Tuesday, November 9, 2010

First Friday Arts: Tributes to a Happy Thursday

by Matt Hemmendinger

Tracy Kosinski’s black and white images of scantily clad cruiser riders lined the walls of prAna’s art space. The images were an appropriate selection for Boulder’s summer-like First Friday of November.

As part of the First Friday art walk, prAna opened their doors and partnered with Avery Brewing Co. to present two local artists’ appreciation of these bicycles common to Boulder.

“As a bike lover I can’t imagine anything more fun,” said attendee Paul Sampson. “I’ve taken part in the Golden cruiser ride and the Boulder ride looks just as fun or even better.”

See more of Tracy’s photography

“I appreciate that prAna makes the effort to put together events for the community,” attendee Lauren Seaton said. “. . . especially outside their specialty of retail clothing and fashion.”

Alongside Kosinski’s photography sat Del Kreiser’s re-purposed artwork.



“The chair is more comfortable than it looks, but the pillow was a little awkward because it forces you to sit in one spot,” Seaton said.

Kreiser works with old bicycles and any other materials he can find to craft unusual chairs and tables.

See Del’s latest creations

prAna wasn’t having all of the fun. Design Within Reach opened their doors to six local artists to raise money for the Boulder County Museum of Contemporary Arts.




For two hours, six painters frantically worked to created extremely different works as many observers looked on in admiration. William Bishop (left) and Clay Hawkley (right) were two of six artists to volunteer their time and skill.

Also participating in the fundraiser were William Stoehr, Amee Hinkley, Colleen Tully and Fernando Palomo.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Great American Beer Fest 2010: Putting Some Programmer/Journalist Skillz to Work


There are about 2,200 beers at the Great American Beer Festival.
From 488 breweries.
You have 3 days (2 for some of us) to try them, 1 ounce at a time...

Obviously that's more beer than a human can drink. So @dingaaar, @AdrienneSaia, @progjourno, and @jordanwb (that's me) picked out some favorites (and would be favorites) we're dying to try this weekend.

Behold, the birth of the GABF 2010 Beer Wish List.

To organize all this info (the beers we want to try, the breweries at GABF, and our ratings of the beers) I've been wrangling some Google Spreadsheets.

You can view them straight up via Google (this works best):
Or you can view them on our blog (doesn't look as nice, drat):
This is my first experiment with real-time data collection on the Android platform. (It might have been better to build an app for this, but hey, I just started this morning.) I hope I don't spill beer all over phone and destroy it...if that happens, there's always the old reliable pen and paper.

Happy imbibing.

Great American Beer Fest 2010: Beer Wish List

The list below is adapted from a Google spreadsheet of the breweries attending the GABF. We've added some additional information (links to the breweries, the particular beers we want to try, etc.). To sort for the beers on our Beer Wish List, click "Y" in the first drop down menu. (Complicated, I know. There's probably a way to implant this setting, but hey, I have to be drinking beer in a few short hours.) You can also sort by region, or any of the other column headings.

Cheers.


Great American Beer Fest 2010: Live Updates of Beer Ratings

Great American Beer Fest 2010: Beer Scorecard

Friday, April 16, 2010

Musical Sunsations in the Mountains



Apologies for the shameless plug, but we had fun! Copper Mountain's Sunsation festival rocked last weekend and the next promises to be even bigger. Of all of the end of the season festivities, Copper Mountain has recruited the widest variety of talented musicians to melt the snow and minds of everyone around.

Kicking off the festivities on Saturday was Passafire with some reggae rock jams. We enjoyed lunch, lunch beers and sunny seats on the patio. Great funky music played by a band from . . . no, not California. Any other guesses? How about Savannah, Georgia? Yes, Passafire, despite the style did not emerge from an earthship in Taos, NM, they are from the good ol' south.

They wrapped up and we headed out to sneak in a few more runs before the season ended. It was a toasty day which forgives the mushy tatters we had to ski on. The coverage was still solid, but with temps reaching 50 degrees, the snow quality just wasn't going to be there.

This weekend's snow doesn't promise to be any better, but then again we are now in the latter half of April. The forecast doesn't promise much in the way of new snow, but temperatures will be nice and high.


Rey Fresco serenaded what might have been our last runs of the year with just the music you would want for cruising blues on a warm afternoon.
After catching the last chair before the orange cone took a ride up, we caught up with Rey Fresco's set. While he was previously unknown, he will not be forgotten. We were two for two on the day with two yet to play.


