed entirely in Chicago), but other critics were not so positive.  I was planning to take a photograph of the movie poster in front of the theater to put on this blog, but forgot about it as we left.  The next day I went to 3 different theaters to take a photograph of that poster, but none were on display.  I wound up having to download a copy of the poster from the internet.  And why didn't I do that in the first place?  To that I can only say "Stay in your lane, bro. Or sis"  But the big question I have is the reason for the lack of advertising for this film.  I started thinking about this (always a bad thing), and remembered that my friend Stuart stayed at a hotel recently, and when going for coffee in the morning got into a conversation with the desk clerk, who told him that space aliens are in control of the country, and therefore the only thing to do is accept this fact and try to survive as best we can.  And so perhaps this film is not so much an entertaining distraction, but a thinly disguised warning that the aliens have already taken over.  This would explain the lack of publicity, and a possible effort to make the film go away.  It would also go a long way toward explaining our politicians these days, especially Donald Trump.

The First Day Of Spring!

Today is the first day of spring, thank God, and in honor of this wonderful event (and as you can all tell, I am not a big cold weather fan), I am featuring the above photograph of the sun setting over Horsetooth Reservoir up in Fort Collins, Colorado while walking my sister Susan's dog Blackberry.  Blackberry does not like to be held back when on the hunt for new, exotic smells, and so it took a few tries to get a photograph that wasn't blurry due to the leash being pulled to get me to move on.  Blackberry is a cairn, a breed of dog that originated in England, and so loves the outdoors and the cold weather.  The only thing that makes her want to go inside is the prospect of dinner.  And yes, getting back to the subject at hand, spring is finally here.  Enjoy the warmth, people!

Watching Newcastle Play Bournemouth With Mark

As I mentioned in Sunday's blog, I went with my friend Mark (seen in the photograph above) this past Saturday morning to watch Newcastle play a soccer match against Bournemouth with Denver's Newcastle Fan Club.  Thank God England does not go on daylight savings time until March 31st, and so the match started at 9:00 in the morning instead of 8:00.  In any case, the match was streamed on the pub's WiFi,  and there were a LOT of interruptions in the service, extending the game from about 45 minutes to roughly 3 hours, which is all well and good unless you parked in a 2 hour parking space, which is what of course I did, since it was free.  But all worked out well - I did not receive a ticket, and Newcastle and Bournemouth ended the match with a 2-2 tie.  What amazed me most, however, was that the Newcastle Club was relegated to the basement, while there were roughly 1,000 fans watching a rugby match between Ireland and Wales.  At the crack of dawn (9:00 A.M.) no less. Seriously? Rugby?

Is Everybody Really Irish On St. Patrick's Day? Or Just Party Junkies?

I have always known that Denver has a young population, but had no idea what that really meant until I took a walk around the LoDo (Lower Downtown) neighborhood this past Saturday afternoon, the day before St. Patrick's Day.  There had to be roughly half a million 20 somethings lining up to get into the various bars in that area.  Many were dressed in St. Patrick's Day attire, and all seemed intent on having a truly wild time. And I have to say that here in Denver these millennials, or whatever they are called these days, will use any excuse to party.  St. Patrick's Day, Halloween, Fat Tuesday, the annual Zombie Crawl, Colorado Rockies Opening Day, Comicon, the installation of a new pope, it doesn't matter - the bars are packed.  And if costumes are encouraged, so much the better.  Several years ago, after I decided that spending $120 for the worst seat in the house on Colorado Rockies Opening Day was just too much money, I went to the rooftop patio of the Tavern Downtown to take photographs of the ballpark from there.  The place was packed, but when the game started, nobody left the patio, or even bothered to go inside to watch the game on television. Opening Day was just another excuse to party hearty.  Go figure.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Today is St. Patrick's Day, although the big celebration here in Denver was actually yesterday.  I went with my friend Mark to watch a soccer game in the morning between Newcastle and Bournemouth with the local Newcastle Fan Club at the Celtic Tavern, but sneaked out to watch the St. Patrick's Day Parade for a bit.  This parade is reputed to be one of the largest St. Patrick's Day parades west of the Mississippi, with an annual attendance of around 200,000.   And of course, there were lots of people in green interacting with the crowds, as seen in the photograph on the left.  It reminds me of the time my friends Steve Davis, Paul something-or-other and I spent an evening at a bar called Skeleton's West back in Forest Park, Illinois (just west of Chicago), and two leprechauns bought us drinks all night.  But that was a long time ago, and I digress.

