If all the rest of the movies I see at the Denver Film Festival stink, I will still count the festival a success because of "The Lives of Others," a German film released this year about a Stasi agent responsible for spying on a writer and his friends in the mid-1980s in East Germany.  The agent becomes moved by the artists and this poses complications which unfold in a terrific plot, acted to perfection.  The photo is of Gerd Wiesler, the Stasi agent played by (Ulrich Mühe).

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper this afternoon gave a stirring presentation of his vision for the city in the area of arts and culture. The forum was a meeting of the Denver Commission on Cultural Affairs, of which I’m a member.  I flew from Boston last night to attend the meeting and am about to head to the airport now to fly back.  All this time and effort was well rewarded by hearing the Mayor’s talk.  It inspired me to value my work on the Commission and to be glad I can divide me time between two such great areas, Denver and Boston.  Gotta run…

Last night three architects presented their visions for the new Clyfford Still Museum in Denver.  These three finalists brought very different experience and talents.  Denver’s interest in architecture was evident in the approximately 550 people who attended.  In this podcast, I give my impressions of the competitors and offer a guess as to which one will be selected.

UPDATE: Although Still did live in New York City from 1950 until 1961, I erred in calling him a "New York artist," because he was born in North Dakota and studied and taught in Washington state and worked in California before moving to New York. In 1961 he relocated to a farm near Westminster, Maryland, where he remained most of the rest of his life, largely cut off from the rest of the art world. (I gleaned this info from the Wikipedia entry on Still.)

This is the first episode of an all-audio podcast named Audio Pod Chronicles.  Since December, 2005, I have published a combined audio and video podcast, Mile High Pod Chronicles, which will now comprise only videos.  

I am a grandfather, a poet, former journalist and retired natural gas company executive.  I serve on the boards of the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA), and the Denver Commission on Cultural Affairs.  My wife and I live in Denver but travel about half the year, mainly to New England, St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and France.

All these experiences and passions flow into my podcasting.  I’d love to hear from you at PodChronicles@gmail.com or here at my new Libsyn blog.  Show notes for the video podcast are here, and my general blog of writing and photographs is here.

This first episode of Audio Pod Chronicles offers my thoughts on finishing Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness as we near the end of a seven-week Fall Foliage RV Ramble to Québec and New England.  We return the rented 32-foot Southwind motorhome to its owner on Monday.

Good listening.