Wednesday July 5 Words is out: Who needs ’em when strong visuals spell out the story so well? Alfred Hitchcock’s silent film The Lodger is a case in point. The 1926 thriller, about a landlady convinced her tenant is Jack the Ripper, contains stunning special effects (at least for the…
Wednesday June 28 ‘Poke folks: “This ain’t exactly a New York poetry slam,” or so says Carson Reed, one of the hosts for A Night at the Kitchen Table, the first of a series of tale-telling events to be held twice each month at the Wynkoop Brewing Company. The focus…
Wednesday June 21 Horn of plenty: The Creative Music Works wraps up its swell jazz and improvisation series at Vartan Jazz in appropriate style. Trumpet player Leslie Drayton, who’s been heard out in the real world working with everyone from Marvin Gaye to Nancy Wilson to Earth, Wind and Fire,…
Wednesday June 14 Down in the valley: Even if you can’t attend the Telluride Bluegrass Festival (this weekend at the lofty resort town), there’s one part of it you can still enjoy: the inordinate number of popular acts, acoustic and otherwise, that tend to hang out–and sometimes even perform–in the…
Wednesday June 7 Taping measures: Local jazz vocalist Lynn Skinner will be in fine company tonight when she performs with two of Denver’s best instrumentalists–guitarist and master of chordal changes Dale Bruning and open-minded trumpet player Ron Miles–at Vartan Jazz, 231 Milwaukee St. The 8 p.m. show–which promises to smoke…
Wednesday May 31 Bottom of the month: A favorite mingle–the Denver Art Museum’s Top of the Week spring music series–comes to a close tonight. And what a swinging finale it’ll be–with the Queen City Jazz Band’s spirited Dixieland-style music accompanying a stroll through selected museum exhibits. Top of the Week…
Wednesday May 24 A key player: Musician Robin Connell takes her jazz straightahead, but she isn’t afraid to rework the standards to her own liking. The Detroit composer/pianist, who knocked about New York City before moving to Greeley in 1991, will bring drummer Mike Smith, bassist Eric Applegate and trombonist…
Wednesday May 17 Tear of the dog: Jeffrey Masson and Susan McCarthy open up a whole slew of new possibilities in character development with their book When Elephants Weep, a volume that uses studies of joyful squirrels and vengeful whales to explore the authors’ belief in the existence of animal…
Wednesday May 10 Left-minded hitter: Radical voice Alexander Cockburn has written a book that hopes to prove that the metamorphosing political left is still kicking in spite of the times. Cockburn will introduce The Golden Age Is in Us: Travels and Encounters 1987-1994, which picks up on the eve of…
Wednesday May 3 Step up to the Bar: Today is one day when it won’t be considered poor manners at a party to ask a lawyer for free advice. In recognition of National Law Week, volunteer attorneys from the Denver Bar Association Young Lawyers Division will answer questions at Law…
Wednesday April 26 The works: Appearing tonight as part of the Creative Music Works’ innovative Wednesday-night music series, the double quartet Index Ensemble will rework a few concepts with the help of two guitarists, two saxophonists, voices, and percussion and vocal samples. Index begins to beat, spin, strum and blow…
Wednesday April 19 The write stuff: Author Ana Castillo is a novelist, poet and essayist, and she’s a favorite among her contemporaries, earning glowing reviews from fellow Latina writers Sandra Cisneros and Julia Alvarez. It’s not hard to see why–her 1993 novel So Far From God was described by novelist…
Wednesday April 12 Pulling strings: Based in Colorado Springs, where they are artists-in-residence at that city’s University of Colorado campus, the Da Vinci String Quartet is a chamber ensemble at home with a variety of composers and musical periods. The prize-winning group–Jerilyn Jorgensen, Kay Kireilis, Margaret Miller and Katharine Knight–will…
Wednesday April 5 Affirmative action: Social consciousness and comedy have probably been willing bedfellows since the beginning of time. Or at least since the first funny guy got up in front of his cavemates and began to make fun of know-it-all Glog, who shared his coconuts only with the palest…
Wednesday March 29 Gimme five: The modest Five Points neighborhood, now a light-rail hub, has been around for a long time, but you may not have paid it much mind until you zipped through it on one of those shiny new LRT cars and took a good look around. Chances…
Wednesday March 22 Time to quilt: If you’re the sort to wonder why there’s a National Quilting Day in the first place, a visit to the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum might shed some light on the subject. The museum will celebrate the occasion with a myriad of demonstrations today from…
Wednesday March 15 His climb to fame: Ed Webster braved sheer walls and severe frostbite scaling a new route up Mount Everest’s Kangshung Face in 1988. But even the loss of eight fingertips and three toes hasn’t dampened the climber’s enthusiasm for difficult missions. Webster will share his mountaineering adventure,…
Wednesday March 8 Finn and dandy: At the heart of the updated Finnish folk sound of Varttina are the voices of four women harmonizing in the kinds of timbres that last took your breath away when sung by the Mysterious Voices of Bulgaria. But these saucy Finnish ladies have punched…
Wednesday March 1 Pretty plies: Ballet doesn’t have to be stuffy anymore. When the dance company Ballet Eddy Toussaint U.S.A. hits the stage tonight at the Arvada Center, led by its progressive, Haitian-born choreographer/namesake, you’ll be bowled over by a high-energy balance of ballet and jazz steps taken to an…
Wednesday February 22 Be bop: Tonight may mark a first–we’re willing to bet there’s never been a collaboration between an orchestra and a Denver cartoonist. But when Tom Blomster’s Mostly Strauss Orchestra tunes up for tonight’s Freedom Concert, it’ll be Westword’s own artiste-about-town, Kenny Be, providing the visuals. Be’s series…
Wednesday February 15 Speech! Speech!: As spokesman for the rootsy, politicized rap group Arrested Development, the man known only as Speech has made it his mission to introduce young black fans to the group’s difficult activism. So along with fellow Arrestee, Terrie Axam, he helped produce Fusion, a multimedia spinoff…
Wednesday February 8 Morph for your money: Face it, parents. If you don’t take your kids to see the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers–Live, they may never forgive you, because for them, a chance to see those colorful, megapopular TV teens conquer evil in person is more than compelling, it’s necessary…
