Another Art Show In Cherry Creek? Yes! Kind Of...

There was another art show last weekend in Denver's Cherry Creek North neighborhood, but it only occupied Fillmore Plaza, an outdoor block used for events throughout the year, as opposed to the annual Cherry Creek Arts Festival, which occupies almost all of the Cherry Creek North retail district during the 4th of July weekend. I drove over to Cherry Creek Sunday afternoon to look at the art, and it was okay, but just okay. Not too many artists were there, and although there was photography on display, most of it was  either weird looking digital art or Colorado landscapes, which were nice, but looked remarkably the same.

It did not take long to peruse the art, and so I walked around Cherry Creek North for a while to see what was new, which is a lot. When I first moved to Denver, Cherry Creek had a lot of very modest restaurants such as Hops, a Florida brewpub chain that had a Wednesday steak dinner special for $12.95, a Round the Corner Restaurant (where you placed your order from a phone located at each table), and even a Burger King. These days almost all the restaurants are high-end establishments. The photograph on the right is of the patio at True Food Kitchen, where I have never eaten, although I have had brunch just down the street at a restaurant called North Italia, which was very good and actually seemed pretty reasonable.

Years ago Cherry Creek was made up almost entirely of one or two story buildings housing shops and restaurants. These days high-rises are sprouting up all over the place - hotels, office buildings, and even condos and high-end apartments. I took the photograph on the left of the entrance to one of those condo buildings, and I must say, it looks pretty damn nice. And no doubt pretty damn expensive, too. Happily, my condo is only 3 miles away from Cherry Creek, and so I can enjoy the ambiance of the area, but avoid the high cost of living there. A win-win as far as I am concerned. But I still miss Round the Corner.

Watching The Tottenham Game With Mark

I watched Tottenham play Nottingham Forest in an English Premier League soccer match Sunday morning on the "telly," as they call it in the UK, with my friend Mark, who is quite the Tottenham fan. Nottingham Forest is, of course, where Robin Hood and his Merry Men used to hang out. I was half expecting their soccer team would be decked out as the Merry Men, but sadly, they just wore plain old soccer jerseys. Tottenham beat Nottingham 2-0, and are now in third place in the standings, although the season is still young. And yes, that is Mark in the photograph above, standing in front of the stadium in Nottingham. And I must say, from the looks of it, Nottingham Forest is damn ugly. No wonder Robin Hood and his gang are no longer there.

The Summer Art Market

This past weekend the Art Students League of Denver's Summer Art Market took place in the streets surrounding its school (the Sherman School, built in 1893), seen in the background of the photograph on the left.  This is a truly wonderful art festival that takes place every summer. Many if not most of the artists seem to be around my age (just a kid), and very accomplished. Student enrollment is around 900, and they are taught by an alternating faculty of about 200.

One of the artists is Carol Till, my friend and former University of Denver Bookstore colleague, seen on the right in the photograph, along with her friend Marga. At least I think her name is Marga - it has been a couple of days, after all, and I never have been good at remembering names, especially as I get older. If her name isn't actually Marga, perhaps she might want to change it to that. But I digress. Carol is a very talented artist who had a booth at the Summer Art Market for the first time in seven years. Be sure to check out her work at http://www.caroltill.com/index.html. Joe Higgins, another friend and former DU Bookstore colleague, is an artist and instructor at the Art Students League of Denver, but is taking a break from exhibiting his work this year, although he was still in attendance, volunteering at the festival all weekend. Check out Joe's monotypes at https://www.joehigginsmonotypes.com/. 

I was very impressed with the art, especially the work by Michael Rieger and Bryan Dahlberg, both of whom are professional photographers who shared the booth seen in the photograph on the left. They have both branched out into printmaking using photo etching, with wonderful results. I was so impressed that I really want to learn more about the process and perhaps take a class or two at ASLD, although I suspect they might actually charge for those classes, which for a cheapskate like me is always an emotional issue. Decisions decisions.

