Hey y'all! I just got the biography about Charles that was released in the 90s, and I was thinking it would be fun to read through it and discuss it here. Anyone want to join me?

Currently reading Imperial Spain 1469-1716 by J.H Elliot (rip my boy) and I’m looking for anything similar. Maybe biographies on Charles V or Philip II

A couple of months ago, author Rick Bass was interviewed by the NYT in their "BY THE BOOK" feature. Among other good things, there is this excerpt below. Back in 2005, just after it came out, I gave a glowing review to Rick Bass's novel, THE DIEZMO, detailing an 1850s historical filibustering expedition. I recall that some others, naysayers just like the ones here, thought it did not measure up to being mentioned on the Cormac McCarthy Site, but I stood my ground.
Rick Bass, always a McCarthy supporter, went on to write brilliantly about naturalism and I have since reviewed many of his books. The last one of his I reviewed on the now vanished site was THE TRAVELING FEAST: ON THE ROAD AND AT THE TABLE WITH AMERICA'S FINEST WRITERS (2018), in which Bass dines with many of our favorites, including Jim Harrison before he died. Bass said that some authors did not accept his invitation, and surely one of those not accepting was Cormac McCarthy.
Among the books written by Rick Bass are some recognized gems, fact and fiction, including THE LOST GRIZZLIES, THE NEW WOLVES, THE NINEMILE WOLVES, COLTER, THE HERMIT' S STORY, THE SKY, THE STARS, AND THE WILDERNESS. Just about everything.
What books are on your night stand?
“Ædnan” by Linnea Axelsson; FATHER AND SON and “Passage to Juneau” by Jonathan Raban; “All the Pretty Horses” (re-re-read); “Cold Mountain” (re-re-re-read); “Mink River” by Brian Doyle.
Do you prefer books that reach you emotionally or intellectually?
Yes.
How have your reading tastes changed over time?
I’m less patient and can barely any longer abide even one misstep in a sentence, no matter how “good” the story. I crave protein and no longer have much interest in sugar.
Do you consider yourself prolific?
No.
What makes you so prolific?
It’s like the old Woody Allen joke: I’m prolific, I write a book every yeaNo I’m not prolific at all, I write a book every year.
What’s the last great book you read?
It’s been a while now, but I loved “Miracle and Wonder: Conversations With Paul Simon.” Great can be kind of a limiting word these days. At this stage of my life, I’m a fiend for rereading. I will return to Cormac McCarthy’s THE PASSENGER, as I do much of his work.
What’s the most terrifying book you’ve ever read?
“The End of Nature” by Bill McKibben; “The Dying of the Trees” by Charles E. Little; “The Most Important Fish in the Sea” by H. Bruce Franklin; “Enough” by Bill McKibben. He is an amazement — I know of few writers who so powerfully merge intellect with deep morality and the dignity of manners, yet while retaining sacred rage. Terry Tempest Williams can terrify for the same reason.
What’s your favorite book no one else has heard of?
GOODBYE TO A RIVER comes to mind — I’m writing a book celebrating his work, with a bit of biography. It’s pretty much a perfect book, with beautiful descriptions, intelligent and with a fair-minded voice, authoritative without seeming so — leavened by intense curiosity about the natural world and people, too. There is just enough of a curmudgeon in the narrator, balancing with sweetness, and again curiosity, to make it an irresistible read, and an unforgettable journey of a young man paddling down a wild river about to be erased, turned into a flatwater lake by a dam.

Are your essay collections organized around themes? What would you say the new collection is about?

The essays are not organized around themes but in selecting them — trying, and for the most part I think successfully, to avoid my straight-on advocacy pieces — I realize I chose those about the pursuit and celebration of things I find beautiful. What are my aesthetics for beauty? I think of beauty as a kind of fittedness: the way a thing integrates, or seeks to integrate, with everything else in its environment. This can imply a deep and complex, sophisticated connectedness to all things — which is why we tend to see so much beauty in nature, because that’s how nature rolls. But there can be a deep aesthetic of beauty, too, in the isolate, the singular, the solitary, no-longer-connected or not-yet-fitted.
“I rarely feel more real than when I am hunting and gathering,” you write in one essay. What do hunting and writing have in common?
Properly done, both are gifts. In each, your senses are so acutely engaged that it seems the tips of cell receptors glow incandescent; you burn, yet without damage — there is only illumination, exhilaration: the moment, caught in the web of five senses and deepest specificity. In hunting, every footfall matters — where you choose to direct your senses, step by step, matters, as does in writing every word choice, every letter, every sound.

10,000 Stolen Days

May 10, 2024 marked exactly 10,000 days since Sophie’s life was taken. 10,000 days which had they not been stolen from her in December 1996, must have seemed to be filled with possibility .1996 had been a banner year, she had achieved so much in the previous 6 months, setting up her production company "Les Champs Blancs", and producing three different productions, with more on the way. But it had been exhausting few months with all this work and travel, and although Christmas is a holiday, it is not always a relaxing one.
Christmas had often been a difficult time for Sophie. She walked out her first husband Pierre Jean at Christmas 1981, so suddenly, she left her infant son behind and had to steal him back with a ruse involving a relative. She broke up with Bruno Carbonnet over Christmas in 1993. leaving him a puzzling note;
“Je suis partie là où tu n'a jamais été, là où tu n'iras jamais".
“I have left there where you have never been, there where you will never go”. This didn’t make much sense to Bruno. He waited alone for two weeks in the apartment hoping she would return, he a had bought a bicycle for Pierre Louis for Christmas. In January he left to teach in Le Harve and when he returned the locks had been changed and all his stuff was on the landing. Sophie was deliberate about change in her life she didn't just let things happen to her. Her agenda year planners reflect this. She was meticulous in recording meetings, calls, contact details and travel plans. She brought 1995, 1996 & 1997 year planners with her. There are notes and reminders stretching into February 1997. She even tore off the little perforated corners as each week passed. It's a poignant reminder of how abruptly her life was cut off in full flow - the week beginning 23/12/1996 still has its corner intact.
Sophie’s style was austere, almost minimalist. Her cottage was painted white inside and out, with a except for the ground floor, which was black slate with a shiny varnish. The only decorations were a few sprigs of holly placed by the housekeeper to welcome her. A traditional Christmas week filled with loud music, tinsel and overconsumption was the diametric opposite of her character.
Worse there is the prospect having to trade pleasantries with tiresome relatives.
That Christmas Daniel had decided for the first time to have a big family Christmas inviting his extended aristocratic family to his chateau in Ambax in the South of France. For Sophie, who even after six years of marriage barely knew Daniel’s relatives, this was an easy choice and a hard no.
She bought her ticket on the morning of her travel planning to spend nearly a week in Ireland including Christmas Day and return on the 26^th. It may be that this was the only return flight she could get at the time. Or it may be, as she told her aunt Madame Opalka “she was going to go to Ireland to spend Christmas there, because the house in Ambax was full of people”. From what Daniel has said, and from what others have said, it may be he tried to persuade her to come to Ambax for Christmas and convinced her. Sometime during the weekend she got an itinerary by fax at the cottage confirming her flight back on the 24^th. But even on Sunday afternoon she told friends she had not made up her mind which flight she would take.
It is difficult to say how well their marriage was going at that time because the reports vary. Daniel said it was "harmonius and peaceful" which was far from accurate. There are several biographies of Daniel Toscan du Plantier, and they paint a vivid picture of a man who though incomparably charming, lived his life his own way without much concern for his family. He married four times and in three cases his wives were already pregnant before they got married. When he married Sophie, his eldest son and daughter were not even told about it, they only found out later in the summer when Sophie turned up at events.
Some witnesses including Daniel said was it was the happiest period, others say she was basically “an official wife” and that “their open marriage was an open secret”. The truth was probably somewhere in between. She had visited Ambax in November and collaborated closely on the documentary Europa 101 with Daniel. Whatever their personal arrangement, Daniel was deeply affected by her death, even though he refused to come to Ireland. His daughter Ariane wrote how she spent months taking care of him, feeding him sedatives and sleeping pills. He was clearly overwhelmed, so Sophie must have been more than an "official wife" to him. Was their marriage "open"? They clearly had a high degree of independence from each and had affairs in the past.
Nevertheless, Sophie may have balked at spending Christmas in Ambax. For one thing, it was far away from Paris, where her friends and family lived. For another, Daniel’s family and entourage knew very little about her. Apart from his second son Carlo, who was friends with her son Pierre Louis and some servants, she would have been on her own. Christmas in Paris would have been tolerable, she could escape and visit her parents and friends whenever she wanted, but in Ambax, she would be cooped up with nowhere else to go.
There is a question of whether Daniel was having an affair at the time. According to a Garda memo, French journalist Caroline Mangez said that Daniel was with a female film producer. However the files are full of unsubstantiated rumours and lies. Even if he wasn’t having an affair Sophie may have suspected he was. If Daniel had invited a mistress, or even a former mistress, or a former wife to Ambax, it would be unbearably awkward for Sophie. Daniel had uncountable affairs, and many of his mistresses knew each other, some remained on good terms.
Daniel may have been faithful at that time, perhaps he was telling the truth when he said their marriage was harmonius, but in any case Sophie had other reasons to skip Christmas. She had wanted to come to Dunmanus for months, but work got in the way. The heating had just been fixed and she needed to pay the plumber and her housekeeper. They preferred cash.
And if Daniel was unhappy that she wasn’t going to be there for Christmas, they were going on holiday together in the New Year to Dakar, Senegal. It would be much easier for Sophie to be with Daniel by himself than his whole family. This trip to Ireland would be a breather for her. She didn’t want to be alone, she asked at least 8 different people to accompany her, including 2 former intimate partners, though there is no evidence that she was having an affair or intended to have an affair.
There is a post-it note with a message in Sophie's hand seemingly inviting someone to spend Christmas: "Je vous laisse le choix : venir ou de refuser histoire que vous passiez un bon noel"
"I leave you the choice: come or refuse just so you have a good Christmas"
Whoever that note was written to, it was to someone she addressed as "vous" so not one of her closest friends or family.

Work

If she had another relationship, it is not obvious from her diary and it was unknown to her friends. What her diary does show though is that she had thrown herself into work.
Apart from her agenda she kept a working notebook, a red hardback book which is filled with a tantalizing mash of different references to famous works of art, music, and contacts details of artists and philosophers. She had recently completed work on three different films. The first work was a documentary on African Art. The next was Europa 101, a documentary written by Daniel showcasing the wealth of European cinema. This was Daniel’s pet project, he loathed US cinema and the dominance of Hollywood. He once likened his wife’s death to a “bad movie”. His life’s work was a “struggle against cheap portrayals of violence, which is what leads to deaths like this” (Irish Independent 12/07/1998). This project involved gathering interviews and footage from dozens of famous directors and actors, including John Malkovich, Ingmar Berman, Pedro Almodovar, Werner Herzog, Nanni Moretti, Jean Luc Godard and many others. It was broadcast on December 8, 1996.
The third was an art house movie called “He sees folds everywhere”, a concept movie exploring the idea of folds and creases in everyday life, in hanging clothes, paper, wrinkles on skin, folds of a human brain. This was a project of the director Guy Girard, and it was the work to complete this that delayed her trip to Ireland. But she had other projects in train in her notebook. She was researching Greek folk music, Rebetiko. She had a project or projects in mind which were somewhat dark in nature.
She was in contact with George Didi-Huberman who had written a book called “The Invention of Hysteria”. This is a photographic history of how Jean Marie Charcot – one of the giants of 19c French science – locked up thousands of women for the imagined maladies of hysteria, lethargy, catalepsie and experimented on them, deliberately photographing them in contrived and frightening poses. It is a very weird and frightening history.
Her next project seems to have been based around human fluids. Her final notes are filled with references to human flesh, death and the four medieval humours of blood, phlegm, black bile, yellow bile. There are extensive notes to what seems to be a lecture given by linguist Jean Claude Milner on the subject of melancholia. Note that “melancholia” is a synonym for “black bile”, one of the four humours.
She was researching the avant garde Irish/British painter Francis Bacon, who was known for producing uniquely disturbing images. She references “Three Studies for the Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion”. There was a Bacon exhibition in Centre Pompidou in 1996 and Sophie must have attended it. Her notebook contains her jottings from a lecture on Bacon by writer Philippe Sollers which seemed focused on blood.
"Why does painting touch the central nervous system?" "We are carcasses of meat, meat above all" "The canvas bleeds, blood spurts red" "Dostoyevsky had a crisis in front of the 16^th century Hans Holbein’s painting “The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb She jotted down a quote from the play Libation Bearers from Aeschylus:
Orestes sees the Furies coming and exclaims "O Lord Apollon look! Now they come in troops, and from their eyes they drip loathsome blood!"
The last entry reads "research the Furies"

Friday

Having failed to convince anyone to join her in Ireland for Christmas, she went alone. She telephoned Josephine on Tuesday 17^th, told her she would be arriving alone on Friday. She called her again on Thursday to ask her to make sure the house would be warm.
She went to the airport on Friday morning, bought a ticket with the return date on the 26^th, carrying with her a rather hefty bag filled with clothes, including some eveningwear. Perhaps she envisaged visiting people at Christmas time. She expected to stay nearly a week. Later, possibly on Sunday she changed her ticket, she called the Aer Lingus ticket desk in Charles de Gaulle airport, Paris and got a return flight for the 24^th. She received the itinerary details by fax, as she had a machine in the cottage.
She was not in a good mood when she arrived. She had some words with the woman at the Avis counter who passed her to her colleague. The photos on CCTV show a woman looking tired and drawn, something which was remarked upon by the Avis rep, who estimated she was in her forties, a little older than her 38 years. But nobody looks their best walking off an aircraft. She had also attended the Unifrance Christmas party the night before. This was a lavish party held in “Les Bains Douche”, a unique Paris nightclub combined with a swimming pool. Apart from the late night, the social effort must have been tiring. There was a rumour that Sophie had a row that night at Les Bains, a row with one of Daniel’s mistresses, but I have never heard that confirmed. But other reports say that those who met her there found her "radiant", "in good form", "playful". "She went arm in arm to see friends," one guest at the party told Paris Match, "but she always came back to the table where Daniel was sitting." (Paris Match 09/01/1997) Daniel was quoted years later by Michael Sheridan - “She spent some hours having an intense, passionate conversation with a film-maker” - Alain Terzian, producer of Les Visiteurs, one of the most successful French comedies of the 1990s.
Strangely though, Daniel’s first statement said she left on Wednesday. So perhaps it didn’t register with him that she was at the Unifrance party with him on Thursday 19^th, or perhaps he had forgotten the party altogether.
Sophie was captured on Cork Airport CCTV at 14:41 pushing a trolley through the arrivals gate. The scheduled arrival time was 13:20, but because of almost an hour’s delay in departure it didn’t touch down until after 2. It would have taken about 15 minutes to pick up baggage from the carousel.
Cork is a small airport and it is quick to get through the arrival hall to the car hire desks, only a matter of a few meters away.
Sophie hired a silver Ford Fiesta and would have been on the road by 14:50.
The quickest route to West Cork would have been via Bandon and Dunmanway but it is more likely she went via Clonakilty and Skibbereen. She stopped in Ballydehob to buy kindling. She may have stopped in Skibbereen to buy petrol. A pump attendant reported seeing a woman matching her description driving a silver Ford buying petrol. He also noted a tall male companion in the passenger seat. The Gardai discounted this sighting because they accounted for the petrol in the car when it was hired and the mileage thereafter. There were also some discrepancies in the vehicle’s appearance and its description in the statement. Also the Ballydehob sighting is more reliable as the woman got a chance to talk to her. It would seem odd to stop in both Skibbereen and Ballydehob, both petrol stations.
But she seems to have stopped again in Schull because she bought bread and cheese in the Courtyard Deli, and this was most likely on Friday. She talked with the proprietor, Denis Quinlan to ask if there would be live music. At this stage it would have been around 4:30pm and after this she went to the cottage. She called her caretaker Josephine at 5:15, so she must have been at home by then. We don’t know if she went out after that point. She may have stayed in. At 10:15 she called her friend Agnès Thomas and spoke to her for half an hour.

