Golden Ticket

These shoes have walked some strange streets
Stranger still to come –
Sometimes the prayers of strangers
Are all that keeps them from
Trying to stay static
Something even death can’t do
Everything is motion –
To the motion be true

In this cold commodity culture
Where you lay your money down
It’s hard to even notice
That all this earth is hallowed ground –
Harder still to feel it
Basic as a breath –
Love is stronger than darkness
Love is stronger than death

The gift
Keeps moving –
Never know
Where it’s going to land.
You must stand
Back and let it
Keep on changing hands

Hackles rise in anger
Heat waves rise in sex
The gift moves on regardless
Tying this world to the next
May you never tire of waiting
Never feel that life is cheap
May your life be filled with light
Except for when you’re trying to sleep

The gift
Keeps moving –
Never know
Where it’s going to land
You must stand
Back and let it
Keep on changing hands

The Gift – Bruce Cockburn

Congratulations to Jim for correctly identifying the tune “Ramblin’ Man” by Lemon Jelly as the tune where my last blog’s title came from. Your $10.00 is on the way. If you put together the first letters of the places he says he visited, starting with Brixton and finishing with San Jose, it reads BAGPUSS SEES ALL THINGS. According to Wiki, Bagpuss was a popular 1974 UK children’s television series. The title character is “an old, saggy cloth cat, baggy, and a bit loose at the seams”. The series is fondly and widely remembered, although only 13 episodes were ever made. More Bagpuss fun is located here and a YouTube video here. Riveting.

 Since I’ve added some new, not-so-web-savvy people recently, a couple of quick things about my blog. Clicking on any underlined link will take you to related information. Clicking on the song title of the opening lyrics will generally take you to either a YouTube version of the song or similar. Clicking on the Artist name of the opening lyrics will generally take you to the artist’s website or similar. Clicking on a picture will take you to a larger version of the picture. I don’t upload pictures larger than 640 X 480 since my Mom still has dialup .

My friend Kimber came out to visit me the week of St. Patrick’s Day. We grabbed our Golden Tickets and headed out to explore the wild west. Our first stop was the Cabrini Shrine and elevator to heaven. The utter embarrassment of Kimber flouncing up the 373 stairs while I was huffing and puffing behind has driven me once and for all back to the gym. Imagine my distress as someone who lives up here where the air is thin having his ass kicked by someone living lakeside in Chicago. Anyway, we did eventually make it up through the snow and ice to the shrine. At the top is a giant statue of Jesus standing atop what I believe is the elevator to heaven. My theory is that when you pass on, you make your way to the elevator and the button to call the elevator appears. Once the elevator arrives you’re whisked off to Judgement City. The shrine itself, as described by the website, was “established by Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini for the purpose of spreading the gospel and providing a peaceful summer atmosphere for orphan children.” It’s got some great views of Denver and the surrounding areas.

From there we made our way to the Buffalo Bill Cody Museum and Grave. More beautiful mountain scenery ensued as well as a trip through the gift shop. Interestingly enough, Buffalo Bill had a very close relationship with the Chinese which continues to this day. Many, many of the gift shop items actually come from that far away, mysterious land .

From there we went to the Coors brewery and got drunk. The brewery tour was fun and I found out that they not only brew Coors beers, but Killian’s Red, Blue Moon Belgian Ale and… wait for it… Zima! *Someone* must be drinkin’ that stuff for them to still be makin’ it. Yikes.

We made our way out to Keystone with Mitch, Laura and Laura’s friend Christy over the weekend as well. Kimber and I didn’t ski, but we did enjoy the scenery and a really crappy overpriced lunch while we were there. Unfortunately, we had a participant down before we left Keystone. Christy fell on the slopes and suffered a Medial Ligament tear. I don’t know what it is apart from being a painful knee thing. We did make it back and fortunately Christy was conscious the whole time in the clinic at Keystone since Mitch and Laura told them that Christy signed a DNR .

We don’t have any show club here in Denver that’s as exciting as Baton, but we do have Lannie’s Clocktower Cabaret. Every Thursday is “Naughty Pierre’s Burlesque & Comedy Extravaganza!” which proved almost as much fun. As it happens, I also meet my future wife there, her name is Midnight Martini. Oh my she’s flexible . She was also featured as Miss Colfax in August last year on the Colfax Avenue web page. Yeah baby!

Finally, Kimber, Mitch, Laura and I managed to make it out to Austin Karaoke 3 where we discovered that karaoke isn’t really Laura’s thing. Mitch on the other hand, is a natural talent. I think it’s all that time on stage that really brings it out in him. There were no “People Who Eat People” moments like when we had Annette along in Chicago, but still a good if somewhat pricey evening.

All in all it was quite the week. Pepper and I have once again made peace and settled back into our usual routine. A routine that now includes morning trips to the gym I might add. The prairie dogs ask frequently where the fun lady who feeds us cashews went, but I tell them she’s back home with her evil dog that would rip them apart without a second thought. That’s a picture of Heddy right before Kimber left to come out here. Is that not the most pathetic thing you’ve seen this week? Anyway, I hope you all had a happy Easter and a merry St. Patty’s day. It looks like Kraftwerk and Laurie Anderson are both supposed to play out here in April, so I guess I’ve got that tax refund spent already . Enjoy the spring!

