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December 6, 2012

Ignite Boulder 19: Where Smart People Dress Up, Put on Fake Mustaches & Talk About Creative Shenanigans.

Ignite Boulder? True to its name.

What: Ignite Boulder offered a night of presentations by community members on playful, sometimes serious, but always engaging and important topics.

Where: Boulder Theater.

Who: Well, I can’t be sure. Everybody wore a thick, black mustache handed out at the door to accompany black ties and black dresses. An exquisite scene to commit a crime—none occurred, except that I nabbed a red pen from the bar to take notes. Sorry.

Ryan Van Duzer hosted last night with an auctioneer-esque presence and spiffy powder blue tux. Boulder is Boulder, he surmised, because of its sweet, sometimes smelly concoction of health obsession, hippies, pot, expensive bikes, and fortunate link to beautiful Boulder native, Jessica Biel. (She wasn’t in attendance to the disappointment of many.) He set the crowd aglow, as bright as the holiday light star seen now on the hills of Boulder.

The line up: 12 speakers with 20 slides at 15 seconds per slide chosen for content, and relevance to the community.

In case you were at the bar the entire time getting your swagger on, or home in your pajamas here is what you missed:

Tim Davids, “I’m still fat, but I lost a whole lot of weight.”

His weight has fluctuated 10s of pounds. On a good day at his fattest, he ate a wedding cake, he joked. On a bad day, he ate two and cried. A humorous tone with a heartfelt underpin: do what kind of activity you want and just get out there and move.

Rick Polito on Storytelling as a Neglected Art

He emphasized the need for reinvigorated, imaginative storytelling with our friends and families. With an endearing photo of his young daughter dressed up in play princess clothes on a slide, he remarked, that each kid deserves her own princess story with values unique to them, not formulated by Disney. “She may have met prince charming and decided he couldn’t keep up.” He’s created an app called “Shake ‘N Tell.” It gives you the bones for storytelling, you put the meat on them.

@waylonlewis on instagram <> Sold out dressy #boulder #bouldertheater #igniteboulder #elephantjournal

Duzer and I should form an emcee union. #boulder #igniteboulder #shineboulder

@waylonlewis on instagram <> One of many funny/ moving / interesting / creative #igniteboulder presos. #boulder

Sheila Paxton: Finding Old-Fashioned Love in a Digital World

She surveyed 853 single people about dating online. Annual revenue for dating websites: 100 million. Most felt at one point in their online dating career that the person just wanted to canoodle them into bed. So, how can we form intimate, long lasting relationships in the Internet age?

Take away: stare into each others’ eyes. A seriously cute slide of embracing monkeys confirmed it works. And a safety tip: don’t give out your life story in your second ever email. Common sense applies in the virtual world.

Richard Welch: Life with an Extrovert

He is married to his high school sweetheart, a fun-loving, dance-aholic extrovert. “I rarely have to ask her what she’s thinking.”

Tips for introverts: instead of a plain tee, wear more of a funny shirt. Let your boundaries get pushed. Dress up on Halloween.

Matt Deragisch: Which Comic Book Is Right for You?

I have a soft spot for comic book nerds. If you don’t have a glasses wearing, die-hard comic boy fan in your life—get one. Here is a good reading list to start off with, so you have something to talk about.

Saga: a sci-fi series. If zombies are more your thing try The Walking Dead, or how about Bone for something whimsical and kid appropriate?

Lynn Brewer: How Literary Figures Would Have Tweeted

Take away funnies: Twitter candidate Emily Dickenson, tweet: “I just saw a spider eat a fly on my window sill. Lucky fly.” And a naked picture of Walt Whitman: “He would have been an Instagram man.”

Reed Pankratz: Language of online teenagers

What are teenagers doing online? They are not having pillow fights on Chat Roulette. But you’ll never know because apparently, they are deleting their browser history.

A very important take away:

YOLO, “It’s Carpe Diem for stupid people.” ~ Jack Black

An applause followed the assertion that YOLO be put to death.

I last saw the crowd moving towards Shine night bar in a jubilant procession of curtails and mustaches. Presumably for drinks and civilized discourse.

 

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