at Rodizio Grill:
Fort Collins’ Bloco em FoCo
It was called “NOITE: An evening of Brazilian live music and dance! Featuring samba lessons with Gisele Dias and Afro-Brazilian Percussion with Bloco em FoCo. Brought to you by the Wyoming Chapter of PARTNERS of the AMERICAS. Â Thanks to fellow samba drummer Richard for taking this cool picture.
Marcus Santos is expected to join the band later this month; it’s going to be a real BLAST!
Howes Street, Fort Collins, about 1961
It’s an Atlas Series E ICBM nuclear missile and it is on its way north of town to a newly constructed silo just a bit southwest of Wellington. Four other series E silos were built in Colorado near Glover, Briggsdale, Nunn and Greeley.
Our guardian was located in Cheyenne, Wyoming
The 566th Strategic Missile Squadron was based at Warren AFB and was charged with missile deployment becoming fully operational on September 15, 1964 Â only to be deactivated by June 25, 1965.
FoCo Atlas Silo, c 1961
Or something of that nature. The Series E silo stored the missile in a horizontal position until it was ready to launch; Lucky for us it never happened.
Atlas E ready to launch
This is what an Atlas E silo would look like when the missile is ready to go. The propellant was kerosene-liquid oxygen and was from the same family of rocket that sent John Glen into orbit.
Don’t go here!
A previous post notes that during a walk on the Poudre River trail with Duncan Madog I came near a water treatment facility that was within a mile of an ICBM missile silo. Â A few days later after checking Google maps, I found what I believe is the Greeley Atlas E missile silo!
I did indeed see a dog!
There is barbed wire on top of the fence and there is at least one dog that patrols the area. Â I’m sure it’s not to guard any government secrets but just to discourage nosey bloggers who wight want to poke around an abandoned missile silo just because it’s there.
Evidence that something’s under foot!
These appear to be utility connections and exhaust vents for an underground bunker. My experience with these come from doing some contract work in the midwest at a decommissioned Nike Hercules missile site. Â The site I was at had these long underground tunnels that seemed to go on forever. I don’t see much evidence of that here.
Some kind of vents and a house on the grounds
They seem too close to the exhaust vents to be air-intake; There is also a residential style building in the background that I would assume is for the caretaker of this property.
Possible cooling pool
There is a cement pond nearby with some equipment footings which may have secured some kind of early heat exchanger device.
Basketball court?
There is an overgrown paved surface with two backboards facing each other. Â I’m sure it was used in the early ’60’s for exercise for those housed inside the bunker. There are some small structures that look like outhouses but I am not sure of their purpose.
It’s a sculpture park:
Terathopius ecaudatus
In Loveland, of course and it’s not near Benson Park; more like at the big new shopping mall. Â I don’t care much for shopping malls; perhaps that’s why I haven’t been here sooner. Â No bronze works here, it features stone carvings from Zambabwe for the most part. The above sculpture is the head of Chapugnu, an eagle; Â it is the name of this 20 acre park with about 80 or so pieces.
Duncan Madog and the Water Woman
The sculptures represent traditional African attitude and close bond to nature.
The stones are infused cobalt, springstone and opal, all varieties of serpentine stone mined in Zimbabwe.
Carved with simple hand tools, many of the works represent families in daily life.
Check out the Chapungu website for more information.
Established by Roy Guthrie in 1970 as a sculpture gallery in town, the works were moved to the present location in 1985. There are plans to build a fancy cultural arts building nearby, but I don’t know when. Stay tuned!
Note: The next few posts have been pre-published while I’m away from a computer!
Alright, there has been a bit of discomfort in the area of the knee:
X-rays are good. Can you tell I broke my left tibia in 1961?
My right knee would hurt whenever I twisted my leg. I could ride a bicycle OK, but it would hurt whenever I tried to dismount. It would also hurt when I drove a car so it seemed like my leg was telling me to STAY ON A BICYCLE! But it was hard to walk on uneven surfaces (and that’s everywhere around here!) and it made hanging out with the samba band difficult.
But now my right knee hurts; What can it be?
And after a few months, the pain didn’t go away on it’s own! Time to see a (gulp!) real doctor and see what’s what! Well, it seems most likely I have a meniscal tear on my knee. Of course a little Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging might show this a little clearer perhaps. Most folks just say ‘MRI’ meaning Magnetic Resonance Imaging, but it’s really Nuclear MRI ! Don’t be fooled! Ha! Ha! No! It’s not ionizing radiation you idiot!
