meat to spill

After work yesterday, I picked up steph on the hill and we made our way into denver mowin' some cheba subs on the way. Had a couple drinks at robert & angie's then headed to the Gothic for the Built to Spill / Meat Puppets show. I was on the list (thanks 1190), but unfortunately door security said no taping tonight - boo. Some guy along with Jim & Scot from BTS opened the show, then the Meat Puppets took the stage. I'd never seen them before and they put on a great show. I was surprised that Chris was out of jail after he assaulted a postal worker with a cop's baton and got shot several times back in 2002, but he was and he seemed lively as ever. Next up Doug et al provided us with another phenomenal built to show. They even treated us with a couple of newer tunes - 'Canada' & 'Done'. During the epic sprawl of the encore, 'broken chairs', Curt & Chris Kirkwood took over for Doug & Brett Nelson. Would have been a great recording...



the wait
three years ago today
time trap
strange
canada
center of the universe
third uncle
car
done
goin' against your mind
stop the show
big dipper
wherever you go
carry the zero
broken chairs

chaos/control

Met up with steph on the hill last night for a drink before heading over to the IFS to catch a viewing of Control, the Ian Curtis biopic. It was rather well done, shot in black & white and based off Deborah Curtis' memoires so it was a seemingly fairly accurate portrayal of his life, which was completely fucking depressing. Sam Riley did a great joaerb as Ian . It was at times kind of humorous how they made Bernard Sumner out to be kind of a total dork though.

there will be bread

Picked up a pizza & beer on my way home friday night and watched most of We Own the Night with steph. The dvdtron crapped out about 2/3 into the movie, but it wasn't good enough to worry about finishing.

Besides, we had another early riser saturday morning to head up to Keystone. They had about 4 fresh inches and a few from the day before, and it continued to snow all day. Spent most of the day with GW in the Outback bowl, before syncing up again with steph who was hanging out with her sis. It was a great day of riding.



Hit the rooud by 1-ish since we had robyn & jesse's engagement party to attend. Got a real quick nap in, grabbed a take n' bake, picked up jacq, then headed to steph's, ate the pizza, and made our way to jake & christie's for the festivities. Debauchery ensued, the liquor dried up, and before long it was sunday morning. Headed home, and watched the Godfather which, amazingly enough, I'd never seen before. Then headed to hillside for our traditional Oscar dinner. This year's menu included:

Appetizers:
No Country for Old Cheese (“No Country for Old Men”)
Johnny Dip (Johnny Depp In “Sweeney Todd”)
Gone Baby Guac (“Gone Baby Gone”)

Main Course:
Salmon from Surf’s Up (“Surf’s Up”)
Into the Wild Rice (“Into the Wild”)
Butternut Squash Ravioli with Ellen Sage Sauce (Ellen Page in “Juno”)
Ratatouille ("Ratatouille")
There Will be Bread (“There Will be Blood”)

Beverages:
La Vie en Rosé wine (“La Vie en Rose”)
Beera Knightly (Kiera Knightly in “Atonement”)

Dessert:
Ruby Red Velvet Cup Cakes (Ruby Dee in “American Gangster”)

-yum-

this is the way the weekend ends

Started the weekend off by celebrating V-Day with tix to see DeVotchKa at the Fox. Met up at Steph’s place with flowers and a card in hand. Got sweet curtains for Milo and a Dogfish Head 120 minute IPA brew. Turns out it’s 20% - I was wondering why I was a bit swervy when headed out...



The original plan was dinner at the Fat Cat noodle house, but it was closed for a private frat function. Stuck on the hill we then headed to Hapa which had a long wait. Wound up at the Sink eating a calzone and getting the daily beer special – Stella in a swanky glass we got to keep. We headed to the Fox and managed to get up front during the opener, Everything Absent or Distorted. DeVotchKa was up and somehow some dickhead wound up standing next to us. He started rows with jsut about everyone around us eventually tossing his drink over everyone including myself. So I chucked his hat accross the venue and made him fetch, twice. But then we moved back because he was a little loony and it was best just to leave it alone at this point before he really went psycho. The show was fantastic, they played a lot of material from their new album, A Mad & Faithful Telling (which has since leaked). It was a very romantic show, and they even had those crazy dancers that hang from the ceiling in ribbons.



The next day kicked off the BIFF (Boulder International Film Festival). We headed to the Hill again, grabbing slices for dinner. First we saw Southland Tales at CU – an IFS film in conjunction with BIFF, hand delivered by one of the film’s executive producers who happens to be a CU grad. Quite the cast, including the Rock), Mandy Moore, Cheri Oteri, Sarah Michelle Gellar, JT, and on and on and on. It was everything you could expect from Richard Kelly (of Donnie Darko fame) and it was certainly complex. After the movie, we were ready to party, but it was sorta late to make any plans, so we just grabbed more slices and then a brew at the Sink and headed home.

