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High on the Hero List

3/6/2013

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Growing up, I had a different set of heroes than most of my friends, or the rest of the world. My heroes were BMX flatland pioneers Mike Buff, R.L. Osborne and Bob Haro. When Matt Hoffman hit the scene, he was high on my hero list and I wasn’t even a ramp rider, but the things that kid could do on a bike were beyond belief. The drug of choice for these guys was 80’s chicks in Guess? Jeans, and they flaunted this in every issue of BMX magazine that I ever read.

I have never been a fan of mainstream sports like football, basketball or baseball. I still laugh when people refer to golf as a sport. I never recognized pro players as having anything particularly worthy of note, and therefore never had the love affair with them that so much of America seems to possess. I was always uneasy with the bully factor of sports players during my school years and seeing the special treatment kids received for having athletic talent made me a little sick. I frequently wondered why they weren’t held to the same social and educational standards that the rest of us were. They were a source of annoyance rather than entertainment.

The older I got, the dumber the pro players got. They became even less worthy of the money and status they received while their paychecks kept growing and their education kept dwindling. The class and etiquette that used to be required of pro athletes is a thing of the past. Rather than suits and an attempt at speaking well in public, it’s wife beaters, tattoos and public threats. The idea that a God would favor one team of idolaters over another because of a particularly pious hypocrite made me laugh every time Tebow would open his mouth.

You have Michael Vick dog fighting; Lance Armstrong coming clean (pun intended) for his ‘roid use; Barry Bonds getting denied the Hall of Fame for PED use; Pistorius killing his girlfriend; Tiger and countless affairs. The disgusting list goes on and on.

This is a bit of a non-sequitur, but Sports Illustrated published a 2009 study that found 78 percent of professional athletes file bankruptcy or are reported as being “under financial stress” within two years of their career ending. It’s a sobering fact, isn’t it? Especially considering most pro careers end before the players are 40.

As I skimmed Google News the very morning I was writing this article, there were two of five sports stories regarding players who got caught doping. According to many of those who get caught, it’s not who is using, it’s just who gets caught, insinuating that most players use.

I can’t help but wish we could train our children to emulate people with a little bit more integrity. Or at the very least, end the drug testing and let people who want to be science experiments do it. Let them become the gladiators that they try to become in hiding. We could have two groups of athletes – one on drugs, and one clean group – so people could compete in a more balanced tier. That way we could study the effects of performance enhancing drugs in a controlled and honest environment on people who wish to test the results.

I don’t plan on mellowing my disdain for pro football anytime soon, so I will have to be content with the heroes I have in my world. As I have grown up, my heroes have morphed a little. They have changed from BMX pioneers to the people I interact with directly on a life or professional basis. I have grown deep admiration for people who live a life that honors their values, their neighbors and the earth. My heroes have their issues, too. They may work too much, or not make the money they deserve, or maybe they like their music a little too loud. They may have different beliefs from my own, but they generally accept people for who they are, and work towards making their world a better place.

I would like to give a huge, hero-high-five to my everyday heroes: The librarians who manage the books I love so much; the cooks, waiters, waitresses, bartenders and dish-dogs who feed me when I don’t cook for myself; my biking buddies, my business partners; my brother, David, the director of the Colorado Natural Heritage Program, who followed his love of all things living to place him in a career that helps keep Colorado the Colorado I know and love; my father, Keith, who taught me to love the question “Why?” and gave my brother and me the gift of music; my wife, Courtney, who lets me be me and supports my every whim and fancy.

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Are you ready?

2/22/2012

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Picture
Well, this is it, kids, the moment that I have unknowingly been waiting for since August 2008. Today is the day that I get to announce that there will be a new alternative magazine to represent the Yampa Valley and all it has to offer.

Valley Voice.

This magazine has been in the mental development lab since long before Scott Glackman and I sold The Local. We had discussed many things, from a glossy magazine to an improved weekly version of our paper.

I was bound to a five-year no-compete clause in the contract with The Local’s buyer, and for three years, as I watched our baby suffer and die, I dreamed of what I would do when that no-compete ended. I thought of many, many papers, magazines, names and concepts, and discussed them all with my close friends and family often. Then, last November, after almost three years of default from the buyer, we settled.

I’ll save the juicy bits for the inaugural issue and give you an introduction to the people who made this happen.

The first link in the chain was Matt Scharf, who you will remember from the comic, Whiskey Chronicles. His artwork is readily visible around town, though it is so varied that it’s not always easy to recognize. We had been talking about doing something for many months, and when my no-compete ended, talks escalated. He finished a job that he had been working on, and was chomping at the bit to get something creative rolling.

The third element that chanced into the scene was Scott Ford. He was generously donating some time to help me with a cause I was, and still am working on (see Suicide below) when he made the mistake of mentioning that he would be willing to discuss getting on board to create a new paper.

That was it for me. My brain went into overdrive and two weeks later I was calling Scott and Matt to see if we could seriously do it. We met on Friday, February 17th, and now we’re fast-tracking ourselves into the lucrative (that’s a joke, please laugh) world of print media. From concept to print in just over a month feels crazy, but it’s coming together. I’ll take this sentence to beg for your ad dollars – we’ll give an awesome discount to anyone who signs up for a year (12 issues), and give you special logo placement as Founding Sponsors on all promotional media for the entire year. That will also include our Facebook page, website and all printed propaganda. That was two sentences. Sorry ‘bout that. (Click here to contact me without having to post on the comment section)

Valley Voice will feature many useful and fun ideas that we will unveil over the next few months. It will be a process to create something as unique and as functional as we hope this to be, so keep watching over this mud season and into summer as this grows and blossoms into something beautiful for all of us to enjoy and participate.

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    Paulie Anderson

    Yes, it's time I continue what began way back in 2001 when Scott Glackman and I started Steamboat Springs' alternative paper, The Local. I miss writing my fortnightly column after selling the paper, so I'll continue to write it and print it right here.

    These are my opinions, rants, raves and ideas. If you don't like them, read them anyway and get pissed off. That's why I read Ann Coulter. Did I really just admit that?

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