A concerned citizen left a copy of the July 7 Aspen City Council work session DVD under her doormat for me to pick up in the dark of night last week. She’d more or less hyped the DVD as “The City Council Goes Nuts Again on its Citizens and Ignores Requests for a Clear-the-Air Burlingame Town Hall Meeting.” The GrassRoots TV-produced DVD actually turned out to be more like “Comedy Central, Aspen Style.”
For example, City Councilman Jack Johnson sarcastically joked at one point that Mayor Mick Ireland should “be held responsible” for every decision that’s “ever been made.” Mayor Mick himself later joked, “I know I will be criminally prosecuted” for stating an opinion. Both references alluded to the city’s Burlingame subsidy debacle that if you want to learn more about, just Google “Burlingame” or “debacle” with an “Aspen” in there somewhere.
A certain type of comedy stimulates the viewer to let his or her creativity romp around a bit and create their own imaginary scenes and scenarios. Once again, Mayor Mick played the funny-man role by sporting an “Obama ’08” sweatshirt right there, front and center, with maximum face time, on GrassRoots TV. The first question that arises is: Were all of Mayor Mick’s shirts so smelly with bicycle sweat that this was the only clean piece of upper-body clothing he possessed? If so, couldn’t he have just worn the thing backward so that the “Obama ’08” wording didn’t show? The way Mayor Mick usually dresses, nobody would have known the difference and he would not have invited the next question: “Is the City Council endorsing Obama for president and is it OK for the city to use taxpayer money to pay GrassRoots to televise meetings that promote one political candidate over another?” Maybe the city should investigate that one.
OK. Aspen now knows Mayor Mick and presumably the entire City Council wants everyone to vote for Barack Obama. What does that mean to you, an Aspen citizen who might want to speak at a City Council meeting? Will raised hands now be ignored in favor of citizens who thrust “Obama ’08” signs into the air? Will Mayor Mick recognize the Obama crowd first? If so, council chambers could soon come to resemble the floor of the Democratic National Convention, complete with funny hats, kazoos and confetti raining down from the ceiling. Is this the direction Mayor Mick is taking City Council proceedings? And to think, it all started with either a Barack Obama sweatshirt or a bunch of bike shirts too sweaty to wear.
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Here’s another nugget to mine in the Aspen vein and it starts with yet another question. The question is a variation of “If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is there, does it make a sound?” The “Comedy Central, Aspen Style” question asks: “If a rumor floats around town but nobody hears it, is it really a rumor?”
The city addressed the alleged rumor in the first of a series of Q&A newspaper ads when it asked whether Burlingame “is a half billion dollar mistake.”
Just about everyone who read the half-billion-dollar reference in the ad went, “Huh? Where did that $500 million come from? Is it a misprint?”
Turns out the $500 million reference was apparently lifted, twisted and misquoted from a blog by KNFO talk-show host Michael Conniff.
On his Web site at aspenpost.net Conniff responds to the ad and states, “I never said Burlingame was a $500 million debacle.”
Conniff explains where the $500 million figure came from on his Web site. As for other Aspen rumors, it looks like the city is always looking for a good one. Feel free so send them in as letters to the editor but make sure they are clearly labeled as “Rumor” or “Comedy Central, Aspen style.”
Lynn Burton is night editor for the Aspen Daily News. He can be reached at lburton@aspendailynews.com.
Comments
Council Comedy
Okay, I confess. I left the wrong DVD under the doormat.
But I have so many DVD's of bizarre episodes of Council meetings, it’s hard to keep them properly archived!
Check under the doormat for the episode on the wacky reasons we should not have a public meeting to discuss Burlingame.
Marilyn