Arts & Entertainment >>

• Best New Bar
  High Street Speakeasy
  The High Street Speakeasy sits in a turn-of-the-century building that, way back in the day, served as a rooming house for transient Denverites. When it opened last spring, the place buzzed with rumors that spirits roamed the upstairs apartments and sometimes came down to the bar -- for a... More >>
• Best Old-Time Bar
  Don's Club Tavern
  Our mother always told us to respect our elders. So we're giving mad props to the 57-year-old Don's Club Tavern, a smoky dive bar that welcomes everyone with open arms -- from the regulars who plant themselves daily on Don's bar stools to the college kids in search of a decent pool table and... More >>
• Best Reincarnation
  Skylark Lounge
  Regulars at the Skylark Lounge know what a difference a couple of blocks can make: not much. The stalwart watering hole moved this past November from its sixty-year home at 58 South Broadway to roomier digs at 140 South, but the revered smoky atmosphere was carefully transferred, along with the... More >>
• Best Club Comeback
  Brendan's Pub
  Brendan's, the patron saint of the blues, is back, baby. But it's hard to feel the spirit of the downtrodden in such a beautiful club. Fine woodworking infuses the venue with warmth, and the view is sharp from any angle. There's a steady lineup of quality acts, the sound is as lush as the aura,... More >>
• Best Dance Club for Hooking Up
  Roosters
  If the slogan "Where the lonely get laid" or the phallic connotations of the Roosters name aren't enough to entice Mootown's lonesome losers to head north in search of a little hello kitty action, then a semi full of Viagra isn't likely to help, either. Maybe it's the pervasive pheromone mist... More >>
• Best Dance Club for Seeing A-List DJs
  The Church
  Denver's infamous cathedral-turned-disco has been getting national props left and right as one of the nation's most sacred temples. And we couldn't agree more: From divine acts like Deep Dish to Paul Van Dyk, Seb Fontaine to Carl Cox and DJ Irene to DJ Rap, the Church's elders consistently offer... More >>
• Best Dance Club for Dancing
  Avalon
  Several new high-quality dance venues have opened in the Denver metro area in recent months, but with the best PLUR vibe and sound system, top-shelf DJ talent and lower covers and drink prices, Avalon gets our nod as the first-place finisher. Sure, it's a long way from LoDo to Lone Tree... More >>
• Best Dance Club for Seeing -- and Being Seen
  Rise
  Rise is the perfect place to spot the bold and the beautiful -- or to pretend to be bold and beautiful yourself. Since this bold and beautiful club opened last summer, a slew of movers and shakers have been eyeballed chilling on the patio's preformed plastic couches, shaking it like a Polaroid... More >>
• Best New Club
  hi-dive/Sputnik
  Dive-bar row lost a legend last year when Quixote's -- which had replaced the even more notorious 7 South -- closed its doors at 7 South Broadway. But two newcomers are quickly filling the void. The hi-dive, which is coming on strong as a local indie-rock venue with creative programming, is a... More >>
• Best Club Night
  GROWednesdays
  GROWednesdays has been transplanted several times since it debuted three years ago at the Funky Buddha, where it was dumped for a disco night. It was resurrected last spring at Harry's, the downstairs bar in the Magnolia Hotel, where it blew up big time -- too big, as it turned out. Besieged by... More >>
• Best Club DJ
  Nutmeg
  If you want to get off on nutmeg, seasoned psychonauts recommend 200 milligrams per two pounds of body weight. But trust us: A face-melting, booty-shaking, soul-massaging, four-hour dance set by DJ Nutmeg is a way better high. A master mixer who reads a crowd's vibe with X-ray eyes, Nutmeg plays... More >>
• Best Hip-Hop DJ/Turntablist
  Vajra
  One of the most hard-line proponents of hip-hop culture is an unassuming record clerk from Boulder. Yeah, we know, Boulder sometimes seems like the polar opposite of everything street, but in the hip-hop galaxy, think of it as the Dagoba System, with DJ Vajra as Yoda. Vajra holds down turntables... More >>
• Best Jukebox
  Lion's Lair
  There's a Smithsonian quality to the Lion's Lair juke, a beat-up old box that houses a carefully curated collection of rock-and-roll historica: Start with Hank Williams Sr. or Muddy Waters and work your way forward through the last fifty years, stopping at every major genre along the way, from... More >>
• Best Underground Party Series
  Unity Gain
  Devotees of Unity Gain refer to the Sunday-night climaxes of these 72-hour, multi-location marathons as "Church." And Unity Gain is worthy of worship. Since it started in the summer of 2000 as a mere club night at Boulder's Soma, the series has garnered a well-deserved reputation as the premier... More >>
• Best Monday Night Chill-Out
  Bare Witness, Mario's Double Daughters Salotto
  Stepping into Mario's Double Daughters Salotto is like waking up from an overdose of LSD and Pop Rocks. The downtown bar has a trippy Alice in Wonderland-meets-City of Lost Children vibe that jells perfectly with Bare Witness, its Monday-night DJ residency. Selectors Ryan Mates and Zach Dunn --... More >>
• Best Rock Club
  Larimer Lounge
  Aesthetically speaking, nothing much stands out about the Larimer Lounge: The stage is awkwardly placed, the sound is merely adequate, and the bathrooms are cramped and dingy. But the Lounge does one thing better than anyone else: It brings the rock. Besides, some of the great rock rooms of... More >>
• Best Gay Club
  Serengeti
  Queer Eye for the Straight Guy has nothing on Serengeti, where the stylish roam free. The newest grand-scale venture to be blessed by nightclub impresario Regas Christou is a primarily gay club that promotes itself as "the evolution of nightclub culture." Unlike so many of the other Denver gay... More >>
• Best Country and Western Club
  Sharp's Roadhouse
  The first thing that hits you as you walk into Sharp's Roadhouse is the smell. The club reeks of honky-tonk, that sweet mixture of smoke, beer and sweaty bodies. But contrary to its name, Sharp's is much more than a roadhouse. Over the past year, this joint has attracted a large, devoted cult... More >>
• Best After-Hours Club
  Two AM
  With a nondescript alleyway entrance between Lincoln and Broadway, Two AM is inconspicuous enough that first-timers may miss it. Located in the heart of the Golden Triangle, Two AM is a stone's throw from the Church, Serengeti and Vinyl (which will reopen after its collapse in last March's epic... More >>
• Best Heavy-Metal Club
  House of Rock
  A true headbanger's ball in the depths of suburbia, House of Rock is a natural as the area's best metal club. The absence of nearby neighbors means the local heavyweights can -- and do -- turn the dials all the way to eleven. Local bands can also rejoice now that Russ Austin, Denver's top... More >>
• Best Metal Detector in a Club
  Paladium
  A lot of venues, especially those that cater primarily to the hip-hop crowd, are employing various security measures to ensure patrons' safety. But most of the tactics -- from invasive pat-downs that border on manhandling to token once-overs from a $15 handheld wand from Radio Shack -- are... More >>
