Razz-a-ma-tazz, visiting our urban cousin: Telluride Inside… and Out

01 Jun Razz-a-ma-tazz, visiting our urban cousin: Telluride Inside… and Out

by Art Goodtimes

BOULDER PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC

Okay, so I’d never seen a Tesla showroom before. But I saw one in Boulder — where I went (after my political duties last month) to visit some old friends, who balance Imago counseling with commercial construction and have a cozy condo duplex unit in a carefully manicured residential greenbelt.

Boulder is such a trip. It seems every spot of lawn has a dog baggie dispenser box, and even the street people carry REI sleeping bags.

Walking the early Saturday morning Pearl St. mall downtown, the tulips were neatly blooming. I got a “Truffle Mocha” at a trendy bakery I remembered (and, mirabile dictu, was still there!), and inhaled the warm if overcast aura of Colorado’s City Beautiful.

But that was on my way out of town. On my way in, I was coming off a morning of bad news for county governments, and then a visit with a fellow Green Party member from Denver who has grown increasingly disenchanted with the political maneuvering even among well-intentioned, politically radical, anti-war peacenik-types. Particularly those who make the small minor party political tent of the Greens even smaller by lashing out at Dems as well as Repubs and running candidates in state elections (usually earning too few votes even to act as “spoilers”).

It was a three-hour talk in a coffeehouse. I couldn’t talk my Green friend from quitting the party. He’d had enough.

So my mind was definitely focused on Green as I drove from Aurora to Boulder, listening to KUVO (Jazz 89).  On came a great interview with Ashara Ekundayo of “Café Nuba”  talking about the 11th anniversary of Denver’s award-winning African-American spoken word & music showcase. They’d teamed up with BluBlak Media, Green The Block, and other local organizations committed to creating sustainable green communities.

Ashara noted that green was made up of a combination of colors, although the Green movement had been pretty monochrome for quite a while. She was looking to help change that.

SHE GROOVEZ

After dinner in Boulder, my builder/buddy and I went out to a local bar, called the Blues & Greens (fit my outlook), to catch some other friends of his. Now the bar is part of the Boulder Outlook Hotel & Suites – and it’s a world all its own in the hotel biz.

We walk in the bar and I swear there’s this super hot all-female seven-member dance band belting out a spirited rendition of “It’s the Goodtimes”. I was blown away!

The band’s from Denver and is called SheGroovez  and I danced my tail off. They were just too good – great vocals and harmonies and a brash wild sound. I loved them. Check out their website, and go see them any chance you can – maybe someone will even bring them to Telluride one day.

Highly recommended.