Arts & Culture

You don’t have to be a rabid feminist to acknowledge the simple truth that the expectations placed upon women in almost any society are difficult to meet. “I know a lot of female artists,” notes Kim Harrell, owner of East End Applied Arts, 1556 Florence Street in Aurora. “And I…

Ever since Comedy Works came into being in 1981, it has served not only as a bastion for professional comedians, but also as a sort of after-school program for budding artists. “A big part of our business is growing local comedians,” says marketing manager Justin Levy. To that end, the…

Sometimes, when my girlfriend and I are feeling silly and carefree, we go for rides around town on my 49cc scooter and scream in unison the lyrics to Night Ranger’s “Sister Christian” — only we yell “scootering!” instead of “motoring!” I’m telling you this because, as a scooter owner/lover, you…

The last time Dylan Scholinski wore a dress, he was locked in a mental hospital and his name was Daphne. Daphne was institutionalized at fifteen, diagnosed as an “inappropriate female.” In the three years she spent at various Midwestern mental hospitals, Scholinski endured abuse and forced “femininity training.” Her parents’…

Just look at that face — the sad eyes, the droopy lips, the furry cheeks. Your dog is trying to tell you something. No, he’s not hungry. No, she doesn’t need to go outside. It’s the loneliness, you ninny; if you can’t last six months without some kind of significant…

Depending on what part of the world you’re from, Tropicália — a multi-disciplinary Brazilian counterculture movement of the ’60s — might have spawned the greatest pop music of the twentieth century or not even have left a blip on your cultural radar. But in more recent years, familiar artists such…

Who do Beth Medanich and Wesley Wayne think they are? Where do they get off aggressively disseminating information about — and voraciously recruiting people to — Denver’s hippest weekly ’70s and ’80s dance party? Seriously stepping up the MySpace spam to promote themselves as Off the Wall’s newest DJs would…

You’ve been to the chi-chi weekend fleas, and they’re a blast. But face it: In terms of looking true, salt-of-the-earth flea-market culture squarely in the eye, you’re only getting your toes wet. At the Old North Denver Flea Market — hosted monthly from May through October by alterNative Voices and…

Local poetry mover and shaker Day Acoli named her weekly open-mike series Black Star Dog for two reasons: in memory of her late dog; and as a reference to Sirius, the Dog Star — the brightest star in the galaxy — and its dense, dark cousin, Sirius B. “I thought…

At Bras for a Cause, the featured lingerie pieces aren’t boring old underthings. They’ve been transformed into art. “Some of the bras are really beautiful, but most are absolutely outrageous,” says Lucinda Wayland Connelly, president of Soroptimist International of Denver, which is hosting the event to benefit Gilda’s Club Denver,…

“Brian Vogt had a dream,” says Denver Botanic Gardens spokesman Will Jones. “He was thinking about how our gardens are so unique because of the way they’re situated right in the middle of the city. There’s all this greenery at the center of so much concrete and steel.” So Gardens…

I hate running. Be it around a track, along a nature trail or on a sidewalk, morning, afternoon or evening, in shorts lengthy, mid-cut or revealing — it doesn’t matter. I hate running. It hurts my knees almost as badly as it hurts my soul. The only kind of running…

Bad Art for Bad People presents a national art exhibit of works by Mark Mothersbaugh, Jeff Gaither, Pooch, Stephen Blickenstaff and others, including very affordable pieces, during a weekend run with parties and live music. June 8-10…