(Denver Post)- 

Denver musician Rick Kulwicki, best known as guitarist for Sub Pop recording artists the Fluid, died Tuesday. He was 49. The cause remains under investigation.

“Everybody who he touched went away with a positive feeling,” said Arnie Beckman, a close friend and bandmate to Kulwicki. “Everybody who encountered him loved him. You hear that a lot when people pass away, but in Rick’s case, it’s not exaggeration.”

Kulwicki is survived by his two teenage sons — he was a single father — two sisters and his mother.

In recent years, Kulwicki played guitar and hosted practices for the Buckingham Squares, and Beckman played bass for the Denver band.

Beckman knew something was amiss when he showed up for band practice at Kul wicki’s house Tuesday about 6 p.m. and found paramedics on the scene. As of Wednesday afternoon, Beckman said, the cause of death was unknown.

News of Kulwicki’s death spread Wednesday on Facebook and message boards, with friends, fans and bandmates lamenting the loss of a man as kind a person as he was ferocious on the guitar.

“Rick was a person of impeccable integrity,” said Fluid frontman John Robinson, a friend of Kulwicki’s for decades. “If you ever needed an example of how to live your life, you only had to look at how Rick conducted his.”

Bart Dahl helped manage the Fluid through the band’s recent reunions, including a triumphant return at the Bluebird Theater in 2008.

“I’ve never met his equal for pure sunshine and happiness and positivity,” Dahl said. “He was just a magical character — an ambassador of goodwill.”

Ronnie Crawford was a bartender at 7 South, the revered, now-closed Denver rock club that helped the Fluid and many others find their feet in the 1980s and ’90s.

“He was a dad and a musician and a compassionate guy,” Crawford said. “His boys have their own band. They were guitar techs when the Fluid would play.”

Friends gathered informally at the Skylark Lounge on Wednesday evening to mourn together. Further memorial plans will be announced on the Buckingham Squares’ Facebook page.

Mike’s Thoughts:  If you missed last night’s 83rd Annual Academy Awards Show, do your little happy dance and consider yourself lucky.

I understand these kinds of shows aren’t really geared toward me, per se, but I’m pretty sure this was the worst award show I’ve ever seen in my entire life.

It was nice that they managed to work the censored F-Bomb into the telecast early when my kids were still awake.  Nothing says “I’m a calm cool and collected professional actor” like that particular move.

And the hosts?  James “One Hitter” Franco and Anne “I’m So Happy I Could Just Crap” Hathaway?  Whoever had the idea to pair up the head cheerleader with the king of the stoney patrol should probably be reprimanded.

In the event that you missed the show but are interested in the award run down, here it is.  (Reading this list will take you 3 minutes.  Which means I just saved you 3 hours and 57 minutes of television viewing agony.)

Charlie Sheen is returning to prime-time this week. But it won’t be on Two and a Half Men – 20/20 will air a special one-hour interview with the rehabbing actor that was taped this past weekend.

Charlie reportedly wants to tell his side of the story and give viewers a look into his personal life, following his most recent meltdown which resulted in his sitcom getting shut down.

In the interview with ABC’s Andrea Canning, he says, “Yeah, I am on a drug. It’s called Charlie Sheen.” He adds, “There’s some wrongs to be righted and stories to tell. But people need to hear my side of it.”

Charlie is also telling his side of things on NBC’s Today show this morning.

And if those interviews aren’t enough, Charlie’s writing a tell-all book about life on the set of Two and a Half Men. TMZ reports that he wants at least $10 million to spill the beans. The title he has in mind: When the Laughter Stopped.

Mike’s Thoughts: 

1.  If the drug Charlie Sheen is high on is actually called “Charlie Sheen”, can he be arrested for “posession of Charlie Sheen with intent to distribute”?

2.  Someone pull the plug on this soap opera.  Please.

3.  Charlie should be “Sheen” and not heard.

NEWSER) – Texas has a new scholarship for that most flailing of demographic segments: white guys. The fund is the brainchild of an Iraq war veteran who couldn’t find money to go back to school—but found plenty for women and other minorities. “I felt excluded,” says Colby Bohannon. “If everyone else can find scholarships, why are we left out?”

Bohannon knows he’s in for it with people who will claim “we are racists or promoting some bigotry-filled agenda,” but he says he’s really just trying to give a hand-up to a once-dominant group. To get your hands on his funds, Aol News reports, you have to have at least a 3.0—and be a quarter Caucasian. “My feeling is that if you can say you’re 25% Caucasian, you’re Caucasian enough for us,” says Bohannon.

Mike’s Thoughts:  Honestly, as strange as it may look on paper, I’ll be shocked if anyone has a problem with this new “white guy scholarship”.  We (collectively that is) frequently give out scholarships based on both performance and race/ethnicity.  From where I’m sitting, this new scholarship shouldn’t be evaluated, judged or criticized any differently.

I came up with a list today featuring my top 5 bands with more than one lead vocalist.  It’s not necessarily a list based on historical contributions to music and pop culture as much as  it is a list devoted to bands who used multiple vocalists to their advantage.  And the winners are:

Cream-Jack Bruce and Eric Clapton

Allman Brothers-Dickey Betts and Gregg Allman

Fleetwood Mac-Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie as of 1975 and prior to that Bob Welch, Peter Green and to a lesser known extent Danny Kirwin and Jeremy Spencer.