Being a long weekend, the plan was to hit the Basin on Sunday instead of our usual Saturday jaunts. Woke up and got opening weekend Rox tix, then headed to Hillside to complete some tax stuff. Met up with Steph and Greg and headed back to Boulder for more BIFF. This time we saw Charlie Bartlett at the Boulder Theater.. On the way, we stopped by Boulder Ski Deals and steph picked up some sweet new Burton boots. The movie turned out to be Running With Scissors light meets Harold & Maude trying to channel Ferris Bueller with Robert Downey Jr. After the movie, they had a Q&A with the director, but it was pretty boring so we jetted. Headed to Conor O’Neils since it was saturday night and all, but we headed home pretty early in anticipation of an early start the next morning to the Basin.

Hit the row-ad bright and early, burgers, brews, and grill in tote. It was cloudy and lightly snowing when we got there, but eventaully the sun peaked thru. Breaked for lunch and met up with Wesson and his buddy Steve. Hit a few more post-lunch runs and then headed out around 2. Had a chill night – dinner and TV with Steph.

Monday was a day off for President’s Day. And staying with the spirit of BIFF, caught the twilight matinee of There Will Be Blood. And there was. After that, hit up the gym. Capped the evening off with some great Mexican and the season finale of Prison Break.

busted in the butte

Earlier in the day friday, almost all roads to the mountains (along the I-70 corridor and the southern passes) were closed due to poor conditions. Fortunately, everything down south re-opened by noon, so we were able to head down to Crested Butte friday night as planned. The drive was long (4.5 hours) and dark. When we got in to town, Greg called Cory, our weekend host and said he was at this bar, so we stopped in town to meet up with him and drive to his place. Downtown CB had walls of snow – you couldn’t see any of the buildings! When we got to the bar, Cory was already gone, but we did say hi to Meg, our other weekend hostess.



Headed in to Mt. Crested Butte just down the road (row-ad) and pretty much passed out around midnight down in the mega guest room. Up early the next morning, ready to hit the slopes. We made breakfast and then headed to the mountain. The weather was perfect – warm and sunny. We split up from steph who was taking it easy on the board after her knee injury, and went off with corey & evan who brought us to all of the heady terrain on the mountain including the highlight - the Funnel. Met up for lunch around noon, then headed back out until 3 or so.





Went back to the house and had après ski brews and watched the Waren Miller helicopter fly overhead for shots of the town (they had been filming in the backcounrty all day, and even caused a few slides).



We cooked up a pasta dinner, had some strong coffee & homemade Kahlua drinks, and then headed out for the town. Shotski in hand, we went to the local brewpub, the Eldo. The evening started with foosball and brews and quickly got crazy with the shotski. Everyone was doing it – even the old out of towners! There was some Bluegrass band playing in the back, but we didn’t pay much attention. We met a few townies as well.



Managed to make it back to Mt. CB that night and woke up with only slight hangovers. A later start this time, we again made some breakfast and headed to the slopes. The weather was once again pristine. After the fairly aggressive day before, we took it easier and hung out with steph, the most recent snowbaord convert. We made a couple stops slopeside for brews and food.







After a fun day on the mountain, we headed back to the house and watched Wicker Man, one of Nicolas Cage's finest moments. “How’d it get burned?! How’d it get burned!?!? HOW’D IT GET BURNED, HOW’D IT GET BURNED!!!!!!!!” Whoa buddy…..



We then headed to the Secret Stash for dinner – a local eccentric pizza joint. On the menu is the “Big Mac Daddy” pizza, which is literally a Big Mac in pizza form. SO we had to order that. We were all pretty wiped after dinner, so we hit the hay once we returned.



Monday was departure day. Woke up early enough, cleaned and packed up and set out home. On the way out, stopped one last time in CB for breakfast at the Gas Café and for a commemorative shot glass for a new, improved shotski to come. The drive was far more scenic, being daylight and all. We stopped by Monarch on the way, to check out the slopes. Our route even passed thru South Park, Mr. Hanky and all. Another storm was rolling in, which we just barely got ahead of. The next day the town of Fairplay was deemed in a state of emergency, as hundreds of residents were trapped in their homes under several feet of drifting snow. We were home around 3p. Just enough time to unpack and unwind before reentering reality and work the next day.

perfectless

Well, the Patriots finally fell apart and lost the Superbowl to the lame Giants sunday night. And our 'wicked pissah pats pahty' at neider's house in denver decended into cake smashing madness not too soon after.



Saturday was spent at the basin with GW. We bumped into matt, sonya, brody & dylan at breakfast and rode with them the first half of teh day. Conditions were prime once again, even thought visibility became increasingly difficult as the afternoon progressed. Grilled a steak for dinner with steph and called it an early night since I was wiped out from riding all day.

Friday night steph and I grabbed a quick bite on the hill and then saw the film, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead on campus. It was a pretty good murder mystery/caper film staring Philip Seymour Hofman, Ethan Hawke, and Marisa Tomei.