Tales from Cowtown

McFann's was a restaurant and bar at the corner of 11th Avenue and Ogden Street in the Capitol Hill Neighborhood of Denver Colorado.  It was one of those landmark spots in Capitol Hill of the 1980's and early '90's.

McFann's was rather nondescript in appearance. A plain green sign on a white board was how anyone driving by was going to know about the place. Its menu was of the standard American fare,and there was nothing outstanding about the beer selection either. What it did have going for it was the neighborhood: Capitol Hill. If you were a hippie or a punk,and couldn't afford to live in Boulder,you lived in Capitol Hill. Ramblin' Jack Elliott and Allen Ginsberg spent their Denver time in Capitol Hill. It seemed to attract an inordinate number of artists. In the 1980's,if you were gay,Capitol Hill was one of the safest neighborhoods to live in Denver. It was affordable if you didn't have much,but comfortable enough for those who had a little more too...and Colfax Avenue was not far away. Never know what may come out of or from Colfax. McFann's found itself set in the heart of this neighborhood,and that's probably why it thrived.

In the 80's it was more of a restaurant than bar,but as far as I was concerned, McFann's was the epitome of a modern day Wild West saloon. I always related it to something bad happening. When my wife at the time would say "Let's go to McFann's",I learned to brace myself because something was about to go down.

In the mid 90's,I found myself back in Denver,back in Capitol Hill,and back in McFann's. Now it was more of a bar,complete with pool tables,but still nothing outstanding about the beer selection,and found out soon enough that I didn't have to be married to find trouble at McFann's. One night,a Pittsburgh Steelers fan made the mistake of talking smack about the Denver Broncos there. Bet he never did that again..I saw a waitress throw a drink into a customer's face. On another evening while quietly sitting at the bar nursing a beer,I was politely informed by the bartender,that in order to avoid trouble,because there was a man on the other side of the bar who wanted to start a fight with me,that I should probably leave. The bartender paid for my beer..

I will say this about McFann's however: it was through a friend who I met there who introduced me to the 13th Avenue Bar and Grill in Denver where later I met some of my best and closest friends .

One of the last times I visited McFann's was shortly before returning to Minnesota. I ran into my former  neighbor who shortly was going to return to his homeland of Australia. He and I had struck up a friendship while living in an Ogden St apartment,and both of us found ourselves as sworn enemies of the landlord for reasons that had nothing to do with paying the rent on time. One of my "crimes" there was laughing too hard with my friends. That brought the landlord to the door complete with a billy club. Guess the landlord did something similar to my Aussie friend too.

It was getting close to bar close time. We had had a few beers and and spent the evening railing against the landlord,the political system,and even McFann's,but before leaving,my friend had to do one last thing.
As the jukebox ended the night with the Counting Crows' Mr Jones,He pleaded for,and got the patrons attention.
"I love Denver and I love Capitol Hill!" he shouted in his Australian accent "and I going to miss people like my dreadlock friend here!" I began to wonder if he had been a member of the Australian Parliament the way he was speaking. He certainly was getting the call and response from the bar crowd. "But I need to tell you,we were WRONGED by a corrupt landlord!" We must do something about this!" He asked me to join him..I declined,but it seemed like he had enough of the bar following him. I walked by my old apartment the next day,and did notice boards covering up the landlord's window.

McFann's no longer exists and neither does the Capitol Hill of the day. The Wild West can now only be found on Colfax/

Alan Dumas..a Rocky Mountain Memory

Sometimes I think when a person comes to our minds who's no longer with us,it's that person's way of checking in with those of us left behind.

Alan Dumas checked in with me today.

For those of you who didn't live in Denver Colorado in the 1980's and 90's ,Alan Dumas was a writer and DJ who graced the Denver scene till his sudden and untimely death in 1999.

I first knew Alan as a voice as he was one of those who "Rocked the Rockies" on KBPI which then was on 105.9 FM.( It's since moved) but I got to know Alan through a couple of the more notable events in my life.

The first occurred in 1987 while Alan was a writer for Westword, a Denver Alternative Weekly.
After an evening of beer and pizza at Beaujos on Colfax Avenue with my buddy Doug Anderson..well to be honest,I drank all the beer,the campaigns for Mayor of Denver and Election Commissioner respectably were launched. Though it was a non-partisan race,Doug and I were endorsed by the Libertarian Party. Westword wrote one of the first comprehensive articles about the race for Mayor. In that piece,something to this effect was written..David Daniels,Libertarian is also in the race,he is the first of the "fringe" candidates to declare.. I wrote Westword thanking them for placing me in that category,noting all the ideas considered mainstream that had its start in the fringes.
Later I got a phone call from Alan. He didn't write the piece,but called to state he liked my response to it. He then asked me if I planned on attending the first major debate. He told me he'd be there. I don't know whether Alan said something to the other writers at Westword or what,but starting from that first debate,where Westword reported that I stirred the crowd up,I got more coverage than any of the other "fringe candidates" that entered the race.I think Westword led the way in my race getting daily coverage in both Denver newspapers as well as Denver's tv stations.

I do know that according to John Ashton,a Westword writer at the time stated to me that Dumas put him up to offering me a joint prior a debate. For that gesture,when my buddy Doug won his Election Commissioner's race,thus becoming the first Libertarian elected in a major city,Alan got the scoop as to Doug's first words when I and a group of friends marched into the noted(???) Denver bar Shotgun Willie's where he was tending bar that night. For the record,those words were "You're shitting me?"

The next came in 1994 when I returned to Denver from Minneapolis to present my play Malcolm X Meet Peter Tosh. Alan was now the theater writer for the now defunct Rocky Mountain News. He had me come to the Rocky's office for an interview prior to the play's premier. We talked a lot then about music and marijuana. Alan loved the Grateful Dead and connected to the play from the standpoint of the similarities between Deadhead and Reggae cultures. Dumas called Malcolm X Meet Peter Tosh the "top cultural event" in his best of the Arts of 1994 column. To me personally,he described it as "The Rocky Horror Picture Show of Theater" in that audiences would return night after night,cheer and boo the various characters,dance to the reggae music in the play,and share joints with the actors in the play. He also knew about those not too fond of the play..like the cops. I never told Alan that real marijuana would be used in the play,but he sensed from the beginning that attending the play would be more akin to attending a reggae show,thus he wasn't surprised when he learned about police surrounding the theater and questioning me about marijuana usage at a presentation of the play on the campus of Colorado State University in Fort Collins.

Though it was theater editor Jackie Campbell who was credited with the byline,it was Alan Dumas who reported to the Rocky Mountain News of the incident where police surrounded the Bug Theater in Denver and arrested 4 members of the audience.
There was also the night where due to a blizzard,a performance was cancelled. Alan called me to ask about the cancellation. "How many people did you have to turn away?" he asked. I told him "about 30". He then said to me,"You turned more people away than what the (downtown and major theater) Denver Center for Performing Arts had in attendance!" He seemed to be thrilled to tell me that.

The last time I saw Alan in person was at the coffeeshop at Alfalfa's (now Whole Foods) in Denver's Capitol Hill neighborhood. It was shortly after Jerry Garcia's death,so we had to acknowledge that.

Thanks Alan for checking in today!