PeakRadar Blog

2011 PPAC Awards for Excellence... or, A Call to Action

2011-09-29T14:10:00.000-07:00

A wonderful time was had by all at the 11th Annual Pikes Peak Arts Council Awards for Excellence last Friday.
The ceremony, hosted by Jim Jackson and Babette Matdiva of the recently renamed Millibo Art Theatre, made audiences both laugh and cry (in immense appreciation).
I can honestly say the only low point of the evening at the COPPeR was that I didn’t win a raffle prize. Arg! Much to the protest of Jim, I threw myself out of my seat and gnashed my teeth. But, the show went on…
Cash prizes were awarded to local artists in everything from Outstanding Production (Theater) to Excellence in Dance and more. You can see the complete list of winners below. We tip our hats to all the awesome artists and organizations in the Pikes Peak region, and it was a pleasure to recognize a few of them at this fabulous event.
Mark Arnest gave special recognition to Maestro Lawrence Leighton Smith. Arnest beautifully claimed that Maestro Smith was “the most overqualified person ever to audition.” Smith was inspiring during his “finest moment,” when he stood with the musicians in 2003, as the Colorado Springs Symphony faced bankruptcy. Instead of skipping town to pursue another conducting job, he fought for another organization, and to stay in Colorado Springs. The Colorado Springs Philharmonic was born. Upon gracing the stage, Maestro Smith simply replied, “thanks very much.”
The pinnacle moment of the evening was the presentation of the award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts to Wayne and Mary Mashburn. Having been philanthropic members of the Colorado Springs community for 34 years, the Mashburns were the “giant shoulders” that even Eve Tilley stood upon. They graciously accepted the award in front of a standing crowd.
This evening proved that art in the Pikes Peak region is both impactful and necessary. The program and list of nominees could be a To-Do List of sorts. It’s filled with mention of some of the finest individual artists, groups, organizations and presentations in the region, and I think every attendee discovered a new opportunity in our arts community.
Consider this: in Maestro Smith’s stead, comes a new era, the JCD Era. Wayne and Mary Mashburn appear to just be getting started. New art organizations are blooming everyday. And, each and every one of them deserves the support of residents and visitors of our fair region. The event was evidence that there is no lack of opportunity for artistic expression and experience in our community. I hope you’ll join COPPeR as we continue to support art in the Pikes Peak region.

Yours in creativity,
PeakRadar Gal

Opera Theatre of the Rockies' The Barber of Seville

2011-02-26T10:40:00.000-08:00

Last night I had the pleasure of attending the Opera Theatre of the Rockies’ dress rehearsal of the Barber of Seville. It was a special evening showing for students in the Colorado Springs area, with probably 80% of the crowd under the age of 18. I was skeptical at first, with the crowd’s incessant “shhhhhhushing,” but as soon as the curtain went up, a quiet gasp rolled through the audience. The set was intricate and captivating. With the first few lines, the audience was giggling (thank goodness for the translation box above the stage).
The Barber of Seville is a comedy, with Figaro the barber providing several hilarious one-liners and antics. Personally, I found him incredibly charming and totally dateable; even his striped jacket proved his impeccable fashion sense. Quirkiness is totally my style.
The rest of the cast was superb. The energy and comedic timing lead me to believe that these actors have been working together their entire lives. Even the stage hands were costumed and became part of the plot, something I hadn’t seen before but really enjoyed.
Toward the end of the first act, the crowd started getting a little restless, so I think intermission came not a moment too soon. As soon as we returned to our seats however, the audience was ready for the show to continue.
Overall, it was an excellent production. Talented performers, adorable costumes and overwhelming music made the night a great success. I certainly hope anyone reading this gets the chance to see the Barber of Seville this weekend!
I would like to give special thanks to Susanne Wheeler for allowing me to attend what became the greatest night of my week!

