North Africa

Cannabis Time Capsule, 1893: "Innocent hempseed" unleashes "bane of the East"

This week we're traveling back to July of 1893, just as cannabis started to become demonized in the media. This article from the Colorado Transcript in Golden, is based on a British report on hash regulations in Egypt, Greece and Turkey. The story talks about the "general ignorance which prevails ... More >>

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day...if it's pho

The fact that Pho Lee, subject of this week's review, serves up such terrific pho (not to mention Vietnamese egg rolls, grilled meats and boba smoothies) isn't such a surprise, given that the owner, Dung Anh Le, worked at Pho 95, his brother's pho shop, for years. What might catch you off guard is t ... More >>

Photos: Stylists compete for best 'dos at the Shear Styles 2 hair competition

Tuesday night's Shear Styles 2 hair competition at Suite Two Hundred gathered stylists from across the city to craft brazen and creative hairdos (while avoiding hair don'ts). Egypt, Latin, Roman and alien looks all crossed the runway during a night of great hair teased to great heights. Continue rea ... More >>

Andrew Romanoff talks PAC money, house sale and running against Mike Coffman

To some Coloradans, the name Andrew Romanoff is synonymous with disappointment. After losing to incumbent Senator Micheal Bennet in a primary that attracted an almost unheard-of amount of attention, the ex-speaker of the Colorado House took a lower-profile job with the International Development Ente ... More >>

Reader: The Sand Creek Massacre deserves more than this "zombie exhibit"

Fava beans: the breakfast of champions?

Whenever we have people over, it seems there's always someone who doesn't eat meat. I'm sympathetic to the cause; after all, I grew up in a house with a vegetarian. To complicate matters, guests often aren't fond of soy, so I'm always on the lookout for riffs on rice and beans. When I had the fava b ... More >>

A Cool Cat

Backbeat's top five spins: This is what we're listening to this week. What's on your playlist?

As people who think about, talk about, write about, listen to and make music, it's not surprising that the most common (and favorite) topic of conversation among us is the same: "What are you listening to right now?" Stick a quarter in us, and, boy, wouldn't you know it, off we go, on and on about t ... More >>

Sleigh Bells ring: Getting our nails done on the S.S. Coachella by Alexis Krauss's manicurist

Earlier this week, the S.S. Coachella took to the high seas and set sail for the Bahamas. One of our esteemed south Florida colleagues had the pleasure of being on board for the cruise's maiden voyage. She sent us a few dispatches documenting some highlights from the trip, so that all of us landlubb ... More >>

Backbeat's top five spins, week of October 1-7

As people who think about, talk about, write about, listen to and make music, it shouldn't be too surprising to find that the most common (and our mutually favorite) topic of conversation among all of us is the same: "What are you listening to right now?" Stick a quarter in us, and, boy, wouldn't yo ... More >>

New shows: the Coup, Broncho, Killswitch Engage, Macklemore, Twiztid, Paul Banks, RJD2

A bunch of new dates going on sale later this week: This November, the Coup is coming to the Summit Music Hall, Killswitch Engage is due at the Fox and Interpol frontman Paul Banks is slated at the Bluebird. In December, Broncho's at the Gothic and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis are at the Ogden. Finally, ... More >>

New shows: STS9 and String Cheese NYE runs, Fun. at 1STBANK, DeVotchKa and more

New Year's Eve is shaping up to be an epic night of shows, with the String Cheese Incident pulling into 1STBANK Center for a three-night NYE run (tickets on sale this Saturday, September 29), STS9 plays three shows at the Fillmore (tickets on sale Friday, September 28), and the Motet's Beginning of ... More >>

Woody Paige, Vincent Carroll get pay cuts at the Denver Post?

Today, the Denver Post's Woody Paige lauds Baylor for winning the NCAA women's basketball championship. But did he receive less compensation for his prose than usual? Multiple sources tell us Paige received a pay cut around the time columnists Mike Littwin and Penny Parker were laid off -- and so di ... More >>

Reader: Beer made human civilization possible!

Did beer save the world? According to this infographic, beer has been a boon to mankind since the time of the Egyptians (who used it as medicine), an economic driver behind railroad development, commercial refrigeration and, yes, the automatic (and hypnotic) bottling process.

How beer saved the world: An infographic on the historical benefits of beer

Dating back to the time of the Egyptians, beer has benefited man (beer was prescribed as a medicine, naturally.) Through the modern age, beer was an economic driver behind railroad development, commercial refrigeration, and yes, the automatic (and hypnotic) bottling process. Below is an infographi ... More >>

Men in Burka mix it up at Rhinoceropolis on March 8

Stoner MacGyver product review: The Little Black Book of Marijuana

Now and then, companies send us medical marijuana-related products ranging from vaporizers to board games. We showcase them in our quasi-regular product review section, Stoner MacGyver. The latest? The Little Black Book of Marijuana by Steve Elliott.

Swedish documentary The Black Power Mixtape tells it like it was

The history of candy -- very short and sweet

Flickr photo​There's something so sweet about sweet. The cavemen knew it, and were willing to risk limbs and whatever other body parts weren't covered in hair in order to grab honey from beehives. Over many, many thousands of years, the preferred form of sweet evolved from honey to all kinds o ... More >>

Reader: Princess Diana showing up in Egypt is no pyramid scheme.

