“While President George H.W. Bush had been known for saying ‘Read my lips,’ I began urging colleagues and reporters to ‘Read my pins.'” — Madeleine Albright. That’s the basic story behind Read My Pins: The Madeleine Albright Collection, an exhibit opening Sunday at the Denver Art Museum. A showcase of…
First rule of Soundpainting: You do not have to be a virtuoso. And from there, the sky’s the limit: It doesn’t matter how old you are, what you play — if anything — and whether or not you can even read music. Soundpainting is a kind of improvisational “Simon Says”…
Star Trek and Star Wars and all that descended from them inured us to the real hardships of space travel by making it look so easy. But what was it really like for Yuri Gagarin, the first man to ever leave Earth’s atmosphere and orbit the planet? The Soviet cosmonaut…
It started in 1984 and is ending with Fahrenheit 451, which almost makes one wonder if it’s just a coincidence or if the last-ever National Theatre Conservatory Repertory 2012 stage offering wasn’t chosen with a touch of irony. Probably not, but it’s hard not to feel sad about what will…
Look out: The punks are coming, and they’re about to flood the town in a big way, beginning with a new MCA Denver satellite show, Richard Peterson and the Art of a Warrior Tribe, opening tonight at Gildar Gallery. Curated by the MCA’s Adam Lerner, it’s one cog in the…
Everything’s coming up Titanic at the Denver Central Library, where in commemoration of that tragedy a hundred years ago today, guests will gather in the B2 Conference Center for a Titanic Survivors Brunch, reminiscent of one that might have taken place on the RMS Carpathia, the first ship on the…
If you play with the facts a little, Buntport Theater’s Tommy Lee Jones Goes to Opera Alone is based on a true story: Two members of the troupe went to the Santa Fe Opera, where they purportedly saw Tommy Lee Jones, sitting…alone. At the opera. Beyond that, it’s pretty much…
The story of the Evil Companions goes something like this: Several decades ago, a secret society of Denver writers would meet, drink and gab at downtown watering holes, and while the conversations might have been deep, they weren’t always pretty. But when the Evil Companions concept was resurrected in 1992,…
Luis Alberto Urrea really is the story he writes in so many ways: A reporter, poet and novelist, he’s covered the illegal immigrant story from the front lines, where he once worked as a relief worker, and found pieces of himself in the fictionalized retelling of the history of his…
If life is a drag, why not play to the hilt? Since this is the second Wednesday of the month, Lannie’s Clocktower Cabaret is presenting the Viva las Divas Art of Illusion Follies, hosted by female illusion artists (drag queens, in shorthand) Alexandra Winters and Harley Quinn and featuring a…
Where do our libraries come from? Beginning at the turn of the last century, there was a building boom across the nation, thanks to the deep pockets of philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. In Denver alone, nine Carnegie libraries were built early in the twentieth century — five of which still operate…
“I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.” — Alice Walker There will be no avoiding the color purple today, Colorado Rockies Purple Monday, when you can march down a purple stripe on Blake Street and right…
Just as you might be compelled to visit Yves Saint Laurent: A Retrospective again and again during its stay at the Denver Art Museum through July 8, you’ll want to keep coming back to the gift shop, which is bursting with a sense of style inspired by the YSL couture…
What’s the funniest damn thing you’ve ever seen on television? The commercials. Specifically, the ones that aren’t trying to be funny, but try instead to sell you a load of crap in three easy payments — the Ginsu knives, slicing-dicing machines and spotless cleaning solutions of the late-night surf. The…
Ivar Zeile of Plus Gallery won’t even pretend to explain what’s going on in the mind of painter Xi Zhang, the Chinese-born, Denver-based phenom whose first solo show at Plus, 11 Ceremonies, opens tonight. “This our first opportunity with Xi to present something with a distinct focus on works that…
It’s a trick to write a funny book that’s truly funny; it’s even more of one to write a comic novel. Christopher Moore has mastered both, bringing well-wrought characters and situations together in an equally well-spun tale that dips below the surface of life in a string of hilarious, cult-enticing…
You’re in luck if you’re looking for an evening of animation, hilarity and mind-blowing 3-D video: It’s Noah Ray McMahan’s birthday, and the Beauty Bar maven is taking the party public with a two-night run of Spike and Mike’s Sick & Twisted Animation Festival, which starts around 8:30 p.m. tonight…
Hey, classicists: Before you shake your heads and moan about tonight’s concert, The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses, in Boettcher Hall, consider how many seats will be filled by people who’ve never been in an orchestra concert hall before. So what if some of those people will be…
Half the fun of Frock Out is just getting there: The occasional fashion extravaganza hosted by the Denver Public Library Friends Foundation and Fresh City Life will return on April 19 with a romantic Titanic theme. But before that ship sets sail, you can get onboard…
The West Coast punks are pogoing into town this spring at MCA Denver, Gildar Gallery, the Colorado Photographic Arts Center and other locations, for a series of shows falling under the aegis of Search & Destroy. So-named for the San Francisco ‘zine or the ’70s), the ring of satellite shows…
Richard Brautigan spent a few years basking in the celebrity sun as the author of such counterculture classics as Trout Fishing in America and In Watermelon Sugar. But it was a short honeymoon, and the writer, who came up from poverty, fell into a trough of depression and alcoholism later…
The image above — a wonderful posed moment gone awry — caused quite a stir in Denver’s Art District on Santa Fe last year: first, as part of tbellphotographic’s juried show, Is This How I Look?, where Ken Hamel gave it top honors, and again when I did the same…
