The French Disconnection

Like any American chef (current or former), I’ve had a love/hate relationship with France for a long time. Before I knew enough to know better, I hated the country for producing some of the white-toqued, chain-smoking, red-faced bastards who trained me — guys who bigfooted their way through the kitchen,…

The French Disconnection

Like any American chef (current or former), I’ve had a love/hate relationship with France for a long time. Before I knew enough to know better, I hated the country for producing some of the white-toqued, chain-smoking, red-faced bastards who trained me — guys who bigfooted their way through the kitchen,…

Nine Lives

While I was driving across America and Canada last month, I couldn’t escape the influence of home. I detailed how Colorado stories lead the newscasts in every city I visited in my November 23 “Worst-Case Scenario.” While watching the evening news in Canada , for example, I learned that mayors…

Hate in Uniform

Reverend Fred W. Phelps, Sr., of Topeka, Kansas, has had more than his share of press in recent years. The rabid gay-basher and his clan of sign-waving true believers have traveled far and wide, outraging locals by protesting at funeral services for soldiers killed in Iraq and in the wake…

Window Shopping

Gorillaz! While checking out the shoes at True Love (read about it in Night & Day, for Wednesday, 12/20), I took a few minutes to walk the boulevard and see what’s hot on Broadway this holiday season. Here’s what I found: At the designer-toy hut, Plastic Chapel, the always-enthusiastic Dea…

The Last Last Call

Long before midnight, Duffy’s Shamrock had run out of Guinness, that most traditional of Irish brews. And of Jagermeister, that not-so-traditional drink. But while cocktail choices grew more and more limited as Duffy’s last last call approached, the memories flowed freely. So did the advice. “You should put plaques up…

Heavy Lifting

The rehashing of the JonBenet Ramsey case on 48 Hours last Saturday has touched off a wave of Ramsey speculations on the Internet — although probably not the way the producers intended. While many of the program’s claims about John Mark Karr and his pursuer, University of Colorado journalism professor…

Road Warriors

As of 3 p.m. December 1, Denver’s favorite faction of pedal-powered radicals, the Derailer Bicycle Collective, will be back on a roll at its new location, 411 Lipan Street. Earlier this year, as reported here, city zoning officials put the brakes on the non-profit bike shop, which since 2003 had…

Nate’s Turn

If Nate Ybanez is ever to see life outside of prison, he needs lots of attention –and Rolling Stone just turned on the spotlight. Nate is one of more than forty people serving life without parole for murders they committed in Colorado before turning eighteen. He and his buddy, Erik…

Colie and the Gang

As I watched Episode 3 of The Real World: Denver, one thought repeatedly ran through my mind: Where do the producers find these people who are legally old enough to drink — yet retain the emotional and social capacity of a seventh-grader? Although Tyrie, Davis, Brooke and Stephen haven’t done…

Closing Time

Duffy’s Shamrock Bar served the first beer of its last day at 6:10 a.m today. Technically, that was fifty minutes before it was legal to do so — but what’s the state going to do, shut down this 56-year-old institution a few hours early? And technically, Duffy’s doesn’t — didn’t…

Call It Melo-Yellow

Anyone who has seen the ubiquitous new Melo commercials pimp-limping their way through prime-time television knows two things. One, Carmelo Anthony is a badass. Two, he is a mogul who has his hands in many pies. The latest pie is energy drinks, with Melo bringing his own take on the…

Bush League

Where Tom Tancredo goes, trouble follows. Restoration Weekend drew a cadre of famous conservatives to South Florida this past weekend — but the Colorado congressman was the one who grabbed the headlines, after he referred to Miami as a “third-world country.” And President Bush has only himself to blame, Tancredo…

Sorry Behavior

Ever since Michael Richards let loose a racist screed at a Los Angeles comedy show ten days ago, he’s been making the I’m-so-sorry rounds on Late Show With David Letterman and Reverend. Jesse Jackson’s radio program. But any cynics out there who doubt the sincerity of K-K-Kramer should check out…

United: When Turkeys Fly

Four years ago, Westword ran a “How United Airlines Ruined My Summer Vacation” contest. Well, this year United Airlines ruined my family’s Thanksgiving. I got a phone call from my mother the Sunday after Thanksgiving. But she wasn’t checking in to see how I was doing, or thanking me for…

Everyone’s a Critic

Among local critics, the new wing of the Denver Art Museum has been almost uniformly lauded as an innovative, architectural triumph. Nationally, however, the reaction to Daniel Libeskind’s design has been more mixed. In the November issue of House and Garden, critic Martin Filler calls the Frederic C. Hamilton Building…

The Devil’s in the Details

The world doesn’t get more real than this: While last Wednesday’s premiere of The Real World: Denver featured, among other things, same-sex kissing in a LoDo hot tub, getting face time with Larry King a few channels away was Focus on the Family’s James Dobson, offering his first public take…

Bottoms Up

Jen hasn’t found anything she doesn’t want to kiss. Last week, we introduced the Real World Drinking Game, designed to answer this burning question: Which roommate is the worst for your liver? The score thus far, after the first episode of The Real World: Denver: Davis: sips/chugs Stephen:…

Good Vibrations

In the spirit of civil disobedience, it’s not uncommon for anti-war organizations to encourage activists to put their bodies on the line for the cause. But there’s nothing passive about the resistance that Global Orgasm for Peace has in mind. The same San Francisco couple who founded a group that…

Don’t hate the Kramer, Hate the Game

Generally speaking, we stand-up comics are a sorry bunch of louts. Sure, you may think otherwise, may even think it downright noble for us to get up on the stage and make people laugh, make people forget about their worries. But you are wrong. Because we are not doing this…

Pork Place

At my last job, my boss had a butcher’s diagram of a broken-down pig tattooed on her ass. I worked on the line with another guy who had PORK inked across the knuckles of his right hand. And in my family, bacon is how we show our love for one…

Pork Place

At my last job, my boss had a butcher’s diagram of a broken-down pig tattooed on her ass. I worked on the line with another guy who had PORK inked across the knuckles of his right hand. And in my family, bacon is how we show our love for one…