Out here in the middle distance, the light is sometimes so harsh and bright that we want to draw the shades and just rest in cool darkness. The impulse to retreat has never been stronger than in these years approaching old age. At home I am safe, is my mantra.

Springs resident Zach Wolfson just launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $28,000 for the second season of his web series Beyond the Gallery. I spoke to Wolfson about the first season and his vision for the project: You can watch the entire first season of Beyond the Gallery HERE.

In case you missed the announcement (we did, sorry): The Pikes Peak Arts Council just announced its nominees for the 2013 Awards for Excellence in the Arts. Congratulations to all the nominees!

Lucky for those of you who plan to attend the Gallery of Contemporary Art’s Brilliant Benefit on Saturday, August 10, local artist Sean O’Meallie has “Got A Handle On It: Circus”, one of his deceptively whimsical sculptures, available for auction.

If you missed this past weekend’s Blues Under the Bridge, we take you back there in this internet time machine right now with the photographs of renowned local rock photographer Larry Hulst and “No Cheap Seats in Heaven” by The Slide Brothers.

We’re thrilled that the Modbo will present the graphic work of long-lost native Colorado Springs artists Roy Linton Jr. and Sr., and Roy Funnell (“The Three Roys”) who formed Hobbit Hole posters in 1969.

Today is the last day to catch a public lecture at the The Summit at Colorado Springs: The 32nd Annual International Calligraphy Conference, being held at Colorado College.

This past weekend, photographer Sean Cayton and I talked to couples and friends at PrideFest 2013 about how the event felt different after civil unions were legalized in Colorado and the Defense of Marriage act was struck down by the Supreme Court.

This was a great week for porch sitting. In the afternoon, massive moisture-laden clouds billowed above the 14-thousand foot tall mountain and churned into dark thunderheads. The sky began to vibrate and rattle and belch and finally, fat raindrops pounded the street and sidewalk and filled the gutters and poured from the downspouts.

This weekend, the local skateboarding non-profit SK8-Strong will host the Rocky Mountain State Games, an amateur contest at Memorial Park. They’ll host a professional contest at Memorial Park on the weekend of August 8.

For the past few years, I have been part of a monthly lunch group of women who write, read and love books. When we get together, we begin talking about our work, but the conversation quickly shifts to family concerns: How are the kids? The elderly parents? Who’s having a baby? Getting married?

If you haven’t already made the pleasant trip up the pass to Green Mountain Falls to see the amazing Tomas Saraceno sculpture, “Cloud City”, at the Green Box Arts Festival, this week is your last chance to do so before it comes down.

As the Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, last month, in many ways, the gay rights movement seems to be pushing forward faster than many had anticipated. Some are already turning toward other complex issues, like gender.

As Memorial Day approaches, far too many American families are not thinking about what they’ll cook on the grill, but how they will remember their military dead, particularly the growing number who died at their own hands, of suicide. I am the mother of one of those soldiers.

Along with dozens of other local, national and international journalists, we toured Mountain Shadows yesterday and got a firsthand look at the destruction that the Waldo Canyon Fire wreaked on its neighborhoods. What was most immediately apparent was how little the fire spared and how randomly it seemed to discriminate.

KRCC is very pleased to announce that we won First Place from the Colorado Associated Press Broadcasters Association in the “Documentary” category in the Radio 1 Large/Medium Market Division for our “Uniquely Colorado” Western Skies episode, which aired last summer.