Christmas

Homelessness: City's emergency overflow shelter for women has open spots

Our recent cover story -- "Bed Check," a close look at the shelter space available for homeless women in Denver -- was published just as the city opened up a new overflow wintertime option exclusively for women. The emergency spot has a total of fifty mats each night. And after more than a month in ... More >>

Vacation! director Zach Clark talks drugs, sex and death at the beach

The beach-party movie has fallen from its former pinnacle of popularity, but it still has its fans. Take writer/director Zach Clark, for instance. His latest film, Vacation!, resurrects the classic beach-party film formula, updates it for the 21st century and then twists it into weird places that Fr ... More >>

10 things to do for $10 in Denver this weekend (5 free!), December 21-23

Yeah, the world might end tonight. But just in case it doesn't, hold onto some of your cash, rather than ending up like one of Harold Camping's followers. Because there will be plenty of ways to spend it this weekend in Denver, where bargain activities include skating at a roller disco, dancing away ... More >>

Ace mixologist Randy Layman serves up a holiday drink at Ace

Whether it's a night at the Nutcracker, a performance of Handel's Messiah, or old-time caroling with friends, we all have our favorite holiday traditions. For Randy Layman, bartender at Ace, which I review this week, Christmas Eve wouldn't be the same without the Italian cookies known as pizzelles. ... More >>

Photos: The styles of Frost: Fashion Denver's Holiday Market

For eight years, one local holiday tradition has taken winter fashion far beyond the ugly Christmas sweater craze. On Sunday, Frost: Fashion Denver's Holiday Market brought together 31 designers and dozens of looks during its annual spotlight on the city's scene. Roving Westword photographer Christo ... More >>

Guess where I'm drinking a mezcal margarita?

When I asked the bartender if he had mezcal, his eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. "You want mezcal!? he exclaimed. "Oh, man, a gringo girl who likes mezcal. Wow." Not only did he pour me a potent margarita but he brought out the mezcal bottle, too, egging me on to knock back shots. I regrettably d ... More >>

Christmas Cheer

Timmi Lasley talks about LadyFace's An Office Christmas Party

Like her sketch-comedy counterparts in Denver troupe LadyFace, Timmi Lasley is a versatile performer. The sketch comedian has been doing stand-up for the last three years, after paying her dues as a stage actor and getting a degree in theater. The acting expertise came in especially handy this year, ... More >>

Ben Nighthorse Campbell plays Santa with U.S. Capitol Christmas tree

The country is swamped by devastation from Hurricane Sandy and the storm of the 2012 election, but it's still beginning to look a lot like Christmas. And who's the Santa hauling the 2012 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree -- -- "America's gift to the nation" -- to Washington, D.C.? Former Senator Ben Night ... More >>

After 28 years, Cherokee Dining on 12th Avenue will close on October 14

When Deana Mikdad gently broke the news to the old man, he wept. For fifteen years, maybe twenty, he'd eaten lunch with his son at Cherokee Dining on 12th Avenue -- the "Cherokee" to most of us -- three days a week. It is to him, as it is to so many other longtime regulars, his home away from home, ... More >>

The Old West still lives in custom cowboy boot maker Mickey Mussett's shop

Custom cowboy boot maker Mickey Mussett didn't start out fancying up the elite. He's 65 now and only started making boots ten years ago, after leaving his job in advertising. The lure of leather and glue is what pulled him away and what keeps him busy now. "It's a very human and exciting thing, to m ... More >>

Review: The Reverend Horton Heat at the Odgen, 1/28/12

THE REVEREND HORTON HEAT @ OGDEN THEATRE | 1/28/12 Just in case anyone forgot how long the Reverend Horton Heat has been around, he reminded everyone during the first 45 minutes of his show the Ogden Theatre Saturday night by playing a song from each of his albums in chronological order, from 1991' ... More >>

Scissor Sisters share a "Shady Love" with Azealia Banks, plus a breakdown of the charts

