The first Earth Day I remember wasn’t just a date on a calendar, it felt like a gathering of hearts and minds, drawn together by something bigger than ourselves. There was a special screening of Oh, God! with John Denver, and his close friend Tom Crum there to help open the celebration of the Windstar Foundation in the spring of 1977. Even as a kid, you could feel that something meaningful was taking root, like a quiet promise that we might learn how to care for this world a little better than we had before.

The Windstar gathering wasn’t about grand speeches or distant ideas, it was about understanding our place here, about learning what it means to be stewards of the earth beneath our feet. There was a sense that responsibility didn’t belong to someone else, somewhere else; it belonged to each of us, in the choices we made every day. It opened my eyes to the simple truth that caring for the planet wasn’t an obligation, it was a privilege.

We’ve come a long way since those days, with technology advancing faster than anyone could have imagined, connecting us in ways that once felt impossible. And yet, for all that progress, the earth still shows signs of strain, quietly reminding us that innovation alone isn’t enough. It asks something more personal from us, changes in habit, in awareness, in the way we move through our daily lives.

When you see things like gray whales washing up along the Pacific Northwest, it’s hard not to feel the weight of it, the reminder that this one blue planet, our only home in this vast solar system, is more fragile than we sometimes admit. There are many cultures, many perspectives, but only one shared place that sustains us all, and that truth calls for something deeper than division.

So maybe this Earth Day is a chance to come together again, to look past old grievances and remember what unites us. It’s a moment to ask more of ourselves, and yes, to ask more of the corporations and systems that shape so much of our world, to work alongside us, not apart from us, in protecting what we all depend on. Because in the end, this planet isn’t just where we live, it’s part of who we are, and it’s worth every effort to keep it whole.

We have started a Kickstarter project specifically designed to pull folks together.

Flaming Justice Videos

And in the true spirit of this project, it would be incredible if we fully funded this project with only $50.00 contributions. That means we would need 4,400 people, which also means we would need friends and friends of friends.

Oh!…and write your congressmen.

1. U.S. Senate

• Visit: https://www.house.gov/representatives

• Use the search tool to find your Representative by ZIP code, then use the website links to email or call them directly.

2. U.S. House of Representatives

• Visit: https://www.house.gov/representatives

• Use the search tool to find your Representative by ZIP code, then use the website links to email or call them directly.

If you’re interested in a protest gonzo or positive call to action t-shirt for your next protest look no further.

The QR code on this shirt takes you to a fun article with links to a place where your friends can write their congressmen just by scanning the code.

The protest shirt collection:

Threadless - Shirt Link

Back in the raw, sunburned days of Aspen in the ‘70s and ‘80s, being a kid meant you earned your place the hard way, through scraped knees, busted bikes, and a kind of wild independence that couldn’t be bought. If someone whispered “trust fund baby,” it wasn’t admiration, it was a warning label, a social scarlet letter that meant you hadn’t lived, hadn’t hustled, hadn’t tasted the grit that made the rest of us feel real. Money was there, sure, floating around town like loose snow, but wearing it on your sleeve was about as cool as showing up to a powder day in dress shoes.

We were feral in the best possible way, left to roam the hills, figure things out, build our own mythology from the people and places around us. You didn’t get respect for what your parents had; you got it for how you showed up, how you handled yourself when nobody was watching. There was an unspoken code in that mountain air: prove it, or don’t bother talking. It wasn’t perfect, but it was honest, and that honesty had teeth.

Fast forward to now, and the whole scene feels like it’s been flipped inside out and sprayed with neon. In a world shaped by spectacle and curated lives, where the Kardashian family turned visibility into currency, the idea of inherited wealth isn’t something to hide, it’s something to broadcast. It’s branding now, a badge you polish and parade, proof not of experience but of access. And somehow, the rough edges that once defined character have been sanded down into something smoother, shinier, and a whole lot less grounded.

That shift says something unsettling about where we’ve landed. When identity leans more on what you have than what you’ve done, the old markers of grit and authenticity start to fade. The culture tilts toward performance, who you appear to be rather than who you’ve become through living. And in that tilt, something gets lost: the quiet respect earned from doing things the hard way, from falling down and getting back up without an audience.

It’s not about nostalgia for the sake of it, it’s about noticing the trade-off. The Aspen we grew up in wasn’t perfect, but it demanded something from you. Today’s world offers a different deal: visibility over substance, inheritance over experience. And somewhere between those two realities is a question that still hangs in the mountain air, what does it really mean to have character when the definition keeps changing with the times?

In times like these, when everything feels fast, filtered, and a little disconnected, there’s something grounding about looking back at a place like Aspen through a book like Growing Up Aspen – Adventures of the Unsupervised. It’s not just nostalgia, it’s a reminder of a time when life moved at the pace of real experience, when community was built face to face and kids carved out their own worlds without a spotlight. Revisiting those moments can feel like catching your breath, a chance to reconnect with a simpler, more authentic rhythm that still has something to teach us about who we are today.

Netflix’s The Get Down feels, to me, like a mirror held up to those years when the kids from Growing Up Aspen - Adventures of the Unsupervised families first landed in Aspen, full of wonder, noise, and possibility. The beginning of the show has that same sense of arrival and discovery, while the ending, when the kids are exiting middle school, feels like the moment childhood starts giving way to something more complicated and more real. It’s that passage from one season of life into the next that makes the story feel so familiar. The struggle becomes about survival and resilience.

Shaolin, spinning as a scratch DJ in the spirit of Grandmaster Flash for the Get Down Brothers, reminds me of the way music shaped Aspen’s own identity, especially through people like Carolyne Heldman, who started as a local radio DJ at KSPN and went on to become an MTV VJ. That rise from local voice to wider stage feels very much like the way Aspen’s creative spirit could travel beyond the mountains while still staying rooted in the town’s character. Music was never just background there; it was part of the way life announced itself.

Ezekiel’s life, for me, reflects the hard-working local community, the friends, families, and shop owners who actually kept Aspen running, like the Mendenhall’s Wax and Wicks. Mylene and her record-exec world, by contrast, feel like the visitors, the skiers, the tourists, the “turkeys” who came through drawn by the glamour and energy of the place. Aspen always had that tension between the people who built the town and the people who came to enjoy it, and that tension gives the story its human shape.

The comparison to The Get Down also makes sense because Aspen, like the show, was caught in that great transition from disco into hip-hop funk, then onward toward rap or rock like U2, with Fat City Records standing as one of the cool places where the changing culture could be felt and heard. As one fad began to fade into another, the town itself seemed to be evolving right along with it, and the show captures that movement beautifully. Even the way industry dollars begin to control creative people echoes the way local life can be pulled into forces larger than itself.

That’s why the show reminds me of Roll Bounce, because both stories understand how young people move through changing times with music, style, and resilience. They show how talent can be both a gift and a struggle, whether it’s Ezekiel dealing with local pressures or Mylene facing the machinery of the record business. In the end, The Get Down is about transformation, and so was Aspen: a place where disco gave way to hip-hop, where local life met the wider world, and where the next generation had to find its own rhythm.

