The Autumn Film

On Wednesday night, I stopped by the Oriental Theater in Denver with some friends to see a local band called Paper Bird. They were entertaining, but I'd say their eclectic mix of folk-Americana and beautiful women was more of a one-time affair, even for the price ($11). However, I was pleasantly surprised to hear another Denver-area band, The Autumn Film, playing in the run-up to Paper Bird.

The Autumn Film are Tifah Al-Attas on vocals and keyboard (from which I think she simultaneously plays the bass line), Dann Stockton on percussion and Reid Phillips on what I'd describe as mostly rhythm guitar (with some additional keyboard on selected tracks). Imagine Amy Lee from Evanescene singing to a musical mix between Sigur Ros' driving rythms and Coldplay's piano-driven riffs, but without the Euro-wuss factor. Hmmm... Maybe it's just better if you listen to them. Click here to redirect to their free download page, where you can have 8 DRM-free tracks. Their homepage also streams a few tracks not available for free.

Anyway, I liked these guys enough to see them again last night at the Marquis Theater in Denver - that's where the pictures and video (pending) are from. Forgive the poor quality on the video, by the way, because the light was low and the microphone on my camera isn't really designed to pick up the bass coming from the venue's speakers. If you like them, they'll be playing at the Fox Theater in Boulder on 11 December (it's a Thursday night).

Sunny September

Looking northeast from below Evans' summit - most of what's under the clouds is the north Denver metro area.

Fall's here, and with the end of summer comes the best time to get outside and climb some of Colorado's many mountains. The snow is (mostly) gone, the morning air is again quite cold, and the sun shines most of the time. Last night at about 9pm, I decided today - my Labor Day observed - would be spent in the mountains, hopefully after the throngs of 5-day-a-week workers had left the hills and returned to their jobs. I packed a few things into the Subaru and left town at about 10:30, arriving at the top of Guanella Pass by midnight. The freezing temperatures reminded me about how warm my bed probably was - even without me in it - so I blocked out that image and crawled into the back of my car with warm sleeping bag.

Almost to the summit of Bierstadt, I noticed the undercast over Lake Dillon behind me.

When I woke this morning at 5:30, the sky was clear and the condensation on the inside of my windows had turned to frost. I dressed quickly and ate a bit of breakfast before walking down the trail through the dark. No other cars were in either of the two parking lots. I had the mountain to myself.

Greys and Torreys were just to the west.

By the time I started to ascend Mt Bierstadt's western ridge, the cold wind had reduced my ambition to nearly nothing. It wasn't until I reached a high vantage point and saw that the entire Front Range of Colorado was covered in clouds that I realized how lucky I was to have made the post-holiday trip. The undercast sky wasn't limited to the east, however. Lake Dillon and the surrounding valleys were also under cloud cover. South Park was the only large area below 10,000 feet elevation I could see. As the sun rose over Denver and shone warmly against my freezing face, I wondered what everyone must have been thinking waking up to cool, cloudy skies.

Bierstadt Summit.



I reached the summit just before 8am and opened the register. At least two pages were completely filled out yesterday. I looked down to the parking lot - now in the sun - and noticed two other cars had joined mine. But standing there in the breeze I got cold and had to keep moving. By the time I descended and crossed to Mt Evans' western flank, mysterious clouds were billowing up from the drainage below. I wanted to finish my climb so I hiked faster, but by the time I made it to the summit of Evans, I could no longer see the route I'd just hiked. Only brief glimpses to the north and east revealed a still-undercast Front Range and an empty parking lot at the observatory. Thinking it not wise to spend too much time that high, I ate and headed back down to my car. Not a bad holiday.


Evans summit; here come the clouds and cold wind.

Things looked much better by the time I made it back to the car (Bierstadt is upper right).

The DNC: Biden for Pres... Vice President!

Really, for starters (and I know this is deplorably late), you should watch this DNC Orientation video from a comedy troupe here in Denver. If you like jokes about Denver's reputation for being a skiing town full of cowboys and/or our "150 year battle with the Ute Indians," this video is for you.



Playin' it cool at the Nike Store.
As many of you probably noticed - or didn't, I guess - the Democratic National Convention went off without a hitch in Denver last week. Delegates, Super Delegates and thousands of heavily armed police - both local and federal - used plastic handcuffs, armored vehicles (mostly courtesy of Aurora...hmmm...), kind words, and a great deal of intimidation (read as, standing together in lines at least a dozen long on every corner in Denver with fingers just inches away from triggers of M-16 assault rifles) to successfully maintain peace with a minimum of disruption to the local folk. Protesters protested without major incident, and curious Denverites (me) wandered around taking pictures of what it must be like to live in a police state.

An amazing contrast on such a beautiful evening.
Sorry, blurry. This was just moments before I thanked Joe for, well, I'm not sure - never lived in Delaware.

After watching Joe Biden accept the nomination to run as Barack Obama's VP at a local LoDo bar, Greg and I met up with a couple of friends near the Convention Center. They had tickets to a party that night, but we were going to stand outside and look pathetic, hoping someone would spare us tickets, too, so that we could join in the festivities. Our plan worked, and magic tickets appeared before us, granting us access to a party for (allegedly) donors to the campaign responsible for raising more than $350,000. I have no way of authenticating that, other than saying that the drinks were free, I ate a great amount of swordfish and lamb, we were hands down the worst-dressed people at the party, and no one was really very interesting to talk with, there being two exceptions (neither of whom live anywhere near Denver). To wrap the evening, I met Joe Biden and told him thanks, but for what I'm not sure. By the time I stumbled into bed, it was past 3am on Thursday. Work on Thursday - at 7am - was a struggle.
As if we could have made any bigger asses of ourselves...