My parents split when I was three years old and I was sent to live with my paternal grandparents. My father was around – he lived a couple blocks away as I was growing up – but I didn’t see him much. In essence, my grandfather, Samuel Linville Smith, was my father. I will ever be grateful for the courage
Read moreOur real photographer, the estimable Lisa Wright, is on vacation, so I ventured out last night, new camera in hand, to see if I could capture something vaguely interesting for our readers. As luck would have it, they were showing A Star is Born, the 1937 classic starring Janet Gaynor, on the lawn in front of the old Elitch Gardens
Read moreColorado’s massive High Park fire has jumped the Poudre River and is beginning to menace Fort Collins in earnest. This is very bad news. Some experts fear the blaze won’t be contained before fall and if you live anywhere to the east of it you’re probably quite worried, and for good reason. You might well be concerned if you live
Read moreRecently I was pondering Donald Trump’s inexplicable behavior on the campaign trail, allegedly on behalf of GOP nominee Mitt Romney. I was only able to conceive of two possible explanations that would account for his ludicrous Orly Taitz act: either he is secretly working for Obama or he’s actually a covert performance artist working on a long, episodic political satire
Read moreThe Champ beat Joe Frazier. He beat George Foreman. He beat Ken Norton, Sonny Liston and Floyd Patterson.
Read moreNot to belabor the point – because it doesn’t really need a lot of explanation – but the US Top 40 has sucked moose balls for a very long time. The fashion in recent years has tended toward prefabricated diva pop, braindead hit-hop and cynical producer-driven techno-pop music-like product. Imagine Simon Cowell’s iPod, in other words. Oscar Wilde once described
Read moreThe Dutch team, working out in preparation for its opening match at EURO 2012, was targeted Thursday by racist chanting from the crowd in Krakow. UEFA’s response was…disappointing. UEFA, a day after reportedly denying the chants were racially motivated, acknowledged them Friday. “UEFA has now been made aware that there were some isolated incidents of racist chanting,” UEFA said in
Read moreI’m a sucker for chalk art, so I always look forward to the Denver Chalk Art Festival. I’m apparently not the only one, either, as the crowd shot below suggests. The crowds seem to be getting larger each year, too, and I suppose it’s easy to understand why. June in Denver, Larimer Square, fantastic artists – what’s not to love,
Read moreJust two months ago we lost Bluegrass icon Earl Scruggs. Yesterday, Folk legend Doc Watson died at the age of 89. Both were from my native North Carolina and each played a huge role in the Tar Heel state’s rich musical tradition. Today S&R bids a fond farewell to one of America’s true innovators. Happy travels, Doc.
Read moreSome recent graduates of my alma mater, Wake Forest University, are up in arms over this year’s commencement speaker, former DISH Network chairman Charlie Ergen. They penned what struck me as a thoughtful, well-considered letter to university president Dr. Nathan Hatch, in which they chastised him for a pattern of pandering to business interests to the exclusion of those who
Read moreMemorial Day has become our most conflicted holiday. I’m bothered by it, and I know I am not the only one.
Read moreBummer. 38 Studios has laid off all its employees. Let’s get caught up. And bear with me – this section required some revision on my part. If you recall, the troubled video game company recently missed a payment to the state of Rhode Island, which had engineered a massive GOVERNMENT HANDOUT LOAN DEAL to lure them from Massachusetts. Bad news:
Read moreAs I Facebooked last night: After more than three years of writing, editing, revising, and of course enduring the emotional agony that engenders so many of my best ideas, I have finally arrived at what I’m choosing to call a 1.0 version of my new book, tentatively entitled The Butterfly Machine. Now, like any business-savvy poet, I’m on to the
Read moreWant to know who woke up screaming this morning? This guy: Miami, home to one of the NBA’s showpiece franchises, is in deep trouble versus Indiana.
Read moreWe seem to offer this up each year around this time. Congratulations, grads, and please accept this tidbit of advice from those of us here at S&R: always remember where you’re from, but don’t ever let it keep you from where you want to go.
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