Lunching With Stuart In Lakewood

I had lunch with my friend Stuart, seen in the photograph on the left, at the Old Chicago in Lakewood, just to the west of Denver, Wednesday afternoon. Lakewood is a pretty ugly place - it's main drag, Colfax Avenue, is filled with strip centers, fast food outlets, pawn shops, and gas stations, while it's neighborhoods can best be described as plain suburban ugly. But thankfully, you can't see any of that from the bar at Old Chicago. Must be why it's so popular. In any case, Stuart and I discussed a wide variety of topics, including the upcoming major league baseball season. Stuart, as regular blog readers know, grew up on the North Side of Chicago, and is a Cubs fan, while I myself grew up on the South Side of that city, and am a diehard White Sox fan. I told Stuart that the Cubs made a lot of moves during the off season and are expected to have a pretty good year, but he seemed doubtful about that. Another Cubs fan whose spirit has been broken, I guess.

Yesterday, since I had the time, I watched the Cubs home opener against the Milwaukee Brewers, which the Cubs handily won by a score of 4-0. It seems to me that they might need a different catcher, since Yan Gomes had a hard time catching yesterday, and former Dodgers all-star Cody Bellinger might be over the hill, but otherwise they looked pretty good. The White Sox played last night, but since they were being televised on ESPN, I was unable to watch the game. However, I was happy to see via the internet that they beat the reigning World Series champion Houston Astros by a score of 3-2. Perhaps this will be the year for the first subway World Series between the Sox and Cubs since 1906, which the Sox won in six games. Get your bets down now. You'll get great odds.

Opening Day!

Today is Opening Day, the start of the 2023 baseball season. Every team is undefeated, and fan's hopes are at their most optimistic. Of course, in about a week or two, reality will begin to set in, especially for teams like the Colorado Rockies, who have made virtually no changes to their lineup from last year, when they lost 94 games and finished the season dead last. My South Side heroes, the Chicago White Sox, were predicted to go far into the playoffs in 2022, but finished with a very mediocre .500 average. Hopes for a winning season this year are not strong, but it is Opening Day, after all, so you never know. The Chicago Cubs, their North Side rivals, really stunk up the field last year (not as bad as the Rockies, of course), but during the off season, they made a lot of free agent signings and very well might compete for a playoff spot. Who knows what will happen, but that is the beauty of this special day. Enjoy it while you can.

How To Save The "L" And Other Tidbits From the March Chicago Magazine

I read this month's issue of Chicago Magazine recently, and it had several interesting articles in it. One was about an elderly man who lived very modestly in a house in Chicago's Gage Park neighborhood. He was a former electrician who lived there with his two sisters, and after they passed away, alone. After not collecting his mail or seeing him for a number of days, the mailman and the neighbors grew concerned and broke in, finding him dead in the bathtub, fully dressed with a jacket on in an unheated house. He had no heirs, and everyone was truly surprised when they discovered his estate was worth 11 million dollars. Being frugal in the extreme was the reason for this, but for what purpose? We will never know. Sad.

Another interesting article was titled "How to Save the L," which I was surprised to learn needed saving. After reading the article, it appears that the "L," which I used frequently when I lived in Chicago, is having the same troubles as the RTD light rail here in Denver - difficulty finding workers, an increase in crime, declining ridership after the pandemic, litter everywhere, etc. I frequently use the light rail here in Denver, and to me many of those problems are not as severe as portrayed in the media, and those that are are being addressed. I assume that is the same back in Chicago. In 1977, when I was living in west suburban Forest Park, there was an accident that sent an "L" train plunging to the street from the elevated track, killing 12 people, as seen in the photograph on the right from the Chicago Tribune. If ridership on the "L" can survive something like that, I think it can survive anything.

