Last Night: Josh Ritter @ The Fox Theatre

Josh Ritter Fox Theatre October 18, 2007 I expected Josh Ritter to be one of those cigarette-smoking, whiskey-drinking troubadour types who is too “real” for this world. His songs channel just about every great American singer/songwriter before him and have that back-roads twang of authenticity. But Ritter has the persona…

VVM Executives Arrested in Phoenix for Grand Jury Story

Last night, Village Voice Media (VVM) Executive Editor Michael Lacey, and VVM Chairman and CEO Jim Larkin were arrested by plainclothes officers in Phoenix on misdemeanor charges related to the alleged revealing of grand jury information in a Phoenix New Times feature story. Westword is a part of the VVM…

Sports Town USA Sippin’ on Some Sizzur

With the Rockies in the World Series (it still feels weird to type that) and the Broncos two last second field goals from 0-5, Denver’s sports hierarchy is in disarray. But lost somewhere between the praise and the panic are the Colorado Avalanche and the Denver Nuggets, the two teams…

CU’s Solar Team Win Looks Unlikely

It’s not looking good for the University of Colorado. On the second to last day of the U.S. Energy Department’s Solar Decathlon, CU is ranked eleventh overall. They haven’t scored in the top three for a single juried competition, but the major contest – engineering – has yet to be…

The Last Juvie to Face Life?

And then there was one. Rather than face the possibility a life without parole sentence, Matthew Davies plead guilty to second degree murder for shooting and burning a 20-year-old with whom he was dealing drugs and guns in Colorado Springs. Davies faces 40-48 years at his December 18 sentencing. Davies…

More Fallout From the Dustup at a Ward Churchill Class

The October 18 edition of the Message dissects a confrontation at an October 2 class taught by recently fired University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill involving Heath Urie, a reporter for the Boulder Daily Camera. Among the additional developments: an article in the Campus Press, CU’s online newspaper, featuring comments…

Underworld Gives Away Free CDs to Fans at Denver Concert

We don’t hear many stories about prominent artists going the extra mile for fans – particularly if it means a hit to their wallet. But Underworld is currently doing so by giving away a copy of its just-released CD, Oblivion With Bells, to each ticket buyer who attended a troubled…

Elements of Style

The tenth annual Denver Public Library Booklovers’ Ball revolves around the theme “Elements,” so it’s no surprise that the DPL is attempting to make the event as green as possible. The menu comprises either locally grown or organic food, the ball’s organizers will compost and recycle absolutely everything they can,…

One Comic Day

There’s nothing funny about Denver’s sequential art storytelling scene (that’s comics to the layperson). A local community of cartoonists has been rising slowly in recent years, thanks in part to projects like the Denver 24-Hour Comics Challenge. “Every little thing like this can help,” says Jim Brown of Enchanted Grounds…

Double, Double, Toil and Trouble

Each October, the Mercury Motley Players put together an original dramedy to entertain the masses. This year’s Allied Witches: Hot Colombian Nights is no exception — though the Players may have outdone themselves in terms of scope and meaning. “It’s about the drug war in Colombia, it’s kind of about…

Poe Party

Who doesn’t love a scary story this time of year — especially one that was written by the king of creepy, Edgar Allan Poe? That’s why the Hunger Artists Ensemble Theatre’s presentation of An Evening With Edgar Allan Poe is so brilliant. Director Maggie Stillman moved the Halloween favorite to…

Raiding the Vault

Fade in. Three twelve-year-old Mississippi boys find themselves enraptured by the 1981 Lucas/Spielberg classic Raiders of the Lost Ark. It’s summer, and they’ve yet to discover girls. Or maybe it’s the girls who have yet to do the discovering. The guys rent a video camera and enlist anyone willing to…

Dead On Arrival

The capital-punishment issue has rarely been handled more poignantly than in Sister Helen Prejean’s book, Dead Man Walking, and its 1995 film version, directed by Tim Robbins and amply brought to life by the tour-de-force performances of Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon. Both, too, were spun from the very stuff…

Motion Picture

Today’s FastFilm Festival in Boulder is so quickly paced that filmmakers will enjoy just ten minutes of fame rather than the requisite fifteen. But that’s kind of the point. The compendium of seven-minute films (with three minutes at the end of each movie for a mini Q&A session) is the…

Tar Power

According to PlatteForum founder and artistic director Judy Anderson, current resident artist Rory Golden is a fascinating character who paints into the wee hours, creating images drenched in an honest, egoless interest in righting wrongs and taking on social issues. A book artist with branches, Golden works with unusual materials:…

Viva Mexico

Most Americans know the late Mario Moreno, aka Cantinflas, from 1956’s Around the World in Eighty Days. But his resumé is much longer in his native Mexico, where he was a beloved performer once dubbed “the world’s greatest comedian” by Charlie Chaplin. According to Su Teatro artistic director Tony Garcia,…