It is a fact universally acknowledged that any retail space left vacant for a sufficient length of time must be in want of a seasonal discount store. Where the co-op used to be, there bloomed the Boulder Democratic Headquarters last year. Where Ross used to be in Diagonal Plaza before it moved down to Walnut, there blossoms the annual (or biannual, or perennial) Sniagrab (”Bargains Spelled Backwards!”).

And in the former downtown location of Borders Books, we’ve got Spirit.

Spirit at the old Borders

Notice the “Cafe Espresso” sign still on the wall. I’d make a Hamletonian lament along the lines of “funeral meats not yet cold,” except, of course, they are. They are so cold. And they’ve been reheated by the warm summer sun. And the flies and crows have long since had their way with them. They are compost.

Not to be outdone, Halloween USA has taken over the ex-Circuit City.

Halloween USA at the old Circuit City

This has been your official warning that, yo, Halloween is coming. Get ready, y’all.

Squee #1 – Amtrak are considering reviving the Pioneer line which used to run between Denver and Seattle (discontinued 1997). Imagine that – Denver Union Station actually serving more than one long distance train route! Wouldn’t that be something? Just four years ago, I heard no common knowledge beyond “Rail travel is dying, enjoy it while you can.” I get wistful looking at those signs in the Union Station tunnel naming and dating all the routes that are no more. The idea of any Amtrak route being raised from the dead fills me with more delight than I can adequately express. And that the route under consideration serves the Denver area? Squee indeed!

Squee #2 – Boulder City Council are urging Amtrak officials to alter that old line a bit. The Pioneer used to run through Greeley, but considering all the local support surrounding FasTracks and the much-anticipated Boulder Transit Village, they suggest the revived Pioneer run instead through Boulder. Direct rail travel from Boulder to Seattle? OMGWTFBBQ!!!1!1!1!!!eleven!

I done saw it in the Daily Camera (also in the Colorado Daily, for more detail, via Twitter feed AmtrakNews) where the sole commenter as of this moment is voicing support for the reinstated line but not for “regular Amtrak trains through Boulder.” I’m not quite sure why. Do they fear the noise and congestion of 20 TRAINS DAY, I SAID TWENTY MILLION TRAINS A DAY, SINGING A BAR OF ALICE’S RESTAURANT– Dude, chill. You got any reason to expect the Pioneer will run more often than the California Zephyr, which is to say once a day in either direction? You think that’ll add any significant hullabaloo to the existing freight traffic that passes daily through town on the BNSF? Or maybe they worry that Boulder will suddenly host a super big amount of car traffic as the new Amtrak Mecca? I am confused. Enlighten me.

As for me, I totally support an Amtrak stop in Boulder. Do you? Squee here! Don’t you? Explain!

2/20: updated with link to someone who has some experience with Boulder High and race: Alexis Gentry hit this one pretty well on the head.  Read the whole thing.

My issue with this has little to do with Obama and more to do with the blatant hypocrisy exhibited by naming a school where racism, discrimination, and segregation are not only allowed, but enforced by the staff and administration.

To understand why I am so upset about this, you need to know my back story. As a bi-racial student at BHS from 1999-2002, I have first-hand experience with some of Boulder’s infamous hypocritical behavior.

2/12: updated: Students pull plan…

9News reports that Boulder High School students say it’s time for a “Barack Obama High School”.

Well, you have to give them props for going right along with the whole “Yes We Can” motif that has swept the country coast to coast and threatens to drown the rest of us in an overdose of Hope and Change.

All right, maybe that was a little snippy, but I’m just going to come out and say it. This Obama worship that seems to be breaking loose from the far and near corners is a more than a little creepy and embarrassing. In the United States it feels like we’ve suddenly given up hope in ourselves and placed it in the hands of one man. People, he’s the President. He’s not the guy who is going to save America single handily. This whole crisis is not just one guys fault. There’s plenty of blame to go around and Former President Bush is not the only one to put on a pike and dance around gleefully.

Although I suspect some would gleefully suggest such a thing.

(more…)

Regulars and residents of Boulder’s Steel Yards neighborhood have been eagerly watching the developments in the restaurant space next-door to fave coffee house Joe’s Espresso. The space last housed Kerrigan’s, a sort of local Bennigan’s sort of place: Celtic knotwork on the tables, mostly American food on the menu. Before that it was LuLu’s, a soul food establishment that reopened briefly on the Hill before succumbing once more, I suppose, to local disinterest in stewed greens and damn fine catfish. Kerrigan’s shut down in… 2006? Early 2007? …leaving the restaurant space empty since. A lock box showed up on the door, and the windows got all papered over.

