Denver Gets Down on Fat Tuesday
Travis Combs
The Metropolitan

Photo by - Shannon Davidson A band at the Red Fish Bar and Grill located in Union Station downtown Denver entertains a diverse group of patrons celebrating Mardi Gras 2003.

Someone hands you cheap, plastic beads as you walk into the bar. The smell of liquor and perfume quickly overwhelms you. Individual faces blur into one as the tightly packed crowd parties in drunken revelry.

Young women scramble on top of tables and the bar, and dance to the rhythm of New Orleans style jazz while the crowd gives them bead necklaces and shouts for skin. Reminiscent of a Roman orgy, the hedonism flows on tap like the beer poured at the bar.

After taking it all in, you think to yourself: so this is Madrigals.

Commonly associated with the wild abandon on the streets of New Orleans, Mardi Gras has garnered a reputation as one of the wildest parties of the year, and enjoys wide- spread appeal for partygoers everywhere.

With celebrants waiting in excess of thirty minutes just to enter the establishment, the Red Fish Bar and Grill in lower downtown was one of the many bars and restaurants in Denver celebrating the holiday, Mar. 4.

“ I think it’s a time for people to let their aggression out— to let their emotions out,” said Alan Riley, a bouncer at the Red Fish Bar. “It’s time to be free and not care about the world. I like the pretty ladies. It’s a good day to be alive.”

Mardi Gras means, “Fat Tuesday,” and is celebrated from Jan. 6 until the day before Ash Wednesday, which can fall anywhere between Feb. 3 and March 9, depending the calendar day used by the Catholic Church for Easter.
Traditionally celebrated in the Southern states, Mardi Gras has roots in New Orleans through the customs of its French settlers, but some claim the holiday can be traced to Roman pagan orgies held during the spring season.

Known for its outlandish and colorful masks, costumes and beads adorned by its celebrants, Mardi Gras uses the traditional colors of purple, green, and gold to represent justice, faith and power.

Though wintry weather caused the cancellation of Denver’s Mardi Gras parade this year, the parades traditionally have been over-the-top spectacles, with celebrants adorned in exotic costumes throwing beads and other objects to the onlookers.

As with any good party, there is a morning after, and the morning after Fat Tuesday is, of course, Ash Wednesday, which is the beginning of Lent, a forty-day period of abstinence until Easter.

Notorious for taking the party to a near-riot level in the streets, especially in the case of New Orleans, and the over-abundance of alcohol, Mardi Gras’ excessive tone is what attracts partygoers. This excessiveness can lead some of the celebrants to perform things they may not otherwise do. This often includes nudity.

“I’m not your average woman,” said Nikki Jo, who requested her last name be withheld. “I’ll get up on any bar at any time, and, hey, it’s Mardi Gras.”

Photo by - Shannon Davidson Mardi Gras 2003 many people came to Red Fish enjoy drinks music and the company of friends and strangers alike. These people and many others gather around the bar to enjoy drinks and conversation	Photo by - Shannon Davidson The young and old gather to celebrate Fat Tuesday March 4. Kindra Steele (right) from Louisiana joins Cindy Culp of Montana in the sprit of the Mardi Gras celebration.

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Falun Gong is trying to raise student awareness to widespread persecution
by Ian Neligh
The Metropolitan

Since 1998, 596 people have been tortured to death for practicing Falun Gong, a traditional Chinese discipline that includes exercise and meditation. Over 500 people have been sentenced to prison, 1,000 have been put into mental institutions and more have been arrested and detained.

The Chinese government made it illegal in 1999 for 100 million people to practice the discipline on the grounds that it was a dangerous cult, dangerous to both its radical members and to the stability of modern civilization.

“It became labeled as some kind of (cult) all of a sudden,” said Falun Gong (Dafa) practitioner Joy Zhao.  “The (members) were sent off to detention centers, labor camps where they were tortured. Some were tortured to death. Right now, the death toll is jumping to six hundred.”

Zhao, who is from Shanghai, was with a group of Falun Gong followers at the Auraria campus trying to raise student awareness of the persecution faced by the other members in China.

According to www.faluninfo.net, battering; force-feeding with hot pepper or high-density salt water; denial of food, sleep, and toilet use; exposure to extreme hot or cold weather; burning with cigarettes and heated metal; shocks with electric batons - are just some of the recorded means of torture inflicted on Falun Gong practitioners in captivity.

