Our resident NEA Fellow

John was selected from nearly 50 applicants from 19 states based on his "passion, conceptual depth, integrity and imagination – and, above all, an eagerness to learn and stretch your approach to arts journalism with brave and conscientious zeal."  He'll be headed out to LA in April for the intensive 11-day program.

Congratulations to John!  Thank you for all your hard work!  

Berndt Savig
A Forced Intimacy: Recent Painting and Sculpture

On display at Sliding Door Gallery beginning February 6, 2009 are recent paintings and sculpture by Berndt Savig. Returning to the female figure and visage as the primary focus in this body of work, the paintings are psychological studies of imagined individuals with introspective, pessimistic or emotionally withdrawn demeanors. The larger scale of the paintings creates a forced intimacy with the viewer.

Rachel Hawthorn
Memory Houses & Other Memory Works

Memory Houses is an in progress series of images that continues Rachel Hawthorn's exploration of the way our domestic environments shape our memories and perception. Each image features a model of a house that Rachel lived in, constructed of only the parts remembered. Anything that is forgotten has been left out. These models were placed in the landscape and photographed from different perspectives to enhance the experience of the distances between current perception and memory of the past. Two other related projects will also be on display: Rachel's newest piece, Bliss Cycle - a video trilogy on the tensions of domestic expectations of perfection, and Memory Houses: Drawings - additional memory work in which houses are drawn from memory onto photographic paper which is then allowed to continually expose and 'develop' in the light without the additional of chemical processing.

Congratulations to Vodka14!

A Boulder business and a partner/advertiser with Cairn since nearly our inception, Vodka 14 has been recognized by GenGreen in their winter 2008 State of the Green Union.

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Local Company, Altitude Spirits, makers of Vodka 14
Honored for Environmental Stewardship

Boulder, CO – GenGreen™ has featured Vodka 14 on www.GenGreenLife.com , in their Winter 2008 State of the Green Union report.

This exclusive article is only released seasonally, and highlights developing trends in the environmental movement while recognizing a select group of independent businesses and service providers that are demonstrating these positive trends across the country. The Winter 2008 edition focuses on the following trends: Gifts that Keep On Giving, Sustainable Soirées, and Planet-friendly Getaways.

GenGreen recognized Altitude Spirits for their exemplary efforts in environmental and social responsibility. Being named one of the featured businesses in the State of the Green Union report is a highly sought after honor. Only a select few are recognized each season.

GenGreen LLC, headquartered in Colorado, is the most comprehensive and diverse resource available for people looking to live a locally-focused, environmentally conscious lifestyle. For more information and to read the article, visit the GenGreen State of the Green Union Winter 2008 article.

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 It is always wonderful too see local businesses looking at the bigger picture. Congrats again to Altitude Spirits/Vodka14 and their team!

Visit www.Vodka14.com for more info on their product.

Mercury Café presents
Muddy’s Chronicles
Secrets of the last Great Coffeehouse
Book signing with Author Bill Stevens

Philosophical coffeehouses, those hotbeds of liberal ideas, poetry readings,
strange cigarettes and all night jazz sessions, were a hallmark of the Beat era.

Muddy’s coffeehouse hosted the likes of Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan; beat poet Jack Micheline spoke his lyrical prose on Muddy’s stage. Virtually all of Denver’s mayors and Colorado’s governors walked through the doors during its illustrious career. As a sometimes halfway house for runaway teens, Muddy’s was also home to jazz musicians who came and jammed after their regular gigs, and a place to talk politics or Nietzsche in a convivial, relaxed atmosphere. It housed The Slightly off Center Theater Company and hosted the Muddy’s Summers of Jazz.  Muddy’s was more than a coffeehouse: it was a Denver institution for nearly twenty years.

On Sunday, December 21 at 2 p.m. author Bill Stevens will be signing copies of “Muddy’s Chronicles,” an uproariously funny, nostalgic, and melancholy look at one of the West’s best known java joints, at the Mercury Cafe, 2199 California St. in Denver. Stevens, previously a private detective, martial arts instructor, restaurateur and dance instructor, has written several short stories and is currently doing research for another book. “Muddy's Chronicles” is his first full length novel.

The Muddy’s idea began in 1975 as the brainchild of Joe DeRose.  It started as a debating club for a few sociology graduate students from the University of Colorado in an old downtown hotel in the 2500 block of 15th Street. It was a marriage of convenience, cheap rates and poor students.  Denver urban renewal broke up this union,(about 1978), forcing the students to scurry about fifteen blocks up into north Denver, where they reopened at 2200 Champa St. Muddy’s morphed into a bookstore that couldn’t support it self and in desperation added coffee, then pastries and sandwiches and finally an old manual lever espresso machine. Surviving on a month-to-month lease, under the mainstream radar and against all odds, it became the wildly successful “Bistro of the Night,” open from 7 p.m. until 4 a.m., until it finally closed the doors in 1997.

More information at http://muddyschronicles.net

Mercury Café presents
“Muddy’s Chronicles” Secrets of the last Great Coffeehouse
Book signing with Author Bill Stevens.
Sunday, Dec 21 at 2 p.m.
Admission is Free
Mercury Café
2199 California Street, Denver
303-294-9258
www.mercurycafe.com

• Alaska snowboarding, meeting at a boat and then taking a helicopter to the steepest mountains! Sea level to 10,000 feet, and extreme snow!
• Iceland – true adventures, sailing to skiing – who would have thought? Let’s go!
• Loved the music, scenery, and humor. Of special interest, getting to know the band and skiers in Vermont. And seeing my home state of Bend, Oregon was great!
• Skijoring in Leadville! Definitely checking that out next year!
• Enough powder to make you hope for a long, long winter!
• The full speed “tree hug”.
• Since I’m so into surfing, Gerry Lopez was a highlight.
• Crested Butte! I was there, it was awesome!

Don’t miss out the spectacular footage with jaw-dropping performances by an impressive assembly of world-class athletes, including Jonny Moseley, Daron Rahlves, Marco Sullivan, Seth Wescott, Gerry Lopez, and Wendy Fisher.

With the purchase of every ticket you’ll get free lift tickets to various resorts (except in Steamboat). It’s definitely worth the time and money to see. By the end of the film, you’ll already be talking about your next trip!

Boulder and Denver premieres are just around the corner:

Check out warrenmiller.com for all tour information, videos, photos, and more.

Photo courtesy of Warren Miller Entertainment 

Get ready for three days of  film that will excite and inspire you.  The 4th Annual Boulder Adventure Film Festival kicks of on Thursday, November 6th and will feature films spanning from surfing to skiing and exploration to environmentalism. This year's event benefits Leave No Trace . 

Films will be shown at various venues across town, so check out the program.   Looks like the Boulder Theater is one, so when in doubt, head downtown.  

Details: 

Boulder Adventure Film Festival  - November 6-8

Full Festival Pass - $50
Thursday Pass - $20
Friday  Pass - $20
Saturday Pass - $25

It's back.  A-Basin and Loveland are open for business and so is the Cairn Ski Report.   Get all the latest conditions on over 20 of Colorado's ski and snowboarding destinations.  Weather? Check.  Snow conditions? Check. Snowfall over the past 48 hrs? Check.  When the other 18+ locations will actually be open for business?  Check.  The Cairn Ski Report has your back. 

 Bookmark it.  Send the link to a friend.  Visit and refresh the page often.  You don't want it to be lonely now don't you?