Tattered Cover to Welcome Arthur and Pauline Frommer

Father-daughter team of budget travel authorities launching book tour in the Denver area this week

The first post-World War II generation of young, independent travelers boarded their cheap-o charter flights equipped with the essentials: passport, student ID, Eurailpass and Arthur Frommer's Europe on $5 a Day. That iconic how-to travel book not only inspired young people to travel then, but to keep on traveling as they got older. It also spawned an empire. Arthur Frommer begat books (Frommers Travel Guides and other series), a magazine (Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel), a website, a radio gig (Arthur Frommer's "Travel Minute" on New York's WOR and podcast), a blog and a daughter, Pauline, who has followed in her dad's world-roaming, publishing footsteps.

Father and daughter are launching a book tour for Ask Arthur Frommer -- And Travel Cheaper, Better, Smarter at the Tattered Cover on Colfax on at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, May 8. They are offering a related mini-seminar, “Making Travel Work in Tough Economic Times.” Admission is free, and all Frommer's Guides will be 20 sold at off during this event -- and you can probably get them to sign the books too. The store is at 2526 East Colfax Avenue (at Elizabeth Street, directly across the street from East High School and the City Park Esplanade), Denver; 303-322-7727.

The following day, May 9, the Frommers will speak at the College Hill branch of the Westminster Public Library from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The library is at 3705 West 112th Street, Westminster. The event is also free, but the library would appreciate a call to register: 303-404-5104. If you want to buy a book there, it's cash or check only. Refreshments for the Westminster event will be provided by Cruise Holidays at the Ranch.

Arthur will continue the book tour at the Book Passage (51 Tamal Vista Boulevard, Corte Madera, near San Francisco) at 1:00 p.m. on Monday, May 11; Distant Lands (56 South Raymond Avenue, Pasadena), at 7:30 p.m. on Monday May 13; and at the Borders bookstore in Century City (10250 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles) at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 14.

Denver International Airport Unveils Calatrava Addition

$650 is the current price tag for Phase I and $950 for finishing DIA's original concept

Come 2016, assuming a dramatic proposal is approved, Denver International Airport (DEN) should have what travelers to and from many (if not most) major world airports take for granted: a hotel attached to the terminal and a rail connection with the downtown core of their respective cities and, in countries with decent train service, beyond -- all wrapped up in a dramatic sweeping new-for-Denver international style designed to complement the existing main terminal topped with a little Teflon range of peak-like tents..

It's about time, considering that DIA is the 10th-busiest airport in the world and the fifth-busiest in the US. Officials have revealed the conceptual design of what will be called the South Terminal designed by superstar architect Santiago Calatrava. The rail link is to be via  RTD’s FasTracks East Corridor, which is also to be built. Calatrava's shop has designed a train station, a signature rail bridge (below) and a plaza. A 500-room hotel and conference center (probably to be branded by Westin) connected to Jeppesen Terminal is also part of the plan, which was originally part of DIA concept when the airport was still on the drawing boards some two decades ago.

The hotel, the landmark bridge and the train station, known as Phase I of the South Terminal Redevelopment Program Phase I, are estimated to cost $650 million. Phase II includes another new parking structure and renovations to the Jeppesen Terminal Great Hall, which was designed before the age of haute security with screening area clutter imposed on what was originally envisioned as an expansive, soaring futuristic space. Maybe in the process of renovating the terminal, someone will also figure out what to do with the terminal's center design element that had been a fountain of dancing waters and an indoor planter. It has been plagued by leaks and other flaws, which are inconsequential to the airport's operations but do impact on the passengers' aesthetic experiences. Phase II, if/when implemented, could cost an additional $250 million.

Calatrava has designed visually stunning and instantly recognizable structures such as the Sundial Bridge in Redding, California, the TGV Railway Station in Liège, Belgium, the new Sondica Airport terminal in Bilbao, Spain, and the Olympic Sports Complex in Athens, Greece. With Calatrava's name attached to so much of the project, the name of the hotel architect, "Gensler," kind of gets lost in the wash. It too is a global design and architecture firm.

The projected timetable is for the signature rail bridge  to be finished by early 2013, the terminal station two years later and RTD’s train itself scheduled begin carrying passengers between Denver Union Station and the airport in 2016. The 22.8-mile airport corridor is the first for RTD to use commuter rail technology, with larger and heavier cars than the existing light rail system. Click here for more information,including the project description and additional renderings.

Travel Thumbnail: The Ski Train to Winter Park

This is the fourth of a series of periodic reports on specific places I've visited -- and which you might want see to as well. Post a comment or let me know directly what you think of this occasional Travel Babel feature.

Iconic Colorado experience: Denver to Winter Park on the Train

The Place: Rio Grande Ski Train to Winter Park

The Story: Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the Ski Train was dominated by the Eskimo Ski Club, whose members ranged in age from seven to 17 and who took the train every Saturday in winter to ski at Winter Park. Today, many older Denver natives credit the Ski Train, Winter Park and the Eskimo Ski Club for making skiing an enduring part of their lives. Since the '80s, Ansco Investment Company has owned the Ski Train and renewed it with upgraded rolling stock and experiences.

This past weekend, the Rio Grande Ski Train from Denver's Union Station to the base of the slopes concluded its 2009-10 season of 82 trips. A Colorado tradition for three generations, it is the last dedicated regular ski train service in the lower 48 (the Alaska Railroad operates ski train service too). If there's no traffic on I-70 or snaking over Berthoud Pass, driving is unquestionably faster. But the Ski Train isn't about speed. It's all about experience. It is a nostalgic journey for former Eskimo Ski Clubbers and a singular one for today's families who bring their kids so that they can experience train travel too, perhaps once every season or two. And riding the rails from downtown Denver is a great way for visitors and convention-goers to reach a snowy environment through beautiful scenery and the 6 1/2-mile Moffat Tunnel under the Continental Divide.

