I’m in the process of updating my website. I’ve got a new theme—Thesis—and I’m customizing it. It may take a little while.

After that, I’ll need to revise the About page, which is now out of date.

Eighteen months ago I started this blog with high hopes that I would make money off the Internet. Although I’ve made friends because of this blog and had a great time exploring Denver, I’ve spent at least $2,000 and have earned $11 (plus tax deductions). I want to use the time I spend exploring Denver and writing these posts to forward my ideas in other areas. So for now, this is the last post.

I’m debating whether to set up a city site about Denver as the first of many such sites about cities I visit. If I did, I would copy the review posts to that site and gussy them up a bit with SEO. I don’t see the point of taking everything off this site and breaking all the links I’ve spent 18 months getting, though, so the old reviews will stay here.

I’m also thinking of turning this site into a photography blog. That’s my passion now, and it’s been finding its way into posts here and there, as I’m sure you’ve noticed.

Whatever I decide to do, I need a break from writing posts. I’ll be using the time to recharge and catch up on all your doings, which I’ve been neglecting.

Have a great weekend. Spring is on the way.

Looks like it will be a good weekend to be out and about. Unless, of course, you’re at home watching the X Games. Here’s a picture of one end of the Commons Park bridge over the South Platte River.

Do you like the extra saturation, or not?

Here’s a bit of news from 5280 magazine that I find disturbing. William Dean Singleton, chairman and publisher of the Denver Post, will be making more than $1 million after the restructuring of Affiliated Media of Denver, which owns the Post and more than 50 other newspapers. Apparently, the restructuring was done in such a way as to give Bank of America an 88% share in Affiliated Media. That doesn’t give me confidence in the news. What do you think?

Here’s the 5280 blog post.

Also this weekend: my husband is showing Birthday Girl, the test shoot for his film Kung Fu Sushi Chefs, at the Bug Theater at 37th and Navajo. Here is the trailer on YouTube.

The Denver Jewish Film Festival has a launch party February 2. The festival opens February 11.

The National Western Stock Show comes to town this Saturday. On January 23, the champion steer will appear at the Brown Palace. Tea and steer: what a combination!

***

I just discovered Indulgences, Etc. (Belvedere Belgian Chocolate) on Colfax has closed. That leaves 2 locations along the Front Range: the one in Boulder on 14th Street and the factory in Castle Rock.

Bixa has also closed its location on Colfax at Vine. It is now a medical marijuana dispensary, which somehow seems appropriate.

Better late than never…

My Favorite Feature: Precious

As a general rule, I see documentaries at the SDFF because I figure they’re less likely to show in theaters. And although I did see several this year, I started with Precious, which is making quite the stir in the film world. As refreshing as it is to watch a film about an obese black teenage girl (not what filmmakers think most 18-year-old boys want to see), what made the film for me was the confession by the mother at the end. It was awful and heartbreaking and completely understandable and disgusting, all at once. It took the film to an entirely new level.

Shorts from Colorado

Next was Winners and Losers, a collection of Colorado shorts. My favorite was The Unrecoverable Loss of Eugene, a hilarious take on Victorian and modern sexual mores. Perhaps my husband will have more to say in the comments (hint, hint).

Second Feature: Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench

Go see Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench to watch the female lead break into song and the male lead play his trumpet. Go for the experimental take on musicals and story. Don’t spend so much time trying to follow the love story, as I did; just enjoy the music-fest.

My Favorite Documentary: Still Bill

Still Bill won the People’s Choice Documentary Feature award for its warm portrayal of Bill Withers’s decision to step away from fame. It opens with “Ain’t No Sunshine When She’s Gone” and closes with “Grandma’s Hands.” It has good cinematography, good music, and good stories. If you can’t see it in the theater, try Netflix or Video Station in Boulder.

At this point I began to notice how many of the movies I chose had to do with music.

Third Feature: Crossing

Crossing had nothing to do with music. Written by two Texans who also starred as Manuel (the lead) and Diego (his camera-toting friend), it follows a Mexican ne’er-do-well who learns his father will be executed in Texas and runs north because he refuses to let his father leave him again. His pregnant wife protests, but he goes anyway, into his own personal comedy of errors.

Second Documentary: Turtle: The Incredible Journey

According to Britta Erickson, festival director, Turtle is another March of the Penguins. I disagree. The overwrought script read by Miranda Richardson got on my nerves. I did like the use of “she”; it’s nice that not all moviemakers feel adventures belong solely to male creatures. And there were beautiful images, especially the opening shot of the hatchling leaving its egg.

Third Documentary: Two Spirits

Like Turtle, this movie showed at the King Center across the parking lot from the Tivoli, where Starz’s main theaters are located. I used my membership privileges to get to the front of the huge line, though I’m not sure it really made a difference; I think all the seats there are pretty good. A documentary about the murder of Navajo teenager Fred Martinez, Two Spirits explores the traditional Navajo concept of gender (there are 4) and notes that it was common for Navajos to celebrate the lives of gay and lesbian children because they were thought to embody both genders and thus to represent the balance of life.

At the panel afterward, an activist from New York who came to Cortez, Colorado, to investigate the murder said this kind of hate crime happens every week. You can find more information at the Fred Martinez Project or the Two Spirit Society of Denver (a performance by several members is pictured here).

Fourth Documentary: The Duke of the Bachata

Made by local filmmaker Adam Taub (La Quinceañera), The Duke is about a Dominican musical genre dismissed as vulgar by the musical elite of that country. I wish I could say more about it, but it was my third film of the day, and I couldn’t stay awake. It was preceded by an amusing short, The Eighth Samurai, which Todd thought was a dead-on parody of Kurosawa.

