West MetroLIFE
Arvada Press 13 June 5, 2014
Weight-loss season gets glitzy kickoff 3-day event features speakers, art and history exhibit, movie By Tammy Kranz
tkranz@colorado communitymedia.com Rocky Flats stopped producing nuclear weapons in 1989 after the FBI and Environmental Protection Agency raided the facility. It has been 25 years, yet there is still ongoing community dialogue about the land and facility ROCKY FLATS — the THEN AND NOW health impact WHAT: Speakers, movie, on its exhibits, performance emarts ployWHERE: Arvada Center ees, the 6901 Wadsworth Blvd. conWHEN: June 6-8 taminaCOST: Free tion of INFO: https://arvadaradiocenter.org/on-stage/ active rocky-flats-then-andwaste now-2014 leaks, the housing developments on the southern and eastern borders, to just name a few topics. To mark the 25th anniversary of the raid, the Arvada Center for Arts and Humanities is hosting a comprehensive three-day multi-faceted event June 6-8. Rocky Flats Then and Now:
A 1978 demonstration protesting the work done at Rocky Flats.
25 years After the Raid will feature panel discussions focusing on the raid; an art and history exhibit (including photographs and artifacts from the plant); a viewing of “Dark Circle,” an Emmy Award winning documentary — all activities will be free. “We have a chance to look at this story from a variety of perspectives and shed some light on it,” said Philip C. Sneed, executive director of the Arvada Center. “We’ll hear from different people with different points of view of Rocky Flats then and now.” Among the people scheduled to speak are Len Ackland, who authored “Making a Real Killing: Rocky Flats and the Nuclear West”; former Colorado Gov. Roy Romer and former U.S. Rep. David Skaggs, both who were in office during the raid; former FBI agent Jon Lipsky; author Kristen Iverson, who wrote “Full Body Burden: Growing up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats”; poet Anne Waldman; and former plant workers, neighbors, activists and scientists and other experts on the topic. “Rocky Flats is an important part of Arvada’s history,
and yet it’s a story with regional, national, and even international impact,” Sneed said. He stressed that the event is neutral and not meant to reassure either side of the debate about Rocky Flats. The goals of the event are to educate the public and promote respectful dialogue. “We’re hoping we’re giving enough information on both points of views that attendees can make up their own mind,” Sneed said. The event will also feature several artists from different mediums, Sneed said, “So,
we’ll get a sense of how the artistic community responded to Rocky Flats.” Sneed said it the center is hosting the event for free to gauge the community interest in these types of activities. “This is the new thing for us, to try and live up to the second part of our name (humanities),” he said. He added that arts and humanities are important ways to tell a story. “When you put both the arts and humanities disciplines together you get a far greater, and deeper, and broader understanding of the things that affect us, Sneed said. For more information on the event and a complete schedule, visit http://arvadacenter.org/on-stage/rockyflats-then-and-now-2014.
The fourth season of ABC’s reality series “Extreme Weight Loss” debuted May 27 with a red-carpet reception at The United Artists Denver Pavilions Theatre downtown. Charita, the Colorado Springs contestant, was guided on her yearlong weightloss journey by Anschutz Health and Wellness Center’s Dr. Holly Wyatt along with other participants who spent the first three months of their quest at the center in Aurora. Wyatt, alongside fitness specialist Chris Powell, was the guiding force behind steering participants toward their yearlong goal of safely losing up to half their body weight. ABC will air 13 twohour episodes of the hit show locally, 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesdays on Channel 7. Charita, who is featured with Oklahoma resident Ty in the first episode, and Wyatt attended the red-carpet premiere along with more than 200 community and Anschutz medical campus leaders and CEO/executive producer JD Roth. During the run of the show, Wyatt is writing a blog at www.thedenverchannel. com/entertainment/extreme-weight-lossmedical-director-holly-wyatt-blogsabout-charita-ty-weight-loss-journey.
Denver eateries on best list
An aerial view of Rocky Flats before buildings were torn down as part of the cleanup. Photos courtesy the Arvada Center
Thrillist (www.thrillist.com), a national website that has an opinion on all things food and drink-related in the U.S., has bestowed “bests” to three Denver eateries. Included in The 21 Best Southern Restaurants Outside of the South is Tom’s Home Cookin’, 800 E. 26th Ave., a Denver favorite for Southern fare. Thrillist recommends the fried catfish paired with green beans and fried okra. “The name here says it all — this is home cooking, and even if you’ve never met Tom, you’ll be begging to be adopted so you can inhale this instead of whatever you’re hacking at your house.” Sweet Action Ice Cream, 52 Broadway, was included in Thrillist’s 21 Best Ice Cream Shops in America. Here’s the scoop: “What you’re ordering: Pocky and Red Bean if you’re feeling interesting, Milk Chocolate if you’re feeling boring. Our man in Denver tried every single one of the flavors at Sweet Action, and, although he didn’t care much for vegan Maple Walnut or Vanilla Rose, he can vouch for nearly every other flavor as being worth at least several samples. But as sexy as Salted Malt Butterscotch and Cinnamon Roll sound, the champion of the taste was a simple milk chocolate described as `a scoop of goodness ...’” If you prefer drinking your calories instead of eating them, check out Williams & Graham, 3160 Tejon St., the Denver speakeasy that made Thrillist’s The 33 Best Cocktail Bars in America. “A cocktail-themed bookstore is the front for this barely-lit speakeasy coowned by a guy named the 2014 Bartender of the Year by the Nightclub and
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