The Con Man gets a visit from Lt. Colonel Dick Merrit and Seaman Dan Glidden, two retired veterans who stand for all that's good about those who have served the country. Also: a bit of a rant of flag lapel pins and taking back the lapel flag pin--and the flags--from those who desecrate it with faux patriotism.
Click here for the complete "Con Games with Michael Conniff" for Memorial Day May 28, 2008.
1 comment May 26th, 2008
Aspen Community Theatre is offering a free dance workshop hosted by Marisa Post, the director and choreographer for Aspen Community Theatre’s fall musical, Chicago. Synonymous with the show Chicago is the name of its brilliant director and choreographer Bob Fosse. Highly stylized, this dance class will explore the essential ingredients in the choreography of Fosse, including his dance roots in vaudeville, burlesque and jazz. The workshop will include a film history of vaudeville and burlesque, a session on how to follow choreography, culminating in a dance class designed to pull it all together. This class is perfect for actors, singers and dancers of all experience levels.
Continue Reading Add comment May 18th, 2008
For far too long, conservatives have made political hay with the notion that they are the party of ideas and the party of values—even as they’ve held a far too timid opposition at bay for having neither.
Enough, already.
The free ride is over: conservatives have not had a new idea since The Gipper left office, and it’s about time we saw their “values” for what they really are—anti-American.
Continue Reading 53 comments May 12th, 2008
The spendthrift Aspen City Council has already run through the money in the affordable housing fund by paying multiples of what properties are actually worth. Now Council has raised the hilarity to a new level by trying to come up with another $23.5 million "to pay for extra costs that have crept up in recent months," according to an uncritical and unquestioning story in The Aspen Times.
"The additional expenses will take the 2008 budget from $104.7 million to $128.2 million in expenditure appropriations," according to the paper. "The additions to the budget are routine and occur a few times a year, said Assistant City Manager Bentley Henderson."
Routine? When the Aspen budget exceeded $100 million for the first time a few years ago it was big news, but now a more than 20 percent increase in mid-year is considered "routine"?
Continue Reading 2 comments April 28th, 2008
One of the people at the newspaper who hired me when I came to Aspen five years ago told me about “the tractor beam effect.”
That’s a poetic way of saying that once people leave Aspen they always come back, inexorably drawn to the mountains, the valley, the rivers, and certain ineffable things that have no name.
True enough: all of that speaks to why we’re so lucky to be here. But it’s also another way of saying people leave—they leave all the time—and that we’ve experienced this directly and personally. At least three key people, great friends, will no longer live here full-time come 2009.
Continue Reading 13 comments April 24th, 2008
The party of ideas has descended into potty-mouth Purgatory this primary season—but not to worry.
No matter how wrong or wrong-headed conservatives can be, they never ever take the hit for just being wrong. Being a conservative, in fact, means never having to say you’re sorry whether you’re sorry or not. Mistakes or missteps? They’re for liberals, silly, the movement so ashamed of themselves they duck the word “liberal” like a miscreant priest at Confession.
Continue Reading 4 comments April 22nd, 2008
I continue to hear the arguement that not supporting some idiotic war is unpatriotic -- that somehow such dissent is being against the country. 57,000 dead Americans in Viet Nam (forget the 5million dead Vietnamese) was beneficial. This is a statement that the modern fraudulent incarnations of patriotism expect me to believe and recapitulate. Sorry it will never happen; I am not Winston Smith. Just in case ANY CONSERVATIVE thinks they can, I challenge any of them or anyone else to show me on any map, since 1975 the benefits of that war. Show me.
Continue Reading Add comment April 21st, 2008
Ah the reverend Wright and Ayers (I think that is how it is spelled) along with the good old Weather Underground my my. Poor Obama, what an association. I guess one can imagine Washington, Jefferson, Henry, Paine, Franklin and Adams wanting to have tea instead of throwing a tea party in our world of greatly reduced expectations for the vision of America. Sometimes saying the truth certainly in a venomous way shouldn't be done (Wright). Obviously, doing the things that our founding fathers did in the name of truth justice and the American way shouldn't be done either (Weather Underground using some very rough tactics going against a morally bankrupt government over Viet Nam and civil rights). Examining the veracity of what was said (not all wrong but wrongly said) and why what was done (bombings to stop the Viet Nam War where 57,000+ Americans and 5million Vietnamese died for some idiot reason) is horrifying is beyond reason unless the Nuremburg defense of taking orders suffices. I mean can anyone tell me, point to a map or something or anything to show what was gained in Viet Nam??
Continue Reading Add comment April 17th, 2008
I do not credit the Bush Administration with extraordinary honesty or intelligence. It takes very little of the latter in matters of self preservation -- witness the wildebeast fleeing the marauding lions, the sparrow fleeing the hawk and the grasshopper hopping in flight from the mantis. The Bush Administration was already in very deep trouble before 9-11; the collapse of the capital markets and loss of respect amongst those identified as political pundits.
Continue Reading Add comment April 17th, 2008
Aspen Music Festival and School Director of Educational Outreach Debby Barnekow has been blogging from around the Valley this week. Today is the final day of her in-school residency with guitarist Brad Richter.
As this residency with Brad Richter comes to a close, and we head into the Music and M.O.R.E. concert at 6:30 tonight at Harris Concert Hall, a higher level of intensity was needed to get all of the student groups ready for the performance. Often it is difficult for young people to assess their own potential and abilities. Their performance opportunities are not frequent nor often well attended. I hear young people say to me often that they feel invisible, that adults don't even notice them. I have a most wonderful job that lets me observe their incredible skills, imagination and creativity and hear their powerful solutions to difficult world problems.
Tonight I am proud to not only present Brad Richter with a world premiere among the pieces he will play but to also present students who have worked hard to reach a new plateau in their playing. For some, this is their first time to ever play together in an ensemble.
The past two days we worked with Basalt High School's guitar classes, Aspen Community School's 3rd/4th grade guitarists and Aspen Elementary's 4th grade class, taught by Natalie DeFelice. The high schooler's rearranged their classes in order to have one more extended rehearsal with Brad to perfect their piece-a Led Zeppelin song, Kashmir. ACS guitarists have a Beatle's song, I've Just Seen a Face, that is not often heard. The AES 4th graders worked on perfecting the form of their poem with Brad's music-it will be amazing to hear. I invite you to join us for a wonderful concert- again, the time is 6:30 at Harris Concert Hall.
Add comment April 11th, 2008