Yet ANOTHER Documentary Seen After the SDFF: The Yes Men Fix the World

If you’re a liberal, and the idea of playing a prank on a multinational corporation makes you drool, go see this movie. Very amusing. I couldn’t believe that these guys kept getting away with their media stunts.

Here’s a scene from Capitol Hill in Denver. Note the structure on the far right of the picture.

Here’s a closer shot.

In celebration of all who work in whatever capacity, I present these pictures.

These two noticed me taking this picture and shouted, “$10 a picture!” I didn’t pay up. I think they were checking that the panels on the side of the Hyatt Hotel were screwed in securely.

After going through half my pictures, I finally found a good one of a woman working—in Chattanooga! This is from Niedlov’s Bakery in downtown Chattanooga. In the future, I’ll make a point of taking more pictures of people working. Until now, I’ve generally taken photos of the places they work instead.

And this glassblower was doing his thing at the South Pearl Winterfest in Denver.

Lovely, gentle readers,

I began this blog a year ago, during the Democratic National Convention. In my “What This Blog Is About” post in July, I noted that the city expected to make $160 million from the DNC. On August 24, 5280 magazine claimed the convention netted $266 million in direct and indirect spending. It’s nice to know the predictions were somewhere in the ballpark.

Here is a timely image of late senator Ted Kennedy from the convention (actually, it’s from The Place for Politics that MSNBC set up near the Millennium Bridge at Riverfront Park):

But my favorite image from the convention may just be this one:

Have a good weekend, y’all!

Saturday afternoon I visited EarthWorks Expo at the Denver Merchandise Mart on 58th and I-25, expecting an event much like the Denver Green Festival. And they were quite similar, though EarthWorks Expo was smaller and in an older venue.

The talks at EarthWorks Expo were much better, however. I enjoyed learning how to garden in the winter using a cold frame (and plan to try it out again this fall, if I can manage to plant everything in the next 2 weeks), but the best speaker was Albert Bates, whom you might call an optimist-environmentalist. Yes, they do exist. His vision of the future: Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

But just in case things don’t work out the way Bates wants, at least you can go out in an eco-friendly way.

***

Today I turned 47 years old at 12:47 am (the witching hour). At my request, Todd got me a cake reading “Happy 45th Birthday,” because that was the last birthday I greeted with enthusiasm.

Over the last few years, “transition” movements have been popping up all over the country. Their long-term goal is to strengthen the local economy to the point at which it can provide for the needs of local people. Their short-term goal is to enhance security by producing more food and other goods locally.

I believe that in Colorado, 1 percent of our food is produced locally, but I couldn’t find a source. If anyone can find a source, I would appreciate it.

There is a Transition Colorado group that has about 1,000 members, 130 of whom live in the Denver area. When I was at the Local Flavor Fest last Saturday, I met up with my friend Dana, who is very involved in Transition Denver. She told me about Denver Urban Homesteading Local Market and Reskilling Center down on Santa Fe. According to Dana, it’s one of only a few such organizations in the United States. I went to their website and read this: “Click to help decriminalize Denver’s chickens.” That made me laugh.

To some people, this movement may seem a bit apocalyptic. Peak oil! What if the food distribution network breaks down and we can’t get our peaches in the winter?!!

But Transition Colorado appeals to me because of its focus on encouraging local farmers, especially urban farmers, and local businesses. I believe that Americans do need to reestablish food distribution networks at the local level to supplement the national distribution network on which we now rely.

Whether peak oil will happen in the way some people predict, only time will tell. In the meantime, I’ll let someone else raise the chickens and keep planting my little garden and going to the farmer’s market.

Dana said that Will Allen, of Milwaukee Growing Power (the only land within Milwaukee city limits zoned as farmland), will speak in Denver in November. I definitely want to go see him.

***

There’s a fine arts festival in Golden this weekend.

I started this website 11 months ago, with coverage of the Democratic National Convention, and now it’s time for a small course correction. In order to free up time to work on other Internet projects, I’m dumping the MonHaibuns and Crazy About Denver features. I’ll post every day, but reviews of Denver restaurants and shops will be less frequent and more like photo-essays. The remaining posts will feature photographs and brief commentary.

Posts will still be categorized by neighborhood, but I won’t be spending a fixed amount of time in any neighborhood, and if I venture beyond the borders of the City and County of Denver, those trips may find their way into this blog as well.

I spent last weekend at a Summer Garden Photography course at Denver Botanic Gardens, which is in full bloom this time of year. I learned that I know a lot less about flower photography than I thought I did. This photograph was taken during that course, which was taught by Jim Steinberg.

***

Civic Center Park hosts its weekly market tomorrow, from 11 am to 2 pm.

On Friday, you could attend a Skyline Park Concert at noon or one of several First Friday art walks in the evening.

The Local Flavor Festival takes places this Saturday at the Lowenstein Culture Plex, from 11 am to 4 pm.

BrewGrass is also this Saturday on South Pearl, from noon to 10 pm.

The last concert in the City Park Jazz series is Sunday, August 9 from 6 to 8 pm.

Denver is the fifth manliest city in the USA? That’s great for all you guys, but what am I supposed to do with it?

This hilarious article ranking Denver in Westword tells you all about what I could do with all these manly men. Here’s a teaser: “We’re like the state version of Lance Armstrong (if Lance knew how to use a condom).”

Read it and discover what being manly has to do with cheese-filled pretzels. Because you knew the two were intrinsically linked, didn’t you?

When I was visiting the booths at the Denver Black Arts Festival, I noticed a charity I had never heard of: Valentine’s Heart.

