Thrills for the week

True, the two-week event centers around an endless schedule of livestock shows, sales and exhibits, but it's ever so much more than a bull market--you'll also get an eyeful of horses, goats, sheep, hogs, bunnies, llamas and even dogs as you traipse through. And every stock-show-goer's list of things to do at the National Western includes a variety of special ticketed events, including 23 PRCA rodeo performances featuring top rodeo act John Payne the One Arm Bandit, high-stepping horse shows, draft-horse exhibitions and more, beginning today and continuing through January 26. Of special note are the flashy Mexican Rodeo Extravaganza, an annual favorite headed by Tejano charro Jerry Diaz, which takes place tonight at 7:30 and tomorrow at 3 p.m., and An Evening of Dancing Horses, an equestrian spectacle with Michael Martin Murphey providing the music, scheduled for January 23.

All stock show events are at the National Western Complex, I-70 and Brighton Blvd.; general admission to the show grounds ranges from $1 to $7 daily. For information and special-event ticket forms, call 295-1660.

Mama Cash: The daughter of country star Johnny Cash, Roseanne Cash started out a country singer herself. But like the firebrand chip off the old block she is, Cash continues to diverge further from the norm with every new album. Lately she's taken a literary turn, with the publication of a short-story collection, Bodies of Water, and the release of a thematically similar CD, 10 Song Demo, both highly introspective works. Cash provides intimate entertainment for the alterna-country crowd tonight during a pair of shows at 8 and 10:30 at Cafe Communique, 99 W. 9th Ave. Tickets to either concert are $20; call 534-1199 or 830-TIXS to reserve yours.

Kansas City, here we come: You're yee-hawed to the gills, you despise Garth Brooks and his ilk, and you're doggone tired of all the b.s.? What you need is a healthy shot of jazz music. Cowboys, be gone: CU-Boulder's time-honored International Film Series opens its winter schedule with a screening of Robert Altman's mood piece, Kansas City, a smoky re-creation of that city's jazz heyday intertwined with a typically Altmanesque plot held together by eccentric characters and loose dialogue. See the tuneful flick, featuring contemporary young guns such as Joshua Redman and David Murray in the roles of their K.C. jazz precursors of the '30s, at 7 or 9:15 today or tomorrow. IFS offerings, a deal at $3.50 a seat ($3 students), are shown on campus in Muenzinger Auditorium. Call 492-1531.

Sunday
January 12
Gorgeous gorges: You can't ever really absorb the true meaning of the term "earth tones" until you stand at the edge of the world and take a gander at the granddaddy of natural wonders, the Grand Canyon. Or, to be perfectly fair, any of the national landmark's lesser cousins will do. The Foothills Art Center salutes those stark colors and forms of Southwestern canyons with a brand-new, full-scale art exhibit, Canyon Walls!, that combines a magisterial selection of paintings, photographs and sculpture dedicated to nature's own glorious work. We'd guess it's the next best thing to being there, so get ready to commune--a public reception takes place today from 2 to 4; the show runs through March 2. Foothills is located at 809 15th St., Golden; call 279-3922.

Monday
January 13
Out of the brown bag: It's damned convenient, the way St. John's Cathedral scheduled this month's free Music With Lunch concert on a Monday. What better day to chill while you swill? Take a long lunch: Upsidasium--a mixed trio featuring folk guitarist Scott Bennett, bluegrass fiddler Gordon Burt and classical pianist Deborah Schmitt-Lobis--performs today at just past noon. And if you happened to leave the house this morning without a lunch in hand, a simple repast is available for $4 at the church, beginning at 11:30. St. John's is located at 1313 Clarkson St.; call 831-7115, ext. 17.

Tuesday
January 14
Rugged individualist: If tall tales are to be believed, folks are simply raised up more ornery in Wyoming. Case in point: feisty Wyoming senator Alan Simpson, who sticks it to the media in plain language with his new book, Right in the Old Gazoo: Observations on a Lifetime of Scrapping With the Press. Simpson holds court at the Tattered Cover LoDo, 1628 16th St., tonight at 7:30; for details call 436-1070.

Boot up: Folks seem to sprout ten-gallon hats, pressed blue jeans and pointy snakeskin boots this time of year, so if you can't beat 'em, why not join 'em? As a civic nod to the stock show, hizzoner Mayor Webb has decreed today Dress Western Day in Denver for downtown and city workers. And the reason for gussying up? Today at noon, the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo Opening Day Parade, an extravaganza with rodeo stars, high-stepping hosses, clowns and marching bands, trots through downtown, up 17th St. from Union Station to Tremont Pl. A $6, public-friendly 4H Barbecue with all the fixin's will be served up from noon to 1:30 at the Norwest Bank Atrium, 1740 Broadway, along with a costume contest for the most bodaciously dressed 'pokes and gals attending. One word to the wise: You'd better watch your step while strutting through town in those fancy boots.

Wednesday
January 15
Two easy steps: Wherever there's a stock show, there's sure to be a barn-full--no, a whole durn town-full--of hot-to-trot cowpokes looking for a dance. So where do the denim-decked masses hang after the rodeo? We're betting they'll be at the Grizzly Rose, 5450 N. Valley Hwy., where January promises an all-star lineup of top-notch country-Western entertainment. True to form, the massive dance hall dishes up hat-of-the-month Chris Ledoux tonight and tomorrow at 10; also scheduled for later January dates are the Bellamy Brothers, Billy Dean, Wade Hayes and others. Saddle up, two-steppers; for tickets and information call 295-2353 or 830-