Thinking About Santa Fe

Santa Fe, New Mexico is one of my absolute favorite places. I have been visiting there since I first moved to Denver back in 1981. It is only a six hour drive, and it still amazes me that a city founded in 1610 is such a short drive away. The Palace of the Governors, located on the plaza, was built that very year, as was the San Miguel Mission. The De Vargas Street House was built in 1646, and the city is filled with many other historic buildings, too. It is just magical there. My ex-wife Lisa and I went there a number of times when we were married, and once went to the Santa Fe Opera to see one of the weirdest operas ever. Trust me on that. My sister Susan, brother-in-law George, and I drove down there over a number of years for Thanksgiving dinner at La Casa Sena, located in a garden courtyard just across the street from the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis. I took the photograph on the left of Susan on a walk around the city during one of those Thanksgiving trips.

I took the photograph on the right of Susan and George while we were exploring one of the neighborhoods adjacent to Canyon Road, a street that boasts many art galleries, as well as El Farol, another of my favorite restaurants, housed in a building dating from 1835. When Susan and I attended the annual fiesta in Santa Fe back in 2018, we walked up Canyon Road with her two dogs and had a couple of beers on the front patio of El Farol to fortify ourselves for the walk back. There are old adobe homes like the one Susan and George are posing in front of all over town, many very old. It is fun to think about living there in one of them, but I guess the next best thing is to continue staying at the ultra-luxurious downtown Motel 6 Resort and Spa whenever we can visit. 

The photograph on the left is of my sister Susan and I in front of one of the houses on what might or might not be Canyon Road - it has been a lot of years since the photo was taken. I have no idea how old that place is, or what it looks like inside, but what a wonderful home in a wonderful city. And now I think it is time to head back down there, perhaps once again at Thanksgiving. The day after Thanksgiving marks the start of the Christmas season, and that night the plaza is lit with luminarias, a sight definitely worth seeing again and again. And perhaps one of these days, an owner of one of those adobe homes in the center of town will finally get tired of that 300 year old plumbing and offer their place for sale at a bargain price. One can always dream.

A Subscription Offer From AFAR Magazine

I got an offer to resubscribe to AFAR Magazine about a month ago, and since the price was right, immediately sent in my check. And was surprised at how quickly I received my first issue. I had originally subscribed to this magazine about 10 year ago. I remember this because I read an article about San Francisco's Outer Sunset neighborhood in one of the issues, and visited that neighborhood over a long weekend in that city back in January of 2012. I walked from the Cliff House overlooking the ocean down into the Outer Sunset, and the fog became so thick it was hard to see very far ahead. Fog horns were going off, which made for quite an evocative experience. I finally arrived at my destination, the Riptide, a bar and restaurant featured in the article, and had a couple of beers at a table near the fireplace, listening to those fog horns, before taking the BART back to my motel room, miles away, near the San Francisco airport, which even to me seemed not worth the savings. In any case, I am happy to be getting that magazine again. The summer issue features articles about great cities to visit, and one about the world's best new sustainable hotels, among other stories. Of course, to me, sustainable means pricey. Hopefully Motel 6 will be sustainable enough during my next trip.

DU Buildings Are Now Open To All - At Last!

All of the buildings on the University of Denver campus are open to the public for the first time since the start of the pandemic. Up until now, anyone who entered a DU building had to first take a Covid test, quarantine for 7 to 10 months (or something like that), and then apply to the ID office to obtain clearance, which would then allow that person to unlock the various doors on campus using their DU ID card. I myself wanted to access the bookstore to buy an academic copy of Photoshop Elements, as an official DU retiree, but after learning the procedure involved, I said the hell with it.

With this big change, I can now legally walk right into DU's new student center. I have visited the building several times already, but had to sneak in as someone was coming out. This new student center replaces what was called Driscoll North, which was built back in 1984, the year I started working at the DU Bookstore. The bookstore, where I worked for almost 30 years as the Finance Manager before the store was outsourced to Follett Higher Education Group (hence my "retirement"), is located in Driscoll South, and was connected to Driscoll North (as the new building is now) via the bridge in the photograph on the right. 

