Backyard Gothic

Music Lover’s Guide to Summer Festivals

Sure, there are many bigger, more acclaimed and more nationally known festivals than the ones that are hosted right here in the Centennial State. But Colorado is not lacking in its summer music festival cred. There are festivals that bring in big names on multiple stages for numerous nights. There are intimate venues with all the mountain charm one can handle. There’s even a free festival...

Presenting our Top 10 Summer Beers

Summer is no time to mess around. There’s work to be done and where there’s work, there damn well better be beer; ice cold and in sufficient quantity to beat back the baking heat of the day. But when gulping ice cold beer, a man must still be able to deftly maneuver his cutting machine around the wife’s azaleas and avoid giving little Debbie’s Barbie in the yard the Freddie Krueger...

Backyard Gothic

Catharine Pierce is fully dressed when she plants herself in an oversized chair that nearly swallows her. Her attire is odd on such a warm day: She’s in a pink shirt with matching sweatpants. Usually, on days like this, Pierce tends her outside garden, and the 52-year-old doesn’t typically wear a top while gardening, only thong underwear and, of course, gardening gloves. But you already...

People in Your Hood: Philip Sneed

Sitting at his hulky wooden desk tucked away within a jam-packed house on the CU campus, Colorado Shakespeare Festival Executive Director Philip Sneed is talking fervently about his newest project—something he hopes will transform the canon of American theatrical offerings...

Outdoors: Shock and Awe

Call me a disciple of the “Church of Lightning.” After receiving my baptism in a hair-raising mountain storm, I have new respect for these perilous electrical furies—the No. 1 life-threatening weather risk in Colorado. So with our peak lightning season (June–August) upon us, a little lightning education never hurts...

Music Lover’s Guide to Summer Festivals

Sure, there are many bigger, more acclaimed and more nationally known festivals than the ones that are hosted right here in the Centennial State. But Colorado is not lacking in its summer music festival cred. There are festivals that bring in big names on multiple stages for numerous nights. There are intimate venues with all the mountain charm one can handle. There’s even a free festival...

Presenting our Top 10 Summer Beers

Summer is no time to mess around. There’s work to be done and where there’s work, there damn well better be beer; ice cold and in sufficient quantity to beat back the baking heat of the day. But when gulping ice cold beer, a man must still be able to deftly maneuver his cutting machine around the wife’s azaleas and avoid giving little Debbie’s Barbie in the yard the Freddie Krueger...

Spotlight: Eight Questions with John Common

In the annals of the singer-songwriter genre, Colorado has had plenty come and go. Most trickle down from a creek of folky John Denver run-off, clad in denim, acoustic guitar in tow. John Common is nothing of the sort—he’s an educated music historian made up of equal parts Nick Drake, Miles Davis and Wilco. His latest outing, Beautiful Empty, is an under-produced gem featuring some of the...

Duly Noted: The Third Way

Cautiously optimistic. That is how we should be feeling about the FCC’s proposal last month to develop a new “third way” to regulate broadband Internet Service Providers—such as the ones offered by Comcast for its high-speed Internet customers...

If You Can’t Take the Heat…Grill

In a world of kitchen stores full of uni-taskers, people restrict themselves when it comes to grilling. But here, we explore the grill as a brilliant multitasker that fills the role of oven and range while imparting a beautiful smoky flavor to which no indoor method compares...

Challenging Elements: Avocado

Believe it or not, avocados are a fruit. That was Asti d’Italia chef Greg Keesy’s first thought when Charlie Stanford, the owner of the Italian spot in The Orchard, told him his secret ingredient. “My first thought was for an appetizer or a dip,” Stanford said, but his chef had other ideas—namely, a mousse...

Review: Happy Hole-in-the-Wall

When my aunt and uncle came to visit me in Santa Fe while I was a college student there, my uncle had only one stipulation for where we should go for dinner: He wanted a real local’s spot, a hole-in-the-wall...

Nibbles: Nibbling is 3-D

Your mouth is talking to you. It’s saying: “When do I get a vacation? You’ve got summer plans to revive your brain and the rest of your body. What about your palate, buddy?” I’m as guilty as the next eater of falling into a culinary rut. Eventually, I listen to that inner voice and seek out fare that’s hotter, spicier and more exotic than my usual...

Formation of a Foodie: Natural Nosh

My husband and I bought our first house last year, and with it came a large and beautiful back yard—that was almost completely overrun with weeds. I spent many a summer afternoon of 2009 pulling said weeds, many of which looked like giant, mutant white carrots. “I wonder if these are edible?” I said to my husband, as we tossed each armload onto the compost pile...

Closing Scene: Mr. Dougherty’s Auto Nation

I get a lot of grief about the stuff I collect; books, magazines and newspapers as well as family heirlooms that I just can’t seem to part with. But my penchant for collecting (OK, hoarding) pales in comparison to the late Ray G. Dougherty...