Around Town Denver Spring 05

More notes from the nose bleed seats....

Mysteries of the Front Range

Since we've lived here I've been trying to get a feel for the way Coloradans drive and what that might say about our new home.

What have I learned at this point? Well, I'd summarize it by saying that people who get behind the wheel here are a mystery to me. That's my personal truth after a couple of years of sharing the road with these good citizens.

Let me count the ways.

Folks here actually obey the law. They often drive even slightly slower than the posted limits.

That kind of thing could hardly be more disorienting and frustrating for a person who grew up and learned to drive in California.

Nobody drives the speed limit on the lower left coast.

People there either drive very low and slow to show that they're not chumps who obey the arbitrary rules, or they drive fast and furious along with everybody else to demonstrate...well...that they're not chumps who obey the arbitrary rules.

California drivers aren't known for their patience either, which is just another reason to kick it up at least 10 mph faster than the posted limits.

To add to my confusion, people here often seem to drive just as slowly in the left lane as they do in the right. Sometimes there isn't even the possibility of using that cutting edge alternative known in some places as the passing lane.

Besides doing the moto thing slow, a lot of drivers here also enjoy a generous sip from a fifth of Wild Turkey or the better part of a six-pack before heading out on the road.

Some recent national drinking studies place Colorado in the top 5 imbibing states. The University of Colorado may receive a "lifetime achievement" award by regulary finishing near the top of the Princeton Review's "Biggest Party School" category. And we came out close to the top of a recent study on drunk driving arrests per capita.

In many states people get upset because teenagers and people with cell phones tend to drive as if they're drunk. In Colorado, quite a few of them probably are drunk.

The fact that we have lots of drunk drivers here and that most folks drive at speed limit or slightly below doesn't make immediate sense to me. Generous alchohol consumption and obeying the law don't normally go hand in hand.

And Colorado is one of the fittest and most physically active states in the nation so you wouldn't expect the drinking levels to be so high in the first place.

There are obviously other factors I've yet to understand. So far, the whole thing has me stumped.

One factor is clear, however. Colorado drivers tend to be a little moody.

They may drive at speed limit or slower, but try to pass them and they will normally speed up and try to keep you from doing so. Good luck to you if you want to move over into a crowded traffic lane to get where you want to go.

And I think a surprising number of people here have a wierd regional form of osteo-arthritis that cruelly curls down all the fingers on their right hand with the exception of their middle finger which often freezes into a ridid, upright position.

Coloradans are some of the kindest people I've run across in day to day interactions. Without question they are friendlier--on the whole--than the urban types I ran across on the West Coast.

But put em behind a wheel and look out. Your guess is as good as mine as to why that would be.

So what does it all mean? Who knows? The only glimmer of an explanation may lie in a ticket I received in Boulder last year.

They got me going about 3 mph faster then the speed limit, so it may be that the magic
"+ 5 rule" from California (which states that you can safely go up to 5 mph faster than the limit with no danger of being pulled over) doesn't apply in Colorado.

When I tried to enroll in traffic school to take the ticket off my record, I was told there is no such thing in Colorado. It seems you can't avoid higher premiums in Colorado if you get a ticket or a succession of tickets like you can in some other states.

The police and sheriffs departments in Colorado spend a lot of time giving tickets for moving violations.

I'm accustomed to law inforcement agencies that spend their time trying to contain truly serious crime and violence. People in that line of work don't tend to go after motorists who are threatening the social contract by driving ten miles an hour above the speed limit.

So here's my latest scientific and unbiased (of course) theory that seems to cover the available evidence.

Colorado drivers are intimidated into strictly obeying the speed laws by law enforcement agencies that have nothing better to do than write tickets. As a result of that helplessness they sometimes alter their mood through the soothing wonders of chemistry. As their inhibitions weaken they let loose with some colorful rudeness.

Yes, I agree. That's a silly explanation.

Let me know--especially the Coloradans among you--if you've got a better theory.

High Land

A few more thoughts on the drinking culture of the Rockies....

