Some of my favorite things… (sing to the sound of music song… ok you have it in your head? good, now it’s stuck!)

I have met some fabulous shop keepers and entrepreneurs located here in Denver, attempting to make a living hocking their wares! And I also found a cool list on 5280 of some others that I will have to try out!

If you want to keep the money local and help out some really cool products check these out!

Recycle Fashionably – home grown yoga bags. These ladies came up with this idea from years of hippy living for one and living with stinky bickram yoga clothes for the other! The have multiple sized yoga bags – fully lined – wait did you get that part? Fully lined to keep that sweat and whatever from getting all over everything else! And you can machine wash them! Woot! They also have some fabulous grocery bags – again fully lined! Check these products out – they do their job wonderfully and help save the environment!

Silverplume Sundries – I found this little lovely while chatting with a co-worker about hand crafted items. Low and behold, she and friend have this awesome lotion business.
All natural, great smells and the stuff works!!! I love the body butter in rose – OMG amazing! I used it after i shave and i’m smooth and moisturised all day long! The under arm stuff works! No stink! Promise! I can attest! The rest of the offering are all fabulous and they make an amazing gift. One other cool thing about their foot balm – it can be used on radiation burns. And it works. If you know someone going thru chemo and they aren’t able to get anything to heal their burns – try this magical wonder!

Callies Barkery – This woman is another transplant from the East Coast (kinda like me, but i got here via Cali…). I love her and her treats! She hand bakes all these treats with love for the animals in your life that you love! My dogs love all the choices! We stick with the breakfast scones mostly. They keep the stinkies at bay! Tons of flavors and choices! And baskets for gifting! Give your animal some love this christmas!

Women’s Bean Project – this product and project i am not as intimate with as the rest of my favorite shops, but I love the premise behind this. These women need your help. They make these items to sell to help them break the cycle of poverty. How amazingly awesome is that? I left the merchandise mart sale put on by the Junior League with an armful of their products this year!

Sometime in October is “Spinning and Weaving Week,” but I’m not clear on which week it is, because, according to my favorite Boulder-area crafty shop, “We think Spinning and Weaving Week is so important that we are expanding it to Spinning and Weaving Month.” So, hooray! The entirety of October is dedicated to taking fluff and turning it into useful things!

Today on the Pearl Street Mall a demonstration of this was held. Regulars at Shuttles were encouraged to bring their spinning wheels, drop spindles, and looms, and create both yarn and cloth right there, in front of God and everybody. And it was quite the hit! As you know (Bob), Sunday afternoons on the Mall are popular among families with small children. And gadgets that Do Neat Stuff are popular with children, thus:

Most of my friends are either fiber addicts themselves or are familiar with the processes of spinning, weaving, and knitting. So I tend to forget that, to most people in modern US urban society, the act of making yarn without benefit of industrial machinery is magic. (See also butter, the making of.) It has been posited that sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic; I’d suggest that a sufficiently neglected technology is, too. So if you go stand out in front of the court house with a hunk of fiber in one hand and a drop spindle hanging off the other, patiently twisting that fiber into yarn, you’re going to get people watching, staring, and asking questions. Which is cool, because that means more people come away knowing about hand-spinning.

If you’re interested, and you’re anywhere near Boulder, you should totally take a class at Shuttles Spindles Skeins. If you want to teach yourself spinning from a book, Shuttles’ own Maggie Casey has written the excellent Start Spinning. You can also take a tour of the Schacht factory and see how they make spinning wheels, drop spindles, and looms (and, oddly enough, bicycle accessories).

Yeah, it’s a bit old news, but it didn’t make the print edition of the Met this week, so I thought I’d let you fine folks read it.
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Rachel is a reasonably normal senior at Metro State. The first Monday of the Democratic National Convention, however, she became a detainee of the Denver Police Department during a demonstration that began at Civic Center park and ended up on 15th Street. The Met sat down with her and found out what she had to say about the experience.

“We started organizing at 6,” she said, “and someone started walking towards the front of Civic Center. I was in the back, so I really don’t know what their intent was, but it was this massive group of people, and they all started linking arms and started marching towards the street, and then they got sprayed.”

“Then somebody said “Go to the other side of the park”, and that’s when we started running down 15th.”

Rachel and the protestors that surrounded her were soon enveloped by Denver Police officers in full riot gear. “As time went on, more cops started to show up until it was a wall of cops. They wouldn’t let anybody go, we kept asking them to let us go.” She told The Met. “We sat down, the cops were really just standing there. We definitely thought they were going to take us one by one as long as the night went on.”

