Year of the Ram

I hated the '90s. The '90s fuckin' sucked," professional wrestler Randy "The Ram" Robinson says early on in The Wrestler — and he should know. Over the hill and past his prime — his steroidal body a palimpsest of battle scars, his graying hair dyed a Nordic blond — Robinson hasn't seen the inside of a major arena in the better part of 20 years. Nowadays, he gets top billing by scraping bottom, trading blows with other used-to-bes and might-have-beens in school gymnasiums and banquet halls, earning a cut of the door that's barely enough to cover his trailer-park... full story >>

Buzz Reviews the News of 2008: Yes. It Was All Bad.

Buzz's mother had three essential life lessons she attempted to impart to her son: 1) Shut up; 2) Show some respect; and 3) God help you if I ever catch you hanging around that pool hall. Despite her best efforts, delivered with the loving strokes of a left hook that would have done Joe Frazier proud, lessons one and two didn't take. But that's OK.We like this job.

Buzz never did learn to play pool, though. To this day, we just can't grasp all the angles.

That pool hall Mother Buzz warned us about was a seedy storefront on the main street of the small town where we grew... full story >>

Republicans weren't the only ones who took a beating in 2008

Colorado made news in 2008, and we're not talking about Barack Obama accepting the Democratic nomination for president. Nosirree. Even bigger news! John and Patsy Ramsey were officially cleared in the 1996 death of their daughter, JonBenét. Of course, you might have missed that if you were paying too much attention to the possibility, and eventual reality, of Sunday liquor sales, which riveted the city for months, or to "believer" Jeff Peckman's effort to create a UFO task force in Denver.

But if the Rocky Mountain News, which went up for sale in December, is shut down,... full story >>

Cancer Doctor Stanislaw Burzynski Sees Himself as a Crusading Researcher, Not a Quack

If you were writing the story of Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski, he'd probably want you to start with him leaving Poland for America with $15 and a dream. He'd want it to end with him curing cancer.

The events in between would describe a man leaving behind an oppressive regime for what he thought was a sanctuary for medical research — only to discover that U.S. authorities were even worse than the Communists. Page after page would show authorities trying to shut him down, trying to put him in jail. But he would persevere, bolstered by the testimonies of patients who come to his... full story >>

All You Need Is Love

As the new year begins, anyone with e-mail is still snickering over Kansas City first lady Gloria Squitiro's 2007 Christmas letter, the details of which we don't need to repeat here.

Meanwhile, City Manager Wayne Cauthen confirms that he's a semifinalist for the city manager's job in Austin, Texas. Who can blame Cauthen for exploring his options after Mayor Mark Funkhouser's bungled late-2007 attempt to force him from office? For Cauthen, it's apparently small comfort that the City Council quickly rallied behind him. Insulted that Funkhouser... full story >>

The Best Movies of 2008

Is it a sign of the apocalypse? Something in the water? Or is it just the way the wind is blowing? Whatever the case, when our often-contentious quintet of film critics put their heads together about the best movies of 2008, they somehow agreed (more or less) on a dozen they thought were deserving of that designation. What's more, two of those films — The Dark Knight and Wall-E — also happen to rank among the year's five highest-grossing releases (with The Dark Knight, as of this writing, the second highest-grossing film ever released in the States), taking the wind out of... full story >>

Humbled Mickey Rourke makes gutsy return to Hollywood

"I hated the '90s. The '90s fuckin' sucked," says professional wrestler Randy "The Ram" Robinson early on in The Wrestler—and he should know. Over the hill and past his prime—his steroidal body a palimpsest of battle scars, his graying hair dyed a Nordic blond—Robinson hasn't seen the inside of a major arena in the better part of 20 years. Nowadays, he gets top billing by scraping bottom, trading blows with other used-to-bes and might-have-beens in school gymnasiums and banquet halls, earning a cut of the door that's barely enough to cover his trailer-park... full story >>

The LOL Year in Review

Just check out any newsstand right now and you'll see that 'tis the season — for year-in-review issues. While the annual lookback is an all-too-familiar format, we must confess we love it. We know you're not supposed to admit that to some news snobs, who frown upon recycling old material; it's like admitting you think Dave Barry is funnier than David Sedaris, or that you'd rather watch Dateline than listen to All Things Considered. But in an age of information overload, there's something wonderfully satisfying about having the past 12 months distilled into its highlights, so we... full story >>