Non Photo-Blue

This is the second time I'm writing this. I wrote a whole entry, then lost it, and then ran out of internet time. So here's to the second time around:

Tuesday morning in Denver. My friend Mo was coming into Denver in the afternoon. I decided to get myself some tourist info at the visitor center to find something to do for the day. It turns out, finding the visitor center was something to do for the day. Downtown Denver is a bit complicated. There are all one ways, and the main intersections all run on diagonals. Plus, the visitor center is in the heart of the 16th Ave Mall. Which is to say, the entirety of 16th Ave is a strip mall. Denver's very proud of it, but I hate strip malls, especially ones that become the cultural center of a town.

"What's to do around here?" I asked a Queensite, relocated to Denver, who worked in the cafe I bought my iced latte from.
"Hmm..." He said, staring down at the cold cuts as if to get a response from them. "Not much.. Dale- what's to do around here?"
"Umm," Dale said with a very long, thoughtful pause. "There's ESPN Zone!" he said, as if he'd pulled a gold-eared rabbit out his cap.

Right. ESPN Zone.

When I did eventually find the visitor center, I basically found out a lot about things to do outside of Denver. And there's a lot. So I decided to check up on that "Check Engine Soon, you procrastinating bastard" light that my car has been flashing at me since PA, while I had some time.

Oil's changed or reflitered, or lathered or whatever it is that they do. So that's good to go.

Around 5 I picked up Mo from the airport. Then we did some food shopping, prepping for our stay in Rocky Mountain NP. After that, we headed out to Red Rocks Amphitheater, which was definitely the highlight of Denver. If you haven't heard of it, or seen a picture, the idea is two gigantic red rocks shape the sides of the amphitheater, forming a "V" that is on a mountain looking over the whole of Denver on the right, and the mountains off to the left. The acoustics off the rocks are amazing, and the view is wonderful as well. They were showing a open air viewing of Ray, part of an outdoor film series at the rocks. The fee was ten bucks, guy the door guy let us in when we told him we only wanted to check it out for ten minutes.
"No worries," he said.

No worries.

After that, we headed back downtown to get some dinner, and of course, the only possible place was the 16th Ave Mall. Again, racially Denver's interesting. Being that the 16th Ave mall is the center of the place, groups of all races gathered together, and you'd find groups of L.L. bean preppies across the street from a gang of Karl Kani thuggies. So they shared the same party space, but there was very very little mixing of the groups. As a matter of fact, they tried their best to ignore each other as much as possible, though it only showed just how much each group was preoccupied with the other.

So we strolled down the promenade to find another interesting if disturbing facet of Denver culture: we got bothered several times, very politely, by young (teenage to mid-twenties) street beggars. Most of whom wore sneakers that cost more than my whole outfit.

I was bemused about it, until at the end of the night, after grabbing a Mexi Melt from Taco bell, a young girl sweetly and meekly asking us for change. She couldn't have been more than 17, and she had open sores all over her face, and was leaf thin. We left after that.

I think I saw more freaks and heartbreaking things in one night in Denver than many years in NYC. Maybe I'm immune to it there, I don't know. We camped out in Genesse Park, in the spot I had found the night before.