The scale of this persecution has many of the world’s communities asking if the Chinese government is correct in its opinion of this group, or whether the practice is simply a threat to the government’s balance of power in the region.

Photo by - Joshua Buck Joy Zhao, front, along with Dung Nguyen, middle, and Helen Sun, practice a Falun Dafa exercise Feb. 27 in the Tivoli Multicultural Lounge.

“It’s a very complicated problem in China, not just politically, but economically,” said Xiansheng Tian, a Metro professor of Chinese history.  “They send these people to jail, use the national police force on every level to crack down on practitioners, and the Chinese police treat them very badly.  A lot of people have died in jail or in labor camps.”

Tian said the Chinese government is always worried about any kind of organized activity in Chinese society.  In the 90s, the Government decided to crack down on Falun Gong after one of their peaceful demonstrations, making the group a victim of suppression.

“After the communists took over (China), people lost their beliefs, their tradition. They have to follow communist party leadership all the time,” Tian said.  “But after the cultural revolution, when the country opened back up to the outside world, they realized what they had been learning from the government, in part, is totally a lie.”

Tian said the Chinese lost trust and confidence in communist beliefs, causing something of a belief vacuum within their culture. As a result, the new generations turned toward Christianity, Taoism and Buddhism, and many to Falun Gong.

“Now (in China) you’re no longer guaranteed lifetime employment, and many of the businesses (have) failed,” Tian said.  “A lot of people have become unemployed, nobody is taking care of them.  For example, they lost their health insurance from the state-run companies, so they have to practice to keep their body fit.”

Robert Hazan, Chair of Metro’s Political Science department said he considers Falun Gong as an unusual movement of descent, and a possible threat to the Chinese government.

“But the way I see it from the western perspective, (it) is just a group that’s articulating its rights to express itself freely,” Hazan said.

Hazan said he thinks the Chinese government is uneasy about having any kind of mass movement in their country that could possibly spread any type of popular religious philosophy. It is because of their past popularity that an atmosphere of persecution has arisen within the government.

“The rights and liberties of this group are consistently being violated and they’re being persecuted,” Hazan said.   “I think that eventually it’s … going to generate as a human rights issue and probably generate world-wide concern.”

Amnesty International, Freedom House, the National Organization for Women, and Physicians for Human Rights are just a few of the human rights groups (and other similar organizations) that have given their support to Falun Gong’s freedom of belief.

“Falun Gong is the most popular meditations system, because it is the most powerful. It has health benefits, especially for elderly people,” Zhao said.  “It tells me about truth, compassion, and how to be a better person.”

For more information go to http://www.faluninfo.net.
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The Met Files
by Kristi Starns
The Metropolitan

Sitting down with Thomas Spear is like going to outer space - you don’t know what it’s like until you get there, and even then it’s still fuzzy.

Spear, 43, is running for mayor of the city of Denver. The election is May 6. About 300 signatures are required to get on the ballot, but Spear, who frequently campaigns on the Auraria campus and already has almost 900 signatures, says he doesn’t want to stop until he gets at least 1000.

“All of a sudden I heard that, you know, there’s going — they’re electing a new mayor and Mayor Wellington Webb is leaving, or something, you know, and so I talked to these people and they’re all looking at me like I should run for mayor,” Spear said. “I got the impression that they were wanting me to run for mayor, you know, the way they looked at me and stuff like that.”           

I wanted to find out who this mayoral candidate was and what he was really like. But trying to get a glimpse into Spear’s mind is like walking into the middle of a multiple car crash and trying to figure out what’s going on.

Spear has only traveled to one other country, Mexico, on his honeymoon.  He has two children in Hawaii, and many women to whom, he says, he would consider himself married.

Other things Spear plans to do as mayor are improve water quality, grow trees back, and reduce inner city traffic by increasing mass-transit like Light Rail, among other things.

Feeling as though there was nowhere else to get his ideas across, Spear decided being mayor would get closed doors to open.

“Some people know anyway, but for the ones who don’t, it would be nice to actually have the title of mayor so they could not give me such a hard time that I’m trying to get things done, because a lot of days I run into discrimination, and they think that I’m somebody I’m not, or because they’ve heard something that wasn’t true, or was in the computer that wasn’t true, and so they treat me different,” said Spear.