Saturday

Sophie’s whereabouts on Saturday morning are unknown. Perhaps she stayed in, perhaps she went out. Finbarr Hellen was working on his land nearby and saw her car outside the house 12 to 1pm. He didn’t see her and thought it was unusual for her not to come out and say hello. He also remarked her car was parked in an unusual place. He did not elaborate more than this.
The next event we know is that she bought some groceries in Brosnans supermarket on the main street in Schull and took £200 out of the ATM.
For the curious, her shopping list is listed below:

Item	Price
Firelighters	0.85
Independent Newspaper	0.85
EP Televised "Chopped" & Her	0.52
Parsley	0.40
Low Fat Yoghurt	1.90
Ballygowan Natural Spring Water	0.85
Napolina Penne	0.75
Rashers	1.26
Courgettes	1.23
Chicory	1.79
Onions	0.09
Fox's Classic Biscuits	0.83
Flat Mushrooms	0.65
Pepper Coated Salami	0.85
Cooked Turkey	1.89
Mushrooms	0.34
Avonmore Leek & Potato Soup	0.99
Monini Olive Oil	3.45
Ballygowan Natural Spring Water	0.85
Avonmore Carrot & Coriander Soup	0.99
Ballygowan Natural Spring Water	0.85
	22.18

This list does suggest she was buying just for herself, but also that she planned to cook moderately elaborate meals with parsley, courgettes and chicory. Together with the cheese, bread and fruit already in the house she had enough food on there to last a few days. This quantity of food suggests she had not decided to travel home on the 24^th at this stage.
The till recorded a time of 2:49pm.
Sometime after this or perhaps before Sophie entered Tara Fashions, the clothes shop run by Marie Farrell. What Marie Farrell saw that day and subsequent days has been subject to revision, retraction and details seemed to be added with each telling. But I think the most reliable report is the first and all the subsequent revisions cannot be trusted. Farrell called the Gardai on the 25^th but they didn’t get around to taking a statement from her until 27^th. Even so we can assume her memory was fresh. Here is her statement, verbatim.,
On Saturday the 21st December 1996 I was working in my shop at Main Street, Schull, Co. Cork. Between 2p.m. and 3p.m. I noticed a weird looking character across the road from my shop. He was approx 5’10” in height, late 30’s, scruffy looking, long black coat, flat black beret, thin build, sallow skin, short hair. He was there for about 10 minutes. On Sunday morning at 7.15a.m. approximately I noticed the same man on the road at Airhill. When I saw him he was walking towards Goleen on the right hand side of the road and I was travelling in the opposite direction. When he saw me he stopped and put up his hand to thumb a lift. I did not see this man before or since. On Saturday the 21.12.1996 at approx 3p.m. there was a woman in my shop. She did not buy anything. I now know that this woman was the deceased woman from Goleen. I recognised her from the photograph on the television.
There is also a record of her questionnaire which may have been taken earlier than this statement.
In reply to question no 8 When/where did you last see him/her alive? She replied "saw her in shop. She bought a "Carrig Donn" aran sweater aran nap coloured, rolled neck late Sat aftemoon. Paid £39.00. Questions No. 9, 10, 11 & 12 were left blank. In reply to question No. 13 "any other help?" Marie Farrell replied "saw a man on Sat afternoon hanging around street. Desc late 30's, 5'10" very short hair wearing black beret. Saw him again Sun morning @ 7.20am walking towards Airhill but thumbed her.
In a later questionnaire, Farrell said the sweater was too big and she didn’t buy it.
What is interesting her is that Farrell does not draw any explicit linkage between the weird character in the long black coat and the woman in the shop. They were just there at approximately the same time. Farrell did say in later statements that the man followed her up Ardnamanagh road, but this was many years later. Her statements that she saw the same man at Kealfadda bridge at 3am on Monday are untrustworthy, but we won't go into this here.
A farmer, Frank Lannin, saw Sophie driving towards Schull from Goleen around 3pm. She saluted him as she passed him in his tractor. The time or the direction of travel must be wrong here.
The final sighting on Saturday she was seen in the Courtyard pub, eating a crab sandwich and left at 3:30pm. Sally Bolger went to feed her horses on Alfie Lyons land at 4:15pm and says she saw Sophie’s car at her house.
Saturday evening is a complete blank. Nobody saw her, she may have called people on the phone but we don’t have precise details. Her husband said she called him twice on Saturday, but we don’t have any confirmation of this.
At some point Sophie changed her ticket home. Her diary has a number listed as “O’Mahony” and the number was the line to the Aer Lingus ticket desk in Charles-de-Gaulle Roissy airport. The new itinerary was faxed to her in her cottage. The reason why she decided to come home early is not known. Her friend Jean Senet said her husband Daniel persuaded her. For his part Daniel said there was no particular plan and he was to pick her up from the airport at Toulouse at 8pm. Another report tells that she came home early to meet her father, so she could help him with his taxes.

Sunday

For Sunday morning we don’t have any reports.
She called to Dunlough at in the early afternoon, perhaps around 1pm. Sophie had walked here several times before. It is a spectacular headland featuring a lake and three crumbling castles. It was cold and dry at the time, good weather for a walk, if bracing. It is necessary to pass the farm to walk the headland and when Sophie did so she met Tomi Ungerer. This was the second time they had met. Sophie had called here in April but it seemed Tomi and his wife were having a row at the time and Tomi had not paid much attention. Daniel said that Sophie feigned a puncture as an excused to call to the farm. In June Sophie had sent Tomi a fax about the death of a mutual colleague, Gilbert Estève. She may have been seeking information or just making contact. Sophie made a habit out of making contacts with important artists and thinkers. It was one of the things that a colleague said of her, she knew all the right people. It is possible that Tomi was one of the people Sophie wanted to meet for a while. Tomi invited her in for a drink after she had finished her walk. She returned an hour later and they had a conversation over two glasses of wine.
Tomi was a renowned visual artist, with a keen eye and a professional interest in culture. Born in Alsace he was marked by World War II and had seen the ravages of the Nazis and the backlash from the French afterwards. He worked for as a cultural ambassador to improve Franco German relations.
The statement that Tomi gave is remarkable in the insight it gives to Sophie’s character her interests and state of mind.
“She was saying how great Ireland was for literature and education compared to France, how France had thousands of books published every year but that there was no good Authors there, how Ireland was vibrant as a centre of literature for a small Country. She discussed her family, moreover her children and their education in France. She indicated that the reason she was here in Ireland was she wanted to be alone for Christmas. I considered this strange but I sometimes like to be alone too. We talked about books and culture and how the language here was more meaningful and truthful compared to the superficial nature of the French.”
“She seemed a very genuine person, a fine person, not pretentious or snobby. I thought she was deep and intelligent, so much so that I made notes of some things she said, “In a language there should be no need of the use of cuteness” “The problem of France is her lack of modesty”. I wrote those saying they might be useful for my work in the futre. I wrote the quotes on a card in which we exchanged addresses before she left. On hindsight now I would go as far as saying she was not beaming, that she had something on her mind. It’s hard when you do not know someone well to say. I offered her a third glass of wine but she did not take any. We gave her some eggs to take with her, half dozen for her supper. We have hens.”
The word “genuine” is telling. Tomi was struck by Irish people, how the highest compliment an Irish person can give about another, is to say that person is “genuine”.
Tomi described her appearance:
“She was wearing some type of black leather expensive looking pants, brown suede hiking boots, a white/cream ribbed polo necked sweater and a beige wool blazer and a navy blue wool jacket with belt and a navy wool cap and red suede gloves, wine/red gloves. She was dressed very well. She had her hair tied back.”
As to her demeanor, this seems to have grown with the telling. The documentaries made much of the legend of the lady of the lake, whose appearance is reputed to be a harbinger of death. This lurid tale does not feature in the early Garda statements. Tomi remarked that “she was not beaming”, that she may have had something on her mind. His wife Yvonne turned up while they were chatting.
“While we were chatting, Sophie told me that while she was up at the castles she felt this great anxiety almost fear. This is not an uncommon feeling for people who visit the castles. She wasn’t in a cheerful mood but she wasn’t really glum either. She talked about her plans for the future and we spoke about meeting up in Paris in the Spring. She seemed happy to be here and she wanted to be here. She said she liked it here but her husband didn’t. She said she would be back at Easter. We made vague arrangements to meet over the next three days. I gave Sophie some eggs and she left here at about 5.45 p.m.” Yvonne’s estimate of the time she left must be an error. It is more likely she left at around 3:45.
After leaving Dunlough Sophie went to Crookhaven to Sullivans pub, a legendary stop. Here she spoke with the proprietor Billy O’Sullivan and his son Dermot, both of whom speak good French and knew Sophie from prior visits. They also knew her friend Alexandra Lewy. One time Alexandra had arranged to buy a cast iron church gate for Sophie’s birthday, Sophie was fond of antiques and bric-a-brac. Dermot had carried this gate up to the cottage. Sophie asked about getting logs for her fire. Dermot recommended she go to a filling station. She said there was only kindling at the filling stations.
It is interesting that so much of Sophie’s alleged stops and conversations were about fire, kindling, logs etc. Despite this, the photos from her house show she had a lot of fuel. There is a stack of logs, several bales of peat briquettes, what looks to be a 40kg bag of coal and one, perhaps two baskets full of kindling. She had enough for days of fires, unless she lit both hearths, which would be unlikely considering the second hearth did not draft properly, and she was arranging to have it fixed. The kindling may have been bought from Camiers Garage when Kitty Kingston reported meeting her on Friday.
She told her friend Alexandra before she left that she was going to sleep in the guest room because it was the warmest room, being directly above the oil range. There was also a brass bedwarmer found next to her bed. All these details point to Sophie being acutely aware of the cold.
A witness heard her discussing the old Coastguard houses with the Sullivans. These are a prominent landmark visible from O’Sullivan’s pub across the water. The witness left before Sophie did at 4:30pm so she must have returned to the cottage no earlier than 5pm.
The witness noted she was wearing “black leather pants and brown suede desert boots and a long chunky jumper”. This matches well with Tomi Ungerer’s account.
Note the "desert boots" seen by this witness and the "suede hiking boots" mentioned by Tomi Ungerer are probably not the hiking boots she was wearing when she died. The hiking boots she was wearing were very worn, the laces had snapped and had been tied halfway down the lace holes. It looks to me she shoved them on without untying/tying the laces. Sophie would not have visited Schull wearing old worn-out shoes. A pair of dark brown suede "desert boots" are visible at the bottom of the stairs in the garda photos. These match better with the shoes seen by the witness.
It’s 25 minutes drive from Crookhaven back to the cottage so if Sophie left at 4:30 she would have been back home before 5pm.
We know she most likely went home, because at 5:32pm she called her friend Agnès Thomas to wish her a happy birthday. Agnès was out so Sophie left a message.
The postman called at 6pm and noted the lights were on. Presumably he was doing a Sunday shift to cope with the Christmas rush. He didn’t see Sophie’s car, but as he only went as far as the lower gate, it is quite possible he missed it.
At 7:30pm she called her housekeeper Josephine but she was out. She tried her again at 9:10pm but again she was out. Josephine returned and called her back at 10pm. Sophie told her she would be leaving on the 24^th, not the 26^th as she originally intended. They arranged to meet the following day at noon.
Sophie’s phone records were not available, as the exchange she was on was a traditional analogue exchange, with no recording facility. Schull was one of the last places in the country to have such an old system. Days later Garda technicians tried to retrieve call details from her cordless phone but its batteries were flat and nothing was found.
At around 10:30pm she called her husband Daniel, who said he couldn’t take her call. He said he was in a meeting with Unifrance associates. As it was nearly midnight in France, this an unusual time to have a work meeting. Daniel called her back “about twelve minutes later”. He said she was sleepy and probably in bed. Given that the cordless phone was found next to her bed, this seems plausible. He also said that she told him about her visit to the Ungerers and had formed a work project with him. He said she told him she returned home at 9:30pm, but he could be wrong about this. The phone calls to her friend and housekeeper strongly suggest she was at home from 5:30pm.
This was the last anyone heard from Sophie until her body was discovered at 10am the following morning.
From this point all we have is are the police photos and the story they tell is ambiguous, there are multiple possible interpretations.
The fire was lit that evening and there was an empty wine glass on the mantlepiece with dregs of wine in it. There was a loaf of bread, a white crusty “basket loaf” which had been sliced and left open. This is odd as there are no crumbs visible on the table and no plate. Would Sophie have gone to bed leaving the bread out? It’s possible. Another possibility is that the bread was sliced in the morning. But if so where is the plate that she used?
Conceivably Sophie may have left these items from another evening, but it is more likely she consumed the wine that evening, possibly with some cheese she had in her pantry, and the bread she had cut. There was a book open on the table, propped open by a jar of honey next to an empty teacup. However as the cordless phone was found by her bedside, it seems likely this was all left from the previous evening.
It seems the most likely Sophie spent her last night reading, went to bed and then took the call from Daniel.
The book propped open was not a Yeat’s anthology. There is a tale repeated by many true crime authors that Sophie was reading a Yeats poem called “A Dream Death”. It contains the lines
I DREAMED that one had died in a strange place Near no accustomed hand,
Ralph Riegel titled his book after this poem. But this is not the poem she was reading, if any. Yes there was a Yeats anthology found on her bed, but not the bed she slept in, it was on the bed in her personal room which she didn’t use that weekend. The anthology is “Quarente-cinq poèmes suivi de La Résurrection”, a collection of later Yeats poems translated by Yves Bonnefoy. It does not contain the poem “A Dream of Death” but it does contain a poem called “Death”, a meditation on how animals die versus men.
Nor dread nor hope attend A dying animal; A man awaits his end Dreading and hoping all;
But the Yeats anthology is not open on the bed, it is closed in the police photos. Unless the Gardai picked it up before photographing the room, then we cannot be sure what poem or poems she read. As regards the book propped open on the kitchen table, it’s prose and it is French. Journalist Lara Marlowe wrote that the book open on the table was a book about lighthouses.
Among the exhibits the Gardai took are three books

1. Le Coeur Battant – “The beating heart” – this is the title of a 1960 French movie.
2. Le Tenes Vert – Unknown – looks like a transcription error by the Gardai, could be “Les Terres Vertes”
3. Le Cine Monde – World Cinema

Other books in the house seem to correspond well with what we know of her character. On the landing there is another book from an Irish writer, Sean O’Casey, “Les Tambours de Dublin” in French.
On the shelf in her box bedroom we can see a book by Virginia Woolf, the title itself is illegible in the photo but Woolf’s distinctive profile photo is visible on the spine. I wonder if the book might be “A Room of one’s Own”. This essay advocated that a woman writer could never accomplish anything unless she had financial independence and her own space to work in. Even if it was some other book by Woolf, this essay would have been known to Sophie. It hints at what the white cottage meant to her. Her tiny box room tucked under the gable and raised single bed was a quasi-monastic cell - a creative space, a room of her own in West Cork.