My Trip

The train is supposed to depart from Union Station at 7:15 a.m., but ours was delayed because we had to wait for Amtrak to pull in. Once we got going, we slowly traveled through railyards in north Denver and then through sections of suburbs like Arvada that we rarely see.

It had snowed a lot on Thursday, and the far western edge of the plains between Golden and Rocky Flats were still carpeted in white. Looking out the train window toward the north, it was difficult to recogize this as the edge of the Denver sprawl.

The tracks climb through Eldorado Canyon past open space and Eldorado Canyon State Park.

The train continues toward the Moffat Tunnel via Coal Creek Canyon, Rollinsville and Tolland to East Portal, the tunnel's eastern entrance.

Passengers have about 10 minutes to disembark at Winter Park before the train continues to Granby to turn around and park on a siding for the day until 4:15 departure time. Most people come to Winter Park to ski or snowboard, but some just want the railroad experience with perhaps a snowcoach sightseeing tour of the mountain or perhaps a free bus ride into town to shop and have lunch.

This weekend felt like winter, not spring. The snow was abundant and wonderful.

Even with a high-speed chairlift ferrying skiers to Winter Park's highest point, Parsenn Bowl didn't look or feel crowded. The snow was soft and the views toward the Indian Peaks Wilderness, Rocky Mountain National Park and the Never Summer Wilderness were awesome.

The Cost: This past season, roundtrip coach fares were $59 per adult ($49 for ages three to 12 or 62-plus); club seating was $85 per person. All seats in both classes of service are by reservation. Food service is available, and discounted lift tickets can be purchased on board. The train and the resort experimented with weekend overnight packages (leaving Denver on Saturday morning and returning on Sunday evening). This will probably continue as a full-season offer next winter.

DAM Revisits the Psychedelic Sixties

Denver Art Museum showcases San Francisco poster art of the era

"They" say that if you can remember the sixties, you weren't really there. I do remember them only from news reports and gossip, so in that sense, it's true that I wasn't really there. I wasn't at Woodstock. I wasn't in San Francisco during the "summer of love" or any other adjacent time. I never lived in a commune. In fact, I never even visited a commune. When I tried weed a couple of times by the light of someone's lava lamp at a boring party in some grungy East Village apartment that someone dragged me to, I didn't inhale because it hurt my throat. The one time I made myself inhale (not easy, I'm here to tell you, because I wasn't a smoker), I fell asleep. I never went to a "happening" or a "love-in" or a "be-in" or anything else. From the hippie-delic viewpoint, I was out of it.

Therefore the Denver Art Museum's new exhibition, "Psychedelic Experience: Rock Posters from the San Francisco Bay Area, 1965-71," can take me down a road (Abbey Road, perhaps) that I never really traveled when it was newly paved. Still, even though I didn't identify with the movement, the visual images are familiar. More than 300 of them are in the DAM's new exhibit, on view through July 19.

The posters that represented groundbreaking design are part of the museum's newly acquired collection of posters promoting concerts and happenings,” record album covers, underground newspapers and even comics round out the exhibition. There's music, film and evocative activities that will let me relive the youth culture of the '60s and ’70s that I managed to miss.

Tickets for this special exhibition are $15 ($12 for 65-plus who were actually around in that era and were no longer children). Youth six to 18 are $7. That was a lot of pocket change in the '60s and '70s. Buy online or by calling 720-913-0130 (service fees added to those purchases).

Everthing's Coming Up Egypt

In Luxor, another tomb revealed. In Denver, city gets ready to welcome King Tut

Last year, when I visited Egypt, archaeologists and their helpers were busy excavating and sifting in dry earth on the west bank of the Nile near Luxor. Some people dig. Some look through what has been dug just in case some artifact is among the sand and stone. And some cart away the archaeological detritus. "Laborious" and "painstaking" are words that came to mind as I watched.

The efforts pay off when a major discovery is made like the one just announced by Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosni. A dig led by Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA),  discovered an 18th Dynasty tomb (1570-1315 BC) in the necropolis of Dra Abu el-Naga, on Luxor’s west bank. Memphis Tours, which has nothing to do with Tennessee but which has been organizing trips to Egypt since 1955, posted the news on their blog. According to Dr. Hawass, the tomb belongs to the Supervisor of Hunters, Amun-em-Opet, and dates shortly before the rule of Akhenaten (1372-1355 BC). The image below is from Memphis Tours' blog.

 

Meanwhile, closer to home, the Denver Art Museum is getting ready for a blockbuster exhibit of  treasures from ancient Egypt. Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs will be in splendid residence at the DAM from June 29 through January 9, an extension of dates announced earlier. Back in 1978, I was one of the hordes who lined up for King Tut's first visit to the United States at a spectacular exhibit at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. Tut's was the only royal tomb found intact, with unsurpassed treasure, both in quality and quantity, because grave robbers had never breached it. Last year, in addition to visiting Luxor, I spent too little time in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, which whetted my appetite for an encore. I only will have to go to Denver to satisfy that appetite, and the upcoming exhibit is important enough to attract visitors from afar.

The Westin Tabor Center in Denver this evening hosted a media event as a precursor to the exhibit. It is the first time these treasures will have appeared in the Rocky Mountain Region -- and considering how many millions the Government of Egypt requires to lend them out to other museums, the shipping, the insurance and security required, it might be the last time. My husband and I are museum members and have already bought our tickets, but for anyone wishing for a Denver getaway that includes line-beating VIP tickets, six downtown hotels are offering lodging/museum packages:

The Curtis Hotel

A Day In the Museum, A Night at the Curtis. Packages from $159 for one night's accommodations on the King Tut Floor (based on availability); $20 in Mummy Money (food and beverage credit for use in The Corner Office restaurant or Room Service); overnight Self Parking; 2 VIP Passes to King Tut, and a welcome amenity (either two Golden Nile Martinis or one Cairo Kid’s Pack). Book online or by phone, 303-571-0300 or 800-525-6651. Promotion code TUT.

