August 29, 2008
Spectacle
August 28, 2008
Obama speaks
August 28, 2008
A Bernie Yuman sighting
August 28, 2008
It’s almost showtime
August 28, 2008
Dan Rather pressed for time

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August 29, 2008
Spectacle
August 28, 2008
Obama speaks
August 28, 2008
It’s almost showtime
August 28, 2008
Dan Rather pressed for time
August 28, 2008
Tonight’s best line

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08.29.08 · 12:09 PM

Spectacle

The day after the convention, Denver breathes a sigh of exaltation and relief. The highways are open again. Neighborhoods near INVESCO Field can get back to normal. The crowds have gone. Yesterday was a whole different story. Crowds all day long. Mile-long lines in the Mile High City, snaking around buildings, down long stretches of the street. And on the way out of INVESCO, not a line but a wedge-shaped mass of people, pushing into one another, poking one another ... Read more...

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08.28.08 · 8:51 PM

Obama speaks

You can still feel the fireworks — for real — at INVESCO Field, but even long after they’ve shuttled the 80,000 people out of this stadium, I think this speech will be remembered for generations. For me, the speech took off when Barack Obama fairly shouted, “Enough!” Amen to that. INVESCO scene photos Surely there were many more soaring, searing lines, too many to count. But I happen to be seated next to a woman from Denver, Terri Vakoff, who ... Read more...

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08.28.08 · 6:36 PM

It’s almost showtime

It’s about Showtime, and Joe Biden just received a roar from mentioning the name of Floyd Little, the Denver Broncos running back from the ‘70s. Feet are stomping, flags waving. The place is about filled, with a few pockets of empty seats. Flashes are going off in every direction. I don’t know what this guy is going to come with tonight, but it’s safe to say everyone here feels a part of history. Cheers! Read more...

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08.28.08 · 6:34 PM

Dan Rather pressed for time

Another random sighting, this one outside the men’s room. I walked out and there was a cluster of camera-wielding Democrats waiting for … something. I turned around and — Dan Rather! He stopped to answer one question from a kiddie video reporting crew — can’t turn down the kids — but when I asked him to compare the political climate today to 1968, he said, “Sorry, but my political climate is that I need to get back in the stadium ... Read more...

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08.28.08 · 6:13 PM

Tonight’s best line

Inevitably, the crowd has started The Wave. God bless the political process … Oh. Michael McDonald has resumed decorum with, “America, The Beautiful.” By my wholly subjective analysis, Al Gore’s line about McCain continuing the Bush-Cheney legacy, “I’m all for recycling, but this is ridiculous,” was the night’s best. So far. Read more...

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08.28.08 · 6:11 PM

Bill Richardson means break time

There are points in rock concerts when the artists will play “beer songs.” That’s what I call them, anyway. It’s the moment a band like Journey plays something off its new album. Usually, something acoustic. Beer time! New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson was himself a “beer song” a bit ago. That’s because Stevie Wonder was to follow. So when Richardson took the stage, much of the crowd took a concession or loo break. But the moment Richardson finished, the place ... Read more...

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08.28.08 · 4:57 PM

A Bernie Yuman sighting

John Legend is onstage, singing the song, “Yes We Can,” but the real news was down at the elevator a few minutes ago: a Bernie Yuman sighting. I deduce that Yuman, the longtime manager of Siegfried & Roy, is here with his client Muhammad Ali, who is reportedly on hand, somewhere, at the moment. I caught Bernie, dressed in is usual jet-black suit, as I was departing and he was boarding an elevator here at INVESCO. It went like this: ... Read more...

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08.28.08 · 4:55 PM

Finally, we’re in

Security at INVESCO is about as stringent as the TSA setup at McCarran International Airport. Shoes on, though. And we’re in, and our time on line was about two hours. A couple of noteworthy comments: — From a kid selling Obama Change buttons, “I’ve had it with the past eight years! That’s half my life!” — And from a cop monitoring the line, “Stay in line! No strife! This is a peaceful line!” I talked to one of the many ... Read more...

