In America, with hundreds of different ethnic groups, especially black, white, brown, red and yellow, we exist in a tenuous but tolerant dance guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
It’s not been easy with Jim Crow Laws, the KKK, Watts Riots, separate but equal, anger of Malcolm X, white flight to the suburbs, smoldering and seething ghettoes and Pastor Jeremiah Wright in Chicago with “God D*** America….”
In 1965, Senator Teddy Kennedy created an even more tense society by immigrating millions from incompatible cultures that now call America home: Muslims, Hmongs, Koreans, Somalians, Ethiopians, etc. Additionally, he created even greater racial tension from competing and growing cultures that fail to assimilate into America as Americans.
We now designate Muslim-Americans, African-Americans, Russian-Americans, Mexican-Americans, while our national identity drains into confusion and tension.
This week, in D Magazine, Texas journalist Trey Garrison wrote a piece titled: “Why I don't want diversity in my neighborhood.”
Oh my goodness, It is official! I got my new dishwasher installed and my health Inspection and now I am officially open to serve you the rest of the summer with a 4-course Saturday Supper and a Sunday
Brunch every Weekend, so come on over soon! Thanks, Dava
From the Top, the non-profit known for its hit radio and television broadcasts featuring the nation’s best young classical musicians and hosted by acclaimed concert pianist Christopher O’Riley, returns to the Aspen Music Festival and School for a live concert recording in Harris Concert Hall on Sunday, August 10 at 8 p.m. This episode is slated to broadcast nationally the week of November 17, 2008.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice joins the Aspen Music Festival and School and the Aspen Institute in an afternoon of “Words and Music,” Saturday, August 2, at 3 pm in the Benedict Music Tent. The event will begin with a conversation between Secretary Rice and Aspen Institute President and CEO Walter Isaacson followed by a question-and-answer session with the audience. Afterwards, Secretary Rice will be joined by current Aspen Music Festival and School music students to perform two chamber music works.
The Burlingame affordable housing mess got messier this week when the City of Aspen issued a press release saying two internal inquiries, by a consulting firm and a Certified Public Accountants, exonerated Aspen City Council and City officials--an assertion the City had to retract the very next day in a clarifying press release with corrections.
The discrepancy is significant because both the Aspen Daily News and the Aspen Times ran stories based on the incorrect conclusions put forth in the press release. The Daily News headline read: "Burlingame Probe Clears City of Aspen." The Times reported "Audits Clear City In Burlingame Error."
The Con Man talks about his meeting with "The Dark Knight" at the multiplex, and his flap with Uma Thurman's father, Professor Robert Thurman of Columbia, about the violence in Quentin Tarantino's movies. Also: handicapping McCain-Obama.
The Aspen Music Festival and School and Aspen Santa Fe Ballet are collaborating again this year, presenting another very special night of dance and music, Wednesday, August 6 in the Benedict Music Tent, this time accompanied by a full, live orchestra. The program will feature 1st Flash, choreographed by Finland’s Jorma Elo and danced to Finnish composer Jean Sibelius’ achingly beautiful Violin Concerto in D Minor, and Wolfgang by noted choreographer David Parsons, a witty and exuberant dance that highlights the playful music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Can’t think of a better news hook than the Dalai Lama’s visit to Aspen to talk about violence in the movies of Quentin Tarantino. Call me crazy and I’ll zip your head off with the sword I just stole from The Bride.
I’m in the genius camp when it comes to Tarantino, the auteur of “Reservoir Dogs,” “Kill Bill,” and even the lessermost “Jackie Brown,” all with their heavy doses of patter and splatter. But I never thought of him as anti-violent until Uma Thurman’s father came on my “Con Games” radio show in Aspen to lead me monkishly down the path of virtue.
It turns out Robert Thurman, the author of “Why The Dalai Lama Matters” is not only a professor of Indo-Tibetan matters at Columbia University but also the very first Tibetan monk to come from America: he was ordained as a mendicant in the mid-1960s before he opted out for the more secular life of a scholar. In the bargain he fathered Uma, the actress most associated with Tarantino’s voluminous “Kill Bill” movies, both Volumes I and II.
This weekend, the Aspen Institute welcomed the Dalai Lama as its keynote speaker for a symposium on Tibetan culture, art, science, and spiritualism. Keith Hemstreet caught up with His Holiness for a brief interview at the J-Bar.
Dorothy was right, but admittedly spoiled DrBill, like the rest of us Valley residents, know that it's not about Kansas. Jeez, it gets hot here. Humid too but that has been relatively inconsistent, the humid part anyway. I've settled in a bit, have stopped complaining about the insanely aggressive KC drivers, though I just got one more "dig" in, didn't I? I've gotten lost or at least disoriented a few times driving without mountains or a river as reference point. Pretty embarrassing for a guy who claims an innate sense of direction no matter where he is. Must be the Lyme.
