The Westword.com blog shortcut, June 1 edition

I sincerely hope some of you are still alive out there. Today in Cafe Society: • Frasca Food & Wine hosts the hottest pastry chef ever. • Milking It: Smart Start Toasted Oat. • The restaurant roll call for May. • KJ’s Coffee Bar going for its bar exam. •…

Take a summertime tour of Denver’s graffiti hotspots

One advantage of traveling through Denver’s offbeat locations while reporting for Westword is that you sometimes get a first peek at some fresh graffiti pieces or notice little random blips of street art. Here’s a slideshow of some of the fine works I’ve spotted and snapped over the last month…

Denver Blogs: Tom Tancredo’s got some splainin’ to do

Our daily cruise through the Colorogosphere. You could help us remain afloat by sending us good links. Tom Tancredo’s PAC director is apparently racist. And just like that, we need a new Irony Meter. (Colorado Pols) Yet another battle between a rural electric co-op and those pesky environmentalists. (Colorado Independent)…

Summer campers going Meatballs

Was traffic a little sluggish this morning? Did it seem as if minivans were lurching across lanes a little more than normal and that SUVs were stopping at yellow lights rather than blowing right through them? Yes it did, and I’ll tell you why. The Denver Public Schools year ended…

Today’s featured event: Monday Movie Madness lights up Infinity Park

Outdoor movie nights? They’re the best! Everyone lolls about, enjoying picnic fare in the fresh air under a starry sky, watching a popular movie that not only has something for everyone, but that also somehow transcends its second-run status thanks to the lovely atmosphere. And weather notwithstanding, one of the…

Kenny Be’s Yard Arteology: Yard art that you can look up to

The study of neighbors through their lawn ornaments… Figure 22. Valverde: Daisy, Donald, Black Beauty and Rudolph. The eastern portion of the Valverde neighborhood is a pack rat’s paradise. It is located in one of those hard-to-find areas that is zoned for both residential and light industry. It’s not uncommon…

Martino TV debut: A real sell job

Today’s debut of Martino TV, which airs at 9 a.m. on Channel 31 and again at 11 a.m. on Channel 2, sported its share of glitches — but in comparison with the laughably catastrophic launch of the 7 p.m. Channel 2 news hour, known as News on the Deuce, it…

Over the Weekend: The pool is open

See Aaron Thackeray’s photos from a downtown pool party — which was apparently pretty fun, at least according to these florescent tank tops — at westword.com/slideshow…

Another sex dispute between a Colorado woman and an L.A. Laker

Maybe Los Angeles Lakers players should keep it zipped when they visit Denver. Earlier this decade, Kobe Bryant spent month after month in legal hell after a woman said he’d sexually assaulted her, precipitating a media free-for-all in Eagle County that only ended after his accuser stopped participating in the…

Glenn Beck and Peter Boyles: Together again, nationally

Did you feel a chill in the air this morning? Maybe that’s because nationally syndicated radio personality/unctuous Fox News oozer Glenn Beck is in town for a live show at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House tonight. Even though the gig has been sold out for quite some time, Beck spent…

Colorado on NPR’s bucket list

National Public Radio has told a couple of prominent national stories through a Colorado prism in recent days. Last week, the service offered “News For Sale?,” a report about the growing movement to charge for online information products that had previously been available for free — and among those interviewed…