bald eagle, 12 point buck, coyote as big as a wolf----all in 2 hours in the AM
paris hilton, mariah carey (not yet warming up for the big new year's redemption) and VP Pence
Some bozos from LA who seem to think that my yoga class is the best place in the world to chat, gossip and groan
Many many tourists who are totally flummoxed by two way stop signs at 4 way intersections (plus ice) in the core of Aspen
crowds walking up and down smuggler in all their best purchases from the LUX Aspen stores---more like slipping up and down and sweating in things not designed to be sweated in
the exact same crowds walking around town at night asking 'where is the caribou club' --to which I honestly was able to answer 'no fucking clue'
Today I am bouncing at the high roller tent at Shlomo's post Ajax cup and let me warn you now Mr. Bode Miller---no wristband means no entry (I think .....right???)
Saturday, December 30, 2017
Thursday, December 14, 2017
and in local news...............
its snowed. We got the angry inch (or 3 maybe). We are still in jeopardy of having a green and brown x-mas. Which I am told by local weather luminaries would be a first EVER. Not a good first.
Remember the 12.5k lift tickets that Aspen Ski Co sold to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Snowmass. Well the bill comes due on that little bit of marketing genius tomorrow with maybe 100 acres of open terrain on Snowmass. I will be skipping the angry mosh pit tomorrow. To be honest I have skied one day for all of 2 hours.
In other news Woodbridge LLC is under investigation for fraud by the SEC and also hiding behind bankruptcy law to protect themselves. They own a ton of real estate in Aspen (and roaring fork valley) along with Southern CA. Bankrupt? WTF
In other WTF news the Aspen Club project is also having major financial difficulties. They haven't paid their builders in months, construction has halted, and there are liens piling up. Seems they didn't pre sell enough units to satisfy their lender who halted loans and is trying to wipe the equity holders out. But seriously WTF.
Why WTF--well if you didn't notice the price of every asset in the US except for Chicago real estate has been on a tear. How do you lose money and need bankruptcy protection when real estate is exploding. It's like losing money owning bitcoin this year. Not an easy trick to pull of.
Recent news also includes Aspen Ski Co starting a soup kitchen to feed employees most nights. This line came straight from the Aspen Times newspaper ' ski co has started a soup kitchen to feed unemployed workers'. Unemployed workers? Sounds like an oxymoron to me, but it seems SkiCo's seasonal employees working lifts, on mountain restaurants, base retail had to been here to start work under the assumption that the mountains would open. They didn't, so they don't get paid. And yet they can't really do anything else because they have to be ready to work. Oh yea, and most of them are in SkiCo housing so they owe rent to SkiCo while not getting paid to work and having to be ready to start work at a moments notice. Sounds like the old company store in the mining town movies. And then someone like Clint Eastwood (or Karl Marx) appears to get the man of their backs.
What was the SkiCo marketing message this year ---oh yea love (your employees by providing them a soup kitchen), unity (with your employees who you aren't paying), respect (your employees and by requiring them to be on standby and collecting rent checks from them while not paying them) and commit (to way out of the box thinking by bringing back the soup kitchen to feed your unemployed workers).
Mr Kaplan (CEO SKI CO) I know it's tough when the snow doesn't come as planned, but really a poor start to the season shouldn't be that surprising. And while you talk the community talk, and have a really new age marketing message and a lot of righteousness in your op ed pieces on the Wall St Journal, maybe you could figure out something a bit more creative than a soup kitchen to feed your 'unemployed workers'.
Remember the 12.5k lift tickets that Aspen Ski Co sold to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Snowmass. Well the bill comes due on that little bit of marketing genius tomorrow with maybe 100 acres of open terrain on Snowmass. I will be skipping the angry mosh pit tomorrow. To be honest I have skied one day for all of 2 hours.
In other news Woodbridge LLC is under investigation for fraud by the SEC and also hiding behind bankruptcy law to protect themselves. They own a ton of real estate in Aspen (and roaring fork valley) along with Southern CA. Bankrupt? WTF
In other WTF news the Aspen Club project is also having major financial difficulties. They haven't paid their builders in months, construction has halted, and there are liens piling up. Seems they didn't pre sell enough units to satisfy their lender who halted loans and is trying to wipe the equity holders out. But seriously WTF.
Why WTF--well if you didn't notice the price of every asset in the US except for Chicago real estate has been on a tear. How do you lose money and need bankruptcy protection when real estate is exploding. It's like losing money owning bitcoin this year. Not an easy trick to pull of.
Recent news also includes Aspen Ski Co starting a soup kitchen to feed employees most nights. This line came straight from the Aspen Times newspaper ' ski co has started a soup kitchen to feed unemployed workers'. Unemployed workers? Sounds like an oxymoron to me, but it seems SkiCo's seasonal employees working lifts, on mountain restaurants, base retail had to been here to start work under the assumption that the mountains would open. They didn't, so they don't get paid. And yet they can't really do anything else because they have to be ready to work. Oh yea, and most of them are in SkiCo housing so they owe rent to SkiCo while not getting paid to work and having to be ready to start work at a moments notice. Sounds like the old company store in the mining town movies. And then someone like Clint Eastwood (or Karl Marx) appears to get the man of their backs.
