Jose Mercado has been a man with a mission when it comes to turning inner-city kids into accomplished thespians for years now, and his ardor for what seems an impossible task never seems to diminish. It’s just that he’s so good at it. Mercado came from his own barrio roots;…
In the small (literally) but fascinating world of people who make art using GI Joes, Gio Toninelo is pretty much a god. The founder and curator of GI Joe Fest, an international GI Joe-centric stop-motion film festival that branched out of Denver last year to locations as far-flung as Slovakia…
The town of Bessemer, which immediately surrounded Pueblo’s storied reason-to-be, the mighty Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, was incorporated in 1886, 125 years ago. It was home to hard-working immigrants from around the world — Italians, Eastern Europeans, Germans, Asians and others — who moved to the area to work…
After intermittent bouts with alcoholism and diet pills, Bree Davies has channeled her addictive personality into a somewhat less unhealthy obsession: yoga. That’s the subject of her latest edition of Breeality Bites, wherein she acknowledges that it comes with the side effect of trying to compete with grandmothers but denies…
Slam poetry is to the literary world what hip-hop music is to jazz — a progression of talent and a revolutionary outlet. Denver is lucky to boast of two solid teams that compete nationally. Both Slam Nuba and the Denver Mercury Cafe Poetry Slam Team advanced to the semi-finals last…
Gather round, children, and I will tell you of a time — it was, like, at least 50 years ago — when there was racism. Those days are over, of course, and in the bright future of today all humans live in perfect harmony with no economic or institutional discrepancy…
Get the lead out! Will he? Won’t he? As of this writing Lance Armstrong hadn’t yet tweeted his intention to compete in the Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race on Saturday (he pre-qualified by winning the Crested Butte Alpine Odyssey on July 31), but one of the gnarliest events in Colorado…
When we called Sorin Katt for the interview, we asked to speak with Kevin, his legal first name. He told us we had the wrong number. When we asked to speak with Sorin, however, he responded immediately. Besides talking to us about how he got involved in the furry lifestyle…
Summer is already starting to close in on us, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t still a bit of time to get out in the sun and have some fun. If you need to do it on the cheap this weekend, don’t fret: We’ve got plenty of activities and a…
There are a lot of things that LEGOs are known for: building elaborate worlds and models with small blocks, providing meticulous, mildly OCD adults with a pastime, getting caught in the throats of small children. But it’s that second subset that’s creating a legacy for the building toy that lesser…
NFL fans know Chad Ochocinco as a loudmouth. Even back when he had a real last name, 85 constantly chattered with officials, made signs asking not to be fined, tweeted constantly and sought out the spotlight in 1,001 ways. Call him a clever entertainer or an attention-starved kid; Ochocinco knows…
For some of us in this errant world, it’s hard to choose between a best friend and a best guitar, and if you fall in that hardscrabble category, you’ll want to be up at Copper Mountain this weekend for the annual Guitar Town festival, which features big names doing axe…
With summer beginning to wind down and the very real possibility for an apocalypse of zombie, alien, man-made, religious, nature, cat or other proportions around every corner, we decided it was a good time to have a chat with a real-life survival instructor. While we’ve got most of our survival…
In 2006 Sheri and Randy Propster sold their home and most of their belongings, gave their car away, got married and set out to enjoy a 253-day honeymoon, backpacking the coast-to-coast American Discovery Trail together. Their blogs from the adventure became an educational “virtual fieldtrip” in partnership with several high…
The first time doing anything is always a learning experience, and certainly Dana Cain and Tracy Weil’s first go at a Denver County Fair was no exception to that rule. Cain will change a few things next year, she told us yesterday — a bigger animal pavilion, more live competitions…
I’ve always said that if I could have any super power in the world, it would be moderation. Being born with an addictive personality has been an interesting journey — from alcoholic to diet pill-popper to relentless gym worshipper, I have seen every ugly side of not being able to…
After all the strife and human sacrifice during the civil rights movement, it was pretty awesome in the end when every black person was triumphant in some way and every villain got her hilariously cathartic comeuppance by eating a pie full of feces — but let’s not forget that it…
Like any good story of adventure on the high seas, Sam Bellamy’s began with unrequited love: Smitten with a girl beyond his station and rebuffed by her parents, the young sailor set sail to make his fortune. “He did it the quickest way,” says Mark Lach, senior vice president of…
In one of the more ridiculous recent examples of asinine government nitpickery, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday upheld a ruling of a lower court in a case alleging that the U.S. Forest Service was charging people $10 to drive up the Mount Evans Scenic Byway in violation…
Airbnb is a site that lets regular folks rent out a room or an entire house to other regular folks. Seems like a great way to earn some money while you’re away on vacation anyway, right? But because everyone is a special snowflake, sometimes regular folks are meth addicts who…
Throwing a county fair for the first time ever is a lot like losing your virginity, it turns out: The stakes are high and the results may be a little messy and awkward, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t thrilling, and it certainly doesn’t mean you’re going to stop doing…
Thomas W. Benton’s posters have been commonplace in the city of Aspen over the years Benton lived there, but when the artist passed away in 2007, some worried the work would never reach the broad audience it deserved. Much of his art has never left the city and most of…