According to the website (which needs a little help), “Valentine’s Heart assists individuals in underserved communities identify social issues by finding solutions, but not just through public assistance or education alone.”

When I chatted with the woman at the booth, she said their latest effort was the 3rd annual Back to School Giveaway at the Montbello Recreation Center on August 15. They’ll be collecting supplies for kids returning to school.

You can call Valentine’s Heart at 720-436-0536.

My state representative is Dianne Primavera. Her most recent newsletter contained this note:

COLORADO HOUSE TO RETURN $900,000 TO STATE FROM GENERAL ASSEMBLY BUDGET

We take seriously the idea that the taxpayers are our bosses, the money we spend is theirs, and we are accountable to them. The Colorado House of Representatives—including the Majority Democrats, the Minority Republicans, and the administrative divisions—will return approximately $900,000 from its operating budget to the State’s General Fund for the last fiscal year which ended June 30th. House staff and leaders have consistently been wise stewards of the budget.”

There’s a new Denver Black Arts Festival this year, planned by a new management team. It’s taking place in City Park July 10-12. I went last year and especially enjoyed the Over the Hill Drill Team. Maybe they’ll be back this year.

If it’s blues you want, don’t miss Blues and Brews, on Saturday, July 11, in the 1200 block of Old South Pearl.

On Monday, you can go to Cherry Creek Whole Foods and learn about local vendors in Denver and Colorado.

Perhaps 10 days after I first visited Alto Restaurant and Lounge on June 17, it has closed. I was looking forward to spending more time in the bar.

ESPN Zone in the Tabor Center will also close its doors, laying off 100 employees. And the Red Room on Capitol Hill closed some time ago.

In this recession, as in the previous one, Colorado felt the effects later than other parts of the country.

My thoughts are with all the employees who lost their jobs.

According to the Denver Post, the state Capitol dome is in serious need of repair. And because of a lack of funds, officials are thinking of asking for donations from corporations.

It’s sad when the state government can’t afford to repair one of the major symbols of government in Colorado. If they’re going to ask for private donations, I think they should ask individual Coloradans to contribute.

My posts on my tour of the Colorado Capitol building are here and here.

***

Pridefest is happening this weekend at Civic Center Park on Saturday and Sunday. There is a parade Sunday morning from Cheesman Park to Civic Center Park.

The Cherry Blossom Festival takes place at Sakura Square, between Lawrence and Larimer and 19th and 20th Streets. I went last year and had a good time.

Public service announcement: In 2009, Gateaux (1160 Speer) celebrates its 10th anniversary by donating 10 percent of cookie sales to a different charity each month. In June, they’re giving money to Work Options for Women. Go buy some cookies and help women enter gainful employment in the culinary field. (Gateaux’s iced sugar cookies, two of which are pictured here, are the absolute best I’ve ever had. Don’t miss them!)

***

As I wandered down 15th to Leela’s on Wednesday, my path was o’ershadowed by several massive buildings.

The Hyatt building is adorned with this quote from John Ruskin:

Mountains are the bones of the earth, their highest peaks are invariably those parts of its anatomy which in the plains lie buried under five and twenty thousand feet of solid thickness of superincumbent soil, and which spring up in the mountain ranges in vast pyramids or wedges, flinging their garment of earth away from them on each side…

And then it just stopped at another wall.

I stopped too, to take this picture of two workers screwing, or unscrewing, panels into this tower. One of them shouted, “$10 a picture!”

At Champa and 15th, I noticed the texture of these two buildings next to each other. The one on the right is the Gas and Electric Building, which lights up beautifully at night.

And then I saw the sign, as the song goes. Or rather, I should say, the signs.

At 15th and Arapahoe, across from 4 restaurants (Le Château, formerly La Fondue; Hickory Prime Steak House; Lone Ranger Steakhouse; and My Express Grill and Café), rose this building. Just looking at the 12 cement balconies below the streetlight (still unfinished, I hope, surrounded by only a single railing, and difficult to make out in this picture) gave me the willies. Why is it that looking up can make me as afraid of heights as looking down?

One of Denver’s recent public art projects was to install some painted cows around the city.

I guess Denver decided it couldn’t shake its cowtown image, so it would celebrate it. Those of us in the know, of course, prefer “Bovine Metropolis.”

This particular cow guards the edge of Skyline Park, one of the Skyline development projects of the 1960s and 1970s that aimed to clean up Denver’s Skid Row (now Larimer Square) and other parts of downtown.

The park behind it used to be a greener space, but apparently too many homeless people made use of it, so they covered it over. 

If you’re in the mood for a walk in the park this weekend, check out the People’s Fair in Civic Center Park.

I’ve never been, and I’ll miss it this weekend as well, since I’ll be in Chama and Antonito and Buena Vista (pronounced “Byoona Vista” by the Anglo locals, thank you very much).

***

There’s a mutiny happening at the Denver Film Society. Check out the latest developments here.

I took these pictures Tuesday while out with a friend, one in downtown Denver after we had to get off the shuttle to walk around an area blocked off because of a fire,

which reminds me of the Denver Firefighter’s Museum, and one at the Denver Art Museum exhibit Fox Games by Sandy Skoglund.

My friend and I loved this exhibit, which is in the Hamilton Building.

Denverites are making gardens as if our food supply might run out tomorrow, according to Westword. There’s even a garden going in at 15th and California in downtown Denver.

And the owner of Common Grounds wants to build greenhouses all over Denver.

And what will we do with all that produce, if we can’t sell it? Barter!

Barter System Booms in Colorado

***

I have to say, I’m not so crazy about this law that requires people arrested for felonies to give a DNA sample. I think it should be required only of convicted felons.