I was kind of surprised at how many non-Irish groups participated in the parade, such as the Colorado Parrot Head  Club, which seemed to have a distinctly tropical feel about them, which I have never associated with Ireland.  But what the heck.  As the news stations continuously tell us, everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day, and the more the merrier. The Parrot Head Club seems to have a heck of a lot of members, and a great many of them followed the official Parrot Head Float wearing the official Parrot Head hat and the obligatory Parrot Head grass skirt.  Whatever floats your boat, as we used to say.

And of course, what Denver parade would be worth attending  without the obligatory horse-drawn wagon, melding the Irish culture with the spirit of the west.  After I took the photograph on the left, I needed to head back to the Celtic Tavern to finish watching the Newcastle - Bournemouth soccer match, which ended in a 2 - 2 tie.  And as we drove away from downtown, I could not help but notice that the parade was still going on, and would probably continue going on for hours.  I suspect they must give prizes to the parade goers who are able to stay for the entire 7 hours.  And I am not criticizing, of course, just making an observation.

Coyote Warning!

I was mentioning to my sister just the other day that many years ago, signs along the Historic Buchtel Trail (which early yuppies used to jog to Denver's Washington Park without the benefit of bottled water or cell phones) warned that coyotes were active in the area. Right in the heart of Denver, no less. Those signs are long gone from that trail, and so I was very surprised to find on a recent walk that similar signs are now posted in Washington Park, as seen in the above photograph. Not to put too fine a point to it, but if you remain in Washington Park after sunset you will be eaten, and that will probably hurt.  A lot. You have been warned, people.

Beware The Ides Of March!

Today is March 15th, also known as the Ides of March, the day Julies Caesar was assassinated back in 44 BC. Caesar was warned to be on the lookout for danger, but of course, he ignored this warning, was indeed killed.  I took the above photograph a number of years ago (please don't ask me which year - I can barely remember yesterday) at the Largo di Torre Argentina, a square in the heart of Rome where the Theater of Pompeii was once located, the place Julius Caesar was killed.  The theater stretched from the Campo del Fiori, where I was staying, to here - quite a long ways - and so I have to assume the place had a hell of a lot of screens.  But the point is, if someone walks up to you and tells you to "Beware the Ides of March," head home and keep a low profile.  That's my plan for today.

Blizzard!

Tuesday it was 63 degrees in Denver, and people were out and about, strolling through Washington Park and all around town, enjoying the great weather.  Yesterday, it was a blizzard outside, with winds often at hurricane strength.  Since I am now retired, I decided to stay in all day, and watch the scene unfold from my living room window.  I especially took note of a couple in the photograph on the left - no doubt University of Denver students - who left my building, went across the street, and disappeared into the storm.  A little while later, they returned, each holding a coffee cup.  And yes - they went to get coffee at Starbucks during a major blizzard.  The mind boggles.

Amazingly enough, there was only about 5 inches or so of snow here in Denver, although if you have winds of 35 to 50 miles an hour blowing it around, it makes it look much more impressive. Of course, I live in the heart of the city, and the snow totals are much higher in other parts of the metro area.  I am just glad I don't have to drive across the plains to Fort Collins, where it would have been white out conditions most of the day.  And if you wanted to head east to Kansas or Nebraska, or south to Colorado Springs, you were out of luck, since those roads were closed all day, and still are today.  Of course, why would you want to do that?  In any case, I took the photograph on the right of the corner of University and Buchtel Boulevard Avenues, and keep in mind that this shows the part of the city with the BEST conditions.

If you had to go outside, the only way to go was public transportation.  My condo is located just two blocks from the light rail station, which takes you to downtown Denver in a mere 20 minutes or so.  And if I wanted to head down University Boulevard to Colfax, where the Tattered Cover Bookstore, my old employer is located, the bus stop is right in front of my building.  And in the photograph on the left is that very bus, which thankfully I did not have to take.  I was very surprised that all the school districts and government offices announced they would be closed the day before the storm.  The last time that happened, it turned out there was no storm at all, and people went biking, hiking, or to the mall - a free day to have fun.  This time, of course, the weather people got it right.  This was the first blizzard we have had in several years, and to tell the truth, was a lot of fun to watch.  Which is always true if you don't have to go outside.

