Take note, kids: This is what it’s like to be famous for 2.5 seconds.

As you may have guessed from the general lack of activity on this blog lately, we’ve been winding it down.

We had a great run the first few years covering all things “Real World: Denver”- related, and we found a different (albeit less insanely vocal) audience posting pop culture Q&As with writers, comedians and actors after that. We were also able to highlight some great Denver Post features our readers may have overlooked throughout the week, like Kathleen St. John’s Clubs column, the Food section’s Eat Local (formerly Cheap Eats) and others.

But with our music blog Reverb growing by leaps and bounds (I’m a co-editor there) and our new fine arts blog Artmosphere off to a running start, we figured it’s time to hang up the Get Real Denver moniker and focus on specialized topics instead of trying to be all things to all people.

That said, there are still hundreds of great posts on this site ripe for archiving and recollecting – especially that wildly popular “Real World” coverage, which found us essentially stalking the secretive MTV/Bunim-Murray crew whilst they were out trashing our little city, and then following up with detailed episode recaps while the whole sad, sordid affair aired.

Feel free to peruse the back catalog, and thanks again for the support — and vehement hate mail — over the years. You made me feel like a real journalist!

Sincerely,
jw

John Wenzel is the co-editor of Reverb, former editor of Get Real Denver and an award-winning A&E reporter for The Denver Post. His book “Mock Stars: Indie Comedy and the Dangerously Funny” was recently published by Speck Press. He also maintains a Twitter feed of random, absurdist song titles.

Snooze (above) and McCoy’s couldn’t be more different, but both serve a purpose in the Fort Collins brunch scene. Photo and review by Kristen Browning-Blas.

This is a tale of two diners. One has been serving breakfast and lunch in southwest Fort Collins for 10 years. The other opened in Old Town in April and is already drawing morning and noontime crowds.

McCoy’s Morning Glory is the kind of place people go after church for coffee and a brunch buffet. Newcomer Snooze (pictured above) is where you meet your hip cousin for pepper-infused vodka Bloody Marys and bacon-caramel pancakes.

With its blond wood tables and chairs and country garden theme, McCoy’s does not pretend to be cool. Snooze (which also has two Denver locations) is all about image, from the over-the-top menu descriptions to the midcentury-modern decor. When a restaurant promises “breakfast bliss” and calls its pancakes “brilliance,” expectations naturally will soar.

Read on …

Award-winning Brookly comedian Reggie Watts was tapped to open for Conan O’Brien on his national theater tour.

Describing Reggie Watts’ genre-hopping comedy act is a lot more difficult than simply experiencing it. Terms like “postmodern” and “meta” might help locate his mix of stand-up, beatboxing, off-the-cuff sampling and a cappella improvisation, but only because his disorienting performances are as much about commenting on the forms of stage entertainment as the content.

Ultimately, Watts’ unique voice knows how to do what counts: make audiences laugh. That’s probably why Conan O’Brien picked up the Brooklyn resident and festival favorite as the opener on two-month, 32-city “Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television” tour, which played CU-Boulder’s Macky Auditorium last night and stops by Denver’s Ellie Caulkins Opera House on Monday.

We chatted with Watts, whose first Comedy Central CD/DVD “Why $#!+ So Crazy?” is out May 18, about the reception he’s gotten from O’Brien’s fans, how he landed the gig and what’s next for him.

Read on …

Skeptical outsiders Daria and Jane (right) address the bubbly Brittany in a scene from MTV’s animated series “Daria,” which sees DVD release on Tuesday.

Somewhere in the laidback mess of apathy that was the late 1990s, a TV show emerged that was — and in many ways still is — the antithesis of most teen programs.

“Daria,” MTV’s cult animated series that ran from 1997 to 2002, was an improbable show, to say the least. A spin-off of the willfully gross, mindless “Beavis and Butt-head,” “Daria” was led by the smart, sarcastic high school student Daria Morgendorffer, whose world was populated with friends (Jane), family (parents Jake and Helen, sister Quinn) and various archetypical American teenage characters (jocks, cheerleaders, nerds, etc.).

Though not a ratings champ during its initial run, the show’s sharp sensibility and evolving characters attracted a devoted cult following who would eventually demand — via a 50,000-strong online petition — the show’s release on DVD . That release, however, was complicated by the huge amount of licensed music in the original series that needed to be replaced with cheaper, more generic background songs. (The same problem also prevented MTV’s “The State” from DVD release for many years).

But fans can rejoice: On Tuesday, March 11, MTV will finally release all five seasons of the “Daria” plus both “Daria” movies and various special features on DVD.

Read on …

Cinco de Mayo may have been yesterday, but East Colfax hangout Mezcal is going strong with the celebrations through Sunday. Denver Post file photo.

There’s only one thing to say when Cinco de Mayo falls on a weekday. “Es muy triste.” Many working folks were very sad that they couldn’t indulge their Cinco party ideas to the fullest Wednesday. Sure, there was a margarita here, a Tecate there, but when a drinking holiday is in the middle of the week, it’s hard to muster a lot of enthusiasm.

Those who did work up the courage on Wednesday likely found themselves very sad as well — this morning. All is not lost, however. The heartiest Cinco de Mayo partyers are going strong through the weekend. Here are a couple tabernas to consider on a weekend quest to salute the Mexican army’s defeat of the French at Puebla in 1862.

Mezcal (3230 E. Colfax Ave.), always a popular choice for Cinco de Mayo revelers, started rockin’ on Monday. The party continues this weekend, with happy hour prices all day, every day through Sunday.

Read on …