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Friday, August 20, 2010

EAT LOVE PRAY Sparks Interest in Cherokee Event

Cherokee Ranch CEO: “Eat Pray Love” to Stir Interest in Indonesian Culture
Wilson Offers Value Pricing on Bali Dance, Drama and Cuisine--August 28 Event

I Nyoman Wenter performing the masked dance of Bali

“ 'Eat Pray Love’ spent 150-plus weeks on The NY Times best seller list --- and the film version, starring Julia Roberts, was released this month,” said Cherokee Ranch & Castle CEO Donna Wilson, of the popular Elizabeth Gilbert novel turned big screen flick about a woman’s search for herself during a yearlong trek through Italy, India and Indonesia.

Wilson predicted, along with others, the film may positively impact Bali’s struggling tourism industry and “… is highly likely to ignite greater interest in Indonesian culture stateside.”

“According to Ladies Home Journal, ’Eat Pray Love’ is the first motion picture filmed on the culturally-rich and fascinating Island of Bali,” said Wilson, adding, “…though most people can’t drop what they are doing and jet to Bali, they can easily get to Cherokee Ranch & Castle for a colorful and profound evening featuring amazing Indonesian dance, drama and cuisine.”

Wilson is touting the upcoming Cherokee performance entitled Topeng Pajegan of Bali: A Taste of Indonesia in Dance, Drama and Cuisine presented by Gamelan Tunas Mekar slated for Saturday, August 28, 6:30 p.m in the Veranda Tent at the Castle.

“This magnificent event is specially priced so entire families or groups can experience a taste of Bali right here in our own backyard,” said Wilson. “Of course, coming to Cherokee for one of our all-inclusive evenings is also a wonderful date-night get-away for couples.”

"A Taste of Indonesia in Dance, Drama and Cuisine," which includes a castle mini-tour, cash bar, Indonesian supper buffet, dessert & coffee with the performers, has been value priced at $35/Adult (reg. $55) and $15/Child 12 & under (reg. $20). Offer is valid while seats last for reservations made before or by August 24.

“At this price, seats won’t last long,” noted Wilson.

Reservations Hotline: (303) 688-4600, or use Cherokee's Online Registration Form.


ABOUT THE TOPENG PAJEGAN OF BALI

Topeng Bali is a masked drama dating back to the 9th century. In Topeng Pajegan, a single dancer/actor dons a series of masks depicting contrasting characters to tell a story tying the ancient world to the present. Experience an ancient King, his trusted servant, an aging, slowed warrior, and a series of comical village characters acting out a story as old as the village itself, yet filled with present-day concerns.

Tunas Mekar, an orchestra under the direction of Balinese composer I Made Lasmawan, performs the indigenous music of Bali, Indonesia. It is modeled after village groups found throughout Bali. By traditional methods, Tunas Mekar provides guests with a glimpse of this fascinating culture. Evening supper features Indonesian fare.

ABOUT THE CHEROKEE RANCH AND CASTLE

Cherokee Ranch and Castle is committed to preserving the natural environment, enhancing cultural life in our Colorado community and providing educational opportunities devoted to western heritage, wildlife and the arts. The Cherokee Ranch and Castle Foundation is a non-profit organization that truly exists as a resource for the public.

At the heart of Cherokee Ranch and Castle is a Scottish-style 1450s Castle built in the 1920s. The castle is home to collections of art, antiques, period furniture and rare books. Various species of wildlife along with about forty head of Santa Gertrudis cattle thrive on the ranch’s 3,100 acres of pristine, protected acres. Located adjacent to the communities of Castle Pines Village and Castle Pines North, Cherokee Ranch and Castle offers guests a quick get-away, spectacular views, charming elegance, and surprises around every corner. Your visit to Cherokee Ranch will be an experience you’ll treasure for years. The Cherokee Ranch and Castle Foundation is a non-profit organization, 501 (c) (3), that truly exists as a resource for the public.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Get Ready for Boulder County’s EAT LOCAL! Week, Aug. 28 – Sept. 4


Transition Colorado is hosting Boulder County’s EAT LOCAL! Week, Aug. 28 – Sept. 4, as an opportunity for citizens to explore and celebrate the abundance of local food, highlighting local family farms and farmers’ markets, along with the restaurants, grocers, and organizations which support them.

On July 27, Boulder County Commissioners adopted Resolution 2010-95 proclaiming EAT LOCAL! Week in Boulder County. Boulder’s City Council adopted a similar resolution, to be followed by other municipalities throughout the county.

