The Betrayers

I found an advance reading copy of The Betrayers, the newest novel by David Bezmozgis, in the break room of the Bookstore where I work a few weeks ago, and decided to give it a try.  I usually read only mysteries, and kept waiting for someone to be murdered, but it never happened.  The book is actually quite good and quite a literary achievement.  It takes place in the Crimea, and I must say that after reading this book, I am crossing  the Crimea off my "bucket list."  It seems very depressing there.  I say send Rick Steves there first to scope it out, and if he winds up liking it and makes a travel episode about it, I'll make reservations.

A Portrait Of Peter

I was very surprised that Peter, my friend and office mate at the Bookstore where I work, agreed to have his photograph taken (armed with a banana, I might add) yesterday morning.  I ran into Peter a few weeks ago at the Zombie Crawl on Denver's 16th Street Mall and at that time he didn't want to be photographed. Originally I thought he might be in the Witness Protection Program.  When I worked at the DU Bookstore, almost everyone there told me they were in witness protection, which seems like a statistical improbability, but I know they wouldn't lie to me.  In any case, I guess Peter was just photo shy because he was worried about retribution from The Undead at the Zombie Crawl.  I myself worry about that night and day.

Hanging At Hickenlooper Headquarters

Yesterday was Election Day, and as I walked through Denver's Union Station after work on my way to the Light Rail train, I noticed that Governor John Hickenlooper had made the center of the station his election night headquarters.  This seemed like a pretty egalitarian gesture, letting the general public hang out with the Democratic fat cats, instead of gathering at an expensive hotel ballroom and shooting any onlookers who crossed the threshold.  Since I knew it was going to be a close election and a late night, I decided to head home instead of hanging around waiting for the outcome.  I figured I could always get dressed and go back to Union Station if the mood struck me.  It didn't.  And by the way, as of today - Wednesday - the jury is still out on the result.  I wonder if everybody is still there?

Election Day!

Happy Election Day Everybody! Here in Colorado it is for the most part a mail-in election, and so I drove down to Union Station Sunday afternoon to drop off my ballot.  I had received a list of drop-off locations in the mail, and Union Station was mentioned as one of them.  However, I could not find it.  I did see a lot of slotted trash receptacles, however, and after all those horrible attack ads running night and day on the television, I was sorely tempted to drop it in one of those.  But I didn't, even though watching these commercials it appears virtually everyone running for office these days belongs in jail.  If only we could put them all there, even if just for a few decades.

Meanwhile, Back In Mozambique...

The clock is ticking.  Cheyanne - daughter of my friend Valarie and a "teacher of teachers" with the Peace Corps (seen in the photograph above on the left) - is down to her final 6 weeks in Mozambique.  After that, it will be goodbye to that country and it's beaches along the Indian Ocean, and back to Denver, Colorado. Of course, Cheyanne can still go to the beach here.  It will just have to be the beach at the Cherry Creek Reservoir, which I am sure has a similar ambiance.  And by the way, Cheyanne has been offered a position with a non-profit in Maputo, the capitol of Mozambique, but her mother Valarie has personally threatened to go over there and strangle her if she takes the job.  Which sounds a bit on the hostile side to me, but what do I know?  In any case, check out Cheyanne's Blog at www.timeinmozambique.blogspot.com.

Still More Halloween Nostalgia

I am ending Halloween Weekend with a blast from the past: a photograph of my mother Mary and her cousin Junior Dumas dressed up in costume back in the 1920s. This, by the way, is the only Halloween photograph I have of any family member, myself included, wearing a costume.  Back on the South Side of Chicago, Halloween was for kids and was considered a minor event, unlike it is these days here in Denver, where virtually everyone downtown is dressed up in costume and wandering the streets.  Back in Chicago, kids put on makeshift costumes and went trick or treating for a few hours every October 31st and that was that. Adults didn't wear masks unless they had a legitimate excuse, like holding up a convenience store.  And even here in Denver, after today, no one will have the experience until next year of going into a restaurant and sitting next to a table of zombies, unless of course they really are zombies.  In which case, I should definitely have paid more attention to what the "zombie experts" were saying at the Denver Art Museum's Final Friday event the other day.

Halloween At The DAM

I went to the final "Final Friday" of the year at the Denver Art Museum (The DAM) last night and had a great time.  The theme of the evening was - naturally - Halloween and the supernatural, and there were talks given by mediums, zombie experts (yes, I was surprised to hear there are zombie experts, too), and DAM staff members who have had experiences with the supernatural.  The woman at the top right in the photograph above is Gina Laurin, a conservator at the museum who spoke to visitors about her many paranormal experiences while working as a conservator and archaeologist.  Laurin told some great ghost stories and evidently has the gift of being able to relate to the spirit world.  This is obvious, of course, considering the fact that the ghost family posing for the photograph above decided to attend her talk, too.  Also, just to add an unrelated historical footnote, Fidel Castro also attended the talk.  He can be seen in the upper left corner of the photo.  I think he is looking for a house here.