Grand Hyatt Denver

Fit for a King. Packages from $159 for one night's accommodations, complimentary hotel parking, two VIP tickets to the King Tut exhibition at the Denver Art Museum and a welcome amenity. Book online or by phone, 303-295-1234 or 800-233-1234.

Hyatt Regency Denver

King Tut Package. From $159 for one night's accommodation in a Mountain View guest room  and two VIP tickets to the King Tut exhibition at the Denver Art Museum. Book by phone, 303-436-1234.

Sheraton Downtown Denver

Pharaohs’ Affair. Starting at $129 per night based on two-night stay; $149 for one night for accommodations and two VIP tickets for the King Tut exhibition at the Denver Art Museum. King Tut’s Treasure package includes accommodations, two VIP tickets for the King Tut exhibition at the Denver Art Museum, breakfast for two and overnight parking, from $159 per night based on two-night stay, $179 for one night. The best prices are on weekends. Hooray! Book online or by phone, 303-893-3333.

Westin Tabor Center

Pharaohs' Affair. Package includes one night and two VIP tickets starting at $179 per night; two nights and two VIP tickets from $159 per night. King Tut’s Treasure. Package includes one night and two VIP Tickets, breakfast for two and Self Parking from $209 per night; same offer for two nights from $189 per night. Also, weekends are the least expensive. Book online or by phone, 303-572-9100.

Brown Palace Hotel

Pharaoh’s Find. From $169, one night in luxury room and two VIP tickets. Booking code TUT. A Night to Treasure. From $199, same as Pharaoh's find plus two VIP tickets and enjoy luxurious accommodations accompanied by truffles dusted in 24-karat gold and valet parking. Booking code TREASURE. Book online or by phone, 303-297-3111 or 800-321-2599.

Frontier Airlines Name and Image Continuing

Merger with Midwest under Republic Airways Holdings had left the future of Frontier in doubt 

The suspense is over. Even though Milwuakee was the main announcement venue for Republic Airways Holdings' decision on what the merged Frontier/Midwest airline's name would be, Denver-rooted Frontier Airlines prevailed. “This decision was an emotional one for everyone involved,” said Republic's president and CEO Bryan Bedford. In a diplomatically worded address, he added, “While the research showed that customers preferred the Frontier brand, they also expressed a strong loyalty to both brands based on affordability, convenience, destinations and delivery of a differentiated experience. As we work to integrate these two brands into a unified Frontier Airlines, you can expect to see a lot of influence from the Midwest brand. This will include the introduction of the iconic Midwest Airlines chocolate chip cookie on all Frontier flights this summer.”

This seems to be a win-win situation, especially for Frontier's Colorado loyalists: the name, the popular spokesanimals, 10 new destinations out of the Denver hub and five new destinations from Milwaukee -- and chocolate chip cookies.

West Virginia Coal Miner Play

Current coal mine tragedy brings poignant play to mind

Back in 2005, the Denver Center Theatre Company put on "Fire On The Mountain," an achingly poignant musical drama about about the lives and hardships of coal miners in the Appalachian Mountains. Amid the poverty, the heartache and the tragedy, the performers celebrated the mountain culture, lifestyle, challenges and heroics communicated by Appalachian bluegrass music and dancing that revealed its Celtic roots. With soaring voices, fiddles and banjos, the cast communicated the indomitable spirit of the miners and their families.

"Fire On The Mountain" has played in a few other cities besides Denver -- Chicago, Louisville, maybe some others that I couldn't find and New York. Here's a description of the off-Broadway production as seen through New York eyes:

"From the creators of MET’s runaway hit Hank Williams: Lost Highway — is a masterful blend of musical theater and oral history. Drawn from interviews with Coal Miners from West Virginia and Kentucky, Fire on the Mountain's text is intertwined with some of the greatest traditional music and union songs to come out of America in the 20th Century. Actors and musicians (all from Appalachia) share the spotlight, with the latter made up of some of the finest pickers and strummers to ever grace a New York stage at one time.

Powerful social history, moving family drama, and incredible songs (think O Brother, Where Art Thou?) make Fire on the Mountain one of the most unusual and exciting entries of the upcoming Off-Broadway season."

When my husband and I saw it in Denver, we stayed for a talkback with the actors following the performance. The exchange between cast and audience was both beautiful and sad. Many many audience members came from mining families -- some current, some reaching back into Colorado history -- and all were able to identify with what happened on stage. If "Fire On The Mountain" comes to a theater near you, go see it. If it returns to  this area, I'd gladly go again.

Henry Moore Sculptures and King Tut Treasures Coming to Denver

Botanic garden and art museum hosting two blockbuster exhibitions this year

Henry Moore was a 20th century British sculpture who is best known for his large, abstract bronzes found in important public spaces around the world, including opposite the British Parliament in London, the plaza in front of Toronto's City Hall, in front of Berlin's Kongresshalle, outside of Australia's National Gallery in Melbourne and at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Tutankhamen was a youthful 18th dynasty Egyptian pharaoh who ruled in the 14th century B.C. and inspired some of the most exquisite, intricate bejeweled pieces that the anonymous craftsmen of the Nile ever produced. Both are coming to Denver -- the Moore exhibition this week, King Tut's treasures this summer. I'm excited about both and hope the both locals and visitors to Colorado will see them.