Prohibition era drinking laws still exist in a few states and Colorado is one of them.

State law requires that all liquor stores close here on Sundays. Supermarkets and convenience stores like 7-11 can only sell half-buzz beverage 24-7.

Many brewers make half-strength beer so they can make a buck in states with governments that feel the need to appear to be restraining adults from hurting themselves.

In reality, you can drink yourself silly with full buzz stuff at any bar here 7 days a week.

Basically, Colorado attempts to be Utah on Sundays and tries to keep some semblance of the ideals of the Women's Christian Temperance Union alive during the rest of the week.

In spite of all the legal sanctions and restrictions, people here still manage to drink in impressive proportions.

Some of us wonder if legislating most forms of personal morality actually works very well.

Other places in the Rockies take a more libertarian approach.

I ran down to Santa Fe for a couple of days recently to recharge my batteries among the loveliness of the land and the art there. More on that trip to come.

New Mexico is a whole different deal when it comes to drinking.

Turns out liquor stores there are open 7 days a week and you can buy full strength stuff in any market or convenience store whenever you like.

As I passed through on my way to Santa Fe, the tricked out cars drove low and slow past the Saints and Sinners liquor store in Espanola, a small town in Northern New Mexico.

It was the first time I'd ever seen a religious reference on a six-pack stop.

The Devil had more due there than was fair. A red neon pitchfork on the roof flashed on and off, though there was no corresponding white neon halo.

Maybe the halo had shorted out.

About an hour later in Santa Fe I ran across Simply Divine Liquors on the main commercial drag in town.

By that point I was expecting to see Our Lady of the Perpetual Happy Hour on some New Mexican liquor stop.

On the surface of it the New Mexican attitude toward liquor outlets seems inappropriate and maybe too lax.

But I wonder.

I grew up in a southern Mediterranean culture and church where drinking wine was considered a normal part of social interaction.

The adults in my family circles introduced everyone to drinking wine when we were in our elementary school years. They did their best to teach everybody how to drink in an appropriate way from the time all of us were little.

In the cultural and spiritual tradition I came to know in my childhood, the church absorbed the general inevitability of drinking and brought it into a healthier balance than seems to be true in some other Christian traditions.

I can't think of a single person in my mother's family circle going back many generations who had a drinking problem. Or among the many families in our Greek and Eastern Orthodox Christian circle of friends.

Maybe that has more to do with the southern European culture than with Orthodoxy since the Russians--who share the Orthodox faith--seem to drink like fish and drown themselves as well as anybody.

Or maybe the poor Russians never had a chance to make a decision for themselves and didn't really have a chance to grasp Orthodoxy on a personal level that might have made a difference in their individual behavior.

New Mexicans--with their southern Meditteranean influenced culture that has a more relaxed attitude toward alchohol--drink more constructively by any measure than we do here in Colorado.

Hmmm.... Sometimes more libertarian approaches to issues of personal morality may get better results than fundamentalist approaches, particularly when they're expressed in religious contexts that are more flexible and realistic.

Drinking and drug abuse are emotional and complicated issues for most everybody who has a first or second hand experience with them. That's especially true for anyone who has lived and worked among poor people. Genetics obviously play a critical role. And discerning the spiritual currents that seem to protect some folks and put others in jeopardy is difficult for even the wisest person.

But whatever the case may be, New Mexicans definitely have a better sense of humor about the whole thing than most. That may not be such a bad thing.

Art in the Land of Elk Jerky

I promised a few Around Towns ago to come back to the art scene in Denver and abouts, so here goes....

A while back I focused on the institutional art scene here in town.

Time now to give some props to grass-roots talents in Denver and the heart of the regional artistic scene centered in Santa Fe.

The emerging arts scene here in town and in the mountains is lively. I'm delighted. Artists seem to be attracted to places that sit on the margins between different orthodoxies and various life zones. Lots of natural beauty doesn't hurt either. As a result we get more than our fair share of creative types here in culturally "purple" Colorado where the Great Plains and the abrupt Rockies come together.

