• This Friday, IIDA’s Rocky Mountain Chapter hosts Prêt-a-Porter at Exdo Event Center.
• The recent New York Times article, “Denver Chefs Head for the Garden,” provides a glimpse into three Denver restaurants that produce or source ingredients from in and around the city.
•  Harry Nilsson’s “Everybody’s Talkin’,” from the 1969 film “Midnight Cowboy”) is a classic and John Scheinfeld’s 2010 documentary “Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin’ About Him?),” explores the singer’s enigmatic life and music that came to an early end.
• MCA Denver’s Energy Effects is on view in its entirety through Sunday, September 12. See the exhibition Westword described as “over the top.”
• El Diablo just opened, and Tambien is now closed. 
• Late addition: Next to Johnny Weir, Brad Feels Masculine. This has to be one of the best scenes from this season’s Rachel Zoe Project. If you were lucky, you also caught a glimpse of Johnny in the newest Bluefly.com commercial.

• Introducing Let’er Buck Cologne, a new fragrance that finally lets you embrace the scent of a rodeo cowboy, available now. I’ll assume this ain’t your first time at the rodeo.
• Egyptian scents + the afterlife + King Tut’s curse + a dose of the unexpected = UnTutled #32 (Tut) at the Denver Art Museum… the final Untitled of the season. Friday, August 27, 6:00–10:00 p.m.
• The Denver Modernism Show takes place this Friday thru Sunday at Denver’s National Western Complex, home of the National Western Stock Show. A VIP gala will be held Friday evening, from 5:00-7:00 p.m. Tickets are $35 but you get free cocktails. I was told that last year’s drinks were ridiculously strong. SOLD! 
• Interested in all things mid-century? The 2010 Arapahoe Acres Home & Garden Tour takes place this Saturday, August 28th. Arapahoe Acres is the first post-World War II residential subdivision listed as a historic district in the National Register of Historic Places. Participants can tour 12 homes and gardens from 1:00-5:00 p.m.
• ARTCRANK Denver will open on Saturday, September 4 at the Lisa Koslowski Gallery. The show will feature the work of 56 local artists and run through Saturday, September 11. (via xrocksthespot™)
• SF Weekly‘s food critic, Jonathan Kauffman reports, When Pink Ice Cream Isn’t Gay Enough: Tranny Smackdown at Humphry Slocombe. Oh, San Francisco… Oh, Cazwell.

• According to the New York Times, “Summertime is tote time.” However, the DOD boys know that anytime, not just summertime, is tote time. The Hetrick-Martin Institute, in collaboration with Polo Ralph Lauren produced the totes pictured above. Proceeds benefit the institute, the nation’s oldest social service organization supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth. More here.
• There’s been a variety of local and national criticism (both good and bad) regarding Santiago Calatrava’s recently unveiled designs (with architects of record Gensler) for the Denver International Airport. I’m not quite sure where I stand, but I’m sure that just like the Clyfford Still Museum, which recently released images of the final design, Calatrava’s proposal will also change over time.
• I’m not a fan of flip -flops. Yes, King Tut wore them, but I’d prefer that you didn’t… unless we’re at the beach, by the pool, or they’re made entirely out of gold. Just saying. As if you needed another reason to avoid flip-flops CNN recently aired a story regarding researchers who found that wearing thong-style flip-flops resulted in pain in the ankles, legs, feet… and some people’s eyes. Yes, I did.
• Do you work in downtown Denver? Well, you may have heard that it’s Downtown Denver Partnership Employee Appreciation Week. There are numerous events, freebies, discounts at downtown restaurants and other activities, including free ice cream, today at 12:30 pm at Skyline Park (16th & Arapahoe).
• An exclusive and rather handsome collection of “built-to-last” men’s apparel and accessories –a collaboration between Levi’s and Filson– is now available in select retail stores, as well as on www.levi.com and www.filson.com.
• Gary Hustwit, the filmaker responsibile for the documentary, Helvetica, which looked at the worlds of typography and graphic design, and their impact on our visual environment and Objectified, which focused on industrial design and product design, and our relationship with the manufactured objects that surround us, is now working on his third film, Urbanized. The last of Hustwit’s design trilogy, Urbanized looks at the issues and strategies behind urban design, featuring some of the world’s foremost architects, planners, policymakers, builders, and thinkers.

• Are multi-level shorts for men really the new summer trend? Via Le Fag.
• Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava is in town this week to unveil plans for the Denver International Airport South Terminal Redevelopment. Tonight, the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs will host a special public presentation with the architect at the Denver Art Museum from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
• I’ve amassed quite a collection of works on paper. Drawings, posters, and prints. The thought of framing and then hanging these works is a little daunting. KID Collective offers up a few suggestions of how to incorporate artwork behind your sofa. I particularly love the vintage furniture thrift store combo.
• As we mentioned last week, Mondo Guerra will be bringing a little Denver to “Project Runway” this season. You can personally cheer him on each and every Thursday night during the season as The Fabric Lab and Guerra host Project Runway Nights at Beauty Bar Denver.
• 31 is apparently the new 21, according to a study on the age at which women reach their peak of confidence. Congratulations, Kate Hudson — it’s all downhill from here.