Moore in the Gardens

The Denver Botanic Gardens' landmark outdoor exhibition of 20 monumental Moore works opens on Monday, March 8, and runs through January 11, 2011 enabling art lovers to see these pieces in all seasons and in diverse environments, Discover sculptures in the Gardens’ diverse landscapes including dormant winter gardens, prairie wildflowers, serene reflecting pools and the rugged rock alpine garden.. Moore found inspiration in natural environments, and the Botanic Gardens is (are?) dedicated to bringing and displaying nature in the heart of Denver and also at the Botanic Gardens at Chatfield in Littleton, south of the city.

If you need to understand more about Moore, join a free tour (with the price of admission on weekends at 1:00 p.m. through the run of the show) or special curator-led walks from May through October, $15 (check schedule later). For non-members, admission through May 9 and after September 12 is $11.50 for adults; $8.50 for 65+  and military; $8 for ages 4-15 and students, and free for children 3 and under. In summer, admission for all is $1 more. The main Gardens are at 1005 York Street, Denver; 720-865-3500.

Tut at the Museum

Denver is immensely fortunate, and honored, to be one of the five North American cities hosting Tutankhamun - The Golden King and The Great Pharaohs. Atlanta, San Francisco, Toronto, New York and Denver. It will be at the Denver Art Museum for six months beginning July 1 and closing January 2, 2011.

The art museum is devoting two large galleries in the Hamilton Building to this touring exhibition featuring more than 100 treasures from Tut's tomb and other sites. Not quite as large as most of Moore's sculptures but imposing nevertheless is a 10-foot statue, the largest depiction of of King Tut ever unearthed.  It was found in the remains of the funerary temple of two of his high officials and still retains much of its original paint. Other artifacts in this remarkable exhibition come from the reigns of other important rulers throughout 2,000 years of ancient Egyptian history, from about 2600 B.C. to 660 B.C.

The exhibition is the product of heavy hitters in the realm of culture and antiquity. It was organized by National Geographic, Arts and Exhibitions International and AEG Exhibitions, with cooperation from the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities. A portion of the proceeds from the tour will go toward antiquities preservation and conservation efforts in Egypt, including the construction of a new grand museum at Giza near Cairo.

I visited Egypt a year ago and was captivated. The tombs in the Valley of Kings are open by rotation to try to protect them, and Tut's tomb was not open while I was there. The tomb was discovered in 1922 by by Howard Carter, and while many ancient tombs had been looted of their treasure, Tutankhamun's was intact. This is not the first time that priceless artifacts from the tomb have been on tour, but it is the first time they have been to Denver. The Treasures of Tutankhamun tour lasted from 1972 to 1979, visiting the British Museum, museums in the USSR, Japan, France, Canada, West Germany and New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Tut tickets are now on sale to Denver Art Museum members and go on sale to the general public on May 14. Click here for the complicated pricing schedule. The museum is at 100 West 14th Avenue Parkway (just south of Civic Center Park and on 13th Avenue between Broadway and Bannock) Denver: 720-865-5000.

Denver Sings "Happy Birth-DIA"

Denver International Airport at 15 -- looking back and looking ahead

Sometime at the end of February 1995, I flew out of Stapleton International Airport en route to, I think, Honduras. I returned to the new Denver International Airport, which had opened on February 28 while I was away. If an airport could have had a new-car smell, DIA would have had it. As I look at the original version photo below (which might or might not pop up on your screen in its entirety), I count 16 small masts or antennae atop the main terminal's distinctive Teflon tents -- one for each year and one for good luck.

After much ridicule and a hiccupy debut, DIA has matured into the fifth-busiest airport in the national and ninth-busiest in the world. Thirty thousand airport, airline and government workers and 140,000 passengers a day are under those Teflon tents and on the concourses. Many modifications have been made over the last 15 years: The central feature in the main terminal has been a dancing fountain and various kinds of gardens. The platforms on both sides of the terminal on the baggage-claim level have been widened (originally it was a challenge to wheel a SmartCart or a big piece of luggage around the concrete pillars,) and a roof now covers the platforms, because the original design didn't take into account summer's strong sun and random fall/winter/spring snows.

One thing that hasn't changed but continues to puzzle me one of the exits from the train level to the terminal, which has not been used for 15 years, always has a human security presence. Why on earth didn't they erect a gate? Other changes are obvious: a different mix of transportation entities with booths on the perimeter of the terminal, the post-9/11 addition of unsightly but mandatory security checkpoints complete with snaking lines of passengers cluttering the floor of the grand space and the great emptiness of the ticket counter areas, especially on the west side, since many passengers now print their own boarding passes and also checking as few bags as possible.

On the airside, there are now six runways taking up just a fraction of the airport's 54 square miles of land. That huge tract, annexed by the City and County of Denver for the airport, also boasts an enormous array of solar panels, a bison herd (a safe distance from the runways, of course) and 27 oil and natural gas wells.In contast to airports constructed decades ago and now hampered by congested metropolitan areas, DIA has lots of room under the big Western sky.

Back to the terminal, where increased passenger traffic and security needs not contemplated two decades ago, there's a proposal to move checpoints to the current ticketing areas. That would free up the main terminal space, which would them be restricted to passengers and also be more aesthetic with the TSA's hardware and mazes of passengers heading for the screening stations. There's a debate about whether new, upscale eating and retail in a repurposed main terminal would be a success or a fiasco. There's also a question as to whether an airport hotel that has been on the drawing board, at least conceptually, from the beginning is viable, and whether a lightrail extension to DIA is worth the cost of construction.

The Denver City Council, airport officials and consultants, who paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to study the options, are charting DIA's course for the next 15 years and beyond. Stay tuned.

Upcoming Denver Arts Week Schedule

Second annual Denver Arts Week to highlights multifaceted cultural scene

Twenty-plus years ago, when I prepared to move from the New York area to Colorado, my culture-vulture tittered about the music, art, theater and dance that I would be missing in the hinterlands. Were they ever wrong! Boulder where I live, Denver just 25 miles away and mountain resort communities among them provide more cultural richness than I could ever take in.

