American Dissident

Monday, Sept 24th: On the day of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s controversial visit to Columbia University, David Barsamian, the well-known left-wing author, journalist, and radio broadcaster, was in Boulder talking about his new book, Targeting Iran. Concerned that the U.S. and Iran ‘are on the brink of war’, Barsamian has collected together in his book interviews with Noam Chomsky, Ervand Abrahamian, and Nahid Mozaffari, exploring briefly the political, religious, and economic character of Iran and its turbulent relationship with the United States. Read on …

The Memorial

Friday, Sept 21st: They slowly released thirteen purple balloons. One by one, they floated up into the radiant, cloud-streaked skies over the Memorial, rising higher and higher until they were lost to sight. Eight years after what was the worst school shooting in US history (now it’s Virginia Tech), the Columbine Memorial opened up to the general public, the families of the victims, and those wounded in the attacks. Constructed as a place of remembrance, the $2 million dollar Memorial was built after a long, hard struggle to raise funds, an effort significantly pushed forward by former President Bill Clinton. Read on …

iTunes Party

Tuesday, Sept 18th: Perry Farrell, the former frontman of Jane’s Addiction, Psi Com, and Porno For Pyros, was in Denver at the Cherry Creek Apple store with his new band Satellite Party. Farrell is widely known as one of the ‘godfathers’ of alternative music for his role in creating the Lollapalooza music festival, which as a first-of-its-kind traveling music festival brought the eclectic, underground music of the East and West Coasts to the heartland of America. Read on …

Bubble Man

Sept 14th-Sept 15th: It’s all a blur now: the Monolith Festival, the two day indie music extravaganza at Red Rocks this past weekend. For the first time in its history, Red Rocks hosted a multi-stage, multi-day music festival. But now it’s all a blur, a blur of house size speakers and hard rock guitar riffs, sweating profusely in the afternoon sun, climbing endless stairs on a pagan pilgrimage to the altar of popular music, the all consuming beat of hip-hop, hands waving in the air, grinding hips to sex, violence, and the race war, the soft pastel orange and red of the massive, monolithic rocks, drinking beers double-fisted in the VIP lounge, quiet, ethereal acoustic performances of voice and string, a T-shirt with “Stop Wars” in the Star Wars script, sitting under a pinion tree looking up at the night sky, the stars like pin pricks of light in black velvet, comic book, carnival rock, a strange dream with aliens, elvish dancing girls, and a multitude of Santa Clauses, anti-Bush diatribes mixing political protest with music like vinegar with oil, the Queen City shimmering on the horizon like a talisman, just out of reach. Read on …