The Scissor Sisters have two incarnations: campy, carefree guitar-driven band, as was the case for early cuts like "Take Your Mama" and "I Don't Feel Like Dancin'," and a new, more hedonistic synth band with one ear to the dance floor and another in the bedroom. The latter vibe dominated the band's ... More >>

Marijuana edibles: Make your holiday feast a green treat

​The holiday season is a time of giving, kindness, harmony and joy - or at least, that's what it should be. But these days, the true essence of the holidays seems to be overwhelmed by crazy amounts of traffic, ridiculous lines at stores, people beating each other over toys, dwindling bank acco ... More >>

The refashioned Fat Frog Cafe reopens in downtown Littleton

Lori Midson​I crashed a Christmas party. Unintentionally, I might add, but nonetheless, when I waltzed into the Fat Frog Cafe earlier this afternoon to check out the new digs, I came face-to-face with a blizzard of Christmas sweaters, none of which, surprisingly, were ugly. But even if they ha ... More >>

Bros and Ho Ho Hos

Sweep away the Scrooge in you with the Denver Center Theatre Company's A Christmas Carol

I've seen the Denver Center Theatre Company's production of A Christmas Carol more than once, and as someone who was brought up on a diet of Mr. Magoo, Reginald Owen, that nice thick novel by Charles Dickens and, later, Bill Murray in Scrooged, I never tire of it: Well-played by the ensemble, with g ... More >>

A dozen cost-effective (read: cheap) music-related costume ideas for Halloween

​Sometimes, you just don't have the cash lying around to splurge on that expensive Halloween costume. Fear not, young heathens! We have compiled a list of costumes for you that cost nearly nothing. In fact, you probably have the materials lying around the house. Click through for some ideas. A ... More >>

Nü Metal quilt will keep you warm with '90s nostalgia

Memorable Christmas gifts are made with love, and in the case of this gent, his Christmas gift is infused with a rap-metal logos of the '90s and early 2000s. Many of the classic T-shirts are there: the Korn Adidas rip-off and 40 ounces, the Coal Chamber ice cream truck, the classic Walls of Jericho ... More >>

Top five foods you should NOT give as Christmas gifts

Look! It's kibble for humans!​ We all know how the holiday gift-giving hierarchy works: Your best-effort gifts are given to people you like (or people whose asses you pucker up to the rest of the year); you give cost-effective, neutral gifts to those you pretend to like (bring on the Hickory ... More >>

Today only: Glacier Ice Cream is offering $10 off its pint-of-the-month club

​You can count us among the group of people who rush out on Christmas Eve to finish our gift purchasing, frantically buying up whatever we can find -- or resorting to gift certificates, just so we don't look like morons. But deals will lure us out early, and Boulder's Glacier Ice Cream, 4760 ... More >>

Top 16 White Elephant Christmas Gifts of 2010

Number 10.​It's the time of year for the giving and receiving so-called White Elephant gifts -- which, for those of us into kitsch stuff, can be better than receiving something allegedly classier. Understanding this, our friends at Arc Thrift Stores of Colorado have assembled their "must-have" ... More >>

Reader: Denver's Nativity Scene looks like something from Vacation's Clark Griswold

​Patricia Calhoun's post about the annual protest stirred by the Nativity Scene at Denver's City & County Building prompted a funny comment from one reader, who likens the display to a certain Chevy Chase movie -- one also referenced last week in our post about resident Alek Komarnitsky web-co ... More >>

The Dark Side of the Holidays

Themes of family and loss underscore the dark comedy of Reckless

Ten most ridiculous entrants in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

Festive as shit!​The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is among the more baffling holiday traditions out there. Maybe it makes sense if you're in New York, but millions of people elsewhere sit down to watch a parade on TV. Parades are boring in real life! And this isn't just any parade. This is, ... More >>

Get lit: A brief guide to some of Denver's best holiday lights this season

​Ah, the holidays, that special time of year when we turn on a ridiculous amount of very small light bulbs to comfort us, because it gets dark too early, and also because this is America, and by gum, we can. Still, there's no denying the austere beauty of the snow all illuminated, making halos ... More >>

Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast, Pocahaunted and her approach to songwriting.