In addition to the regular offerings, the upcoming Denver Arts Week (November 14-22) packs a lot of offerings into a concentrated eight-day period with more than 150 events staged at seven identifiable arts districts in and around Denver. These included dozens of museums, galleries and theaters, with the 31st Starz Denver Film Festival leading off the week and the City of Denver’s 150th Birthday Celebration closing things out. Denver Arts Week encourages locals and visitors to discover why Sunset magazine enthused, “The Mile High City is remaking itself as a world capital of art and architecture.”

Fine Arts

Denver Arts Week kicks off a week early with a sneak preview of Fear No Art First Friday, a "special edition" of the monthly First Friday Art Walks that is designed for the art world newcomer and the connoisseur. From 6:00 to 9:00 pm., visitors go from gallery to gallery or from art district to art district.

The ArtDistrict on Santa Fe features Botticelli Is Not a Pasta workshops with several galleries offering free lectures on topics such as how to collect art as a beginner and art history. The Golden Triangle Museum District offers its free “art bus” that visits more than a dozen galleries and museums. Cherry Creek North galleries and restaurants will offer a family evening with dining specials, extended gallery hours and art in action, which is described as "creative art making projects." The Tennyson Street Cultural District (http://www.tscd.org/) invites families to explore their neighborhood on Fear No Art First Friday (remember, November 7), plus an interactive evening with classes on the art of buying, collecting, framing, hanging and lighting art on Friday, November 21. In Belmar Arts District, Block 7 and the Lab at Belmar are putting on exhibits and special programs.

Museums

Friday, November 14 is scheduled as Night at the Museums with free admission from 5:00 to 10:00 p.m. Programming includes jazz, modern dance, lantern tours and a wide array of family-friendly activities. There is free parking at the Cherry Creek Shopping Center, shuttle service between there and the Denver Art Museum and also a total of 11 participating museums. Each rider will receive the Cherry Creek Passport to Shopping Discount Coupon booklet. Also at the DAM, Ballet Ariel and the Hannah Kahn Dance Company present Contemporary Forms in Space and Time in the lobby of the Hamilton Wing, at 6:30 p.m. and again at 8:00 p.m.

Denver artist Barbara Froula will be at the Colorado History Museum for a meet-and-greet during Night at the Museum to preview her watercolor commissioned for the upcoming exhibit, "Denver at 150: Imagine a Great City." For history buffs, Colorado's past comes to life at the Black American West Museum and at the Byers-Evans House Museum brings to live stories read by Colorado Homegrown Tales in the mansion's library.

The Denver Museum of Nature & Science offers the opportunity to meet cutting-edge polar scientists and explorers at "Polar-Palooza," a multimedia road show will present Earth's iciest, most remote regions. The event will also feature a 130,000-year-old piece of ice, extreme cold weather gear to try on and and an opportunity to learn an Alaskan Native dance.

The Kirkland Museum of Decorative & Fine Art partners with Dazzle Restaurant & Lounge to present of cool jazz and modern art. From 5:00 to 10:00 p.m., guests can explore the museum's renowned collection of decorative art with over 3,300 pieces from Arts and Crafts through Modern and to Pop Art and its Colorado Modernist collection and also enjoy hors d'oeuvres and live jazz from Dazzle. The Forney Museum of Transportation opens in the evening for a unique visit by lamp and headlight, as a cross-section of 200 years of transportation is lit for this night only.

Music and art combine at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver's musical performance during Night at the Museums at 6:30 pm with the Denver Contemporary Chamber Players. Museo de las Americas' their new exhibit is called Fine Line. The Molly Brown House Museum offers special tours and live Irish music, while the Children's Museum of Denver brings the past to the generation of the future with silent movies about the Old West.


Performing Arts

The “Night on the Red Carpet” on Saturday, , November 15, focuses on Denver’s array of performing arts options, including more than a dozen local theaters and performing arts groups are also “roll out the red carpet” with discounts and promotions.

Starz Denver Film Festival’s Big Night is a glitzy red carpet event with stars, filmmakers and an exciting new feature film at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House. The film directed by Jimmy Boylefollows the adventures of Jamal (Dev Patel), a teenager who was orphaned as a young boy and left to fend for himself in the slums of Mumbai.

Also at the Ellie Caulkins (in the lobby), Tom Noel, a will sign his new book Mile High City between 6:30 to 8 p.m. Three companies offer two tickets for $52.80. A favorite among comedy/improv fans, The Bovine Metropolis Theatre is offering the deal for Friday and Saturday improv comedy shows. Denver Centre Theatre Company $52.80 two-for pricing throughout Arts Week. Buntport Theatre; and the Denver Brass charges the same amount for four tickets.

DIA Gears Up for Winter

New snow-removal equipment and practice runs ready crews for big snows

On December 6, my son is flying from Durango, connecting in Denver and arriving in Oakland to join his father and stepmother in Wine Country. They are flying from Portland, ME, to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and then connecting one more time in Salt Lake City to Oakland. I hope my son takes a good book, because he might have a long wait. I suspect that his travel will be seamless.

Since it opened in 1994, DIA has had only two major closures due to unusually heavy snowstorms, the first March 17-19, 2003, and the second December 20-21, 2006, when the airport received more than 20 inches of snow in 24 hours. In a feature called "Ready for Snow Biz," the Denver Post recently reported that the airport has taken delivery of the first seven of 30 high-speed, multi-function snow-control machines that can plow, sweep, air-blast snow and, in some cases, spray liquid de-icers too.