Viswa Subbaraman conducts the Colorado Springs Philharmonic

2011-01-22T18:42:00.000-08:00

Colorado Springs Philharmonic: Viswa Subbaraman

Give Thanks! Art Creates Community

2010-11-23T10:32:00.000-08:00

I’ve decided to approach the question rolling through everyone’s minds this week. What am I thankful for? Well, this may be a lengthy blog post…
To start, I have this pretty sweet job. I manage the most comprehensive art and culture events calendar in the entire Pikes Peak Region (that’s PeakRadar.com, maybe you’ve heard of it.) I’m extremely thankful to work for the Cultural Office of the Pikes Peak Region. This is an organization that can nurture creativity while also encouraging individual working professionals to achieve even more than they may have expected. As you may know, our Executive Director, Bettina Swigger has accepted the position of Executive Director of Festival Mozaic in San Luis Obispo, CA. I know she is sad to be leaving our community, but couldn’t pass up such a tremendous opportunity. COPPeR has seen so much growth lately, I can’t ignore the fact that someday I may have an opportunity just as grand as Bettina’s, all because I’ve started off with such a fabulous organization and group of supporters. And, though I expected I’d have more time to take notes, I am thankful for the short time I spent working with Bettina, learning from her example and words of wisdom. I’ll miss her every single day…but am excited to have a place to stay when I visit the California Central Coast!
COPPeR has been going strong for four years, working to unite our community by creativity. I don’t know about you, but I think it’s working! Just take a stroll through downtown Colorado Springs. You’ll find artwork on the medians, thanks to the Art on the Streets project. You’ll see masterpieces in shop windows from local vendors. Maybe you’ll hear a local musician on the street or playing onstage inside Studio Bee at the Pikes Peak Center or playing outdoors at one of our fabulous summer concerts in the park. Then, if watching or listening isn’t quite enough, we’re asked to engage in art as well. Audiences have become artists. Artists have become friends working together to bring more awareness and appreciation to all Pikes Peak Region citizens. Art really is everywhere, and I for one can’t imagine it any other way. Thank you Colorado Springs, COPPeR and all the individuals and organizations that make our creative lifestyles possible.

"Create is the new consume"

2010-11-19T10:38:00.000-08:00

Having just returned from the National Arts Marketing Project Conference in San Jose, California, I'm pretty jazzed about all things art and culture in our area and their potential.
The day one of my trip was spent at the first-ever Artsopolis meeting for all cities and sister sites of our own PeakRadar.com! It was great to put faces with the names and emails I've grown to know so well. We shared best practices, ideas and a desire to build a learning community for site managers. This will help me keep up-to-date on what other cities are doing with their sites, so I can make ours best for you. Speaking of, be thinking of ideas or suggestions for the site...I'll be asking for them at the end of this post!
Then, the NAMP Conference started on Nov. 13. The speakers were phenomenal, and I went to some great breakout sessions and dine-arounds as well. With the help of all the presenters and other participants, I now have more knowledge about social media, fundraising and awareness campaigns, community partnerships and patron cultivation.
Overall, this trip was groundbreaking for me, the new PeakRadar Gal. I left Colorado knowing I would meet some awesome new people as well as learn more about arts marketing. I returned with a profound new passion for everything we can do for arts and culture in the Pikes Peak Region. I can't think of a better place to nurture creativity with some of the most intelligent and passionate people in the industry. I know this is where I belong and I can't wait to make awesome things happen!
That being said, as the title of this post suggests, PeakRadar.com recognizes that simply watching art and culture isn't enough for most of us. We want to take action! PeakRadar.com wants to help you do that--with more opportunities for interactivity, sharing, and connections. What do you want to see happening? How can PeakRadar.com help you create? I want to hear your thoughts and suggestions. So, keep me posted!

2010-10-23T18:59:00.000-07:00

Colorado Springs Philharmonic: Leif Bjaland">

Hello from Brett!

2010-10-22T15:53:00.000-07:00

You might notice that the PeakRadar.com has changed managers. Well, that's because I'm Brett Garman, your new PeakRadar Gal and PeakRadar.com Manager at COPPeR!
I'm really excited to be here and can't wait to help you find any and all art and culture events in the Pikes Peak area! There is always something to do...so let's get to it!

Lookie here ...

2009-11-03T10:29:00.000-08:00

Jeez ... it's been months since I've blogged. Is it because I'm an incredibly dull person and really have nothing to say? Maybe. I'd prefer to chalk it up to being so "on the go" that it's never convenient to take the time to find something to write about. Still a cruddy excuse.

I've been taking a lot of pictures since July, so what you see below is a small sampling of the shenanigans I've been enjoying since summer has turned to fall.

To the left, some Wet Mountains (in)action at a friend's yurt. We took a long weekend (and a yummy keg of Bristol Brewing Company's Compass IPA) to stretch our legs, laugh and enjoy the outdoors a little.

