Hey everybody! I have a new slogan. It came to me on a shiny bookmark given to me by a monk. It is: "WORK SMOOTHLY, LIFETIME PEACE."
So I'm trying to take time every morning to think about what I will accomplish that day and over the next week, and then I break that goal down into tasks, and then I do that stuff real smooth-like. I'm also listening to a lot of Four Tet.
Anyway, here's my read of today's news.
It's going to be really warm this weekend.
Go outside. Maybe the sand dunes?
Cold Crush.
The forced closing of Cold Crush is obviously going to be a huge local story for a few weeks. The club was effectively forced by the city to close with seemingly little warning after a fatal shooting this weekend. The place is renowned as a center for hip-hop and jazz in RiNo, a district that's rapidly filling up with luxury apartments. I am very interested to see what types of complaints (and from whom) led to this city action. Westword's got an interview with an owner and we'll be following along here. (Westword/Denverite)
A theory on boring buildings.
Designers attempt to "make large buildings look small by fragmenting them architecturally." That's how Mark Johnson, one of the city's best-known urban designers, describes the new stock style that's proliferating in Denver and beyond.
He tells Luc Hatlestad that developers are going for the lowest common denominator, replicating what they've done in the past in order to minimize costs and compensate for the risk that they'll be rejected by their new neighbors. The solution, Johnson suggests, is that the city council should update its neighborhood-level plans for design and architectures. Interesting interview! (5280)
Aurora is putting $2.6 million into dining and the arts on East Colfax.
The "old People's Rent-To-Own building" sure don't sound like the future heart of a cultural district, but that's exactly what Aurora plans with a renovation beginning this month at Colfax and Florence Street. It will include a restaurant space and an open arts space that can host performances. (Aurora Sentinel)
What are you going to do tonight?
Ashley's got the big weekend list. I'm interested in Mandolin Orange, because I miss North Carolina. Might be fun to see ghosts at the cemetery too. (Denverite)
Sage Reynolds got expelled for participating in a Nazi-themed Facebook chat. Now what?
More than a dozen high-school and college students have been identified as members of the "4th Reich Official Group Chat," which came to public attention after one member's suicide. At least five have been expelled, including Sage Reynolds, 18, formerly a Boulder Prep student.
He reportedly had posted only one message to the group: "We must obey our annukaki (sic) overlords," a reference to the Anunnaki deities, who figure prominently in some Nazi-alien conspiracy theories. Reynolds tells ABC7 the entire group was a "bad joke," with no malice, but others took the "joke" so far as to promise death to Jews and black people.
I suspect some of these kids really were joking. I grew up in New Jersey, in a town just about as white and wealthy as Boulder. Students at my school constantly used racial slurs and made awful jokes. These kinds of jokes normalized statements and attitudes that I suspect some of my old classmates say in complete seriousness now. Anyway, did these kids deserve expulsion? You tell me.
