867-5309: Tommy Tutone and your Denver plumbing needs

Tommy Tutone at your service. Lately, Denver TV has been awash in nutty spots for Benjamin Franklin Plumbing, all pointing out that the number to dial for service is the same as the one that forms the hook in “867-5309/Jenny,” the ridiculously catchy Eighties-tastic smash by two-hit wonder Tommy Tutone…

Tim Brown replaces KCUV with Jack-FM

Even the most ratings-starved radio stations receive listener complaints when programmers decide to switch formats — but such shifts seldom prompt the gusher of regret that inundated NRC Broadcasting after KCUV/102.3 FM clicked off for the last time. In the two days following its midnight August 31 shutdown, approximately 1,000…

Bikes Belong gave Denver a great ride

N o one knew for sure what would happen when Freewheelin, a partnership between the Humana health-care group and Boulder nonprofit Bikes Belong, unleashed 1,000 bicycles for residents and visitors to use for free during the Democratic National Convention. Would all the bikes end up in Cherry Creek? Would anarchists…

Letters for the week of September 11, 2008

“Blankety-Blank,” Patricia Calhoun, September 4 The Price of Free Speech After reading “Blankety-Blank,” I am filled with shock and awe at the tactics of the Denver Police Department. They need learn nothing from the Beijing police department; in fact, they probably could have taught the Chinese a thing or two…

The Westword.com blog shortcut, September 10 edition

The future first lady — of fashion? Get along, little bloggies. The Cat’s Pajamas examines Cindy McCain under the stylistic microscope and celebrates the announcement that IKEA is finally putting a store in Denver. Build it and they will come. In Backbeat Online, meanwhile, get a heads-up about the latest…

The Rocky Mountain News Twitters a funeral

Feeling Twitter-pated? The Rocky Mountain News’s experimentation with the Twitter micro-blogging service during the Democratic National Convention was kinda silly due in part to its staffers’ frequent misspellings, but the crazy pace of the event at least partly justified its use. Not so the funeral of three-year-old Marten Kudlis, who…

Picking the wrong mystery for One Book, One Denver

Get the skinny on The Thin Man. Okay, so the Looper and his bookworms wanted something “adventurous” for this year’s One Book, One Denver. Like a mystery. So why not Dashiell Hammett’s The Thin Man? Hammett, after all, is the dean of the American hardboiled private eye novel. As his…

The Westword.com Best of the Blogs, September 10 edition

Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor. Welcome to a new Latest Word feature: The Westword.com Best of the Blogs. As the latest edition of Westword is hitting the streets and the web, we wanted to provide an easy way for you to catch up with the top bloggery from the past…

Former Denver Post columnist Diane Carman shows her partisanship

Diane Carman. As noted in the second item from this October 2007 Message column, longtime Denver Post columnist Diane Carman left the paper in order to take a position as communications director with the Presidential Climate Action Project, associated with the University of Colorado Denver’s School of Public Affairs. The…

Selling Barack Obama’s memories on eBay

Tickets for sale. In the aftermath of the Democratic National Convention, peddlers have not unexpectedly taken to eBay to sell leftover T-shirts and buttons and other paraphernalia. But there have also been other kinds of souvenirs for sale, as well such as the “goodie bags” that delegates received, DNC keycards…

Denver Post deserves credit for judges’ censuring

Judge Terry Gilmore probably isn’t smiling this morning. An article headlined “Two Judges Censured Over Trial” appears on the front page of today’s Denver Post, and that’s appropriate for a couple of reasons. First, the decision by the state Supreme Court’s regulatory office to censure Terry Gilmore and Jolene Blair,…

Channel 4 extends the Gloria Neal experiment

Gloria Neal. As noted in this August 15 More Messages blog, Channel 4 added longtime radio host Gloria Neal to its morning news team for the run of the Democratic National Convention, and she rewarded this move by adding a much-needed dose of smarts and sass to the proceedings. Station…

Mexican food for Obama!

Chips ahoy! Barack Obama has been losing ground to John McCain in many national polls among likely voters — but he’s apparently way out front among Mexican food. At least that’s one way to interpret the bizarre set of just-posted videos below, which date from the Democratic National Convention. In…

The Westword.com blog shortcut, September 9 edition

Dave Grohl at Red Rocks. Free blogs. Get your free blogs here. Backbeat Online doubles your pleasure with two blogs about the Foo Fighters — a review of Dave Grohl’s band at Red Rocks last night (the group is on the Rocks tonight as well) plus the first online appearance…

Öm for Obama

Stretching out, Obama style. The DNC is over, but that doesn’t mean politics has left Denver. If you’re still jonesing for a taste of Obamamania, head over to Santa Fe Drive, where his spirit lives large in a yoga studio. Öm Time, which happens to be located next door to…

Union Station progress – and protest – continues

All aboard. The $477 million plan to transform Denver’s Union Station into a bustling transit hub is inching forward, even as protracted debate about what, exactly, this hub should look like continues. Today, September 9, at 12:15 at the Tattered Cover Lodo, an organization called the Open Space Initiative Group…

Q&A with Zen and Now author Mark Richardson

Zen and Now author Mark Richardson. Photo by Simon Hayter. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, published in 1974, is one of the classics of American literature. Author Robert Pirsig has inspired hundreds of followers, known as “Pirsig’s Pilgrims,” to follow the same route he rode with his son,…