I was still recovering from a bicycle spill, so I remember being in a fair amount of pain on this trip, but I also remember some delicious food and companionship to make me feel better.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The airborne gentleman in the photo to the right is my buddy Nate, who's a FutureSelf youth art student. He'd been helping us setup the big geodesic dome for Flaunt: Evolution, a fundraiser disguised as a heck of a party that occurred this past September. The event benefitted FutureSelf, and two organizations from UCCS: Theatreworks and the Gallery of Contemporary Art. Although the star of the evening was a torrential rainstorm, those in attendance seemed to be enjoying themselves.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

This is my good friend Melanie Grimes shooting pictures of attendees at this year's Pikes Peak Arts Council Awards. The 2009 PPAC Awards were a lot of fun, and people seemed to really enjoy Stargazers Theater and Event Center the venue for this year. Among the honorees were Blake Milteer from the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, UCCS Theaterworks and two of my favorite local musical acts: Edith Makes a Paper Chain, who won for best popular music ensemble, and Cahalen David Morrison, winning a PPAC award for best popular music/solo or duo.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Finally (and most recently), I was asked to fill in behind the drums for a local group of musicians performing a Halloween-ish tribute to Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. We played two shows this past "holiday" weekend and they seemed to be well received. Here are two shots from those shows, one of me as E St. Band drummer Max Weinberg playing my new drums (Yamaha Maple Custom Absolutes -- a birthday gift to myself), and the other photo is of Mike "The Boss" Stephens as Bruce. (These two photos were taken by Anthony Graham of Broken Glass Photography.)

Although I've been concentrating on ramping up our Twitter and Facebook endeavors, I won't keep avoiding updates to this blog. Look for more in the next week. And remember, there's always lots of great events at PeakRadar.com. We built the site so that it's much more difficult to say that there isn't anything to do in the Pikes Peak region.

Thanks for reading,
Kevin J.
PeakRadar.com
COPPeR

"World Piece" music project

2009-07-30T12:22:00.000-07:00

So, the fantastic and talented Jim Bosse from the Colorado Springs Guitar Society posted an event listing for an upcoming concert with a brilliant young Argentinian guitarist/composer named Claudio Maldonado. As is the norm, I had to go search out an image to accompany the listing (you know, to give it a little 'zazz) and came across an image of Maldonado that was originally used in a blog that documents a fascinating three-month collaborative between young musicians from around the world. I thought that readers of this blog might be interested (regardless of the fact that the material is a year old), so here's a brief synopsis and link to the World Piece blog:

10 young composers have been brought together from across the entire world to California to work as a team writing a collaborative piece of music in a project called 'A Counterpoint of Tolerance'. Call it a world/modern music version of 'Feed the World' if you will!

Playing, wedding, working, success-ing

2009-07-02T15:46:00.001-07:00

So, the big Independence Day holiday is nearly upon us. I love holidays, don't ya know? I'll be spending my fabulous fourth at a friend's party, where our band (who shall remain nameless) will be playing for the first time with yours truly. It'll actually be the first time I've ever played keyboards in front of anyone except these guys, but I'm not n-n-n-nervous or anything.

And then, a week after the 4th, I am getting married!!! !!!!!!!! Yup. I'm very excited. I'm marrying the beautiful and vivacious Amber Coté, who happens to be the Executive Director of FutureSelf, a fantastic youth arts organization here in Colorado Springs. She'll kill me*, but this is a nice picture of Amber wearing a babushka.

Anyway, things here at COPPeR are great, and seem to be moving at the speed of ... well, fast things. I come in to work on a Monday morning, accidentally blink and it's Friday afternoon. That's great if you like the weekends and stuff, but I myself really enjoy sitting behind my bad-ass dual-monitor iMac rocking out to the finest in adult-contemporary jazz while approving events. However, when I'm sometimes caught in the office on a weekend, I get a disapproving look from Bettina. It's probably the Kenny G.

