A week or so ago, the local college paper set off a firestorm of controversy with their editorial opinion of the day.

It was only four words. The first two are a lead in - TASER THIS... You can see the following two words by clicking the first two.

It may not be the New York Times, but they certainly have captured the sentiments of most of the people I know.

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Thursday I went to the university campus student union theatre for an evening of dance and music in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, sponsored by El Centro - the campus Latino student services group.

It made me nostalgic to hear the familiar mariachi and other traditional music, and experience the grace and bright colors of the dancers as they swirled across the stage.

Viva Mexico!

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Civics Lesson

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One of the reasons we chose Fort collins to try to re-establish ourselves post-California was the presence here of a university. University towns often offer a wealth of interesting and inexpensive activities, and a more youthful population.

I increasingly find myself spending more time on the campus, where there are a surprising number of lectures and arts events open to the public. Wednesday, after work at the food bank I went to a philosophy lecture in one of the old university buildings, and another in the evening after my Spanish class (busy day) in one of the large lecture halls. A visiting Tufts professor here for a guest lecture series, Daniel C. Dennett is a nationally prominent scholar on various aspects of the mind and consciousness. My interest in Buddhism led me to seek these talks out.


Dr. Dennett describes to a large and attentive audience at Yates Hall how you can reverse-engineer a cow - the way this relates to religious phenomenom...well, you had to be there.

The morning session was titled "If the Brain is the Mind, Can We Have Free Will?", and the evening session was "Religion as a Natural Phenomenom" (also the title of one of Dr. Dennett's books). Both were as pertinent as I had hoped in my efforts to find more context for Buddhist thinking. I found myself wishing for more time and a smaller group with an opportunity for discussion, but was grateful to attend the way it was presented.



One Dr. Denning's books (as co-author) - click the cover illustration for more details...

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Ever yours, Vincent...



I have always been fond of Vincent van Gogh. Thrilled by the moving images he left behind, I also recall reading a book of his touching letters to brother Theo back when I was in my twenties.

Today I read that a new batch of letters had been translated and released to the public by a New York museum. In one of the letters to a fellow artist, Vincent offered the following advice:

...you have to eat well, be well housed, have a screw from time to time, smoke your pipe and drink your coffee in peace.

I knew my affection was not misplaced.

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Today was Tour de Fat day in Fort Collins.

I missed this last year, and was going to skip it again today, but it was such a great looking day, and I was craving some contact with other folks, so I put off some chores until tomorrow and pedalled off toward Old Town.

I thought I was going to be a little late for the bike parade that precedes the music and beer drinking at the New Belgium factory acreage, but as I neared the center of town, I could hear hooting and hollering, and a cacophony of bells and squeeze-bulb bike horns. Turning a corner, I encountered a sight down five blocks crammed with hundreds of bike riders. As they rounded the distant corner and came into view, then turned in front of me and exited in another direction, I watched with a stunned grin as it became obvious that the hundreds were just a sampling of thousands in an endless stream of goofy biker Lunch Ladies, farmers, gorillas, demons, fairies, old people, little kids, dogs trotting with their people of riding in pampered comfort in little cart trailers...there were bikes lashed together carrying pianos, a tiki bar...


My first glimpse of the bike parade, which I soon joined after twenty minutes of gawking with a stupid grin...

I finally decided to join the stream, and we ended up meandering all over the city in a an hour-long journey back to the New Belgium brewery from which the whole thing began earlier in the morning. What a hoot! Everywhere we went, people lined the streets, whooping and laughing. If they showed their appreciation, they were rewarded by mass bell-ringing and horn-tooting, and hollering back by the biking masses.




No event like this is complete without at least a few tutu-clad or coconut-bra'd men...uh, there were more than a few. I saw a lot of hairy cleavage too - some guys must wait all year for this opportunity...


A corn-fed couple with corn-stalk bike decor.


The premier brew of New Belgium is Fat Tire - this is someone's Fat Tire ride...


