In the nascent days of 5280, says editor and publisher Dan Brogan, the local dailies frequently publicized events pushed by the magazine he founded — but such cooperation has waned. Not long ago, he reveals, the Denver Newspaper Agency, which handles business operations for the Denver Post and the Rocky…
The Worst of the Best To have and have not: Though I found most of the Best of Denver 2006 to be witty and informative, I did run across some rigid opinions about people living without homes. Under Best New Hangout for Homeless Teens, you noted that in Civic Center…
Doug Donovan hadn’t been sleeping much lately. It was 3:30 a.m. on a day in early February — the darkest, coldest time of the night during the darkest, coldest time of the year. The ground was frozen, the air subzero, and his hands were snowballs with icicle fingers. He wondered…
For years, industrious snowboarders have built makeshift terrain parks at St. Mary’s Glacier. But if 24-year-old Michael Coors has his way, riders won’t have to make their own fun on that rock-filled ice flow in order to catch a little air. In December, Coors announced plans to reopen an old…
I’m dressed more discreetly than usual this evening. Instead of a Flying Dog tank or a Jameson baby-doll tee — clothes that make me a human billboard for whatever product I’m pushing — I am decked in head-to-toe black: black knee-length skirt, black hose, black heels and a black backless…
Tony Shane Francis had his share of breaks. He pulled off bank robberies in Oregon and Idaho, escaped from jail in Arizona, made the scene on America’s Most Wanted and the FBI’s list of top fugitives, and dodged the wrath of the Aryan Brotherhood and black gangs in one of…
A few final words on the most overblown Colorado story since Bob Dougherty got his butt stuck to a Home Depot toilet seat. Within hours of Jay Bennish’s post-State of the Union address getting airplay on Mike Rosen’s March 1 show, the Overland High School teacher was the focus of…
Is Ed Smith experiencing an identity crisis? Smith is the longtime entertainment editor of the Denver Post. However, a recent call to him from yours truly prompted the person who answered the phone at the paper’s features desk to ask, “Entertainment editor or radio and TV?” I chose the former,…
Every other week, we, the fine citizens of Denver, are afforded the rare opportunity to flex our sinewy, civic muscles, explore our carnal yearnings for environmental consciousness, fill our purple bins with waste of the bottle and newsprint variety, and scream to the heavens, “Recycle this, oh ye god of…
A Death Sentence The hard cell: Adam Cayton-Holland’s “Rae of Sunshine,” in the March 9 issue, was a great story — and this from a small-time news editor. Not just a good scenario, but well-executed storytelling and cutting-edge journalism. I was particularly impressed with how much of the story Adam…
Sue Garber slides a small piece of paper across the table: a drawing done by her daughter, Emily Rae Rice, of Emily’s hamster, Leche. “She called him ‘Leche’ because he was white,” Sue explains. Two days before she died in the Denver City Jail, Emily had given the picture to…
Guitar-maker Scott Baxendale couldn’t believe what he was seeing — or hearing: a new commercial for Qwest service, with “Got to Get You Into My Life” as the soundtrack. “At first I was just appalled because it was such a lame version of the song,” he says, “but then I…
A few years back, former Colorado senator Gary Hart boldly waded into the blogosphere — and before long, he was mired in cyber-muck. “This was during the run-up to the Iraq war,” recalls Hart, 69. “A number of people were saying, ‘You’ve got to run for president’ and so forth,…
As a cocksure leader rather than a cock-dubious follower, I have always managed to buck the trends. (I have also managed to tuck the bends, at least back in my seafaring days when a little man-on-man action with a tattooed first mate by the name of Queequeg wasn’t so frowned…
A Word to the Wives Sexism marks the spot: After reading Luke Turf’s “From Denver, With Love,” in the March 2 issue, I am shocked by its sexism toward women on both ends of the globe. The story portrays American women as conniving, gold-digging bitches. “American girls are just such…
Five balding white men and a sixth wearing a hearing aid sit around a bamboo table in a Bangkok bar, under swaying fans and a neon Johnnie Walker sign that casts a faint red light over the group. The six, all Americans, are waiting for Richard Beals. Each have paid…
Last April, Mike Lynch moved to Thailand because he loved the women’s asses. The only things he misses from his ten years in Colorado are skiing and singing in the church choir. He certainly doesn’t miss his former Highlands Ranch neighbors, who never smiled, never said hello. Divorced in 1984…
Steve Schalk knows exactly where the true essence of the Ogden Theatre lay: in its carpet. Decades of beer and sneaker grime had been ground into the quarter-inch matting, like sedimentary layers of musical memories. Nasty, reeking, puke-stained memories. The carpet was one of the first things that Schalk, a…
Have Faith Pray as you go: Kenny Be is always brilliant, but “All-Faith Funnies,” in the February 23 issue, may have been his best Worst-Case Scenario yet! Let us pray…for many more years of his comics. Jenny Frankel Denver Fatwa city: Kenny Be, are you suicidal?!?! The cartoonist in Denmark…
Gary Haney likes things big. Big portions, big tits, big money. Big ideas, too. To be the Larry Flynt of the Rocky Mountains — that was his big dream. But right now, Gary Haney’s in big trouble. On December 9, 2005, the Denver District Attorney’s Office issued a warrant for…
She almost spotted me. God, that would have infuriated my mother. All that preparation (the workout sessions in the pool, the treadmill, the baths) blown in one instant because Sylvia — I’m sorry, Pond Hollow Sylvia James, as she is known in the circuit — caught wind of me and…
After the Rocky Mountain News reduced its once-extensive stock listings to a single page, business editor Rob Reuteman spoke with dozens of unhappy readers — and few were reassured to learn that the data is still available on the Rocky’s website. “I was talking to ninety-year-old guys who’ve been subscribing…