This article gives some information about how results of DNA tests will be expunged if the accused is acquitted.

Last night I attended my first wine tasting at Park Hill Golf Course, an event arranged by Argonaut Liquor on Colfax to benefit the Positive Project, which uses the stories of people infected/affected by HIV/AIDS to raise awareness.

Not only were there dozens of wines from Chile and Argentina to try, including grapes I had never tasted such as Torrontes, but also the people pouring the wine provided some free entertainment.

And having two companions (Denveater and From Argentina with Love) to giggle with helped. Go read Denveater’s inspired take on this same event, along with actual wine research, which information you can find via the link above. Her comments are in italics below.

As Monsignor said long ago, “A little wine is good for the stomach.” So I tasted about 16 wines, and each pour provided about 3 sips, except for my self-serve on Los Vascos Sauvignon Blanc ($9.99) when the table-mistress wasn’t looking. Denveater notes: I can vouch for the fact that Beth was a very generous self-server. Unfortunately, the strong lychee aroma made me “think pink,” and I couldn’t get past it while drinking my extra-large pour. At that same table I found the wine with the best name: Oops Voluptuous Beauty ($10.99). But the flavor didn’t quite live up to the name: it was drinkable but dry.

I had better luck at Table 19 (maybe it was the prime number?), where I found two good Malbecs. All three of us liked Altosur Malbec ($10.99), a spicy yet velvety wine from the southernmost wine-growing region in Argentina. And the Baqueano Malbec Reserve was also good, if more smoky and pricier ($13.99) than the Altosur.

My favorite among the many Torrontes wines offered at this tasting was the Santa Julia Torrontes Organica, named after the vintner’s daughter. It smelled strongly of grapefruit and was a steal for $9.99. Apparently the Torrontes grape grows well in South America but not really anywhere else, or at least, that was the opinion of the man who advised us to try the Santa Julia.

Speaking of men, we met one I swear was a used-car salesman turned wine salesman. His hair defied gravity, and he was very, very friendly, though thankfully not to me. Denveater notes: Don’t be so sure—it was he who saw you sneak that pour, and he made all those wink-wink conspiratorial facial gestures to show just how on your side he was.

I’ll end by praising two other Torrontes: Tamari and Colome. The Tamari ($12.49) had a strong citrus aroma, like a Sauvignon Blanc, and the Colome’s flintiness reminded me a bit of a Chablis, though with more fruit ($13.99).

***

I’ll occasionally be writing about wine on Wednesdays, but I don’t plan to make it a regular feature just yet.

A few years ago I read Obmascik’s first book, The Big Year. It’s about birders who spend a year and thousands of dollars trying to see every bird that visits North America. (In birding circles, that means Canada and the United States. Lots of birds that breed in Canada and the United States spend their winters south of the border, but somehow they’re still North American birds. It doesn’t really make sense to me either, and I’ve been birding for 13 years.)

Now he’s published a book about climbing all 54 of Colorado’s fourteeners, titled Halfway to Heaven.

Want to know how many I’ve climbed? In 21 years? 1. Uno.

Mount Princeton. It’s probably the easiest fourteener. I drove up to 11,000 feet and went from there, and 13,000 feet still kicked my ass. And as my twenty-something cousin observed when I finally reached the top, why shouldn’t it?

I don’t feel the need to ever climb another. The only reason I struggled up to 14,000 feet was that I knew I’d be pissed at myself if I didn’t. In fact, I was just reading about someone climbing all of New Hampshire’s 4,000-foot peaks, and I thought, Yeah, that sounds about right. I’d rather go to the bottom of the ocean than the top of a mountain. And yet I live in Colorado. Oh well.

Check out the Denver Post‘s interview with Obmascik. One thing he says that struck me is that driving on I-70 scares him more than climbing these peaks.

***

This Saturday is the Five Points Jazz Festival. The music is free, and local restaurants will be offering boxed lunches for pretty cheap.

Last Thursday I learned that my sister’s mother’s-in-law, Lollie, had died after a long struggle with dementia. She’s pictured here at Flatiron Crossing Mall in Broomfield, about two years ago, before the dementia had taken hold.

I’m sad that Lollie and my aunt Pat had such difficult experiences at the end of their lives. And I’m grateful to their daughters and sons for taking good care of them.

I’m fresh out of Denver conspiracies to write about (except, perhaps, the weird redesign of Writer Square; see Denver Infill for that), so I’m clueing you in on some local blogs that intrigued or amused me this week.

My Dog in Denver Daily has come up with a fun way to take readers to various parts of Denver.

NonVivant just posted some stunning photos in Graffiti of Denver pt. 11.

Mile High Gay Guy always has timely information. I liked his post about the Denver challenge to stop bullying, part of a nationwide program to make schools safe for all children. (He posts frequently, so you may have to page down to find it.)

Pink Asparagus has reached 400 posts, a big milestone, and left her favorite posts for us to ponder.

Cocktail Hour and Daily Photos of Colorado Springs give us out-of-the-ordinary views of the Front Range of Colorado.

***

This weekend Denver celebrates Cinco de Mayo at Civic Center Park.

This weekend I’ll be attending some talks at the Green Festival, which is being held in Denver at the Convention Center on 14th between Stout and California.

I’m especially interested in David Wann’s talk at 5 pm on Saturday, “Culture Shift: Creating a Restoration Economy.” I own the domain name restorationnation.org and have been pondering what to do with it for some time. I’d like to create some kind of forum on building “an economy that restores.” I hope he can give me some ideas.

At 1 pm on Sunday, Jim Cassio is discussing “Choosing Work for a Sustainable Future.” That sounds good too.