Finally as the sun set, the show that brought everyone out took the stage. Free of any attire on their upper bodies that might have held them back, Pepper relished the mountain sun and paid many compliments to the local beer, the liberal laws and most especially, the altitude.


Pepper may have had more fun than the rest of the attendees. With new music fresh from the studio and all of the old classics, they were in prime form and went all out.


After seeing People Under the Stairs in Breckenridge later that night, we were left incapable of making it to Copper's Sunday shows featuring Lotus, The Expendables, and These United States.


This coming weekend promises to be just a good time at Copper. For the same low price of free-fidy, skiers can rock out with AC-DC cover band BC-DC, the reggae rhythms of Steel Pulse and then go crazy with Perpetual Groove. That's just Saturday's line up. On Copper's last day of the year they will host Los Lonely Boys, Pato Banton & The Now Generation, and The White Buffalo.

Many of the ski areas that are closing down feature similar free music. Vail has Wyclef Jean wrapping up their season. Lotus makes their way over Berthoud Pass to play Winter Park's last day of the season. Breckenridge closes down the endless lift lines with the Bravery.

Wolf Creek doesn't have music to offer, but is wrapping up the season with Locals Appreciation rates: $31 gets a ride to the top of some of the best powder stashes in the state. Keystone, Steamboat and Beaver Creek have already thrown in the towel, but resorts like Arapahoe Basin promise to keep the lifts running into June.

Go find a great end to a great ski season and enjoy some free tunes with your ride.

Monday, March 29, 2010

How to beat the post-spring break blues? Free food, of course!

Spring break is over [single tear]. But mother nature and CU have thrown you a bone in the form of beautiful weather and ample free food. Here are some of the best bets for this week:

First Descents Club CU Meeting
If free food isn't enough to get you out of the house, how about a Cosmo's 2008 bachelor of the year and an opportunity to do good in the great outdoors?

When? Monday, March 29, 7 pm
Where? UMC Room 415, CU Campus
What? Seriously, look at this guy. I hear his name is Brad Ludden. I also hear that, in addition to being deemed "sexy" by a popular ladymag, he also helps cancer survivors by taking them on kayaking trips and other adventures. I also hear that there will be free food at this organizational meeting.


Culture Sip: Afro-Brazilian Culture
What does Brazil taste like? I don't know, but I really want to find out...
When? Thursday, April 1, 2 pm
Where? Dennis Small Cultural Center, UMC Room 457, CU Campus
What? The CU Capoeira Angola Club will be performing (that's fighting + dancing + music, yo!) and serving up some Brazilian treats. Yum!



BONUS: Stealth Free Food Opportunity -- Aerospace Engineering Sciences - K.D. Wood Colloquium, "Design Assessment on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's 4th Anniversary at Mars," presentation by Jim Chapel of Lockheed Martin Space Systems"

There's no free food advertised, but this colloquium is at noon, and we all know that the aerospace engineering department has more money than the j-school...
When? Wednesday, March 31, 12 pm
Where? Bechtel Collaboratory, Discovery Learning Center, 1095 Regent Drive, CU Campus
What? The location alone is enough to peak my interest...there's really a room called a "collaboratory" at CU? Yes, there is. And in that room you can learn how one designs a satellite that collects imagery of Mars down to a 30 cm resolution. Keep your ears peeled for sexy keywords aerobraking and "orbit insertion".

For full details on these events, check the Get Smart Eat Free Google Calendar (see below):
Queer Women in Community, Monday, 6 pm, UMC Room 416
Passover Seder, Monday, 7 pm, UMC Room 235
UMC Intermission, Tuesday, 6 pm, UMC Dining Hall
Congressman Polis visits, Tuesday, 7 pm, UMC Room 235
"Who Does She Think She Is" at the Women's Resource Center Movie Night, Wednesday, 3 pm, UMC Room 416
"Tapped" (movie), Wednesday, 5:30 pm, Cristol Chemistry
Energy Frontiers, Thursday, 9:30 am to 6 pm, Discovery Learning Center (1095 Regent Drive)
RISE Symposium, Friday, 10 am to 3:00 pm, Old Main
International Student Coffee Hour, Friday, 4 pm, UMC Dining Hall