Smooth Talking

It was a sad day last July when Eric Matelski put his First Monday Art Talks series to bed at Dazzle. But while Matelski was ready then to move on, he always hoped to bring back the talks — which featured a different local artist and a mélange of related…

Goin’ Down the Country

Today we fight for the right to keep chickens and goats in our urban back yards and take delight in growing our own food. We patronize farmers’ markets and corner shops; there are even special markets that nix the use of money in favor of trading and bartering. In our…

The Power of Film

Film has the power to change perceptions and widen worldviews, often giving us a new perspective on life and transforming our communities, hopefully for the better. That is the goal of A Small Act: Film Screening and Conversation With Director Jennifer Arnold, organized by Facing History and Ourselves, part of…

A Stitch in Time

“A lot of our vendors said it was the best craft fair they’d ever done,” says Fancy Tiger’s Jaime Jennings, reminiscing about 2008’s inaugural Holiday Handmade Alternative Craft Fair. Last year, the vendor list doubled. And this year’s fair will be bigger still – literally – because Jennings has changed…

Come, All Ye Faithful

Though secular standbys like “Jingle Bells” will probably get more conventional radio play this season, when it comes to Christmas music, Handel’s Messiah is still the undisputed king. As usual, that soaring Jesus-jam will serve as the centerpiece for the Lakewood Cultural Center’s Come One & All, Rejoice sing-in, an…

Play Time

The Puddle Jumpers Children’s Theatre Company has always been about the kids — but this year’s Holiday Fantasment production goes beyond performance and puts the pen into small hands. Traditional holiday songs and Irrelephant Christmas, a short play by local playwright Leroy Leonard (who does happen to be an adult)…

Golden Memories

The Golden History Center has some 600 photographs dating back to the 1800s. The subjects of these photos range from the seemingly mundane, like a 1934 high-school prom, to the iconic, such as workers at Coors Brewing Company. Golden in Focus: Historic Photo Show and Sale opens tonight in conjunction…

Be Italian with Lidia

Italian-American cuisine queen, cookbook writer, prolific restaurateur and PBS television host Lidia Bastianich will be at the Tattered Cover today to sign her new holiday autobiographical read, Nonna, Tell Me a Story: Lidia’s Christmas Kitchen, a heaping helping of family recipes, decorating traditions, heartwarming storytelling and whimsical children’s illustrations. “Telling…

Copper Goes for the Gold

The U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix event at Copper Mountain has traditionally been the opening salvo of the pro snowboarding season in North America. This year, with Olympic rings in its sights, the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association is letting skiers into the Grand Prix pipe, too. “Right now we’re operating…

Flashbacks

Buntport Theatre Company has gone back in time nine years to re-create its first production, Quixote. “It’s the play that the company really formed around,” says actor Brian Colonna. “We performed it in college together and then took it around to fringe festivals.” Echoing Cervantes’s Don Quixote, the play follows…

Skiing for Dummies

You’d have to be a dummy to huck yourself off some of the biggest kickers in Vail’s terrain parks this season, which is precisely why you ought to send one in your place if you’re not looking to make the agony-of-defeat reel this season. Vail’s 5th annual Snow Daze event…

Self Support

In case you haven’t yet extracted yourself from the nearest big-box-store black hole, Buy Local Week in Denver began on Black Friday and ends today. Devised by Colorado Local First and the Mile High Business Alliance, it was designed to draw attention to local businesses and the importance of keeping…

Absurdist Interview: Artist/Designer Bailey Ferguson

Bailey Ferguson is hard at work in the world of art and design, trying her hand at any and all media. She’s been a painter’s assistant, a design intern, a freelance painter and chalk board artist, and she’s currently a member of the Pirate Contemporary Art Co-op, a photographer, a…

The Talulah Jones 24 Days of Christmas: Day One

We’re all hearing a lot of talk this holiday season about shopping local and what it means to a community. But Talulah Jones shop owner Robin Lohre is doing more than that: Beginning today at 5 p.m. with a Holiday Open House kickoff, Lohre will host a reception showcasing a…

World AIDS Day: Here and now

Even if you miss out on a Mondo t-shirt for amfAR, there are still ways to observe World AIDS Day locally. Here’s how to help let the world know that HIV/AIDS isn’t over, because yeah, it’s not:…

Photos: The Landmark Mayan Theatre’s 80th Birthday

If you read our post yesterday, you know that the Mayan Theatre celebrated its 80th birthday last night with music, costumes and a showing of the Wizard of Oz. (Don’t worry, there’s still time to enter our Mayan memories contest and win free movie tickets!) Westword photo intern Hunter Stevens…

Gratuitous randomness: Stuff on my cat

Cats and the internets have a lot in common: Fickle, indifferent and utterly shameless, they both exist in a tenuous state of domestication, serving no real purpose other than to amuse, and even then, only if they feel like it. Perhaps that’s why there’s no end to the random ways…

Browser game of the week: Phylo

It’s the holiday season, which means it’s time to give back to communities and do a little philanthropy. Well, for some folks it is anyway. If you’re too cheap and lazy to help a brother out, we have one suggestion: play a game for science. The game is Phylo, a…

Today In Stoke: Opening day at Echo Mountain

Echo Mountain opens up today, and this time you don’t even have to call in sick to get a piece of the action: They’re keeping the lights on until 9 p.m. Terrain park manager Marc Moline and his crew have been building new obstacles out of recycled materials — propane…