When Anthony Rodriguez Jr. skated, he held his head up high. It wasn’t an act of arrogance or a moment of showmanship; it was because the skinny, soft-spoken eighteen-year-old found happiness on his skateboard. “He said skating was the only time he felt free. He didn’t have to think about…
1. Denver mayoral front-walker Ari Zavaras can cite this achievement in collage, er, college: A. He was named “Brother Beer Bong” of his Greek fraternity. B. He spent a year as the Wise Owl mascot. C. As chairman of the school’s safety brigade, he was named a “Junior G-Man” by…
Last fall, Breckenridge Ski Resort got hit by an avalanche of criticism over two ads it had placed in snowboarding magazines, one of which promised that “The Hill May Dominate You. But the Town Will Still BeYour Bitch.” Although the campaign was quickly yanked by Breckenridge, it dominated the 44th…
As President George W. Bush prepares to launch his own variation on the Outkast hit “Bombs Over Baghdad” (key lyric: “Don’t even bang unless you plan to hit something”), the mainstream media is eagerly awaiting the opportunity to report on the desert turmoil to come. No need to marshal forces…
Science is a beautiful thing, as any ballplayer with a snootful of ephedra can tell you. Combine the vigor of deep thinking with the dynamics of a free marketplace and there’s no breakthrough our researchers can’t achieve — from genetically altered Brussels sprouts to video games that simulate a nuclear…
The Inn Crowd Throwing in the towel: Just finished David Holthouse’s article on the Regency (“Motel Hell,” March 13). I worked at the Regency in various capacities for several years starting in 1970, so I remember how grand it was. I remember meeting celebrities, sports figures and politicians. The Oxford…
The teachers at Greenwood Elementary School are gathered in the library, waiting and anxious. It’s 8:20 a.m., and Principal Shurwood Reynolds has called them together in the hopes of setting them at ease. Today is a big day, a day of judgment for a laborious semester spent changing the way…
I was never afraid of elevators until I rode in the elevators at the Regency Hotel. There are three of them, equally spooky, lit with bare white fluorescent bulbs. Carved swastikas and gang symbols scar the wood-paneled walls. The emergency-phone compartments hold dangling wires, pistachio shells, cigarette butts, scorched pizza…
While students around the world were walking out of classes on March 5 to protest for peace, Erin Durban stayed in school. But she’s no war hawk. The nineteen-year-old political-science student at Metropolitan State College is one of the leaders of Anti-War Auraria, a coalition that has attracted hundreds of…
After six years of filming, PeaceJam is finally making it to the big screen. The documentary, produced by the PeaceJam Foundation, was selected for next month’s Taos Talking Picture Film Festival and the American Film Institute Fest later this year. But the film’s executive producer and PeaceJam president, Ivan Suvanjieff,…
1. All but one of the following is true of Jason “Jake” Plummer: A. Even with his millions, he claims to still shop at Old Navy. B. Despite his gallant eighty-yard drive, his high school team lost the Idaho state championship by one measly point. C. His brothers used to…
Jessica Brakey feels like she’s been wronged all over again. After she was allegedly raped by an upperclassman during a field-training exercise at the United States Air Force Academy, Jessica began awakening from nightmares and fighting with roommates and boyfriends. Her behavioral problems got the attention of her commanders, and…
Those harbingers of spring are here, colorful displays popping up in front yards across the city. No, not crocuses, but campaign signs hyping the May election — among the very few signs allowed on residential property under Denver’s zoning code. A Hickenlooper here, a Mares there, a Zavaras everywhere. Although…
On the surface, there are major differences between Pam White and Pamela Clare. White is an area journalist known for passionately advocating on behalf of women and members of indigenous communities, and for taking contentious stances without regard to political correctness. Just days after 9/11, for instance, she penned “Why…
For the first three months of their season, the Johnson & Wales men’s basketball squad had a road schedule that made Colin Powell look like a shut-in. The Wildcats started the season on November 1, in Garden City, Kansas. The next nine games were all played in opponents’ gyms as…
SOS for YOS Jailhouse shlock: I was horrified by Alan Prendergast’s “Prisoners of Sex” story, in the March 6 issue. These girls are given one last chance to turn around, and what happens? They are preyed upon by the very people who are supposed to keep them safe! I think…
The night her roommate was raped, Angel Castro says, she had a ringside seat. She was in the upper bunk when the bed below her began to shake. The man who came into their room that night had no worries about locks or the law. He didn’t seem to care…
It isn’t that the governor of Colorado hates you soccer moms out there. He just thinks you people shouldn’t have the right, when some drunk driver plows into the family Aerostar, to dun your hardworking, premium-gouging insurance company for your medical expenses and still be able to go after the…
“It was the secret fantasy of every vato living in or out of the pachucada to put on the zoot suit and play the myth.” — Edward James Olmos, as El Pachuco in the 1981 film Zoot Suit. From the moment they sold their first pinstripes, ankle chokers and pachuco…
1. Welcome to Wayne’s world! Senator Wayne Allard made The Onion last week in a parody bemoaning the lot of sophomore senators stuck in congressional dorms. What touch was accurate in this Onion photo? A. The bottle of Deep Rock water: Allard is known to chug at least 64 ounces…
It was surreal walking into the Air Force Academy’s Arnold Hall the night of February 27. Almost four months earlier, I’d begun talking to cadets — two former, one current — about rape at the academy (“The War Within,” January 30). They told me how they’d been punished, ostracized or…
Brotha Seku (né Stephen Evans) answers his telephone and signs his letters with “Ready for the Revolution.” But the revolution may be stuck in committee. The fifty-year-old Metro State Student Government Assembly president cut an imposing figure last Friday as he entered his judicial hearing for school code-of-conduct violations. Flanked…
