Amid the nourishing chaos of city life, we urban dwellers find ourselves brain-deep in startling juxtapositions. Mid-morning one Tuesday, a formation of squawking geese sweeps its shadow across a used-bookstore window, dimming the dog-eared covers of The Corrections, by Jonathan Franzen, and Dead Souls, by Nikolai Gogol. An instant later,...
Considering that visiting New Yorkers are often amazed to see cows running wild on the Colorado range (in NYC, the bovines are confined to the Bronx Zoo), we could almost understand Hillary Clinton's gaffe in her new book, Living History. But since New York's junior senator spent eighteen years in...
In the heart of LoDo rather than up in that slightly scary warehouse district, Engima Afterhours is 21st-century fresh, not '90s stale. The decor is a notch above the basic black-paint-on-wood look found at many other late-night locales, and this newish addition to Denver's club index pumps out the latest...
Enigma AfterhoursIn the heart of LoDo rather than up in that slightly scary warehouse district, Engima Afterhours is 21st-century fresh, not ’90s stale. The decor is a notch above the basic black-paint-on-wood look found at many other late-night locales, and this newish addition to Denver’s club index pumps out the latest sounds in electronic music for […]
They say people get the government they deserve. As state legislators vote to cut off medical care to children, that may not say much for the people of Colorado. But, taken as a group, the people who want to run Denver are a good reflection of the city they call...
While Westword doesn't encourage irresponsible drinking, we know that many of you will be riding the hangover tide on New Year's Day. To help preempt the pain, we asked some local experts for tips on curing your self-induced misery. Pressure Power: To silence your jackhammer, try acupressure, an ancient Chinese...
The Colorado Music Association unveiled its Music Directory at a holiday party this past Sunday, passing out copies of the comprehensive talent guide. The directory, more than two years in the making, lists the vital statistics of as many working bands and artists as COMA was able to gets its...
The wine room at Adega Restaurant + Wine Bar is made of glass and green light. It's a powerful presence, beautiful in the way that cubist art can be, or a '50s-era Hugo Gernsback-inspired Greyhound bus station. There's an undeniably weird majesty in the geometric arrangement of its towering shelves,...
Golden is the most modest indie supergroup imaginable. The band, which appears on Tuesday, August 13, at the 15th Street Tavern alongside Rye Coalition, Kind of Like Spitting and the Gravity Index, sports an impressive underground pedigree. Alex Minoff, who splits singing and guitar-playing duties with Ian Eagleson, has logged...
Statewide drought be damned, releases from Colorado musicians continue to flow into local retail bins -- and the mailboxes of Backbeat writers. In the first installment of a two-part batch of reviews, we focus on artists whose names fall into the first half of the alphabet; see next week's issue...
Trick or Treatment Courting disaster: I very much enjoyed Stuart Steers's "Looking for a Fix," in the September 26 issue. You can tell a lot about a society by how it treats certain groups within it -- children, women and sick people in particular. When it comes to the disease...
On September 3, you can learn whether you're on the city's most exclusive list: a roster of people and organizations in the Denver Police Department's intelligence files. Some of those on Denver's second most exclusive list -- the cast of characters considering a run for Denver mayor in 2003 --...
There Auto Be a Law Hacks and flacks: Regarding Patricia Calhoun's "Take a Memo," in the August 15 issue: Wow! How refreshing it is to read a real piece of journalism that is based on the truth. It is so frustrating and discouraging to see the public-relations machines of these...
The tourism-and-hospitality industry didn't stay angry at Governor Bill "Nuclear Winter" Owens for long. On Monday night -- just eight days after Owens told the nation that "all of Colorado is on fire" -- HOSTPAC, the Colorado Restaurant Association's political action committee, held a reception in the governor's honor to...
Q: I'd happily patronize restaurants that don't allow smoking. Where are they? A: The easiest way to find Denver's smoke-free eateries is to get a copy of the Smoke-Free Dining Guide from Boulder-based GASP of Colorado (Group to Alleviate Smoking Pollution). The nonprofit will mail the booklet, which includes over...
On the flatbed trailer is a bed of nails, and on the bed of nails is a contortionist who is performing oral sex -- on himself. "Damn, look at that," says Martin, a 26-year-old DJ at a topless bar in Denver. "That boy's flexible and stiff." Martin goofs on his...
The last group of students who were at Columbine High School during the April 1999 massacre will graduate on May 18 at Fiddler's Green Amphitheater, but you won't be able to watch the ceremonies on TV -- if, for some reason, you even wanted to. According to a statement issued...
In the digital age, it's a simple matter for a police agency to record incoming calls for help. Every 911 call, from the most trivial to the most urgent -- say, a call from a frantic cafeteria worker at a local high school reporting gunfire and three victims down --...
On the eve of her entry into adult life, Debbie Baker had a change of heart that would alter her destiny. "I didn't like Barbie when I was a little girl," she says. "I liked baby dolls to play with." All of that changed in 1978, when a friend gave...
Esperanto a sort of alphabetic goulash that, some hope, will eventually be spoken by all of the worlds people as a linguistic interface for humanity may well have found a musical manifestation in the Denver band of the same name. Esperanto, which performs Sunday, January 20, at the 15th Street...
Denver Doesn't Pass the Smell Test Scratched and sniff: Just scanned over "Funky Town," your January 10 article about the Big Stink in parts of Denver. I'm alarmed, as I'd concluded last night -- through much research on the Net -- that I might move to Denver. How prevalent is...
Harlan Hendrickson has issued a challenge to all the closet lovers of '80s metal: It's time to step up -- fist held high, pinkie and index fingers extended -- and get ready to rock. "There's no need to be embarrassed any- more for loving Mötley Crüe," he says proudly. Grab...