The Get Down on Netflix sings a timeless truth about generations dissolving into one another, much like disco’s bright pulse giving way to Hip Hop’s raw fire, a beautiful, bittersweet dissolve that mirrors the changes we feel stirring now in our mountains and valleys. It shows kids stepping up, carrying the old rhythms into new beats, finding their voices when the world seems ready to shift under their feet. We’re heading into some change ourselves, friends, a turning of seasons where the music of yesterday hands off to tomorrow’s song, reminding us that every fade leads to a fresh dawn if we listen close. That’s the gentle power of it all, culture flowing like a river, never ending, just evolving into something true and alive. The Get Down shows us the development of music that changed the world and spoke to the struggles of life, and in that spirit two of the authors of Growing Up Aspen have created a new line of music videos meant to speak to the current issues facing youth today.

We have started a Kickstarter project specifically designed to pull folks together.

Flaming Justice Videos

• And in the true spirit of this project, it would be incredible if we fully funded this project with only $50.00 contributions. That means we would need 4,400 people, which also means we would need friends and friends of friends.

• If you’re interested in a protest gonzo or positive call to action t-shirt for your next protest look no further.

• The QR code on this shirt takes you to a fun article with links to a place where your friends can write their congressmen just by scanning the code.

• The protest shirt collection:

  Threadless - Shirt Link

My dear creative friends,

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about this thing we call AI. It’s no longer just a dream in science books, it’s here, alive and humming, like some great new instrument waiting to be played. To me, it feels like the birth of visual poetry, an artist’s brush learning a new kind of song. But like any instrument, it matters whose hands are on the strings. The real question isn’t what it can do, it’s what “we” choose to do with it.

Because let’s be honest, if we leave it to trolls and profiteers, they’ll fill the air with noise and drown out the good. But if we, the makers and dreamers, the people who care about harmony and healing, take hold of it, there’s no telling what beauty we might bring. AI can be a mirror, showing us what’s possible when heart and technology dance together. I believe we still have time to guide that dance, but not much.

The world is spinning faster every day, and technology is running like a river in spring flood. If we don’t set some strong guardrails now, the current might sweep us downstream before we know it. It’s time for those of goodwill, whatever their politics, to step up and steady the course. We can’t catch every wave, but we can aim the ship toward the light.

And that’s where a few voices from the right give me hope. Folks like David Jolly down in Florida, who seem willing to draw a line in the sand and say, “Enough, this is where my values stand.” Or others like Thomas Massie and Nancy Mace, showing that integrity means more than raids of power or shadows of Epstein’s world, or unwanted foreign wars, and even guardrails on AI. Maybe those small acts of courage are the seeds of a new conversation we all need to have.

So, to my creative friends, keep writing, keep painting, keep singing. These tools, old and new, are just vessels for truth. The future doesn’t belong to the loudest, but to those who listen, who care, who create. If we guide this moment with love and conscience, maybe we’ll look back and say we used our gifts to change the world, not to own it. And that, I believe, would make the mountains proud.

Oh!…and write your congressmen.

1. U.S. Senate

• Visit: https://www.house.gov/representatives

• Use the search tool to find your Representative by ZIP code, then use the website links to email or call them directly.

2. U.S. House of Representatives

• Visit: https://www.house.gov/representatives

• Use the search tool to find your Representative by ZIP code, then use the website links to email or call them directly.

If you’re interested in a protest gonzo or positive call to action t-shirt for your next protest look no further.

The QR code on this shirt takes you to a fun article with links to a place where your friends can write their congressmen just by scanning the code.

The protest shirt collection:

Threadless - Shirt Link

Today at the No Kings march, I felt something stir deep inside me, something familiar. It took me back to the 1980s, to the days of the Antiapartheid movement when our hearts were on fire for justice and change. At CU Boulder, we built shanty towns on the campus lawn, makeshift villages of hope and defiance, all to urge big corporations to divest from South Africa. I can still hear the voices and guitars of the time, MTV’s “Ain’t Gonna Play Sun City,” echoing as our anthem of conviction and unity. Back then, we believed that if enough hearts joined together, we could move mountains. And maybe we did, because change came, slow but real.

Then came 2008, a time when hope took a new form. We witnessed our first Black president, a moment that felt like the world turning toward its better self. What struck me most wasn’t just the historic moment, but the power of youth leading the way. I saw kids leaning in at kitchen tables, convincing their grandparents to believe, to vote, to care. The younger generation was waking the older one, whispering truth and light like Aspen’s Tom Crum might say, the “little Buddha” teaching the teacher.

But this year, at the No Kings march, something new touched my heart. This time, it wasn’t the young urging the old, it was the elders bringing the young along. Grandparents holding tiny hands, walking side by side with their grandkids, their steps matched in purpose and direction. The message didn’t come from one generation to another, it came from all of us together, rising as one voice.

Whether the cause is “No Kings” or standing up to the powerful elite some call the “Epstein Class,” what matters most is that we’re finally walking together. The lines that once divided our generations are blurring into a shared resolve. We’re remembering how to listen, how to act, how to believe again in the power of we the people.

As I left that march today, a light breeze carried the sound of laughter and song, and I felt something close to John Denver’s old refrain, the sweetness of belonging, the beauty of home. I walked away inspired, believing again that maybe, just maybe, we’re earning our country back, one kind and courageous step at a time. In Aspen it was at Paepcke Park in Beaverton it was by the Library.

We have started a Kickstarter project specifically designed to pull folks together.

Flaming Justice Videos

And in the true spirit of this project, it would be incredible if we fully funded this project with only $50.00 contributions. That means we would need 4,400 people, which also means we would need friends and friends of friends.

Oh!…and write your congressmen.

1. U.S. Senate

• Visit: https://www.house.gov/representatives

• Use the search tool to find your Representative by ZIP code, then use the website links to email or call them directly.

2. U.S. House of Representatives

• Visit: https://www.house.gov/representatives

• Use the search tool to find your Representative by ZIP code, then use the website links to email or call them directly.

If you’re interested in a protest gonzo or positive call to action t-shirt for your next protest look no further.

The QR code on this shirt takes you to a fun article with links to a place where your friends can write their congressmen just by scanning the code.

The protest shirt collection:

Threadless - Shirt Link

There was a time, after the September 11 attacks, when America came together in grief and resolve, and out of that moment came agencies like U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), created with the intention of protecting the country from real threats. The hope was that such power would be used carefully and wisely, focused on those who meant harm, not on the everyday people who make up the fabric of this nation: the workers, the caregivers, the families simply trying to build a life.

But as the years have passed, many have begun to wonder if that original purpose has drifted. Incidents like the deaths of Renée Good and Alex Pretti have stirred deep concern and raised difficult questions about accountability and judgment. These are not easy conversations, but they are necessary ones, because when trust is shaken, it asks a country to pause and reflect on whether its actions still align with its values.

At the same time, immigration has become less of a shared challenge and more of a dividing line. Even efforts like S.4361 - Border Act of 2024, a bipartisan attempt to address border security sits in the White House and struggles to move forward, caught in the crosscurrents of politics. And while leaders debate, it is often ordinary people who feel the consequences most deeply, living in uncertainty while solutions remain just out of reach. Now the president is tying a voter restricting bill and immigration issue to TSA pay which is more than stiff arming Congress and America.

