It’s All A Blur

Aug 11th-13th: “Gentlemen, start your engines!” A fight on the track. Car crashes. Checkered flags. Celebrities: Paul Newman and Frankie Muniz. Handsome twenty-something race car drivers. Rock ‘n Roll bands. Motorcycle acrobatics. Expensive race cars. The roar of the crowd. A beautiful girl crowned queen. Millions of dollars in prize money and sponsorships at stake. And lots and lots of gear shifting, high pitched engines drilling into your eardrums, and the smell of burning rubber hanging in the air. What the hell am I talking about? The Grand Prix of Denver, of course. Read on …

Breathing Fire

Sunday, July 30th: On the weekend, the 6th Annual Dragon Boat Festival took place at Sloan’s Lake Park in Denver. The Dragon Boat Festival is the largest Asian cultural event in Colorado and one of the biggest in America. As reported in the Denver Post, organizers are expecting about 100,000 people at the event, a crowd up from last year’s 85,000. The dragon boat races are the heart and soul of the festival, but aside from the races, many other things were going on: Asian dance, music, food, paraphernalia (one vendor was waving plastic samurai swords around and shouting, “Only $2.50 to be a ninja!”), a beer garden, and oh yeah, sweltering, monstrous, life-threatening heat and sun. Read on …