It could be spelled Oooopa! or Opaa!, or just plain Opa! Wiki Answers says it means to party, or get down and dance. It’s an expression of joy that we scream out when the waiter ignites a pan of Saganaki in front of us, or in front of other people– whatever. It is a tradition that dates back to, what, maybe 1968 at the Parthenon restaurant in Chicago. Not the same as this Parthenon: they didn’t have flaming cheese there. Lucky for us we have a little place in Fort Collins that follows that same tradition and it’s close enough that we can bike there and back.
Conga drums and banjo on the cart with the Black Sheep
We had an invite for drummers and dancers at the Taverna so I thought it might be possible to attach a set of conga drums to the cart and just for fun I added the “Bouzouki Banjo” on the back of the cart. The pair of conga drums were a bit top-heavy for the modified dog cart and they shifted a bit while in transit but they made the trip unharmed. I was glad I brought the bouzouki banjo; it added to the evening’s music.
Black Sheep parked at the Taverna
The Taverna Greek Grill opened less than a year ago on College Avenue near the Target store. We liked it immediately because the owners like to serve flaming cheese (Parthenon style) and they especially like to break dinner plates (on purpose). On the first month of opening the Taverna, the owners also performed a number of fire breathing tricks inside the restaurant. They no longer do this and I would assume that its because the fire marshal put a stop to it. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
Satori Dancers
I’m not sure how this was supposed to work. Were we a private party or something the restaurant owners were using to attract more business? I’ll say private party for now because it looked like the restaurant was full. They (somebody) wants to do it again next month.
Bohemian Caravan
The Caravan has been around since 2006. They call themselves a “motley crew” of dancers who like to improvise their dance routines at the spur of the moment anytime, anywhere. And any drum beat.
It’s the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival at CSU’s UCA:
Irene Ryan was there? What?
No. Irene Ryan, the woman who played “Granny” on the Beverly Hillbillies died 39 years ago! …and for that many years, the Irene Ryan Foundation has been awarding scholarships to acting students around the country. This week the presentations were made at CSU.
A video about the event
Something about Kafka
Our past fascination with Kafka might be found here. I saw a blurb about something called “The Kafka Project” (the roach got my attention) in November and it turns out that it was a play featuring various works of Franz Kafka: It was selected to compete at this year’s festival.
Josephine the Singer, or, the Mouse Folk, or Something like that
This photo came out strange, maybe Kafkaesque even. Very well done by the students, fantastic sets and well directed (not always the case we have found) and we were fortunate to attend this new work by Walt Jones and the Company.
And then “Something”
Yes, the keynote performance was presented by the Canadian clown duo Mump & Smoot . Evil clowns, Cockroach stories: what’s not to like?
Heavy wet snow on leafy branches caused quite a problem. They closed down the CSU oval because of downed trees and power was cut off for several hours in Old Town. The snow on the street melted by mid-day. Some of our trees in the back yard are not as tall as they once were ;-(
Pumpkin carving at Mindy and Tom’s
It’s what you do near the end of October. The Day of the Dead is tomorrow and I still haven’t got my alter built. But we had costumes.
Jeanne
Besides watching the snow melt, there were a number of opportunities to go someplace in costume. The Holler!Ween event the previous week got us in the mood!
The “Meatloaf” part
As Eddie at the Rocky Horror Show musical wearing this really cool leather jacket I bought at the Goodwill store for $14. They also had this wonderful mullet wig or only $2.
Rocky Horror cast and musicians
This was very well directed and the actors were incredible. The members in the audience were not half bad either!
Jeanne and Jim
After the show we stopped in at Cafe Vino for some tapas and drinks with some friends.
At the UCA for the late night halloween organ extravaganza. Kyung-Soon Cho and Bobbie Mielke just finighed Franck’s Prelude, Fugue and Variation for organ and piano. As last year, Sam Dawson began the show with Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.
Zombies by evening
Well, it’s November now. Time to store the costumes, makeup and Halloween decorations… Maybe I won’t put away the mullet wig just yet!
Oh man, is Summer over already??? It’s time to wrap up a few things before I get ready for school:
Finnders and Youngberg
We remembered this group at the last FoCoMX. We made sure we caught their act at the New West Fest this year. Here they are playing at the library stage.
