Tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the Tattered Cover at 2526 East Colfax Avenue, Wall Street Journal reporter Robert Frank will read from Richistan: A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich, a economic deconstruction, travelogue and tell-all on the wealth boom currently hitting the…
Day One: New Socks Day Two: White Elephants A woman with brown stains on her teeth stands behind an electronic cash register in her navy blue regalia, a “have it your way” pin buttoned on her left breast. I tell her that there are nine of us together and I…
For the past several months, Archie comics, which can be traced all the way back to 1941, have been undergoing a new millennium remodel that makes their late ’60s incarnation as “Sugar Sugar” warbling bubble-gummers seem minor in comparison. As demonstrated by Bad Boy Trouble! Part 4, the concluding chapter…
Had ax-expert Saul Hudson chosen to perform under his given name, he might never have succeeded in the music business, let alone made it to the cover of the forthcoming video game “Guitar Hero III.” Lucky thing he changed his moniker to Slash. During the Q&A below, which formed the…
Why stop at a Heaven and Hell concert preview item like the one in Westword’s September 20 issue when you’ve got a chance to chat with one of the architects of Black Sabbath? That’s what we asked ourselves — and the conclusion we drew accounts for the following conversation with…
In my opinion, the mark of a good artist is the ability to turn the ugly or the offensive, or even the commonplace, into something greater. Look at Warhol or Duchamp, or even Pryor. Yes, I’m talking about Richard Pryor — so pay attention. Remember that standup act where he’s…
Some of Academy-Award winning director Hayao Miyazaki’s early work comes to Colorado for the first time tonight when Anime Bento presents 1979’s Lupin the III: The Castle of Cagliostro at four metro-area theaters. Miyazaki rose to mainstream awareness with Spirited Away, the 2001 film that netted him an Oscar. Before…
In case you were wondering whether the 39th annual Oktoberfest Denver celebration will be worth the price of parking, consider that the first three hours of the free, two-weekend festival (October 19-21 and 26-28) will feature beer-belly, pretzel-eating, chicken-dancing, keg-rolling and beer-pong competitions. Chew over the fact that the price…
Whether you ride a pimped-out Harley or drive a 1983 rusted Dodge, you’re invited to partake in Dogs, Hogs & Rods. It’s the second annual poker run/rally/car show to benefit Table Mountain Animal Center, and this year, organizers are throwing in a dog walk, too. During a traditional poker run,…
A trip to Pittsburgh last weekend made me realize what an eccentric and wonderful city I once inhabited. Sure, it’s not high on the hipster scale, and people say things like yinz, and there are too many mullets, and the bar for good taste is, like, ankle-level with most cities…
Twenty years ago, Verne Carlson was driving back to Colorado from South Dakota when he happened upon a tornado. He’d been driving beside what he thought was a “regular thunderstorm” when he saw the funnel cloud. “They’re just amazing to see,” he says. “When you’re up close to one, it’s…
Kevin Larson is having a ball. After a six-year hiatus, Kevin Larson and a host of hip hosts have come together to throw the 2007 Platinum Ball, the town’s only black-tie gala geared toward thirty-somethings. The ball had disappeared along with Colorado’s economy, but over the past few years, that…
When Robert Frank developed his Wall Street Journal column “The Wealth Report” into the non-fiction book Richistan: A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich, there was only one place for him to learn about serving the newly affluent: the Starkey International Institute of…
“Government officials often intrude on everyday choices that touch on drinking, smoking, moral matters and a bevy of other issues,” says David Harsanyi, who’ll speak tonight about his succinctly titled new book Nanny State: How Food Fascists, Teetotaling Do-Gooders, Priggish Moralists, and Other Boneheaded Bureaucrats Are Turning America Into a…
It usually occurs between ages nine and twelve. Dolls and action figures get pushed under the bed. Play dates become “hanging out.” Kung-fu grip finds other applications. And then there are individuals whose shelves are never cleared of pre-adolescent accoutrements. Semi-respectable titles like “hobbyist” and “collector” are cloaks that enable…
What better validation of a life’s work than to get an award for not just one thing, but all the things you’ve cumulatively accomplished? That’s when I can finally say, “Ha, ha, Dad, where’s your lifetime-achievement thingy?” Of course, seven-time Tony Award winner Stephen Sondheim has probably done that at…
Three years ago, Judy Elliott of Denver Urban Gardens was leading kids at Fairview Elementary School in a nutrition gardening program when a class of fifth-graders looked at the tomatoes, broccoli, cabbage, chiles, onions and peppers growing under lights in their classroom and decided they wanted to do more. Outside…
South Park animation director Eric Stough, who appears tonight as part of the University of Colorado at Boulder’s International Film Series, has known Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the former Coloradans at the heart of the cheerfully profane Comedy Central show, since long before they were Hollywood heavyweights. “Trey and…
Many, many years ago, after the waters of the great flood covered the whole land and then receded, there lived a man named Ridjimiraril in the place we now call the Northern Territory in Australia. He lived there with his three wives — one wise, one jealous and one beautiful…
Havana-born trumpeter Arturo Sandoval describes his latest release, Rumba Palace, as “Cuban music for today.” The album, which was just nominated for a Latin Grammy in the Best Latin Jazz Album category, is essentially an Afro-Cuban big-band disc with some polished arrangements by fellow Cuban Felipe Lamoglia (who also plays…
Summer marks its end this weekend with the autumnal equinox — when the sun lies directly above the equator and, for all practical purposes, the day is the same length as the night. After this, the days become shorter, the air gets a chill, and we begin our preparations for…
“Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns,” wrote George Eliot. Although Eliot’s childhood remains veiled in mystery, I have seen the house where she was born, and there’s a cheery garden plot…