I'm always inspired when I get a look at various kinds of art. I'm encouraged by the work of people who truly love what they're doing and who are willing to step out and take some risks.

Back to Basics

Many of the small mountain towns here host some good collections by local artists. Jan and I have been checking out some galleries and exhibitions in these small towns that have names like "Leadville" or "Bonanza."

If they don't have a reference to mining or get-rich-quick schemes in their names, they seem to have some variation on the name, "____ Springs."

You can pretty much fill in the blank with anything that might make sense up against the ending Springs and you'll probably find a town here by that name.

We've got your Glenwood Springs, and your Colorado Springs, and your Idaho Springs, and your Steamboat Springs (Steamboat Springs...??--your guess is as good as mine on that one), and your Poncha Springs, and well, you get the idea.

A few months ago we were up in Georgetown and got a chance to hang out at a great little gallery called Arts at Georgetown.

Lots of these galleries are artists' co-ops of one kind or another and they focus on up-and-coming local and regional talent. Arts at Georgetown is run by a lady named Paula Colette who is so relaxed she would probably fall asleep in the middle of a car accident. She has encyclopaedic knowledge of the local arts scene so we enjoyed talking to her both for her wit and for her ability to put people at ease.

She told us that most artists here focus on realistic, natural themes. Serious abstraction is definitely out among working artists in the Rockies, and we really enjoyed the moving landscapes in her gallery.

It sometimes seems like everybody is getting back to the fundamentals these days, though they're doing it in very different ways.

The post-mods want to deconstruct every abstract orthodoxy and live among the rubble and jumble of the fundamental building blocks. They want to go back and re-examine "settled questions" and then--in the healthiest and least nihilistic versions of pomo--recombine things in new ways that might offer more hopeful and better ways of living and thinking.

Many U.S. political leaders and judicial nominees want to return to a literal obedience to the thinking of their 18th century founders.

Fundamentalists Christians and many American evangelicals want to keep addictively fighting the same 15th century European theological battles over and over again (not to rock anybody's boat, but it's the twenty first century, people!).

And current visual artists are trying to find a way to get past the sense that everything has been done before by returning to their visual roots.

I have mixed feelings about this simplifying, fundamentalist cultural project. Some it will give life but just as much of it--or probably more--will do more harm than good.

Fundamentalisms of all kinds help prepare for the future and make life-giving contributions when they take a fresh look at the basics and challenge the current progressive dead stuff that won't stand the test of experience.

They're even better when they selectively highlight the best values of the past that still make sense and then figure out how to communicate those values effectively.

Fundamentalism isn't so good when it encourages fear, nostalgia and addiction. Religious and political and business leaders tend to manipulate all of 'em to gain power and profit. As Jesus taught, where the body is the vultures will gather.

I'm glad artists are returning to the basics. I support that kind of fundamentalism and the honest way many artists are going about getting back to their life-giving roots.

As for the rest of the current versions of fundamentalism, well..., I guess we'll see.

In my mind any notions we have of beauty come from our responses to the the natural world. If the art world in tired and discouraged, getting back to the sources of beauty may be just the thing. I'm enjoying the exhuberant naturalism and realism of so many artists here.

It's Just Art

Jan and I took a 10 minute drive to nearby Golden to see the Colorado Art Open.
If Arts at Georgetown was about natural art, the CAO was about the art of self-deprecation.

Emerging artists here clearly have a sense of humor about themselves and about their work.

I think that's a regional characteristic that you see in all areas of life along the Front Range. I mean, how many major cities outside of Denver would have elected a microbrewer named Hickenlooper as mayor? The guy's only qualifications for the role were his tasty amber ales and his endearing goofiness and geekiness. But he won by a landslide!

Time magazine just named him (John Hickenlooper, by the way) one of America's top 5 big city mayors, so maybe folks here know something about the importance of not taking yourself too seriously that other people don't.

Whatever the case may be, that irreverant and relaxed attitude shows up in so much local art. It makes checking out new work here a pretty amusing experience a lot of the time.

