From hula hoops in the air to painted tiles on the wall, to detailed etchings and gigantic geometric designs, and pictures of India and shattered windshields...my first First Friday at the Art Walk on Santa Fe Drive in Denver, Colorado, was fantastic. Why haven't I done this sooner? Between the art, the people watching, the great company and the lunchboxes, I hope my second First Friday is just as fun!
I'm trying a new thing this year...the whole "weekend warrior," thing. Like many other professionals in Denver, I will have to earn my turns. There will be long drives and crowded lift lines; full-priced meals and plenty of couch surfing.
I've traded in my winter snowboard life to work in the confines of a cubicle! Though the space is uninspiring, the work is interesting, my coworkers are fantastic, and the opportunity is immense.
Needless to say, I'm gonna fight for my time on the hill. I have my cake and I will eat it too. Here goes round one:
Thanksgiving with my family... Thanksgiving with my friends... A latenight at Whisky Jacks...introducing DJ DoBoi!!! Open Mic Night at Loaded Joes Teaching at The Beav (much like her instructor, Cassidy is a star on TV8!) Vail's Trainer's Training And chilling at usual hangout...Mezzaluna! See you again around the holidays...
From five pound gummy bears to chocolate covered crickets, to 686 pound candy deliveries and an entire cubical dedicated to "food," let me just say for the record, working for the Food Network has it's perks...
Here are a few behind the scenes shots at Unwrapped.
It's a fun bunch...PHO SHO! We are a little addicted to Pho and Boba tea... It's peanut butter boba time:
Now, I'm not the type who likes to go out looking like a zombie, but when I heard through the grapevine that Denver would be attacked by a flash mob performing Thriller on Halloween night, I was nothing but game.
For four Sundays, my friend Virginia and I joined dozens of Denverites in a small downtown dance space. We were just one of many fleets of zombie wannabes, thirsty to master MJ's moves.
It takes commitment to become a zombie. Many have tried. Many have failed. We were out for blood.
We stood stiffly in the front row, mastering zombie crawls and shoulder twitches week after week. We learned pelvic thrusts, and head tilts, fancy footwork, and striking poses. By the end, we danced like the dead and were well prepared to stun Denver dwellers on Halloween night.
Maybe you've heard of a "flash mob" before. Like when The Black Eyed Peas performed "I've got a feeling" on Michigan Avenue to kick-off Oprah's 24th season. I got chills watching one enthusiastic fan electrify a crowd of 20,000 to all dance in sync...now that's freaking cool.
Jayne and I discovered a flash-mob while walking through Liverpool Station in London. Dozens and dozens of people were dancing to the beat of their own drum; to the music on their own iPods!
My friend John pointed me to some scholarly research on the topic, an article by Bill Waisk out of Harpers Magazine, which defines a flash mob as "a public gathering of complete strangers, organized via the Internet or mobile phone, who perform a pointless act and then disperse again."
It has been something as simple as pre-arranging a bunch of strangers to look up to the sky at a precise moment.
I had imagined our flash mob would go like this: a bunch of random zombies would come from all sides of the city and unite at the D & F tower at dusk. When the clock strikes 5:30, music would blare from the loudspeakers across Skyline Park, signaling hundreds of zombies to dance in unison to surprise an unsuspecting crowd. Doesn't that sound cool!
Now, while our attempt at a flash mob was a little less "flash-mob-y" as expected (the roped off dance area, the awaiting crowd, and the media attention made it feel more like an outdoor dance performance than a true "flash mob"), it was still pretty cool. When else can you do something as random as dance in unison with two hundred other strangers to Michael Jackson's Thriller, and then scatter into the abyss? If you weren't there, you will never know!
