Artifacting

Putting I Between Art And Facts

denver

A Fetid Phenomena

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As if 2016 hasn’t already been strange/horrible enough, now we have to contend with all of America’s Corpse Flowers mysteriously blooming at once. Over seven Corpse Flower in the US have bloomed within months of each other. Even the Denver Botanic Garden’s own “Little Stinker” made a showing this past Saturday (but has since closed up).

This is extremely unusual since there have only been 157 recorded corpse flower blooms ever between 1889 and 2008. This year in the US alone, at least seven flowers have bloomed. Typically the flowers only bloom about once every six years.

One of the most popular explanations for the rampant blooming is because US greenhouses and botanical gardens share seeds with one another, meaning most of the corpse flowers that are currently blooming are likely related (think: cousins). Or maybe this is just the stinky harbinger of events to come…

A Very Ween Valentines

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Valentine Ween

Ween made their triumphant return after not performing together for over four years and Denver is lucky enough to have had three days worth of reunion shows this Valentines Weekend.

The first night consisted of a whopping 33 songs (Dean promised 94 songs, no repeats, over he weekend). The night also offered a live début of “How High Can You Fly?” You can listen to Friday’s show below.

The second night Ween played a six song acoustic block (tracks 13-18). They also live debuted the songs “Kim Smoltz” and “Transitions”. The band also made a tribute to the late Lemmy Kilmister with a rocking cover of Motörhead’s “Ace of Spades.” Listen to Ween’s Saturday show here:

The final show was a great Valentines Day surprise as well. The set was a total of 31 songs bringing the weekend to an astonishing grand total to 93 songs! Valentines night was made up of a live début of “Israel” and another six-song acoustic set (tracks 14-19). The weekend was topped off with a five song double encore.

Here are some stats from the three-night reunion weekend:
God Ween Satan (1990): 14 songs
Chocolate & Cheese (1994): 13 songs
The Pod (1991): 11 songs
White Pepper (2000): 10 songs
Pure Guava (1992): 8 songs
The Mollusk (1997): 8 songs
B-sides/others: 7 songs
Quebec (2003): 6 songs
Shinola, Vol. 1 (2005): 6 songs
La Cucaracha (2007): 5 songs
12 Golden Country Greats (1996): 4 songs
Covers: 1 song (Motorhead)

The Boognish is Back!

Pretty/Dirty

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This weekend I visited the Marilyn Minter retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (MCA). All the work was captivating in beautiful and disgusting way. Her juxtaposition of glamor and grit, of the revealing and the disturbing, and of the intimate and the amplified shown throughout the entire show. The title Pretty/Dirty couldn’t have been more apt. A great review of the exhibit can be found at Hyperallergic.

Pretty Dirty 2“Pop Rocks” by Marilyn Minter

I was more impressed with her paintings than her photographs or videos. Above is a full-sized photo of Minter’s painting “Pop Rocks”. It’s a gigantic 9 feet by 15 feet. Outside of their sheer size and incredible detail, I’m fascinated by the process used to create them. The paintings start as heavily mixed and manipulated Photoshop negatives taken from earlier photo shoots. This new image is then turned into paintings created through multiple layers of translucent enamel paint on aluminum giving a rich hallucinatory look.

The final layer is applied with fingertips to create a softening of the paintbrush lines. And when you look closely you can see evidence of fingerprints and smudges all over her works. Below is a detail of the condensation from “Pop Rocks”

Pretty Dirty 5Detail of “Pop Rocks” by Marilyn Minter

The Marilyn Minter retrospective will be showing at MCA through the month so hurry up and go see it while you can. You can find a few more of my photos from the exhibit below.

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Denver Botanic Gardens Orchid Showcase

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12501478_947061382041390_710627477_nThe Denver Botanic Gardens Orchid Showcase is on view again this year from Jan. 8 – Feb. 22. It’s a great way to escape the wintery cold and still enjoy some nature. My family really enjoyed communing with the hundreds of exotic blossoms tucked in among the Garden’s citrus collection. A beautiful sight indeed.

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Hail Stone Cocktails (Cockthails? Hailtails?)

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On Saturday evening several parts of the Denver metro area experienced a quick but rather violent hail storm. So I decided to make the best of it and make some Hail Stone Cocktails. I simply mixed lemonade, lemon pellegrino, gin, muddled mint, and hail. Garnish with a sprig of basil and enjoy.

Hail Cocktail !

There has been some debate on reddit as to how safe drinking this cocktail is. I can only tell you that it didn’t make me sick and it tasted great. I’m venturing to guess that the most dangerous ingredient was the gin, not the hail. But that is coming from a guy who has eaten watermelon snow on several occasions.
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Fiery Tumbleweed Tornado In Denver

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Controlled burns got a little out of control in Denver last week. A 150 acre prescribed burn at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge was whipped up by a dust devil and fueled by a torrent of tumbleweeds. The whirlwind of tumbleweeds reached up 200 feet into the air from the Uvalda irrigation ditch at the refuge. The fire crossed the control line but was quickly contained and extinguished. The spot fire only burned about one additional acre thanks to quick action from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, South Metro, Denver, Fairmount, and West Metro Fire Departments.


There is also a longer and higher resolution video with no sound of the event.