There’s a quiet truth that echoes through all of this: a nation is not defined by how forcefully it enforces its laws, but by how faithfully it upholds its humanity. When systems lose sight of the people they were meant to protect, something essential begins to fade. And in those moments, it becomes less about policy and more about conscience, about remembering that behind every headline is a human story.

Maybe what we need now is a return to that sense of shared care, the kind that sees beyond politics and into the heart of what it means to belong to one another. A spirit not unlike that of Mother Teresa, who reminded the world that even the smallest acts of compassion can ripple outward in powerful ways. Because in the end, the strength of a nation isn’t measured by its power alone, but by its ability to hold onto kindness, even when the road ahead feels uncertain.

Maybe the most important thing a person can do right now is remember the simple power of being human, of listening before judging, of reaching out instead of turning away. It can be as small as supporting local families, volunteering, or speaking up with kindness when the conversation grows harsh. Write to your representatives, stay informed, and let your voice carry not anger alone, but a hope for something better. Because real change doesn’t always begin in grand halls or loud debates, it starts in quiet moments, when one person chooses compassion, and then another, until that gentle way of living begins to feel like a song we all remember how to sing.

We have started a Kickstarter project specifically designed to pull folks together.

Flaming Justice Videos

And in the true spirit of this project, it would be incredible if we fully funded this project with only $50.00 contributions. That means we would need 4,400 people, which also means we would need friends and friends of friends.

Oh!…and write your congressmen.

1. U.S. Senate

• Visit: https://www.house.gov/representatives

• Use the search tool to find your Representative by ZIP code, then use the website links to email or call them directly.

2. U.S. House of Representatives

• Visit: https://www.house.gov/representatives

• Use the search tool to find your Representative by ZIP code, then use the website links to email or call them directly.

If you’re interested in a protest gonzo or positive call to action t-shirt for your next protest look no further.

The QR code on this shirt takes you to a fun article with links to a place where your friends can write their congressmen just by scanning the code.

The protest shirt collection:

Threadless - Shirt Link

There’s a long, winding river that runs through American history, and if you listen closely, you can hear it singing. In hard times, when the spirit of the country feels strained or uncertain, voices rise up not in anger alone, but in melody, gentle, persistent, and true. Woody Guthrie was one of the first to carry that tune across dusty roads and broken dreams, his guitar etched with the truth that music could stand up for those who had been knocked down. Then came Pete Seeger, lifting those same ideals into gatherings of hope, where people sang together not just to remember who they were, but to imagine who they might become.

By the time the 1960s rolled around, the winds of change picked up, and a young voice named Bob Dylan stepped into the storm. His words were sharp but poetic, like lightning illuminating the questions people were afraid to ask. Protest songs became more than music, they became mirrors, reflecting a nation searching for its conscience. They were sung in crowded streets and quiet living rooms, carried on radios and whispered between generations, each note a call for something better, something kinder, something more just.

But time, like that river, keeps moving. Woody and Pete have long since passed into memory, and even Bob, in his own way, has stepped back from that earlier fire, his catalog now part of a larger machine. And so, there’s a feeling in the air again, a sense that something essential is missing. When a country begins to lose its balance, when voices grow louder but understanding grows faint, the old songs don’t disappear, they wait. They wait for new hands, new hearts, and new stories to carry them forward.

Out of places you might not expect, small towns, back roads, and quiet corners, new voices are beginning to rise. One of them is Jesse Welles, a young man with a guitar and something honest to say. His music feels rooted in that same soil that nourished the greats before him, grounded in everyday truth and lifted by a desire to speak to the moment we’re living in. It’s not about echoing the past, but about answering the present with courage and clarity.

And from that same spirit comes the sound of Flaming Justice, a band shaped by both tenderness and fire, carrying the gentle soul of John Denver and the unfiltered urgency of Hunter S. Thompson. Their songs don’t just protest; they reach for something higher. They remind us that even in moments of division, harmony is still possible. That the future isn’t something we inherit, it’s something we sing into being, together, one honest note at a time.

We have started a Kickstarter project specifically designed to pull folks together.

Flaming Justice Videos

And in the true spirit of this project, it would be incredible if we fully funded this project with only $50.00 contributions. That means we would need 4,400 people, which also means we would need friends and friends of friends.

Oh!…and write your congressmen.

1. U.S. Senate

• Visit: https://www.house.gov/representatives

• Use the search tool to find your Representative by ZIP code, then use the website links to email or call them directly.

If you’re interested in a protest gonzo or positive call to action t-shirt for your next protest look no further.

The QR code on this shirt takes you to a fun article with links to a place where your friends can write their congressmen just by scanning the code.

The protest shirt collection:

Threadless - Shirt Link

After Donald Trump declared he would refuse to sign any legislation until the SAVE America Act passes, members of United States Congress now face a defining moment to rise to the occasion and govern responsibly for the nation. There are moments in a nation’s life when the path forward asks more of its leaders than loyalty to a party or a personality. As the country moves deeper into the primary season, many Republicans are beginning to realize that tying their futures entirely to Donald Trump may not be the safe harbor it once seemed. Elections have a way of reminding public servants that their real responsibility is not to a single figure, but to the people and the Constitution that bind the country together.

Across towns and cities, Americans are hoping to see leaders rediscover a sense of courage that rises above political calculation. Members of Congress have an opportunity right now to show that service still matters. By questioning leadership decisions and engaging thoughtfully with colleagues across the aisle, even unseating Mike Johnson could become part of a broader conversation about restoring balance and responsibility in government.

Working together in a bipartisan spirit isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of love for the country. When Republicans and Democrats sit down and build guardrails that protect democratic institutions, they demonstrate to the world that the American system is strong enough to correct its course. That kind of leadership sends a powerful message not just to voters at home but to allies and friends around the globe who still look to the United States as a guiding light.

There is also a quiet truth about public service that every elected official eventually faces: life after Congress. The choices leaders make today shape how history remembers them tomorrow. Standing up for principle, showing independence, and putting the country first can earn a respect that lasts long after the campaign signs have been taken down and the votes have been counted.

Just as neighbors help one another in small mountain towns, our leaders can remember that the strength of America has always come from cooperation, honesty, and care for the common good. If Republicans choose to rise to that moment now, serving the nation before any individual, they may help guide the country toward calmer waters and remind us all what true leadership looks like.

In times like these, the most powerful thing a single person can do is speak up with kindness, conviction, and a love for this country that rises above anger. Reach out to your representatives in United States Congress, write a letter, make a call, or show up at a town hall and remind them that the American spirit is strongest when leaders work together. Support voices, Republican and Democrat alike, who are willing to stand up for principle, cooperation, and respect for the Constitution. Just like neighbors helping neighbors in a small mountain town, change begins when ordinary people decide the country they love is worth caring for, protecting, and singing about together.

We have started a Kickstarter project specifically designed to pull folks together.

Flaming Justice Videos

And in the true spirit of this project, it would be incredible if we fully funded this project with only $50.00 contributions. That means we would need 4,400 people, which also means we would need friends and friends of friends.

Oh!…and write your congressmen.

1. U.S. Senate

• Visit: https://www.house.gov/representatives

• Use the search tool to find your Representative by ZIP code, then use the website links to email or call them directly.

If you’re interested in a protest gonzo or positive call to action t-shirt for your next protest look no further.

