Joel Warner

Reader: Barry Fey never lost Denver's love

Medical marijuana dispensary review: Patients Choice on South Broadway

Patients Choice is one of Denver's oldest and longest-running dispensaries. Opened in March 2009, the shop hasn't moved from its end-cap spot in a little brick-faced strip center just south of Evans on South Broadway, putting it near the southern boundary of the Green Mile along with Colorado Altern ... More >>

Reader: The blue mustang is awesome...and already paid for

Aaron Million pipeline: Opponents' build PR blitz around film Green With Envy

Real-estate investor Aaron Million's modest proposal to build a 550-mile pipeline to move water from southwest Wyoming to Colorado's Front Range has lots of critics. But a major challenge facing opponents is how to get city types to understand what's at stake, including the spectacular scenery and r ... More >>

Michael Hancock's DIA greeting: Was our addition of a cracking whip offensive?

Michael Hancock.​Political correctness isn't an exact science. Congressman Doug Lamborn has been pilloried in some quarters for saying that being associated with Barack Obama is like touching a tar baby -- a term previously used by Westword writers, albeit in a non-racial context. But did West ... More >>

IKEA Centennial is like, whoa (a preview)

​Frankly, I'm a little embarrassed to be so excited about a furniture store. Still, at today's press preview and tour of the brand-spanking IKEA Centennial, which opens July 27, it was clear that the store does not fail to live up to the hype, at least for what it's hyped to be: a giant, intui ... More >>

Aaron Million, pipeline entrepreneur, accused of stalking ex-girlfriend to her wedding in Italy

Aaron Million.​Back in 2009, Westword's Joel Warner profiled Fort Collins entrepreneur Aaron Million's plan to pump thousands of gallons of Wyoming water into Colorado -- a scheme that raised plenty of hackles north of the border. But today, he's got a more immediate concern. He was arrested ... More >>

Top 10 grocers we'd love at 20th & Chestnut in downtown Denver (beyond Trader Joe's)

​As we reported yesterday, downtown Denver will finally get a full-service grocery store thanks to a new development at 20th Street and Chestnut Place. But other than hints that it will be a "national brand," there's no word yet as to which grocery store we're gonna get. Here are ten grocery ... More >>

National, full-service grocery store to open downtown in 2013: Could it be Trader Joe's?

The Mulhern Group​Urban grocery shoppers rejoice! In two years, Denver will finally boast a full-service grocery store in the heart of downtown. The mixed-use project, first reported by the DenverInfill blog, will be located at 20th Street and Chestnut Place, two blocks from Union Station, an ... More >>

Reader: Skip Frasca and stick to Chuck E Cheese when you're taking kids to dinner

The friendly crew at Frasca Food and Wine.​Westword staff writer Joel Warner recently had a big night out with his wife and three-year-old son -- not at Chipotle, their regular family haunt, but at Frasca Food and Wine, which just won Best Front of the House in the Best of Denver 2011 (as it h ... More >>

Denver doesn't have Thai bike carts, but we do have two Thai mall carts

Michael Rosacci​Joel Warner's post on the Perk Cycle -- the bike-powered coffee cart that was just rolled out by Wash Perk Coffee Shop -- inspired a response from Michael Rosacci, who sent us shots of Thai street carts that included a full-blown kitchen on the back of a motorbike. Along with h ... More >>

Reader: Just because Alex Bogusky's COMMON is an abstract idea doesn't make it bull**it

Bogusky.​Joel Warner's post about advertising industry lightning-rod Alex Bogusky's new project, COMMON, which he describes as a "community-focused incubator and brand," sparked debate aplenty, with Bogusky fans and detractors sharing their views. Here's one of the former countering one of th ... More >>

FunnyPoliceReports.com: Humor professor Peter McGraw gets into the online meme game

​As described in the August cover story "The Nutty Professor," Boulder professor Peter McGraw is hard at work trying to crack the humor code. He and his team at the Humor Research Lab (HuRL) have subjected test subjects to Hot Tub Time Machine clips, dirty jokes and raunchy ads to see what, ex ... More >>

Bernie Buescher Pandora ad wins national award (despite not winning him the election)

​So what if Secretary of State Bernie Buescher didn't win re-election last November. In our book, he's still the coolest cat at the Capitol for being the only Colorado candidate (and one of the few in the country) to advertise on Pandora Internet radio, a move that just scored him a prestigiou ... More >>

Taxicab regulations: Senator Ted Harvey introduces bill to deregulate industry

​The November cover story "Mean Streets" revealed allegations of discrimination and abuse at Yellow Cab, the city's oldest taxi company, and detailed how attempts to launch alternative companies have been stymied by Colorado's restrictive taxi regulations. That may change, however, since Senat ... More >>

Rick Griffith's cult of letters: Do complicated typefaces make people smarter?