When a winter storm hits the Front Range, snow removal at DIA a considerable challenge. It has six runways -- five that are 12,000 feet long and 150 feet wide and the sixth, the world's longest runway at 16,000 feet long and 200 feet wide. During the unseasonably hot days of late October, these $709,000 behemoths were doing dry runs on the runways and taxiways. The first eight new machines to be delivered were made by Borschung of Switzerland; 22 are coming from Oshkosh Truck Company/M-B Companies. The total cost will be $32 million -- but for travelers to, from or changing planes in Denver, the investment is priceless.

Convention Volunteering - The Grand Finale

Convention wraps up at Invesco Field for Obama's acceptance speech; energy, enthusiasm and optimism prevail

The 2008 Democratic National Convention closed with a bang -- of fireworks, that is. Delegates, guests, politicos, media, celebs, security and we volunteers moved from one sports venue (the Denver's Pepsi Center, an arena built for basketball and hockey) to another (Invesco Field at Mile High, the awkardly named but imposing football stadium nearby), where there was also room for tens of thousands of attendees from "the community."

For us media distribution volunteers, it meant very long work day. We had to be at the Colorado Convention Center at 9:00 to pick up credentials, which included a lot of waiting around. I was on a bus at 7:30 a.m. Then by noon, we transferred to Invesco Field, where we also did a lot of waiting around -- but I did manage to get onto the field with a borrowed "Floor Pass." We had fewer distribution venues for the speech transcripts but security was even tighter, the elevators even more crowded and the distances greater. With longer speeches but fewer speakers, there was a lot of waiting around in a windowless room until it came time to distribute the text for Barack Obama's much-anticipated acceptance speech.

The public was admitted after 3:00, and the lines were imposing. People streamed in steadily, enduring the slow pace through the security screening station (set up in the white tent, below). Some sat down and wouldn't move. Others saved seats for more family, friends and colleagues who might still be in line or were milling around, buying food or souvenirs. By the time Obama's scheduled time approached, there was hardly an empty seat to be found in this huge 75,000-seat stadium.

Even though Stuart Shepard, director of digitial media for an arm of Focus on the Family, a Colorado Springs-based evangelical group, reportedly produced a video asking Christians to pray for torrential rain, during Barack Obama's acceptance speech, the evening could not have been nicer. If rain would have demonstrated God's objection to Obama's candidacy, the wonderful warm, windless summer evening must have been a sign of the Almighty's approval of the Democratic nominee.

Some people thought that the Doric colonnade that served as a backdrop for the podium was a bit much, but after all the day's speakers and entertainers were finished, it was a suitable setting of Obama's acceptance speech as a presidential nominee -- and it made the brief fireworks display that followed his speech possible. After all, you can't have a balloon drop in a stadium that is open to the sky.

Celeb Sightings

In addition to the well-known people pictured below, I saw (but was too close to photograph) Wolf Blitzer, George Stephanopolis and Oprah Winfrey. Here are the ones I did capture with my camera:

I photographed Ted Koppel (below) as we were leaving the stadium floor at the same time. Then, since we were going in the same direction, I hustled to catch up with him to tell him how much I enjoyed his China series on PBS and how much I preferred the old single-subject "Nightline" format when he was the host. He said, "It's now for 32-year-olds." Then, we reached the ABC area and he introduced me to two "Nightline" producers. I said, "I know I'm not your demographic, but I preferred the old format." I didn't have a chance to add, "The current format is for people with the attention span of fruit flies." So there!

I didn't get to see Jon Stewart of "The Daily Show," but I did see the crew hanging around and horsing around. Rob Riggle was in the mix somewhere.

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, who had ample reason to be proud of the manner in which the Mile High City hosted this convention -- and relieved that it all went so well.

Air America's Randi Rhodes:

And the man whom everyone came to see, hear, celebrate or report on, Barack Obama:

Convention Volunteering - Opening Day

Convention draws political and media celebs, and they draw stares and applause

As a volunteer on the "media distribution team," my view of the Democratic National Convention is a narrow one. I am a very small cog in a very large wheel. I and more than a dozen volunteers on my shift pick stacks of photocopied speeches and deliver them to media pods all over the Pepsi Center and in the surrounding parking lots. Sometimes we hand them to individual media desks; sometimes we leave a stack at the press information centers (PICs) for reporters themselves to collect.

There are several outdoor routes to four pavilions (i.e., large air conditioned tents with plywood floors and partitioned or curtained-off "offices") that house most major and some minor print media. There are runs to individual network complexes -- ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox -- with trailers and satellite dishes. There are areas within for within the Pepsi Center for print, broadcast and online media: Radio Row, Radio Suites, Writing Desks, Bloggers Alley, International Media. I had my pedometer on and walked just shy of nine miles today.

En route to the convention center to pick up our day's credentials, my Boulder friends were delayed due to a couple of demonstrations. Marching placket-wavers took up street as well as sidewalks, causing the shuttle on the 16th Street Mall to run only intermittently, because protesters were blocking the bus lanes. One group chanted, "No We Can't!", but it was unclear as to whether they were disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters or were grinding some other ax. Another group waved signs with clearer messages that were both evangelical and homophobic -- and also predictable. Then, we veered away from the 16th Street Mall, which had ceased being energizing and fun and was just annoying.

In the Pepsi Center my friend Laurel shook Jimmy Carter's hand but didn't get a picture. I saw media stars Anderson Cooper and Donna Brazile and soul singer John Legend but didn't get pictures. Here are some famous people whose pictures I did manage to snap with my little digital point-and-shoot, which doesn't allow for the rapid sequential shots of the bigger SLR:

Here's Dan Rather in the hallway (too far for my camera's modest flash to reach):


Here's Senator Ted Kennedy, riding to and from the podium area, ailing but inspiring by his very presence on the podium, let alone finding the strength to speak. As he rode along, he blew kisses to onlookers (trust me; that's what he was doing, which might not be apparent from the expression I caught in the one picture I managed to snap):

Here's Michelle Obama (just behind the sleeve of someone who walked into the one frame I managed to snap), heading down the same hallway en route to giving her evening-ending speech (someone behind her was carrying a garment bag with that beautiful teal green outfit she wore):


Here's (I think) fast-moving Caroline Kennedy (in black and mostly blocked by a women in a white jacket) who introduced her Uncle Ted:

Here's House Speaker Nancy Pelosi:

Dem Convention Has Denver A-Buzz

Fifty thousand visitors, give or take, are taking in city sights

My travels this week involve nothing more than a daily commute via RTD bus to Denver, where I am volunteering at the Democratic National Convention. Short as my trips are, they are as thrilling as any I've every taken, because they are to an event that will never again occur so close to my home in my lifetime. The last time Denver hosted a convention was exactly a century ago, when the city was was trying to shake its cowtown image.