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Sunday is Mother's Day, don't forget to call your mom!!

FRIDAY - MAY 10th

Rockies vs Rangers @ Coors Field @ 6:40PM Promotion: Healthcare & Teacher Appreciation Series
Mother’s Day Artisan Market @ Santa Fe Arts District @ 11AM Shop from small, women-owned businesses for all your Mother’s Day presents
‘Samson and Delilah’ Opera @ Ellie Caulkins Opera House @ 7:30PM Opera Colorado closes the season with Saint-Saëns’s operatic take on the biblical story of ‘Samson and Delilah.’
Candlelight: A Tribute to Coldplay @ Kirk of Highland @ 6:30PM / 8:45PM Kirk of Highland is bathed in lush, floral displays for an evening of Coldplay performed in classical rendition.
Turnpike Troubadours @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre @ 6:30PM With Wyatt Flores & Sierra Hull
Belle & Sebastian @ Fillmore Auditorium @ 7PM
J Boog @ Mission Ballroom @ 7PM With Iam Tongi & L.A.B
Panchiko @ Summit @ 8PM
Josh Teed @ Meow Wolf @ 8:30PM
Guided by Voices @ Marquis Theater @ 8PM
Sam Barber @ Ogden Theatre @ 8PM
Malcolm Todd @ Gothic Theatre @ 7PM With Charlie Addis
Carneyval @ Temple @ 10PM
Oden & Fatzo @ The Church Nightclub @ 9PM
Emo Night Brooklyn @ Fox Theatre @ 9PM
Bruce Cockburn @ Boulder Theater @ 8PM
Iceland Airwaves @ Globe Hall @ 8PM

SATURDAY - MAY 11th

Rockies vs Rangers @ Coors Field @ 6:10PM Promotion: Healthcare & Teacher Appreciation Series, City Connect Days
Rapids vs San Jose Earthquakes @ Dick’s Sporting Goods Park @ 7:30PM
Hangin N’ Slangin’ Pop-Up Market @ RiNo @ 11AM Thrift unique and special vintage pieces from local vendors.
Cockpit Demo Day @ Wings Museum @ 10AM Get an up close look inside select aircrafts and learn all about their history, instruments, and controls!
Shaun Johnson Stand Up @ Aurora Fox Arts Center @ 7:30PM
Candlelight: A Tribute to Adele @ Kirk of Highland @ 6:30PM / 8:45PM Listen to Adele’s best and biggest hits at Kirk of Highland as it transforms into a lush, floral landscape dedicated to spring.
Black Coffee @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre @ 6PM With LP Giobbi, Themba, & DJ Holographic
Head for the Hills @ Mishawaka @ 7PM With Pick & Howl and Friendly Reminders
An Orchestral Rendition of Dr. Dre 2001 @ Summit @ 7PM
CSS @ Marquis Theater @ 8PM
The Teskey Brothers @ Mission Ballroom @ 8PM With Jaime Wyatt
Royel Otis @ Meow Wolf @ 8PM With Girl and Girl
POND @ Ogden Theatre @ 9PM With 26fix
Donny Benét @ Gothic Theatre @ 9PM With Otnes
Rusko @ Temple @ 10PM
Dustin Kensrue @ Bluebird Theater @ 8PM With The Brevet & Brother Bird
Wisp @ The Coast @ 8PM
Crowe Boys @ Globe Hall @ 8PM

SUNDAY - MAY 12th

Rockies vs Rangers @ Coors Field @ 1:10PM Promotion: Mother’s Day Belt Bag, Autograph Sunday, Healthcare & Teacher Appreciation Series
Mom’s Free Day @ Wings Museum @ 12PM
Doug Benson Stand Up @ Comedy Works Downtown @ 4:20PM
Geoff Tice Stand Up @ Comedy Works South @ 3PM
‘Samson and Delilah’ Opera @ Ellie Caulkins Opera House @ 2PM Opera Colorado closes the season with Saint-Saëns’s operatic take on the biblical story of ‘Samson and Delilah.’
Sleep Token @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre @ 7:50PM With Empire State Bastard
Gunna @ Fillmore Auditorium @ 7:30PM
MarchFourth @ Meow Wolf @ 8PM
Yellow Days @ Bluebird Theater @ 8PM With The Jack Moves
Girl and Girl @ The Coast @ 7PM
Something Slight @ Globe Hall @ 4PM

All Weekend

FRIDAY & SATURDAY - Shane Gillis Stand Up @ Paramount Theatre
SATURDAY & SUNDAY - Bluey’s Big Play Show @ Buell Theatre ‘Bluey’s Big Play’ is a brand-new theatrical adaptation of the Emmy award-winning children’s television series featuring new music and new character adventures.
SATURDAY & SUNDAY - Spring Bazaar @ Sloan’s Lake @ 11AM Shop from 80+ local makers, enjoy food trucks and street food, craft beers, and live music at this Mother’s Day edition of Denver BAZAAR.
All weekend - Amos Gill Stand Up @ Comedy Works Downtown
All weekend - Russell Peters Stand Up @ Comedy Works South
All weekend - Prokofiev and Brahms’ Symphony No. 3 in Concert @ Boettcher Concert Hall Colorado Symphony masterfully performs Brahms’ richly romantic and stirring third symphony as well as Prokofiev’s lively Violin Concerto No. 2.
All weekend - ‘A Year with Frog and Toad’ Family-Friendly Musical @ Arvada Center Arnold Lobel's treasured characters hop from page to stage in a story of friendship and adventure.
All weekend - ‘Where Did We Sit On The Bus’ Play @ Singleton Theatre Through live music and storytelling, this one-person show immerses the audience in elaborate, layered soundscapes by fusing Latin rhythms, hip-hop, and spoken word poetry.
All weekend - ‘The Lehman Trilogy’ Play @ Kilstrom Theatre ‘The Lehman Trilogy’ is an epic and timely story of family, ambition, and risk, sprawling across 163 years of history of the Lehman Brothers.
All weekend - ‘The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee’ Play @ Vintage Theatre In this original Broadway production, an eclectic group of teenagers vie for the spelling championship of a lifetime.

Ongoing

Ongoing - ‘The Berlin Airlift: Supplies from the Sky’ Exhibition @ Wings Museum The exhibit shares the lessons of courage, perseverance, and the triumph of the human spirit and pays tribute to the brave citizens who risked their lives to bring hope to a divided city.
Ongoing - ‘Biophilia: Nature Reimagined’ Exhibition @ DAM NEW - The exhibition brings together more than 80 imaginative works, including architectural models and photographs, digital installations, and immersive art that collectively highlight the transformative power of nature.
Ongoing - ‘Fazal Sheikh: Thirst Exposure In Place’ Exhibition @ DAM Capturing the Colorado Plateau, Sheikh’s portraits and landscapes shed light on the far-reaching consequences of extractive industry and climate change.
Ongoing - ‘The Russells in Denver, 1921’ Exhibition @ DAM Charles M. Russel’s works capture the vast landscapes, mountain ranges, and peoples of the American West of the 1880s, thus leaving a valuable chronicle of the West that once was.
Ongoing - ‘Sandra Vásquez de la Horra: The Awake Volcanoes’ Exhibition @ DAM The exhibition highlights paintings, drawings, and prints by award-winning artist Sandra Vásquez de la Horra, who explores the notions of fantasy, desire, fear, and pleasure and its relationship to the human body.
Ongoing - Spring Exhibition Series @ MCA MCA’s Spring series includes solo exhibitions of three contemporary artists whose multidisciplinary works focus on the exploration of the natural phenomena, landscapes, and human interactions with the natural world.
Ongoing - ‘Performing Self’ Exhibition @ Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art This exhibition provides a look into how seven multidisciplinary artists celebrate the mutability of self-identity through the embodiment of alter egos or personae.

The second part of Mary's and Elizabeth's story. I learned from last time: This is a draft! You will find some of the sources and the literature at the end (I was trained in Germany, we don't differentiate between primary and secondary sources but sources and literature):
I. Introduction
In the spring of 1554, Elizabeth Tudor was in grave danger. Her half-sister, Queen Mary, had imprisoned her in the Tower of London on suspicion of being involved in the Wyatt Rebellion. The insurrection was against the Queen's plan to marry the Spanish crown prince, Philip, who was a staunch Catholic. Elizabeth was forced to live in the same chambers where her mother, Anne Boleyn, had been held before her execution 18 years earlier.
According to Tracy Borman, the Queen's advisers had already written up Elizabeth’s death warrant. All Mary had to do was sign it. As she held the ink-soaked quill that could end her half-sister's life, her hand hovered over the document. However, she ultimately chose not to sign it.
On May 19, 1554, Elizabeth was released from the Tower and placed under house arrest in the old royal hunting mansion at Woodstock. Until then, Elizabeth did not know whether she was to be allowed to live or had to face execution. It wasn't until the anniversary of her mother's execution that her fate was revealed to her.
During her time at the Tower, Elizabeth learned two valuable lessons that would shape the rest of her life: She should never be replaceable, and she should avoid making decisions until they are unavoidable. These principles guided Elizabeth for the rest of her life.

II. Why Elizabeth was saved
Elizabeth had very few people in Mary's government who were on her side. Only William Baron Paget advocated for Anne Boleyn's daughter. On the other hand, Elizabeth had many enemies. Lord Chancellor Bishop Stephen Gardiner, Mary's cousin Emperor Charles V, and the imperial ambassador Simon Renard all believed that Elizabeth's execution was necessary to ensure the Queen's permanent hold on the throne. There were even rumors that Margaret Douglas, Mary's best friend and potential heir, had spoken in favor of Elizabeth's execution.
However, there was a lack of evidence to support such a decision. The government tried everything to find evidence, or at least to fabricate it. The insurgent leader Thomas Wyatt was at the center of these efforts. He had already been sentenced to death before Elizabeth arrived at the Tower. However, the execution had been postponed. Wyatt, who had initially supported Mary even against Lady Jane Grey at the beginning of her reign, was now being pushed to incriminate Elizabeth as much as possible. As a side note, it wasn't Wyatt's first time being involuntarily held at the Tower. During the reign of Edward VI, he had also been imprisoned there for a few days because he had drunkenly smashed windows.
Wyatt, however, refused to name Elizabeth as the head of the rebellion, only stating that she may have known about the plan. His co-conspirator, Sir James Croft, could say more. Wyatt instead heavily incriminated his co-conspirator, Edward Courtenay. He was the real head of the conspiracy.
Mary's interrogators capitulated: April 11, 1554, was designated as the day of Wyatt's execution. As a resident of the Tower, whose name is not known to us, reports in a private chronicle, there were two peculiarities: First, Wyatt asked to be allowed to speak with Courtenay, who had been imprisoned in the Tower since February 12. Second, his last words were to be interrupted.
Wyatt's request was granted. According to the source, he had to be carried to Courtenay, who was imprisoned in the tower above Traitor's Gate. This shows the massive torture he was most likely subjected to. The two men talked for about half an hour. Unfortunately, the exact content of the conversation has not been handed down.
However, Wyatt's last words give an idea about what was said: he not only withdrew his accusations against Elizabeth but also exonerated Courtenay. In doing so, he probably saved two lives. Henry Weston, who oversaw the execution of Wyatt, interrupted the condemned man, which was highly unusual. According to the tower resident, he spoke this sentence:
"Merke this, my masters, eh sayeth hat that which eh hathe showed to hte counsel ni wryting of ymlady Elizaleth and Courtney ys true."
In this way, he confirmed that Wyatt had not lied to protect his reputation in the public eye, which held Elizabeth in high esteem but secretly incriminated her. It's unclear how Mary's advisers responded. It was a remarkable parallel of history: Wyatt's father had been imprisoned in the wake of the allegations against Anne Boleyn on suspicion of having had an affair with the Queen. The only thing that saved him was his friendship with Thomas Cromwell. Weston's father, Francis, was less fortunate. He was beheaded on May 17, 1536. Now the sons of the two men faced each other – and Weston had to supervise the execution on behalf of the Queen.
Mary herself dealt with the fact that Wyatt had exonerated her half-sister in a surprising way: she confiscated Wyatt's estates because he was a convicted traitor. However, she provided his family with a small pension that allowed them to survive. Among Wyatt's descendants was Wallis Simpson, for whom King Edward VIII abdicated his throne. Wyatt himself was beheaded before being quartered. He thus escaped the worst part of his punishment.
Courtenay, who had betrayed the rebellion before it even started, was released from the Tower and exiled to Venice. Mary's government tried for four more weeks to find any incriminating material against the Queen's half-sister but to no avail. The public grew increasingly resentful of the continued imprisonment of the heir to the throne, especially after Wyatt, who had been visibly tortured, cleared her name. Additionally, Mary's judges informed her that her half-sister could not be found guilty under the current laws.
It is not clear what ultimately led to Elizabeth's release from the Tower and her house arrest in Oxfordshire. While some argue that it was due to the Queen's conscience, which emerged just in time, others point out that between 1554 and 1555, people from Elizabeth's household were repeatedly arrested on suspicion of treason. This suggests that the Queen continued to view her half-sister as a threat. Modern historians have described the Queen as "paranoid about Elizabeth.”
Another thesis uses the popularity of Anne Boleyn's daughter as an argument for why Mary spared Elizabeth's life. Even this justification is not entirely convincing: During the Wyatt Rebellion 20,000 Londoners had volunteered to fight for the Queen. She had just successfully crushed the uprising. It had not found the popular support that its leaders had hoped for.
Elizabeth was likely allowed to live for several reasons. The Queen saw the rebellion as an attack by Protestants on their religion, who were allegedly equipped with "a Spanish cloak to cover their pretended purpose," as she wrote in a letter. She couldn't imagine that Catholics could also be against her marriage to the heir to the Habsburg throne. The rise of English nationalism was not a relevant force in her eyes.
Elizabeth had never made any public comments regarding Mary's plans to get married. Even though she appeared to be a Catholic, attending Mass twice a day, she avoided speaking in support of the Catholic faith. She would often cough or clear her throat to excuse herself from speaking at sensitive points during Mass. Mary had been aware that her half-sister was only pretending to be a Catholic since December 1553. In fact, at that time, Mary had even accused Elizabeth of it.
Despite this, Anne Boleyn's daughter was still valuable to Mary as a symbol. The more Elizabeth was seen attending Mass, the less suitable she was as a leader of Protestantism. However, if Mary were to have her half-sister executed, Elizabeth would become a martyr. Therefore, it was more beneficial for Mary to keep Elizabeth alive and permanently convert her to Catholicism.
On top of that, her wedding to Philip was getting closer and closer. The wedding ceremony had already encountered major issues and difficulties. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, was imprisoned for being a heretic. Typically, he would have been the one to conduct the wedding ceremony and crown Philip as the king. However, if Elizabeth remained imprisoned in the Tower during the wedding, it would cast a dark shadow over the connection. Elizabeth was still the heir to the throne. Her execution around the time of the wedding would have been disastrous.
To avoid any potential issues, Elizabeth had to disappear from the public eye. If she wanted to play an active role again, she would have to comply with the Queen's demands. This impression is evident in the sources available. Officially, Mary was done with her half-sister, and Elizabeth's name does not appear in the collection of Mary's State Papers for the rest of the Queen's life. In this situation Mary was a perfect blend of her parents, possessing Katherine's political acumen and Henry's stubbornness.

