Nothing says “holiday spirit” quite like stabbing a terrorist or hammering a goombah, as the hottest games this season invite us to do. But no matter how cutting-edge the stars of 2007 may be, they are also unmistakably familiar. This week, we stack the holiday hits of today against the…
The Writers’ Strike of 2007 looks to be going into 2008 as well; but late-night programming won’t be following it anymore. NBC has announced that on January 2, both Jay Leno’s The Tonight Show and Late Night with Conan O’Brien will return with new episodes. It’s being reported that David…
Where I walk into Tattered Cover and randomly select five books from the new release racks to read a random page for 45 seconds and rate the book accordingly. Blogging Heroes: Interviews with 30 of the World’s Top Bloggers By Michael A. Banks Page 35 Doesn’t it seem outmoded to…
Turn on ABC Family’s 25 Days of Christmas programming, and you’ll see a lot of what you might expect; classic TV cartoons, claymation specials, great old movies and an odd lot of newer ones. But here’s something you might not have expected: the whole thing seems to center around the…
At a Guitar Hero tournament a few months back, one kid complained to me that Expert Mode is “too easy.” Then he demonstrated the game’s secret Hyper Speed mode. My pupils nearly ruptured at the sight of him as he navigated the light-speed stream of colored notes; it looked like…
When I moved to Colorado, I took a job as a server at Gunther Toody’s. I lasted one week. Why such a short-lived serving career, you ask? The answer to that question is two-fold. Reason one: Three days into my training, I was tested on the menu. One of the…
You know Dasher, and Dancer, and Prancer, and Vixen, right? And Comet, and Cupid, and Donner, and Blitzen? And of course you recall the most famous reindeer of all: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Rudolph was invented by Montgomery Ward ad men, but immortalized by Rankin-Bass in 1964. It’s a beloved…
In anticipation of tomorrow night’s new episode of Project Runway (looks like there will be drama, drama, drama!), here’s a quick recap of last week’s antics: In a challenge that Heidi Klum described as “thwee designers reinterpreting thwee outdated looks,” teams set out to make over the poodle skirt, overalls,…
It’s become something of legend, of course, even if YouTube has stolen some of its mystery these days. Only a few years ago, all you could find of the Star Wars Holiday Special were bootleg tapes traded at comic-book and sci-fi collections, sold like contraband spice. (This transaction was even…
Too bad we don’t have an IKEA in this town, because I can’t tell you how often this happens to friends of mine with kids. — Sean Cronin…
View all the fabulous fashions in this comprehensive slide show by Jim Narcy. The Cat’s Pajamas and friends were out in force at last night’s Frock Out: Independent Designers Challenge at the Central Library. All things considered, the event was a smashing success with nary a runway tumble or wardrobe…
Most newspapers have a weekly feature in their Entertainment section that highlights the upcoming television worth watching. It’s a vestigial remnant of the old days when TV grids used to run daily, with a small bit recommending something good that evening. But now, with the strike, the Rocky Mountain News…
For a game that’s considered Microsoft’s premier 360 title this holiday season, it’s amazing how sloppy Mass Effect is. Graphical glitches distract from otherwise fascinating character designs and alien vistas, constant stops and stutters lengthen load times, and the inventory system must be the worst in history. And just as…
Last Wednesday’s episode of Project Runway forced the designers to take on what might be the biggest single challenge on the show to date — menswear. When the 13 remaining designers had to swap their lithe, pretty female models who are always ready to wear every flowing, gauzy gown and…
We all have our ski and snowboarding, puffy, heavy, non-figure flattering coats. How to be a sexy, warm snow bunny is not my area of expertise. I hang out in the resort bars and get cocked, so I couldn’t care less about warmth. I am not an expert in the…
If you’ve ever wanted to learn to knit, make pop-up cards or brew the perfect cup of tea but were short on dough, you might have discovered that the Denver Public Library offers all these things and more for free as part of their Fresh City Life programming. Initially intended…
Mark your Pocket PC calendars; Fall of 2007 was when television discovered the power of the Geek. Oh, sure, they’d dabbled in nerddom here and there, mainly in the second-banana roles that sitcoms are so rife with (Urkel, Screech, Potsie, etc.), or on reality shows, some of them blatantly using…
L.A.-based pop culturalist will present his kitsch-filled holiday slide show tonight from 7 – 9 p.m. at Steele Elementary School, 370 South Marion Pkwy., Denver. Check out this slide show preview sample of what you’re likely to see…
A modest television commercial proposal for Camobooty, the Denver-based fashion craze that’s currently sweeping the nation: FADE IN: Two burly hunters, STEW and LEW, are lying on the forest floor, their rifles at the ready. LEW: Darn it, Stew, there’s somethin’ different ’bout you today. Like you got yourself a…
There’s no surer sign that a franchise is in trouble than when it blasts into outer space. So you were right to be nervous when Nintendo announced its plans to follow up the subpar game Super Mario Sunshine with something called Super Mario Galaxy, which promised to launch the mustached…
NBC’s Chuck was picked up for the back-nine of a full-season order on November 26. That’s a very good thing, because it’s the best of NBC’s new shows this season. As part of TV Nerd-Rush 2007 (other notable entrants in this category include the CW’s Reaper and CBS’ The Big…
Let’s give thanks that this past holiday weekend, Denver International Airport proved that it could handle crowds. (And what, exactly, was the airport waiting for? An engraved invitation from Mary Peters?) But for once, I was sorry that I wasn’t stuck in an endless line while waiting to go through…
