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It pays to support local! A lot of folks know about our exclusive shows and parties for subscribers, but did you know we also offer discounts on local businesses to paying readers all year long?

Denverse Discounts Now Include:

• 15% off at Pit Fiend Barbecue

• 10% off at Corner Beet

• 20% off of 5pack for Rooted Heart

• 20% off Garden Sauna

• 10% off Ba…

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Danny and Marlowe haul trash for a living. It’s not glamorous, but somebody’s gotta do it. Then one shift goes sideways, and suddenly they’re asking the question we all avoid: what are we really worth? The Garbologists at Theatreworks Colorado Springs—sharp, funny, and surprisingly moving. Tickets at entarts.org.

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Don’t miss the opportunity to see The Stars We Do Not See: Australian Indigenous Art at The Denver Art Museum through July 26th. This exhibition is the largest display of Australian Indigenous art ever presented in North America and offers a captivating, multi-layered experience, featuring 130 works by 142 artists drawn exclusively from the National Gallery of Victoria’s world-leading collection. These works will introduce you to the art, resilience, and depth of the world’s oldest continuous living culture. Visit denverartmuseum.org to purchase tickets.

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Don’t miss Denver’s biggest music festival, Underground Music Showcase, happening from July 24 - 26th, 2026. It’s one of our favorite events every year, a legendary mix of A-list talent and hidden gems. We’ll see you there! Get your tickets now to see 150+ national and discovery artists in RiNo for three jam-packed days of music. Tickets on sale now at https://www.undergroundmusicshowcase.com/

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Featured Song: “Sick in the City” by The Broken Rings

If you’re not signed up to receive Denverse in the mail, now’s a great time! Just click here to join the club and get our issues delivered all year.

Across the street, in front of The Vixen, the slick-looking modern apartment complex that moved onto the block last year, a man in an orange shirt bangs a 2x4 against the curb and screams, calling on a man in …

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Danny and Marlowe haul trash for a living. It’s not glamorous, but somebody’s gotta do it. Then one shift goes sideways, and suddenly they’re asking the question we all avoid: what are we really worth? The Garbologists at Theatreworks Colorado Springs—sharp, funny, and surprisingly moving. Tickets at entarts.org.

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Don’t miss the opportunity to see The Stars We Do Not See: Australian Indigenous Art at The Denver Art Museum through July 26th. This exhibition is the largest display of Australian Indigenous art ever presented in North America and offers a captivating, multi-layered experience, featuring 130 works by 142 artists drawn exclusively from the National Gallery of Victoria’s world-leading collection. These works will introduce you to the art, resilience, and depth of the world’s oldest continuous living culture. Visit denverartmuseum.org to purchase tickets.

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Don’t miss Denver’s biggest music festival, Underground Music Showcase, happening from July 24 - 26th, 2026. It’s one of our favorite events every year, a legendary mix of A-list talent and hidden gems. We’ll see you there! Get your tickets now to see 150+ national and discovery artists in RiNo for three jam-packed days of music. Tickets on sale now at https://www.undergroundmusicshowcase.com/

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Featured Song: “Forever” by Blaise Carpenter

If you’re not signed up to receive Denverse in the mail, now’s a great time! Just click here to join the club and get our issues delivered all year.

On the Front Range in late March, the reptiles emerge from their winter burrows to warm themselves in the early spring sunshine. The season lasts through early fall, when nights dip below freezing and the snakes return underground.

As a child living in the last row of houses on South Table Mountain in Golden, I was made awar…

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It’s time for our summer release party! Free for you and a +1, as always! And we’ll be having FREE T-SHIRTS (S, M, L) for the first 20 people who show up, thanks to our sponsor Denver Screen Print & Embroidery!

It all goes down tonight at 8pm at the Department of Creative Pursuits! We’re going to have a standup comedy performance by Aaron…

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From sunlit summer evenings to crisp, festive fall days, experience the seasons at Denver Botanic Gardens. Check out Evenings al Fresco at York Street, July 13, 15 & 27, 5-8 p.m. Laid-back summer evenings, lush gardens and live, local music. Or check out the Lavender Festival at Chatfield Farms, Saturday & Sunday, July 18 & 19, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. Food trucks, interactive art, live music and an artisan marketplace during peak lavender season. Get tickets or memberships at https://www.botanicgardens.org/

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Support provided by Theatreworks Colorado Springs. Danny and Marlowe haul trash for a living. It’s not glamorous, but somebody’s gotta do it. Then one shift goes sideways, and suddenly they’re asking the question we all avoid: what are we really worth? The Garbologists at Theatreworks Colorado Springs—sharp, funny, and surprisingly moving. Tickets at entarts.org.