• Best Place to See Emerging Hip-Hop Talent -- Denver
  Soiled Dove
  You Night! at the Soiled Dove is the place to be for aspiring MCs and DJs. Organized and run by Neil McIntyre of Yo, Flaco! and Minezai fame, the Monday-night extravaganza is proof positive that hip-hop is not only alive and well, it's also the new punk rock. The room is consistently packed with... More >>
• Best Place to See Emerging Hip-Hop Talent -- Boulder
  Fox Theatre
  Boulder's Fox Theatre is a required destination for the nation's hottest up-and-coming hip-hop acts, from Dilated Peoples and Jurassic 5 to People Under the Stairs and the Pharcyde. The theater consistently has its ear to the street, with an aggressive booking policy that takes chances on... More >>
• Best Jazz Club
  Dulcinea's 100th Monkey
  When it comes to the elusive spirit of jazz (past and present), colorful Colfax watering hole Dulcinea's is one swinging primate. Taking pains to stock the jukebox with both legends (from Coltrane to Miles, Monk to Holiday) and newer members of the genre (Charlie Hunter, Norah Jones), the Monkey... More >>
• Best Jazz Incubator
  Dazzle Restaurant & Lounge
  Over the past half-dozen years, Dazzle Restaurant & Lounge has bloomed into one of the most vibrant rooms in town, with live music seven nights a week and a schedule that moves deftly across the jazz strata and features many of the region's most accomplished players. But Dazzle has also... More >>
• Best Unexpected Jazz Club
  Angie's Place
  Since last October, a cozy nook on West Colfax called Angie's Place has featured top-notch local jazz performers such as singer Teresa Carroll, pianist/vocalist Ellyn Rucker and tenor saxophonist Max Wagner. The music, showcased on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, attracts a largely... More >>
• Best Hip-Hop Label
  Mobstyle Records
  The primary artist on the Aurora-based Mobstyle label is self-styled gangsta Don Blas, whose latest platter, The Modus, is one of the best-sounding rap CDs to come out of the Denver area in forever. As Don goes, so goes Mobstyle, and the quality of the company's first effort, which has received... More >>
• Best Prog Label
  ReR USA
  Since the late '70s, London-based Recommended Records, founded by eccentric musician Chris Cutler, has been the place that true connoisseurs of progressive rock turn for the latest and weirdest examples of this willfully edgy form. Prog continues to survive on the distant fringes of the music... More >>
• Best Jam Band and More Label
  Sci-Fidelity Records
  At first Sci-Fidelity's website was principally a venue for the String Cheese Incident, Colorado's most extravagant gift to the neo-hippie crowd. No more. The success of the band has allowed the label to expand its roster to include Incident-related acts such as Comotion (a side project) and DJ... More >>
• Best Art Label
  Starkland Records
  Boulder's Tom Steenland has been putting out challenging avant-garde sounds on his Starkland imprint for over ten years now, and by keeping his product list modest in size, he's able to maintain high-quality music and packaging. Take Mystery Dances, by Robert Een, who uses voice and cello to... More >>
• Best Jazz Labels
  Capri Records/Tapestry Records
  Headquartered in Bailey, the Capri and Tapestry imprints are the brain-children of Tom Burns, a jazz lover who's devoted himself to getting some of Colorado's finest musicians heard beyond the state's borders. His catalogue features material by saxophonist Fred Hess and trumpeter Ron Miles, both... More >>
• Best Mix CD
  Radio Bumz Monthly CD Mix
  Produced and distributed monthly by "your favorite muthafuckin' white boys," this CD, available free with a purchase at Independent Records, is the hottest mix disc available anywhere in Mootown. DJ Petey and Bedz -- both KS-107.5 mixmasters and members of the DJ collective Radio Bumz -- oversee... More >>
• Best Compilation Disc
  Bluegrass Roots: The Best of Bluegrass and More, Live From etown
  For more than a decade, etown, taped each week at the Boulder Theater, has been a staple of better National Public Radio affiliates and commercial stations from coast to coast. (In these parts, it's heard Sunday evenings on KGNU, KBCO and KUNC.) The show, hosted by Nick Forster, of Hot Rize... More >>
• Best Local Recording
  Go Slowly All the Way Round the Outside, Blusom
  That Blusom even exists is something of a fluke. Vocalist Mike Behrenhausen (who also drums with Maraco 5-0) and electronic specialist Jme (aka Jamie White, formerly of the late, lamented Acrobat Down) recorded the material that makes up their debut CD more as a creative exercise than a... More >>
• Best Live Band
  Bright Channel
  A lot of groups both lousy and laudable have made their presence felt this year, but none has seared its image onto this town's collective retina like Bright Channel. Formed from the remnants of the overlooked acts Volplane and Pteranodon, the trio coalesced in February 2001. Since then, it's... More >>
• Best New Band
  The Fray
  Reason, the Fray's second EP, is a fitting introduction to an outfit that came out of nowhere and quickly rose to prominence. Though technically founded in 2002, the quintet didn't hit its stride -- or gig much, for that matter -- until around the time Reason was released, late last year. Led by... More >>
• Best Band With the Worst Name
  Rubber Planet
  What's in a name? In the world of rock and roll, a lot. Remember Ned's Atomic Dustbin? What about Nuclear Valdez? Uh-huh, that's what we thought. Some may be inclined to avoid an outfit with a goofy name like Rubber Planet just on principle, but think of the tasty fruit beneath a kiwi's... More >>
• Best Band Name
  Monkey Butlers
  Brandy in the greenhouse? Fetch it yourself, Thurston Howell III. Domestic drudgery finally takes its rightful place behind swingin' on chandeliers and flingin' poo. More >>
• Best Band to Blow Your Atkins Diet
  The Affairs
  With everyone getting in on the Atkins craze -- we hear that the U.S. Postal Service is ready to issue low-carb stamps -- it's about time for the backlash. Cue the Affairs. This quartet cranks out high-energy power pop that pays glorious homage to the aggressive yet sugary sounds of past masters... More >>
• Best One-Man Band
  Reverend DeadEye
  After wiring a primitive microphone from a rusty Falstaff beer can, resourceful bellower Reverend DeadEye discovered a new way to speak in tongues. The Oklahoma-bred Bible-thumper creates an unholy noise with his mike and homemade slide guitar (with a resonator fashioned from a discarded wok),... More >>
• Best One-Man Dancercize Troupe
  Magic Cyclops
  Magic Cyclops (born Scott Fuller) has been inciting head-scratching and bootie-bumping ever since he began mixing on-stage aerobics with cheesy '80s music a couple of years ago. And just as the mythological Cyclops had to make do with just one eye, so does Magic Cyclops: He deejays entire sets... More >>
• Best Synth-Pop Answer to Outkast
  George & Caplin
  While Outkast stole this year's Grammys with its cut-and-paste opus Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, George & Caplin, a much more modest duo, were employing a similar pop-exhuming technique. But instead of funk and hip-hop, the humble twosome of Jason Iselin and Jeffrey Stevens blends vintage synth... More >>