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08.28.08 · 4:40 PM

Long, long lines

It’s hard to tell how long the line is when you’re in it. We expect this one is maybe four miles long. Long enough that people are looking at street maps of Denver to figure out just where INVESCO Field is located. A few minutes ago dozens of people were nearly caught on the RTC tracks as the city’s public transportation train rumbled through. Long enough that a member of the Obama campaign is playing “Long and Winding Road” on ... Read more...

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08.28.08 · 2:04 PM

‘Gimme an O, Gimme a B …’

As they say, “Mission Accomplished.” On the way back to the stadium from downtown, I just passed a group of Second City aspirants dressed in purple gowns as part of the Temple of Obama. The Pat Robertson of the group, wearing a Clemson Tigers ballcap, is yelling, “Gimme an O! Gimme a B! …” I know where this is going. Walk on. Read more...

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08.28.08 · 1:35 PM

Worming through Denver

Thousands of Democrats are streaming into INVESCO Field, but ToddKats is moving against the tide. At the moment we’re even less than commoners, no tickets or credentials for tonight’s speech. But I do have a line into one pass to the show, and that pass is at Willie G’s in downtown Denver. So we have parked at a surface lot near the stadium, worming our way into that lot by claiming - accurately - that we are with the media. ... Read more...

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08.28.08 · 11:48 AM

Radio Woes

A few days ago, as we were surfing the web on the interstates of Nevada and Utah, John and I were congratulating ourselves on the telecom miracle of the early 21st century. But several hundred miles of spotty service and a busted video camera have humbled us, and yesterday we played a frustrating round of hide and seek with radio reception through much of the Colorado high country. We left Aspen along Highway 82, a beautiful drive through the aspen ... Read more...

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08.28.08 · 11:32 AM

The Bubble

Apparently if you run into Aspen residents outside of Aspen, they’re not likely to tell you where they live. “The Roaring Fork Valley” might be the best you get out of them—this modesty is, one imagines, the equivalent of Harvard alums vaguely telling people they went to school in Boston. Some places just carry too much expectation. Founded in the 19th century as a mining town, Aspen’s history as a ski resort began in the mid Forties. In the Fifties ... Read more...

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08.28.08 · 9:42 AM

Energy is King

Grand Junction is the largest town on Colorado’s conservative Western Slope, and a welcome sight after trudging through the all-encompassing barren landscape of eastern Utah. Dennis Herzog, editor of the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, has been in Grand Junction for 29 years. The guy feels like an editor’s editor—there’s even a poster from All the President’s Men in his office. Herzog thinks that folks out here are tired of the hyper-partisanship of politics—and he’s tired of cable news, which is ... Read more...

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08.28.08 · 9:41 AM

Not quite a Grand experience in the Junction

It’s morning in America. Especially in Denver. Yesterday it was morning in Grand Junction, which seems forever and a mile ago, back on Interstate 70. Plans turned sideways on ToddKats as we left Green River and were hit with this wild thunderstorm. We’d planned on staying with some good friends of ours – which is to say these were people we had never met – who are the parents of Scott Dickensheets. Didn’t happen. Scott’s folks live 40 minutes on ... Read more...

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08.27.08 · 11:58 PM

It’s both coo-coo and bananas with Justin in Denver

He keeps saying, “It’s coo-coo bananas around here.” He would know the coo-coo, and the bananas, because he spent some coo-coo bananas time in Vegas. He’s the guy who put the “him” in Jimenez, Justin Jimenez, former Las Vegas Magazine staffer and Las Vegas Weekly contributor who now lives in Aurora, just east of Denver, where tonight ToddKats finally arrived at around 11 p.m., just after the ObamaQuest ’08 transportation system (my 2004 Mazda 6) turned 100,000 miles. So I ... Read more...

