Catching The Tigers Game With Mark

I went to Denver's Coors Field Tuesday night with my friend Mark (seen in the photograph above) to see the Colorado Rockies play the Detroit Tigers.  The Rockies actually played very well, and won the game 7 to 3, although the fact that the Tigers are one of the worst teams in baseball does need to be factored in. Mark, as usual, spent much of the evening filling me in on soccer trivia, despite the fact we were watching a baseball game. Perhaps it is time for him to be deprogrammed.  I'll check to see if there is a soccer addiction support group available.  Just a month to go in the baseball season, by the way, and the Rockies are holding on to a playoff spot by the skin of their teeth.  The Chicago Cubs look to be in the playoffs again, too, although my home town south side heros, the Chicago White Sox, are once again mired in last place.  But then again, there are few things that stay the same in the world these days, but lousy White Sox teams are one of them.  It can be a comfort in these troubling times.

House Of Spies

I just finished reading House of Spies, the new Gabriel Allon novel by Daniel Silva.  It was not that long ago that I read his previous book, The Black Widow, which I ordered from the library and took forever to get. This book is the sequel to The Black Widow, and just as exciting.  Once again the story involves the search for a terrorist mastermind, who has already attacked London, Paris, and Washington.  The hunt is on to stop him before he strikes again.  I strongly recommend this book, but definitely recommend starting with The Black Widow before reading House of Spies.  I say buy them both at your local bookstore right now.

The Eye Of The Elephant

I took the above photograph of one of the elephants at the the Denver Zoo when I visited there last Sunday. I think this is the first time I have stared eye to eye with an elephant before.  It was a very hot day, and most of the animals were inside or in the shade, if they had any.  This elephant, however, was stuck in the hot sun, and was probably pretty bitter about it, too.  I know elephants are from countries near the equator, and should be used to the hot weather, but I imagine they get acclimated to Denver's weather, just like it's residents, who 3 days into summer wish it was winter, and 3 days into winter long for summer.  Of course, I am certainly not implying elephants are that crazy.  No offence, Denverites.

The Zoo In Late August

I went to the Denver Zoo yesterday afternoon after working a few hours at the local bookstore where I am employed as the bookseeper.  The zoo is a mere 10 minute drive away, so I went quickly from doing the books to photographing the animals.  The first photograph I took was of the "baby giraffe" on the left.  It was born last December, which makes it a little over 8 months old, but it sure doesn't look like a baby to me anymore.  It does not seem to be as curious about zoo visitors anymore, either, spending most of its time with the rest of the herd, which seems to be continuously eating.  It doesn't even stop to smell the flowers anymore.  Sad, as Donald Trump would say.

As far as I can tell, the Wild Somali Ass in the photograph on the right has no herd to hang with, and appears to be desperate for human interaction.  He gave out a series of brays when a group of zoo patrons walked up to his enclosure and ran to the fence, no doubt wanting to be petted.  As I have said before, the zoo should allow more interaction with between zoo guests and the animals, especially with the obviously lonely ones like the Wild Somali Ass.  However, zoo policy seems to be the exact opposite.  When a zoo patron jumped over a fence last week to get up close and personal with a rhinoceros, they banned the teenager from the zoo for life.  And the rhinoceros never even noticed he was there.  No doubt a very blase creature.

The Final Friday Of August

This past Friday was the last Friday of the month, and so I attended the Denver Art Museum's Final Friday event.  As I mentioned in last month's post, I think the museum does not expect big crowds in the summer, and so uses this month to prepare for the major exhibits of the fall and winter.  I guess it is therefore no surprise that both the 7th floor of the north building and the third floor of the Hamilton (south) building have been closed for the past several months in preparation for new exhibits.  The big exhibit on display now is the work of photographer Fazal Sheikh, whose work focuses on displaced people in the third world.  I had never heard of until I attended the opening of the exhibit a few weeks ago, and found that his photographs, especially his black and white portraits, are very impressive..