• Best Ambassadors of Wet-Panty Rock
  Jet Black Joy
  Loud and brazen, Jet Black Joy is not trying to change the world. But as practitioners of a rousing, bombastic sound that frontman Jimmy Jet lovingly refers to as "wet-panty rock," the four-piece might make some members of the audience need to change their frillies. Meow! More >>
• Best Blast From Colorado's Punk-Rock Past
  My Dad's a Fuckin' Alcoholic, The Frantix
  The Frantix were the precursors to the Fluid, who helped popularize the grunge movement that shook the galaxy last decade. For that reason, the music on this disc (issued by Afterburn Records, an indie imprint out of Australia) is of historical importance -- but it's about as academic as a... More >>
• Best Rock-and-Roll Debacle
  Riff's Rock In' Freak Fest
  In no short order, the localpalooza called the Rock In' Freak Fest landed one of the organizers in the pokey, left another with a shiner and a splitting headache, garnered an assault charge for one local radio personality, bankrupted a local zine and left more than thirty local acts high and... More >>
• Best Free Musical Event
  Ween
  Known for performing marathon-length shows to rival Bruce Springsteen or the Grateful Dead, Ween played an abbreviated but remarkable set last fall to a standing-room-only crowd -- one that showered New Hope, Pennsylvania's finest with giddy praise, hand-made cards and a liter of Jack Daniels.... More >>
• Best Alternative to Alt-Country
  Out on Bail
  Denver is crammed with every far-fetched country-music spinoff imaginable (Pentecostal Goth country?), but Out on Bail sticks out like a stubborn weed among all the hayseed wannabes. This wet-behind-the-ears quartet takes the bleak grace of Johnny Cash and crams it into the guttural sloppiness... More >>
• Best Metal-Scrapper Turned Authentic Bluesman
  Willie Houston
  When Willie Houston sings the blues, he draws from a deep reservoir of personal experience, including heartache, poverty and years of backbreaking labor in the Louisiana swamps. Still an engaging and soulful performer at 76, the Junkman adheres to a timeworn sound that grabs listeners with... More >>
• Best Blues Artist
  Otis Taylor
  Not long ago, Otis Taylor was a Boulder antiques broker, and uninformed observers of the local music community considered him to be something of an antique. How wrong they were. In the mid-'90s, Taylor reinvented himself as a modern bluesman, and since then, he's earned the kind of critical... More >>
• Best Singer-Songwriter -- Male
  Jack Redell
  Jack Redell is an American classic in the making. Some day, folks will speak of Redell's time here with a reverence generally reserved for Tom Waits and Jack Kerouac. Hell, word has it the Thin Man has named a drink named after Redell in honor of the amount of time he's spent there. And since... More >>
• Best Singer-Songwriter -- Female
  Victoria Woodworth
  It took three years for Victoria Woodworth to produce and unearth Faultline, her first solo recording. It took much longer than that to collect the wealth of experience and emotion at its heart. A small person with a big voice and a poetic bend, Woodworth concentrates on the Important Issues:... More >>
• Best Large Venue
  Gothic Theatre
  A decade ago, the Gothic Theatre was a pit: dank, dirty, with crappy sound and ripped-up seats left over from its Prohibition-era, weekend-matinee heyday -- the perfect setting for punk shows back before the style became sterilized. In 1999, the Gothic underwent a makeover more radical than the... More >>
• Best Small Venue
  Soiled Dove
  Everything about the Soiled Dove is rock-solid. Located in the heart of LoDo, it provides an intimate experience unlike any other room. The stage is situated so that there isn't a bad seat in the house, the distance between performer and patron is negligible, and the lights and sound are simply... More >>
• Best Soundman
  James Martinez, The Blue Mule
  After years of sliding faders and twisting knobs for local luminaries such as Blister 66, Rocket Ajax, Chaos Theory and countless other acts, James Martinez has finally found a home behind the boards at the Blue Mule. From one-man acoustic acts to balls-out gutter punks and everything in... More >>
• Best Rehearsal Space
  Sound Structure Studios
  Because so many downtown warehouses once used for rehearsal spaces have been recast as lofts and galleries, Denver is experiencing an epidemic of homeless musicians. Rents are up all over, but that's only part of the problem; after all, who wants to rent to a bunch of kids with Stratocasters?... More >>
• Best Concert (Since March 2003)
  The Mars Volta
  The first time the Mars Volta came to town, in November 2001, it was easily outshone by the other acts on the night's bill. Vocalist Cedric Bixler and guitarist Omar Rodriguez seemed reserved, even timid, despite being widely renowned for their explosive stage presence as members of the... More >>
• Best Underground-Band Documentary
  The Tornado Dream
  Garage rocker-turned-director Davis G. Coombe spent six years chronicling the explicit and unpredictable behavior of the Czars, Orbit Service and Rainbow Sugar, then boiled it down into a 99-minute exposé of Denver's underground music scene, warts and all. Intimate, candid and stylish,... More >>
• Best Movie Theater -- Programming
  Starz FilmCenter
  Home to the Denver International Film Festival for ten days each October, the eight-house Starz FilmCenter features top-drawer art films and lively revivals through the remainder of the year, along with Saturday-morning programs for children, film-and-discussion nights, themed series and... More >>
• Best Movie Theater -- Food
  Mayan Theatre
  A perennial winner in the movie-food category, the venerable Mayan Theatre serves up the kind of quirky, whole-earth stuff that goes just fine with such indie cinema as 21 Grams or the latest slice-and-dice action from Hong Kong. The Alternative Baking Company's vegan cookies -- Peanut Butter... More >>
• Best Movie Theater -- Comfort
  Colorado Center Stadium 9
  Seen one multiplex, pretty much seen 'em all. But the Colorado Center Stadium 9, operated by United Artists Theatres, has a couple of minimal advantages: plenty of indoor and outdoor parking, close proximity to pre- or post-movie refreshment (i.e., Dave & Buster's) and, if you're in the mood for... More >>
• Best Campus Film Series
  International Film Series, University of Colorado at Boulder
  Since 1941 (the year Citizen Kane was released), the University of Colorado's International Film Series has been a major cultural resource. The inventive CU programmers continue apace in their efforts to bring in exotic and important work. Recently, IFS's "Cult Cinema" series featured screenings... More >>
• Best Denver Film Festival Guest
  Francis Ford Coppola
  Francis Ford Coppola's daughter, Sofia (the Oscar-winning writer/director of Lost in Translation), gets most of the attention these days, but the man who created the Godfather trilogy, Apocalypse Now and The Conversation was as thoughtful, congenial and engaging as any Denver International Film... More >>
