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Mantis Belay at Golden Cliffs
It seems to be the season of the Praying Mantis at Golden Cliffs. They’ve turned Golden, like the scrubby hillside weeds. Ann met one along the trail, then another came up to watch us climb and kindly offered to belay Sean. Climbs of the day: Big Dihedral 5.8 (A very fun trad lead!), Deck Chairs…
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Movie: A Very Long Engagement (2004)
This movie lines up five distinctive characters in a row, gives you all their names, then proceeds to mix them all up in a dizzying fashion, like a cinematic shell game. Your task is follow the one with the German boots. Or the psychotic girlfriend. Or the red mitten … ack! I’m afraid I failed,…
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Book: Under the Banner of Heaven / Jon Krakauer
I must admit, I was attracted to this book by hopes that it would expand on some of the crazy-sounding stories I’d heard about Momonism and especially its founder, Joseph Smith. The book delivers that, to be certain, with the same meticulous, almost obsessive reasearch Krakauer displayed in Into the Wild. And while the author…
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Movie: Nell (1994)
Jodie Foster plays a sort of female Tarzan of the Appalachians. She does a great job, and there are a lot of interesting elements in the story. I especially liked the idea that a person in a small, isolated place would naturally live almost entirely in the moment, far more present than most of us.…
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Vedauwoo – Fall Wall earns its name
We figured it would be a cold, short day, perhaps the last of the season at Vedauwoo. We end up climbing under a hot sun, of course. We bring our friend Sean to the Fall Wall area to indroduce him to slab climbing on our favorites, Easy Friction 5.4, Easy Lieback 5.5, Cold Fingers 5.7,…
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Movie: Gone With The Wind (1939)
Oh my … great balls of fire. We were sort of on a mission to watch this, having probably missed a dozen references to it for every one we were aware of. It definitely exposed me as a damn yankee, totally unable to call up any sentimentality for the grand days of the old south.…
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Arthur’s Rock
Meeting up with friends has been difficult lately, it seems like we’re all plugged completely into our own separate worlds. Arthur’s Rock provides the perfect break to get away from it all in a few hours with our friends Jason & Sarada, who we haven’t seen since their wedding. The rose hips are finally starting…
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Movie: Kinsey (2004)
Watching this movie feels a little like being the subject of a scientific sex study. You learn from the experience, perhaps realize that what you have learned is going to change the world, and feel sapped by examining your sexuality through the eyes of a science that has no regard for what it means to…
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Lost Creek
Our search for some for fall color is rewarded! Dad and I have a blissful hike around Lost Creek, west of Evergreen. Once we’re a couple of miles in there are surprisingly few people, the trails are nice, and the scenery gorgeous. I took a bunch of pictures. More Photos
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Live Music: CSO plays Orff’s Carmina Burana
This is one of my favorite pieces of music, definitely my favorite choral piece. Based on a collection of secular poems collected by the monks of a Bavarian monastery in the 18th century, it sounds to me almost like a satire of Wagner, very funny, while still supplying a dizzying array of excellent music and…