Before she died, in 2005, Ofelia Miramontes lent a loud voice in support of diversity on the CU-Boulder campus and bilingual education in the world at large. In her memory, each spring CU presents the Miramontes Music and Art Festival, a condensed outburst of multi-disciplinary events focusing on cultural contributions…
Nothing gets your blood pumping faster than a little African dancing and drumming. Doesn’t matter if you’re on the stage or in front of it – by the time the drums start talking and the dancers start whooping and leaping, you’ll be ready to credit the Africans for inspiring the…
Dan Jacobs, who’s been the director of the Victoria H. Myhren Gallery at the University of Denver for a couple of years, has really brought the place around in a short time. Before he was hired, there was an ad hoc quality to the gallery. There was no real program,…
Damien Hirst. You’d have to be living under a rock — or have absolutely no interest in contemporary art — not to know that Damien Hirst is a superstar, and that everything he makes is worth millions of dollars apiece. The tight solo at MCA Denver (formerly known as the…
As You Like It. It doesn’t get more minimal than this: As You Like It performed by six people on a stage where the set consists of little besides a large rock, swaths of fabric and a wooden swing; echoing footsteps announce an actor’s entry minutes before he actually appears;…
For most modern theater-goers, Martin McDonagh has become the voice of Irish drama, and I’ve tended to consider the grotesquery and violence of his plays — The Lieutenant of Inishmore, A Skull in Connemara, Pillowman — as a departure from a misty, lyrical tradition. For example, I’d always thought of…
Seconds, which screens at the Boulder Public Library on Thursday, February 19, holds a bizarre place in rock history. According to legend, the 1966 flick helped trigger the mental collapse of Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson, who was reportedly so traumatized by it that he didn’t see another movie in…
Tom Tykwer’s The International is one of those movies in which shadowy men meet in parked cars, abandoned buildings and inconspicuous public spaces, travel under assumed names and always glance nervously over their shoulders, fearful of being spied on through a sniper’s lens. Some come to give information, others to…
Five years ago, Westword added a very special component to Artopia: the MasterMind awards. Recognizing that the local arts scene needed a little fertilizer to really get going, and growing, we created a program that every year honors five cultural visionaries — artists and organizations alike — working to change…
Curling is a strange sport, and I can’t say that I’m strange enough to follow it. But the shuffleboard-like Olympic endeavor on ice must have some kind of following, or at least a curious gang of people who want to know more about it. Curling led television ratings for all…
Everyone seems to understand the appeal of watching a film in the theater, and many of us also get the appeal of cuddling up with a good book. But in my opinion, there’s a severely underrated form of narrative entertainment that some people just don’t know about: Sitting in a…
Mitch Albom (Tuesdays With Morrie, The Five People You Meet in Heaven) is, well, a bit of a cheeseball. A prosperous, prolific cheeseball, yes — but a little hokey-pokey around the edges, with all those stories of redemption, forgiveness and hope. Albom’s And the Winner Is…, however, while certainly a…
Seconds, which screens at the Boulder Public Library today, holds a bizarre place in rock history. According to legend, the 1966 flick helped trigger the mental collapse of Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson, who was reportedly so traumatized by it that he didn’t see another movie in a theater until…
Things are about to get nasty in Colorado Springs. The surging Pikes Peak Derby Dames are hungry to carve their niche in women’s flat-track roller derby, and they intend to do it on the faces of their competition during this weekend’s Four Corner Feud. The two-day throwdown will see all…
The current trend in horror movies might charitably be described as shock and awe — a caustic blend of whiplash editing techniques, extreme gore and “gotcha” moments designed to make you jump in your seat. The art of the creepy, tension-filled build and skin-crawling reveal has been neglected, all but…
Maybe you’re not quite ready to quit that cushy office job for an adrenaline-powered, snowboard-punk stoner lifestyle, but after watching films included in the 33rd annual Banff Mountain Film Festival, you might feel like you could. The festival took place last November, but some of the top movies are now…
Food is one area of my life where I very rarely cut corners to fit a budget. Sure, I could poke through the discounted-produce bin at the supermarket — but why would I bring home an almost-wilted head of romaine lettuce when, for a few extra cents, I could have…
OBJECT Project is a traveling art exhibition featuring fifteen contemporary realists who all focused on the same five objects: a clear glass of water, a moth, a ball of string, a bone, and a mirror. The point was to see how each artist would interpret the five items, and the…
Like Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin, Kate Hudson and Chris Robinson and that dude with the dreads from Counting Crows who dated every actress you’d ever heard of in the ’90s, Hollywood has always flirted with rock-and-roll stars. Add some fire to the flames at the Denver Film Society’s rock-and-roll-themed…
Long ago, before our kids were born, my wife and I used to pick a day in February to see all five movies nominated in that year’s Academy Awards Best Picture category. The hardest part was coordinating times and locations all over town, especially when one or two of the…
For 32 years, the Rocky Mountain Women’s Institute offered opportunities unique to the region: It provided female literary, performing and visual artists a breather from the real world to pursue creative ends, by offering one-year stipends and, in earlier times, studio space, to a handful of lucky applicants annually. Each…
Her lingering recovery after Hurricane Katrina ensures that New Orleans is never far from the nation’s collective mind. But as Boulder journalist and author Dan Baum notes on his website, “Hurricane Katrina is hardly the most interesting thing about New Orleans.” A city with deep roots, a lazy but enduring…
