Monday, December 21, 2009
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Colorado State Flag.
From the novel A Western Capitol Hill:
Senators continue arriving at their places during these preliminaries. By now, most have stationed themselves at their conjoined desks. They’ve returned to their familiar coffee mugs, candy jars, family photos, and signs saying “Go Broncos!” Back to their mini-flags of the U.S. and of Colorado—the state’s emblem: a yellow orb like a gold, shotgun pellet embedded within a bloody “c” on top of a horizontal band of white, with horizontal bands of deep blue above and below.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Denver Botanic Gardens. (#1)
From the novel A Western Capitol Hill:
“You’re right! I’ve always wanted to live in a house like the Japanese Tea House at the Botanic Gardens. Have you ever seen the Tea House? It has walls that can be opened up in the hot weather, and closed during the cold.”
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Che, What? Che, Que?
A couple of buttons highlighting early '70s Chicano activism in Denver. Part of an exhibit at the Denver Public Library dedicated to activist and poet Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales.
"The Culture Cure"Sunday, August 16, 2009
Billy's Got Two Mommies.
Photo taken at Denver PrideFest 2009.
From my novel A Western Capitol Hill:
She unloads on me like a gravel truck, Garrett thinks, wiping his forehead with his Italian silk wool scarf. He presses *7 and deletes her voice mail. My Lord! I’ve told her it may take three, four years, a bellwether change in the control of the legislature, a new wave of Democrats taking back both bodies, in order for anything to change. Christ, I’ve told her society may never be ready for ‘Billy’s Got Two Mommies’!”
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Imagine A Super City.
As the Mayor of Denver says in my fictional book A Western Capitol Hill:"Imagine a Super City."
Mile High Psychedelia.
From my novel A Western Capitol Hill:
A mandala-like pattern spins. In his mind’s eye, Garrett finds himself suddenly back at the Capitol. He rises skywards towards the Capitol dome, up past the portraits of the Presidents of the
Say No To Drugs.
From my novel A Western Capitol Hill:
His first beer sends Garrett off to the restroom soon enough. He’d take his place at the urinal – and get a kick, as usual, out of pissing literally and metaphorically on the urinal mat that says “Say No to Drugs” – but someone’s already using it. So, instead, he enters the toilet stall, actually lifting the lid, before beginning his business, out of politeness for whatever sad sack might actually need to take dump there at some future point. He grins at the legend “Free Cowboy Hats” that someone’s handwritten on the toilet seat cover dispenser as he relieves himself.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
The Stock Show Must Go On! (#1)
Photos of the National Western Stock Show parade in downtown Denver from a couple of different years. Each January, cowboys wrangle cattle down 17th Street--the Wall Street of the Rockies. Other parade participants ride their horses, as well:
From my fictional novel A Western Capitol Hill:
From my fictional novel A Western Capitol Hill:
Every year, the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo takes place in
Sheila had been to the stock show, once, when she was real little and had lived in a farming town.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Xmas Lights and Nativity Scene. (#2)
From my novel A Western Capitol Hill:Denver’s City and County Building sits opposite the Colorado State Capitol, across a couple of major four-lane streets and swaths of urban park. It’s a solemn site, the location of Denver’s courts and the Mayor’s office.
On its grey exterior, though, thousands of red, green, and blue Christmas lights still illuminate the pasty edifice at night. It’s Tradition: the Hands of Time haven’t stopped the overboard display–complete with nativity scene–from returning each year. Nor have the legal challenges put forth by the grumblers and atheists affiliated with the Separation of Church and State Foundation.
But being January, the multicolored bulbs covering the building will soon be taken down. So will the manger and the large figurines of the Three Wise Men, Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Author! Author! (#2)
From my novel A Western Capitol Hill:
On Capitol Hill, you can hear the trains.
Gimme Gimme Green Chile! (#5)
Freshly-roasted green chiles emerging from a roasting drum.
Roasting drum for green chiles.From my novel A Western Capitol Hill:
And this green chile isn’t made with just any old variety: no, it’s Hatch green chile. That is, long, green chile pods harvested in Hatch, New Mexico, trucked north in late Summer, and then roasted within steel tubular drums affixed to propane burners, and sold from parking lots in strip malls along Federal Boulevard, the burnt smell emanating, charred, vegetal, from the tents with the red ristras hanging from them.
Oh man, it’s got to be made with Hatch green chile. Hatch, they say, grows the best. There’s something about the soil, the earth, involved. Hatch is holy ground to its devotees like other New Mexican landmarks are to their people or pilgrims: the Indian pueblo at Taos or the church with its sacred dirt in Chimayo.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Día de los Muertos in Cheesman Park.
Cheesman Park, a onetime cemetery, still bears the visible imprints of rows of graves.