David BlackBethany Cosentino and Bobb Bruno are Best Coast​ In recent years, with bands ransacking the '60s, '70s and '80s for musical ideas and sounds, it's becoming increasingly easy to dismiss many musicians as being little more than throwbacks mimicking their artistic ancestors. But some ... More >>

Carla Bley top seller at Albums on the Hill

​Jazz pianist Carla Bley grabbed the top spot at Albums on the Hill with Carla's Christmas Carols, an ECM release that also features bassist Steve Swallow and the Partyka Brass Quintet. Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros' Up From Below and Gregory Alan Isakov's This Empty Northern Hemisphere c ... More >>

RU-Buzzed? or are you going to get a DUI?

​There were a lot of new iPhones opened on Christmas Day, and that was a big present for the Colorado Department of Transportation, which created its own iPhone application in November to help people measure whether they are too drunk to drive.

Get lit in LoDo this holiday season!

Dixons packaged itself for the holidays.​Twenty-seven businesses entered the first annual LoDo Aglow: Scenes of the Season window-decorating contest, lighting up for the holidays (and through the Stock Show, like the Denver City and County Building). And the winners, announced this week by t ... More >>

Freeloader: Dubstep mix from Alert

​It was just a few days ago I was writing about how much I hate Christmas music, so it shouldn't surprise anyone that I've been seeking out alternative musical fare this season. And just this morning, what should alight on my inbox like the trip-tapping of tiny reindeer? A new free mix from lo ... More >>

Heavy Rotation, our top spins for the week of December 14, 2009

​As music critics -- and people who generally think about, talk about, listen to and make music -- the most common question we get asked (and ask each other, for that matter) is, "What are you listening to right now?" The pervasiveness of this query is precisely what inspired Heavy Rotation. For t ... More >>

Top 10 emotionally disturbed Christmas songs

​Christmas songs really ought to be up little tunes -- hope, faith, charity, love and all that. But some songs have apparently snuck through the back door, drunk up all the rum, made a clumsy pass on pretty much everyone but the family dog, and are now holding court in the corner, seriously br ... More >>

From the week of December 10, 2009

Rosa Scintillante at Ernie's Bar & Pizza

The Claus Clause

Kenny Be's Worst-Case Scenario: The grand illumination

The Winter in the City program is an effort to warm up to suburban shoppers by showing them how "Denver has seen the light!" The evening begins at Union Station with a visit from "Concealed-Carry Claus." He will be packing a 500-magnum "candy cane" as a promise of protection to all white guys atten ... More >>

Denver Blogs: It's beginning to sound a lot like Christmas

Put that in your pipe and smoke it, BC.​Here are some local sites you might enjoy visiting. A thread on DenverRadio.net's Comments & Rumors board begins with questions about why no local stations have started playing wall-to-wall Christmas music yet -- and ends with news that KOSI has begun t ... More >>

Music for snow

The view out my front door​Ah, snow. I hate it. I am not a skier, not a 'boarder and I sure as fuck don't snowshoe. And it's not because I am some pansy-ass, warm-weather transplant from SoCal or something. I grew up in Wyoming and I've been in Colorado for almost thirteen years, so I am certa ... More >>

The Longest Road

Avenue Q brings puppetry of the people to Denver

French Feast

Gather Around

Colorado Homegrown Tales gets In a Holiday Mood.

It's Time

The little things will get you every time.

First in Flight

Frequent Flyers hoist up a holiday show for everyone.

Drunk of the Week

Mead Street Station Grill and Pub

Drunk of the Week

Cherry Cricket

Consumed

Good Wheels Toward Men

Consumed

A Matter of Taste