Slide Show The coffee has been ground, the portafilters have been packed and the espresso shots have been pulled at the first-ever Mountain Regional Barista Competition, which occurred last weekend in Thornton. Now, with the dust or, rather, coffee grounds settled, the caffeinated champions have proven their mettle. Competition for…
A painting a day keeps the gloomy monotony of nine-to-five corporate clock-punching away. That’s the idea behind www.30days30pieces.com, the brainchild of David Schell, a Denver graphic designer who decided he needed to structure creative motivation into his life so he could get back to his heady art-school roots. “A lot…
The Mountain Regional Barista Competition champion will be someone who is a master of their coffee,” says Mike Strumpf. He’s standing authoritatively on a stack of empty wooden pallets in Solé Roasters’ cavernous coffee-roasting facility in Boulder as roughly two dozen local baristas and other coffee professionals listen in. The…
The letter, received by fax last week, read like countless others before it. “ATTENTION: Director/CEO,” it began. “I write, asking for your indulgence in re-profiling funds to the tune of Twelve Million, Eight Hundred Thousand United States Dollars (US$12.8m) which we want to keep safely overseas under your supervision.” The…
Pop quiz: You’re throwing a raging kegger with your underage bros, and Officer Busybody comes knocking on your door. What do you do? a) Invite the officer in to take a look around; b) Step outside and close the door; c) Tell the five-oh to take a hike; or d)…
The conspiracy theorists must be right: Denver International Airport is a gate to Hell. After all, what other than some diabolical force would deign to upset nerd-tastic musician David Byrne (he of the Talking Heads) as he tried to access his favorite websites while passing time in our fair airport?…
As described in the story “Evan Almighty,” developer Evan Makovsky made celebratory headlines last summer when he managed to buy up most of decrepit Block 162 in the middle of downtown Denver so the eyesore could be redeveloped. The only building on the block Makovsky did not acquire was the…
Sort of like that obnoxious neighbor at the end of your block, the City and County Building insists on keeping up its gaudy holiday light display long after everyone else has taken theirs down. The city’s official policy is to keep the display going until the end of the National…
BDSM 101. Female ejaculation. Anal play for beginners. These aren’t your typical convention-floor seminar topics. But then again, The Sex Show — an erotic trade and educational show taking place today through Sunday at the Denver Merchandise Mart, 451 East 58th Avenue — isn’t your typical convention. “I’d like to…
Romantic restaurants on Valentine’s Day are overpriced, overcrowded and overbooked, or at least that’s what you can tell yourself when you realize you’ve forgotten to make a reservation. But eating is optional, people, like those mawkish diamond “journey” pendants and the single red rose, and there’s no reason why you…
Amadeus Harlan calls me because he says he wants me to know the truth. “I wanted to tell you right out I haven’t refused to talk to you,” he assures me, talking on a phone at the Douglas County Jail in Castle Rock several weeks after his parole hearing, and…
The fliers appeared on northeast Denver doorsteps in late November 2007. “Attention,” they announced in bold letters. “The former East Family YMCA Center is now the new home of Harlan21 LLC.” Vacant since the Y moved out a few years earlier, the rec center at 3540 East 31st Avenue would…
When local gamer Ben Schulz and his pals made the inane video “A Rough Go” in the massively multiplayer online game World of Warcraft, they created a global phenomenon – one that launched Schulz’s video game character Leeroy Jenkins to international stardom, as described in the story, “The Legend of…
What do you get when you combine High School Musical and Bring It On, minus the unhealthy levels of raging teenage hormones? The Rocky Mountain Theatre Association’s Festivention, an annual convention of theater groups from Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Utah. This year’s event, which begins today in Lakewood, will…
You may have heard of Oskar Schindler, the German industrialist known for saving hundreds of Jews during the Holocaust. But you’ve probably never heard of Varian Fry. After Nazi Germany invaded France in 1940, Fry, a New York City editor, volunteered to travel to Marseille to help anti-fascist refugees. He…
Cafe Nuba, the eighteen-and-up open-mike amalgamation of spoken word, performance art, political prose, indie film and tight beats that occurs the last Friday of every month at the Roxy Theater, 2549 Welton Street, is always a crowd-pleaser. But tonight’s 8 p.m. showcase ups the festivity ante with Nuba’s eighth annual…
Forget peace on earth, good will to men and all that crap. Christmas, above all else, is about one thing: draping your house and shrubbery in excessive amounts of very, very small light bulbs to the envy and/or embarrassment of your neighbors. Two Coloradans have taken the pursuit to a…
It’s a sad day for local art aficionados and savvy shoppers alike. Local art maestra Lauri Lynnxe Murphy will be closing her gallery, Capsule Art and Event Center, at the end of the year because the building’s owner is tearing down the structure to make way for a parking lot…
Rock and roll really can save the world. That’s the idea behind Fünde Razor, a 21-and-over charity event. Show up tonight at 6 p.m at the Walnut Room, 3131 Walnut Street, pay a $10 cover (plus donations, if you like), drink beer, buy $10 raffle tickets for kick-ass prizes and…
Anti-Gym, Michael Karolchyk
A modest television commercial proposal for Camobooty, the Denver-based fashion craze that’s currently sweeping the nation: FADE IN: Two burly hunters, STEW and LEW, are lying on the forest floor, their rifles at the ready. LEW: Darn it, Stew, there’s somethin’ different ’bout you today. Like you got yourself a…
Wackos. Weirdos. Dorks. That’s what we call folks who are so into certain subjects, such as Star Wars figures or Andy Griffith Show trivia, that it makes the rest of us uncomfortable. Denver author Shari Caudron wondered what made such fanatics tick — and she set off across America to…