• Best Cheap Movies
  Tiffany Plaza 6
  Sometimes a movie is just not worth $8.50. Sometimes it's not even worth the $3.50 to pay-per-view it. But sometimes, the guilty pleasure of, say, a Legally Blonde 2, is worth fifty cents. Every Tuesday the Tiffany Plaza 6 drops its already cheap $1.50 rate to a mere half-dollar -- all day.... More >>
• Best Movies for Spanish Speakers
  Cinema Latino Aurora 8
  That the metro area's Spanish-speaking Hispanic population continues to grow didn't escape local entrepreneur, state school-board member, politico and all-around rich guy Jared Polis. Seeing an untapped market, the man with the means opened Cinema Latino in the Aurora Plaza mall's former dollar... More >>
• Best Feature Shot (Partially) in Colorado
  Miracle
  The early sequences of Gavin O'Connor's deft, exciting re-creation of a great moment in American sports history -- the U.S. Olympic Hockey Team's 1980 victory over the seemingly invincible Soviets -- are set at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs and in the rickety old Broadmoor... More >>
• Best Movie News for the Nostalgic
  Cinderella Twin reprieve
  Last fall, the Cinderella Twin, one of the city's last two drive-in theaters, was supposed to bite the dust to make way for new development. But the plans were put on hold, so there's at least one more season in the sun. The double-screen drive-in is already open on weekend evenings, and it... More >>
• Best Movies for Grownups With Kids
  BYO-Baby to the Movies, Madstone Theaters
  There's no getting around it: Babies kill the movie experience. Rather than become the pariah in the last row, most parents of newborns opt to simply give up on going out to the movies. But now they don't have to: Moms and dads can take their babies and wee ones to Madstone Theaters on Tuesday... More >>
• Best Movies for Kids
  Kids Movie Saturdays, Starz FilmCenter
  No question about it: Flicks are for kids on Saturdays at Starz. The usual Saturday-matinee fare is absolutely abysmal, but at Starz the shows are hand-picked for children in varying age groups. Naturally, the movies fall on the indie side of the spectrum, but there are also kid-lit-to-screen... More >>
• Best Theater for Grownups With Kids
  Families@Play, Denver Center Theatre Academy
  Most adults instinctively know that when the kids come along, they'll spend the next eighteen years reclaiming their cultural lives, inch by wretched inch. Happily, the Denver Center Theatre Company found a way to slow parents' march of Sisyphus: While adults take in a matinee, Familes@Play... More >>
• Best Kids' Theater
  Walden Family Playhouse, Colorado Mills
  You have to hand it to creative guide Douglas Love and the Walden Family Playhouse. The exclusive Colorado Mills children's theater, which debuted just over a year ago, really does what it set out to do: provide the same kind of experience for children that the Denver Center Theatre Company... More >>
• Best Use of Bubble Gum by an Actress
  Annie Dwyer, Take Me Out to the Ball Game, Heritage Square Music Hall
  Annie Dwyer must have spent every waking hour for many, many months playing with bubble gum before appearing in Heritage Square's production of Take Me Out to the Ball Game. The woman can blow a bubble the size of a basketball and then retract it slowly, with perfect control, back into her... More >>
• Best Original Comic Character
  Erin Rollman, Idiot Box: An Evening of Sketch Comedy, Buntport Theater
  The popular Buntport Theater, with its adventurous comedy troupe, has an abundance of hilarious regulars. None, however, are as side-splitting as Erin Rollman. Her characters are so funny, because although they're impossibly overblown and shamelessly ridiculous, Rollman herself completely... More >>
• Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy
  Bill Christ, Lobby Hero, Denver Center Theatre Company
  In the Denver Center Theatre Company's Lobby Hero, Bill Christ played a cop who seemed to have no insides, a kind of parody of a cop. He mouthed the heroic, tough-guy lines you so often hear in television dramas, bullying and prevaricating, and fluidly took on whatever persona suited his needs... More >>
• Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy
  Ethelyn Friend, Bright Ideas, Curious Theatre Company
  Bright Ideas is a story about a yuppie couple's fight to get their toddler into the best preschool, and Ethelyn Friend played a mother who succeeded. The woman is so smug, bitchy and professionally successful that you know she won't survive the first act. But Friend was riveting while her... More >>
• Best Actor in a Comedy
  Ed Baierlein, Relatively Speaking, Germinal Stage Denver
  Ed Baierlein may be the most interesting, subtle, intelligent and multi-layered actor in Denver -- a role he's played for more than two decades. In Alan Ayckbourn's hilarious comedy Relatively Speaking, which he also directed, Baierlein played the male half of what seemed at first like a very... More >>
• Best Actress in a Comedy
  Sallie Diamond, Relatively Speaking, Germinal Stage Denver
  Who but Sallie Diamond -- Ed Baierlein's real-life wife -- could play opposite him in Relatively Speaking? In the face of all her husband's blustering, she stood her ground and gave as good as she got. With her fluting voice, dithery gestures and impeccably timed slow comic takes, Diamond was a... More >>
• Best Time We've Had at the Theater
  Lobby Hero, Denver Center Theatre Company
  Directed by David McClendon for the intimate Jones Theatre at the Denver Center, Lobby Hero was an impeccable production of a charming play, one with just enough substance and insight to keep the viewer from going away hungry. The four quirky characters were played to perfection by Rick Stear,... More >>
• Best Visitation by an Actor
  Ben Hammer, Visiting Mr. Green, Denver Center Theatre Company
  Ben Hammer is living proof that the Method approach to acting is still one of the most effective imaginable. His interpretation of the title character in Visiting Mr. Green was rich and grounded, and it made the production soar. Hammer was so deeply immersed in the character that he didn't have... More >>
• Best Return by an Actor
  Jamie Horton, John Brown's Body, Denver Center Theatre Company
  Jamie Horton spent much of the past year working in New York, and from the moment he stepped on stage in John Brown's Body, we all realized how much we'd missed him. His John Brown was stunningly authoritative, a rock-hard, unreasoning, narrow, immovable, plainspoken man who seemed... More >>
• Best Supporting Actor in a Drama
  Randy Moore, The Three Sisters, Denver Center Theatre Company
  In this excellent production, Randy Moore played Theodore Middleton, the schoolmaster husband of one of the sisters. Middleton was a boring man who had only to open his mouth to send the other characters fleeing. Nonetheless, he loved his mocking, angry, miserably unhappy wife. He even found his... More >>
• Best Supporting Actress in a Drama
  C. Kelly Leo, Proof, Curious Theatre Company
  Claire is the shallow sister of the moody, brilliant heroine, Catherine, in David Auburn's Proof, and she could easily be played as the villain. But C. Kelly Leo brought the character to scintillating, multi-faceted life. Though you hated many of Claire's words and actions, Leo made sure you... More >>
