Denver says cheese!

Adventures with Julie and our cameras on a beautiful day in Denver, Colorado. These are pictures taken at the Denver Art Museum & the Denver Public Library.

a day (off) in the life of pat

1. Woke up late. I love not waking up to an alarm. It's rather heavenly.

2. Ran some errands. The girl at Pandora's gift shop recognized me from prior greeting card buying experiences. I was all NU-UH

3. Donated to the Democrats outside of Watercourse Foods. go dems! I complimented them on their choice of location. I told them they probably wouldn't see too many republicans in front of such liberal establishments.

4. Picked up Bailey.

5. Took pictures of Bailey. (see below)

6. Did an obnoxious amount of micro economics homework. I am so over damned demand curves!

7. Watched Grey's Anatomy.

8. Ate Ruth's left overs from last night. YUM!

9. Gave my blog a make over. Isn't it pretty?

that is some DAM fine art!

On Saturday The new annex of the Denver Art Museum, The Frederic C. Hamilton Building, opened. This thing has been in the making since 1999! I remember driving past it every morning on my way to school when I lived in capital hill. I was able to see the steal structure (the guts) take shape. It is arguably the most anticipated and most important grand opening in Denver history.

As part of the grand opening celebration the museum hosted a free open house for 35 straight hours. What this meant for us young kids was we were able to take in the brand spanking new addition to Denver's landmarks at 1am. When do you ever get the chance to peruse a museum at such odd hours? never! Thanks to Julie, we became very excited ticket holders to last nights (or this mornings) event.

Along with Michael Frazier, neighbors (of his) and "new from Montana girl", Julie and I headed to the Hamilton. The exterior is beautiful and strange. But the interior has the stark and echoing feel that most every museum I have been to has. It also had a cozy feel to it (which may have been due to my beer buzz.) I am attracted to modern, simple, sleek design. These traits in architecture make me feel comfortable and relaxed, so perhaps this is why this monstrous sculpture of a building made me believe it was indeed cozy. I was honestly blown away with the utter beauty of the innards of the new museum. I remember walking up the first set of stairs starring up with my mouth hanging open. It is hereby a requirement that every future out-of- town guest of mine will take in this incredible building.

As for the art, you simply have to see it yourself. I am not going to spend the next several hours blogging about the art. I will say this though, I half expected this expansion to be an extension of what the Denver Art Museum normally shows, lots of Native American art(ifacts.) I felt that the Denver Art museum had offered more of a history showcase versus what I would consider "art." I was not disappointed in what the DAM offered last night. A lot of what we saw was edgy, modern, and simply not boring. The collections were completely satisfying. I cannot begin to describe what a wonderful job the DAM has done with the collections they have borrowed or own.

I suppose a part of us was there to be seen as was apparent with the rest of the crowd. Who goes to an art museum opening at 1 in the morning you might ask yourself? The crowd was young, very hip, well dressed and good looking. There was a retarded amount of homo’s. If I were to open a bar the crowd we were surrounded by last night would be my target audience. HANDS DOWN!

I remember saying more then once, "This is the best night in Denver, ever!" Honestly, that statement has a lot of merit. The Hamilton Building is the most important landmark to open in Denver in, well, probably forever. The energy, the crowd, that experience can never be duplicated. I will never ever forget the night I was at the opening of Frederic C. Hamilton Building!


The opening exhibition in the Anschutz Gallery, RADAR.
The picture on the right is dedicated to Julie.
Thank you for sharing one of the most memorable nights in Denver I have ever had!

Pedophiliac Politicians

I guess this might come in handy with the upcoming election.

This is some funny shit.

Kenny McCauley

Kenny McCauley has accepted a transfer to Des Moines, IA. Kenny is from Iowa. I can't imagine why else one would transfer there. As of Saturday, he will no longer be a Coloradan. It will be weird not having a Kenny around. I have known Kenny since I moved to Denver in 2001. We have shared some pretty damp nights together not to mention a trip to Amsterdam with the worlds most awkward group of people. There have been so many people that have passed through our lives at that airport. When I transferred to DEN there was a large group of twenty-some things. That group has dwindled. A lot of the twenty-some things (including Kenny) have turned thirty-something. A lot of them were laid-off or quit. The group of young, single, saucy kids that work for United Airlines in Denver is getting smaller and smaller.

It is a great move for Kenny. He is going back to school. He will now be minutes from his family instead of hours. I guess as we get older we long for closer connection with our family. Something we didn't appreciate in our early twenties. People grow up. Priorities change. I am excited for Kenny. This is a new chapter in his life. Change this big is so god damned exciting.

Goodbye Kenny. We will miss you!

Thought of the day

You know how when you're driving, and you let someone merge in front of you, and they wave to thank you? I think that’s nice.

