The illegal immigration debate appears to be taking a sabbatical here in Colorado and much of the nation. Not wanting to hog the spotlight, or perhaps exhausted by all the posturing and pandering that has effectively immobilized any realistic resolution, the issue is somewhat silenced. Most likely, however, the debate...

Upstate New York (Albany and Troy) - For Brenda Ann Kenneally, it turns out home is literally where the heart is -- even if she wasn't physically present for decades. While the photographer's return and loyalty to her childhood roots in upstate New York might seem endearing, the words and...

As I scope out Denver's upcoming concerts, checking the calendar for any hint or mention of an act associated with blues, jazz, gospel or old school soul, I am left feeling a bit stranded. I can't say homesick because I was born and raised in Colorado. But my spirit and...

Almost two decades ago, a friend told me that I'd end up in the barrio. Those words pierced my already deflated ego like staccato stilettos. I hadn't even reached the apogee of alcoholic existence when he gave voice to a terror I'd long nurtured but didn't dare acknowledge. Even as...

I recently blogged about Director Philippe Diaz' bold and often blistering documentary, The End of Poverty? The film premiered in theaters last Friday in New York City and opens in cities across the nation over the next few months (Denver's debut is slated for Dec. 30). An unflinching examination...

Philippe Diaz didn't set out to direct a Hollywood blockbuster with The End of Poverty? He intended to initiate a sober, serious dialogue and suggest a solution rather than merely present an immediate palliative. The film isn't a visual refrain of "We Are the World," projecting a simple but stirring...

In my previous post, "An Endless -- and Escalating -- War at Home, Part I," I ended with the following afterthought on a prediction that Denver's Morrison Road might be the next up-and-coming neighborhood:

I only wonder if the people would change along with the neighborhood.

Actually,...

I've read a slew of real estate reports in the local media over the past year. A few have even presented relative good tidings and predictions for a select few Denver neighborhoods. Offsetting the positive vibrations, other articles relay a less enthusiastic prognosis, particularly for those areas unfortunately situated a...

At first, I thought I'd overslept. Somehow I'd managed to doze into at least the next decade. After I'd refreshed the computer screen this morning, the stunning headline blared across the screen, the words shaking me from a semi-slumber the alarm clock hadn't completely shattered. President Barack Obama. The Nobel...

As the diminishing content and disappearance of mainstream newspapers progresses, I can't help but wonder what future awaits journalism. Sure, broadcast media will hold out, even if it's dramatically different from Walter Cronkite's heyday, with cable outlets and the Internet marginalizing the evening news. But print media is the big...

At least two entries posted on Huffington Post's Denver site during its launch week, "Why the West Must Be Won" and "There's a Reason the Rockies Are Purple Mountain Majesties: Dems Shouldn't Take Anything for Granted in the West," state the obvious - that the West is important,...

A recent headline in the Denver Post business section announced, "Home prices in Lower Highland go up." In this economy, and a couple years after the media wrote the obituary of the real estate boom that drove home prices to record heights and the economy to the brink, such...