Afternoon Delight

What does Denver Cruisers guru Brad Evans think will happen at the community bike riders’ inaugural Sunday Funday Ride? He doesn’t have a clue. “There could be ten people or there could be a thousand,” he notes, but it really doesn’t matter, as long as a good time is had…

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

Pop-up shops such as the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs-sponsored YesPleaseMore are the wave of the future, riding high on the popularity of the currently prevalent “buy local” and DIY mentalities and a modern re-allegiance to the power of community. And that’s not a bad thing: The alternative retail store…

Now Showing

Abstracts. Summer is typically the time for group shows, and this year the William Havu Gallery presented two of them. First was Landscapes, a survey of the many artists in Havu’s stable who do representational work. Up now is Abstracts. Gallery director Bill Havu has some of the state’s top…

Ancient Rome action-adventure Centurion is excellent

Set in 117 A.D., the highly enjoyable action-adventure Centurion tracks a small cohort of Roman soldiers who are trapped far north of their empire’s boundary. A triple whammy of abrupt plot twists (I’ll let the movie itself spring them) has these guys being run ragged by a vengeful posse of…

Aussie gangster drama Animal Kingdom swings for the fences

Happily sampling nasty beats and riffs from the Scorsese catalogue, the new Aussie crime saga Animal Kingdom begins with a hushed but breath-holding set piece: A gawky lad watches TV on the couch next to his dozing mum…until the already-summoned EMTs arrive and the boy calmly tells them she’s OD’d…

Puff piece: Reefer Madness on stage at the Bug Theater

Reefer Madness is a take-off on a legendary 1930s movie about the dangers of marijuana — a black-and-white film, shadowy and portentous, full of lurid warnings about how dope leads to crime and madness. Now that marijuana clinics are opening all over the state, city councils are discussing zoning far…

The Hauser that Herzog Built

There are many reasons that Pablo Kjolseth, longtime director of CU-Boulder’s International Film Series, decided that Werner Herzog’s lovely The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, based on the true story of a man who spent the first twenty years of his life locked in a basement, was a good choice to…

Kitties Galore

The Dollar Tree has nothing on the Denver Dumb Friends League, where cat lovers can take home an adorable kitty — complete with vaccinations, sterilizations, a microchip ID implant and fifteen days of free checkups — for a buck. In celebration of 100 years of finding homes for pets, the…

The Art of the Tease

In case you hadn’t noticed — and with all those pasties and panties flying everywhere, how could you not? — burlesque is a big deal in this city. Anabella La Fontaine (aka Joey Smith) is one of the premier performers in the area; you might have seen her on the…

24-Hour Gritness

Leadville has seen rushes on gold, silver, lead, zinc, copper and even molybdenum. But the town’s most recent rush may prove to be its most enduring: At 10,152 feet, the highest incorporated city in the U.S. has positioned itself as a mecca for high-altitude endurance athletes. Now that the Leadville…

Shell Game

Today’s Tour de Coops — unlike, say, the Tour de Franzia or the Tour de Flex — is exactly what it sounds like: a tour of chicken coops. Okay, not exactly. It’s also a tour of bees, goats and culinary gardens in Boulder. But hens (and their houses, of course)…

True Colors

The Gathering at the Great Divide Art Festival has been an end-of-summer tradition in Breckenridge for 35 years, and this weekend’s juried show is no exception. The three-day festival includes more than 100 national and international artists, including a few Summit County locals, and coincides with the Breckenridge Wine Festival…

Sweeping the Sidewalk

The funky Dark Energy Art Space, one of the city’s newer galleries, is the brainchild of Ryan Raudonis, and it provides exhibition opportunities for a group that’s often lost in the Denver gallery shuffle: emerging local artists. The work of one, Dan Ellier Chapman, will be unveiled tonight in a…

Making Magick

“If you’re interested in the mysteries of the universe and the questions that people hold on the deeper issues, and you want to learn how you can apply these to your own life and transform your life, then this is the place to come,” says Oberon Zell, a keynote speaker…

Mind Ignition

How much can you learn about a topic from a five-minute presentation? Quite a lot, if the presenter is smart, passionate and inspired to stay on target by slides that automatically advance every fifteen seconds. See it in action tonight at Ignite Boulder 12, where speakers will present on everything…

Hair Today

To photographer Michael Ensminger, his Zottelbart (meaning “ragged beard” in German) self-portrait series is positively operatic, an ongoing aria kept alive by the ever-lengthening hair on his head and face, which he hasn’t cut or shaved in eight years. During that period, he’s made periodic trips to the foothills, particularly…

Bike Art for Bike People

Last year’s Artcrank Denver bike poster show was the first one promoter Charles Youel had ever produced outside of his home town of Minneapolis. But you know Denver: It was a huge success, drawing hundreds of bike-and-design enthusiasts to East Colfax Avenue to a street party, one where they could…

Eat, Drink and Be Local

After days of cooking demonstrations, film documentaries focusing on the future of food and farming, and a Flat Iron chef battle, the week-long Eat Local! marathon wraps up today with the Local Foodshed Commons and Conference, a wellspring of workshops, exhibitions and presentations by gardeners, farmers and local business owners…

Latino Lessons

This summer, the Biennial of the Americas put a spotlight on art from the Americas, and though it’s over, the beat goes on this fall with a celebration of Peruvian art. As part of that, Peruvian artist Carlos Palma has been given a residency here and sponsored by the Peruvian…

Fake Blood A-Go-Go

“Me and my roommates were reading way too many Lone Wolf and Cub graphic novels and watching way too many Akira Kurosawa films,” says Daniel Crosier about the initial motivation for starting the neo-kabuki performance group Odam Fei Mud six years ago. Then they added in GWAR-inspired latex monster costumes,…