At 2 pm on Sunday, Hunter Lovins will make “The Business Case for Protecting the Climate.”

It costs only $15 per person for the entire weekend, so check it out. There are bands playing (how could you resist Big Green Rabbit?) and food demonstrations and an exhibit hall.

There is lots of similar stuff going on in Denver (and Boulder) these days. There’s now a Transition Colorado group, focused on “transitioning from oil dependency to local resilience.”

And later this month BALLE comes to Denver (May 21 to May 23). BALLE stands for the “Business Alliance for Local Living Economies.” The website is slow, but I finally managed to get to the registration page. Prices go up to $545 for the entire weekend. If you want to look at prices, go to the pull-down menu for the 2009 conference and click on registration.

Todd and I went up to the Observation Deck on the 17th floor of the Daniels and Fisher Tower in downtown Denver. It’s open only 1 day per year, during Doors Open Denver, which took place April 18 to 19, 2009.

The 17th-floor deck is right underneath the clock face. There’s another deck on the 20th floor, but I was scared to climb up the stairs (they were inside the building, but you could look down through them). In fact, I had trouble staying out on the deck very long. Two people can pass on it if they turn sideways. I kept having to go back inside.

Here’s the original of one picture from the deck, looking southwest toward the Pepsi Center (a.k.a. “The Can” or “The Pod”). Auraria campus is to the left and Elitch Gardens to the right.

Here’s the same picture with saturation reduced to -50 in Zoombrowser.

Here’s another version with saturation at +50 and sharpness turned all the way up.

I’ve been having fun playing around with Zoombrowser’s editing features. Now if I could learn to do more of this while taking the picture… I was disappointed by the haze in the original. The day was clear and bright and hot, but the original doesn’t show that.

I don’t know what it is about this weekend: there must have been 10 things I wanted to do on Saturday alone.

At 11 am I’m doing a Krav Maga women’s self-defense seminar in Boulder that they hold every April in honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month. I did two years of Krav Maga, but I haven’t trained since fall 2006, so I’m sure I’ll be out of breath, to say the least. I’m looking forward to fighting with guys in bright red padding. Yay!

The real purpose of this post was to publicize Doors Open Denver, which is being held this weekend to celebrate local architects and allow Denverites “to go behind the scenes of the city’s significant architectural gems and lesser-known treasures.”

There are self-guided tours and expert tours, but for the latter, you have to get tickets at Union Station. The event office opens at 8:30 am. On Saturday and Sunday! Not bloody likely.

I don’t think I’ll be making it to any of those, but I am planning to check out some sites on Sunday afternoon.

For the self-guided tours, you can pick up a brochure at Union Station or download it, but it looks pretty big. I don’t know how well it would print out.

For the past three years, Denver has been home to the Denver Roller Dolls, a female roller derby team. I found out about it from a flyer posted somewhere on Capitol Hill.

This isn’t your grandma’s roller derby.  Unlike the fake, sensationalistic game you may remember, roller derby is a sport to be reckoned with.  The hard hits and fast skating are as real as the hard concrete Coliseum floor, torn knee ligaments, concussions, whiplash, shoulder injuries, and bruises abound.

I went roller skating in junior high school—that and the McDonald’s were the cool hangouts in my south Kansas City neighborhood—but I never even learned to skate backward. Roller derby would definitely be a sport for me to watch, not play.

With names like “Bad Apples” and “Green Barrettes,” how could they go wrong?

Car sharing finally comes to Denver! Occasional Car now has two Honda Civic hybrids available for rental by the hour, in two separate locations on Capitol Hill.The company hopes to place other cars around Denver in the next few months.

Now if it would only come to Broomfield…yeah, right!

I got this email message the other day:

Today the founders of IwantmyRocky.com and other former Rocky Mountain News staffers announced a subscription drive to launch a new online news site, InDenverTimes.com. The site is mix of free and premium content. We need 50,000 pledges subscribers by April 23, the 150th anniversary of the first Rocky Mountain News, to launch the full site on May 4. Former Rocky writers Sam Adams, Mary Chandler, Lisa Bornstein, Mark Brown, David Milstead, Chris Tomasson, Aaron Lopez, Mark Wolf and Gary Massaro have already joined the staff of InDenverTimes.com. Help us prove that good journalism can still be good business. Subscribe here.

I’m thinking of subscribing. How about you?

Do you think this kind of website is the future of journalism?

The signs on the left-hand door say, “No Trespassing,” “No Smoking,” etc.

What is this box along Speer in Sunken Gardens Park? It looks like some kind of alien about to take off. Does it have something to do with traffic?

Today the Rocky Mountain News will publish its last edition. As the website says, the paper was established two years before the Civil War broke out.

I truly hope the staff will put together a website or in some way continue for a while, but I don’t know if that’s possible.

I’ll be in Denver today, and I’m hoping I can get a paper copy.

Well, the hubby and I were investigating why my About page didn’t show up in IE in the old theme, and he suggested that I update the theme. So I did, and something very, very bad happened to the links to the static pages. So I finally changed to this theme because readers can at least find their way to every page.

I guess this is going to speed up that theme change I’ve been thinking about.

David Brooks wrote an article in the New York Times that called Denver one of “the five most popular American metro areas.” Can it be true? Could it be because of our oversized art?

Denverites are embroiled in a war over the blue mustang statue on the way to DIA. If you’re on Facebook, check out the “DIA’s Heinous Blue Mustang Has Got to Go” group, or if you’re cool like me, join the “I Love DIA’s Blue Mustang” group, which, I must admit, I joined just to be contrary.

