Saturday, July 30, 2016

The New and Improved Squire Lounge

Something old, something new. Although the Squire Lounge no longer has its' original vintage sign, they did manage to remodel the inside into something quite remarkable. Nice restrooms, a stage for live music, a bigger bar, an outdoor patio, and plenty of room on the dance floor. Way to go guys, the place looks great! (photo courtesy Save the Signs on Colfax)

Friday, July 29, 2016

Lake Steam Baths

Let us melt your pains and cares away at Lake Steam Russian and Turkish Baths. Offering spa services, sauna, and massage. Call today: 303-825-2995.

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

The Longhorn Bar


The Longhorn Bar at 3014 E. Colfax Avenue is long gone. Today it's the Southside Bar and Kitchen.

Monday, July 25, 2016

Ruth Handler, Inventor of the Barbie Doll

Colfax Avenue's East High School graduate Ruth Handler had noted that her daughter Barbara, who was becoming a pre-teen, preferred playing with her infant paper dolls and giving them adult roles. She wanted to produce a plastic doll with an adult body but her husband thought it wouldn't sell. But when the Handlers were on a European trip, Ruth Handler saw the German Bild Lilli doll (which was not meant for children at all; rather a gag gift for adults) in a Swiss shop and bought it. Back home she reworked the design of the doll and re-named her Barbie after her daughter. Barbie debuted at the New York toy fair on March 9, 1959. Barbie became an instant success, rocketing the Handlers and their toy company toward fame. Later, they would add a boyfriend for Barbie named Ken, after Handler's son as well any many more other "friends and family" for Barbie's world.

Sunday, July 24, 2016

Saturday, July 23, 2016

Mystery Painting

This painting is hanging on the hallowed walls of some Colfax joint, I just can't remember where...anybody know? (photo by Jonny B)

Friday, July 22, 2016

Inger Louise Black

Someone really needs to check in on Inger...she ain't lookin' so good!

Thursday, July 21, 2016

Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune coming to Vintage Theatre

Vintage Theatre presents
Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune
By Terrance McNally
Directed by Missy Moore

July 29 – September 4**

Vintage Theatre presents "Frankie and Johnny in Claire de Lune" July 29- September 4 at Vintage Theatre, 1468 Dayton St., Aurora 80010. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.; Sundays at 2:30 p.m.; Monday, August 15 at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets are $24 - $30 and available online at www.vintagetheatre.org or by calling 303-856-7830. Group discounts for 6+ are available.

Frankie (a waitress) and Johnny (a short-order cook who works in the same restaurant) are discovered in bed. It is their first encounter, after having met several weeks ago on the job, and Frankie is hopeful that Johnny will now put on his clothes and depart, so she can return to her usual routine of watching TV and eating ice cream. But Johnny, a compulsive talker (and romantic), has other ideas. He is convinced that he loves Frankie, a notion that she, at first, considers to be ridiculous. She has had more disappointments than delights in life, and he is the veteran of one broken marriage already. And neither of them is in the bloom of youth. Yet out of their sometimes touching, sometimes hilarious interplay the promise of a relationship beyond a "one-night stand" does begin to emerge and, as the lights dim, the two are back in bed again, but this time side-by-side, holding hands before the glowing television screen.

The cast is the real life husband and wife team of Kelly Uhlenhopp (Frankie) and Andrew Uhlenhopp (Johnny).

In 1961, only one year out of Columbia University, Terrence McNally was hired by novelist John Steinbeck to accompany him and his family on a cruise around the world as tutor for his two teenage boys. The voyage would prove influential as McNally completed a draft of what would become the opening act of "And Things That Go Bump in the Night."  McNally only became truly successful with works such as the off-Broadway production of "Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune" and its screen adaptation with stars Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer. His ensuing body of work has made him one of theatre's most important and award-winning playwrights with "Lips Together, Teeth Apart," "Love! Vallor! Compassion!," "Master Class," "Kiss of the Spiderwoman" and "Ragtime" just to name a few.

"Frankie and Johnny in Claire de Lune" received Tony Award nominations in 2003 for Best Revival of a Play.

Vintage Theatre presents
"Frankie and Johnny in Claire de Lune"
July 29 – Sept. 4

A bittersweet comedy traces the unlikely romance between two middle-aged “losers.”