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08.27.08 · 1:34 PM

Of hot springs, heavy rain and a scenic dive

About a half-hour ago we left Grand Junction, the latest tree-shrouded stop on our way from Vegas to INVESCO. A few minutes ago we (ToddKats, me and the Witcher) drove side-saddle with the Colorado River. I wanted to stop to soak my feet, because I might not get a chance to experience Colorado River water at home. But we’re in a rush, again, moving along to Aspen. Since I was last at the Blog Post, we swung into Mystic Hot ... Read more...

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08.27.08 · 9:40 AM

Mystic Valley

Here’s how you find the Mystic Hot Springs. Get off Interstate 70, in south central Utah’s Sevier Valley. Pass through tiny Joseph, then over a hill, then you see Monroe, a little green jewel nestled quietly against the Monroe Mountains. Head through town, past the girls playing tennis, up another hill, till the road turns to gravel, and at the end of the line, behind a large white house with hippie buses parked out in front, flanked on one side ... Read more...

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08.26.08 · 8:58 PM

Cafe owner survies ToddKats’ ambush

We are flying through Utah at the moment. Since the last posting we (that’s me and Todd Witcher, ToddKats for bloggage purposes) talked to Dell Hollingshead, owner of Arshel’s Café at 711 North Main Streat in Beaver, Utah. Or Beaver City, Utah. Sign out front says Beaver City. Folks say Beaver. It’s a the great Beaver City or Beaver conundrum. Hollingshead is 63 ½ years old, which means he’s 12 years younger than Arshel’s Café. The café has been in ... Read more...

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08.26.08 · 3:53 PM

Hay! We’re adroitly navigating the red see

Thus far, Todd has dominated the blogging. I have been driving, and while I am a master of texting while driving, I cannot both blog and drive simultaneously. Besides, that’s a crime here in Red State America, I think punishable by public caning. A couple of comments Todd has made have raised my eyebrows. As we were pulling into St. George, the Don McLean song, “American Pie” was played on the region’s HOTTEST classic-rock station, K-whatever-FM (“Serving St. George and ... Read more...

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08.26.08 · 1:58 PM

The Reddest of the Red

Ed Kociela, local news editor at The Spectrum, has the soulful face of a poet, and the good humor to match. Utah, he says, is a 3.2 state—3.2 beer, 3.2 wives per husband, and 3.2 Republicans for every one Democrat. Kociela moved here from Los Angeles 13 years ago to escape the SoCal congestion. Much of the landscape along Interstate 15 was barren then. Now, car dealerships and hotels dot the landscape and Kociela finds himself in a town that ... Read more...

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08.26.08 · 7:49 AM

Almost Underway

Good morning. A quiet morning in Las Vegas, sun already blasting in the pre-work-day skies. Joe Biden is Barack Obama’s vice presidential nominee. Denver Police are already breaking out the pepper spray to subdue the protesters. And now, as the general election campaign actually, finally, mercifully, begins, the tenor of the rhetoric begins to move toward its inevitable climax. To wit, Michelle Obama spoke last night at the Democratic National Convention about the “improbable journey” of the Obama campaign to ... Read more...

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08.26.08 · 5:59 AM

It is dark and early, so it must be time to leave

It is about 6 a.m., and I can tell you in full confidence that me and LV Weekly associate editor Todd Witcher are about to head off to Denver for Barack Obama’s speech at INVESCO Field at Mile High. We will be rumbling through such towns along I-15 and I-70 as St. George, Beaver, Monroe, Green River, Good Springs and Grand Junction. To paraphrase someone far wiser than I, we’re armed with video and audio equipment, three cords … and ... Read more...

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Cocktail of the Week

Cocktail of the Week Dec 31, 2008
by Xania Woodman

The Bearded Clam

A verrry distant cousin of the Mojito, the Caipirinha and the Batida is the Bearded Clam, created by Frankie's Tiki Room by bartender Alice Hartling. In a pint glass, muddle ...
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