Some performers can keep an audience in stitches but can’t keep a tune. It’s tough to find a balance between comedic and musical talent; a singer with a beautiful voice might not have a great sense of humor, and a great comedian might not be melodically gifted. That’s why the…
The town’s recent Top Chef contestants have been very in demand in this celebrity-starved city, and tonight, Melissa Harrison (formerly of Centro, now of Happy Noodle House) will join with L.A. Top Chef contender Alex Eusebio (a Denver native who worked at Aix and Cuba Cuba) to take on fellow…
As the father of a musically inclined young woman, I can say there just aren’t enough role models and opportunities to help encourage her to seize the day, rock-and-roll style. But now Girls Rock Denver is out to change that. “Girls Rock Denver is basically the first non-profit rock-and-roll day…
Explaining FOUND Magazine’s Denim and Diamonds Tour is kind of like describing a flea market to someone who’s never been shopping before. It all starts with Davy Rothbart, who collects love letters, to-do lists, birthday cards, Post-It notes, photos, doodles, impromptu poems and other objects; today people from all over…
The repercussions of obsessive collector Andrew Novick’s exhibition at the now-defunct Lab in Belmar still reverberate. One unexpected upshot of the whole fantabulous show was that it led to Novick and artists Viviane Le Courtois and Sabin Aell realizing that, in addition to sharing a love of travel and collecting…
Actor/director Ami Dayan was born in Israel, lives and works in Boulder, and has taken some of his theater pieces to New York, where they’ve received serious attention and critical praise. These include The Tale of a Tiger, Dayan’s interpretation of a one-act by Italian Nobel-winner Dario Fo; The Man…
Every year, the Denver Center Theatre Company’s New Play Summit receives hundreds of submissions from playwrights across the nation. Stephen Lavezza and Gabriella Cavallero, who’ve both done time with the DCTC, know that their Modern Muse Theatre doesn’t have the same resources as that powerhouse of an arts organization. In…
While searching for a program on self-portraiture to complement the Mizel Museum’s current exhibit My Self: Original Self Portraits, curator Georgina Kolber turned to that ubiquitous online medium: the blog. “Blogging certainly seems to be the new thing, especially microblogging with Facebook status updates and Twitter. How are blogs changing…
When Denver’s annual PrideFest, “Worldwide Pride…Connect the Dots,” gets under way this weekend in Civic Center Park, it will continue to provide programming as diverse as its constituency, with the usual mix of tried-and-true activities — among them, the family field day and kids’ parade, Volleypalooza in Congress Park, the…
Dick Kreck is sitting beside the shrine to Frank Sinatra in Gaetano’s, the restaurant at 3760 Tejon Street that the Smaldone family ran for almost sixty years, from 1947 until the Wynkoop Family of Restaurants bought the joint in 2005. The restaurant wasn’t the Smaldones’ only business venture, of course…
Denver’s alternative comic artists — including such longtime scenesters as John Porcellino, who’s been turning out his King-Cat Comics for twenty years, and Stan Yan and Lonnie Allen of the local co-op Squidworks — are largely unsung, regardless of the quality of their work. They know all about each other,…
I have a few old T-shirts in my closet. They hang there, proverbial skeletons, so boring that I can’t imagine ever removing one from its hanger and actually putting it on. But I don’t throw them away, either. And my eleven-year-old daughter has drawers full of oversized camp T-shirts and…
Oscar Wilde is one of those rare writers whose work transcends time. “I would say that he remains as pertinent today as he really ever was; his comments were so wonderful,” says Simone Groene-Sackett, education program assistant for the Denver Public Library. That’s why the DPL’s Fresh City Life, in…
Since the Colorado Shakespeare Festival is one of the top Shakespeare festivals in the country — and one of only seven that has staged every last one of Shakespeare’s 37 plays — the people who put together the annual program know they’re taking a chance every time they move beyond…
MCA Denver’s building was constructed with six small or mid-sized galleries (two on the first floor and four on the second), a decision that was dictated by the functional program developed by former director Cydney Payton. She laid out this idea of a multiplicity of discrete spaces instead of large…
Barbara Takenaga and Mary Ehrin. These two solos feature contemporary work that’s informed by the influence of nature. Barbara Takenaga: Fade Away & Radiate, comprises a nice selection of abstracts by a New York artist who lived for many years in Colorado. Mary Ehrin: Rockspace is an installation by a…
“I just want to blend in,” claims banjoist Béla Fleck early in Throw Down Your Heart, a documentary about his musical journey to Africa (where the banjo originated). A moment later, after glancing at the native performers around him, he admits, “I’m not going to blend in.” Yet he often…
Fifteen minutes after seeing The Proposal, I’d forgotten I’d seen The Proposal. Well, that’s not entirely true: By then, it had simply merged in my memory with a thousand other films just like it — those in which phony lovers bound together by dubious circumstances become honest-to-kissin’ couples in just…
It’s funny how all discussion of the Mafia these days references The Sopranos — that distinctive accent; Carmela’s American-Italian cooking with its thick red sauces; the racism and homophobia; the women who were either protected and indulged family members or whores; the vivid energy of the culture; the sense of…
Two old men are seated at a table talking. They may be on a hotel terrace, in an old-age home, at a hospital. All we know is that the place is by the sea. The men seem sad and beaten down by life; they have odd physical tics and converse…
The success of Slumdog Millionaire has kicked off a minor craze for the extravagant and colorful musical-film industry of India. If you’ve been bitten by the bug, then you’ll enjoy tonight’s Hooray for Bollywood fundraiser for Congregation Nevei Kodesh, with authentic Indian cuisine, dance instruction from Bollywood West, music from…
The dandelion is one of the most maligned, misunderstood flowers of all time, says Tonja Reichley of MoonDance Botanicals. Why? “All the parts of dandelions have medicinal and herbal benefits; it’s one of our favorite herbs.” And it’s why Reichley decided to name her festival Dandelion: A Celebration of Local…
