Listening to "Dear Prudence" on WPR's Throwback Thursday. Song from the Beatles White Album. Not sure if I bought the White Album but listened to it a thousand times. Many of the songs were in the movie "Across the Universe," a movie that tugged at the nostalgia that comes with the 1960s.
Beautiful morning here in the High Plains. Heard some good news yesterday. The Cheyenne Botanic Gardens Conservatory opens for business on June 2. Only the ground floor will be open. Each group gets an hour to tour so more people can visit. Not sure how we're supposed to time them. "All right, people. Scram. Your hour's up. Vamoose!" Still, it shows a slight return to normalcy. I've been in touch with the staff over the shutdown. Talked to Amelia to see if we could arrange an August literary reading at the Conservatory. Amelia said that she's not booking anything new for the summer. They are going to rent out rooms for paying customers but nothing new until fall. Rick Kempa of Rock Springs asked me to schedule a summer reading for his new book and mine. I will try the library.
Masked up yesterday and ventured out to Lowe's to buy some plants and replace a window screen. I got the plants but no screen. I did get my money back. I had to wait in line six feet behind the first customer. Two people behind me. My cart was filled with plants, herbs and a few veggies, and some potting soil. The clerk, not happy, gave me my money back and pointed out the aisle where I could find screens if there were any. There weren't. Did find some twine to make a trellis for my herb rack. Trying to do everything on the cheap in this pandemic year. I planted herb seeds in egg cartons and then into pots. But two weeks later and no sprouts. The egg carton approach does not work for me. The soil and the egg carton gets soggy and I think it damages the seeds. Anyway, as I dug up the transplants yesterday there were no seedlings there, nothing of anything. I replaced the nothing with something. I had requested the free seeds from the library seed bank and thought I would be growing my garden from scratch this year. The other day I did plant seeds for cukes, pea pods, and pole beans and am waiting for them to sprout. I have two growing racks on the back porch that get full morning and early afternoon sunshine. I'll be doing more transplanting today.
Local business are opening up. A new downtown craft brewery opened on Monday. Black Tooth Brewery's second location -- its first in downtown Sheridan. During my work travels I visited the Sheridan site and liked it. Sheridan has a neat downtown with lots of indie businesses. Great coffee shop that I frequented when I was at the Jentel Foundation writing a novel that I am now going to finish. The pandemic has been deadly for indie businesses and reviving downtowns. Trends for the last decade have been toward gathering places most located in downtowns that had seen better days and were trying to come back. Black Tooth is the fourth microbrewery in downtown Cheyenne. They've been closed since March 18 except for takeout and the brewing of hand sanitizer. Chronicles Distillery downtown made lots of hand sanitizer and I bought nine spray bottles since none could be found in the grocery stores. Chronicles donated most of their supply to health workers, hospitals and clinics. Then they started peddling the goods to the citizenry. I ordered online and then pulled up outside for the exchange of the goods. Other customers were ordering some of the locally brewed whiskey and vodka which is a whole different kind of sanitizing..
Chris, Annie and I will attend a concert and drive-in movie Saturday night at the Terry Bison Ranch. Tickets for each car were $25 and we registered online. Must stay in our cars which may be a challenge for those of us of a certain age who need to pee. Not sure how we will manage. Might have to leave mid-way through "Back to the Future."
It's ugly on the national scene. Our ugly president wants to reopen the economy no matter how many people it kills. 93,000-plus have died in the U.S., and there are probably many more that went uncounted. The U.S. leads the world in confirmed cases. There's been no direction from the federal government and that's a crime that Trump and the G.O.P. will have to answer for it at the ballot box. Trump is trying to prevent people from voting by mail but this is a state responsibility and not a federal one. Democratic Party-led states are having none of the president's blather and neither am I. I ordered a mail-in ballot and plan to use it. The better the turnout the more likely it is that we can get rid of the criminal element in D.C.
Chris, Annie and I continue to take safety precautions. Annie wears a mask during her shifts at Big Lots. Chris and I wear masks going out and if someone needs to come in the house.
Wyoming reports 11 deaths statewide with more than 500 confirmed cases. The worst hot spot is on the Wind River Reservation in Fremont County. The Navajo Nation in Arizona has more per capita cases than New York and New Jersey, the epicenters of the virus. Very sad. Minority communities in urban centers are being hit hard. All of this points out the many holes that exist in our slapdash health care system. And did I mention that the GOP-led feds are clueless in the face of a national emergency?
Showing posts with label beer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beer. Show all posts
Thursday, May 21, 2020
Saturday, June 24, 2017
What do the Mozambique and Fort Collins beer cultures have in common?
No surprise to find an exhibit about beer in the craft-brewing Nirvana of Fort Collins, Colo.
What is surprising is to find an art museum exploring beer making in Africa. The exhibit, "Crossing Communities: Beer Culture Across Africa," is up in the Griffin Foundation Gallery at the CSU Gregory Allicar Museum of Art through Sept. 23. The Griffin is in the new wing of the museum that opened last year.
I visited on a particularly hot afternoon in late June. Good day for a cold one. I didn't find that at the Allicar but I did find a fascinating exhibit of handmade beer-making equipment from Uganda, Cote d'Ivoire, Malawi and other African cultures.
Exhibit sponsor is Maxline Brewing, a newbie to FoCo, getting its name from its site along the Max Bus Line in Midtown. According to the exhibit catalog, Maxline joined the project in its early days. Brewery staff toured the exhibit, "examined the ceramic brewing pots and learned about traditional African brewing methods, rituals, and ceremonies." Maxline's brewer then went to work crafting a beer meant to imitate those traditional brews. The brew, named "Kulima" for the Swahili word for "cultivate," is made from millet, maize, barley, hops, gesho leaves, and grains of paradise. Maxline's Crowler label was designed by CSU's Liz Griffin.
The public-private partnership is music to the ears of this former arts administrator. A privately-endowed gallery at a publicly-funded land grant university teams up with an eager local start-up company to educate the public about a commodity -- beer -- and traditions of other cultures. The African ceramic vessels were donated to the museum's permanent collection by Robert F. Bina and Delores De Wilde Bina. An anonymous donor helped fund the purchase. Partnership such as this one have been going on for a long time. Often the catalyst is a local or state arts agency or the NEA. But not always, as I found no mention of Fort Fund or Colorado Creative Industries in the catalog. Not necessary. This is America and we don't requite the imprimatur of the culture ministry to approve an exhibit. We damn well can show anything we want. Almost anything, as attempts at censorship are often in the news. But if I was the culture minister, I would want to be associated with this fine show.
The exhibit is comprised of 39 pieces. They include water and grain-carrying vessels, brewing pots, and drinking vessels. All are handcrafted in a technique displayed in the film that accompanies the exhibit. The drinking vessels may be the most interesting. Some were large enough to serve an entire village while other were akin to mugs we use in the West. One featured five spouts, looking almost like an invitation to a drinking game.
Beer in Africa is not just for pleasure. It also serves a ceremonial function. Find out more about this in exhibit catalog essays by CSU student art major Laura Vilaret-Tuma and Dr. David Riep, associate curator of African art. Vilaret-Tuma's essay is "Ceramics Across the African Continent." Dr. Riep writes about "the spiritual aspects of terra firma in ceramic arts across the African continent." Get more info and photos of the exhibit at the museum's web site.
The making and drinking of beer is ritualized all over the world. Beer is a staple at football games and backyard barbecues. Friends sit in a pub drinking beer and swapping tall tales. some of them true. The advent of craft beer caused beer brewing to become almost ceremonial, with brewmasters concocting their creations in public view. Like ancient magicians, they combine intriguing ingredients, such as the aforementioned gesho leaves and grains of paradise, to the mixture. True, their brewing vats are stainless steel and not ceramic, but they serve the same purpose. We sample the beers with a reverence that startles, even annoys, the casual beer drinker slamming down a few cold Buds. Advancing age and good sense led me away from keggers to craft beers. I can sip them at my leisure, marveling at the brewer's art. Most of these beers have a higher alcohol content that mainstream varieties (I am talking about you, Melvin Brewing Co. of Alpine, Wyo.). This can ambush newbies. They won't see God but they may end up talking to Ralph on the big white telephone.
If you require an excuse to travel to FoCo for a ritual beer tasting. the museum invites you to the reception for the exhibit on Thursday, June 29, 5-7 p.m. View the arts and sample Maxline's Kulima out in the sculpture garden.
What better way to spend a summer evening?
