Tag Archive for: City Park Jazz

Tracy Shaffer
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Sunday in the Park with…Everyone

Look for the Thriving Artist Alliance banner!


Sunday picnics at City Park Jazz have long been one of my favorite summer rituals and judging by its growth the feeling is mutual. The atmosphere is fun and communal. far beyond a basket of egg salad sandwiches and a blanket, some people really work it: linen draped tables with champagne flutes, portable grills, netted tents and lawn games dot the landscape, festival style as Denver comes out to play.
So I thought… If I park it, will they come? What if you knew you could show up spontaneously, no blanket, no food, no hassle except the parking? What if you had one place where you could meet the friends who are already there scattered around, meet new friends and have an eclectic mix every week? That’s what I was thinkin’. I’ll get there early and set up space and provide something to eat. You show up, walk or roll north on the pathway from 17th Ave toward the band shelter. Look to your right, between the lake and the road and somewhere along the way you’ll see the THRIVING ARTIST ALLIANCE banner hanging from a tree or staked in the ground. Some weeks you may want to bring food and drink, others you can show up empty handed and share in the feast laid out before you. Bring your kids, your friends, your bikes, skateboards, a Frisbee or a ball… sometimes an umbrella. Where else can you eat, drink, dance and celebrate the season? And it’s free. We’ll be there around 5:00, music goes from 6-8. For more information, event updates and who’s playing each week, find me on Facebook or check out Sunday Dinner under events.

Beautiful friends and gorgeous sunsets rock City Park Jazz

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Tracy Shaffer

Writer’s Block or Block Party?

I have so much writing to do. Backed up on blogs and interviews for the Huffington Post and Telluride Inside and the final draft for a pending stage production.  Summertime always ramps up the distractions: the kids out of school, the real estate biz busy, the house guests, hikes and the road trip. But when Denver turns into a giant block party, how’s a girl gonna keep her thoughts together? The languorous days of summer  bring me out of myself and into the streets; to the ballpark, the patio at Elway’s, without a care in the world or a thought in my head.

There’s a party out there!

There are the easy things like the Cherry Creek  and metro area Farmers Market, Sunday night picnics at City Park Jazz and Tuesdays or Wednesdays at Film on the Rocks, and the monthly First Friday Art Walks; tonight it’s a screening of Convention, tomorrow it’ll be something else:  Denver Art Museum Flappers and Pharoahs Bash Mixed Taste at the M CA, and then comes July and the Biennial of the Americas, I’ll never catch up.

Telluride, that’s where I’ll write! I return next month to the Telluride Playwrights Festival and a chance to put the finishing touches on the production script of (W)hole.   My first trip the script was part of the festival and in I was in full writer mode. Between rehearsals, the actors and directors hiked and rode their bikes along the river while I locked myself in my condo to write. After evening table readings and notes, the playwrights rush through dinner (passing on the wine) then scurry home to make script changes, while the attendant guests ride the nighttime gondola and party like rock stars. This year my load will be lighter, my duties confined to acting and providing feedback. Surrounded by my friends and the beauty of the boxy canyon, I should have plenty of time for my own… looks like I won’t be writing there either. Can’t these deadline thingies be pushed back to October?

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