III. Elizabeth is under house arrest
Mary initially felt vindicated in her decision to keep Elizabeth under house arrest, as it seemed to work in her favor. While over 200 rebel leaders were executed, most ordinary prisoners were pardoned for a fine. This prevented any serious uprisings against Mary for the rest of her reign.
In addition to the emotional significance, Mary's marriage to Philip was also economically beneficial for England. Phillip brought 20 cartloads of American silver to the wedding, which helped to support the weak English economy. The Royal Mint was allowed to mint silver coins for Spain, which marked its first foreign order. Mary proved herself to be a capable ruler in economic matters.
During her reign as Queen of England, Mary made significant strides in modernizing the country, which her predecessors had failed to do. England still adhered to the rules of the late medieval economic system, despite its collapse in the second half of the 15th century. Mary caught up on the overdue reforms, which would benefit her successor for decades to come.
In September 1554, Mary received good news as she gained weight, and her menstruation stopped, leading her doctors and court attendants to believe that she was pregnant. The Queen herself also experienced nausea, which further convinced everyone of her pregnancy. The imperial ambassador even reported back home that there was no doubt that the Queen was carrying a child.
Mary felt empowered and began to take violent action against the Protestants in her kingdom. Just a month after announcing her miraculous pregnancy, she had Bishops Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer burned. Thomas Cranmer, whom she hated, was in prison awaiting his indictment as a heretic.
According to Mary's wishes, Cardinal Reginald Pole was to play a decisive role in this. Her close confidant returned on 23 November 1554 from his exile and assumed the position of Archbishop of Canterbury. Mary's great goal now was for her heir to be born in an England where the Pope would be the head of the Church again.
Parliament supported Mary on this issue. In January 1555, the Second Act of Repeal was passed, which made England a Catholic kingdom again. The law also removed the legal hurdle to prosecute Protestants more severely. Corresponding actions began as early as February 1555.
The unpopular burnings earned the Queen the nickname "Bloody Mary". Nearly 300 of their subjects were to die at the stake. However, historians have debated whether her reputation for cruelty is accurate. The book "Book of Martyrs" by John Foxe, published in 1563, was instrumental in creating the image of Bloody Mary. As a Protestant, Foxe had a strong religious interest in portraying Mary as a monstrous and frightening figure.
Mary viewed the use of burnings as a necessary means to deter Protestants from their faith and was surprised by the number of Protestants who chose death by fire over converting to Catholicism. However, she believed that the most important aspect of her efforts was ensuring that no new Protestant clerics could emerge, hence she strictly monitored seminaries and universities.
During Elizabeth's time of house arrest, she was under the guard of Sir John Williams, who treated her kindly. It is assumed that Elizabeth acted with extreme caution during this time so as not to upset her half-sister. As the announcement of Mary's pregnancy meant that Elizabeth would lose her position in the line of succession, she had to be careful not to do anything that could jeopardize her safety.

IV. Mary's First False Pregnancy and the Fatal Consequences
Mary found herself in a situation similar to her mother's, towards the end of Katherine and Henry's marriage, during the spring of 1555. Mary had a responsibility to produce an heir, as failure to do so would put her position and Catholicism in England at risk. At the time, Mary was fully aware of the potential consequences if Elizabeth was to come to power.
However, it is unclear whether or not the Queen recognized the parallel between her mother's life and her own, or if Mary was trying to break the curse that had plagued her since Anne entered her life. Regardless, Mary followed the customary practice of withdrawing to Hampton Court in the spring of 1555 for the birth of her child. She ordered Elizabeth to be present when her heir to the throne entered the world.
If you want to, you can interpret this order as a gesture of reconciliation between siblings, which must have taken place in 1555, at least on the surface. However, I find it difficult to interpret it as anything other than an attempt to humiliate Elizabeth. The Queen, for instance, stated that the Spanish king, Philip, should be regent for the child, not her half-sister, should she die in childbirth.
As we all know, events took a different turn. The calculated due date came and went, and it was not until July that the Queen resigned amid mocking laughter from the political public. Her abdominal swelling had subsided. The Venetian ambassador, Giovanni Michieli, had recently predicted that the pregnancy would end “in wind”. Philip, much to the Queen's sadness, returned to the mainland just a month later. Most people saw the false pregnancy and Philip's departure as a sign that the Queen would never be able to have children.
Mary was likely struggling with depression during that time. She believed that the events that occurred were "God's punishment" for tolerating heretics in her kingdom. As a result, she took even harsher action against them. One of her most prominent victims was Cranmer, who had renounced Protestantism for fear of being burned at the stake and turned back to Catholicism. Although it was customary for him to be pardoned, Mary did not follow this tradition.
Cranmer was forced to read out his retraction in public shortly before his burning in October 1556. According to reports, he first put the hand into the fire with which he had signed the document by which he turned away from Protestantism. Historians agree that it was primarily an act of personal revenge on the part of the Queen, as Cranmer had annulled her parents' marriage.

V. Philip and Elizabeth
Elizabeth might even have become a threat to Mary’s marriage – at least in the eyes of the monarch. Despite Philip's constant search for new lovers on the continent, there is little doubt that the Queen was truly in love with him. For example, Michieli reported she was "extraordinarily in love."
Philip, however, had already discovered while he was still in England that Elizabeth was, let’s say, of marriageable age. According to Michieli, the Habsburg prince had considered marrying the Queen‘s half-sister in case Mary died giving birth. However, there is some disagreement about how serious these considerations were. In a letter to his brother-in-law Maximilian, Philip expressed doubts about whether Mary was pregnant.
Following the false pregnancy, Philip aimed to establish a positive relationship with Elizabeth, most likely having already supported her while she was under house arrest. Mary’s half-sister was pleased to accept the king's friendship. As per J. E. Neale, she made every effort to integrate herself into Philip's circle of Spanish friends at court.
In October 1555, Elizabeth was permitted to leave Mary's court and return to her household, but it's uncertain whether it was a sign of Queen Mary's confidence in her half-sister. It's more likely that Mary couldn't tolerate Elizabeth's presence anymore. At this point, Mary began focusing on a topic she had never been enthusiastic about: finding a suitable husband for Elizabeth.
Philip advocated for Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy, and with good reason. Not only would he ensure a Catholic succession, but he was also Philip's trusted proxy in England. After Mary's death, Philibert would be a suitable puppet. In December 1553, Elizabeth had also agreed to have her name linked with Philibert's. This option was more favorable than making Mary, Queen of Scots the heir, even so she was catholic. Mary, promised to the French Dauphin, was too close to the Habsburgs' greatest enemies.
Elizabeth, however, knew that time was on her side. She was safe as heir to the throne after the disaster of the false pregnancy. Even for the Spaniards she was considered a better alternative than her Scottish great-cousin. She refused all marriage requests. Philip's four-month visit to England, beginning in March 1557, was primarily intended to persuade Elizabeth to change her mind. Mary must have been hurt significantly as she had been urging her husband to come back for a long time.
It seems improbable that Parliament would have approved of such a marriage. Consequently, it gradually distanced itself from Mary. In December 1555, the Queen attempted to seize the assets of 100 Protestants in exile, but her request was denied.
Later, Philip reconsidered the idea of marrying Elizabeth himself. After she ascended the throne, he proposed a corresponding match, but the new English monarch declined the offer.

VI. Mary joins Philip's war against France and becomes an enemy of the Pope
Philip became King of Spain in 1556. Mary, as his wife, thus became Queen of Spain. The Habsburg, now finally in power, wanted to eliminate Protestantism by all means. War was included. And that's what happened – but against Catholic France.
France had done Philip the great favor of attacking the Spaniards. Mary rushed to her husband's aid and joined the war. Together, they inflicted a heavy defeat on the French at the Battle of Saint-Quentin in August 1557. But the fortunes of the war turned against the English: Calais, the last English mainland base, was lost in January 1558.
Mary is said to have reacted to this message with the following sentence:
"When I am dead and opened, you shall find Calais engraved on my heart".
Pope Paul IV raged over the war. He needed the French to defend him against the Habsburgs in northern Italy. England's participation had ensured that he could hardly expect any significant support. He therefore demanded the return of Pole to Rome in order to appoint a new Archbishop of Canterbury himself who would bring the Queen under control. Mary refused, going against the authority on which she had hitherto guided all her actions.
Later on, this turned out to be helpful, albeit in a cynical way, for Elizabeth. The Pope had spoken out against Anne Boleyn's daughter inheriting Mary's throne. However, the relationship with the English Catholics had become so strained that this was no longer relevant. It was clear that the future of England lay in Elizabeth, and with that, it was expected that Protestantism would return.
Mary still hoped to prevent this from happening. She believed she was pregnant again in 1557. However, this time, there were no preparations for a birth, apart from the fact that she made her will in the spring of 1558. It is tragic to read this from today's perspective:
"Fyrste, whereas I the said Quene have with the good contentment and pleasure of my said most dere belov'd Lorde and husbande the Kyng's Majesty devis'd & made my said last will and testament, beryng date the 30th day of Marche last past, and by the same, for that as I then thowght myself to be with childe did devise and dispose the Imperiall Crowne of this Realme of Englond and the Crowne of Ireland, with my title to France and all the dependances thereof, and all other honours, Castells, Fortresses, Prerogatives and hereditaments, of what nature, kynde or qualitie soever they be, belongyng to this crowne, unto the heires, Issewe and frewte of my body begotten, & the government, order, and rewle of the said heire and Issewe I recommended unto my said most dere Lord and husband duryng the mynoryte of the said heire, accordynge to the lawes of this Realme in that case provided."
"Thinking myself to be with child in lawful marriage between my said dearly beloved husband and Lord, altho' I be at this present (thankes be unto Almighty God) otherwise in good helthe, yet foreseeing the great danger which by Godd's ordynance remaine to all whomen in ther travel of children, have thought good, both for discharge of my conscience and continewance of good order within my Realmes and domynions to declare my last will and testament"
Mary believed she was pregnant and in good health, and even suggested once more her husband be named as regent for the child. This was unrealistic as England had suffered significant losses in the war, while Habsburg had not. The Spanish king was more unpopular than ever. From 1555 to 1558, Mary's kingdom struggled with severe crop failures, leading to hunger and a severe influenza epidemic in 1558. One of Mary's ladies-in-waiting, Jane Dormer, fell ill but later recovered.
The Queen herself may have also fallen sick. When Mary returned to London at the end of August 1558 after her fake pregnancy, she asked Dormer how she was doing. Dormer replied with "reasonably well", to which Mary said, "So am not I". She then retired to her chambers and never left them again.

VII. Battle for the Crown: Mary Must Accept Elizabeth
Mary's health was deteriorating day by day and she was having fever dreams frequently. According to Dormer's later reports, Mary would sometimes wake up and recount seeing small children playing angelically beside her in her sleep. The Queen used these stories to console her close ones by reminding them that whatever happens, God has allowed it.
However, Mary's will posed a problem as it did not name any heir, except a child that was not born. This made her last will not only impractical but also went against the current law of succession. To resolve this, Mary agreed to add a new passage to her will on October 28, 1558:
"Yf yt shall please Almighty God to call me to his mercye owte of this transytory lyfe without issewe and heire of my bodye lawfully begotten, Then I most instantly desire et per viscera misericordiae Dei, requyre my next heire & Successour, by the Laws and Statutes of this Realme, not only to permytt and suffer the executors of my said Testament and last will and the Survivours of them to perform the same."
Elizabeth was only confirmed by the insertion "by the Laws and Statutes of this Realme". However, this was still not enough as Elizabeth was not officially named despite actively preparing for her reign that very same month. Due to this reason, Mary was pushed further.
The Queen finally sent Dormer to her half-sister with three conditions, which she had to meet in order to be allowed to succeed her:

1. It is important for England to remain Catholic.
   
2. Queen Elizabeth should treat Mary's servants well.
   
3. Queen Elizabeth is responsible for paying the Crown's outstanding debts.
   

It is said that Dormer demanded proof on Mary's behalf that Elizabeth was indeed a Catholic. Elizabeth reacted angrily to this, arguing that she had complied with this often enough. However, she accepted the terms. It is mentioned in the literature that Mary also acknowledged Elizabeth as an heiress by name on November 6, 1558, but I couldn’t find a source for this.
Mary passed away between 5:00 and 6:00 in the morning on November 17, 1558. Her good friend Reginald Pole survived her by just twelve hours. The diplomat Nicholas Throckmorton was tasked with informing Elizabeth of Mary's death. Six hours after Mary's death, Throckmorton proclaimed Elizabeth as the new Queen. It was then that the coronation ring was brought to Elizabeth, which was extensively checked for authenticity by her ladies-in-waiting.
Mary's funeral was held on December 13, 1558, and her husband was not present. In a letter to his sister Joan, Philip expressed "reasonable regret" over her death. However, there was a scandal during the funeral when Winchester's Bishop John White gave an obituary for Mary and expressed doubts about Elizabeth's abilities as Queen. As a result, Elizabeth had him arrested a day later. With Mary's death and Elizabeth's ascension to the throne, England's generational traumas of Katherine and Anne finally came to an end. Although there were others to follow, such as the "Great Plot" to assassinate Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots. But we will not delve into them today.

