Over the years, Rave's has morphed into a gothic fashion statement dripping with fetish wear, schoolgirl costumes, corsets, cock rings and the motto "Abuse isn't extra: It's a part of our service!" Considering that every corset Raven sells comes with a free lesson on how to put it on, you begin to get the point. Ditto for fang fittings, of which she says, "I'd rather have them do it here than have them go home and get frustrated. They drool all over themselves while I do it, and then we all laugh at them, but that's just part of the fun. You've gotta have thick skin to wear fangs."
As Halloween nears, the new Rave's rocks. Right now the store is brimming with costumes galore, many of them hilarious -- from furry pimp hats and voluminous boob suits to walking turd gear and feather wings for angels and devils alike. Don't be surprised to find the entire staff, male and female, dressed as nuns and schoolgirls. And during the last two weekends of the month, local drag queen and MAC cosmetician Kira Sexton -- "You just want to slap the hell out of him, he's so gorgeous," Raven spouts -- will offer Halloween makeovers for $20, by appointment.
For more information, call 303-333-5987 or go to www.raveswear.cc. -- Susan Froyd
Body Beautiful
Eeewww! Gross!
FRI, 10/7
Fart, cheese, air biscuit, barking spider. In her kids' book, Grossology, author Sylvia Branzei is happy to detail the vernacular terms for bodily functions -- in all their rip-snorting variety -- but she always backs it up with a whiff of science. That's the whole point of Grossology: The (Impolite) Science of the Human Body, a traveling exhibit of Branzei's wit and Jack Kelly's goofy illustrations that opens today at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, 2001 Colorado Boulevard, for a three-month stay.
For the record, my second-grader panned the exhibit's interactive games and thought the digestive-tract structure -- through which you must navigate before sliding out, well, the other end -- was a glorified McPlayPlace. But she loved the Cootie Cart, where one can see museum specimens of -- gross! -- leeches and tapeworms, or view enlarged images of fleas, ticks and lice on a screen or under a microscope. To each her own.
Museum admission is $6 to $10. For more information, call 303-322-7009 or go to www.dmns.org. -- Susan Froyd
Pitt Stop
FRI, 10/7
Clive Cussler used to live in Colorado -- first in Arvada, where he cooked up the first of his trademark Dirk Pitt books, then in Telluride. These days he lives in Arizona, but he'll be back this weekend, when the Clive Cussler Collector's Society -- "bringing fans and collectors together" -- hosts its inaugural Clive Cussler Convention. "If only I could afford the fare from the U.K.," writes one fan on the Cussler Society's message board. While it's a little late to hop on a plane in Britain, Colorado Cussler fans can still get to tonight's kick-off reception at 7 p.m. at the Radisson North Denver Greystone Castle, 83 East 120th Avenue. Events continue through Sunday and include a tour of Cussler's brand-new car museum in Arvada, as well as a banquet with the author himself. Convention registration is $125; for a complete schedule, go to www.cusslersociety.com. -- Patricia Calhoun
Go Fly a Kite
SUN, 10/9
Be irresponsible. Take a day off from BlackBerries and the Internet, video games and flat-screen TVs. Go fly a kite in honor of World Kite Day and the twentieth annual One Sky One World International Kite Fly for Peace, being held today on the eastern shore of Sloan's Lake. Aside from a crowd full of kite enthusiasts craning their necks toward the clouds, the festival will offer live music, earth-friendly workshops and a pet parade. Attendees can also enjoy the lake's centerpiece exhibit: nine flowerbeds that were transformed into a rich garden of roses and drought-tolerant perennials thanks to the donations of former Rocky Mountain News writer Frances Melrose. One Sky One World runs from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Sloan's Lake, 18th Avenue and Meade Street. For further information, visit www.earthnet. net/~jpa/osow/. -- Tuyet Nguyen
