Last weekend I enjoyed the first weekend of Denver Art Week (#denverartweek). I went to the Zoo and watched the Elephants paint pictures!!!
Yes – Paint Pictures!!  How cool is that??!!

The handlers – brought the elephants into the main inside area, they went through some of the basic stuff – checking feet, teeth etc. It was super cool that they could balance on their left feet and raise their right feet – wow! Amazing balance!

Once they finished that, the main show started! Each elephant got to paint some of the painting. The finished product was definitely interesting!!

Once the new area for the Pachyderms is finished this paintings will be hung on the outside of their building! They get to decorate their own house! Yeah!!

I ventured out of downtown to experience the joy that is They Might Be Giants!

I’ve never been to concert in Denver since I moved here – how can that be? With such great venues and awesome talent coming through all the time?
I have no answer for you, but I have promoted the husband to the LMC – Live Music Coordinator for the family.

The show was awesome! Really how could They Might Be Giants not rock the house right? Everyone knows the songs, it makes everyone happy and everyone bounces!
I read up on the venue on Yelp and determine we needed to get there pretty much at Doors Open if we wanted front row, that we needed to park on Acoma – free after 6!, and that we should dine at Moe’s.

The timing was excellent – we got front row in the Balcony – i’m working my way up to being an oldster – so being body to body and standing for 4 hours is waaay past my threshold! The view from anywhere in the Gothic is amazing. I could see everything!

The cocktail waitress (is that description any more??) was on her game and right as we were debating who got to climb the stairs to the bar she arrived! Sweet!

This was a 16+ show. 16, really? That’s weird. Yet we still saw at least 3 gentleman toting around 1-3 children each. Really? By children i mean under 10. Really, children, at a grownup venue, on a school night, at a show that doesn’t really get going till 8:30 or 9pm? People really are stupid.

The venue did get a bit warm near the end.
The sounds was great and the venue was awesome! I’ll be looking for more things to see here!

Parking was good except there was no quick way to cut back to our car – so after sweating to death at the top, I got quite chilled making our way back… I know, i am a princess!

As for Moe’s…  All i can say – don’t bother.

Can’t wait for the next time TMBG passes through, on their current trend that would be 2024….  Then I’ll really be an oldster!

When I heard there was a “Zombie Crawl” going on downtown, i knew i wanted to see it!
I knew i was too much of a chicken to partake, but figured i could go see what all the fuss was about!

There are some amazingly creative people that live around this fair city we have!
There were Pirate Zombies, A Tella Tubby Zombie, Babies dresses as zombies with finger parts in their bottles, there were a lot of brides – but only 1 michael. Really, just one?

There were the people that agreed to be chased by zombies – they had X’s on their backs

There were the zombie killers – a woodie harroldson lookalike, a storm trooper, and some other masked fighters.

And down the road a bit was the Robot Defense League headquarters!

There was a much smaller contingent of them – under 20 – vs the Zombie Crowd – i think one count was almost 4000! Way to go Danny Newman!

Definitely a good time was had by all!

Update

Due to the mahem caused by some of the participants poor Danny has now been fined for damage to 16th Street mall.

Donate to help fix it!

David Sedaris visits Denver,  to  a packed house at the Buell.

The stage was still set for Wicked, but he looked great under the giant dragon!

I last saw him years before out in Southern California – so I didn’t feel the need to pay the big bucks to see up his nose!

We were waaaay up in the balcony – 3 rows from the back! We could see pretty well, but of course the fun of “seeing” David Sedaris is to hear him read his stories.

He read a couple excerpts from his next book! We hope he calls it “Animal Stories” – you’ll have to wait and see when it comes out!

NPR – KUNC (did you know they do a 1 day donation drive? how cool is that)  and The Tattered Cover were there to support him and he supported them right back!Very cool!

His suggested reading this time around was “Our Dumb World”

It sounded hysterical and I think at least one person might be getting if for christmas this year!

He also suggested a weird recommendation for TV or internet viewing was a show on BBC called The Specials – Sounded interesting…Weird, but interesting.

The crowd was well behaved, creepily well versed in Mr Sedaris’s life, family and habits, and just happy to have him in their midst! The hour and a half flew by and we all moaned when he left the stage.

From September 18th through October 4th, the 3-dimensional art of Lesa Alison-Hastings will be on display at the Pirate: Contemporary Art Gallery at 3655 Navajo Street in Denver.

Pirate is one of the longest running galleries in Denver and will be celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2010.  Pirate can be described as “edgy,” and features contemporary art.  Ms. Hastings work will be showing with a local artist named BUG.