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NKollectiv showcases Colorado artists working in a wide variety of media including many types of painting and printmaking, clay, wood and metal sculping, metalsmithed jewelry, and home decor. The gallery was founded in 2021 by Nicole Korbe, a local artist whose mission is to promote the local artist community and provide a place for all to enjoy their work. Make sure to check out the Found Narratives series, on display now through June 28. The gallery is located within EASEL (Englewood Art Studios, Events, Lessons), a 2nd floor art hub in downtown Englewood. Learn more at NKollectiv.com

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Featured Song: “I’m Tired” by Pink Ranger

Our summer issue releases on June 26! As always, we have a special free show and party lined up for our subscribers. If you’re not signed up, now’s a great time! Just click here to join the club and get our issues delivered all year.

It’s almost time for our summer release party! Free for you and a +1, as always!

It all goes down this Friday, June 26, at 8pm at the Department of Creative Pursuits! We’re going to have a standup comedy performance by Aaron Spriggs, brought to you by the good folks at Trailhead Comedy Fest. And, of course, a special show by none other t…

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Don’t miss Denver’s biggest music festival, Underground Music Showcase, happening from July 24 - 26th, 2026. It’s one of our favorite events every year, a legendary mix of A-list talent and hidden gems. We’ll see you there! Get your tickets now to see 150+ national and discovery artists in RiNo for three jam-packed days of music. Tickets on sale now at https://www.undergroundmusicshowcase.com/

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Support provided by Theatreworks Colorado Springs. Danny and Marlowe haul trash for a living. It’s not glamorous, but somebody’s gotta do it. Then one shift goes sideways, and suddenly they’re asking the question we all avoid: what are we really worth? The Garbologists at Theatreworks Colorado Springs—sharp, funny, and surprisingly moving. Tickets at entarts.org.

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NKollectiv showcases Colorado artists working in a wide variety of media including many types of painting and printmaking, clay, wood and metal sculping, metalsmithed jewelry, and home decor. The gallery was founded in 2021 by Nicole Korbe, a local artist whose mission is to promote the local artist community and provide a place for all to enjoy their work. Make sure to check out the Found Narratives series, on display now through June 28. The gallery is located within EASEL (Englewood Art Studios, Events, Lessons), a 2nd floor art hub in downtown Englewood. Learn more at NKollectiv.com

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Featured Song: “Oceans of Time” by Blue Mesa

Our summer issue releases on June 26! As always, we have a special free show and party lined up for our subscribers. If you’re not signed up, now’s a great time! Just click here to join the club and get our issues delivered all year.

We’ve got such an amazing issue release party planned for you next Friday, June 26, at 8pm at the Department of Creative Pursuits! And guess what? We’re going to have free drinks again, courtesy of Ratio Beerworks and Red Rocks Spirits! Make sure to support all of our incredible sponsors. They make independent journalism and local art pos…

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On Friday, June 26, at 8pm, we’ll be joined by the incredible musicians from Sexy Coyote for a free show exclusively for our subscribers! There will be:

• A Free Show From Sexy Coyote

• Free Drinks

• Standup Comedy

• Swag!

PLUS, the photographer behind Humans of Denver will be present, snapping photos of our subscribers t…

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Support Isabella through her cancer journey here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-isabella-osbornes-cancer-journey

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Don’t miss Denver’s biggest music festival, Underground Music Showcase, happening from July 24 - 26th, 2026. It's one of our favorite events every year, a legendary mix of A-list talent and hidden gems. We'll see you there! Get your tickets now to see 150+ national and discovery artists in RiNo for three jam-packed days of music. Tickets on sale now at https://www.undergroundmusicshowcase.com/

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Support provided by Theatreworks Colorado Springs. Danny and Marlowe haul trash for a living. It’s not glamorous, but somebody’s gotta do it. Then one shift goes sideways, and suddenly they’re asking the question we all avoid: what are we really worth? The Garbologists at Theatreworks Colorado Springs—sharp, funny, and surprisingly moving. Tickets at entarts.org.

