Get your mace ready, flight attendants. Westword’s favorite Shmuck of the Week recipient, Christina Szele, will have the opportunity to continue her reign of shmuckiness far sooner than many observers expected. Szele won her first shmuck “honor” in June 2008, when she engaged in “thrashing,” “cursing,” “kicking,” “screaming,” “punching,” “stomping”…
So far today, all of America’s remaining pop-culture icons seem to be hanging in there…. Today in Backbeat Online: • Last Night’s Show: Phoenix at The Bluebird. • Polytoxic drummer Chadzilla hitches a ride with Slim Cessna’s Auto Club. • Beyond Playlist: The Jonas Brothers and more. • Vintage radio…
This week’s Westword cover story about Operation Fortune Cookie has it all: dirty cops, thousands of pot plants, Chinese food, big-ticket politicians, sacks of money and more. Writers for TV police dramas wish they could come up with stories this good. But man, it was, like, 7,000 words and that’s…
I could talk about how Thriller was my first cassette and what it felt like listening to those foreboding synthesizers and Vincent Price monologue coming out of my dinky one-speaker tape player. Or I could talk about what it’s been like watching my two-year-old son grooving to “Billie Jean” on…
A May 13 blog quoted Aurora Police Chief Daniel J. Oates denying that officers involved in the May 9 shooting of Darius Murray had done anything improper, despite claims to the contrary by the Murray family. Now, Adams County District Attorney Don Quick officially concurs with Oates. He’s released a…
Our daily blog-o-rama. Missing something? Send tips. Grading the Nuggets draft. (Denver Stiffs) Colorado doctors have been arrested for participating in a truly weird and despicable fraud scheme. (5280) Remember old Matt Holiday, the fella you were mourning before the Rockies ripped off 94 wins in a row. Well, this…
As noted in a blog earlier today, new media, and social media in particular, played a huge part in disseminating the news of Michael Jackson’s death yesterday. Chances are most of us heard about it directly or indirectly through Twitter, Facebook or MySpace. It’s also worth pointing out that it…
Summer’s here, and Pride is in the air. This year’s PrideFest, and all its attendant festivities, will blossom tomorrow in Civic Center Park and vicinity, and there’ll be so much going on that you won’t even have to think about what to do next — just go where the crowd…
Full-length animated films have traditionally been very expensive to make, requiring teams of artists working over a long period of time. As a result, the medium’s became the near-exclusive province of powerful studios with deep pockets but a box-office-motivated disinclination to take risks on unusual visions. In recent years, though,…
There are days when sifting through the world’s deadbeats in search of a stand-out shmuck just doesn’t feel right. This, dear reader, is one of those days. So instead, I give you Gary. For anyone watching from their living-room windows, it must have been quite the sight: a lonely little…
As we reported several moons ago in a Westword feature entitled “The Zen of Ken,” one of Ken Salazar’s first official acts as Secretary of the Interior was to visit the Lakewood office of the Minerals Management Service and vow to clean up the place. The obscure but vital agency,…
On Wednesday, the Englewood Police Department revealed that a body had been found in an alley near the intersection of East Oxford Avenue and South Lincoln Street, an area captured in a graphic embedded after the jump (if you have problems seeing the image, click “View Larger Map”). Moments ago,…
Don’t let the current economic recession cramp your hot summer style. Instead of paying the high price for a New York vacation in the Hamptons to see trendy celebrities, you can stay in Denver and find glamour galore in the Hampdens…..
The last major Hollywood movie filmed in Colorado was Eddie Murphy’s Imagine That, which prompted yawns from most critics and scored so poorly at the box office that it may well have led to the firing of two top executives at Paramount, the studio that produced it. But independent pictures…
Last week, we told you about a Denver District Court finding against developer Craig Nassi, who was judged to be liable for more than $1 million in damages for fradulently misrepresenting the availability of parking spaces in the Beauvallon, on East Ninth Avenue and Lincoln Street, to a building tenant,…
Last night, the Nuggets scored big in the NBA draft, landing North Carolina guard Ty Lawson without giving away a key player. But now comes word, from Denver Post hockey expert Adrian Dater, that the Colorado Avalanche, which has the number three pick in tonight’s NHL draft, might shrug off…
Even hardcore Nuggets fans didn’t go into last night’s NBA draft expecting the team to do much. After all, the squad had the number 34 selection — the sort of position that would likely result in the drafting of a European player we’d never see in a baby-blue uni. And…
Earlier this week, the Aurora Police Department announced the arrest of Steaven Henry Moore in a May 21 shooting on the 3900 block of S. Quatar Street, an area captured in a graphic embedded after the jump (if you have problems seeing the image, click “View Larger Map”). In addition,…
Last week, Velma Lee Gilbert was arrested in connection with a homicide on the 1300 block of Xanadu Street, an area captured in a graphic embedded after the jump (if you have problems seeing the image, click “View Larger Map”). Now, the Aurora Police Department has identified the victim: Jospeh…
Regrets: I’ve had a few. And one of them is not going to see Michael Jackson in concert when I had free tickets to do so. The year was 1984, and to make money while attending UCLA, I worked at the famous (and now long gone) Tower Records branch on…
Along with tributes to Michael Jackson’s music following word of his death yesterday, news reports have (rightly) gone into detail about his assorted legal troubles — particularly those involving accusations of child molestation. But none that I’ve seen have recalled a trial that took place right here in Denver –…
Like most people, I didn’t learn about Michael Jackson’s death yesterday via traditional media outlets. Instead, I heard from a much more reliable source: Westword receptionist Christina Salazar, who was announcing the news to a gaggle of co-workers as I walked toward the front desk. At first, I thought she…