What is surprising is to find an art museum exploring beer making in Africa. The exhibit, "Crossing Communities: Beer Culture Across Africa," is up in the Griffin Foundation Gallery at the CSU Gregory Allicar Museum of Art through Sept. 23. The Griffin is in the new wing of the museum that opened last year.
I visited on a particularly hot afternoon in late June. Good day for a cold one. I didn't find that at the Allicar but I did find a fascinating exhibit of handmade beer-making equipment from Uganda, Cote d'Ivoire, Malawi and other African cultures.
Exhibit sponsor is Maxline Brewing, a newbie to FoCo, getting its name from its site along the Max Bus Line in Midtown. According to the exhibit catalog, Maxline joined the project in its early days. Brewery staff toured the exhibit, "examined the ceramic brewing pots and learned about traditional African brewing methods, rituals, and ceremonies." Maxline's brewer then went to work crafting a beer meant to imitate those traditional brews. The brew, named "Kulima" for the Swahili word for "cultivate," is made from millet, maize, barley, hops, gesho leaves, and grains of paradise. Maxline's Crowler label was designed by CSU's Liz Griffin.
The public-private partnership is music to the ears of this former arts administrator. A privately-endowed gallery at a publicly-funded land grant university teams up with an eager local start-up company to educate the public about a commodity -- beer -- and traditions of other cultures. The African ceramic vessels were donated to the museum's permanent collection by Robert F. Bina and Delores De Wilde Bina. An anonymous donor helped fund the purchase. Partnership such as this one have been going on for a long time. Often the catalyst is a local or state arts agency or the NEA. But not always, as I found no mention of Fort Fund or Colorado Creative Industries in the catalog. Not necessary. This is America and we don't requite the imprimatur of the culture ministry to approve an exhibit. We damn well can show anything we want. Almost anything, as attempts at censorship are often in the news. But if I was the culture minister, I would want to be associated with this fine show.
The exhibit is comprised of 39 pieces. They include water and grain-carrying vessels, brewing pots, and drinking vessels. All are handcrafted in a technique displayed in the film that accompanies the exhibit. The drinking vessels may be the most interesting. Some were large enough to serve an entire village while other were akin to mugs we use in the West. One featured five spouts, looking almost like an invitation to a drinking game.
Beer in Africa is not just for pleasure. It also serves a ceremonial function. Find out more about this in exhibit catalog essays by CSU student art major Laura Vilaret-Tuma and Dr. David Riep, associate curator of African art. Vilaret-Tuma's essay is "Ceramics Across the African Continent." Dr. Riep writes about "the spiritual aspects of terra firma in ceramic arts across the African continent." Get more info and photos of the exhibit at the museum's web site.
The making and drinking of beer is ritualized all over the world. Beer is a staple at football games and backyard barbecues. Friends sit in a pub drinking beer and swapping tall tales. some of them true. The advent of craft beer caused beer brewing to become almost ceremonial, with brewmasters concocting their creations in public view. Like ancient magicians, they combine intriguing ingredients, such as the aforementioned gesho leaves and grains of paradise, to the mixture. True, their brewing vats are stainless steel and not ceramic, but they serve the same purpose. We sample the beers with a reverence that startles, even annoys, the casual beer drinker slamming down a few cold Buds. Advancing age and good sense led me away from keggers to craft beers. I can sip them at my leisure, marveling at the brewer's art. Most of these beers have a higher alcohol content that mainstream varieties (I am talking about you, Melvin Brewing Co. of Alpine, Wyo.). This can ambush newbies. They won't see God but they may end up talking to Ralph on the big white telephone.
If you require an excuse to travel to FoCo for a ritual beer tasting. the museum invites you to the reception for the exhibit on Thursday, June 29, 5-7 p.m. View the arts and sample Maxline's Kulima out in the sculpture garden.
What better way to spend a summer evening?
Saturday, June 03, 2017
Saturday morning round-up: Of betrayal, downed tree limbs and fractured history
BREAKING: Trump still president. the world mourns (and guffaws)
ON "THE KEEPERS" AND BETRAYAL: I have been trying to write about the Netflix docuseries "The Keepers" for the past week. I've written plenty but can't seem to plumb my true feelings on betrayal and the Catholic Church. In 1969, was a Baltimore nun murdered because she threatened to expose a priest and his police buddies for their sexual abuse of students at a Catholic girls school? I don't know the answer, as I've seen only two episodes of "The Keepers" and may not watch the remaining five. I have watched other true crime shows such as "The People vs. O.J., Simpson" and "Amanda Knox." I read hard-boiled detective novels by the score. "Chinatown" is one of my favorite movies. Want to talk about betrayal? "Forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown." The Keepers" has affected me in a strange way. The murder took place in the year I graduated from a Catholic high school. I recognize the nuns and priests and female students from their photos in the school annual. I know how we respected and feared the nuns and priests. I know the heavy hand of the hierarchy that raised me and how it still operated when dogged reporters blew the lid off of the Boston clergy abuse scandals (as seen in "Spotlight"). It could have happened at my school. It didn't, as far as I know. But that's only as far as I know. Forget it, Mike, it's not Chinatown -- it's the Catholic Church.
AFTER THE DELUGE: Note to the City of Cheyenne -- I still have tree limbs out front waiting to be picked up and shredded. The limbs came down in the big May 18-19 snowstorm, which dumped three feet of heavy, wet snow. Three big limbs detached from my elm. With a handsaw, I cut them into shorter lengths and dragged them to my front yard. Now I hear that the city may not get to them for several more weeks. The brush piles will make nice birthing centers for local rabbits. My cat already seeks shelter there and birds land and perch. I may soon turn it into a public work of art. If that happens, you won't be able to touch it due to my artistic license, which never expires.
BOOKS AND HISTORY: If you think our politics are dysfunctional, you should read history. Reading is FUN-damental. Tell that to our president. I am reading "The Proud Tower" by Barbara Tuchman. The subtitle, "A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914," speaks volumes. The world was a mess before The Great War and possessed all of the elements that led us into the carnage of 1914-1918. Even though the book is packed with names and details and is a bit daunting at times, tension trembles on each page because we know what is coming. The world sets up its own disaster. It is traumatized by the results. We know the antiwar poetry of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon. But what propelled these British gentlemen to march off to battle, go home for shell-shock treatment, and then return, even when they suspected what the end would be? We are combative mammals that, apparently, never learn. If you think that we do, watch "War Machine" on Netflix. This recounts the reasons that we still are in Afghanistan, the "graveyard of empires."
DANCIN' ON THE PLAZA: Last night, Chris and I hung out at Depot Plaza with other music lovers to hear sounds from Soul-X and JJ and Wilito's Final Touch. Great music -- and free. Fun to dance to. We especially liked the Santana set by Final Touch. I moved around while Chris actually danced because she can. It was dark, so I felt secure that the crowd was not watching me but intent on the fine musicians on the lighted stage. This is summer, stuff we eagerly await all fall and winter and spring. Thanks to the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle for sponsoring Soul-X. Thanks for the organizers of the Cheyenne Hispanic Festival for bringing in Final Touch and other bands that will play at the plaza today. And thanks to the beer vendors, who staffed taps for the usual suspects and ones for Modelo, Stone IPA and New Belgium Watermelon/Lime ale. Variety -- that's the ticket. I still have some beer tickets. See you next Friday.
ON "THE KEEPERS" AND BETRAYAL: I have been trying to write about the Netflix docuseries "The Keepers" for the past week. I've written plenty but can't seem to plumb my true feelings on betrayal and the Catholic Church. In 1969, was a Baltimore nun murdered because she threatened to expose a priest and his police buddies for their sexual abuse of students at a Catholic girls school? I don't know the answer, as I've seen only two episodes of "The Keepers" and may not watch the remaining five. I have watched other true crime shows such as "The People vs. O.J., Simpson" and "Amanda Knox." I read hard-boiled detective novels by the score. "Chinatown" is one of my favorite movies. Want to talk about betrayal? "Forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown." The Keepers" has affected me in a strange way. The murder took place in the year I graduated from a Catholic high school. I recognize the nuns and priests and female students from their photos in the school annual. I know how we respected and feared the nuns and priests. I know the heavy hand of the hierarchy that raised me and how it still operated when dogged reporters blew the lid off of the Boston clergy abuse scandals (as seen in "Spotlight"). It could have happened at my school. It didn't, as far as I know. But that's only as far as I know. Forget it, Mike, it's not Chinatown -- it's the Catholic Church.