The new student center is much bigger than was Driscoll North, but as far as I am concerned, just as ugly. A very modern, cold, purely functional building, although it does have nice outside balconies where students, faculty, and staff can sit, and a very large rooftop patio on the 4th floor. There is also a small event space on that 4th floor with one of the ugliest bars (more like a counter) I have ever seen, where you can buy a brew, go outside, and admire the view. Have none of the architects on this project ever seen a cozy little bar, perhaps called "The Rathskeller," with lots of wood, a fireplace, and cozy seating where someone, especially academics, would actually want to hang out? I guess not. In any case, the last time I was on the rooftop deck was in the winter or early spring, and so I was surprised to see that now that summer is here, there is a wheat field up there, as seen in the photo on the left, with the law school tower looming on the right and the Ritchie Center tower on the left. And DU doesn't even have an agricultural program. I suspect they will simply get some work study students to cut it with sickles when harvest time arrives. Some things never change, do they?

Big Changes For Bonnie Brae

Denver's Bonnie Brae neighborhood is about to undergo some major changes. This is a very upscale part of Denver which features a one block business district that has been the longtime home of many restaurants and shops. However, the Bonnie Brae Tavern, which has been in business since 1934, was recently sold to developers, who intend to build an apartment complex on the site. The Saucy Noodle, another longtime resident, closed for good August 14th after 58 years. In contrast, the Campus Lounge, a neighborhood mainstay and seen in the photograph on the left, looks to be staying put for the foreseeable future.

The Campus Lounge's original owner sold the place a few years ago, but the new management team closed the place down after a short run. A new group came in and did a major remodel, turning the place into an upscale dining destination, but this did not sit well with longtime customers, and it closed, too. Finally, still another new ownership group, who grew up in the neighborhood, took over, put the televisions back, and returned the place to its roots as a sports bar. This incarnation turned out to be a great success. One neighborhood landmark still standing.

Visiting Belmar And Belmar Park

Lakewood, Colorado, the suburb just to the west of Denver, is pretty damn ugly, but I must say, the Belmar Shopping District and Heritage Lakewood Belmar Park, a 20th century history park, are both pretty nice. Of course, Belmar Shopping District, a mixed use development that now functions as Lakewood's downtown, is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Residents of that suburb evidently prefer the strip malls, fast food outlets, pawn shops, and other delights of West Colfax Avenue. And will Festival Italiano, the one event in Lakewood that is actually a great deal of fun, take place in Belmar this year? If so, they are keeping pretty quiet about it. Lakewood evidently does not want to encourage fun. Another highlight of Lakewood is Heritage Lakewood Belmar Park, which has views of the mountains and historic structures, including early 20th century farmhouses and remnants from the glory days of West Colfax that have morphed over time from being tacky to iconic, an example of which can be seen in the photograph above. Feel free to visit, but just remember: Jack Kerouac bought a house in Lakewood, but sold the place and moved away after just a month or two - it is rumored Lakewood drove him to drink. 

Same Old Story - Another Heartbreaking Loss For The White Sox

I watched my South Side heros, the Chicago White Sox, play the Kansas City Royals yesterday afternoon on MLB.com. When I tuned in,  the Sox were down 4-0, and their starting pitcher, Michael Kopech, had left the game in the first inning due to left knee soreness.  Their star shortstop, Tim Anderson, is already on the injured list and expected to be out six weeks. Talk about bad luck. The Sox tied the game, but then Joe Kelly came in to pitch the 8th inning. He hit the first two batters, gave up a single, got a force-out before walking in the go-ahead run, and then gave up a run-scoring sacrifice fly. The White Sox lost 6-4 to a team that has lost 5 out of its last 6 games. And still the White Sox are only three games out of first place. But for how long? This team is just not very good. However, they tease their fans into having hope by staying so close to first place. As a lifelong White Sox fan, this should come as no surprise, but yet it does every time. And yes, that is indeed me in the photograph above, contemplating the prospects for the White Sox - not to mention pondering the meaning of life - in front of the scoreboard declaring the sad news at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. Where are the "South Side Hitmen" when you need them?