There was a good example at the CAO show, an annual exhibit that highlights 50 of the best new works of art by Colorado artists in the past year.

The work was a sculpture entitled "Troutillac" by an obviously goofy and talented artist named David Wicks.

The piece is a remarkable rainbow trout carved out of marble and painted in such a lifelike way that it looks alive. The twist is in the trout's tail, which is a rendering of one of the tail-light fins from a late 50's pink Cadillac.

We were in the room with about 10 other people, and everybody cracked up when they saw it. I think most folks "got it" on some level or another.

Putting nature and the machine together--exemplified by the "fish fins" on cars in the 50's and early 60's--has always been a design element in the auto world. That unlikely combo of the machine and the natural is what makes a lot of science fiction go and ensures a big box office for the endless number of movies about cyborgs. Californians recently elected a cyborg image (certainly not the man himself) to be their governor. That's a pretty powerful artistic idea if you ask me.

Wicks turns the classic Detroit design around but with an interesting variation. The old school car designers put fish tails on cars. Wicks puts the tail end of a car on a fish.

But that pink Cadillac fin was simply a creative take on the rainbow trout's tail in the first place. So Wicks' trout swims with a beautiful and mechanical cybernetic tail inspired by its real tail. Brave New World indeed. Or maybe a vision of hope for the sick and the crippled.

Santa Fe, New Mexico

I've been traveling to Santa Fe since I was a kid and I've never gotten tired of the trip.

I had a chance to get down there a few weeks ago for a couple of days. From our front door it's about a five hour drive.

Santa Fe is the heart of the artistic world in the Rocky Mountain region. Though there are only about 80,000 people in town, it's the third largest art scene in the U.S outside of New York and Los Angeles.

I'll focus on just a couple of observations from this trip so I can come back to it again in future posts. A delayed joy is a doubled joy.

Vamping It Up

I saw a video art piece there that moved me and made me laugh.

Nancy Shersty, a video artist, wanted to make a comment on the way so many women spend their lives trying to live up to a fundamentalist vision of beauty.

She uses a split screen to show the vision of beauty on the left and everywoman on the right.

The vision of beauty on the left is a very short film take from the 50's of Jane Mansfield, who was one of the big time sex symbols of her era.

During the clip, which lasts about 3 minutes, Jane thrusts out her improbably large boobs and purses her bee-stung lips. She wrinkles her nose and runs her hands through her hair suggestively while looking at the camera with chase me/do me bedroom eyes.

The vision of beauty on the right is a 3 minute clip of the artist--looking like she probably does on a Tuesday morning just after waking up--trying to copy the movements of the love goddess.

As you might expect she can't quite pull it off.

What makes the whole piece especially funny and moving is that she keeps shifting her gaze from the sex goddess on the viewer's left--in order to copy her every movement--to nervous glances directly into the eyes of the viewer as she looks for your approval while she fails miserably to do that thing that Jane does so well.

But as the loop of the film replays over and over again she can't break out of the endlessly repeating pattern. She's like Sysyphus, the Greek mythological figure who is fated to keep endlessly pushing a huge rock up the side of a hill over and over again only to have it roll back down every time before he can get it to the top.

In less skilled hands the whole thing would have been a ham fisted feminist screed. She's skilled and it wasn't.

Enforcing Beauty

New Mexico is famous for pueblo architecture. I can't think of a building style that fits its natural surroundings better.

But there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.

Santa Fe's city government decided about twenty years ago to enforce a strict building code that requires all new buildings in Santa Fe to adhere to the basic designs of pueblo architecture.

That means that banks and Burger Kings and used car lots have to look like 13th century Pueblo Indians designed and built them.

Creativity out and conformity in. The result is as cheesy as you might expect.

Santa Fe is divided between the stunning and authentic pueblo architecture that people chose freely and the commercial part of town where most of the buildings are heartless copies of a style forced on them by the well meaning city fathers.

Much of Santa Fe in now a parody and satire of itself.

Even in one of the capitals of progressive creativity I guess you can't escape well meaning fundamentalists. Maybe there's a theme here....