​What if Princess Diana wasn't killed by that car wreck in Paris? What if she survived, and re-invented herself as a commoner in Egypt, where she attempted to solve the mystery of what happened to Ankhesenamun, King Tutankhamun's wife? What if? That's the unlikely premise behind The Lost Qu ... More >>

Princess Diana survives the crash and starts a new chapter in The Lost Queen of England

​Boulder author H. Elizabeth Owen just published a book about Princess Diana surviving her paparazzi-induced car wreck and escaping to Egypt, where she became intertwined with another long-lost queen. So let's get this out of the way right now: Does Owen actually believe Princess Diana is aliv ... More >>

Peter Hessler: Q&A with winner of MacArthur Foundation genius grant and cool half million

Peter Hessler.​Colorado-based writer Peter Hessler, best known for his articles and books on China, won a MacArthur Fellowship. Colloquially called the "genius" grant, the $500,000 award, paid out over five years, is a blank check for the recipient to pursue his or her creative ambitions. For ... More >>

What's in a tres leches cake?

How The Inner Room, filmed entirely in Colorado, was made

Filming on location in Bumfuck, Egypt.​Fairplay, Colorado, is a tiny mountain town with about one street, situated some 40 miles south of Frisco between the San Isabel and Pike national forests. In other words, it's in the middle of nowhere. In other other words, it's a really difficult place ... More >>

Flick Pick: Politics and ethics underscore the drama in If a Tree Falls

13 Assassins, Once Upon a River and other new-release picks for July 5, 2011

​Going back to work after a three-day weekend sucks, so take a few minutes to deviate from your expected tasks and plan your evening. Today promises some exciting new releases, which translates to exciting new ways to bond with yourself, whether it be chillaxing in your hammock reading a new b ... More >>

Cars 2 and other sequels that tried (and failed) to freshen up by going abroad

​What's the best way to perk up a tired movie franchise? Most of the time, there is no way. But movie producers still continue to try by taking the old characters overseas and hoping the new locale will reheat the leftovers. Case in point: Cars 2. The film comes out this Friday and promises to ... More >>

On cooo: If pigeons didn't love MCA Denver, they wouldn't keep coming back, right?

​Homing pigeons are amazing birds. From a young age, they have the ability to find their way home to where they were raised from hundreds of miles away. This ability -- which has yet to be fully understood - made them perfect for delivering messages in ancient Egypt, where people would tie not ... More >>

Gay immigration: Queen Boat incident, Egypt's infamous anti-gay raid, is reason to seek asylum

​ "Coming Out To America" tells the story of Sam, a gay Egyptian seeking asylum in the United States. Though Egypt doesn't have any explicit laws against homosexuality, gay men there are routinely arrested and tortured. In one infamous incident, 52 men were arrested in 2001 on a floating disco ... More >>

Gay immigrants need asylum from persecution at home

Science Lounge combined the whimsy of childhood with the drinking of adulthood

Please touch the artifacts.​As a small child whipping my crayons around the perfect spiral assistance of the Spirograph, I never never anticipated that I could maximize that activity by adding the sweet elixir of booze, or that I'd be doing both with the aid of the Denver Museum of Nature and ... More >>

SXSW Travelogue: Air Dubai engages in water gun fight and plays its first showcase

​ Saturday, March 19 (or Friday, March 18 -- since the night just isn't over) Let me first start today's travelogue by saying how amazing a time it has been here in Texas. It's 4 a.m. currently (technically, still the night of Friday the 18th, but whatev), and I am writing from our hotel roo ... More >>

Photos: Lions at DIA portend of the vast Illuminati conspiracy

Clever ruse, Bob Barker, but we know of your nefarious designs.​If there's one thing we've learned from Dan Brown, it's that, when the Illuminati get a vast conspiracy reaching to the very highest levels of the world's centers of power going on, they like to drop little hints about it. For exa ... More >>

UFO Phil on his plan to build a giant pyramid on Pikes Peak

UFO Phil.​Think you're good at suspending disbelief? The latest story from Phil Hill, aka UFO Phil, will put you to the test. The vigorous self-promoter, who says he's been abducted by aliens "my whole life," now has a plan to generate free electricity for all by building a giant pyramid on P ... More >>

Birds in Arkansas: Ten more crazy things that fell from the sky

Courtesy of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette​More than a thousand blackbirds, grackles and starlings fell from the sky on New Year's Eve in Beebe, Arkansas. So far, there has been no official explanation for the avian precipitation, but we thought we'd look to other unexpected things falling fro ... More >>

Cut Chemist at the Gothic, 12/10/10

Paul LukesCut Chemist on Friday night at the Gothic Theatre.​ CUT CHEMIST J Flash • Skwared 12.10.10 | Gothic Theatre DJ Skwared took the stage at 9 p.m. Surprisingly, the kid in the Tap-Out hat knew his hip-hop. He started his set with Newcleus' "Jam On It," went into Juan Atkins' "Clear" ... More >>

Now Showing

Red Sea parted (on computer) by CU & National Center for Atmospheric Research: Holy Moses!

​Hallelujah! The parting of the Red Sea, one of the great miracles of ancient times, has occurred again -- only this time it happened on computer simulators designed by Boulder researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the University of Colorado at Boulder. The result, sa ... More >>

Gunning for World Cup Glory

Today: Cook Street focuses on North Africa

​Those of us who love food tend to love it from all regions of the globe. But while we might appreciate certain exotic cuisines, it's sometimes difficult to incorporate them into our own cooking repertoire. You can change all that with Cook Street School of Fine Cooking's A World of Taste ser ... More >>

You'll have a swine time at the Cherry Creek mall

Checkmate

Light Rock

The Color Purple

Howling with Laughter

Animals get funny at the Pet Comedy Challenge.

Earth Mother

Rendition

It’s not torture, but this latest Mideast thriller’s as conventional as they come. We’re (water) bored. (Sorry.)

Bumpa Crop

From Moroccan-flavored psycho-trance to furious superfunk, Critters Buggin cross space and time zones with their music.

A SHORE BET

OUT OF AFRICA