Lunching In Lakewood With Stuart

I had a late lunch with my friend Stuart Saturday afternoon at the Old Chicago Pizza and Taproom in Lakewood, Colorado. If you love both suburbia and ugly, you would love Lakewood. But I digress. Over lunch, Stuart and I discussed his new job, politics, and of course, baseball. Stuart, as regular blog readers know, is originally from the North Side of Chicago, and a Cubs fan. He has not been paying too much attention to the team, since they traded away all their stars last year and are in a rebuilding mode. I myself am from the South Side, and a White Sox fan. The White Sox are a mere 2.5 games out of first place and a contender, though to be honest, they are a pretty mediocre team in a weak division. The Colorado Rockies (who the owner, Dick Monfort, considers a contender) have almost the same record as the Cubs, although the Rockies are 32.5 games out of first place while the Cubs are a mere 17 back.  Will the Rockies and Cubs make the playoffs in history-making comebacks? Will the White Sox somehow meander into the post-season despite their mediocrity? Stay tuned, although you have probably already guessed the answer to those questions.

Dancin' In The Streets - Gone But Not Forgotten

Last night Dancin' in the Streets would have taken place in Old Town Stuart, Florida if the festival hadn't been ended by it's sponsor, Stuart Mainstreet. This was an annual event that took place every August in downtown Stuart, and was extremely popular with the locals. The photograph on the left shows my sister Susan posing in front of a poster advertising the festival back in 1996. Susan and I often visited our mother Mary down in Stuart during August, and we were usually there when the festival took place. However, we never attended it - our mother didn't want to leave her condo after sunset for some reason. Most of her neighbors felt the same way. And as far as I know, Stuart never had a vampire problem back then, or for that matter, even now. 

Years later, in 2015, I was down in Stuart in August taking care of condo business and finally got to attend the festival (also known to locals as "Drinking in the Streets"). It really was a lot of fun. Sadly, Stuart Mainstreet ended the festival just a few years later, saying interest in the event had declined. I myself don't believe it. I think the merchants did not want to lose a day of business, even though it was just a single Saturday in the middle of summer. Also, a lot of upscale residents began moving close to the downtown area, which probably had an impact on canceling the festival, too. Very sad, as Donald Trump likes to say. The photograph on the right, by the way, is of myself, mother Mary, and Susan posing in front of a London cab parked in front of the Jolly Sailor, a restaurant that used to be located in Old Town Stuart before being forced out by rising rents. Happily, the Jolly Sailor still exists as an outdoor bar overlooking the Sunset Bay Marina, where you can sit at the bar or a table and watch the sun set as you down a pint. Thank God some things from the old days still exist.

August At The Zoo Part II

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog post, I went to the Denver Zoo Wednesday afternoon to take a few photographs, with mixed success. The sun played hell with getting a decent exposure, but happily I was able to get a photograph of the male orangutan Berani hanging out with his young three-year-old daughter Cerah. The mother expectedly died about a year ago, and Berani stepped up to take care of her, to the delight of the zookeepers. They are now inseparable.

This was an excellent day to visit the zoo if you happened to be a dentist and were looking for a busman's holiday. I took the photograph of the lion in the photograph on the right giving a big yawn between naps. Lions tend to sleep between 16 and 20 hours a day, and spend most of the rest of the time eating, kind of like teenagers during the summer, and so I was lucky to get that shot.

On the other hand, the hippo in the photograph on the left simply likes to play with it's toys in the water on hot summer afternoons. To me it looks like it is playing with a large plastic buoy, which got me thinking about Stuart, Florida, and the buoys in the rivers there. Florida has been in the news lately because it is being overrun with huge pythons that pet owners have released into the Everglades after they get to be 20 feet long or so, making them a bit unmanageable. It would have been much better if they had adopted baby hippos, and then released them into the water when they got too big to handle. That would have made for a tremendous tourist draw. And that gets me thinking about lions, too.

August At The Zoo

I went to the Denver Zoo Wednesday afternoon to walk around the place and take a few photographs. The heat wave we have been experiencing here in Denver this summer has ended - at least temporarily - and so most of the animals were out and about, although many of them were sticking to the shade, including the lion in the photograph on the left. Between naps, he was kind enough to sit up and pose for the camera.

