DARYL HANNAH, JUDAS DUCK TREE HUGGER

Good work Daryl, you flew out and circled the flock of ducks to lead them to slaughter, by having them arrested in D.C.  You are a clear example of a Mamaluk, a jaboni from fern fairy heaven.  Almost everyone wants an alternative fuel so we can clean up the environment and stop the permanent wars in the Middle East.  Those who have thought about this problem, realize that green energy is ultimately the answer but Green will take dozens of years to function on a daily basis at an affordable level.  EVSI, is working on setting up charging stations for electric cars in parking lots around the U.S. by solar structures, plug-ins.  Even Exxon, your favorite oil company, is working on natural gas as a takeover product and interim, cleaner fuel, until the next green energy is large enough to make a difference.  In the meantime you want people arrested and urge them to fight the pipeline which is the safest way to transport oil at the present time.  If the US doesn't build it, the Chinese will take over the buyout of Albertas oil, and ship it by boat to China, which could lead to an Exxon Valdez disaster.  The pipeline would provide tens of thousands of jobs, and benefit our neighbor, Canada, instead of sending billions to Saudi Arabia.  When people are begging for food and work on street corners all over America, you are collecting interest on your trust fund, I guess you use green tea to drive to your environmental office work every day.  You are up there with Al Gore as a phony, whose family made all their money and send him a check from Occidental Oil company.  Next time you travel to Telluride, write out a check to the Montrose or Norwood chapter of Ducks Unlimited, it will be more of real help to Canadian and American birdlife, than your Judas Duck sit in.  "Ignorance is the curse of God, Knowledge the wing, wherewith we fly to heaven."  Daryl, when you find that wing, please don't disturb the real working ducks, and please don't circle them back for a slaughter. 

STAR GAZING DURING TELLURIDE FILM FESTIVAL

       A local elk hunter named Charlie was asked at the Telluride film festival, whether he had been doing any star watching.  Charlie said “no, I never look up at the stars at night, and know nothing about it.” A few days later, Charlie loaded up a mule called Equus with all his hunting gear and camping supplies for a weeks elk hunt in the high country of the San Miguel mountains.  Hours later he arrived in a basin, near the Wilson mountains, above timberline, with views to the heavens.  Just when he was about to set up camp for his primeval hunt, Equus bellowed and took off with everything, never to be seen again, never to return. Charlie returned to the Sheridan bar, to tell the tale, with his tail between his legs.  A local mountain climber claims he saw Equus, at night, in a grassland basin, looking up at the stars, contemplating the universe from the Colorado high country. Equus was renamed by the locals, Stargazer.  He has never been seen since. He made a jackass out of Charlie, who had to walk 12 miles back to town, in the dark. The legend is growing that Stargazer may have caught the tail of a comet, and may return in a thousand years, gazing and contemplating in the far reaches of space. 

WOMEN IN SKI TOWNS

IN SKI TOWNS?  After 40 years living in ski towns from Aspen, Telluride, Vail, Jackson Hole, and Sun Valley, I have concluded the answer is NO.  Bring your wife or girlfriend or wait your turn.  Telluride in the early years had a ratio of 10 to 1, men to women.  A cab driver said it best in Aspen Colorado.  “Even the ski towns in Europe have a huge abundance of men who love the outdoor adventure life, with a small number of ladies.”  The economic change in the late 80′s and 90′s through the present made it very difficult for women to handle the high cost of living.  They left Telluride in droves for greener pastures.  Also, the rugged lifestyle turns even married women off, who miss the Big City amenities.  I watched 10 men lose their wives due to over two decades of complete boredom, while their husbands were in a state of outdoor nirvana, hunting and fishing and skiing in the mountains.  A new phenomenon written up in several outdoor magazines has changed that somewhat.  More women are taking up outdoor sports, including bird hunting, fly fishing and hunting deer and elk.  Telluride and Jackson Hole have not changed a lot since the quote from Washington Irving in 1836: “It is to be feared that a great part of the West will form a lawless interval between abodes of civilized men….Here may spring up new and mongrel races, like new formations in geology, the amalgamation of the debris and abrasions of former races.”  Walk into the Last Dollar Saloon on a Friday evening in Telluride Colorado,  and not much has changed.  Several presidents wanted to leave the untamed West alone, since it was too vast and savage to deal with.  Mark Twain in 1865 said it best: ”Sometimes we have the seasons in Nevada in their regular order, and then again we have winter all the summer, and summer all the winter…..It is mighty regular about not raining, though….But as a general thing, the climate is good, what there is of it.”   Try to put your high heels on under those conditions.  Bachelors, stay tuned, there is hope.

HELLO WORLD!!!!!!!

I will be posting excerpts from my book in progress,  ”Travels With $Bill”.  Wacko Wally will be one of your favorite characters.  There will be huge insights on How to generate big cash, Aspen and Telluride insights on living in ski towns, investing in ski towns, characters from Chicago, goose, duck and pheasant hunting within 100 miles of Telluride, comparisons to Sun Valley Idaho, buying fixer uppers in Aspen during down markets, bird dogs, ski patrol, (the inside story), Chicago Board of Options traders, the wildmen of the MidWest, the Black Pontiac, black leather seats, travelling around the American West, stocks, bonds, land investments near ski towns and the pitfalls of false, phony and incompetent gurus, and numerous hilarious hunting stories with the Black Pontiac as the main  duck blind in the fall action.  $Bill, Wacko Wally, and Birdman will set your comic relief level at a new high, in a way too serious world, particularly these days, with the Den of Thieves in the banking industry, lurking on every street corner.  The pitfalls to avoid in ski town real estate investment will be discussed at length during the travels, stay tuned, LandMan.

SKI TOWN MELTDOWN

I have spent the winter at a bookshop in Colorado Springs Colorado studying 12 books written regarding the Wall street meltdown of banks. More importanlty I have witnessed firsthand the meltdown of real estate values and sales in Aspen and Telluride Colorado Ski Towns. Never in their history have those two towns experienced such devastation of prices, sales, and values, caused by the theftocracy on Wall street and governmental incompetence. Hundreds of millions has been wiped out of ski homes and ranchland. The following quote from the CEO, owner of Intrawest, one year ago says it all “The real estate business at ski resorts has not stalled, it has vanished”. I have a way to make up for those losses. e-mail me at: rforsbergland@telluridecolorado.net, and I’ll fill you in. Thanks, LandMan. Telluride

JUDAS DUCK

In the old days of market hunting for duck and geese, the shooters would sit in a blind with their Judas Duck, a trained, live bird that would take off and find a flock overhead.   This duck was quite unusual, it would fly up to a passing flock, join the head of the flock, and lead the ducks down to the decoys to be slaughtered, for the restaurant markets.    Does the Judas Duck remind you of present day characters in Washington and on Wall Street?  Does the Judas Duck remind you of any lawyers you know, real estate agents, financial advisors, stock salesman, mayors of major cities,  secretary of the US Treasury, heads of major Wall Street banks, past generals (Does General Custer come to mind?), financial gurus in our midst, talking head rapid mouths on TV, jerks preaching on a street corner, beware of the Judas Duck, he or she may be in your neighborhood, LandMan.

