State troopers confront a protestor. Yesterday afternoon, Governor Bill Ritter stood on the west Capitol steps to voice his opposition to Amendment 48, a.k.a. the Personhood Amendment, which would define a fertilized egg as a person. (Read Westword’s recent 48 coverage here and here.) But anti-abortion protester John Wiechec’s voice…
Bob Schaffer’s Facebook photo. Has anyone ever smiled that big without nitrous oxide? Like Democratic senatorial opponent Mark Udall, who’s begun toying around with Twitter, Republican candidate Bob Schaffer is trying to use new-technology communication methods to get his message across. But in the case of his Facebook page, the…
“Jeez, my thumbs are getting really sore…” Reporters at the Rocky Mountain News aren’t the only folks learning how to Twitter these days. Democratic senatorial hopeful Mark Udall is also using the micro-blogging service, and he’s doing so in a notably cheesy way. His Twitter account is labeled “Quick! Lock…
John McCain wants to be your friend. Chug-a-lug! In the hilarious Saturday Night Live spoof of the vice presidential debate between Governor Sarah Palin and Senator Joe Biden, Tina Fey, as Palin, joked about college students turning the exchange into a drinking game, with participants guzzling every time she tossed…
So close and yet so far away… New on YouTube: a video showing a desperate Broncos fan almost but not quite getting an autograph from QB Jay Cutler. Look below for the clip, which shows Cutler stepping closer… and closer… and closer… only to pivot at the last possible moment…
Planes Mistaken for Stars made our best band-name list. Blog-day afternoon. Backbeat Online collects the Top 10 Denver band names — a roster sure to excite fans of Lyin’ Bitch and the Restraining Orders. Also available for the clicking: Chairlift’s appearance in an Apple commercial and an invitation for musicians…
Justin Dillon. Musician Justin Dillon had never made a film before, but he felt he had to do something about the horrific reality of human trafficking. Thus was born Call + Response, a part-documentary, part-concert film that opens Friday, October 10 at the Starz FilmCenter in the Tivoli Student Union…
Every open-mic night needs an aspiring comic who may or may not be homeless. The Squire has Gary. Before we begin, I’d like to acknowledge that in making this endorsement, I’m violating all sorts of basic journalism tenets. But screw it. At the time of this writing, I’m chock full…
FM uses one of those words their old printer didn’t like. Editor’s note: See update below. The writers at FM, a quarterly music-and-arts magazine, like a lot of words — and sometimes they start with the letter “F.” That wouldn’t seem to be a big deal in this particular century…
Travis Henry, Montana-bound. It’s been too long since we’ve had a good celebrity trial in Colorado. The various Joe Nacchio hearings don’t really count — just because his photo’s on lots of dart boards owned by former Qwest employees and investors doesn’t make him a star — and the Kobe…
A banner from the Obsession website. The Denver Post and many other newspapers across the country took plenty of heat for their decision to insert sampler versions of Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West, a DVD that many subscribers saw as a not-so-subtle promotion for Republican presidential aspirant John…
Domingo Lopez-Avaloy. In August of 2004, a twelve-year-old girl was assaulted by four men in the Heatherwood Apartments in Aurora. She told police that hands came from all directions, tearing her clothes off, touching her breasts, putting fingers inside her, raping her. The officers found the girl’s Superman underpants in…
The men of Weezer suit up. Blog-blog-bloggin’ along. Backbeat Online is all about Weezer. Click over to read a full review of the band’s October 5 gig at the Broomfield Event Center alongside Angels & Airwaves and Tokyo Police Club. And also check out our original 1994 interview with Weezer…
The Camera plunges into suckage. Daily newspapers are notoriously cautious when it comes to language issues. A More Messages blog from August notes that the Rocky Mountain News’s spelled the word “ass” as “a–” in a piece that quoted Colorado Republican Party chieftain Dick Wadhams. In addition, the Rocky posted…
Jared Polis. On Sunday, the front page of the Denver Post’s Perspective section was dominated by endorsements of Democrat Jared Polis, who’s running for Congress in the 2nd District, and Republican Marilyn Musgrave, making her third re-election bid in the 4th District. Hard to imagine stranger bedfellows, considering Musgrave’s well-documented…
Benjamin Whitmer. “Try Again,” a January 2007 Message column, dealt with the revelation that the Try-Works, a fiery pro-Ward Churchill blog, wasn’t the work of Churchill himself, as some observers argued. Instead, the person responsible was Benjamin Whitmer, an untenured, part-time instructor in the same Ethnic Studies program at the…
Mike Coffman. With so many competitive races in Colorado this year, it’s something of a novelty to discovery one that’s not close at all. So it is with the 6th Congressional District, currently represented by outgoing Republican Representative Tom Tancredo. When GOP officials left positions elsewhere, Dems saw the vaccum…
The crowd gathers. For all of its commercialization, the Komen Race For the Cure, a breast-cancer fundraiser that took place on Sunday, remains one of the most positive annual events in Denver — a gathering at which all of the things that divide us are set aside in favor of…
JabbaWockeeZ. JabbaWockeeZ, the mask-wearing, insanely inventive first winners on the MTV hit America’s Best Dance Crew, headline the show’s inaugural live tour, which comes to Denver on Wednesday, October 8. (Click here for details.) For Rynan “Kid Rainen” Paguio, one of the original JabbaWockeeZ, the journey from the streets to…
Rabbi Jamie Korngold. The holiest days of the Jewish year have arrived, which means it’s time for cynical, kvetching people everywhere to count their blessings and remember why, even in the midst of the Great Depression Sequel, they have reason to celebrate. Last Tuesday was Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New…
Stick to it. Recent polls have suggested that the majority of Walmart shoppers support the presidential aspirations of Republican nominee John McCain and his hockey-mom running mate, Sarah Palin, over those of Dems Barack Obama and Joe Biden. That probably explains the presence this weekend of an Obama volunteer in…