​Last week's cover story, "Extra Bold" deconstructs the weird, wonderful world of Denver designer Rick Griffith, a man who's constantly scrutinizing how words and letter-forms are used everywhere -- including the Denver School System. Griffith might be on to something, since a new paper report ... More >>

A real life superhero repository

​KIROTV in Lynwood, Washington recently reported a story about a real-life superhero named Phoenix Jones who stopped a car theft by chasing the man down the street. Weird, but not unheard of in this post-Kick-Ass world. In fact, there is an entire website devoted to these real world superheroe ... More >>

Rick Griffith's "Definition of Graphic Design": Can you dig it?

​"Extra Bold," this week's cover story, details the creations of Denver type maestro Rick Griffith, including his "Definition of Graphic Design," a 59-word sentence he spent eighteen months crafting that now appears on T-shirts, posters and scarves. Jeremy Peterson, art director at Griffith's ... More >>

LEGO my library: Imagine Rigney's cool homage to Michael Graves

​Kids do the darnedest things with LEGO bricks and games, as Joel Warner pointed out in this feature last January. But few projects are quite the labor of love involved in one fifteen-year-old devotee's astonishing replica of the Denver Public Library on Broadway: 7,000 bricks, two solid weeks ... More >>

Letters: Big Government obviously isn't protecting the little guy like we think it is

Win a $20 MAC Cosmetics gift card by telling us your Foursquare hopes/ruthless ambitions

​Update, 1 p.m.: We picked a winner! Congratulations to Tara Hallam, whose entry was the least kiss-ass of any we received. If I could be Foursquare mayor of any place in Denver, I'd be mayor of Casa Bonita because a place that has all you can eat sopapillas, cliff divers and a mariachi band ... More >>

Denver's compost program rises, bit by juicy bit, from the scrap heap

A Flickr photo​A few months back, Joel Warner reported on the shutdown of Denver's compost collection pilot program due to the budget crunch, followed by its resurrection as a fee-based program. How's that working out? Like the compost process itself, slooowly.

Cafe Society: Week in review

Lori Midson Mussels from Argyll Gastropub​What you may have missed this week on Cafe Society while bickering over whether Argyll, Colt & Gray, Olivea or TAG should have walked away with the Best New Restaurant award in this year's Best of Denver 2010 (Argyll, if you didn't already know, won th ... More >>

Medical marijuana grower Chris Bartkowicz's seized weed: The DEA ordered not to destroy all of it

The DEA hasn't incinerated all of Chris Bartkowicz's weed yet.​The arrest of Highlands Ranch's Chris Bartkowicz after he showed off his medical marijuana grow to a reporter at 9News has prompted complaints from the likes of Sensible Colorado's Brian Vicente, who helped organize a protest prior ... More >>

David Sirota sneaks F-word onto Denver Post website after medical marijuana lab raid: Congrats!

The tweet that roared (click to enlarge).​The Denver Post prides itself on being a family newspaper -- but its embrace of social media can make it difficult to keep grown-up language at bay. Case in point: On Friday, AM 760 host David Sirota, whose syndicated column frequently appears in the ... More >>

LEGO Universe -- even adults think it's out of this world!

Board of Health postpones next medical-marijuana meeting

Photo by Joel WarnerA photo from the last Board of Health meeting about medical marijuana earlier this month.​Medical-marijuana entrepreneurs and patients, among others, have been waiting with trepidation for the next Board of Health meeting, slated for December 16, at which its recent tweak o ... More >>

Marijuana lawyers file motion against Board of Health pot hearing

Joel WarnerThe controversial Board of Health hearing​During the emergency Colorado Board of Health hearing Tuesday that struck from state rules what, exactly, it means to be a marijuana caregiver and sent the state's medical marijuana community into turmoil, prominent pot lawyer Rob Corry told ... More >>

Update: The Board of Health meeting on medical-marijuana

Inside the Board of Health meeting.​Update, 3:23 p.m. Joel Warner here, back from the kerfuffle emergency Board of Health hearing. To make a long story short, the board voted 9-0 this morning to strike language stating that a marijuana caregiver has to have "significant responsibility for mana ... More >>