CATEGORY 5 HURRICANE

In the book, $200 Oil, the author says something astounding for the year 2006, and by saying so makes an inadvertent prediction.  ”The tech stock correction of the year 2000, was a minor storm, since Alan Greenspan lowered interest rates and smoothed out the national economy from the rough waters,  it was a small storm on the radar screen.  If there is a collapse of the real estate bubble, nation wide, it will be like a Category 5 Hurricane. ” The Hurricane hit in 2007, with no advanced warning, no time to leave town, and no time to take corrective action.  It tossed hundreds of millions of Americans from one disaster area to another, and hasn’t let up yet.  The Federal government, the Wall street bankers, and the media has attempted to remove this storm from the public radar screen.   The winds and the backwash haven’t ebbed yet,  entire families are getting washed up on strange and distant beaches, 10 trillion dollars has vanished, the largest deflation of assets in the nations history, and no one has a real solution.  A ship captain whose boat in Mississippi Gulf waters was dragged out to sea during Katrina and was tossed and banged around in his cabin for hours, said, “The gods have saved me from this disaster, so I can face a larger disaster in the future.”  Does anyone in Washington or on Wall street, have any idea of the size of the destruction, from the 2007-2010 economic storm, and how many people it has washed to strange shores? Remember ”The Grapes of Wrath” John Steinbeck.  How about ”The Gurus of Incompetence”  Alan Greenspan.  LandMan

SKI BUM TO MILLIONAIRE

Aspen and Telluride ski towns were real gold mines of opportunity in the 70′s and 80′s.  Starwood at Aspen, lot prices started at $22,000 and eventually became worth over $2 million per lot.  Houses in Aspen were as low as $125,000, eventually over $3 million per house.  When Birdman arrived in Telluride, to work on the Ski Patrol, he secured a home in a prime, sunny side neighborhood for $25,000 with nothing down, owner carry. Others, the lucky few on the ski patrol, who had listened closely to the stories about the new ski town, Telluride, in beer gulch at the famous Red Onion Saloon, secured homes as low as $10,000 per miners shack.  In the early 80′s, Birdman picked up a house across the creek from the Carradine mansion for $50,000.  This miners shack sold for $900,000.  Those days are over in ski town USA.  A ski bum working on the mountain for $5 per hour could buy a home, hold on to it as he raised children, hunted, skied, and fished in pristine trout streams,  in the prime sportsmans paradise of SouthWestern Colorado, pick up another home or lot, fix it up, rent it out, and sell his empire eventually for over a million $ in cash to Wall street bankers.  Young people who want to live the mountain life of adventure, are looking for another potential ski town, like Aspen and Telluride, they have heard the stories.   These two towns are unique, the ski trails drop right into the heart of the mining town, an easy walk to your million dollar shack.  Those days are over, the US Forest Service does not allow new ski permits on National Forest Land, and the cost of development is five times the lift production costs of the 70′s.  The Gilded Age of the ski bum turns millionaire on a raw dirt or shack investment is over. Young people have heard the stories and are looking for the next Telluride or Aspen.  There is a town, not on this continent, that is similar to Aspen in its infancy, e-mail me and I will let you know where it is.  Also, British Columbia has some towns with potential, but highly risky investments, since Fernie and Revelstoke take so much of the action, and have such spectacular powder skiing.  Ski bum to millionaire, a legendary time in the west that will be remembered.  LandMan

JUDAS DUCK, JUDAS GEESE IN US TODAY, TOO BIG OF A DUCK TO SUCCEED

There are still descendants of the original brood of Judas Geese in a park in North Platte Nebraska, who were luring the wild flocks to their demise on the North Platte River.  They were trained by the market hunters to fly up into a flock of geese and lead the flock down to the gunners to be slaughtered for the restaurant markets.  There are many examples in our society of Judas ducks and Geese.  We are forever and constantly plagued by Judas duck lawyers, financial advisors, real estate agents, Wall Street investment bankers, congressmen, accountants, secretaries of defense, travel agents, and countless other advisors on everything, in the absolute wrong direction, leading us to eventual slaughter.  The charlatans and quackers on Wall Street, led the nation to the precipice of disaster, to the edge of the worst financial meltdown since 1929.  Ben Bernanke said in the movie “Too Big To Fail”, talking to the heads of the largest investment banks in the nation, “If you guys do not take this loan offer from our TARP authority, we could see a worse financial disaster than the Great Depression.  It will take you all down.”  All the Judas Duck heads of the banks knew they had caused the problem with their hubris, greed, and incompetence, yet some of them resisted the loan bailout funds.  They all finally signed the deal, giving the markets on Wall Street a false sense of security, for awhile.  The Category 5 Hurricane in the housing markets is still happening with no bottom in sight.  An extremely competent real estate attorney from Boulder Colorado, Oliver Frascona, said in a real estate class, “Lawyers are right only half the time.”  The other half are taking us into the final duck blind.  Financial advisors before the Big Meltdown, told people by the millions to buy into the stock market, even though real estate was in a ten year bull market.  In the fall of 2008, the stock market collapsed, leaving millions of people stranded in front of the blind with the Judas Ducks quacking away.  In the book “Outrage” Vincent Bugliosi said “There is incompetence from the lowest government official all the way to the top.”  The secretary of defense, Robert McNamara, sent 58,000 young Americans to slaughter in Vietnam, and later admitted it was all a mistake.  He should get the Hall of Fame Award, the Master of the Judas Duck Quacker trophy, and quack away in his grave, like a wounded, crippled duck.  A Judas Duck hang glider once told the Ski Patrol, how great everythinig is at 20,000 feet….maybe so, if you are an eagle or a peregrine falcon.  The Judas Duck financial geniuses sat in Beer Gulch at the Red Onion saloon in Aspen ski town in the early 70′s and urged everyone to never move to Telluride, it would be a giant loser.  Telluride real estate then increased an average of 34% per year for 35 years with one minor correction in 1982, and provided homes, work and a life of outdoor adventure for the smart and lucky who moved there in the early 70′s.  A Beat poet once said, “You may be walking through heaven and not even know it.”  The Judas Duck ski town gurus in Aspen are green with envy and white with fear about how wrong they were.  William Shakespeare had something to say about the Judas Duck phenomenon in Henry VI.  “Ignorance is the curse of God, knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to Heaven.”  But do not fly with the Judas Ducks.

JUDAS DUCK DEFENSE SECRETARY, DONALD RUMSFELD

Peggy Noonan, in a recent Wall Street Journal column  called Donald Rumsfeld, “a second rate mind and gutless.”  She was referring to his failure to keep his eye on the ball and kill or capture Osama bin Laden at Tora Bora, when they had him in their sights.  He failed to stay in direct touch with the CIA, and Special Ops on the ground to give them the assistance they needed to finish the job. Donald Rumsfeld called Osama bin Laden, “one man on the run”.  Peggy states “He was not one man on the run. He is the man who just killed almost 3,000 people at the World Trade Center, at the Pentagon, in a field in Pennsylvania.  He’s the reason people held hands and jumped off the buildings.  It is the great scandal of the wars of the Bush era that the U.S. government failed to get him and bring him to justice.  It is the shame of this book that Don Rumsfeld lacks the brains to see it, or the guts to admit it.”  We should honor Peggy Noonan for the guts to speak the truth, and recognize the Judas Duck of the century, Don Rumsfeld.  “The failure to find bin Laden was a seminal moment in the history of the war in Afghanistan.  And it was a catastrophe.  From that moment everything about the Afghanistan war became unclear, unfocused, murky and confused. ” It took a Black president with guts and brain power to keep his eye on the ball, and take the risky and dramatic kill, finishing the job 11 years later.  Donald Rumsfeld, Judas Duck of the century.