AFTER THE DELUGE: Note to the City of Cheyenne -- I still have tree limbs out front waiting to be picked up and shredded. The limbs came down in the big May 18-19 snowstorm, which dumped three feet of heavy, wet snow. Three big limbs detached from my elm. With a handsaw, I cut them into shorter lengths and dragged them to my front yard. Now I hear that the city may not get to them for several more weeks. The brush piles will make nice birthing centers for local rabbits. My cat already seeks shelter there and birds land and perch. I may soon turn it into a public work of art. If that happens, you won't be able to touch it due to my artistic license, which never expires.
BOOKS AND HISTORY: If you think our politics are dysfunctional, you should read history. Reading is FUN-damental. Tell that to our president. I am reading "The Proud Tower" by Barbara Tuchman. The subtitle, "A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914," speaks volumes. The world was a mess before The Great War and possessed all of the elements that led us into the carnage of 1914-1918. Even though the book is packed with names and details and is a bit daunting at times, tension trembles on each page because we know what is coming. The world sets up its own disaster. It is traumatized by the results. We know the antiwar poetry of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon. But what propelled these British gentlemen to march off to battle, go home for shell-shock treatment, and then return, even when they suspected what the end would be? We are combative mammals that, apparently, never learn. If you think that we do, watch "War Machine" on Netflix. This recounts the reasons that we still are in Afghanistan, the "graveyard of empires."
DANCIN' ON THE PLAZA: Last night, Chris and I hung out at Depot Plaza with other music lovers to hear sounds from Soul-X and JJ and Wilito's Final Touch. Great music -- and free. Fun to dance to. We especially liked the Santana set by Final Touch. I moved around while Chris actually danced because she can. It was dark, so I felt secure that the crowd was not watching me but intent on the fine musicians on the lighted stage. This is summer, stuff we eagerly await all fall and winter and spring. Thanks to the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle for sponsoring Soul-X. Thanks for the organizers of the Cheyenne Hispanic Festival for bringing in Final Touch and other bands that will play at the plaza today. And thanks to the beer vendors, who staffed taps for the usual suspects and ones for Modelo, Stone IPA and New Belgium Watermelon/Lime ale. Variety -- that's the ticket. I still have some beer tickets. See you next Friday.
Wednesday, May 06, 2015
Summer arts events flourish in Wyoming communities
Looking for something to do this summer?
You don't have to look very far.
The Wyoming Arts Council and the Wyoming Humanities Council have teamed up to chronicle "125 Days of Arts and Humanities." Why 125? Because this summer marks the 125th anniversary celebration of Wyoming statehood. The official big day is July 10. On that day, the Wyoming Territorial Prison State Historic Site holds a Statehood Celebration Day. That same weekend, you can view Chinese artist/activist Ai Weiwei's sculptures in Jackson or groove to sounds of Marty Stuart and His Superlatives at the Big Horn Mountain Festival in Buffalo or ogle the art at Jackson Hole's art fair or talk mountains at the international climbers' festival in Lander or travel to the powwow in Ethete. Everyone should attend at least one powwow, Interesting and instructional, especially for us white folks who think we have all of the answers.
And that's just one WYO weekend.
On any weekend, you are almost certain to find a beerfest. A beer festival addresses the basic necessities of a summer weekend: craft beer, BBQ and music. Craft beer continues to make waves in WYO. We have some award-winners at Melvin Brewing/Thai Me Up in Jackson and Alpine. Snake River Brewery in Jackson has been brewing up Pako's IPA and a whole host of specialty brews for decades. They were among the first in the region to can their output. A new brewpub, Cheyenne Brewing Company, opens in early June in Cheyenne. You can get a more comprehensive list of craft brewers in Wyoming at
The Wyoming Brewers Festival is set for Cheyenne June 19-20. One of the interesting things about this festival is that its proceeds go toward rehabbing our city's historic train depot. The brewfesr culminates with a Saturday night concert by the Taylor Scott Band. Scott grew up in Cheyenne. There was a time when you could see the teen-age Scott and his band perform for free downtown. He's gone on to bigger and better things, his voice and musical skills honed from constant touring with his new band. Don't miss it.
Some final words. I've been working in the arts in Wyoming for 24 years. I continue to be amazed by the scope and variety of summer events. Many of the festivals on the list have arisen in the past 10 years. This is especially true of the brewfests, most of which feature music and some have art exhibits. Local food is a major element. At the Wyoming Arts Council, we joke about the fact that our small staff couldn't possibly attend all of the summer arts offerings. We could try, but who would be left to shuffle the state paperwork? But all of you can get out and support these events. That's what keeps these events going -- the sweat equity of local organizers. And your attendance.
You don't have to look very far.
The Wyoming Arts Council and the Wyoming Humanities Council have teamed up to chronicle "125 Days of Arts and Humanities." Why 125? Because this summer marks the 125th anniversary celebration of Wyoming statehood. The official big day is July 10. On that day, the Wyoming Territorial Prison State Historic Site holds a Statehood Celebration Day. That same weekend, you can view Chinese artist/activist Ai Weiwei's sculptures in Jackson or groove to sounds of Marty Stuart and His Superlatives at the Big Horn Mountain Festival in Buffalo or ogle the art at Jackson Hole's art fair or talk mountains at the international climbers' festival in Lander or travel to the powwow in Ethete. Everyone should attend at least one powwow, Interesting and instructional, especially for us white folks who think we have all of the answers.
And that's just one WYO weekend.
On any weekend, you are almost certain to find a beerfest. A beer festival addresses the basic necessities of a summer weekend: craft beer, BBQ and music. Craft beer continues to make waves in WYO. We have some award-winners at Melvin Brewing/Thai Me Up in Jackson and Alpine. Snake River Brewery in Jackson has been brewing up Pako's IPA and a whole host of specialty brews for decades. They were among the first in the region to can their output. A new brewpub, Cheyenne Brewing Company, opens in early June in Cheyenne. You can get a more comprehensive list of craft brewers in Wyoming at
The Wyoming Brewers Festival is set for Cheyenne June 19-20. One of the interesting things about this festival is that its proceeds go toward rehabbing our city's historic train depot. The brewfesr culminates with a Saturday night concert by the Taylor Scott Band. Scott grew up in Cheyenne. There was a time when you could see the teen-age Scott and his band perform for free downtown. He's gone on to bigger and better things, his voice and musical skills honed from constant touring with his new band. Don't miss it.
Some final words. I've been working in the arts in Wyoming for 24 years. I continue to be amazed by the scope and variety of summer events. Many of the festivals on the list have arisen in the past 10 years. This is especially true of the brewfests, most of which feature music and some have art exhibits. Local food is a major element. At the Wyoming Arts Council, we joke about the fact that our small staff couldn't possibly attend all of the summer arts offerings. We could try, but who would be left to shuffle the state paperwork? But all of you can get out and support these events. That's what keeps these events going -- the sweat equity of local organizers. And your attendance.
Friday, June 13, 2014
June 11 bash for Dameione Cameron raises money and awareness
We attended a campaign launch party last night for Dameione Cameron. He's running as a Democrat for Senate District 7. There were a fair number of Republicans at this Dem bash, which is always a good sign in a state where Repubs outnumber Dems two-to-one or possibly even more. The crowd was also younger than usual, with an average age somewhere in the 40s. I represent the upper end of the scale. The younger cohort wandered through the crowd, signing up unsuspecting people for volunteer duty. The energy was palpable, as were the the trays of wings (spicy and not-so), bowls of watermelon and coolers filled with good beer. This was fitting for a candidate whose origins are in the Carolina low country, a practicing attorney who runs -- with Troy Rumpf, his partner of 18 years -- the best restaurant in Cheyenne, the Morris House Bistro. The Air Force brought the candidate to Cheyenne and he stayed on for the adventure, although the Clemson grad gets back to the low country as often as he can -- especially in the winter.
One interesting side note -- Dameione, Troy and the Morris House Bistro are sponsoring a little invitation-only soiree next week that leads into the Wyoming Brewer's Festival, which I and hundreds of my fellow beer lovers will attend next weekend at the Depot Plaza. The Morris House Bistro party will team up craft beers with craft foods, which is as it should be. Make mine shrimp and grits with Ellie's Brown Ale or a bomber of The Reverend from Avery Brewing in Boulder.
Cameron does not have a challenger in the Democratic primary. In the general election, he'll be running against Republican Leslie Nutting, whose name sums it up.
Volunteer!
Vote!
One interesting side note -- Dameione, Troy and the Morris House Bistro are sponsoring a little invitation-only soiree next week that leads into the Wyoming Brewer's Festival, which I and hundreds of my fellow beer lovers will attend next weekend at the Depot Plaza. The Morris House Bistro party will team up craft beers with craft foods, which is as it should be. Make mine shrimp and grits with Ellie's Brown Ale or a bomber of The Reverend from Avery Brewing in Boulder.