- G

BAGPUSS SEES ALL THINGS

Come.
Come.
Come.
Come.

Come.
Come.
Come.
Come.

Come.
Come.
Come.
Come.

Come.
Come.
Come.
Come.

Come.
Come.
Come.
Come.

Lemon Jelly – Come

Lemon Jelly, just an awesome band. The blog title this time comes from one of their songs… sort of. Ten bucks to the first person who can tell me which song and where it comes from.  Oh, and if you’re familiar with that Friskies commercial where the grey tabby is playing in an animated world with butterflies and such, that’s Lemon Jelly’s “Spacewalk” playing in the background.

I’m not sure why, but I’ve been watching these bleak “what if” shows lately. Life After People gave me a sad, humble, but then ultimately reassuring feeling about our small place in the universe. Apparently if all of mankind disappeared from the surface of the Earth, all traces of our civilization would pretty much be gone after 10,000 years.

<Beginning of political spouting off> (end will be marked similarly)

What If: the Oil Runs Out made me wish I’d bought a hybrid as soon as they came out; and that everyone else did too. The dramatizations were a bit over the top with everyone driving Yukons, Suburbans or some other huge fucking SUV, but the point was made. “(If we don’t develop some alternative means of getting our energy) then we’re gonna have a ‘bullies get in line first’.  And ‘bullies get in line first’ develops into fist fights and fist fights become wars.”

Energy War examined how nations like Russia, Iran and Venezuela use their oil as a political weapon to advance their own agendas. Thomas Friedman, author of “The World Is Flat“, asks, “Is it just an accident that when the price of oil was $20 to $30 a barrel, Iran was calling for a dialog of civilizations and when oil hit $70 a barrel, Iran was calling for the destruction of Israel?” He also went on to plot the price of oil and the pace of freedom as determined by the Freedom House Index of freedoms. He found that the two had an inverse correlation in countries that had large oil reserves and weak governmental institutions or authoritarian governments. Russia, Iran and Venezuela to be specific. Petro Authoritarianism if you will. It went on to talk about India and China entering the world market and the impact that would have.

So here’s the deal folks, Alternative Energy is no longer a fight as to whether or not we can afford to drive our SUVs and enjoy a comfortable way of life that cheap energy provides. But rather, will our energy demands force us to kowtow to the regimes using oil as a political tool or will we fight to be energy independent? Solar, wind, biomass, geothermal, hydrogen, renewable. That is where our hope for the future is, not in fossil fuels. If the reality that oil reserves are finite resources doesn’t persuade you, the fact that authoritarian leaders are in charge of most of the oil in the world should. How do you think our politics with the middle east would differ if oil wasn’t an issue? Do you think it would be easier to convince Chavez in Venezuela to educate his populace if we didn’t have to buy oil from him? Would it be easier to convince Iran and Saudi Arabia to grant freedoms to women if we didn’t have to buy oil from them? Would we be worried about green house gases as much if oil wasn’t the primary driving force behind so much or our economy?

<End of political spouting off>

Yesterday we set a record high in Denver of 74 degrees. My cute blond neighbor was out washing her Honda in shorts, something I would like to encourage her to keep doing . Today, I’ve got 3 1/2″ of snow on my deck. CDOT is worried about the freezing and thawing not just causing potholes, but lots more boulders falling off mountains on to the roads here. Wow, hadn’t considered *THAT* when I moved out here . And it’s been an exciting avalanche season here as well. Don’t worry though Mom, I’ve only gotten out once this year and haven’t been anywhere near being out of bounds.

Is anybody else in the midst of the winter doldrums like me? I’m getting things done, but just seem sluggish lately. One of the things I was able to get done is frame a huge picture of Chicago I’ve had sitting around my living room for a while. I printed it out on our plotter at work on this big ass roll of glossy stock photo paper. It’s a nice shot of the Chicago river at night and it’s finally hanging over my fireplace. Almost every picture I have on my walls downstairs now is either a picture I’ve taken or one someone I know has taken.

I’ve also been honing my oven roasting skills. After a few phone calls to Mom, I decided to give it a whirl with a pork loin I’d bought. The result is the picture to the left. Those green things on either side of the plate are broccoli stalks that I roasted along with the pork loin. I don’t want to hear about how weird they look or why I have them there or whatever. I made a broccoli salad earlier in the week and had them left over. If I’d had a batch of carrots, celery and potatoes left over, I would’ve used those instead. And yes, the broccoli was delicious . Had leftovers for a week. I’ve got to get out and about more so there are better pictures for this blog .

On a final note, congratulations to Jon and Paola Kindred on their new arrival, Dane Garvis Kindred who was born November 6th  weighing in at 9 lbs, 9 oz and 22″. Yeah, I know, November 6th doesn’t seem like a “new” arrival to me either, but blame Jon for that.  I’m sure Dane is no longer 9 lbs or 22″ any more.  Hell, he’s probably taken the LSATs by now. In any case, join me in wishing them well. (love you guys )

         – G