ASPEN AND TELLURIDE GOLD RUSH, JUDAS DUCK ADVISORS, MARK TWAIN LUST FOR GOLD IN SKI AREAS

Mark Twain wrote that the real religion in America was the lust for the greenback, stocks, and gold.  He called these three, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and admitted that he spent a great deal of his life chasing money and gold, eventually ending up in Virginia City Nevada during the gold rush, and lost everything, filing for bankruptcy.  The Pure Golden Age of the ski towns, Aspen and Telluride, started in the late 60′s and ended abruptly in 2007, with the bank and Wall street meltdown.  The old saying of miners in these two towns was “Only a few find the gold.”  In the early 70′s those that invested in a home or land in Aspen or Telluride, eventually found lots of gold, and the numbers of winners were quite high.  Ski bums, carpenters, plumbers, ski patrolmen, and a lucky few that were already rich, who bought low in the 70′s, cashed out in the 90′s through 2007 did astonishingly well.  Some made 150 times their initial investments, with low downs to local families.  Skiing became a cover for closet dirt and pad junkies.  It was real, it was powerful, and lasted 27 years, the Golden Age of ski towns. In 1982 Birdman bought a home across from Keith Carradines mansion.  He paid $49,000 for a duplex, put $5000 down, remodeled and sold for $950,000 in 2002.  That is an astonishing 170 bagger.  That is an 8.5 bagger each year for 20 years.  It beat the stock market with a $42,500 increase per year, while Birdman slept and worked, and rented out the extra unit to pay the small mortgage.  The town of Aspen increased in value around 30% per year since the late 60′s and had one minor correction in 1982 during the high interest rate (21%) recession caused by Paul Volcker.  The following years (82-2007) saw steady increases until the Category 5 hurricane hit, that destroyed the dream.  Telluride homes doubled in two years (2000) when the heir to the Sony Corp bought the ski area, Joe Morita.  Then the houses and lots collapsed dramatically from 25% to 50% or more in value, starting in 2007.  Go to www.estinaspen.com, and you will see the reality of the huge correction in Aspen homes.  Trophy homes in greed-head city, have sold for half their original price, taking 3 to 4 years to get an offer.  There are still Judas Duck real estate agents and promoters in each town, cheer leading the recent increase in sales in 2010 and 2011.  They have Judas Duck reports and promotion, hyped up analysis, on the meager increases in sales.  They forget to mention that sales have dropped 50% to 65% and more,  from the last boom years of 2006-2007.  Nobody on Wall street, except a few hedge funders, (described in the book,”The Big Short”), predicted or knew about the looming Category 5 Hurricane. There was not one line in the Wall Street Journal, warning of a coming disaster.  The Golden Age in these two ski towns, Aspen and Telluride, was a unique Perfect Storm.  People adventurous enough and lucky enough to have arrived in either town in the early 70′s, and had any grasp of the upside of buying a home, were rewarded in a giant manner.  If they were caught in 2007, still owning the same properties, they still may have gained a lot, if they cashed in early, or lost all their equity in the meltdown.  The addiction to real estate during the Golden Age, was powerful, and became the dominant culture.  Even ski magazines wrote constantly about the phenomenon.  The end of the boom-boom years has dramatically altered this opportunity, and made the search for gold, a search for escape back to another reality, and lower prices for everything, and no lifts at your doorstep.  Now a large percentage of Telluride homes are owned by the banks that are holding a huge number of Deeds of Trust. The low down, high leverage, huge upside phenomenon may never happen again.  You may see in the future, these two towns fade into a Newport Rhode Island status, where mansions became museums, and went out of style as havens for the rich.  What a great life for the ski pioneers, and a sad ending for the two ski towns.  Where is the next New Big Thing?  Stay tuned.  

JUDAS DUCK MAFIA GOOSE HUNTERS, HAL AND AL

Wacko Wally and $Bill were witness to one of the most outrageous goose hunts in the history of Cairo Illinois.  They were on a mission to hunt geese where the Ohio river meets the Mississippi river, outside of Cairo, a Mafia hang out.  Wacko walked out of his motel room early in the a.m., his hair around the bald spot, was standing straight up in the air, he was hungry and saw Hal and Al in front of their room, holding eggs in a spoon over a bunsen burner.  Hal was 4’11″ and Al was 6’11″ tall.  They looked sinister, wearing Bogart style camouflaged trench coats, which had bulges underneath.  There were several violin cases on the ground, filled with goose ammunition for their sawed off 10 gauge shotguns, and two Thompson submachine guns.  $Bill came out to say hello, and Hal bellowed, “Where are you guys hunting?”.  Wacko says, “We’re in pit number 9 at Babes goose club.”  Al says “We’ll see you there, we’re in pit number 10.”  A few hours later at the crack of dawn, Wacko and $Bill walked to their blind with their dog Pinetop, named after the Chicago Blues singer, Pinetop King.  The two good fellows were already in their blind.  Pinetop was howling his version of the Blues and shaking with anticipation.  In the distance a large flock of Canadian Honkers appeared, and headed towards Hal, Al, Wacko Wally, $Bill and Pinetop, the yellow male labrador.  Wacko loaded up quickly his Belgium over under, with 3″, number 2′s.  $Bill was ready as well.  As the geese headed towards the decoys, Wacko noticed something peculiar in Hal and Al’s blind.  Hal opened up the violin cases, and pulled out two loaded Thompson sub machine guns.  Wacko’s knees started shaking and his bald head went into a sweat.  $Bill erupted in wild laughter.  Not since the days of market hunting, had there been such a presence of Judas Duck Hunters.  As the geese came in with set wings, Wacko dove for cover and laid out flat in the blind.  All of a sudden Hal and Al let loose with the machine guns, an amazing barrage of fire power, it sounded like the  Valentines Day massacre.  The lead goose exploded with a massive feather drop into the blinds, Wacko’s bald head filled with feathers.  Pinetop launched from the blind in the midst of 15 geese, flopping  around on the ground.  He retrieved every bird.  Hal and Al took all but one goose, wished Wacko and $Bill luck and left the scene.  Several weeks later, Wacko Wally got to know Hal and Al, at a motorcycle club meeting, in Chicago.  They were now working as Martial Arts instructors for the Chicago police department.  Wacko was later escorted out of Chicago, safely, by Hal and Al, at the end of an affair with the wife of a Mafia attorney.  Wally and $Bill were later seen, hiding out in Telluride Colorado, hunting mourning doves with 20 gauge Belgium shotguns, using light loads.  Wacko Wally told the story of Hal and Al on every hunt.  He never did heat an egg on a bunsen burner. 

NATIONAL DEBT SOLUTION

The fraud and non payment of Federal Income Taxes is costing the U.S. Government almost 2 trillion dollars.  The excess of different sections of government watching over agencies with no help but high costs, which could be solved by congress, amounts to 800 billion dollars.  The defense of Europe, at a cost to every citizen of the U.S., costs a huge amount and is unnecessary.  European countries are getting a free ride, with very little cost for their own armies.  The amount of troops in Korea is extremely excessive, the Koreans can take care of themselves.  Congress has never really addressed waste and fraud in government which is in the billions.  Electric cars would sell if Envision Solar International (EVSI.ob) could get their solar panels and plug-in stations in all the empty asphalt in the U.S., which is the answer to where to recharge the batteries.  Rest stops on Interstates could also be areas for recharging with these solar panels on long distance trips.  An economic study by a Bill Clinton advisor concluded that Social Security could be fixed with a 2 percent raise in the payroll tax.  The U.S. government owns hundreds of billions of dollars of land in cities all across America, and does not have a listing and sale program, the land sits empty and useless.  T Boone Pickens has presented a solution to the oil problem to Congress, natural gas, as an interim fuel that is less expensive and less polluting.  This is readily available in huge supply across the U.S. and Canada, and could lessen dependency on Middle Eastern oil, until the green solutions become more financially feasible.  Convicts could be put to work rebuilding our infrastructure across the U.S., and learn a productive trade in the process, saving billions on labor for bridges and roads.  Three wars can end, with major pullouts of troops, the new local armies exist,  that the U.S. has built and payed for, and save us a trillion over the next decade.  Gas is costing $500 per gallon for the military vehicles in Afghanistan.  Why not retrofit to electric Humvees with solar plug in panels, saving billions?  Mose Allison, the blues singer and piano player said “The world is one big trouble spot, things aren’t getting better, they just keep on getting worse.”   The obvious solutions to the National Debt can be fixed with the help of the same kind of brilliant minds that invented the computer and the internet. 

DEED OF TRUST CASH BUYERS, LANDMAN TELLURIDE COLORADO

I have large numbers of cash buyers for discounted Notes backed by a good Deed of Trust as well as Mortgages, through my firm, which has been in business for 15 years.  You list your note, backed by a good parcel of real estate with a good interest rate, list through  my Firm, get cash offers, accept or reject, and close in 35 to 55 days.  Your note will be valued using several criteria including seasoned borrowers, credit score, above sub prime interest rate, property with an appraisal, amount of equity, and several other factors.  I have a number of references, I have worked in the land sales business in Aspen and Telluride Colorado for 25 years, and have created hundreds of notes backed by a Deed of Trust on properties.  I know the values around Telluride, where I have some discounted notes for sale, I have made millions for people in the ski towns, including the Nordic Trac family on a recent sale of 1250 acres to the Trust For Public Land, in the Ophir Valley near Telluride ski area,  for $8,300,000.  The acreage will be bought by the US Forest Service for permanent Open Space.  Call me or e-mail me at: rforsbergland@telluridecolorado.net             Cell # 9707089038.  You will learn a lot and get your cash which is King now rather than 1 to 30 years from now.  Thanks, Landman

