A Taste Of Tattoos!

It's actually A Taste of Colorado, and it started Friday night with a big fireworks display over Denver's City and County Building, but I call it a Taste of Tattoos because of the large number of people - mostly younger people - who sport tattoos at the event. And I still don't get it.  What are all these kids going to do when they try to get an actual job?  Do they think that someone is going to want to have a surgeon or a trial lawyer with tattoos up and down both arms proclaiming "Road to Hell" or similar such words or graphics?  If I was starting over in life, I would definitely go into the tattoo removal business.  A tremendous career opportunity to explore for all you young people out there!

Final Friday At The DAM!

I went to the Final Friday event at the Denver Art Museum (The DAM) last night and as usual had a really nice time, although I must say I was a bit disappointed in the buffet, which consisted only of light snacks instead of the rather substantial hors d'oeuvres (and yes, I did have to look up the spelling on that one) served last time.  But beggars can't be choosers, as it says on the Hoyt Family Crest.  In any case, the museum is featuring an exhibition of 20th century Japanese prints and a retrospective of pop artist Tom Wesselmann's work, so it was well worth the price of admission (free for members).  In addition, Denver artist Tracy Weil gave several talks about his work. Weil seems like a pretty nice guy, and was very enthusiastic about exhibiting his work at the museum.  He is the founder of both the RiNo Art District here in Denver and the Denver County Fair, and exhibited Plexiglas chickens and a hen house (see photograph above) to fit in with the night's theme ("Roost").  The only negative part of the evening was that to take the photo, I steadied the camera on a shelf which turned out to be an important piece of modern art by Tucker Nichols.  To me it just looked like a wooden shelf with a few odd objects on it, but what do I know?  A security person rushed up to me and said that I couldn't lean on the art, and she would be happy to get me a chair, thinking to herself that the poor old guy is about to collapse.  No problem, miss.  I can still stand upright for many minutes at a time these days.

An Inordinate Amount Of Rain

Denver is usually a pretty dry place in the summer months, but we have had quite a lot of rain here over the past few months, and when your car has a leaky windshield, that can be quite disconcerting.  This wet period coincided with my return from Oregon, where it is supposed to rain all the time but was hot and sunny all the time I was there.  This environmental turnabout is no doubt due to some voodoo curse I brought down upon Denver because of my negative Blogs about Portland.  Sorry about that, Denver.  Better keep those umbrellas handy for a while.  

It's Ken!

Ken, a sales rep for a number of book publishers, passed by my office at the bookstore where I currently work and was very surprised to see me sitting there.  The last time I saw him was when I worked at the University of Denver Bookstore, and he assumed I was still there.  I tried to convince Ken that he was losing his mind, and that I had never worked at DU, but he didn't fall for it.  Of course, that doesn't mean you're not losing your mind, Ken - only that you were right on this one issue.  Great to see you again, by the way.

Speaking Of Voodoo...

As long as we are on the subject of Voodoo, Voodoo Donuts on Colfax Avenue here in Denver is still doing a land office business.  The lines often extend out onto the street and amongst the crazies.  When  I was in Portland, I actually walked past the original Voodoo Donuts location, and if anything, the lines were even longer.  It does make me wonder why Voodoo Donuts is located only in Portland and Denver.  Do those two cities both have unusually large Zombie populations?  Do large numbers of young people in these two cities have an unusual obsession with Voodoo?  I definitely intend to find out at the big Zombie Crawl here in Denver - which will take place Saturday, October 18th - and get these questions answered when I participate in the event as one of the Zombie paparazzi.  Talk an honor and a privilege.  I'll even wear my forged Chicago Daily News Press credentials for the occasion..

Club Voodoo!

I ran across Club Voodoo the other night while looking for a place to park on my way to see the Colorado Rockies play the Miami Marlins this past Saturday night.  I have walked past Voodoo on East Colfax here in Denver many times, but I had no idea Club Voodoo even existed.  I took a peak inside the place and it was filled to the rafters with Zombies.  Surprise!  As almost everyone knows, Denver has a serious Zombie problem.  In fact, Zombies have their own holiday here, and the annual Zombie Crawl on Denver's 16th Street Mall will be taking place Saturday, October 18th.  If you happen to be in town, be sure to wear your garlic.  Or is that only for vampires?  I better look that up pretty damn soon.

Just Not The Same...

This month I missed two of my favorite August events - the Golden Fine Arts Festival in Golden, Colorado, and Dancing in the Streets (known locally as Drinking in the Streets) in Stuart, Florida.  The Golden Fine Arts Festival was held last weekend, when my sister Susan and I were in Stuart, Florida, getting our condo there ready to re-rent, and Stuart's Dancing in the Streets festival was held this past weekend, after we had returned to Denver.  Here in Denver the only event I wanted to attend was AARP Day at the Denver Botanic Gardens, and since it ended at 5:00 P.M. on Friday, I missed it.  Plus, I'll be damned if it wasn't raining, too.  If we had only traveled to Florida this past weekend instead of the weekend before, we would have been able to attend both events, but it was my sister Susan and brother-in-law George's 45th wedding anniversary, and they wanted to spend it together.  They are evidently pretty sentimental about things like that.  I myself am not, which is probably why I have been divorced for all these years.