Editor

The Making of A Magazine

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By Mike Rosso It occurred to me only this morning that the previous issue of Colorado Central marked my 10th anniversary of purchasing this magazine from Ed and Martha Quillen. I took the helm in March 2009, making this my 111th issue! I’m trying to wrap my head around that fact but wanted to take …

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Growth

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By Mike Rosso In the last issue, we ran a theme of “snow” in the hopes it might help to bring about some of the white stuff to the neighborhood. Well, it worked. As I write this, there are at least 4-5 fresh inches outside the window, and that’s coming on top of three other …

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Snow Business

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By Mike Rosso For this combined January/February issue, I thought we’d engage in a little wishful thinking. As of this writing (Dec. 29), the Upper Arkansas River Basin is at 108 percent of average snowpack, the Gunnison Basin is at 90 percent and the Upper Rio Grande Basin is at 66 percent of average. My …

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About the Cover Photographer: Greg Smith

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It started back in kindergarten.

Greg Smith discovered show and tell. He learned everyone has a story. He learned shapes, forms, lines, light, shadow, color and movement are the building blocks of visual storytelling.

He fell in love with visually distinct places – his family’s suburban home in the Maryland woods, the beach, the mountains, their friends’ farm, streams, even concrete canyons.

He also saw how quickly moments pass and how visual elements define them.

Greg grew into an award-winning photographer and producer, a meticulous editor, and a widely published writer about topics ranging from water, the environment and breaking news to technology, copyright and photography business practices. He pursued a career as a photojournalist and editor in Oklahoma, Kansas and Telluride. He eventually settled in South Carolina. There, he and his writer/editor wife, Janet, reared three children on the banks – and in – the tidal May River, not far from Hilton Head Island.

For nearly two decades, he paddled that river and its marshes, photographing wildlife, changing tides and a developing shoreline. He helped launch several publications, and his pictures hung in local galleries, earning him top awards at the Honey Horn Art Market on Hilton Head Island, several one-man shows and inclusion in Charleston’s Southeast Wildlife Expo. In 2009, he released “Keeping the May River Wild.” It screened at five film festivals, earning a national Best of ASMP award and SC-ETV’s Southern Lens award.

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20 Years

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Welcome to the 20th anniversary issue of Colorado Central Magazine. This is the 238th copy to roll off the presses, and with a little luck, we’ll be in the 400s in another 20 years.

But who would have thought, back in 1994, that news delivery would be impacted to such a degree by computers and electronic media? Back then, I was discovering the wonders of a Mac Centris 610 computer, but I never would have conceived that 20 years later, a small handheld device called an iPhone would have thousands of times more processor speed – and function as a camera, cell phone, internet device, etc.

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Smoke on the Horizon

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By Mike Rosso

Forest fires are on most everyone’s minds in Colorado’s mountain communities right now. When thick, acrid clouds of smoke settled on Salida this past week, it reminded us all how volatile these mountains have become, and it only seems to be getting worse.

Our neighbors in Westcliffe, Cañon City and the San Luis Valley are all suffering from the effects of multiple fires in the region, the worst of which, the West Fork complex – nearly 160 miles from here – has already consumed 70,000 acres of beetle-kill spruce forests in the Weminuche Wilderness and is creating billowing clouds of smoke reaching as far as Colorado Springs.

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Random Thoughts

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You don’t have to be a baseball fan, or even a Brad Pitt fan (I know you’re out there) to enjoy the movie Moneyball. It’s about the underdog 2002 Oakland As and their general manager’s unconventional methods of building a winning ball team. Apart from the high quality of the film, I was also struck by the two trailers leading up to it. One was for the upcoming One for the Money, based on mystery writer Janet Evanovich’s main protagonist, Stephanie Plum, the Trenton, N.J.-based bounty hunter. The other was for a film entitled Haywire, directed by Steven Soderbergh, about a female covert operative who had been set up and is out for revenge. It’s great to see women in the role of protagonists instead of just eye candy or props for leading men.

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The Postal Blues

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It’s hard to read a newspaper or watch the news these days without hearing about the supposed dire situation at the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). Although, like much information being disseminated by the powers that be in federal government, there is much to be skeptical about with the numbers and warnings being broadcast.

There is indeed a fiscal problem with the USPS. They’ve taken quite a hit the last few years, mostly with the advent of e-mail and our ability to send and pay bills online. The USPS supports itself primarily by the sale of stamps. Taxpayer dollars do not subsidize it. But, even with the decline of revenue the USPS, by implementing cost-cutting measures; downsizing its workforce and gaining concessions from its unions, still manages to break even. How many federal governmental agencies can claim that?

