gold day

so these are some of the shots from our trip up to golden yesterday. as you can see, i became obsessed with the suspension bridge and how it hung in the sky when the sun was setting. it set up this amazing shot with the clouds moving in the background. i took about twelve shots or more just of that. color/black and white and i zoomed in and out. i think i might put them all together in one frame and just different variations of the same shot. we'll see. anyway, hope you guys like them.

hotel california

today i'm heading out to california to stay at the terranea resort. the place looks amazing. i'm going to take my real camera and hopefully come back with some amazing shots. speaking of that, we took off to golden yesterday and hit up the small backyard brewery and than walked the stream in the middle of town. golden is a photogenic town. i'm going to post some of the shots from yesterday. i got some good ones.

also last night demitria and i hit up this bar by the house and dove head first into the trivia contest for the night. we battled most teams that were five or six people deep. we had only two. and we came in second place. we were leading most of the game, but there is a way to double your score from a round and we used ours early because we didn't know how long the game went. i thought we did great. two people and we took down most of the bar. we won $20, of course you have to spend it there, but who cares! big money!

snowbirds

last night i got home kind of late from work. it was rainy and cold. i didn't want to go anywhere. so we took the cushions off the couch and watched netflix for two hours. after that i was ready to go to bed, but we thought it would be fun to check to see if it had snowed yet. it was snowing like crazy! the ground was still warm, so it was only sticking in the trees and on the grass. we turned out all the lights and sat and watched the snow fall for about thirty minutes before finally going to bed. watching the snow fall is extremely peaceful. it's quiet. it's white. it adds this beautiful blanket to the neighborhood. we're supposed to get more tonight and tomorrow. i hope we get six feet of snow. we'll sit inside, drink hot coffee and watch the flakes pile up around us. no better place to be.

welcome to the working week

the trip is over. we're back from our texas vacation. saw family, friends and got down at demitria's little brother's wedding. it was a great trip. it really was. but now it's back to the grind. and it really is beginning to become a grind.

next week i head out to california for a company pep rally. i'm not looking forward to it. but it will probably be the last trip i take until next spring. by then, i'll be ready to travel again. for now, i'm ready to stay home and get back in shape.

my world series pick of rangers versus dodgers did not materialize. the giants and tigers will fight for the crown. i'm going with the giants. i don't know how they keep doing it, but they do. and they'll be coming into the series with some adrenaline after the seven game series with the cards. you can count on the tigers winning all the games verlander pitches though. that dude is a stud. like cliff lee a few years ago.

hopefully i'll have more pictures soon. i'll probably take my camera with me to california. and a jacket. and a hat. and pants.

kill our friends tonight and bury them out of sight

joe sampson is one of the denver artists featured at the iceland concert/thing we went to a couple weeks ago. he played this song that night and it's been partially stuck in my head ever since. it's not the most amazing thing ever, but it's simple and straightforward and i really dig the lyrics. enjoy.

gobbledigook

iceland. it was back this weekend. denver hosted a reykjavik centric concert on saturday night and a film festival on sunday. we listened to icelandic bands and some of them were great. they were paired with denver singer/songwriters and some of them were great too. i actually met one dude and talked to him. he had this elvis perkins/fleet foxes vibe without the mountain man look. anyway, really nice guy. i bought one of his shirts. it has a fox's face on it. the night wolf! those of you who've come to visit will recognize the night wolf's face. i really enjoyed all of it. the music. the movie. before the movie on sunday was a promotional video to visit iceland. i saw it and wished i was there again. i don't think i've ever visited somewhere that felt as alive and as vibrant, but alone and isolated as iceland. the ground shakes and rumbles. it's alive. but the people are just there. a world away. i miss it. i wish i could get back there as soon as possible.

if you're interested, from iceland was lay low, mugison, petur ben and soley. from denver was joe sampson, julie davis, erin roberts and patrick dethlefs. patrick is the guy i met and bought his shirt.

here's a song from joe sampson. that's him at twist and shout. i saw him at the gothic theatre. cool place, but it smelled like feet. like old shoes.

it felt good to listen to and see iceland again. it's a new/old friend of mine. i'll see it again. soon. and maybe someday, i'll live there. we'll see.

hello seattle

i dig seattle. i could live in seattle. the weather can be a bit spotty, but when it's nice, like it was this week, it's a beautiful waterfront city. the farmer's market, where they sell tons of fish, produce, flowers. it's just amazing. the football stadium is nice with safeco, the baseball stadium, literally right behind it. i was up there for two days this week. on thursday night, we went to the stanford vs. washington game. washington upset the cardinals and the place went nuts. the bottom picture is everyone rushing the field after they won. it was awesome. great place, great city. glad i'm home though.

eyes of texas, pt. 2

i almost called this one. if only ben tate could have hung onto the ball and then of course the texans couldn't have scored because that would have ruined my prediction as well, but anyway, the final score was 31-25. way too close for me, but a win's a win. 3-0 for the first time ever in franchise history. the schedule doesn't let up in the next few weeks. i won't think about that right now. i'll enjoy the fact that we are the only undefeated team in the AFC. let's keep it going.

the eyes of texas

this is literally the biggest day in the history of the world. the texans will defeat peyton manning and the denver broncos. no wait, humiliate peyton manning and the broncos. no wait, annihilate peyton manning and the broncos.

