Skinnies or boot-cut jeans? Is black really the new black?
Getting stylishly dressed in the morning is hard enough, but what do you wear on election day if you're vying for Colorado's top job? The Cat's Pajamas, Westword's fashion blog, decided to help Bob Beauprez and Bill Ritter out with that pressing question, and turned to Jung Park for a little advice. As the owner of Metroboom, the men's salon on Platte Street, Park spends his days turning the boys of Denver into the men of Denver -- with hair-styling, fashion advice and personal shoppers.
Grooming Beauprez and Ritter for the Governor's Mansion was no easy task, since Park had to balance a professional, you-can-trust-me look with a sense of style that keeps it real for the youth vote without veering into the ridiculous.
Here's what he came up with for Both Ways Bob: "We recommend an overall appearance that is conservative, but with a hint of contemporary accent. We start with a gray pinstripe suit with a white shirt and a red tie, and then add a twist by introducing a hip and cool baseball cap with camouflage print. The camo supports his patriotic stance on military presence in Iraq, while potentially recruiting a younger audience."
Want to know what Park has to say about Hug an Illegal Bill? Check out our blog on Friday, when The Cat's Pajamas posts What to Wear Fridays: Special Victims Unit. We'll also go on a search-and-destroy styling mission for Janet "You Can't Marry Your Horse" Rowland and Barbara "It's About the Children" O'Brien.
Sink or swim: A few days remain in this election season, but our vote is already in for the best political ads. Democrat Ken Gordon snagged a Best of Denver award with his announcement that he was running for Colorado Secretary of State (the ad poked fun at both Ben Nighthorse Campbell's opera and John Hickenlooper's not-quite-free-fall for Referendum C), and now his "No Stuntman Used 2" offers an invigorating change of race from the rest of the political ads littering the landscape.
In the two-minute video (catch it at www.kengordon.com), Gordon gets in the swim at the Downtown Aquarium -- where he stands underwater in a wetsuit, surrounded by sharks and other fine-finned friends. "In politics, there are special interest sharks," the ad reads. "I'm the only candidate in this race who doesn't take special interest money."
But he does take a special interest in humor.
A close runner-up comes from the Colorado Leadership Fund, which also relies on animal allure -- a cute pooch and daisies -- on one side of a direct-mail piece headlined "Ramey Johnson'hates' puppies!" On the flip side, the card advises that "It's about the only bad thing that hasn't been said about Ramey Johnson." The Republican's race against Representative Gwyn Green in House District 23 has been a dog-eat-dog battle, and this piece provided a welcome bit of respite. Now let the fur fly!
Board games: The interior of the Denver Art Museum's Frederic C. Hamilton Building is a masterpiece of precise angles and clean lines washed in crisp, flawless white. So what's with the two-by-fours on the ground?
"It's definitely not a part of the original overall design," acknowledges DAM director of communications Andrea Fulton. "Those are glued to the floor in areas where walls slant overhead, and that was a solution that was prompted by the Americans With Disabilities Act. We worked with the ADA for a couple of years to come up with a bunch of different solutions for visually impaired visitors so that they don't encounter those walls with their heads."
Visitors who aren't visually impaired have been asking DAM staffers why they don't just paint the two-by-fours to blend in with the surroundings. "According to the law, they have to be very visually prominent," explains Fulton. "You can't make them blend in."
Still, can they make them a little better-looking? After all, the Daniel Libeskind-designed building is an art museum, not a Home Depot. "We're sort of using this first month to see how this goes, if people are using them effectively and they're serving their purpose in a positive way," Fulton responds.
And if not? Then visually-impaired guests -- as well as those already smarting aesthetically from the sight -- may feel like they've been hit in the head by aŠwell, you know.
Board silly: A good portion of this town's citizenry would like to take a two-by-four to Libeskind -- or at least the self-proclaimed Civic Center Conservancy, a group of citizens that commissioned the architect to come up with a new design for the Civic Center. Since that plan was finally unveiled this summer, it's been met with a resounding raspberry from art- and history-lovers alike. And now the self-proclaimed Civic Center Friends are fighting back with an e-mail campaign mocking the plan's "huge, ego-driven flying bridge," its water features in such an arid climate, and other oddities -- as well as its overall cost.
The e-mails direct outraged Denverites to http://civiccenterfriends.blogspot.com, which includes an online petition protesting the plan, a list of upcoming meetings to discuss it (the next is November 15), and links to articles like Michael Paglia's columns in this very paper. "We were just feeling the process is moving much too quickly, and people did not understand what the rush was -- especially considering there's no money. Our goal was really just to inform people," says Katharine Smith-Warren, a longtime art critic who's one of the folks behind the site. "We're not trying to make a blog against it. We will link to any articles -- but there just haven't been any positive ones."
Ditto for much of the response at the public hearings so far. "There's no real sense that what people are saying in the meetings is really having any effect on Parks and Rec," Smith-Warren adds. "Civic Center is the heart of Colorado; it is not just a Denver park. Situated between the Capitol and the Denver City and County Building, it's a park that belongs to people in the state. Although Parks and Rec controls it, they really need to listen to the whole state, and even to visitors. People really care about this park."
For one more who cares, see this week's Worst-Case Scenario for a reprise of the vacationing Kenny Be's plan for the park.