One of the two tigers at the Denver Zoo was also up and about, and willing to pose for a portrait, too. Unfortunately, it was not a very high quality image that I took. I had to spend a lot of time working in photoshop to make it half-way decent. I am still not happy with the quality, but on the other hand, it is just a blog photograph and not heading to the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and so to hell with it. It is what it is - a tiger in bad light, but looking right at me.

The outside cage for the black and white colobus monkeys was undergoing maintenance Wednesday afternoon, and so I took the photograph on the left of one of those monkeys in their inside compound. It is rare that they look me right in the eye like in this photo - they are usually sleeping with their backs toward me, or else picking through each other's fur looking for something tasty to eat. I don't take it personally, of course, and am just happy on the rare occasion they do want to pose.

The zebra in the photograph on the right is not shy - it is simply standing in front of it's feeding trough. The fact that it is looking right at me is just a happy coincidence. It was just looking up in between bites. The rest of the zebras were on the opposite side of the compound, hanging out in the shade and waiting to go inside and enjoy the air conditioning, and perhaps watch a few episodes of Animal Planet on cable TV. And are the animals at the Denver Zoo all spoiled? Nah. Just most of them.

The Acoma House

Every time I go to the Denver Art Museum (the DAM), I park a block or two south of the museum and always pass by The Acoma House, which was a boarding house back in the early 1900s and located on - get ready - Acoma Street. It is pretty hard to miss, since an entire side of the building features a mural called "This is the Wildlife," seen in the above photograph. I finally got curious enough to google the place, and found out that several years ago a couple decided to buy it and turn it into an Airbnb. They then hired 28 artists to decorate 25 rooms, in addition to the hallways and stairwells. It sounded like a fun idea, and the photographs of the redecorated rooms in the online articles are very impressive. It was supposed to open in the spring of this year, but I could not find a website for it. I suspect the opening has been delayed, but can't say for sure. Perhaps I will pop in next time I am heading to the DAM and just ask.

A Nice Addition To The Neighborhood...

My sister Susan and I, along with her dog Blackberry, have been stopping by the Denver Beer Company's South Downing Street location every so often this summer to have a pint of beer on their patio. It is the third location for the brewery, after the first location in Denver's Lower Downtown and the second in Olde Town Arvada, and just a short drive from my condo. I never went to the downtown brewery since it is so crowded all the time, but the South Downing location is just too handy to resist. The patio there is packed on weekends, but despite this we have always found a seat, and Blackberry is always welcomed by the staff like a long lost friend. I must admit, the beers there are more expensive than at the New Terrain Brewery out in Golden, a personal favorite, but on the other hand, New Terrain is 25 minutes away from my condo, while the Denver Beer Company on South Downing is a mere 1.5 miles door to door. To decide which was cheaper, I would have to calculate the cost of gasoline to and from New Terrain versus the higher beer prices, sales tax added on instead of being included in the price, and additional tip due to waitress service at Denver Beer Company, but whenever I think about it, I just tend to say the hell with it and order a pint. Life is too short, even for a cheapskate like me.

The Central City Cemetery

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog post, I drove up to Central City, Colorado this past Friday afternoon to check out that old mining town, and after looking around downtown took Eureka Street (one of the main drags) up the hill to the Central City Cemetery, the entrance to which can be seen in the photograph on the left. The view of the mountains from here is quite impressive, and I decided to get out of the car and walk around a bit. This cemetery dates from the 1860s, and many of the original miners, along with their loved ones, are buried here. It says on the internet that this place is haunted, but I did not get that vibe at all.

The cemetery, at least the part I visited, seems to have been reclaimed by the woods (photo on the right), and the tombstones that I saw, such as the ones in the background, are for the graves of infants. I think I must have not walked far enough to see the main part of the cemetery, which from photographs I have seen on the internet is much more in the open, but I believe this part is the prettiest, with the best views.

