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Movie: Raising Arizona (1987)
Very interesting to watch this Coen brothers’ movie again after seeing many others over the years. It’s absolutely chock full of stuff that I didn’t recognize the first time around, much of which I recognize from movies they made later. There are even direct references to subsequent Coen movies! The slapstick comedy takes place in…
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Name the wild berry
I guessed that these scrumptious-looking berries were probably edible, because when I broke one open the small round seed looked just like the ones in a big pile of bear scat we saw near Greyrock a couple of weeks ago. I didn’t try them, of course. There are a lot of berries in the upper…
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Book: When Nietzsche Wept / Irvin D. Yalom
A bold, inspiring piece of historical fiction. Having the guts to portray the likes of Friedrich Nietzsche, Josef Breuer, and Sigmund Freud is impressive enough, telling a story of the origins of psychoanalysis ups the ante again, and it just keeps going. Not only has Yalom pulled it off, his premise and subtext ring bright…
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Shambhala Mountain Center
We were curious about this Tibetan Buddhist center, and made the hike to the Great Stupa shrine. It’s a strange place, with a few really attractive buildings, this grandiose shrine, some construction trailers, and hordes of white and green canvas tents. We were going to leave with the impression that it’s something between a retreat…
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Bouldering at the 420s
A leisurely day with some leisurely bouldering in the Poudre Canyon. Ann and I both make our fingers pink and raw, arms exhausted. There are wild berries everywhere here, and I wonder if we’ll see more bear sign, but none appears. During the night, however, there is a loud huffing outside our tent that sends…
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Finding a camp site in the Poudre Canyon on Friday night
I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but after we passed our climbing destination for the following day we drove through every campground on the map, all full. Then Ann remembered, “Hey, I used to find a free spot to camp every night last summer.” She pulled out our map book and found some nearby forest…
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Radio Show Taping: Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me
I’d never attended the taping of a media show, radio, tv, or any other type. I was a little worried that the truth would ruin the illusion of a live quiz show. Would there be a big flashing APPLAUSE light?
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Name the big wierd plant
We saw this plant growing by the trail on Long’s Peak just above timberline. It has me stumped so far. I have a guess as to the family it belongs to, but I can’t find anything that seems like a good match in my usual resources. This specimen was nearly three feet tall, and there…
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Movie: Ikiru (1952)
A sentimental but sincere variation on the carpe diem theme by Akira Kurusawa. Beautifully filmed as I’ve come to expect from Kurusawa. I’ve noticed that his films I’ve seen so far all highlight western influences on Japanese culture in various ways. This time we have the western theme, a fairly western soundtrack, and a bureaucratic…
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Long’s Peak
Alan, Michael, and I leave Fort Collins at 2 am for an attempt on Long’s Peak. By 3:15 we’re on the trail, moving by the light of headlamps through the incredibly still, dark, cool morning air. It’s still dark when we reach timberline, and the lights of the front range sprawl are a glowing orange…