Some of the Art Bikes were worthy of Burning Man




Pampered doggies...


...and a few embarrassed pooches.


This guy is towing a blond surfur dude, who was doing trick boarding stuff. He is getting an admiring look from the dude-ette in the pink blouse to the left...



The stream of bikers jams up as we head up College through the center of Old Town.


Oops.


Bike Fashions

It was a lovely day, and as uplifting as anything I can recall. A testament to the free-spirited and fun-loving nature of the people of Fort Collins.

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The Double Nickel

Mona came down from Wheatersville to help celebrate my 55th birthday this weekend. She baked me a nice Texas Sheet Cake, which she presented last night night (day early) so we could all enjoy it during her visit. Couldn't resist the trick candles with the 'can't blow out' flame...

Pat helped me out with mounting computer woes by ordering a replacement high-performance desktop and monitor, and I got a bunch of phone calls and cards from welll-wishers, all of which made me very grateful - thanks everybody.

Friday night, Mona, Pat, and I went to an international poster show opening at the University, with a nice reception. Yesterday (Saturday) we spent a few hours checking out the Sustainable Living Show checking out solar and wind power stuff, Yurts, straw bale, and other alternative building methods.


Pat hangs out at the Chili Festival Saturday.

After the Sustainable Living Fair, we went over to a Latino neighborhood park to spend some time a Chili Festival, part of our town's Hispanic Heritage Month celebration. There were some good Mexican musicians (not Mariachis exactly), good home-made traditional foods, and a big chili roaster where they were scorching Hatch chilis. Mona and I bought and split a half-bushel, and each bought a couple of bags of dried chilis. After we got home, we spent an hour skinning and seeding out roasted chilis, and placing them in small baggies for freezing so we could enjoy them later this winter.

Last night, after all that, we watched Little Miss Sunshine - a fun moviethat keeps you guessing about what will happen next, and is well worth viewing.



Today Mona and I went out an spent the whole day visiting local artists in their studios as part of the annual local art museum studio tour fundraiser. It was a real inspiration for both of us, and will likely help us get moving with some creative pursuits we have been stalling and neglecting.


Mona in the driveway of very charming local artist Maggie Kunze on the tour.


Greeters at the front steps.


Behind Maggie's house - her new studio.

Maggie's house is very small. She has an open carport/garage she was using for a studio, but around here that wouldn't be usable in the winter. She told us that she had a dream that she would find a big bus, and use that for her studio. Her kids found just such a bus up in the foothills, and with a little brake and engine work it was made drivable after several years of retirement from hippie-transport and brought down to be delivered into Maggie's back yard in time for Mothers Day. Dreams really can come true.


Maggie and her new studio/hippie bus. It has a small wood stove, and should be A cozy retreat for her this winter. I think I might get her a CO2 detector and alarm though....

Again, thanks everyone for such a nice birthday weekend.

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Got a little film footage that you would like the entire world to see next Spring?

Jehane Noujaim is a film maker who won a 2006 TED prize. As a prize winner, she was given an opportunity to make a wish, which the VERY high powered conference participants enthusiatically attempt to fulfill. "I wish to bring the world together for one day a year through the power of film."

Noujaim is looking for four hours of content to broadcast for a global audience on May 8, 2008 to promote...well, what do YOU have to promote to make the world a better place?

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I have been following developments in the U.S. and global economies closely for a long time. While it seems to clear to many (including me) that things are unwinding in an alarming if not unpredictable fashion, there still seems to be a lot of effort to minimize the scope of the unfolding debacle by various government and industry types.

Today I was working at the food bank, and while enrolling a new fellow to receive food for his family, he happened to mention the job loss that resulted on his coming to my counter.

Three weeks ago he was a mortgage broker.

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When we bought this house in May, there were a pair of very nice Russian olive trees in the back corner of our lot, providing a nice backdrop and privacy from the house behind us.