Fri/Sat at 7:30 p.m.; Sun at 2:30 p.m. Monday Aug.15 at 7:30 p.m.
$20 - $34
303-856-7830 or online at www.vintagetheatre.org
Vintage Theatre, 1468 Dayton St., Aurora 80010

** Please note date change

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

GARBAGE coming to the FIllmore Auditorium

GARBAGE
Special Guest Cigarettes After Sex
Strange Little Birds Tour
Fillmore Auditorium
September 15
Showtime 8:00 pm / Doors 7:00 pm


This morning Garbage announced that they will be extending their Strange Little Birds US Tour, which kicked off earlier this month and will now wrap on September 24th in San Francisco, CA. Tickets for these additional tour dates will be on sale Friday, July 22nd at 10am local time HERE.

For a complete list of upcoming tour dates, please visit Garbage.com. Visit Adventures in Wonderland for details on VIP experience packages, including: early entry, soundcheck access, Q&As, meet and greets, photo opps with the band, exclusive merch, and more.

Garbage’s sixth studio album Strange Little Birds was released last month via the band’s own STUNVOLUME Records and debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Rock Albums and Alternative Albums charts. The album arrived at No. 14 overall on the Billboard 200 chart. Additionally, lead single “Empty” debuted at No. 40 on Billboard’s Alternative Songs chart.

Recorded and produced by the band (Shirley Manson, Steve Marker, Duke Erikson, and Butch Vig) in Los Angeles, the album is available for purchase both physically HERE and digitally HERE. Watch their music video for the album's single "Empty", directed by longtime collaborator Samuel Bayer, HERE.

Working initially in Vig's basement and then at Red Razor Sounds in Los Angeles, Garbage drew on a variety of sources for Strange Little Birds. Some will hear echoes of Garbage's 1995 debut album in Strange Little Birds.
 



“Their darkest, most intimate LP and the band’s strongest effort in 15 years.” Pitchfork

"The electronic rockers return with a sixth studio album as cool and caustic as their 1995 debut"   NME

“In 2016, Garbage are a bloody triumph.” Consequence of Sound

“20-plus years after forming, each band member is still fired up to mine new sounds and approaches for inspiration. That willingness to be uncomfortable and look beneath the surface makes Strange Little Birds a rousing success.” A.V. Club

“Fearlessness has driven their creative renaissance.” Forbes


TICKETS GO ON SALE FRIDAY, JULY 22 @ 10:00 AM
at the Fillmore Auditorium Box Office, online at www.ticketmaster.com or call 800 – 745 – 3000. 

Tickets are $39.50 GA ADV and $45.00 GA DOS plus applicable service charges.

Ages 16+

The Fillmore box office is open Monday - Friday from 12:00 Noon - 6:00pm & Saturdays from 10:00am - 2:00pm.  On days of Fillmore shows, the box office is open from 12:00 Noon – 9:00pm.  The box office accepts cash, MasterCard, Visa and American Express – No checks!  Service charges may apply.

THE FILLMORE AUDITORIUM IS LOCATED AT 1510 CLARKSON ST. AT COLFAX.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
CONNECT WITH US ON THE WEB                                                                                  www.livenation.com  / www.facebook.com/LiveNationCO  /   www.twitter.com/livenationco /  http://instagram.com/livenationco

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Dropkick Murphys coming to the Fillmore Auditorium


 DROPKICK MURPHYS
Fillmore Auditorium
September 27
Showtime 7:30 pm / Doors 6:30 pm


The Dropkicks' music is universal stuff. Songs for the common man, about common things, that come together with such fury and infectious melody that everyone within earshot is struck straight. Dropkick Murphys, as much as any of the 'punk' or 'blue collar' labels they've earned, are fantastic songwriters. They are on the same quest as their beloved Woody Guthrie or their buddy Bruce Springsteen: how to get that big truth to come out the other end of the speakers in a way people all over the world will feel in their bones.  On this tour, the band will be celebrating their 20 Year Anniversary!

DKM has succeeded in becoming many things to many different people. Some fans come for the unbridled punk rage. Some come for the band's brand of wordy Irish folk. No matter what, they come by the thousands, in a dozen languages, all over the world. And they always get what they came for.

"Our fans make us want to do this forever," smiles Casey. "They live and die by this band as much as we do. We know who we are, and we always have. The key to a good Dropkick Murphys record is to have a little bit of everything: it makes you want to laugh. It makes you want to cry. It makes you want to punch someone in the face. It makes you want to be happy. We put our hearts and souls into our music. We're very grateful that people respond." 

TICKETS GO ON SALE FRIDAY, JULY 22 @ 10:00 AM
at the Fillmore Auditorium Box Office, online at www.ticketmaster.com or call 800 – 745 – 3000. 

Tickets are $32.50 GA plus applicable service charges.