 This past Friday night a recent immigrant to the U.S. from Iraq - also a photographer -  gave a talk about the exhibit, and curator of photography Eric Paddock (seen in the photograph on the right) gave a guided tour. Paddock pointed out that Sheikh's work mostly focuses on portraits of women, who bare the brunt of displacement and some of the still barbaric practices and beliefs in much of the third world.  We were shown the portraits of women who had lost their daughters to dowry rage, where the husband and his family, unhappy with a small dowry, wind up murdering the wife, often by setting her on fire.  This happens in many countries, including India, where I was surprised to learn that if a husband dies, the wife is often thrown out of her house to fend on her own.  Originally a widow was expected to throw herself onto her husband's funeral pyre, but since this is not done so much anymore (but amazingly still sometimes happens), they are cast aside instead. On exhibit in one room are a series of photographs (the Moksha series) taken of widows living at the Bhajan Ashram in Vrindavan, India, where they meditate and support themselves either begging or selling handicrafts on the street.

In other words, India does not seem like a very nice country, although a fascinating  one.  It is, in fact, Rick Steves' (host of Rick Steves' Europe on PBS) favorite country, although he has never done a travel episode from there.  New York City born Fazak Sheikh also seems to find it fascinating, and another room of the show features small color photographs taken during walks at night through the city of Varanasi, the spiritual capital of India, one of which is featured (along with moi) in the photo on the left.  At night around the ghats of the Ganges River, Sheikh took photos of people sleeping, who work selling things on the streets during the day, dead bodies waiting to be cremated and the ashes thrown into the river (it is believed one achieves salvation immediately if cremated here), and even animals sleeping along the banks.  The Ganges River is considered holy, and people come here to bath in it.  I myself would like to visit here one day, but I don't think I will bring my bathing suit.  The exhibit will be in Denver through November 12th (see http://denverartmuseum.org/exhibitions/common-ground-photographs-fazal-sheikh-1989-2013 for details) and then go to Portland).  Be sure to check out Fazal Sheikh's web site at https://www.fazalsheikh.org/.

The Two Sides Of Denver

I took the above photograph last night after attending the Untitled Final Friday event at the Denver Art Museum (the DAM).  On the left are the two buildings that make up the art museum, and on the right is the main branch of the Denver Public Library.  Across Civic Center Park to the north is downtown Denver, and to the south is the Golden Triangle Neighborhood, still another one of Denver's trendy neighborhoods.  All very impressive, until you realize that Civic Center Park is filled with the homeless, and a major problem for the library is dealing with overdoses in the bathrooms and other problems with the homeless who congregate there. Homelessness is complicated, and is a problem faced across the country.  It involves drug addiction, alcoholism, the elimination of most government funded mental institutions, the changing economy and elimination of good paying manufacturing jobs because of globalization, and the affordability of housing in cities like Denver. And the solution?  It would involve lots of tax money.  And is it going to happen?  No.

The August Mutt Of The Month

It is late August, and time for the August Mutt of the Month.   This dog was tied up next to a restaurant's patio on Denver's 16th Street Mall.  I find that most people like it when you take photographs of their dog, as opposed to when you try to take a photograph of them, and find yourself being chased down the street. And taking photos of various pets made me start thinking about service animals.  Pets are not allowed at my sister and my condo complex in Stuart, Florida, but the mother and daughter who rented our condo have a "service cat," which the complex allows.  I have often seen people walking dogs with vests saying "service dog" on them, and wonder what the deal is with that.  A few years ago in Wisconsin a woman was kicked out of a McDonald's with a "service kangaroo."  McDonald's just didn't buy it.  For the record, Federal law differentiates between service and emotional support animals.  Service animals need to be trained to assist a person in some way, and businesses must serve people who have them.  Businesses do not have to serve people with emotional support animals, but landlords are required to accept them,  So there you go.