Another terrific thing that occurred recently is that we reached our goal of raising $6,000 through the first ever PeakRadar online campaign. Through the month of June, using only electronic communications and word-of-mouth, we were able drum up support from arts aficionados across the Pikes Peak region who appreciate PeakRadar's contribution to our burgeoning arts scene. COPPeR's board of directors was instrumental in this effort as well, pledging to match every dollar donated up to $3,000. So, if you haven't heard it from me yet, I'd just like to say a huge "THANK YOU" to everyone who helped spread the word, donated in any capacity, or simply uses the site to find or promote arts info here in the 719. Y'all make me so happy. :)

This is overdue, but a big thank you to everyone who came out for 1440 Minutes at the FAC Modern gallery. Thanks to the artists: Philip, Tom, Lisa, Eldon, Will, Jocelyn and Melanie; thanks to Jessica and Daisy at CC's I.D.E.A. and Caitlin at UCCS GoCA for doing such a great job curating the event (and special thanks to the extremely helpful and courteous interns from GoCA and I.D.E.A.); thanks to Bristol Brewing's Laura Long, everyone at Nosh for being terrific (as always), and La'au's Taco Shop for having the best "fast food" in town; and, of course, thanks to Charlie, Sam, Blake and Aaron at the Fine Arts Center.

And since I'm in such a happy, bouncy mood (I feel like Tigger), I think I'll also take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy and safe weekend. Whether you've got an extra day off or not, this is a great time to (re)connect with friends and family, drink some cool beverages, eat some delectable grillings, and generally avoid the police and fire departments who will insist that your Roman Candle war does not spill over into your neighbor's yard.

* Seriously, it could be bad for me. If you know her, don't tell.

You like us! You really, really like us!

2009-06-26T14:32:00.000-07:00

PeakRadar.com turned two this month. It's kind of hard to believe, but there it is.

In light of this momentous occasion, COPPeR's board of directors issued a challenge: "We want PeakRadar to start making some money."* Enter: the PeakRadar.com ONLINE FUND DRIVE! The board has asked us to raise $6,000, and to make the effort easier, they've agreed to match every dollar we raise up to $3,000.

So: the bottom line is that we've got four days left on this fund drive with a little more than $500 left to raise. If you love PeakRadar.com and value the site's contribution to our community, please consider giving anything you can. Again, your contribution will be matched by our board–dollar for dollar up to $3,000.

You can make your donation here: http://www.coppercolo.org/PeakRadarCampaign.htm

* Note: Not an actual quote.

The Ancient Greeks had it figured out.

2009-05-28T10:00:00.000-07:00

This is a somewhat lengthy read, but very poignant. It's the text from Dr. Karl Paulnack’s welcoming address to parents of incoming students, September 2004. Thanks to Dave Olsen for sending this along.

Why Music Matters
Karl Paulnack, Director, Music Division
The Boston Conservatory

One of my parents’ deepest fears, I suspect, is that society would not properly value me as a musician… I had very good grades in high school, I was good in science and math, and they imagined that as a doctor or a research chemist or an engineer, I might be more appreciated… I still remember my mother’s remark when I announced my decision to apply to music school. She said, “You’re wasting your SAT scores!” On some level, I think, my parents were not sure themselves what the value of music was, what its purpose was. And they loved music: they listened to classical music all the time. They just weren’t really clear about its function. So let me talk about that a little bit, because we live in a society that puts music in the “arts and entertainment” section of the newspaper, and serious music, the kind your kids are about to engage in, has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with entertainment, in fact it’s the opposite… Let me talk a little bit about music, and how it works.

One of the first cultures to articulate how music really works were the ancient Greeks. And this is going to fascinate you: the Greeks said that music and astronomy were two sides of the same coin. Astronomy was seen as the study of relationships between observable, permanent, external objects, and music was seen as the study of relationships between invisible, internal, hidden objects. Music has a way of finding the big, invisible moving pieces inside our hearts and souls and helping us figure out the position of things inside us. Let me give you some examples of how this works.

One of the most profound musical compositions of all time is the Quartet for the End of Time written by French composer Olivier Messiaen in 1940. Messiaen was 31 years old when France entered the war against Nazi Germany. He was captured by the Germans in June of 1940 and imprisoned in a prisoner-of-war camp.

He was fortunate to find a sympathetic prison guard who gave him paper and a place to compose, and fortunate to have musician colleagues in the camp, a cellist, a violinist, and a clarinetist. Messiaen wrote his quartet with these specific players in mind. It was performed in January 1941 for four thousand prisoners and guards in the prison camp. Today it is one of the most famous masterworks in the repertoire.