Duncan Madog is alive and well
despite being removed from his very own Facebook page because he’s a dog, Duncan still gets out and does his thing. The other day we found him goofing around on a shopping cart near the abandoned lumber yard.
With the usual number of tractors and animal acts and carnival rides including the ever popular Bear Affair.
Finally, we made it to the Niwot Left-Handers Day but it was a bust. Apparently the organizers were sick and couldn’t get their act together or maybe their dog ate the program. Who knows? We expected to see banners hung from the light poles that welcomed us left-handed people, but it just wasn’t happening.
Oh well, maybe next year? We did get to eat some pizza at Lefty’s in Niwot, but heard from a local who knew what she was talking about that the place to go is Proto’s Pizza located at 600 S. Airport road in Longmont. SO, the next time we are in Longmont, expect to see a review of Proto’s.
and he’s doing reader’s theater playing the part of King Lear. You may have seen him in All My Children, Star Trek: The Next Generation or The Young and the Restless. Anyhow, he’s in Fort Collins now playing King Lear at the Openstage Theater.
The Earl of Gloucester and Edgar in front of that “No Smoking” sign. Where have I seen that sign?
Of course, it’s the back of the stage at Avo’s Patio!
The guy with the white beard on the right was Santa Clause last November. He is Wayne, the harmonica player and owner of Four Season Hammocks in Fort Collins.
It looks like he’s doing a version of “The Professor’s Nightmare” trick.
Super guy
…wearing some sort of custom jumping prosthesis
Expect more of the same as Summer approaches. Some of the acts are paid via Beet Street’s Streetmosphere and then some are kind of “on their own” trying to pick up spare change.
It’s the Asian/Pacific American Cultural Festival:
舞狮 Lion Dance
Where do they store these great costumes?
Taiko Drums
…and these taiko drums! They take up mucho space and they are heavy!
They also had an Hawaiian Luau which we didn’t attend because we’re upset that we aren’t going to Hawaii in October… at least we think we’re not going. Stay tuned!
Hey, It’s almost May! Time to see what festivals to visit this summer:
Ride an elephant
Check out a Renaissance Festival
See costumed characters
and spectacular sporting events.
No reason to stick around Fort Collins the whole time, right? We know we want to get out and be with those festivals and we just got a head start by visiting the Arizona Ren Fest this year. Early this spring it was a beautiful 72 degrees at the AzRenFest; Located 20 miles east of Phoenix, this festival is billed as one of the largest of its kind in the nation. Now we’re ready for the next bunch of festivals and we hope to catch as many as we can that can not be found  in Larimer County:
May 21-22 Longmont Strawberry Fest – Longmont, Colorado
June 10-11 Greeley Blues Jam – Greeley, Colorado
June 16 – 19 Telluride Bluegrass Fest – Telluride, Colorado
June 11 – July 31 Â Colorado Ren Fest – Castle Rock, Colorado
August 12 – 14 Left-Handers Appreciation Weekend – Niwot, Colorado
August 25-28 Ned Fest – Nederland, Colorado
OK, sure we will make it to Loveland Loves BBQ and the Taste of Fort Collins and all those other things in-between (Like the RAGBRAI); Don’t worry, we’ve got it covered. Â See you there!
The skeleton gloves were a good touch. We’ll have to use some gloves like those for ‘Bloco Em Foco’ sometime in the future.
And introducing ‘Jamila Lotus’ bellydance carnival
Tricia & Colette
Josephine
Here Josephine is balancing on the top of a dumbek Middle Eastern goblet drum. It is said that the name dumbek comes from the two sounds that can be produced from the drum: Doom!, the base sound and Beck!, the rim-shot.
A play by Jeffrey Hatcher at the Open Stage Theatre & Company and performed at The Nonesuch Theater; Charlie Ferrie played the part of Pablo Picasso with Nicole Gawronski as Miss Fischer, the Greman cultural attache in Nazi occupied Paris. This is an excellent drama about artistic freedom and just another example of some of the great local talent we are fortunate to have. If you get a chance, go see it!
Note: I searched around for Picasso drawings and found this one shown above; Those of you who may have seen this production may note the similarities to this drawing and the costume and hair style worn by Ms. Gawronski in this play.
Satori Dancers
Bohemian Caravan
