Get your Spanish on at Museo de las Americas tonight

When I was a Spanish minor in college, I realized toward the middle of my degree that there was only one way to learn — to really learn — a foreign language: to speak it. As much grammar as I knew (and I got really into the grammar — I’m…

I’m Still Here and five other elaborate media fake-outs

Last year, Joaquin Phoenix was leaving acting. After the release of Two Lovers, Phoenix grew a large beard, announced he would be pursuing a career in rapping and seemed utterly to implode, beginning with a bizarre, apparently drug-addled appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman. During that interview, Letterman…

This week in genre film: Ghostbusters, Akira and more

Denver’s a great place for fans of the big five of genre film (that’s sci-fi, fantasy, horror, exploitation and cult), as every week we get a generous helping of selections to choose from. As usual, we’re rounding up your options for the weekend to come and the following week, and…

This week’s most ridiculous trailer: Alpha and Omega

Lord love them, but little kids don’t have the most refined senses of humor — it’s a fact that they will watch anything as long as it’s animated and someone takes a projectile to the balls every once in a while. Which is all fine and good, but kids don’t…

10 things to do for $10 this weekend, September 17-19

Some people will try and tell you that $10 won’t get you much these days. To those people, we say “you’re wrong, sir,” because every weekend in Denver there is more than enough to do for 10 bucks and less. This weekend you’ll find a Pagan Pride fest, ghost-busting, pancakes…

Justice/Injustice: Artist’s takes on law and order

Inspired by the grand opening earlier this year of Denver Justice Center, the folks at the University of Colorado at Denver College of Arts and Media saw the new jail as the tie-in for a fall program that aims to expand on the nature of justice through the eyes of…

Video games scientifically proven to be good for you, sort of

In a strange twist on common intuition, researchers at the University of Rochester in New York released a study yesterday that showed shoot-em-up video games may engender better and faster decision making skills among players, indicating that such games may actually be producing men of action. Who would indeed take…

Talking Shop: Get in on Stella B’s Groupon deal

Just in time to pick up your must-have skinny black jeans, bamboo-fiber sweater coats and silvery-black peekaboo tanks, Stella B’s boutique, 7504 Grandview Avenue in Olde Town Arvada, has put up an offer you can’t refuse, through Groupon: Put up $40 and you’ll get $80 worth of merchandise at the…

The Mexican Consulate gets down for the Bicentennial Celebration

When the Mexican Consul General gets onstage and sings lead for the band — and has the crowd singing along with him — you will know that Mexico knows how to party. And Consul Eduardo Arnal wasn’t half bad, either: Belting them out in a solid tenor, he hammed it…

How to get my job: Social media strategist

There are many jobs in this world. Some are so bizarre you probably don’t know they exist; some you might have had no idea people actually make a living at. In an effort to highlight some of these jobs, we’ve started a new series detailing the origins of people actually…

Barack Obama, now officially the Chuck Norris of presidents

Say what you will about his policies, but it’s pretty much official at this point that Barack Obama is the most accomplished individual since Leonardo Da Vinci. For one thing, he’s president of the United States — which, okay, George W. took a little of the prestige out of that…

Claire from Amazing Race stars in your moment of schadenfreude

Like a kid too excited by the birthday present he got his mom to wait until her actual birthday, CBS released a clip this week from Amazing Race, which doesn’t debut until a week from Sunday, that was too awesome to keep under wraps. The video features Claire, one of…

Wanted: Filmmakers for Boulder Shootout

No different from the days of the old west, the Seventh Annual Boulder Shootout Film Festival will test film makers’ nerves and speed. Given 24 hours to craft a seven-minute production, challengers must follow strict guidelines going back to the roots of filmmaking. And on Saturday, the race gets started…

Cross-Continental

The Museo de las Américas, already dedicated to a pan-cultural view of the New World, figures importantly in the unfolding Biennial of the Americas, which kicks off in a week with events and art exhibits throughout the city. So, for Liberadores/Liberators, a new show opening today at the Museo in…

Art Power

MCA Denver is presenting an over-the-top group show in association of the Biennial of the Americas this summer called Energy Effects: Art and Artifacts From the Landscape of Glorious Excess. “We often talk about the need to conserve energy but this exhibition proposes that, seen through the lens of art,…

Transparent Treasures

Pismo is Denver’s premier specialist for contemporary glass art, and the gallery is now celebrating its twentieth anniversary with Lino Tagliapietra. “There are two glass artists that every glass gallery on earth aspires to represent: Chihuly, the most well-known glass artist in the world, and Lino Tagliapietra, the best glass…

Artbeat: Memory Trips shines a light on the civil-rights era

Around the corner from the bustling Santa Fe Drive art district is a funky two-room operation called Dark Energy Art Space (860 West Eighth Avenue, 303-719-0021, www.darkenergyartspace.com). The brainchild of emerging sculptor Ryan Raudonis, Dark Energy is a co-op of sorts, with a handful of other artists involved. Among that…