Opinion & Commentary

Paul Trujillo’s art captures an historic moment. Yesterday, the day that Barack Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States, I received a note from the Fords. They’re the family who’d asked Paul Trujillo, a sixteen-year-old urban artist, to paint a piece on the back of their garage…

Please, Mr. Postman. Polling places across Colorado report that the voting process is going smoothly. But there are still plenty of bumps in the road — and Mimi Kaupe just hit one of them. Since she’s working in California, she’d long ago applied to the Denver Election Division for a…

Keep your distance, media scum. I was the 26th person in line at 6:45. Another fifty people had arrived by the time the election workers at the Mile High United Way polling place at the edge of Highland started the countdown at 6:59: “Five, four, three, two, one… the polls…

Va-va-va-vote! When I arrived home late last night, I found a flier under my doormat, “Vote for the Change We Need,” with a number to call to find my polling place today. Right above the mat, suspended from my doorknob, was a more elaborate hangtag, “Vote Obama,” with detailed information…

John McCain will stop in Grand Junction on Election Day. Back on June 30, CNN posited that Colorado could become “the ultimate battleground state in the general election.” Four months later, it looks like the war is over and John McCain will go down fighting in this state (sending Sarah…

What are you waiting for? In Denver, early voting ends today at 7 p.m. at the thirteen early-voting locations (find them at www.denvervotes.org). It’s too late to request a mail-in ballot by mail or over the Internet — but you can still pick one up until 7 p.m. today at…

There’s a mystery behind twelve, and it’s not why the restaurant opening November 4 in the Ballpark neighborhood, at 2233 Larimer Street, refuses to use capital letters. No, here’s the mystery: Who’s the man pretending to be the owner of twelve? Yesterday, I’d just finished perusing twelve’s press kit –…

Paul Trujillo isn’t in school right now, but the sixteen-year-old is getting a hell of a civics lesson — with extra credit in art appreciation. Trujillo was born in Denver and has always lived with his grandparents at 303 Galapago Street. He’s been creating art for as long as he…

Sean Rice was the first gallery owner to discover that the city had wiped out a wall of urban art. It was just before the Democratic National Convention hit town, and Denver’s graffiti cleanup crew, called out to deal with tagging in the Ballpark neighborhood, decided to give nearby Orange…

Tony Hillerman captured the flavor of the Southwest. I discovered Tony Hillerman’s books the same year I moved to Colorado, introduced to them by the late Alan Dumas, who’d taken classes from the author when he taught journalism at the University of New Mexico. Hillerman’s The Fly on the Wall…

WaterCourse is out from under wraps. Dan Landes usually stars at WaterCourse Foods, WaterCourse Bakery and City, ‘O City, his Denver ventures. But tomorrow night, he’s got a starring role on the Food Network’s Dinner Impossible, helping host and Iron Chef America winner Michael Simon with his toughest task yet…

“X” marks the drop. We can’t tell you when you’ll get that mail-in ballot you requested, and then requested again. But we can lay to rest another rumor making the rounds: that mail-in ballots are only counted if a vote looks close election day. “We count every ballot,” says Linda…

Now that John Hickenlooper has voted, he can get back to the budget. Boo! Want to avoid scary lines on November 4? You can still ask for a mail-in-ballot through 5 p.m. October 28 — but that’s putting a lot of faith in our election commissions, their crazy California printers…

Gary Isaacs’s original photo for the Wynkoop proclaimed that Beer Is Food. The blow-out, twentieth anniversary celebration of the Wynkoop Brewing Co., 1634 18th Street, continues today with the after-party for the Gorilla Run and then, at 2 p.m., an amazing (and potentially very icky) stunt: a dive into a…

Tosh’s Hacienda The flier for the S.O.S. — Sophisticated.On.Saturdays — party October 25 says that it will be held in the new Club Dynasty, located in the “old” Kiva Restaurant at 3090 Downing Street, with two floors of dance club and a spelling-impaired dress code: “no hats, white tees, do…

Adman Lew Cady sent in the following memory of the early days of the Wynkoop Brewing Co.: The night Rock Bottom opened, John Hickenlooper and I (and you) were there and I asked Hickenlooper what he was going to do now that there was a second brewpub in town. “Crush…

Gary Isaacs’s original photo for the Wynkoop proclaimed that Beer Is Food. After twenty years and many, many, many times twenty beers, memories tend to get a little foggy. Still, I have no problem recalling the day in October 1988 when the Wynkoop Brewing Co. opened its doors. The town…

Does reading this blog make you hunger to write? Westword is expanding its Cafe coverage, and we’re looking for people with a passion for food and restaurants, as well as the ability to produce stylish and knowledgeable news and opinion pieces about the Denver dining scene. E-mail a cover letter…

In honor of the Wynkoop Brewing Co.’s twentieth anniversary, we’re asking readers to send their memories of the brewpub — with the author of the best account getting free beer! As a former Westword employee, John Kessler is not eligible for that prize — but his story is definitely a…