Examples for literature and sources used for this text (That’s far from being all. I tried to pick those
you can check online yourself for this list):

Borman, T. (2023). Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I.
Edwards, J. (2007). Mary I: England’s Catholic Queen.
Edwards, J. (2018). Mary I: The Daughter of Time. https://www.amazon.de/Mary-Penguin-Monarchs-Daughter-Time/dp/0141988681
Froude, J. A. (2023). The Divorce of Catherine of Aragon
The Story as Told by the Imperial Ambassadors Resident at the Court of Henry VIII.
Lee, S. (1900). Wyatt, Thomas. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography,_1885-1900/Wyatt,_Thomas_(1521%3F-1554))
Lemon, R (1856). Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, of the Reigns of Edward VI., Mary, Elizabeth and James I, 1547-1625 Preserved in the Stat Paper Department of Her Majesty's Public Record Office. https://www.google.de/books/edition/Calendar_of_State_Papers_Domestic_Series/NvsUAAAAQAAJ?hl=de&gbpv=1&dq=state+papers+domestic+mary+I&printsec=frontcover
Loades, D. (2016). Elizabeth I: A Life.
Loades, D. (2011). Mary Tudor.
Mayer, T. F. (2000). Reginald Pole – Prince & Prophet. https://www.google.de/books/edition/Reginald_Pole/OqaBq2QGrFEC?hl=de&gbpv=1&dq=reginald+pole&printsec=frontcover
Neale, J. E. (1934). Queen Elizabeth. https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.208607/mode/2up
Nichols, J. G. (editor) (1850). The chronicle of Queen Jane, and of two years of Queen Mary, and especially of the rebellion of Sir Thomas Wyat / Written by a resident in the Tower of London. https://books.google.de/books?id=-cwyHxW4TwEC&printsec=frontcover&hl=de&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
Whitelock, A. (2016). Mary Tudor: England’s First Queen.

I have been interested in the Tudors since I was a very young child and until recently kept up with scholarly and popular Tudor biographies and historys. And I still know where to look for important Tudor works. However, the same cannot be said for the Stuarts. Right now, I am particularly interested in scholarly and serious popular biography's of the Stuart monarchs. I have read Lady Somerset's intimate biography of Queen Anne and know that Lady Fraser wrote biographies of Charles I, Cromwell, and Charles II, the last of the which was reccomended to me by a professional scholar who works on the late Stuart court. However, I am completely unaware of recent, or fat that matter historical, scholarly and serious biographies of the Stuart soveriegns. I will list the monarchs I am seeking literature about in order or rank, starting with a tie. 1. Charles II 1. James I 2. James II 2. Charles I 3. Queen Anne 4. Mary II 5. Cromwekk Could someone advise, especially on recent important biographies?

If you get value out of these posts, I send this out as a newsletter which you can sign up for by clicking this link. It's free and the signups help keep these posts going. Please add any events you would like to contribute down below.

THURSDAY - MAY 2nd

Avalanche vs Jets @ Ball Arena
Trevor Noah Live @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre @ 8PM
‘Swan Lake’ Ballet @ Buell Theatre @ 7PM ‘Swan Lake,’ the ballet of all ballets, will be performed one night only as a part of the World Ballet Series with a live score played by the Boulder Symphony.
Carlos Ballarta @ Paramount Theatre @ 7:30PM
Benny The Butcher @ Summit @ 8PM
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit @ Mission Ballroom @ 7:30PM With Amanda Shires
Sanguisugabogg + Jesus Piece @ Gothic Theatre @ 7PM
Hi I’m Ghost @ The Church Nightclub @ 9PM
Sean Hayes & Esme Patterson @ Bluebird Theater @ 8PM
Megan Burtt and The Patti Fiasco @ Chautauqua @ 8PM
Jamie Miller @ Globe Hall @ 8PM

FRIDAY - MAY 3rd

First Friday Art Walk @ Santa Fe Arts District @ 5:30PM First Fridays in ADSF means the Santa Fe Drive and its side streets come to life for this signature neighborhood event.
​​First Fridays Art Walk @ RiNo Art District @ 6PM Enjoy free exhibitions, markets, live music, and so much more on first Fridays at RiNo!
Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre @ 7PM With Amanda Shires
Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors @ Summit @ 8PM
Caskey @ Marquis Theater @ 8PM
City Morgue @ Mission Ballroom @ 7PM With Fourfive
Missio @ Meow Wolf @ 8PM With Polly Urethane
YOOKie @ Ogden Theatre @ 8PM
Start Making Sense: Talking Heads Tribute @ Gothic Theatre @ 8PM
Flosstradamus @ Temple @ 10PM
Sidepiece @ The Church Nightclub @ 9PM
Knower @ Fox Theatre @ 8PM
Sam Bush @ Boulder Theater @ 8PM With Foggy Mountain Spaceship
Taylor Fest Party @ Bluebird Theater @ 9PM
Helado Negro @ Globe Hall @ 8PM
Pete Wernick + Flexigrass @ Chautauqua @ 8PM
The Toxhards @ Moxi Theater @ 8PM

SATURDAY - MAY 4th

Nuggets vs Lakers @ Ball Arena
Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship @ Empower Field @ 4:30PM See the world’s elite riders clash head-to-head for the coveted title of Supercross Champion.
Denver Derby Day Party @ McGregor Square Get your ticket to the biggest & best Derby party outside Kentucky!
Denver Mini Derby @ Tivoli Quad Enjoy a mini horse and corgi races, craft cocktails, photo opps, live music, and, of course, live viewing of the Kentucky Derby on the big screen.
Cinco de Mayo Community Parade @ Civic Center Park @ 11AM
Cherry Creek Fresh Market @ 9AM Shop Colorado products in season like farm flowers, fresh fruit & veggies, local greens, culinary herbs, French cheeses, vegan & gluten-free products, and much more!
May the 4th Pop-Up Market @ Mile High Spirits @ 2PM Shop from local artists, enter an exclusive costume contest, and discover unique products at this edition of Hangin’ N’ Slanging’ market.
Meditation in the Galleries @ Clyfford Still Museum @ 9AM Clear your mind, relax, and enjoy the beauty that surrounds you in the galleries.
Breakfast Fly-In @ Wings Museum @ 9:30AM Enjoy breakfast from a local food truck, watch aircrafts fly in and explore interactive exhibits and simulators.
‘Listen to Your Mother’ Live Show @ Boulder Theater @ 7PM This Mother’s Day show features local writers reading their works on motherhood, taking the audience on a journey filled with humor, poignant moments, and lots of nods of recognition.
‘Samson and Delilah’ Opera @ Ellie Caulkins Opera House @ 7:30PM Opera Colorado closes the season with Saint-Saëns’s operatic take on the biblical story of ‘Samson and Delilah.’
Mersiv @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre @ 5PM With OTT, Smith., Sumthin Sumthin B2B FLY, Yoko, Terrawave
Deep Medi @ Mishawaka Amphitheatre @ 8PM Featuring Mala, Commodo, Sir Spyro, Silkie & Sgt. Pokes
L.A. Witch + Pink Fuzz @ Levitt Pavilion @ 6PM *Part of the Levitt Free Summer Concerts Series
Blind Guardian @ Summit @ 8PM
Suicide Cages + The Burial Plot @ Marquis Theater @ 7:30PM
Mk.gee @ Meow Wolf @ 9PM
James Arthur @ Ogden Theatre @ 8PM With Forest Blakk
Sam Bush @ Gothic Theatre @ 8PM With Pick & Howl
Myles O’Neal @ Temple @ 10PM
Start Making Sense: Talking Heads Tribute @ Fox Theatre @ 9PM
The Music of The Beatles for Kids @ Bluebird Theater @ 11AM Presented by The Rock and Roll Playhouse
Jade Bird @ Globe Hall @ 8PM
Way Down Wanderers @ Moxi Theater @ 8PM

SUNDAY - MAY 5th

Steve Vanderploeg Stand Up @ Comedy Works Downtown @ 7PM
John Novosad Stand Up @ Comedy Works South @ 7PM
Cirque de la Symphonie Performance @ Lone Tree Arts Center @ 7PM The Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra and Cirque de la Symphonie join forces to bring a truly awe-inspiring collaboration of musicianship and artistry.
Yo-Yo Ma with the Colorado Symphony in Concert @ Boettcher Concert Hall @ 7PM Multi-GRAMMY Award-winning cellist Yo-Yo Ma returns to perform Elgar’s renowned Cello Concerto with your Colorado Symphony.
Official Cowboy Carter Beyonce Dance Party @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre @ 7PM
The Spill Canvas @ Summit @ 8PM
Jack and Jack @ Marquis Theater @ 8PM With Sammy Wilk
Mersiv @ Mission Ballroom @ 3PM / 7PM With Fly & Onhell
The Amity Affliction @ Fillmore Auditorium @ 6:30PM
Young Rising Sons @ Bluebird Theater @ 7:30PM With Diva Bleach
Cinco de Mayo Celebration @ Globe Hall @ 4PM Featuring Slidewok, Polysanto, Coast to Ghost, & Frankly

All Weekend

SATURDAY & SUNDAY - Denver Cinco de Mayo Festival @ Civic Center Park @ 10AM Immerse yourself in the vibrant spirit of Mexican culture with a weekend full of exciting events, contests, and non-stop entertainment.
All weekend - Jordan Jensen Stand Up @ Comedy Works Downtown
All weekend - Jamie Lissow Stand Up @ Comedy Works South
All weekend - Music & Blossom Fest @ Canon City The Blossom Festival is the largest community run school music competition in the state.
All weekend - ‘The Cher Show’ Musical @ Buell Theatre ‘The Cher Show’ is 35 smash hits, six decades of stardom, two rock-star husbands, and countless EGOT awards, all in one unabashedly fabulous new musical that will have audiences dancing in the aisles!
All weekend - ‘A Year with Frog and Toad’ Family-Friendly Musical @ Arvada Center Arnold Lobel's treasured characters hop from page to stage in a story of friendship and adventure.
All weekend - ‘Where Did We Sit On The Bus’ Play @ Singleton Theatre Through live music and storytelling, this one-person show immerses the audience in elaborate, layered soundscapes by fusing Latin rhythms, hip-hop, and spoken word poetry.
All weekend - ‘The Lehman Trilogy’ Play @ Kilstrom Theatre ‘The Lehman Trilogy’ is an epic and timely story of family, ambition, and risk, sprawling across 163 years of history of the Lehman Brothers.
All weekend - ‘Emma’ Play @ Wolf Theatre LAST CHANCE - In a new adaptation that’s a bit zany and refreshingly contemporary, playwright Kate Hamill infuses the language and perspectives of today into Austen’s beloved characters.
All weekend - ‘Noises Off’ Play @ Arvada Center LAST CHANCE - A play withing a play, this relentless, high-energy farce is filled with embarrassing moments, behind-the-scenes kerfuffles, physical comedy hijinks, and even flying sardines.

Ongoing

Ongoing - ‘Space Explorers: The Infinite’ Immersive Experience @ Stanley Marketplace LAST CHANCE - Embark on an immersive excursion through new breathtaking videos that reveal the many wonders of space exploration.
Ongoing - ‘The Berlin Airlift: Supplies from the Sky’ Exhibition @ Wings Museum The exhibit shares the lessons of courage, perseverance, and the triumph of the human spirit and pays tribute to the brave citizens who risked their lives to bring hope to a divided city.
Ongoing - 'Spookadelia' Immersive Show @ Spectra Art Space LAST CHANCE - 'Spookadelia: Doubt’s Echo' is an all-ages narrative-driven psychedelic immersive art, theatrical, and highly interactive experience.
Ongoing - ‘Fazal Sheikh: Thirst Exposure In Place’ Exhibition @ DAM Capturing the Colorado Plateau, Sheikh’s portraits and landscapes shed light on the far-reaching consequences of extractive industry and climate change.
Ongoing - ‘The Russells in Denver, 1921’ Exhibition @ DAM Charles M. Russel’s works capture the vast landscapes, mountain ranges, and peoples of the American West of the 1880s, thus leaving a valuable chronicle of the West that once was.
Ongoing - ‘Sandra Vásquez de la Horra: The Awake Volcanoes’ Exhibition @ DAM The exhibition highlights paintings, drawings, and prints by award-winning artist Sandra Vásquez de la Horra, who explores the notions of fantasy, desire, fear, and pleasure and its relationship to the human body.
Ongoing - Spring Exhibition Series @ MCA MCA’s Spring series includes solo exhibitions of three contemporary artists whose multidisciplinary works focus on the exploration of the natural phenomena, landscapes, and human interactions with the natural world.
Ongoing - ‘Performing Self’ Exhibition @ Boulder Museum of Contemporary ArtThis exhibition provides a look into how seven multidisciplinary artists celebrate the mutability of self-identity through the embodiment of alter egos or personae.