The QR code on this shirt takes you to a fun article with links to a place where your friends can write their congressmen just by scanning the code.

The protest shirt collection:

Threadless - Shirt Link

There was something special about growing up in the mountains of Aspen in the 1970s and ’80s, a feeling that the whole world somehow found its way into one small valley. Great gatherings of ideas would bloom there each year, where thinkers, artists, dreamers, and neighbors sat side by side beneath the same blue sky. Places like the Aspen Physics Institute, the International Design Conference, and the hopeful gatherings of the Windstar Foundation invited people from across the globe to share ideas about culture, creativity, and the future. For the kids growing up there, it didn’t feel like a conference circuit, it felt like the whole world had come to town, and somehow we were part of the conversation.

In those days, young people weren’t just spectators. We were encouraged to listen, to ask questions, and sometimes just sit quietly in the back of the room absorbing the spirit of it all. The mountains seemed to echo with curiosity and possibility. The book Growing Up Aspen – Adventures of the Unsupervised captures that feeling through the eyes of the local kids who wandered through those moments, telling stories of a town where big ideas met small-town freedom. It’s a reminder that a community can become something magical when it invites the world in while still holding onto its own soul.

Part of that spirit came from the remarkable voices who called Aspen home. There was the warm optimism of John Denver, whose songs reminded us how precious the land and the people around us were, and the fearless, wild-eyed truth telling of Hunter S. Thompson, who believed citizens should never be afraid to question power. Growing up around influences like that left a mark. It taught us that music, words, and ideas could ripple outward from a small mountain town and touch people far beyond the valley.

Today, that same spirit is finding a new voice. Inspired by those old Aspen influences, a group of artists has begun writing and sharing music meant to remind people that creativity can still bring us together. Through a crowd-funded band called Flaming Justice, they’re crafting songs that invite folks to laugh, to think, and maybe even to breathe a little easier during the noise of another election season. It’s not about shouting louder than everyone else, it’s about lifting people up with a little melody and a little hope.

Maybe that’s the real lesson those mountains taught us all those years ago. Community doesn’t just happen in one special place, it can happen anywhere people choose to listen, share, and care about one another. If a small town in the Rockies could bring the world together for a moment of inspiration, then perhaps we can do it again today. So maybe it’s time to light the fire, sing a few songs, and remember that even in uncertain times, a little creativity and kindness can still help us find our way home.

There’s a new song rising from the hills, and it comes from the hearts of the artists behind Flaming Justice, a hopeful adventure built on the simple belief that music can still bring people together. If you feel moved by this journey, we’d be grateful for your support in whatever way your heart allows, whether that’s lending a hand, sharing the message, or simply sending a little encouragement our way. Their song American Martyrs is a soulful reflection on lives lost and the weight of power when it reaches too far, while Rise Up and Roar lifts its voice as an anthem reminding us that when we stand together, we’re stronger than any storm. Like the songs of John Denver once did, the hope is simple, to spark a little understanding, a little courage, and maybe even a smile as we find our way forward together.

We have started a Kickstarter project specifically designed to pull folks together.

Flaming Justice Videos

And in the true spirit of this project, it would be incredible if we fully funded this project with only $50.00 contributions. That means we would need 4,400 people, which also means we would need friends and friends of friends.

In the face of escalating political divisions that strain the fabric of our nation, the time has come to embrace the time-tested wisdom of small town communities as a remedy. These close-knit, interdependent networks exemplify the essence of mutual assistance, where residents support one another’s needs and endeavors. This model reminds us that a united country is forged through collaboration, not conflict. By focusing on common goals and shared well-being, we can channel the spirit of small town camaraderie to mend the fractures in our national unity.

So much of our division is do to change in our towns, so much growth. I grew up in the small mountain town of Aspen Colorado during the 70’s and 80’s. Before my group of friends came to Aspen there were the Ute Indians then the miners, after them the ranchers, and after that the professional and amateur ski bums. Change is natural and comes with the passing of time. In my time Aspen was a place where the haves sat side by side with the have nots and enjoyed their company and most of all a helping hand.

The strength of the United States lies not in the clashing of opposing ideologies, but in the harmonious convergence of diverse viewpoints working towards a collective vision. Just as small town residents recognize that helping each other elevates the entire community, our country must understand that fostering a culture of cooperation and compromise makes us formidable on the global stage. Struggles are best overcome when tackled together, and embracing this ethos can mend the torn fabric of our society.

One of Aspen’s founding families the Paepcke’s had a vision for Aspen and its magical views. They came to Aspen to develop a place where international and local mindsets can converge in an inspiring natural environment. A place where top minds and talent can play on the ski slopes or hiking trails up places like Maroon Bells. It was groups like the Aspen Institute, Aspen Center for Physics and the Aspen Music Festival designed to bring folks from around the world together and inspire each other.

By adopting the lessons of small town cooperation, we can shift the narrative from a nation divided to a nation united in its diversity. Just as the strength of a bridge is in the sum of its individual components, the power of the United States lies in the unity of its people. Let us draw inspiration from the resilience of small town communities, recognizing that it is through lifting each other up that we secure a brighter and more harmonious future for our country.

Change is inevitable folks are always looking for something better. The issue for Aspen is that the millionaires were bought out by the billionaire and now they have been bought out by the gazillionaires. The truth is can Aspen and small towns like Aspen hold on to their Norman Rockwell style community? The answer seems to be when the folks of today work with the folks of the past. A small town’s brand built by the Paepcke’s and has changed through time might have a chance. That chance is held by every individual that lives in that small town. Small town’s are special and that is why so many folks leave the big city congestion for the comfort of these small towns.

The book Growing Up Aspen - Adventures of the Unsupervised is a back stage pass to the show called Aspen. Changes of the past can influence changes in the future, we must live and learn. Small towns have a way of shaping one’s soul. In this book you will learn about some of Aspen’s amazing characters that influenced it’s children, and shaped who they are today.

There’s a quiet kind of strength that used to live in the heart of the Republican Party, the steady, grounded voices of folks who believed in service over spectacle, country over chaos. The spirit of leaders who understood that democracy isn’t a weapon, it’s a responsibility. And now, maybe more than ever, that spirit is being called back home. It doesn’t take a crowd, just a handful, fifteen steady hands willing to reach across the aisle and remember what this country was built on. It’s time to challenge Mike Johnson.

Because somewhere along the way, we forgot that progress isn’t born from shouting matches or chest-thumping bravado, it comes from people sitting down together, listening, and doing the hard work of building something better. Some parts of our government have grown tired, worn from time, and in need of renewal. But renewal doesn’t come from tearing it all down, it comes from care, cooperation, and the courage to update what no longer serves us.

And while the noise grows louder, the truth remains simple: we were taught this long ago. Three equal branches, balanced like a well-played chord, each with its place, each with its purpose. These aren’t complicated ideas, they’re the foundation. Yet here we are, spending precious time and resources relearning lessons we once sang about, as if the melody had been forgotten.

The real cost isn’t just measured in dollars spent on court battles that seem to circle endlessly, it’s measured in trust, in time lost. In opportunities missed while things stall instead of move forward. But even in that stillness, there’s a chance, a moment to choose a different path, one that doesn’t lean into division, but rises above it.