Duma Key

I just finished reading Stephen King's Duma Key.  It took me two months to read the first 400 pages, and 2 nights to read the final 200 pages.  The story revolves around a construction company owner who suffers a brain injury and the loss of this right arm in an accident, and leases a house on Duma Key in Florida while he recuperates.  He takes up drawing, and very strange things begin to happen.  I would often put the book aside for a few days, because I just knew something horrible was going to occur, and did not want to deal with it just yet.  I must say it is well written, and has an exciting finish, but I have to say that King has no compunction about killing off various characters left and right.  By the way, the last book I read by King was Revival, and after I read the ending of that book, I suggested that he might think about taking anti-depressants, or else increase the dosage if he already is.   I am beginning to think Steven King books are not my thing.

My Father's 110th Birthday!

Today my father Nelson Hoyt would have been 110 years old if he were still alive today.  That's no kid.  He passed away back in 1983 at the age of 74. He and my mother Mary moved to Stuart, Florida back in 1976, and they both loved it there.  It was a shame he passed away at what today is considered a relatively early age, but at least he had 7 years of retirement from being a dentist in Chicago, a job he truly hated.  My sister Susan and I would often visit them down in Florida, and sometimes take mini-vacations to various destinations.  The photograph on the left shows my father posing in front of the gates of Boone Hall, a plantation just outside of Charleston, South Carolina.  We often visited both Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina , since Savannah was only 6 hours or so away from Stuart, and Charleston was not too much further. They are, by the way,  two of the most beautiful and historical cities in the country.

We also visited Key West.  I took the photograph on the right of my father at the Hemingway House, where Hemingway lived and wrote from about 1930 to 1940. Not only did we get to take a cruise around the harbor, but also arrived back in time to applaud the sunset at the Mallory Street Dock.  As I recall, the next day the skies looked threatening, and so my father insisted on heading back to Stuart.  He considered that place the equivalent of Camelot, and hated being away from it, and so I suspect the threatening skies were just an excuse. But no matter.  It was nice just all being together, wherever we were.  Happy Birthday Dad!

The Month Of Photography

Every other March, the City of Denver celebrates The Month of Photography, and almost all art galleries in the region feature photography exhibits during this period.  There was a big article in the entertainment section of the Denver Post about it yesterday, and so I decided to check some of these galleries out.  I started at the Colorado Photographic Arts Center, which was featuring a collection of abstract photographs in conjunction with the Clifford Still Museum.  That is not my thing, so I next headed to the McNichols Building, an exhibition space owned by the city.  One floor featured fashion photography, and the other floor collages and mixed media.  The main thing I got out of this exhibit was "Hey, I could do this too!" Get some old copies of Life Magazine, cut out various images, add a few photos of my own, put a little oil paint on the canvas, and voila, you have yourself a piece of art, like the ones in the above photo collage (second row on the right - priced at $3,200 - and third row on the left).

Next I visited the Denver Art Museum, but they had no special exhibition and were still featuring a show on Dior dresses (as seen in the last row of the above photo collage).  It isn't art, but it was a sellout that day, and such a moneymaker funds other future exhibits, like the Monet collection coming in October.  You do what you have to do, I guess. Next I went to the Redline Gallery (the entrance of which can be seen in the far upper right of the photo above).  I was very impressed by a young photographer named Colby Deal. One of his works can be seen in the second row on the left of the above image.  He grew up in Houston, and he combines both street photograph and portraiture to show the beauty and vibrancy that can be found in lower income neighborhoods like the one where he grew up. Check out some of his images at https://www.deepredpress.com/features/2017/9/5/colby-deal

Finally I visited the Vicki Myhren Gallery, located in the Shwayder Art Building (seen in the far top left) on the University of Denver Campus.  The exhibit there is titled Ghostly Traces, and features photographs and collages of  people from the past, as well as other photographs exploring our mortality.  In the photograph in the third row on the right can be seen photographs by Torben Eskerod of photos put on gravestones in a famous Rome cemetery, which I thought were quite good.  There were also photographs from Sally Mann's series titled Body Farm, featuring the photographs of corpses at the University of Tennessee's forensic anthropology research facility.  The photograph called Laughing Corpse is quite startling, but I decided not to feature it here.  And you are certainly welcome.

The Month of Photography continues through March and April, with photographs on display at hundreds of sites. Many of these photographs are truly great.  An online gallery of these images can be found at https://www.mopdenver.com/mop-2019.  Be sure to check them out!

