Category Archives: Art Goodtimes

The older one gets, the more one gains and the more one loses. “All power to the paradox,” my old friend Jack Mueller would say. The gains are significant. One becomes not merely a senior, but an elder. One whose … Continue reading →

LAST COLUMN FOR A WHILE … It came on rather suddenly, as these things do, but my otolaryngologist (now there’s a mouthful) has confirmed I have a case of throat cancer and will need to begin treatment soon. So, I’m … Continue reading →

SIMBA … You know how there are some things that you firmly don’t want, but that you end up getting, anyway, which then become great gifts? Simba was like that … The kids named her because she looked the part … Continue reading →

SCIENCE … I’ve come to love science … Measurement was never my thing as a child. And as an adult I loved diving into experience’s flow and swimming with the current. Or against it. Feeling its subjective tingle on my … Continue reading →

SINHASIN … As part of the Telluride Institute’s Indigenous Peoples Day celebration last month, the Liberty Bar had an early show so kids could come with their parents to hear Navajo rock duo Sihasin performing. A brother & sister combo, … Continue reading →

MATT ZUMSTEIN … It was a fitting tribute to the sound management skills of U.S. Forest Service’s Matt Zumstein that one of his last actions as the Norwood District Ranger was a successful controlled burn treatment – planning, getting prepped … Continue reading →

NO HOLDS BARD … The troupe’s tagline is “Theater That Moves.” And it’s true. Their production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Wrights Opera House in Ouray last month was moving and amazing! … I attend Ashland’s Shakespeare productions … Continue reading →

COLONOSCOPY … There’s a lot of O’s in that word, and perhaps fittingly. After my fourth with the good Dr. William “Bill” Ranier last week, his nurse gave me internal photos – a nice touch, if you ask me. Got … Continue reading →

TALKING GOURDS … What a great crew we had at the Fischer Prize/ Cantor Award poetry awards ceremony of LitFest6 the other weekend …Talking Gourds co-director Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer teamed up with her Emerging Forms podcast co-host Christie Aschwanden for … Continue reading →

ERYTHRITOL … That’s my nonsugar, zero glycemic index sweetener of choice these days – usually in combination with stevia. Stevia can have a slightly bitter aftertaste, although it is deeply sweet, so I tend not to use it alone in … Continue reading →

SMITHSONIAN … It’s easy – even as far away from the widening gyres of the Center as we are, on the Inner Basin West’s eastern fringe – to get caught up in the hyenas of the moment. Abortion. Judicial appointments. … Continue reading →

UNDERGROUNDING … Back when Tri-State Generation and Transmission – a co-op utility (which I like) that seems mired in the dark ages of coalfired generation (which I don’t like) – decided to run a generation line from Nucla to Telluride … Continue reading →

FOREST SERVICE … I spent much of my time in public office as a commissioner working with the federal public-land agencies. That’s because over 60 percent of the land base in San Miguel County is non-taxable public land, managed by … Continue reading →

OCTOBER 4-8 … There’s been quite a movement around the country to replace Columbus Day. As Euro- Americans we identify with the discovery of the new world. But for indigenous peoples of the Americas it was the start of one … Continue reading →

VALDIVIA … I think I liked Valdivia best of all Chile’s cities I visited. It’s known by tourism boosters as La Perla del Sur (The Pearl of the South) … Its Pedro de Valdivia bridge made the link walkable between … Continue reading →

AGUA PARA JARDINERíA … I came from a long line of gardeners. Growing one’s own food, even if only a portion, was a family tradition. And as a homeowner (in the capitalist sense), I feel a responsibility to increase the … Continue reading →

LIGHTNING HEART … Fred Haberlein was a muralist of note. Some 140 or so of his pieces grace Colorado walls, water tanks and municipal parks, as well spots in several adjoining states. He grew up in the San Luis Valley. … Continue reading →

GARY LINCOFF … Having come from immigrant shopkeepers, and a second generation of professionals – many of them doctors – Gary took a different tack. He studied philosophy in college and then took up with mushrooms. As he explained, “Perhaps … Continue reading →

FLYING HOME … Published by the Peaks, Plateaus & Canyons Association, Sojourns was a gorgeous Colorado Plateau journal of 14 years’ standing, only recently having ceased publication. According to co-editor Carol Haralson, they decided to send the photo-thick periodical into … Continue reading →

EAGLE ROCK SHELTER … For years I’ve been working on a calendar that will reflect this place where we live. I’ve wanted to base it on the earliest dates that humans might have settled the “New World” – as opposed … Continue reading →

BUCKET LISTS … The concept of a bucket list has intrigued folks like myself for years. There are certain things one wants to do in one’s life, but that seem perhaps unattainable. So you file them away in a bucket … Continue reading →

The Telluride Institute’s Ute Reconciliation program is hosting the Second Annual Indigenous Peoples Day in Telluride, in partnership with San Miguel County and the Telluride Historical Museum … “Following last year’s successful event, we wanted to continue the process of … Continue reading →

NEW GENERATION … It was a grand celebration at the Telluride Mushroom Festival last month – the 37th time fungophiles have gathered in San Miguel County to foray for shrooms in the surrounding hills. To meet and listen to experts … Continue reading →

PAONIA BOY … The 37th annual Telluride Mushroom Festival kicks off Aug. 17th this year and features a marvelously full schedule of wonderful speakers, forays, workshops, parade, etc. But the star of this year’s show will be Dennis McKenna, brother … Continue reading →

GRADUATION … ‘Twas a gathering of the Friedberg / Goodtimes / Sante / Hollinbeck / Willow / Fan / Coyotl / Oshá / Thorneycroft / Rosenthal / Modena clan up in Walla Walla last month to see Sara Mae Friedberg … Continue reading →

DOCTOR BOB … I still get the chills thinking about Norwoodian Robert Grossman’s review of the initial draft Colorado River plan that Gov. Hick released for public comment a few years back. It was one of those many statewide documents … Continue reading →

SHROOMS GO MAINSTREAM … As a San Francisco-born born paleohippie who cut his adolescent teeth in the drug-experimentation days of the Sixties, I’ve never understood the mainstream’s fear of entheogens. As a health concern it seems mostly manufactured. Things that … Continue reading →