“Diesel smoke makes me horny.” As the resident tree hugger in a blue-collar excavating family, I cringe every time I read that bumpersticker on the back of my brother’s 1989 Dodge diesel. Even though I understand all the reasons for needing diesel — power, primarily, for hauling the big loads…
Life on the road can be rough. Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Marc Cohn, of “Walking in Memphis” fame, understands that all too well. After an August 7 gig at the Denver Botanic Gardens, where he co-headlined with songstress Suzanne Vega, Cohn and his road manager, Tom Dube, headed downtown to the Hotel…
Funny comes in many shapes and sizes. There’s the surly dwarf with the lisp and the meth addiction, for example; he’s just a little guy, but damned if he isn’t funny. The 7-foot-2 basketball player from Africa sobbing into the phone to his mother back home because he’s having trouble…
The Rocky Mountain News’s home page features the usual items most surfers look for on the websites of mainstream dailies: links related to breaking news, business, entertainment and sports stories, etc. But a box labeled “Lifestyles” contains something unexpected: a photo of a bikini-clad babe to the right of a…
Some Like It Hot And some like it not: Regarding Jared Jacang Maher’s “Hot Flashes,” in the August 4 issue: Such great journalism. Not! Nick Werle Colorado Springs Warming trends: When I saw the cover of the last issue, I thought Westword had sunk to a new low. Denver’s Hottest…
It’s been one long, sweltering summer. But while it was 105 degrees outside, the temperature was even higher inside when we announced our citywide canvass for the hottest service employees in town. We quickly received dozens of tips on beautiful baristas, cute chefs, virile valets, haute hairstylists and pretty-boy pizza-delivery…
He was ten or eleven, somewhere in there. The senior tour had just rolled into the old Wheat Ridge Funplex, over on Kipling, and a few of the veterans who’d heard his story took him out to Fuddruckers for a burger. One was Bob Hart, the boy’s hero. Couple of…
Brian O’Connell was supposed to stand trial on June 23, facing fourteen criminal counts. Instead, he went to Disney World. That excursion violated the conditions of his bond, and when O’Connell returned to Colorado, he was arrested. His attorney also withdrew from the case because of a conflict of interest,…
All signs these days point to Colfax Avenue, where Brian House has posted nearly 150 palm-sized yellow arrows on signs, doors and alleys. The effort isn’t part of the city administration’s upscaling of America’s Main Street, though; House is just a hometown boy bringing public awareness to a worldwide scavenger…
Thursdays at Hemingway’s, as any profiler of the opposite sex can tell you, usually go off. Show up there around ten, and the waft of desperation hits you like a Wiffle bat to the face. DU girls in their skimpiest textiles bump uglies with goony idiots, their fat necks obscured…
According to Steve Kelley, his July 25 debut as impresario of Good Day Colorado, Channel 31’s morning program, went so smoothly that “we knew there was going to be a problem” on day two — and the longtime KOA radio star, who’s taking his first shot at TV under the…
The Vinyl Solution On the edge: In the July 28 “Art Attack,” Ernie Tucker did a pretty good job profiling Jack Jensen and his new venture at the old Ichabod’s, may it rest in peace. However, it seems Tucker was hypnotized by Jensen’s Buddy Holly cool — enough so that…
Immigration is personal to Lilian Shea. She understands it as no citizen of the United States can. But immigration’s so close to her heart that she doesn’t quite grasp the magnitude of the animosity surrounding the issue today. “I understand immigrants and I understand citizens,” she says. “I understand black…
The air conditioner was too noisy, so someone shut it off and let the hundred or so people packed into the cafeteria sweat it out. The heat is on in the immigrant community, anyway. Already controversial, the subject of immigration boiled over in May, after a Mexican dishwasher in this…
Pop artist Jack Jensen doesn’t want anyone kissing his ass, although he’s likely to tell folks to plant one on his posterior anyway. “It’s a punk attitude,” shrugs the 49-year-old, a grin hung beneath black-rimmed glasses and the brown pompadour he’s sported for decades. “I preach healthy anarchy.” And his…
Donovan Busta may just be the man who finally dethrones Sonya Thomas. The 37-year-old, 105-pound Thomas, the number-two-ranked competitive eater in the world, managed to eat 161 chicken wings — 5.09 pounds — in twelve minutes at last year’s National Buffalo Chicken Wing Festival. But Donovan, ranked number 27, is…
After nearly three years of fighting, Susan Demander finally won her battle against the Douglas County Assessor’s Office. Demander had been arguing since 2003 that her Victorian-style office building should not be valued more highly than the almost-identical property next door (“A Tale of Two Buildings,’ July 7). When she…
Chris LaFore begged the judge’s forgiveness for using the present tense when she talked about her dead son Jason in a Jefferson County courtroom last Tuesday. Almost nine months earlier, Gregory Nester had pulled his truck and trailer out in front of Jason; Jason’s motorcycle had collided with the truck,…
The Oh My Goddess coffee shop, at 1526 East Colfax Avenue, found many followers when it introduced its “We’re Not Starbucks” specials, but goodwill wasn’t enough to overcome the very bad vibes of Brent J. Brents. After the serial rapist confessed to being a regular at the joint, no amount…
In Drew Massey’s world, there’s not much separating confidence from cockiness. The 35-year-old entrepreneur tosses around names like Ted Turner and Jeff Bezos as nonchalantly as if they were drinking buddies, and smiles knowingly as he argues that ManiaTV!, a web-based television network he founded last September, is more than…
Although a riveting “Rose Is Rose” storyline — in which Pascuale’s guardian angel follows the family on a road trip — has kept What’s So Funny’s attention focused squarely on the funny pages lately, we did get wind of a recent Tom Tancredo slip-up. Piecing together overheard snippets of RTD…
Spin Control As you like it: This is my response to Dave Herrera’s response to all the stink about DJs at the Westword Music Showcase (The Beatdown, July 14). I don’t discount the point made that what DJs (all of them) do requires a high degree of skill and focus,…