In 1908, Oklahoma had become a state just the previous November, and Arizona, New Mexico, Alaska and Hawaii were still be admitted to the Union. Delegates arrived at Denver's beautiful Union Station by train. Some stayed right near the station at the Oxford Hotel (1891), the Barth Hotel (1882) or now-gone hotels. Other delegates took a trolley ride to the the Brown Palace Hotel (1892), more than a mile to the east. The Oxford is a charming boutique hotel, the Barth houses low-income senior citizens, and the Brown remains a historic jewel. Word on the street is that former President Bill Clinton, wanted-to-be President Hillary Clinton and won't-be President John Kerry are staying there this time around.

The 1908 convention itself took place is the Denver Arena Auditorium, now remade into a part of the Denver Performing Arts Complex. The 2008 convention is taking place at the Pepsi Center (above right), where the NHL Avalanche and NBA Nuggets usually play. State caucuses and other activities take place at the huge Denver Convention Center. Two blocks from the convention center, the 16th Street Mall is festooned with banners. Vendors are selling Obama buttons, pennants, T-shirts, flags and other souvenirs. Yellow-shirted local hosts (above left) answer visitors' questions. Manyh downtown streets are blocked and more will be, in effect expanding the pedestrian zone. Still, despite the ponderous presence of in-your-face security, the general ambiance is upbeat and positive -- and there's a electricity in the air and a buzz everywhere.

I don't know what security was like in 1908, but it was probably fairly tight for the day, since President William McKinley had been assassinated just seven years earlier. In 2008, I've seen uniforms from the Denver Police, county sheriff, state police, various Denver suburban police departments, Colorado Springs police, private security firms and the Transportation Security Agency. Officers on foot and horseback keep an eye on the legions of earnest protesters of all stripes, from Pro-Life to End the War Now crusaders, in case anything gets out of hand, perhaps clashing with each other. Officers on bicycles cruise the 16th Street Mall. Helicopters fly overhead. SWAT teams drive around the city ready to quell any trouble that may arise. Squad cars are parked all over the place. There's a K9 unit standing by.

Security people are posted at every entrance to every place, and within the agggressively fenced-off convention complex itself, your badge better be the correct side out. If it has flipped over backwards, someone in a uniform will ask you to turn it over so they can see the front with its distinctive hologram. The place is crawling with Secret Service Agents, some wearing serious dark suits and facial expressions to match, and others clad shirts that prominently say "Secret Service," which doesn't seem secret at all. The TSA has been enlisted to run the screening processes to get into the convention itself, just as they do at airports.

The Pepsi Center has been transformed, both backstage and in the arena (below left). The centerpiece is a soaring podium backed by a "gigantimus" video screen (below right). I'm a volunteer on the "press team. I have completed two afternoons of orientation, training and volunteer briefings, which is why I've seen the Denver scene, so to speak. The real work starts tomorrow.

The buzz is building daily, and by tomorrow, it will be full-throttle excitement and adrenalin for the tends of thousands of delegates, media, DNC staff and volunteers, Republican war room warriors ready to spin the slightest Democratic verval misstep, and squadrons protesters (who I hope stay cool) and security forces (which I hope will have proved to be unnecessary).

New Denver Sheraton Downtown is City's Largest Hotel

Former Adam's Mark reborn after $70 million renovation

The gleaming hotel straddling downtown Denver's Court Place place is a new Sheraton, but it's not a new hotel. The tired Adam's Mark is now the Sheraton Denver Downtown following a year-long, $70 million total renovation from the parking garage to the roof. It was officially dedicated yesterday with a champagne reception and ribbon cutting (below) that brought out Mayor John Hickenlooper, business leaders and executives from the hotel's owner (Chartres Lodging Group of San Francisco) and  management (Starwood Hotels & Resorts) group. Chartres purchased the hotel for $176 million in early 2008, so a lot of coin is represented in these interconnected buildings.

The hotel  is Colorado's largest with 1,231 guest rooms, and Hizzoner noted that when it is fully occupied, its "population" is greater than Breckenridge or Telluride (about 2,400 each). The mayor and tourism leaders praised it as a key to attracting large convention groups, but IMHO, it's also a great location for people who come to Denver for arts and culture. The Denver Center for the Performing Arts is a short walk to the west. The Denver Art Museum is a short stroll across Civic Center Park to the south, and when it opens in 2011, the Clyfford Still Museum will be there too. The galleries of the Golden Triangle Museum District are nearby as well, and the free Mall Shuttle stops right outside the door for a quick ride to the restaurants, shops and nightspots of Larimer Square and the Platt River Valley attractions too.

I haven't seen any of the guest rooms yet, but if the classy, spacious lobby is an indication, they are lovely. The new lobby is bright and attractive, contemporary and yet warm. I particularly like its newly welcoming pedestrian approach from the 16th Mall. The old Adams Mark design, like many newer downtown Denver hotels, is so vehicle-oriented that people coming in on foot after shopping, sightseeing or attending an off-site meeting often felt like afterthoughts.

