No Tell Hotel

What if you gave a protest and no one came? Yesterday, the Colorado Republican Party staged a protest outside the Grand Hyatt Denver on 17th Street to illustrate the “Tug of War” between Democratic factions. “The radical wing of the Democratic Party, led by the likes of Howard Dean and…

The Fray Plays On

Last night, the Fray appeared on the Tonight Show for the second time in six months — and just a week after the band was featured on the Late Show with David Letterman. The Fray played “How to Save a Life” — the title track from its debut — with…

Bush, To Go

His Presidential-ness George Bush is scheduled to visit our fair city tomorrow. What the fuck is Dubya doing darkening our collective doorsteps this time? Why, politickin’, of course. He’ll be in town for a $1000-a-plate lunch in the Cherry Hills home of Charlie Gallagher (of the private equity firm Gallagher…

Bush, To Go

His Presidential-ness George Bush is scheduled to visit our fair city tomorrow. What the fuck is Dubya doing darkening our collective doorsteps this time? Why, politickin’, of course. He’ll be in town for a $1000-a-plate lunch in the Cherry Hills home of Charlie Gallagher (of the private equity firm Gallagher…

Blog Eat Blog

In cyberspace, everyone can hear you scream. And the sound echoes on…and on…and on. The fireworks started on July 4, when Deborah Frisch decided to troll the Web and toss a few firecrackers at conservatives. She came across a post that Jeff Goldstein had made on his blog, proteinwisdom.com, criticizing…

Pressing Engagements

Pressing Engagements Last Friday’s papers were all over Katie Couric’s visit. And that very morning, The Early Show broadcast live from Civic Center Park, extolling the Front Range as the Napa Valley of microbrews (the timing was a bit unfortunate, given former Senate candidate Pete Coors’s imminent date with a…

Herd Mentality

Round ’em up and moo ’em out. For years, Denver looked on enviously as other cities around the globe hosted CowParades — or simply stole the basic idea and asked local artists to decorate totemic symbols that celebrated their town. Some cities went for horses, some crabs, some cowboy boots…

Lebanon Bombs on Myspace

Joseph Yacteen, arrested in August 2005 after a crime spree that included three attempted car-jackings and a shooting, pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder in Denver District Court on July 18. And how did he plead guilty? With “extreme indifference,” son! But Yacteen’s I-just-don’t-give-a-fuck-swagger should come as no surprise to…

Your Tax Dollars at Work

How long should a ten-year-old pay for his sins? Local musician Shea Sweeney, 25, thought he was finally out from under $90,000 in debt he piled up in 1991 as a result of a childhood encounter with a box of matches. This past spring, a panel of federal bankruptcy judges…

Beer Today, Gone Tomorrow

The wheelchair-bound fellow rolling his way up Broadway just after 7 a.m. this morning, an icy-cold six-pack of Bud Light in his lap (3.2, of course, but your convenience-store options are limited), knew how he was going to spend another 100-degree day: drinking in Civic Center Park. Too bad The…

The Village People

The most contentious development proposal ever to hit the town of Vail was finally resolved on Tuesday, July 10. Voters overwhelmingly approved developer Peter Knobel’s plan to tear down the 37-year-old Crossroads building and replace it with Solaris, a 600,000-square-foot condo-and-retail complex complete with a bowling alley and arcade. The…

Wiping Rove Off the Map

With Robert Novak now fingering Karl Rove as the source of the Valerie Plame leak, the man once called “Bush’s Brain” must be itching to erase some of the recent past. And Rove knows just how easy it can be to revise history. Back when he was a young lad…

Fray to Go

Props to the Fray, who performed last night on the Late Show with David Letterman, successfully finishing off the triumvirate of late-night talk shows. (We know, we know: The band has actually been on four post-prime-time gabfests, but honestly, can you really consider its appearance on the Late Late Show…

A Nobel Calling

Betty Williams owes Ivan Suvanjieff ten bucks. He keeps in close contact with Williams, founder of the Northern Ireland Peace Movement and winner of the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize, just as he does with all the Nobel Peace Prize winners (although communications can be tricky with Aung San Suu Kyi,…

Clearing the Way

It’s official: The nation’s (not to mention Denver’s) highly competitive live concert business just got a little less, well, competitive. Live Nation today announced that it will purchase House of Blues Entertainment for $350 million in cold, hard cash. As part of the deal, Live Nation will presumably gain control…

Loser!

Some games, I suppose, I just wasn’t meant to enjoy. For the bulk of the past month I have been gorging on the beautiful, bountiful orgy of international football — I’m sorry, soccer — that is the World Cup. There are many Americans who may find this habit curious; to…

Reality Bytes

Who knew the people of Denver were so passionate about reality TV? The response to Westword’s Real World prank has been both lovely and livid. Mere hours after the article hit the stands, the letters started coming in, with sentiments ranging from Abbe’s “brilliant, truly brilliant,” to Randy’s “yet another…

Holtzman Halts

Marc Holtzman’s emotional exit from the governor’s race Thursday, after the Colorado Supreme Court declined to monkey with the established process for petitioning your way onto the ballot, was the final take on a death scene that’s been dragged out for weeks — or months, if you believe he never…

Clinton, Finally

Elvis was about to enter the building. Last Friday, as former president Bill Clinton charmed group after group back in Colorado — starring at two Democratic fundraisers, surprising a confab of Denver Public Schools principals, picking up a rumored quarter-of-a-million bucks to talk to a national meeting of apartment owners,…

The Rest Is History

Eureka! There’s no Starbucks in Silver Plume. No Baby Gap. No Disneyfied vision of what the Olde West must have looked like. That’s because Silver Plume is still the real deal: a National Historic Landmark District largely unchanged from the way it looked when silver was dug out of the…

Gael Force

Dinner at Mel’s on Monday night for Gael Greene (see “Sex and the City”) and about fifty of her dearest admirers. Was it a good time? Tough to say. For starters, the median age in the room (not counting press) was ancient, and most of the diners were rushing the…

Gael Force

Dinner at Mel’s on Monday night for Gael Greene (see “Sex and the City”) and about fifty of her dearest admirers. Was it a good time? Tough to say. For starters, the median age in the room (not counting press) was ancient, and most of the diners were rushing the…