Pre- or post-movie, grab a little loudmouth soup with a couple of olives in it over at Marlowe's, or a slab of lasagna at Maggiano's. The thing that still separates the fifteen-screen Denver Pavilions from all the other largely indistinguishable multiplexes from here to Castle Rock is the proximity to top-drawer food and drink on Denver's 16th Street Mall. That, and free underground parking (be sure to get your ticket stamped in the theater lobby). Comfortably fortified, you then slip into your padded rocker for ninety minutes of Pink Panther yuks or three hours with the Israeli commandos of Munich. As with all 'plexes, the Pavilions' theaters are clean, the high-tech sound system is good, and the projection standards are fine.

The Starz FilmCenter withdrew from a deal to relocate to the Lowenstein Theater on East Colfax Avenue, so the movie house will remain in its tatty old digs in the Tivoli building, where the auditoriums are cramped and the amenities minimal. But the films are glorious, the kind of New York-, Chicago- or L.A.-worthy fare you simply can't find in the suburbs. Recent offerings have included everything from a revival of Antonioni's neglected 1975 thriller The Passenger to the relentlessly spooky Japanese horror flick Pulse to a four-film retrospective honoring the late, great French director Louis Malle. If your taste tends to indies and thoughtful imports, Starz is the place.

Care for a carafe with your Capote? Landmark's Mayan Theatre, on hip Broadway, not only has the best food in Denver moviedom (everything from fat bagel dogs to top-notch cookies from Alternative Baking), but as of January, it also features a full bar upstairs. That's right: You can now order an imported beer or the cocktail of your choice, then take it with you into the theater as you settle in to watch Mrs. Henderson Presents or Brokeback Mountain. Which, come to think of it, features a little beer-guzzling its own self. Meanwhile, the Mayan continues to dispense top-of-the-line Dazbog coffee in several flavors, gourmet Odwalla juices, and popcorn with soy sauce or Spike multi-seasoning.

A few years before the publication of 1939's landmark anti-war novel Johnny Got His Gun, the late author Dalton Trumbo published Eclipse, a satirical and sometimes caustic look at small-town life and politics inspired by Grand Junction, where he grew up. The book promptly went out of print, but the many G.J. locals who'd unwittingly served as models for his work didn't forget it. As a result, Grand Junction didn't officially acknowledge one of its most famous sons for well over half a century. Last year, though, an area group working in conjunction with the Trumbo family arranged to republish Eclipse as a benefit for the Mesa County Public Library District (visit www.mcpld.org to purchase a copy). With the book's arrival in December, the sun finally set on one of Colorado's most epic grudges.

Thirty years ago, Roberta Price found herself facing a true Western dilemma: Be inhospitable to the strangers at her door or serve them the THC-laced doughnuts cooling on the table. The Manhattan-raised Vassar girl chose wisely: She gave the cowboys each a doughnut and sent them on their way, deciding a light buzz was a lesser offense than poor manners. Price and her husband, David, were living in the hippie commune Libre, deep in the Huerfano Valley of Southeastern Colorado, and Huerfano is her elegantly told memoir of that experience. The Sangre de Cristo mountains were brutal taskmasters -- Price spent a winter with only roofing paper between her and fifty-below nights -- but they also provided her with an unlimited supply of amusing anecdotes. Featured prominently in those escapades are two Denver notables: photographer Larry Laszlo, who lived in the sixty-foot "Red Rocker" geodesic dome in the neighboring valley, and local theater impresario John Ashton, who lived at Libre for a spell. As the world turns...

Fred Ramey and Greg Michalson are proof positive that good novels don't have to come from Manhattan -- they can hail from a cowtown such as Denver, thanks to their publishing house, Unbridled Books. The independent book publisher only puts out ten books a year, which allows Ramey and Michalson to be choosy about whom they work with. As a result, "They're all extremely important to us; our ego is attached to every single book," Ramey says. Their focus is fiction, particularly literary fiction that concentrates on beautiful writing, strong voices, strong characters and a strong sense of place. Unbridled isn't representing any local writers at the moment, but the house does represent well for Denver's literary life.

If there's anyone who should be frontin' for Denver, it's someone who titles a book of poetry about civil-rights martyrs Murder Ballads. A person who understands that Denver readers want beautifully crafted prose, depth of storytelling and consciousness-raising ideas wrapped in one catchy package. In short, we want it all -- and Jake Adam York delivers. The Alabama native moved here just five years ago, but he's already fully immersed in his adopted home. He teaches creative writing at the University of Colorado at Denver and held a creative residency at PlatteForum last year, where he ran a poetry lab for students from North High School and P.S. 1, creating the art installation "A Map of Denver" in the process. York also edits the Copper Nickel, the national literary journal based at UCD, and organizes the Denver Mint Reading Series, which brings Pulitzer-level and up-and-coming poets and writers to town. On top of all that, he's finishing his next book -- Annumeration of Starlings -- that will be a followup to Murder Ballads. That's a great verse-case scenario.

Parking along Santa Fe Drive on a Friday night ain't what it used to be, particularly on First Fridays. Visitors could easily spend so much time hunting down a prime parking space that they'd miss out on all the wine and cheese. In December, the Artdistrict on Santa Fe rectified the situation, offering a free shuttle-bus service to and from the light-rail station at 10th Avenue and Osage Street from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. every First Friday. Originally the free ride was only scheduled through April, but the numbers of people using the orange-dotted shuttle have risen so much that it will most likely continue on well beyond April Fools' Day. "People have gotten to be dependent on it," says Artdistrict president Jack Pappalardo of Habitat Gallery. "Now they'll expect it." There's never too much of a good thing.

Eco-devo and the arts usually go together like drinking and driving. So many artists thought it was just crazy talk last year when the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs announced it was creating a position that would help artists -- not just big-box retailers -- access economic opportunity. Ginger White accepted the challenge of becoming the city's arts eco-devo specialist, but instead of careening off like a drunk, she's been Dale Earnhardt (and not Jr.), smoothly rounding difficult corners on her way to enriching the local arts scene. Although that doesn't mean she's got cash to throw around, she's finding ways to help artists work through the zoning process, access city loans and maneuver other roadblocks inherent in the city government/artist relationship.

Starving artists hate that rich people run the show simply by throwing their money around, but thank goodness Kent and Vicki Logan spread the wealth. The couple is giving the Denver Art Museum a $10 million endowment for the modern and contemporary department, more than 300 artworks from their personal stash (added to the more than 200 they have already donated), and their Vail home and private art museum, plus another $5 million for maintenance of the property. The Logans have been generous to our community before, but this is the best thing they've ever done.