Just when you thought it was safe to go back into town, the Denver Art Museum’s Untitled #18 (.gov) rehashes the DNC fervor. If you’re still riding that wave of political excitement, then make your way to the museum today at 6 p.m. for a slate of hands-on activities. This…
I’ve been doing this cultural beat for a long time now, and I’ve come to realize that things don’t last. Artists are disorganized and sometimes flaky, propelled by great ideas and held back by chancy finances. But those that do usually survive because someone, or in some cases, a whole…
“My advice: Stay away from black holes,” says Dr. Phil Plait, aka the Bad Astronomer. While this may seem like a fairly sound piece of sci-fi wisdom that’s more suited for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy than Earth, even Arthur Dent never experienced anything that sucked him hopelessly in,…
I don’t know about you, but this is the time of year when I turn into a crab and crawl into a boot and refuse to come out until it’s at least 72 degrees outside daily. I can no longer bear the brown, white and gray landscape or the fierce…
It’s a safe bet that all ambient, instrumental rock after the turn of the century will inevitably be compared to Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Sigur Rós. Even compelling acts such as This Will Destroy You will be subjected to such lazy comparisons. In this case, the association isn’t completely…
Baseball is back, at least in the sunnier climes of Arizona and Florida, where spring training is under way (the Rockies take on the Chicago White Sox this very day!). So pull yourselves together: It’s time to wipe away last fall’s tears and re-engage. For many of the hard-core fans,…
The documentary Pete Seeger: The Power of Song focuses on a much-misunderstood American-music figure. Many rockers once saw Seeger as an uptight purist who threatened to pull the plug on Bob Dylan’s electrified set at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival — an anecdote still disputed forty-plus years later. (Seeger has…
When group members split to form separate projects, the results frequently add up to less than the original sum – but not in the case of Mat Brooke and Ben Bridwell. The pair teamed in Carissa’s Wierd, a sometimes entertaining but often erratic Seattle act, before joining forces again in…
When Thoreau said that most men will lead lives of quiet desperation, going to the grave with the song still in them, it’s obvious that he never met someone like Guy Clark, a troubadour who’s been penning odes of quiet desperation for over thirty years and shows absolutely no signs…
“Eating before practice helps a lot.” With a mouthful of homemade pizza, drummer Sam Spitzer is explaining the secret of the Hollyfelds’ camaraderie. Before each rehearsal, the quintet sits down to a meal at the Spitzers’ home. What started as carryout has evolved to delicious home-cooked meals, compliments of Spitzer’s…
While Gil Mantera’s Party Dream makes more-or-less sincere and angst-filled electro-emo, you’d never guess it from the duo’s live shows. On stage, the brothers from Youngstown, Ohio, dance, prance and make general asses of themselves with giddy, homoerotic abandon and total disregard for any hang-ups the audience might have. Gil…
Love him or hate him, with six Grammys to his name and having sold hundreds of millions of records worldwide, Billy Joel has a pedigree that’s impossible to ignore. Although he’s known primarily for crafting shamelessly catchy pop melodies with an ear for the British Invasion and a fondness for…
Brittany Spears puts on a great show. Her dynamic performances have impressed crowds all over the country, consistently earning her awards while helping build a fan base that should only grow bigger by the year. And she has yet to spend any time in a psych ward. Unlike her famous…
Every day Westword receptionist Steve Burge gives you the fashionable view from the front desk. These firemen came in and I knew, immediately, I had my Look of the Day. I could talk about “men in uniform…” or “the look of a hero.” I could. But, see, there’s something much…
Every day Westword receptionist Steve Burge gives you the fashionable view from the front desk. Denver’s resident Diva, Ms. Karen Slack is an All-American girl from the shoulders down, sporting a simple black sweater and, a staple in every American’s wardrobe, a pair of blue jeans. Ms. Slack adds a…
Do you have the crazy?” a wild-eyed zombie fighter demands of his duct-taped captive. The Signal has the crazy all right, bless its cold and sick little heart. A roundelay/tag-team triptych by three directors, filmed in the hitherto-untapped zombie haven of Atlanta, this uneven but impressive shot-on-digital shocker earns a…
Like most wannabe heroes of the eager-to-please teen comedy, poor little rich boy Charlie Bartlett is charming and quirky. Too charming by half and not nearly quirky enough, as played by an artfully rumpled and wide-eyed Anton Yelchin. Blazered, briefcased and blitzed, Charlie comes to us newly expelled from his…
The pleasures of Be Kind Rewind do not extend far beyond the promise of its premise: Jack Black, magnetized and manic (yawn), erases every single videotape in the rental store where he hangs out and has to reshoot the movies with pal Mos Def. Theirs becomes a ramshackle filmography of…
Remember the 1985 movie version of the Parker Brothers whodunit board game Clue, with its pre-DVD-era gimmick of multiple endings? Well, Vantage Point is like that, only instead of multiple endings, it gives us multiple beginnings. Oh, and Vantage Point, to the best of my knowledge, isn’t supposed to be…
Let’s just get it out right now: “Devil May Cry” is a weak-ass name for a wicked action game. But what’s in a name? In three previous outings, the brutal, hella-challenging series has consistently delivered some of the greatest hack-and-slash thrills in the genre. Sure, the setup’s as old as…
Margot at the Wedding(Paramount)Margot (Nicole Kidman, or someone who looks just like her) is a fiction writer whose tales are based, uncomfortably and unkindly, on the real-life family for whom she seems to care very little. Hence sister Pauline’s (Jennifer Jason Leigh) late discovery that Margot’s a “monster” — late…
Black Water (Sony) Catacombs (Lionsgate) Chaos (Lionsgate) Cops: 20th Anniversary Edition (Fox) The Death of Adolf Hitler (Koch Vision) The Easter Bunny Is Comin’ to Town (1977) (Warner Bros.) The Final Inquiry (Fox) Gangsters: The Ultimate Film Collection (Universal) German Expressionism Collection (Kino) In the Valley of Elah (Warner Bros.)…
