It's Street Festival Time Again!

Memorial Day marks the return of Denver's summer street festivals, and this past weekend was the Colorado Artists Market and the Denver Day of Rock, both held along downtown's 16th Street Mall .  The weather was pretty nice, and so there was a large crowd for both events.  I was disappointed to see, however, that the Colorado Artist's Market was about half what it was in previous years.  The past two years the festival was held in a grassy area in front of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, with the result that due to the rain it was more like a mud festival than an arts festival.   This year marked the return of the fair to the16th Street Mall, but evidently a lot of the artists must have stayed away after last year's fiasco.

The Denver Day of Rock was held on 3 separate stages on three cross streets along the mall.  I'm afraid that I wasn't particularly crazy about any of the bands playing at the time I was there.  I did take a picture of the Dirty Magnolias (really - that's their name), seen in the photograph on the right, but I wasn't all that crazy about them, either, despite their being introduced as a nationally recognized band.  In point of fact, I have never heard of any of the bands playing that day.  And I am a hipster! That tells you something right there.

Happy Memorial Day!

I know I wrote about this last year, but in point of fact,  I don't care - just call me sentimental.  Years ago it was a tradition for my sister Susan, my brother-in-law George, and my then wife Lisa and I to go on a Memorial Day hike in Rocky Mountain National Park.  George had purchased a copy of the book Staying Found and always wanted to go off the trail to test his orienteering skills.  Of course, Memorial Day is still pretty early to go hiking in the mountains of Colorado, and so we would be walking uphill though the fog through deeper and deeper snow drifts.  Eventually Lisa (seen in the photograph above contemplating her fate) would start crying and demand that we turn back. George would eventually acquiescence, and  we would head back to Estes Park, find a local bistro, and drink beer, which I think was my brother-in-law George's plan all along. My sister Susan called me the other day and told me she wanted to restart that tradition this year, and to be sure to invite Lisa - now living in San Francisco - along.  I did just that, but Lisa said she wishes she could come along, but wasn't able to jet in.  George said he had to work.  Party poopers.  I can envision that fog shrouded trail right now.

The Final Friday Of May At The DAM

I went to the Denver Art Museum (The DAM) for their monthly Final Friday event, and had a pretty good time.  As usual, the first stop was to partake in all the free munchies (kind of a tradition of mine).  This month, the event was curated by artist and Japanese Culture enthusiast Andrew Novak, and was designed to dovetail with the museum's Samurai exhibition.  Therefore, my next stop after stuffing myself with as much free food as possible, was to hear Rose Tanaka (seen in the photograph on the left)  talk about her time at an internment camp during World War II.  The Federal Government decided to inter 130,000 Japanese Americans during the war, basically putting men, women, and children into concentration camps.  The army guarded the camps, but private citizens, who had a lot of sympathy for these people, ran the camps, and provided Rose and the other children with a 1st class education.  Rose was able to get a scholarship to none other than the University of Denver, my Alma mater, and she has lived here in Denver ever since.

And as usual, Joan and Charlie (named after the iconic Denver Art Museum painting with the same name) put on another amusing show, using the 3rd floor freight elevator as their stage (seen in the photo on the right). Although dressed for a swimming lesson from swim coach Charlie, Joan has has never yet gone in the water.

However, the piece de resistance of the evening was at the end, in the North Building Pavilion, where anyone who wanted could have their photograph taken with Hello Kitty, who seemed to be the master of ceremonies for the evening.  And just who arranged that, Andrew?

The Opposite Of Woe

The Governor of Colorado, John Hickenlooper, signed copies of his just released autobiography, The Opposite of Woe, this past Thursday night (in conjunction with Denver's Tattered Cover Bookstore) at the Wynkoop Brew Pub, which he started up many years ago when he was an unemployed geologist.  I was tempted to go,  but would have had to buy the book - which I would probably never read - in order to get a ticket to the event.  The clincher was when I found out there would be no open bar.  No open bar?  Forget about it.  Perhaps if Hickenlooper winds up as Hillary Clinton's running mate this November, I might reconsider.  Will I still be able to buy the book and attend the inauguration ball?

Red Nose Day!

Yesterday was Red Nose Day, the day a telethon takes place on network television to benefit a variety of children's charities.  In celebration of that, my office-mate Peter actually allowed me to take his photograph. Peter seems to be really into this event, and had me purchase one of the red noses at Walgreen's - one of Red Nose Day's major sponsors - while I still worked there.  He drew the line at actually putting the red nose on his nose, but did put it on his finger, as the photograph above shows.  I'll take what I can get, especially where Peter is concerned.  Enjoy the photograph, since it could be months, years, or even decades  before he lets me take another.  Thanks for the photo op, Peter.  Same time next year?

A Chicago Baseball Update

I am happy to report that both the North Side Chicago Cubs and South Side Chicago White Sox are still in first place in their respective divisions.  The Cubs have the best record in baseball, while the White Sox are hanging in there - barely.  The White Sox have lost 7 out of their last 10 games, and so while I can still do it, I want to celebrate both teams being in first place by featuring one of the most famous White Sox players of all time, Shoeless Joe Jackson.  Jackson was banned from baseball for life for being implicated in the Black Sox scandal back in 1919, when White Sox players threw the World Series after tasking money from gamblers.  Many feel that Jackson got a raw deal, having played flawlessly in the series.  Therefore, I am featuring him in the above photograph with Denver's Coors Field in the background.  I understand he appeared in a Iowa cornfield once in a long ago baseball movie, so I don't see why I can't feature him at Coor's Field.  Say it ain't so, Joe!

Steve Hamilton makes A Denver Appearance

Author Steve Hamilton appeared at the LoDo branch of the Denver bookstore chain where I work, promoting his new book The Second Life of Nick Mason (which is very good, by the way).  I drove downtown after work, and took the above photograph just before he began to speak.  Hamilton seemed a bit discombobulated when I took the photograph.  I was sitting dead center and it was impossible to take a shot without being noticed.  Hamilton was probably worried the photograph might wind up on the web.  Why are people so paranoid these days?  In any case, Hamilton, the author of the Alex McKnight mystery series (one of my favorites), was really excited about his new book, which will soon be made into a major motion picture.  The story takes place in Chicago, where he has spent a lot of time, and I am happy to report that the hero of the story is a Chicago White Sox fan, and champions the Sox over the Cubs.

Hamilton was able to see a bit of Denver today, and was very impressed with the city.  He remarked on the city's energy and youthful spirit (hipster central in Denver is the remodeled Union Station, seen in the photo on the right), and was very impressed with all the construction going on ,especially in the RINO (River North) neighborhood. Driving around town today, it appears there is construction going on on ever block, which is both a good and a bad thing.  Hamilton was late to last night's signing because he and the book rep could not find a parking space, and so I think he now knows the negatives quite well.  Good luck with the book, Steve