• Best Actor in a Drama
  William Hahn, Bent, Hunger Artists Ensemble Theatre
  Last spring, William Hahn played Max in Martin Sherman's Bent, a harrowing drama that revealed the plight of homosexuals in Hitler's extermination camps. At the play's opening, Max lived for booze, cocaine and easy sex. By the second act, his lover had been beaten to death in front of him, and... More >>
• Best Actress in a Drama
  Patty Mintz Figel, Three Tall Women, Germinal Stage Denver
  In Three Tall Women, Patty Mintz Figel played a very old woman whose mind and body deteriorated in front of us. The woman was angry, paranoid, agitated, incontinent, ungrateful and hell to take care of. She rambled about the past. She was a racist, though she barely understood her own racist... More >>
• Best Actress in Shakespeare
  Sarah Fallon, The Taming of the Shrew, Colorado Shakespeare Festival
  Sarah Fallon's Katharina was the high point of the 2003 festival. Fallon has a wonderful voice, and she knows how to speak Shakespeare's verse. Funny, lithe and capering in her black, 1950s capri outfit, she made Katharina an appropriately angry little spitfire. But Fallon was also touching as... More >>
• Best Example of an Actress Transcending a Production
  Kathleen M. Brady, Picnic, Denver Center Theatre Company
  Picnic was a generally forgettable production, with disappointing performances from some of the leads. But playing a befuddled neighbor, Kathleen M. Brady showed just how powerful gentleness can be. Sure, her character was confused and sometimes downright dumb, but all of her instincts were... More >>
• Best Theater Production
  The Three Sisters, Denver Center Theatre Company
  Many of the literati quarreled with director Donovan Marley over his decision to set the production of Chekhov's classic, The Three Sisters, in the American South in 1862. But somehow James Warnick's translation added resonance and implication while leaving intact the plight of the characters... More >>
• Best Portrayal of Sisters
  Annette Helde and Jacqueline Antaramian, The Three Sisters, Denver Center Theatre Company
  One of the great joys of Donovan Marley's The Three Sisters was watching Annette Helde and Jacqueline Antaramian working together. Both of these women are extraordinary actresses, and both project entirely different personae. Helde brought a profound gentleness to the oldest of the sisters,... More >>
• Best Dinner Theater Production
  Chicago, Boulder's Dinner Theatre
  There's a lot to like about Chicago -- brilliant songs, a witty script and a grown-up worldview -- and Boulder's Dinner Theatre gave the dark musical a sexy, vivid, energetic production, full of show-stopping performances. Joanie Brosseau-Beyette played Roxie Hart, a hard-eyed, murderous little... More >>
• Best Gender-Bending in a Musical
  B. Hamlette, Chicago, Boulder's Dinner Theatre
  Okay, his name is actually Brian Mallgrave, and he's an excellent and very intense young actor, but we'd never seen him like this before. It took several seconds after B. Hamlette's gliding, swooping entrance in Chicago before most of the audience realized he wasn't a she. As gossipy, credulous... More >>
• Best Singing in a Musical
  Sweet Corner Symphony, Shadow Theatre Company
  Sweet Corner Symphony was a doo-wop a cappella concert with amazing singing by Vincent Robinson, Ed Battle, Ken Parks, Dwayne Carrington and Hugo Jon Sayles. "Swanee" got the group's own satiric spin, and they also performed dozens of lesser-known songs. Ken Parks was mesmerizing as the... More >>
• Best Dance Performance in a Musical
  Savion Glover, Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk, Denver Center Attractions
  Those Denverites who saw Savion Glover perform at the Buell will someday tell their children about it. He just may be the best tap dancer alive, certainly one of the best who ever lived. Glover, who began dancing at the age of eleven, makes music with his feet. Bring in Da Noise, which he also... More >>
• Best Musical Number
  "Springtime for Hitler", The Producers, Denver Center Attractions
  Though some of us wondered why New York kicked up such a fuss about The Producers, the "Springtime for Hitler" number made everything clear -- or almost so. The entire show builds to this moment, and when it comes, it's got the lot: a tease of a beginning, catchy tunes, chorines prancing... More >>
• Best Actress in a Musical
  Charley Izabella King, The Producers, Denver Center Attractions
  Ulla was a Swedish sex bomb who longs to be a star. She was almost a cartoon, a flesh-and-blood Jessica Rabbit, and Charley Izabella King was a wonder in the role. Inhumanly gorgeous, wearing clothes that loved her body, she vamped around the stage and spoofed her own exaggerated accent. While... More >>
• Best Delivery of a Monologue
  Dennis Rodriguez, Waiting for Godot, Bug Theatre
  As Godot's Lucky, Dennis Rodriguez was called on to stand for long periods of time with his mouth open, his feet turned out and his knees slightly bent, looking like a clown, a puppet, something inanimate. His silent presence remained infused with feeling nonetheless. Then he began his speech,... More >>
• Best Season for an Actor -- Small Company
  Brett Aune, Curious Theatre Company/ Bug Theatre
  Brett Aune is one of the finest actors around. He brought both passion and particularity to the role of Hal, the mathematics professor whose flirtation with the moody Catherine was tainted by self-interest in Curious's Proof. We believed he was brainy, yet he was also nerdily charming. As... More >>
• Best Season for an Actor -- Large Company
  Keith L. Hatten, Denver Center Theatre Company
  Keith L. Hatten has brought grace and vitality to a number of small roles over the past few years. No matter how little he has to do or say, you can always sense his character's inner life. Hatten was charming and funny in this year's Christmas Carol, stalwart as a servant in The Three Sisters.... More >>
• Best Theater Season
  Curious Theatre Company
  In the past year, Curious Theatre Company has demonstrated its commitment to variety, quality and audience outreach. Under Chip Walton's direction, the company staged Proof, a well-made contemporary play illustrating the abstract beauty of mathematics; Nickel and Dimed, a piece that evolved from... More >>
• Best Eclectic Theater Season
  Germinal Stage Denver
  Where but at Germinal Stage Denver could you suffer through Edward Albee's truth-saturated Three Tall Women, giggle at the light comedy of Relatively Speaking, puzzle through one of Harold Pinter's most mysterious offerings, No Man's Land, and be reintroduced to Arthur Kopit, whose Oh Dad, Poor... More >>
• Best Experimental Theater
  The Earth's Sharp Edge, Buntport Theater
  Thaddeus Phillips, creator of the Earth's Sharp Edge, fuses intellect and feeling with an entirely original vision, making theater out of dented desks, toy airplanes, memory, politics and his own voice and body. This piece began with Phillips -- playing himself -- getting stopped by airport... More >>
• Best Character in an Original Play
