Berthoud at night

and more telescopes!

Dr. Andrea Schweizer

Back in February we saw Dr. Schweizer at the Science Cafe talk about the International Year of Astronomy. The other night she was at the Little Thompson Observatory to help build the Galileo Telescope kit.

On the way to the big telescope!

They put out a light rope so you could find your way at night. It's pretty dark on the south side of Berthoud, but that's a good thing!

18" Cassegrain telescope

We were hoping to look out of the retired 24-inch Mount Wilson telescope that was recently moved to the observatory earlier this year, but the mirror was being refurbished and the mount needed rebuilding, so we won't see it in operation until sometime next year.

People came in to build telescopes!

Some actually took a look at the manual!

The observatory in daylight.

Bloco at Oak Street Plaza

A Black Friday Benefit

IN FORT COLLINS!

'The Renegade Performance'; We just showed up on Oak Street Plaza dressed in black and played samba for an hour. It was a benefit for homeless Vietnam Veterans and even though there were not too many Old Town shoppers (All at the Walmart, I imagine!) we collected over $100.

Anton @ Art Lab

A theater update:

Anton in Showbusiness

The Open Stage ETC performed at the first Art Lab location last month. While it was strange to have a theater production in an abandoned office space, this crazy theatrical story retelling of Checkov's 'The Three Sisters' seemed to fit perfectly. The local Fort Collins theater crowd didn't catch on to this gem until it was too late (it also didn't help when the people at the Lincoln Center box office couldn't give exact details on the location of the Art Lab!) The ECT should do it again sometime soon because it was just that good!

...and of course the Art Lab is a moving target!

The new Art Lab Location, I think.

It could be at 239 Linden Street, but the Art Lab website and Facebook has yet to be updated. Bloco em Foco is planning on blasting through the walls as soon as someone is brave enough to give them the keys!

Also seen:

The Open Stage performance of "The One-eyed Man is King" by Carter Lewis. Directed by Bruce Freestone, the story is based on an H.G. Wells story and uses dramatic breaks between light and dark to help give contrast (blind folks vs. them's with sight). You get the idea early on, so it seemed a little long at times. IOW, A simulated gun shot in the first act helped keep me awake. Oh well. Looking forward to next month at the Bas Bleu for:

'Vaughn NM, Christmas Eve, 1956' & 'A Child's Christmas in Wales'

One Love Art

It's at a 'headshop' in Loveland:

The Groovy Eye

Mushrooms, Elves, Gratefull dead

High Moon

One Love/People Get Ready - Bob Marley & The Wailers, 1977

Note 1: The music in the store source: vinyl records via a 'phonograph'.

Note 2: Nobody there (except me) was born before 1985.

Sex, Robots & Rock 'n Roll

I have a feeling we're not in Fort Collins anymore...

This is NOT on our theater list for the FoCo Newcomer's Club!

But if you find yourself panhandling on Natoma Street in San Francisco and need a little break from reality, you should check out this show.

The front door is just this.

Inside is a collection of musical instruments, servomechanisms, computers, Disney-On-Acid animatronics, surreal paintings, sculptures and

This guy.

The director of Omnicircus, Frank Garvey; His manifesto on Steps Toward a Culture of Liberation is a real trip but don't read it, come on down and see the show! Frank will personally clue you in when you get there.

The Paintings are part of the show.

I first met Frank about 40 years ago. He was a drummer and a painter from the "Hieronymus Bosch School of Erotic Derangement" or something of that sort.

Various sculptures on view

And of course, The Robots!

It's too bad that I gave away my robot collection before I moved to Fort Collins. I could have teamed up with Bill Swets and started a whole new art form in Colorado!

Junk Yard Parts on Stage

The robots interact with human performers and the theater patron as well.

and there are drums. Many drums!

Colorado Redman

Off of US 34 west of Loveland:

It's a wooden indian sculpture!

I was talking to BBQ Bob the other day and he noticed that I was carrying a camera so he asked what kind of pictures I liked to take. I said I took pictures for my blog called 'Roadside Mysteries'; about stuff I see on the roadside. He said I should go west on Eisenhower a few miles to the 'Big Indian Head'. "It's a real mystery" he said. It was also along the roadside.