Imagine what could happen if those willing few chose unity over division, if Republicans and Democrats alike set aside the noise and worked not as rivals, but as caretakers of something shared and sacred. There’s a quiet power in that kind of coming together, like voices in harmony, each different but stronger as one.

Because in the end, this country has always found its way not through force, but through balance, through people who believed enough in each other to try. And maybe now is one of those moments again, where we draw our lines not in anger, but in purpose, standing together where justice lives, and gently, firmly, begin the work of finding our way back home.

There’s a sense that both Republicans(Ronald Reagan, John McCain, George W. Bush) and Democrats are beginning to quietly step away from the hard edges of MAGA(Epstein) politics, like travelers realizing the road they’re on no longer leads home. For some Republicans, it’s a return to steadier ground, principles rooted in governance, not grievance, while Democrats, too, are recognizing that lasting progress comes from meeting in the middle, not shouting across the divide. If that splintering continues, it could open space for something more balanced and thoughtful to grow, where leaders from both sides choose country over faction, and begin the slow, necessary work of rebuilding trust and purpose together.

Maybe the most powerful thing a citizen can do right now is return to the quiet, steady work of participation, stay informed, vote in every election no matter how small, and support leaders who choose cooperation over conflict. Reach out to your representatives, not with anger but with clear purpose, reminding them who they serve. Talk with neighbors, even those you disagree with, and rebuild that sense of shared ground. Real change doesn’t always arrive like a storm, sometimes it grows like a garden, tended day by day by people who still believe this country is worth the care.

We have started a Kickstarter project specifically designed to pull folks together.

Flaming Justice Videos

And in the true spirit of this project, it would be incredible if we fully funded this project with only $50.00 contributions. That means we would need 4,400 people, which also means we would need friends and friends of friends.

Oh!…and write your congressmen.

1. U.S. Senate

• Visit: https://www.house.gov/representatives

• Use the search tool to find your Representative by ZIP code, then use the website links to email or call them directly.

2. U.S. House of Representatives

• Visit: https://www.house.gov/representatives

• Use the search tool to find your Representative by ZIP code, then use the website links to email or call them directly.

If you’re interested in a protest gonzo or positive call to action t-shirt for your next protest look no further.

The QR code on this shirt takes you to a fun article with links to a place where your friends can write their congressmen just by scanning the code.

The protest shirt collection:

Threadless - Shirt Link

I’ve spent years in marketing, watching trends rise and fall like quick summer storms, but somewhere along the way I realized I’d missed something older and truer, the natural rhythm of things. Not the algorithm, not the campaign cycle, but the quiet laws of life: seed, germination, flower. That realization pulled me back to Growing Up Aspen - Adventures of the Unsupervised, a story rooted in experience rather than spectacle. It felt like planting something real after years of tending plastic gardens.

From there came the leap into a YouTube podcast, Growing Up Aspen, a place to wander through memory and meaning, to ask what comes next when you stop chasing noise and start listening to the wind. And what I found was a strange hunger in the culture: kids lining up to be influencers without the soil of experience beneath their feet. Influence, I realized, isn’t something you declare, it’s something you earn by living, by stumbling, by paying attention long enough to have something worth saying.

We’ve drifted a long way from keeping up with the Kardashians, or maybe we’ve just grown tired of the chase. There’s a deeper story waiting now, one shaped by people who’ve lived a little, who’ve seen both the sunrise and the storm. That’s when I started looking back to voices like Hunter S. Thompson and John Denver on Substack, two sides of the same mountain, really. One wild and electric, the other grounded and clear as a Colorado sky. The yin and yang of Aspen parenting in the ’70s and ’80s, where freedom and responsibility danced together in a way that shaped a generation.

And somewhere in that balance, the next step revealed itself, not as a product, but as a purpose. In the spirit of those voices, we decided to create something that gives more than it takes: crowd-funded, politically positive, gonzo-style Flaming Justice music videos that any 2026 campaign can use for free. Not attack ads, not empty slogans, but stories and songs that remind people what they’re fighting for, not just what they’re fighting against.

Because the future, like a garden, grows best when it’s shared. If we can bring a little harmony back into the noise, blend the honesty of lived experience with the creative spark of new tools, then maybe we can help something better take root. Not just in politics, but in the way we tell our stories, raise our voices, and remember who we are when the cameras are off and the mountains are still.

The future doesn’t come roaring in like a jet engine over the Rockies; it arrives more like a changing season, gentle but unmistakable. It’s a hybrid road we’re walking now, where the old skills still matter, the ones handed down by calloused hands and quiet teachers, and they find new life when paired with new tools. Tradition isn’t being buried; it’s being rewired, tuned up, and asked to sing in a new key. The melodies we know still guide us, even as the instruments change.

Artificial intelligence, for all its flashing promise, isn’t here to replace the human voice in the choir. It’s more like a harmony line, something that can lift what you already know how to do and carry it a little farther down the valley. The real art won’t be in surrendering our work to machines, but in learning how to let them help us see clearer, work smarter, and leave more room for the things that make us human. A tool, after all, is only as good as the hands and heart guiding it.

Survival in this next chapter won’t come from speed alone, but from balance and flow. If you spend your days staring into glowing rectangles, phones, computers, tablets, then your soul is going to need equal time in the daylight. You’ve got to move your body, breathe real air, and feel the ground under your feet. Progress that forgets the body eventually forgets the person.

There’s wisdom in a chess game played on a park bench with an old man who doesn’t speak your language, where every move is a quiet conversation beyond words. There’s truth in a long hike through the woods where the only algorithm is the rhythm of your breath and the trail unfolding ahead. These moments aren’t escapes from the future; they’re training for it, reminders of how to listen, observe, and be present.

Our future, if we’re gentle enough with it, is about learning to live fully in both worlds at once. The physical and the virtual don’t have to compete, they can lean on each other, like old friends watching the sunset. When we learn to carry our screens lightly and our humanity proudly, we’ll find that the road ahead still feels like home, wide open and full of song.

There will always be trolls hitching a ride on the newest piece of technology, rattling the windows and trying to steer us off the road, but that’s just part of the journey we’ve always known. The answer isn’t to chain the engine or argue with the noise, but for the creative folks to slide into the driver’s seat and set a better course. When artists, builders, teachers, and dreamers lead with intention, these tools stop being weapons and start becoming instruments, played for connection, kindness, and shared growth. If we use them to tell truer stories, lift quieter voices, and remind one another of our common ground, the road ahead opens wide enough for all of us to prosper, together.

We have started a Kickstarter project specifically designed to pull folks together.

Flaming Justice Videos

And in the true spirit of this project, it would be incredible if we fully funded this project with only $50.00 contributions. That means we would need 4,400 people, which also means we would need friends and friends of friends. So glad to see CJ form both my Portland and Aspen family as our first sponsor. Who’s next to step up and help a great cause?

Oh!…and write your congressmen.

1. U.S. Senate

• Visit: https://www.house.gov/representatives

• Use the search tool to find your Representative by ZIP code, then use the website links to email or call them directly.

2. U.S. House of Representatives

• Visit: https://www.house.gov/representatives

• Use the search tool to find your Representative by ZIP code, then use the website links to email or call them directly.

If you’re interested in a protest gonzo or positive call to action t-shirt for your next protest look no further.