In July, the neighbors in whose yard these trees grew had them cut to the ground. At the same time, an apple tree and a row of tall shrubs were also ripped out and hauled away, leaving a barren landscape and unattractive exposed views for us all across the back fence. Since then, I have been trying to figure out how to repair some of the damage, and finally picked out a variety of tree and a spot to put it to restore some grace to the back yard.


The corner as it appeared when we moved in - before the Russian olive trees leafed out.


The corner of the yard minus the old trees - you can see the hole I have dug in preparation for the arrival of a new Canada Red Chokecherry tree. A tree stake is stuck in the ground in the center and bottom of the hole.


Small Canada Red Chokecherry trees await adoption at a local nursery.

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A couple of nights ago we watched a great movie - Donnie Darko. It's a hard film to classify, with themes of time distortion and delusional thinking, and a fair amount of cultural satire. It is a first effort by a writer director who was only 26 years old when it was made and shown in it's original form at Sundance about six years ago.

After a warm reception at Sundance, it was picked up for distribution, and edited down to a shorter film for wide release. Moderately successful, it developed a cult following, with its contrasting themes of alienation and redemption. We saw that version about a year ago, and while we enjoyed it very much, it required some post-viewing reading online to figure out some of what he had seen. The version we saw this week was a 'director's cut', with about twenty minutes of edited-out scenes restored, and some additional music track that hadn't been negotiated yet when the original Sundance and commercial release were put together.

Below are the trailer, and a film viewer's montage set to closing musiic from the film...


Original Trailer


Music/Scene Montage - Mad World

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I just took out a post from a few days ago, which dealt with current domestic military and geopolitical events. I hesitated to put it there, and someone told me it was disturbing to them - it was disturbing to me when I posted it.

That's not what I want to do here. There are plenty of sources for political commentary and punditry, and I don't want to use my time here to cpntribute to that stuff. It is enought that I am a consumer. So for the most part, I will refrain to adding my discorcant note the volume that is already out there. It's not that I don't care, it's just not what I want to share with people who take the time to visit here.

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A few days ago I rode my bicycle to the university to participate in their Connect-to-your-Faith-Community Fair in the big plaza by the student union. Our table and group (the Fort Collins Shambhala Center) was in a row with the Heruka Buddhist Center and the Zen folks, who are just getting a presence started here in town.

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We went up to the ranch for a couple of days, and while it was as nice as ever and great as usual to see Mona and Clark, I seemed to have a rough time enjoying the break from stuff here at the house in Fort Collins. Guess I have been letting a lot of things get to me, and I've been frustrated by my efforts to pursue the Buddhist teachings leading to little in the way of progress in the battle against dissatisfaction and frustration with so much of what life offers up from day to day.

I thought of an analogy earlier today - if you go looking in Buddhist teachings for the solution to your spiritual uneasiness, it can be like going to a cookbook because you are very hungry, and finding recipes that continue hundreds of pages, with thousands of ingredients (many of which you never heard of) and elaborate ritualistic preparation techniques. It's tempting to throw the thing aside, and just reach for the Fritos, no?


The extra bedroom at the ranch, by Mona's little auxiliary garden behind the house.


Clark unloads the bale-wagon with some of this year's third cutting.

Mona, Pat, and I went out for a half-day road trip on Monday, into the mountains, around the back side, and back a different way.


Stopped to feed and water horses, chickens, geese, and a cat for a neighbor before heading for the hills.






You can see the road we came up on to the left of center.


As the day progressed, powerful clouds built around us. By the time we arrived back at the ranch, there were lightning flashes and distant thunder in all quadrants.


Pat gets in touch with his inner tree.

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As I read some of the commentary about the Idaho senator who saw his 27-year public service career vaporize after a relatively tame if somewhat tawdry bathroom incident at an airport, I saw a reference to the George Michael bust under similar circumstances while he was in California some years ago.

In contrast to the pathetic denials of the right-leaning 'Family Values' politician, though, Michaels proceeded to make a music video to illustrate his feelings about the incident...

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