Celebrating At Old Chicago

My friend Stuart (seen in the photo above) and I got together at the Old Chicago on Colorado Boulevard here in Denver last night to celebrate his new job as an editor for a company located down in the Denver Tech Center.  Stuart is very excited about this, and is set to start work in a week's time.  It will be a tough commute from Stuart's apartment in beautiful, exotic, but amazingly dull Lakewood to the DTC, but Stuart feels it will be well worth it.  We had a nice dinner, but pretty soon very loud, very annoying music started playing, making conversation very hard.  I still do not see why so many places do this.  Is it because the younger generation only communicates via text, and therefore does not feel the need to speak?  Do they text the person sitting across from them when they want to communicate something?  Am I truly an old fogie now?  Don't answer.

More Nostalgia

I uploaded the photograph seen above a few years ago onto my computer, but for some reason don't think I ever posted it on this blog.  It shows my father Nelson posing with his parents, Claire and Fleta (aka Pete), but when and where I do not know.  I do know they lived in the south side Brainerd neighborhood of Chicago, but I found this photograph with a number of others taken in Clear Lake, Iowa, where my grandfather grew up. I am guessing it was taken in Clear Lake on a visit to see his mother, Sophie, who was still living there at the time. Since my father was born in 1909, it probably was taken around 1915, give or take a year or so. Since I am now retired, I am hoping to do a little bit of genealogical research both in Clear lake, Iowa, and in Chicago one of these days, and hopefully get some answers, not to mention more photographs.  I am talking road trip, baby!

Denver's Hippest Nightclub

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, I visited Denver's newest food hall Wednesday afternoon to check out "the scene." And as unofficial "king of the hipsters" here in Denver (according to my friends Bill and Renee), I felt I was duty bound to also check out Denver's newest, hottest nightclub, The Temple, located on South Broadway just two blocks to the north of that food hall.  And yes, the photograph on the left is indeed the entrance to The Temple.  There is no sign outside, so the only way I could find the place was to look up the address on the internet.  I was visiting it around 5:00 in the afternoon, and the place didn't open it's doors until 10:00 P.M., so I assume that was why it seemed a bit deserted.  This area of South Broadway, by the way, is filled with empty storefronts, pawnshops, and homeless people (one of whom can be seen in the photo with his dog), and so I had a hard time feeling the hipster vibe.

After taking a look at the place, I walked down to Broadway Market, which although still in this dreary neighborhood, actually had people inside, and was fairly lively.  After I took some photos there, I walked back the way I had come and took a photograph looking toward The Temple from a different angle.  There was a mural of Prince on the wall - always a sign that hipsters might be in the neighborhood - and I took a photograph of it, with still more homeless people in the background.  It is pretty damn cold around here these days, especially after the sun sets, and I really feel bad for these homeless people, sleeping on the sidewalk and in doorways.  Hopefully the obviously well off hipsters who show up around here at 10:00 P.M. will give a few bucks to these poor souls who have to endure winter in Denver outside.

And just to add a historical note to this post, Denver's previous hottest nightclub, Beta, seen in the photo on the left, went out of business this past fall.  It was just a block away from Coors Field, where the Colorado Rockies play, and I have walked past it for years thinking it was a vacant building.  It evidently had the same hours as Temple (Wednesdays from 10 until 2 and Fridays and Saturdays from 9 until 2), and so it was extremely rare when I was around to actually see people going into the place.  However, I must say I like this building much better than The Temple, and there is actually a banner outside stating it's name, against all hipster rules.  I am not sure how they got away with that, especially since they were one of the top 25 nightclubs in America. One of these days, I will try to stay up past 10 and actually visit one of these establishments, dressed in one of my finest outfits.  I will just have to go through the closet and see if I still have of those old leisure suits.

Exploring The Food Hall Craze

Food halls seem to be popping up all over the place.  Here in Denver, we now have Zeppelin Station, The Preservery, Stanley Market, the Denver Milk Market in LoDo, Denver Central Market in RiNo, The Source Market Hall, also in RiNo, Avanti Food + Beverage in LoHi, and now Broadway Market.  I know these food halls are popping up all over the country, but what I really want to know is if everyplace else in the country is giving their neighborhoods all these crazy acronyms. In Denver we have LoDo, RiNo, LoHi, SoBo, and God knows what else.  Are we too cool here to actually pronounce the full name?  But I digress (as usual). Yesterday was such a dreary day that I decided to head down to South Broadway to check out Broadway Market, the latest addition to the genre. As you can see from the photograph on the left, the patrons of Broadway Market are a mellow bunch - they are actually smiling for the camera.  Probably had a few brews.

