How would you spend your birthday if you were a classically trained tabla player with an ear for global music and out-of-kilter rhythms of all kinds? If you’re mountain-dwelling Andy Skellenger, you might just corral your best friends for a jam in the city — and then invite the entire…
It’s no surprise that comics fans would band together in the wake of the Aurora shootings, considering that the movie premiere that night focused on Batman, one of the most enduring and beloved of all superheroes. And in true superhero style, a number of local groups, including the folks behind…
How much does it cost to put on a county fair? According to Tracy Weil of the Denver County Fair, about $200,000 — and the DCF isn’t funded in any way by the county, unlike most traditional fairs. Of course, that’s also what helps sets the DCF apart from all…
At tonight’s installment of the Denver Film Society’s Women + Film series, PeaceJam’s Dawn Engle will be the woman, and The Mayan Renaissance will be the film. This fastidious and lovely history of Mayan civilization and culture fast-forwards into the present, as it is seen by Nobel laureate (and PeaceJam…
When Denver’s acclaimed Curious Theatre Company kicks off its new season on September 1, there will be at least one big change that’s not obvious onstage. The troupe will head into autumn with several new members and a new company model that Curious founder Chip Walton hopes will eventually be…
To call the work of Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki fairy tales would be simplistic; his films (and to some extent those made by others in his fold) pit the forces of nature and the manmade world against one another in fantastical and sometimes strange and confounding ways. But despite the…
The Old South Pearl Street retail empire of 5 Green Boxes has long had Westword’s vote for best window displays, and now the shop — actually two stores on the same block — is upping the ante to ensure that we never change our minds. See also: – Best Window…
I have a confession to make: I live in the house of Hayao Miyazaki. A formidable row of Studio Ghibli DVDs by Miyazaki and other animators in his fold — from the Academy Award-winning fantasy Spirited Away to such lesser-known tales as Pompoko and Whisper of the Heart — line…
Director Dave Ortolano has high hopes for this year’s Boulder International Fringe Festival. By way of a glorious coming together of fate and talent, he says, it’s turning out to be showplace for fest favorites of the past, and that’s a very good thing. “This year, we have about six…
Fast-forwarding Machiavelli’s sixteenth-century Italian comedy La Mandragola (the Mandrake), into La Dolce Vita-era Naples actually makes a lot of sense; if you ask Spark Theater’s Michael Emmitt, the ’60s time period of his Machiavellian update, The Love Potion, not only offers an accurate mirror of humanist upheaval in Italy at…
Were there any surprises among the 2012 Colorado Book Awards winners? “I thought the judges went outside the box a little this year,” says Christine Goff of Colorado’s Center for the Book, which coordinates the contest. “Several of the nominees were self-published books, and there were several submitted as e-books,…
If you’re Jewish, the coming high holidays are nothing to joke about. “Around this time, a lot of Jews enter a period of preparing for them,” says Georgina Kolber of the Mizel Museum. “It’s an intense time for a lot of people; it’s when they set their intentions for the…
In addition to being a sculptor, Denver artist Laura Phelps Rogers has spent many years dealing antiques — something she says “brings a historic aesthetic to my contemporary sculpture. It’s all documentation — me remembering things that have come and gone. All of my work is memory-based, layered in a…
Five years ago, Denver director Terry Dodd staged The Hot L Baltimore in the most perfect of locations: the lobby of the aged Barth Hotel, the LoDo hotel-turned-assisted-living-residence where the intimate production raised funds for Senior Housing Options. It was a play about a run-down old hotel, staged in a…
There will be no white-hat/black-hat rivalry when the Denver police and Denver fire departments meet tonight in a friendly Battle of the Badges charity soccer match at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. As Denver spokeswoman Niambi Nicholes notes, “For them, it’s the bragging rights.” After all, the teams will be facing…
A mixed bag of local artists fall into the “underground” category these days — some are lowbrow; some are graffiti or tattoo artists; still others have found a way straddle the low- and highbrow worlds. But many of them have one thing in common: They got a leg up in…
We all want to raise our kids right, and sometimes that means we hope they’ll embrace our beloved traditions, like reading box scores and the Sunday comics, and eating Froot Loops while waiting for the Saturday-morning cartoons to come on. And like hunting through a bin of vinyl records. Twist…
People get lazy in the summertime, but it’s time to wake up: The fall theater season is only weeks away, and Denver Center Theatre Company tickets are now on sale. The focus may be on The Book of Mormon, which opens today in the Denver Performing Arts Complex, but when…
During a long weekend at the new, improved, second annual Denver County Fair, one thing became very apparent: There’s no way to see everything, and there’s nothing you’ll want to miss. We caught spelling bees and speed-knitting contests, an art gallery that seemed like an endless maze, cooking and composting…
Update: What a difference a year makes. Both Slam Nuba and the Denver Mercury Poetry Slam team went down in their semifinal rounds on Friday night, Slam Nuba in a sudden death slam-off against Da Poetry Lounge of Hollywood. Saturday Night’s winner? Slam New Orleans. Hopeful and pumped full of…
The Yves Saint Laurent spectacular has come and gone from the Denver Art Museum, but its inspiration — a renewed appreciation for the craft, creativity and sheer beauty of high couture — stays on, especially within the local design community. The value of that exhibition certainly wasn’t lost on Dianne…
John Leo and Sophie Nimmannit met at the Boulder Fringe Festival some years ago, the story goes, and it was kismet — on both personal and professional planes. The bicoastal couple threw their fates together and created their own baby: the fringey comedy Peg-ass-us, which has been their bread-and-butter ever…