Cameron does not have a challenger in the Democratic primary. In the general election, he'll be running against Republican Leslie Nutting, whose name sums it up.
Volunteer!
Vote!
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Beer drinking around the world -- and close to home
Watching The Sound of Music Monday night, the 1965 version with Julie Andrews, I grew curious about the setting. Supposedly Salzburg, Austria, pre- and post-anschluss (1938). The action takes place during the summer which must be extremely long in Salzburg, as the anschluss happened in early March 1938 and before the Nazis made their move on the Austrians, Maria was scampering with the Von Trapp kids in lush high meadows and boating with them on an ice-free lake. She fled to the convent, then returned, the Captain fell hard for her, gave the baroness the bum's rush, Cap and Maria got married, took a long honeymoon, and when they returned, the anschluss was over, Nazi flags were draped all over creation and it was still summer.
That's Hollywood.
So I looked up Salzburg's web site. The first link under "Things to do" was "Beer." I immediately fell in love with the place. There are cities in the world known for its beer: Munich, Fort Collins, Colo., St. Louis, Philadelphia. Yet only one of these bergs feature beer prominently on its official web site. Muenchen.de -- Das offizielle Stadtportal, is proud of its Octoberfest and even gives visitors the dates for 2014.
I'm obviously living in the wrong country.
Or the wrong part of the right country.
In November, as I was trying to find my way through the maze of the Philadelphia Airport, I chanced across a display of the city's historic beers. Yuengling ("America's Oldest Brewery" at 180-plus years) figured prominently -- a pretty good beer popular up and down the East Coast. There were beer bottles dating back to Colonial times and cool new craft beers for contemporary tipplers. Given time, I would have settled into a concourses pub and tried some. I'll have to wait for a longer layover.
Another neat exhibit at the airport featured Philadelphia's writers. There was a whole wall of them. Owen Wister was one, a well-to-do native of the city who went to Wyoming for a time and later found fame and fortune with his best-seller, The Virginian: Horseman of the Plains. It may be the first cowboy novel. Wister and Ernest Hemingway went fishing once, although there was nothing about that in Wister's airport bio. Wister wrote The Virginian in the library of The swanky Philadelphia Club, where he was a member, and dedicated it to Theodore Roosevelt, his classmate at Harvard. Other writers from Philadelphia: Sci-fi writer Ben Bova, poet and fiction writer (and physician) William Carlos Williams, legal eagle and thriller writer Lisa Scottoline, one-time U.S. Poet Laureate Maxine Kumin, linguist and author Noam Chomsky and novelist Pearl S. Buck. Pretty good list -- and that's only a few. The author exhibit was very near the beer exhibit, which is only fitting.
Why write about beer? Craft breweries are booming, sprouting in the most unlikely places. Ten Sleep Brewing Company is the newest addition to sleepy Ten Sleep, Wyo., pop. 257. I plan on checking it out next time I'm up that way, most likely summertime, when the living is easy in the Big Horn Basin. Meanwhile, check it out on its Facebook page.
Craft breweries are cool because its founders tend to be young and adventurous, and its products are homegrown. This is the age of "local" and crafters fill the bill. Not all of them can walk out their back doors and harvest a batch of hops and grain for the brewing process. But they make the beer on site, and almost every one has at least a modest-sized tasting room. Snake River Brewing in Jackson is the old man of Wyoming breweries, a place that serves amazing beer (Pako's!), good food and even takes on interns from the nation's craft brewing college programs. They have art displays, such as the unique one last year that displayed hand-crafted bicycles. Hand-crafted beer and hand-crafted bikes.
Cheyenne is relatively new to craft brewing. A brewpub cropped up in the late 1990s downtown but went out of business. We now have Freedom's Edge Brewing Company and Shadows, both housed in historic downtown buildings. Freedom's Edge is bottling its beer, even creating some limited edition brews in fancy bottles. FEBC is expanding into the beer nirvana in 2014:
The state's liquor laws don't help either. I don't want to get into details, but all the beer, booze and wine in the state is regulated by the Wyoming Liquor Division. All the beer on liquor store shelves has to be vetted by the WLC. So, when you wonder why you aren't seeing the newest and coolest and most experimental brews on the shelves at Town & Country and Uncle Charlie's, you know why. I'm a statie myself, so know better than to blame the WLC people for their outmoded rules and regs. The fact is, the craft brewing industry is moving at lightning speed while governmental agencies move at a snail's pace.
So you can do a couple different things. Do your beer drinking at Wyoming's excellent brewpubs, taking home the good stuff in growlers for later consumption. Or you can do all of your drinking in Fort Collins and Longmont or Denver, and your store shopping at Supermarket Liquor's on Mulberry in FoCo, which is what Town and Country could be if it was located eight miles south on the Greeley Highway on the Colorado side of the border.
But Wyoming will catch up. It has to.
That's Hollywood.
So I looked up Salzburg's web site. The first link under "Things to do" was "Beer." I immediately fell in love with the place. There are cities in the world known for its beer: Munich, Fort Collins, Colo., St. Louis, Philadelphia. Yet only one of these bergs feature beer prominently on its official web site. Muenchen.de -- Das offizielle Stadtportal, is proud of its Octoberfest and even gives visitors the dates for 2014.
I'm obviously living in the wrong country.
Or the wrong part of the right country.
In November, as I was trying to find my way through the maze of the Philadelphia Airport, I chanced across a display of the city's historic beers. Yuengling ("America's Oldest Brewery" at 180-plus years) figured prominently -- a pretty good beer popular up and down the East Coast. There were beer bottles dating back to Colonial times and cool new craft beers for contemporary tipplers. Given time, I would have settled into a concourses pub and tried some. I'll have to wait for a longer layover.
Another neat exhibit at the airport featured Philadelphia's writers. There was a whole wall of them. Owen Wister was one, a well-to-do native of the city who went to Wyoming for a time and later found fame and fortune with his best-seller, The Virginian: Horseman of the Plains. It may be the first cowboy novel. Wister and Ernest Hemingway went fishing once, although there was nothing about that in Wister's airport bio. Wister wrote The Virginian in the library of The swanky Philadelphia Club, where he was a member, and dedicated it to Theodore Roosevelt, his classmate at Harvard. Other writers from Philadelphia: Sci-fi writer Ben Bova, poet and fiction writer (and physician) William Carlos Williams, legal eagle and thriller writer Lisa Scottoline, one-time U.S. Poet Laureate Maxine Kumin, linguist and author Noam Chomsky and novelist Pearl S. Buck. Pretty good list -- and that's only a few. The author exhibit was very near the beer exhibit, which is only fitting.
Why write about beer? Craft breweries are booming, sprouting in the most unlikely places. Ten Sleep Brewing Company is the newest addition to sleepy Ten Sleep, Wyo., pop. 257. I plan on checking it out next time I'm up that way, most likely summertime, when the living is easy in the Big Horn Basin. Meanwhile, check it out on its Facebook page.
Craft breweries are cool because its founders tend to be young and adventurous, and its products are homegrown. This is the age of "local" and crafters fill the bill. Not all of them can walk out their back doors and harvest a batch of hops and grain for the brewing process. But they make the beer on site, and almost every one has at least a modest-sized tasting room. Snake River Brewing in Jackson is the old man of Wyoming breweries, a place that serves amazing beer (Pako's!), good food and even takes on interns from the nation's craft brewing college programs. They have art displays, such as the unique one last year that displayed hand-crafted bicycles. Hand-crafted beer and hand-crafted bikes.
Cheyenne is relatively new to craft brewing. A brewpub cropped up in the late 1990s downtown but went out of business. We now have Freedom's Edge Brewing Company and Shadows, both housed in historic downtown buildings. Freedom's Edge is bottling its beer, even creating some limited edition brews in fancy bottles. FEBC is expanding into the beer nirvana in 2014:
We will be opening in the historic Antlers Hotel building at 224 Linden St. [in Fort Collins] with a target opening of late February 2014. This new location will be a true small batch craft brewery that will serve as our pilot brewery, so lots and lots of experimentation! We will also be heavily involved with the home brewing community allowing local brewers to come in and brew along side of us.FoCo already boasts a dozen breweries, including two of the best in the U.S.: New Belgium and Odell. Their customer base down there is appreciably larger than it is in Cheyenne, still predominately a Budweiser city.