Beatles-John, Paul, George and Ringo…you know, The Beatles

And number one on my list…The Eagles.  Glenn Frey and Don Henley get most the credit but Randy Meisner, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmidt have all sung lead on hit records.  The deciding factor for me when it comes to placing  The Eagles ahead of the other competition on this list…The varied styles of the singers.  Vocally, they have been a very versatile American Band.

So there you go…that’s The List!

(Premier)- 

Does all this talk about the upcoming Royal Wedding make you want to puke? Well, marketers have just the answer — an official William and Kate barf bag.

The “Throne Up” bag, which retails for about five bucks, is the latest, grossest entrant into the cash-in sweepstakes. Designer Lydia Leith says she has no problem with the impending nuptials, saying, “The sick bags aren’t specifically political, or at least weren’t made as a dig. I wanted to contribute to the tradition of what I see as a very British humor.”

Mike’s Thoughts:  Having been a long time fan of “British Humor”, THIS is an idea I can get behind.

Not that it’s the fault of either William or Kate, but can someone PLEASE tell me why we, here in America, give a rat’s ass about the “Royal Wedding”?

Isn’t the whole idea of royalty one of the main reasons we declared our independence from England in the first place?

(NEWSER) – There’s a very good chance that sometime in the not-so-distant future, a severe solar storm could unleash an electromagnetic pulse on Earth, knocking out satellites, grounding air travel, and disrupting power grids around the world, scientists warned at an American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting yesterday. The UK’s chief scientist likened the event to a “global Katrina,” predicting a $2 trillion economic fallout, according to the Guardian.

“The issue of space weather has got to be taken seriously,” he said. “The potential vulnerability of our systems has increased dramatically.” Solar activity runs on a roughly 11-year cycle, with its next flare-up expected in 2013. In the past these incidents have been little-noticed, but these days the world is intensely reliant on satellites. “I’m not talking about days or weeks, but several months without electric power,” said one Swedish official, calling for cross-Atlantic cooperation. (Click for anotherdire warning from AAAS.)

Mike’s Thoughts:  I don’t want anyone to panic over this gloom and doom solar storm scenario.  I’ve got a call in to our friend 9 News Meteorologist Becky Ditchfield. 

Becky’s gonna fire up the ol’ Doppler Radar and see what she can see.

You’re in good hands, with Becky.

(NEWSER) – Everybody loves Girl Scout cookies, but not everybody loves them thismuch: A Florida woman is in jail on charges of beating up her roommate Sunday in a dispute over Thin Mints. Hersha Howard, 31, is accused of bursting into Jasmin Wanke’s room while she slept and accusing Wanke of eating her cookies. Howard then allegedly jumped on top of Wanke and hit her in the face, chased her with a pair of scissors, struck her with a board, bit her in the breast, then hit her with a sign she found outside. Howard was charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, ABC-7 reports.

Mike’s thoughts:  Moral of the story?  If you want to prevent a Girl Scout cookie beat-down, skip the Thin Mints and buy Trefoils.  NO ONE likes Trefoils.

NEWSER) – It’s tough to keep tabs on all those Facebook friends—who has the time to constantly check the status of a bunch of currently-taken potential lovers, waiting to pounce as soon as you notice that “In a Relationship” has changed to “Single”? Well, thanks to programmer Dan Loewenherz, you no longer need to keep tabs on them … his new app will do it for you. “Breakup Notifier” allows you to select your “taken” friends, and receive an email when any of those friends changes their relationship status.

Mike’s Thoughts:  Boy this new Breakup Notifier will really free up a lot of spare time.

Time I imagine most breakup notifier advocates will be using to put pick up married women in bars and put the moves on the wive’s of their best friends.

(NEWSER) – After months of speculation, the New York Knicks are getting superstar Carmelo Anthony. In a massive nine-player trade, the Knicks will send four of their top players—Danilo Gallinari, Raymond Felton, Wilson Chandler and Timofey Mozgov—plus three draft picks and $3 million cash to the Denver Nuggets, in exchange for point guard Chauncey Billups, forwards Shelden Williams and Renaldo Balkman, guard Anthony Carter, and, of course, the 6-foot-8 star Anthony. “I would say it’s virtually done,” a Knicks exec tells the New York Times.

Anthony, a Brooklyn native, had been pushing for a trade to New York for months, refusing to sign an extension with the Nuggets or any other possible trade suitors. The star forward is one of the best scorers in the league, with a career average of 24.5 points per game. Teamed up with 6-foot-10 forward Amar’e Stoudemire, the Knicks now boast one of the high-scoring frontcourts in the NBA.

Mike’s Thoughts:  OK, so we all knew Carmelo was leaving Denver and if you’re a Nuggets fan you should be happy that the speculation is finally over.

I understand most Nuggets fans are upset about losing Chauncey Billups in the deal but let’s keep the following in mind:

How many NBA Championships have the Nuggets won since Carmelo came to Denver?  Zero.

How many NBA Championsips have the Nuggets won since Chauncey came back to Denver?  Zero.

The Nuggets had no choice but to deal ‘Melo or take a huge hit and if they had to move Chauncey to get the deal done then so be it.

Professional sports are ONLY about one thing:  winning championships.

Emotions aside, I think Nuggets may have actually gotten the better end of this deal.  Of course, we’ll soon find out.