Name That Building

After finishing with a photo shoot shoot up north yesterday, I stopped in the parking lot at UCCS for the purposes of taking my camera bag out of my car and depositing it in the trunk, where it would be secure while I ran some errands. I was only there for a minute or two, just long enough to take this picture. I went to college at UCCS but it was so long ago I can't remember if this is Dwire Hall or the science building (I think it's the latter). I must be getting old.

Shiny Shiny

I got a nice shot of the Ent Center for the Arts for you yesterday. This is such a cool building, and Starr Kempf's dramatic kinetic sculptures are its perfect foil.

And now, for your listening pleasure...

A Spot of Color

I had a photo shoot this afternoon that took me to a couple of spots around town, including UCCS, where this colorful sculpture caught my eye.

Sentinel

One of Starr Kempf's kinetic masterpieces keeping an eye on things in front of the Ent Center for the Arts. I had been under the impression that they were only temporarily on loan there, but it's been a couple of years and they haven't been removed. I hope these fanciful sculptures are there to stay.

In the Care Of

Here's the assisted living facility at the Sisters of Saint Francis Abbey. I don't know how old it is, but it rather reminds me of Main Hall at UCCS, actually, which was also a tuberculosis sanatorium back in the day.

UCCS Fuels Success

My alma mater likes to keep things positive! It's been a long time since I went to school here, so forgive me if I've forgotten the name of this particular building, but I think it's called Cragmor Hall.

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I went for a stroll through the Colorado College campus yesterday and found these poppies, among other nice things. I was practically the only person there, which is not so much because of Coronavirus but because the campus is usually almost deserted in summer, much like UCCS. I always find it ironic that CC is at its most beautiful during the time of year when there's hardly anyone around to appreciate it!

The Ent Center

Today I had to go and get my teeth cleaned, and it was the first time in days that I had even stepped outside the house. I made sure to grab a camera on the way out the door. After a couple of days and nights of bone chilling cold, the sun had finally come out and we had temperatures around 40° -- a veritable heat wave! It was great picture-taking weather.

You may recall that I attended both the "sneak preview" and the official opening of the Ent Center last year. Both of those events occurred at night, and my photos didn't show the outside of the building. So today I decided to pop over there and see if I could get some good shots of the exterior. It really is an impressive building. I think it's beautiful! By the way, Ent is a big name around here. Practically everyone I know banks at Ent Credit Union, and the Olympic Training Center is on the site of what was once Ent Air Force Base. Another thing: Ent is not an acronym, even though it sounds like it could be. Uzal Ent was a decorated Army Major General who was not only the Army Chief of Staff, he was a Commanding General in the Air Force too! But I digress. Ent Credit Union has over the years become such a huge presence in Colorado Springs, they footed the bill for this fantastic new arts center. You should check it out sometime.

If you'd like to know more about the celebrated local artist who created these mesmerizing kinetic sculptures, Starr Kempf, please read my in-depth blog post about him HERE. The Ent Center is the perfect complement to his gorgeous work. I love that three of them are proudly on display right in front.

This is a composite of six photos put together in Photoshop. I tried to get the whole building all in one frame, but I really didn't have the right camera and lens with me. Can you spot the person in this photo?

UCCS from a distance

Here's my alma mater from the top of Pulpit Rock. It's strange how much larger the campus has grown since I was in school there. I barely recognize the place anymore.

Very, very green

The UCCS baseball diamond from the top of Pulpit Rock. It's so shockingly, unnaturally green against the scrubby landscape surrounding it.

Sunday Style!

I'm barely making this post in time! It's been a crazy day, what with the Superbowl and all. So without further ado, here are some of the cool people and things I saw at the Ent Center for the Arts' first big opening, "Floyd D. Tunson: JANUS". Mr. Tunson is a highly respected and very beloved local artist, and he was the perfect choice for the inaugural show at the Marie Walsh Sharpe gallery at the Ent Center. There was a huge turnout for Floyd! Tons of people! Above and below are a couple of students, Jasmine and Camille (sorry girls, I had to cut your heads off in the second picture because of the way my cell phone crops things). Scroll down for more.

Those are metal grommets on this woman's dress. How cool is that?!?

This lady had an Issey Miyake handbag! She told me that she bought it in Japan, but you can get a "tote" version of it HERE at the MOMA store.

