There's No Place Like Homeless There goes the neighborhood: In his excellent June 8 story on Lowry, "How to Build a Ghetto," Justin Berton failed to point out one important fact. No matter what the developers say about new urbanism at Lowry, it is obvious that their goal is to...
Size Matters Fashion victims: Thanks for Michael Roberts's great article on SUVs, "A Sporting Chance," in the June 1 issue. It should be required reading for all those considering purchasing one of those Stupid Useless Vehicles, as well as for those lemmings who have already followed the latest fashion by...
Like all of Elliott Smith's best songs, "Junk Bond Trader," a key track on Figure 8, his fine new album, is more than its title indicates; instead of merely telling the story of a Wall Street bottom-feeder, it uses such an individual as a jumping-off point for a more personal...
The favorite in this Saturday's Kentucky Derby is a regally bred but half-crazy colt named Fusaichi Pegasus, and if you can pronounce his name, you're doing better than most of the bourbon-soaked horse gentry decorating the saloons of Louisville. To be sure, Foos-ey-EE-chee, American-bred and Japanese-owned, is quite a runner:...
An opera based on a Russian silent film would seem the sort of artsy endeavor that invites dismissive sneers from musical and movie buffs alike. But with its abundance of artful understatement, a score that out-lilts most songfests and a touching story that examines age-old questions with modern frankness, Bed...
Once in a while, someone comes into Johnny's Newsstand who is not a regular customer. Imagine! The Johnny of Johnny's Newsstand is Johnny Kareski, and such occurrences fascinate him. Exhibit A: "Check this out," he says, from behind the cash register where he keeps a guitar, sheet music, his first...
Future shlockOnce upon a time, Denver was so trendy that the think tank that would go on to name Colorado a "bellwether" state was actually based here. But when John Naisbitt's Megatrends made the bigtime in the early '80s, he moved his office to Telluride (with a satellite in D.C.),...
Almost six months after David Fox invited a couple dozen people -- and seven local bands -- into his Alley Studio space in Northwest Denver for an initial round of recordings, 2000: LiveDenverComp is ready to see the light of release. The compilation is the first offering from Fox's new...
So there she was, standing in the vast ballroom at the Las Vegas Riviera at the North American Eight Ball Championships last May, and Conifer resident Christine Honeman knew she was toast. She knew it with such certainty that she couldn't even look at the table. The shots that were...
At times this column seems like an obituary page for local bands. And so it goes as another area outfit calls it quits, at least temporarily: Chief Broom, at the approximate age of 3.5 years, suffered from self-inflicted disbandment after a final show at Quixote's True Blue on Sunday, January...
Last September 15, listeners to the Alice morning team of Jamie White, Frosty Stillwell and Frank Kramer discovered, to their great displeasure, that the squad had been reduced by two-thirds: Stillwell and Kramer were absent and unaccounted for, and White was in the company of Danny Bonaduce, of Partridge Family...
Class DismissedRegarding Patricia Calhoun's "Life's Little Lessons," in the January 27 issue: After seeing Calhoun and Tom Tancredo on Channel 12 for lo, those many years, I am absolutely dumbfounded that he could grow and become a human! It has encouraged me to be less judgmental and kinder. Columbine was...
The Apes of WrathRegarding Juliet Wittman's "Origin of the Specious," in the February 10 issue: The misguided A Natural History of Rape is similar to the books published years ago that attempted to use "biology" to explain racial differences. The racists then championing their theories behind the guise of "scientific...
Tea and SympathyRegarding Justin Berton's "The Glendale T&A Party," in the January 20 issue: An important part of the story was missed in the focus on T&A and the Raptors: the open-democracy effort that the Tea Party rode in on. Lots of decent, independent people who cared about good government...
The Shooting At night, the parking lot outside the King Soopers at Iliff Avenue and Buckley Road in Aurora is a flat field of black asphalt. Thousands of white parking stripes lie useless, while the neon signs above the closed shops next to the food castle cast a fuzzy light...
As a former entertainment editor for Boulder's Colorado Daily, Leland Rucker is perhaps among a handful of people qualified to compile a thorough history of the town's rock-and-roll history. At least that's what the Boulder Arts Commission might have been thinking when its members approached Rucker and Channel 8 producer...
My favorite memories are typewritten. In 1970, I pasted this paragraph, with attached fantasies, into my journal: I never went any further with The Night of the Owl, but it seemed permissible to give myself a review in the New York Times, because after all, I didn't just write; I...
Item: As the millennium approaches, a local exterminator shares an observation: "My phone has been ringing off the hook," he says. "Yeah. Squirrels." Confrontation (Part One): "Honey, come in here." "What?" "There's a squirrel." "Where?" "On the fence. Just outside the kitchen window." "Really? What's it doing?" "Just standing there...
The Arvada Center is presenting the epoch-defining two-part exhibition Colorado Abstraction, 1975-1999, which fills the entire two-story facility. Last week I reviewed Part I, a breezy look at the key abstract painters and sculptors who emerged in the 1970s. This week I look at Part II, which presents the artists...
Like a lot of guys who spend their lives toiling away in the oft-thankless world of unsigned local bands, Chuck Tinsley is looking forward to the day when music will make him rich -- or at least provide him with a comfortable income. But as a guitarist in the Denver...
A Swift Kick Regarding Harrison Fletcher's July 29 "Boot Hell": Axis Commercial Realty says it followed a Cherry Creek property owner's lead in booting "parking scofflaws headed for Starbucks." What it does not mention is that the greedy little private boot bastards actually sit around watching to nail people for...
Columbine, Friend of Crime? I've written to you guys before to congratulate you on your investigative reporting and was moved to write again after reading Alan Prendergast's "Doom Rules," in the August 5 issue. The sympathy-and-blame-fest the rest of the media enjoyed for months after the Columbine shootings made me...
