Ear to the ground

“You may find this hard to believe but I just saw a Subaru that didn’t have an Obama-Biden sticker on it.”

–A Durango man after a stroll through a local parking lot

Broad readership

Millions of eyes will feast themselves on Durango’s broads in coming weeks. Great Old Broads for Wilderness, the locally based non-profit, is profiled this month in “the largest circulation magazine in the nation” – AARP The Magazine.

The story, which will reach 35 million AARP members, opens on a lightning streaked hike at Recapture Wash in nearby Bluff, Utah. On the trip, Ronni Egan, executive director, and Rose Chilcoat, program director, share the Broads past, present and future with the reporter. When a bolt touches down close to the three, Chilcoat proclaims, “Does anyone not feel alive?”  

The group was founded in Durango in1989 after some local hikers took exception to a comment by Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch. Hatch had stated that the U.S. should stop designating wilderness areas because older Americans could not access them.

In the spirit of the Broads – “the evidence gathering arm of the environmental movement” – Egan spends at least one week a month outdoors (and often inside wilderness areas) often gathering data on ORV abuses. The Broads also now have 22 chapters in nine different states.

The story, “Tattle Trails,” concludes with a wade through a muddy wash and a poignant quote from Chilcoat. “Backs fail, knees fail, the body might not do anymore what it did,” she tells AARP, “but you do what you can, and you’re glad to know there are still wild places.”

‘Deliciously Weird’

A cure for the common art exhibit is landing in Durango this weekend. “Deliciously Weird,” the Durango Arts Center’s annual guerrilla art show, is set for 5 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 28.

The event includes art not found in Durango’s mainstream galleries and started last year at a secret Main Avenue location. DAC’s new director, McCarson Jones, is bringing “Deliciously Weird” out into the open and moving it into the Barbara Conrad Gallery. The event will run throughout the evening and includes music by DJ Niko, a performance/fund-raiser in the DAC Theatre for the Bare Bones Burlesque and the Salt Fire Circus, a silent auction and a costume party.

Artists interested in submitting for the show are asked to bring 1 piece to the arts center anytime between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 27. The fee is $40, but no commissions will be taken from the sale of the artwork. Applications are available at drop-off, or by email at: heather@durangoarts.org.