Denver's Security Life / ING Building

• Neil Patrick Harris tweets his double rainbow sighting. Apparently, I’m not the only one who gets excited over a rainbow, or two. I caught one last night, above.
• Courtney Love has started writing a blog about what she wears.
• ‘Project Runway’ Season 8 begins airing on Lifetime on July 29. Seventeen contestants will compete this season, including Mondo Guerra from Denver.
• Michael Paglia’s review of three important Biennial art exhibits.
• The fall election is heating up in Oklahoma. Brittany Novotny, a Democrat and the states’s first known transgender candidate, is running for a seat in the State House against Sally Kern, the Republican incumbent who gained national attention in 2008 for saying that “the homosexual agenda is just destroying this nation.”
• Men are being introduced to the concept of mattification. I’ve been using DDF Daily Matte™ with SPF 15 for years. Just saying.

The wives of the African leaders joined French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. The bouffant hairdo of Cameroonian first lady Chantal Biya added to the splendour of the occasion.

• Vive La France! France marked Bastille day with a military parade down the Champs-Elysee in Paris to celebrate the 211th anniversary of the storming of the Bastille prison, amid criticism of the presence of some African leaders in Paris.
• Check out Design*Sponge’s “sneak peek” of my friend Kate’s sunny Oakland, CA apartment where she and Anton have surrounded themselves with pieces they’ve made, collected and inherited.
• According to Westword’s Worst-Case Scenario, King Tut could give a DAM.
• The Foals announce a North American tour and stop by Denver’s Larimer Lounge on Tuesday October 12th. The Oxford group is playing in support of their recently released second album ‘Total Life Forever’. While this is great news (notice San Francisco and Seattle missing from the tour…) I will need to travel elsewhere this fall to catch twee-pop cult heroes Belle and Sebastian.
• Otter, bear, seal… or just not sure what animal you are? This Friday the Barker Lounge, “Denver’s Friendliest Neighborhood Lounge” on Broadway hosts a Woodland Creature Party, featuring “honey wrestling” and a “pelt pageant.” Should be an interesting evening…
• When will this heat end?

We started off with a Thursday night trip with gal pals of Alastair’s to Tubesteak Connection (vile name, huh?), the weekly party at Aunt Charlie’s Lounge in the Tenderloin.  The space is tiny and crowded with hipsters.  The drinks are strong and the disco tunes kept coming. Aunt Charlie also forbids the use of cell phones (even for texting!); Blake approves.  Your DOD boys danced the night away and then headed somewhere-or-other (memory gets fuzzy at this point) for an after-party.  Way to start the weekend off with a bang!

Chow on Church below Market

The next day started with a little recovery.  Alastair and I brunched at Chow, just below the corner of Church and Market.  We began with a couple salads; Alastair had his perennial Chow favorite, the Shrimp Louie, and I went for the iceberg wedge.  Mine wasn’t so great.  They throw in just about everything imaginable: carrots, cucumbers, radishes, olives, even a beet!  (Alastair’s was served with the same accompaniments, though he didn’t seem to mind as much).  We finished things off with a smaller portion of the fusilli with sausage and mushrooms (me) and a cheese pizza with arugula (Alastair).  Deelish!  But even more tasty from Alastair’s point of view was that we were served by DJ Jason Kendig.  Cause that’s the way things are in San Francisco: your afternoon waiter will be spinning at that night’s club.  The afternoon was a lazy preparation for a friend’s party that night: running in Golden Gate Park (lovely for a jog if it’s not too windy) and a little happy hour cocktailing at DOD favorite Blackbird.

The rest of the weekend was a blur of cocktails and recovery (I was heavier on the latter than the former).  Alastair, of course, attended the Goldfrapp concert in Oakland on Saturday night as well as Juanita Moore’s Pride Party on Sunday afternoon and evening.  I admit it: I skipped the Pink Party on Saturday night, where a good chunk of Market and Castro is closed off for pedestrians (probably for the best as I also avoided the tragic  shooting death), and I skipped the parade on Sunday.  Bad gay!  I did, however, dine with my Gentleman Friend at Memphis Minnie’s, a barbecue joint on Haight Street (their phone number is 415.864.PORK; they’re serious about their meat).  We split the Minnie’s Taster: any three meats and two sides for $17.95. Combine that with an order of their very tasty BBQ-dusted shoestring fries and I was totally stuffed.