It’s even made the Wall Street Journal:

A Horse of a Different Color Divides Denver

I’ve decided to turn the weekly Fridays at Restoration Nation posts into a separate website, so that will be coming soon. Instead I’ll be posting my favorite things about Denver, from pictures to other people’s posts to events to actual things that are in my house and thus close enough to Denver to count.

Crazy Blogging Canuck Always and Forever

Go to the next galaxy and play Todd’s game

Beth’s adventures on the 12 bus route

The Faces of Eviction, courtesy of Mile High Gay Guy

Are you creative?

Bag-E Wash

Two photos of the Denver Art Museum on the edge of the Golden Triangle—different angles and times of day.

To be honest, I’m not looking forward to 2009 at the moment. It begins with my husband’s surgery in Louisiana, which will be good for him in the long run but scares me in the short run, and I can’t really see beyond that.

I love writing about Denver, but so far I’ve made $5 off it. I want to keep doing it, but I have to find a way to earn money while exploring Denver. So far this blog has been a money sink instead of a cash cow.

I was talking to my husband about it last week, and he pointed out that bloggers are not my natural audience. He said I should be trying to reach people on TripAdvisor and other such sites, the places where people go for information when they want to visit Denver or move there.

I think his point was insightful; it’s just that I haven’t heard anyone talking about how to build backlinks from sites such as TripAdvisor.

Plus, I like talking to other bloggers. I’ve enjoyed the conversations taking place on this blog that lead me into other people’s lives.

So here’s my plan for 2009:

1. In January, I’ll be writing about my husband’s surgery in Baton Rouge for superior canal dehiscence syndrome and his recovery.

2. Starting in February, I’ll resume writing about Denver, focusing on Denver neighborhoods. I like taking on one chunk of the city at a time, and visits to my blog went up the last time I did that.

3. I’ll follow Caroline Middlebrook’s strategy for building backlinks. (So far, though, I haven’t noticed a link from my first Squidoo lens showing up in my WordPress stats.)

4. I’ll give myself until August to increase traffic and develop more of a presence.

5. I won’t assume, as I have in the past, that lack of immediate success means I’ve failed. I’ll keep adjusting my strategy depending on what I’ve learned.

6. I’ll develop travel articles based on research for my blog, and I’ll market those to magazines and websites. I would try to sell them to newspapers, but they’re hosed right now. When things settle down in newspaperland, I’ll try them again.

7. My biggest goal for this year is to make enough money from the blog to spend a month in another city and write about that. In other words, I see “Living the Mile-High Life” as a brand that could morph into “Living the Kansas City Life” or even “Living the Mumbai Life.”

8. My ultimate goal is to write travelogues that convey what it’s like to walk around Denver or San Diego or Paris for the first time, that tell the traveler what immersion will feel like. Not so much a travel guide as a Feel Guide.

If you’ve got any advice for me, I would very much appreciate it. I’m not all that new to blogging, but I’ve never tried to turn a blog into an income. Here are some possible questions to answer:

How can I make my site appeal to a wider audience?

How do I get more readers for a travel blog?

Are other bloggers my audience, or people who want to learn more about Denver? How much do those audiences overlap?

Today we’re hosting a party. I’ll be posting about my plans for the New Year tomorrow.

In between looking for the pieces of my gutter that blew off in the 82-mile-per-hour wind last night, I’ve put together this list of what I learned this fall while exploring Denver.

I love to explore, more than almost anything else. I like to wade into something new, find out what I can, and report back to the rest of the world.

There is so much more to Denver than downtown. In fact, I think several other parts of Denver are more pleasant to walk: I like Uptown (east of downtown Denver) for a LOT of walking, and Highlands (west of downtown). I like looking at downtown Denver from the Auraria campus, when I’m walking to the bus station after watching a movie at Starz. Another local blog, Denver Infill, often comments on the walkability of Denver.

It’s a privilege to be told other people’s stories: how they came to start this shop or this restaurant, or why they love this neighborhood.

In seeming contrast, some days I prefer to be a fly on the wall. I can walk into a shop or restaurant one day and announce I’m reviewing it for my website, but other days I feel shy. I just want to sit and observe who goes by, listen to people chatting, and get a sense of the place.

I always feel a little nervous after emailing notice of my reviews. What if they don’t like it? But nobody ever complains—they are just glad to be noticed.

Speaking of being noticed, I’m happy that so many people visited my site and commented. I’ve blogged elsewhere in the past, mostly for family, and never reached out to other readers. My site has a small readership, but they keep coming back, and I’m grateful for that.

My point-and-shoot Olympus camera is not very good at capturing high-contrast settings. Luckily, I’m now the owner of a Canon Kiss Digital Rebel 300D (courtesy of my friend Margaret). It’s a bit outdated but still a step up for me.

This blog will never earn money from Adsense. In the four months I’ve been writing it, I’ve earned about $5. I’m not sure what I will try next.

I’m slowly developing a list of my favorite places in Denver: Ahimsa Footwear, D Bar Desserts, equipement de vin, Urban Pantry, Wen Chocolates. I’m looking forward to adding to it in 2009 and writing more about Denver for all of you.

For many years now, I’ve had mixed feelings about Christmas, and I’m asking for your patience with my honesty about them.

Until my mid-teens, I was a devout Catholic, and then Christmas was a bona fide religious holiday for me. Since I’ve lapsed, about thirty years ago, it can no longer be that way. The memory of devotion is still there, but I can’t recapture it. So my relationship to Christmas has changed.

For one thing, I no longer worship Jesus Christ. I do wish that I were better at following his teachings, though I reserve the right to reject some. But because I no longer believe in sin (good and evil are enough to cover the vagaries of the world, I think), I no longer feel a need to be saved.

People I know may have a different opinion, of course.  And they may be right.

