Ear to the ground

“It’ll be hard to top last year’s transvestite grandma pole-dancing on the bus.”

– A Durango woman eagerly awaiting next week’s Snowdown parade

Blame it on Rio

Telluride has accidentally left its mark on the 2016 Olympic Games. Organizers of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics are on the defensive after allegations that they stole their logo from the Telluride Foundation. The nonprofit group is chaired by Norman Schwarzkopf and tasked with the unusual mission of improving the already elevated quality of life of people living in the Telluride area.

Rio released the Olympic logo – which depicts three abstract figures dancing in a circle – on New Year’s Eve during a giant bash at Copacabana beach. Enquiring minds quickly connected the artwork to the Telluride Foundation’s, which is nearly identical though it includes a fourth dancer and the figures do have legs.

Fred Gelli, director of Tatil, the design firm that created the Rio logo, admitted the connection but called it coincidence. After looking at the Telluride Foundation image, he said, “For some reason, we missed that one.”

UnBeige, the publication “where designers read design,” came down on the side of Rio. “As much as this writer, as a curmudgeonly Chicagoan who won’t let things go, would like to see Rio have all sorts of egg on all sorts of faces this early on, we think this whole buzz might be a serious reach,” wrote Steve Delahoyde.

Ironically, both Rio and Telluride may be guilty of theft. Both logos bear undeniable resemblances to Henry Matisse’s painting, “The Dance.”

Rock ’n’ roll fantasy

A Durangoan has drummed his way into the pages of the New York Times. The nation’s preeminent newspaper profiled New York City’s “Rock ’n’ Roll Fantasy Camp” last week, and Jeff Munger, local drummer and rancher, happened to be on stage.

Munger got to play in a group led by Kip Winger (hint: lead singer in the 1980s heavy metal band Winger). A couple of Munger’s other counselors included Mark Farner, of Grand Funk Railroad, and Rudy Sarzo, of Quiet Riot.

 “It’s fun to be able to meet these guys as people,” the Durangoan told the paper. “I’m at a point in my life where I’m going to spend my money on things I’m passionate about, and I’m absolutely crazy about music.”

More than 60 amateur musicians enrolled in the camp, which offered six-day ($10,000) and four-day ($5,000) packages.