Far more than a tired, kitschy recycling of the Star Wars brand, Star Wars: A Musical Journey is a reimagining of the six-part science-fiction saga into a ninety-minute, multi-media extravaganza. Simply put, it’s a different way of looking at the familiar. Call it a night at the symphony crossed with…
Teresa Garcia says her father is the oldest practicing veterinarian in Colorado, and although she might be stretching the truth, one thing’s for certain: Dr. Edward Garcia, who loves fixing up platters of tamales and jars of peaches in his spare time, is the Hispanic equivalent of a mensch. The…
As much as any art museum or venue in town, Plus Gallery (2501 Larimer Street, 303-296-0927, www.plusgallery.com) is committed to showcasing cutting-edge art. The current case in point is Industry, a Jonathan Saiz solo made up of a group of closely related wall sculptures that function as a single, coherent…
Al Wynne. Al Wynne is one of the greatest artists to have ever worked in Colorado, and his accomplishments rank right up there with those of acknowledged masters such as Vance Kirkland and Herbert Bayer. And Black Forest Magic: Paintings & Sculpture by Al Wynne proves it. The Colorado native’s…
Die! Mommie Die! It’s been forever since we’ve had really good, outrageous, dirty-minded, over-the-top camp in Denver, so Die! Mommie Die! is a particular delight. Charles Busch’s play is a spoof of such 1960s Gothic horror movies as Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? and Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte. There’s no important…
What’s remarkable about Still Walking, Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s seventh feature film and one every bit as sensitive as his previous triumphs After Life (1998) and Nobody Knows (2004), is that the familiar comes across as fresh. Despite recycling potential clichés — the grouchy elderly father, the disenfranchised second son — Kore-eda imbues the story…
I knew that René Marie was a tremendous jazz artist — but I had no idea that she was also an amazing writer and an astonishingly powerful actress. Not until I saw Slut Energy Theory. Marie’s one-woman play has been promoted as a work about incest and abuse; performances are…
When he wrote The Voysey Inheritance over a hundred years ago, Harley Granville-Barker intended to show the rot beneath the politely conventional exterior of Edwardian society. The plot concerns a solicitor who uses his clients’ funds to enrich himself and his family while managing to keep up with interest payments…
Mistress Raven’s been around the block, but now she’s staying put. The driving force behind Rave’s Oh My Goth! moved her emporium — originally an Uptown antique- and vintage-clothing store favored by drag queens — three times, but this location has proven itself the perfect spot. It’s a dark, cavernous…
Tiffany Smyth hangs with belly dancers, fire performers, the Ren Fest crowd and the tribal psychedelic rock band Kan’nal, but first and foremost, she’s a mask-maker of enormous talent, working in leather, beads and feathers to create art nouveau-inspired organic disguises unlike anything you’ve ever seen. She owes some of…
When Peter Yarrow’s appearance at the Tattered Cover was announced a few weeks back, it seemed like it might be just another night of book-reading and -signing — assuming that hanging out with a music legend and bona fide cultural icon like Yarrow is a routine occurrence for you. But…
Right after Halloween, I always vow that next year, I’m going to start working on my costume early. I’m going to come up with a fabulous concept, figure out a way to execute it perfectly, then blow everyone away with my creativity and overall holiday spirit. When September rolls to…
Jennifer Mahnken, now treasurer of the Rocky Mountain Dart Association, remembers taking third in an open tournament and walking away with a “decent amount of money” even though she’d only played darts for a year or so. “It really just depends on the draw and how good of a day…
The story goes like this: Corridor 44, at 1433 Larimer Street, was once a brothel owned by a reformed showgirl and her ornery husband. When the couple’s daughter began dallying with a city lowlife, the irate father sent a hit man to rub out the boyfriend — except the plan…
“Whenever I’m asked, ‘Who makes you laugh?’ or ‘Who would you pay to see?’ I don’t hesitate for a moment,” wrote George Carlin shortly before his death. “Lewis Black! He’s got it all: brains, balls and chops. And he sees through all the bullshit.” Carlin was just one in a…
Cormac McCarthy writes the kind of books — staunch, and filled with pure, cold drama — that were made for movie-making. No Country for Old Men was an Oscar winner that wedded taut writing with skilled acting and direction; the buzz on The Road, which opens later this month, is…
Denver’s Old House Society offers walking tours that take people into old parts of the city that are completely new to them. “They’re fun, and they’re geared toward someone who doesn’t have a degree in architecture and history — even though when we plan our tours, an architect and a…
No strings attached: Today is the 24th annual One Sky One World Kite Fly. Since 1985, on the second Sunday in October, millions of people around the world have celebrated “World Kite Day,” a day dedicated to promoting peace and protecting the planet. From 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. at…
Kirk Brown and Jill Wiltse were already art collectors and exhibition sponsors when they recently added another label, that of film supporters, with their founding of Design Onscreen — the Initiative for Architecture and Design on Film. The group is headed up by Heather Purcell, and its latest effort is…
We all have a personal cabinet of curiosity lurking inside, but do we know how to open the doors? To truly understand Cabinet of Curiosities, a whimsical new exhibit that opens today at the Museum of Outdoor Arts, knowledge of its history helps: “The concept goes back to the sixteenth…
The tradition of oral storytelling, a cultural cornerstone for many native people, continues through the contemporary medium of film at the sixth annual Denver Indigenous Film & Arts Festival, organized by the Denver-based International Institute for Indigenous Resource Management. “Film is a natural evolution of storytelling because it fits so…
Although it was written more than four decades ago, A Raisin in the Sun speaks particularly well to today’s audience, because in this challenging economy, dreaming of a better life has become a full-time job for too many people. Lorraine Hansberry’s play follows the struggles of an inner-city family living…