And, of course, there’s the Jesuit saying that if they’ve got you until age seven, they’ve got you for life.

If I were to pick from among Christ’s teachings to implement in my life, I would choose “Judge not, that ye not be judged,” and the one about the speck in thy brother’s eye.

I frequently have a bad case of “speck in the other’s eye” and need to be gently reminded about the boards in my own eyes. And my husband, who is an atheist, is the best person I know at not judging others, at simply letting them be.

So for today I am simply letting Christmas be the variety of things it has been in my life—religious holiday, source of wonder, source of presents, occasion to spend time with family, the season of light (which it shares with the winter solstice), retail fantasyland and horror story, and occasion for measuring what I’ve done in my life.

If I could let it all go, I think I would simply appreciate how the earth is turning toward light and longer days and fruitfulness. I would use the solstice to go inward and evaluate how I’d done in the past year.

Someday I would like to spend the holidays at a contemplative religious retreat. That is, if they’d take me after what I’ve just said. Somewhere I could be still, and listen to my heart.

That sounds like the best kind of present to me.

My aunt Pat died early this morning. She was in her mid-eighties. She leaves behind two siblings (my father, my uncle David) and two children.

The last time I saw her was in Dallas, when I was visiting her on my way to High Island to go birding. That was in 2007. She has had a really rough time since the end of 2007, and I am glad I was able to spend time with her when she was in good spirits.

The picture above is from the Dallas Aquarium.

But with a twist: the first week of December is Buy Local Week in Denver, so I’m going to focus on locally owned businesses. I’ll also be looking for locally made goods. It’s pretty easy to find locally made food or wine (if I stretch “local” to include the Western Slope), but locating clothes made in Denver or Boulder is more difficult.

I’ve already discovered a few great local shops, such as Ahimsa Footwear and Talulah Jones, which I reviewed in this post, but there are plenty more.

And after the food fest that was Thanksgiving in Chattanooga, I’ll be staying away from the chocolate stores (Yeah, sure, Beth, we believe that one, you’re thinking, but my goal is to lose 5 pounds by mid-month, so I can actually fit into most of my pants).

***

I want to express my condolences to the family of the Walmart employee who was trampled. That was truly awful.

I hope that next year, American businesses will do away with the practice of opening so early and staying open so late on Black Friday, and will tone down their sales a little. In recent years, it’s gotten completely out of hand, and I’ve always felt sorry for the employees who have to work such long hours the day after Thanksgiving. I don’t see how any of that does much for stores’ bottom line, even if Black Friday is their most important shopping day.

***

A quote from Denver mayor John Hickenlooper (nickname: Hick) at the Mile High Business Alliance Buy Local Week celebration:

“I’m going to speak in a deep, throaty voice…create a mood that makes people want to buy local.”

The celebration was held at the Appaloosa Grill on December 1. According to the employee I talked to, it’s one of the few locally owned restaurants on the 16th Street Mall in Denver. Most of the others are chains or are owned by big restaurant conglomerates.

]]> http://bethpartin.com/december-theme-shopping-what-else/feed/ 6 http://bethpartin.com/yes-virginia-animals-are-gay/ http://bethpartin.com/yes-virginia-animals-are-gay/#comments Mon, 17 Nov 2008 17:01:19 +0000 Beth http://bethpartin.com/?p=671

This link comes courtesy of Mile High Gay Guy, who is such a relentless blogger I can’t keep up with him.

MSNBC has posted a story titled, “Gay Animals Out of the Closet?” I’ve heard this stuff before, but this article is very informative. Check it out.

I voted last Friday, worried enough by the reports of long lines in certain parts of the country that I didn’t want to risk waiting for hours on Tuesday.

But I can’t help feeling a little unsettled.

I’ve never wanted to mail in a ballot, too afraid it would get lost. So I have to go to the polls for that reason, and also because I like the feel of it all: walking into a room full of (generally aged) volunteers, filling out a form, showing my ID, getting the ballot.

I prefer to do my voting on Election Day. It feels like an event, a ceremony, a ritual that way, as it should. Sometimes I even cry tears of joy over the privilege of voting.

This election cycle, though, showing up early provided an unexpected bonus: I ran into the county clerk and recorder, Russ Ragsdale. We recognized each other, even though it’s been several years since I was at a meeting he organized to explain how the Help America Vote Act was going to work in Broomfield. I very much doubt I would have been able to chat with him on Election Day.

The Colorado ballot had a ridiculous number of initiatives, and I voted yes on three that will put more money into the state government: the one to raise taxes to provide funds for the developmentally disabled (people like a couple of my relatives, though they don’t live in Colorado), the one to repeal a tax break for oil and gas companies, and the one to repeal part of TABOR and give more money to education (Colorado is 49th in the nation on education spending).

Then, for good measure, I voted no on almost all the others, including the labor initiatives their proponents had withdrawn. Just to make sure.

And finally, just to be a hypocrite, I voted to make it harder to get initiatives on the ballot to amend the state constitution.

I was telling my husband that people who want to get amendments on the ballot should be required to read the entire Colorado constitution first and pass a pop quiz.

(Of course, I voted for some of the amendments in the constitution now. Amendments my husband probably had the good sense to vote against because he didn’t want to clutter up Colorado’s founding document.)

***

One other weird thing about Colorado politics this year? Mike Coffman, the secretary of state, is running for Congress. So in theory he’s supervising his own election.

I’m not concerned about that because he’s a Republican. I just think it’s disturbing that the chief elections official of a state can run for office and supervise an election at the same time. I wish we could pass a law at the federal level to outlaw it—for a quicker result—but I suppose it’s something that must be done at the state level.

