More Messages: The Anderson File

Former University of Colorado-Boulder professor Adrienne Anderson says she wants the case of her 2005 dismissal from the school to be heard in “the court of public opinion.” But thus far, a significant number of local media outlets have shown little interest in her story, despite the legitimate news value…

On the Road, Again

When Josh Blue was named the last comic standing, he automatically became Denver’s second-most-famous living celebrity — after John Elway, of course, and before…Dealin’ Doug? But Denver has no shortage of dead celebrities, and it’s high time we resurrect one: Neal Cassady, the inspiration for Dean Moriarty in Jack Kerouac’s…

More Messages: Welcome to Neverland

Your eyes don’t deceive you. The fall edition of Boulder County Kids, a free quarterly distributed in Boulder County, Estes Park, Broomfield and Westminster, features a cover depicting Michael Jackson as the Mona Lisa. There’s nothing wrong with the image itself, which was sketched by Nick Cochrane, 14, using colored…

Stage Managers

The techtonic plates continue to shift along Denver’s increasingly competitive concert scene. Although no official statement has been released, Chuck Morris will be vacating his current post at Live Nation to join his proteges, Don Strasburg and Brent Fedrizzi, at the new Denver outpost of Anschutz Entertainment Group. Morris, one…

More Messages: Caffeine Dreams

There it was, hanging on the wall at St. Mark’s Coffeehouse, looking little different from handmade notices alerting regulars to apartments for rent, bands in search of a new shredder or pets desperate for a new home. But in this case, the scrawled text referred to a couple of area…

Trouble in Mind

According to a recent U.S. Department of Justice study, more than half of all state prisoners in America reported some kind of mental health problem last year. At least one in every five inmates in Colorado’s prison system is seriously mentally ill — and, as this week’s cover story, “Head…

Libeskind Dreams on a Denver Budget

I thought I was supposed to be the funny man! That was until I saw Daniel Libeskind’s plans for Civic Center. Compared to his $100 million plan, the ideas I offered in my “Civic Center Master Plan Defined” cartoon seem almost reasonable. The cartoon, which originally ran on March 31,…

Head Games

Talk all you want about bad men and madmen. The truly scary ones are those who know rage so well that they scare themselves. The anger pours out of them without warning, like floodwater surging through crumbling earthworks, rolling and roaring over everything in its path. They become howling bedlamites,…

Under the Leather

Here she comes: Ms. World Leather 2006. While 28-year-old Jae Januze looks hot in her leather corset and pants, she also looks none too comfortable. In fact, she strips off the outfit as soon as the photo shoot is over. But then, Januze only started her reign as leader of…

Let’s Make a Deal

I’m having a housewarming party at my new pad this weekend. If you don’t know about it already, that’s because you’re not invited. The house isn’t all that big and can’t accommodate the barbarous hordes I’d like, but I imagine we’ll reach at least thirty or forty peeps, maybe peak…

Disconnect

“What does it say,” asks erstwhile radio talk-show host Heather Larrabee, “when you’re locked out of media participation even when you’re willing to pay for it?” Larrabee and her radio partner, Dominick Paolini, don’t know the answer to that question, but they’ve already felt the repercussions that flow from it…

Let the Buyer Beware

You can find lots of oddities for sale on the Denver/Boulder version of Craigslist.com, the electronic anything-goes classifieds network. Shabby-chic Adirondack chairs, season tickets for the Broncos, “casual encounters” in the Park Meadows mall parking lot — and now, meth houses. That’s right: On September 13, a brutally candid online…

Letters to the Editor

Ruffled Feathers Bird-brained: As an animal-lover, I found Luke Turf’s article about cockfighting very compelling (“Murder Most Fowl,” September 14). It’s something I had not really read anything about before, and I’m glad you have somewhat enlightened many Westword readers on the topic. What I did not find enlightening or…

More Messages: Something’s Gunny

KOA talk-show host Bob Newman is a man who likes his weaponry, as the poor gobbler pictured here learned firsthand. The former Marine gunnery sergeant has written a slew of books over the years, ranging from The Complete Guide to Waterfowling in Maine: The Best Locations, Strategies, and Equipment: Bagging…

Mongol Mania

The Dalai Lama seemed quite pleased at the size of the Mongolian audience that greeted him at the Newman Center for the Performing Arts this past Saturday morning, reports Zula Tserendejid, head of the Mongolian Community Association of Colorado. And the Mongolians were quite pleased to see His Holiness as…

More Messages: TerraSonic Shift

Here at Westword, we joke among ourselves about the Best of Denver curse, which strikes when we give an award to a worthy restaurant, business or program — which shuts down shortly after the honor sees print. Something similar recently occurred in relation to a Message column, but this ending…

More Messages: Red Scare

Last year, it seemed as if Dalton Trumbo, arguably the most famous-ever resident of Grand Junction, had finally been embraced by his hometown. Now, however, the town’s daily newspaper seems to be balking, and for the quaintest of reasons: Trumbo was a pinko. No denying that. As noted in this…

Flying Signs

Not all tagging is bad. In fact, some wall writing is intended as a public service. Just check out the alleyway postings recently found behind some Denver businesses. Thanks to the graffiti website www.12ozprophet.com for uncovering them. — Jared Jacang Maher…

The Party That Never Was

Last spring, the announcement that hip-hop fashion mogul Marc Ecko (pictured) planned a graffiti festival in Denver resulted in major embroilment. But after months of halfhearted planning, a representative for Ecko says the fest is off. “We will not be doing the event in Denver,” writes Ecko’s senior marketing manager…

More Messages: Incredible Feat

To quote that great intellectual, Yakov Smirnov: America, what a country! Where else can an individual be a complete unknown one day, and achieve planetary domination the next? An example of this phenomenon popped up on this morning’s edition of the Today show, when Matt Lauer interviewed Keith Olbermann, on…

More Messages: Missing Karr

Remember back, waaay back, when the local media was obsessed with a fellow named John Mark Karr? Well, mere weeks later, very few journos remain interested in the man who falsely claimed to have killed Boulder tot JonBenet Ramsey nine-plus years ago. KHOW talk-show hosts Dan Caplis and Craig Silverman…

So You Think You Can Judge Dancing?

The Fox reality show So You Think You Can Dance has done so well in the ratings that the network has created a tour featuring the program’s ten top finalists; the troupe performs in Denver on Tuesday, September 19, at the Colorado Convention Center’s Lecture Hall. Brian Friedman, a choreographer-turned-TV…