VOICES Gather round for a(n adult) puppet show

Every now and then I nd myself spending more time trying to gure out how to write about something for this column than actually writing about it. I always want to nd my own angle on the story and usually that just kind of pops into my head right away. As I’m checking out the details, something clicks and I get an idea and go with it.

But once in a while, either nothing immediately jumps out, or so many di erent angles come to mind that I don’t know exactly where to begin.

at’s what happened this week, but there are also several things I needed to consider when putting a description of it into the context of a published newspaper column rather than just a blurb on an information website that’s probably going to be o the radar of people looking for copyright or trademark violations.

OK, let’s dive right in here. Our wonderful Miners Alley Playhouse has a new show about to open on Aug. 11. It’s called “Avenue Q: e Musical.” is should be a really great

AVENUE FLASHES show since it has won the “triple crown” of Tony Awards, Best Musical, Best Score and Best Book. e theater’s description of it is, “ e laugh-out-loud musical tells the timeless story of a recent college grad named Princeton, who moves into a shabby New York apartment all the way out on Avenue Q. He soon discovers that, although the residents seem nice, it’s clear that this is not your ordinary neighborhood. Together, Princeton and his new-found friends struggle to nd jobs, dates and their ever-elusive purpose in life.”

So far, so good, right? Now here’s where it starts to go o the rails a bit. It’s a puppet show. Not just that, it’s an adult puppet show. Rated “R” for adult language and full-frontal pup- pet nudity. Yes, you read that right. Now, here’s where my mind starts to go wandering o into a bizarre option for what angle to approach this with…I’m imagining somebody being approached to build the puppets. “OK, Bob, so what we need are fully anatomically correct gures complete with…” Yeah, now you are starting to see why it took a while just to gure out how I was going to spin this one. e next thing that came to my mind was just how many of these Tony Award winning musicals are written by people in New York and are set in places that they all understand, but the rest of us just kind of have to imagine. e phrase “all the way out on Avenue Q” is what I’m talking about here. All the way out where? It’s set in the city of New York. How far out could it be? Again, my mind is wandering.

Meanwhile, back to the story. So, after doing a bit more of a deep dive into this thing, I gured out that it’s kind of an adult parody of that famous educational television show

Money doesn’t grow on trees

Government cannot do everything. at sentence is a popular truism on the political right. It is correct for a very practical reason. e government does not have an endless supply of money. Money for government projects does eventually dry up once those funds are exhausted. Budgets have limits. Of course, there are some who would like for the government to do more with more money from the public. But if taxes are raised to sky-high levels, then some will feel disincentivized to earn money. at ultimately serves no end because tax revenues would then dry up. Tax money does not grow on trees, it is generated by the work and sweat that citizens toil under to provide for themselves.

When I started to write this series of opinion pieces on the budget I did it with the intention of sharing something that Je erson County and

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To subscribe call 303-566-4100 for kids that features puppets spelled with an “m” of things like a frog, a pig and one that really likes cookies. So, it has people interacting with the puppets as though they were real people on a set that looks like a typical city block with apartment buildings. Did I dance around that copyrighted name enough? Do I need to throw in the phrase “Open Sesame” to give you another clue? Yeah, that show. e bottom line here is that it’s going to be a really funny production using a familiar format to discuss a lot of adult issues with a catchy musical score that has delighted audiences everywhere. It’s unique, to say the least, and another example of how our Miners Alley Playhouse goes above and beyond to bring new, fresh and cutting-edge theater to our town of Golden.

Avenue Q will be running from Aug. 11 through Sept. 17 with performances at 7:30 p.m. on ursdays, Fridays and Saturdays as well as 2

JOE WEBB

Colorado does that has a large impact on your lives as citizens. I could have written much more than I have. Zerobased budgeting is a particular pet peeve of mine because it forces unnecessary and unwarranted governmental expenditures to occur because revenues and expenditures must always be equal. I wanted to share how unfunded mandates from both the federal and state government crowd out the budgetary choices that should only belong to our elected o cials here in Je erson County and Colorado.

I am on the political right. I think the Taxpayers Bill of Rights (TABOR) is a good thing. I believe that gov-

LINDA SHAPLEY Publisher lshapley@coloradocommunitymedia.com

MICHAEL DE YOANNA Editor-in-Chief michael@coloradocommunitymedia.com

KRISTEN FIORE West Metro Editor kfiore@coloradocommunitymedia.com

CORINNE WESTEMAN Community Editor cwesteman@coloradocommunitymedia.com ernment should restrain its spending and think about what it spends seriously and with deliberation. I am not someone who thinks that those on the lower rungs of America’s economic ladder should be left in benign neglect. Government does indeed take care of the less fortunate in our society but they cannot do a perfect job of it. Private charity then steps up to augment where government assistance leaves o . ose who contribute towards the many wonderful and varied private charities within our state contribute their money in the hopes of assisting Colorado’s less fortunate. ose charities and donors deserve a hearty thank you from all of us because they make the lives of the less fortunate in Colorado better. In fact, what they do is keep budgets from becoming larger than they already currently are. May it always be so that generosity is extended by good individuals

ERIN ADDENBROOKE Marketing Consultant eaddenbrooke@coloradocommunitymedia.com

AUDREY BROOKS Business Manager abrooks@coloradocommunitymedia.com

ERIN FRANKS Production Manager efranks@coloradocommunitymedia.com

LINDSAY NICOLETTI Operations/ Circulation Manager lnicoletti@coloradocommunitymedia.com that desire to reach areas and serve needs that the government cannot. Budgets are ultimately a series of choices made by the government of a locale as to how to spend tax revenue. e inputs into how a budget is crafted are ultimately more complex than many realize. Writing about the state budget matters in the further education of the general public and how both they and elected o cials handle the budgetary choices made in both the state and county level. I encourage you to question your state legislators about how they vote on the long bill. You should attend hearings about budget concerns that a ect you and those whom you know personally. Most importantly, take the time to tell others in Je erson County and Colorado about what you have learned.

Joe Webb is the former chairman of the Je co Republican party.

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