FCMOCA October 28, 2008

So even though we have tons of art galleries on campus Fort Collins also has one. It is located right off of college and Oak in old town, and it is called the Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary art, or the MOCA, for short. The building itself is beautiful, and it is on the National Register of Historic Places list as a landmark in Fort Collins. Designed by James Knox Taylor, the man who was the supervising architect on the U.S. Treasury, the building was originally built to be a post office.  Being in this building is fun, because it has an eerie semimetal feeling to it, and there is a set of back stairs that lead up to a cool kind of hidden gallery. I was almost more overtaken with exploring the place then looking at the art the first time I was there.

The MOCA’s Mission is engage the community in cultural experiences that promote appreciation of contemporary art, and they do that very well. They are a non-profit organization, so everyone you see working there is strictly a volunteer from one the three main groups in Fort Collins that support he museum. They hold six to seven different exhibits per year, along with offering children’s art classes and holding gallery talks for artists to come in and expand on their art.

Entrance to the MOCA is free with a student ID, so I would highly recommend one day when your bored just going in to check out what exhibit they have up, Who knows, even if you are not an art person, you might just end up loving it like I did, because of the wide variety of art they show.  

Floating the Poudre River October 14, 2008

So, admittedly this is something that you have to do in the summer when it is warm, and not something I did this past week; however it is still one of the best ways to kill a Saturday in Fort Collins with a group of friends. In order to float the Poudreyou need to buy a tube to float on (imagine that). In fort Collins you can get a tube at any sporting goods store, or I have even heard Walgreen’s. However, I would suggest Jax sporting goods off of college and wilox because it is on your way up to the canyon. Albertsons is just down the street, and they have free air to fill the tubes as well.

Two things you are going to want to remember to bring. A rope that is strong enough to tie down the tubes. we didn’t do this….ended up buying a thin rope from albertsons….and it broke scattering tubes across the highway. Although its entertaining to watch eight people running after tubes across 287 I wouldn’t recommend actually doing it. The other thing you will need is flip flops you don’t mind losing, because even if you hang on to your shoes til the very end chances are getting out of the river you are going to lose one. you will need two cars one to park at the bottom and one to bring to the top, and most of the time someone is going to have to lean out the window and hold a tube or two as you drive to the top. As uncomfortable and ridiculous as this looks its worth it.

When actually floating down the river you are going to want to stay away from the sides and the reeds they will pop your tube, and you will have a not so fun walk to the bottom (especially if you have lost your flip flops). It takes about an hour and a half to do the run we did, and we went when the river was pretty high, so we only wound up with minor bruises from rocks and sticks that lie at the bottom of the river bed. When the river is low (and even when it is high) you are going to want to keep your butt out of the water as much as possible to avoid these rocks, because trust me they hurt.  Anyway that’s about all there is to it, I would check with the guys at Jax to see how dangerous the river is before you go, but other then that its usually pretty safe, and its always fun.