What I found pretty amazing is that there were actually toys and coins on some of the infant graves, such as the one seen  in the photograph on the left. This child died on October 29, 1888 at the age of 10 months and 20 days, according to the tombstone, and so I have to wonder who brings these things to the gravesite? Could it be a decendent of the family who still lives in the area? I doubt that it is the ghost of the mother, since I don't think ghosts have loose change in their pockets, although I could be wrong. I often am. In any case, visiting this place was definitely worth the trip up here.

Visiting Central City

I drove to Central City Friday afternoon to see what it looks like these days. It was established as a gold mining town back in 1859, and by 1860 was home to 10,000 prospectors. The gold deposits petered out pretty quickly, and by 1900 the residents numbered only 3,000. Today the offical population is 779. Happily, the town is still filled with many 19th century commercial buildings and countless Victorian era homes, and is part of the Central City/Blackhawk Historic District. I took the photograph on the left as I was entering the town, which is located in the mountains about 40 miles west of Denver.

The area was struggling economically back in the 1980s, when I moved to Colorado from Chicago, and shortly afterwards voters approved legalized gambling in both Central City and Blackhawk. The main road to Central City passed through neighboring Blackhawk first, which unlike Central City had no height restrictions on new construction, and so Black Hawk became the dominant gambling town, these days resembling a mini-Las Vegas. Central City has remained a sleepy, but attractive and quaint little mountain town. The photograph on the right shows what the downtown area looked like this past Friday afternoon. Not a person on the street as far as I could tell.

When you head up the hill on Eureka Street after leaving the downtown area, quaint 19th century homes line both sides of the road, and if you keep going you reach Central City Cemetery, where I took the photograph on the left of both it and the mountains beyond. For many years I have avoided these two cities because of all the gambling activity. Black Hawk is truly ugly, not to mention tacky, and for many years the only way to get to Central City was through Blackhawk. However, Central City paid for the construction of a four lane highway that leads directly to the town from Interstate 70 in an attempt to lure gamblers there (it didn't work). However, driving that highway last Friday, I was truly impressed with the mountain scenery around the area. It is actually a great place to visit, and only a short drive from Denver. My only advise is to just stay away from those damn casinos.

A Visit To Chautauqua Park

My sister Susan and I, along with her dog Blackberry, drove up to Boulder from Denver last week and visited Chautauqua Park, one of nicest spots in that very nice city. The park consists of the Chautauqua Dining Hall, the Chautauqua Auditorium, a general store, and a number of cottages that are rented out to faculty of the University of Colorado during the school year and tourists during the summer. The best part is that the park is located just below the Flatirons, as seen in the photograph on the left, and is very popular with hikers.

The Chautauqua Auditorium, seen in the photograph on the right, hosts concerts and lectures, and years ago I attended one of those events with Susan and my mother Mary, who was visiting us from Stuart, Florida. It was a Peter Kater concert, and as I recall, we all enjoyed it immensely. Kater lived in Boulder for 13 years, and since that time has often returned to play concerts throughout Colorado. I also remember going to one of Kater's performances at the Chrysler, a fancy restaurant on the top floor of what later became the Tattered Cover Bookstore in Denver's Cherry Creek neighborhood, with my then wife Lisa. That was back in the early 1980s, when I suspect he was just starting to achieve fame.

When my mother used to come to visit, we would drive to Boulder - Susan and her husband George from Fort Collins and my mother and I from Denver - and have brunch outside on the deck of the Chautauqua Dining Hall. At that time, they stopped serving brunch at 11:00, and it was always exciting to see if Susan and George would make it there on time. They always did, but it was often damn close. I am guessing that I took the photograph on the left during the summer of 2002, based on the fact that Susan's hairstyle is the same as in another Chautauqua photograph from that year. I just wish I had written the damn year on all my photographs, but too late now. If you do have a chance to have brunch at Chautauqua, and perhaps even take in a concert, I would highly recommend it.

