GENTLEMEN, START YOUR ENGINES

Three words: Cheerleaders racing go-karts. Actually, that might be four words, depending on whether you count “go-karts” as one word or two, but those words provide a very good reason to attend the Denver Broncos Cheerleaders’ Calendar Release Party and Race to Keep Kids on Track. Don’t be fooled by…

HIGHER GROUND

After years in Boulder and then Denver, the Rocky Mountain Bicycle Festival is making the climb to a more fitting clime this year, to coin-cide with the grueling Leadville 100 bike race. “I couldn’t be happier to be joining forces with the Leadville community,” says festival director Carol Johnson. “There’s…

’CAKES FOR A CAUSE

Peter Moore was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in his first year of medical school at the University of Colorado. About the same time, a fellow med student suffered a relapse of the disease. “After my treatment, I realized that I was in the unique position of being in medical school…

ATTACK OF THE MINIS

Close your eyes and picture this: hundreds, maybe thousands, of MINI Coopers rolling down the road in caravans — from the east, from the west, the north and the south — and all converging on Denver just for the hell of it. The cross-country MINIs hit town yesterday on a…

SCREEN TALK

We’re in love with movies, that’s pretty clear. But do we know why we love them? Get under the skin of what might at first seem like simple, cheap entertainment for the masses at the Denver Film Society’s new Colorado Cinema Salon, a monthly film discussion series featuring clips, special…

A FRESH LOOK

“We just thought that there’s a real need for people to get together and have an opportunity to see these kinds of films and have discussions,” says Celia Adamec, adult program manager at the Denver Botanic Gardens. And so they created the Sustainable Food Film Series, which starts tonight at…

BREAD ALERT!

We recently witnessed a professional eater down thirteen yolky eggs in eight minutes during a Scotch egg battle in Cherry Creek — and to put it bluntly, the sight wasn’t remotely pretty. In fact, it was really, really hedonistic. But eating challenges are rarely designed for delicate stomachs, and today’s…

PAINT THE TOWN ROJO

If you’ve been waiting for the right time to bust out that Ricky Ricardo shirt you picked up at the thrift store, tonight’s the night. The Museo de las Américas is hosting Rojo Celia, a celebration of all things Cuban centering around island salsa legend Celia Cruz. The party —…

FARM FRESH

“Dava Parr, who owns a bed-and-breakfast in Paonia called Fresh & Wyld, wanted to basically hold an event that would celebrate the local producers — whether they be farmers, winemakers or what have you,” says Jim Brett, president of Slow Food’s Western Slope chapter, by way of explaining how the…

SOUTHERN COMFORT

More than a hundred home chefs — all of them male — will strut their culinary stuff tonight at the African-American Leadership Institute’s Look Who’s Cooking Now black-tie benefit, which raises funds to advance the nonprofit’s development programs. “What makes this event so unique,” explains volunteer LaSheita Sayer, “is the…

GRAZE EXPECTATIONS

There won’t be any trucked-in produce from California, Florida, Mexico — or anywhere outside this state, for that matter — at tonight’s al fresco Feast in the Field dinner. Featuring the culinary flair of twenty Colorado chefs, all of whom will prepare small tastes using nothing but locally sourced ingredients,…

YELLOW WITH ENVY

The Simpsons has been a cultural staple for more than two decades, which is a big reason why Yellow Fever: The 2nd Annual All-Simpsons Pub Quiz is returning for an encore presentation at 6 p.m. tonight at the Gothic Theatre, 3263 South Broadway in Englewood. “The Simpsons is the last…

STATE OF HYSTERIA

Drugged-up pop tarts, sleazy paparazzi, celebrity stand-ins and psychos of every variety populate the south Florida of Carl Hiaasen’s Star Island. In his latest novel, Hiaasen aims his typically skewed and satirical wit at celebrity culture and the people who make their existence preying on it. As usual, Hiaasen’s colorful…

INK BIG

It’s hard to miss the local arts and music scenes: Both are loud, vibrant, firm fixtures of Denver’s cultural landscape. The local comics scene is a newer and humbler, if no less vibrant, piece of the patchwork. Comic-book creators of all genres and visions — from super-heroes to science fiction…

YOU DON’T KNOW DICK

Who is Philip K. Dick, and why does he have a festival of his own? That question isn’t just rhetorical. Dave Hyde — aka Lord Running Clam, organizer of the first Philip K. Dick Festival — is using that exact talking point to launch the first panel discussion at the…

WALKING TALL

Now a 23-year-old tradition, AIDS Walk Colorado still finds ways to renew itself: Along with the usual pledge walk, 5K run and volleyball tournament, all of which will raise money for the Colorado AIDS Project and other state HIV/AIDS organizations, this year’s participants will get to have a few laughs…

RIDE AGAINST ABUSE

The second annual SPAN the Rockies Ride benefits Boulder’s Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Nonviolence, a 72-bed shelter providing services for women and children who are victims of abuse. But it should be noted that any abuse suffered by today’s participants will be strictly self-inflicted. “We’re the only double-metric century race…

STRIP MAUL

What do you get when you take a bunch of weirdos, musicians, poets and performers, a 350-pound former truck driver and at least one sex addict from a straitlaced Midwest town and leave them to their own devices? Super Happy Funtime Burlesque, apparently. “You know, Grand Rapids is a really…

MAKING ITS MARK

Travis Newton is the kind of guy who likes to kill two birds with one stone. “What we try to do,” says Newton, owner of Denvernightout.com, “is we try to take a venue and some artists and create an event where we can market several different things.” Thus, his latest…

Screeching Weasel

A lot has been made of the 2009 reunion of pop-punk legend Screeching Weasel — but the fact is, the band has broken up and reformed numerous times since starting in suburban Chicago in 1986. Snotty, catchy and just sloppy enough to keep it real, the group became a beloved…

NIGHT LIGHT

Every year around this time, if you know when to look, the skies above Denver seem filled with shooting stars. That’s because the Meteor Shower, associated with the Swift-Tuttle Comet, is overhead, and the peak viewing should be tonight, when Jefferson County Open Space hosts the Perseid Meteor Shower Gathering…

A guy in a jet-pack stars in your moment of schadenfreude

It’s an old cliche that Americans were promised things like flying cars, jet-packs and dehydrated ice cream in the new millennium, and gosh dang it, we only got the one. And even worse, it turns out regular ice cream is better. Well, rest easy, because we’re making progress, it seems…