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NKollectiv showcases Colorado artists working in a wide variety of media including many types of painting and printmaking, clay, wood and metal sculping, metalsmithed jewelry, and home decor. The gallery was founded in 2021 by Nicole Korbe, a local artist whose mission is to promote the local artist community and provide a place for all to enjoy their work. Make sure to check out the Found Narratives series, on display now through June 28. The gallery is located within EASEL (Englewood Art Studios, Events, Lessons), a 2nd floor art hub in downtown Englewood. Learn more at NKollectiv.com

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This Week’s Featured Song: “ELEVEN 11” by BAE.wav, feat. $AMARA

This Is an AI Town


it spits 
people
power 
promptly 
un/made

flesh shelf
wiser wires
US critic circuit
and
lo, scuds cloud

No historically marginalized labor was exploited in creating the seven-hundred-page manu-script of their coedited volume on gender, technology, and inequality. 

author never dead
subject never lost 
in finite progression
unemotional labor
returning eternally
robot master-servant leaks tears for ancestors annihilated by hand
cut-and-pasted in outer space
second naturen 
sci-nonfi
a lazy digital stream running through it
like where I earned my master’s tool

endnote times meetness synod
no questions, magister
yesses 
straight down the chains of production
fully automated luxury ally cruise control
world wide department store window
GPS chair
graphics of paper
pictures of type
opened office
or there will be data for dinner

In response to query #5: Yes, as clearly stated in contract, please insert table of contents in appendix in appendix in appendix in appendix in . . .

but can it make better bad poetry than I

So writes, with free lance, the last mechanical turk, out of sources, the proofreading poet at the end of the line.

May Day, 2026


Note: No AI was used in the composition of this poem. The poet did consult Inge’s Anagram Generator (https://ingesanagram.com/).




Dialectic of Enlightenment at Celebrity Sports Center, circa 1984 


What Theory Boys fail to mention is that myth veers toward enlightenment too. 

It wasn’t the skeeball or the videogame arcade or the waterslides 
It was eleven-year-old Friday night while the grownups bowled to ignore the pitchered beer
It was baby witches swimming in a crowd of dust motes milling in blaring lights, spinning sounds, the shine of Michael’s glove
It was that well-placed eye-catcher, pretty and silky and out of reach behind glass, a prize costing many more tickets than I would ever see

There amid the teeming jangle of cheap thrills, in the days before the unions withered, when the hair was big, the lip gloss was sweet and shiny, and the jeans were blue
A gaudy model of everything a girl (who’s good at being a girl) might really need to know 
A lavender satin crescent suspended on gossamer plastic 

Beads and bangles 
Delicately dangling 
A lolling striped stocking and purple-beribboned slipper

No more winning 
No losing 
An exploding universe of electronic bleeps and crashing strikes and spares 
Eternal patience 

Even after gunpoint mugging in the locker room by another eleven-year-old, having a very different kind of Friday 
Even after learning what it means to be Made in Taiwan
Even after friendship’s end, scraped knuckles on the blacktop at recess

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Don’t miss Denver’s biggest music festival, Underground Music Showcase, happening from July 24 - 26th, 2026. It's one of our favorite events every year, a legendary mix of A-list talent and hidden gems. We'll see you there! Get your tickets now to see 150+ national and discovery artists in RiNo for three jam-packed days of music. Tickets on sale now at https://www.undergroundmusicshowcase.com/

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Denver's favorite choose-your-own-adventure arts extravaganza is back for the seventh year June 3-7, 2026 with dozens of original shows at creative venues around the city, including comedy, clown, theatre, dance, aerial, puppetry, immersive and so much more. Save the dates - you don't want to miss out on this much fun! Tickets and passes go on sale May 1st at denverfringe.org.

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Pit Fiend Barbecue is a live fire, all-natural wood smoke barbecue restaurant located in Denver's RiNo Art District, serving sustainably raised heritage pork and USDA Prime beef brisket. They also have a loyalty program where you can earn cashback on BBQ purchases. Visit https://www.pitfiendbbq.com and get some of Denver's best BBQ today.

