In some ways, it’s almost impossible to believe how controversial many of Christo and Jean-Claude‘s projects have been. The Orange Gates in New York City took 26 years (from 1979 to 2005) to be realized after many controversies and rejections (and that was in the art capital of the world). Christo and his late wife Jean-Claude work with fabric, after all, and their installations are always temporary. So what’s the big deal? In the case of The Umbrellas, installed in both Japan and the US two people died in accidents. Critics of the Over the River Project have similar concerns related to both public safety, impact on business and recreation, and environmental impact. A group calling itself Rags Over the Arkansas River, or ROAR raise concerns about the impact on Bighorn Sheep, Bald Eagles, and the effects that up to a 1,000,000 visitors in a two lane canyon over two weeks could have on the its residents. Would ambulances be able to get through in the event of an emergency? What about sewage? and wildlife access to the 5.9 mile stretch (of 40 total miles in the canyon) of the water that would be covered? And yet the project is also estimated to bring in millions of tourist dollars to Colorado and international attention during the two weeks it would be installed. Additionally, none of the project itself would be publicly financed.

Regardless of the outcome, Colorado, and Southern Colorado in particular, will certainly be remembered for this project and the decision-making process. The Bureau of Land Management will have the final say over the project, which would be installed during the summer of 2013 at the earliest. They have extended the comment period until September 14 and you can read the Environmental Impact Statement HERE.

-You can email them at co_otr_comments@blm.gov.

-You can use the BLM’s online comment form HERE

-You can send them a letter to: BLM RGFO, OTR Comments, 3028 E. Main St., Canon City, CO 81212.

-Or you can call them at (719) 269-8599.

If you want to add

Another beauty from this 70s cult all-star.

([Placer Mine] on the Arkansas River, ca. 1885. Photographer unknown. Courtesy of Special Collections, Pikes Peak Library District. Image Number: 001-5663.)

Men standing in front of wooden building on riverbank with rocky cliffs behind. Photo identified on back as “Placer on Ark River about 1885.”

Click HERE for instructions on how to join our Flickr pool and add your own photos.

Click HERE to browse the Pikes Peak Library District’s online photograph archive.

We can always count on the Pikes Peak Public Library District for some amazingly campy old Alexander Film Company commercials shot locally. These two reels of 7-Up commercials shot in and around the Pikes Peak region offer a “lively and sparkly” taste of a more innocent, yet glamorous time in our recent past. See you there!

If you recognize any of the locations (aside of from the obvious) or people in any of these commercials, please let us know in the comments below.

Dean Wareham from Galaxie 500 and Britta Phillips rock the soft sounds of a longing from another time.

(“Alexander Industries Building” by Stewarts Commercial Photographers, ca. 1954. Copyright Pikes Peak Library District, courtesy of Special Collections. Image Number: 013-867.)

Taken from East side of Nevada Avenue showing Alexander Film Company Administration Building and water tower in the rear. The buildings were designed by Wilbur Roche, an architect on the Alexander staff. Sign on far right reads “Home of the World’s Largest Theatre and TV Film AD Studios Alexander Film Co.”

Click HERE for instructions on how to join our Flickr pool and add your own photos.

Click HERE to browse the Pikes Peak Library District’s online photograph archive.

This coming Sunday’s episode of Western Skies is all about agriculture. To be honest, every episode of Western Skies probably could be about agriculture and the myriad stories about the pleasures and perils of how we grow and consume our food. One of the many potential features that didn’t make it into this Sunday’s show is local writer Sandra Knauf’s excellent and entertaining self-published magazine Greenwoman Zine (six issues and counting) about her adventures as an amateur gardener and urban farmer. Full of diaries, cartoons, essays, articles and poems by herself and others about everything from gender bending chickens to a primer on garlic, it’s Knauf’s wide-eyed, often self-deprecating struggles with the earth and its bounty (or not) over the past decade that make her zine approachable and highly relatable. On top of that, there’s a lot of practical gardening and urban farming wisdom to be gleaned.

Knauf’s website is HERE, and you can order actual copies of these lovingly produced, hand-bound magazines at her Etsy site HERE.