The state's liquor laws don't help either. I don't want to get into details, but all the beer, booze and wine in the state is regulated by the Wyoming Liquor Division. All the beer on liquor store shelves has to be vetted by the WLC. So, when you wonder why you aren't seeing the newest and coolest and most experimental brews on the shelves at Town & Country and Uncle Charlie's, you know why. I'm a statie myself, so know better than to blame the WLC people for their outmoded rules and regs. The fact is, the craft brewing industry is moving at lightning speed while governmental agencies move at a snail's pace.
So you can do a couple different things. Do your beer drinking at Wyoming's excellent brewpubs, taking home the good stuff in growlers for later consumption. Or you can do all of your drinking in Fort Collins and Longmont or Denver, and your store shopping at Supermarket Liquor's on Mulberry in FoCo, which is what Town and Country could be if it was located eight miles south on the Greeley Highway on the Colorado side of the border.
But Wyoming will catch up. It has to.
Wednesday, October 02, 2013
Drinking (and Talking) Liberally Thursday at the Albany
Drinking Liberally will be held Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Albany in downtown Cheyenne. Come out and drink and talk liberally among friends. Special guest will be Ana Cuprill, vice chair of the Wyoming Democratic Party. More info at https://www.facebook.com/events/597770450261148/
Sunday, August 04, 2013
Homegrown tomatoes a hard row to hoe in Wyoming
Only two things that money can't buySo sings Guy Clark in "Homegrown Tomatoes." He'll be in Wyoming next weekend, playing at the Targhee Bluegrass Festival at the Grand Targhee Resort at 7,850 feet on the west slope of the Tetons. Not many maters grown at that altitude. Not many grown anywhere in Wyoming.
That's true love & homegrown tomatoes
One two things guaranteed in WYOAnd, sometimes, hail in July.
High altitude and a short growing season
So I'm no Guy Clark. But you know what I'm talking about. Homegrown tomatoes are a tough chore here, even if you live in a Banana Belt community such as Lander or Buffalo.
This urban gardener has six plants this year. Plenty of fruit on the vine. Barring a hailstorm or Biblical plague, I expect a fair crop this year. Best not to get too optimistic. Not exactly sure how farmers deal with the vagaries of growing things on a large scale. I was reading yesterday about a hailstorm that decimated the barley crop in Wyoming's Big Horn Basin. The barley plant is at its peak and ready to harvest just when hail season is at its peak. That doesn't seem fair, does it? The blooming barley is delicate and ripe for destruction. Mother Nature is a cruel mistress. Barley, of course, is one of beer's main ingredients. The barley crop in the Basin is bound for big brewers, craft brewers, and home brewers. Whiskey distillers, too, such as Wyoming Whiskey in Kirby.
No barley, no beer. I weep.
Hailstorms tend to be localized so it's likely that some plants survived when the wind tore through the barley. We send our best wishes to the Basin barley growers.
And now, for this gardener, there are tomatoes to tend.
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Have fun at the Celtic Festival, but don't barf on my boots
My people are in town for a party.
My people are the Celts, descendants of a loose band of European tribes who eventually settled Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Some of them made their way to the Western Wildlands of America where they built the railroads, mined coal, opened bars and played the bagpipes at funerals.
The party is the Cheyenne Celtic Musical Arts Festival, held this last weekend in June at the Historic Depot downtown. It features concerts, vendors, a gathering of clans, a parade, Irish step-dancers and a fiddle contest. Beer and food, too. There are Scottish-Americans in kilts walking around with flasks disguised as cell phones and pens. A clever lot, those Scots. We Irish-Americans just walk around openly with a pint of Guinness or a black-and-tan, preferably one in each hand.
"The drink" has not been kind to the Irish. I drink, but the drink has never laid claim to my soul as it has to so many of my brethren and sistren. Without it we wouldn't be the Irish, I suppose, but with it.... It may lead to good stories and music, but it's laid waste to a lot of us.
Enough with the teetotaling talk. It's a downer at festival time.
One of the key elements of any Celtic fest is the Scottish-Irish-Welsh heritage. There are whole counties in Appalachia populated by Scots-Irish. They gave us bluegrass, folk and country music traditions, and a feisty attitude. Unions, too, as the Scots-Irish miners rose up against their Scots-Irish millionaire overlords. We've always been good at pummelling our own kind.
Last night, after the torch-lit march of the clans (my wife Chris was in there with the Cumming clan), there was much talk about the 2014 vote on Scottish independence. Some are for it, some against it. "The Staggers" blog at The New Statesman says that if the vote on the "devolution settlement" were held today, Scotland would remain in the U.K. First of all, doesn't "the staggers" refer to a state of staggering drunkenness? Secondly, I though that the devolution issue was settled once and for all in the 1970s with Mark Mothersbaugh and Devo.
In the so-called British Isles, history binds and history divides.
And gets increasing confusing to us colonials.
All of the Celtic or Scots-Irish festivals I've attended have been fun. There's even a Celtic band in Cheyenne called Gobs O'Phun. That's what it should be about, after all.
So, get out to the plaza this evening to enjoy Molly's Revenge and Ceili Rain, which lit up the stage last night. Enjoy a draught or two of Guinness. But I warn you, if you throw up on my boots, I'll apply my shillelagh to your noggin. That tradition is Irish and Western.
My people are the Celts, descendants of a loose band of European tribes who eventually settled Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Some of them made their way to the Western Wildlands of America where they built the railroads, mined coal, opened bars and played the bagpipes at funerals.
The party is the Cheyenne Celtic Musical Arts Festival, held this last weekend in June at the Historic Depot downtown. It features concerts, vendors, a gathering of clans, a parade, Irish step-dancers and a fiddle contest. Beer and food, too. There are Scottish-Americans in kilts walking around with flasks disguised as cell phones and pens. A clever lot, those Scots. We Irish-Americans just walk around openly with a pint of Guinness or a black-and-tan, preferably one in each hand.
"The drink" has not been kind to the Irish. I drink, but the drink has never laid claim to my soul as it has to so many of my brethren and sistren. Without it we wouldn't be the Irish, I suppose, but with it.... It may lead to good stories and music, but it's laid waste to a lot of us.
Enough with the teetotaling talk. It's a downer at festival time.
One of the key elements of any Celtic fest is the Scottish-Irish-Welsh heritage. There are whole counties in Appalachia populated by Scots-Irish. They gave us bluegrass, folk and country music traditions, and a feisty attitude. Unions, too, as the Scots-Irish miners rose up against their Scots-Irish millionaire overlords. We've always been good at pummelling our own kind.
Last night, after the torch-lit march of the clans (my wife Chris was in there with the Cumming clan), there was much talk about the 2014 vote on Scottish independence. Some are for it, some against it. "The Staggers" blog at The New Statesman says that if the vote on the "devolution settlement" were held today, Scotland would remain in the U.K. First of all, doesn't "the staggers" refer to a state of staggering drunkenness? Secondly, I though that the devolution issue was settled once and for all in the 1970s with Mark Mothersbaugh and Devo.
In the so-called British Isles, history binds and history divides.
And gets increasing confusing to us colonials.
All of the Celtic or Scots-Irish festivals I've attended have been fun. There's even a Celtic band in Cheyenne called Gobs O'Phun. That's what it should be about, after all.
So, get out to the plaza this evening to enjoy Molly's Revenge and Ceili Rain, which lit up the stage last night. Enjoy a draught or two of Guinness. But I warn you, if you throw up on my boots, I'll apply my shillelagh to your noggin. That tradition is Irish and Western.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
I like beverage stories with heavy peach tones and a profoundly bitter bite
I know that it’s trendy to want to know the origins of what
you eat and drink. Much fun has been made of foodies and craft beer snobs on Portlandia. There was that one memorable
episode when a foodie duo was adamant about finding the name and origins of the
chicken they were about to consume.
This isn’t new. Mo Siegel, founder of Boulder’s Celestial
Seasonings, composed paeans to his Rocky Mountain teas on each box. Ben & Jerry are
side-of-the-ice-cream-carton storytellers. Every inch of Dr. Bonner’s Pure
Castile Peppermint Soap is filled was advice to the human race: “Do one thing at a time, work hard! Enlarge
the positive!” He loved exclamation marks!!!!!
Not all of these are edible, although Dr. Bonner swore that
his soap had 18-in-1 uses. But you get my point – advertising has long told
stories on the sides of cans and boxes and bags. I read all about Frosted
Flakes and Sugar Pops at the breakfast able. No mention was made of the cereal’s
sugar content, which was probably 1001%. Storytelling can be very selective.