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Featured Song: “The Contradictions of Love” by Tony Meade

It’s our second annual Podium to Page event, where writers get a chance to read their work onstage with some of the state’s best poets and get a chance at instant publication and a cash prize! Everyo…

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Join your community for an unforgettable evening with the Colfax Art Underground Showcase on May 31. This first-of-its-kind public art program on Colfax Avenue will introduce a lineup of fantastic Denver artists, from emerging student creators to well-known, celebrated names. The collection reflects the diversity of our community, with strong representation from BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ artists. It all happens from 4pm-7pm at 1915 E Colfax Ave. Admission is free, but donations are encouraged. Learn more!

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Pit Fiend Barbecue is a live fire, all-natural wood smoke barbecue restaurant located in Denver's RiNo Art District, serving sustainably raised heritage pork and USDA Prime beef brisket. They also have a loyalty program where you can earn cashback on BBQ purchases. Visit https://www.pitfiendbbq.com and get some of Denver's best BBQ today.

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This Week’s Song: “Heart of America Pt 1” by The Jon Brumm Musical Experience

Just a reminder that we have an exclusive event, just for you, coming up on 5/27!

It’s our second annual Podium to Page event, where writers get a chance to read their work onstage with some of the state’s best poets and get a chance at instant publication and a cash prize! Everyone is welcome, of course. Whether you’re a poet or just the…

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I did a triple-take, groggy from the night before. Up to that point, I’d been sleepwalking, reluctant to embark on my paper route, but in three blinks, a crisis! Thousands of magazines. Thousands of dollars. They were all gone!

The concrete floor of the 5x10ft caged area was completely bare. I stepped into the space, thinking I was hallucinating and that any moment I’d trip over the stacks, but no.

Someone at the complex must have cleaned the thing out by mistake!

I rushed from the storage area to the office, panicked, cursing, pissed. Admittedly, it was nice to feel alive that morning though. A punch in the nose! A splash of bright red in a world gone dark. As an old teacher of mine used to say, I like the action.

Once in the office, I assumed the posture of a wronged but dignified American–a stern but reconcilable customer, confident he would be made whole because he was worth it.

I crossed my arms. I puffered my fish. “Yes, I know it’s not your fault, but it’s absolutely crucial I speak to someone in management today. This is an emergency.”

I added “CEO” to the signature of my emails as I fired them off to upper staff. Calls were made, Saturday calls, which would test and confirm the limits of my perceived value as a resident and citizen. There was no response.

The next day, getting desperate, our entire inventory plundered, I dug around for cell numbers. I can get anyone’s cell number, I like to say.

I called a number associated with the name of the leasing agent who’d given me a deal on the storage unit. A Sunday call. Another test of my power.

“Hello?” a voice answered drowsily on the other end.

“Hi, —, this is Paul French in Unit —. I was wondering if you’d been getting my emails.”

“About what?”

“About the inventory taken from my storage unit.”

“Oh fuck you.”

He hung up.

For a second, I was on the verge of becoming a victimized and angry American customer, truly an ugly sight, but I realized the voice on the other end had sounded nothing like my guy, who has one of those clear, bourbony baritones, like our radio host Anthony Elio. I found out there was a local lawyer with the same name, and “fuck you” must have been his way of saying “wrong number.” What kind of fish was he?

I filed the police report and told our creative director Shane what happened. We began puzzling through the case. The apartment complex was still suspect #1, but, if not them, could it really have been theft? Who steals roughly 4,000 magazines, and why?

The issues were in strapped bundles, so it wasn’t as if the person taking them was playing some mystery box game. Also, as I’ve mentioned before, paper is heavy! When we pick up the magazines from the printer, we usually have at least three people and three vehicles helping. I almost totaled my truck, in fact, when I let one of the dock guys load an entire pallet (over 3,500lbs) into the bed (it sank the whole thing almost flush with the wheels). All of that loading and unloading, of course, takes a long time. This would have been quite an operation.

By this point, we’d already circulated most of the copies of the spring issue to subscribers and participating businesses, so it wasn’t the full 10,000 we print–just the 4,000 remaining. But that’s still a ton of magazines (literally), enough to take at least half an hour or so to porter to a necessarily heavy-duty vehicle.

All this to say, whoever took the magazines had to do so very intentionally.