Opening reception: September 18, 6:00-10:00 PM.

Ms. Hastings started collaging when she needed a break from writing her thesis, and it later became a default creative outlet during periods of writer’s block.  She began doing both writing and collaging simultaneously, and eventually started merging language into the art.  For the most part she takes found objects, many of which are vintage or even antique, and combines unlike things to re-contextualize them into what she describes as a visual narrative.

She uses various papers, metal objects and scraps (many of which beg a current tetanus shot), woods, drawers, wax, and anything she can get her hands on and glue together.

Ms. Hastings is a Senior Account Manager for Page 1 Solutions, a website design and marketing firm specializing in Internet marketing for attorneys, dentists and doctors.

There are so many things to do this weekend, i don’t even know where to start!

First Friday –

it’s every first friday – but why not go since you have an extra day off this weekend?

Santa Fe, RINO and Golden Triangle – I love first friday! A bunch of people get together and look at some really cool art!

———————————————————————————-

The Taste of Colorado

So many restaurants, such good food, a wonderful time to spend an evening or a day!

—————————————————————————————————————————

Sniagrab -

going on

Ski REx -

Starts Saturday but has a VIP day today (Friday) – just sign up for their mailing list and you get a ticket to get in!

—————————————————————————————————————————

Cirque de Soleil

- many deals -

—————————————————————————————————————————

Flobots bowling

They are bowling for Charity this Friday!!! You could bowl with them!

Where will you be this weekend?

Want a good way to give back to give back, do something good for you and have fun all at the same time?

Again – another fun filled weekend!

So much to do, so little time!

Tonight at Barnum Park

—————————————————————————————-

Tomorrow Night
at Skyline Park

———————————————————————————

Saturday All Day:

Free Day of Museum of Art

———————————————————————–

Saturday Morning:

2009 Neighborhood Conference

Mayor John Hickenlooper and City leaders will host neighborhood and community organizations in a day of community-wide networking and neighborhood leadership training on Saturday, Aug. 1, at Coors Field. For more details, read the press release here.
Or get another take on what will be going down here

—————————————————————————-

Saturday Afternoon:

Verso Cellars

Sunday Afternoon:

Avery Brewing Company – Anniversary Party!

SIXTEEN years in business and its time to celebrate! Join us and the rest of Boulder at the brewery for this annual summer event.  As always, we'll have dozens of styles of your favorite Avery Brews, a BIG pig roast (with vegetarian options too), vertical tasting and bands all day long!  Make your plans now.  

Featuring the sounds of 6 great bands: 

Felonius Smith Trio
Acoustic Hotfoot
Lost Alamos
Cari Minor & Ray Smith
Chris and Bardusco of Meniskus
The Alltunators

Yesterday, Diane and I hiked to the top of the hill at Meyer Ranch Park Open Space in Aspen Park.  There are about four miles of trails to the top.  We went late in the afternoon after the rainstorm.  It was beautiful – and quiet.  We didn’t meet a single soul on the trail.  I think we may start hiking more in the late afternoons after a heavy rain.

Near the top there is an overlook with a bench that looks out over Aspen Park.  We both noted how much Aspen Park has grown since we first moved to the foothills over fifteen years ago.  In addition to Conifer High School, we saw the huge King Soopers complex, the rebuilt complex that used to house the drug store and City Market.  There are many other new buildings along the frontage road as well.  Not in view, but also there, is the new Conifer Safeway shopping center.

It is still beautiful though with great views of rock outcroppings and mountains easily visible from almost every vantage point.

If you haven’t already done so, check out the Evergreen Jazz Festival.  Today is the last day to experience some great jazz in the town of Evergreen, Colorado.  The annual Evergreen Jazz Festival started on Friday and goes through today.  You can see and hear Jazz at five locations – although the Little Bear only participated on Friday and Saturday.  The other locations include the Evergreen Lakehouse, the Elks Ballroom, the Elks Patio, and the Evergreen Christian Church.

The 2009 lineup features the Carl Sonny Leyland Trio, Festival Feetwarmers with Anita Thomas, After Midnight Jazz Band, Gypsy Swing Revue, Hot Tomatoes Dance Orchestra, Marty Eggers’ Ragtime Quartet, John Royen Trio, International Sextet, Joni Janak and Centerpiece Jazz with special guest Rich Chiaraluce, Celebration Jazz Band, Gremoli, and Colorado favorite Queen City Jazz Band with vocal great Wende Harston.

If you live in the foothills and are looking for something fun and different to do, check it out.  It is a good time and great music.