Today, our beers and wines and food come with stories. I
bought a batch of Clif Bars yesterday at Safeway. These are actually energy
bars that taste good. They are high in protein and low in sodium with no trans
fat. Sugar is high, so my diabetic wife cannot eat them. The stories are good.
The bar is named after founder Gary’s father, Clifford. Gary tells the story
about how he was living in a garage “with my dog, my skis, climbing gear, bicycle
and two trumpets.” He went on a long bike ride with his friend Jay and
experienced an epiphany when he “couldn’t take another bite” of those “other”
energy bars. So he spent two years in his mother’s kitchen perfecting his own
energy bars, which you can find at any supermarket. Kind of a nice story, right? He’s probably
moved out of that garage, too, although I wonder what he did with his twin trumpets?
I came across a bottle of wine with a story the other night
at Uncle Charlie’s. The red wine is on the Dreaming Tree label and is called “Crush”
after a song by Dave Matthews, one of the partners in the vineyard. On the back of the bottle, he tells a story about dogs in the back of
a pick-up. Not sure what that has to do with blending Merlot and Zinfandel to
get “Crush,” but I’m willing to cut the guy some slack.
Craft breweries excel in beer label stories.New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins has a story for each of its beers. Here's the story for its new Rampant Imperial IPA:
I should say "we former beer drinkers." I'm drinking red wine now, in limited qualities. I could say it's doctor's orders. My cardiologist did say that red wine is a better choice than beer, even those that bring stonefruit to the front seat. Red wine outdoes beer in the resveratrol and flavonoid categories.Tastes pretty good too.
It's all in the story....
A burly and bitter Imperial IPA, Rampant pours a pure copper and carries the sheen of a rightly hopped beer. The Mosaic and Calypso hops bring stonefruit to the front seat, and the addition of Centennials nod towards citrus for a well-rounded aroma.As stories go, it's no Rick Bass or Flannery O'Connor. But we beer drinkers appreciate its bone-dry finish.
The taste expands these hops with heavy peach tones and a profoundly bitter bite. There is some malt sweetness to stand this beer up, and Rampant’s finish is bone-dry.
I should say "we former beer drinkers." I'm drinking red wine now, in limited qualities. I could say it's doctor's orders. My cardiologist did say that red wine is a better choice than beer, even those that bring stonefruit to the front seat. Red wine outdoes beer in the resveratrol and flavonoid categories.Tastes pretty good too.
It's all in the story....
Friday, July 13, 2012
Cheyenne's "Bibles & Beer" featured in USA Today
 |
| My Liberal Wyoming pals Rev. Rodger McDaniel and Jason Bloomberg. Rodger started "Bibles & Beer" at Uncle Charlie's Tavern last year and it was featured in today's USA Today. I love the final line of the story: McDaniel says he got questions in the beginning from people concerned about associating alcohol with the Bible. His answer: "Jesus didn't change wine into water." |
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Sample regional beers and music this weekend at Wyoming Brewers' Festival
 |
| The Wyoming Brewers' Festival in Cheyenne June 15-16 has beer and music, including Another Kind of Magick Friday night. FMI: http://www.wyobrewfest.com/ |
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
On a South Dakota St. Patrick's Day, I toast Sen. George McGovern and his populist legacy
 |
| Book jacket from the shelves of the bookstore at the McGovern Center at Dakota Wesleyan University. |
Bomber pilot, U.S. Senator, anti-war presidential candidate, international champion of hunger relief, writer, friend of the working man -- Sen. McGovern has led a long, rich life (he'll be 90 this year) and remains one of my heroes.
I looked out on that yawning open pit mine in Lead and thought about McGovern's book on the West's coalfield wars, the era that gave us the Ludlow Massacre and strong labor unions. It's called "The Great Coalfield War" and represents McGovern's commitment to labor unions. McGovern was born in Avon and grew up in Mitchell where his father was a conservative Methodist minister (and a staunch Republican). He grew up with farmers and small town people and reflected their Prairie Populist values, honed during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. His World War II experience allowed him to look at the Vietnam War through a warrior's eyes and he didn't like what he saw. Nixon clobbered him in the 1972 election. I'm proud to say that I cast my first vote for president for McGovern. I lived in Massachusetts at the time, the only state (along with D.C.) that went McGovern's way. Boston is a long way from the West's wide-open spaces where I now make my home. But I still remember that day almost 40 years ago. The loss was tough but it felt good to be 21 and voting for someone you really believed in.
South Dakota is a bigger and more complicated place these days. I don't pretend to know the details, but Prairie Populism has turned to Tea Party Populism and the results aren't pretty. Still, there's a feistiness behind the Tea Party that one can see in the small towns that gave birth to McGovern and his family and his politics.
Before we leave South Dakota, I have a few things to say about Rapid City. We spent a couple days wandering around and I liked what I saw. The downtown is vital and filled with cool shops. On each corner is a sculpture of a president. That reflects its "City of Presidents" motto taken from nearby Mount Rushmore, the granite mountain that looks down on Rapid City. Funny to think that favorite son McGovern could have been one of the corner statues. Nixon is there instead. Someday, a statue to our first black president will rise from a corner.
Rapid City has the great Firehouse Brewery, home to the Smoke Jumper Stout that I quaffed on St. Patrick's Day. It's housed in what once was the city's main fire house. The food's good, too, and it boasts its own theatre for plays, comedians and musicians. When we were at the mall on Friday, we came upon the Black Hills Community Theatre. When the 43-year-old theatre company lost its old home, it found a new spot at the mall next to J.C. Penney and Radio Shack. The evening we were there, patrons were pouring in to see the classic "Our Town." The Firehouse Theatre's next play is "39 Steps" which, coincidentally, is the show that opens this weekend at Cheyenne's Historic Atlas Theatre. The Dahl Arts Center downtown offers a full slate or art shows and classes.I didn't get to it, but I hear that the South Dakota School of Mines has a nifty art gallery.
We spent Saturday at the St. Patrick's Day parade downtown, and then drove off to Mount Rushmore. You can see a long way from up there, all the way to the Dakota prairie, all the way back to McGovern's roots.
That night, over corned beef and cabbage at the Firehouse, I toasted Sen. McGovern. Here's to you -- one of the good ones. Your like may never be seen again.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Steam beer and bubble tea on tap next week in downtown Cheyenne
Grand
openings are scheduled next week for two new beverage-oriented businesses in
downtown Cheyenne.
The
Freedom’s Edge Brewery opens on Wednesday, Feb. 22, in the Historic Tivoli
Building. According to a recent article in the Casper Star-Tribune, Freedom’s
Edge will open with eight beers on tap, from a stout to a pale ale. Owner Tim
Moore has been a home brewer for a number of years. His favorite is his 844
“steam beer,” an ale brewed with lager yeast and named after a famous Union
Pacific locomotive kept in Cheyenne. Read more: http://trib.com/business/cheyenne-s-new-brew-crew/article_21d5a27f-4e1c-5baa-bb44-616b18c7af87.html#ixzz1mVQhC7Xw
The
Paramount Café, 1607 Capitol Ave., holds its grand opening on Thursday, Feb.
23, all day long. Here’s the plan:
We are having a Grand Opening
celebration! We will have several local musicians playing all day long! We will
have specialty drinks and door prizes! This will be an all-day event! Make sure
you can swing by! Our performers include Devon Dvorak a local acoustic artist,
Bret Herrick a local violinists (played at Carnegie Hall), Peat Bog Mysteries a
local Bluegrass Band, and so many more! We will also have Bubble Tea! More info
at http://www.facebook.com/events/245044685575977/
The Paramount had a
"soft" opening in December. Never had its bubble tea but the baristas
there brew some darn fine coffee. Let's hope that the hop-infused brews at
Freedom's Edge are equally scintillating.
Thursday, December 08, 2011
Drinking Liberally on a cold Wyoming night
Drinking Liberally. That's the umbrella we operate under on this December night. Title of a national org that promotes the idea that Liberals should gather every so often to drink and swap stories. A few days earlier, an invitation had popped up on Facebook. There have been four of five of these locally during the past year. Last time about ten of us showed up at Shadows Brewpub downtown. We shared the big room with two big-screen TVs and a meeting of the local railroad history club and its Powerpoint presentation. I found myself sneaking peeks at images of old trains. Cheyenne was founded as a railroad supply camp, as were most of the towns along the UP lines in southern Wyoming.