Ages 16+

The Fillmore box office is open Monday - Friday from 12:00 Noon - 6:00pm & Saturdays from 10:00am - 2:00pm.  On days of Fillmore shows, the box office is open from 12:00 Noon – 9:00pm.  The box office accepts cash, MasterCard, Visa and American Express – No checks!  Service charges may apply. 
                                                                                                                                                                                               
THE FILLMORE AUDITORIUM IS LOCATED AT 1510 CLARKSON ST. AT COLFAX.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
CONNECT WITH US ON THE WEB                                                                                 www.livenation.com  / www.facebook.com/LiveNationCO  /   www.twitter.com/livenationco /  http://instagram.com/livenationco

Monday, July 18, 2016

Sunday, July 17, 2016

#SeenOnColfax: Kowalski

The great Kowalski, last seen on West Colfax Avenue on his way to San Francisco in the movie Vanishing Point.

Thursday, July 14, 2016

History of the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception


The magnificent Gothic cathedral at East Colfax Avenue and Logan Street traces its origins to a tiny, brick church completed in 1860 by Joseph P. Machebeuf. After the Denver City Town Company donated a site at 15th and Stout streets, then on the outskirts of town, Machebeuf and the pioneer Catholics of Denver erected a little chapel, which Machebeuf called St. Mary's. City fathers rejoiced, confident that churches would help civilize their raw frontier town, which had only one other church building -- the Methodist church at 14th and Arapahoe streets -- but thirty-five saloons.

With mountain pine boughs, Father Machebeuf decorated the still unfinished, thirty-by-sixty-four-foot church for the first Mass on Christmas Eve, 1860. Canvas was nailed over the panel-less windows to shut out the cold and snow so that Father Machebeuf and his sidekick, Jean B. Raverdy, could start the ceremony.

These two French missionaries built, a year later, a twelve-by-thirteen-foot wooden shed behind the church as a rectory. "In this miserable shanty," Machebeuf wrote to his sister back in France, "our beds are sacks of straw.

How well Father Machebeuf would care for his vast new parish was suggested by how well he cultivated the soil at St. Mary's. There, he dug a well, put up a fence, and planted flowers, vines, lettuce, radishes, onions, and something he had come to fancy during his seven years in New Mexico: chile verde.

Father Machebeuf added a sturdy wooden derrick to his garden for the first church bell in Colorado, an 800-pound monster lugged out from St. Louis. The same ox-drawn freight wagon brought to St. Mary's Denver's first church organ. "The Catholic Church is in the lead of all denominations," Machebeuf boasted in 1864.

At St. Mary's parish, the Sisters of Loretto opened St. Mary's Academy in 1864. To house the sisters and their school, Father Machebeuf paid George W. Clayton $4,000 for his two-story, frame house near the church at 1430 California Street. During an Indian scare that summer, Machebeuf and Raverdy and Sisters Joanna Walsh, Beatrice Maes, and Ignatia Mora were defended by the parish's stout Irish housekeeper, Sarah Morahan. Standing watch with an antique musket, she found no Indians to massacre but did chase off a gang of soldiers raiding the parish henhouse.

Humble St. Mary's became a cathedral in 1868, when Machebeuf was consecrated the vicar apostolic of Colorado. The vicar began dressing up his diminutive cathedral -- the roof was raised nine feet and the front extended sixteen feet in 1870-1871. By the time of Bishop Machebeuf's death in 1889, St. Mary's had Gothic stained glass windows beneath a crenelated roof line bristling with crosses and minarets.

Bishop Nicholas C. Matz, Machebeuf's successor, made the erection of a grand new cathedral one of his top priorities. In 1890, Bishop Matz erected a $51,000 brick and red sandstone structure at 1842 Logan Street. Denver's foremost architect, Frank Edbrooke, designed this handsome structure in the Romanesque style. The upper four stories served as the Cathedral School, while the basement was converted to the pro-cathedral. This temporary cathedral served for a long time as the 1893 depression postponed Bishop Matz's hopes for a cathedral that looked like a cathedral.

Four prominent and wealthy members of the parish mining magnates -- J.J. Brown and John F. Campion, miller John K. Mullen, and entrepreneur Dennis Sheedy -- paid $28,000 for eight lots within walking distance of their Capitol Hill mansions. In 1900, the old St. Mary's Church was sold for $24,000 to Cripple Creek gold mining tycoon Winfield Scott Stratton, who had the pioneer church demolished (the site at 1500 Stout has been, since the 1960s, a multi-story parking garage). Proceeds from the sale were used to stage a cathedral groundbreaking ceremony in 1902 and to complete the basement excavations and foundation. Shortly afterwards, work came to a halt with the discovery that Michael Callanan, the rector of the procathedral, had sunk the building fund into some dubious Cripple Creek mining properties, losing $52,794.70. Callanan also invested heavily in a glass casket company, convinced that viewable corpses would become standard burial practice. Although Father Callanan repaid the fund with almost $20,000 of his own money, Catholics became chary of cathedral building.