  Pam Lynch, Reaching for Comfort, Theatre on Broadway
  In his interesting play Reaching for Comfort, Denverite Josh Hartwell defied stereotype and created Pam Lynch, an abusive wife who was not only vicious, but also complex and human. In a daring, close-to-the-edge performance, actress Cini Bow brought this woman to coruscating life, exploring the... More >>
• Best Commitment to Local Playwrights
  Theatre Group, Theatre on Broadway
  It's notoriously difficult for playwrights to get their work produced, particularly if the works are full-length rather than one-act plays. Steven Tangedal and Nicholas Sugar, Theatre Group's executive and artistic directors, are to be applauded for mounting two evening-length plays by Denver... More >>
• Best Introduction of a Major Contemporary Playwright
  Fucking A, LIDA Project
  Suzan-Lori Parks has been a force in the theatrical world since she won an Obie in 1996, following it with a MacArthur Fellowship and a Pulitzer Prize in 2002. But until the LIDA Project produced Fucking A, none of her work had been seen in Denver. Artistic director Brian Freeland deserves a lot... More >>
• Best Director
  Mare Trevathan Philpott, Waiting for Godot, Bug Theatre
  Mare Trevathan Philpott directed Waiting for Godot with an immediacy and clarity of vision that cleared away the crust of time, fashion, opinion and academic analysis to let us see the play's bones -- and what a solid, extraordinary pattern they made. She brought a sophisticated sensibility to... More >>
• Best Departing Director
  Donovan Marley, Denver Center Theatre Company
  Donovan Marley has been the artistic director of the Denver Center Theatre Company for 21 seasons. During that time, he founded the company's acting school, mounted a thoughtful mix of classic and contemporary dramas -- including a ten-hour production of Tantalus staged in conjunction with the... More >>
• Best Departed Shakespearean
  Jack Crouch, Colorado Shakespeare Festival
  Cymbeline is rarely mounted these days, but it was performed at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival last summer. It was last seen there in 1975, directed by festival founder Jack Crouch. At the age of 84, and shortly after attending this season's offerings, Crouch died. His friends say that one of... More >>
• Best Salute to a Colorado Master
  Frank Sampson Retrospective, Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities
  Fifty years of paintings filled the entire set of lower galleries at the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities this past fall when the epic Frank Sampson Retrospective was installed there. Throughout his career, Sampson was interested in figural abstraction, a taste that has come and gone... More >>
• Best Lesson in Colorado's Art History
  Vance Kirkland: A Colorado Painter's Life -- Early Works and Beyond, Colorado History Museum
  Vance Kirkland: A Colorado Painter's Life -- Early Works and Beyond is more than a solo devoted to Colorado's most famous modernist. It's a big-picture look at the mid-twentieth-century art world in this state. In addition to Kirkland's paintings from the '30s to the '70s, the show features... More >>
• Best Friends of Denver Culture -- Family
  The Caulkins family
  When George Caulkins wanted to surprise his wife, Eleanor Newman Caulkins, he asked his five children -- George, Max, Mary, David and John -- and their spouses to pool their money to help with the grand gesture: an opera house named after her. Their combined $7 million is helping to build the... More >>
• Best Friends of Denver Culture -- Couple
  Jan and Fred Mayer
  Jan and Fred Mayer outdid themselves in 2003. With a gift of $11 million, their foundation established an endowment for the Denver Art Museum's New World department, which features pre-Columbian and Spanish colonial art. Over the past few decades, the Mayers have made many contributions to... More >>
• Best Friend of Denver Culture -- Individual
  Frederic C. Hamilton
  Frederic C. Hamilton has long been a supporter of the Denver Art Museum. For the past 25 years, he's served on the board of trustees, sitting as chairman since 1994. Last summer, when funds to maintain and program the under-construction, Daniel Libeskind-designed expansion were needed, he got... More >>
• Best Art Visionary
  Cydney Payton
  Cydney Payton, director of Denver's Museum of Contemporary Art, has her hands so full that she could be a professional juggler. She administers the institution, raises funds, does programming and even, at times, curates and installs the museum's exhibits. And as if all of that weren't enough,... More >>
• Best Museum Exhibit (Since March 2003)
  El Greco to Picasso From the Phillips Collection, Denver Art Museum
  Viewers stampeded the Denver Art Museum this past fall and winter to take in the traveling blockbuster El Greco to Picasso From the Phillips Collection. The show was such a big hit that tickets for the last couple weeks sold out in advance. It's no mystery why: The artists are so famous that... More >>
• Best Little Big Show -- Solo
  herbert bayer remembered , Emil Nelson Gallery
  In a cramped old row house near the Denver Art Museum, Hugo Anderson has opened the quirky Emil Nelson Gallery. The inventory ranges from historic pieces, including things from Anderson's family's collections, to new works, some of it by his friends. The late Herbert Bayer, Colorado's most... More >>
• Best Little Big Show -- Group
  Full Frontal: Contemporary Asian Art From the Logan Collection, Denver Art Museum
  The stock-in-trade of Ron Otsuka, the respected curator of Asian art at the Denver Art Museum, is traditional works. However, he was drafted into doing contemporary-art duty when Vail collectors Vicki and Kent Logan made a gift to the museum. Otsuka's compelling, extremely bold Full Frontal:... More >>
• Best Solo by a New York Art Star
  JUDY PFAFF: New Work, Robischon Gallery
  Fall is high season for art exhibitions, so it was surprising when Robischon Gallery presented JUDY PFAFF: New Work in the late spring of last year. The exhibit was an in-depth look at the famous New York artist's most recent pieces. These mixed-media paintings concerned Pfaff's Victorian house,... More >>
• Best Duet by New York Art Stars
  Symbols of the Big Bang, Singer Gallery at the Mizel Center
  It was impossible to fully understand Komar and Melamid's Symbols of the Big Bang at the Mizel Center's Singer Gallery last fall, but the show was so good it didn't matter. The former Soviet artists did paintings and drawings in which different symbols were put together to create new ones, such... More >>
• Best New Public Art (Since March 2003)
  "Fire House," by Dennis Oppenheim, Denver Fire Station No. 9
  Denver has spent a fortune on public art, but it hasn't always gotten its money's worth -- with the latest sorry example being Jonathan Borofsky's "The Dancers," which cost more than $1.5 million. Once in a while, though, the city picks up a bargain such as "Fire House," which internationally... More >>
• Best New Public Art in the 'Burbs
  "Virere," by Lawrence Argent
