|
|
Bands gather to benefit AIDS fight
by Jeannette M. Porrazzo
The Metropolitan |
The ninth annual Rock Out AIDS Benefit Concert series kicked off on
Friday, Aug. 15 at the Hard Rock Cafe in Denver. Over the course of
two weeks there were 30 bands that played in four venues, ending Aug.
24 at Herman’s Hideaway.
Moved by the loss of her best friend to the AIDS virus, music promoter
Sharon Rawles started the benefit nine years ago. The first annual Rock
Out AIDS took place at Herman’s Hideaway, where Rawles’
best friend worked as a bartender.
“If I could just reach a diverse group of people, being the younger
kids that come to the rock and roll shows, the band boys that maybe
aren’t being as safe as they should be all the time,” Rawles
said. “I want to raise awareness of AIDS and how important it
is to be safe.”
The $15 admission price included a buffet and drink specials, with 50
percent of the ticket sales going to Colorado AIDS Project. Raffle tickets
for a trip for two to Las Vegas were sold with 100 percent of the proceeds
donated to Colorado AIDS Project.
The members of the bands Hard Karma and Ordinary Poets donated their
time for the cause, and were proud to be part of the AIDS benefit.
“It’s very important to me that all the bands play for free,
I mean that just makes me have chills; it’s just very rewarding
to me,” Rawles said.
Al Buffone, percussionist for Hard Karma, says he’s proud to be
able to be a part of the event because not a lot of bands get an opportunity
to do such a thing at the local level.
Andy Vail, lead singer of Hard Karma, got down to business when the
subject turned to the AIDS benefit and his involvement in it. “It’s
always great to be involved in an event like this and it’s a good
cause, and a good opportunity to raise a bit of money,” Vail said.
Carolyn’s Mother, the only band that has played at every Rock
Out AIDS since it first started nine years ago, is made up of guitarist
Drew Hodgson, vocalist Rhett Lee, bass player Miles Marlin, and drummer
Bob Rupp and played at the finale on Sunday, Aug. 24.
The Rock Out AIDS Benefit is in the top 20 fundraisers for AIDS in the
country, tied with the telecommunications enterprise AT&T, says
Rawles.
Rock Out AIDS, together with AIDS Walk Colorado, made over $780,000
last year. This year they had close to the same amount of supporters
and walkers, but the total amount of funds raised this year is still
unknown, according to spokeswoman Jackie Long.
What is known, however, is that this year’s event — with
the turnout of supporters and the number of bands showing their support
and giving up their time for a cause — was another success.
Headlines
|
|
Unusual Love at Federal Theater
by Jonelle Wilkinson Seitz
The Metropolitan |
The artists of the Subversive Intelligence Theater Company chose an
excellent program for their first production at the Federal Theater.
Unusual Love was the company’s title for a sampling of four one-acts:
Anton Chekhov’s The Bear, A.R. Gurney’s The Problem, Cherie
Vogelstein’s All About Al and Arthur Miller’s Elegy for
a Lady. For the players, who banded together after taking acting classes
at the Arvada Center, the short plays allowed concentration on a smaller
chunk of work, and provided several opportunities for many of the artists
within one production. On the other hand, the audience got a sampling
of work that is rarely produced.
The four plays presented were connected loosely by a theme of people’s
quirks in love, or, maybe, people’s love in quirks. The Bear presents
a staunch widow who has a love, hate and, eventually, loving relationship
with a creditor. The Problem depicts a strange evening in the life of
a role-playing couple, and All About Al shows how a seemingly honest
man-to-man conversation about women turns into a device for infidelity.
In Elegy for a Lady, the most serious of the works, a man searches for
a gift for an ailing woman with whom he has an indefinable relationship.
Before he buys her a necklace, he finds advice and understanding from
the owner of the boutique, who has ailments and indefinables of her
own.
Director Mari Geasair relies on a bit of fairy-tale quaintness for comedy
in The Bear: In the program, the setting is listed as “Russia—Once
Upon a Time,” and as the lights went up, the Russian dance from
The Nutcracker was heard. Kelli Murphy brought a campy quality to Popova’s
wavering love for Smirnov. Bernie Cardell did not possess anything close
to Smirnov’s supposed “big fists” and “steer’s
neck,” but his higher pitched voice brought a welcome element
of absurdity to the love story.
The Problem was well cast and skillfully directed by Robert Payo. Harmony
Hey, as the Wife, and R. J. Franklin, as the Husband, were perfect as
the 1960’s progressive California couple. Franklin also directed
All About Al, the dark humor of which was, unfortunately, traded in
for some slapstick jokes and confusion. However, Chad Leake, as Lenny,
was more righteous in showing off his comic skills here than in The
Bear, in which he played the servant Luka.
Elegy for a Lady starred Payo and Geasair, the directors of two previous
plays. Though Payo tries, he is too young to be convincing as the old
man, and his angst seems forced, possibly because he makes it more about
the sick woman he is supposedly in love with than about his own loneliness
and desperation. Geasair stands her ground as the motherly, martyr-like
proprietress of the shop, but even with the last scene, in which the
Man leaves and the Proprietress stands with a suitcase, ready to embark
on the same journey as the ill woman, the parallelism in the plot is
forced and implausible.
Several small groups are beginning to use the “renovated”
Federal Theater, which lacks proper lighting and, no doubt, backstage
amenities, but should be visited simply for the decadent, makeshift
randomness of it. Remnants of the theater’s origins as a movie
house coexist with budget innovation in a richly-colored ornate collage.
It looks somewhat like a child’s birthday party. Only because
of the moon-like layer of dust on the theater’s original curtain
can I forgive the two different misspellings (I say this because neither
was the widely accepted English spelling) given dear old Chekhov in
the program.