Not only is EAT LOCAL! Week a chance to celebrate and explore, but it is also a chance to discover local food sources, to meet local food growers, to become more active in the local food and farming movement, to experience the joys of fresh delicious food, and to feel what it’s like to be connected to the local food and farming system, rediscovering a deep sense of community. A detailed schedule of all EAT LOCAL! Week events will be published as an insert in the Boulder Daily Camera, Boulder Weekly, and Colorado Daily.

EAT LOCAL! Week begins with publication of the Fall Edition of Boulder County’s EAT LOCAL! Resource Guide and Directory (30,000 copies to be distributed; online edition at www.EatLocalGuide.com), featuring the 10% Local Food Shift Challenge and Pledge, and continues for a full eight days of fun activities aimed at raising awareness about the benefits of eating locally: including food film screenings, restaurant specials, outstanding speakers, chef demonstrations, cooking classes, farm and garden tours, and potlucks.

Throughout EAT LOCAL! Week, all members of the community are invited to dine out, shop, attend our featured events, throw a dinner party, or simply make a home-cooked meal using local foods and beverages—and of course to sign up for the 10% Local Food Shift Pledge!

For more information, visit www.TransitionColorado.org

Roundup of EAT LOCAL! Week Special Events

~ EAT LOCAL! Week Kickoff (Saturday, Aug. 28, 5:30 p.m.) at Blues & Greens Restaurant (Boulder Outlook Hotel, 800 28th St.), featuring local food and music, featuring Louisville’s own Lionel Young, along with brief presentations by a host of sponsors, officials and community partners.

~ Old Fashioned Ice Cream Social (Sunday, Aug. 29, 1:30 – 3:30 p.m.), featuring Boulder Ice Cream and musical presentations from Mojo Music Academy, at Boulder County Courthouse south lawn, on Pearl between 13th and 14th Streets. Free!

~ The Local Food and Farming Revolution! (Sunday, Aug. 29, 7:00 – 9:30 p.m.) at Chautauqua; EAT LOCAL! Week keynote presentations celebrating the rising potential for the local food system with Woody Tasch (author of Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money: Investing as if Food, Farms and Fertility Mattered) and Transition Colorado co-founder Michael Brownlee, plus a special video appearance by Anna LappĂ©, author of Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do About It. Admission $5. Beforehand, enjoy the mobile culinary delights of StrEat Chefs, and beverages at Chautauqua’s Dining Hall.

~ 5% Local Community Giving Day (Wednesday, Sept. 1) at Whole Foods Ideal Market (1275 Alpine Ave.) in support of EAT LOCAL! Week.

~ “Symphony of the Soil,” An Evening with Deborah Koons Garcia (Wednesday evening, Sept. 1, 7:00 – 9:30 p.m.) at Nomad Theater (1410 Quince), featuring excerpts from a work-in-progress film documentary from the producer of ―The Future of Food, a groundbreaking film exposing the dangers and abuses of genetically-modified foods. Admission $10 at the door.

~ “Flat Iron Chef” Local Food Cook-Off (Thursday, Sept. 2, 5:30 – 8:00 p.m.). ―Iron Chef‖ style, local chefs— Eric Skoken (Black Cat), Matthew Jansen (Radda/Mateo), Ayan Rivera (Chef at Large)—are paired with local farmers to produce a feast to benefit the Boulder County Farmer Cultivation Center, held at Highland City Club, 885 Arapahoe Ave. (sponsored by Slow Food Boulder, Highland City Club, Transition Colorado, and Everybody Eats!). Advance tickets $20 (www.TransitionColorado.org/events.php), $25 at the door.

~ Local Foodshed Commons & Conference (Friday, Sept. 3, 9:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.), at University of Colorado’s Union Memorial Center, Glenn Miller Ballroom. Free!

~ EAT LOCAL! Celebration (Friday, Sept. 3, 6:00 – 9:00 p.m.) at the Millennium’s Outdoor Pavilion and Gardens and Thyme on the Creek, featuring local food prepared by local chefs, local music with Mojomama, DU4, and Jeff Brinkman, along with original local art. Admission $20 at the door.

~ “Tour de Coops” (Saturday, Sept. 4, 2:00 – 5:00 p.m.). Become familiar with chickens and the variety of their dwellings in Boulder, plus visit beekeepers and cultivators of special culinary gardens. Free!