Given what we have since learned about life in the Nazi camps, why would anyone in his right mind waste time and energy writing or playing music? There was barely enough energy on a good day to find food and water, to avoid a beating, to stay warm, to escape torture — why would anyone bother with music? And yet even from the concentration camps we have poetry, we have music, we have visual art; it wasn’t just this one fanatic Messiaen; many, many people created art. Why? Well, in a place where people are only focused on survival, on the bare necessities, the obvious conclusion is that art must be, somehow, essential for life. The camps were without money, without hope, without commerce, without recreation, without basic respect, but they were not without art. Art is part of survival; art is part of the human spirit, an unquenchable expression of who we are. Art is one of the ways in which we say, “I am alive, and my life has meaning.”

In September of 2001 I was a resident of Manhattan. On the morning of September 12, 2001 I reached a new understanding of my art and its relationship to the world. I sat down at the piano that morning at 10 AM to practice as was my daily routine; I did it by force of habit, without thinking about it. I lifted the cover on the keyboard, and opened my music, and put my hands on the keys and took my hands off the keys. And I sat there and thought, does this even matter? Isn’t this completely irrelevant? Playing the piano right now, given what happened in this city yesterday, seems silly, absurd, irreverent, pointless. Why am I here? What place has a musician in this moment in time? Who needs a piano player right now? I was completely lost.

And then I, along with the rest of New York, went through the journey of getting through that week. I did not play the piano that day, in fact I contemplated briefly whether I would ever want to play the piano again. And then I observed how we got through the day.

At least in my neighborhood, we didn’t shoot hoops or play Scrabble. We didn’t play cards to pass the time, we didn’t watch TV, we didn’t shop, we most certainly did not go to the mall. The first organized activity that I saw in New York, on the very evening of September 11th, was singing. People sang. People sang around fire houses, people sang “We Shall Overcome.” Lots of people sang “America the Beautiful.” The first organized public event that I remember was the Brahms Requiem, later that week, at Lincoln Center, with the New York Philharmonic. The first organized public expression of grief, our first communal response to that historic event, was a concert. That was the beginning of a sense that life might go on. The US Military secured the airspace, but recovery was led by the arts, and by music in particular, that very night.

From these two experiences, I have come to understand that music is not part of “arts and entertainment” as the newspaper section would have us believe. It’s not a luxury, a lavish thing that we fund from leftovers of our budgets, not a plaything or an amusement or a pastime. Music is a basic need of human survival. Music is one of the ways we make sense of our lives, one of the ways in which we express feelings when we have no words, a way for us to understand things with our hearts when we can’t with our minds.

Some of you may know Samuel Barber’s heart wrenchingly beautiful piece “Adagio for Strings.” If you don’t know it by that name, then some of you may know it as the background music which accompanied the Oliver Stone movie “Platoon,” a film about the Vietnam War. If you know that piece of music either way, you know it has the ability to crack your heart open like a walnut; it can make you cry over sadness you didn’t know you had. Music can slip beneath our conscious reality to get at what’s really going on inside us the way a good therapist does.

Very few of you have ever been to a wedding where there was absolutely no music. There might have been only a little music, there might have been some really bad music, but with few exceptions there is some music. And something very predictable happens at weddings-people get all pent up with all kinds of emotions, and then there’s some musical moment where the action of the wedding stops and someone sings or plays the flute or something. And even if the music is lame, even if the quality isn’t good, predictably 30 or 40 percent of the people who are going to cry at a wedding cry a couple of moments after the music starts. Why? The Greeks. Music allows us to move around those big invisible pieces of ourselves and rearrange our insides so that we can express what we feel even when we can’t talk about it. Can you imagine watching Indiana Jones or Superman or Star Wars with the dialogue but no music? What is it about the music swelling up at just the right moment in ET so that all the softies in the audience start crying at exactly the same moment? I guarantee you if you showed the movie with the music stripped out, it wouldn’t happen that way. The Greeks. Music is the understanding of the relationship between invisible internal objects.

I’ll give you one more example. The most important concert of my entire life took place in a nursing home in a small Mid-western town a few years ago.

I was playing with a very dear friend of mine who is a violinist. We began, as we often do, with Aaron Copland’s Sonata, which was written during World War II and dedicated to a young friend of Copland’s, a young pilot who was shot down during the war. Now we often talk to our audiences about the pieces we are going to play rather than providing them with written program notes. But in this case, because we began the concert with this piece, we decided to talk about the piece later in the program and to just come out and play the music without explanation.

