By Chakaia Booker
Tire Treads
Booker started making sculptures out of rubber tires in the early 1990s and continues in this medium today. There are a lot of tires out there, to be sure.
Rubber Plant
Fake SEM Photograph
Magnified 300 times, one can’t ignore the various striations and dimples found on belted radial tires
Chakaia in her element
Her works are on display at the University Center for the Arts in Fort Collins.
Time to make the SLYDER DRESSING !
It’s the turkey dressing made with White Castle burgers!
(The above link has the recipe) When we moved to Colorado, we knew that no White Castle restaurants  were built west of the Mississippi River. And two years ago, the closest place to buy frozen White Castles were in selected grocery stores in Denver. It now appears that someone has determined that there is indeed a craving in Fort Collins!
The White Castle in Maywood, Illinois
I used to go to the above store at 3:30 am. There was an employee there who wore a 30-year pin! Wow, 30 years behind the counter of a White Castle! That’s got to mean something!
The RAGBRAI bike with frozen White Castle Cheeseburgers on the back
Now to ride back home and microwave a couple for a little snack. If you do this, maybe you could add a pickle slice (Vlasic Ovals are OK) and some mustard (like Gulden’s Spicy Brown) or maybe even some Lowensenf Extra from Mount Horeb — if you want to get closer to the Dusseldorf Mustard that W.C. uses. Â Otherwise you just have to grab a few handfulls of mustard packets at a White Castle the next time you are in the Midwest.
A: Everyone cheers when the case is closed.
“It is Bassoon!”
And it can be seen at something called “Bassoon-a-RAM-a” at the CSU Center for the Arts, sponsored in part by the Lilla Morgan Memorial Fund. Lilla Morgan was the wife of the late president emeritus William Morgan. The fund provides grants to visiting artists for CSU.
Concerts and workshops in Griffin Hall
Note the RAMS balancing on the tops of bassoons with the mountains in the background.
Sonata for Bassoon and Piano by Cioffari
Here bassoonist Sarah Fish played the piano while Melanie Fisher played the bassoon.
Beth Wells (cello) and Tom Bittinger (bassoon)
They played Mozart’s ‘Sonata for Bassoon and Cello’
Sarah Fish (bassoon)
Sarah played Malcolm Arnold’s ‘Fantasie for Bassoon, Op. 86′
And finally Mignone’s ‘Sonata for Two Bassoons’
Gary Moody and Kathleen McLean.
Moody is Associate Professor of Double Reeds and Theory at CSU. McLean is Associate Professor of Bassoon at the University of Indiana and is one of the most acclaimed orchestral bassoonists in North America.
In Old  Town this afternoon:
It’s Santa Claus playing his concertina
His elf is smiling but it looks like Santa is concerned about some of those bad little children on the square. Hey, I know where you can dig up a lump of coal if you are interested.
OK, that’s better!
Santa’s elf is played by Matt (as in the College of Matt and Science) and it looks like he’s got a few things in that bag of his. Santa was followed up to his workshop near the skating rink by a large group of kids with their lists in hand. I had no problem pushing those kids out of the way to be first in line. I want the Mario® Red edition of the Wii please!
Or something to do with our little railroad and Avogadro’s Number:
Featuring the Poudre River Irregulars
and perhaps the Blue Grass Patriots were in town for the benefit concert for the crippled FCMRR trolley car. Do they need $6.022×1023 to fix it? No, maybe more like around $20,000.
The Early Crowd
We came early because we had tickets for Open Stage’s Sherlock Holmes show but I certainly hope more people came for the Bluegrass Patriots!
One of FCMRR’s Trolley conductors enjoying the show
The Trolley Barn around 1947
We hope they can get car 21 back in operation by May 2011. I’ll be stopping in at the barn soon to help out (and take a few pictures too!).
At CSU’s Lory Student Center
Consisting in part of: Dancers of India
A large Japanese group
This guy from Kuwait who borrowed one of our drums
This bunch from Saudi Arabia
This Korean girl playing a Gayagium
and these folks in a Thai village.
These pictures were taken back-stage at the Lory Student Center Theater during the “World Talent Showcase” where various groups including the world famous Samba band from Fort Collins ‘Bloco em Foco’ were in attendance.
or Eat here, Get Gas…
This place is open 24 hours
And it’s #4 on the list 20 reasons to Visit in the official 2009 Colorado Vacation Guide.
You can buy high-octane “Dino Supreme” gasoline
or some Corgi Kitsch
Also “Best Truck Stop Restaurant in the US” in 2004 by the Food Network
When our friend Diedra was in town visiting we took her to Johnson’s Corner for breakfast. Â The place was really hopping with customers; however we didn’t see anyone wearing a cowboy hat. Â Like, where’s the fun in that? We could have been in Wisconsin!
First of all, I somehow made it on the web page of TEAMSPIRIT at the ol’ RAGBRAI this year.
And I forgot to mention that we attended the Mostlies this year
They did their schtick in Griffin Hall to a much larger audience: “Up, Up and Astray” or “We Did it for the Show”
A Symbol of Fort Collins Culture
Where they (The Mostlies) poked fun at one of our neighbors; They (The neighbors)Â have since moved to Florida .
And finally:
This green woman at Comic-Con
Or is that Wondercon, or APE? Whatever. It has been said that ” WonderCon and Comic-Con are nonprofit educational organizations dedicated to creating awareness of and appreciation for comics and related popular art forms, primarily through the presentation of conventions and events that celebrate the historic and ongoing contributions of comics to art and culture.” No wonder R. Crumb never shows!
Back in 2008 there was this and now:
We’re BACK!!!!!
A sample of Day of the Dead alters
I hate to say this but the 2008 alters seemed a bit more creative than this year’s… and it’s MY FAULT I didn’t get my damn alter in on time for the festival. Â Well, there’s always next year, right?
At the CSU UCA:
The Casavent Frères Organ
It’s in the Organ Recital Hall of the University Center for the Arts (UCA). Â The organ has 2,0079 pipes and takes up 4,500 square feet of floor space.
Sam Dawson
We’re at the 5th Annual Halloween Organ Extravaganza; Above Sam is dressed as a witch and played J.S. Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in d minor. It’s the organ piece that is a halloween tradition!
William Harned
Dressed as Darth Vader, Mr. Vader played the Bach e minor Prelude and Fugue.
Dick Borowski
This time the Phantom of the Opera played the Prelude in g minor (The Toccata and Fugue in d minor was usually the phantom’s theme song as it were).
A trumpet gnome from the CSU Faculty Brass Quintet
Featuring the world premiere of Nicole Buetti’s ‘Through the Haunted Carnival’. Ms. Buetti is the professor of Applied Bassoon and Contra Bassoon at CSU-Pueblo. She will most-likely be in attendance at the “Bassoon-a-RAMa”, the Largest Gathering of Bassoonists in the World on November 19th at the CSA. Be there!
Rami Cho
As a little devil, Ms. Cho chose ‘Humoresque’ by Pietro Yon
Phyllis Furguson and Ting Ting Chan
Furious footwork was the key for these performers. Ms. Furguson knocked out a comical rendition of Noel Rawsthorne’s ‘Hornpipe Humoresque’ while Ms. Chan (not at the same time mind you) easily walked through Charles-Marie Widor’s “Allegro” from Symphony VI.
