News of the Weird

Michael used to read "News of the Weird" in the paper every day, it always had some odd ball thing in it.

My news of the weird this week is Barbie Benton's house in Aspen.

Donna said "I saw this show with Barbie Benton and showed her house, it was really weird."

So that evening I was flipping the channels and lo and behold I saw the same program.

Every inch of every surface in her house is covered with art, mirrors, clothes, stuff! I will have to say that I think I would have nightmares.

When we lived in Aspen we lived about 400 yards from her house. I was never in her house but Michael was. They had lots of plants and put in a system that automatically watered the plants. One winter the pipes froze and flooded the house.

The views from there are stunning I will say. From our house we could see the runs at Snowmass Village, see down the valley to Mt Sopris, Buttermilk Mountain and Snowmass Mountain ski runs.

I was just curious so I did a search about the house to see if I could find a photo of it and found that the house is for sale and here is the description.

In Aspen, Colo., actress and former Playmate Barbi Benton and her husband George Gradow have put their futuristic house known as the Copper Palace on the market for $25 million. Comprising five copper pods connected by stairways, the 25,000-square-foot building is cantilevered in sections to provide views from all areas of the house. Each pod has its own function: The living and entertaining pod, for example, has both a disco and a ballroom. Other features include a gym, a theater and two heated lap pools. The house, which is set on 40 acres, was designed by architect Bart Prince.

We had a lot of interesting experiences when we lived there. Michael worked for John Denver and was the land manager for his Windstar Foundation. I worked for the Aspen Times, and the Aspen Arts Council and did my artwork.

We also met a lot of people and had some interesting or weird experiences too.

Like one time Goldie Hawn, who lived near Windstar, kissed Michael right on the lips!

One time I was sitting next to John at dinner and we were eating fish that still had skin & bones. I sat there looking at it and he reached over and filleted my fish for me.

Another time Michael was at Ivy Pabsts house (as in Pabst Blue Ribbon) and she asked if he wanted a beer, he said sure, she said I have St Pauli Girl, is that ok,? my daddys beer gives me gas!

Just so you know, we were caretakers for a couple large estates in Aspen and we lived in the one by Barbi's house. While the rest of this isn't exactly weird, writing about Aspen just makes me think about our 6 years there.

Of course we met interesting people at Windstar like Buckminster Fuller (I wrote about this in a previous blog), Tony Robbins - that is a news of the weird, we watched people walk through fire - we did NOT!!!, another news of the weird was Werner Erhart and his EST training. we met Leo Buscaglia, Jimmie Buffet, Glenn Frye of the Eagles (his mail box was right next to ours - he's very good looking!), I could go on but enough of that!

It was a fun and interesting time.