The man of the hour, Floyd Tunson, looking as cool as ever! He's been a well known artist in these parts for decades. I know Floyd from my years working at a pro camera shop downtown long ago, when he was a regular customer (but he wouldn't remember me, I'm sure) -- at the time he was an art teacher at Palmer High School and his students loved him. He's only become more popular and venerated in the years since. Oh and he has always been this cool!

It was very crowded in the gallery, but I managed to get a snapshot of the largest work when the crowed eased up for a moment. I really need to go back when there are fewer people around. Openings are fun, but it's hard to concentrate on the art when so much is going on.

Last but not least, my brother Chuck thought I should be on the blog today too, because I successfully pulled off wearing four prints at once (five, if you count the fishnet knee-highs that I had on under my jeans!). That's a 1960s flowered cardigan, a black on blue brocade blouse, jeans with striped patches, and a black lace handbag. It's rare indeed that I make an appearance on my own blog!

The Ent Center for the Arts at UCCS

The Ent Center for the Arts is a huge step forward for UCCS and our city! A culmination of years of planning, this incredible new facility, which broke ground in the summer of 2015, is nearly finished and will be open to the public early next year. An invitation-only unveiling took place on Tuesday night. Since my brother Chuck was a donor, he was invited, and he took me along as his guest. There are still a few finishing touches to go, but we could see that this complex is going to be a very important arts venue in Colorado Springs. There are performance spaces large and small (with exquisite, perfectly engineered acoustics), a fantastic looking art gallery, rehearsal rooms, gathering spots... they thought of everything. And there's a magnificent view to boot!

Right out of the gate, the Ent Center will be offering a program called the Artist Series, which will bring the best of music, dance, and live performance to our city. Upcoming events include the Alvin Ailey II Dancers, Branford Marsalis, the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, Celtic Nights, the Harlem Quartet, and a re-imagined, modern production of South Pacific (I can hardly wait for that!).

On Tuesday, the big fun was that the Colorado Springs Philharmonic was giving the new Shockley-Zalabak Theater a test drive by rehearsing there, and we were all invited to listen in. So officially, Chuck and I were among the first to hear a performance in this brand spanking new space! By the way, we have a crackerjack philharmonic in this city and they sounded wonderful in there, of course.

I'm excited about this fantastic new facility -- it's a huge boon to our community and I can't wait to attend events there!

The Murray and Betty Ross Lobby -- seeing that sign gave me such a pang! Murray Ross was one of my favorite professors at UCCS, and he passed away suddenly a few months ago. He was an enormously popular and beloved figure in our city's theater scene, and his widow Betty is an equally beloved and respected local artist. Murray had been so excited about the Ent Center. I can only imagine how happy he would have been to be there as part of the unveiling on Tuesday night. His legacy endures!

They had literally just taken delivery of their new Steinway performance grand that afternoon and installed it on the stage in the Shockley-Zalabak Theater. I was in awe. This piano is magnificent.

A view from the stage in one of the performance spaces (I believe this one's called the Chapman Foundations Recital Hall). That's my brother Chuck on the left. By the way, all the seats have cup holders. How awesome is that?!? It's the little things, people!

Our wonderful Philharmonic rehearsing the music that they'll be performing at the grand opening of the Ent Center early next year (by the way that's my old friend Dave on the cello). They sounded great in there!

Sunday Style!

Sunday Style is coming quite late in the day today -- my apologies! Let's just say it was a busy day. Check out this cool kid! I was doing a photo shoot at UCCS a couple of weeks ago when he went rolling by on his gold hover board. How could I let him pass without getting a picture first? Love it!

Untitled

Another photo or two from our brief drive through the deserted UCCS campus a couple of evenings ago. This large sculpture lives in front of one of the newer buildings (whose name escapes me -- Columbine Hall or some such, I think). I like it. I don't know who its creator is, but it reminds me very much of THIS piece downtown, so it must be the same artist.

On a side note, did you know that Colorado Springs Daily Photo is on Facebook? You can follow me HERE. Hope you have a fun weekend! I have a great wedding in Denver to document and lots of yard work to do. No rest for the wicked!

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I'm getting today's post in just under the wire! Less than an hour to go before it's officially tomorrow. Pat and I have had a busy day, and this is the first chance I've had to sit down and make a blog post for you. Here's a picture of the library at UCCS. We took a cruise through the nearly deserted campus yesterday evening. It's so nice there in summer, when no one's around. Look at all those empty parking spaces! I assure you, that never happens during the school year!

Sunday Style!

