If Opera Colorado’s world premiere production of composer Lori Laitman’s adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, which debuts May 7 at the Ellie, is a hit with staying power, it may one day be thought of in the repertoire simply as “Laitman’s Scarlet Letter.” But opera is a team sport…
In the back of his store, at the trestle tables set up for visiting artists, Wayne Winsett considers what it takes to make it for 32 years in the comics business. “It consumes you,” says the owner of Boulder’s Time Warp Comics & Cards. “You have to be wholly devoted…
“Not to see Elitch’s is not to see Denver.” This slogan, coined a century ago, was true: For decades, Elitch Gardens was Denver’s family entertainment center, a bright, noisy oasis where kids from toddlers to teens could have fun all day, in safety. In 1890, Mary and John Elitch created the…
The first three graves dug at Cotopaxi were tiny ones. Their communal marker reads “baby daughter,” “baby son” and “15-month-old son.” They lie fenced off from the other 211 bodies buried in the cemetery, in the sandy soil dotted with juniper, piñon and Gambel oak, behind where the town’s schools…
Filmmakers have to be more rigorous than you might think when they’re making a stoner comedy – especially when the two leads are doing most of the shooting as they go along. Doobious Sources, director Clif Lord’s tale of spliff and grief that has its world premiere on Thursday, April 21,…
It’s not every day that significant new art finds are made. And it’s even rarer for these discoveries to be recognized, shared with the community, and integrated effectively into a larger historical and cultural context. But such is the case at Leadville’s National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum, where…
The annual Boulder Arts Week unfolds in all its glory for the third time starting on Friday, March 25, and the schedule includes dance, poetry, film, theater, music, art, classes, workshops and much more. Festival founder and coordinator Emily K. Harrison has created an umbrella concept that unites these diverse disciplines…
He drove from San Antonio to Boulder with a piano in his Prius. Say again? “It’s just the piano harp, actually,” says composer/performer Mark McCoin, referring to the massive steel-and-wire gut of a piano. “It was still pretty tough to get in there.” He needs it for the upcoming show…
It went from nearly being sold for scrap to becoming a new destination on the world’s music map. Thanks to the efforts and cooperation of musicians worldwide and the small town of Rangely, 275 miles northeast of Denver and a short hop from the Utah border, an empty storage tank…
The Boulder International Film Festival will unreel its twelfth iteration March 3 through March 6, with two new venues in outlying towns and more screenings of festival favorites. “Some of these films are so popular, we just couldn’t get in everyone who wanted to see them,” says BIFF Executive Director Robin Beeck…
Boulder is blooming with art-house cinemas this spring. In addition to the offerings at CU-Boulder’s International Film Series and the revamped Dairy Center’s Boedecker Theatre, the Canyon Theater at the Boulder Public Library’s main branch will now host independent first-run cinema screenings three nights a week, beginning Thursday, February 25…
The faster old Denver gets torn down and discarded, the longer our lists of long-gone Colorado monuments and landmarks becomes. We’ve already shared lists of monuments that include a comedian’s arm and a plaque dedicated to the other Columbine massacre. Now here are ten more weird and wonderful Colorado landmarks you…
The Boulder International Film Festival just announced that Oscar-nominated actor Bruce Dern (The Hateful Eight, Nebraska, Coming Home) will be honored at the twelfth annual festival. A Conversation with and Tribute to Bruce Dern is set for Friday, March 4, at the Boulder Theater, 2032 14th Street. Dern’s first screen credit…
“It’s been pandemonious,” says Basil Vendryes, nonchalantly coining a new word as he describes his busy schedule. Since 1993 he’s been the principal violist of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra; he performs and records as a soloist; he teaches at such programs as the Lamont School of Music, the Castleman Quartet Program…
Geek is chic. Ever since TV shows such as The Big Bang Theory and Mythbusters made brainiacs not just endearing and funny, it’s been socially acceptable to be smart. STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education has taken center stage, and nerdy is nice. The Denver/Boulder population is one of…
What do we think of when we think of Jewish film? For three generations, the grainy black-and-white footage of the Holocaust has dominated the collective mind, a trauma that will take the passing of generations to dissipate. Recent Jewish-themed films however, reflect a resilient and rebounding worldwide Jewish population, displaying…
You will never really get movies unless you do them the old-fashioned way: No matter how pervasive digital media becomes, movies thrive in the dark, up on the big screen, in front of engaged viewers. CU-Boulder’s International Film Series knows this, and is celebrating its 75th year of operation with…
When I started looking for obscure historical monuments, sites and artifacts across Colorado —rather than the celebrated, well-known tourist attractions around the state — I thought I’d find maybe ten worth sharing. Now my list is up to 200 and counting, as I keep finding odd, fascinating pieces of our…
How do we remember our heroes? Colorado was one of the first states to celebrate MLK Day, and on January 18, the annual Marade honoring Martin Luther King Jr. will kick off in City Park. But there are now more Americans born after the death of Martin Luther King Jr…
Are you lethargic, irritable? Unable to get out from under the warm covers and deal with reality? Feeling trapped? Cranky? Congratulation:. You have cabin fever! And we’re here to offer the cure. Turn off the TV; cut out the booze, coffee and high carb/high sugar foods; and gt out and do…
“It’s a cautionary tale,” says actor/director/writer Bill Pullman, sitting in the lounge of the Hotel Teatro with his longtime friend and collaborator, Jennifer McCrary Rincon of the Denver Academy of Dramatic Arts. The two are in the process of transforming a pagan myth into an engaging, multimedia, one-night-only theatrical event, The…
Is there a movie you watch every New Year’s Eve? For many years, local TV station KWGN played Casablanca on New Year’s Eve, and it’s still a perennial favorite with Denverites (as well as sentimentalists everywhere). In Russia, people like to watch the 1976 romantic comedy The Irony of Fate at this time…
