Like the classic Riverdance duality of a rigid upper body and fluid legs, the Irish heart embraces a love of life matched only by its maudlin sentimentality. It’s this emotional crossroads — played out on the dock of Cobh (pronounced Cove) in County Cork — that The Christmas Revels: An…

“By performing holiday pieces you haven’t heard before mixed with more familiar pieces arranged in a way you haven’t experienced, we’re bringing a fresh perspective to traditional holiday music,” says Tom Morgan, artistic director of Ars Nova (or “New Art” in Latin). In other words, if you’re looking for a…

Years and years ago, when I was a boy, when my family shared one telephone, when my grandfather snuck me tastes of beer, when my dad dressed as Santa Claus and we sat on his lap even when we knew it was him, before the Internet, before texting, before the…

With an artistic legacy built around the Campbell’s model of instant recognition, mass production and self-conscious kitsch, isn’t a roomful of Andy Warhols just life imitating art? If you’ve ever longed for a taste of Factory superstar chic, then put on your silver wig, black turtleneck and dark glasses, because…

Jacob Marley’s afterlife really sucks. First he dies. Then he’s assigned the most overzealous tormentor in all of limbo land. Now he has to redeem Ebenezer Scrooge in order to redeem himself?! What a bum deal. Although rewriting vintage tales is nothing new (think Wicked), Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol is…

Divide abstract expressionism into two camps, with one defined by explosive painters such as Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock, who famously flung, splashed, poured and dripped paint in an attempt at primal expression. On the other side, you have Clyfford Still and Mark Rothko concentrating single colors in a…

Can you think of a better way to spend the afternoon than soaking up more award-winning beer than you can drink? (That’s a challenge, lightweight). Today from noon to 4:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m., the All Colorado Beer Festival rolls out the barrels at Mr. Biggs Event…

Although a classic in its own right, Run-DMC’s version of “Walk This Way” isn’t the type of reimagining that the Marcus Roberts Trio has in mind. No disrespect to the guys sans shoelaces, but Re-Creative Fusion is a more complicated animal. Tonight, starting at 7:30 p.m. in Macky Auditorium on…

From the psychedelic installation art, unusual costumes and hippie-dippy trade-and-barter mentality to the lunar-like panorama and oddly named camps and villages — not to mention the forty-foot pyrotechnic dude who inspired it all — everyone seems to know something about Burning Man. But how much do you really know about…

Even if you don’t care for the acrobatics and artsy-fartsy interpretive dance that goes into something like Cirque du Soleil, you may be inexplicably drawn to Theatre of the Vampires, showing tonight and tomorrow night at 8 p.m. in Macky Auditorium at the University of Colorado at Boulder. For starters,…

Maybe it sounds like bad sci-fi, but I’m writing today because of an extraterrestrial alien. Forget mind-control beams or flying saucers: My alien involved an eighth-grade science project in which everyone designed an ET evolved to a specific foreign environment. I mark that assignment as the moment I started taking…

Imagine climbing in the shadow of George Mallory as he clings to the face of Everest or swimming with Robert Ballard as he discovers the fossil-like remains of the Titanic. Starting tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Macky Auditorium, 17th Street and University Avenue in Boulder, First Person: Stories From the…

Fortune’s son, anthropologist and entree are just some of the words you could use to describe Michael C. Rockefeller. No matter what you call him, his determination to bring the wood carvings of the Asmat tribes of southwestern New Guinea to the attention of the Western world is the stuff…

“The Farley Mowat was an 180-foot all-black North Sea trawler that had been converted into, basically, a pirate ship,” says Colorado adventure writer Peter Heller. “Its bow was ice-reinforced — ideal for ramming — and mounted with water cannons for defense. Then, four days out of Melbourne, Australia, two welders…

Trust me: It’s impossible to win an interview with Al Gore when your media credentials are ozone-thin. You’d think he was trying to save the planet; you’d think he was a big-name politician or even a movie star, with all the hoops and fire-walks involved in four little e-mail questions…

In my opinion, the mark of a good artist is the ability to turn the ugly or the offensive, or even the commonplace, into something greater. Look at Warhol or Duchamp, or even Pryor. Yes, I’m talking about Richard Pryor — so pay attention. Remember that standup act where he’s…

A trip to Pittsburgh last weekend made me realize what an eccentric and wonderful city I once inhabited. Sure, it’s not high on the hipster scale, and people say things like yinz, and there are too many mullets, and the bar for good taste is, like, ankle-level with most cities…

What better validation of a life’s work than to get an award for not just one thing, but all the things you’ve cumulatively accomplished? That’s when I can finally say, “Ha, ha, Dad, where’s your lifetime-achievement thingy?” Of course, seven-time Tony Award winner Stephen Sondheim has probably done that at…

Isn’t it unusual that war buddies can get together — with nary a paraplegic or alcoholic — and dance to show tunes under the radar of suspicion? As out-of-place as it seems in a time of tsunami-level cynicism, Irving Berlin’s White Christmas is just such a story. Warming the stage…

The only thing I’ve ever done that was remotely cowboy-like was ride a horse one terrifying afternoon in college. His name was Tank, and he tried tossing me into a body cast. Of course, I showed that big bastard a thing or two (mostly about what real fear sounds like)…

Back before I wrote anything except awkward poetry or read anything except Beat writers or kissed a girl who wasn’t my mother or really knew why I hated the suburbs (except that I really hated them); back when I stole beer from people’s open garages in the summertime and dreamed…

Having fun and feeling good about yourself has never been easier than it will be tonight at the Colorado National Speedway, 4281 Weld County Road 10 in Erie, when the Shining Stars Celebrity Challenge revs up starting at 4 p.m. Benefiting the Shining Stars Foundation — which provides fun programs…