In an effort to be more inclusive, we brainstormed some ways to spread some non-denominational holiday cheer.
Don’t fault Todd Sauerbraun for the Bronco’s heartbreaking loss to the Chicago Bears. Don’t put it on Dre Bly or the defense, or even give the credit to Devin Hester and his ridiculousness. No, when you spin the wheel of blame for the Sunday’s calamitous collapse, the needle will come to rest on a single, unlikely culprit: Me and my friends.
Four years ago, when visiting our buddy in Minneapolis for the Broncos-Vikings game, we took a solemn and drunken oath to follow our team on the road to every football city in America for the next 31 years. “How cool would it be,” we reasoned, “to create an annual a tradition that spans three decades, one that celebrates both the immutable bond of friendship and hard-fought Bronco road victories. Broncos!” At that point, we toasted merrily, spilling beer from our goblets and sharing a hearty laugh in assurance that our team would dismantle the Vikings the following afternoon. A recap of our five pilgrimages thus far:
Joel Warner
ENG294-Gender and Sexuality in American Cinema
November 29, 2007
The Anti-Gym Commercials:
Shock Chauvinism or Subversive Feminist Call to Arms?
It would be easy to write off recent commercials by the Anti-Gym, the Denver-based health and vanity lifestyle boutique, as grotesque, chauvinistic and infantile shock publicity. This particular establishment is known for its radical media-manipulation techniques, from hiring faux “protesters” to launching a nationwide child obesity campaign of questionable authenticity. Historical precedent for such extremist public relations campaigns is long established, dating back to Bartolomé de las Casas’ 1552 publication, Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias. But upon closer inspection, these advertisements hold much deeper meaning: A subversive post-modern reversal of expectations that calls into question the very ideals upon which the Anti-Gym – and modern society’s pathological body-image obsessions – are ostensibly founded.
Take, for example, the Anti-Gym commercial simplistically titled “Hottie":
Miles Moffeit, a reporter for the Denver Post, has had his byline on much of the best stuff the broadsheet has published over the past several years, and folks are noticing. As detailed in this November 24 article, the Center on Media, Crime and Justice at New York City's John Jay College of Criminal Justice honored him and colleague Susan Greene with the 2007 Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting Award for "Trashing the Truth," a sprawling series documenting the failure of law enforcement agencies to safekeep DNA evidence in a slew of situations. These oversights, purposeful or not, could mean that some individuals who aren't guilty of crimes they were convicted of committing linger in stir with little way to prove their innocence.
In addition, Moffeit received another commendation for his efforts, albeit of the backhanded variety. In recent weeks, he was called on the carpet by officials for his reportage about a key piece of the "Trashing the Truth" puzzle -- the possibility that a Fort Collins teenager named Timothy Lee Masters didn't commit a 1987 murder for which he's serving a life sentence.
The Colorado Department of Transportation announced this week that the I-70 viaduct between Brighton Road and Colorado Boulevard will receive $20 million in overhauls beginning next year. Officials hope that the work will extend the life of the bridge by 10 to 20 years, but CDOT has been looking at a longer-term solution for years.
As previously profiled in Westword, officials were looking at three options, all of which angered different segments of the community. One option was rebuilding the viaduct, another was dropping it down to ground level and a third involved re-routing it entirely. The final decision could still be a year off.
Plus, the renovations could be several years off because CDOT has yet to fund the project, so the $20 million in upgrades will hopefully keep the viaduct up in the meantime.
-- Luke Turf
Former Attorney General John Ashcroft was in town on Tuesday and, since he graced our fair state with the honor of his presence, I thought I'd reciprocate by sharing what is probably the best song ever written by a cabinet member. Enjoy.
-- Sean Cronin
In 1991, Westword published its eighth Best of Denver issue, a celebration of the city that saluted everything from Best Television Prop (very strong chairs made for Raymond Burr, who was filming his revived Perry Mason series here) to Best Bulletin Board (not cork, but one of those newfangled computer message boards) to Best Public Phone Booths — in the brand-spanking-new Cherry Creek Shopping Center. Denver also had a new mayor, Wellington Webb, and was not only building a new airport northeast of Stapleton, but deciding where to put a major-league ballpark. But while the city was reinventing itself, several old favorites also made the edition, including eternal award winners John Elway, Pirate and El Chapultepec. And as Best Club That’s Returned From the Dead: the Mercury Cafe.
Marilyn Megenity has kept Denver cooking since back in the ’70s, when she opened her first spot in Indian Hills. The next fifteen years were a veritable movable feast as she moved her restaurant/club from 13th Avenue (where it was initially known as Elrond’s) to Broadway, back to 13th, then downtown and points in between, picking up a new name, the Mercury Cafe, before the entire enterprise went into limbo. But finally, in 1990, Marilyn bought a place she could call her own, a Victorian building at 2199 California Street that today remains the center for an incredibly lively, entertaining and, most important, enlightened cultural scene. From the car that runs on recycled cooking oil to the windmill on the roof to the political debates in the upstairs meeting room to the good organic eats and even better theatrical and musical entertainment, Marilyn keeps giving Denver reason to celebrate. And the Mercury Cafe keeps rising to every occasion.
Here are the rest of the winners:
The most isolated prisoner in America has some new friends at the University of Denver. Student lawyers at the Sturm College of Law filed a lawsuit Wednesday on behalf of Thomas Silverstein, an inmate at ADX, the federal supermax prison in Florence, claiming that his solitary confinement for the past 24 years amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.
