Day Four: Wherein I Get a New Roommate/Serial Killer

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday 107 degrees today. The hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth’s surface was 134-degrees. I can’t fathom those extra 27 degrees. The Sun is dying, and I got a new roommate today. His name is John, he’s from Florida and he’s working on his Ph.D. in Mayan…

Scott D. Clark Plays Duck Duck Noose

Google “Denver.” Go ahead, do it. I promise this is not a trick that will give you that computer virus again where the horrific image of some beastly naked woman becomes your wallpaper and you have to call the IT guy to get rid of it and he looks at…

Free Poker Tour Is a Dead Man’s Hand

We know why you are underground, to many people looking for you. By this summer, when he received his first e-mail death threat, plenty of people were looking for Matt Sowash. And at him: The Colorado Bureau of Investigation was investigating his Amateur Poker Tour for possible securities fraud. Investors,…

Political Asylum a Long Time Coming

Denver always looked like a safe haven to 36-year-old Alimata, and now it officially is one. On Monday, the Ivory Coast native was awarded political asylum by a federal judge. A member of the Dioula underclass, Alimata had lost her job as a high-school philosophy teacher during a 2003 coup…

Denver Biodiesel Co-op Finds Sustainable Housing

Fuel is pumping again at the Denver Biodiesel Cooperative after six members pooled their money in an effort to save the organization, which runs one of only two biodiesel stations in the city. And while the co-op doesn’t plan to turn a profit, it’s paying the rent. A mural even…

PoliticsWest Gangs Up With Gang of Four

Most political websites cater to distinct ideological biases. Perhaps the only philosophy shared by contributors to The Corner, from the right-wing National Review, and the left-listing Daily Kos is a disinclination to give the other side equal time. In contrast, former Denver Post business editor Stephen Keating aimed for evenhandedness…

Micky Manor and Shotgun Willie’s Light Up

Since 1932, the Micky Manor had been a landmark on Federal Boulevard, a local watering hole that first drew the Italian community that had its stronghold in northwest Denver, then the Mexican families that moved into the neighborhood, and finally, the gentrifiers who’ve been transforming the area. Over the years,…

Denver Poker Tour Deals a Winning Hand

“Did you bring your rattlesnakes?” KC asks with a giggle as she deals the first hand of the night. She’s been dealing for the Denver Poker Tour since she left Amateur Poker Tour after the company failed to pay her, and she relishes the gossip. Having met Herb Beck, she…

Letters to the Editor

“Killer Instinct,” Luke Turf, September 20 Who’s on First? I find it despicable that the jury found Michael Tate not guilty of first-degree murder. I have no doubt that Tate was a highly disturbed young man, but that verdict is insulting for a number of reasons. First, the jury determined…

New Grafitti: Kanga Who?

View the full piece here. RTD crew party boyz ACT and JIVE get hoppin’ with a funky purple kangaroo recently painted in a filthy alleyway off Federal Boulevard and 3rd Avenue. – Jared Jacang Maher…

Kid Nation Has Got to be Kidding Me

Kid Nation, the new CBS reality series, premiered last week. And if you somehow missed all the hubbub over the summer about whether or not this series was appropriate or not, then let the matter be settled with a quote from the end of the first episode. “I’m only eight…

Another Deal

The two men accused in the plot to kill Amateur Poker Tour owner Matt Sowash appeared in Jefferson County Court today, September 26. Last December, Herb Beck, left, invested $36,000 in the poker company, which the Colorado Bureau of Investigation is currently investigating for securities fraud. In March, he hired…

Vlog the Impaler, Numero Tres

Topics discussed: ABC reality TV show “Kiddie Porn Nation,” Britney Spears, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, Notre Dame football…

Banana Lumpia In My Soul

A few things that are good early in the morning: breakfast burritos, blow jobs, strong coffee, forgiveness for last night’s sins, that first cigarette of the day and banana lumpia from Tropical Grill… I love banana lumpia. Love, love, love. And in particular, I love banana lumpia when it’s made…

Jim Sheeler’s Byline Returns to the Rocky Mountain News

After Rocky Mountain News reporter Jim Sheeler won a feature writing Pulitzer Prize for his November 2005 opus “Final Salute” — and then received a contract to write a book based on the piece — speculation was rife that he’d never return to the tabloid. Sheeler said otherwise in a…

Confessions of a Halo Addict

Last night, at 12:01 a.m., the final chapter in the Halo trilogy was released. At my neighborhood Game Crazy, thirty or forty people had gathered to be among the first in this time zone to get their hands on the game. Two of them had been there since 4 p.m…

The Rockies’ Final Countdown

The clock on the lower right-hand corner of my computer says 2:01. Normally that would mean three hours until I can slink out of the office and go home without being called an underachiever, a ne’er-do-well or sot by the powers-that-be who daily monitor me here at the office with…

Tell Me You’ll Watch Me

Tell Me You Love Me, HBO’s new foray into extremism, premiered a few Sundays ago. Remember: this isn’t TV…it’s HBO. So it’s reasonable to expect something more than you’d find on a network; more violence (The Sopranos or Oz), or the absurd embrace of the filthiest language a South Dakotan…

The Fontius building, inside out

Who would have guessed downtown development stirs up such passion? It appears that someone read the Westword story “Evan Almighty” and became so worked up about the Fontius Building, the long-lasting downtown blight at the corner of Welton Street and the 16th Street Mall, that they decided to plow their…