Here is the audio, video, and transcript. Here is part of the episode summary:
Coleman and Tyler explore the implications of colorblindness, including whether jazz would’ve been created in a color-blind society, how easy it is to disentangle race and culture, whether we should also try to be ‘autism-blind’, and Coleman’s personal experience with lookism and ageism. They also discuss what Coleman’s learned from J.J. Johnson, the hardest thing about performing the trombone, playing sets in the Charles Mingus Big Band as a teenager, whether Billy Joel is any good, what reservations he has about his conservative fans, why the Beastie Boys are overrated, what he’s learned from Noam Dworman, why _Interstellar_ is Chris Nolan’s masterpiece, the Coleman Hughes production function, why political debate is so toxic, what he’ll do next, and more.
Here is one excerpt:
COWEN: How was it you ended up playing trombone in Charles Mingus Big Band?
HUGHES: I participated in the Charles Mingus high school jazz festival, which they still do every year. It was new at the time. They invite bands from all around to audition, and they identify a handful of good soloists and let them sit in for one night with the band. I sat in with the band, and the band leader knew that I lived close by in New Jersey, and so essentially invited me to start playing with the band on Monday nights.
I was probably 16 or 17 at this point, so I would take the NJ Transit into New York City on a Monday night, play two sets with the Mingus Band sitting next to people that had been my idols and were now my mentors — people like Ku-umba Frank Lacy, who is a fantastic trombone player; played with Art Blakey and D’Angelo and so forth. Then I would go home at midnight and go to school on Tuesday morning.
COWEN: Why is the music of Charles Mingus special in jazz? Because it is to me, but how would you articulate what it is for you?
Here is another:
COWEN: If I understand you correctly, you’re also suggesting in our private lives we should be color-blind.
HUGHES: Yes. Broadly, yes. Or we should try to be.
COWEN: We should try to be. This is where I might not agree with you. So I find if I look at media, I look at social media, I see a dispute — I think 100 percent of the time I agree with Coleman, pretty much, on these race-related matters. In private lives, I’m less sure.
Let me ask you a question.
HUGHES: Sure.
COWEN: Could jazz music have been created in a color-blind America?
HUGHES: Could it have been created in a color-blind America — in what sense do you mean that question?
COWEN: It seems there’s a lot of cultural creativity. One issue is it may have required some hardship, but that’s not my point. It requires some sense of a cultural identity to motivate it — that the people making it want to express something about their lives, their history, their communities. And to them it’s not color-blind.
HUGHES: Interesting. My counterargument to that would be, insofar as I understand the early history of jazz, it was heavily more racially integrated than American society was at that time. In the sense that the culture of jazz music as it existed in, say, New Orleans and New York City was many, many decades ahead of the curve in terms of its attitudes towards how people should live racially: interracial friendship, interracial relationship, etc. Yes, I’d argue the ethos of jazz was more color-blind, in my sense, than the American average at the time.
COWEN: But maybe there’s some portfolio effect here. So yes, Benny Goodman hires Teddy Wilson to play for him. Teddy Wilson was black, as I’m sure you know. And that works marvelously well. It’s just good for the world that Benny Goodman does this.
Can it still not be the case that Teddy Wilson is pulling from something deep in his being, in his soul — about his racial experience, his upbringing, the people he’s known — and that that’s where a lot of the expression in the music comes from? That is most decidedly not color-blind, even though we would all endorse the fact that Benny Goodman was willing to hire Teddy Wilson.
HUGHES: Yes. Maybe — I’d argue it may not be culture-blind, though it probably is color-blind, in the sense that black Americans don’t just represent a race. That’s what a black American would have in common — that’s what _I_ would have in common with someone from Ethiopia, is that we’re broadly of the same “race.” We are not at all of the same culture.
To the extent that there is something called “African American culture,” which I believe that there is, which has had many wonderful products, including jazz and hip-hop — yes, then I’m perfectly willing to concede that that’s a cultural product in the same way that, say, country music is like a product of broadly Southern culture.
COWEN: But then here’s my worry a bit. You’re going to have people privately putting out cultural visions in the public sphere through music, television, novels — a thousand ways — and those will inevitably be somewhat political once they’re cultural visions. So these other visions will be out there, and a lot of them you’re going to disagree with. It might be fine to say, “It would be better if we were all much more color-blind.” But given these other non-color-blind visions are out there, do you not have to, in some sense, counter them by not being so color-blind yourself and say, “Well, here’s a better way to think about the black or African American or Ethiopian or whatever identity”?
Interesting throughout.
The post My Conversation with the excellent Coleman Hughes appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.

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Being a polsci nerd, most of these are obvio political and history oriented. Although, was also able to spend some time reading tagore and finally indulge myself in American beat gen writers like jack kerouack (what a writer btw)
If you ask me, my fav was Vikram Sampath's Savarkar. Although, James Burnham's Machiavellians was a rare gem and never expected it to be so interesting.

https://youtu.be/rTPbB7ZtY_I?si=WtRX6EbAnDLv5EQ4
https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/benfolds/docpomus.html
Hello everyone, I hope all is well. Today we are going to be diving into the collaborative album with British author Nick Hornby called Lonely Avenue. And the song specifically that we will be discussing is titled “Doc Pomus.”
Lonely Avenue was the album where Ben collaborated with the Nick Hornby (author of High Fidelity) where Ben was given lyrics written by Nick and had to come up with the music to pair with the lyrics. Some people didn’t love this album because they feel like these lyrics don’t fit Ben’s style or the music felt too forced. I don’t agree with those views though as I feel like Nick’s lyrics are reminiscent of Ben’s own writing and I fond this album and song to be extremely underrated.
“Doc Pomus” is the fourth track off that album and it contains the lyric that inspired the title of the album. This song is specifically about the American blues singer songwriter Jerome Solon Fender, also known as Doc Pomus. He was famous for writing songs that would later become more popular by other artists. The title “Lonely Avenue” comes from a Doc Pomus song with the same name and inspired the book by Alex Halberstadt called “Lonely Avenue: The Unlikely Life and Times of Doc Pomus”which in turn helped inspire this song.
The song starts off with Ben playing this fairly straightforward chord progression in the most Ben way possible. He’s playing arpeggios of these chords in the fastest and most sporadic way which gives the song great energy. During this intro I don’t think his foot ever touches the sustain pedal. But when the drums enter into the mix, they are playing these complex snare patterns which sounds impressive but also has a half time feel compared to how fast Ben is playing. The drums matches up with the root notes Ben is playing as well as the bass that eventually comes in, playing this slinky stop and go bassline.
Lyrically, Nick has started this song off with the imagery of a man in a wheelchair sitting in the lobby of the Forrest which was a Manhattan hotel. The man of course is Doc Pomus himself who contracted polio as a kid and eventually ended up in a wheelchair after post polio syndrome was exacerbated by an accident he had. The verse goes on to describe the scenes and characters of 1962 that Doc is witnessing such as fighters, hustlers, millionaires, mobsters, whores, pumps and Marxists. Nick describes it as “all human life is there”
In the pre chorus Ben goes on to sing that Doc’s disability doesn’t effect his song writer because even though he can’t move, he listens to these different people and writes down all the “insane crap” that he hears to later turn into songs. Because “in the Forrest, all you need is eyes and ears.”
The chorus see’s additional vocals being added to Ben’s to give the song more depth. We also get some horns in the background which adds to the song’s older type of sound to fit with the lyrics. And speaking of the lyrics, Nick continues to school us on Doc. The lyric “Pomus, Shuman, 1962” is in reference to Mort Shuman who was Doc’s co-writer between 1957-1966. The lyric “Elvis sings ‘Suspicion’” is reference that “Suspicion” was one of the multiple songs that Doc wrote for Elvis Presley. We also have the reference to “Lonely Avenue” which was a Doc song made popular by Ray Charles (and the title of this album) as well as “Turn Me Loose” which was made popular by teen idol Fabian in 1959.
It’s in the second verse where the song really starts to bloom. Those backing harmonies started to develop into these Beach Boy harmonies. And we get this beautifully picked out acoustic guitar and some electric keys too. Ben sings the comical lyric “and he could never be one of those happy cripples, the kind that smile and tell you life's okay.” He goes on to describe the bitterness, fear and anger that Doc had and how he channeled these feelings into music that would become his source of income. Or as Nick puts it; “he found a way to make his isolation pay.”
Ben then goes on to sing about an event that happened in 1960 at The Forrest hotel where while Docwas having dinner, he witness a shooting at the Spindletop diner. According to Phil Spector who was having dinner with Doc, they actually witnessed this terrible shooting. But to contrast with this dark twist in the song, when Ben sings “three bullets in the head” the backing vocalist sing “bop bop bop” harmonies to replicant the gunshots. It’s silly but somehow fits the music perfectly and I love Ben’s delivery of the previous line.
After another gorgeous chorus we get to the bridge of the song where the acoustic guitar is even more apparent. This time around Ben is listing different celebrities that had connections with Doc like Fred Neil, Jack Benny, Pumpkin Juice (John Leslie), Eydie Gormé, Damon Runyon Jr. and the already mentioned Phil Spector. I suggest reading the biography on Doc Pomus to see what specific connections he had with these people.
After the bridge (which includes some melodic bass work) we get the chorus again but this time with just Ben’s vocals, simple piano and some hi hat action. It’s a great way of adding dynamics to the song and after the bass creeps back in, the rest of the instrumentation returns for one last chorus.
Overall I think this is an extremely underrated song. I know when I first heard this album, this song wasn’t one of my favorites. But over time I realized how much was going on with the music. And when I started researching Doc I realized how interesting of a man he was. So this breezy and upbeat song is a perfect ode to him.
But what do you think of this song? Is this an under appreciated song? What do you think the song is about? Favorite musical or lyrical moments? And have you ever seen this song live?

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THURSDAY - APRIL 25th

Rockies vs Padres @ Coors Field @ 1:10PM Promotion: STEM Day
Adam Cayton-Holland Stand Up @ Comedy Works Downtown @ 7:30PM
John Novosad Stand Up @ Comedy Works South @ 7:30PM
Wheel of Fortune Live @ Mission Ballroom @ 7:30PMOne of the greatest game shows of all time has been adapted into a stage show to give more fans access and more chances to win.
Candlelight: A Tribute to Coldplay & Imagine Dragons @ Kirk of Highland @ 6:30PM / 8:45PM Hear the best of Coldplay and Imagine Dragons in classical interpretation!
Home Free @ Paramount Theatre @ 7:30PM
Benson Boone @ Fillmore Auditorium @ 8PM
Hunter Hayes @ Fox Theatre @ 8PM With BLÜ EYES
Aaron West and The Roaring Twenties @ Marquis Theater @ 7PM
Fred V + SchockOne @ The Church Nightclub @ 9PM
O @ Bluebird Theater @ 8PM
Thunderstorm @ Globe Hall @ 8PM
Texas Hippie Coalition @ Moxi Theater @ 7PM

FRIDAY - APRIL 26th

Avalanche vs Jets @ Ball Arena @ 8PM
Candlelight: A Tribute to Taylor Swift @ Kirk of Highland @ 6:30PM / 8:45PM Hear your favorite Taylor Swift songs in classical interpretation!
The River Arkansas @ Chautauqua @ 8PM With Caleb Schwing
Jose Gonzalez @ Paramount Theatre @ 8PM
Division Minuscula @ Summit @ 7PM With Jumbo
Cheekface @ Marquis Theater @ 7PM
Chris Lake @ Mission Ballroom @ 8:30PM With Joshwa b2b Noizu, Londen Summers
Taylor Acorn @ Meow Wolf @ 8PM With World’s First Cinema
Indo Warehouse @ Temple @ 10PM
Stella Bossi @ The Church Nightclub @ 9PM
Mport @ Bluebird Theater @ 9PM
The Talbott Brothers @ Globe Hall @ 8PM
Sorry Papi Tour @ Fillmore Auditorium @ 10PM
Immersive Jazz-Art Experience @ Lumonics @ 7PM
2000s Party @ Fox Theatre @ 9PM

SATURDAY - APRIL 27th

Rockies vs Astros @ Coors Field @ 4PM Promotion: City Connect Days
Monster Jam @ Empower Field @ 7PM Witness massive stunts, big-air, backflips and fierce head-to-head battles between the world’s best drivers and their 12,000-pound monster trucks.
Spring Bazaar @ Wheat Ridge @ 11AM Denver BAZAAR is taking over Gold’s Marketplace with an outdoor market that will feature 80+ carefully curated vendors, live DJs, craft cocktails & more.
‘Warbird Invasion’ Aviation Showcase @ Wings Museum @ 10AM Enjoy a spectacular display of aviation history and see various types of warbirds up close.
Stayin Alive: One Night of the Bee Gees Concert @ Paramount Theatre @ 7:30PM
Sublime + Rome @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre @ 7PM With Cypress Hill + Mouse Powell
Avery*Sunshine @ Lone Tree Arts Center @ 8PM
Bayside @ Fillmore Auditorium @ 7PM
Citizen Soldier @ Summit @ 7:30PM
Wild Party @ Marquis Theater @ 8PM Eternal Light @ Lumonics @ 8pm
Chris Lake @ Mission Ballroom @ 8:30PM With Cloonee, Hank, ParmaJawn
Infekt @ Ogden Theatre @ 9PM
LTJ Bukem @ Meow Wolf @ 9PM With MC Armanni Reign
Mickey Darling @ Gothic Theatre @ 9PM With Nick Wagen & Benten
Konstantina Gianni @ Temple @ 10PM
The Strumbellas @ Bluebird Theater @ 9PM
Caroline Rose @ Fox Theatre @ 8PM With Ian Sweet
Elliot Moss @ Globe Hall @ 8PM
Flobots @ Moxi Theater @ 8PM

SUNDAY - APRIL 28th

Avalanche vs Jets @ Ball Arena @ 12:30PM
Free Day @ DAM @ 10AM
Día del Niño Celebration @ DAM @ 10AM Enjoy the annual Día del Niño (Children's Day) festivities with a wide variety of live entertainment including music, dance performances, and artmaking.
Tulip Fairy and Elf Festival @ Pearl Street Mall @ 1PM This beloved springtime tradition features live performances, special activities for children and more than 15,000 tulips that adorn the world renowned Pearl Street Mall.
Andrew Sleighter Stand Up @ Comedy Works Downtown @ 7PM
Connor Wood Stand Up @ Comedy Works South @ 5PM / 7:30PM
Colorado Jazz Repertory Orchestra @ Aurora Fox Arts Center @ 3PM CJRO performs hits from 60s and 70s including those of Paul Simon, Carole King, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, and more!
Sullivan King @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre @ 6PM With Kompany, Reaper, Vastive, Left to Suffer
Chris Renzema @ Summit @ 8PM
Orions Belte @ Meow Wolf @ 7:30PM With Sour Magic
The Strumbellas @ Fox Theatre @ 8PM
Peak 11 @ Globe Hall @ 5PM

All Weekend

THURSDAY & FRIDAY - Sessanta Tour @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre @ 8PM Featuring Primus, Puscifer, A Perfect Circle
FRIDAY & SATURDAY - ‘Fancy Footwork’ Ballet Showcase @ Armstrong Center for Dance Join the Artists of Colorado Ballet for an exciting performance featuring great classics and new contemporary pieces chosen by the Artists themselves.
FRIDAY & SATURDAY - Taylor Tomlinson Stand Up @ Comedy Works Downtown
FRIDAY & SATURDAY - Kevin Nealon Stand Up @ Comedy Works South
All weekend - Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 in Concert @ Boettcher Concert Hall Denver favorite Natasha Paremski returns as the virtuoso to tackle Rachmaninoff’s brilliant and challenging Third Piano Concerto.
All weekend - ‘MJ: The Musical’ @ Buell Theatre LAST CHANCE - Michael Jackson’s unique and unparalleled artistry comes to you as ‘MJ,’ the multi Tony Award®-winning new musical.
All weekend - ‘A Year with Frog and Toad’ Family-Friendly Musical @ Arvada Center Arnold Lobel's treasured characters hop from page to stage in a story of friendship and adventure.
All weekend - The Improvised Shakespeare Company Comedy Show @ Garner Galleria Theatre LAST CHANCE - The dazzling players create a brand new, fully improvised masterpiece right before your eyes. Enjoy an evening of spontaneous comedy featuring the language and themes of William Shakespeare!
All weekend - ‘Where Did We Sit On The Bus’ Play @ Singleton Theatre Through live music and storytelling, this one-person show immerses the audience in elaborate, layered soundscapes by fusing Latin rhythms, hip-hop, and spoken word poetry.
All weekend - ‘Emma’ Play @ Wolf Theatre In a new adaptation that’s a bit zany and refreshingly contemporary, playwright Kate Hamill infuses the language and perspectives of today into Austen’s beloved characters.
All weekend - ‘Noises Off’ Play @ Arvada Center A play withing a play, this relentless, high-energy farce is filled with embarrassing moments, behind-the-scenes kerfuffles, physical comedy hijinks, and even flying sardines.

