Madness and murder didn't kill Peter Spitz's love for the wife who blinded him

People stare as Peter Spitz feels his way into the restaurant. They're not looking at him, exactly. What they see is not the man, but the dark glasses, the white cane, the...

Why do Mexican teenagers shave their heads?

Dear Mexican: Why can AeroMexico Airlines fly through any kind of weather conditions to get to and from the United States, but any kind of little ice sprinkle or heavy wind,...

Get Jingly with It

If you didn’t get all the holiday adrenaline out of your system fighting for your life on Black Friday, lace some jingle bells into your sneakers and make a run for it...

Giving Spirit

ArgusFest will hold its 7th annual Fair Trade Holiday Bazaar today at the Mercury Cafe, bringing Fair Trade Organization-certified vendors together to showcase their wares....

Drawn to Life

You may not have heard of Pancake Boy or Captain Starfish yet, but if the kids from the Art Students League of Denver have any say in the matter, you will soon. That’s...

Make Magic at Hammond’s

Sugar and spice and everything Christmas is the Santa song of today’s Candy Cane Festival, a merry, merry tradition that’s ho-ho-hosted every year by Hammond’s...

Rats in Toyland

“Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse...well, okay, maybe a rat,” says Nancy Smith, founder and artistic director of Boulder’s aerial dance troupe...

On a Roll

Offering rotating special guests each night, the edgy variety show BALLS! A Holiday Spectacular is an opportunity to catch a cross-section of Denver’s creative class...

The Mural of the Story

The holiday decorations at the Denver City and County Building weren’t always such an orgy of bad taste. Back in 1935, just three years after the grand building was...

Revolution and art have always gone hand in hand, from the Bolshevik-era propaganda of the Soviets to the freak-out frescoes of the psychedelic ’60s. That’s why, for...

Soul Train

“Flamenco is not folk art,” argues Natalia Perez Vel Villar. “It’s an art. I always try to make the point of how difficult it is.” She’d know....

One-Star Routine

If you’re looking for Greg Warren while he’s in town for a five-night stand at the Comedy Works downtown, there’s an excellent chance you’ll find him at...

Lights, Camera, Animals

Zoo Lights enters its twentieth year tonight, and this edition offers plenty of reasons to make the trip. In addition to the more than 150 animated light sculptures over 38...

O Christmas Tea

When Charles Dickens visited the United States in the mid-nineteenth century at Christmastime, the lack of traditional English festivities made him homesick for his native...

Hip to the Holidays

Entertainment options this time of year run heavily toward the red-and-green, candlelit, carol-singing, hall-bedecked end of the spectrum — but some of us are already...

Story Time

When you strip away the jingles, the barrage of products and the unrelenting shopping blitz, the holidays are basically about nostalgia — our memories of childhood and...

Just Like the Ones I Used to Know

Khyentse James, organizer of tonight’s 1940s White Christmas Ball, grew up with the sort of holiday memories that inspire classic novels. “My grandmother was on the...

Denver is missing its New Deal-era holiday mural

Despite the oh-so-seasonal protests — including a round of billboards from Colorado Coalition of Reason, the first of which went up Monday at 11th Avenue and Speer...

Letters: Reader: "I blame the liberal media for the death of our nation"

"Guitar Guru," Jon Solomon, December 2 Guitar Hero After reading "Guitar Guru," I felt compelled to write to Westword, a publication I'd stopped reading — I...

Jeffree Star dishes on celebrities, tattoos and perfection

JonBenét Ramsey is the one who brought them together. Well, it wasn't so much JonBenét as it was Jeffree Star's desire for a tattoo of her. And it actually...