The only albino alligator in Colorado — and it’s pretty weird that there is even one — celebrates his birthday tomorrow. Well, it’s not really his birthday, but it is the first anniversary of his arrival at the Colorado Gators Reptile Park, a truly strange attraction just north of Alamosa…
Ever since Eddie Murphy donned a fat suit in 1996 to play every member of the Klump family in The Nutty Professor, the success of that bit has given rise to a troubling phenomenon: the cross-dressing-black-man-in-a-fat-suit movie, a trick that effectively removes everything that was fun and charming about Murphy’s…
At some point in the career of many a celebrity (probably too many a celebrity) comes the dubious decision of writing a memoir, a book people will read presumably on the basis that it’s written by a famous person. Of course, for most of those famous people, it actually isn’t…
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 example, they said Anubis, the ancient Egyptian jackal-headed god…
As a cultural construct, video games are better known for blowing shit up and somehow causing rape than as a scholarly pursuit. Still, like any other form of entertainment, video games engage us, capture our attention and, perhaps, alter the way we see the world — and examining how they…
There are few artistic journeys longer and more involved than the process of getting a novel from idea to print — and few more daunting. Luckily, the Lighthouse Writers Workshop’s Story of a Book is here to help. Helping is the main purpose of the Lighthouse Writers Workshop. “For some…
In a metaphorical sense, the heart is what makes us love. In a literal sense, the heart is what pumps our blood — you know, the copious blood that gushes out of our necks when we get decapitated. Perhaps it’s that discrepancy between the metaphorical and the literal that makes…
Everybody poops. That inescapable fact, says Milan Kundera in The Unbearable Lightness of Being, is the fundamental quandary of human existence: that the consequence of every act of sustenance (eating) is the shame of defecation. (Not ashamed? Then he fucking dares you to stop crapping with the door closed.) To…
Even when you’re talking about the real actual place called South Park, which is not really a town, but rather a 1,000-some square-mile area of grasslands southwest of Pikes Peak, the phrase “gas exploration” sounds like a set-up for a Terrance and Phillip joke. Nevertheless, the people of South Park…
Enough of this “LOL” nonsense. If you are looking at this blog right now, stop immediately and get back to work, because the internets are no longer for jokes and silliness. The internets are now for serious, serious business. Extremely serious business. That’s why today, before you get back to…
In a strictly statistical sense, there’s perhaps no better barometer for what we’re interested in moment to moment than Google Trends. Using the cataloging data it collects on a massive scale with it’s unsettlingly all-seeing eye, the search engine divides what’s hot right now into two categories — hot searches…
From a very young age, Edie was chasing a dream common to many young girls: She wanted to be a showgirl. Except Edie is actually a boy. A dancer since age 8, Christopher Kenny spent years as a professional ballet dancer, but he never stopped chasing his real dream, the…
Back when Boston Celtics power forward Glen “Big Baby” Davis was just 9 years old and a freakishly large 5’6″, 160 lbs., he was too big to play pee-wee basketball with kids his own age, so he was sent to play with the seniors. Because he was so young, his…
Whatever else happened in the Denver arts world this year, one thing is certain: Fashion blew up like a balloon with a terrorist in it. At the forefront of that boom, of course, was Mondo Guerra, who took second place in this year’s season of Project Runway and first place…
The Titwrench music festival — built from the ground up three years ago as a way to highlight women in music and give a stage to “folks who don’t necessarily fit comfortably into any scene,” says founder Sarah Slater — is almost the definition of DIY: a grassroots, community-run project…
When Slam Nuba was started four years ago by a small group of Denver poets fresh off a win at the Poetry Slam nationals with the team from the Mercury Cafe, there was some concern that the upstart group would cause some friction. The Merc was the established anchor of…
If you’ve been in your relationship for a while, chances are your Valentine’s Day can be a pretty laid-back affair — a rose will suffice, or a nice card, just something to show her that you’re thinking about her and you care. If your relationship is new, though, you need…
Ever since your twelfth wife took off with the kids and the dog and the house — a scenario only possible thanks to your penchant for living in structures you can also drive — leaving you with only an overdrafted checking account and a suitcase somewhat inexplicably full of urinal…
Though he’s almost universally known for his children’s books — the lineup of which included one of the best children’s books of all time — Shel Silverstein was, in the truest sense of the term, a renaissance man. Aside from his poetry, he was a prolific songwriter (you know Johnny…
Prepare to consider Michael Sawaya — best known as the guy from the auto-injury law firm — in a light in which it is pretty much guaranteed you have never considered him. To celebrate the release of Turbulence in the River, his new book about “finding your world and then…
Once upon a time, when garage/post-hardcore was at the apex of its popularity, a friend and I came up with the concept for Black Back Lotion, a band that would — this is hilarious! — only do Black Black Ocean covers. Like many other concepts that start with a play…
Considering the criteria for what qualifies as a Jewish film — “a film made by a Jewish filmmaker, a film that has a Jewish-related theme, a film of interest to the Jewish community” could all make the cut, says Denver Jewish Film Festival Director Roberta Bloom — it’s not like…