  Local municipalities have been promoting drought-friendly grasses that stay green with less water, but last year, Englewood went further by planting "turf" in a South Broadway median that requires no water. The "grass" in question is a colored-aluminum sculpture called "Virere," by Lawrence... More >>
• Best Gallery Show -- Solo
  Scott Chamberlin, Robischon Gallery
  This past fall, one of the state's most influential sculptors showed off his recent creations in the magical Scott Chamberlin. The Robischon Gallery exhibit featured wall-mounted pieces that looked like traditional European wall fountains -- not surprising, since Chamberlin, a University of... More >>
• Best Gallery Show -- Group
  This Year's Model, Cordell Taylor Gallery
  Art has been doing a double take on pop art lately, with a lot of new creations looking forward to the 1960s. A variety of pieces of this type were put together in This Year's Model, a great group effort mounted last summer at the now-closed Cordell Taylor Gallery. This pop-y show included some... More >>
• Best Gallery Openings
  First Fridays
  First Fridays Santa Fe Drive Over the past few years, dozens of galleries and art spots have opened on Santa Fe Drive between 5th and 9th avenues, making this four-block stretch the unofficial epicenter of the Denver art world. And public response to the burgeoning art district has been... More >>
• Best Abstract Solo -- Emerging Artist
  Pard Morrison: Recent Sculpture and Paintings, Rule Gallery
  Rule Gallery typically presents the work of established artists, but once in a while an emerging talent gets through the door. That's what happened with Pard Morrison: Recent Sculpture and Paintings. Morrison's works fit the gallery perfectly, because they're neo-minimalist, the style of choice... More >>
• Best Abstract Solo -- Established Artist
  David Yust: PAINTING IN CIRCLES and Other Abstract Works, Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Art
  Even though the paintings in David Yust: PAINTING IN CIRCLES and Other Abstract Works included pieces that dated from the mid-1960s to late last year, the display was not a retrospective of the local modern master's career. Instead, curator Erica France examined a handful of currents in Yust's... More >>
• Best Abstract Ensemble
  Wet Paint, William Havu Gallery
  Abstract-expressionist painting has miraculously held on despite the onslaught in the last decade of "new media," a field that includes installation, performance, video and digital. These forms were supposed to make painting look out of date, but, as Wet Paint proves, that's not what happened.... More >>
• Best Representational Solo -- Historic
  Sargent and Italy, Denver Art Museum
  The Denver Art Museum pays a lot of attention to artists from the turn of the last century because they're a popular group guaranteed to bring in big crowds of viewers. The lineup of traveling solos that have stopped by the DAM in recent years includes Toulouse-Lautrec, Matisse, Bonnard, Homer... More >>
• Best Representational Solo -- Contemporary
  middle ground: Stephen Batura, Museum of Contemporary Art/Walnut Foundry
  Denver's Museum of Contemporary Art has been dealing with its space crunch in a couple of ways: planning a new building and sponsoring off-site exhibits. One of the latter was middle ground: Stephen Batura, a breathtaking display of the Denver artist's signature representational paintings. Done... More >>
• Best Photography Solo -- Established Talent
  Andrea Modica: Photographs, Sandy Carson Gallery
  The wonderful Andrea Modica: Photographs at Sandy Carson Gallery last winter provided an in-depth look at the work of the internationally known photographer, who lives in Manitou Springs. In her poetic photos, Modica explores the relationship between truth and fiction by using posed and... More >>
• Best Photography Solo -- Emerging Talent (1 Comment)
  Jason Patz: Self Series, ILK@Pirate
  Last summer, ILK@Pirate saw some difficult days during which the gallery was not only closed, but boarded up! So the first show after this hiatus, Jason Patz: Self Series, couldn't just be good; it had to be great. Happily, it was. The twenty-something Patz displayed his disarmingly simple... More >>
• Best Photography Group Show -- Historic
  A Moment in Time: Photographs of the Early American West, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center
  The earliest examples of modern art done in our region are frontier photographs from the nineteenth century. Some of the finest examples of these images from local public and private collections were brought together at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center last winter for the stunning exhibit A... More >>
• Best Photography Group Show -- Contemporary
  Reflections in Black: Smithsonian African-American Photography, Metro State Center for the Visual Arts
  The magnificent Reflections in Black: Smithsonian African-American Photography featured major works by contemporary black photographers who have been active during the past 25 years. The impressive traveling exhibit, which alighted briefly at Metro State's Center for the Visual Arts this past... More >>
• Best Multimedia Show
  doris laughton: theSplatphenomenon2003, Studio Aiello
  The topic of water was on everyone's minds last summer, and artists were no exception, as demonstrated by Studio Aiello's over-the-top doris laughton: theSplatphenomenon2003. In it, Laughton used the shape a drop of water makes when it hits a hard surface to inspire scores of prints, photos,... More >>
• Best Sculptor in a Group Show -- Emerging Talent
  David Mazza

  Balance, Fresh Art Gallery

  For the group show Balance, young sculptor David Mazza installed his fabulous pieces throughout the building as well as in the sculpture garden outside, where he put a trio of major pieces. Mazza's abstract compositions, in which both straight and curved metal bars and tubes are precariously... More >>
• Best Sculptor in a Group Show -- Established Talent
  William Vielehr, Pursuits of Passion, Walker Fine Art
  Pursuits of Passion at Walker Fine Art was technically a group show, but it included what could have been a very large solo focusing on Boulder artist William Vielehr, whose sculptures were installed throughout. The most important Vielehrs were large abstracted figures made of fabricated... More >>
• Best Political Solo Show
  Shock/Awe, Spark Gallery
  Denver artist Annalee Schorr felt she was "embedded" in the Iraq war because she watched televised news coverage of it all the time. To create Shock/Awe, her politically charged solo at Spark Gallery, Schorr used enlarged photos of her TV screen. The juxtaposition of bomb-ravaged cities taken... More >>
• Best Political Group Show
  OVER A BILLION SERVED: Conceptual Photography From the People's Republic of China, Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver
  The spectacular exhibit now at Denver's Museum of Contemporary Art has the novella-length title OVER A BILLION SERVED: Conceptual Photography From the People's Republic of China. The work in this knockout show, which is mostly digitally produced and deals with such hot topics as the Tiananmen... More >>
• Best Conceptual Artist in a Group Show
  Jon Rietfors, Director's Choice, + Zeile/Judish Gallery