Midway through the piece, an elderly man seated in a wheelchair near the front of the concert hall began to weep. This man, whom I later met, was clearly a soldier. Even in his 70’s it was clear from his buzz-cut hair, square jaw and general demeanor that he had spent a good deal of his life in the military. I thought it a little bit odd that someone would be moved to tears by that particular movement of that particular piece, but it wasn’t the first time I’ve heard crying in a concert and we went on with the concert and finished the piece.

When we came out to play the next piece on the program, we decided to talk about both the first and second pieces, and we described the circumstances in which the Copland was written and mentioned its dedication to a downed pilot. The man in the front of the audience became so disturbed that he had to leave the auditorium. I honestly figured that we would not see him again, but he did come backstage afterwards, tears and all, to explain himself.

What he told us was this: “During World War II I was a pilot, and I was in an aerial combat situation where one of my team’s planes was hit. I watched my friend bail out, and watched his parachute open, but the Japanese planes which had engaged us returned and machine gunned across the parachute cords so as to separate the parachute from the pilot, and I watched my friend drop away into the ocean, realizing that he was lost. I have not thought about this for many years, but during that first piece of music you played, this memory returned to me so vividly that it was as though I was reliving it. I didn’t understand why this was happening, why now, but then when you came out to explain that this piece of music was written to commemorate a lost pilot, it was a little more than I could handle. How does the music do that? How did it find those feelings and those memories in me?”

Remember the Greeks: music is the study of invisible relationships between internal objects. The concert in the nursing home was the most important work I have ever done. For me to play for this old soldier and help him connect, somehow, with Aaron Copland, and to connect their memories of their lost friends, to help him remember and mourn his friend, this is my work. This is why music matters.

The responsibility I will charge your sons and daughters with is this: “If we were a medical school, and you were here as a med student practicing appendectomies, you’d take your work very seriously because you would imagine that some night at 2 AM someone is going to waltz into your emergency room and you’re going to have to save their life. Well, my friends, someday at 8 PM someone is going to walk into your concert hall and bring you a mind that is confused, a heart that is overwhelmed, a soul that is weary. Whether they go out whole again will depend partly on how well you do your craft.

“You’re not here to become an entertainer, and you don’t have to sell yourself. The truth is you don’t have anything to sell; being a musician isn’t about dispensing a product, like selling used cars. I’m not an entertainer; I’m a lot closer to a paramedic, a firefighter, a rescue worker. You’re here to become a sort of therapist for the human soul, a spiritual version of a chiropractor, physical therapist, someone who works with our insides to see if they get things to line up, to see if we can come into harmony with ourselves and be healthy and happy and well.

“Frankly, ladies and gentlemen, I expect you not only to master music, I expect you to save the planet. If there is a future wave of wellness on this planet, of harmony, of peace, of an end to war, of mutual understanding, of equality, of fairness, I don’t expect it will come from a government, a military force or a corporation. I no longer even expect it to come from the religions of the world, which together seem to have brought us as much war as they have peace. If there is a future of peace for humankind, if there is to be an understanding of how these invisible, internal things should fit together, I expect it will come from the artists, because that’s what we do. As in the concentration camp and the evening of 9/11, the artists are the ones who might be able to help us with our internal, invisible lives.

Jay Bennett, 1963-2009

2009-05-27T14:12:00.000-07:00

Jay Bennett, a multi-instrumentalist who shot to fame as a member of the eclectic American rock band Wilco, died over the weekend. (Thanks to Chuck Snow for alerting us to the sad news.)

Here's a link to the Chicago Tribune's story, and below, another link to a somewhat melancholy song (one of my favorites) from the end of Bennett's time with Wilco. It's "Poor Places," a cut taken from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, widely regarded as Wilco's masterpiece.

Wilco - Poor Places

Positivity and urgency combine to create beauty.

2009-05-26T13:03:00.000-07:00

Here's a link to a commencement speech delivered on May 3 to the graduating class of the University of Portland by a gentleman named Paul Hawken. My favorite part? This.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would become religious overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead the stars come out every night, and we watch television.

This is just the kind of inspiration I needed, coming off a long, gray holiday weekend.

(I'll post some MeadowGrass pics soon, too. But don't hold your breath. That would be bad.)