Silverstein, a former Aryan Brotherhood leader, was convicted of four murders while in prison; one was later overturned. The last killing, the 1983 of a federal guard in the most secure unit of the Marion penitentiary, put him on special "no human contact" status that has lasted for decades; read all about it in our August feature, "The Caged Life."
For those following the recent travails of Mary Louise Starkey, who’s been accused of mismanagement and physical altercations at her world-famous Denver butler school (“At Your Disservice”) and was recently arrested for allegedly attacking one of her students last February ( “Mary Starkey Got Served”), here’s the latest news: In Denver District Court this morning, Starkey waived her right to be formally advised of the charges against her – second-degree assault resulting in serious bodily injury.
As part of the felony charge procedure, a protection order was put in place that prohibits Starkey from contacting the alleged victim, former Starkey student Lisa Kirkpatrick. Starkey, Denver’s “First Lady of Service,” will be back in court at 1:30 p.m. January 8 for a disposition hearing. – Joel Warner
And then there was one.
There are 46 people serving life without the possibility of parole in Colorado for crimes that they committed as juveniles. But, thanks to a law passed last year, those who commit first-degree murder before they turn 18 are now eligible for parole after 40 years.
But the legislation isn't retroactive and Alberto Valles, an alleged gang-banger accused of the 2005 murder of Richard Scobee two days before Valles turned 18, was charged as an adult eight months before the state legislature changed the law.
If convicted, Valles will never walk the streets again, barring a pardon or a successful appeal. A hung jury earlier this year gave Valles a shot at walking, but the district attorney is taking the case to a new jury on January 29.
Tonight, at 8 p.m. on KBDI channel 12, I will be one of three guests on Studio 12 discussing the topic of juveniles sentenced as adults to life in prison, after having written about Michael Tate, who was number 46 on this list. Other guests will include Tate’s lawyer, Shawna Geiger, and Maryellen Johnson of the Pendulum Foundation, which took the lead in getting the laws changed.
-- Luke Turf
Here's a new way to tell if there's going to be a snowstorm: Wait for the Denver Post to run a story in which prognosticators suggest that such weather systems will be few and far between.
Last year, as sketched out in this More Messages blog, a Post reader noted that two weeks prior to the first of several blizzards to smack the metro area, the broadsheet ran an article built around predictions of a dry winter by Klaus Wolter, a scientist affiliated with the University of Colorado and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Cut to November 28, when snow began falling less than 24 hours after that same Post reader had perused a report in the paper predicting "a warm, dry winter." The piece, headlined "Snowpack Falls Short of Norm," rang bells for another reason, too. The man featured in the photo accompanying the offering was none other than Klaus Wolter, who called conditions "dry and grim" and hinted they were likely to get worse.
Remember last winter? Remember all the abuse that was heaped on city, county and state representatives in charge of road safety due to their poor preparation in advance of storms and tardy responses once precipitation started to fall? Remember how said government types swore they'd learned lessons from the debacle and promised, promised, promised to do better in the future? Well, I remember -- but judging by my just-completed drive to work on November 28, in the first true winter-driving day of the season, the people in charge of preventing all of us from dying in ditches have already forgotten. Today's storm was absolutely nothing compared to the blizzards that struck less than a year ago, yet much of my commute was a nightmare anyhow as a result of the very problems that were endemic around here back in December, January and February.
When they use the “cow town” descriptor, what most folks mean is podunk, provincial, lacking in the sort of taste and culture found in the big cities on the coasts. They’re saying that while we, the people of Denver, may be urbane enough to understand that going out for a fine meal is a cause for dressing up, our idea of sartorial rectitude is pulling on our best pair of overalls and knocking the cow shit off our boots before stepping into civilized company.
I, on the other hand, will quite deliberately track manure on the carpets of the swells, but when I say that Denver is a cow town, I mean it in the best possible way. I’m saying that here in this town, we know a thing or two about cows -- and one of those things is that the highest calling to which any bovine might aspire is being turned into a really good steak. Denver is a cow town because we eat more of them than almost any city in America.
Long before the Denver Crip set known as the Tre Tres became notorious for a link to the still unsolved murder of Denver Bronco Darrent Williams almost a year ago, they forever changed the life of Cathy Maestas for the worse.
Maestas’s son, Geranimo, was 16 on this day in 1993. He was walking down 33rd between Williams and High streets when three Tre Tres rolled up on him in a car. They wanted his Denver Broncos jacket bad enough that they were willing to shoot and kill Geranimo for it.
“I’m going to get through the day, I don’t do good,” Maestas said today, fourteen years after her son was a victim at the end of what was dubbed the Summer of Violence. “Anyone that ever says that time heals, they gotta be really cold, to just move on because I think I’ve been in shock for many years, but as time has gone on it’s gotten worse. And the violence is still out there, it’s so bad. That’s a heart breaker itself.”
Denver-based attorney and past Westword profile subject Andrew Cohen is a rarity -- a TV legal expert who brings class and smarts to a role that's often filled by ranters and screamers. No wonder he's been a regular presence on CBS's weeknightly newscast through the equivalent of three administrations, regularly chatting on the air with Dan Rather, Bob Schieffer and current anchor Katie Couric about issues of national concern.
However, Cohen gets surprisingly local in a November 20 entry for a blog that appears on the Couric & Co. portion of the CBS site. In the item, he attacks a well-connected columnist for The Villager, an Arapahoe County newspaper, for offhandedly using the term "homo."