As the centerpiece event of Boulder County’s EAT LOCAL! Week, on Sept. 3, Transition Colorado and CU’s Museum of Natural History are hosting a wellspring of community-supported agriculture, gardens and gardeners, urban farming, new farmer development, reskillings, Permaculture, food products, retailers, and farmers markets. The day begins at the spacious Glenn Miller Ballroom (9:00 – 5:30 p.m.) with the Local Foodshed Commons, featuring a variety of exhibits and demonstrations from local restaurants and chefs, local farmers and growers and their markets, local food retailers and distributors, non-profit organizations and community groups, local independently-owned businesses, Boulder-born-and-bred companies, renewable energy solution providers, sustainability services, green builders and developers, and many more! An open-mike farmyard stage will provide opportunities for brief presentations from exhibitors and enthusiasts, with sprinklings of local (acoustic) music.

In the accompanying Conference, several leading experts will share their knowledge and wisdom in special presentations and workshops. This is a wonderful opportunity to learn from and talk with Fred Kirschenmann, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture (author, Cultivating an Ecological Conscience); Vicki Pozzebon, Santa Fe Alliance; Bruce Milne, New Mexico Foodshed Alliance; and Bob McFarland, California State Grange. These will be held 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Sept. 3, at CU’s University Memorial Center.

The day will conclude at Millennium Harvest House’s famous Outdoor Pavilion and Gardens, with an extraordinary harvest-gathering celebration of those who support local organic food, offering culinary pleasure with awareness and sustainability. Here you can enjoy samples from Boulder County’s finest chefs, as local musicians offer their creative talents to bring EAT LOCAL! Week to a stunning conclusion. 6:00 – 9:00 p.m.

“Locally Delicious” Restaurant Specials

Transition Colorado is encouraging local chefs to feature all-local lunch and dinner specials on a particular day or throughout the entire week, highlighting locally-sourced entrees and locally-made products. Participating restaurants will be featured in the EAT LOCAL! Resource Guide and Directory and accompanying website and related promotions. Restaurants can devote a portion of the proceeds to the Boulder County Farmer Cultivation Center.

Remote Keynote Speakers

Transition Colorado is utilizing remote video technology to bring some of the most sought-after speakers in the country to Boulder County throughout EAT LOCAL! Week, tentatively including Wes Jackson, Land Institute; Richard Heinberg, Post Carbon Institute; Rob Hopkins, Transition Network; Kurt Friese, Slow Food; Tom Stearns, Center for an Agricultural Economy; Michael Bomford, Post Carbon Institute; Michael Shuman and Michelle Long, Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE). These pre-recorded video presentations (15 – 30 minutes each) will be shown at several locations (to be announced). DVDs of all the speakers will also be made available for home use, organization or church meetings, neighborhood gatherings, etc. (Details to follow.)

Documentary Films

Throughout the week, Transition Colorado will partner with local organizations to screen inspiring and informative documentary films at multiple locations throughout Boulder County. These are the films that are helping to drive the local food and farming revolution, including "What’s Organic About Organic?," "Ingredients," "Dirt!," "Fresh," "Food Fight," "The Garden," "The Real Dirt on Farmer John," "Food, Inc.," "Numen," "King Corn," "Locavore," "The Power of Community," "The Future of Food," and "The World According to Monsanto. " Other possibilities: "Our Daily Bread," "As We Sow," "Food Matters," "Flow: For Love of Water."

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About Transition Colorado: Mobilizing Colorado communities to make the transition from dependence on fossil fuels and globalized economic systems to local resilience and self-reliance, Boulder-based Transition Colorado (formerly Transition Boulder County) is at the forefront of the rapidly-growing international Transition Movement. Inspired by the visionary community-engagement process pioneered by Rob Hopkins in Totnes, England, thousands of communities around the world are mobilizing around this process. In May 2008, Transition Colorado became the first officially-recognized Transition Initiative in North America. Other official Colorado Transition Initiatives include Transition Lyons, Transition Louisville, Transition Denver, and Transition Westminster/Arvada/Broomfield. More Initiatives are already underway in Colorado Springs, Estes Park, Evergreen, Ft. Collins, Gunnison, Longmong, Loveland, Manitous Springs, Niwot/Gunbarrel, Salide, and at the University of Colorao and Naropa University, with regional and neighborhood Initiatives emerging in the West Front Range, South Boulder, and Capitol Hill areas.

Trot Around Town on a Tour - Aug. 14, Sept. 12 & Oct. 24


If you’re like us, you may not get out of Boulder County much. That’s why when you do visit the big city, it’s nice to know there are tours to tell you where to go and what to see.

Some of the more interesting are the public-art walking tours sponsored by the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs. The Denver Civic Center tour takes you to the postmodern Denver Public Library and past the downtown’s best-known art, including the city’s most famous statue, Alexander Proctor’s bronze “Bronco Buster,” and Beverly Pepper’s towering, abstract “Untitled” monoliths. The one-hour tours are free, but limited to 15 people; sign up by calling Rudi Cerri at 720-865-4307 or e-mailing rudi.cerri@denvergov.org. Dates are Aug. 14, Sept. 12 and Oct. 24 at 11 a.m.

