Ballers

At present, the New York Yankees are practically cellar-dwellers. But back in the day, pinstripers Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig established legends that live on in Capturing America’s Game: Photographs of Babe Ruth & Lou Gehrig, a showcase that steps to the plate today at the Denver Art Museum. For…

Flower Child

In the heyday of 1960s idealism, filmmaker Ralph Arlyck lived and went to graduate school in the epicenter of hippiedom: San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. Above him lived a four-year-old named Sean who often wandered barefoot down to Arlyck’s apartment to talk about regular kid things, like how you need bones…

Remembering Loss

Any parent who’s lived to see a child die knows there’s no greater pain. Burying your offspring defies nature — but when a child dies violently, it also defies sense. Hence today’s declaration as a Day of Remembrance. The event has been around for eight years as Safe Night Colorado,…

Sacrificial Slope

Joe Brown is just waiting to get sued. Not that it’s a sure thing, “but it doesn’t mean they wouldn’t try,” he quips about the oil and energy industry apparatchiks who take a critical — albeit subtle — lashing in his new documentary, National Sacrifice Zone: Colorado and the Cost…

Pretty People

We all want to be something we’re not, and as the legions of Paris Hilton wannabes running rampant across the continent indicate, it’s not a passing fad. A lot of people must figure that if you just brush elbows with someone gorgeous, it might rub off a little. If that’s…

Puerto Rican Pride

Every year in New York, millions of people gather to watch Manhattan’s largest parade: the Puerto Rican Day Parade. Over the years, the celebration, which started up in the 1950s, has spread to other cities; last year, Denver kicked off its own version with the Taste of Puerto Rico Festival…

Mountain Spice

The best thing about living in Colorado is the chance to escape Denver’s summer heat with a day in the mountains. Throw in some food, alcohol and music, and you’ve got yourself a time-honored tradition: the mountain-resort festival. What could be more Colorado than washing down the region’s best chili…

Native Sons

What’s the biggest misconception about Native American standups? According to Jim Ruel, who’s one-fourth of tonight’s Pow Wow Comedy Jam, it’s that “we’re not funny.” After a chuckle, he explains, “A lot of people have never been made to laugh by an Indian in their life, so it’s a new…

Party Arty

What in the world do you get when you mix musicians and jugglers with modern and contemporary art and video games? How about if you add a record-breaking paint-by-number canvas, African drummers, Brazilian martial-arts flash dancers and a free weekend at the Denver Art Museum? Answer: You’ve got one hell…

Down in the Valley

Just blink, and you’ll miss another change to the landscape in the Central Platte Valley. It’s really happening that fast in a now-populated land that just a few years ago was home only to railroad tracks and industry. Like any sign of progress, the burgeoning valley’s got its pros and…

Grave Situation

In the spirit of The Falls, Blonde and We Were the Mulvaneys, Joyce Carol Oates’s latest tome — The Gravedigger’s Daughter — continues her celebration of human resiliency. Set in upstate New York in 1936, the story follows a family escaping from Nazi Germany and attempting to start a new…

Rolling Thunder

“I love roller derby,” says Catherine Mabe, aka Jayne Manslaughter of the Rocky Mountain Rollergirls. “I love the game, I love the people involved in the sport, I love the history of it, and I am especially proud to be a part of the revival.” Mabe/Manslaughter loves roller derby so…

Rock the Boat

This year’s wet winter and spring means that more than just backyard weeds are on a rampage. River levels are up, too, so it’s a better time than ever to check out — or sign up for — the freestyle kayaking fun today and next Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. at…

I Drink, Therefore I Am

Surprisingly, the brainstorm that led to this weekend’s The Art of Drinking wasn’t fueled by alcohol. “Actually, when we moved to Denver, I was kind of astounded at how important alcohol was to people,” says organizer Bob White. “So I thought it was a good theme for what we were…

Comedy Challenge

You’ve run marathons and completed countless sit-up reps for charity. You’ve harassed your friends to pledge money per page for the read-a-thon, and you’ve held your breath until you passed out to raise awareness for whatever animal was most endangered that week. There’s no doubt you’re a fundraiser extraordinaire, the…

Kitchen Counters

What do we love about house tours? Snooping. Sticking our noses where they don’t belong, because for one day a year, we can. And dreaming: rampaging have-nots treading where only the haves have gone before. Kitchens That Cook!, the annual kitchen tour hosted by the Junior League of Denver, fulfills…

Funnybones

A weekly comedy night hosted by Dick Black. Mondays, 9 p.m., 2007…

Raised Voices

Having grown up in a black Baptist church, I can tell you this: There isn’t a better place to find great singing and even greater drama. My grandmother made me attend to save my soul, but I went for the frequent fights between the giant-hat-wearing ladies in the front row…

Tour d’Art

Downtown Littleton is so quaint and picturesque: perfect for a slow stroll on a beautiful summer evening. And what better time to take that stroll than during the Littleton Summer Art Walk Series, a monthly juried arts-and-crafts fair with additional goodies to supplement those wares? The series, which runs in…

Basic Instinct

Did you ever wonder where that strange glint in your dog’s eye comes from? In every dog, after all, there are ancient roots, instinctual necessities harking back to ancestral wolves and sifted through time into something more manageable and useful to humans. That’s the story that evolves in Wolf to…

Hostel: Part II

Eli Roth is obviously a poseur, but on the evidence of Hostel: Part II, he’s also kind of a pussy. Anyone can string a naked woman up by the ankles and slit her throat, and while I admit it takes a little extra something to position a Eurotrash villainess beneath…

The Week in Fashion: June 6 to June 12

Thursday, June 7 Prêt-a-porter Fashions on Display Last month the International Interior Design’s Rocky Mountain Chapter hosted its Prêt-a-porter Fashion Show, where design firms partner with manufacturers to build garments from industrial and home materials. If you missed the show, the final results are on display at Design Within Reach…