Arts Lunch #3: Pioneers Museum

2009-05-22T13:23:00.000-07:00

I'm not great at planning events, so today's Arts Lunch was a surprise when I realized I had four guests willing to accompany me on a little foray into arts and culture in 60 minutes or less. For today's outing, we met at COPPeR's office downtown and made introductions. Included among us were an old friend of mine, Dave Olsen, along with Nancy Whitford from the Colorado Springs Philharmonic, Dreampower Animal Rescue's Adam Biddle and Matt Fisher from Sportique Scooters. We chatted for a few moments while a couple of us scarfed down our yummy Med. Café gyros, and then we dashed over across the lawn to the venerable Pioneers Museum.

A disclaimer: there's so much cool stuff to see at the museum, that one hour will never cut it. We stayed on the second floor the entire time, and had to peruse the exhibits rather quickly. There's a third floor accessible by a fascinating "bird cage" elevator, but we didn't make it up there today. Another Arts Lunch at the Pioneers Museum is most definitely in store for the future.

Here's some photos from Arts Lunch #3:

High tech for the Gold Rush.

Dave Olsen knows a Charles Rockey original when he sees one. (And he likes it!)

Whiskey bottles from the good ol' days ...

This jawbone is apparently the first piece of dental evidence ever used to solve a crime. It was from a murder here in Colorado Springs in 1904. It's crazy the stuff you can see if you just take a lunch break away from your desk.

Silverware which melted in the 1898 Antler's Hotel fire.

Nancy Whitford admiring a couple pieces in an entire gallery of art
inspired by Pikes Peak, "America's Mountain."

This piece, by Tracy Felix, reminds us of a quilt. It's billowy and stuff. :)

I seriously couldn't come up with a better caption for
this image than "Miner 49er." Pathetic, no?

There's a few more shots I took, but these pics here best illustrate some of the highlights from today's all-too-brief trip to the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum. If you've never been, I'm offering a recommendation to you to find some time to take in this historic cultural institution. Did I mention that the museum is free and open to the public from 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday? I didn't? Well, okay. There you go.

Thanks again to Matt, Adam, Nancy and Dave for the company today. Stay tuned for more info on next month's Arts Lunch!

Philadelphia is an arts town.

2009-05-22T07:58:00.000-07:00

And Colorado Springs has always been an arts town, so this totally makes sense: To help kick off their city-wide single-stream recycling program, Philadelphia "Transforms Recycling Trucks into Mobile Murals."

Thanks to @WalrusTater for the tweet!

Summer Music Guide 2009!

2009-05-20T16:08:00.000-07:00

We're pleased to present PeakRadar's guide to all the free summer concert series offered here in the Pikes Peak region. From music up in Woodland Park to out on Powers Blvd., this free downloadable guide has got them all. Perfect to print out and stick on your fridge, or just peruse online, the PeakRadar Summer Music Guide was meant to help the music-loving nature freak inside all of us come out and connect with this annual cultural gift to the community. Free summer music ... it's another reason to love living here in the Pikes Peak Region.

Terrific article on a superb condiment!

2009-05-20T10:39:00.000-07:00

Here's a link to an article in the NY Times on Sriracha Sauce. What's this got to do with the arts in the PPR? Well, I'm not sure if you've ever created any kind of sauce from scratch, but it's an art. Plus, Sriracha is about the tastiest damn hot sauce in the world. I like it on everything: from La'au's tacos to pasta salad, ramen, Captain Crunch and beyond.

Anyway, like the article states, you can buy the stuff everywhere, and I suggest you do. If you've enjoyed it already, you need no coaxing, but if you haven't ... seriously. Go. Get. Some.

Song of the day: "Waterloo Sunset" by the Kinks. It's off Something Else. Epic and beautiful, Ray Davies' masterpiece still attracts tourists to London's Waterloo Bridge–just because. (And as a bonus, here's Monet's "Waterloo Bridge, London, at Sunset," 1904.)

This inspires ...

2009-05-13T10:05:00.000-07:00

Here's Wynton Marsalis' lecture/performance piece from the March 30th Arts Advocacy Day celebration entitled "The Ballad of the American Arts."

Video courtesy of Americans for the Arts.

FAC Theatre Company reveals 2009-2010 Schedule

2009-05-10T12:46:00.000-07:00

Just saw on Gazette.com's Colorado Springs Arts Blog that the FAC Theatre Company will be performing Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. I think there's a fifteen year old somewhere (like, in my house) who'll insist we get tickets to this show.