ASPEN TO TELLURIDE, REAL ESTATE JUNKIES

Birdman heard thousands of conversations in Aspen and Telluride during the 70′s through 2007 about the biggest addiction in ski town USA history, real estate investment and credit addiction.  This was the crack cocaine of the ski towns, leverage, credit, buying homes and land to make huge gains in the appreciation of the product.  The phenomenon involved the rich as well as soon to be rich, regular workers, real estate agents, and workers in the restaurants.  Starwood lots in Aspen were $22,000 per lot in 1971, and went to $3 million and now reduced to $2 million.  Between 1972 and 2006, lots in the ski town of Telluride went from $7000 per lot to $1 million per lot, a 141 times increase.   Some years they doubled in value, and some years went up 20% to 30%.  They were the drug of choice.  There was nothing more powerful in the valley than this money game, not even the avalanches that occasionally rumbled off the mountains, in full view of downtown Telluride.  Cocaine dealers who were loaded with hubris lost all their money, buying real estate as fast as they could, feeling invincible to the downside.  It was a monstrously powerful addiction, with no RESG (Real Estate Support Group) to counsel its victims.  The rich and famous got involved as well, dozens of movie stars bought into Aspen and Telluride.  Captains of industry, a who is who of CEO’s bought into the frenzy.  Birdman bought a home in 1973 with nothing down for $25,000 in a prime upscale neighborhood, and sold it years later for $975,000.  His neighbors included the great-granddaughter of Jay Gould, the Wall street tycoon who invented the stock certificate printing press at the turn of the century.  The Walt Disney grandchildren bought a home on 4 lots across the creek from Birdman.  Keith Carradine bought a house across the creek from Bill Graham the promoter for the Grateful Dead, who was later killed in a helicopter accident in Vallejo California returning from a Huey Lewis and the News concert.  Birdmans house had a temporary foundation, concrete, railroad ties, and mining beams, it was remodeled twice, and sold for cash in two weeks, to a Wall street investment banker family.  The powerful addiction was part of almost every conversation in the saloons, on the streets, it rolled through the culture like a religion that was a major part of the ski towns legend.  Mark Twain would have moved to Telluride, looking for a real estate agent.  Rich folk roamed the main street of downtown Telluride, looking for the best agent, that would make them richer.  No matter how or where the conversation started, it ended up with, “did you hear about the agent who bought 3 lots in town for $40,000 each and sold them for $100,000 each 2 years later.” One builder in Telluride owned 20 prime residential lots on the sunny side of town, said he thought they generated no interest in the early 80′s, and sold them for $50,000 each.  Later on they went to $800,000 to $1 million per lot.  One real estate broker owned a home below Red Mountain in Aspen, sold it for $370,000, and moved to Telluride and opened a real estate office.  The house a year later sold for over $1.4 million.  He was addicted to cocaine and addicted to real estate and money, and the question is, which was the most powerful.  The banks, and old miners handed out loans like free hotdogs at a 4th of July barbecue, and national banks sent letters by the week offering equity loans to any owner with a heartbeat.  The ultimate solution to the lust for real estate, which ended the party, was the meltdown on Wall street, when real estate sales dropped to zero and commissions disintegrated, and land and home values collapsed in Aspen and Telluride 30% to 60% in value.  Now the locals are going through withdrawal and the endless category 5 hurricane, from the bank meltdown and recession of the century, never seems to end.  A new culture, a new value system is emerging in Aspen and Telluride; friends and family, children, grandkids,  mother nature, outdoor adventure are looming as a real value, for those who are survivors and can afford to stay in the ski towns.  The golden years of real estate booms, 1970-2007, is gone, the big easy money is over, sayonara.  Junkies are leaving town,  searching for a new Big Thing.  Maybe it is gold panning, and actually skiing. 

TELLURIDE REAL ESTATE EXPERT, LANDMAN, HOW TO AVOID THE JUDAS DUCKS IN THE SKI TOWN

I worked in real estate sales in Telluride Colorado for 25 years, pioneered the ski resort, and kept track of prices and all the deals, from 1972 to now.  I also traveled to and worked in Sun Valley Idaho, Aspen Colorado, Jackson Hole Wyoming and Vail Colorado.  I studied every spring and fall ski town values and best location investments and development in these 4 towns.  I am an expert in ski town investing and buying.  I can give you advice on location, Judas Duck lawyers, Judas Duck real estate agents, incompetent town and county officials, and hype artists, cheerleaders that hang on the Main street of downtown Telluride, day and night.  I have relocated to the eastern slope, and maintained an involvement in the Gurley Lake Community Ranch project which is 34 miles from the ski lifts, south of Norwood, and contains 3500 acres of a renowned, historic ranch.  The ranch has a 320 acre trout/sailing lake with views of the ski runs.  I have sold thousands of acres to the Nordic Trac family, from Ridgway to Montrose to the Ophir valley, south of the ski area.  I procured the purchase and sale of 1250 acres of mining claims in the Ophir Valley for the Nordic Trac family.  I introduced the family to the TPL (Trust for Public Land), who closed on the property in 2009, and have sold to the US Forest Service for permanent Open Space.  I also listed and sold the Bear Creek Valley, to a conservation minded family.  The valley of Bear Creek is now permanent open space.  There are many Judas Duck types of promoters in the town of Telluride, who will tell you anything to make a sale, especially during these tough times in ski towns.  I will level with you regarding anything you ask, and help you save money on deals, and avoid future disaster.  I know who the Ducks are.  A Judas Duck was a trained live duck during the market hunting era.  The live duck was let go to fly up and join a circling flock, and lead the flock back to the decoy spread to be slaughtered by the market hunters, for the restaurants.  I know the areas that are over priced, and the deals and locations to avoid.  Call me or e-mail me (9707089038); e-mail me at: rforsbergland@telluridecolorado.net.  Thank You, Landman. 

ASPEN SKI PATROL, DEATH IN THE MOUNTAINS, COMETS PASSING

Unique tragedies are part of the life of anyone living in ski towns, or at least hearing about them.  In the winter of 1971 four members of the Aspen Highlands ski patrol, perished in tons of snow, in Aspen Highlands Bowl, a massive avalanche that was tough to avoid and escape.  The tragedy for these very young athletes rocked the community of Aspen, and left a lasting mark on the romantic vision of mountain adventure for Birdman.  A few years later, Birdman worked for 8 years on the Telluride Ski Patrol, with patrolmen from Aspen, Taos, and Steamboat Springs, doing the same kind of avalanche control work on massive bowls of powder, hanging high above the town of Telluride.  Studies and data were kept for the US Forest Service, and most of the powder bowls were later opened up to the public.  Aspen Highlands Bowl is now open to the public, due to the work of these original pioneers on the patrol, who braved its wild elements.  The early, untimely death of young people has always caused Birdman to ponder in sadness, but also to reflect on the comet theory, that some people, sent by the gods, whether jazz musicians, writers, poets, or mountain adventure types, living on the edge of nature, who come into this life, like a bright, sparkling,  comet, and orbit around the local mountains and far away in high adventure spots, causing wonder and awe amongst the locals, with their hubris and acts of living on the edge of bravado, and suddenly like a descending falcon, dive to  earth, not to be seen or heard from again, ever.  “The angels all were singing out of tune, And hoarse with having little else to do, Excepting to wind up the sun and moon, Or curb a runaway young star or two, Or wild colt of a comet which too soon, Broke out of bounds o’er the ethereal blue, Splitting some planet with its beautiful tail, As boats are sometimes by a wanton whale.”    “The Vision of Judgment,” 1822, Lord Byron.  In each ski town, its residents regularly hear about these young adventurers, passing away in an avalanche, hang glider, rock climbing,  skiing on the edge, or  skiing the length of Norway, to be caught in a 16 day blizzard,  frozen in a tent, like a Telluride resident who perished in Norway in 2008.  It is always very sad, it always shakes the soul of those friends left on earth .  The same comet theory applies to soldiers who died in their early youth in Vietnam, and now two perpetual wars.  “And that’s the end.  He passes away under a cloud, inscrutable at heart, remembered, unforgiving, and expressively romantic.  Now he is no more, there are days when the reality of his existence comes to me with an immense, with an overwhelming force; and yet upon my honor there are moments, too, when he passes from my eyes like a disembodied spirit astray amongst the passions of this earth, ready to surrender himself faithfully to the claim of his own world of shades.”  Lord Jim,  Joseph Conrad.