Then, some months ago, obvious signs of interior renovation in action. The sounds of saws and hammers filtered through the wall to disturb coffee-sipping patrons next door.

A sign went up on the 30th Street side of the building: ELEPHANT HUT THAI CUISINE. In the window, an LED sign: CLOSED, it said. For now.

Soon afterwards, a liquor license hearing notification appeared in the window. The hearing date came and went. The notice came down. Around the east side, on the entrance facing the parking lot, hours had been posted: Lunch 11-3, Dinner 5-9 Mon-Thu and 5-10 Fri/Sat. Closed Sunday.

Wi-fi obsessed patrons at Joe’s – OK, well, that would be me – noticed a new WPA2-encrypted network in the area. So there I am, still blinking at the word “ElephantHut” in my Wireless Networks dialogue box, when a man walks into the cafe and playfully demands of the barista, “Where’s my pad thai? When do I get my pad thai, dangit?” Dude, I sympathize. I’m not even a fan of Thai food, and I want to know when I can get my pad thai. These incremental changes are like watching a slow-reveal movie hype campaign. They’re like opening the little doors on an Advent calendar. Dude.

This past weekend revealed a new development. My husband and I are walking home from the 29th Street Mall, and we notice something green up ahead on the sidewalk. We get closer and discover these plastic “hedge” blocks set out in a rectangle, surrounding an area of chairs and tables.

That was Sunday; today the furniture are gone, but the “hedge” blocks are still there, some of them tumbled over. I’m figuring that one doesn’t set up outdoor furnishings that aren’t chained up or nailed down without having prompt follow-up intentions.

The indoors entrance door, the one near the restrooms, is no longer papered over, so you can see the interior decor. It’s pretty, in a gaudy bamboo-orchid-and-altar-figures sort of way. It makes for an interesting effect in combination with the Steel Yards warehouse-with-exposed-ducts-and-girders look.

Sir, I believe our pad thai is imminent. Stay tuned for further developments

Bartender: “You want a beer? What kind of beer?”

Patron: “…”

Bartender: “How about a delicious Hoppy Boy?”

Patron: “Is it delicious and nutritious?”

Bartender: “It is extremely nutritious.”

Patron: “…because I have to have some guarantee, here.”

(The Twisted Pine Tap Room is at Walnut Street and 32nd in Boulder. 3-8PM Mon-Fri, 12-6PM Sat and maybe Sundays during football season–call ahead. $3.75 pints, $2.75 3-5PM happy hour, $2.00 for the ladies on Wednesday. Free wi-fi. Wii on the plasma screen tv. Comfy cushioned rolley-chairs. Hoardes of large, tail-wagging dogs, some of which sit at the bar. Come on down. I recommend the espresso stout.)

It used to be Cafe Boba, named for the tapioca beads patrons happily slurped up through the extra-wide straws through which they enjoyed their “pearl teas.”

Then it was Cafe Bravo, a wi-fi hot-spot serving fair trade coffee along with the pearl teas. Their couches would eat you alive and maybe spit you out again after a 50-year nap.

Then it was Bliss, taking its name from the local organic ice cream added to the menu. The couches went away, but lavender-honey ice cream more than made up for that.

Now? It’s the Purl Knit Cafe.

It’s still got Bliss ice cream, fair trade coffee, chocolate tidbits in the cooler, soups, Udi sandwiches, pearl “purl”* tea… but now it also has yarn. Lots and lots of high-end yarn. Sock yarn and sport yarn and bulky weight, oh my. Stuff you will not find anywhere else in Boulder (a conscious effort on the part of the founder to avoid stealing business from Shuttles Spindles & Skeins, according to the above-linked Daily Camera article). There’s a ball winder in the corner by the cash register so they can roll up the loose skeins. Also, there’s a spin-tree display of every size or style of knitting needle you could possibly want. And we’re not talking a Jo Ann’s size selection of nasty aluminum spikes. We’re talking a full spectrum of Crystal Palace bamboo double-pointers and Addi-turbo circulars.

*(It’s a knitting pun. Geddit?)

They’ve still got wi-fi, too. Wi-fi that even my husband’s Windows Vista laptop will consent to connect to. If you’ve got a Windows Vista laptop and have ever tried to reach the Internets at the Boulder IHOP, you know what I’m talking about. (And if you have and you don’t, email me. I wanna know how you’ve got that machine set up. The Vista wi-fi problem is driving my husband up the wall. It severely limits the places he and I can go out for coffee, tea, and Puzzle Pirates.)

