I was always the kid at the slumber party who dreaded the witching hour, when the flashlight would inevitably come up to someone’s chin. But I would endure it, even though the creeps lasted for years. (To this day, the one about the China doll that came alive makes me…
Some headway could be made in an age-old domestic battle tonight when the Colorado Ballet opens its 47th season with Le Corsaire, a story about pirates. Let’s face it, fellas: When will you have another opportunity to take the wife to a ballet you might actually enjoy? Artistic director Gil…
The Number 23 grips hold of one stupid idea and runs so far with it, in so many directions, to such little purpose, that it nearly won me over from sheer berserkoid effort. In a nutshell, this nutso movie observes what happens to a man (Jim Carrey) under the impression…
In 2003, Mark and Michael Polish made Northfork, though just barely. The brothers — who are also responsible for art-house fave Twin Falls Idaho, about conjoined twins who fall for the same woman — lost funding just before shooting began and had to beg for money to finish their reverie…
Morally irreproachable and flat as a pancake, Phil Anschutz’s latest movie endeavor, Amazing Grace, is set among bickering House of Commoners in late-eighteenth-century London, but it belongs squarely in the blooming subgenre of Whites Saving Dark-Skinned Victims of Empire. Or at least it would be were Apted able to bring…
We Americans complain of Big Brother’s unblinking eye in the post-Patriot Act, corporate e-mail era — as well we should. But, as The Lives of Others makes plain, things could be worse. Set in East Berlin circa 1984, when one in every 100 citizens of the German Democratic Republic was…
The 2007 MasterMind Winners Performing Arts: Jessica Robblee Visual Arts: Jimmy Sellars Design/Fashion: The Fabric Lab Literary Arts: Vox Feminista Film/Video/Multimedia: Tony Shawcross Performing Arts: Jessica Robblee Blond-haired, blue-eyed Jessica Robblee once played Cha Cha DiGregorio, the very bad girl in Grease. And while Robblee admits the casting was “somewhat…
In Diversions and Delights, Germinal Stage actor-director Ed Baierlein gives us a broken Oscar Wilde. The man who delighted in shocking London, the poseur who walked along the Strand holding a flower, the writer who told an American customs official that he had nothing to declare but his genius, the…
A.R. Gurney is both a gentle man and a gentleman. He’s the product of an upper-crust WASP family, an echelon of society he’s delineated with irony, wistfulness and affection in many early plays, including The Dining Room. But he’s also interested in politics, as is clear in 1992’s The Fourth…
Aphrodisiac. Playwright Rob Handel’s inspiration is the affair between Congressman Gary Condit and intern Chandra Levy, which erupted into the media when Levy disappeared in 2001. Her body was discovered a year later; although suspicion clouded his career, Condit was never officially accused of murder. Aphrodisiac approaches this story obliquely…
A specialty of the Mizel Center for Arts and Culture is presenting multi-disciplinary projects that combine art shows, films, lectures and panel discussions. The Mizel’s current creative and intellectual enterprise focuses on war — quite timely in the context of what’s going on in Iraq and Afghanistan. The art exhibition,…
Penelope Caldwell is a great-looking solo in the front room of Space Gallery (765 Santa Fe Drive, 720-904-1088). On the south wall are a couple of large paintings Caldwell did in 2005 when she lived in San Francisco; opposite them are a series of more recent oil-on-paper paintings that she…
Breaking the Mold. In 2003, Connecticut collector Virginia Vogel Mattern donated some 300 pieces of contemporary American Indian art to the Denver Art Museum. For one of the special shows inaugurating the new Frederic C. Hamilton Building, Native Arts curator Nancy Blomberg has selected over a hundred works for the…
Shut Up & Sing (Genius) It’s a shame that one of 2006’s best documentaries is being released without extras; it would have been nice, for instance, to hear feisty Natalie Maines talk with directors Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck about her reaction to the film, in which the Dixie Chicks…
So you’ve beaten Zelda and can hurl a 90 mph fastball in Wii Sports without shattering your fifty-inch plasma. Now what? It’s time to explore the rest of the “channels” — some of them included with your Wii, and most free to download. Like cable TV, Nintendo’s offerings range from…
Apartment Zero (Anchor Bay) Babel (Paramount) The Bros. (Lions Gate) Crooked (Lions Gate) Crossover (Sony) Curious George: Zoo Night and Other Animal Stories (Universal) Dark Castle Horror Collection (Warner Bros.) Flushed Away (Paramount) For Your Consideration (Warner Bros.) Gandhi: 25th Anniversary Collector’s Edition (Sony) A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints…
Party like a smarty! On Saturday, February 24, Westword presents its eleventh annual arts celebration at Artopia 2007, a night of fashion, food, performance art, music, thinking — including the presentation of the third class of MasterMinds — and drinking. The fun kicks off at 7 p.m. and continues until…
The Designers Betsey Johnson This New York fashion icon has been designing her signature over-the-top dresses since Edie Sedgwick was her house model at Andy Warhol’s Factory. See what she’s got in store for spring 2007! Equillibrium Clothing Deb Henriksen (below) has her heart in skate and the environment, and…
Cat wishes she had this Tufi Duek dress for the Oscar party. This is a big week for Denver fashion. First, there’s Westword’s annual Artopia party, celebrating the arts in Denver. As part of that, The Cat’s Pajamas has been working on three different local fashion shows: The Fabric Lab…
Cat got got a little distracted this week. But here’s a glimpse at the best and worst of the Monday Fashion Week shows. More of the same trends: volume, bubble skirt, high-waisted pants and sack dresses. Don’t say you haven’t been warned. For a full look at the collections, visit…
The concept of “exquisite corpse” is simple: Images or objects from a plethora of collaborators are collected and assembled to form a unified composition. For the past several months, Katie Taft has spearheaded just such an exquisitely philanthropic project. It’s called Lovely, and Taft has been asking everyone in the…
In Hollywood, Jessica Simpson is to blond as Chicano is to: a) lawyer, b) accountant, or c) maid. This is the kind of dominant stereotype that motivated playwright Luís Valdez to write I Don’t Have to Show You No Stinking Badges, a satire/drama about Buddy Villa and his wife, Connie,…
