Shmuck of the Week

They are supposed to protect us from the real scumbags, and they build their reputations – and their egos – doing it in grand style. We are supposed to admire them, to honor them and to hold them up as pillars of credibility when others fail. But what happens when…

Carmelo and K-Mart Spout Off at Sign-Waving Critic

The March 12 game between the Denver Nuggets and the Memphis Grizzlies was never going to be much of a contest. Sure, the Nuggets have been erratic throughout the 2007-2008 campaign, showing championship-quality mettle when facing first-rate opponents on one night only to fall flat against lesser talents the next…

Letters to the Editor

“Dialed Out,” Michael Roberts, March 6 Station Identification  I generally listen to KOOL and the Mountain and had noticed some changes, especially with KOOL broadening its playlist. Michael Roberts’s comments about KOOL getting adventurous and playing Blondie and the Rolling Stones really hit home last night, when KOOL played the…

Sunshine Megatron to Move From T-Shirt Hell

At first, employees at the new Ritz-Carlton downtown didn’t believe that a wealthy businessman named Sunshine Megatron had checked into the hotel for a long-term stay. Why would Megatron, who made millions selling offensive T-shirts through his website, www.tshirthell.com, be living in a Denver hotel? And what was up with…

No More Sex in Public Bathrooms, By Court Order

An Eagle County judge has ordered Muhammad Ali Hasan, a candidate for the Colorado House of Representatives, to stay away from his ex-girlfriend and former publicist, Alison Miller, and her three young sons. The Beaver Creek Republican is running in the ski-resort-heavy House District 56. According to a March 3…

If It’s War Max Karson Wants…

The outcry over University of Colorado student Max Karson’s latest offense-generator, a February 18 opinion piece for CU’s online Campus Press titled “If It’s War the Asians Want…,” has spawned more than just hysterical headlines and blogosphere blather. In reacting to fallout from the essay, CU came close to placing…

Hope for the Colorado Rockies Springs Eternal

Matt Holliday is sick to death of being asked if he was really safe. “I get tired of hearing people talk about whether I touched the plate or not,” the Colorado Rockies slugger tells me as he’s seated in front of his locker, taking down a bowl of oatmeal before…

Demolition Begins on the Dunes Motel

Demolition is underway at the Dunes Motel on East Colfax Avenue, the beginning of the end for a line of motels that once stood as the gateway to the great American West, but has more recently become known as a string of flops for drugs, prostitution and homeless families. The…

From Web to TV: Which eSensations Should Get Their Own Shows?

With the NBC debut of quarterlife, the web-originated series by the thirtysomething team of the capital-letter hating team of Herskovitz and Zwick, entertainment has taken a big step. Whether that step is forward or backward has yet to be determined (being the first to move from web to TV is…

Around town with artist Roberto Juarez

Internationally-renowned contemporary artist Roberto Juarez, who is based in New York, is in Denver now for a stint as a visiting artist at Metropolitan State College of Denver. But even non-students have a chance to learn from — and about — him. That’s because Juarez will discuss his work and…

Me and Mr. Jones

I have a date with Mike Jones. Actually, it’s a threesome – with Paula Woodward. Tomorrow night, Jones, the gay escort/masseuse who made headlines in November 2006 when he revealed the identity of one of his regulars, will take the stage in Naked Before God: Exposing the Hypocrisy of Ted…

Chrysalis Graduates Two More

Chrysalis, a social services program managed by Lois Clayton (pictured) that tries to get drug-addicted prostitutes off the streets and off drugs (profiled in this Westword feature), will graduate two participants from its intensive program today despite recent financial woes. Until recently, the program — which consists of psychotherapy, addiction…

In Memory: Imagining a Great City

Back in 1982, Sandy Widener, one of Westword’s co-founders who by then had gone on to far more respectable employment with Rocky Mountain Magazine, was charged with coming up with a campaign slogan for Federico Pena, a lawyer/legislator and very dark-horse candidate running for mayor of Denver. John Parr, Sandy’s…

Ron Zappolo Tells Marijuana Advocate to Keep Fighting the Good Fight

Television interviewers must walk a fine line when chatting with newsmakers, maintaining a polite exterior without doing anything to reveal their true feelings about the subject’s agenda. Throughout his career, Ron Zappolo, a veteran Denver TV personality who currently anchors Channel 31’s highest profile news shows, has maintained this balance,…

Cops in MySpace

It’s no secret that police are logging onto MySpace to dig up incriminating information for criminal investigations. But who would’ve thought that cops are actually getting ON MySpace? Check out the official social networking page for the Denver Police Department that was registered last December. It not only has a…

Baby Blue

After many months of on-stage joking that he was going to name his child “Borat,” Josh Blue, Denver comedian and winner of Last Comic Standing , balked. He named the kid Simon instead. Simon Blue was born happy and healthy on Monday, March 10, and Daddy Blue is pleased to…

French Kiss

“Is this your first time dining with us?” she asks, smiling. In response, I just bob my head like a moron—completely gone on whatever weird cocktail of hormones and brain chemicals it is that makes a grown man fall in love with a menu, with nothing more than words on…

Birdman Flies Again in NOLA

Birdman is back. Two years after being kicked out of the NBA for violating the league’s drug policy, Chris “Birdman” Andersen signed a free agent contract with the New Orleans Hornets. After being reinstated earlier this month, Birdman said that he was grateful for the second chance. Before his suspension,…

Talking Art at MCA

Two shows open this week at the Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver, with public receptions to be held Friday, March 14 from 6 to 10 pm. Split between The Whole Room on the lower level and The Promenade on the second floor, is Making Public Buildings featuring recent work by David…

Chili in Here?

Denver has had newspaper wars for as long as there have been newspapers, and just because the size of the papers is shrinking doesn’t mean this war is any less intense. But another, newer battle between media outlets took place last week, and it was even more…heated. The Women’s Bean…

Crowded Cowboy Caucuses

Another weekend gone, another caucus in the books, another Obama win. If you blinked you missed Wyoming’s twelve pledged delegates, but you’d have to be asleep to miss two Democratic presidential candidates stumping in our northern neighbor, a state whose delegation made JFK the nominee in 1960 but hasn’t elected…

Barfly Taxonomy: The Red-Cheeked False Bukowski

View larger specimen In order to make more sense of the world around us, illustrator and public house naturalist Nate Stone is compiling here a taxonomy of different barflies. While you’re out and about in Denver, if you spot any of these specimens please add your observations about their habitat…