dick kreck
Big Wheel to turn us into kids
By
Dick
Kreck
Denver
Post Columnist
Friday,
June 15, 2001 -
Oh, to be a kid again. There's no going back, but we can act immature,
thanks to Captain Obvious.
C.O.
is the Boulder-based zany who twice a year holds the Gala Big Wheel Rally,
where presumably adult persons hop on the kids' toy and clatter from bar
to bar down the Boulder Mall, plastic ringing on concrete.
The Mall Crawl begins at 9 p.m. Saturday at the West End Tavern, Ninth and Pearl. Participants are invited to bring a Big Wheel, zip down the mall, with rest stops in various watering holes. This is the 10th biannual ride.
It's the idea of Matt Armbruster, who started it because "I'd just gotten back from Australia, didn't have a place to live, and I was wait-listed for classes at CU. I needed something to look forward to, something fun."
Thus was another great idea hatched.
What could be better? No entry fees, no rules, no requirements. "It's a mighty social event," said the captain.
Show up, ride like the wind with, in the words of Captain Obvious, "5 pounds of flexing child's toy between your legs."
Happy birthday
Red Rocks Amphitheatre is 60 years old this month. I don't think that's so old. Prime of life.
To mark the occasion, the city is offering free guided tours of the spectacular facility from noon to 4 p.m. today, including the backstage area, dressing rooms and the tunnels below. There will be live music and a screening of the movie "Rush Hour." However, a scheduled performance by the Denver Municipal Band has been postponed.
Speaking of Red Rocks, reports to the contrary, the mayor's press aide, Andrew Hudson, says attendance at the three-day Mayor's Jazz Festival, held last weekend, "was good enough to schedule another one next year. For the first year, we were very satisfied."
If touring city facilities is your thing, sign up for "Denver Parks and Parkway System: A Legacy of Design (1868-2001)," a series of daylong tours sponsored by the Denver Public Library Friends Foundation and The Park People. The first bus tour, on Aug. 29, visits Alamo Placita, Washington, the Civic Center, Cranmer, Hungarian Freedom, Sunken Gardens and City Park. Reservations at 720-865-2053.
Look it up
Don't tell me Homer Simpson isn't a real person. The Associated Press reports that Homer's favorite expression, "D'oh!," is in the online version of the new, know-it-all Oxford English Dictionary.
Homie's forehead-slapper is defined as "expressing frustration at the realization that things have turned out badly or not as planned or that one has just said or done something foolish. Also implying that another person has said or done something foolish."
Also among the 1,250 new entries are "bad hair day," "full monty," "retail therapy," "serial monogamy" and "lifestyle drugs."
Around Denver
Outtatheway, bub: Tulagi, the Boulder night club, bumped the touring band Calexico offstage at 11 p.m. Tuesday - to make way for karaoke.... Oh, the humanity! Ralph A. Miller, 73, a research chemist who helped bring the world Spaghetti-Os, died Saturday in Florida.... Rumors afoot that a deal is thisclose to done between the Pepsi Center and concert promoter SFX over the proposed City Lights amphitheater. SFX's Chuck Morris Thursday issued his now-standard "no comment." ... Hard Rock Cafe on the 16th Street Mall applying for a cabaret license to present live music.... Cavers (I can't spell spelunkers) Richard Rhinehart and David Harris show slides and talk about their book "Colorado Caves: Hidden World Beneath the Peaks," at 7:30 tonight at the Tattered Cover in LoDo.... Quotable: "Nothing worse could happen to one than to be completely understood." - Carl Gustav Jung
Dick Kreck's column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He may be reached at 303-820-1456 or dkreck@denverpost.com.
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