The Denver Cupcake Truck
The Denver Cupcake Truck
This afternoon DOD fortuitously stumbled upon The Denver Cupcake Truck at 15th and Tremont. It’s only the second day that the old time delivery truck has hit the streets of Denver. I quickly and giddily purchased a couple samples to try back at DOD headquarters… Zippy Lemon: a lemon cake filled with lemon curd and topped with cream cheese frosting; Mile-Hi Mocha: a mocha cake frosted with espresso butter cream then dipped in heath bar bits; and perhaps my favorite, Rockin’ Red Velvet: a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting, dipped in sugar and silver dragees. Other flavors include: Vanilla Party, Chocolate Overload, Pistachio and Denver Snowball. The Denver Cupcake Truck also offers a daily Mystery flavor. Today’s feature was a blueberry cupcake topped with a maple frosting. Pancakes, much? Cupcakes cost $2.75 a piece or four for $10.
Rockin' Red Velvet
And YES, I just ate all three of those cupcakes in just the last half-hour… and would have seriously considered a fourth if I didn’t have the breakfast that I did this morning. I need some ice cold milk, bad… and maybe a nap in the next hour when my sugar high comes down.
Interested in finding the truck’s next stop? I suggest following TDCT’s Facebook page, or Twitter and giving these baked goods a try!
More and more I’ve been asking myself the following: Is Denver joining the culinary ranks of New York or San Francisco? I hope so! Denver has a tremendous opportunity to reanimate it’s street food culture, and to give it an identity similar to, but distinct from Portland’s. If recent signs, like the barbacoa-like lamb gyro I had courtesy of Denver’s Gastro Cart, are forecasting a trend, then Denver has a lot to look forward to. Imagine a 16th Street Mall that could one day deserve this: http://www.foodcartsportland.com/
Kalinda
Archie Panjabi as Kalinda Sharma
I’ve posted about The Good Wife before but I am feeling the need to extoll its virtues once again, and particularly those of Archie Panjabi, who plays the character of Kalinda Sharma. Kalinda is an investigator for the firm of Stern, Lockhart, and Gardner. And she is, in a word, fantastic. The writers have made her character multilayered, devious, conniving, intelligent, sexual, and saucy. In short, she is not simply a bit player but has all the complexity of a (particularly interesting) real woman. And as one of about five Indian women on American television in speaking roles (fewer?), that’s no small feat (Panjabi is British, though plays an American on this show). That Panjabi manages to make the most of what the writers provide for her is, of course, all to her own credit.
Viewers may remember the episode when Kalinda was a witness and manipulated the judge into dismissing the testimony she did not want to be giving. She did this by making not-so-very veiled hints about the judge’s own sexual proclivities (which included reenacting scenes from plantation life with African American prostitutes). It was genius. Last week’s episode featured another true gem. Kalinda is at a college gym and wants access to a locker. She’s dealing with a college kid or perhaps assistant coach who works there.
Kalinda: You got the keys?
Coach Kid: Don’t you need a warrant or something?
K: Yeah, if I were a cop. I can get bolt cutters in here but it’d be easier if you just opened it.
CK: So you’re not a cop?
K: No.
CK: And you’re not with campus police?
K: Unh uh.
CK: So who are you?
K: Kalinda
And he opens it! Not only does the writing make fun of the way that we all, schooled in cop shows, think we know what to ask in such a situation, but it also points out that we wouldn’t know quite what to do when faced with answers like Kalinda’s. And as preposterous as it sounds, you believe it. Or, at the very least, her performance is so good that you’re thrilled into wanting to believe it. And that’s pretty much the same thing.
Where’s a (gay) boy to shop?
So I’ve been away for the weekend and I got back today and checked my mail, only to find an announcement about a Bloomingdale’s sale and the latest Barney’s catalogue. Really, do I actually need two reminders at once that, repeat after me, there is no good shopping in Denver? I do not, because I am reminded of this every time I need to buy a new outfit.
We here in Denver do not have a Bloomingdale’s, which, let’s face it, isn’t always stellar, but certainly can be (the SF store has a pretty good selection of menswear). Nor do we have a Barney’s, but there aren’t exactly tons of locations nationwide, so perhaps this shouldn’t top the list of what we are denied (but a boy can dream).