You can probably tell that state’s rights are not high on my list of priorities.

***

I’m not sure this post ever had a point it was driving toward. But Monday morning, I saw something that cheered me a bit: looking out my back door, I saw a vehicle driving down the street on the other side of our park. It had a big American flag on the front of the car and a small one attached to the back, as well as a sign on the side. I couldn’t read the sign, and knew it might be for McCain, but still I was cheered by it.

And then something I heard Monday afternoon saddened me: Barack Obama’s grandmother died, the day before the election.

I really wanted her to make it to Wednesday.

If you liked this post, please share it below on Digg or Delicious. I’d like that.

I’m taking a break from the Uptown theme for today’s and Tuesday’s posts. I’ll return to it after the election for several more days, and then I’ll move on to the Starz Denver Film Festival, which begins on November 13.

***

I thought I’d be spending a good chunk of Wednesday looking for a Halloween costume.

I was going to blow off Halloween for yet another year, tell myself it just wasn’t my type of holiday. I was planning to show up at a Halloween party Saturday night as “Nudist on Strike,” wearing whatever I damn well felt like.

I’m still partial to the idea, actually, as well as wearing a sign that reads “Ce n’est pas un costume.”

But then Steph posted about the real spirit of Halloween, and I felt ashamed of my lack of effort.

So I made up a list of costume stores in Denver, and I headed out to Marcia’s in Arvada. Short story short, I found a 1920s-style dress there. Now, that may be what Steph calls a “lame cliché costume,” but I don’t care. I love 1920s stuff, and I know I’ll want to wear it again and again. So I bought that one.

And then I thought, I could just buy five or six costumes and alternate them, as long as I didn’t wear the same costume to the same party within, say, two years. Then I’d never have to think of a Halloween costume again.

I’m incorrigible.

***

One place I didn’t go, since I got my costume at the first store I visited, was Flossy McGrew’s, a famous Denver costume store run by Grandma Goth. Deborah Hiestand, a local filmmaker, made a documentary on her that was quite touching, and the Broomfield Independent Film Series showed it this month.

***

In honor of Halloween, I’m going to list the movies that have scared me the most:

The Sixth Sense (it was weeks before I could walk into my kitchen and not be afraid the cupboards would be open)

Burnt Offerings (because of Bette Davis’s look at the end of the movie)

The Exorcist (I don’t think I actually crawled under my date’s seat, but it was pretty close. Guess I shouldn’t have smoked that weed beforehand.)

I saw Burnt Offerings with my best friend in high school. She would drag me to horror movies and then laugh at how scared I was. (Yes, we’re still friends.)

I’m much more partial to thrillers, such as Dressed to Kill. That was my favorite for a long time. And I love vampire shows, especially The Hunger and Dark Shadows.

One thing I’ve always wondered about horror movies: why is the horrific creature always so ugly? I think beautiful evil is that much more effective; I suspect I like vampire movies because vampires are usually attractive.

I’m curious about my readers’ opinions. What are your “favorite” scary movies?

Democrats: The Republicans are suppressing minority votes!

Republicans: Mickey Mouse is going to vote for Obama!

Democrats: Palin pals around with secessionists!

Republicans: Obama pals around with terrorists!

Democrats: Palin got $150,000 worth of new clothes!

Republicans: Obama’s flying a government jet to see his sick grandma!

***

Is anybody else about to go crazy over this stuff?

I’ve been reading Talking Points Memo and the National Review like they might disappear tomorrow. Then I still want more.

But what I really want is for this election to be over.

For Americans to

1. be more civil to each other. Stop using “un-American,” “unpatriotic,” and suchlike in our daily discourse.

2. get over our massive sense of individual entitlement. Start thinking about what we want the government to pay for, and figure out how much it’s going to cost. And then pay the damn taxes already.

3. Outlaw robocalls and voter challenges.

4. Outlaw secretaries of state being able to work on campaigns.

***

Who can spot the error in this post?

Our foundations are falling away from our house.

Sounds dramatic, doesn’t it?

It’s not. It happened so slowly we didn’t even notice for years. We’re not sure what caused it—could be the sprinkler box outside the bathroom window, leaking. Could be the drought, working on Colorado’s expansive soils and causing them to shrink.

But it has spread to most of one side of the second level of our house. That’s the level the bedrooms balance on. The place where we rest and dream.

We’ve discussed lowering the baseboards, both to hide the problem and to see more clearly if it continues. But we haven’t done it. I have an amazing capacity to live with things, to the point of laziness.

Our house dates from the 1970s, so I think it’s held together pretty well. Every winter it withstands the winds howling down the valley from Boulder and the Foothills. It has a great view.

But it won’t last forever. And it would be a mistake for us to assume we will always have it, just because we have had it.

Go and read this article by an American man whose family fell into poverty.

And go and read, if you haven’t, Leo’s discussion of the causes of poverty worldwide.

If you liked this post, please share below on Digg or Delicious. I’d like that.

Blog Action Day happens once a year, when bloggers all over the world concentrate on one subject. This year it’s poverty.

Here’s a list of things you can do to combat poverty.

Here are some organizations I like and contribute to:

American Indian College Fund

Heifer Project

Global Response

The first and third may not seem like obvious ways to combat poverty, but lack of education and environmental devastation take their toll. Long-term solutions are just as important as short-term ones.

The quote is from Walt Whitman, according to a card I received from a friend.

Do I follow the admonition in the title?

Not even close.

I’m too afraid. Afraid of opening my wallet, having only a twenty, and not wanting to give it. Afraid of being asked for too much, maybe my house or my favorite piece of jewelry.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll have the courage to live it. After all, tomorrow is another day.