Archive for April, 2011

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Not Fort Collins Fests

Thursday, April 28th, 2011

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  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.  See you there!

Posted in Performing Arts | 1 Comment »

Happy Earth Day from Moab!

Saturday, April 23rd, 2011

…and home of the Skinny Tire Festival !

This could be Colorado, but it’s not.

Oh, maybe 27 miles from the Colorado boarder is the town of Moab, Utah. They are crazy about bikes like they are in Fort Collins.; they only got one brewery however. Skinny Tire, indeed!

Some rock formations near Moab

The Utah automobile license plates feature a picture of an arch from Arches National Park.

They call this one “Balanced Rock”

One of the arches and a gnarly tree.

Look through an arch to another arch in the background.

Landscape Arch

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Dancing with Hope and Fear

Friday, April 22nd, 2011

Materialism and Meditation

& the ego’s project to attain enlightenment

A three day retreat at the Shambhala Mountain Center near Red Feather Lakes, Colorado.

The Great Stupa of Dharmakaya Which Liberates Upon Seeing

The Sacred Studies Hall

With Rhythmical Alchemy inside!

The Elf was with us

and we found peace.

Apparently every year there is what seems to be a ‘Drumming Event of the Year’ and this was it for 2011. And what a venue! The mountain center is a pristine six hundred-acre meditation retreat center that must be experienced. That’s why whenever we have guests staying more than a weekend we take them to see this place.

We had a bit of confusion at first because there was another group called “Dancing with Hope and Fear” at the mountain center on the same weekend and we naturally asked them to join us in drumming and dancing. They politely refused; It was a meditation class, not a dance class!

Thank you Shambhala Mountain Center for allowing us to drum well past curfew; I think some of the Shambhala staff were happy to have us!

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Happy Birthday Jeanne!

Tuesday, April 19th, 2011

So it’s back to Coors Field, home of the Rockies

to meet Rockies MVD (Most Valuable Dinosaur) Dinger

As with most of those costumed sports mascots, Dinger had nothing to say and like the Save Dinger website, few of his fans have much to say either. Then again, there is a petition going around that reads as follows:

“Whereas it is pre-emptively acknowledged that all sports mascots lose their appeal to right-thinking adults who have not sustained head wounds, and;
Whereas it has become widely known that we here in Denver play home to the absolutely worst carpet-covered, shit-and-Febreze-smelling, sorry excuse for a cheerleading, anthropomorphized cartoon fossil, and;
Whereas newfound national attention for our incredible baseball team will no doubt bring on the mock and scorn of the entire country when the people of this good nation have beamed into their living rooms the image of that purple triceratops from hell, and;
Whereas we even have a state dinosaur and the Rockies couldn’t even bring themselves to put an androgynous stegasaurus in a jersey with no pants;
We, members of the Rockies fan base, citizens of Colorado, and general arbiters of what constitutes useless nonsense and what makes for a good fan experience, hereby request that Colorado Rockies kill Dinger the dinosaur (just the character, not the hard-working actor who has to dress up in that thing for every home game, elementary school performance and nursing home appearance) before we have to take matters into our hands,”

{PLEASE SIGN HERE}

Starting with dinner at the Mountain Ranch Club

where you can eat food (similar to stuff at Applebee’s) served to you at your table and watch the game either through the large open window or any of the television monitors mounted throughout the restaurant. This is a popular place at Coors Field, so get your reservations in early!

Posted in Sports | Comments Off on Happy Birthday Jeanne!

Band of Eternal Souls

Monday, April 18th, 2011

Not the Grateful Dead:

Jerome, Jennifer & Jason

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.

Posted in Music, Performing Arts | Comments Off on Band of Eternal Souls

Otto’s Monument

Friday, April 15th, 2011

Well, there is an “Otto’s Monument” in Chillicothe, Illinois; This ain’t it:

John Otto

In and out of jails and insane asylums, crazy John Otto ranted for years to government officials to make a part of land located west of Grand Junction, Colorado into a national park. Then on May 24, 1911 President Taft officially made it a “National Monument”. OK, it’s not a national park but Otto became the first custodian of the monument; and it was now protected land, so John Otto was pleased.

The Colorado National Monument

Some people suggested it be called “Otto National Monument” but John Otto wouldn’t hear of it. He said “Why not call it ‘Smith National Monument’ instead?” presumably because a lot of people named Smith would likely come and visit THEIR monument!

Now the 100th anniversary is coming soon so you had better get your reservations in now for the big party; I hear they are going to try to make it a national park!

It’s all here, and it’s easy to view thanks to John Otto who constructed the trails.

While you are in Grand Junction during the month of May this year you should visit the nearby town of Fruita, Colorado. On May 20-21st of this year is the annual Mike the Headless Chicken Days in Fruita:

Mike:  Chicken: Headless

So, if you thought the Frozen Dead Guy Days was weird, well…

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

The Discovery Yet To Come…

Monday, April 11th, 2011

On the north-east corner of Mason and Cherry streets in Fort Collins:

A New Building Project!

