Choose Your Own Adventure

Choose Your Own Adventure

The kids don’t seem to notice the quickly approaching storm and the wicked wind chill. With puffy jackets and youthful metabolism to warm them, they play and run and scream and giggle and play more, enjoying the playground before it is blanketed in snow. Inside, the songs of Grease whir from the auditorium’s backstage. A class across campus brainstorms adjectives for Macbeth. The school bell...

Taking Advantage of Choice

All the hubbub around charters, focus schools and open enrollment can be summed up in one word: choice. It’s all the rage in education these days, and it becomes all the more important this time of year as open enrollment deadlines near. Gone are the days of simply picking between free or paid. Finding a school is now very nuanced: parents do research and even public schools rely on word of...

History Lessons

In the fall of 1993, the first charter schools in Colorado opened. The previous legislative session had been rife with debate over these newfangled schools, but the movement had support from then-governor Roy Romer and numerous interest groups...

The Price of Beauty

From affordable to expensive, simple to extreme, ahhh to ouch! and natural to…well, not-so natural, we’ve collected 60 of the hottest trends in health, beauty, diet and more to help you enhance your healthy lifestyle and retain your youthful look...

It Ain’t Easy Being Green

I well remember the citywide excitement the first time “cannabis clubs” suddenly opened up throughout Hollywood where I was eking out a living as a lowly screenwriter and journalist. Then, just as suddenly, the marijuana dispensaries vanished...

Nine Questions with Funny Guy Josh Blue

Josh Blue leapt onto the national scene with an irrepressible sense of charming, self-deprecating humor thanks to his win on Last Comic Standing’s fourth season run. The comedian’s ability to win over judges by poking fun at his own disability (he has cerebral palsy) was a juggernaut through the competition; since then, he’s made a career out of it, touring the country and performing on...

Bonding With the Hair of the Dog

For those who love their craft-brewed beer as much as they love their dog(s), Brian and Becky Bennett have created a fetching tome that pays heartfelt homage to the two ubiquitous things we cherish most in Colorado...

Music Mayhem

The newspaper industry is dying. Yes, I know, it’s not exactly a revelation to you. It’s old news, and you’re probably sick of hearing all about it, especially from some self-serving so-called journalist who’s whining about losing a paycheck. Big deal, you think. The truth is, the industry has no one to blame but itself (and Craigslist, at least somewhat): it got fat and lazy and...

Our View: Music The Mandrake “Black Prophecy”

For those who don’t like heavy metal, you might as well leave the room. Local band The Mandrake has put out a new album called Black Prophecy (Crash Music, Inc.), and this killer album is a head-banging heavy metal sensation that makes you want to dance all around or mosh...

Challenging Elements: Rosemary

Everyone knows that great things can come in small packages, and when it comes to the nuanced perfection of a really good piece of chocolate, the old adage couldn’t be more apt...

Asian Delights

Vietnamese food hasn’t made its way into the collective consciousness of America in the same way that Chinese and even Japanese cuisines have, but it is slowly making inroads. Popular dishes like bánh mi and pho can be found on the menus of many Asian fusion restaurants...

Pulling All the Right Strings

When you work in downtown Erie, you’re always on the lookout for good places to eat within a (relatively) short distance. We give props to our neighboring restaurants on Briggs Street, but variety is the spice of life—and one needs the spice of variety...

Nibbles: Fill Stockings in Good Taste

After checking our list, I’ve determined that some of you have been naughty, and that’s not nice. You’ve dawdled or agonized, until the last minute to find presents, hostess gifts and stocking stuffers...

Notes: Imagine the Possibilities

Stephanie, the one female student in the small class, was reading aloud when I walked in and took a seat at a large table along with six students. Despite the interruption, she plugged away, scooping words off the page like a persistent snow-shoveler...

A Mother’s Milk

Mom knew it was good stuff—she’s a CU (Ski-U) grad, after all. So every year following my first high at age 6, a jones for the white stuff would start around Thanksgiving and peak about the time hockey games broke out on the pond down the street in January...