A closer view of the head

Carved in 1979 by Peter Toth, this 37 foot high tribute to native Americans used to stand proud in the center of Loveland but now has been moved out of the way only to be noticed by those driving up to Estes Park if they happen to look to the right at the proper moment.

Note: Peter Toth has carved at least one indian head in all 50 states.

Noite Brasileira !

Back into Laramie, Wyoming:
It was a benefit concert for Partners of the Americas' breast cancer prevention program

Gisele Dias was there!

...and Bloco em Foco !

Nobody told me there was going to be math

What?

They said there was going to be pie!

Did you know that in 430 BC, Hippias (460 BC–400 BC) of Elis (in the Peloponnese, Greece), a contemporary of Socrates, discovered the quadratrix, a curve he used for trisecting an angle.

Dr. Meroney

Here we have Dr. Robert Meroney, Emeritus Professor of Engineering at CSU presenting his multimedia tribute to all that is pi; the history, humor, poems, limericks, and trivia. Of course he meant this pi: π not the other kind. The one that is a number that is about: 3.14159 26535 89793 23846 26433 83279 50288 41971 69399 37510. Not the pie you can eat!

Oh, they had pie! Real pie!

All part of Fort Collins' Poudre River Public Library 'Eclectic Nights' series!

Dr. Meroney likes computer simulations. Check out this lava lamp demo of a fluid model desktop toy.

Mr. Freeze is here!

In Old Town, Fort Collins:

Or is that Master Chiller?

Master chillers are made by Roustan Refrigeration. Here we have Porta-Pipe™ being installed in Old Town Square in order to make the base for an ice rink floor system.

The piped floor system.

There are fixed underground pipes gushing heat transfer fluids right under your feet in Old Town! At any moment there could be gallons of ethylene glycol passing under you and you wouldn't even know it! If you have X-ray vision you can follow the pipes to this secret mechanical storage room that contains...

The real Master Chiller!

So it looks like ice skating is back in Old Town! Starting on Saturday, November 21 you can rent a pair of skates ($1) and skate on the Roustan Rink for only $2. That's also the day for the big holiday season kick-off where all the lights get turned on! Remember: Buy local!

Got Beer?

Make it here!

This place just opened on Mason so I had to take a look!

It is your one-stop shop for all of your homebrew and wine making supplies.

Belgian Grain

They gots quality wine kits, fermenters, bottles, corks, test equipment, additives, books, grains, extracts, yeast, hops, carboys, kegging and draft equipment! Why not make some beer and/or wine today?

FOCO gone BLOCO

The group photo:

Maybe half of the group represented here

Some more lingering in the Art Lab....

The latest art is this wall art paint by numbers!

Political Activism in Fort Collins, Part 1B

A special day at the Fort; Today's visitors:

A statue of a virgin

Joe the "plumber"

I like the backwards "Y" on this sign.

One of two buses

After judgement day I'm thinking I can get a good deal on one of these buses. It would be ideal for our band and all that heavy equipment.

Rams and Cowgirls!

at CSU's Moby Arena:

the usual suspects dressed up!

The pre-halloween women's volleyball game between the CSU Rams and the UW Cowgirls had advertised that if you came in costume, you would get in free. Since we have a large inventory of costumes in the basement, it was no problem assembling something last minute.

In the first game, UW lead most of the way until the last minutes when CSU pulled ahead and won 25 to 22. Not many fans came in costume but we didn't mind.

The RAM audio dashboard (to the left of where we were sitting) kept record of the sound level in Moby Arena. The highest level was noted when the fans picked the "Best Costume Award" and gave it to the little kid in the baby bee costume. Not too many people were watching the RAM however, because to the right of us

This group of women were removing their clothing!

After watching them it became obvious that they were taking off one piece of clothing for every point that CSU made! After the first game they had stripped to these one piece suits. During the second game, they would put on one piece for every CSU score.

In the third game, we saw at least one sneak on some clothing before taking it off (just in case there was a tie game situation!) We were told that they were members of the CSU Women's water polo team and they do this once a year. Some guy ran out and danced in his underwear, but nobody seemed to care...

The Rams swept the Cowgirls! GO CSU !!!!