The Big Year, based on a 2004 book by former Denver Post writer Mark Obmascik and starring Steve Martin, Jack Black, Owen Wilson, Rashida Jones, Anjelica Huston and Rashida Jones, among others, debuts in theaters nationwide today. But before The Big Year got the big Hollywood treatment, it was an…
Hiking twenty miles. Driving 300 miles. Taking 1,000 photos. Those were just some of the challenges the Pikes Peak Guy had to take on in order to capture the perfect picture of the mountain. Starting on June 1, 2010, and ending 365 days later, photography enthusiast and Woodland Park resident…
Boulder author Dan Baum is a gun owner, and his most recent work, a companion piece to his upcoming book Guns Gone Wild that was released as a Kindle Single, makes an argument that most gun owners would seemingly support: that the AR-15 rifle is fun, a beacon of hope…
Neal Stephenson will be at Tattered Cover LoDo tomorrow, and in advance of his appearance we talked with him about his new novel, Reamde, a thriller based on a virus that steals your information and requires payment via gold in a MMO game. Before you click through to the interview,…
In the 1880s, English explorers Teresa and St. George Littledale — with their fox terrier, Tanny, in tow — mounted expeditions in the Rocky Mountains and across North America. And then they headed even further afield, to the Caucasus, the Pamirs, Russian Central Asia, Mongolia and eventually Tibet, in an…
Though it’s easy to over-drink and nearly impossible to over-read, books and beer go hand in hand. And a glass or two of the right beer with the right book can rightly relax the mind and stimulate the senses, thus drawing you deeper into both crafts. As is the case…
Back in the early part of the twentieth century, physicist George Gamow had a hand in some of science’s most fascinating breakthroughs: the Big Bang theory, DNA and RNA, radioactivity. The physics department building at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he taught until the end of his career,…
As counterintuitive as it might initially seem, if you own a Kindle or a device with the Kindle app (iOS, Android, PC, etc), you can now check out books from the Denver Public Library via its eMedia site. Yes, students, that includes CliffsNotes, if you’ve managed to seriously drop the…
Steve Cogil opened the first Tattered Cover on the corner of East Second Avenue and Detroit Street in Cherry Creek in 1971. It was small — less than a thousand square feet. Three years later, Joyce Meskis took the reins of the space. In the decades since, the Cherry Creek…
Ridgway-based journalist and MacArthur “genius” grant-winner Peter Hessler has written stories that focus on everything from China to small towns in southwestern Colorado to Nepal. (Latest Word has more on the $500,000 award from the MacArthur Foundation, as well as a Q&A with Hessler.) The 42-year-old has amassed a sizable…
Author Benjamin Runkle will be at the Tattered Cover in Highlands Ranch tonight to talk about his new book, Wanted Dead or Alive: Manhunts from Geronimo to Bin Laden. In preparation for his appearance, we caught up with Runkle to talk about his book, the importance of manhunts and the…
Joe Hill ain’t dead,” he says to me, Joe Hill ain’t never died. Where working men are out on strike Joe Hill is at their side, Joe Hill is at their side. –Joan Baez At first glance, it might seem that nearly 100 years after songwriter and Industrial Workers of…
Isis Books and Gifts is one of the best metaphysical stores we’ve ever seen: Between the walls and walls (and walls!) of books, the singing bowls, the dozens of essential oils and comprehensive collection of herbs for all your spellworking needs, it’s deservedly popular among the metaphysical community. And owner…
In the world of slam poetry, there’s no higher distinction than a win at the annual National Poetry Slam — and over this past weekend, that distinction went to the poets of Denver’s Slam Nuba, upstart arrival to the Denver slam scene (and 2011 Westword MasterMind) — if, having won…
It’s been a banner year for Slam Nuba, the newer nationally competitive arrival on the Denver slam poetry scene, and for a group started hardly four years ago, it’s seen some remarkable achievements already. Having placed in the top ten finishing teams at the National Poetry Slam (slam poetry’s annual…
Slam poetry is to the literary world what hip-hop music is to jazz — a progression of talent and a revolutionary outlet. Denver is lucky to boast of two solid teams that compete nationally. Both Slam Nuba and the Denver Mercury Cafe Poetry Slam Team advanced to the semi-finals last…
Thomas W. Benton’s posters have been commonplace in the city of Aspen over the years Benton lived there, but when the artist passed away in 2007, some worried the work would never reach the broad audience it deserved. Much of his art has never left the city and most of…
If you thought banning books on the basis that they fail to fall in line with the teachings of Jesus Christ was a thing of the past, then consider yourself unstuck in time: A couple of weeks ago, a school board in Republic, MO, voted to remove copies of Kurt…
This Friday, August 5, Charly “The City Mouse” Fasano will be celebrating the release of his new book, Next Analog Broadcast at Fast Geek Boutique (321 West 11th Ave.). The book, released by Sunny Outside, is a small, 56 page collection of Fasano’s storytelling poems, which he’s been performing live…
We all know enough to expect the standard-issue turgid pectoral muscles and flowing locks from romance novels — but what if the romance also involves vampires, war and action of the not-necessarily-hot-and-sweaty variety? It will tomorrow at Fresh City Life’s Mucho Mojo, where urban fantasy writers Nicole D. Peeler, Kimberly…
For the two highly respected teams Denver sends to the National Poetry Slam each year, the moment of truth has finally arrived: After a year-long process of elimination, the teams have selected their top five poets of the year and are gearing up today to travel all the way to…
The Race Across America is one of this country’s most notoriously grueling bicycle races. Starting on the West Coast and ending on the East, it takes riders 3,000 miles over the course of eight to twelve days. What’s more interesting is there are no major cash prizes — it’s all…