  Director's Choice marked the first time Ivar Zeile and Ron Judish worked together on the same exhibit. The occasion was the launch of their new art venture, + Zeile/Judish Gallery. The striking show featured the work of emerging Colorado artists who previously were little known in Denver. One... More >>
• Best Ceramics Solo
  Picasso: 25 Years of Edition Ceramics From the Edward and Ann Weston Collection, Metro State Center for the Visual Arts
  Metro State's Center for the Visual Arts hosted a show last month that highlighted some of the most influential pottery of the last century. The traveling exhibit, Picasso: 25 Years of Edition Ceramics From the Edward and Ann Weston Collection, included more than sixty pieces of Picasso's... More >>
• Best Contemporary Ceramics -- Ensemble
  BECAUSE THE EARTH IS 1/3 DIRT, University of Colorado Art Museum
  BECAUSE THE EARTH IS 1/3 DIRT, which just closed at the University of Colorado Art Museum on the Boulder campus, featured an international array of contemporary ceramic artists. Participants were invited by a committee made up of CUAM director Lisa Tamiris Becker and three members of CU's art... More >>
• Best Contemporary Ceramics -- Solo
  Zamantakis: From the Earth, Victoria H. Myhren Gallery University of Denver
  The retrospective Zamantakis: From the Earth, which was ensconced during the holidays at the Victoria H. Myhren Gallery on the campus of the University of Denver, was a major retrospective examining the fifty-year-plus career of one of the most important potters in the state. DU was an... More >>
• Best Gallery for Kids
  PlatteForum, 1610 Little Raven St., 303-893-0791
  Youngsters are the real stars at PlatteForum, even though some of the biggest names in the local art world are artists in residence. Sculptors, painters, dancers and other representatives of the arts work with local classrooms to develop collaborative cultural projects, and when they're... More >>
• Best New Festival -- City
  La Piazza dell'Arte, Larimer Square
  In a town where most of the street festivals have become indistinguishable, the Larimer Arts Association came up with something completely different last year: In the great Renaissance tradition, the group invited artists of all levels to decorate the sidewalk with chalk art. Over two days, the... More >>
• Best New Festival -- Mountains
  Blues From the Top, SolVista Golf and Ski Ranch
  With at least twenty music festivals already on the roster, Colorado didn't really need another. But the founders of Blues From the Top believed wholeheartedly that Grand County needed a dose of the blues, so last year they debuted a two-day extravaganza at SolVista Golf and Ski Ranch, just two... More >>
• Best Ride
  Oskar Blues "Blues Bus"
  The quaint town of Lyons, on the St. Vrain River, has numerous low-key attractions, including Oskar Blues, a first-rate blues-and-brews club that's even received shout-outs from Rolling Stone. Live acts range from members of the Colorado Blues Society to Pinetop Perkins, all augmented nicely by... More >>
• Best Reason to Drive to Central City
  Central City Opera
  Last summer, the Central City Opera featured L'Italiana en Algeri, Gabriel's Daughter -- an original production based on the life of the first female freed slave in gold rush Colorado -- and an evening that combined the famed and familiar I Pagliacci and the rarely performed Goyescas. L'Italiana... More >>
• Best Reason to Go to Arvada
  D Note
  Arvada is still recovering from the cultural jolt thrown by brothers Adam, Matthew and Jeremy DeGraff, who opened the D Note in sleepy Old Town last year. The Brothers D combined their aesthetic and business senses to produce one of the most eclectic and appealing rooms in town -- part art... More >>
• Best Girl Group
  Stitch and Bitch, Thin Man
  Next time you wander into the Thin Man on a Monday night, head for the couches at the back of the narrow bar, where you'll find the chatty chicks of "Stitch and Bitch" knitting away. An informal gathering that attracts anywhere from four to thirty gals each week, these friendly ladies are more... More >>
• Best Ladies' Night
  Girls' Night Out, Mynt True Lounge
  Artist/illustrator Michelle Barnes and club-marketing maven Paulina Szafranski know that women are complex creatures. Sure, they want culture and companionship, inspiration and ideas -- but they also like to have their hair played with and get their nails done. Every Thursday, Barnes and... More >>
• Best Karaoke Night
  Armida's Restaurant
  The atmosphere at Armida's is so calming and amiable that it prompts even everyday patrons to step up to the mike Wednesday through Sunday nights. The disc jockeys are friendly and are happy to accommodate the most absurd request for songs, whether it comes from longtime karaoke heroes or... More >>
• Best Salsa Night
  Mercury Cafe
  Mercury Cafe 2199 California St. 303-294-9281 Salsa dancing is not for the meek: The moves are aerobic, and the music is full of frenetic polyrhythms and enough syncopation to make your head spin. But throwing your dancing shoe into the salsa ring is a lot less intimidating at the Mercury... More >>
• Best Drag Show
  Starz Cabaret, Club Dream
  Producer/director Aaron Hunter prefers the term "female impersonator" to "drag queen." Either way, his new Starz Cabaret show is royal. Modeled on high-camp, high-glam productions in Vegas and Chicago, Starz Cabaret opened in February and features a revolving cast of performers who ape only the... More >>
• Best Place to See State Legislators in Bondage
  Rise Nightclub
  Debating hefty issues such as water use, growth control and the state budget may feel like a form of self-flagellation for lawmakers, but for the real thing, Rise Nightclub offers naughty Denverites of all political persuasions a chance to crack the whip. On a normal night at Rise, there's... More >>
• Best Radioactive Philanthropist
  Nuclia Waste
  Like all good philanthropists, Nuclia Waste raises a little awareness and dough for non-profit projects, but Nuclia does it right with radioactive flair and space-tastic style. Whether it's her annual Misfit Toys variety show and toy drop for needy kids or her annual Project Angel Heart... More >>
• Best Free Entertainment
  People-watching on the 16th Street Mall while we still can
  We miss the old 16th Street Mall. We miss Skip and Amy, the nail-in-nose panhandlers. We miss the skaters at Skyline. We miss the homeless people, who are increasingly being pushed out by metro boosters who don't want to scare away tourists. We miss them because if there is one truth of... More >>
• Best Early-Morning Happy Hour
  Zephyr Lounge
  Barry Melnick had been slingin' suds for the Zephyr Lounge's early-morning crowds for 56 years when he was sidelined last spring by a car accident and heart attack. Now his son, Myron, is keeping the Zephyr's 7 a.m. happy hour alive. With the nearby Fitzsimons campus being redeveloped into a... More >>
• Best Dadaist Bathroom Graffiti
  Gabor's
  When the first Dada Manifesto was ratified in Zurich on July 14, 1916, little did Hugo Ball and company know that one day their revolutionary aesthetic philosophy would wind up being applied to the grimy wall of Gabor's men's room. In perfect accord with the Dadaists' credo of contradiction and... More >>