Bad Axe

I just finished reading Bad Axe, one of two new "Thorn" novels by James W. Hall. I used to read every book in this series as they came out, but in 2014, after writing The Big Finish, Hall ended the series. However, several years ago, he resumed the Thorn stories with Bad Axe. It features a tarnished knight-in-shining-armour type named Thorn, who lives off the grid in Key Largo, Florida, making fishing lures, living a quiet life, and then getting involved, along with his friend Sugarman - a former police officer - helping people out of dangerous situations. In Bad Axe, Thorn and Sugarman are asked by a fishing guide friend to help him retrieve poison-gas-filled land mines that he allowed someone to steal during the Vietnam War, which have just surfaced after all those years. I enjoyed this book, and recommend it, but it appears that these new Thorn novels are self-published, and only available on Amazon. Laurence Shames, who stopped writing his comic Key West novels, and then started writing them again years later, also now self-publishes, as does Tom Corcoran, who writes Key West mysteries featuring photographer Alex Rutledge. Why are these books no longer published by a major publishing house? Are they not socially relevant enough for today's target audience? If so, it shows what a sad state this country is now in, as if we need another reminder.

The August Issue Of Chicago Magazine

The August issue of Chicago Magazine arrived recently, and happily enough, it is the annual Best of Chicago issue. Even though I have lived in Denver since 1981, I still like to keep up with what is happening in my old home town. As usual, most of Chicago's "best" are located on the near north side and all the trendy neighborhoods located north and northwest. What's a former South Sider to do? However, there were several interesting articles this month, including one about the Magnificent Mile, the part of Michigan Avenue between the Chicago River and Oak Street Beach. Evidently, there are now a lot of vacancies on that ritzy strip, thanks to the pandemic and the smash and grab incidents that have frequently taken place there. Even Water Tower Place, where I used to spend my days off from my job managing the Walden Book Store at Yorktown Shopping Center, is mostly empty - no more Marshall Fields, Rizzoli Bookstore, or even the upscale McDonald's. Very sad, as Donald Trump likes to say. As for the South Side, there is an article about the Packingtown Museum, which is located where the old Union Stockyards used to be, and tells the story of that famous part of Chicago history. I definitely want to check that place out the next time I am in Chicago, perhaps before attending a White Sox game, reliving my South Side youth.

Viewing Two Excellent DAM Photography Exhibitions

My sister Susan and I went to the Denver Art Museum yesterday afternoon to see two photography exhibits. The first was Georgia O'Keeffe, Photographer, which is on display through November 6th. I enjoyed seeing it, but to be honest, Georgia O'Keeffe was not that great a photographer. She seemed to use photography to help her compose her paintings. However, there were a lot of photographs taken of her in the exhibit, such as the one on the left that Susan is admiring, and those, along with some of her paintings and other items connected with her life in Abiquiu, New Mexico were well worth viewing. O'Keeffe did seem to like decorating her home with animal skulls, however. What do they say about the thin line between genius and madness?

The other photography exhibit was Modern Women/Modern Vision, which features the work of many famous female photographers, including Diane Arbus, Imogene Cunningham, Dorothea Lange, and Margaret Bourke-White, who was hired to photograph the Chrysler Building as it was being constructed, and can be seen in the photo on the right on top of a huge gargoyle eagle. After the Chrysler Building was completed, Bourke-White rented a studio there on the 61st floor, and often went out the window to take photographs. Exactly what I would have done in the same situation. "Just don't look down" has always been my motto.

The August Mutt of The Month

This month's Mutt of the Month is Autumn, a dog that hangs out at a local business up in Fort Collins, Colorado. She is not exactly a rescue dog, but once lived in a stressful environment, and is a little skittish around people and other dogs. My sister Susan's dog Blackberry is also skittish around other dogs, especially large dogs, and so they get along just fine, staying as far away as possible from each other. If it works for them, it works for me. Time at last to start enjoying the good life, Autumn.

Watching The Start Of The English Premier League Season With Mark

I visited my friend Mark this past weekend to watch Tottenham play it's first game of the season against Southampton. Mark, seen in the photograph on the left, is a big Tottenham fan, and they won big, with a final score of 4-1. In fact, all of the soccer teams Mark roots for won their first games this weekend. Besides Tottenham, both Newcastle and Leeds won their Premier League matches, and here in Denver the Colorado Rapids won their game against Minnesota.

