I can’t imagine why anyone would choose to sit around thinking about all the avian-flu-type things waiting to kill us. What a bummer it would be worrying about pandemics and blizzards and extended power outages all the time. And does anyone even listen? Yeah, we know: bottled water, batteries, canned…

Maybe we have completely different ideas of daytime fun, but can you think of a better way to spend an afternoon than in the warm embrace of Uncle Beam and Aunt Sapphire while popping finger food in your mouth and then washing it down with your choice of more than…

“The mid-century-modern style has been near and dear to my heart since I was a little kid watching The Jetsons,” says hostess Dana Cain. “Modern design is so popular in Colorado right now, and it seemed like the ultimate thing I could do for Denver,” she adds, explaining the motivation…

I’ll just say this: After talking with the very (whew!) excited Timothy J. Standring, the Gates Foundation curator of painting and sculpture, any art-illiterate doubts I had about the relevance of Masterpieces on Loan: Caravaggio, Poussin, Lorrain are long, long gone. “Imagine Shakespeare coming to town,” says Standring. “Imagine Mozart’s…

Apparently, laissez-faire artistic independence can be far more daunting than it sounds. Sure, everyone says they want to do their own thing, but when something like the Boulder International Fringe Festival comes along and they really get the chance, they freeze up. “The most difficult part is that artists are…

Grab your phasers, glue on those pointy ears and practice, practice, practice that new Klingon phrase, because Trek 5280: Starfleet International Conference is beaming down to the Adam’s Mark Hotel, 1550 Court Place, tonight at 7 p.m. The four-day event includes four “Away Missions” to Coors Field for the Cubs/Rockies…

MINI Coopers pack a big punch — they’ve been named both rally racing championships and European Car of the Century — and they contain ten million possibilities for “Ultimate Youification,” which probably explains some of the fascination with these bulldog-looking cars. Whether you already own one or you’re just a…

If you’re the type of person who ransacks your parents’ closet in search of Christmas presents or looks at the end of a book before you’re through the first chapter, then you’ll be overjoyed to know that the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center’s Extremely Grand Opening is throwing a little…

After my first year in college, I came home to find a pot of rotting food in the corner of my family’s kitchen. According to my long-haired vegetarian brother, he was “like, composting, dude.” Although he taught me a little more about what it takes to save the planet, it…

What do a lesbian mother, a narcissistic Midwestern beauty-shop owner, a mother haunted by infanticide, and a woman who believes she’s murdered her own imagination have in common? Well, each has something to say about modern life, from suburban sprawl to constraining social norms. Using four one-act plays as its…

Although I moved to Denver for the mountains, my daily life tangles me up often enough that I rarely make it past the city limits. Sadly, I don’t even think about what I’m missing until something like TrailFest 2007 comes along. Starting today at 7 a.m. with a pancake breakfast…

It’s hard to believe that pink ceramic penguins and fuzzy hyper-colored landscape paintings could contribute to a topic as weighty as global warming. But that’s exactly what’s happening at Glacial: Works by Timothy Berg and Bob Koons, which opens tonight at 6 p.m. at Ironton Studios, 3636 Chestnut Place. According…

Have you ever been driving and just never, ever wanted to stop? Even with gas at three bucks a gallon, the increasingly expensive open road means more to us than just so much distance from point A to point B. In a kind of pointillist fashion, Tales From the Great…

It’s hard being a writer. For one thing, your family is always asking you what you’re doing with your life, and your girlfriend just can’t understand why you want to spend more time with your computer than with her. It’s a tough sell on all sides, so anyone who writes…

Imagine asking a roomful of people to scream out a name and location for your play. Add character, plot and theme, then knead and stretch until you’ve got (hopefully) a discernable beginning, middle and end. Got it? Now do this without rewrites, without rehearsals, without anything except your wits and…

If you think Samurai swordsmanship is as outdated as the transistor radio, or is useful only as an entertaining way to chop watermelons in half, or you really just want to look like John Belushi’s grunting samurai character from old Saturday Night Live skits, then you’ll be surprised to hear…

With songs like “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” “Silver Bells” and “Winter Wonderland” dancing through your head, aren’t you ready for a silent night by the time New Year’s kisses roll around? Lannie’s Clocktower Cabaret, 1601 Arapahoe Street, has the answer for all you holiday humbuggers who would rather choke…

Aren’t fireworks on the Fourth of July a little…cliched? Trick question! Anyone who said yes is either un-American (and probably a terrorist) or has never seen the Estes Park Independence Day Celebration. “The setting can’t be beat. To see the fireworks in this expansive sky with sound reverberating off the…

From a tattered American flag to a bronze office key, a hunk of glass to an elevator sign for the 102nd floor, the most common objects can tell the most extraordinary stories. Opening today at 9 a.m. at the Aurora History Museum, 15051 East Alameda Parkway, September 11, 2001: The…

Featuring food and produce vendors from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., works by local artists from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and the Hot Sounds concert series at 5 p.m…

When I was a kid, my dad scooped me up every night when he got home from work, and I loved the gasoline scent on his flight suit and his prickly, day-old stubble. When I was a teenager, he invited me on his weekly Corvette cruise, where we would drum…

Foul, foul, foul! We just can’t have any fun without The Man sticking his rules where they don’t belong. Seriously, in the NBA, you can’t even trash-talk without a penalty these days. (Shi’, honky — everyone knows that’s half the fun.) Well, if you’re tired of that no-contact, mind-your-manners version…