Headlines
|
|
New Tivoli eateries get cloudy reviews
by Richard Boettner
The Metropolitan |
|
Pete’s Arena: Pizza
Warning: If you absolutely like the place, do not read this
review any further. Thank you.
The food is, well, how should I say, lacking in taste. To be fair,
I did return twice; once when they first opened and then again two
weeks later, but there was no difference. The dough they use must
come in frozen and is thawed right before use, because it tastes no
better than cardboard. The sauce used is right out of the can with
water added to thin it, and you can still taste the can. They add
no spices of any kind. If you don’t believe me, buy something
at Pete’s Arena, then get some cardboard, soak it a bit in some
water to soften, then put some ketchup on it and see if there is any
difference. Guess they are trying to make a buck, but they won’t
stay in business long serving food with no taste. Judging by the lack
of clientele, not many other people are returning either.
I would like to suggest something to SACAB : next time a new restaurant
wants to come into the Tivoli, get a tasting panel of 20 or so people
together, because you really made a bad choice here due to someone
in SACAB’s lack of taste buds.
Wok & Roll: Teriyaki
The food is half good, mostly heated and served, but a bit on the
expensive side. I ate lunch on two separate occasions to see what
they had to offer. The first time, I ordered sushi rolls, and found
the seaweed was not properly rehydrated, kinda chewy. The rice was
on the dry side, but over all it had flavor and was OK. The second
time I had lunch, I ordered one of the bowls. It came in a plastic
box with rice, some veggies and sauce. Here again, the rice was dry,
there was too little sauce, but the vegetables were fresh and overall
it tasted OK. I would not eat there again
Headlines
|
|
Portrait of a soldier as a young man |
|
This is an unusual story, but youíd be hard-pressed to find anyone
whoíd say that we arenít living in unusual times. I have a friend
with whom Iíve been in sporadic correspondence since he left the Texas
desert for the one in Iraq.
He has agreed to relate his story for the readers of The Metropolitan
as it unfolds in front of him. He has found himself in the middle
of a war that few will understand and even fewer will admit is still
waged. At times I have known him to be wildly patriotic ó he has been
in two branches of the armed service ó but because of the nature of
his predicament, he wishes for the time to remain nameless.ÝÝ
This is part seven of a series of stories attempting to illustrate
a cross-section of this conflict. He has found himself, like so many
other Americans before him, waiting for a ticket home.
-Ian Neligh
Morale
Everybody hates everybody except for that one guy who’s
always cheerful, but we’ve gagged him. The line units have R&R,
but we get no days off, so we’re all pretty tired of one another.
From what I hear, we’re not alone. Lots of people here are sad
because we’re pretty much forgotten, like those guys in Afghanistan.
That sucks a lot when you’re here and you don’t really
know why. Every soldier I talk to says they won’t re-enlist,
and I know that about 90 percent of those who can are dropping retirement
paperwork.
Go figure. All the guys around here are at one another’s throats.
Tempers are flaring. Lots of arguments, a few fights, many dirty looks.
Morale is seriously low. I can’t figure it out. I mean, I don’t
want to be here either, but enough crying already. I know it’s
hot ‘cause I’m working in the heat. I know you miss home
because I miss it, just shut up about it already. I do my best to
keep some of the guys laughing, but it’s hard to do sometimes.
Not much lightens the mood here, ‘cause when you’re done
laughin’ you’re still in Iraq.
Danger
Lots of ambushes. One of the Humvee drivers got a round
in the arm and then came back in, like, two weeks. So getting shot
won’t necessarily get you out of here.
Another time, one of the commanders got ambushed right outside the
gate, by, like, 4 Iraqis with some AK-47s and an RPG launcher, but
the Bradley Fighting Vehicles escorting the convoy tore them to shreds.
A soldier I know (actually, the one who told me about the soldier
falling-out from heat exhaustion in our last installment. She is OK
by the way) was there and got to help carry two wounded Americans
and one wounded Iraqi policemen to the medivac chopper.
Free Time
We work lots of hours, but when I can, I like to exercise.
Gets my mind off all the crap. Daily showers are nice when you can
get them, and going to the restroom is awesome.
Life really isn’t all that rough here; others have it way harder.
I got lucky. I guess.
Tobacco
Chew was pretty hard to get until AAFES (Army and Air
Force Exchange Service) showed up, but you could buy smokes off the
Iraqis before that. Not everyone smokes or dips; some do both. I saw
a female soldier with a lip full of goodness the other day, so I was
impressed. Some people just abstain all together, but not many.
You can dip and smoke pretty much anywhere, though you can’t
smoke inside, of course. The general don’t want you smoking
within 50 feet of his building, but it’s pretty open as far
as that goes.
Dehumanized enemy
Not really, we actually go out of our way to accommodate
them. We do a lot of work with them, but they’re screened closely.
They get paid way more to help than most Iraqis, too.
Some of the Joes here treat ‘em like shit, but only by being
grumpy to them or making jokes about them, never open ridicule.
At the same time, some locals are worse than any G.I.; they will sell
you anything you want, and kill you for your boots.
American deaths are worth about 5-grand these days, you know.
We can’t throw trash out on the town, and the detainees can’t
be photographed in an effort to keep them from being ridiculed.
I personally don’t like or trust any of them (the locals), though
every so often you come across a kindness here or there.
They are humans, and in their culture some things are OK that we consider
not good. We’re still at war, so you really can’t trust
any of them; which makes it hard, because you see suffering and you
wanna help, you see a kid smiling and you feel almost human again.
Then the kid points a makeshift toy gun at you, and pretends to shoot
you, and your heart sinks.
I’ve had it happen, it really wakes you up.
This is on-going correspondence and will be continued in the next
edition of the Metropolitan.
Headlines
|
|