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From the Editor

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By Mike Rosso

February 2011 was a tough month for dictators – and journalists.

While covering the uprisings in Northern Africa, many journalists were abducted, arrested, beaten and in some cases, lost their lives.

CNN’s Anderson Cooper was roughed up on the Egyptian streets by Hosni Mubarek’s thugs. Worse was the vicious assault on Lara Logan, the veteran correspondent for CBS News. In an age when the entire field of journalism is under attack, is it any wonder that one of the first things that occurred during the recent uprisings was the shutting down of the internet and the intimidation of reporters?

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From the Editor

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“Is that Ed?”

Several readers commented about the photo on the cover of last month’s issue, wondering if Ed Quillen had somehow been magically transported into the past to play the role of Santa among a group of Salida youngsters.

While we freely admit there is a certain resemblance, Santa is highly unlikely to have been him, as Ed was all of one year old at the time. Also we try to avoid using Photoshop to manipulate images, time, space, physical planes, etc..

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From the Editor

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The hard drive on my computer decided to call it quits early this September and boy, was I relieved.

For the less tech-savvy readers the hard drive basically stores all the data on the computer, which in our case includes advertisements, current and past articles, back and current issues, graphics, photos, etc. – basically everything a publisher needs to produce a magazine. In addition, the hard drive stores the application programs – the tools actually needed for the layout and design of this magazine. Hard drives are not invincible and can cause catastrophic results when they break down. Data is irretrievably lost, production schedules grind to a halt, and the machine is rendered virtually useless.

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From the Editor

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In August I received a call from State Senator Gail Schwartz’s campaign manager asking if I’d like to meet with the senator as she was to be in Salida for a few days. As the only candidate running for office this year who’s contacted our office, I agreed.

We sat down on the sunny patio at Salida Café the same day that one of her legislative goals became a reality.

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From the Editor

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I’m a cat person.

There, I’ve said it. Somehow I tend to relate more to those independent-minded, self-absorbed masters of the art of lounging than their canine counterparts. Cats have always been part of my adult life. Grey tabbies mostly, and, if I may indulge in a little Buddhist philosophy, am pretty sure each one was the same tabby, reincarnated, having returned just to keep me company and for my personal amusement and enlightenment.

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From the Editor

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LAST MONTH I HAD the opportunity to participate in a roundtable workshop held October 15 by the Denver-based Alliance for Sustainable Colorado.

The roundtable, part of an all-day summit held in Salida, drew about 50 participants representing business and non-profit leaders, elected officials, alternative and mainstream energy providers, educators and other community members from Chaffee, Lake, Gunnison, Fremont and Saguache Counties.

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From the Editor – October 2009

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I had already penned a piece to go in this spot, even going as far as dropping it in the layout, when Martha Quillen’s column came across my desk.

About halfway through it I realized she was voicing many of the same thoughts I had written except with a bit less cynicism. You see, what had prompted my unpublished tirade was a bumper sticker I had seen that day. It was stuck on an oversized SUV driven by an aging woman in downtown Salida equating liberals with laziness and unhappiness. Although I prefer not to be pigeonholed into all-too-convenient liberal/conservative tags, I certainly cannot side with a group of paranoid, angry folks who consider people like Ann Coulter and Glenn Beck their spokespersons.

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From the Editor – July 2009

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At this moment I have nearly 2,000 strangers spending the night in my neighborhood.

Participants in the Ride the Rockies bike tour are camped out in tents, RVs, pickup beds, vans, and on the floor of the high school field house, about two blocks from my home/office. Today they rode over the Continental Divide from Gunnison, about 65 miles. Tomorrow they rise early and pedal 60 miles to Leadville. By Friday they are back in Glenwood Springs, having completed a loop of 380 miles in six days.

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From the Editor – June 2009

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We hope you enjoy this current issue of CC. It’s been nicknamed the “art edition” although it is not strictly about art or artists. June is the month Salida celebrates its annual ArtWalk, an opportunity for area artists to show their stuff and shake off the winter doldrums. Now in it’s 17th year, the event features receptions, workshops, music and other activities for locals and visitors alike.

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From the Editor – April 2009

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It looks like the tourists have returned to Salida. Or at least they were out and about in good numbers on a Friday night during their spring break vacations down south.

Good news for the restaurant owners, lodgers, gas dealers and other visitor-dependent businesses. Even the daffodils and crocus are rearing their tentative heads.

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