Soon after, a member of Recreate ‘68 negotiated for their release, and Rachel and the rest of the protestors were marched to freedom through a narrow corridor of heavily-clad riot police. There were a few exceptions, though. “I only saw one kid get cuffed, and they were definitely spraying people with mace, and at the very end, they arrested some of the medics.” The Denver paramedics who were on scene refrained from treating the protestors who had been maced, leaving street medics from various groups who were among the detained to tend to the demonstrators.

Rachel and her comrades are released by Denver PD.

When asked about the conduct of the various police agencies on the scene, she told us “I feel like it was a little much, it was a just a bunch of anarchist kids. I mean, their idea is to spread chaos, but they didn’t want to hurt anybody.”

Tonight I went to check out “A Taste of Colorado” and had a blast. A wise veteran of the event advised us to go for the tastes, not the meals, and wise advice this was indeed.

While not claiming to be wise, and only a 1-night veteran, here is my advice: go with a friend, and each throw in $5, then split all the foods along the way. This way, I got to try Saag Paneer, pepper steak, BBQ Pork, regular pork, bacon wrapped stuffed jalepeños, mango gelati, raspberry gelati, fried plantains, and more. Check it out- it still runs on Monday.

As I’m right out of college, I’m a fan of 24 hour places. Late night diners, that kind of thing. But evidently, Denver isn’t the city that never sleeps.

So a couple nights ago, some friends and I wanted to go out around 11:30 pm, but weren’t sure what would be available. A friend who has lived here his whole life took us to a 24 hour Starbucks, next to a Barnes and Noble on Colorado. Now, normally I’m not a fan of Starbucks, but this one was pretty cool. The tables inside and out were packed with all kinds of people, drinking coffee and enjoying the cool night air. The atmosphere is amazing- I’m sure I heard 3 or 4 languages besides English being spoken.

So check it out, if you’re up late and wanting some coffee.

I’ve been here less than a week, and the toughest thing (besides finding gainful employment) has been learning to navigate the city.

I’ve spent the last several months scouring Google Maps, trying to figure out where I was, where Public Transportation is, etc., but of course it’s easier to figure out when you’re actually there. Now, I’m the kind of person who likes rhyme and reason- I love finding patterns to things.

So I was thrilled to find that N-S streets go in alphabetical order. Not so helpful since it repeats, but it’s still a nice little hint to have picked up.

Two questions remain unanswered, however:

1. What is the order of the state street names?
2. What is going on with LoDo? Why is it on an angle?

Are there any other sweet patterns that will help getting around this city?

I have arrived in Denver. I have been blogging about the process of moving here, and now the day has finally come. I pulled into Denver after 14 hours on the road yesterday and looked to see the mountains. It was too cloudy and dark, so it didn’t happen. I didn’t actually believe this “myth” about mountains here until I saw them this morning, finally. After driving through the flatlands of Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska and Eastern CO, I was convinced that the old wisdom was right, and that the world is indeed flat.

I started the move into the house today- no beds yet, no washer and dryer yet, no food until I ventured into Lakewood and found a King Sooper and a Whole Foods. I took a walk through a local park and the neighborhood association was having a picnic. Are bagpipers standard at picnics here, or was this an oddity?

So now I start looking for work a little more aggressively, as well as do all the little things that need to happen: get internet at the house, get a library card, find beds, learn how to navigate the lightrail and the bus system. I’m excited!

Finding out about the DNC’s plans for providing a central location for bloggers and citizen journalists to access the convention activities was pretty exciting. (Although there is also a sneaky, little voice of negativity in the back of my mind and it keeps making snide comments that this has an element of “controlling” the coverage.)

Reading that the Big Tent will also include events for the public, including speakers, panels, workshops, and so on really added to my excitement.

Trying to find a list of these events on the DNC web site merely created a major sense of frustration.

Despite my frustration (and that inner voice), I’m still pretty psyched about this. The 2008 convention is not the first to allow some sort of access for bloggers, but this move to create an actual space dedicated to a wider range of journalists in the form of the Big Tent seems pretty significant; it is just one more step toward legitimizing citizen journalists and recognizing their contribution to information flow.

I, however, am not one of these bloggers or citizen journalists who will gain official access, which leaves me in the realm of “the public,” so if anyone knows where to find a list of the public events at the Big Tent that are supposed to occur at the Digg Stage – please share.

So apparently I’m not the only one noticing that Burger King has joined the anti-photography crusade. Another blogger, Jenn Shuey, was taken aback by the sticker and decided to investigate…

I knocked on the window until I got the guy to come back, then I asked for an explanation. He claims it’s because cameras distract the employees causing it to take longer to complete their jobs.

Bullshit.

I concur. I’m rather more fond of some of the other guesses this blogger has come up with, especially the one concerning Dateline’s Dirty Dining segment, in which “Burger King was rated the dirtiest chain after hidden cameras visited the chain among many others.”

