Solid Sisterhood

World War III has not yet happened. But a war rages in the heart of Africa that’s killed as many civilians as World War II. Dubbed the African World War, it’s allowed usurpers to strip the resource-rich nation of the Democratic Republic of Congo under the auspices of battle. Even…

Support Your Local Hooker

I played college rugby for Humboldt State in northern California. When this comes up in conversation, people are taken aback. I watch their expressions as they think, “She seemed so mild-mannered, but really, she’s a barbarian!” I treasure those moments. Nobody messes with an ex-rugger. And Colorado is a rugby…

Kong Fu

The fastest person in the world. The most career home runs. The best Donkey Kong player of all time. These achievements may seem inconsequential to outsiders, but to the people who pursue them, they can mean everything. The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters follows the heated rivalry between…

Apocalypse Anticipation

Since the beginning of time, human beings have been predicting the end of the world. It’s easy to ignore the crazy man on the corner shouting about Armageddon, but the ancient Mayan civilization — with its freaky-accurate calendar and sophisticated mathematical and astronomical systems — is a bit more difficult…

Jersey Boys

Because the Colorado Rockies are playing meaningful games in September for the first time in recent memory, they don’t need gimmicks to attract fans, as they have in years past. Fortunately, though, the team’s going forward with one of its best promotions: Jersey Off Their Backs Day, which takes place…

A Different Time

Isn’t it unusual that war buddies can get together — with nary a paraplegic or alcoholic — and dance to show tunes under the radar of suspicion? As out-of-place as it seems in a time of tsunami-level cynicism, Irving Berlin’s White Christmas is just such a story. Warming the stage…

Think Green

Although it’s not exactly revolutionary to hold a major environmental event in a town already known for its eco-friendly vibe, Boulder’s Eco Arts ’07 is impressive for its length and scope. It brings together artists, scientists and scientific organizations to cover a range of global-warming issues and examine how the…

Two of a Kind

Take Two: Film and Its Inspirations, a new series starting tonight at the Denver Art Museum, has an inspiration of its own: Inspiring Impressionism, currently on display at the DAM. “The concept of Inspiring Impressionism is to show the influence of Old Master portraits and landscapes on the great Impressionist…

The Vibrators

Like their contemporaries in U.K. Subs, who lived in the same building, the seasoned pub musicians who formed the Vibrators in 1976 brought a blues tradition to the infantile punk scene. But while the scene was highly politicized and angry, the Vibes got their kicks from sexually charged fun; tunes…

The Used

In the video for “Pretty Handsome Awkward,” an entertaining track from Lies for the Liars, the latest CD by the Used, bassist Jeph Howard dons drag — and he believes he pulls off the look pretty well. As he points out, “I think I could fit in on Santa Monica…

Art in the City Afterhours Party

The First Friday gallery extravaganza is tonight, and if you have a tendency to arrive on Santa Fe a little late to get your fill of cutting-edge art and culture, as I do, this time you have an excuse to get started late. Art in the City will hold a…

3:10 to Yuma

Huffing and puffing to resuscitate a long-moribund genre, James Mangold manages to imbue a fifty-year-old Western with the semblance of life. Mangold’s remake of 3:10 to Yuma isn’t as startling a resurrection job as his Johnny Cash biopic, but it does send a saddlebag full of Western tropes skittering into…

Shoot ‘Em Up

There have already been critical rumblings about the extreme violence in Shoot ¹Em Up, but it’s hard to get too worked up about a film whose very title announces its maker’s intent. You just can’t stay mad at a picture that early on has the hero helping a woman give…

10 Questions for the Dalai Lama

If you had a ten-question limit, what are some of the queries you would posit to the holiest man on the planet? (And no, we’re not talking about the pope.) Filmmaker and explorer Rick Ray had the opportunity to meet with the Dalai Lama, a Tibetan Buddhist spiritual teacher who…

John & Jen

John and Jen are not lovers, as the title of John & Jen might lead you to believe, but children of a violently abusive father in the ’60s. Jen, the older sibling, does everything she can to protect her little brother. But when she leaves for college, becoming a free-spirited,…

Now Playing

All in the Timing. David Ives’s six one-acts are all about language, communication and understanding, and also chance and fate. The dialogue is light and funny and fizzy, and it gets your frontal lobes buzzing as you attempt to catch and process all the flying puns, allusions, jokes, rhythms and…

Ten Views

Even if you didn’t get a chance to visit the mountains this summer, the area’s galleries and art centers provided plenty of closer-to-home opportunities to take in our world-famous scenery as interpreted by artists. There was Colorado & the West, at David Cook Fine Art; Masterpieces of Colorado Landscape, at…

Sketches

Clyfford Still Unveiled. A master and pioneer of mid-twentieth-century abstract expressionism, painter Clyfford Still was something of an eccentric in the artist-as-egomaniac stripe. His antisocial behavior led to a situation where 94 percent of his artworks remained together after he died — a staggeringly complete chronicle of his oeuvre that…

Seasons in the Sun

The Office: Season Three (Universal) After a shaky first season and a better-with-every-episode second, The Office proved itself one of the most consistent comedies in the history of the medium. The show has long since escaped the shadow of its BBC forebear and boasts an ensemble from which you could…

Getting Medieval

Funny how gaming’s most epic genre — the role-playing game — often feels the most limited in scope. After all, how many times can we traverse a medieval land, defeat the orcs, rescue the girl, save the world, and level up along the way? Never enough times would be the…

Our top DVD picks scheduled for release this week:

The Black Donnellys: The Complete Series (Universal) Chill Out Scooby-Doo! (Warner Bros.) City of Violence (Weinstein) Delta Farce (Lionsgate) Desperate Housewives: The Complete Third Season (Buena Vista) Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dreams (Disney) Georgia Rule (Universal) Gumby Essentials (Classic Media) It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Seasons 1 &…

Carp Diem

The carp, long considered just a trash fish, moves to the top of the heap today when a crew of carp-lovers holds the first-ever South Platte Pro-Am Carp Slam — a fly-fishing tournament right in the heart of Denver. Not only will each participant be placed with a fly-fishing pro…