From the week of October 29, 2009

John Suthers buzzing on Stacy Clendenin medical-marijuana ruling

"Why is everyone getting so worked up over little ol' me?"​In September, Joel Warner wrote a blog entitled "Could Clendenin Case Deal a Blow to Colorado's Pot Biz?" Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, who's been trying to put the medical-marijuana genie back in the bottle, certainly hopes ... More >>

From the week of August 27, 2009

From the week of August 27, 2009

Urban homesteading deluxe with Fort owner Holly Arnold Kinney

Joel WarnerHolly Arnold Kinney and neighbor Matt Slater in Kinney's greenhouse​Most of the gardening operations I've been exploring as part of "Urbavore's Dilemma," my summer-long series on the local urban agriculture movement, are grassroots affairs: compost bins made from recycled plastic b ... More >>

Urbavore's Dilemma: Fort owner Holly Arnold Kinney uses her garden to dig into her past

Joel WarnerHolly Arnold Kinney and neighbor Matt Slater in Kinney's greenhouse​Urbavore's Dilemma is an ongoing web series detailing city dwellers' commitment to urban homesteading. From May through September, Westword writer Joel Warner will get his hands dirty, covering everything from backy ... More >>

New downtown farmers' market rises from the asphalt

Photo by Melanie AsmarThe tent of plenty. There's a new farmers' market in the heart of downtown Denver. Three months ago, the spot at 15th and California streets that's now home to Tiri's Garden and the Tiri's Garden Farmers' Market was an empty asphalt lot, a plot of well-positioned real estate t ... More >>

Go green: Hitch a ride to Monday's medical marijuana hearing

"Jump in, everyone!"Monday is shaping up to be a pot-tastic day. As Joel Warner reported earlier this week, the Colorado Board of Health will hold a hearing to consider tighter regulations on Colorado's burgeoning medical-marijuana trade. And all sorts of stoners, patients, advocates and stoned pati ... More >>

Check out Basil the robot at First Friday

Basil the robot, who was unsuccessful in a bid to serve beers at the Wynkoop Brewing Company last year but has since redeemed himself with several triumphant performances, will give the service sector another go tonight from 6 to 9 p.m. as part of an event for the First Friday Santa Fe Artwork, wh ... More >>

Vegans in Denver!

In the video above, WaterCourse Foods and City, O' City get a nice little shout-out. The video comes from The Healthy Voyager, a woman who travels around the country trying out vegan spots. WaterCourse, of course, is the restaurant at which Jason Sheehan and Joel Warner had their momentous wing deb ... More >>

Urbavore's Dilemma: Introducing Heirloom Gardens, your friendly neighborhood farm

Urbavore's Dilemma is an ongoing web series detailing city dwellers' commitment to urban homesteading. From May through September, Westword writer Joel Warner will get his hands dirty, covering everything from backyard chickens to front-lawn gardens, from greenhouses to co-ops and food-sharing. Chec ... More >>

Urbavore's Dilemma: Abriburbia's putting the herbs back in burbs

Urbavore's Dilemma is an ongoing web series detailing city dwellers' commitment to urban homesteading. From May through September, Westword writer Joel Warner will get his hands dirty, covering everything from backyard chickens to front-lawn gardens, from greenhouses to co-ops and food-sharing. Chec ... More >>

Letters from the week of April 2

Don't mess with El Mesteno! An impassioned defense of DIA's freaky, blue demon horse of death

As Joel Warner pointed out in "DIA's Promo Photo Kicks Ass of All Other Airport Promo Photos, a blog published earlier today, the Facebook campaign to remove the Mustang sculpture from the grounds of Denver International Airport has garnered national media attention from the likes of the Wall Stre ... More >>

From the week of January 8

Is Enstrom's toffee the "best candy in the world"?

So I was listening to a podcast of the Thanksgiving edition of the hit food radio show The Splendid Table -- because I'm a dork like that -- and lo and behold, Jane and Michael Stern, authors of the popular Roadfood books, came on to sing the praises of Enstrom's, the Colorado-based candy company ... More >>

Night Moves

Show us yours, and we'll show you ours: Westword's long, dark journey into the mind of a pajama lover.

The Worst TV of 2007

Letters to the Editor

From the week of 10/4/07

Letters to the Editor

From the week of 12/21/2006

Letters to the Editor

From the week of August 24, 2005