There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.
J.R.R. Tolkien
Tags: Quoting
Well, we finally made it to the updated and vastly improved Casa Bonita! Thank you Trey Parker and Matt Stone for giving so much love, and more critically, millions and millions of dollars to make it just right, like going through more than twenty shades to get that perfect pink!
Growing up in the Denver Metro, Casa Bonita was an important part of our childhoods. It was all over the television, with exciting commercials (!), and the first field trip I ever remember taking, when we studied Mexico, probably in second grade. Friends worked here in high school, rolling silverware, bussing tables, and roaming in nurse shoes. Greg and I, in our typical nerdy fashion, spent our fifth anniversary here, for the sheer joy of it, because, aside from the beans and sopaipillas (for which you raised a yellow flag), the food was downright terrible.
Oh, how things have changed! First off, there is a massive line to get in these days, and that is with an 11:15 reservation for lunch on a Friday! But will ya looky there. Now, the food is downright delicious, and there is plenty of it, too. There are still flags on the table (upper right hand corner), and you bet your bottom dollar we raised ours to get our bowl of hot-from-the-fryer sopaipillas. They are as delicious as I remembered.
In updating and bringing the woefully constructed Casa Bonita of yore up to code (some legit horror stories of fryer oil poured directly down the drain and pools of water next to electrical panels – yikes!), they absolutely retained the magical childhood feeling of the place. It remains big and small at the same time, with a wonderful air of whimsy.
Black Bart’s Cave seems bigger and more windy, and, of course there’s an Evil Knievel lunch box amongst his treasures!
There’s also live music, with a mariachi band and this magnificently talented Spanish guitarist just going and going. Beautiful!
Last but not least, the cliff divers, which are definitely better than ever!! Hooray and huzzah for memories and creating new ones for the generations to come.
Tags: Colorado
I am a forest, and a night of dark trees: but he who is not afraid of my darkness, will find banks full of roses under my cypresses.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Tags: Quoting
Remains of the blizzard, pretty that. Also note the flourish of leaf and bud on the fern bush, a reliable early notion of spring. I need it this year.
I have been struggling, for peace some days, mental wellness all along. My usual, every few years, precipitous dip into darkness. My maddening chemistry. Also, this country, of which I used to be ridiculously proud, making enemies of friends, blithely, with impunity, what could possibly go wrong?
I find respite in the usual pockets, the leaf of fern bush above, a porch-full of sun warmth on black clad legs, a Juniper snuffle and wiggle of tail, a Greg kiss and cuddle in the thin light of morning. I’m crafting a playlist of beloved-by-me dance songs, a medicine all their own. Essentials, if you will.
In an unusual turn, at least for the Colorado Springs leg of this journey of life, we have seen three movies in an actual theater recently. Entertaining and TWO directed by Steven Soderbergh, which, in the car on the way home from Black Bag (very good, plus Michael Fassbender, whose voice I could put on a loop for more good medicine) made me realize he is probably my favorite director of all time, with such a willingness to try — serious, historical, funny, strange — and does a brilliant job.
A semi-short list for funsies, exclamation points for personal favorites: Sex, Lies, and Video Tape, Out of Sight (!!), The Limey (!), Traffic, Ocean’s Eleven (!!), Solaris (!), Bubble, Che: Part One (!) and Two, Logan Lucky (!), Mosaic (Paul Reubens!), Kimi, Presence.
Also, to plug our favorite local theater since the demise of the Kimball’s Peak Three downtown (sadly, the owner died in 2023), Roadhouse Cinemas is seriously all the things. They have: really good drinks – boozy – margarita, an electric green apple drink whose name evades, and not – a most magical root beer, legit excellent food, even amazing churros! It is also full service to a comfy recliner, which, on a cold winter evening (or any time), can be made warm and toasty with the flick of a button. Why would you go anywhere else?!
Tags: Movies
A sentence starts out like a lone traveler heading into a blizzard at midnight, tilting into the wind, one arm shielding his face, the tails of his thin coat flapping behind him.
Billy Collins
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Third blizzard in six weeks on Tuesday. Over it…
Tags: Quoting