From my novel A Western Capitol Hill:
Garrett’s mind takes leave of his body, hovering over
(Jose Guadalupe Posada, "Gran fandango y francachela de todas las calaveras" - 1913)
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Rally Your Troops! (#6)
By all accounts (and here's one), this past Saturday's Columbus Day Parade here in Denver turned out to be relatively subdued. While there were some protesters, there weren't any mass arrests this year.
Here are photos from a couple different years:
Italian-Americans and supporters prepare to march.
Activist and actor Russell Means being arrested during a protest.
Protester holding a bloody doll.
From my fictional novel A Western Capitol Hill:
Here are photos from a couple different years:
Italian-Americans and supporters prepare to march.
Activist and actor Russell Means being arrested during a protest.
Protester holding a bloody doll.
From my fictional novel A Western Capitol Hill:
He took his place among the protesters at the annual Columbus Day Parade. Why oh why, wouldn’t the organizers of the parade just change the name of the thing to “Italian Pride Day”? That would be acceptable, even to most Indians. Why rub it in: the genocide that
Sunday, September 28, 2008
What's Your Sign? (#2)
From my novel A Western Capitol Hill:The anarchists make do with stencils on the sidewalks.
Loitering vs. No Loitering
From my novel A Western Capitol Hill:Zack and Roach steal small bottles of lemon extract from a supermarket. They swallow the bottles of liquid – containing 87% alcohol – whole and in succession, their lips puckering, as they envision life without lawmen beneath mountain runoffs of gin. They sit beside a stone church with a sign staked onto the lawn that says, “No loitering.” Luckily, that nice bike cop who checks on the welfare of the homeless – for instance, whether they need referrals to shelters during the winter, whether they’ve stopped breathing – hasn’t been by, yet, to bust them for public intoxication.
Friday, September 12, 2008
The Business Section. (#4)
Careful, now: the Thrill Kill Kult is not worth getting hurt over.The Ogden Theater, mentioned in passing in my book A Western Capitol Hill. An art and revival movie house during my high school years, now refurbished as a concert venue popular with young Denverites like the protagonist in my book. Also seen in the movie About Schmidt, as Jack Nicholson's character drives his Winnebago past the East Colfax landmark.
The Bad Old Days. (#1)
Display at the Colorado History Museum.From my novel A Western Capitol Hill:
“Well, there sure was a lot of racism back in those days,” Garrett comments, as Smiley Joe’s tapping foot and the bends and twangs of his guitar continue to stream out of the speakers.
“Were ‘those days’ these last few years, pray tell? I seem to recall that the Aryan Youth Brigade held an anti-Martin Luther King Day rally at the Capitol not long ago.”
“Ah, that’s small fry. A handful of losers, surrounded by a phalanx of police, complaining about ‘mud people’ and the ‘Zionist Occupational Government,’ while 30 times as many protesters hurl bottles and scream. But that song would have been written just after the 1920s. There was big league and much more upfront racism back then. The Klan held huge rallies near Denver.”
Garrett uses his fingers to count as he continues, “They didn’t like Greeks, didn’t like blacks, and didn’t like Catholics or Jews. They wouldn’t have liked the Chinese, either, but the Chinese were burned out of ‘Chink Alley’ in lower downtown in the late 19th century; let’s just say, it took a while before dim sum returned to Denver. Hell, Mayor Stapleton was a Klansman in the 20s.”
“That didn’t prevent our old airport from being named after him.”
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Author! Author! (#1)
AS SEEN ON...
Recently, I contributed coverage of the Democratic National Convention for The Huffington Post. Here's a link which links to my report on Denver paranoia, my interview with musician Wayne Kramer (ex-MC5), and my photojournalism.These are a few of my favorite photos for The Huffington Post, which also reflect the tone of my novel:
Monday, August 18, 2008
A Dragon's Eye View of the Democratic National Convention. (#2)
Invesco Field at Mile High, where the Denver Broncos crack skulls on the gridiron -- and where Senator Barack Obama will accept the Democratic Party's presidential nomination on August 28 in front of 75,000 rabid supporters.From the novel A Western Capitol Hill:
Hey, this has always been a big sports town. In the 1930s, it wasn’t uncommon for 10,000 people to turn out to watch a softball game in
Here, you might spy a Denver Bronco tattoo on the side of a shaved head. A man painted blue and orange, wearing nothing else, roaring up Capitol Hill on his motorcycle. Talk about disgusting: blue and orange cupcakes at the supermarket.
A Dragon's Eye View of the Democratic National Convention. (#1)
The Pepsi Center: where the 2008 Democratic National Convention will be happening next week in Denver.From the novel A Western Capitol Hill:
Politics is a collective hallucination. But it’s darned effective, at that.
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