Josephine and the Mousepeople stand tall.

We've got so damn much new content today that as soon as I finish writing this blog, I'm taking the rest of the day off.

Backbeat Online brings you live reviews of Nick Warren at Beta, as well as a Rhinoceropolis gig featuring BDRMPPL and Pictureplane, joined by Josephine and the Mousepeople, Gangi and Rainbow Arabia; a Q&A with Deerhoof's Satomi Matsuzaki; and our regular Friday Rap-Up. Put your hands in the air, and wave 'em like you want to share.

Also of note: late-breaking items from yesterday, including a new installment of Mile High Makeout; John Common's latest Scratch and Dent Sale; and a look at the new P-Nuckle video. Deal with it.

Cafe Society is fully loaded, too. Read a Candy Girls review about Halloween munchables; details about the Bagali's Italian Kitchen opening in Broomfield; a Finlandia search for Denver's best bartenders; a report from the Great American Beer Festival; and cooking tips from James Carville. As far as we can tell, they're bipartisan. -- Michael Roberts

Strike a pose.

After several delays and millions of dollars, the new Comedy Works South opened in the Denver Tech Center Thursday night to much fanfare. A red carpet welcomed the many attendees, replete with photogs snapping shots of famous folk and average joes alike. Comedian George Lopez hosted the opening show, pointing out that what owner "Wende Curtis wants, Wende Curtis gets." That included him: He said that when she decided she wanted him to christen the club, he really had no choice. Also performing were locals Kevin Fitzgerald, Chuck Roy, Phil Palisoul, Bryan Kellen, Josh Blue and national headliner Kathleen Madigan. The bar was open, the booze was flowing and the celebration lasted long into the night. Then everyone scrambled to find a sober driver to take them back to the city. Light rail, folks: It ain’t that hard. Check out the slideshow here. -- Adam Cayton-Holland

Maison de Fleur in happier days.

The sprawling, pale-pink building near the corner of 12th Avenue and Logan Street looks like a storybook castle. From the turret windows to the vine trellises painted on the columns framing the front door, it reeks of romance and history.

According to the website of Maison de Fleur, its last occupant, the building has been home to flower shops for more than a century, starting in the 1880s with the Mauff Floral Co. and continuing into the 1980s with Ardelt-Hardesty Floral Co. From there, it morphed into Ardelt’s Victorian Garden, which served tea in opulent Victorian surroundings. Last year, Charlene Thibault bought the building and reopened it as Maison de Fleur, a florist and event center that took advantage of the site’s historic assets. Weddings and bridal showers were celebrated in spacious rooms with arched ceilings and views of the rose bushes outside.

But last month, the fairytale ended suddenly. The building was shuttered and abandoned, and today, the rose bushes are overgrown and dying, with a for-sale sign stuck between them.

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Not just for athletes anymore.

Denver may be a mile high, but there must be something in the rarified air above us that drives people to do, well, shmucky things.

Take New Yorker Christina Elizabeth Szele, 35, who hurled racial epithets and punched a flight attendant who tried to stop her from smoking on a June Jetblue flight that had to be diverted to Denver. Szele, a previous Shmuck of the Week, will now spend some time in a local halfway house.

And then there’s 29-year-old Ezra James Wallace, who was charged this week with assault aboard an aircraft during an August 1 San Diego-to-Denver flight.

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Irv Brown and Joe Williams.

Yesterday afternoon, Lincoln Financial Media Company of Colorado, which owns FM-104.3/The Fan and KEPN/1600 AM, the area's ESPN affiliate, announced a big change in the key afternoon-drive slot: On October 20, Irv Brown and Joe Williams, who've manned this time period at The Fan for eons, will be jumping to KEPN. In addition, Tim Spence, program director for both stations, confirms that Denver Post sportswriter Jim Armstrong, who's been co-hosting with Brown and Williams of late, will remain at the Fan, working afternoons with a new co-host who's expected to be named toward the end of next week.

Predictably, Spence puts the most positive spin possible on the shift. "We have a strong commitment to the ESPN product and 1600 in specific, and we wanted a better combination," he says. "We want to put our team with the ESPN brand." But the ratings tell the real story.

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In case you strategically blocked it from your memory, the Obama campaign has produced a fourteen-minute behind-the-scenes video from the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Propaganda, obviously, but there's some fun stuff in here. -- Joe Tone

Dick Armey.

In yesterday's debate between Republican Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave and Democratic opponent Betsy Markey at Colorado State University, the Rocky Mountain News reports, Musgrave "portrayed herself as someone who is bipartisan and understands the struggles of real people." But the real person she was hanging out with earlier in the day was former House heavyweight Dick Armey, who gave her an award on behalf of FreedomWorks, an organization he now fronts, which devotes itself to achieving the goal of limited government. Armey said at the event that Musgrave represented "a strong voice in the effort to get ahead of the curve" on the current economic crisis -- and yet Armey's organization stands against the very kind of regulation Musgrave now insists she wanted back in 2005 in regard to that wacky couple she refers to as "Fanny and Freddie." Indeed, FreedomWorks' U.S. budget policy page declares that "a strong and vibrant free market economy - free from burdensome taxation and regulation - offers the best hope for creating opportunity and improving the quality of life for every American."

If Musgrave really is a bipartisan regulation supporter, she's keeping some mighty strange company. -- Michael Roberts

Continue at your own risk.