TRUE GRIT, ORIGINAL, TELLURIDE COLORADO, JOHN WAYNE IN RIDGWAY COLORADO

The opening scene in the original John Wayne classic western, is filmed at an old homestead building on Hastings Mesa, 33 miles from the ski resort of Telluride Colorado.  It was also filmed in Ridgway, Ouray, Lizard Head Pass, and the train scene in Silverton Colorado.  If you haven’t visited these towns, it is a must visit, your roadmap in life will change.  In the opening scene, which is quite lengthy, there is a shot of the Sneffles mountain range from the homestead home, which still stands to this day.  The mountain vista, shows an area on the south end of the Sneffles, that contains 3 avalanche chutes, and a mystical high mountain basin to the left.  Birdman had seen this movie in Fishermans Wharf, San Francisco, in the late 60′s.  He had no idea he would end up pioneering the ski mountain at Telluride, and lived the life of adventure on the ski patrol, raising a girl who had True Grit, hiked, and camped in the 100 miles of wild mountain country around Telluride.  He owned land a half mile from this homestead, and always remembered the scene of John Wayne at the end of the movie, jumping the cross fence, by the homestead home.  The Sneffles were landlocked by the Marie Scott ranch, 10 miles of magnificent high country.  She was a cow girl of 82 years, an eccentric looking lady, 4’11″ tall, with large rouge cheeks and real western clothes, and a real old cow girl hat.  She would occasionally appear at the San Miguel county courthouse in Telluride, an amazing sight for anyone lucky enough to be there.  Birdman recently watched the original True Grit movie with his daughter who grew up in Telluride, a lucky girl, amongst other lucky girls who loved the mountains.  The movie brought back endless memories of wild hikes in areas of the National Forest, that were rarely hiked by anyone.  Birdman had a clear memory of a hike that he took, from his land on Hastings Mesa, that two hours later, ended up in the high basin filmed in the movie, above the Marie Scott ranch.  The basin was mystical, since no one ever hikes into it, the terrain is too rugged and remote.  As he approached the basin he saw one of the most amazing wildlife phenomenon he had ever seen, through his binoculars.  There were 45 head of giant antlered mule deer, bedded down at the top of timberline in the high country basin.  The antlers ranged from 30 inches to 40 inches, and looked like the magnificent red stags you occasionally see in a painting of the Stags of Hungary and Czechoslovakia.  As birdman approached, the entire herd slowly got up, and walked up the mountain, like mountain goats, never to be seen again.  The John Wayne movie, that is shown quite often on the western movie channel, can bring back memories to those who lived the early days, pioneering the ski town of Telluride.  Watch the original, the scenery is the best there is in the high country of the American West, and it takes true grit to live there.

ASPEN, JUDAS DUCK HEDGE FUND MANAGER

The greed punks of Wall street have done it again.  At a recent talk to the University Club in Manhattan, a Judas Duck hedge fund manager, told his audience to “Buy a home now, buy two if you can, buy three, and buy one for your relatives.”  Then, with an ultimate display of hubris, he exclaimed to the gathered clapping seals, “These homes will definitely go up in value.”  There was a roar of laughter in the audience and one guy who probably lost millions of dollars listening to these hedge fund jerks before the meltdown, stood up and yelled “Judas Duck”!! at the speaker. Not one other person in the audience knew what a Judas Duck was, but laughed anyway at the combination of words.  I am surprised that the speaker did not yell out the words “Iconic Opportunity” to the assembled group, using the Madison Avenue, “In” word being used by desperate salesmen, with limited vocabularies.  This hedge fund speaker is either too dumb to pour urine out of his wing tipped shoes, or he has now found a job as a real estate agent in Aspen Colorado.  The guy then flew to Aspen and dropped out of a plane with his golden parachute, and closed on a home for 24.5 million greenbacks.  This story has become a common theme after the meltdown on Wall street.  First you rob the street, the American public, then you use the big getaway to Aspen to Buy a trophy home, throw your suit in a town dumpster, and buy some ski bum clothes.  The new Aspen Red Onion Saloon is full of these new greedheads, expatriates who brag about the Big Heist and getaway, like ski bums in the old days used to brag about their powder skiing exploits in beer gulch.  Some smart people are offering 50 cents on the dollar for homes in Aspen, and getting them.  This guy apparently  is either dumb or he wanted to up his bragging rights at cocktail parties on Red Mountain, so when he mentions he bought a home for 24.5 million, the heads of every gold digger in the room whiplash in his direction like a pointing Labrador dog.  The beat goes on, the drum beat of greed, arrogance, hubris, where some are impressed.  Who will lead us out of this phony mess?  Perhaps a new novelist, sent from the gods,  will launch us into a new era , along with deep insights like a Mark Twain or a Faulkner or a Thomas Wolfe from Asheville for our century, and replace the amateurs and escaped bank robbers, with some real wisdom.  This new style of living will not be found from the hedge fund guys at the Red Onion.

SKI TOWN ECONOMIC DISASTER, ASPEN, TELLURIDE

“The real estate business in ski towns has not stalled, it has vanished.”  This quote came from the CEO of Intra West Corporation.  Their land sales after 2007 went to zero, and their ski town business totally vanished, with condo sales becoming a thing of the past.  They have attempted to enter the beach resort business, with very little growth.  They were a major warning to all ski town corporations.  The recent Outiside Magazine article on ski towns, quotes the environmental expert for the Aspen Ski Corporation as being very worried about the future of the business, he is concerned about global warming and lack of new skiers.
 Intra West Corporation owned 6 major ski areas in 2008, when their sales dropped to zero, and they eventually sold most of their ski areas, and are now considering filing chapter 13 bankruptcy.  The Meltdown disaster in Telluride and Aspen is almost as bad.  Despite the hype artists and con men like the Judas Duck Telluride Association of Realtors, who came out with a rosy analysis recently, the agents in both of these towns are hurting badly.  The foreclosure list is a who is a has been of local brokers.  Debt on properties recorded at the clerk and recorders office of San Miguel and Pitkin county, looks like Armageddon is near.  How can an agent who made $100,000 per year up to 2007, and now makes 20% of that if they work twice as much and are part of the few, pay off a million dollar note and trust deed in their lifetime on their homes.  Is the Big Getaway planned?  Millionaires are leaving Aspen in droves, and are taking jobs as cab drivers and pizza delivery in major cities around the nation.  Wal-Mart applications are loaded with ex brokers.  Who is impressing who, with the estinaspen.com report that shows the sales each week, at 30% to 60% discounts to asking prices three years ago, and homes have been on the market for 3 year.  Volume in both ski towns is down 50% to 75% or more from 2007.  During the Gilded Age, ski town brokers could make huge commissions, own a home, and ranch and one or two investment properties, and travel anywhere in the world after a $146,000 commission with 3 hours of work, after a visit and referral in the local post office.  Landman knows of one agent who is down to $2.28 and cannot get food stamps due to a recent rare commission, and owes the IRS $125,000.  MLS? Who needs them?  How about SRP for ski towns, from the US Treasury.  A Stimulus Relief Package would require around 5 billion, along with SBA loans targeted to agents, around the nation, agents that have seen their lives destroyed by the greed heads on Wall Street.  Please step aside California, you had your chance for 60 years.  Two major hotels are under foreclosure in the Telluride Mountain Village, with more coming soon.  One hundred and ten properties are currently under foreclosure.  Bankruptcies are up 500%.  Wall Street punks working at the major large banks, did an amazing job of destroying the ski town USA real estate business.  Is there any way out of this mess for these family survivors of the Category Five hurricane, that hit in 2007 and continues endlessly?  Read my Economic Survival blog.