Into this distressing state of affairs strolled one of the most colorful and commanding characters in the history of Colorado Catholicism -- Hugh L. McMenamin, known as Father Mac. Soon after he came to Immaculate Conception as an assistant in 1905, he organized fund-raising efforts, including a "Carnival of Nations" that netted $4,000, enabling construction to resume with the laying of the cornerstone on July 15, 1906. After Father Mac was appointed rector of Immaculate Conception in 1908, the construction pace quickened.

Architect Leon Coquard of Detroit produced a French Gothic design, borrowing ideas from Bishop Matz's native cathedral at Münster and other great churches of Europe.

After the famed Michigan architect became ill, Denver architects Aaron Gove and Thomas Walsh, whose work included Denver's Union Station, supervised completion of the cathedral. Slowly and with great effort, the building fund and walls were raised. Father McMenamin begged constantly for funds to complete what was becoming a $500,000 cathedral with a $26,000 bank account. To the rescue came John K. Mullen and his son-in-law, James E. O'Conner, as well as John F. Campion. J.J. McGinnity and Charles D. McPhee of the McPhee and McGinnity Lumber Company contributed money, as well as a good price on all the interior woodwork and golden oak pews. Frank Damascio, a leading Denver stonemason, laid the $30,000 foundation of Gunnison granite for this cruciform cathedral measuring 195 by 116 feet. Indiana Bedford limestone was used for the exterior walls, and the two slender Gothic bell spires, towering 210 feet above East Colfax, were capped in 1911.

On August 7, 1912, a lightning bolt knocked twenty-five feet off the west spire, setting back completion in what had become a race between Immaculate Conception and St. John Episcopal Cathedral five blocks away at 14th and Washington. St. John's was plagued with ground water and financial difficulties. Bishop Matz and Dean Martyn Hart met and commiserated about their respective financial and construction problems. "At least," Dean Hart told Bishop Matz, "our troubles do not come from above!"

Marble from the world's most famous quarry -- Carrara, Italy -- was used for the altars, pedestals, statues, pulpit, bishop's throne, and communion rail. Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper inspired the altar table bas relief, while Murillo's Immaculate Conception served as the model for the statue of the ecstatic virgin at the thirty-foot-high main altar. Colorado Yule marble was used for the confessional, vestibules, steps, risers, baseboards, balustrades, and pillar bases. At the top of each interior column, a trinity of ribs spring from a cluster of marble wheat and grapes. These ribs support the Gothic vaulted ceiling, soaring sixty-eight feet over the slightly sloping nave with its seating for 1,500.

Art and artifacts, including a relic of the True Cross, fill the cathedral, which has side altars for the Blessed Mother, St. Joseph, and the Sacred Heart, as well as St. Paul Chapel and the Children's Chapel with its Guardian Angel Shrine beneath the Nativity window. School children saved enough pennies, nickels, and dimes to dedicate one small stained glass window to a nun who was their favorite teacher.

Grandest of all the art treasures are the seventy-five stained glass windows from F.X. Zetter's Royal Bavarian Art Institute in Munich (the firm and its secrets for exquisite stained glass were destroyed during World War II). Dry powder paint and sparkling silver were used for the cathedral's astonishing and ageless art. Handcrafted details as delicate as pencil-stroke-thin eyelashes individualize the large cast of stained glass characters used to dramatize the New Testament story of Christ's life. Both east and west transept windows are fashioned with more than 20,000 pieces of colored glass. At the rear of the cathedral facing Colfax Avenue, the large rose window over the choir loft features seven "musical angels." They accompany the magnificent Kimball pipe organ whose thirty-one speaking registers include a hauntingly realistic vox humana.

"To really appreciate this basilica," says caretaker Alphonse Riedo, a former Swiss Guard with hair-raising tales of patrolling the Vatican during World War II, "you need to come in with field glasses. We're open daily 6 A.M. to 6 P.M., so you can see the special glory of each of these windows at its own special time of day."
Father Mac and Bishop Matz staged a memorable dedication ceremony on October 27, 1912, which included a parade of some 20,000 people down Broadway and up Colfax. "The completion of Denver's most beautiful church, and the spectacle of ten thousand souls kneeling outdoors to receive the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament," reported the Denver Republican, "was one never surpassed in the ecclesiastical history of the West."

