Reyna Von Vett’s alter ego, Cora Vette, has been emceeing burlesque events at Bender’s Tavern for the past few months, but the time has come to move on. “Bender’s was awesome,” Von Vett enthuses, but she’s excited about getting back into a theater space. “We’re going to add back a…
Leo Seltzer never lived to see the realization of his dreams for the sport he invented, which most modern roller derby scholars trace back to his 1935 Transcontinental Roller Derby at the Chicago Coliseum. Seltzer had Olympic ambitions for his roller guys and dolls, and he dared to dream of…
While the Front Range has a plethora of moderate rock climbs, including several classics, the options for those pursuing very difficult climbs are nearly as unlimited. In fact, several of Colorado’s most famous climbs are exceptionally difficult. If you’re wanting to push your limits, here are five routes that will…
Vail Resorts Inc. closed the deal today to buy out the remaining 30 percent share of Specialty Sports Venture (total consideration, $31 million), which means Ken and Thomas Gart – best known around these parts as the Gart Bros. – are effectively out of the sports retail game. The SSV…
After much back and forth over the last few months, including a showdown in the middle of the Winter Olympics, Intrawest has repaid its lenders and completed a new loan. Locally, that means Winter Park and Steamboat may be staying the course until at least 2014, though the $107 million…
The Vail Daily reports that Eagle County bigwigs listened to the Rocky Mountain Rail Authority’s pitch for a high-speed rail network that would link Denver and Vail, not to mention Cheyenne and Pueblo, for a price tag of $20 billion to $40 billion, give or take a few billion.The RMRA’s…
Works on paper are a standard feature of the art world, even if works made out of paper are not. Back in the late ’60s and early ’70s, however, a generation of artists began using paper as their medium — and Colorado artist Ray Tomasso was at the forefront. It’s…
Colorado Clay. This exhibition began in the ’70s as an annual reflection of the big uptick in interest in ceramics at that time. It is now a biennial event, and although it’s one of the most important ceramics shows on the calendar, it’s not an invitational, as it should be,…
Chicago. Sort of Brechtian, sort of Cabaretish, Chicago tells a story of injustice and corruption, and tells it in the most seductive way, with witty, memorable songs, elegantly glistening dance sequences and a smart, cynical and grown-up script. Roxie Hart is an evil, self-serving little hoofer. Having murdered a man…
A union-busting doc with an adamant — if not quite apolitical — focus on the children slipping through the cracks, The Cartel uses New Jersey as Exhibit A in its case against this country’s crooked education system. Though it is first in education spending, New Jersey has an abysmal dropout rate…
A genuinely hip, thought-provoking work of art disguised as a doomed documentary resurrected, Exit Through the Gift Shop is not just the definitive portrait of street-art counterculture, but also a hilarious exposé on the gullibility of the masses who embrace manufactured creative personas. Though it’s credited as a Banksy picture…
I took the six-year-old who lives in my house to a sneak preview of Furry Vengeance. The boy’s a savvy consumer of kids’ popular culture — my greatest parenting triumph thus far. He knew from the myriad Disney Channel commercials (the movie stars Matt Prokop of High School Musical 3)…
Perhaps in 1963, when Federico Fellini made his semi-autobiographical 8 ½, the movie on which the musical Nine is based, people cared more about a famous film director’s struggle to overcome creative block. Perhaps there was a slight thrill of voyeurism in speculating on Fellini’s relationships; perhaps, unlike Nine, the…
“He might not be too many people’s favorite artist, but everyone has an appreciation for Salvador Dalí,” says Charlotte LaSasso of the Boulder County Arts Association. So when BCAA boosters were thinking about a not-too-serious excuse to throw a party in May, they went looking for artists born in that…
Musical prodigy and civil rights activist Nina Simone was a fiercely independent, vocal woman. Shadow Theatre’s musical Simply Simone touches on all aspects of her life, from her long musical career — she started playing the piano at age three and continued recording until her death, in 1993 — to…
A union-busting doc with an adamant — if not quite apolitical — focus on the children slipping through the cracks, The Cartel uses New Jersey as Exhibit A in its case against this country’s crooked education system. Though it is first in education spending, New Jersey has an abysmal dropout…
“Why did we pick Romancing the Stone?” asks Matt Vogl, one of the comics behind Denver’s long-running, film-plus-comedy series known as Mile High Sci-Fi. “Two reasons. One, Kathleen Turner’s thighs. Two, Danny DeVito’s thighs.” It looks like Vogl will be bringing a little bromance to Romancing the Stone, the 1984…
The members of headRush like to call themselves a “psycho-politico spoken-word theater crew,” and perhaps that’s the most apt description of this Bay Area performance group. The young and fiery multilingual collaborative ensemble turns current issues topsy-turvy with an onslaught of poetry, rap, slapstick, pop music and absurdist traditions that…
“Several criteria guided my selection of photographs for Exposure,” says Eric Paddock, curator of the Denver Art Museum’s Exposure: Photos From the Vault exhibit, which features prints from the likes of Ansel Adams, Diane Arbus, Chuck Close and Garry Winogrand. “Mainly I kept my eyes peeled for photographs of exceptional…
Denver knows designer (and Westword MasterMind) Mona Lucero for her Highland boutique, unique wearables and edgy fashion shows. But not everyone knows that her first love was fine art — though it shows in her singular design work and flair for smart dressing. “I originally got my B.A. in fine…
What to do when Cinco de Mayo lands on a Wednesday? Warm up for the weekend parties and street action with an authentic touch of high culture. The Colorado Symphony Orchestra’s annual Cinco de Mayo Celebration Concert will ring to the rafters of Boettcher Concert Hall tonight, with help from…
Some artistic processes are easier to understand than others. With painting and drawing, for example, you can figure out how the final products are created. But consider printmaking, with its wood blocks, photo etchings and monotypes. How do these work? Seriously, how? “When you talk to people about prints,” says…