But listen to what else is absent from Colorado (as if you didn’t already know!):
Club Monaco — the good old reliable (and Canadian!) company that can emphasize the basics a little too often, but is always reliable for precisely those basics. And the clothes fit! They even carry extra small at some locations. (Michigan, Minnesota, Florida, and Georgia all have at least one.)
Zara — the sometimes over-the-top Spanish company that occasionally veers a little too close to the land of International Male, but also makes clothes in small sizes and often very nice jackets. (Locations in Maryland, Nevada, and Puerto Rico and everywhere else you would expect. Read: real cities.)
H & M — the bargain basement Swiss brand that makes clothes that fall apart after about a year but that you paid so little for to begin with that you don’t care. (Stores in Arizona, Delaware, Kentucky, Ohio, Wisconsin, 2 in Indianapolis [!], and one on a Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, CA.)
Reiss — the overpriced and elegantly simple British line that I would wear everyday if I could afford it.
TopShop — the H&Mesque British shop that sometimes features an adjoining TopMan filled with duds for hipsters and skateboarders and gays like me.
I recognize that expecting Denver to have either of the last two is probably a tall order, but no Club Monaco? Come on, people! I repeat: where’s a gay boy to shop? Suggestions welcome so long as they aren’t pointing me in the direction of Abercrombie and Fitch, American Eagle, or Hollister (I have written about my feelings on that sort of silliness before).
Denver B-cycle Launches April 22
Expect more from me regarding Denver’s soon to launch B-cycle program. I recently signed up for the discounted annual membership ($55 well spent) and looking forward to giving this a go. One less Denver driver on the road (acting all important on their cell phone and too busy and important to be keeping an eye out for that pedestrian who has the right-of-way) will add years to my life.
In the meantime, our friends at Denver B-cycle recommend attending the Launch Event on the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, April 22. If you are interested in volunteering for the launch, go to www.bikedenver.org or email info@denverbikesharing.org.
“That was a bit of a shock, yes?”
Where do I begin? Episode 11 of Project Runway, “Sew Much Pressure” was like no other this season. You may be thinking to yourself, doesn’t Blake typically writes the PR/MoTR entries? Yes, dear DOD readers, Blake does. However, the shock was too much for Blake who was “too upset by Cerri’s leaving and Brandise being a bitch” to write anything this week. So here is my attempt:
The remaining designers were charged with creating a red carpet look for a very opinionated celebrity who asked to be “on the best dressed list, not the worst dress list.” Really… I thought all celebrities yearned for the moment they would be on the worse dressed list. I guess that’s better than not being on any list at all. Just saying. I was more confused by Lifetime’s inability to find a willing celebrity… and decided to recycle the pregnant Klum for yet another challenge. Marie Claire cover, anyone?
"I will not have a bump so think of me without the bump."
There was plenty of drama, however, to distract me from this. Seth Aaron’s model Valeria decided to take a high-paying gig with DKNY… and Cerri got to return! Even more surprising, Maya, after a lengthy disappearance, announced that she was dropping out of the competition. She was somewhat upset with not winning a challenge, but everyone was stunned. And so was I… until I found out that Anthony got to come back! And in his own words, “Who wouldn’t want Anthony back? Heck who doesn’t like him, I like him.” It reminded me of when the fabulous Chris March got booted and returned in Season 5. I could not have been happier to see him return. Last week was heartbreaking.
And Miss Thang is back.
Emilio and Anthony impressed the judges so much that they both won. Emilio’s sequined gown was constructed without a flaw. The shimmering fabric wasn’t my favorite, but it fit beautifully. Anthony’s black-and-white gown embodied, in my mind, classic Hollywood glamour and let’s be honest, this was a challenge for Anthony. I’m looking forward to seeing him dress the stars. Heidi chose Emilio’s gown and guest judge Jessica Alba (who is apparently making the rounds this week) chose Anthony’s. I loved Alba’s comment that “It’s one movie on one side and another movie on the other side.”
Emilio Sosa
Anthony Williams
The rest of the designers were serious disappointments. WHEN is Mila going to go? Her dress was nothing red carpet-like. According to Nina Garcia, it looked like “something the Housewives of New Jersey would wear” and I could not have agreed more. The final two were Jay and Jonathan. I think the pressure finally got to Jonathan whose dress was thrown together at the last minute and was eliminated.
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