Behind its traditional Gothic façade, the cathedral featured 1912 state-of-the-art technology. Telephones connected all parts of the structure, which used the latest fireproof, steel frame construction, and subtle tungsten lighting built into the walls and ceiling. An up-to-date ventilation system filtered, washed, and warmed fresh air while pushing old air out of louvers built into the roof. The John F. Campion family donated the fifteen bells, which range in size from a 3,500-pound D flat to a 525-pound G flat, housed in the east tower. In the 1913 parish census, Father Mac reported a cathedral flock of "about 3,500" of whom "the majority are Irish Americans."

One such Irish-born American, the millionaire miller John K. Mullen, wrote a check for $110,000 in 1921 to retire the cathedral mortgage. Mullen did this, according to his barber -- and he reportedly went to the barber daily -- after raising the price of his flour a penny a pound, thus passing the cost along to consumers.
Father Mac was promoted to Monsignor Mac in 1933. A small, dignified man rushing about in his flowing purple robes and long white hair, he became a favorite Denver character, noted for pornography raids, powerful sermons, raids on the nearby State Capitol to denounce the Ku Klux Klan, avid support of the Denver Symphony Orchestra, and hard-nosed fund raising.

Father Walter J. Canavan became the second rector in 1947. He had been ordained in the cathedral in 1934 by Bishop Vehr and was an associate editor of the Denver Catholic Register and a director of the Denver Press Club. Canavan, who called himself "a journalist by day and a priest by night," charmed Catholics and non-Catholics alike with his sense of humor. He accomplished much for the cathedral, including renovation of the high school and construction of a new grade school and a new gym, which was christened Canavan Hall. In recognition of his fine work, Rome made him a monsignor in 1959. In 1969, Monsignor Canavan was followed by Monsignor James W. Rasby. The old rectory at 1854 Grant, and the nearby barn, were transformed in 1921 by architect Harry J. Manning into Cathedral High School, a prize-winning Spanish Renaissance building wrapped around a courtyard. Between the new high school and the old grade school, Oscar and Edith Mullen Malo constructed the Oscar Malo, Jr. Memorial Hall at 1835 Logan, in 1928. This elegant structure housed a gym equipped for theater as well as athletics.

The cathedral's Blue Jays excelled at both drama and sports before the grade school closed in 1960 and the high school in 1982. The old school building at 1842 Logan reopened November 8, 1982, as the Samaritan Shelter.

Ministering to Denver's down and out is a long and cherished tradition at Immaculate Conception, according to Monsignor Rasby. In the 1870s, the cathedral first brought the St. Vincent de Paul Society to Denver to tend to the poor, and, in 1979, Cathedral Plaza, was built at 1575 Pennsylvania Street to house the indigent elderly.

Immaculate Conception, adds Monsignor Rasby, welcomes the full range of humanity found in its Capitol Hill neighborhood. The cathedral offers everything from contemporary guitar Masses for young people to Pontifical High Masses enriched by the celebrated Basilica Vested Choir. With a staff of two priests, two permanent deacons, and two sisters, the basilica offers five weekday Masses and seven Sunday Masses. "I.C." parishioners enjoy extended "coffee hours" after Mass on Sundays, when the library and credit union are also open. The cathedral's Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve -- a tradition ever since Father Machebeuf's first Mass at St. Mary's -- is now televised for viewers throughout the Rocky Mountain region.

A 1974 modernization of the cathedral interior brought a lawsuit from J.K. Mullen's granddaughter, Eleanor Weckbaugh. She, like hundreds of other traditionalists, opposed any tampering with this National Register and Denver Landmark. Despite these "improvements," Immaculate Conception remains a good example of French Gothic architecture. In recognition of its outstanding architecture, history, and social concerns, Pope John Paul II designated Immaculate Conception in 1979 as one of twenty-nine churches in the United States to be honored with the title of basilica.

Archbishop James V. Casey, as the official pastor of the cathedral, presided at the Christmas High Mass celebrating Immaculate Conception's elevation from cathedral to minor basilica, a process begun three years earlier by Monsignor Rasby. The history of the cathedral was reviewed, from the origins of humble St. Mary's to dedication of the magnificent cathedral in 1912, when the Rocky Mountain News spoke for many Coloradans: 

May the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception long stand, its spires an expression of the questioning, upturned face of humanity, its chimes an eternal call to the spirituality that stirs within us, and its doors a haven to the weary-hearted in search of hope and rest! 

Copyright © The Archdiocese of Denver