FRI, 9/3 Irish expatriates must yearn for many features of their homeland: the fierce winds and breathtaking beauty of the Cliffs of Moher; the eloquent storytelling of their countrymen; the sweeping fields of endless green; that midget who danced for Guinness at the pub. But a group of Irish nationals…

“Park Hill Loves Spinelli’s Market. Thank you Jerry and Mary Ellen…from your customers, neighbors and friends,” reads a sign on the wall near the front of Spinelli’s Market, 4621 East 23rd Avenue. Dozens of hand-written notes adorn the poster — messy scribbles thanking the Spinellis for their invaluable community grocery…

It was Ginger Rogers’s mother who ultimately screwed Dalton Trumbo. Until she got in on the action, things were going swimmingly for the Colorado-born author of the famous anti-war book Johnny Got His Gun. As a successful Hollywood screenwriter, Trumbo lived on a ranch in California and enjoyed the freedom…

SAT, 8/28 “There ain’t much time left,” poet Jim Carroll once said. “You’re born out of this insane abyss and you’re going to fall back into it, so while you’re alive, you might as well show your bare ass.” In a life of mythic proportions, Carroll has followed his own…

SAT, 8/28 There’s probably no better locale for a cheerleading competition, an event that’s generally full of perky preps, than a suburban mall that pulls in the same demographic. That’s why the location of today’s New Spirit Cheer/Dance Championship — a fenced-in, bleacher-equipped space in a parking lot at Park…

TUES, 8/31 Americans are so darned smug. They think they own the world. But set foot into the University of Denver’s globally conscious language program, and you’ll begin to see a different picture, reflective of DU’s cosmopolitan student body and business-minded international bent. The school gladly shares its strengths in…

WED, 8/25 Denver’s El Centro Su Teatro proudly traces its roots back to the 1960s theatrical-political actions of Luis Valdez and El Teatro Campesino, which supported César Chavez and the United Farm Workers grape boycotts, and later evolved into the prototypical Chicano theater group. Such solidarity is just part of…

SAT, 8/21 Watching the hellish Eco-Challenge Adventure Races on television may have kept some would-be daredevils frozen to their couches. Anyone tempted by the extreme concept but hoping to avoid undue pain (leeches, anyone?) would be better served by today’s Denver Oyster Urban Eco-Adventure Race. The event gets going at…

There’s a great door-sized poster of Joe Montana and John Elway from the time the two met in Super Bowl XXIV. The quarterbacks stand back to back, helmetless, clad in old-school 49ers and Broncos uniforms. Though each player cradles a playbook in his arms, both Montana and Elway surreptitiously look…

Imagine an indoor, glow-in-the-dark miniature golf course that feels like Alice in Wonderland meets Tron — with a dash of Dr. Timothy Leary thrown in. That’s the Putting Edge in Westminster. If you’re looking for tunnels and giant windmills, you won’t find them here. This “carpeted country club,” located in…

On vacation in Vancouver, Denverites Cal Smith and David Citizen wandered into a fragrant Chinese spice shop and fell in love with the place. More important, they noted that Denver had nothing like it, and in an entrepreneurial moment, decided to try their hand in the spice business when they…

SAT, 7/31 “Last year, even Mayor Hickenlooper hung out at the Bluebird. He showed up with his scooter, flip-flops and even a Hawaiian shirt,” says Phil Lombardo. Unfortunately, Hizzoner is on vacation and won’t be back for this year’s Mile High Mayhem, but the rest of the city will rev…

A childhood dominated by soccer saw many of my summer days spent on the sprawling grounds of Dove Valley. There, surrounded by the burnt-sienna landscape, sat acre after acre of impossibly verdant, illegally watered fields. Soccer players — from the skilled Hispanic city dwellers to the bleached-blond suburban machines –…

Silvana Vukadin-Hoitt is a woman of the world. The German-born Bosnian speaks four languages and has been there, done that, and still hasn’t grown tired of it all. For Vukadin-Hoitt, every day, even the quiet ones spent overseeing her neighborhood boutique, Silvana L’Amour, promises adventure of some sort. Her enthusiasm…

Writer Joseph Campbell spent his life examining the archetype of the “hero,” and his concept of the hero’s journey in mythology is indelibly etched into our culture through vehicles such as Star Wars. The gang at Arts Street’s Comedy Theatre used the idea as the basis for (in)EXPLICIT: Parental Advisory,…

FRI, 7/23 By nature, the curved, concrete, fly-away world of skateboarding simply flips off the literary world. It’s tough to imagine, after all, how a seat-of-your-pants extreme sport embraced predominantly by fourteen-year-old males and few tough, old hardcore adults in baggy shorts might have anything to do with the written…

SAT, 7/24 After Beavis and Butthead triumphantly save the world at the conclusion of Beavis and Butthead Do America, then-president Bill Clinton awards the cartoon heroes with honorary memberships in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. “Yes! Fire, fire,” Beavis squeals with delight. Indeed, it is hard to imagine…

What do ‘zines, pirate radio and hacking all have in common? For one thing, they all have subversive underpinnings, and for another, the folks who are into such things tend to like trading information: in cyberspace, by snail mail and under the table, in print and blogs. So when you…

FRI, 7/16 “I became an architect because my girlfriend told me she wouldn’t marry a forest ranger,” recalls University of Denver architect emeritus Cab Childress. So he gave up scouting in the woods of Florida in favor of the drawing board and slide rule that his mother had given him…

SAT, 7/17 Many Christmas mornings from my childhood stand out, but one occupies a special place. That vivid year, after the presents were opened and the stockings pilfered, we turned our attention to our beloved pets. The dogs found their way to their Yule bones as our curious cats began…