French aniumaFRI, 2/4 Artists have long labored to capture the sublime through sensual stimuli evoked by visual imagery. Spend a few hours before a Bierstadt landscape or a depthless Rothko color block, and you’ll start to get it. It’s a romantic notion that survives even in our technological age. The…
Artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles doesn’t like to see waste go to waste. And for three decades, the Denver native has found ways to celebrate refuse and the people who handle it. The sometimes controversial Ukeles has done everything from documenting herself washing the steps of a theater in Hartford, Connecticut,…
Amateur card sharps get their day. SAT, 1/29 In May 2003, Tennessee amateur Chris Moneymaker won $2.5 million at the championship final event of the World Series of Poker. The victory came as quite a surprise to the poker community, as the World Series was Moneymaker’s first actual casino tournament…
TUES, 1/25 Charismatic singer Bobby McFerrin, who beatboxed his way up the charts in 1988 with the Grammy-winning “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” brings his bebopping rhythm and jazz — not to mention that signature grin — tonight to the Newman Center for the Performing Arts. McFerrin, who studied with Leonard…
FRI, 1/21 Colorado aesthetes, mark your PDAs: Here comes another extracurricular activity for the creative class. Tonight, the Colorado Theatre Guild introduces Theatre Night Out, a nomadic tour of area venues and productions held on the third Friday of every month. Taking a cue from the wildly successful First Friday…
THURS, 1/13 Ever since Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party — an installation of table settings celebrating female figures of cultural and historic importance — was first viewed by the public in 1979, it’s been an undying symbol of feminism. But while the five-year collaboration of hundreds of artisans and assistants…
TUES, 1/4 I worked for years in the retail world, where the general atmosphere always builds to an apocalyptic frenzy in December. Then there’s the day-after sale and, after that, inventory to be taken. No rest for the weary. Even after I retired to a behind-the-scenes buying job in the…
Another year is about to go belly-up, and the deadline for New Year’s resolutions is here. Don’t bother dragging out last year’s list; the last time you looked at that was the day you made it. It’s time to start anew, and several December 31 events offer unique ways to…
SAT, 12/25 After his all-night gift-bearing bender, Santa will cool his heels today at the Cherry Creek North ice rink — still in the spirit of giving. Proceeds from the day will be donated to Project Angel Heart, a metro-area community-supported charity that delivers fresh meals to people with HIV/AIDS,…
There’s nothing worse than awakening from a long winter’s nap, rolling out of bed and discovering it’s Christmas morning — and not a creature is stirring his coffee, not even at Starbucks. But you’d better not cry, and you don’t need to pout, because plenty of holiday hoopla is available…
SAT, 12/18 Ever wonder what true cowboys do at Christmas? Well, then, grab your ten-gallon hat and git on down to A Chuckwagon Christmas at the Flying W Ranch (3330 Chuckwagon Road in Colorado Springs), where folks gather ’round a pot-bellied stove in the bunkhouse, eat off tin plates and…
SAT, 12/18 All aboard for the season’s first trip on the Ski Train, “a Denver tradition for generations,” as general manager Jim Bain points out. And since that first generation of Eskimos rode up to Winter Park — this city’s own ski resort — the train has grown some, too…
SAT, 12/4 Neal Conan may know radio, but he can’t keep a beat. The Talk of the Nation host was once a peppy percussionist who was asked to permanently retire his drumsticks by his high school bandleader, ultimately diverting Conan to a distinguished career in broadcast journalism. Luckily for us,…
SUN, 12/5 For someone like Richard Nelson, who grew up in the small northeast-plains town of Peetz, Colorado, East High must have seemed a far cry from the schoolhouses of his youth. His first shock came when he walked into the mammoth school as the new English teacher in 1964…
FRI, 12/3 For the past three months, Metropolitan State College’s Social Action Through Art class has been studying urban arts, including graffiti and hip-hop culture. “We even had some breakdance instructors come in,” remembers student Nicole Aragon. “It was quite the experience. It was a lot of fun, but I…
FRI, 11/26 I tend to be a surreptitious shopper, sliding quietly through stores like a sylph on a mission, waiting for an item to communicate with me telepathically: “Here I am. Just what you need.” What I don’t need is help, and I don’t want it, either. Beware, shoptenders. Just…
SAT, 11/20 Harmony: A Colorado Chorale has something sing about. When the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriages this past spring, Harmony artistic director William Loper wanted to applaud the wedding bells he heard ringing on the horizon. The result is Hand in Hand, Heart to…
THUR, 11/18 José Mercado knew his second big show at North High School was gonna have to be good. Last year, the actor and educator elevated North’s theater department with Zoot Suit Riots, a larger-than-life production that made stars of its student actors. After nearly selling out the Temple Buell…
FRI, 11/12 When Brandon Borchert plays Powerball, he is always a winner. Borchert is a Denver artist who has developed a master list of 53 numbered images matched to the digits printed on the white betting balls. When the lucky gaming globes of Powerball are drawn, the Dada-inspired painter heads…
The gift-giving season draws nigh, so sound the battle cry and dig in: Shop early and shop often! After all, frenzy can be fun, especially when you know where to shop. And this is one hot weekend to do it. For starters, the seventh annual Gifts for Yule, an eclectic…
SUN, 11/7 From jingle slinger to jazz balladeer, Barry Manilow has proved to be mercilessly enduring. But seriously, how can you hate the guy? His songs have become part of America’s musical wallpaper, subliminally comforting in their sappy, maudlin nostalgia. Maybe that’s why, decades after his last Top 40 single,…
SAT, 11/6 Photographer Robert Doisneau, who likened his art to a fisherman’s catch, loved Paris more than anyone possibly could, and he rarely left its confines to shoot his pictures. The tiny, split-second tableaux of splendid life are so perfectly indicative of time and place that they still transport us…