More On The Month Of Photography

This past Sunday I visited several more art galleries on Santa Fe Drive participating in Denver's Month of Photography, which I learned after the fact was Sundays on Santa Fe, celebrated on the last Sunday of every month. My first stop was Niza Knoll Gallery, which was featuring the work of National Geographic photographer Jay Dickman, and I was very impressed with his photographs. His portraits of people from places such as the Himalayas and Africa were especially good. Dickman was there in person to discuss his work, but since there was a handwritten sign at the entrance that said "no photographs," instead of a photo of Dickman in front of his work, I was reduced to taking a photograph of the entrance of the gallery with a photo of my sorry mug photoshopped on to it. Bummer.

Next, I headed across the street to D'art Gallery, which was featuring what is called a "Conceptual Photography Exhibition," curated by Mark Sink, the co-founder of the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver and founder of The Month of Photography. Sink selected 50 photographs from 500 submitted by fine art photographers from across the country, and I must say most of them were quite impressive. I strongly recommend visiting these galleries and taking a look before the exhibitions close. Be sure to check out Niza Knoll Gallery at https://www.nizaknollgallery.com/ and D'Art Gallery at https://dartgallery.org/visitcontact.

The Month Of Photography Continues

This month is The Month of Photography here in Denver, and so this past weekend I headed to a few more art galleries to check out the photography on display. I especially enjoyed the photographs at CPAC (the Colorado Photographic Arts Center),which is celebrating it's 60th anniversary this year. This month they are featuring highlights from their permanent collection, including photographs by Ansel Adams and Imogen Cunningham, as well as Colorado photographers such as Hal Gould, the late owner of the Camera Obscura Gallery. I think a lot of these photos were obtained from that gallery when it closed after Gould's death. Most are black and white images and well worth a visit while they are still on display. Better hurry up. March is almost over.

Remembering A Long Ago Trip To The Flagler Museum

Back in August of 1997 my mother Mary, sister Susan, and I drove down to Palm Beach from my mother's condo in Stuart, Florida, and toured the Henry Flagler Museum. I took the photograph on the left of my mother and Susan posing in front of the grand entrance. Flagler was a founder of Standard Oil, and when he stepped back from being actively involved in that company, he turned his attention to Florida, where he founded the Florida East Coast Railway, the cities of Palm Beach and Miami, and a number of hotels, including The Breakers in Palm Beach. After his first wife died, he remarried, and after divorcing that wife, married a third time and built Whitehall, which is now the Flagler Museum, as a wedding present to his new bride.

Whitehall, a 55 room beaux arts home, is located on Lake Worth in Palm Beach, and was built in 1901, the same year The Breakers Hotel was built nearby on the ocean. Both are well worth visiting, if you happen to be in Palm Beach and find you cannot wangle an invitation to Mar-a-Lago, the dark lair of former president Donald Trump. The photograph on the right is of me in front of Flagler's private railroad car, which is located next door to the museum, and also open to the public. All these places were built during the Gilded Age, when great wealth was concentrated in just a few hands, and these industrial titans traveled in style in these private railroad cars. Amazingly enough, these days, very wealthy people are once again buying private railroad cars to travel the country, piggybacking onto Amtak passenger trains. And what does this say about the concentration of wealth today? In any case, I am once again amazed at how little I have changed since that photo was taken back in 1997. It's truly a miracle.

Golden Triangle Construction

Denver's Golden Triangle neighborhood is located just south of downtown, bordered by Colfax on the north, Speer Boulevard on the west and south, and Broadway on the east. The area is home to 8 museums, and it seems like every other block has a new high-rise apartment building going up. It is a very desirable neighborhood, and the apartments on Speer are especially expensive - one bedroom one bath units at the Parq start at $2,400 a month and go up from there. Two bedroom two bath units start at $4,300 per month, and there are actually not that many available to rent. Who are these people who can afford that? What do they do for a living? Are they looking for 70 year old trainees? I am available.  But I digress. I took the above photograph the other day as I was walking to the Denver Art Museum (The DAM). That high rise under construction is being built right next to the Evans School, which was built in 1904 and named after Governor John Evans, who is, by the way, now being canceled for his role in the Sand Creek Massacre. Because of this, Mount Evans, to the west of Denver, is expected to be renamed Mount Blue Sky. The building was a school for almost 70 years, but is now an office and retail complex. Will it be renamed Blue Sky School? Only time will tell.