An Urban Explorer Gone

The three friends approached the old factory. It was mid-morning on Sunday, September 9, so traffic on South Broadway was slight, reducing the likelihood of being seen. They scanned the perimeter, took a quick glance back. Then they walked through the unlocked gate and into the alleyway, looking for a…

Going Inside

I was trying to squeeze my body through a hole at the bottom of the fence when the truck drove up. But my jacket got hooked on a wire, so all I could do was lie there and stare back like an idiot when the driver looked at me, then…

The Video Professor Loses a Round In His Battle Against Critics

As documented in this September blog, John Scherer and his Colorado company, Video Professor, play hardball when it comes to criticism — hence the legal action it took against anonymous online gripes about the firm, which aggressively markets computer-training products via ubiquitous commercials and infomercials that screen nationwide. This time…

Noted Denver Painter Mark Travis Dies

Longtime Denver artist Mark Travis died last week in his home and studio near downtown. In precarious health for many years, he is thought to have suffered a heart attack. Travis was born in Ohio in 1952. After moving out West, he became a noted contemporary artist in Denver during…

Day Two: Wherein Broncos Tight End Nate Jackson Gets Fondled

Monday Tuesday: The halls were empty today at our Dove Valley facility. Tuesday is an empty day in the NFL anyway, but on a Tuesday in late December, you can hear leaky faucets. Not that we have any. Our maintenance crew is excellent. In fact, everyone that steps into that…

The Price of One Leg: $1.5 Million

This just in: Park County officials have agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by a Mexican immigrant who lost his leg as a result of an infection he contracted in the county jail in 2003 while awaiting deportation. The grim saga of Moises Carranza-Reyes, who had…

The Candy Man

Each year before Keystone Chef Ned Archibald leaves to erect his chocolate village in the Keystone Lodge — a masterwork created entirely from chocolate and, in the case of the ornaments on the six-foot-tall white-chocolate Christmas tree, hand-blown sugar — his wife gives him a hug and tells him, “Just…

The Vagabond Painting Tribe Strikes Again

The following was filed with the Denver Police Department earlier this month: “A group of idiots apparently wants some attention so they used wonderfully colorful markers or paint and ‘tagged’ my garage with their very skillful scripted language that apparently no human being can come close to reading what it…

Monday Hang Over: Rock, Jazz, Football

Your weekend may have been great. But, whether it was a lazy celebration of comfortable couch time or an action-packed journey deep into the heart of consumer-debt darkness at the mall, you missed out if you missed either of these two shows: On Friday, Westworder Jeremy Brashaw stepped a few…

Delegating Denver #22 of 56: Louisiana

View larger image Louisiana Total Number of Delegates: 67 Pledged: 56 Unpledged: 11 How to Recognize a Louisiana Delegate: The surface of Louisiana may properly be divided into two parts: the swamplands, and the quagmires, which include the townships and parishes built on the bribes and embezzlements of organized political…

The Denver Post‘s Non-ideological Columnists Make a Curious Debut

As noted in the December 13 Message, the Denver Post recently named two new metro columnists, Susan Greene and William Porter (pictured), whose charge is to write memorably about local doings without chaining themselves to any one ideological viewpoint. In their bows, which saw print on December 16 and 17,…

Jared Polis as a Gay Standard Bearer

In recent days, both Denver dailies have published articles noting that a number of influential activists who also happen to be gay are backing former Senate president Joan Fitz-gerald in her 2nd Congressional District race against a prominent gay candidate, Jared Polis. The Rocky Mountain News’ piece on this topic…

R.I.P. Broncos 2007 Season

Dearly Beloved, We are gathered here today to mourn the loss(es) of the Broncos 2007 season. When good teams are killed off at such an early stage, it’s tempting to look back with anger and bitterness. The shocking defeat at the hands of the Raiders leaves us confused and searching…

CU’s Solar House Profiled By Discovery

It’s been almost two months since the University of Colorado Solar Decathlon team, (profiled in the Westword feature “Partly Sunny,” on November 1), returned from the international competition in D.C. only to learn that the house they had built was not immediately welcome at their school. It was going to…

Hacked Off at the Mystery Cougher

The great hall of Denver’s Central Public Library had all the edgy tension of a drug stakeout shortly before noon today. Dozens of suspicious characters lurked by book displays or wandered about with an unconvincing air of casualness, eyeing each other balefully. You could feel the nervous energy building, building,…

My Fantasy? Screw New England

Due to the sporting events of the past few months, Denverites have license to hate everything New English, from the overdog Red Sox to the over-hyped Pats all the way down to maple syrup, clam chowder, and Ben Affleck (perhaps a bad example). The city just a few years ago…

Does This Photograph Glorify Matthew Murray?

Under ordinary circumstances, the attached photograph of a twerpy-looking young man looking down at an electronic keyboard as if confused about what the hell to do with it would never be considered a glamour shot. But a media debate is raging over how and even if news organizations should use…

Letters to the Editor

“After the Exit,” Michael Roberts, December 6 Pultide Carols Sheesh. Other than the Christm…oops!…holiday gift ideas, the December 6 issue of Westword was packed full of more tearjerkers than an economy-sized box of Kleenex. First there was the usual Ask a Mexican bitch about how the Mexican food here isn’t…

Big Deal for Big Head Todd

After Big Head Todd and the Monsters kicked off Senator Hillary Clinton’s appearance at Auraria in October, she added “Blue Sky” — the song that Todd Park Mohr and company had written at the request of members of the Space Shuttle Discovery for their 2005 mission, the first since the…

2 Girls, 1 Clip

In a lot of ways, the Internet is like a wormhole: There you are, just cruising along in your space module, playing pinochle with some commie chimpanzee and sipping on Tang when you see one — and oh, man, you’ve got to get a closer look. So you proceed with…