Captured by Gypsies

“You’re not going to drive us into the desert and kill us, are you?” the man asks, sliding open the door of the brown minivan piloted by the Jester. This is a fairly common concern — not always expressed with the exact wording, but with the same sentiment behind it,…

Paved With Good Intentions

When postal carrier Tim Ramsey bought his home on Ford Street in north Golden nine years ago, he knew he was acquiring a special slice of local history. The house had once belonged to prominent developer Joseph Mayford Peery, and in 1971 Peery had given four acres directly south of…

Hellalujah

When Neal Greenberg met Leonard Cohen over dinner in 1996, the Boulder banker gushed that it was a rare honor to dine with the iconoclastic writer and musician — a celebrity since the late ’60s for his cerebral, soul-baring songwriting. They ate and talked, and within several months Greenberg was…

Off Limits

City attorney Cole Finegan — among those rumored as a possible replacement for departing mayoral chief of staff Michael Bennet, who’s heading to the Denver Public Schools superintendent slot — was unavailable for comment on his candidacy, the dailies reported Monday. And how. Finegan’s at the bottom of the Grand…

What’s So Funny

In college I had a pothead friend prone to making grandiose statements. Nothing was ever merely okay with this guy; every experience was either the best or the worst of his life. That grilled-cheese sandwich we’d just eaten in the cafeteria? The worst in the history of the New England…

The Message

“I’ve never been one to want credit,” says Mark Cornetta, who’s scheduled to become Channel 9’s president and general manager July 15. “I’ve liked being a part of a successful team. And feeling good about the accomplishments the team has made is what matters, not someone assigning credit or blame…

Plenty of Purple Heart

He takes it. The gritty stoic wearing the dirty uniform and the tar-crusted batting helmet takes Kevin Brown’s 92-mile-an-hour fastball on the left forearm and, without so much as glancing back at the mound, takes his base. A week later, a wayward Pedro Astacio heater hits him flush in the…

Letters to the Editor

All the Snooze That’s Fit to Print Zzzzzzz whiz: Rob Simon’s “Confessions of a Snorer,” in the June 23 issue, was a great article. Where does his wife get the earplugs? I could use some! Flavia Florezell Denver Nap quest: Why doesn’t Rob Simon’s wife just sleep in another room…

Westword Music Showcase 2005

Welcome to the eleventh annual Westword Music Showcase. Thats right, boys and girls: On Saturday, June 25, the Showcase officially become a tweenager which means were finally tall enough for the scary rides. To celebrate, weve invited all of Denver to our party, the largest celebration of local music in…

Confessions of a Snorer

Some years ago, I discovered that I snored. I also learned that this affliction is an unusual problem because, even though I am the one who snores, it is my wife trying to sleep next to me who is really suffering, struggling to survive the nightly nightmare of noise that…

Seeking a Fix

There has to be someone here who can cure me of snoring, I thought, when more than 6,000 sleep professionals were in Denver June 18-23 to attend the 19th Annual Associated Professional Sleep Societies convention. The APSS is a joint venture of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the…

Welcome to America

Here is something Moises Carranza-Reyes wants you to know right off: He has never been charged with a crime, in this country or in his native Mexico. Yes, he did enter the United States without an invitation in 2003. So did an estimated 300,000 other Mexicans. Carranza-Reyes knew that some…

Off Limits

On Sunday, June 5, Denver International Airport was the scene of a celebrity shoving match that not even the star-crazed fans of Access Hollywood could have predicted. While waiting in line to board a 4:45 p.m. Frontier Airlines flight to Los Angeles, former American Idol contestant Corey Clark and early-’90s…

What’s So Funny

Well, it’s officially summer in Colorado. Strolling through the neighborhood, listening to the somewhere between endearing and shoot-me-in-the-face-with-a-shotgun-now chime of the ice-cream truck, you can’t help but be overwhelmed by the smorgasbord of summer smells: the fresh-mowed lawns, the backyard barbecues, the recently singed cat hair as that seasonal string…

The Messsge

Public-relations experts believe that when people in the spotlight screw up, they’re usually better off admitting the mistake, expressing regret and then hoping for a change of subject. So when Ray Gomez, the associate vice president for university communications at CU-Boulder, learned that an e-mail in which he’d criticized a…

Letters to the Editor

To B or Not to B B-have: Regarding Michael Roberts’s June 9 Message: “B” isn’t for “Boss,” it’s for “Bye-bye traditional radio stations.” Unfortunately, traditional radio stations are like those starved-for-attention kids we all knew in school who would do anything they could to get you to, well, pay attention…

Speaking for the Dead

1. BORN ON THE MOON On mourra seul, Pascal wrote. We shall die alone. But some die more alone than others. In Denver, if you die unexpectedly, unattended by doctors or relatives, your death becomes a matter for inquiry by the Office of the Medical Examiner. And if you manage…

Makin’ Whoopee

Stele Ely has a message for environmentalists who are searching for new Earth-saving endeavors: Think globally, screw locally. “Giving love to the planet, somehow it makes lovemaking more fun,” he says wistfully — and with no trace of irony. In fact, he’s so focused on his tangent about the preciousness…

Off Limits

When Miguel Flores learned there was a sudden vacancy on the walls of the nearby Diedrich coffeehouse at 1201 East Ninth Avenue — where art shows are usually booked a year in advance — the 25-year-old Capitol Hill resident jumped at the chance to fill it. His exhibit went up…

Hot Times Ahead

Summer is upon us, and you know what that means: the birds and bees getting all natural and shit in the flower beds, rabbits and squirrels frolicking in the bushes hey, tail! and that musky sample platter of pheromones spritzed into the breeze by critters far and wide. All that…

What’s So Funny

There are far too few times in life when we’re able to recognize the significance of a moment while actually experiencing it. For the most part, we’re too consumed by the moment itself to give it any real reflection. Our synapses can’t bear that heavy lifting: Between simultaneously taking in…

The Message

The Denver Post’s experiment in podcasting — audio broadcasts that can be streamed on a computer or saved onto an MP3 player — has received some high-profile attention of late, with mentions in pieces by the Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio and Wired. But former Westword scribe Gil Asakawa,…