Squee! Wi-fi and caffeinated beverages and knitting. If it weren’t for closing hours, I might never go home.

So I’m here on a Wednesday night because that’s when the knit-in happens. I’ve bought a couple skeins of Lana Grossa’s “Cambio” in bright orange, I’ve pulled out a set of #2 dps, I’ve had a bowl of the chicken tomatillo tortilla soup, and I’m ready to cast on.

[Pearl Knit Cafe in the Water Street Plaza, 2425 Canyon, between 28th and Folsom. Summer hours: 8 AM - 7 PM M-Th, 8 AM - 9 PM Fri, 9 AM to 9 PM Sat, 10 AM - 6 PM Sun. Wednesdays feature an after-hours knit-in. Stop by cafe for knitting class shcedule.]

It is with great sadness, and a sinking suspicion that I am not the first on the scene with the news, that I announce the passing of Cafe Play from the Hill.

Cafe Play was an excellent idea. To my knowledge it was Boulder’s only true LAN Cafe – there were computer stations you could rent time on to play World of Warcraft with your buddies – and it was certainly the only place you could rent time on a Wii, a Playstation, or an Xbox, and while away several hours playing the games of your choice on huge plasma-screen TVs. And of course it had wi-fi. The space was huge and comfortable, full of deep leather couches as well as office-style desks, and its walls featured the work of local artists. Plus there was live music on the patio all the time. Also coffee, tea, soda, Udi’s sandwiches, and at one time Global Chili offerings. And it was open laaaaate.

It was where I went when my own cable internet was on the blink. It was where I encouraged fellow Boulder NaNoWriMo participants to meet up for write-ins. And now it is gone, and I am a sad puppy.

Cafe Play, you will be missed.

(Oh, by the way, Lulu’s on the Hill is gone too. Has been since something like a month or two after their grand opening. It’s Album’s Bistro again, which is great for aficionados of Album’s, but not so great if you really liked Lulu’s. For what it’s worth, the first space they were in – the restaurant outlet in Steelyards – seems to be still available. Hint. Hint.)

It’s almost time for the Fresh Produce sale, the one annual sale I try not to miss.  I’ve only been to the Boulder sales that are usually held in a large unoccupied office complex or warehouse setting but this one is going to be at FlatIron Mall in Broomfield.   If you’re willing to plow through tables full of tops and shorts and strip down in a common dressing room full of women of all shapes and sizes, you can get some great bargains on their normally pricey clothes.    Details:  2 weekends! May 16 – 18 and May 23 – 26Friday and Saturday, 10am-9pm Sunday (and Monday, Memorial Day) 11am-6pmThe Village at FlatIron Crossing Mall Off Hwy. 36 just west of Superior One West Flatiron Circle Broomfield, CO 80021 Located In the Village between Crate and Barrel and AMC Theatres 

Hi, y’all. Nicole here, Denver Metblog’s Boulder-area correspondent, specializing in all things aviation. Just got back from performing touch-n-gos in Longmont and Boulder. It was a gorgeous day for it, as I shall demonstrate photographically:

You just never know, right? Sunny on Saturday, snow on Monday, and in between a Sunday forecasting 40% chance of thunderstorms. What do you do? You put yourself on the airplane schedule and you hope. And sometimes you get lucky: sun shines, ice melts, wind remains obligingly below 10 knots and refrains from gusting. Knock on wood.

So. Welcome to the Boulder Municipal Airport. Pretty, huh? You know you wanna come visit. In fact–get your calendars out–a great day to visit would be May 10th, when Journeys Aviation will host an open house at the Executive Terminal. They got a barbecue grill, and they know how to use it. Also wi-fi and deep comfy couches. Save the date!

My latest project has been to get Journeys Aviation to trust me with their Cessna 152, so I’ve been flying in it with one of their instructors. Cessna 152s are just like 172s, except they’re much smaller. You will be hip-to-hip with your instructor, and you will have to be OK with that. But you will be able to reach the rudder and brake pedals, guaranteed. Also? Slower. Much, much slower. “Are we at pattern altitude yet? Are we? How about now?” Yeah.

Anyway, it was a successful outing. I’m all signed off and in good shape to recommence with bringing you the aerial photography, which I know you’ve just been missing <em>terribly.</em>