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…
Rumor has it that some people really love their jobs — but how many love them enough to want to be buried at their workplace? Former Rocky Mountain News employees H.W. “Bill” Hailey and Lee Casey did. Hailey was a longtime executive who oversaw the Rocky’s transition from a broadsheet…
Kids say the darnedest things. Once when I was substitute-teaching a third-grade class in east Denver, I went around the room and asked every student, one by one, what they wanted to be when they grew up. It’s a hackneyed gimmick, I know, but you wouldn’t believe some of the…
Joe Bevilacqua, the director of FM programming for Clear Channel Denver, is an evangelist for high-definition radio, and his sermons aren’t just lip service. “It’s very exciting, because you get to put new stations on the air,” says Bevilacqua, who’s just launched several new HD channels and has more waiting…
Reel Potential for Humor Where there’s a Will, there’s a way: Why is it so hard to find people who love movies to write movie reviews? While Westword reviews are always well-articulated and thought out, I find that they suck the pure joy out of going to the movies. Robert…
Daniel Libeskind is finally coming to town on August 30 to reveal his concept for the Civic Center. That’s more than two months after his June 15 presentation was cancelled, giving critics plenty of time to wonder whether the rumored 300-foot tower and giant pond would ever materialize. Even though…
In most places, public radio is about as controversial as good citizenship, wholesome values and Mel Gibson circa 1985. But that’s not the case with Colorado Public Radio. As noted in a 2002 Westword feature, the statewide network, which encompasses separate programming streams focusing on news and classical music, is…
A December 2002 Message column entitled “Piracy, Hip-Hop Style” told the tale of Bass Ghost, a Denver emcee whose crew briefly took over a small slice of Denver’s airwaves with Skyjack Radio, a pirate radio station that blasted unexpurgated rap to the masses. The folks at the Federal Communications Commission…
Much of the August 5 edition of the Rocky Mountain News concerned the paper’s move from its longtime headquarters, at 400 West Colfax Avenue, to a made-to-order building at 101 West Colfax, a few blocks away; the Rocky will share the address with the Denver Post and the Denver Newspaper…
Ribbing other publications about spelling errors can be dangerous. After all, I make them, too — usually in the same piece in which I’m knocking others for misplacing their dictionary. But a botch on page one of the August 4 Rocky Mountain News is too good to ignore, because it…
In its August 3 edition, the Rocky Mountain News published “Sol’s Goodbye Kiss,” an article that seemed to offer up new information about a gag-inducing corporate giveaway. Reporter Jeff Smith’s first paragraph read, “Qwest Communications agreed to pay then-US West CEO Sol Trujillo a $72 million golden parachute a day…
Despite the smoking ban, patrons are still happily smoking away inside Paris on the Platte at 15th and Platte streets. The venerable coffee shop is holding firm that it is exempt from the state’s new Colorado Clean Indoor Air Act because it derives more than 5 percent of total gross…
The day I cried was months later, when I went to my mailbox for his weekly letters and poems. The box was empty no letter, no poems. I was so alone. Lost. Confused. The stanza from “The First Time” by Trinidad Sanchez Jr. carries a new layer of meaning now…
Rocky Mountain News sportswriter Tracy Ringolsby’s July 30 induction into the writer’s wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame was a big deal — and the Rocky made damn sure everyone knew it. The July 29 edition included an appreciation of the Colorado Rockies beat reporter by editor/publisher/president John Temple,…
There are dry spells: a week, maybe two, when no cases of energy drinks arrive at his door. But Dan Mayer doesn’t sweat it. He knows that another energy-drink manufacturer will soon get in touch with him, ask for his address in Uptown, and then send a crate of its…
As I sit down to write, I pop open a glistening blue-and-silver can of Red Bull and sip in the sweet, sweet nectar. It’s delicious, like liquid Smarties, only crackier. As the magic elixir forces energy down my esophagus and settles warmly into my belly, I’m overcome by nostalgia –…
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…
Nothing says summer like the mobile ice-cream man. But what about the methamphetamine man? On July 23, Denver police pulled over a car in the Cherry Creek area only to discover that the vehicle housed a mobile meth lab — a “rolling lab,” in law-enforcement jargon. (So, do addicts chase…
The East Colfax Avenue land grab has spilled off the strip and onto the web. Six months ago, ColfaxAvenue.com (not to be confused with www.colfaxave.com, the Colfax Business Improvement District’s site) launched as a portal to all things Colfax, from its easternmost point to the spot outside Golden where it…
There are things that I’ll miss about my apartment. Riding my bike around City Park in the early evenings, studying the birds. The way the moon drifted across the eastern set of windows like a lunar clock tracking the progress of the night. Then again, there are things I won’t…
Bitchin’ Article! Tit for tat: I love women who bitch about the word “bitch.” They’re so naively earnest, like Becky Due (“Bitch, Bitch, Bitch,” July 27). And like Leon, who left that groveling male apologia on Becky’s blog. I like to jerk their chains! Becky should be flattered by all…
Founded in 1992 on the basic model of Anarchism — i.e. no hierarchical leadership — Critical Mass is a group that one expects to be disorganized. The relatively new Denver-based installment of the monthly bike phenomenon is no exception. The oftentimes chaotic debate that moshes within their online Yahoo message…
