Mohammed Zazi was reaching for the American dream — and wound up in a nightmare. A native of Afghanistan, he’d emigrated to the United States, driving a taxi to support his family and becoming an American citizen in October 2007. Two years later, his son, Najibullah Zazi, was accused of…
Just as white stars occasionally show up sporting dreads, like Crystal Bowersox at the 2011 Grammys, our post on white people with dreads keeps popping up, with yet another group googling it during last night’s awards ceremony. The hairdo is woven into the histories of many cultures, notes one of…
Terrorism hit home in September 2009, when Aurora shuttle driver Najibullah Zazi was accused of conspiring to blow up the New York City subway system with homemade bombs made from beauty supplies in an al Qaida-authorized “martyrdom operation.” Today, Mohammed Zazi, his father, will be sentenced for his role…
Corey Elbin’s departure from Denver is a real loss for this city’s cultural scene. He’s been the driving force behind Gorinto, the Mercury Cafe’s Wednesday night food and music gathering, since it was introduced almost two years ago. He’s grown the event into a real all-ages community affair. But now…
Sweet…and sour. Laura Shunk just served up her list of Denver’s ten best dessert spots — including the churros she raved about in this week’s review of Pinche Taqueria. But for some readers, it was definitely not enough of a good thing:…
Chefs are Denver’s rock stars, and lower downtown is one hell of a stage. Last night I was lucky enough to moderate a panel of four LoDo chefs — Jen Jasinski, Matt Selby, Tom Coohill and Max MacKissock — who dished out restaurant tidbits (both literal and figurative) before an…
Where there’s smoke, there’s ire! People were feeling burned last fall, when news broke that Fired Up for Kids, the outfit that had produced the Colorado firefighters calender — with proceeds supportedly going to the Children’s Hospital Burn Unit — was in trouble with the law…
South Pearl Street has seen more than its fair share of action this year. But in the 1800 block of South Pearl, it’s all about growth — not the closings that marked the start of the new year on the 1400 South block, where India’s Pearl, Pearl Street Grill and…
The party had everything: a worthy beneficiary (the Children’s Hospital Burn Center), lots of alcohol for the mostly female crowd, and stripped-down, smokin’ hot firefighters. But then the Denver District Attorney threw a wet blanket on the fun: Turns out that Fired Up for Kids might not have been sending…
Does anyone remember Wolfgang Puck’s place in Cherry Creek? Not after they’ve had a bite of the goat curry at Phat Thai, the restaurant that Mark Fischer opened in December in that same spot at 2900 East Second Avenue. The goat curry rates a spot on our list of 100…
On Monday, Westword posted its own version of “Shit people say” in Denver….and the shit quickly hit the fan. People from Texas and California, in particular, didn’t appreciate the joke. Here’s the response from Surfnskidude:…
Denver has long proclaimed itself the home of the cheeseburger, and even has a monument to that invention on Speer Boulevard — though several other cities have tried to claim the burger-king crown. But we were also the undisputed home of the Hot Pocket, which brothers David and Paul Merage…
You can bet that the 26,000-plus Coloradans who voted for Rick Santorum at yesterday’s Republican caucuses, pushing the conservatives’ conservative to a surprise victory, are not faithful readers of Savage Love. Because Dan Savage, the author of that sex-advice column, not only took issue with Santorum’s stance on gay sex,…
Leigh Sullivan founded FIVE, a group of Denver chefs who cook across the country, back in 2008; the lineup, like Sullivan herself, has gone through some changes over the years. Sullivan recently relaunched her own marketing/public relations company, Leigh Sullivan Enterprises, and just announced the latest lineup of FIVE, which…
Westword writers may not have a future as filmmakers, but they do know how to capture what people say — as evidenced by our “Shit people say” video dedicated to Denver. Even so, we missed a few standbys…
The Terminal Kings project was billed as bringing “world-class” art to Denver — a city that many of us would argue already has world-class artists. But when street artist David Choe, along with Sam Flores and Highraff, was hired to create giant murals that Denver International Airport’s Art and Culture…
Get a first look at the renovated Club 404 Saturday night, when the Denver Cruisers hold their “I (Heart) Cruisers” event at the venerable watering hole at 404 Broadway — which will now be known as the Denver Wheel Club 404. Like the space, the name has a history. “The…
Top Chef casting agents are coming to Denver — as well as several other major metropolitan cities — to test potential talent for the tenth season of the Bravo show. Notes the website: “Every season the bar gets higher, every season it means more to be the one on top…
The American Constitution Party has a major problem in Colorado. Because Republican renegade Tom Tancredo, who ran for governor on the ACP ticket in 2010, got more than 36 percent of the vote in 2010 in the race against Republican Dan Maes and Democrat John Hickenlooper, the ACP now qualifies…
In Internet time, the “shit people say” videos really peaked last month — but we never came across one that really captured the phrases and idioms of Denver. So we made one. But apparently we missed some of the shit people say:…
While My Sweet Bakery has closed in Berkeley, the Baker neighborhood is living up to its name, and is now home to a number of bakeries, sweet spots and coffee shops, with more — including Happy Coffee — still to come. Is it too much of a good thing?…
The newly painted wall outside the Denver Performing Arts Complex looks like a million bucks. Make that $200 million. Because that’s what graffiti artist David Choe stands to make in Facebook’s public offering: When the street artist did a piece for Facebook headquarters years ago, he took his pay in…