I still haven't seen the 2007 movie version, which I hear is quite good (based upon said teenager's gushing review), but I suppose I'll have to do that before we go to the SaGaJi Theater for the FAC Theatre Co.'s production. (And I'll likely be forced to eat a meal or two consisting of "meat pies" ... ewww.)

Music is my radar ...

2009-05-07T10:44:00.000-07:00

"The dignity of art is most eminent in music ..." - Goethe

While I absolutely feel that I'm blessed to have such a cool job–especially when lots of folks are slogging through extraordinarily tough times–there are some moments when I let the amount of work ahead of me cause just the smallest amount of stress. It's in times like these that I reflect upon the revitalizing power of art. For me, no art form is as evocative, as transformational or as engaging as music.

I've been an avid musician since I was 12 years old, a lowly seventh-grader learning the drums in Charlie Clark's Beginning Band class at East Junior High School (now home to the Colorado Springs Conservatory and Galileo School of Math and Science). More than 20 years later, I still play drums, although I've also added guitar, piano, ukulele, and bass to the mix.

I love playing my instruments, but I spend so much more time listening to others playing theirs. It's always a transformational experience, akin to meditation in a way. It's during the day here at COPPeR when I do most of my listening. iTunes is constantly open, and I balance my musical diet between old favorites and new releases (complete albums, only–I'm a "purist"). Right now, I just finished listening to Katy Lied by Steely Dan and now the brand new Silversun Pickups album Swoon is rocking the office.

I love it all, though. Maybe someone out there on the INTARWEBS can suggest something new for me to sink my ears into. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Swoon ... it's new, and quite good, IMHO.

Oh, and the title of this post is also a cool song by a little British band called Blur. Here's the video:

This gave me a great big smile ...

2009-05-03T15:38:00.000-07:00

This is a delightful piano duet somebody posted to YouTube; I love when the woman takes a firm hip check from her husband and doesn't miss more than a couple beats.

Photos from Arts Lunch #2

2009-04-27T14:50:00.000-07:00

As promised (although a few days later than promised), here's some images from my HUGELY SUCCESSFUL* Arts Lunch at Gallery Two-Ten.

These first few are by Ray McCoy, who's showing his work as part of Images Beyond the Lens, May's show at Gallery Two-Ten.

This first image is called "Out of the Wound" (I think).

This one's titled "Introspection":

Here's "Always There":

This next image is Brian Grossman's alabaster and pigment sculpture "Perspective":

Here's a shot (albeit a blurry shot–in my defense, I did take these photos with my iPhone) of the always charming Marianne Gunter, owner of Gallery Two-Ten. She was kind enough to give me a personal tour of her space, which was voted best art gallery in the Gazette's 2008 Best of the Springs poll.

Uh ... "Piranha"?

Color, light and lots of beautiful, clean lines ... I heart Gallery Two-Ten (and you will, too!).

* By "HUGELY SUCCESSFUL," I mean to say "I had a great time. All by myself. Alone. Anyone who wants to join me next time just give me a holler."

Congratulations to Indie Sprit Film Fest ticket winners!

2009-04-20T10:47:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to the winners of our recent ticket promotion for the second annual Indie Spirit Film Festival (Alison Jones, Jeremy Nye, Christina Kukura, Brett Garman and Hernando Liebmann). A big "thank you" to Matt Stevens and Chris Loud from the Independent Film Society of Colorado.

See you all at the screenings!

What's the B.I.G. Idea?

2009-04-17T15:41:00.000-07:00

There's still some room left (but not too much time) to register for the first in the Smokebrush Gallery & Foundation for the Arts' new series of workshops. Regan Rosburg will be instructing a workshop on color theory, a subject of vital importance to anyone creating visual arts. More info here.

In case you haven't already, you'll want to head down to the Smokebrush to see Rosburg's "Breakaway" exhibit. I got my butt kicked (in a good way, of course) by Rosburg's incredibly intricate layering of oils, resin, insects and other objects. This show closes April 24, so don't drag your dang heels.

Indie Spirit Film Festival

2009-04-13T16:10:00.000-07:00

I've got a handful of single-screening passes for the 2nd Annual Indie Spirit Film Festival taking place from April 24-26 ... I'm just dying to give a pair of these tickets away.

So ... how about this? If you're the first person reading this who posts a comment to this blog specifically mentioning the tix, you get 'em.

Thanks for playing along.

~Kevin J. a.k.a. PeakRadar Guy