4 DECEMBER 21-27, 2023 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | W ® 7 HOLD YOUR HORSES! Only a real scrooge would try to stop artists from making hay off Blucifer. Or is that Bludolph? BY PATRICIA CALHOUN 10 KALEIDOSCOPE EYES Denver Zen Den creates the city’s fi rst “sober psychedelic experience.” BY EMILY FERGUSON 13 THE HOT LIST The ten best new restaurants of 2023. BY MOLLY MARTIN 17 MILE HIGH LEGENDS Slim Cessna’s Auto Club is known for pioneering the Denver Sound. BY JUSTIN CRIADO 8 News 10 Culture 13 Cafe 17 Music CONCERTS/CLUBS ................................... 20 26 Marijuana TOKE OF THE TOWN ................................ 26 ASK A STONER ......................................... 28 STRAIN GANG .......................................... 30 VOLUME 47 NUMBER 17 DECEMBER 21-27, 2023 E D I T O R I A L Editor Patricia Calhoun Editorial Operations Manager Jane R. 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Peri- odicals postage paid in Denver. Domestic subscriptions may be purchased for $100/year or $50/six months. Postmaster: Send address changes to Westword, P.O. Box 5970, Denver CO 80217. Mailing address: P.O. Box 5970, Denver, CO 80217 Street address: 1278 Lincoln Street, Denver, CO 80203 For retail or classifi ed advertising, call: 303-296-7744 For general information, call: 303-296-7744 For Editorial, email: [email protected] “DROPPING THE BALL,” MICHAEL ROBERTS, DECEMBER 14 T H E F A N ’ S F U M B L E Great column. Letting Orlando go and not pairing him with D-Mac was a huge mistake. Franklin was great, as was D-Mac. And don’t even get me started on Wolfe replacing the great Tyler Polumbus. I rarely listen to The Fan anymore. I do like Josh Dover, though. Gary Gaudin Denver Not elevating Chad Brown to a more prominent role on the air has always be- fuddled me. For my money, he’s one of the best sports-related personalities going. Cassidy Bednark Denver Yes. They suck after 10 a.m. Zach Bye is as vanilla as it gets. Not even Vanilla Ice kinda vanilla — more like Ryan Seacrest. Pretty but safe, which is boring…even on radio. Dover is boring, and Lindsay is just not meant to be in media. Just a brutal lineup after Mike and Mark. This is the station of Irv & Joe, D-Mac & Big Al and Sandy. Glad they got rid of Raj or whoever screwed this station up. Good luck, Amanda... you’re going to need it. Briggs Brady Castle Rock Just a few thoughts on your article con- cerning Sports 104.3 The Fan. First off, any religious organization (such as the Mor- mons) should never own a secular sports- talk radio station. The station’s and hosts’ viewpoints and commentary are immedi- ately compromised when that happens, in my opinion. Why did they break up Stokley and Zach? They were the best duo on the station. Phillip Lindsay seems to be a good dude and is a local hero, but who in the hell decided to put him in the prime radio-talk show slot, without even as much as a radio apprenticeship beforehand? This policy The Fan has of just inserting any ex-Bronco into these slots without any prior radio experi- ence whatsoever is a major reason The Fan is in decline. Finding a big personality like Alfred Williams is a once-in-a-great-moon event, as evidenced by the failed ex-Bronco wannabes who have tried since Big Al left. The ex-Broncos also usually have only a cursory or very limited knowledge of other sports such as basketball or hockey, which limits the shows to talking 90 percent of the time just about the Broncos. Since Coach Prime has come to Boulder, they have been talking about University of Colorado more, but they pretty much totally neglect CSU, Air Force and Wyoming, except mention- ing them only in passing. Talking about any topic, even the Broncos, ad nauseam, is going to get stale after a while, and it shows in the ratings. In addition, the four-hour shows are just too long. They all should be three hours, max. Hire some hosts who are well versed in different sports besides just the Broncos and the NFL; stop hiring inexperienced ex-Broncos just to make a splash; cover local high school and college sports more: cover national sports stories more — and I guarantee 104.3 The Fan will have a much better product. I just hope the Mormons will let them do it. Ray Staubach Denver I confess that I didn’t even bother reading the article on The Fan, but in my defense, all I had to do was look at the photos of the main protagonists to know I shouldn’t. Easy ques- tion: caps (I assume), inserts or dentures? To quote the O’Jays, “They smilin’ in your face”!! I still love you, Westword...keep on truckin’! Tom Bruhn Castle Rock “BREWING COMMUNITY,” JUSTIN CRIADO, NOVEMBER 23 P E D A L T O T H E M E T A L Thank you so much for giving as much cover- age to local metal bands as you do. I brag to people constantly about the Denver scene, and I like often having well-written articles to send to back up what I’m telling them. Jonathan Anderson Denver ON THE COVER DENVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT/GETTY IMAGES LETTERS T O T H E E D I T O R YOU CAN COMMENT ON ANY STORY AT WESTWORD.COM; SEND LETTERS TO [email protected] Don’t miss a word! The stories in this print edition are just a fraction of the pieces we publish every week on westword.com. For a cheat sheet on all that content, subscribe to our daily newsletter at westword.com/profi le. You can also follow @denverwestword on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok. And it’s all free! ART BY GETTY IMAGES/WESTWORD ILLUSTRATION
