The Empire is starting a marching band

[KU76erfan]

[japhy]

So far we have 3 clarinets and a drummer, my daughter that plays the double bass in the Lakewood Symphony is considering her options. We might have to provide a rolling office chair and an attendant to push it. Do you have a piano small enough that we could pull you on a cart?

[ChalkRocker]

You're putting a band together?

Are you on a mission from God?

Need a guitarra flamenco?

[pdub]

400 posts!

[japhy]

You're putting a band together?

Are you on a mission from God?

Need a guitarra flamenco?

Yes

Yes

Oh Hell Yes

[ChalkRocker]

400 posts!

I feel strong!!

[DCHawk1]

Stronger than PhD, that's fer sure.

[KU76erfan]

So far we have 3 clarinets and a drummer, my daughter that plays the double bass in the Lakewood Symphony is considering her options. We might have to provide a rolling office chair and an attendant to push it. Do you have a piano small enough that we could pull you on a cart?

Man, I'd be in for that, just on the comedy factor alone!

[Deleted User 104]

Are you a saxophonist?

[japhy]

So far we have 3 clarinets and a drummer, my daughter that plays the double bass in the Lakewood Symphony is considering her options. We might have to provide a rolling office chair and an attendant to push it. Do you have a piano small enough that we could pull you on a cart?

Man, I'd be in for that, just on the comedy factor alone!

You can crash on Blue. We can pull the cart with a bicycle, did I mention we have marching band uniforms?

It's a two day event. Day One is Marrow Day, the out of towners will disperse around the valley and crack open the bones of the place and suck out the marrow. There is the alien watchtower and vortex in Hooper, there is Cano's Towers in Antonito, the tallest sand dunes in North America, an alligator farm in a hot springs.....this valley is full of weird shit. This feel for the place will be useful when you get started with your art piece the next day.

Day Two is the actual summer solstice, it's the longest day of the year and we will act like it. We will leave town before dawn and climb up onto the rocks of Penitente Canyon to watch the sunrise. After that we drive the 15 minutes back to town and after a hearty breakfast we will have a parade with marching band. The parade will end at Alluvium home of Blue and we will have a collage party in the studio space, we should have about 4,000 sf of studio, so people can spread out and work. We will have celebrity guest artists who will pick the best of show collage. That will be followed by a siesta most likely and then another musical performance in the evening. The county is 3,000 square miles of empty space and a part of it is an International Dark Sky Sanctuary. So after dark if you want to wander out into the desert and stare into space that is pretty fun too, if you do watch Mt Blanco and watch for the ghost lights, those are pretty trippy.

I have some friends flying in from NY, so maybe you can share a rental car when you get out there. This is only year one so I am expecting 50-75 people not including townies. Because of development going on around the town I expect year two to blow up.

[japhy]

We're getting the band back together, or for the first time.

[japhy]

[ousdahl]

Did we ever even discuss the UFO watchtower?

[japhy]

And there is the vortex.

If you get sucked into the vortex, remind yourself....there's no Earthly way of knowing, which direction we are going, there's no knowing where we're rowing, or which way the river's flowing....and it could be a freak out.

[Wiff]

I played the guitar in a metal band in college if that fits in somewhere...

[japhy]

In the Empire, everyone fits in somewhere.

[japhy]

We got to see the retrospective of Nari Ward installations at MCA Denver last week. Incredible stuff. I think my favorite piece was "Amazing Grace". We brought a couple of KC expats who live in Denver now with us to see it. It was their first visit to MCA Denver. They aren't big art fans, but they live in our townhouse out there with a chunk of our art collection. They are developing an appreciation for this stuff. They walked into the room with "Amazing Grace" installed and on the way out said, "as soon as you walk in here, you get overwhelmed with emotion." Nari is a friend of a friend and I have extended a standing invitation to visit the Empire and see what is going on.

[japhy]

[pdub]

I bet japhy in the 70's was pretty intense to hang out with.

[japhy]

I was in grade school back then and no one took me seriously. I walked into the Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel in the 4th grade and was gobsmacked. I told anyone who would listen that when I grew up, I was going to design buildings like "this" some day. Guess who is the engineer of record for facade redesign of the Air Force Academy Chapel $350M renovation?

I was/am a dork, but I was a prescient dork of a kid.

I think Defixione thought I was a bit crazy when I first told him my plans for the Empire. Now he is about to get the coolest next door neighbor in the State of Colorado.