Suvarnabhumi Airport Opens in Bangkok, Thailand

I guess its pronounced su-wan-na-poom. It looks very impressive. United has one flight a day to/from Tokyo-Narita to Bangkok.

under the fricken weather

I woke up Monday morning with a cough. I got to work and everyone was complaining about their newly acquired cold, allergies or a general feeling of blahness. I knew I was doomed.

I feel better today. No work! I drank some Emergen C. It was on sale. It's like 1,600 times the recommend daily amount of vitamin C one should have in their diet. I guess its working.

I am watching season 2 of Grey's Anatomy today. I don't feel like doing anything else.

Congratulations Nicole & Robert

Snapshots of the reception...


Cake


Mary, Nicole, Aprille, Robert & Eric


Matt & Cake


Tony, Nicole, Amy & Kenny


Kenny, Jerry & Erica


Leah


Michael


Team Stafford


The Hogbergs


Angela, Lisa & Belinda


Amy, Angie & Kenny


Aprille & Robert


Mark


Guy


Mindy's Hair & Matt

Dave Matthews Band

On Tuesday Kaiya, Ellen, Brian, Eric, Tish and I attended the Dave Matthews Band concert at the Pepsi Center. The Pepsi Center is a shitty concert venue, however, I think DMB live is incredibly enjoyable anywhere. The set list was superbly constructed. I truly enjoy the simplicity of their show. There is never any pomp and circumstance at the beginning of the show. They simply walk out on stage, set their shit up and begin playing. They have this incredible energetic chemistry. Its amazing to watch them jam off into a tangent. I have to imagine that those guys have to be so in-tuned with each other to be able to just improvise jams like that. From set opener to encore the show was just splendidly fun.

ahhhh but the fun was just beginning........

As we exited the grounds of the Pepsi Center the tour buses paraded passed us. The band members were waiving from the front windows of the bus. Concert goers were screaming and running after the bus. As we marched back to the car we all debated on where the band might be staying. We all agreed it was clearly at one of the upscale hotels downtown and left it at that. The six of us were crammed in the Crown Victoria on our way down Speer Blvd. when a tour bus passed us. Could it be? Someone from the back yelled to pull up closer to the back of the bus. Sure enough as we got closer we could see the unmistakable DMB fire dancer logo on the back of the bus.



I don't completely recall but I believe a few of us in the car screeched. This was followed by someone screaming "follow that fucking bus." Follow it, we did, right to The JW Marriott in Cherry Creek. It turned out that we had missed Dave who had arrived on another bus just minutes to our arrival. Oh well. We stood around with a few other over zealous fans and hoped to catch a glimpse of someone in the band. No luck. We headed home.

Back at home we saw Eric, Ellen and Brian off. Kaiya, Tish and I debated returning to the Marriott in hopes of bumping into Dave Matthews at the hotel bar. Before I knew it we were back in the Crown Vic heading towards Cherry Creek.

When we arrived back at the hotel we were stunned to find Carter Beauford, Rashawn Ross and Butch Taylor standing at the hotel entrance chatting with fans. Carter is the drummer, Rashawn is the trumpet player and Butch is the keyboardest. The men were more than happy to sign our tickets from the show.



They were also happy to have their pictures taken.


Tish & Rashawn


Kaiya & Carter


Tish , Carter, Me and my shit eating grin


Kaiya & Rashawn


Carter likes Kaiya

After our encounter with DMB fame we decided we needed a drink. The bar at the Marriott is very nice. We opted to sit outside where there is a giant fire pit. Around the fire pit sat a group of people. The group of people turned out to be roadies for DMB. They were bus drivers, the band chef, Boyd Tinsley’s pro tennis player, and various other DMB staffers. Soon after we arrived, Butch (the keyboardest), came down for a night cap. While Kaiya was chatting quite heavily with one of the bus drivers, Tish had struck up a conversation with Butch. Jr, one of the bus drivers, invited Kaiya and Suzette, Kaiya's friend who had joined us, to go with him on the tour bus to Chicago. Kaiya and Suzette accepted the invitation. I don't really think any of us really believed this invitation was real. We thought it to be cheeky drunk talk. As the night turned into the wee hours of the morning the group dwindled. In the end Kaiya, Suzette, Jr, Tish, Butch and I debated America's over consumption problem, the failure's of the Bush administration and the daily workings of the Dave Matthews Band. It was truly a night I will never forget.

WEDNESDAY
Kaiya and I attended DMB night 2 at Pepsi Center. I second show was better than the first show. The set list was completely different. They did not repeat one song. At encore, Kaiya and I raced through the halls to meet Jr at the back of Pepsi Center. We loaded Kaiya and Suzette's bags onto the tour bus and I hugged them goodbye. Kaiya and Suzette had just become Dave Matthews Band's newest roadies.

inappropriate Wisconsin types

http://wcco.com/topstories/local_story_248175226.html