On this date 35 years ago, the political and cultural landscape looked almost as bleak as it does today. Disco saturated the airwaves, and Nixon was about to become entrenched in the Watergate scandal. Thankfully, the good people at Buffalo Exchange remember 1974 ending with real promise: Not only did…
Want to get your (coffee) buzz on? Then come watch some of the best and brightest in the Rocky Mountain region’s baristical scene as they grind, press, steam and pour at the second annual Mountain Regional Barista Competition. Event organizer Michael Strumpf says the competitors will prepare three drinks: cappuccino,…
You wouldn’t think a book about surviving on Mars would begin with Mark Twain, but according to author Robert Zubrin, a hundred years from now, Mars may be very much like the Wild West. “The book that I was reading when I wrote How to Live on Mars was Mark…
Grab your cowboy boots and hat for some country fun at the fourth annual Country Showcase, a fundraiser for local children’s charities, at the Cowboy Lounge, 1941 Market Street. But beware: There’s a Headache waiting for you. Yes, Headache the mechanical bull will be on hand to toss about twenty…
Catch up with the author of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, a New York Times Bestseller and Oprah’s Book Club entry that was easily one of 2008’s most celebrated books, tonight at An Evening with David Wroblewski. Colorado resident Wroblewski will read from, discuss and sign copies of his book,…
Facing possible torture and death at the hands of the warlords tearing their country asunder, the women of Liberia stood up and resisted the violence through non-violent means, helping bring an end to their country’s civil war. The story of those women is told in Pray the Devil Back to…
Did you ever stop to wonder exactly when it was that folks began to wrap themselves in animal skins? My guess is that it first happened when some hairless missing link got cold. After that, clothes became a cornerstone of civilization: cover-ups for the modest, gilding for lilies and just…
Todd Snider, the Tennessee-based troubadour who has spent nearly fifteen years and more than twelve proper releases perfecting the humorous talking folk song, is, to put it simply, a strange guy who records and performs strange songs. His ironic eccentricity, however, is his charm. Part satire, part serious, part song,…
Remember snow days? What it felt like waking up in the morning and anxiously turning on the local news to see if your school district’s name was on the bottom scroll, inviting you to waste the whole day sledding or doing doughnuts in the school parking lot? Well, playing hooky…
Oh, you young folks, with your Ocean’s Eleven and all that. There’s nothing to compare to the original Rat Pack, who collectively starred in the original movie. And anyway, who today could be as suave, classy, footloose and, okay, a little bit sleazy, as Frank Sinatra, one of the redoubtable…
You might think he’s just another Internet wonder, but teen comedian/musician Bo Burnham is determined to prove he’s for real… and he’s doing it in the flesh. The fresh-faced performer, who first garnered mass attention (to the tune of two-million hits) for his YouTube video “My Whole Family Thinks I’m…
Denver cultural mover and shaker Deborah Jordy has known Henry Lowenstein since she was a kid, enamored even then of his many quality children’s productions at the city’s fêted Bonfils Theatre on East Colfax Avenue. And she grew up a true believer in the magic Lowenstein, who was the creative…
Adam Helms. This solo in the MCA’s Paper Works Gallery is the New York artist’s first museum show anywhere. In his works on paper and in a monumental sculpture that conjures up a shooting blind, Helms explores political themes, especially armed struggle. He takes images of different radical and extremist…
For as long as it forges ahead without explanations, The Unborn works in its way, as a series of snap-cut gotchas introducing each new contestant in its pageant of cold-sweat set pieces. Often, this involves starlet Odette Yustman approaching some obscured, inevitably terrifying figure from behind, very…very…slowly. Yustman plays Casey,…
Ari Folman’s broodingly original Waltz With Bashir is a documentary that seems only possible, not to mention bearable, as an animated feature. Folman, whose magic-realist youth film Saint Clara was one of the outstanding Israeli films of the 1990s, has created a grim, deeply personal phantasmagoria around the 1982 invasion…
Set in 1964, when the Second Vatican Council was convening, Doubt tells the story of a priest who may have molested a twelve-year-old boy — who just happens to be the sole black kid in the predominantly Irish and Italian school where the priest teaches — and the nun determined…
The Wrestler may be plenty visceral, but it’s no more a sports movie than professional wrestling is a competitive sport. Chronic over-reacher Darren Aronofsky’s relatively unpretentious followup to the ridiculous debacle that was The Fountain is all about showbiz. It’s also a canny example. You want to make a comeback…
Perhaps you spent too damn much money this holiday season. Or maybe you didn’t, and it’s driving your shopaholic soul crazy. It could just be that you’re already committed to the newfangled concept of renewable shopping and plan to start the new year off by doing it more conscientiously than…
It’s a new year and a new season. Time to learn from the past, pick up the stick and score! It’s Mammoth Lacrosse time! Tonight’s home opener against the Portland LumberJax is sure to be full of sparks as the team welcomes some veterans and some newcomers, like Gee Nash…
Thirty-three years ago, a group of guys trying to figure out what they could do with their Jeeps during the winter months came up with racing – on ice. Today, Our Gang Ice Racing has become a Georgetown Lake staple on weekends in January and February. Club president Jean Denny…
Not religious but like to mooch occasional holiday cheer in the form of Christmas music and fuzzy lights? The 2009 Festivus Film Festival, which opens tonight and continues through January 11, provides a similar outlet: No need to follow independent films religiously to enjoy what this festival has to offer…
Westword art critic Michael Paglia is one of Denver’s go-to guys on the subject of regional modern art: He not only flat-out loves it more than almost anything, but he’s also a walking reliquary of regional art history and an up-to-date encyclopedia of who’s who in the present. There aren’t…