“I’m just hoping everything’s on the up and up ... may the best candidate for that position get elected, and may we all be blessed,” Spear said.
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A profile from Under the Gaslight
by Jonelle Wilkinson Seitz
The Metropolitan

Metro Theater has a reputation for being somewhat of a utopia.  A conversation with three actors from Under the Gaslight confirmed this sentiment.

Ryan Williams, Lindsay Gorenson and Melissa Shearer spoke with The Metropolitan during their break from rehearsal in the Courtyard Theatre.  As well as being nice, funny and open, the actors defy the stereotype of “theater people” by being incredibly realistic.

The director of the program and of Gaslight, Dr. Marilyn “Cookie” Hetzel, exemplifies these qualities.  The actors described her as “amazing,” “inspiring” and “a mentor.”  

Williams, who plays Snorkey, a trustworthy, one-armed messenger, is a Theatre major.  He said he definitely will continue to pursue a career in theatre.                 

“This is it for me,” he said.  “I hope it works out.”

Gaslight is Williams’ first Metro Theatre production, but he has appeared with the Bovine Metropolis Theatre, a local improv company.  The connection between Williams and improv is apparent: he is extremely animated and often stands up from his seat to physically illustrate a point.

Gorenson, also in her first appearance with Metro Theater, plays Laura, a young socialite who is shunned by society when her questionable past is revealed, soap-opera style.  Shearer, who acted in The Secret Garden last fall, plays Pearl, Laura’s cousin who revealed Laura’s past but is also sympathetic toward her.  Both are working toward a Speech Communications degree.            

Shearer, who will graduate in May, is currently trying to land an internship in television.  Gorenson, a junior, wants to find her niche in the entertainment industry.   

The actors, sprawled over the red plush seats of the theatre to catch their breath, gave an explanation for the program’s good reputation. 

“It’s because you don’t get paid,” said Shearer.                    

Rehearsals for Gaslight were from 4 to 9 p.m., Monday through Thursday, for the last few months, with additional rehearsals near the opening date.  The only pay students receive is the occasional credit hour. Shearer logged her hours in order to get credit for her last production, and at the end of the run discovered she had worked over 150 hours.

Thus, the people who are involved in theatre really want, even need, to be there.                   

During two years at University of Northern Colorado, Gorenson quit theatre altogether.

“I thought I had kicked it,” she said.  But when she transferred to Metro, she felt that she had to return to theater. 

Williams said after Gaslight is over, he will have to work a lot at his job waiting tables to save up for the next production.

“The schedule is killing me,” he said.  The three actors launched into a discussion about their schedules, listing attending classes, working, sleeping and grocery shopping as things to do in addition to rehearsals.

“I live by my planner,” said Shearer.

Shearer and Gorenson were both married last summer and have little free time to spend with their husbands.  Gorenson recently quit her job to be a full-time student, but Shearer works as a lifeguard and teaches swimming lessons.  

However, Shearer and Gorenson do get support from their spouses come showtime.

“He knows— come several nights, and always bring flowers,” Gorenson said.

Under the Gaslight opens Thurs. March 13 at 7:30 p.m. at the Eugenia Rawls Courtyard Theatre in the King Center.
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Sands of Time

Graphic by - Joshua Buck & Christina Jenkins
Ali Rinpoche rinses sand from the mandala with water from Cherry Creek. The monks believe water is connected throughout the world and the water will carry the blessings of the sand with it.	Ngulchu Rinpoche focuses on the ceremonial sand from the painting to be put into Cherry Creek for the dismantling of the sand mandala of healing.

	ABOVE: Ngulchu Rinpoche, left, and Lobsang Dorjee push the multi-colored grains of sand into a pile to be given to the audience after disassembling the mandala. LEFT: Thomson cousins, left to right, Joey, 4, Mackenzie, 10, and Miranda, 8, watch as Sonam Tsering finishes the sand mandala March 5 in the Tivoli Multicultural Lounge.

After completion of the mandala sand painting in the Tivoli Multicultural Lounge, Tibetan monks chant in prayer for the dismantling ceremony March 5. The small painting was finished in three days, nearly a week-and-a-half less than a traditional sand painting.

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