Smile, Reptile

SAT, 8/6 At 9 a.m. this morning at Colorado Gators in Mosca, GatorFest X will commence, and we all know what that means: It’s the tenth anniversary of the biggest, baddest alligator rodeo in the state. What exactly is planned at this enterprise seventeen miles north of Alamosa? Live music…

Do No Harm

Brian O’Connell was supposed to stand trial on June 23, facing fourteen criminal counts. Instead, he went to Disney World. That excursion violated the conditions of his bond, and when O’Connell returned to Colorado, he was arrested. His attorney also withdrew from the case because of a conflict of interest,…

A Pain in the Assets

After nearly three years of fighting, Susan Demander finally won her battle against the Douglas County Assessor’s Office. Demander had been arguing since 2003 that her Victorian-style office building should not be valued more highly than the almost-identical property next door (“A Tale of Two Buildings,’ July 7). When she…

Spirit Quest

SAT, 7/23 Jazz percussionist and spiritual traveler Jimmy Hopps — aka Jimmi EsSpirit, the Spirit Man — has a mile-long musician’s resume and the chops to back it up: A boyhood friend of Motown’s Marvin Gaye and young piano prodigy who switched to drums later on, he boasts such career…

Vocal Folk

FRI, 7/22 The ascendancy of hip-hop as a cultural phenomenon has brought a kindred form of expression to the masses: the spoken word. Landmark proto-rap records by the likes of the Last Poets and Melvin Van Peebles more than thirty years ago paved the way for artists such as Michael…

He’s Back!

FRI, 7/15 Tonight at the stroke of midnight, the wait will be over. Two years of agony and despair will end as millions of wannabe wizards and witches speed-read to find out the answer to the burning question: Who is the Half-Blood Prince? Local booksellers are keeping the anticipation level…

Dream On

If you know a better way to spend the weekend than creating a four-day mini-utopia in the Colorado mountains near Paonia, we’d like to hear about it. Starting Thursday, July 14, dreamers will converge in the remote spot as part of Dreamtime to share music, dancing, interactive sculptures, fire performances,…

Ride On

FRI, 7/8 Hey, Texas isn’t the only state to have steers and queers. Right here in little ol’ Colorado, we can claim our share, too — and there’s a whole rodeo devoted to them. The Colorado Gay Rodeo Association is rounding up its 23rd annual Rocky Mountain Regional Rodeo tonight…

Mum’s the word

FRI, 7/8 Two years ago, Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver boss Cydney Payton carried the Colorado art world on her shoulders when she single-handedly curated MCA’s biennial exhibition. This year, the curator is renowned London-based writer/artist/gallery owner Kenny Schachter, who drew talent from a range of Western states, not just Colorado…

A Tale of Two Buildings

Two nearly identical Victorian-style office buildings sit in old downtown Parker, like gingerbread houses crafted from the same mold. They share a parking lot. One’s address is on Pike’s Peak Drive, the other on Pike’s Peak Court. One is dusty pink, the other is baby blue. But according to the…

Home-Grown Talent

FRI, 7/1 Years ago, I learned the meaning of art while walking the Cherry Creek Arts Festival in a sweaty Village Inn cartoon-bear suit, only to be ambushed by my older brother’s friends — who’d heard about my humiliating employment. Thankfully, today I can shake off that trauma as the…

Attell-All Show

THURS, 6/23 Comic Dave Attell offers this philosophical stumper: “Which would you rather have: A butler, an ice sculpture of your own ass, a baby pool full of Skittles, or $100?” “Huh?” I reply, wondering if this question was actually rhetorical. “C’mon man! The 100 bucks!” exults Attell over the…

Cowboy Up

THURS, 6/23 Bulls, horses and lassos are rarely the images conjured up when folks discuss high school sports. But some 300 teenage cowpokes think it’ll take just about eight seconds — the length of most bull rides — to change that concept when they compete in the Colorado State High…

Where the Sidewalk Ends

SAT, 6/18 For most kids, summer isn’t over until their bucket of sidewalk chalk is reduced to unusable nubs. You might think you’ve outgrown the pleasure of creating powdery masterpieces on cement, but the third annual KeyBank La Piazza dell’Arte on Larimer Square will prove you wrong. “It’s all about…

Summer Savings

SAT, 6/11 Denver’s Baker Neighborhood is one of those nostalgic-home neighborhoods that people from other places never seem to understand. “Wait — it’s a neighborhood right in the heart of the city, with actual houses and everything, not skyscrapers?” they ask. Exactly. The eclectic area is a hodgepodge of quaint…

Outlaw Celebrations

FRI, 6/3 Americana music cuts a wide swath these days, encompassing just about anything that involves songwriting and singing by, well, an American. But its heart, which is so central to the genre, began pumping long ago from a wellspring fed by the likes of Bill Monroe and the Carter…

Geeks and Freaks

At first glance, the concept for the Art + Math = X conference doesn’t add up. How could those two disparate disciplines be blended? After all, in high school, the free-spirited culture kids and the logical mathletes never seemed to get along. But there doesn’t have to be a divide…

Weird Science

FRI, 5/27 The synthesizer is a powerful tool that has suffered much abuse since its entrance into the pop world. Cheese-doodling, lipstick-wearing hairspray bands of the ’80s are to blame for the synth’s lowly place among “real” instruments like guitars and snare drums. But Sci-Fi Uterus, a Denver electronic trio,…