The QR code on this shirt takes you to a fun article with links to a place where your friends can write their congressmen just by scanning the code.

The protest shirt collection:

Threadless - Shirt Link

When MTV aired “Ain’t Gonna Play Sun City,” it wasn’t just a song, it was a moral weather change. Young people saw the line between their money and someone else’s suffering, and they stepped back from the counter. Market share shrank, profit margins thinned, and suddenly apartheid wasn’t just immoral, it was bad business. That generation learned something powerful: you don’t always need permission from government when you can move the conscience of commerce.

Across college campuses, shantytowns rose like rough-hewn hymns to justice, built with cardboard, courage, and a stubborn sense of right and wrong. Weeks turned into months, and the demonstrations never quite went away, they sang, they educated, they refused to be ignored. Corporations felt it first, long before politicians did, because money listens even when power pretends not to. Divestment wasn’t symbolic; it was structural, and it worked.

U.S. corporations pulling out of South Africa helped loosen the grip of apartheid more effectively than speeches ever could. Governments hesitated, hedged, and negotiated, but corporations moved when the costs became clear. That’s the lesson history keeps offering us: when markets are guided by ethics instead of excuses, change accelerates. Nelson Mandela didn’t walk free because people stayed quiet; he walked free because people refused to buy comfort at the price of cruelty.

We may be standing at a similar crossroads now, where corporations once again need reminding that they operate by public grace, not divine right. International pressure, from allies, from consumers, from the EU tightening footprints and reminding executives that tariffs and reputational damage are not good for business, can still move mountains. A nation that claims to be among the world’s leading democracies cannot normalize violence in public streets or policies that fracture communities without consequences.

So maybe it’s time for companies tied to harmful systems to consider divestment the way America once did in South Africa. It isn’t punishment, it’s accountability. History shows that when corporations are motivated to protect people instead of just profit, they can help bend a country back toward its better self. And if anyone doubts that market pressure works, they might want to ask Elon Musk, or better yet, listen to the old songs that already told us how.

A U.S. citizen can help by remembering that every dollar is a quiet vote and every choice carries a little bit of the country’s future with it. Support companies that respect human rights, withdraw your money from those that don’t, and let them know why, politely, clearly, and together with others. Show up in your communities, talk with neighbors, sing the old songs of justice in new ways, and remind leaders and corporations alike that this nation is at its strongest when ordinary people choose conscience over convenience and hope over silence.

We have started a Kickstarter project specifically designed to pull folks together.

Flaming Justice Videos

And in the true spirit of this project, it would be incredible if we fully funded this project with only $50.00 contributions. That means we would need 4,400 people, which also means we would need friends and friends of friends. So glad to see CJ form both my Portland and Aspen family as our first sponsor. Who’s next to step up and help a great cause?

Oh!…and write your congressmen.

1. U.S. Senate

• Visit: https://www.house.gov/representatives

• Use the search tool to find your Representative by ZIP code, then use the website links to email or call them directly.

2. U.S. House of Representatives

• Visit: https://www.house.gov/representatives

• Use the search tool to find your Representative by ZIP code, then use the website links to email or call them directly.

If you’re interested in a protest gonzo or positive call to action t-shirt for your next protest look no further.

The QR code on this shirt takes you to a fun article with links to a place where your friends can write their congressmen just by scanning the code.

The protest shirt collection:

Threadless - Shirt Link

Late-stage capitalism doesn’t arrive with a bang; it drifts in quietly, like a beautiful valley slowly stripped of its topsoil. The first warning sign wasn’t technology, it was dignity. When honest work became something corporations tried to shave, outsource, or replace, not because people failed but because profit demanded it. Communities were told this was efficiency, but it felt more like a slow forgetting of who does the work that keeps the lights on and the roads clear.

Now comes artificial intelligence, the newest verse in an old song, and it’s tempting to aim our anger at the machine. But machines don’t dictate intrinsic values, people do. AI could be a tool to lift human creativity, to ease burdens, to open space for creativty, care, and invention. Instead, too many CEOs see it as a shortcut to cutting people loose so margins look prettier on a quarterly call. That choice isn’t technological destiny; it’s moral convenience.

A healthy economy has many measures, like a landscape seen from different angles. The stock market may rise like a summer cloud, but GDP, unemployment, inflation, and interest rates tell the deeper story of whether people can breathe easy. When governments start obscuring those numbers or sanding down the truth, it’s like covering cracks in a dam with paint. You don’t fix the problem, you just delay the flood.

What hurts most is that none of this is inevitable. Talent doesn’t need replacing; it needs respecting. Brands don’t need stripping for parts; they need stewardship. When leadership chooses profit over people, they aren’t innovating, they’re extracting, leaving towns hollowed out while celebrating in distant boardrooms and mountain mansions.

So don’t blame the machine humming in the server room. Blame the hands on the levers who forgot that an economy is made of people, not spreadsheets. If we want a future worth singing about, it starts with holding leaders accountable, demanding transparency, and remembering that prosperity without humanity is just a quiet kind of loss. Boycotts are the next step to resetting this corporate mindset.

From the far hills and open skies, the global markets are watching America like a once-beloved song played a little too loud and a little too fast, wondering if the business mindset that prized quarterly gain over human harmony is something they want echoing through their own valleys; the world sees brands born of hope and ingenuity now grinding against the grain of their own culture, and it asks, can these American names still sing of fairness, stewardship, and shared prosperity, or have they forgotten the tune?

If they’re to survive the outcry, it won’t be through louder profits but gentler practices, and American consumers can help by choosing companies that treat workers like neighbors, land like a gift, and customers like family, buying with care, speaking with kindness, and reminding American business that its truest success has always been measured not just in dollars, but in the way it makes people feel at home.

We have started a Kickstarter project specifically designed to pull folks together.

Flaming Justice Videos

And in the true spirit of this project, it would be incredible if we fully funded this project with only $50.00 contributions. That means we would need 4,400 people, which also means we would need friends and friends of friends. So glad to see CJ form both my Portland and Aspen family as our first sponsor. Who’s next to step up and help a great cause?

Oh!…and write your congressmen.

1. U.S. Senate

• Visit: https://www.house.gov/representatives

• Use the search tool to find your Representative by ZIP code, then use the website links to email or call them directly.

2. U.S. House of Representatives

• Visit: https://www.house.gov/representatives

• Use the search tool to find your Representative by ZIP code, then use the website links to email or call them directly.

If you’re interested in a protest gonzo or positive call to action t-shirt for your next protest look no further.

The QR code on this shirt takes you to a fun article with links to a place where your friends can write their congressmen just by scanning the code.

The protest shirt collection:

Threadless - Shirt Link

Watching the original Inherit the Wind today feels less like revisiting a historical drama and more like tuning into a familiar argument that’s simply changed its wardrobe. What was once framed as evolution versus creationism now echoes in debates over science, technology, and trust, where certainty is demanded and complexity is treated with suspicion. The film’s courtroom becomes a timeless arena where fear of the new collides with the slow, patient work of understanding.

Seen through contemporary eyes, the parallels are hard to miss. The resistance to evolution in the film wasn’t really about fossils or textbooks; it was about anxiety over a future arriving too fast. Today’s skepticism toward advanced science, whether it’s CRISPR, mRNA, or other technologies that sound like science fiction, comes from a similar place. These innovations didn’t appear overnight; they are the result of decades of cumulative research, just as evolutionary theory was. Inherit the Wind reminds us that scientific progress often looks threatening before it looks ordinary.

