As the Denver Art Museum’s founding curator for modern and contemporary art, Dianne Perry Vanderlip built a world-class collection. The non-profit PlatteForum gives underserved youth the opportunity to learn from renowned artists. And for thirty years, Fiesta Colorado has preserved Spanish and Mexican cultural traditions through dance. “It’s a validation…
“Where do you want to go?” “I don’t know. Where do you want to go?” “I don’t know.” Stop that immediately. This is not a week for indecision. No hesitation. No wishy-washy bullshit. Denver Restaurant Week starts today and runs through March 2, and you’d better get your ass in…
Today’s cars and tires are stronger, and today’s adventurers are every bit as fit, resourceful, and determined as we were, but because of the international situation, it just can’t be done today. Political animosities, civil wars, virulent ultranationalism, militant religious fundamentalism, and several fanatical dictators have closed the borders, severed…
Pining for that special Valentine? Try praying to Saint Dwynwen, Wales’s patron saint of lovers. As the legend goes, a fifth-century princess fell in love with a prince whom her father forbade her from marrying. Then, in a dream, an angel gave Dwynwen a potion to ease her heartache —…
“How can it get any better?” asks Mark Ray, manager of the Ice Rink at One Boulder Plaza, located at 1801 13th Street. “Downtown Boulder? Ice skating? Come on.” After running the skate shop for years, Ray’s still a sucker for the outdoor rink a block off the Pearl Street…
A Denver jury last week found Atlanta-based Mariner Health Care Inc. — the third-largest nursing-home company in the country — liable for negligence, extreme and outrageous conduct and deceptive trade practices. Plaintiff John Gordy, a 41-year-old quadriplegic who suffered injuries at Red Rocks Health Care Center in Denver, was awarded…
This is no bluff. Chuck Humphrey swears it — and his face is giving nothing away. Even though the Lakewood attorney is the sole plaintiff in a New Jersey lawsuit claiming that online pay-to-play fantasy-sports competitions are actually illegal gambling, he’s not some spoilsport out to rid the world of…
The sweet smell of chocolate-chip cookies in the oven always makes me feel like a kid — watching, waiting as my mom moved each soft, buttery batch from cookie sheet to cooling rack. They were always baked for some upcoming holiday or party, and I’d have to wait for one…
The Athena Festival was so named because “Goddess Festival” sounded a little too creepy, says founder Dana Cain. A few years ago, the Littleton woman was looking to create an event with meaning and depth — something spiritual, but not another dime-a-dozen psychic fair. Thus was born a fest celebrating…
It’s a sunny fall afternoon at the rugby pitch in Denver’s Cook Park, and fans of the Denver Highlanders are restlessly watching their club fight a losing battle for possession of the ball. Shirtless twenty-somethings and their girlfriends stand on the sideline, sipping from cans of PBR and Bud Light…
Stephanie Wooten learned a lot as a foster kid. She learned to pack light. She learned to keep her mouth shut. She learned that some foster parents are only in it for the money. But mostly, Stephanie learned that she couldn’t count on anyone but herself. Her own mother made…
As a 23-year-old, Joe Thomas isn’t terribly interested in the death tax or Social Security — and he doubts his peers lie awake at night worrying about such topics, either. That’s why the Colorado Young Democrats are organizing an Ask the Experts educational forum that delves specifically into issues that…
Each year at harvest time, John and Birdie Balistreri and their daughter, Julie, throw a huge party at their Denver vineyard to release their new wines. Party-goers can taste more than twenty new wine releases, feast on hors d’oeuvre, wood-fired pizza, roast pig and desserts, plus enjoy live music and…
The fates of David and Dina Weller all came down to a cigarette butt and blood. In the spring of 2005, the modern-day Bonnie and Clyde were ransacking the West Washington Park neighborhood, but Denver Police Department detective Philip Stanford didn’t have enough evidence to charge anyone. There were no…
Federal Boulevard stretches almost thirty miles down the spine of the metro area, from Bowles Boulevard in Littleton, where the Southglenn Luncheon Optimist Club keeps the last mile litter-free, to north of 120th in Westminster, where the Belger family handles clean-up duties as the road loses its U.S. Highway 287…
Kersten Hostetter commands attention with words so soft and slow they’re almost a whisper. It’s as if she’s always about to share a secret. Today her secret is Micro Business Development’s new Center for Economic Independence. She knows this building is not what a non-profit organization’s home typically looks like,…
Is it any surprise that City Auditor Dennis Gallagher, who holds office hours at Common Grounds and has a brew named after him there, would single out coffeehouses as the key to civic engagement? He sees their rising numbers as a demonstration of the human connection and how people choose…
Eric Reynolds may be a 29-year-old man, but he still looks like a teenager, even a kid. His face is smooth and unlined, his body small and lithe at 5’5″ and 120 pounds. If it weren’t for the green jumpsuit with his name and Department of Corrections number over his…
Last week, a discrimination trial in federal court between Kroenke Sports Enterprises and a former employee offered a behind-the-scenes look at how the shadowy, sometimes shady ticket-brokerage business works, with scalpers often going straight to the source. Plaintiff Deborah Steele’s lawsuit hinged on proving that she was fired from Kroenke…
As a boy growing up in Denver in the 1950s, Purnell Steen would head down to Five Points to hear jazz from such international icons as Ella Fitzgerald and Cootie Williams at the Lounge in the Rossonian Hotel. It was bluesy gospel jazz, the kind of “swing” style that anybody…
Doug Ishii watches his wife, Wendy, from across the room as she mingles with her guests. He’s traded in his lab coat for a collared shirt, and peppered silver hair is the only indication that the Japanese man grinning toward the hostess could be a day over sixty. Wendy wears…
Take it from someone who’s walked through at least six dozen houses with her boyfriend in recent weeks: Touring homes can be romantic. There’s a daydream quality that comes with imagining what your lives might look like against a host of different backdrops — especially before you do the math,…