(Remember the U.S. Armed Forces’ initial response to the Abu Grhaib torture scandel? Not to punish those responsible, but to ban cameras? Because torturing wasn’t the real crime, to them; witnessing torture was.)

It gets worse. The children’s party angle? Five-year-olds wearing cardboard Burger King crowns and thier parents unable, because of this stupid rule, to take pictures for the family scrapbook? Shuey brought this up:

When I asked the guy about it he said “if you want to have a party contact our manager. We may be able to arrange for a professional photographer.”

Yyyyeah. You just might. And you just might get a nice kickback from that pro photographer, mightn’t you, since your policy guarantees them a lot of business?

One of the people commenting on my previous piece scolded me for bringing it up at all:

Seriously, who cares? As a business they have a right to deny service. Plus, this isn’t a new thing. Grocery stores and Malls have had this rule for YEARS, way before 9/11. They basically don’t want someone coming in and stealing marketing ideas. Fast food chains pay a lot of money to a lot of people to figure out the best method for laying out their stores, product placement, etc, etc. I can see a lot of reasons why they would ask people not to take pictures in side their store.

If you don’t like it, don’t go *shrug*

You know what? Apathy and cynicism aren’t good substitutes for wisdom. (Besides, if your stance is “Who cares?” then why do you bother leaving blog comments about it? Why don’t you just leave the conversation to those who do care? Do you think your “who cares” stance makes you superior, and you want to show off how superior you are? Do you have a vested interest in attempting to sneer others into silence?)

Obviously some people think it makes them more enlightened, more mature, to roll over and say “I for one welcome our new anti-camera overlords.” Do enjoy that smug little warm fuzzy, folks. But me, I’m not only going to avoid any store or market vendor with a “no photo” policy, I’m in favor of telling others about it so they can make informed decisions.

Jenn Shuey did me one better. She took her complaint up the chain of command:

After my little rant Friday about Burger King I decided to do something about it. I called their customer relations department for answers. The customer service rep I spoke with was very nice, and her reaction to the stickers saying no cameras was one of shock. She honestly didn’t know what I was talking about and thought it was absurd. She immediately put me on hold and started trying to contact someone who could give her an answer as to why there is this no camera policy now.

Apparently, this customer service rep thought it was the stupidest policy she’d ever heard of. She couldn’t get immediate answers, but took down Shuey’s complaint–along with the list of other bloggers’ reports Shuey had collected (including mine).

Two days later, Shuey discovered her local BK had removed the sticker.

The manager just happened to be running the window, so I asked him about it. I made mention that I’d seen the sign a few days ago, and he said “yeah, we took it down because we’re having too many complaints. We had 2 birthday parties canceled because the parent’s couldn’t take photos of the party.”

(I don’t know whether the Gunbarrell location has followed suit, as I haven’t been up there since. Would anyone up in the area like to report?)

I think it’s important to challenge these “no photo” rules wherever we find them. Increasingly, amateur photography is becoming our primary method of holding accountable corporations, police forces, and other organizations, including local and federal government bodies. To treat photographers like criminals is to seriously disempower us laypeople. (Do watch the Dateline segment – Shuey has the video embedded at her first blog post on the matter.) So It’s important to not only refuse to patronize businesses that don’t want their business practices caught on tape, but also to let them know why you are no longer giving them your money. Ask them what they’re ashamed of, that they don’t want any witnesses.

And spread the word! The only way that this free market/democracy ideal works is when consumers/citizens can make informed decisions about who to patronize, who to support, and who to vote for. If a business has a policy that you think is unethical, tell your friends about it–tell them about the policy and why you think it’s unethical. Give them the power to make a conscious decision about what policies they will support.

In closing: “Who cares?” makes a shitty rallying cry. “Change for the better!” has a much nicer ring to it. Just ask Jenn Shuey.

Well, after about 3 months of scouring the rental market from afar, I have found a home!

It’s in south central Denver, not too far from downtown, close to bike paths and public transportation. I’ve been doing the whole Google Earth Streetview exploration of my neighborhood, and am happy to see a good variety of locally owned, family run, ethnic stores pretty close.

I also found that Google Maps now gives walking directions and times. I’m only an hour and 24 minute walk from downtown, so I’m guessing 30 minutes or less by bike. (Oddly enough, Google couldn’t calculate the time to walk from Ohio to Denver, the route I will be taking in just a few weeks)

So what’s next? Well, I have to find furniture. I’m on Freecycle for that. I need to find a job, and have some leads on that. And then there’s the little stuff, like finding a bank (what works for you?), figuring out the public transportation, and am I really allowed to raise chickens in the city?