Once inside, the square columns and the coffered ceiling are about all that is recognizable from the lobby's previous incarnation. Some people might miss the horse sculpture in the old lobby (top image, below), and while I have no particular attachment to it, I do sort of wonder where it went.

Above, the old Adam's Mark lobby

Above, the new Sheraton Denver Downtown lobby

1550 Court Place, Denver, Colorado 80202; 303-893-3333 or 866-716-8134 (reservations).

"New York Times" Discovers Denver; Mile High City Will Survive

Know-it-all newspaper doesn't...

The illustrious New York Times assigned Eric Wilson, who usually seems to report on shopping, to write "36 Hours in Denver." He got a lot right but also a fair amount falls under the "not exactly" category.

Wilson wrote about "the imposingly gray state Capitol, a dead ringer for the one in Washington, only made of sound Colorado granite." Dead ringer? Not exactly. Consider the vastly different sizes, the significantly different overall proportions and the very different dome shape and scale. Perhaps these buildings look alike to someone who pretends that the US Capitol (above left) and the Colorado Capitol (right) have identical columns and pay no mind to our state capitol's gleaming gold dome, its lack of massive wings and its absence of a pair of grand staircases such as those that grace the US Capitol.

Special note to Eric Wilson and other New Yorkers: The mere presence of a dome does not automatically create a US Capitol clone. Even the New York State Capitol in Albany has one, but city people don't normally venture very far upstate, let alone, evidently, visit our state.

Regarding food, Wilson writes, "There’s no getting around Denver’s culinary specialty, red meat, the starring attraction at Old West-themed barbecue joints all over town." Even without pointing out what an out-of-date cliche that is, his citation of Buckhorn Exchange and The Fort bear noting. At 115 years old, the Buckhorn Exchange, Denver's oldest restaurant, and The Fort, arguably its most distinctive and most Western, are very worthwhile stops for city slickers from New York, even if only for their artifacts.

Wilson described The Fort as "what appears to be a 1960s rendition of the Alamo." It may appear that way to him, but in fact, The Fort is a smaller-scale replica of and tribute to Bent's Fort along the Santa Fe Trail -- in southeastern Colorado, not in Texas and about 670 miles apart. The Fort is revered for its own role in honoring and even preserving Western history in general and Colorado history in particular. The food is very good, the wine list very sophisticated and the ambiance unique. But "barbecue joints"? Not exactly.

Wilson recommends a visit to Rockmount Ranch Wear for authentic Western shirts but neglects to mention that founder Jack Weil still comes to work every day at the age of 107. In fact, he was alive in 1908, the last time Denver hosted a political convention -- but it was the Republicans who met in Colorado's capital a century ago. This might be the most interesting single factoid about Rockmount.

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Note: Jack Weil died on August 14, 2008, having gone to work almost until the end. He was still doing that when Wilson researched his story and when the Times published it.

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According to Wilson it was "Larimer Square in LoDo, where gold was first discovered in Colorado in the 1850s." Again, not exactly. If he had visited Inspiration Point Park, several miles northwest of LoDo at Sheridan Boulevard and 50th Avenue, he might have seen a historic plaque inscribed, "One mile north of this point Gold was discovered on June 22, 1850, by a party of California-bound Cherokees. The discovery was made by Louis Ralston, whose name was given to the creek, (a branch of Clear Creek). Reports of the find brought the prospecting parties of 1858 and produced the permanent settlement of Colorado. Erected by the State Historical Society of Colorado from the Mrs. J.N. Hall Foundation and by the American Trails Association and Citizens of Denver. 1941."

As far as nightlife is concerned, he wrote about drinks at Rioja, which is actually far better known for its food, and added that "Within a three-block radius, there’s also a wine bar, Crú; a Champagne bar, Corridor 44; and a nightclub called Open Bar." In fact, Rioja and the three bars/clubs he listed are all on the same block -- the 1400 block of Larimer.

Wilson, the New York shopping maven, inexplicably sends visitors to the tacky Mile High Flea Market. He didn't mention that the flea market is a dozen miles or so from downtown Denver, that it is only open Friday through Sunday and that there is an admission charge -- modest to be sure, but something the "newspaper of record" normally would note.

As part of his practical travel tips, Wilson noted, "A cab from the airport to most downtown hotels is $47." Well, that's a New Yorker's view of the world if ever there was one. Except visitors with big expense accounts or big bank accounts, or parties of more than one or two, savvy travelers heading to a downtown hotel would take RTD's SkyRide from the airport to the Market Street station for just 9 bucks.

Denver Art Museum's iPods -- Plus

21st century museum adds 21st century audio -- and light meals now are served across the plaza


No museum in the nation made more of a recent splash than the Denver Art Museum did in 2006 with the opening of the radical Daniel Liebeskind-designed Hamilton Building, a dramatic angled structure clad in titanium. During a recent visit, I noticed the addition of iPod stations (with instructions on how to use the device and seats to plunk down on while you are doing so) to provide interpretation in as modern a mode as the building itself.

Several galleries are currently closed for the installation of new exhibits, but the gorgeous Landscapes from the Age of Impressionism continues through September 7, featuring 40 exquisite mid- and late-19th century French and American landscapes from the Brooklyn Museum’s collection.

The last time I wanted a bite to eat at the museum, there was a small snack bar in the North Tower, the older of the DAM's two connected buildings. The snack bar is no more. Kevin Taylor's Palette's Restaurant has now expanded into that space, and anyone who wants something lighter is directed across the plaza to Mad Greens, whose mid-day specialties are soups, salads and panini.

The museum is open daily except major holidays and Mondays -- except Monday, August 25, when it will not only be open but will be free to show off Denver's cultural side and artistic treasures in honor of the Democratic National Convention.

The Denver Art Museum is at 100 West 14th Avenue Parkway, Denver; 720-865-5000.