I must admit that I like the vibe at these food halls.  They feature a wide variety of food stalls, and the atmosphere is relaxed and fun.  There is always a bar featuring a wide variety of cocktails, beer, and wine, and Broadway Market even features what they call a "beer wall." You evidently get some sort of "fob" card as you walk in, and can then go over to the beer wall, sample up to 24 different beers, then choose which one you want to drink. Afterwards, you settle up at the checkout counter, if you can still walk that far.  Sounds like one of the greatest technological inventions of the age to me.

I myself decided to give the beer wall and the bar a pass, and for good reason.  I once drove over to the Lower Highlands neighborhood to visit Avanti Food + Beverage.  In addition to the usual plethora of food stalls, there was a bar both on the lower level and on the rooftop, which has a spectacular view of downtown Denver.  It was a wonderful place to stand on a warm summer evening and take in the scenery, but I'll be damned if the beer didn't cost $7.00.  I mean seriously - there are views in the world I would certainly pay $7.00 to see, but not of downtown Denver (and no offense meant).  Cruising around the Broadway Market, I noticed a lot of the stalls were selling sandwiches for $12.00, and so I had no intention of finding out what a beer would cost. Next time I visit, perhaps I will just bring in my own beer. I also have to mention that the South Broadway neighborhood is a bit iffy.  Lots of homeless people hanging out there.  But happily, there is a pawn shop right across the street, just in case you have to find a way to pay for those $7.00 beers.

A Cold Winter's Walk...

This past Sunday the morning's low was 6 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, and I decided to stay home and watch a spring training baseball game from sunny Florida.  However, after the game, I was a bit stir crazy, and since the temperature had heated up to 8 degrees, decided to take a walk over to nearby Observatory Park to get a little exercise.  I put on my sweater, thermal Michigan State sweatshirt (long story), and stocking cap, and headed out the door.  This is the same outfit I wore when I worked as a rural post office carrier in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, and I must say, I felt quite warm.  And unlike working at the post office, I knew I would be home within the hour, as opposed to having to stay out until all hours of the night.  And no, I am not still bitter.

In any case, the Observatory Park neighborhood is quite nice.  Many of the houses surrounding the park are beautiful old Victorians, although like many Denver neighborhoods, some of these older homes have been torn down to make room for McMansions.  I took the photograph on the right of the homes just across the street from the park, and I must say, I would not mind living here at all, as long as someone else paid the mortgage, the property taxes, and the heating bills. On a hunch that I will not find a person willing to do this, I guess I will just have to be happy with my condo across the street from the University of Denver, just a short walk from this beautiful neighborhood.

Speaking of the University of Denver, I finished my walk strolling around the campus.  I had planned on walking around the grounds and then heading into the Driscoll Center, the location of the DU Bookstore, where I worked as the store's Finance Manager for almost 30 years, but then remembered the north side of the center has been torn down to make room for a new student center.  If I did make it across the bridge connecting the north and south sides of the complex, it would be a long drop to ground level.  Best to just take the walkway next to it and get home in one piece.  I must really be getting old, avoiding those types of daredevil activities I enjoyed so much when I was younger.  I probably won't even jump off my 4th floor balcony into the condo building's pool this summer.  What a bummer.

Dog Walk

I drive up to Fort Collins from Denver twice a week these days to help my sister Susan out with chores (driving to the grocery store, the library, the beauty parlor, etc.), and one of my duties is to take her dog Blackberry out for a walk (her other dog, Tutu, is a Yorkie that refuses to go out in the cold). Blackberry seems to love the cold, however, and when we leave the house runs as fast as she can to the green space around the apartment complex across the street.  There are evidently wonderful smells over there, and it is almost impossible to get her to go back home.  I took the photograph on the left of her while she was looking back at me, wondering why I was not moving forward in the quest for new smells.

Yesterday, on the first part of the walk, we passed the entrance to the farm next door.  At least it used to be a farm.  My sister tells me it belongs to an older couple who retired from farming but still live there, and who kept an entire square block of land that is now simply prairie that attracts wild turkeys, deer, foxes, and untold numbers of birds.  It is a very pleasant open space right in the middle of a residential area.  It is a great place to walk and get an idea of what the area looked like before it was developed. However, I would not want to be the one to have to pay the property taxes on it.  I imagine when that couple sold the rest of the land to developers, they must have gotten enough to maintain the rest of the grounds during their retirement.  A win-win, as we say in the business world,  for both them and the surrounding neighbors.