With the expected completion in the Fall of 2011, the Fort Collins Discovery Museum will be one hell of a fantastic 40,000 square foot experiment that will join the city’s historical museum with a state of the art ‘Big City Feeling’ science center. Designed by Gyroscope, Inc., the new museum will have loads of storage space and areas for traveling exhibits. This is not a good thing, this is a GREAT thing!

Some floor plans:

Roadside Mysteries has obtained the final design set exhibit plan for the new museum and will show the parts of the museum that are of particular interest. We have chosen the “Sound and Music” section first because we find it especially fitting for Fort Collins.

Figure 1

The above section shows at top center the “Match That Tone” station reminiscent of the original station in the old museum. To the right of that is a collection of “Fort Collins Music”, or music produced by local artists (Think FoCoMX). Heck, there might even be a sample of Fort Collin’s premier Samba band “Bloco Em FoCo” someplace?

In the center of figure 1 is the five-sided “Melodic Percussion Booth” that is surrounded by instrumental work stations, listening chairs, trio stations, mash-up stations and a DJ scratch table. Also note the “Innovation Wall” that includes a BEAMZ player, a Theramin and a glass harmonica.

Figure 2

The exhibits in figure 2 above are still interactive as in figure 1, but are a little more related to the technical and historical aspect of sound and music. Devices like the oscylinder scope and ripple tank can help explain the theory of sound while the radio and gramophone exhibits help us fogies illustrate what “The Good Old Days” were like to the young’uns. Oh, and don’t forget the “Drum Jam” circle on the bottom center of Figure 2!

OK, I know what you’re thinking. It’s going to be a mad house, a “distracting cacophony of chaos”. Well apparently there is an association of science and technology centers who have it all figured out. Lookie HERE if you want. Whatever! If you don’t like it, don’t bother to come in, you old fogy!

Click HERE to see a little video produced for the museum.

Posted in FoCO Discovery Science, Museums | 1 Comment »

FoCoMX Part 2

Sunday, April 10th, 2011

Then on Saturday:

Aaron, Erin, Mike and Ryan

From one of our local bluegrass bands “Finnders and Youngberg” playing in front of some beer brewing kettles at the Equinox Brewing Company.

Tony Mihaly at The Armadillo

Jay J Mattot and the Arctic at The Armadillo

The bartender at The Armadillo makes a great margarita. At $2.99 per glass yet!

Chris Nucci at the Lyric Cinema Cafe

We ducked in to hear Adam Bodine playing to several Fatty Arbuckle films, but we went into the wrong theater and instead watched the last half of the movie “Black Death”. It was a good place to rest up after all those Armadillo margaritas.

“The Patti Fiasco” at Avo’s

Greg and Ben of the Hi Beams at Avo’s

Ben, Halden and Bret of “Halden Wofford and the Hi Beams”  at Avo’s

Posted in FoCoMX, Music | 1 Comment »

The Best Entertainment deal in town:

Saturday, April 9th, 2011

It’s the FoCoMX or the Fort Collins Music Experiment!

Candy Claws at Hodi’s Half Note

They had these funny animal hats on their heads and played mostly synthesized music and sang in whispers so you couldn’t hear the lyrics.

A Melodic Daydream at Choice City Butcher

With LnZ Kayd and Chris Newton. My spellcheck didn’t get worried when it saw the name “LnZ’ because it’s the airport code for Hoersching Airport in Austria. Interesting.


Mister Tim at Choice City Butcher

You could go to Mister Tim’s YouTube site to see and hear what he does. At first we were thinking “Oh No! Mouth noises!”, but after a while his a cappella weirdness started to grow on us.  I’m also figuring that one-man acts are better because you don’t have to share the money with other band members.

Hermanas de los Muertos at the Armadillo

They sounded alright, but that was after several Armadillo margaritas. I think the original band is composed of two cello players and one violin player. Worth checking out at a less crowded venue, green skin or not!

Baily Staufer at The East Coast Bar

It was Blues and Folk Rock. We got a free CD.

Umlaut at the East Coast Bar

A ‘German’ rock band playing ‘Crunk’, or Crazy Drunk music. A popular title: “Bring Ze Fraulines”. We know that at least the bass player (on the right) is wearing a wig.

The Adam Bodine Trio minus one

Here with Kalin Capra on bass and Adam Bodine on keyboard.

and the Adam Bodine Trio minus 2 at Elliot’s

Cool jazz drumming by Peter Knudson.

The Silent Disco at the Old Goodwill Building

From 10pm to 3am you could revel in the use of wireless technology and groove to your favorite beat without anyone actually hearing what your particular groove is. This concept has been around for years but the name ‘Silent Disco’ hadn’t been used until 2002. In February 2011 ‘Silent Disco’ was added to the Oxford Dictionary Online which states: silent disco: an event at which people dance to music that is transmitted through wireless headphones rather than played over a speaker system.

Posted in FoCoMX, Music | 1 Comment »

UCA Midterms

Tuesday, April 5th, 2011

Recently we were walking through the University Center for the Arts during midterms…

Student with bass fiddle, stool and bow case.

Just leaving the recital hall; I hope he did OK. We also caught a glimpse of Wes Kenney, the music director of the Fort Collins Symphony and CSU faculty member walking down this same hallway.

Dance class

The instructor called us in; She said that her students just LOVED an audience! They were in the middle of their midterm examinations.

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