Check the website at www.denvergov.org/publicart for other walking tours, including ones at the Denver Performing Arts Complex and the Colorado Convention Center.

—Carol Brock

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Forest Forays - Mushroom Walks on the Wild Side


Take a walk on the wild side—of edible mushrooms. The Colorado Mycological Society, the Front Range’s fungus fan club, holds woodland forays in search of some of nature’s most delightful delicacies.

Colorado’s mushroom season is short, peaking from mid-July through August, yet seekers can encounter apricot-scented chanterelles or nutty-flavored porcinis. Mushrooms typically thrive in moist, warm conditions, so hunting them in Colorado’s climate is not the most predictable hobby. However, after a stretch of rain during the monsoon days of summer, you are bound to hit fungus gold.

Weather permitting, CMS conducts forays on Saturdays or Sundays during mushroom season from around 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Outings are free for CMS members and cost $5 for nonmembers. “We are educating people on how to be naturalists and how to be observers and identify mushrooms,” says former CMS president Marc Donsky.

Although the forays have been going on for more than 35 years, there is still quite a bit of secrecy involved in the missions, Donsky says. “People are very jealous about mushroom sites. We don’t post them on our website because people end up poaching the mushrooms.” For this reason, fungus aficionados meet at a specified location and are then led up through the mountains to a prime spot, or occasionally on an urban foray in or around Boulder.
This year, the annual CMS Mushroom Fair is replaced by the North American Mycological Association’s 50th-anniversary celebration at the YMCA Snow Mountain Ranch near Granby, Aug. 12-15 (open only to members of CMS or NAMA).

On the second Monday of each month, CMS offers open-to-the-public meetings with a variety of expert speakers. A special foray event will be held August 21, led by Gary Lincoff, author of numerous books including the Audubon Field Guide to Fungi and the new book ‘The Complete Mushroom Hunter". ALL ARE WELCOME ON THIS FORAY, you don’t have to be a CMS member to attend. Attendees will meet at 9am at the East parking lot (Stegosaurus) at Exit 259 (I–70/Morrison) and go up to the mountains--most likely no more than an hours drive. Consult the Colorado Mycological Society web page for things you should bring (sunscreen, pack lunch, etc.). Forayers will meet back in town in the late afternoon for a picnic with Gary Lincoff to cook up some tasty finds (Boletus? Chanterelles? Hawk’s Wings?). The cost for the foray is $10.

To keep track of foray dates—never set in stone—check the website, www.cmsweb.org, and then have fun stalking the wild mushroom.

—Rebecca Schneider and Carolyn Oakley. Photos by Vera Evenson

Monday, August 9, 2010

Regional Premiere of "Tulku" at the Boulder Theater, Aug. 18

Gesar Mukpo's "Tulku"
Boulder Theater
Wednesday, August 18, 8pm
Price: $12.50

Join filmmaker Gesar Mukpo for the regional premiere of "Tulku," sponsored by the Boulder Shambhala Center.

"What does it mean to carry on a role designed for an old world when you're living in a completely new one?" Gesar Mukpo's documentary focuses on this question in "Tulku."

"Tulku" follows Western tulkus - all of them recognized when they were children as reincarnations of great Tibetan Buddhist masters - who are caught between the modern culture they were born into and the ancient Tibetan Buddhist culture from which they were reborn. As he gathers impressions from others, Gesar reveals his own poignant story of living in the West with this unique label and legacy. Filmmaker Gesar Mukpo is son of the great Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and the reincarnation of Sechen Kontrul Rinpoche.

To reserve tickets, visit: www.bouldertheater.com

For more information, please visit: www.nfb.ca/tulku

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

G&G's Argentine Tango Festival 2010 is Sept. 7-12


Treat yourself to a taste of the exotic, electrifying Argentine Tango as only world class Argentine tango professionals can deliver! Feast your eyes on the most sought-after Argentine tango teaching/performing couples in the world, featuring star studded performances and daily tango training seminars!

Meet tango aficionados from around the world gathering to study in Boulder with the 'maestros de los maestros' and attend spectacular performances by these fabulous couples.

Featuring World Class Argentine Tango Artists:
Gustavo Naveira & Giselle Anne
Ariadna Naveira & Fernando Sanchez
Federico Naveira & Ines Muzzopappa

When: September 7 - 12, 2010 (Tuesday through Sunday)
Where: The Avalon Ballroom, 6185 Arapahoe, Boulder, Colorado, USA

Full schedule of festival activities are available on-line!