Streaming A Baseball Game From Roger Dean Stadium

As regular blog readers know, I have decided to subscribe to MLB.com. allowing me to watch every single televised baseball game this year except those involving the home town Colorado Rockies, as opposed  to paying the same amount of money ($120) to sit in the worst seat in the house and attend the Colorado Rockies' Opening Day.  And so, since the temperature outside was 9 degrees and it was snowing, I decided to stream a spring training game on my computer.  Amazingly enough, the game between the Chicago Cubs and my south side heros, the Chicago White Sox, was not being televised.  Instead, I watched the St. Louis Cardinals play the New York Mets, which was being played at Roger Dean Stadium, where I have attended many spring training games as well as Florida State League games.  This is the nearest baseball stadium to my sister Susan and my condo in Stuart, Florida, which we inherited from our parents.  I took all but one of the photographs in the above collage off the computer.  The other photograph I took of my mother Mary at one of the Jupiter Hammerheads minor league games many years ago.  I truly enjoyed watching the game, even it was between the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Mets.  The Mets won, 10 to 8, by the way.

Remembering The Hoffbrau

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, I attended the First Friday Art Walk on Denver's Santa Fe Drive this past Friday night.  Earlier that afternoon, I had taken the bus from my condo to the corner of Josephine and Colfax, and then walked down 17th street to downtown and from there to Santa Fe Drive.  On the way, I passed what used to be the Hoffbrau Tavern and Grill, which is just a few blocks from the apartment where I used to live at Parkway Center. When my mother flew into town (via airplane) from Florida for a visit, I would pick her up at the airport and we would often have dinner here.  It was a very cozy, low key place that served reasonably priced steaks.  It is long gone, and the building has hosted a number of restaurants since then.  I took the photograph on the left of the back of the place, showing both a huge mural and no cars in the parking lot, always a bad sign for a restaurant.

Coming around the front, I saw that the latest incarnation of the place is The Denver Pony.  The marquee still advertises happy hour from 3 until 6 Monday through Friday, but since it was almost 5:00 P.M. and there was not a soul around, I had to assume the place was closed for good.  Looking at the photograph on the right close up, I also saw graffiti on the front doors, still another bad sign for a going business. This building is located at 13th and Santa Fe Drive, and being only a few blocks away from Parkway Center, a very large apartment complex, it used to draw a decent crowd. It was built in 1883, and as I recall from my last visit years ago, had a quiet, old time charm to it.  I am not sure what happened - possibly just a victim of too many restaurants competing against each other.  My friend Wally has often suggested opening up a bar called Geezers, catering to an older crowd that prefers a quiet atmosphere, as opposed to music blaring at a volume that rivals jet airplanes taking off.  I have often suggested to him that I could be the idea guy, Wally the money guy, and our friends Darrel and Linda, who used to own a high traffic restaurant, could run the place.  Seems fair to me. This might be the place.  But those murals will have to go.  Your job Darrel.

The First Friday Of March

Yesterday was the first Friday in March, and so I decided to head down to Denver's Santa Fe Art District for the First Friday Art Walk.  This is the Month of Photography here in Denver, and so a number of galleries were featuring photographs for a change.  At the Center for Visual Art, run by Metropolitan State University, they were featuring photographs by photographers from across the country with the theme of oppression and institutionalized discrimination.  The photograph on the left shows reflected images by Krista Wortendyke, which to me were the most visually impressive.  This series was meant to question our reliance on mass media for our images and news accounts of current events.  By the way, the Santa Fe Theater, seen in the background, is looking a bit frayed around the edges these days, and as far as I can tell is now a dive bar.

Just down the street, the Knoll gallery was featuring a series of photographs by recently retired lawyer Randall Sampson.  He decided to make a bicycle trip from Washington State to Portland, Maine, and took a series of photographs with his I-Phone along the way.  A lot of them were quite good, and a lot of them were just so so. There were a lot of photos, and although he could have pared them down to just the best of the best, I think that the exhibit was more about the experience than just the photographs, with a lot of explanatory detail on the walls. The photograph on the right shows Knoll Gallery from the outside looking in, my usual perspective on most things.

And as I have remarked a number of times on this blog, there seems to be a lot of vacancies in the Santa Fe Art District these days.  Two very large storefronts - the Artwork Network space, which has downsized, and the John Fielder Photography Gallery - remain empty, as well as a number of other, smaller spaces.  Is it because winter is a bad time for art galleries, or because the galleries can no longer afford increasing rents in the district?  Kanon Gallery, an artist's collective, is moving to Lakewood, Colorado, for God's sake, near Colfax and Pierce. And therefore, for the Month of Photography, I will be visiting galleries in various neighborhoods across the city, most likely where the rents are cheaper (for now). I guess the stereotypical view of the starving artist is still valid.