I forgot to tell you about my Denver Cow Parade experience. This all took place in 2006. Here are some pictures.
My cow is a "grazing cow" as opposed to two other styles that I could have chosen to decorate, one with it's head up and the other laying down. My cow is thinking (little round things coming out of the brain area) and each side of the cow depicts two different cow yearnings. One side was entitled, "Cowsmonaut" showing a cow wearing a space suit in a space ship. There was a milky way of stars in the sky that were outlined to be cartons and jugs of milk. Other constellations depicted a bull and various animals.
The other side was "Beach Bovine" with a cow on a beach towel by the sea in a two piece swimsuit. This cow also had a bottle of "Hide Tanning" lotion and next to it, a friendly crab smiles out at us.
The bottom left picture (above) shows me painting this large animal in our dining room. It took about 2 weeks and I didn't calculate how many hours during those two weeks, but it was quite lengthy. The bottom right picture (above) shows me with my cow at the Tabor Center in downtown Denver
It was great fun. Merle was extremely helpful throughout the whole experience, helping me haul the cow home, take it back, move it around and finally to spray it with the necessary weather proof coats of paint that were required.
The only part that was not fun was the auction in Denver where all of the cows were auctioned off for various charities after they had been displayed throughout the Denver area for a few months. The cows auctioned for prices ranging from $3000 - $17,000. Although I know my cow was a very good one, it only auctioned for $3500. I did feel that the auctioneer didn't try to get more like he did with some of the cows, but that's the way the cookie crumbles. It was just another one of those semi-humiliating art experiences that I've come to sort of get used to and it left a little bit of a bad feeling. Overall, though, I'd certainly do it again if I had the chance.
Last evening we went to this cinema cafe. It was new to us although they've been in business for a few months. It's a small independent cinema and the experience was what I would describe as "Colorado bohemian". Like Merle said afterwards, "this is a place you would expect to find in Boulder". It was. It was crowded, the clientele were not all slicked up, if you know what I mean - hair in place, designer clothes, etc.. In other words, it was a funky crowd ranging in age from probably early 20's to 80. (Yes, we met a gentlemen and his wife that were almost 80.)
The movie we went to see was "Lars and the Real Girl", starring Ryan Gosling who has become one of our favorite actors. (Check out my man Ebert's 3-1/2 stars review here.) It was a very unusual tale involving Lars (Ryan), his brother and sister-in-law, various co-workers, lots of his small town neighbors and last, but not least, the large sex doll he ends up purchasing to be his girlfriend. Lest you think I'm headed in a skanky direction, don't worry. The doll was only his platonic girlfriend. He was that kind of guy including the fact that he was in a temporary state of mental imbalance. This movie should come with a label stating "Suspend all belief before viewing". We did and it was very enjoyable with lots of laugh moments.
We sat on a big couch at the front of the theatre with a coffee table in front of us. Sitting in the front of any theatre is not usually something we do, but the couch looked and was very comfortable. I ended up slouching down so that my head rested on the back of the sofa with my Croc clad feet on the edge of the coffee table. This kept me from getting a kink in my neck like Merle ended up having later from holding his head back so he could see the screen. We had a couple of beers, a cheese platter and some dolmas (Greek grape leaf wrapped turd shaped finger foods). The food situation was the one drawback. The staff couldn't keep up and so, even though we paid for a "frank" (we assumed it was a hot dog) for $4.00 - we never got it after several attempts by both of us to find out where it was. Finally, I was told that they weren't making any of them (really, that was what they said) and was kindly offered a refund. I told them to just give us some popcorn instead. Based upon this experience, we decided to probably eat somewhere else first next time and then enjoy a beer and popcorn for the cinema. We'll definitely go there again, though.
On the way home, I mused about what it must be like to be an inspector in the dolly factory. Are there engineering drawings? What happens to the ones that are nonconforming? I wonder...............................