Tuesday night at Poor Richard's. We discussed the issues. Dave wondered why the state Democratic Party was not more assertive. That's a question we've all asked. Thus far, we have no answers. Much talk about Republican Rep. Bob Nicholas and his arrest in Florida. He was accused of beating his mentally challenged son outside of a restaurant. The media and blogs have had a field day with the issue but Nicholas said he did nothing wrong and has no plans to step down. He's a Republican in this one-party state so he has protected status. Others spoke of the continuing defection of Cindy Hill's staff at the State Department of Education. Seven of nine of the DOE's agency directors have abandoned ship in the face of right-wing craziness. The latest to depart was Peg Brown-Clark, the had of special education. Peg is departing for another state, one that presumably takes special education seriously. I worked with her a few years ago and she's a smart and dedicated champion of at-risk kids.
Leah spoke about her campaign to support Safehouse. The local battered women's shelter keeps expanding because the need is so great. She and her artist fiance conduct domestic violence presentation each Sunday at local churches. A few of us (me included) had flyers for the "We are the 99%" rally sponsored by Occupy Cheyenne. Many of the two dozen people in the room at been to a local Occupy rally. Some planned to attend this weekend.
Service was slow so I sauntered over to the bar. A guy in his thirties asked me what the "convention" was for. I told him it wasn't a convention, just some Liberals gathered together to drink liberally. He asked me to name three phrases to describe what we were all about. So good of you to ask! But I knew what he was up to. Republicans in Wyoming think that Liberals must justify their existence in this place that seems to demand fealty to Republicanism, whatever that is. "Why would I want to do that?" I said sweetly. Then I did what most of us do. I made fun. "Over there are all of the Democrats in Wyoming." The other guy at the bar asked, "I didn't know there were so many." Ha ha. The bartender poured my wind-powered New Belgium beer and one of the barflies asked me if I supported Obama. "All the way," I said. "Just look at my bumper sticker." I pointed to the parking lot. A waitress walked up and said the only Obama sticker she would have on her car would be a big O with an X through it. She made a big X in the air with her finger. I wondered why I was even talking to these people. And I wasn't as soon as I had my beers.
"You go to the bar next time," I said to Chris, my wife, as I handed off her beer. She nodded, busily conversing with her friend, Joanne the cowboy romance novelist. I turned to talk to Jim the legislator. He was the only one of us wearing a cowboy hat. He's also the only African-American legislator in the state. His Wyoming roots go way back. His mother Liz grew up in Cheyenne and had one heck of a job getting a teaching job in the school district. She was black, you see. She went on to become a state senator.
I eventually finished my second beer and coaxed Chris toward the door. I stopped to chat with Ken the airline pilot and combat veteran. He nodded toward the crowd and asked if we should have talks or some sort of prepared programs at these gatherings. We both looked around at a room filled with people engaged in lively conversation. "I don't think so," I said, putting on my coat. He looked at me and smiled. Why ruin a good thing, right? The Powerpoints and speeches can wait.
Wednesday, December 07, 2011
Denver Post blogs about Colorado craft beer
Colorado is the craft-brew capital of the western world (the West, at
least), with Ft. Collins the epicenter. So it’s great news that The Denver Post has started its own beer
blog. Today’s very seasonal post by Jessica Fender was all about pumpkin ales:
Be on the lookout for the last drops of Upslope’s Pumpkin Ale, a clear standout this season, and it’s not just me who thinks so. The Boulder brew won a gold metal this year at the Great American Beer Fest. It’s a pumpkin beer for people who like their ales a little less spicy and a bit more refreshing. The brewery says they sold their last pint a week ago, but you never know whether some crafty bar owner has some squirreled away.
Friday, December 02, 2011
New craft brewery to open in historic Tivoli Building
Freedom's Edge Brewing Company is scheduled to open as a brew pub in Cheyenne's historic Tivoli Building in the Spring of 2012. The Tivoli Building was built in 1892 and was operated as a saloon (and reportedly a brothel) during the period when Cheyenne was known as the "Paris of the West".
The Tivoli has been completely restored and is ready to once again become one of the finest establishments in Cheyenne.
Here's a link to the Freedom's Edge website: http://www.freedomsedgebrewing.com/index.html
Saturday, November 12, 2011
It's a great time to be working in the arts!
Me: It's a great time to be working in the arts.
You: The heck you say. Local, state and national arts budgets are on the chopping block. The Kansas governor eliminated its state arts agency. K-12 arts teachers are being laid off. Music and visual arts and poetry graduates can't find jobs. Arts orgs and galleries and museums and performance spaces everywhere are crashing and burning.
Me: As I said, it's a great time to be working in the arts.
You: No hope for a fool.
Me: Or is there?
I'm flying high on the arts after a two-day meeting in Fort Collins, Colo. Arts types from nine states came to town to brainstorm ideas for the Arts Incubator of the Rockies (AIR.). This multi state effort to turbo-charge the region's artists and arts orgs and was spearheaded by a triumvirate of Ft Collins entities: Beet Street, the City of Fort Collins and Colorado State University School of the Arts.
It's a great thing when an arts organization, a city government and a major land-grant university get together to forge a plan for the future. A rare thing, too. Together they applied to the National Endowment for the Arts and received a $100,000 Our Town grant. Another major step. And then they invited their neighbors from WY, CO, NM, UT, ID, MT, NE, NV, SD and ND to town to talk about next steps.
So we did.
Fort Collins can brag about its arts and culture scene. This city of 140,000 sprawls along the Poudre River Valley and butts up against the Front Range of the Rockies. There's a big "A" up on the mountain that gets a fresh coat of whitewash every year from CSU students. The "A" stands for the "Agricultural" in Colorado Agricultural College and later Colorado A&M. Ag continues to be a big deal on campus and in the community. It stands for both flora and fauna, such as the large fauna investigated and studied and treated each year in the CSU Veterinary Program, one of the best in the U.S. "A" and "M" prompt students from all over the world to study water hydrology in Fort Collins. Water ministers from many parched Middle Eastern, Asian and African countries learned their trade at CSU. The university is home to the Colorado Seed Laboratory, where the genomes of the West's native plants are explored and safeguarded.
CSU's "A" and "M" creds are well-established.
But these days the "A" up on the hill could stand for "Arts."
During our two days in Fort Collins, we toured arts facilities. One belongs to the U, the renovated Fort Collins High School ("Go Lambkins!") that now houses the University Center for the Arts, or UCA. When I attended CSU from 1988-91, my little family lived in a little house just down the street from FCHS. My wife and I and our young son played catch on the football field which was a half-block from the house. I dodged student drivers on my daily walks to campus. There was that one Saturday morning when we found a frat boy from Phi Zappa Krappa passed out on our lawn. Apparently he had become disoriented after a frat bash and had settled in for a rejuvenating nap on our not-so-lush lawn. Our son awakened him with a pointy stick.
The frat house is still there. The high school is now the arts school. Our tour guide on Thursday was Jennifer Clary, a graduate of both the old FCHS and the new CSU arts school. She now works at the UCA. So it goes.
We watched a faculty chamber group as they warmed up in the Organ Recital Theatre for an upcoming concert. We saw the student Symphonia rehearse for its performance of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony. Great acoustics in the 550-seat Edna Rizley Griffin Concert Hall. Great facilities overall for music and dance and theatre. Also a fine visual arts museum.
As I watched the tattooed woman violinist and the viola player in his black hoodie bow their way through various symphony movements, I couldn't help but wonder what they'll be doing in 10 years. Playing in a major symphony? Bloody unlikely. Playing in a smaller symphony or community band? Possibly. Teaching music at the K-12 level. That's probable, although too many students look at education as a "fall-back" occupation if music performance doesn't work out. While some of them will be good teachers, others will be second-rate or worse and resentful that they're not making money in their chosen pursuit of music.
During our meeting, CSU School of the Arts Co-Director Dr. Todd Queen quoted from a Julliard study that found that only 10 percent of music school students stay in the industry after graduation. It's tough out there for a musician -- we all know that. It's tough out there for a poet and a dancer and a painter. That's why so many parents (this one included) attempt (with limited success) to steer their children into more practical avenues.
But what if there were other ways to an artist to make a living as an artist? What if we could shift away from the paradigm of "starving artist?"
That is a major goal of AIR.
Arts students need help with the big "B" of "business." They need to find new ways to promote themselves as artists which then will free up time for them to do their art. This is nothing new. Van Gogh painted up a storm but couldn't make a living -- his brother Theo had to keep him in bread and cheese. As a student in the CSU creative writing program, my goal was to write and learn how to write better. I was a teaching assistant too -- a little teaching experience couldn't hurt, right?