I began questioning my original theory of the apartment complex, as who in their right mind would commit such an undertaking without sending an email? Stranger things have happened, but still.

Shane and I theorized some options in order of likelihood. It was either:

1. A mistake by the apartment complex’s storage team. Likely: because it was the simplest answer. Unlikely: because of the effort involved and (one would hope) communication protocols preventing staff from throwing away residents’ belongings en masse by mistake.

2. Attempted sabotage by a competitor. Likely? Well, not really at all, I would think. Media can be a petty and smarmy business. Even so, it would be a massive reputational risk for some competitor to do something like this, and what would they even gain? We can print more magazines. Yes, it’s a hit, but unless they knew that we were one theft away from being irrevocably destroyed, it would be a bad idea to try to burgle us. Also, they would have to know where I live, where I stored the magazines, etc. Finally, for all of the self-deprecating trash talk I spit at the media, I do think many of us are conscientious folk, who at least want to believe we’re doing the right thing.

3. Attempted sabotage by a slighted article subject. Likely? Also no, for many of the same reasons above. It’s a lot of trouble to do something like this. And besides, we’re not really a gossip rag. Most of the critical views our writers have leveled at people, places, things are usually tempered with an exploration of the other side (ours being a more longform journalistic enterprise, and not exactly packed with editorial hot takes on issues). I’m sure someone’s been irritated by something one of our writers penned (that’s just unavoidable), but you’d have to have quite an axe to grind to commit this kind of theft, and, again, it’s so high-risk! When I talked to Patty Calhoun over at Westword about this (longtime supporter/advisor, by the way; she’s the real deal), she said she was aware of cases like this sparked by miffed subjects. However, being a regular reader, she admitted that she hadn’t seen anything in our publication that would arouse such contempt.

4. Pure theft. Likely? Not at all, unless the thief was either a complete moron or insane. Unless you can sell the magazines through a website or other means (which you couldn’t do without getting caught pretty quickly), there’s no way you could get any value from these copies. It’s not as if there’s a robust black market for print publications out there. I’ve seen people selling stray copies of past issues on Ebay (and I really don’t care about that; it’s quite flattering), but there’s no way you can just sell 4,000 copies of Denverse on the street (if you can, please send notes).

My mind was still set on option 1. After two days, the management at my apartment complex finally got back to me. I had a sit-down meeting with them. They weren’t the culprit, they stressed, adamantly after lots of grilling. Nobody on staff had removed anything from the storage containers, and, as I imagined, there was a rigid protocol about removing items from the units. It was theft, they said. The only question was whether the cameras at the facility had caught a glimpse of the perps.

I waited for word from the Denver Police. There was none. I waited for information from the surveillance company contracted by the apartment. After a week, they sent a curt email saying that, despite multiple cameras being nearby, there were no visuals. Since this was patently absurd (no way someone could have gotten all of those magazines out of there without being on camera), I tried pestering the police to see if they could request the footage. I received a reply saying that our case had been marked inactive. When I asked why it had been labeled inactive, the police told me that they needed information from me. And when I asked what information they needed from me, they requested much of the information I had sent in my original report. I sent the info again, along with some paperwork from the recent purchase we’d made to reprint the magazines we lost. Then I waited again.

Finally, someone from the district (without providing a name) said they were reaching out to the apartment manager, but that they were on vacation…

And, alas, Dear Reader, that is where things sit at the moment. Hopefully, the footage can be retrieved and will reveal something about the perps. I’ll keep you updated if anything interesting happens.

Naturally, I was tempted to use this case as fodder for our next print edition. However, I don’t think lingering on this woebegone topic is good for us, and I have other interests I want to pursue for the next edition. We’ve got to press forward.

That could change if the case gets interesting though, of course. We’ll just have to see. I’m very grateful for all the interest this caper has brought us though. Not exactly free press, but I’ll take it! Subscription rates are looking great! Not nearly enough to compensate for the loss as yet, but, hey, that’s business. I have no doubt that if we stick to the fundamentals and keep putting out great work from talented locals, we’ll make up for it in the long run.

As always, thanks for being part of this adventure in independent media. It’s fascinating, personally, seeing how tricky this entire enterprise is. But so far, so good. And, if our print pirate is reading this, you should know there’s a song in our hearts:

Yours,

Paul M. French, editor