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MARILYN MONROE

BirdMan announced today to Wacko Wally that he was voting for Marilyn Monroe for every office, and Theodore Roosevelt in 2012 as a write in vote.  Wacko in his usual look of amazement shouted, “Why!!” BirdMan says, “Marilyn Monroe in her heyday was ten times sexier than todays sex symbols in Hollywood and Washington,  and most of the male vote goes for the hot lady, they are tired of politics as usual.”  “Marilyn would win easily over anyone, and we saw how well she could sing at JFK’s birthday party.”  Wacko yells “Why Teddy Roosevelt?”  BirdMan says, “Roosevelt set aside 350 million acres as National Forest land, we need more open space and public land, less ski areas”.  “He also would put the thieves on Wall Street in orange suits, and clean up the thieves in Congress.”  “He would also send the rough riders to the southern border to take on the drug thugs.”  Wacko was beside himself at this point, and tried to change the subject.  He says “You know, General Motors just dropped the Pontiac brand, for good, and $Bills black Pontiac should be placed in an auto museum.”  BirdMan says, “I agree, what a sad day for the American auto industry.”  They both headed off to vote in Wackos old jeep, a tire blew out and the engine blew up in the San Miguel Canyon.  Wacko says  “I wish Marilyn and Teddy Roosevelt were here today, we could use their help.”  End of conversation, a 6 point bull elk runs by from out of nowhere and runs across the San Miguel River.  Wacko exclaims, “There goes my elk for the season”.

THE ONLY REAL ICON IN AMERICAN HISTORY, GABBEY HAYES

In my previous blog regarding the blatant incorrect usage of the word ICON,  I suggested keeping a watch for the word, and gaining an insight into the user.  Lately I have seen the word used to describe the Golden Gate bridge, Madonna,  a jazz musician from New Orleans who started in a whore house, Clint Eastwood, Clint’s poncho in “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly”, Budweiser beer and the brewers downfall and buyout, the wife and mother in Leave it to Beaver, and dozens of other nonsensical objects that have nothing to do with the Websters and Oxford Dictionary definition of correct usage, nor the original Greek and Latin origins, meaning “a likeness.”  A real estate agent in Telluride Colorado recently used the word icon to describe a parcel of dirt, a ranch, trying to tap into the modern marketing ploy which uses the word icon to describe autos, clothing lines, porn stars, sex symbols, actors, sports figures, writers, every judas duck marketing guru uses the word to gain some kind of recognition for their product.  It is part of the subtle brainwashing that Norman Mailer referred to in one of the last interviews with his son in the book, “The Big Empty.”  Mailer expresses the idea that corporate America has used subtle brainwashing techniques that are far better than those used by the Soviet Union, who could not sell atheism to the masses.  One of the worst examples of this pathetic display of the bad use of the English language, was in the late summer of 2010 when Chris Matthews of MSNBC described the Gulf oil disaster as an “Iconic catastrophe.”  It cannot possibly get any more sophomoric than that.  Has Matthews ever read  a book, has anyone ever seen him read anything?  I maintain and declare today, that there is only one icon in the entire history of America, aside from the religious images of Christ, seen in churches, painted on a wooden back ground.  Gabby Hayes, the western movie actor was and is now declared an Icon.  He had an unbelievably quick draw against the bad men in the movies, he walked in 4 directions at once, he looked like a hobo that just got off the train in the 30′s from a northbound out of Oklahoma, and he stuttered when he wanted to confuse outlaws and other cowboys.  If you saw one of his movies, as he walked through a barroom one night after a day of chasing outlaws, his image somehow flashed in the mirror behind the bar, and he had a profound similarity to Jesus Christ, full beard, angelic expression, and it flashed on a panel of wood on the wall.  Gabby Hayes, American western movie actor Icon, the only one that was real and lasting. 

 

ASPEN AND TELLURIDE SKI TOWN CELEBRITIES

Landinvestman's Blog

Ski Towns, Humor, Economics, Outdoor Adventure

 

Birdman worked at the Elk Camp ski lift at SnowMass Ski Resort in the early 70′s.  There was comic relief  about 9 times a day, and some of the comedy came from famous television and movie stars.  The most hilarious was the day that Buddy Hackett careened off the top of the lift with a ski bum, engaged in a ferocious argument, and slammed into the skier, knocking both to the ground and a few other tourists.  Hackett got up, with his goggles wrapped around his neck, full of snow, and cursed the ski bum, waiving his ski poles in the air.  Jack, the lift operator ran over to calm things down, and a skier going up the next lift fell off his chair, attempting to watch the action, and slid down his partners legs, holding on 20 feet off the ground in front of the deck on the restaurant, loaded with tourists.  Jack found a ladder in a shed, leaned it against the lift cable, climbed up to the hanging victim, and helped lower him to the ground to the cheers of the watching tourists.  Buddy Hackett howled with laughter, and headed up the mountain.  A few weeks later, Birdman saw Lucille Ball attempt to get off the same lift.  She looked like a cave woman gathering lunch, with skies flying in every direction and slid into some tourists in a large pile.  The ski crowd at the deck enjoyed that pileup, with roars of laughter.  Birdman observed the following legends in the movie business.  Rock Hudson was seen in the early 60′s, walking around the base of Aspen Mountain, he looked like he just walked off the movie set of Giant, and still dressed to impress Elizabeth Taylor.  He wore a classic Bogner ski parka, which were highly coveted later on by the Telluride Ski Patrol, when the old style went out of production.  Birdman talked to  Buffy  and Jodie from the family TV series in the 60′s, in the infamous Red Onion Saloon, downtown Aspen.  They had gown up by then, and the conversation was quite interesting.  They no longer were little children, and were awed by the characters that hung for years in Beer Gulch, the famous Red Onion, where millions of pitchers of beer were gulped down to the Neil Diamond Tune, Cracklin Rose.  Birdman later saw Jack Nicholson wandering around Aspen near his West End home, and years later, talked to Jack in the Sheridan Bar in Telluride.  Birdman was amazed how many drinks old Jack consumed at one sitting, while he talked to local characters, Jack was an amazing character, and went through a gamut of facial expressions, that floored and scared everyone present.  Birdman also observed Clint Eastwood in Telluride walking in his famous long stride towards Colorado Boulevard, it reminded Birdman of his walks in ”The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.”  He wore brown, hush puppy shoes, classic California walking shoes.  In Telluride, Birdman was hiking with a lang agent on Horsefly Mesa, and bumped into Darryl Hannah, who was walking a dog on a new adjustable leash.  She was unkempt, and looked like she had just crawled out of a sleeping bag from her tent.  She started whining about a road that a local developer had built too close to her 650 acres.  She started with one of those abrupt, conversation ending statements about the environment, with no real solutions.  Birdman could never believe how someone who owned 650 acres, given to them by their father,  Jerry Wexler, in the midst of multi millions of acres of National Forest land, could complain about anything.  She fit in well with locals in Telluride that whined about everything.   Bring a ghetto child to the mountains, and watch their eyes light up with joy and delight.  One of the most interesting Hollywood characters the Birdman witnessed in a panel discussion at the Telluride Film Festival, was Sterling Hayden, who talked about living the alcoholic life of adventure, and was a joy to see in person, the last of the era of Hemingway type men who drank, a brawler,  and hunted in Idaho and Africa.  Now we get Tom Cruise who is a sciontology, moron, how romantic and manly is that.  The days of Clark Gable, Errol Flynn, Allan Ladd, and Gary Cooper are over, the end of an amazing era, in Hollywood screen history.  Now we get computer animation, not the real deal like the movies, Mogambo, King Solomons Mines, or Shane.  Birdman hunted pheasants for several years outside of Montrose from Telluride, with Mike Carroll who was a professional hunting guide in Kenya for 27 years.  Carroll had hunted with Robert Ruark, author of Uhuru, and Hemingways son, the African Game Warden, and shot the charging elephant for the beginning scene in King Solomons Mines.  He lived the dangerous and adventurous life of a hunter, in Kenya, where now you cannot step foot in a wild game area.  Carroll was known in Kenya to finish off charging leopards that can leap 70 feet through the air, with a sawed off 10 gauge Purdy shotgun.  One girly man B movie actor from Tour of Duty, e on a dove shoot with Birdman and was disgusted by everything, including the air he was breathing.  He lived in smog filled Los Angeles and complained about the hunting of everything, and the pollution in the mountains.  How swell to hear a whining actor, mental midget, who lives near the freeway where pollution from rubber tires makes the air taste and smell like a Gary Indiana tire manufacturing plant.  “We are living in the Age of Amateurs, celebrities who have taken over the public dialogue instead of the wise writers of old,” Mailer says in his last interview with his son in “The Big Empty” book.  Were also living in the age of B movie actors, without wisdom, who show up in ski towns way too often.  Hey, is anyone looking for a trophy home, in Aspen or Telluride, where Daryl Hannah slept naked and upset in her dreams about the environment?