A Denver entrepreneur's new web site is threatening to overtake Yahoo! Fantasy Sports and YouPorn as the site most likely to inspire women to hurl hot irons at their boyfriends.

Jordan Eisenberg, whose previous endeavor was the much safer Collar Card, recently launched PMSBuddy.com, which helps men track the menstrual cycles of wives, girlfriends, mistresses, bosses, sisters, daughters – anyone, really, whose body is capable of mass-producing that monthly, much-feared cocktail of terror and inconsolable tear-spewing.

Here's how it works, gents, in case you're stupid enough to let this thing linger in your web history:

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Mike Coffman.

To their credit, both Denver dailies followed up on a New York Times report naming Colorado one of six states that have purged thousands of voters from the rolls in apparent violation of federal law -- read the Rocky Mountain News' coverage here and the Denver Post's here. Not that they could have ignored it. Secretary of State Mike Coffman held a news conference in an attempt to explain away claims by the Times that the state has dumped over 37,000 names since late July -- a total that far exceeded the number of deaths or people who moved out of state during the period. Although he admitted that north of 2,000 duplicate voters were deep-sixed within ninety days of the election in apparent violation of the National Voter Registration Act, he contended that the Times' figures were severely inflated, and he could be right. However, he and his staff missed an opportunity to prevent much of the confusion, and a lot of the damage, by replying to the Times' request for comment in advance of publication. Coffman chalked this up to what the Rocky described as "miscommunication between the Times and his office."

Miscommunication? That's something in which Coffman seems to specialize, particularly when it comes to voting.

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Shake, shake, shake...

As the end of this seemingly endless presidential campaign finally draws near, the Colorado Democratic Party is trying desperately to maintain its massive army of volunteers for Barack Obama -- and what better way than to dangle a chance to gladhand the candidate himself? After all, basking in the presence of the Other Man From Hope is just the thing to reenergize a volunteer; as evidence, check out the story of a Grand Junction resident whose Obama-canvassing efforts were rewarded with some up-close-and-personal Barack time. With that in mind, the Dems are holding a contest, with volunteers who reach certain thresholds automatically qualifying for an October 20 drawing to determine which eight Coloradans will get to meet Obama during his next Colorado visit. The odds are better than the Colorado lottery -- but probably not by much.

Look below for details of the pitch. -- Michael Roberts

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Big John.

Republican presidential nominee John McCain may have given up hope of winning in Michigan, but he's still feeling good -- or at least as good as a politician sliding in the polls can -- about his chances in Colorado. Hence, his decision to gab live on KOA/850 AM this morning. Listeners are encouraged to send instant-message questions for hosts Steffan Tubbs and April Zesbaugh to pose beginning at around the time this blog publishes. I know I'm going to ask if he'll sing an encore version of his hit song, "Bomb Iran."

McCain is scheduled to appear at 8:15 a.m. Other details can be found in the press release accessible after the jump. -- Michael Roberts

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Does lemongrass get you hot?

Hop in the saddle for today's blog roundup.

Cafe Society nibbles the turkey sandwich at Daphne's Deli, waves bye-bye to Aqua, stops by for a nosh at Thai Basil, and notes the Santa Fe Tequila Company's expansion to Littleton. Finally, Tyler Nemkov describes Whole Foods Market's "Secret Ingredients" videos as "food porn." Keep your hands on the table, where we can see them.

Over at Backbeat Online, get hip to Animo's new video and peruse a live review of A Place to Bury Strangers. Isn't the backyard the usual place? -- Michael Roberts

Slain Bronco Darrent Williams.

CompleteColorado.com carries an interesting story today about high-powered defense lawyer Harvey Steinberg, the attorney the Broncos organization often calls on when players find themselves in legal trouble. Steinberg, it turns out, also represents notorious gangster Brian Hicks, an associate of the man charged yesterday in the murder of Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams.

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Click here or on the cartoon thumbnail to see a larger image; it'll take a few seconds.

The TV commercials about this year's ballot issues are bad medicine. Each is poisoned with lies and they are all extremely hard to swallow. Amendmentos, on the other hand, are the political refreshmakers! This week, Amendments #50, #52, #58, and #59 are sweetened with truth to enhance their long-lasting flavor. They are the chewy ballot issues with the sugar-coated titles to help the politics go down... -- Kenny Be

Dr. Jerome Corsi.

Jerry Corsi -- or, as he's generally known in the press, Dr. Jerome Corsi -- has gotten lots of attention in recent days. The author of The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality, a big-selling hit piece on Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama that Time magazine describes as "factually challenged," was deported from Kenya, where he'd gone to dig up more anti-Obama dirt. According to Time, the Kenyan government made its move (ostensibly because Corsi didn't have a proper work permit) before the good doctor "was scheduled to give a press conference at which he promised to expose secret ties between Obama and Kenyan leaders, as well as a mysterious plot that would be launched should the Democratic nominee win the U.S. election." No word if black helicopters were involved.

At any rate, Corsi's first major interview since getting the heave-ho was with an unlikely media figure: KHOW's Peter Boyles, who's hosted Corsi on his show many times over the years. Click here to check out their conversation (the link is about midway down the page on the left), in which Corsi makes Dan Caplis, KHOW's resident Obama hater, seem almost objective -- "almost" being the operative word. And click "More" to see an Associated Press video about Corsi's ouster from Kenya. -- Michael Roberts

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