NEWSPEAK Blog

At long last: Happy Hour pictures and contest results!

Why, hello! Thanks to everyone who made it to the Rocket Room on Thursday for the first-ever Newspeak Happy Hour Blog(ck) Party Extravaganza. We had a pretty decent crowd for a first event and it was great to put names to faces for blog regulars. Here are the pictures we were able to get before my camera died:

Above is my new best friend, who saw my Harry Potter sleeve and commented, "Oh, man! I grew up reading Harry Potter," and I asked him, "You grew up in 1997 to 2007?"

And I'm happy to announce the results of the Newspeak Let's Give 'Em Something to Zwack About Contest, wherein we selected the Official Newspeak Zwack Tagline.

It is: Nice Shoes. Wanna Zwack? and was submitted by Greg Reilly, whom you'll see below:

Runner-ups include Just What the Zwacktor Ordered and Zwackin' the Suburbs. Thanks to all of you who submitted. Keep in mind that Greg's tagline will be used every time we refer to Zwack (Nice Shoes. Wanna Zwack?™).

Stay tuned for the next Happy Hour, which will fall during the third week of July. What did you guys think about the Thursday evening thing? That work, or should we move it to Friday?

It's the hap-happiest party of all!

Yay! Today's the day of the Blog(ck) Party/Newspeak Happy Hour! How much more excited could you possibly be!

Some things. For the Newspeak Let's Give 'Em Something to Zwack About Contest, due to popular pressure, we will be accepting up to three entries per person. Remember, we will be obligated to mention YOUR tagline every time we mention Zwack—which is, you've probably noticed, a whole lot—so this is your chance to let your light shine. Think of how proud Mom and Dad will be!

Regarding Blog Trivia: Some of my GWD pub quiz nerds were asking about the format. It's no hours-long thing, I promise—just a handful of questions to be fielded by individuals and scraps of paper. I recommend you start combing through the blog, looking for possible trivia questions. Most are very easy, but we've got some stumpalicious ones that go more than a year back.

The fun gets started at 4 at the Rocket Room with trivia and further fun shortly after 5. Hope to see you there. Tell your friends, and let's get zwackin!

Newspeak Happy Hour Blog(ck) Party on Thursday!

Just a reminder that this Thursday is our first-ever Newspeak Happy Hour from 4 to whenever at the Rocket Room. Word is, they'll be bustin' out the grill for some famous Dave (ha!) barbecue, and will be doing cheap beer, wine and call drinks. Suh-weet!

In addition to the blog trivia, we will be asking for entries for the Newspeak Let's Give 'Em Something To Zwack About Contest. What's that, you ask? Let me explain:

Our panel of august judges and Zwack enthusiasts will be selecting an Official Newspeak Zwack tagline from entries submitted by you, the people. Write down your Zwack tagline—which should, but not must, employ a pun on the word "Zwack," along with your name—bring it to the Happy Hour and place in the Official Newspeak Let's Give 'Em Something To Zwack About Contest Entry Receptacle, which will probably be a hat. Judges will review the entries and present the winner with some sort of prize, and then I might play some sort of song to indicate that you rule. As an added bonus, each time we mention Zwack from here until the end of time, we will include your tagline with it.

See you there!

Things to Do In COS

It's a double opening tonight for Rubbish. First, in the main gallery (17B E Bijou) there's a new show by beloved local artist Marc Huebert—then, at VBar, more art by Neil Fenton, who is astoundingly prolific and whose name I hope I'm spelling correctly.

Then, there's the weekend-long Pikes Peak Arts Fest, with roughly one bazillion free bands playing. tonight is the blues-tastic night, and you should definitely check out Ashley Raines and John Alex Mason. Tomorrow is the indie part of the fest, and will feature tons of friends of the paper like Be Thou My Vision, Poesis, those lousy Kiowa Kartel suckas Abracastabya, El Toro De La Muerte and Velvet Rut. Mike Stephens is also playing sometime during the weekend, but I honestly have no idea when, since he's not on the flyer.

And hey, check out the Farm and Art Market tomorrow at the Margarita at Pine Creek, which has one of the loveliest views of the mountains in all of the universe.

First-ever Newspeak Happy Hour next Thursday!

We're doing our first-ever Newspeak Happy Hour next week. We hope to do these every month—or even every week—at rotating bars, with happy hour specials, blog trivia and a chance to meet all the people you fight with and troll to on the blog.

An example of blog trivia:

Q: What movie did Aaron describe by saying: "The politics are well-meaning but sloppy, and the writers passed up a real chance to make some relevant commentary about American involvement in the Middle East"?

A: Duh, only the best movie ever, Iron Man.

Spread the word, and we hope to see you there. I'll be reminding you of this to a terribly annoying degree.

Things to Do In COS: First Friday and the Freakin' Weekend

There's a million-billion things going on tonight and over the weekend. Here a sampling:

EDIFICE GALLERY opens their Fashionista Show tonight, a collection of fashion-inspired art by a ton of artists you know and lurve.

RUBBISH is holding the show closing for Lindsay Hand's show this evening, after which Lindsay is moving away and you'll never, ever see her again, ever. So be sure to show.

They're also holding a small evening show on Saturday night by Be Thou My Vision, who—ahem—played their very first show at Rubbish last summer as part of the Midnight Cabaret series, which we will probably be doing again this summer. It'll be at 6:30.

SMOKEBRUSH GALLERY hosts the opening for Bill Young's show "Big" tonight which is described like so: In today's society people are always looking for things that are bigger: big homes, big cars, big paychecks. "Big" is a series of photographs by Bill Young illustrating life on a larger scale.

The COLORADO COLLEGE I.D.E.A SPACE has the artists reception for PHYLUM, which sounds like fascinating show: Featuring large-scale, digitally-altered images of single-celled life forms, Phylum is a multimedia site-specific installation inverting the relationship between microcosm and macrocosm to explore issues of scale, representation, and the mapping of knowledge. By combining large-scale projected video images with music composed by Colorado College's Bowed Piano Ensemble, artists Lane Hall and Lisa Moline create an immersive environment that celebrates the mystery and beauty of an unseen world.

Defending the Caveman runs this weekend at the Fine Arts Center, which is a play about cavemen. Or defense. Probably.

As Becky posted below, Manitou's brand-new Range Gallery is holding their grand opening Saturday. I haven't seen it yet, but I'm informed it's a great space with very cool photographs.

As always, feel free to add more events in the comments. And, hey, you're welcome, because I'm-a kick-start your weekend now! How, you ask? With ALPHABEAT! Because there is absolutely nothing more weekend-y than Danish pop. Serious. Anyway, this song is either called "What is Happening?" or "Don't Go Out Tonight." It's like a enema of happy weekendness. Wait till the chorus. You'll poop.

Garage Sale Tomorrow

Hi Everybody,

Marina and I are having a garage sale at the corner of 24th and Bijou on the Westside tomorrow. We've got a really nice oval table we made with 6 chairs, a beautiful yellow and white Danish modern desk, some Toilet Paper paraphernalia, bric and the like. Begins around 8 a.m.

Never forget.

Don't forget! It's Noel's Totally Farewell: the Party, going on tonight at 6 pm at McCabe's. We've got $2 Bristols all night and you'll get your chance to toast n' roast the inimitable Noel Black. Ashley Raines is playing at 8 pm. Hope to see you there.

Amazing!

Did I just get tickets to this?

Yes. Yes, I did. Do you think he'll close with "The Devil Went Down to Georgia"?

Paaaaartay!

Come on out this Friday to say buh-bye to Noel! Hang out with cool dudes! Drink! Eat! Be merry! Yowza!