Ear to the ground:

“If you don’t look like your profile picture when I meet you, you’re buying me drinks until you do.”
- Local man laying down the rules of online dating

In training

For those of you who moved to Durango to pursue an acting career, your time has come.

L.A.-based Aperture Entertainment is looking for extras for its film about westward expansion set in the 1880s. Most of the extras will play train passengers, so the talent chosen will get a ride on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. Additionally, costumes and meals will be provided on the day of filming, set for Aug. 10

According to Aperture, casting directors are looking for Caucasian men ages 25-45, Caucasian women ages 25-40, and Caucasian children ages 6-15. Because the film needs to be historically accurate, the company said that no “modern fashions” such as colored hair, tattoos or piercings will be allowed. Which may thin the Durango competition considerably.

So, if you love the 80s (the 1880’s) are piercing and ink free, and ready for stardom, fill out a casting form online before July 24. You can apply at www.aperturefilms.com/durangotrain/.

Sorry I was late, traffic was awful ...

In another sure sign the state economy has recovered, a record 200 people showed up for Boulder’s eighth annual Tube to Work Day on Tuesday morning, according to the Boulder Daily Camera.

The brilliant co-brainchild of Boulderite Jeff Kagan, the event created river gridlock on tiny Boulder Creek, which was flowing just over 200 cfs Tuesday.

“We’re gonna have some traffic,” Kagan told the crowd prior to the mass descension. “If you get in a fender bender, remember to exchange insurance information.”

This year marks the largest turnout in the event’s history, which started with two friends tubing to work in 2008. The previous record turnout was 40 people at last year’s event.

Many participants sported requisite work wear, including suits, ties and obligatory helmets. And of course, there’s always the guy riding the blow-up animal.

“It was super stable. I only flipped over once,” Kevin Rice, who took part in his first Tube to Work Day in a swan tube, told the Camera. “It was a 10 out of 10. Everyone should do it.”