Saturday, April 28, 2007

News to make you smile

From FCT:
Washington Post article on beauty in art. Long, but worth the read. Be sure to have your speakers on for the video clips.
and the followup.

And Stephen Hawking gets to feel what it's like to be weightless!

By the way, Joshua Bell plays with the Colorado Symphony May 9. 7:30 p.m.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

It's not too early to start planning for Summerfest! June 28-July 8 in Milwaukee. Denver band The Fray headlines June 30, and the Denver trio Hot IQs play June 29 w/ Silversun Pickups and others on the emerging artist stage.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

The Little Ones on Daytrotter

Daytrotter has The Little Ones live, sounding all raw and like they know they're being recorded. Includes the unreleased "Gregory's Chant." Daytrotter rawks

Kofi Annan - and you are ...?

An oversold crowd at the University of Colorado (@ the Coors Events Center) heard Kofi Annan speak last night. For the meaty stuff, read the newspapers. I'll just share with you his funny opening anecdote:

After stepping down from his function as U.N. secretary general in December, Annan and his wife decided to take a three months' break to get some rest. "Very few people knew where we were. We did not have an appointment list," he said.

"We tried to re-enter society as ordinary individuals and walking around incognito. That wasn't always easy. We've been places ... where someone sitting across the two of us, raises his voice, 'I would've sworn you are Kofi Annan! You look really like him. I can't believe it!' And you feel like saying, 'it's my twin brother!' so you can keep your cover. But it is not always easy.
"But one of the wonderful moments we had, we were in Italy and we walked into a newspaper shop to get the paper. I saw a group of them looking at us, and one of them approached us and said, 'Now I know, I know who you are ... Morgan Freeman! May I have an autograph?' So I said, 'sure.' I signed K Freeman. He was happy, I was happy. Two Italian security fellows were looking at me from the distance told me 'we were also very happy. We have no work to do. You are not in town. Only Morgan Freeman is here!'"

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

The Little Ones

The Little Ones partied @ the Larimer Lounge like it was Tuesday night! Yeah! Not many people made it out on a school night, but for those of us who were there, I think we can all agree on two words: AWE-some! They bounced through a quick set of songs from the EP and new stuff, closing out with "Lovers Who Uncover." Denver was one of the few lucky cities that got to see The Little Ones live between SXSW and their next several dates overseas. Back in the day, when Ed and Ian were in Sunday's Best, they played at the wedding for one of the Denver indie scenesters whose music is still floating around. (The happy couple were at the show last night). Fun stuff.

Killfix and Nathan&Stephen opened. The cello has to be one of the most beautiful sounding instruments in the world. Matson Jones knows this. Killfix does too. They have the other stuff too: strong vocals and harmonies, drummer with active facial expressions, band member who looks like Jesus. But the cello...that's the best part.

Only got to see one song by Nathan and Stephen. But they have two more shows all within a month, including a show at the Hi-Dive in early May.

Monday, April 16, 2007

Crack me up

In case you haven't heard about the Wyoming egg at the White House ...

Each year, artists from across the country decorate eggs, one for each state, to go on display in D.C. Check out this Web site for all the eggs. You can see the lovely Montana egg, the detailed one from Texas. Then check out Wyoming. Which one of these things is not like the other??

For the AP's take, click here

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Doors Open Denver ... food ... space

Despite the snowstorm headed our way as we speak, the weather should be warmer this weekend, 4/14-15, for Doors Open Denver, where ordinary folk get to wander through architectural la-las that aren't always open to the public or free.


**Random tip. It's Earth Day April 22, and Whole Foods is celebrating all month. Bring a reusable shopping bag to take your groceries home and Whole Foods will take 15 percent off your order this month
**Shucks, apparently it's just 5 cents per bag
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The National Space Symposium was this week in Colorado Springs and blogs are going crazy. Robert Bigelow of Bigelow Aerospace outlined his company's business plan to offer private clients space vehicles beginning around 2012. For $14.95 million, under the plan, a "sovereign client" could get four weeks on Bigelow's space vehicles (including transportation! and training!). That would be cheaper than costs for getting on the International Space Station. Rather than go after space tourism or a business dependent on the Defense Department or NASA, Bigelow hopes to serve other countries (perhaps those without space modules of their own) and international corporations that want to do experiments.

Russia right now is selling seats on Soyuz for individuals rich enough to pay the $25 million. NASA doesn't do anything like that, due to restrictions on who can be on a shuttle after the Challenger disaster.

NASA administrator Mike Griffin's take on selling seats to space: "I say more power to them. That is the definition of capitalism. We claim to practice it. I don't have a problem with other people practicing it."

And Griffin on whether the International Space Station will remain supported past 2016: "I doubt it'll become a pumpkin in 2016"

And a joke from Air Force Chief of Staff Michael Moseley on situational awareness, paraphrased due to bad memory: Two college rivals -- say Texas and Texas A&M -- were driving on a road in opposite directions and came along a narrow bridge at the same time, colliding in bad weather. The Aggie got out, looked at the damage to both cars and was thankful to be alive and unhurt. His rival got out, saw the damage and also was thankful to be alive and unhurt. He went to his trunk and found an unopened bottle of Jack Daniels. "Hey, this is a sign. We should toast and forget about old differences," the rival said. He handed the bottle to the Aggie, who said cheers and drank about half before handing the rest back to his rival. "Your turn," the Aggie said. "No," the rival said. "I think I'll wait til after State Patrol gets here."

Monday, April 09, 2007

music news

Ben Lee's blog spills the beans on some backing vocalists for his upcoming album, with some short video clips.

As if the Little Ones weren't enough to get you to the Larimer Lounge on April 17, Nathan and Stephen are opening: nine people on stage at once, it's like Denver's own Arcade Fire

Grapevine has it some Denver bands are being rounded up to perform a Second Life concert with celebrity avatars showing up...stay tuned for more

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Pro athletes making snow angels

Of course, Colorado isn't the only one getting snow today. The AP has a great photo (click on the blue words) of some Seattle Mariners making snow angels at Jacobs Field in Cleveland and having a snowball fight.

April 8 in Denver



More snow for Colorado.

Also, a few nights ago I checked out the chocolate bread pudding and rice pudding at Luca D'Italia by pastry chef Angela Yeung. It was a chilly night, so the warm bread pudding with chocolate sauce hit the spot. (The bread pudding wasn't mine but I took some anyway from the person sitting across from me, ha!) The rice pudding was served with blood oranges and basil leaves sprinkled on top, an interesting combination. There were two ameretti on the side, (light, crispy, sugary) were addictive! The crostada with ginger gelato is still on the menu, but it's pear instead of apple. I might try that next time.

The people one table over from us were excited to eat dinner at Luca D'Italia and were talking about trying Fruition, but they heard it was hard to get a table. Then they were talking about Sushi Hai, but I think Sushi Sasa is the hot new place to try.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007