You’ve got to love Aspen. I know I do. And if you love something you can’t ever really leave it—right? I mean how many towns will flat out buy the only movie theater in town just because not enough people go to the movies? That’s Aspen for you and you’ve got to love it.
Or leave it—if you can just beat the traffic.
Continue Reading 1 comment February 2nd, 2007
Don't forget the whole idea of the Aspen Institute to begin with was "the Aspen Ideas as the cross-fertilization of minds." Co-founder Walter Paepcke's idea of the Idea was to bring together the best noggins across all kinds of disciplines--including the arts--and allow them to hammer away.
The Aspen Ideas Festival is, of course, that very idea made manifest in a conference now steaming into its third year. But Aspen resident Ken Adelman, the former United Nations ambassador and noted neoconservative, has also taken the notion of cross-fertilization into his beloved realm of the arts.
Continue Reading 1 comment January 22nd, 2007
Is there a better place for theater in the United States than the Roaring Fork Valley? Start at the top of the big top with Theatre Aspen. Segue down to Carbondale for the Thunder River Theatre Company. Detour immediately for The Hudson-Reed Ensemble founded by Kent Reed, the original founder of the Theatre in the Park that begat Theatre Aspen. Add Aspen Community Theatre and the local black box productions and you're in heaven.
But don't forget Theater Masters, the local non-profit based in Aspen that "seeks to nurture the development of new works for the theater, to encourage the youth in our valley to express their thoughts and ideas through play writing, to foster the growth of the next generation of artists for the American Theatre, and to enhance audience understanding of and support for theater."
Continue Reading Add comment January 21st, 2007
"I'm a nobody," said the musician, "but he just dropped like a million names on me."
Like who? he was asked.
"Like everyone," the musician said. "Like every musician you ever heard of and everybody else."
The name-dropper in question at Syzygy in downtown Aspen Saturday night was none other than Chevy Chase, the "Saturday Night Live" comic from the first season of the show who became famous with every President Ford pratfall. The irony is that a famous person in Aspen over Christmas was acting like a not-so-famous person trying to impress a famous person. Or something like that.
The point being that Aspen is lousy with celebrities, cowboy hats, corporate jets, and fur coats from Christmas to New Year's Day. Then they go away. But what they leave behind, after just a week's work, is Aspen's reputations for stars, cowboy hats, corporate jets, and fur coats.
Continue Reading 1 comment January 1st, 2007
I know a food empire when I can taste it, and there's no other way to look at what Chef Matt Zubrod is on the verge of pulling off in Aspen. While the other culinary artistes who walk among us are invariably happy with a place (or two) to call their own, leave it to Zubrod to pull off a trifecta of tastes and price points.
Continue Reading 6 comments December 8th, 2006
ASPEN HIGHLANDS, COLORADO (Post Time News)--Does the "Z" in ZG stand for Zubrod?
That's a reasonable question considering former Ritz-Carlton Aspen Highlands chef Matt Zubrod, a James Beard nominee, has now planted the flag in his third location around town, at ZG Grill in Aspen Highlands. Zubrod, to be featured on "Iron Chef" on the Food Network in winter 2007, opened DishAspen in Downtown Aspen with Mitchell Sher and Crust Restaurant, a Highlands pizza place with Graham Frandson.
Frandson is also the owner of ZG Grill, where Zubrod's joint will replace Iguana's Bar & Grill, the Mexican place famous for Highlands apres-ski. ZG Grill puts Zubrod a short huck from his former outpost at the Ritz Highlands, at the base of the Aspen Highlands ski area owned by Aspen Skiing Company.
Continue Reading 1 comment November 23rd, 2006
DENVER, COLORADO (Post Time News)--Aspen Skiing Company (SkiCo) is not the only resort company in Colorado trying to keep it green. Of the 26 resorts in the state, "almost all of them are launching some kind of 'green' initiative," according to a story by reporter Julie Dunn.
Continue Reading Add comment November 20th, 2006
ASPEN, COLORADO (Post Time News)--The newly rechristened Aspen Film--nee Aspen Filmfest is out of the gate once again with a full slate of Oscar hopefuls for the 16th annual Academy Film Screenings. The two-week filmic smackdown runs from December 18, 2006, to January 1, 2007, at Harris Concert Hall with a look-see at features, documentaries, and performances sure to figure prominently at the 2007 Academy Awards.
Continue Reading Add comment November 20th, 2006
Paul Menter: Everything in Aspen is more acute than everywhere I’ve worked. People are more passionate and more caring. People care more because this is a place that attracts independent people and independent thought.
Philip Popkin: People feel that they have an investment here. They feel like they’re stewards.
PM: Absolutely. And there’s no question that makes it harder. The issues are more complex and complicated. People scream at each other, but in the end, they don’t hate each other. They’re able to understand they’re all in it together, and that’s different than other places.
Continue Reading Add comment November 13th, 2006
ASPEN, COLORADO (Post Time News)--The Aspen Institute succumbed to the obvious success of its first two Aspen Ideas Festivals to do by giving a green light to a third in summer 2007.
Continue Reading Add comment November 6th, 2006
