Crud Buster

Besides that I have well paying clients in town and I can't get back on the job until I stop dripping on everything!

Continue Reading Add comment January 31st, 2007

'Enough' With Gridlock For Skico

ASPEN, COLORADO (Post Time News)--In a letter to The Aspen Times signed by a truckload of executives--including the new president and chief executive officer Mike Kaplan--Aspen Skiing Company torched the city of Aspen for its inability to solve the transportation bottleneck on Highway 82 and called for the immediate implementation of widened lanes for mass transit on the road from Buttermilk to the roundabout entrance to Aspen.

"This cluster jam of idling cars is a mockery of what Aspen stands for," the executives write, "the ideas modern Aspen was founded on, and the quality of life that keeps us here. It's ruining our town. Visitors come to Aspen seeking a world-class resort, and find world-class gridlock. The hassles are even more painful and infuriating for the many thousands of residents and workers that get flogged each day running the gantlet."

Continue Reading 1 comment January 31st, 2007

Mystery By Aspen Writer A Hit

ASPEN, COLORADO (Post Time News)--The second time around has been even better than the first for Aspen mystery writer Catherine O'Connell.

The second time around, O'Connell's book "Well Bred and Dead: A High Society Mystery" (HarperCollins) went into a second printing on the very first day of publication last week. The prestitigious Kirkus Reviews called it "a wry look at the lifestyles of the rich and an amusing mystery with a twist in its tail." Other reviews have been equally complementary.

Continue Reading Add comment January 30th, 2007

DROP DEAD BEAUTIFUL: Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten: Topsy-Turvy

Maybe it only seems as if Arnold Bagdikian’s life is upside down because somebody is about to toss his place like it’s a Caesar’s at Zele’s. Or maybe it’s because his old pal Mike McGuff, the newspaper columnist gone Hollywood, finally arrives in town to turn Baggie’s misfortunes into a major motion picture.

Pick your poison: either way, the billionaire O’Kells are tightening the noose on our hero as he tries to find a normal life in Aspen after his time as a jailbird. Sure, he can sit at Zele’s for coffee with Ozzie, hike the Ute Trail, and settle down with a Big Wrap. But he’s not fooling anybody, not even himself. Because they have all the money in the world, the O’Kells also have the wherewithal to make it look like the Bag Man is guilty of killing Sam Allbright, his own girlfriend. The last time Bagdikian took on the O’Kells he won, but this time the odds are starting to turn against him.

One more thing: Jimmy Burns is still looking for that deposit, the sample of Bagdikian immortality that he and Angie Frangello would like to turn into their very own babushka. In Aspen, life really is complicated, isn’t it?

Continue Reading 1 comment January 29th, 2007

Reckless G Weighs In

You talk about the hypocrisy of Cheney denying gay rights when he has a gay daughter, but you refuse to address the true hypocrisy surrounding the occupation of Iraq. I’ve heard you say you think we’re there because of oil, but then you dismiss the idea that this fiasco was perpetrated for the exclusive purpose of reaping a profit. I know you hold a dim view of conspiracy theories, but by saying the “war” is about oil, you’re effectively calling it a conspiracy.

Continue Reading 5 comments January 29th, 2007

Countdown To Aspen's Doom

After reading an article about the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist’s “Doomsday Clock,” a symbolic clock created in 1947 to measure the threat of nuclear war, I was compelled to build a similar mechanism to accurately track Aspen’s demise. It will follow the same scale of measurement used by the original Doomsday clock. When the clock strikes midnight, well, as Prince once said, “Party over, it’s out of time.” I call my creation “Aspen’s Doomsday Clock.”

Continue Reading 4 comments January 27th, 2007

X Games Weekend Event Schedule

Saturday, January 27, 2007

8 a.m. - 12 p.m. Snowboard SuperPipe Men's Practice
9 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. Snowboard Slopestyle Men's & Women's Practice
9 a.m. - 10:45 a.m. Snowboard Snowboarder X Men's & Women's Practice
9:30 a.m. - 10:30 p.m. Snowmobile SnoCross Practice
10:30 a.m. - 12 p.m. Snowboard Slopestyle Women's Final
11 p.m. - 12:30 p.m. Snowboard Snowboarder X Men's & Women's Final*
12 p.m. - 12:45 p.m. Snowboard Slopestyle Men's Practice
12:45 p.m. - 2 p.m. Snowboard Slopestyle Men's Final
12:30 p.m. - 1 p.m. Snowmobile SnoCross Round 2
2 p.m. - 4 p.m. Skiing Slopestyle Practice
2 p.m. - 4 p.m. Sit-Skier X (Men's & Women's Combined) Final
4 p.m. - 5:45 p.m. Snowboard SuperPipe Men's Practice
4:30 p.m. - 6 p.m. Snowboard Best Trick Showdown Practice
5 p.m. - 6 p.m. Snowmobile SnoCross Practice
6 p.m. - 8:15 p.m. Snowboard SuperPipe Men's Elimination
8:15 p.m. - 9 p.m. Snowmobile SnoCross Final

Continue Reading 1 comment January 27th, 2007

Young, drunk and smoking.

“I’m so glad I’m not young, drunk and smoking anymore.” I said this to my friend last night right after I walked into Bar Aspen and found myself greeted at the top of the stairs by a young, drunk, smoking woman. I took one look at her and shuddered. I’ve been that girl.

Continue Reading 2 comments January 25th, 2007

Laugh Your Aspen Off Returns to Aspen Saturday, Feb. 10 to Play 503-seat Wheeler Opera House

ASPEN – Ten local standup comics return to Pitkin County Saturday, Feb. 10th at the Wheeler Opera House to share original insights into life, love, work and play in the Roaring Fork Valley. Following their debut with two standing-room-only shows at the Aspen Eagles Club in October, the Laugh Your Aspen Off troupe filled two Carbondale venues in December and January, turning away scores of would-be patrons each time.
“We went to Carbondale on purpose to see if our Aspen angle would play well in a down-valley locale,” says Clifford Fewel, founder, producer and comic/emcee of Laugh Your Aspen Off. “The positive response overwhelmed us, just as our unique local comedy caught many by surprise for its honesty, accessibility and fearlessness.”

Continue Reading 3 comments January 25th, 2007

Aspen Made For Television

Aspen, in the context of ESPN, is little more than a set for something that the latest chunk of visitors to define us for the world. Like it or not, what people see over the next set of days is what they will get when it comes to Aspen. Like retirees angling for an ogle of Jack Nicholson, the young and the nestless will have a chance to make Aspen their own.

Perhaps malleability is our most pungent trait. People who come to Aspen are slackers of the most obvious sort--a fashionista snapshot in time--and I'm not just talng about evergreen boys who keep their voices and their pants low. A man of means can do his own slacking in a Lacoste shirt: the whole lot of them are at a point in their lives where they don't have to worry so much what the world thinks--until they leave town.

But here's the rub. We provide the set but we let others provide the action.

Continue Reading 1 comment January 25th, 2007