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As the Denver Center Theatre Company's principal designer, Bill Curley has fashioned an impressive string of stage settings over the years. There was the Venice Beach storefront set, complete with a flying plane inviting patrons to renew their subscriptions, that served as the backdrop for The Comedy of Errors; the romantic cyclorama and cobblestone walks that enveloped The Beauty Queen of Leenane; and the magical Parisian watering hole that housed Picasso at the Lapin Agile. But Curley's greatest accomplishment occurred last season, when he served as Tantalus designer Dionysis Fotopoulos's assistant while also mounting the incredible exhibit that accompanied the twelve-hour epic (the traveling show's curator publicly acknowledged Curley's contribution on the exhibit's opening night). Clearly, Curley is that rare creative individual -- the kind who quietly gets it done.

Expectations were high for Jeff Wenzel: Painting, but even the highest of those were exceeded by this magnificent show held at Ron Judish Fine Arts in February. Educated as a ceramics artist, Wenzel works his paper surfaces as though they were made of pliable clay. He twists and tears, paints and repaints, guided by his instinctual and on-the-mark aesthetic judgment. Wenzel's always been good, but he's never been better than he was here.
DJ Chonz is the consummate hip-hop DJ. From his successful mix-tape series to his own online radio show to the packed houses he regularly rocks, Chonz has helped Denver heads appreciate one of hip-hop's often overlooked elements: the artist behind the turntables. Respected by artists from both coasts, Chonz has opened for Raekwon, the Baka Boys, Maseo from De La Soul and Common. Not limited by hop-hop conventions, however, Chonz recently started a new series at the Roxy that aims to bridge the gap between rap and other forms of electronic music. But whether he's educating or stimulating his crowds, Chonz never loses sight of the fact that a jock's primary objective is to keep them moving.
A group of five of Colorado's most interesting experimental photographers were brought together for Fresh Eyes, a cutting-edge exhibit organized by Kathy Andrews, head curator and exhibition director at the Arvada Center. Strong pieces included the uncharacteristic bottle shots by Mark Sink and the multiple-image travel pictures by Michael Butts. David Sharpe's enlargements of pinhole prints depicting the Western landscape were especially choice, photomurals that managed to be retro-pictorial and up-to-the-minute at the same time.

Otis Taylor is one of Colorado's many undiscovered treasures -- but if White African, an early release by NorthernBlues Music, a new Canadian blues imprint, receives the attention it deserves, he won't be undiscovered for long. The album isn't just the top blues recording by a local since...well...Taylor's last release; it's as good as any blues disc put out in the past year by anyone, anywhere.

Best Evidence of Life on the Alternative Scene

ILK @ Pirate

It's sad but true: Denver's alternative galleries have seen better days. Nevertheless, that little hole-in-the-wall ILK @ Pirate keeps chugging along. The small room is typically the site of wonderful shows, and the exhibiting artists, almost always the members of the two-venue ILK co-op that runs the place, usually give the space a complete facelift for each one. It's an ilk of a different kind, but it's a good one.
Thanks to the beneficence of former Boulderite Jello Biafra -- the onetime leader of the Dead Kennedys who created the Alternative Tentacles label -- Slim Cessna finally got the opportunity to display his eccentric take on country to a sizable audience beyond these parts. And he's made the most of it. Always Say Please and Thank You is frequently hilarious -- check out the timeless stomp "Last Song About Satan" -- but never at the expense of C&W verities.
Intimate solo-guitar improvisation filtered through casually chaotic sleight of hand (you know -- the induced vertigo from digital delays, ebos and assorted effects-laden gewgaws) is too easy a description for Mike O'Neill's impressive Scream of Consciousness. Scratch deeper and you'll discover methodically disarranged classical pieces, spiffy one-liners, and explorations into looped-based environments with all the distortion of a funhouse mirror. Amusingly titled cuts such as "Cupid's Gymnasium," "Shit-canned" and "Effing the Ineffable" hint toward prog-minded excursions -- something not entirely surprising given O'Neill's alumni status in Boulder's confounding quartet. Instrument Panel. Available through saxophonist Jack Wright's home page, www.springgardenmusic.com, Scream covers all of the basic food groups and then some. You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll scream.
Before she moved to Colorado, Donna Gershten ran a health club in Mexico -- and she put that experience to good use in Kissing the Virgin's Mouth. Her haunting, lyrical novel won not only raves from critics, but also the first $10,000 Bellwether Prize for Fiction, established by Barbara Kingsolver when the best-selling author was feeling flush and decided to do her bit to help out other authors. "This is the kind of book you inhale in one breath and can't forget afterward," Kingsolver says of Gershten's work. Mexico's loss is our gain.

Jim Hughes and Will Graveman's musical, ...And Now Miguel, examined an adolescent boy's agony in wondering whether anyone else understands what it's like to feel like an adult and be treated like a child. Thanks to Tony Garcia's astute direction, the joint production of Denver's El Centro Su Teatro and the Arvada Center successfully delivered that message to audiences of teens and preteens. Hushed silence greeted the leading character when he crooned, "Grownups can do whatever they want, but for me, life is different." And not a soul looked bored when Miguel offered the refrain "I can't express the feelings in my heart that come easily/ Being Miguel is not easy to be." It was a valuable reminder that plays can illustrate what parents and politicians sometimes can't.

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