Ongoing

Ongoing - ‘Space Explorers: The Infinite’ Immersive Experience @ Stanley Marketplace Embark on an immersive excursion through new breathtaking videos that reveal the many wonders of space exploration.
Ongoing - ‘The Berlin Airlift: Supplies from the Sky’ Exhibition @ Wings Museum The exhibit shares the lessons of courage, perseverance, and the triumph of the human spirit and pays tribute to the brave citizens who risked their lives to bring hope to a divided city.
Ongoing - 'Spookadelia' Immersive Show @ Spectra Art Space 'Spookadelia: Doubt’s Echo' is an all-ages narrative-driven psychedelic immersive art, theatrical, and highly interactive experience.
Ongoing - ‘Fazal Sheikh: Thirst Exposure In Place’ Exhibition @ DAM Capturing the Colorado Plateau, Sheikh’s portraits and landscapes shed light on the far-reaching consequences of extractive industry and climate change.
Ongoing - ‘The Russells in Denver, 1921’ Exhibition @ DAM Charles M. Russel’s works capture the vast landscapes, mountain ranges, and peoples of the American West of the 1880s, thus leaving a valuable chronicle of the West that once was.
Ongoing - ‘Sandra Vásquez de la Horra: The Awake Volcanoes’ Exhibition @ DAM The exhibition highlights paintings, drawings, and prints by award-winning artist Sandra Vásquez de la Horra, who explores the notions of fantasy, desire, fear, and pleasure and its relationship to the human body.
Ongoing - Spring Exhibition Series @ MCA MCA’s Spring series includes solo exhibitions of three contemporary artists whose multidisciplinary works focus on the exploration of the natural phenomena, landscapes, and human interactions with the natural world.
Ongoing - ‘Performing Self’ Exhibition @ Boulder Museum of Contemporary ArtThis exhibition provides a look into how seven multidisciplinary artists celebrate the mutability of self-identity through the embodiment of alter egos or personae.

Before I express myself I want you to hold off on presuming anything about this post, its intentions, my greater intentions and any knee jerk reactions. Instead I first want to say I am a Thelemite, a non-Crowleyian Thelemite, which is an identity I only shaped after spending 15 of my 31 years on this planet in the tradition in one form or another. I want it to be very clear here that my goal is to offer my perspective alone and you're all of course free to do with it what you will. It is my perspective that this tradition is the vehicle for The Aeon of The Crowned and Conquering Child and that the infant-like brat who the universe tapped to spark this Aeon during the collapse of The Paternal Aeon of The Dying God ought to be seen and treated for the brat he was 120 years into the Conquering Child's life. If Thelemic students do not learn to look in the mirror and upon one another and see one more worthy of the pedestal that Crowley set aside for himself (like a selfish child) I'm only half joking when I say if given the chance I'd then advise the universe to look elsewhere for it's Great Work to truly and actually worked on. A great deal many of you who I've met in this community back when I was with the O.T.O. or connecting to A.'.A.'. or Temple of Thelema folk are better magicians, people, lovers, friends and leaders than Crowley ever was. I implore you to keep that in mind as you read on. This is not a hit piece from a hater but a letter of concern from a Lover.
Before getting to anything else I just want you to skip ahead to the next section and read through the names below and the attached claims. I'm curious how much you know about each person? Each claim? How much do you think the average Thelemite knows about them? How much do you allow new Thelemites to know about them? How much is written about them in books written by Thelemic leaders? How much have you cared in the past to look into these things compared to time to look into aspects of Crowley's life which make you feel "cool, special and in the know"? We're well on our way through the door of the information age. This charade, this circus show, must stop. We have to stop lying to ourselves and to each other (which we do to reinforce our own self deceptions... I know because I've been there. When I say the show must stop I do not mean Thelema. That specific show I truly believe we as people and the world at large are better off if it go on. As information becomes increasingly easy to access normal folk and prospective Thelemites will realize that yes the conspiracy theorists are idiots and clearly lying about Thelema but they'll also check out our biographies and books and realize we aren't telling the truth either. So please... I implore you to take each of the names on that list, and others which extend even past Crowley's death, and use every resource at your disposal to get to know each one well. Even if only to try and debunk each claim I'd rather I be wrong than people not even bother trying to learn what these people went through without solely relying on sources which confirm the biases that suit us best.
What is your rationale for not promoting a Thelema which (it'd take time I get that) slowly but surely learns it does not need to put Crowley on the pedestal he made for himself in order for the New Aeon and the Promulgation of The Law (not Liber AL, the Law) to come about? That in fact it may be one of the biggest hinderances? We're entering an information age. The act won't last much longer before normal folk realize yes the conspiracy theorists are idiots but our biographies and books aren't telling the truth either. I've already stepped away from public Thelema and denounced the man and I'm glad I did because there's no way in hell I'd have the respect of those I love had I not. They were all patiently waiting for me to snap out of it but they would not have waited forever. If you suspect you may be a person in a similar situation or something similar yet different then do something about it.
Imagine Crowley were alive today and some of these folk were too as were their families who in today's age would likely be putting the man through court on many charges... how would you feel being associated with him and his tradition? Would you want to honour him with the same words you do in your rituals? Would you call him a Gnostic Saint in public and in the privacy of your sacred space? What does his passing truly change? None of the following are my own thoughts because I'd cry to much going through each of these again and I have a tendency to write forever when I get emotional... so the bullet-points below are just snippets cut down to size from other sources:

• Rose Edith Kelly: Crowley's first wife, who participated in his magical practices and helped him transcribe "The Book of the Law." She struggled with alcoholism and eventually was institutionalized, suffering greatly due to the instability and neglect in their marriage.
• Leah Hirsig: Referred to by Crowley as his "Scarlet Woman," Hirsig was deeply involved in his magical practices and bore him a child who died in infancy. She was subjected to emotionally and physically demanding rituals and left emotionally scarred.
• Victor Neuburg: A poet and disciple of Crowley who participated in his magical rituals that involved significant psychological and physical challenges. The relationship and experiences led to a deterioration in Neuburg’s mental health.
• Raoul Loveday: A follower who died of enteric fever at the Abbey of Thelema, reportedly after drinking contaminated water from a nearby stream, a result of the poor living conditions and Crowley's neglect of health and safety.
• Nina Hamnett: An artist and friend who later distanced herself from Crowley, she was involved in the legal disputes with him where Crowley was accused of defamation.
• Frank Bennett: Another follower who lived with Crowley at the Abbey of Thelema and later expressed disillusionment and emotional distress from the experience.
• Dorothy Olsen: A "Scarlet Woman" and follower of Crowley, who experienced significant personal upheaval from her involvement with him.
• Deidre Patricia MacAlpine: The mother of one of Crowley’s children, who had to raise their son largely without Crowley's support or involvement.
• Charles Stansfeld Jones (Frater Achad): A one-time magical heir of Crowley whose relationship with him deteriorated after disagreements on magical and doctrinal matters, leading to personal and professional fallout.
• Poupee: His daughter, who died of typhoid fever at a young age under neglectful circumstances while Crowley was elsewhere.
• Aleister Ataturk Crowley: His son, who died in unclear but tragic circumstances, reflecting the neglect associated with Crowley's lifestyle and priorities.
• Maria de Miramar: Crowley's second wife, whom he married during his travels in Europe. Their marriage quickly deteriorated, and Maria's mental health suffered significantly. She was eventually institutionalized, a fate similar to that of his first wife, Rose.
• Hanns Heinz Ewers: A German writer who had an initially fruitful relationship with Crowley but later fell out with him. Their association led to public scandal and personal strife for Ewers, impacting his reputation and personal life.
• Gerald Yorke: A disciple and assistant of Crowley during the late 1920s and early 1930s. Yorke eventually distanced himself from Crowley, disillusioned by his increasingly erratic behavior and the personal cost of their association.
• Norman Mudd: A follower and financial supporter who became disillusioned with Crowley after a series of financial and personal betrayals. Mudd's investment in Crowley’s schemes, including the publication of esoteric texts, led to significant financial loss and personal regret.
• Jane Wolfe: An American actress and a follower who spent time at the Abbey of Thelema. She experienced both the charismatic allure and the darker sides of Crowley’s leadership, which included rigorous and sometimes harrowing magical practices.
• Israel Regardie: One of Crowley’s secretaries who later distanced himself and critiqued Crowley's methods and personal failings, though he preserved and disseminated much of Crowley's teachings. Regardie witnessed first-hand the chaotic and damaging effects of Crowley’s lifestyle.
• Betty May: The wife of Raoul Loveday, who publicly accused Crowley of contributing to her husband's death through negligent and reckless leadership at the Abbey of Thelema. Her accusations in the press painted Crowley as a malevolent influence.

To say I'm appalled I myself spent nearly half my life not condemning Crowley but putting him on that pedestal I mentioned before, the one of his own design, would not be strong enough to express how dirty it felt learning this and much more I dare not put in this post (in part because it's already longer than many will bother reading and because speaking about the 9th degree and other controversial secrets causes issues for obvious reasons).
I've been in years of grief, disgust, anger and much much more since learning I put half my life into the teachings of someone I figured out I was repulsed by but I don't regret it. There's a beauty to the alchemy of transmuting Thelemic practices to find their diamonds and remove the rough. The Work is of the utmost importance. True Love, True Will, The Great Work. These are not words or platitudes. They are what we're all here for.
Thanks for your time. I have more written out but I think I'll leave things here for now and gauge the reaction... if there even is one... maybe not. If not well at least this was cathartic and helped organize some complex thoughts. Cheers.
[Edits: typos... I'm very tired and this subject is emotionally draining]

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I feel like 90% of the city is headed to Mile High Fest tomorrow, but if that's not your bag there is plenty of other stuff going on.

FRIDAY - APRIL 19th

Rockies vs Mariners @ Coors Field @ 6:40PM
MCA Max Mix @ The Cookie Factory @ 6PM Experience creativity, fashion, and joy at spring’s most anticipated runway show!
Pink Martini in Concert @ Boettcher Concert Hall @ 7:30PM Enjoy an exhilarating evening featuring a mix of Brazilian samba, Parisian café music, cabaret, and vintage jazz as this Denver favorite returns, featuring lead singer China Forbes.
Candlelight: Magical Movie Soundtracks in Concert @ Kirk of Highland @ 6:30PM / 8:45PM Hear some of cinema’s most iconic soundtracks from ‘Toy Story,’ ‘The Little Mermaid,’ ‘The Avengers,’ ‘Pirates of the Caribbean,’ and more!
Bored Teachers Comedy Show @ Paramount Theatre @ 7:30PM Bored Teachers Studios, the #1 teacher-entertainment platform, presents the funniest teacher-comedians in the world all on one stage.
Ice Cube @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre @ 6:30PM With The Game, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, & Living Legends
Steel Panther @ Fillmore Auditorium @ 7PM
Kai Wachi @ Mission Ballroom @ 7:30PM With MUST DIE!, Yosuf, Prosecute, Nimda, & Bluuher
Dombresky @ Ogden Theatre @ 9PM With Westend & JADED
Insomnium @ Gothic Theatre @ 7PM With Omnium Gatherum & Wilderun
Saka @ Meow Wolf @ 8PM
Tita Lau @ Temple @ 10PM
DJ Seinfeld @ The Church Nightclub @ 9PM
Papadosio @ Boulder Theater @ 8PM
Shadowgrass @ Fox Theatre @ 8PM With Magoo
Xavier Wulf @ Summit @ 8PM
Nascar Aloe @ Marquis Theater @ 8PM
Taylor Swift Party @ Bluebird Theater @ 9PM
Ella Red @ Globe Hall @ 8PM

SATURDAY - APRIL 20th

West Conference Playoffs: Nuggets vs TBA @ Ball Arena @ 7PM
Rockies vs Mariners @ Coors Field @ 6:10PM Promotion: City Connect Saturdays
Rapids vs FC Dallas @ Dick’s Sporting Goods Park @ 7:30PM
Mile High 420 Festival @ Civic Center Park @ 1PM Featuring live performances by Gucci Mane, Murs, Tommy Genesis, & more!
Arvada Beer Fest @ Freedom Street Social @ 1PM This year’s 90s-themed festival features unlimited sampling from 15+ breweries and distilleries, a dance party, a costume contest, food hall eats & more!
‘Gravity’ Screening @ DMNS @ 7PM
Candlelight: A Tribute to Adele @ Kirk of Highland @ 6:30PM / 8:45PM Hear the best of Adele’s discography in classical interpretation!
Wiz Khalifa + Flatbush Zombies @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre @ 6PM With Earthgang, Chevy Woods, & DJ Bonics
Pink Floyd Laser Spectacular @ Paramount Theatre @ 8PMEnjoy a unique laser show while be surrounded by the great music of Pink Floyd.
Starset: Immersion @ Fillmore Auditorium @ 5:30PM
INZO @ Mission Ballroom @ 8PM With Smoakland, Chmura, HEYZ, & Blookah
Chris Webby @ Ogden Theatre @ 8PM With Ekoh, Dropout Kings, GRIEVES, & Ryan Oaks
Old 97s @ Gothic Theatre @ 8PM With Holler Choir
Henry Fong @ Temple @ 10PM
Gimme Gimme Disco @ Summit @ 8PM
Driveways @ Marquis Theater @ 7PM
Sortof Vague @ Fox Theatre @ 7PM
Silversun Pickups @ Boulder Theater @ 8PM With Rocket
Shadowgrass @ Bluebird Theater @ 8PM With Jake Leg
Kassi Valazza @ Globe Hall @ 8PM