i went to two stores this morning to try and buy a texans hat and i was laughed out of both. no texans gear. they really don't like the texans in this state. i mean the people, the state, the teams. all of the above. that's fine. we'll play a game of football and settle it all today.

the denver broncos helped to steal my childhood. the houston oilers were ahead 24-23 with about two minutes left. john freakin' elway converted two fourth down opportunities. then to end it, he hit vance johnson for a 44-yard touchdown. this was 1991. i was eleven. that's when i learned the good guys don't always win. and that stung. now it's mr. elway's time to cry at the hands of houston texans.

prediction: texans 32, broncos 13. it's close for most of the game before the texans pile it on in the fourth quarter with some choice broncos turnovers. 

misty mountain hop

pete came to town and we hit up some awesome spots around colorado. we hunted down the elk in the rocky mountain national forest. we hiked up to nymph lake inside the national forest. the lilly pads were a nice edition to the scenery. after that, we drove to colorado springs and took pictures of the rock formations at the garden of the gods. we were parched so we headed downtown and took pictures around denver, including the brewery, the train tower, the backside of the ice house and a little scene inside a bowl inside a glass case. the next day we drove almost to the top of mount evans. but we stopped short and took in some breathtaking views. the yellow ash trees are sprinkled in among the landscape. it looks like a bob ross painting. how he would add his 'little yellow' trees wherever in the landscape. it was a great weekend. i enjoyed it and pete enjoyed it and i hope he comes back soon.

also while we were in estes park hanging around the stanley hotel, i ran into my good friend john oliver.  i introduced myself and shook his hand. i don't think he'd heard of me.

the revolution will not be televised

five seconds

so the smart guys at the bluebird wouldn't let me take in my new awesome camera for the concert last weekend. i had to revert back to the phone camera. the show was great. twin shadow's first album was one i listened to endlessly when i first moved to denver and didn't have a job. so i would drive around town and pick up stuff from target or home depot we needed and listen to it. the second album is better than the first, which is a good sign for an artist.

in other news, pete's in town and we're going to hit up some mountain towns today. i'm taking my real camera, so look for pictures to come.

start me up

today is opening sunday. football is back. wednesday's game is like the opening of baseball in japan a week before the start of the real season. today is the real opener, so i still have time to make predictions. the predictions are easy this year. for the super bowl finale, they went like this:

houston vs. san fransisco
houston vs. new orleans
houston vs. chicago
houston vs. green bay

and thats's where it settled. the houston texans will play the green bay packers in the super bowl. i've been watching football since about 1986 and i've never seen a houston football team in the super bowl. i've seen us blow leads to denver (vance johnson), buffalo (frank reich) and kansas city (joe freakin! montana). the run and shoot brought me nothing but misery. warren moon, drew hill, lorenzo white, ernest givens. those guys didn't make it happen. video game wise they were amazing. the houston oilers won about a dozen tecmo super bowl championships. for some reason, those aren't as celebrated as real super bowls victories.

schaub, johnson, foster. these are the names that will bring us a real super bowl. go ahead and print the hats, the shirts, the sweatpants, the oversized jackets. it's time for houston to make their first super bowl appearance. 

golden light, pt. 2

golden light

seven year ache

the holiday weekend was one of travel, music and beer. saturday we hit up a "chili" festival, thinking we'd have sumptuous cups of chili to taste and eat. however, the folks in castle rock take their peppers seriously and the chili/chile festival was one only highlighting different types of peppers. cool right? but we were expecting chili as well. so we left pretty hungry.

the next day we took off for copper mountain. those are the pictures above with the exception of sofie sleeping in my workout bag and the blue moon we saw last week.  roseanne cash and the mavericks played at copper mountain. it was really a great show and the temperature was like 50 degrees or something. it was chilly. and fantastic. we had so much fun. our road trips into the mountains are probably going to get slim as we head into winter, so we were really overjoyed to get back out to the mountains. i had never known of the mavericks, but they put on a great show. it was energetic and cheerful. roseanne cash played a couple johnny cash songs, which was nice.

overall we had a great weekend. twin shadow is coming to the bluebird this friday. i'm going to try and get some awesome shots of the show. stay tuned!

sing another song, boys

i'm always fascinated at what makes some things popular and some fade away into obscurity. turbo graphics 16 didn't cut it. nintendo did. beta didn't cut it. vhs did. hd dvd is out. blu ray is in.

but these are all examples of technology. why is big star not bigger than three dog night? why is brian eno only mentioned when discussing u2? but we talk ad nauseum about elton john who never wrote a single lyric. scott walker? never a mention.

and this guy. leonard cohen. when are we all going to stand up together and nominate leonard cohen to be added to the mount rushmore of rock along with bobby dylan, lou reed and brian wilson? (the beatles have their own rock formation across the street).

this is his official nomination. leonard, i've stood by too long. there are artists that fade into my past and others that grow with me, marching slowly with me to my constantly unwinding clock. and leonard, i appreciate it.

settled down like rain

these are some of the early returns of the new camera. there are some pretty cool effects settings that i was messing around with this weekend. it's pretty obvious which of the pictures above are the effects ones. i was shocked at how much i could zoom in and see the moon. the camera has a 42X optimal zoom which is incredible. i like to zoom in which is evident from the above shots. hopefully i'll keep getting better and taking more and more interesting shots. mountains and huge landscapes puzzle me though. i have no idea how to do the scene justice in the camera. i need to work on that a lot. anyway, check them out.