Sadly, Mark's friend Barry, who lived in the Leed's suburb of Morley, and was a huge Leed's soccer fan, passed away last week at the age of 82 from kidney failure. Mark has many friends in Morley, and has visited there quite a few times. The photograph on the right was taken back in 2019 when Mark and Barry attended a soccer match in Leeds. Barry had a season ticket to the games, and according to Mark used to stand the entire game cheering the team on. I myself have also stood the entire time at Colorado Rockies baseball games, but that is not due to loyalty to the team, but cheapness, buying a Rockpile seat (the worst seat in the house) and then watching the game standing on the concourse behind home plate. Not quite the same thing, I guess. Rest in peace Barry.

The Breckenridge August Art Festival 2022

I drove up to Breckenridge from Denver Saturday afternoon to see the Breckenridge August Art Festival, which took place at The Village at Breckenridge, where I took the photograph on the left. I remember going to another art show in "Breck" last year, but that event was held at a completely different location, a park just across the Blue River. I looked the festival up on the internet when I got home, and found that there is also a Breckenridge July Art Festival, as well as several others during the summer. The festival this past Saturday was a fairly large event and a lot of fun, but I have to wonder if the Chamber of Commerce might be overdoing it a bit in their attempt to attract visitors? Those kind of events tend to lose their luster if they take place multiple times during the summer.

The art festival was very nice, and they had a number of photographers displaying their work (mainly Colorado landscapes), but the real draw is Breckenridge itself, which was founded as a mining town in 1859 and still retains a large number of buildings from the 19th century. Right behind Main Street is the Blue River, along which are walkways and the park where I attended that art festival last year. The landscaping throughout the town is quite beautiful, an example of which can be seen in the photograph on the right.

The thing I like most about Breckenridge are those old 19th century houses on Main Street, all of which have been turned into upscale shops, bars, and restaurants, many of them with patios that are perfect for people-watching. It is especially nice there in the fall, when the leaves all turn to gold. The place was as crowded as usual Saturday, the weather perfect, but I have to wonder what it is like there during ski season. Since I am too cheap to buy snow tires and too lazy to put chains on the car, I virtually never venture into the mountains during the winter and early spring. It must be damn chilly sitting on those patios with a cold beer. The ski crowd must be pretty hearty indeed.

Never Thought I'd See The Day - Getting Nostalgic About NACS

I started working as the trade book buyer and assistant manager at the University of Denver Bookstore back in 1984. As a buyer, the following May I got to attend the National Association of College Store's Conference and Trade Show (CAMEX), which took place that year in San Antonio. The first thing I remember about that show is that the first couple of days were cold as hell, and since it was May in Texas, nobody had brought a jacket. Personally, I found these trade shows pretty damn boring and a waste of time, but I did get to see and take photographs of a number of cities, including San Antonio, it's most prominent feature being the Riverwalk, seen in the photograph on the left.

After the Riverwalk, which is lined with restaurants featuring riverfront tables surrounded by hundreds of pigeons, the next most famous sight is the Alamo, seen in the photograph on the right. The Alamo was a bit of a letdown, and you can only walk so many times along the Riverwalk before it begins to get old. However, NACS had some really nice events back then, and maybe still does. One night we had drinks and dinner at the art museum, which we had all to ourselves and I really enjoyed. Another night we had a barbecue at the Lone Star Brewery, once again having the run of the place. What could be better than your own brewery for the evening?

After the first day or two, it really warmed up. As I recall, I took a walk one afternoon away from the tourist district, and was not impressed. The neighborhoods seemed hot, dusty, and pretty ugly. Of course, I was on foot, and didn't know my way around town, and so maybe I missed the nice areas. Also, this was 1985, and so San Antonio must have changed a great deal since then, although I really don't want to go back and find out. In any case, this coming March, NACS will be hosting it's 100th CAMEX (which stands for Campus Market Expo), in New Orleans. The National Association of College Stores caters to institutionally owned college bookstores, and considering the predominance of chain college bookstores like Follett and Barnes & Noble these days, I have to wonder just how many institutionally owned college bookstores are left. Hopefully many more than I think.