2LiveCrew plays the Aspen stage

ASPEN, Colo. – The controversial rap band 2LiveCrew recently played in Aspen, and Alison Berkley, who writes a witty and usually salacious column about the GenX life for The Aspen Times, was there. The appeal?

“Let’s just say the whole ghetto thing is a major turn-on for little Jewish girls from Connecticut, whose street smarts amount to being able to hail a cab to SoHo,” she explained (Aug. 8). “The hard baseline, raunchy lyrics and big, sweaty dudes in gaudy chain jewelry and cockeyed baseball hats are my parents’ worst nightmare. Splendid!”

For this show, the rappers threw a couple of sweaty “shall we say stocky” women, clad in g-string bikinis and sneakers, on stage. Already tensed up by several hours of hip-hop gyration, the crowd “seemed to thicken with ever-increasing arousal, pressing me against the edge of the stage as hundreds of sexually deprived mountain guys packed into the floor behind me, their clothes sticky with sweat, the sour smell of alcohol and cigarettes thickening the already dense air.”

From there, the scene swirls – with Joe Tallpaleskinny guy leaping on stage, followed by two thrilled-shocked girls and then “every little rich girl in Aspen,” as if the urge to live out their stripper/lesbian fantasy was stronger than any concern whatsoever over public humiliation. “They really get right into the spirit of the whole thing, shaking that thing like they have been doing it their whole lives, like they really had spent some time in the city rather than upscale suburbs and boarding schools.”

Telluride may allow 2nd-home voters

TELLURIDE, Colo. – A move is afoot in Telluride to allow second-home owners a right to vote in ordinary town affairs. That right already exists in the nearby municipality of Mountain Village. In a case that was appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, courts upheld the right of that town to give nonresident property owners the right to vote in town elections.

This proposal is being pushed by Bev McTigue, who lives primarily in Telluride but winters in Arizona. She told the Telluride Watch (Aug. 8) that the right to vote should be extended even to those who primarily live elsewhere, as long as they own at least 50 percent of a property.

In arguing that people should be able to vote in two places, she distinguishes resorts from other communities. “Although I understand the arguments on the other side, property owners are disenfranchised, and we are asking them to pay taxes and a lot of them are very involved in the community.” She said she doesn’t understand why locals in Telluride, as well as other resort towns, fear allowing part-timers to vote.

Energy guru predicts hydrogen switch

ASPEN, Colo. – Energy guru Amory Lovins says that the Toyota Prius or one of the other electric-gas engine hybrid cars might become displaced by hydrogen-fuel super-efficient vehicles by the end of the decade.

Current hybrids are twice as efficient as standard gasoline-powered vehicles, Lovins said, but vehicles using direct hydrogen fuel cells will be three times as efficient and comparably priced to standard vehicles. In a lecture reported on by The Aspen Times (Aug. 7), Lovins predicted this transformation to hydrogen-powered cars will be as rapid as the widespread use of the Internet. He also cited observations by the heads of eight major oil and car-manufacturing companies who have said the world is nearing the end of the petroleum age and entering the hydrogen era.

Lovins gained fame in the 1970s for his predictions (largely borne out) on the value of conservation in meeting energy demands. He is CEO of the Rocky Mountain Institute, located in nearby Snowmass Creek. His reports can be found online at www.rmi.org.

Thornton rattles skins in Telluride

TELLURIDE, Colo. – Mystery writer Stephen King plays in a band with humor writer Dave Barry and novelist Amy Tan, so why would it be shocking to learn that Billy Bob Thornton was a musician before going on to become an Oscar-winning screenwriter, actor and director?

Thornton, a drummer, and his band played at Telluride’s Sheridan Opera House recently. The Telluride Watch (Aug. 8) reported that the band sounds like a mix of Tom Petty and Leonard Cohen.

The newspaper also explained that Thornton started his first band when he was 10 years old. That band, the McCoveys, named after baseball legend Willie McCovey, then led to other bands, including a band in the 1970s that was called Nothin’ Doin’. The band opened for such disparate acts as Hank Williams Jr. and the Earl Scruggs Review before Thornton shoved off for Los Angeles and acting in 1981.

Steamboat teams up with Eldora

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. – Tag-team ski pricing continues to evolve. The latest is a deal cooked up between Steamboat and Eldora.

Those purchasing $309 season passes at Eldora, located just west of Boulder along Colorado’s Front Range, can pay an additional $90 to get five days at Steamboat. This pass helps Eldora and Steamboat compete with Intrawest (Winter Park and Copper Mountain) and Vail Resorts Inc. (Keystone, Breckenridge, Vail and Beaver Creek, plus A-Basin).

Eldora also has teamed up with Christy Sports to push echo boom skiing, offering a season pass and season-long gear rentals for $159 for skiers ages 6 through 11.

Summit County hospital takes shape

FRISCO, Colo. – Ground for a hospital in Summit County can be broken by next spring, says Summit County Manager Ron Holliday. While there are hospitals in four directions, the closest is at Vail, still 25 miles away.

Parties to the negotiations are St. Anthony’s/Centura, which owns and operates the Summit Medical Center, a consortium of local doctors; and county government, which owns the 17 acres in Frisco where the hospital is to be built, explains the Summit Daily News (Aug. 8).

St. Anthony would build and operate the hospital, while the doctors would build and populate a medical office next door. Because of Catholic doctrine, certain procedures relating to reproductive issues – abortions, among others – cannot be performed in St. Anthony’s facilities. Holiday said part of the negotiation is figuring out what procedures can take place in a separate medical office building.

Bares getting attention in Jackson

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. – While bears get a great deal of attention in Jackson Hole, in August the major attention seemed to be on baring all, as in a gallery opening for a show by Christian Burch, called “Jackson Stripped.”

For the show, 48 people spent several hours posing partially or completely nude, says the Jackson Hole News & Guide (Aug. 6), which headlined its story, “The Naked and the Nude.”

Although many of the paintings are partially veiled by objects, voyeurs at the show will be able to examine the goods underneath with just the lift of a hand, making the opening reception a sort of sociology experiment.

“These are not everyday exhibitionists; they’re your friends and neighbors,” explained the paper. Among them are a lawyer, a construction worker, an elementary school teacher, an architect and a bartender. More varied yet are the objects in the photos – a jock strap in one case, a copy of The New York Times in another, a Scotch plaid from the old country in yet another.

Explosives uncovered at Camp Hale

CAMP HALE, Colo. – Rifle grenades and bazooka rockets have been among the 31 pieces of unexploded munitions found this summer at Camp Hale, part of a $2 million reconnaissance of the abandoned military base. Built in 1942, the base between Vail and Leadville served as the training ground for the 10th Mountain Division and, in later years, CIA training of Tibetan guerillas.

The search was sparked by the 1998 discovery of an unexploded mortar shell on a peak in the Holy Cross Wilderness Area. A hiker had thought that the mortar might have something to do with an A-10 Air Force fighter plane that slammed into another peak in the area several years before, but in fact it was dated to World War II.

compiled by Allen Best