New year. New me. New blog.

Out with the old and in with the new. What would it take for 2012 to be the best year ever?

The Landmark at Greenwood Village

Saw Burn After Reading last night at the new Landmark Theatre at Greenwood Village. The Landmark is an upscale development just off of Belleview and I-25 with luxury condos ($800s - $2.7M), nice restaurants, pubs, and of course a movie theater.

The theater is nice. It has a decent bar in the lobby where you can obviously order a beer or mixed drink but also appetizers and/or unique treats like cherry jalapeno chocolate bars. The ticket price ($12.00) includes a complimentary popcorn bar and soda fountain. The best part is that it's self-service so you don't have to wait on a disgruntled junior high school student while the show is starting. Did I mention that the drinks and treats ordered in the bar can follow you into the theater for the show? I opted for a beer but the couple next to us cracked a bottle of wine during the movie. And for $2 more, you can upgrade to VIP seats. These are large leather "couples" seats with nice oversized armrests for food and drinks that are situated in the choicest location in the theater. VIP status allows you to seat before everyone else and place orders with a hostess for more treats from the bar.

The movie? I liked it but it wasn't my favorite Coen brothers film. All in all it was a great experience - novel for now but I'm sure the writing's on the wall for other theaters to follow suit.

Thank you Ticketmaster. May I have another?

So I just bought a ticket to see The Dandy Warhols at the Gothic in Denver. A band I haven't followed much but kind of hits my sweet spot. $25.00 is a little high for bands rolling through the Gothic but I figured I'd pay a premium for a band the likes of the Dandies, especially to see them in a very small venue. So at checkout time on Ticketmaster.com I come to find they're charging a $9.10 convenience charge, a $1.00 charge for me to pick my ticket up, and a $5.15 order processing fee for a grand total of $15.25 in fees for placing my order online (I guess somebody's gotta feed the gerbils)! Of course, I could have chosen to print my own ticket for a $2.50 charge, evidently because the price of sending an email has skyrocketed lately. It made me pause and wonder if I've ever done business with another retailer that charges me over 60% in fees... but hey, I bought the ticket anyway. I suppose if you can screw the customer then screw the customer!

Thanks Ticketmaster. You suck.

Nice Camping in Colorado

We spent the weekend at a nice campsite near Grant. "Nice" being defined as easily accessible by car on a Friday evening after work with no reservations and a four-year-old and six-year-old in tow.

Handcart campground is a little 10 site campground about ten miles west of Grant. Take 285 out of Denver until you get to Grant. About 7 miles past Grant, make a right on county road 60. Go about 7 miles on CR60 and you'll see the campground on the left - don't be fooled into turning off 4 miles-ish in, go nearer to 7!. And if you go a mile or two more and you'll run into Hall Valley campground, which isn't quite as secluded but offers an easy option in case Handcart is full. The caveat is, if you're traveling by car you might have to idle your way bumping down county road 60. The only vehicles I saw that could normally handle how rough it was were ATV's and a Hummer - it was brutal. But we did witness a Prius survive the drive so it is doable.

I thought campsites 6, 7, and 8 were the choicest spots, being closest to a creek. Apparently the creek is mineral-polluted (you can sort of see the discoloration in the pic above... iron ore maybe?) but it was nice to hear it in the background sleeping in the tent. Sites 7 and 8 are the most secluded with 8 being the furthest back. The entire campground is shaded really nicely. The host mentioned bear activity around sites 7 and 8 but that's really to be expected at any campsite in Colorado. There's no trash service so you'll have to pack your trash out and we couldn't find any hiking trails nearby; granted, we didn't venture too far away.

All in all, it's going on my personal favorites list.

p.s. we found out what 50% chance of rain means for Grant in August... it rains about 50% of the time. Thank goodness for modern tents - THANK YOU Sierra Designs!

Stumpers

I'm always surprised and interested when I stump a place. The stumper then becomes my measuring stick for the value of the place and places like it. For example, "the cheeky monk, Denver, CO" confounds MapQuest but not Google Maps. I used to have a word (can't think of it now) that I would use to test dictionaries; if it existed in that dictionary I knew the book could be trusted. So sorry MapQuest, but I won't trust your site again until you get my stumper correct!

In the movie rental world, a stumper that really surprised me a couple years ago was requesting "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask" from Video One on Colfax. Video One advertises on their sign that they have over 10,000 movies in the store and I picked one they didn't have - a Woody Allen movie no less!

Today I easily stumped Amazon Unbox with Rome. It was my first search on Amazon so it was indeed surprising. For me it shows how far Amazon Unbox has to go to really threaten Netflix. And it makes me really question Amazon's pricing - $3.99 for a download movie rental?! I can see why Blockbuster needs to charge $3.99 but Amazon..? Don't I already pay for my Internet service? Sheesh! In the end I support Netflix not only for their (once) revolutionary distribution but for their dedication to a comprehensive library.

Man, I just LOVE this

Thank you Matthew!


Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Transformational Books

Books that positively changed my life:

1. A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose by Eckhart Tolle
   
   
2. The Secret by Rhonda Byrne
   
   
3. Winning by Jack and Suzy Welch
   
   
4. Head First Design Patterns by Elisabeth Freeman , Eric Freeman, Bert Bates, and Kathy Sierra

Ok, so maybe 3 and 4 aren't for you... 1 and 2 should be. A New Earth is a book I wish everyone would read and truly hear.

peace.