Each generation brings its own questions to the film. Older viewers may recognize the cyclical nature of cultural panic, having lived through previous moments when new ideas were branded dangerous simply because they were unfamiliar. Younger audiences, raised in a world shaped by rapid technological change, may see how easily public figures can oversimplify complex science into slogans that travel faster than facts. The lesson isn’t blind faith in science, but respect for the process that gets us there.

What the film ultimately argues, quietly but firmly, is that rejecting knowledge doesn’t stop the future; it only leaves people unprepared for it. The tragedy of Matthew Brady isn’t that he believes, but that he refuses to listen. Henry Drummond’s victory isn’t humiliation, but preservation: the idea that curiosity itself deserves protection. That lesson lands with renewed force in an era where confidence often substitutes for comprehension.

This is where cinema shows its lasting power. By dramatizing yesterday’s battles, Inherit the Wind gives us a framework for understanding today’s conflicts without shouting instructions. As Roger Ebert might suggest, the film doesn’t tell us what to think, it shows us what happens when thinking is put on trial. In doing so, it proves that the past, carefully revisited, remains one of the most effective tools we have for navigating the future.

I am dedicating this article to Aspen’s tech parent Nick DeWolf!

We have started a Kickstarter project specifically designed to pull folks together.

Flaming Justice Videos

And in the true spirit of this project, it would be incredible if we fully funded this project with only $50.00 contributions. That means we would need 4,400 people, which also means we would need friends and friends of friends. So glad to see CJ form both my Portland and Aspen family as our first sponsor. Who’s next to step up and help a great cause?

Oh!…and write your congressmen.

1. U.S. Senate

• Visit: https://www.house.gov/representatives

• Use the search tool to find your Representative by ZIP code, then use the website links to email or call them directly.

2. U.S. House of Representatives

• Visit: https://www.house.gov/representatives

• Use the search tool to find your Representative by ZIP code, then use the website links to email or call them directly.

If you’re interested in a protest gonzo or positive call to action t-shirt for your next protest look no further.

The QR code on this shirt takes you to a fun article with links to a place where your friends can write their congressmen just by scanning the code.

The protest shirt collection:

Threadless - Shirt Link

There’s a quiet power in choosing where you place your trust and your dollars, the same way you choose which road to take home when the sun is setting just right. Boycotting corporations tied to exploitation or cruelty doesn’t start with anger, it starts with awareness. Learn which companies profit from systems that harm people, whether through silence, contracts, or convenience, and let that knowledge guide your everyday choices. Each small decision becomes a note in a larger song about dignity and care.

Restructuring your life doesn’t mean hardship; it often means rediscovering community. Shop local when you can, support cooperatives, farmers’ markets, and small businesses that know your name and your values. When money stays close to home, it feeds families instead of faceless balance sheets, and it reminds corporations that people aren’t numbers, they’re neighbors. The more we lean into human-scale living, the less control distant power has over our lives.

Another part of survival is sharing the story gently but clearly. Talk with friends and family about why you’re making different choices, not to shame, but to invite. Change spreads best when it feels like an open door instead of a clenched fist. Music, art, and conversation can carry truth farther than slogans ever could, and they help keep hearts open while minds are waking up.

It’s also important to support organizations and journalists who shine light into dark places with care and integrity. A small monthly donation, a shared article, or showing up to a local event helps keep truth alive and accessible. When corporations feel public attention shifting, not just outrage, but sustained moral focus, they begin to understand that their brand lives or dies by the trust of ordinary people.

In the end, this kind of boycott is really an act of hope. It’s choosing compassion over convenience and believing that decency still has a market. By living more simply, spending more thoughtfully, and standing together in quiet resolve, people on the street begin to feel seen, and companies begin to feel the gentle but unmovable pressure of a public that remembers what it means to care for one another.

In a world that feels loud with anger and thin on hope, supporting projects like Flaming Justice is a small, human way to help bring the music back to the conversation. A simple $50 contribution isn’t just about funding a song or a project, it’s about choosing harmony over noise, community over isolation, and inspiration over despair. Music has always been how people remember who they are and what they stand for, and when we help it grow, we help give voice to a future that’s kinder, braver, and still worth singing about.

We have started a Kickstarter project specifically designed to pull folks together.

Flaming Justice Videos

Oh!…and write your congressmen.

1. U.S. Senate

• Visit: https://www.house.gov/representatives

• Use the search tool to find your Representative by ZIP code, then use the website links to email or call them directly.

2. U.S. House of Representatives

• Visit: https://www.house.gov/representatives

• Use the search tool to find your Representative by ZIP code, then use the website links to email or call them directly.

If you’re interested in a protest gonzo or positive call to action t-shirt for your next protest look no further.

The QR code on this shirt takes you to a fun article with links to a place where your friends can write their congressmen just by scanning the code.

The protest shirt collection:

Threadless - Shirt Link

What happens, Congress, when an agency born in the smoke and fear of 9/11 slowly drifts from its narrow mission and begins to feel like something else entirely? ICE was never meant to be a roaming police force, never meant to pull people over like highway patrol or knock on doors without warrants, never meant to live in the shadows of everyday life. When power grows without clear boundaries, history tells us it doesn’t grow quietly, it grows hungry, and it grows reckless.

What happens when a president starts to imagine that force as his force, a kind of private instrument tuned to fear rather than law? When the badge stops answering to courts and statutes and starts listening only to the voice at the top, the music of democracy goes off-key. We’ve seen this song before in other countries, and it always starts softly, with justifications about safety and order, before the harmony breaks and neighbors no longer trust the sound of boots on their own streets.

And what happens if that force is set against the states themselves, against National Guards sworn to protect their own people, against state police bound by local laws and constitutions? That’s not security, that’s collision. That’s federal power crashing into state sovereignty, tearing at the delicate fabric that’s held this wide, complicated country together for generations. You don’t get unity from force; you get fractures.

ICE was designed to serve warrants, to operate within clear legal lines, not to become the largest roaming police presence in America. When traffic stops replace court orders, and intimidation replaces due process, the rule of law begins to erode from the inside out. Congress has to ask itself: if laws only matter when they’re convenient, what exactly are we asking our citizens to believe in anymore?

So I’m asking, gently but firmly, what future are we choosing? A nation where power is shared, balanced, and accountable, or one where fear is centralized and turned inward on its own people? America has always been at its best when it remembers that freedom isn’t enforced at the barrel of authority, but protected by trust, restraint, and a deep respect for the humanity of everyone who calls this land home. No more funding for ICE until we get accountability.

An individual can help shift the fight over ICE funding by aiming their energy where money and legitimacy actually flow: vote in primaries and general elections with the federal budget in mind, call and email representatives regularly about appropriations bills (staff track volume), support and donate to civil-rights groups that litigate and document abuses, and pressure corporations, cities, and universities to adopt policies that refuse contracts or cooperation tied to funding enforcement overreach. Cancel or redirect spending from companies that bankroll or profit from detention and enforcement, amplify verified reporting and court findings so the debate stays grounded in facts, show up to peaceful town halls and budget hearings, and help neighbors with know-your-rights education, because when citizens organize their votes, voices, and wallets together, funding priorities change.