Enter the General Electric Signa MRI
…and just as you might have heard, they are still noisy as ever. I got to wear headphones and when they asked me what radio station I wanted to hear, I said “KRFC please”. I don’t listen to radio very much, so this was the first time I ever heard “Radio Fort Collins” ; It’s “Homegrown Radio for Northern Colorado” or Public Radio. Seems cool; They might even broadcast live samba music some evening. Anyhow, the dog made a movie of it and put it on U-tube here:
NMRI of my leg, why not?
So it appears that it is indeed a meniscal tear and I need to be “SCOPED” as they say. The procedure should happen around 1:00 PM TODAY and I should be home by 4:00PM. Â They said I should stay in bed for at least 4 to 5 days. I’ll be sure to let you know how that goes! I’ve got my recovery room all ready to go except that I will have NO INTERNET ACCESS FOR 4 to 5 days!!! I know I should have installed a wireless router just like everybody else, but I thought I would wait for the NEXT BIG THING, whatever that might be.
Will I survive not having internet access? Sure, NO PROBLEM!
At the CSU Little Shop of Physics:
Brian Jones
Brian is a physics professor at CSU and for the past 19 years he has been engaging students with demonstrations utilizing all sorts of physical phenomena. Apparently Jones talks a number of undergraduate CSU students into volunteering for this big scientific open house at the Lorry Student Center with more than 250 hands-on experiments and seven interactive presentations. “It’s a science party, and everyone’s invited,” said Jones, wearing a tie-dyed ‘Little Shop’ t-shirt that all his volunteers at the show wear as well.
A Short Video Presentation
There’s nothing like the smell of ozone in the Lorry Student Ballroom courtesy of a one-million volt Tesla coil!
Note 1: Nikola Tesla began research on energy transmission in Colorado in 1899.
Note 2: Today’s Tesla coils are mainly used as entertainment and educational displays.
Bikes on display at the Art Lab
Art of the Bicycle
Electric Bike
Fish Bike
Jet Bike
Panda Bike
Rust Bike
And why music is so important
Music makes your brain glow
Music stimulates specific regions of the brain responsible for language, memory and motor control. If you want to know more about music and brain function, just ask this guy:
Dr. Michael Thaut
Dr. Thaut is the Administrative Director and Professor of Music and Neuroscience at the CSU School of the Arts. He was on-hand today to talk about the scientific foundations and clinical applications of rhythm and music and it’s effect on the brain.
It’s not just words and numbers!
Of course around tax time it seems like it’s all about numbers but like most people, it’s also time to perform a little ’song and dance’ as well. It’s also important to sing the praises of the arts when appearing before the university administration during budget request time.
To Compose and Improvise
It’s something we all do up until the age of six. Then it gets pushed away to some dark place while we learn all that other ’stuff’ in school.
The parts of the brain for artistic skills
“With the advent of modern cognitive neuroscience and its new tools of studying the human brain “live,” music as a highly complex, temporally ordered and rule-based sensory language quickly became a fascinating topic of study. By studying the physiology and neurology of brain function in music, we can obtain a great deal of knowledge about the perception of complex auditory sound stimuli; time perception and rhythm processing; the differential processing of music and language of two aural communication systems; biological substrates of learning versus innate talent in the arts; and processing of higher cognitive functions related to temporality and emotion. The main goal is to bring the knowledge in the arts and the sciences together and review systematically our current state of study about the brain and music, specifically in rhythm. “
A benefit for an Haitian orphanage:
Vicki Pompea entertained the kiddos!
It was a fundraiser called “Hugs for Haiti” at the Catalyst Tap Room.
Thanks to Dawn Markley Webster for getting this whole thing together! You rock!
Near the Poudre trail south of Windsor:
Old signs
I believe it says “CAUTION BURIED WATER LINE”
Air valve
Or stand pipe, something of that nature. Is it part of the Greeley Air Valve system?
Wear your life vest?
It is best that you don’t try to scale the two sets of 8-foot high fences. Heck, even if you do have a life vest, some machine will catch one of the loose straps and grind you into powder! Or is that poudre?
Poudre river pipes
If you are into urban spelunking, this is probably not the best place to start.
Covered Vertical
Uncovered vertical
With some steps going down. Â NO! Do not climb down those steps!
Chemical storage
This is for a water treatment facility (maybe the North Weld Facility) located across the river. Â Also, maybe about a mile south-east of here is the location of an old Atlas E series intercontenental ballistic missile silo. SAY WHAT? Hey, I better go check that out!
A Samba band from Fort Collins showed up
Samba bands are made for parades and Mardi Gras is a great event perfect for extremely loud marching drum bands! This past Tuesday the famous mobile percussion group ‘Bloco em Foco’ paraded through at least one bar in Fort Collins to help celebrate  in a festive way reminiscent of Bourbon Street complete with beads, masks and face paint. If you were not there, you missed out!