What was the SkiCo marketing message this year ---oh yea love (your employees by providing them a soup kitchen), unity (with your employees who you aren't paying), respect (your employees and by requiring them to be on standby and collecting rent checks from them while not paying them) and commit (to way out of the box thinking by bringing back the soup kitchen to feed your unemployed workers).
Mr Kaplan (CEO SKI CO) I know it's tough when the snow doesn't come as planned, but really a poor start to the season shouldn't be that surprising. And while you talk the community talk, and have a really new age marketing message and a lot of righteousness in your op ed pieces on the Wall St Journal, maybe you could figure out something a bit more creative than a soup kitchen to feed your 'unemployed workers'.
Wednesday, December 6, 2017
x mas tree shopping
Chicago wins this one hands down. Which is kinda weird, right? Chicago is a big city surrounded by a lake and suburbs. Aspen is a small town in the mountains surround by pine trees and yet........
In Chicago I had my X mas tree guy. They brought in fresh trees from Wisconsin twice a week. They gave me a couple of shots of whiskey. They gave my kids candy. They gave the tree a fresh cut, netted it tight and mounted it on my car or offered to deliver to my house (all in the same price). Oh yea and that price was 10-12 bucks a foot depending on how drunk the dad was.
End of the day I would walk out with a super fresh 9 foot tree, (5 feet wide at base) for $100 bucks and a little buzz. Wooooo Hooooo.
I've found 5 options around Aspen:
Clarks market in Aspen---7 foot tree for $385 bucks --yea you read that right a bit more than $50 a foot and the tree looked like it might have starred in Charlie Brown's Christmas.
Whole Foods in Basalt ---50 bucks for a 6-8 foot tree. Trees were cut down before Thanksgiving, you can get a fresh cut but not netted tight for drive 20 miles home, and the trees looked like crap.
City Market in Basalt --$85 for a wrapped up 7-8 foot tree cut around Thanksgiving. No fresh cut. No way to open tree up and see how it looked. Needles falling from tree when touched.
Eagle Nursery in Basalt-- $15-20 a foot. Pretty good looking trees but also cut around Thanksgiving and brought in from.........Minnesota? Yes fresh cut, no on netting tree to ease transport. This is what we went with --more than I wanted to spend but the trees and City Market and Whole foods just looked horrible and wouldn't be able to hold half our ornaments (unhappy wife --bad way to start Christmas season). The tree is not that fresh---post cut it is not gobbling up water.
Option 5 is interesting if you can handle it---for $10 you can get a permit to cut your own tree in designated areas of the national forest. Assuming you have the means to cut the tree and transport it this is obviously the best and maybe even better than Chicago. But what Chicago transplant owns a chain saw? Not this one.
Happy start to the crazy season.
In Chicago I had my X mas tree guy. They brought in fresh trees from Wisconsin twice a week. They gave me a couple of shots of whiskey. They gave my kids candy. They gave the tree a fresh cut, netted it tight and mounted it on my car or offered to deliver to my house (all in the same price). Oh yea and that price was 10-12 bucks a foot depending on how drunk the dad was.
End of the day I would walk out with a super fresh 9 foot tree, (5 feet wide at base) for $100 bucks and a little buzz. Wooooo Hooooo.
I've found 5 options around Aspen:
Clarks market in Aspen---7 foot tree for $385 bucks --yea you read that right a bit more than $50 a foot and the tree looked like it might have starred in Charlie Brown's Christmas.
Whole Foods in Basalt ---50 bucks for a 6-8 foot tree. Trees were cut down before Thanksgiving, you can get a fresh cut but not netted tight for drive 20 miles home, and the trees looked like crap.
City Market in Basalt --$85 for a wrapped up 7-8 foot tree cut around Thanksgiving. No fresh cut. No way to open tree up and see how it looked. Needles falling from tree when touched.
Eagle Nursery in Basalt-- $15-20 a foot. Pretty good looking trees but also cut around Thanksgiving and brought in from.........Minnesota? Yes fresh cut, no on netting tree to ease transport. This is what we went with --more than I wanted to spend but the trees and City Market and Whole foods just looked horrible and wouldn't be able to hold half our ornaments (unhappy wife --bad way to start Christmas season). The tree is not that fresh---post cut it is not gobbling up water.
Option 5 is interesting if you can handle it---for $10 you can get a permit to cut your own tree in designated areas of the national forest. Assuming you have the means to cut the tree and transport it this is obviously the best and maybe even better than Chicago. But what Chicago transplant owns a chain saw? Not this one.
Happy start to the crazy season.
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