On Monday we regrouped, stopped at Bean There at Steiner and Waller for a coffee, and headed downtown for a little shopping. I picked up a discounted blazer at H&M that will be perfect for a summer wedding I’ll be attending in August.  Alas, and despite all the sales, Alastair’s shopping ambitions were somehow stymied and he returned to Denver empty-handed.  We then had a gossipy lunch with some of Alastair’s gal pals at Stacks in Hayes Valley.  Their slogan is “Comfortable Food.”  Really.  It’s basically a diner with enormous (and very dusty) fake flower arrangements in gigantic urns, but in a very nice location right at the corner of Hayes and Octavia.

All in all, a very fun weekend was had by both of your DOD boys!

• Looks like Beauty Bar has finally opened. The chain has franchises all over the country, from New York to San Francisco. Denver’s Beauty Bar, located in the old Snake Pit space, is owned by three locals, but no doubt has all the same bells, whistles, and kitschy ’50s salon décor of its sisters.
• Grow up Cristiano Ronaldo.
• I’ve been thinking about celebrating an upcoming milestone birthday somewhere unique and outside of the norm… with a few good gal pals, of course. One of the places on the top of my list is Marfa, Texas, best known as the home of The Chinati Foundation and the filming location for the movie Giant, starring James Dean, Rock Hudson, and Elizabeth Taylor. I’ve been dying to see Prada Marfa for years and you’ll most likely find me staying here.
• MCA Denver’s newest exhibition, Energy Effects: Art and Artifacts From the Landscape of Glorious Excess, opens today with an all day celebration featuring artists talks, cocktails, and general mayhem. Energy Effects is presented in partnership with the 2010 Biennial of the Americas.
• 87% of women want you to want them… and so do Betty, Mama, and Pepper over at The Denver Omelette.
• The 20th annual Cherry Creek Arts Festival opens Saturday and will run from July 3-5 in Cherry Creek North.

Things got retrofuturistic when Goldfrapp performed at 9:30 club on Monday. (All photos by Kyle Gustafson/FTWP)

I’m about to depart for the City by the Bay to catch one of only a few performances by Alison Goldfrapp happening this month in the US. Seriously, I may just die at the end of the show based on reviews (and photos) I’ve seen thus far… so this may be the last you hear from me. I die. Do you die?

In any case, Blake and I will have plenty to share regarding our Bay Area excursion when we return. Until then… stay down and stay out.

Things got retrofuturistic when Goldfrapp performed at 9:30 club on Monday. (All photos by Kyle Gustafson/FTWP)

Original Cast (sans DA and Lieutenant)

But the original is still the original and I’ve probably seen almost all of its episodes at least once, if not three or four times.  I remember the first time I truly became addicted.  It was the summer of 2001, so already 11 years into its run (just think of how many reruns there were to watch: a cornucopia of death and legal wrangling to be discovered!).  I was subletting with people I didn’t know all that well and they had cable (I didn’t even have a TV myself).  One of them was also an L&O addict.  And soon I joined her.

I came to realize that while many things in life might bring me more joy and happiness, few things were as reliably satisfying as an episode of Law and Order.  One hour and things were wrapped up neatly.  The prosecution didn’t always win, of course (which leant it some small semblance of verité), but the murder was usually solved even if not adequately punished.  Police for half an hour; DAs for another half an hour.  Predictable and satisfying.  I came to know the ins and outs, which leads were red herrings, when the supposed murderer really was innocent.  It often had to do with timing.  I knew the rhythms of an episode so well that I knew when it was too soon to have found the perp or to have wrapped up the case: a twist was coming!

All of this predictability might make it sound like L&O was boring, but on the contrary, it was like it had become a reliable old friend.  I knew the sounds (bum bum!) and the characters.  I savored every little detail revealed about their personal lives (and these were famously few and far between).  I came to have my favorites.  I think my Dream Team would have to be:

One Configuration of My Favorite Lineup

S. Epatha Merkerson as the tough-as-nails Lt. Anita Van Buren

Jerry Orbach as the salty, wise-cracking, club soda swilling Lennie Briscoe

Tie: Benjamin Bratt and Jesse L. Martin as Rey Curtis and Ed Green, respectively, the hot junior cops and Lennie sidekicks (both of whom, in different ways, have troubles off the job: Rey’s wife, Deborah, has MS, and Ed battles a gambling problem)

Steven Hill as the crotchety  and taciturn DA Adam Schiff

Sam Waterston as Jack McCoy, Executive ADA (who else could it be?)

3 way tie: Jill Hennessy, Carey Lowell, and Angie Harmon as Claire Kincaid, Jamie Ross, and Abby Carmichael, respectively.  These three ADAs could not be more different from one another, and that was all for the good.  All three were feminists, though Ross and Carmichael would never have slept with the boss as Kincaid did.  All three were whip smart.  Carmichael’s politics were generally not my own but there was a certain thrill by proxy when Abby advocated some horribly draconian punishment.

The 2009-2010 Cast

So who is your dream lineup?  Or what L&O memories would you like to share as we tune in this week for the series finale (sob) of twenty years of the police, who investigate crime, and the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders?