There were so many of the beautiful people at ArtCrush, the big summer benefit for the Aspen Art Museum, that I just had to run another column about the event.

The Aspen Institute will hold its 26th annual Awards Dinner on Thursday, Nov. 5, at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. Honorary Chairmen are The Honorable Madeleine K. Albright and The Honorable Henry A. Kissinger and Mrs. Kissinger. Dinner chairmen are Mercedes and Sid Bass, while dinner co-chairmen are Jane and Michael Eisner, Evelyn and Leonard Lauder, Anne Welsh McNulty, Jerry Murdock and Gillian and Robert Steel. Receiving the 2009 Leadership Awards will be Jeffrey Bezos, president and CEO of Amazon.com, and Judith Rodin, president of The Rockefeller Foundation.

David Bentley has returned from an autumn trip visiting friends with Aspen connections. In Durham, N.C., he stayed with Kitty and Jennifer Sherwin, the daughter and granddaughter of Terese David, who had an Aspen boutique for years and died in 1984. David hiked in the Blue Ridge Mountains with Jennifer’s husband, David Milkereit, and their son, Zach. In Florida, N.Y., he spent a few days with Pip Klein and her family. Pip moved away from Aspen in 1984. In Kingston, N.Y., David stayed with Richard Frumness, who was an art studio assistant to the late Irv Burkee in 1965 and hung out at Ivan’s Bookstore. Richard’s company (rfpaints.com) makes additive-free oil pigment sticks and encaustic paints, mediums and gessos. In Philadelphia, David stayed with Richard Woodhams, professor of oboe at the Curtis Institute of Music and the Aspen Music School.

Undercurrent … The bluejay is back for the winter from the campgrounds.