For most people, the winter solstice marks the shortest day of the year, a gloomy occasion when the sun goes down early and total darkness ensues. For others, the winter solstice marks the longest night of the year, a cause for raucous celebration and fanfare.The people behind the 18th Annual…
SUN, 12/21 They might not be hitting double axels or triple salchows, but the Summit Figure Skating Club promises to wow winter visitors with Christmas on Ice, Copper Mountain’s version of the Ice Capades led by former professional figure skater Jennifer Bradley.”It’s a Christmas medley with both group numbers and…
Pick up a pair of knitting needles and get down to business with Knit for the Homeless, a campaign to collect handmade hats, scarves and gloves for the underprivileged.”I get the chills when I think about it,” says Shellie Lubowitz, owner of the Shivering Sheep & Coppélia’s Needlepoint. “To me,…
Following Toby Tyler’s lead, Santa Claus is running away and joining the circus that will be at Mario’s Double Daughter’s Salotto this weekend. Named for Italian ringmaster Mario Guccio’s ax-juggling conjoined-twin daughters who died in 2001, Mario’s Double Daughter is truly one of the greatest shows in town. And in…
THURS, 12/11 You’ll find an odd mixture of high and low culture in LoDo and its environs these days. Essentially, there are galleries and there are clubs, diametrically opposed venues with clienteles that rarely clink glasses, let alone even meet, other than to pass in the night once a month…
SUN, 12/14 Author Michael Shapiro is pure Brooklyn. A man of his borough through and through (though he no longer lives there), the fifty-something journalist speaks thick Brooklynese punctuated by a flurry of exclamation points, and his enthusiasm for the Brooklyn he grew up in — the fabled blue-collar Brooklyn…
What do you do when even the funky stores all start to look alike? For some shoppers out there, that dreadful moment when sweet eclecticism degenerates into a marketing ploy could signal the end of life as you know it. But for the moment, you can put away the smelling…
Do you remember your first experience with hard alcohol? For me, it was sneaking the liquor-soaked cherries out of the Manhattans that my grandparents drank each evening. As a child, I both hated and loved the bittersweet taste. Still, I’d never sat down and ordered a Manhattan until I bellied…
WED, 12/10 In the Simpsons episode “How I Spent My Strummer Vacation,” Homer attends a Rock-and-Roll Fantasy camp to be trained in the ways of rock. Brian Setzer makes a memorable guest appearance. Weighing in as the Professor of Slide Guitar, the rockabilly guitar legend is referred to as “Brian…
For Colorado State University professor Diane Sparks, who specializes in textile design and merchandising, curating Divya Vastra: Heavenly Garments, an exhibit of about a hundred saris now on view at CSU’s Curfman Gallery, was a labor of love for cloth and all of its possibilities.Once Sparks starts describing each outfit…
TUES, 12/9 Take a break from the yuletide hustle and bustle, and step into a snow-globe-like winter wonderland with a screening of Dr. Seuss’s classic tale How the Grinch Stole Christmas at tonight’s first annual Holiday Film Festival at the Wildlife Experience.”We went through all the classic holiday films, from…
THURS, 12/4 Hey, ladies: Get off the beaten path and learn about the simple joys of snowshoeing at today’s Atlas Explore Winter Women’s Workshop held at the REI Denver flagship store. “The biggest thing we want to point out is that snowshoeing is fun,” says Mark Guebert-Steward, REI special-events coordinator…
Because I played a dancing mouse in The Nutcracker as a little girl, my mother gives me something featuring the classic little soldier every December. Two years ago, it was a nutcracker doormat; last year, it was nutcracker salad tongs. And just last week, I received a package of nutcracker…
I’ve always wanted to be the lead singer in a band. Not like Mick Jagger fronting a band rockin’ out large stadiums, but more of a Janis Joplin type, pouring my heart out on a small stage in a dark, smoky enclave. Sadly, I can’t carry a tune. My own…
Diane and Elaine Klimaszewski, the buxom blond Coors Light twins, have been busy little ladies in the year since they graced Westword’s cover (“The Light Stuff,” January 23). On top of their daily duties of working teenage boys into a frenzy and helping Coors sell buckets of beer, they have…
FRI, 11/28 As the Christmas season fast approaches, one cannot help but cringe at the inevitable onslaught of typical holiday productions. Buried neck-deep in Yuletide cheer, it’s nearly impossible to muster enthusiasm for yet another production of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. Are audiences supposed to coo again and feel…
MON, 12/1 Since it premiered on December 1, 1989, as an artists’ response to World AIDS Day, A Day Without Art has gone through a lot of shape-shifting. Instead of closing galleries or draping artworks in black shrouds, artists now tend to speak out on AIDS in visual terms, by…
FRI, 11/28 Break away from the shopping madness and glide into the holiday spirit at the Comfort Dental Ice Rink, opening today from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. at Fillmore Plaza, Second Avenue and Fillmore Street in Cherry Creek North. The University of Denver skating team will be on hand…
SUN, 11/30 In the Jewish tradition, books are central to life: The urge to study the world is ingrained among families, generation to generation, and a well-stocked bookshelf provides the impetus to learn in many Jewish homes. But while the Mizel Center for Arts and Culture’s annual Leah Cohen Festival…
Long before kids had actor Will Ferrell stuffed into yellow elf tights and pointed booties to laugh at, my brother, sister and I amused ourselves for hours on end dancing around the Christmas tree lip-synching to a cassette of kooky Christmas classics. My personal favorite was always “Grandma Got Run…
If your houseguests have been in town for a full twelve hours and are already grating on your last nerve, impress them with a trip to Denver’s newest power center, the Capital Grille, where you can get them nice and sauced up with a few Stoli Dolis (a drink that…
FRI, 11/21 While his contemporaries flocked to New York and Paris, twentieth-century painter Vance Kirkland chose to spend more than fifty years living and working in Denver. He was not only an innovative artist who painted his way through five major periods, but also an educator — teaching art at…
