In the last few weeks, my compatriot-in-bloggery Candace Horgan took you through a nice solid retrospective of climbing movies both good and bad. And, a few quibbles notwithstanding (K2 is good? Honestly? And where’s Cliffhanger?), I think she nails it. But she might have to make room for a new…
Denver’s a sports town, but for those of us who occupy the netherworld of the visual arts, our home team is the Denver Art Museum. And since January 1989, the DAM’s head coach has been Lewis Sharp. But Sharp will step down as the Frederick and Jan Mayer Director at…
Allen True’s West. Allen Tupper True was Denver’s premier muralist during the first third of the twentieth century. Sadly, many of his commissions have been painted over or were lost when the buildings they were in were demolished. In an act of cooperation, the three big cultural institutions on the…
Absurd Person Singular. The Denver Center Theatre Company should be applauded for selecting Absurd Person Singular, Alan Ayckbourn’s dark comedy, as one of its Christmas offerings. Ayckbourn’s trademark is intensely clever, laugh-out-loud farce capering over the surface of a sad and penetrating cynicism, and it’s the perfect antidote to the…
After undervalued supporting turns in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, North Country and Gone Baby Gone, dainty girl-next-door type Michelle Monaghan finally and deservedly snags a star vehicle to show off her chops. Against the roadside Americana of writer-director James Mottern’s well-shot desert drama Trucker, Monaghan flips the bird to vanity…
All’s Well That Ends Well Aside from Morgan Freeman, who makes a fabulous Nelson Mandela, there’s this to savor about Invictus, a rosy tale of racial reconciliation neatly wrapped in a triumphalist sports movie: The film is blessedly free of Obama parallels. Also, we could use a happy global moment,…
Standing O The most significant American artist before Andy Warhol to take “the media” as his medium, Orson Welles lives on not only in posthumously restored director’s cuts of his re-released movies, but as a character in other people’s novels, plays, and movies — notably, Richard Linklater’s deft, affectionate and…
I came to Spring Awakening a complete innocent, without so much as a quick Google to ascertain theme, genre, plot. I’d heard of Frank Wedekind’s 1891 play on which the musical is based, of course, since it pops up in all surveys of European theater, and I knew the production…
After undervalued supporting turns in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, North Country and Gone Baby Gone, dainty girl-next-door type Michelle Monaghan finally and deservedly snags a star vehicle to show off her chops. Against the roadside Americana of writer-director James Mottern’s well-shot desert drama Trucker, Monaghan flips the bird to vanity…
Some of the fashionistas in the Emily Griffith Opportunity School’s fashion design program have used their trendsetting skills to raise funds for fun activities throughout the year — but they’ve decided it’s time to give back now. Several members of the Fashion Group International’s Denver student group have banded together…
Sometimes the best way to stimulate creativity is to saddle yourself with limitations. “Once you put a seeming constraint on something, it seems to make people freer in how they think about it,” says Dea Webb, co-owner of Plastic Chapel. That’s the idea behind Square Footage, one of the gallery/store’s…
Colorado is known for its world-class outdoor activities, but this time of year, it’s much nicer inside. William Biety, director of the van Straaten Gallery, was riffing off this idea when he put together Interior, which features paintings of rooms. But don’t be misled: While the works may detail the…
“Our production of The Westside Oratorio is appropriate and timely,” says development director Tanya Mote of Su Teatro’s latest show. “But it’s the story that Su Teatro is always telling in different ways. The history of Chicanos in the Americas is a history of tenacity and resilience. We believe that…
Don’t you just love a win-win situation? Everything about the BordoBello Skateboard Project screams perfection: The AIGA Colorado benefit for Youth Design Denver and Access Gallery, organizations that pair high-school students with professional mentors in graphic design, embraces youth culture by offering up artist-designed skateboard decks for bidding. “People affiliate…
When I reread the whole Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder with my daughter a few years back, I became immediately hooked on its compelling stories, and, even more so, on the backstory of Wilder’s own life, which sometimes parallels and sometimes diverges from the saga…
Sunshiny fashion entrepreneur Brandy Shigley has made a name for herself not only for promoting Denver designers, but also for producing an ongoing series of seasonal fashion markets where it’s easy to pick up unique clothing and accessories, direct from the source. But her move to Taxi, 3455 Ringsby Court,…
In the canon of the Kwanzaa tradition, Ujamaa stands for cooperative economics: the idea that it takes a village to help everyone thrive. But, notes African-American community leader Brother Jeff Fard, that’s not necessarily a nod to cold commerce. “A key piece to Kwanzaa is that it’s not really based…
Cherry Creek North jewelry maker Elizabeth Lindsay made her first Token Tags for her father to wear when her mother’s battle with cancer ended. “He never took them off,” she says of the precious-metal charms, which were stamped with encouraging words. “Then I made some for myself, and everyone asked…
Truthfully, the annual Swallow Hill Holiday Party is really just a concert, though there’s usually a pre-show potluck shmooze for members. But as publicist Chip Herter makes clear, it’s not only a really good concert, but also a cheap one. “Historically, it’s always been a showcase where we try to…
Graphic designer Rick Griffith is type-cast, but in his case, it’s a good thing. His fascination with fonts led him this year on a pilgrimage to three shrines to the wooden letterpress progenitors of the modern typeface: the Country Music Hall of Fame’s Hatch Show Print in Nashville, the Hamilton…
There’s a dark side to the holiday season: stress. Thankfully, there’s also a simple solution: YoChi for Holiday Stress and Beyond, a combination of tai chi and hatha yoga that will leave you feeling refreshed and rejuvenated. “We’re going to deal with some light stretching and energy work to clear…
In this age of digital art and computer graphics, Salvador Dalí’s art still stands ahead of the crowd in terms of sheer weirdness, perfectly executed. And right now, you don’t have to take a long trip to see Dalí’s work live and in person; just head up to the Loveland…
