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.
Wednesday, November 29, 2017
soo much to blog about so little time
In Chicago my kids attended a (very) Jewish day school. This resulted in them barely going to school during September due to all the Jewish holidays.
In Aspen my kids got oct 26-27 off for fall break, Nov 1-3 off for parent teacher conferences and Nov 20-24 off for Thanksgiving. Normally this is where I would have a snide comment about the more you pay the less you go but they attend a public school and property taxes in Aspen are very low, so uh well........... I got to spend some quality time with the kids.
With the week off for Thanksgiving we made our every 4 year visit to see my wife's family. But before we get to the main event in Philadelphia we visited NYC for 2 1/2 days with the kids. Trying to show NYC to your 11 & 14 year old in a couple of days is impossible. I will attempt to cover it in a Dave Letterman type top 10 list of the 'best' things about NYC.
10. NYC--it pushes your immune system to be the best it can be (or to quote my daughter I can't breath there are too many germs.
9. Laguardia airport --just like you remembered it (ditto Penn station)
8. Cupcakes and Pizza everywhere
7. Home of more restaurants than Aspen has people
6. World Trade Center memorial ---powerful and really well done
5. Same metrocard, same 2 & 3 trains as 1993--how comforting
4. Same nightly noises ---trucks rolling over steel plates, barking dogs, construction, sirens and alarms
3. Garbage in bags on streets --if the Aspen bears ever hear about NYC they are so outta here
2. Diversity---and holy shit folks there are getting along
1. Everything you could want (except space) jammed into 22 square miles
FYI Manhattan is 22 square miles with a population of around 1.7m people. Pitkin county is 973 square miles with 18k people. Running the numbers for you that makes Manhattan 4,177 times more dense than the Aspen area. Or to put that another way all of Pitkin county's population fits into 1/4 of a mile of Manhattan and you could just about fit all of Aspen's population into one large Manhattan highrise.
In Aspen my kids got oct 26-27 off for fall break, Nov 1-3 off for parent teacher conferences and Nov 20-24 off for Thanksgiving. Normally this is where I would have a snide comment about the more you pay the less you go but they attend a public school and property taxes in Aspen are very low, so uh well........... I got to spend some quality time with the kids.
With the week off for Thanksgiving we made our every 4 year visit to see my wife's family. But before we get to the main event in Philadelphia we visited NYC for 2 1/2 days with the kids. Trying to show NYC to your 11 & 14 year old in a couple of days is impossible. I will attempt to cover it in a Dave Letterman type top 10 list of the 'best' things about NYC.
10. NYC--it pushes your immune system to be the best it can be (or to quote my daughter I can't breath there are too many germs.
9. Laguardia airport --just like you remembered it (ditto Penn station)
8. Cupcakes and Pizza everywhere
7. Home of more restaurants than Aspen has people
6. World Trade Center memorial ---powerful and really well done
5. Same metrocard, same 2 & 3 trains as 1993--how comforting
4. Same nightly noises ---trucks rolling over steel plates, barking dogs, construction, sirens and alarms
3. Garbage in bags on streets --if the Aspen bears ever hear about NYC they are so outta here
2. Diversity---and holy shit folks there are getting along
1. Everything you could want (except space) jammed into 22 square miles
FYI Manhattan is 22 square miles with a population of around 1.7m people. Pitkin county is 973 square miles with 18k people. Running the numbers for you that makes Manhattan 4,177 times more dense than the Aspen area. Or to put that another way all of Pitkin county's population fits into 1/4 of a mile of Manhattan and you could just about fit all of Aspen's population into one large Manhattan highrise.
Monday, November 13, 2017
off season trivia --prizes for the winner
There is a lot to be said for the off season. Slightly less expensive. Lots of open tables, parking spaces, and minimal traffic.
And wow are there some great places to go for a hike. Its time to get off the beaten track. No more smuggler, Ute or Tiehack. Or for you Chicago folks going to the lake and heading left or right.
Can you figure out what slightly out of town trail this is? 4 hours and I didn't see a soul. First one to name the trail gets a 6 pack of beer delivered to your home (assuming you are over 21 and live in Basalt or further up valley). But really all ya all are winners if you go try a new trail --now is the time, no lines, no waiting and some beautiful days still predicted on the weather report.
And wow are there some great places to go for a hike. Its time to get off the beaten track. No more smuggler, Ute or Tiehack. Or for you Chicago folks going to the lake and heading left or right.
