The Con Man decries the "Nucons"--the nuclear conservatives--then welcomes Aspen Music Festival and School CEO Alan Fletcher for a wide-ranging discussion of the meaning of music, his own composing, and "storytelling" to come in the summer 2008 season.
Click here for "Con Games with Michael Conniff" for Wednesday June 18, 2008.
Add comment June 18th, 2008
As soon as the food was gone, the chicks would immediately fall silent and settle back down to sleep. And I’d go back to work. I quickly became addicted to observing the new family, picking up my binoculars a dozen times or more each day. I cherished this routine and the rare opportunity to observe nature’s wonder at such convenience.
Within a week, the chicks began to develop their adult feathers, or ‘fledge’ as it’s called in the birding community. I anticipated watching them learn to fly; jumping out of the nest onto the thickly needled branches of their spruce abode, awkwardly testing their new wings as mom and dad encouraged them to explore the outer branches and eventually take that big leap. But it didn’t happen that way at all. One day they were there and the next day, they were gone.
Continue Reading 1 comment June 18th, 2008
Highlights of Ideas Festival sessions open to the public (tickets required) include:
· US Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff in conversation with The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg
· Alice Waters in conversation with The Atlantic’s Corby Kummer, with dessert served from her cookbook
· Award-winning National Geographic photographer James Balog exploring ice on the run in his “Extreme Ice Survey”
· A global perspective on the US elections from Der Tagesspiegel’s Christoph von Marschall, Ha'aretz’s Ari Shavit, Edward Luce of the Financial Times, and others
· A talk with four young, resilient survivors of genocide, war, and gang violence, moderated by playwright and actor Anna Deavere Smith.
Continue Reading Add comment June 17th, 2008
We all know the neoconservatives would stop at nothing—war, famine, pestilence—to have their way in the Middle East based on a philosophy resistant to any and all strains of common sense. Nuclear weapons are not only on the table: neocons are busy sharpening the silverware.
But conservatives remain hopelessly out to lunch when it comes to energy and the environment, shackled to the slavish and self-defeating notion that Ready, Drill, Aim represents a roadmap for the future. With an historical abhorrence of alternative energy—hydro, solar, and wind are for liberal windbags—conservatives of all kinds have been haplessly, helplessly, hopelessly looking for a way to at least appear as if they have a plan for energy sustenance wherein oil and natural gas are nothing more than side dishes.
Continue Reading Add comment June 16th, 2008
The thing I love most about the Food and Wine festival here in Aspen is the famous people I’ve never heard of and would not know from Adam. It’s like going to the Super Bowl with no clue about frozen tundra—you should have stood in bed instead of taking up space in the stands.
A couple years back I was saving a chair at the Hotel Jerome for my fiancée when a woman took the chair for her husband without asking. She said something that indicated her husband was some kind of a big deal in the world of food, but I could not have cared less if he were Wolfgang Puck. It was our chair. I had saved the seat under the universal law found in the Constitution that decrees all men are created equal no matter how nifty you might be with pulled pork and coleslaw.
Continue Reading Add comment June 15th, 2008
The Food & Wine Classic has begun in Aspen and this year the libations are flowing with gusto while the food has left me hungry. Last night I attended the Wines from Spain soiree held at a private home where I chatted with chef Jose Andres. He was funny and truly engaging. The main dish at the soiree was “Paella” a Spanish version of jambalaya. His crew struggled with the altitude to find a boiling point to make the Paella and it showed in the dish … that being said the chef on the grill kept the party hopping with his chorizo sausage sandwich best described as a “Braut with a tasty bite”. I can’t wait to make those at home!
Continue Reading Add comment June 13th, 2008
I cannot help noticing lately how the prices on gasoline are up (WAY up!) and the usual political election year rhetoric is again escalating on how the other side is responsible for what's going on, including more major Bush-bashing. I have never been a Bush fan, but it's just getting more and more ridiculous as time goes on to the point of being ad nauseum.
Continue Reading Add comment June 11th, 2008
An astounding 35.5 million Americans and 17 percent of our children live with hunger daily. On top of that 28 million Americans live on food stamps. Last week, Brian Williams showed an 18 percent rise in food bank use by middle class Americans.
Continue Reading 1 comment June 5th, 2008
From: Scott Chaplin
Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2008 10:25:03 -0700
Hello Friends and Neighbors,
I am strongly urging all of you who live in Garfield County (as well as those of you in neighboring counties who care about the future of the region) to come the the River Valley Ranch House in Carbondale this Friday at 5:30 pm. County Commissioner candidates Steve Carter and Steve Bershenyi will be on hand to introduce their platforms and answer questions.
I would consider this race to be one of the most important local political races in recent history in Western Colorado. It is also one of the most exciting because we have the potential to bring about one of the most profound political changes in over 30 years for our area. Garfield County politics has been dominated by a variety of Republicans who have almost blindly supported any and all demands from the gas industry. This has resulting in a great deal of environmental degradation that will continue haunting the County for years to come. The County leaders have also done little to support intelligent growth management, affordable housing or public transportation; just to name a few important causes.
Continue Reading 1 comment June 3rd, 2008
In a land of plenty, the worst thing you can become is that guy—that nerdy guy who runs around turning off lights and (worse) telling everyone he knows to turn off the damn lights or the air conditioner or the sauna or whatever.
I’ve become that guy.
Pleased to meet you.
What does it mean to be that guy? One of the good things about being that guy is that we love questions like that because it gives us the chance to spout off about peak oil and electric cars and solar power. The bad thing is that everyone ends up hating you, because you have become that guy who rags on everybody who things energy is still el cheapo.
Continue Reading 17 comments May 29th, 2008
