Say “relay the deucey” to new Museum of Contemporary Art director Adam Lerner, and he’s likely to bust a move — albeit a rusty move. Lerner was 11 years old when he started on the path to become a competitive square dancer in Queens, N.Y.
“My father was an orthodox Jew who was a Holocaust refugee who came to America in an Americanization program and learned square dancing,” Lerner told me after Mayor John Hickenlooper “outed” the museum chief’s former hobby during a recent reception at the MCA. “He met my mother square dancing, and they worked up through the ranks of square dancing in New York to become the top dancers in New York City.”
Lerner says his entire career has been affected by square dancing, even though he gave it up as a teenager.
“I feel like everything in my life has been impacted by the dualism of my parents,” said Lerner, who added that the pinnacle of his parents’ square-dancing career was when they were invited to join an all-gay square-dancing club. “My mother pushed an academic environment, and my father was an orthodox Jew in a gay square-dancing club.”
Sentimental saddle?
What price is a ’70s-era saddle when Eddie Murphy‘s peeps want it?
Just ask Rockmount Ranch Wear owner Steve Weil, who was approached Saturday by some movie people who wanted to buy the saddle made by Colorado Saddlery when it was in Lower Downtown.
“I bought it in the early ’70s with the money I earned from my paper route for The Denver Post,” Weil said. ” ‘The saddle is not for sale,’ I said.”
In the fall of 2007, movie star Murphy was in town filming “Imagine That.” The props manager set his cap for the saddle and offered Weil $3,000. The movie crew wanted the saddle to decorate Murphy’s 17th Street stockbroker office.
“I called Jeff Van Scoyt, whose father sold me the saddle,” Weil said. “He said, ‘Sell it!’ So, sentimental value is worth less than $3,000.”
DNC spawns catering company.
Richard Sandoval, the Latin-cuisine chef who launched Tamayo, Zengo and La Sandia restaurants in the metro area, was inspired by the Democratic National Convention here to create Sando val’s Kitchen, a Denver-based catering company.
“The idea had been floating around for a while; the DNC really showed Richard that there was enough demand for this kind of thing,” spokeswoman Julie Dunn said.
Eavesdropping.
A 4-year-old and his dad: “Papa, have you ever been part of an angry mob before?”
“No.”
“Have you ever marched with a group of people carrying pitchforks and torches?”
Penny Parker’s column appears Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. Listen to her on the Caplis and Silverman radio show between 4 and 5 p.m. Fridays on KHOW-630 AM. Call her at 303-954-5224 or e-mail pparker@ .