LIFE IS THE SATURDAY THAT ALWAYS COMES, BUT NEVER QUITE MAKES IT

“Life is the Saturday that always comes, yet never quite makes it.” Gene Shepherd, quote, WOR radio, Birdman travelling on the Jersey turnpike on the way to Greenwich Village in 1962.  The Saturday that Wacko Wally, $Bill and Hal and Al experienced at Babes Goose Farm near Cairo Illinois in the mid 70′s more than made it.  Wacko Wally was upset when he observed Hal and Al, two hit men for the Chicago mob, making their breakfast in the motel next door, heating an egg on a bunsen burner.  Wacko also became nervous when he observed two sawed off ten gauge shotguns as their weapons of choice leaning against the motel wall.  Later in the goose blind, Wacko appeared in a WWII camo outfit, with a camo cap right out of an Army surplus store in Cairo.  $Bill looked like the Beau Brummel of the sporting world.  A flight of greater Canadian honkers appeared from the north.  Wacko got ready and loaded up.  Hal (7’2″) and Al (5') were hunkered down in the adjacent blind.  As the geese set their wings into Wackos blind, he lowered his 3″ Belgium Browning auto loader, and Wacko layed 3 rounds into the group.  The air filled with an amazing assortment of paper wadding and shell fragments, that drifted over to Hal and Als blind.  Hal took 5 shots, highly illegal, and layed out 4 honkers.  Al lifted up a hidden Thompson machine gun from a camouflaged violin case,  and destroyed 6 more.  $Bill checked Wackos box of shells.  It had a tag on one that mentioned a garage sale in 1957.  Not a feather came down, only a bundle of wadding and paper from the huge explosion.  Wacko, years later was seen as the MC at a Ducks Unlimited banquet, with a dead green head mallard, hanging out the front of his fly.  An amazing number signed up for DU memberships that night.  From Travels With $ Bill, to be continued.

JAZZ AND POETRY IN GREENWICH VILLAGE

The Beatnik era in Greenwich Village, NYC, 1950′s to the early 60′s, was the age of Poetry in America.  Birdman lived on Perry street, not far from MacDougal, in the early 60′s and witnessed the beat movement right up close and personal.  He saw Bob Dylan perform his folk songs and poetry at the Gaslight cafe next to the bar called the Kettle of Fish.  Dylan was virtually unknown and wrote like a wandering Walt Whitman, and used the harmonica for increased attention to his words, about America, Highway 61, he had spent time in the Red Wing Minnesota reformatory, on the Mississippi River.  Other beat poets met daily and on the weekends at the center of the movement, the fountain in Washington Square park.  Moondog and Big Brown, street poets, jailhouse poets, spoke from memory at the fountain, and made up poems spontaneously from their lifes experience.  Moondog was a giant of a man, wore a pirates hat and high boots, and spent his nights camped out in the Jersey Flats.  Big Brown, ("It was down in Sonora where the pot grows tall, where wildcats scream and scorpions crawl over dead mens bones, it was there in that god forsaken place,  I first came face to face with Rosito Esposito, my Mexicali street walker”). Gregory Corso was often seen rapping out his verse to the tunes of a trumpet player, at the Washington Square fountain.  It was the real deal.  No other time in American literary history, have so many poets had a forum.  Folk musicians also showed up and played at the fountain, they called them street bards.  Jack Kerouac and Peter Orlovsky with Allen Ginsburg were seen wandering around with a brown bag of wine, looking for a place to read.  In the cafes called the cafe Why?, the cafe Why Not? and the Fat Black Pussycat, poets read with jazz musicians at their side.  It was quite amazing.  BirdMan could go to a reading, then wander over to the Village Gate and see Miles Davis play cool jazz, and from there go to the Five Spot and see the great piano jazz creator, Thelonious Monk.  This unusual bohemian period of NYC, fazed out when the Vietnam war tookover the national attention, and put everyone, poets included in a bad mood.  Now poets are on the back burner, occasionally you will observe a young college kid, looking over a worn copy of On The Road by Jack Kerouac or Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman.  The worship of money in America is not everything but close to it, and two wars go on forever.

PAMPLONA SPAIN, NEW ROAD MAP FOR YOUTH

Mark Twain declared several times in his writings that the real religion in America was the worship of money, gold and stocks, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. It remains the same today, take a look at the history of Wall Street for the past 50 years, the easy money from banks to buy a ski town home for anyone with a heartbeat, the Madison Avenue vision of success, that has brainwashed Americans for 50 years, and resulted in the Theftocracy form of business from ski towns real estate to the banks of New York. A new lifestyle, new values may become the dominant theme over the next 10 years, and professionals may win back the public dialogue that has been taken over by amateurs. The worship of the greenback, gold and stocks as a constant, daily religion is not working anymore, even for the thieves in orange suits that are being arrested by the day on Wall Street. College youth have been seen reading and writing poetry and reading F Scott Fitzgerald novels in coffee houses near campuses. American youth should do like many young did in the early 60″s. If they are lucky and smart, they will read “The Sun Also Rises” by Ernest Hemingway, “The Drifters” by James Michener, and “On The Road” by Jack Kerouac. These novels are three amazing stories of romantic youth who are moved by stories of Spain and the Beat rhythm to the tunes of Jazz, to buy a rucksack and hit the road. The process takes courage and is simple. Find a buddy, put some green together, buy a rucksack in an army surplus store, and army sleeping bag, hop a cheap freighter to a port of Spain on the Mediterranean coast, pick up a used Vespa scooter, and head to the town of Pamplona in July, in the northeast corner of Spain. Michener said “Everybody in Pamplona woke up, for at that hour bands of txistularis began circulating through the city, blowing their pipes and thumping their drums, so that sleep became impossible, and within a matter of minutes we were dressed in white with red scarves, and headed at a brisk clip for the bullring, as were thousands of others, converging from all directions. There were twenty thousand inside the bull arena, fifteen thousand on the plaza outside, where some had even climbed onto the head of the Hemingway statue. Suddenly, from across the city, a rocket exploded with a roar that could be heard in all parts of Pamplona”. Birdman ran with the bulls in Pamplona in 1963, for 9 days, drank red wine, danced after the bullfights for hours in the streets with the local peasants from the countryside. He remembers the passionate music at the bull ring, the blood on the matador, the passion of the Spanish crowd, the leather bags of wine spilled on the crowd and dancers faces, the red scarves on the necks of the young peasants, staining their white outfits, the loud cries of Ole in the midst of bugles and drums. Hemingway said in “The Sun Also Rises”, “When the fiesta boiled over and toward the bull-ring we went with the crowd. Brett sat at the ringside. The sword-handlers and bull-ring servants came down the callejon carrying on their shoulders the wicker baskets of fighting capes and muletas. They were bloodstained. I looked through the glasses and saw the three matadors. Romero was in the centre, Belmonte on his left, Marcial on his right”. Pamplona is a great way to start a young life. The final sentence of “The Drifters”: “I said so then,” Britta confessed, “but now I believe that men ought to inspect their dreams, and know them for what they are”. Dreams of the Greenback? maybe later. How about finding new dreams, a new renaissance of art, poetry, literature, new American writers. Birdman said while hunting elk with Wacko Wally and $Bill, “There are more things in Nature than gold”. “In heaven and earth, Horatio, there are more things than in your philosophy”. William Shakespeare.