But in my third year, after a series of unsuccessful interviews for teaching jobs, I realized that I needed to reassess my goals. I asked the following question: "Just what the hell am I going to do now?" So I looked at all of my career assets and found that I could run or work for an arts organizations. Plenty of those around. My writing and corporate skills would come in handy. My time heading up the writers' committee on the CSU Fine Arts Series would be useful. Teaching skills, too -- I'd already taught at CSU and several community college writing courses in Fort Collins and Greeley.
It all added up to something. And I parlayed that something into 20 years working as an arts administrator at the state and federal level. I'm an acknowledged expert in my field. I've worked as a panelist and arts consultant to Colorado, Utah, Nevada, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kentucky, the Western States Arts Federation in Denver, etc. I've mentored many writers and later, as my job came to encompass all arts disciplines, I've assisted pianists, dancers, sculptors, rock musicians, painters, and so on.
But I have this sorrowful part of me that wishes now that, 20-some years ago, I had asked this question instead: "How can I make a living as a fiction writer?" That should have been my focus because writing is what I love. In the arts, it is all about you pursuing your passion. It also can be about forging a career in the arts world. Not just as a fall-back strategy but as something that a student does on purpose. It may include teaching but it very well may not.
This is what I like about AIR: It addresses both of these tracks through workshops, classes, networking, coaching, mentoring, outreach and internships. It seeks to enlist professionals to mentor those in their field. It will look at ways to provide shared professional services, investment capital and revolving loan funds. It may enlist celebrity actors and musicians and writers to promote AIR goals. It may sponsor local and regional conferences.
The discussion is only beginning. In my next post, I'll address some of the ways that AIR plans to incubate regional artists and arts orgs in the West. I'll also look at the role that Fort Collins itself is playing in the Rocky Mountain West's arts and cultural renaissance. It's not all about "beers, bikes and (snow)boards" -- but all of those "B" words feed "A" energy (as in "Arts").
You: The heck you say. Local, state and national arts budgets are on the chopping block. The Kansas governor eliminated its state arts agency. K-12 arts teachers are being laid off. Music and visual arts and poetry graduates can't find jobs. Arts orgs and galleries and museums and performance spaces everywhere are crashing and burning.
Me: As I said, it's a great time to be working in the arts.
You: No hope for a fool.
Me: Or is there?
It's a great thing when an arts organization, a city government and a major land-grant university get together to forge a plan for the future. A rare thing, too. Together they applied to the National Endowment for the Arts and received a $100,000 Our Town grant. Another major step. And then they invited their neighbors from WY, CO, NM, UT, ID, MT, NE, NV, SD and ND to town to talk about next steps.
So we did.
Fort Collins can brag about its arts and culture scene. This city of 140,000 sprawls along the Poudre River Valley and butts up against the Front Range of the Rockies. There's a big "A" up on the mountain that gets a fresh coat of whitewash every year from CSU students. The "A" stands for the "Agricultural" in Colorado Agricultural College and later Colorado A&M. Ag continues to be a big deal on campus and in the community. It stands for both flora and fauna, such as the large fauna investigated and studied and treated each year in the CSU Veterinary Program, one of the best in the U.S. "A" and "M" prompt students from all over the world to study water hydrology in Fort Collins. Water ministers from many parched Middle Eastern, Asian and African countries learned their trade at CSU. The university is home to the Colorado Seed Laboratory, where the genomes of the West's native plants are explored and safeguarded.
CSU's "A" and "M" creds are well-established.
But these days the "A" up on the hill could stand for "Arts."
During our two days in Fort Collins, we toured arts facilities. One belongs to the U, the renovated Fort Collins High School ("Go Lambkins!") that now houses the University Center for the Arts, or UCA. When I attended CSU from 1988-91, my little family lived in a little house just down the street from FCHS. My wife and I and our young son played catch on the football field which was a half-block from the house. I dodged student drivers on my daily walks to campus. There was that one Saturday morning when we found a frat boy from Phi Zappa Krappa passed out on our lawn. Apparently he had become disoriented after a frat bash and had settled in for a rejuvenating nap on our not-so-lush lawn. Our son awakened him with a pointy stick.
The frat house is still there. The high school is now the arts school. Our tour guide on Thursday was Jennifer Clary, a graduate of both the old FCHS and the new CSU arts school. She now works at the UCA. So it goes.
As I watched the tattooed woman violinist and the viola player in his black hoodie bow their way through various symphony movements, I couldn't help but wonder what they'll be doing in 10 years. Playing in a major symphony? Bloody unlikely. Playing in a smaller symphony or community band? Possibly. Teaching music at the K-12 level. That's probable, although too many students look at education as a "fall-back" occupation if music performance doesn't work out. While some of them will be good teachers, others will be second-rate or worse and resentful that they're not making money in their chosen pursuit of music.
During our meeting, CSU School of the Arts Co-Director Dr. Todd Queen quoted from a Julliard study that found that only 10 percent of music school students stay in the industry after graduation. It's tough out there for a musician -- we all know that. It's tough out there for a poet and a dancer and a painter. That's why so many parents (this one included) attempt (with limited success) to steer their children into more practical avenues.
But what if there were other ways to an artist to make a living as an artist? What if we could shift away from the paradigm of "starving artist?"
That is a major goal of AIR.
Arts students need help with the big "B" of "business." They need to find new ways to promote themselves as artists which then will free up time for them to do their art. This is nothing new. Van Gogh painted up a storm but couldn't make a living -- his brother Theo had to keep him in bread and cheese. As a student in the CSU creative writing program, my goal was to write and learn how to write better. I was a teaching assistant too -- a little teaching experience couldn't hurt, right?
But in my third year, after a series of unsuccessful interviews for teaching jobs, I realized that I needed to reassess my goals. I asked the following question: "Just what the hell am I going to do now?" So I looked at all of my career assets and found that I could run or work for an arts organizations. Plenty of those around. My writing and corporate skills would come in handy. My time heading up the writers' committee on the CSU Fine Arts Series would be useful. Teaching skills, too -- I'd already taught at CSU and several community college writing courses in Fort Collins and Greeley.
It all added up to something. And I parlayed that something into 20 years working as an arts administrator at the state and federal level. I'm an acknowledged expert in my field. I've worked as a panelist and arts consultant to Colorado, Utah, Nevada, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kentucky, the Western States Arts Federation in Denver, etc. I've mentored many writers and later, as my job came to encompass all arts disciplines, I've assisted pianists, dancers, sculptors, rock musicians, painters, and so on.
But I have this sorrowful part of me that wishes now that, 20-some years ago, I had asked this question instead: "How can I make a living as a fiction writer?" That should have been my focus because writing is what I love. In the arts, it is all about you pursuing your passion. It also can be about forging a career in the arts world. Not just as a fall-back strategy but as something that a student does on purpose. It may include teaching but it very well may not.
 |
| Arts and beers and bikes are all players in the new creative placemaking economy. |
The discussion is only beginning. In my next post, I'll address some of the ways that AIR plans to incubate regional artists and arts orgs in the West. I'll also look at the role that Fort Collins itself is playing in the Rocky Mountain West's arts and cultural renaissance. It's not all about "beers, bikes and (snow)boards" -- but all of those "B" words feed "A" energy (as in "Arts").
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Vertical Harvest @ The Roof in Jackson
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| Very cool project to build a vertical greenhouse on the south side of the downtown parking garage in Jackson. The big launch is Thursday, July 28, on the top floor of the garage. Lots of local food and music and beer from the good folks at the Thai Me Up Brewery. Try the Brother Ted Dubbel or the Dopplebock. FMI: http://verticalharvest.wordpress.com/. |
Monday, July 11, 2011
High Plains gardening is a waiting game
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| Ogallala strawberries (mine kind of look like these) |
Hand-picked dessert.
Washed down with an Old Belgium Ranger IPA. A Belgian White like White Rascal, the one made by Avery of Boulder, might be better -- maybe even a red wine. But I don't know my wines like I know my beers.
The garden grows well. Tomatoes appearing on the vine and they'll be ripening eventually. Lettuce and rocket and spinach galore. Wait for the rest. That's what high-plains gardeners do a lot of -- waiting.
I'm a gardener in training, spending every summer learning more about what grows best. I'm also nurturing my soil with lots of compost -- can't have too much of that. Soon my soil will be comparable to those in the more hospitable growing climes, places like eastern Iowa and Missouri. I'll live so long...
The rains have been a Godsend but my garden needs a bit more hot days to really produce. That's what we lack -- long, hot days for the tomatoes and beans and squash. I wither under that kind of heat but mid-summer garden veggies thrive.
Now if we can just keep the hail at bay...
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