Can you figure out what slightly out of town trail this is? 4 hours and I didn't see a soul. First one to name the trail gets a 6 pack of beer delivered to your home (assuming you are over 21 and live in Basalt or further up valley). But really all ya all are winners if you go try a new trail --now is the time, no lines, no waiting and some beautiful days still predicted on the weather report.
totally jammed parking lot--lucky to get a space
it's going off
dog going for a frosty cold one (whoops how did she get off lead)
very frosty
name the peak and get a bonus beer
Wednesday, November 8, 2017
ski co shocked that cheap lift tickets boosts demand
Are you kidding me. For those of you who didn't read the Aspen times article monday ski co has stopped their $6.50 lift ticket promotion for December 15 (the day Snowmass turns 50) after they sold 12k of the 50 birthday special tickets. Demand blew them away. With limited acerage open that early in the season what are they going to do with all the skiers (besides hope they drink expensive beer and eat expensive food).
I was shocked to see Ski Co shocked by the fact that price impacts buyers. That is basic Econ 101 stuff, or even something learned at the lemonade stand you set up in front of your house.
Ski Co seems to be willing to be very alternative with their marketing campaign (the Aspen way—love, respect, unity and commit). How about applying some of that thinking to their business practices. Given the demand for $6.50 lift tickets maybe they should consider a massive price cut for various types of lift tickets. Ski Co makes money lots of ways, (food, drink, rentals, ski school, lodging etc). How important is lift ticket cost as a source of revenue? They are willing to think outside the box for marketing, however Ski Co is super duper boring and conservative with their business practices. All the mountains raise lift ticket costs every year. How boring and predictable. What would happen if you could ski our 4 mountains for let say $50 a day? Could Ski Co make enough money from their other revenue streams to offset the loss of revenue from a much lower priced lift ticket?
Figuring out the ‘right’ ticket price to maximize revenue for Ski Co and for Aspen in general is tricky, but it does seem the Ski Co hasn’t been particularly creative in their thinking. Given the demand for a basically free ticket for an early season Friday, why not listen to what the market is clearly saying—ticket prices are too high. Why not try cutting prices and see if having thousands of additional skiers every day isn’t more profitable. And think of the money saved on the marketing budget. 'Ski for free' kicks the crap out of love, respect, unity and commit. Ski Co talks like they think outside of the box but they sure don’t walk like it.
Thursday, November 2, 2017
Halloween post game wrap up
We have a clear winner and its Chicago. Yes it's kinda fun to go trick or treating in the pitch dark. And having a bunch of houses wind around a cemetery is pretty awesome, BUT
Chicago's north side has a great population distribution. In 3 hours in Chicago my daughter netted 1,000 pieces of candy 2 years ago. Last night my daughter's haul was 162 pieces. More work in Aspen and less reward. On pure volume alone (and how else should one judge Halloween) Chicago kills Aspen.
But wait there is more. How about spooky moments when trick or treating. In Chicago there are houses with dry ice and vampires and strobe lights and lots of recent big 10 graduates dressed as sexy ........ (fill in the blank). In Aspen my kids were given bibles and my son (in his Kellyanne outfit) was treated to a full New Testament sermon. That is a different type of scary. I'll again give the nod to Chicago.
And then there are numbers. I would probably see close to 3,000 kids on Burling in 3 hours in Chicago. That is half the total population of Aspen. Yes, you do get some nice quiet moments around the cemetery to scare yourself or make out with a girlfriend, but I will again give the nod to Chicago for pure fun volume-cazy.
So if you want to pick your town based on 1 night Chicago is your place.
However, if you are planning on spending some time in the local jail, I am going to recommend Aspen. Seems a 31 year old man had consensual sex with another inmate (a 36 year old woman) while in the clink. For 2 hours. In the afternoon. It's good to be young and enjoy some afternoon delight. And of course for those of you into role playing it's taking the prisoner and warden thing to a whole new level. I guess that is one costume event Aspen wins.
Chicago's north side has a great population distribution. In 3 hours in Chicago my daughter netted 1,000 pieces of candy 2 years ago. Last night my daughter's haul was 162 pieces. More work in Aspen and less reward. On pure volume alone (and how else should one judge Halloween) Chicago kills Aspen.
But wait there is more. How about spooky moments when trick or treating. In Chicago there are houses with dry ice and vampires and strobe lights and lots of recent big 10 graduates dressed as sexy ........ (fill in the blank). In Aspen my kids were given bibles and my son (in his Kellyanne outfit) was treated to a full New Testament sermon. That is a different type of scary. I'll again give the nod to Chicago.
And then there are numbers. I would probably see close to 3,000 kids on Burling in 3 hours in Chicago. That is half the total population of Aspen. Yes, you do get some nice quiet moments around the cemetery to scare yourself or make out with a girlfriend, but I will again give the nod to Chicago for pure fun volume-cazy.
So if you want to pick your town based on 1 night Chicago is your place.
However, if you are planning on spending some time in the local jail, I am going to recommend Aspen. Seems a 31 year old man had consensual sex with another inmate (a 36 year old woman) while in the clink. For 2 hours. In the afternoon. It's good to be young and enjoy some afternoon delight. And of course for those of you into role playing it's taking the prisoner and warden thing to a whole new level. I guess that is one costume event Aspen wins.
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