SUNDAY - APRIL 21st

Rockies vs Mariners @ Coors Field @ 1:10PM
Sofia Nino de Rivera Comedy Show @ Paramount Theatre @ 8PM
John Novosad Stand Up @ Comedy Works Downtown @ 7PM
‘Songs of Strength’ Concert @ Boettcher Concert Hall @ 2:30PM Denver Young Artists Orchestra performs a special program featuring Mahler, Puccini, Mendelssohn, and more!
Key Glock @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre @ 6:30PM With Young Nudy, BigXThaPlug, & DJ Rocksteddy
MIKU EXPO @ Mission Ballroom @ 8PM The concert features brand new Hatsune Miku songs as well as the big hits for fans who had been eagerly waiting for an opportunity to see her on stage.
The Ghost Inside @ Ogden Theatre @ 7PM With Palface Swiss, Bleed From Within, & Great American Ghost
Jessie Murph @ Boulder Theater @ 8PM With Shaboozey
Mali Velasquez @ Summit @ 6:30PM
Madds Buckley + Addison Grace @ Marquis Theater @ 7PM
Dead Poet Society @ Bluebird Theater @ 8PM
Jesse Daniel @ Globe Hall @ 8PM

All Weekend

All weekend - Adam Ray Stand Up @ Comedy Works Downtown
All weekend - Akaash Singh Stand Up @ Comedy Works South
All weekend - Colorado Ballet’s ‘Ballet MasterWorks’ @ Ellie Caulkins Opera House LAST CHANCE - Colorado Ballet closes its 63rd season with a mixed repertory program including new contemporary and classical ballet productions from world-renowned choreographers.
All weekend - ‘MJ: The Musical’ @ Buell Theatre Michael Jackson’s unique and unparalleled artistry comes to you as ‘MJ,’ the multi Tony Award®-winning new musical.
All weekend - The Improvised Shakespeare Company Comedy Show @ Garner Galleria Theatre The dazzling players create a brand new, fully improvised masterpiece right before your eyes. Enjoy an evening of spontaneous comedy featuring the language and themes of William Shakespeare!
All weekend - ‘Where Did We Sit On The Bus’ Play @ Singleton Theatre Through live music and storytelling, this one-person show immerses the audience in elaborate, layered soundscapes by fusing Latin rhythms, hip-hop, and spoken word poetry.
All weekend - ‘Emma’ Play @ Wolf Theatre In a new adaptation that’s a bit zany and refreshingly contemporary, playwright Kate Hamill infuses the language and perspectives of today into Austen’s beloved characters.
All weekend - ‘Noises Off’ Play @ Arvada Center A play withing a play, this relentless, high-energy farce is filled with embarrassing moments, behind-the-scenes kerfuffles, physical comedy hijinks, and even flying sardines.
All weekend - ‘The Mousetrap’ Play @ Lone Tree Arts Center LAST CHANCE - This record-breaking murder mystery features a brilliant surprise finish from Dame Agatha Christie, the foremost mystery writer of her time.
All weekend - ‘The Cost of Living’ Play @ Curious Theatre LAST CHANCE - In this wry and quietly observed play, Polish-born playwright Martyna Majok interweaves the stories of four lonely souls to examine the forces that bring people together and the ways we all need each other.
All weekend - ‘Guadalupe in the Guest Room’ Play @ CFU Lowry Campus LAST CHANCE - Exploring language barriers, cultural differences, and grief, this play is a deeply moving and very funny celebration of life, new beginnings, and the healing power of telenovelas.
All weekend - ‘The Glass Menagerie’ Play @ Vintage Theatre LAST CHANCE - A family drama of great tenderness, charm, and beauty, ‘The Glass Menagerie’ is an icon of the American theater.

Ongoing

Ongoing - ‘Space Explorers: The Infinite’ Immersive Experience @ Stanley Marketplace Embark on an immersive excursion through new breathtaking videos that reveal the many wonders of space exploration.
Ongoing - ‘The Berlin Airlift: Supplies from the Sky’ Exhibition @ Wings Museum The exhibit shares the lessons of courage, perseverance, and the triumph of the human spirit and pays tribute to the brave citizens who risked their lives to bring hope to a divided city.
Ongoing - 'Spookadelia' Immersive Show @ Spectra Art Space 'Spookadelia: Doubt’s Echo' is an all-ages narrative-driven psychedelic immersive art, theatrical, and highly interactive experience.
Ongoing - ‘Fazal Sheikh: Thirst Exposure In Place’ Exhibition @ DAM Capturing the Colorado Plateau, Sheikh’s portraits and landscapes shed light on the far-reaching consequences of extractive industry and climate change.
Ongoing - ‘The Russells in Denver, 1921’ Exhibition @ DAM Charles M. Russel’s works capture the vast landscapes, mountain ranges, and peoples of the American West of the 1880s, thus leaving a valuable chronicle of the West that once was.
Ongoing - ‘Personal Geographies’ Exhibition @ DAM The exhibition presents a selection of images by two artists - Trent Davis Bailey and Brian Adams who seek to understand themselves and the places they treasure though photography.
Ongoing - Spring Exhibition Series @ MCA MCA’s Spring series includes solo exhibitions of three contemporary artists whose multidisciplinary works focus on the exploration of the natural phenomena, landscapes, and human interactions with the natural world.
Ongoing - ‘Performing Self’ Exhibition @ Boulder Museum of Contemporary ArtThis exhibition provides a look into how seven multidisciplinary artists celebrate the mutability of self-identity through the embodiment of alter egos or personae.

"Do not Follow where the path may lead.
Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail"
- Muriel Strobe
​
Who Is Muriel Strode? (quotegarden.com)
​
Who Is Muriel Strode?
The author I’m currently reading is Muriel Strode, an amazing woman — strong, gutsy, spiritual, creative, generous, intelligent, talented, and hard-working. Her writing is both down-to-earth and celestial, humble in spirit and yet fiercely, fearlessly ambitious. Her poems run the gamut from blushingly soul-sensual and nature-erotic to mystical and motivating, from poetic positive affirmations and self-discovery to some downright trippy verse.
There is very little information about Muriel on the Web, but I’ve pieced together this brief biography from a few dozen electronic and paper sources, and I’ve updated this article with further information from Muriel’s family for which I’m extremely grateful!
Early life & family. Born Muriel Strode on February 16th 1875 in Bernadotte Township, Illinois, her grandparents were pioneers and she spent her childhood on the farm where they originally settled. Her father William Smith Strode (1847–1934) was a naturalist, teacher, and physician. Her mother Amelia Steele Strode (1849–1888) died young, at age 39. A couple of years after she passed away, William married Julia Yarnell Brown (1866–1954), a periodicals writer. Muriel’s four siblings, all Illinois-born were:

• Winifred Strode Morrison (1872–1916), who had seven children, one of whom was named Muriel Marie
• Walter Lucien Strode (1877–1917), a grocery salesman
• John William Strode (1884–1957), who studied mining then moved to Arizona in 1907. After serving in the military, he served two governors as executive secretary, including Arizona’s first governor, George W. P. Hunt. Later, J. W. was editor of the Miami (Arizona) Silver Belt and president of the Arizona Democratic Association.
• Catherine Joane Brown Strode (1895–1969), half-sister, who graduated young, studied art in Chicago, and moved to California at age 19. She became an established artist using the pseudonym Joane Cromwell.

Venturing out on her own. Muriel left home at age 15 and attended a business school in Denver. At 16 she went to Long Beach, California to earn her living as a stenographer and typewritist. She began writing poetry in the midst of her business career. In 1906 she used her savings to purchase two lots in Signal Hill for $1,000 then moved to New York for a career as a writer.
📷Husband & daughter. In 1908 she married Samuel David Lieberman (1875–1952), the president of an iron and steel firm in Chicago where Muriel had worked. His love interest in her began when he read the inspirational sayings and poems in her first publication, My Little Book of Prayer. He and Muriel had one foster child, Elinore Anne Clifford Austin (1914–2006), born in Colorado and taken in at three years old. The family lived in New York City for several years before moving to California in 1923, when oil was discovered on Muriel’s land and she had suddenly become rich.
Riches & philanthropy. With part of her new riches, Muriel gathered seventeen young wives and mothers, one for each year she had owned the properties, and took them on a shopping spree for beautiful gowns, hats, earrings, undergarments, and other dainty, colorful things. “I was a distributor of wings, I released them into a realization of their beauty. We are all beautiful in our elemental state. We all want to be moon moths in the glowing. But like the flowers, we need petals to show off our beauty. I want to set people free into beauty. I want to take them out of their Cinderella ashes to function as princesses,” she told reporter Ruth Snyder. “It is a poem of pain to feel the urge toward the unfolding of the wings of beauty. It is a song of ecstasy to release it. All my life I have wanted to do something big and useful and beautiful — to help others.”
Shortly thereafter in another display of generosity, she purchased a run-down waterwheel mill in her girlhood Illinois township and with her father, oversaw the restoration of it and its dam as a historic landmark, its surrounding area converted to a public park and playground. At age 80, she wrote in a letter that “I left part of my heart back in Bernadotte years ago and I have never gotten over being homesick.”
Arizona & final years. The Strode–Lieberman family moved to Arizona in 1929 due to Sam’s tuberculosis. They homesteaded on 640 acres fourteen miles east of Tucson, and their home sat atop a ridge overlooking the entire Tucson valley. Muriel’s father, who was then divorced from Julia, had retired and moved in with the Liebermans. They had originally planned to build a solid rock home, every day making three-mile excursions into the desert to collect rocks. The passings of Muriel’s father and husband put a stop to the plan, however, and Muriel lived out the remainder of her days in the original wood-framed home.
In a 1955 letter Muriel wrote, “I have come a devious route to land eventually on these desert acres, as Mr. Lieberman’s business took him traveling and we lived in half the important cities in the United States.” But once in southern Arizona, that is where she stayed. She would sign her letters and books from “the Ranch of the Gorgeous Sunsets, Tucson, Arizona.” Muriel passed away on January 25th 1964 after twelve years’ struggle with a heart ailment.
📷Writing & publications. Her habit was to write her thoughts and ideas every morning, and she continued to work on her writings and manuscripts even into her final years. She had first published in periodicals, mostly The Open Court. The first publication I found her cited in was The Philistine: A Periodical of Protest, from 1901. Later she authored four books:

• My Little Book of Prayer, 1904, “a collection of thoughts on the spiritual side of nature, moral fortitude and other uplifting themes” (Judy Donovan)
• My Little Book of Life, 1912, “a personal philosophy of life that spells courage, cheer, and serenity” (The Open Court)
• A Soul’s Faring, 1921, “tumultuous imagery, mighty seething seas of words, of similes, of metaphors, of themes of love and life and death and the Beyond” (Brooklyn Daily Eagle)
• At the Roots of Grasses, 1923, “the very rhapsody of an American soul pouring itself forth in songs of the strong” (Charles Fleischer)

In her heyday Muriel was known as “the female Walt Whitman.” She was a member of the Poetry Society of America and The League of American Pen Women. She wrote her entire career under her birth name Muriel Strode, omitting the hyphenated Lieberman on post-marriage publications. One of the books I have is signed “Muriel Strode — Mrs. Sam D. Lieberman.”
Sometimes she received harsh critiques in the newspapers. Some reviewers who did not understand her writing thought it egotistical. In 1923 she explained to a reporter, “When I say ‘I,’ I mean the cosmic ‘I,’ speaking to the cosmic ‘you.’” On reading her books, it seems clear to me that she was not egotistical but mystical. She said in a 1962 interview, “I don’t mind adverse criticism. It doesn’t matter if I’m misinterpreted because not everyone will understand what I’m trying to say.”
Those who did understand her cosmic perspective handed out more favorable reviews. “Muriel Strode has a distinctive touch in free verse rhythms. She uses them to interpret optimistically and broadly the elemental forces of being, and she strikes a high note of endeavor and faith in life without glossing over its inevitable question” (The Kansas City Times, 1921).
“Few poets are as prolific in sheer beauty as Muriel Strode. Her work is marked with richness, the forms she chooses for expression are diverse and through all her work there is the rumbling of the seeker of truth. Miss Strode’s poems are a revelation in inspiration. There seems no end to her philosophic thoughts. There is a virility of beauty in this poet’s work” (Howard Willard Cook, 1923). She “sings of the things elemental in universal nature and in human nature” (Charles Fleischer). During her childhood in Fulton County, Illinois, she “breathed in the beauty and the intense love of nature and the elemental things of life that flame out in her poetry” (The Fulton Democrat).
Names. Other names she was known by include: Muriel Strode-Lieberman, Muriel Lieberman, Muriel S. Lieberman, Mrs. Samuel D. Lieberman, Mrs. S. D. Lieberman, and Mrs. Sam Lieberman. The 1880 census lists “Muray Strode,” but her surviving family is not aware of that nickname so it is possibly a typo or a childhood pet name that didn’t last. 📷
Famous quote & found treasures. There were quite a few newspaper articles about Muriel during her publishing days and when she first got rich from oil, but I can’t find personal references much past her death date. Sadly, she seems to have disappeared from history, excepting her famous 1903 words “I will not follow where the path may lead, but I will go where there is no path, and I will leave a trail,” which around the 1990s had started being widely misattributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson. I am exceptionally pleased to digitally revive this wonderful poetess — I’ve been posting selected quotations from her works to The Quote Garden. Here is a sample gem: “I will have a care lest my burden rest all too long where my wings might have grown.” —Muriel Strode, My Little Book of Life, 1912
Image Information. Photo of Muriel is unknown date, courtesy of Muriel’s family, modified by Terri Guillemets using imikimi app, 2017. Book cover is My Little Book of Life by Muriel Strode, 1912. Muriel’s signature is from the 1934 application for her father’s headstone.
Acknowledgement. I am eternally grateful to Muriel’s family for providing the information to expand this bio, as well as the beautiful photograph and retroactive permission to use her words on my website. Thank you so much!