The invisible butterflies are not the Denver Zoo’s latest exhibit. Rather, they’re the creatures fluttering in the stomachs of some high-powered big-biz types who in their off time form The Moderators, a cover band that will perform from 9 to 10 tonight during Do at the Zoo, the annual big-bucks fundraiser.
“As much as we try not to be nervous, there are always a few butterflies, especially when it’s a really important performance like Do at the Zoo,” said the band’s ringleader, Ed Haselden, chairman and chief executive of Haselden Construction. “We are just a bunch of middle-age CEOs who found a way to exploit their musical passion amidst this crazy everyday business environment.”
Also in touch with their inner rock star are Bob Deibel, president of Office Scapes; Bryant Martin, real estate developer; Mike Fries, CEO of Liberty Global; Dave Morrison of Grubb and Ellis; Dick Capek, medical director for Cigna Health; and Josh Skelton, owner and music director of Red Turtle Music.
The group formed three years ago when The Young Presidents Organization asked four of them to put together a YPO band to play for a chapter event.
Since then, they’ve been walkin’ the walk and rockin’ the rock gratis for a handful of charity events a year. Got a gig? Contact edhaselden@ .
Marrying mayor.
Financial guru Fred Taylor, co-owner of Denver’s Northstar Investment Advisors, married Claudia Garza, a real estate agent for Fuller Sotheby’s in Cherry Creek, during a ceremony officiated by Mayor John Hickenlooper on Saturday at Lake Catamount in Steamboat Springs.
The cute couple met on a blind date — set up by Hickenlooper’s former restaurant empire partner Lee Driscoll — where they went on a run around Washington Park.
“She ran, and I talked the entire 3 miles around the park,” Taylor told me.
Driscoll and Taylor were high school lacrosse teammates. Taylor met Hickenlooper in 1986 when he was an unemployed geologist.
“We had dinner together at the old Rattlesnake at the Tivoli with his sister, Betsy, who was married to my old high school English teacher, Dan Hollins,” Taylor said. “After John started the Wynkoop (Brewing Co.), I became a press-clipping service for his sister because John was in the paper so much.”
Hick joined the board of Northstar in 1995 but resigned in 2001 when he ran for mayor.
A leg up.
Hooters restaurants may best be known for their wings delivered by tank-topped and hot-pants-wearing buxom babes, but these days the nationwide chain is all about the gals’ gams.
Roughly 15,000 Hooters servers in 44 states (including some in Denver, Lakewood, Aurora, Westminster, Loveland, Colorado Springs and Grand Junction) are donating their torn pantyhose to help absorb the zillions of gallons of oil from the leak in the Gulf of Mexico.
The pantyhose will be fashioned into containment booms, which are filled with fur, fleece and hair to help soak up the spill. Hooters estimates that stores will collect more than 100,000 pairs of hose.
EAVESDROPPING
A bartender talking to a customer about TV weather warnings:
“Don’t worry. The storm shelter is our liquor room.”
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@denverpost.com.