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ICON

The word icon came from Latin who got it from the Greek, which meant “likeness” and showed up in English as early as 1572. The Eastern Orthodox Church used images of saints and martyrs as part of their holy lexicon, painted on wooden panels, and called them icons. In 1952, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word crept into usage as a person that is looked up to. Now the word is thrown around by the media, movie critics, real estate agents, car salesman, and tv newsmen, describing everything and everyone who has a heartbeat as an icon. If you looked up its meaning in 20 dictionaries, one out of 20 would describe it as an object of ”uncritical affection and devotion.” It has become the American “in” way to describe something or somebody that is “Cool”. It has lost all meaning, and says more about the user, their lack of a prolific vocabulary. The most outrageous recent example of misuse of the word happened when Chris Matthews, tv commentator described the BP oil spill as an “iconic catastrophe.” It doesn’t get more sophomoric than his blatant display of excessive verbiage. When a real estate agent calls a patch of dirt, “iconic”, buyer beware. Bob Dylan, poet and songwriter, master of language, defined icon as “another word for a washed-up has-been”. Watch for the word, it pops up everywhere. Playboy called a porn star an icon and a sex symbol an icon, and when you see its pompous display, replace the word with “moron”, it rhymes and will give one a sense of the poetry and comic relief of human ignorance.

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About landinvestman

I worked on the Ski Patrol in Aspen and Telluride Colorado, and worked in the ranch and land sales business in Telluride for 25 years to the rich and famous. I have a doctors degree in economics from the university of $Bill, a Chicago affiliate located in Aspen Colorado. I have researched in detail the causes of the 2007 to 2010 Wall street banking meltdown. I also have a long history of Mountain Adventure in the mountains of southwestern Colorado, including ptarmigan hunting at 11000 feet, and elk hunting with a bow.

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CATEGORY 5 HURRICANE, ECONOMIC SURVIVAL

RIDING OUT THE CATEGORY 5 HURRICANE, the disaster over the past 3 years, has become an art, and is not a science. This massive disaster has been definitively described in the book by Barry Ritholtz, “Bailout Nation.” The Landman has studied the largest bank heist in the history of mankind in detail over the past 2 years, and read almost every recent book on the subject. Barry Ritholtz has detailed the causes and nailed down 22 culprits, all the way back to the Carter and Reagan administration. He is very rough on Alan Greenspan, the Judas Duck of finance. To understand why your real estate has dropped in half or more over the past 3 years, and the real estate industry has vanished in ski towns, read this book now. Once we understand something, we can deal with it. To financially survive this massive financial Hurricane, that crept in like a night burglar, that has stranded hundreds of millions of people in a financial mess, the following actions are worth contemplating. If you are married and have several children, some of the solutions wont apply and are more difficult. Here they are: 1) Sell all, I mean all of your real estate now, especially if it is underwater, worth less than the amount owed on a deed of trust. Real estate has dropped in every county in the U.S. approximately one-half, and in some areas like Las Vegas, California towns, and Florida, up to 85% in value. 2) If underwater homes and properties do not sell even at a discount, give the keys (the jingle factor) back to the bank, they want and deserve to own the Big Mess. Stop all payments to the bank, you may live free of the stress of payments to the bank and become a legal Willie Sutton. The banks are moving on foreclosures like a turtle on a beach. If your worried about credit, nobody cares, the banks are in some kind of a permanent lockdown anyway, and those with a credit score over 800 cannot get a personal loan, business loan and only the very rare and lucky are getting refinanced, and this is a temporary solution of payback in the future. If your worried about your conscience and morality of doing that, send a tithe to Goldman Sachs, care of Wall Street, they did not worry about you when they loaned everyone too much, get a life, survive, worry about your family. 3) If your income has dropped way below $40,000 per year, file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy now, it is the only legal bank robbery sanctioned by the U.S. Government, and it will set you free, a fresh, new start, like when you started your business life when you were 18, no debt, look up the word zero in the dictionary and howl like a wolf under a full moon. You will end up the only person on your block or in your village that does not have hundreds of thousands in debt on credit cards, and numerous other debts, that have been accumulated during the boom, high leverage decades. 4) Get a copy of David Ramsey’s book on eliminating all debt, get rid of the latte factor which is wasting money on lattes at Starbucks, buying cigarettes, driving aimlessly around in your car out of habit, drinking like a drunken sailor on leave in Nice France, and if it walks, crawls, stays put, and shelters your family, when in doubt rent it. 5) When the mess caused by Countrywide and other members of the den of thieves, when this mess finally clears up, and the man comes with the moving truck, rent something at a fifth of the cost of owning. Take the pressure off. This may take from 6 months to 3 years of free rent you can put into a Treasury Note, and use for the future purchase of a home or safety net if you lose your job. 6) Get out of ski towns and all resort towns now!!!!!!! The Gilded Age is over, bite the bullet, Scott Fitzgerald warned us about this age in The Great Gatsby. The cost of living in ski towns is beyond ridiculous unless you are worth over 10 million in Treasury Notes, even multi millionaires in Aspen are leaving in droves. There are towns and cities with good to excellent schools, and are close to outdoor adventure, great scenery, that are 20 cents on the dollar relative to a ski town, with 10 times the amenities. Its called Normal America. Leave, split, pack up, you will feel a fantastic liberation from high taxes, water/sewer bills that are on the upside, cable TV, gas, groceries, HOA dues, high heat and electric bills, latte bills, that are all triple to five times you will find in Normal America. The rush in your body and soul will be extraordinary. In 5 to 15 years, after you have regrouped, and the wind from the permanent Hurricane has subsided, you may be able to return and buy a home for 10 cents on the dollar. 6) Do not buy stocks and bonds, they are losers, no matter what the Judas Duck media financial guys, and stock brokers are selling, stay away from the Den of Thieves. Buy U.S. Treasury Notes, like $Bill advised, when he lost 48% of his stock value during Black Monday of 1987. The stock market is vulnerable to the next meltdown or Wall Street bank robbery. Live with the safe Treasury Notes, live with 1 to 3% rollovers. Do not buy real estate anytime soon, anywhere, and if you cave in to the largest addiction of the 21st century, offer 50 cents on the dollar, with the knowledge that it may drop 50% from there or more. Not one Judas Duck financial guru on Wall street or in Washington has anything close to a solution to the mess. 6) Sell all of your stuff at a series of garage sales, put the extra cash in Treasury Notes, or pay down some small debts. 7) If a brainwashed, Madison Avenue salesman uses the word “icon” to sell you something, call them a Judas Duck and exit the scene, or turn the channel. Get an auto that gets twice the gas mileage than your SUV, which stands for “Sure Victim.” Get closer to your family, friends and Mother Nature, it will make you happier than money. Mark Twain claimed the real religion in America was the worship of money. He said the Father, The Son, and The Holy Ghost, were really the Greenback, Gold, and Stocks. Old Twain filed chapter 7 a long time ago, after chasing gold in Virginia City Nevada. That religion is not, is not working now. 9) Take Norma Mailers advice in his last book, “The Big Empty”, and do like the Gods attempt to do, “The Best You Can.”

KING AND QUEEN OF SKI TOWNS

Everyone is a King or Queen who is lucky enough or brave enough to live in a ski town.  The Landman had the most grandiose insight of his life in Telluride one day in the fall while riding with an Austrian in the San Miguel River canyon, after a grouse hunt.  He made the following comment that went directly to the Landmans heart and soul.  “You probably don’t realize how lucky you have been living in ski towns as long as you have.  You are surrounded by millions of acres of public land, national forest, that you can hike, hunt, photograph wildlife, all free, and never need permission from anyone to use.  The national forest is the best land in the west, towering over ranches, mesas, and ski towns, with herds of elk, deer, cougar and mountain sheep, and high basins with waterfalls, the absolute best land surrounding ski towns.  It provides for endless joy and adventure, and it is minutes from your home.  In Austria, you could not hike without permission from the descendants of the Kings of Austria, you could not hunt without paying an enormous fee to the landed gentry and nobility, and you could never buy their land or own something near the mountains.  How lucky and blessed are the people who live in Telluride, and take this public land for granted.  Europe is not like this, so enjoy it.”  The Landman was amazed at this statement of freedom, living in a ski town, where everyone is a King and a Queen, where it costs nothing to walk up into the mountains.  In the San Miguel county courthouse there is a large colored map on the wall that shows all the national forest land and displays the history of public lands in a narrative form.  At one time the public land contained over a billion acres.  Large chunks were lost when land was given to school sections, railroad companies, and mining claims, but Teddy Roosevelt created 400 million acres more, and developed the National Forest concept, preserving this kingdom forever.  Ski towns should give thanks to the Big Teddy Bear, Theodore Roosevelt, and visitors should enjoy the Kingdom above the valleys, a true and real paradise.