We have started a Kickstarter project specifically designed to pull folks together.

Flaming Justice Videos

And in the true spirit of this project, it would be incredible if we fully funded this project with only $50.00 contributions. That means we would need 4,400 people, which also means we would need friends and friends of friends. So glad to see CJ form both my Portland and Aspen family as our first sponsor. Who’s next to step up and help a great cause?

Oh!…and write your congressmen.

1. U.S. Senate

• Visit: https://www.house.gov/representatives

• Use the search tool to find your Representative by ZIP code, then use the website links to email or call them directly.

2. U.S. House of Representatives

• Visit: https://www.house.gov/representatives

• Use the search tool to find your Representative by ZIP code, then use the website links to email or call them directly.

If you’re interested in a protest gonzo or positive call to action t-shirt for your next protest look no further.

The QR code on this shirt takes you to a fun article with links to a place where your friends can write their congressmen just by scanning the code.

The protest shirt collection:

Threadless - Shirt Link

There was a time when movies traveled a long road to reach us: test screenings, regional rollouts, word of mouth building like a slow-burning fuse. The old studio system, for all its flaws, still believed, at least nominally, in the theatrical experience as a communal act. Today, that road has been paved over by streaming platforms that drop films into our living rooms like fast food, optimized for clicks rather than contemplation. The question is no longer when a movie opens, but how long before it disappears into the algorithmic fog.

Modern studios increasingly rely on data-driven formulas that resemble weather forecasts more than artistic judgment. Characters are adjusted, runtimes shaved, endings softened, not because the story demands it, but because the algorithm suggests “viewer retention” might improve by 3%. This is cinema as market research, films engineered to offend no one and therefore move no one. They are smooth, frictionless, and instantly forgettable, like background music in an airport terminal.

Meanwhile, independent creators are doing what filmmakers have always done best: telling the truth as they see it. These stories don’t come from spreadsheets; they come from sidewalks, apartments, protests, kitchens, and hospital waiting rooms. They may be rough around the edges, but so is life. These films feel alive because they are responding to reality, not trying to outmaneuver it. They don’t ask whether an audience will like them, they ask whether the story needs to be told.

Streaming has democratized access, yes, but it has also flattened distinction. A deeply personal film and a disposable franchise entry now sit side by side, differentiated only by thumbnail art and autoplay timing. Discovery is no longer guided by curiosity or criticism, but by invisible systems nudging viewers toward what is “similar to what you watched.” This is not curation; it is sedation. It teaches audiences to consume rather than engage.

And yet, cinema survives, as it always does, in the margins and the margins are where innovation thrives. The future of movies will not be decided by boardrooms alone, but by filmmakers willing to resist polish in favor of purpose, and by audiences willing to seek out stories that challenge rather than comfort. Movies, at their best, are arguments with the world. When they stop arguing, when they only reassure, they stop mattering, and no algorithm can fix that.

Watching the modern entertainment landscape, I’m reminded that mergers and acquisitions rarely speak the language of imagination; they speak instead in balance sheets, and the creative pipeline suffers accordingly. When decision-making collapses into fewer and fewer corporate hands, risk becomes taboo, and the next generation of filmmakers is quietly locked out. This is precisely the moment when artists with stature, Woody Harrelson, Kevin Costner, Robert Downey Jr., Brad Pitt, should do what their predecessors once did: step outside the machinery and build something new. United Artists was born not from nostalgia, but necessity, when Chaplin, Pickford, Fairbanks, and Griffith understood that creative freedom required structural independence. As technology redraws the frontier of cinema yet again, the responsibility shifts to today’s creatives to open doors, fund ideas that don’t fit algorithms, and pass the baton forward, because film history shows us that when artists control their destiny, the art itself learns how to breathe again. In todays world Ai is just another tool but creativity is where the magic will always lie. It is now up to the creatives to drive movies into the future not technology.

Aspen kids talking about their experiences in the entertainment industry!

Growing Up Aspen – Movie Chat

When the leader of a country begins to speak more fiction than fact, the fragile web of trust that binds a nation frays and starts to unravel like an old guitar string. In Minneapolis this year, the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent, widely captured on multiple phone cameras and distributed across the internet, became a stark moment of truth versus official narrative. Federal officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and others, offered statements about the incident that conflicted with what the videos show, raising deep questions about honesty and accountability at the highest levels of government.

Americans from all walks of life have been left watching, not just to see what happened, but how it was explained. Minnesota’s Attorney General and local officials have described the use of force as something vastly different from the early federal accounts, and Democratic leaders in Congress have called for full, transparent investigations. But instead of a clear joint inquiry into what really happened, state investigators were pushed aside as federal agencies took control of evidence and access, creating a perception, whether intentional or not, that truth was being wrapped in bureaucratic fog, another cover up.

This is not just about one tragic death. It has become a larger reflection of how fact and fiction are wrestled over in public discourse. Across the country, citizens are asking whether major news networks, many of them owned by large conglomerates through mergers and acquisitions, are offering straightforward information or controlled messaging. When media consolidation reduces the variety of voices, it becomes harder for everyday people to find unvarnished facts. That’s why independent journalists and platforms like Substack have become so vital; they provide a place where information can be examined closely, not filtered through corporate interests.

At the same time, real grassroots energy is building among communities that feel their trust has been strained. People have begun to evaluate where they spend their money and whose values they support because actions, both by public officials and private companies, matter in ways that affect everyday life. Whether it’s a hotel chain hosting large federal enforcement operations, or a news outlet shaping a narrative, or a building supply store letting kidnappings happen to folks in their parking lots, citizens increasingly believe that accountability must be shared by all who play a part in public life.

Ultimately, trust is something earned through steady, transparent actions grounded in respect for truth and human dignity corporate brands blurring the lines will suffer the consequences of their own actions. It can’t be declared with a press release or buried in legal language. When people see discrepancies between official claims and recorded reality, and when those in power circle the wagons instead of opening the doors, trust erodes. The good people of this country, from Minneapolis to Maine and beyond, are reminding us all that honesty and openness are the foundations of a healthy democracy, and that it is up to “we the people” to insist on them with every vote, every phone call, and every day we choose to stand up for what is real and just.

We have started a Kickstarter project specifically designed to pull folks together.

Flaming Justice Videos

And in the true spirit of this project, it would be incredible if we fully funded this project with only $50.00 contributions. That means we would need 4,400 people, which also means we would need friends and friends of friends. So glad to see CJ form both my Portland and Aspen family as our first sponsor. Who’s next to step up and help a great cause?

Oh!…and write your congressmen.

1. U.S. Senate

• Visit: https://www.house.gov/representatives

• Use the search tool to find your Representative by ZIP code, then use the website links to email or call them directly.

2. U.S. House of Representatives

• Visit: https://www.house.gov/representatives

• Use the search tool to find your Representative by ZIP code, then use the website links to email or call them directly.

If you’re interested in a protest gonzo or positive call to action t-shirt for your next protest look no further.

The QR code on this shirt takes you to a fun article with links to a place where your friends can write their congressmen just by scanning the code.

The protest shirt collection:

Threadless - Shirt Link