A ha! This is the photo I was searching for last weekend, that sent me down the rabbit hole of my archives file! I hope you've enjoyed all the "salon des refusés" images I've been posting over the past seven days, and it was all because I couldn't find this photo, which I took on May 19th of last year. (As it turns out, it wasn't in my archives file at all, which explains why I was having such a tough time locating it.) I snapped this guy on the UCCS campus, and while he certainly looks cool (those shoes!), what I like best about him is that his jeans fit. I don't mean that they're fitted, I mean they fit. Yes they're obviously designed to be narrow, and he's tall and slim so they look good on him, but my point is this: look how exactly perfect the length is. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people wear trousers or jeans that sag over their shoes. All that extra fabric looks sloppy and makes your legs look short, and I especially hate when hems drag on the ground and get torn and dirty. Getting your jeans adjusted to the right length is a minor expense and it makes you look considerably better!

If you're one of my local readers and you need to get some alterations done, I highly recommend Alterations by Sylvia, on the southwest corner of Academy and Union next to the aquarium store. She does a professional job, she's fast, and her prices are very reasonable.

UCCS

Yesterday I went to my alma mater to stroll around and see how things have changed. The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs is way too much to say/write/type, so everyone just calls it UCCS, and some people call it Cragmor -- in fact, that general area of town is known as Cragmor. Every now and then I find myself at UCCS, mostly to visit the fantastic art gallery (called the GOCA), but I haven't actually purposefully explored the campus on foot in decades! Of course all of the old buildings that I remember from my student days are still there, and a few more have been added. The oldest building, Main Hall (seen in the photo below), has been completely given over to administrative offices. It was once a tuberculosis sanatorium, a century or more ago. I remember having classes in that old building and wondering if it was haunted!

Since the school is currently between semesters, I was able to: A) immediately get a great parking spot, something that would normally be considered an act of God; and B) get photographs of the place looking almost completely deserted. Which was just plain weird! But I like the school with no one there. Nice and peaceful.

Over Easy

I had lunch with my mom at Over Easy last week. I've been to their downtown location before, but wanted to try the one at University Village near UCCS, so that's where we went. The food was quite good, just like the downtown Over Easy. My mom had a Cuban sandwich and a cup of soup, and since I'd skipped breakfast, I had a breakfast burrito. (I love breakfast food at any time of day! I'm just like Leslie Knope in that regard. Ha.) My food was delicious and I enjoyed every bite. The red chili was fantastic!

Over Easy is very popular and there is almost always a line at the door. I think it's great when people are willing to wait in line at a local restaurant rather than a chain. Locally owned restaurants are always better! I do, however, have one serious complaint about the Over Easy at University Hills. It has concrete floors, double height ceilings and floor to ceiling windows. The ceiling itself is clad in metal. The few walls are faced in brick. All of this looks great, but the decibel level in there is insane when there's a full house, because those hard surfaces everywhere do nothing but bounce the sound around. It's obnoxiously loud. In trying to have a conversation with my mother, I found that I had to sit right next to her and lean in, and I still had to raise my voice for her to be able to make out what I was saying. The waitress at the table next to us was literally shouting at her customers to be heard. Whoever designed the space apparently gave no thought whatsoever to acoustics, and that was a terrible mistake. I feel sorry for the employees -- their ears must be ringing by the end of lunch service! I must say, I will not be going back to the University Hills location. For me, good conversation is part of the dining experience. Shouting to be heard, and straining to hear what others are saying, does not make for a a good time, no matter how great the food is! But don't worry, I'll just hit up the downtown Over Easy for my breakfast burrito! Much quieter there.

I heart this place!

I spied this vehicle near UCCS the other day. As you can see, this driver feels the same way about Colorado as I do. I love this place!

Palmer Park

Right smack in the middle of Colorado Springs is a giant open space called Palmer Park, named after our city founder. Most of it is wild and rugged -- lots of great hiking and horseback trails, but in the more civilized areas there are playgrounds, a dog park and plenty of picnic areas.

Palmer Park has always been one of my favorite places. If you drive up to the highest point you'll find the Grand View Overlook, an area that has seen some great improvements in the past few years. They have recently added some nice benches, covered areas and paving, so it's a nice place to just hang out and spend a sunny afternoon. And as always, there is a spectacular 360 degree view of our city from up there. This photo was taken today from the Grand View Overlook, looking northwest. That cluster of large buildings you see is the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs (UCCS), my alma mater.