Former Post Columnist Jim Spencer Leaves Journalism

A current Craig’s List job posting by Yellow Scene, a magazine that calls itself “104th North’s only source for arts, entertainment and muckraking,” sports the headline, “Fill Jim Spencer’s Big Shoes.” The item goes on to laud Spencer, a former Denver Post columnist whose ouster during last year’s cost-cutting frenzy…

John McCain: Cannibal?

I’m not a John McCain supporter. I knew him as one of my senators when I lived in Arizona, and I’ve come to know him as a presidential candidate in these last two elections. And as much of a beef as I might have with the man and his politics,…

Curb Your Enthusiasm

The Denver 2008 Convention Host Committee just spewed out another release — this time noting that “local software company Nanco Global LLC has provided a software upgrade to the Host Committee’s volunteer page at www.DenverConvention2008.com.” Unfortunately, that upgrade clearly didn’t include a stop by spellcheck…

Scam, Bam, Thank You, Ma’am

Since writing my column about “Ana,” the faux-pregnant grifter poisoning this city’s fine streets, I have been inundated with many letters and countless comments from people who also fell victim to this scam-artist’s ruse – and not just in the Baker neighborhood – all expressing the same disbelief and frustration…

Mouth by Southwest

About three weeks ago, Chad Clevenger put Agave Grill through a mid-season menu overhaul, altering or outright dumping about two-thirds of the opening board. While the result could have been a return to the mixed Chihuahua-meets-Lyon Old World/New World fusion of the Cherry Creek Mel’s during Clevenger’s days there, he…

Denver Post Sheds Its Modesty

Click here to see more of the house ad In a March 3 More Messages blog, I noted that the Rocky Mountain News spent two articles complimenting staff members for their performance in a pair of recent journalism contests, while the Denver Post “displayed stunning restraint” by letting the public…

Dress Rehearsal for Obama, Clinton and McCain

This hard-hitting slide show by political correspondent Joe Horton shows Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Mike Huckabee all dressed up with only the superdelegates of Texas and Ohio to pander to…

If it’s Tuesday, This Must Be Art. Again.

A painting a day keeps the gloomy monotony of nine-to-five corporate clock-punching away. That’s the idea behind www.30days30pieces.com, the brainchild of David Schell, a Denver graphic designer who decided he needed to structure creative motivation into his life so he could get back to his heady art-school roots. “A lot…

New Still Museum Design Unveiled

View larger image In August of 2004, Mayor John Hickenlooper announced that Denver was being given more than 2,000 works of art by abstract expressionist icon Clyfford Still in exchange for a promise to build a museum to house his oeuvre — one that would display his pieces and nothing…

Delegating Denver #33 of 56: New Hampshire

View larger image New Hampshire Total Number of Delegates: 30 Pledged: 22 Unpledged: 8 How to Recognize a New Hampshire Delegate: “Live Free or Die” is the motto that New Hampshirites use to project their image of fierce independence. In truth, it briefly explains the state’s tax code, which exempts…

Barfly Taxonomy: The False Drinker

View larger specimen In order to make more sense of the world around us, illustrator and public house naturalist Nate Stone is compiling here a taxonomy of different barflies. While you’re out and about in Denver, if you spot any of these specimens please add your observations about their habitat…

Making the Case for Self-Congratulation Among Daily Newspapers

In a January “diary” penned for Entertainment Weekly, talk-show host Conan O’Brien lamented the prospect that the Writers Guild of America strike might doom the Academy Awards with a perfectly self-deflating line: “I want no part of a world that refuses to congratulate itself.” By that standard, he’d love the…

Journalist Who Made the Jump Has Landed

The December 6, 2007 Message column focused on The Jump, an organization made up of former journalists eager to help veteran colleagues who’ve recently left newspapering to take the next career step. Among those featured was Jump board member Todd Engdahl, a multi-position player at the Denver Post for 31…

Gates Redevelopment Not Rubber Stamped

The overhaul of the former Gates Rubber Co site into a $1 billion transit-oriented development has gone off-track for the moment thanks to a mysterious move by builder Joseph Freed and Associates to “create a different relationship” with master developer Cherokee Denver, which owns the site. Freed senior vice president…

2007 Best of Denver Winners

In 2007, when Westword published its twenty-fourth Best Of Awards, things were looking up for the Rockies: Matt Holliday, our winner for “Best Rocky,” was a rising star, and he and the rest of the team’s young players were — who knew? — just months away from an improbable World…

Mathew Murray Shooting God’s Plan?

The three consecutive evenings that the Focus on the Family radio broadcast is devoting to the subject of the Matthew Murray shooting rampage is shaping into a fascinating listen – and not just because it’s the first time that the parents, Ronald and Loretta Murray, are speaking publicly about their…

Pundit Watch: Frank Luntz

Beware of pollsters with agendas. A pollster is supposed to be someone just culling data from a statistically significant portion of the population, right? Someone with one eye on politics, and the other on science? Well, if you consider the efficacy of propaganda a scientific end, Frank Luntz is your…

Shmuck of the Week

March would mark the 104th birthday of the late Dr. Seuss, and the event is being celebrated at elementary schools around town, where teachers are reading books and stories by the author, whose real name was Theodor Geisel, and by the big-screen release of the animated Horton Hears a Who!…

Sandy Carson Gallery Sold

Sandy Carson announced this morning that she has sold her namesake gallery, building and all. It would be an understatement to call this a surprise since it’s actually more of a shock. “It’s time,” Carson explains. “I’m 68 years old, and I’ve been in the art business for 33 years.”…

Facing the Changes

For nearly thirty years, Denver Art Museum curator Dianne Vanderlip had complete control of the Modern and Contemporary department, but she retired right after the new Frederic C. Hamilton Building was opened in 2006. It was a sad irony because, after begging for space for decades, she finally got it…

Carol Chambers Seeks Cheaper Executions

Eighteenth Judicial District Attorney Carol Chambers wasted no time responding to our February 28 feature examining her unusual cost-shifting approach to three death-penalty cases. Within hours after our article appeared online, she fired off the memo below to her prosecution team, blaming the high cost of such cases on defense…