THURS, 5/12 Cherry Creek Shopping Center has pretty, posh potties. The lovely latrines that were once cited by the Chicago Tribune as the reason for the mall’s successful bottom line are celebrated in Shaking the Dew From the Lilies, opening tonight at 8 p.m. at the Playwright Theatre, 2119 East…
Bobbi Walker, owner and director of Walker Fine Art, has worked hard to break into the top ranks of Denver’s contemporary galleries and, at the same time, make a profit. I can’t comment on how it’s possible to make money in the art business, but I can say that Walker’s…
t’s amazing that in the current art world — where it seems like everyone is searching for the next outrageous irony — good, old-fashioned representational painters are still going strong, as evidenced by Contemporary Realism, at the William Havu Gallery (1040 Cherokee Street, 303-893-2360). Come to think of it, that’s…
Chihuly. Michael De Marsche, president of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, has orchestrated the extravaganza Chihuly, a sprawling survey of the career of glass master Dale Chihuly. Working near Seattle, Chihuly is among the best-known glass artists of all time, right up there with Louis Comfort Tiffany and Paolo…
The first scene of The Crimson Thread, currently showing at the Arvada Center, is somewhat promising, though it does have a bit of that golden-sunlight, Hallmark-card feeling about it. Mary Hanes’s writing is lyrical but rarely revelatory. The year is 1869. Two sisters, Eilis and Bridget, are talking on the…
In the last few years, Bas Bleu has become a beacon of theatrical inventiveness and energy in Fort Collins. Play selection is always intelligent and sometimes daring, and execution is usually exemplary. The company began this season with an ambitious endeavor: In conjunction with Openstage, they presented Angels in America…
Cyrano. The trouble with Heritage Square’s Cyrano is that the company has abandoned the hybrid style that’s all its own — one that involves wild improvisation and lots of audience participation — and decided instead to play the story of the long-nosed wit and fighter who’s afraid to reveal his…
Whatever you do, don’t accuse Ridley Scott of turning his back on a fight. Doesn’t matter if it’s slimy-fanged space aliens attacking Sigourney Weaver, Roman slaves in tough against hungry lions down at the Colosseum, or American GIs going at it with Somali insurgents. Sir Ridley is always happy to…
Much of Crash, an L.A.-stories portmanteau about the suffocating embrace of racism, is hard to watch, harder still to listen to. Its characters — creations of co-writer and director Paul Haggis who could also live next door to and perhaps even inside of you — say and do things they…
It is no great joy to review Palindromes, the latest film from writer-director Todd Solondz, who is loved by those who do not loathe him for such movies as Welcome to the Dollhouse, Happiness and Storytelling. Advance word deemed Palindromes Solondz’s most shocking film, which seemed impossible given its predecessors…
The new House of Wax — a remake, pretty much in name only, of the 1953 Vincent Price movie (itself a remake of a 1933 film) — manages to be gruesome and grisly, but it falls well short of being truly creepy, much less terrifying. Horror aficionados expecting the chills…
Almost no one save Vladimir Putin and a few stubborn ex-Red Army generals laments the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the remnants of that vast failed experiment look more and more these days like items from Ripley’s Believe It or Not. That may be the spirit in which to…
After Michael Conti got laid off from his job at Intel in 2002, he found himself with plenty of time on his hands. Inspired by a friend who habitually wrote a haiku every month, Conti decided to return to his roots and dedicate his time to making one short movie…
Thursday, May 5 The first step toward a successful career might be lookin’ good, but it don’t mean a thing without presentation skills to bring. That’s the message of the My Career Day suit sale and job-readiness day, an annual event hosted from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. today at…
Most armchair historians know that American explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark weren’t the first folks to roam the American West. Their famous Shoshone Indian guide, Sacagawea, contributed immeasurably to the expedition’s accomplishments with her knowledge of the territory, interpretation and survival skills. Still, their journey did make life as…
SAT, 5/7 Move over, brainiacs, new bookworms are taking over the library: metro-intellectuals. Offering experimental-film and creative workshops designed for “urbane urban dwellers,” The Creative Life is the latest installment of Fresh City Life at the Denver Public Library — and this series is straight-up phat. “A paradigm shift in…
THURS, 5/5 That warm feeling in your heart on Cinco de Mayo doesn’t have to stem purely from Cuervo. Join mountain-lovers tonight at the Fiesta for the Peaks, an annual fundraiser for the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, and go home feeling good about protecting the mountains. A partnership of nonprofits, public…
FRI, 5/6 Boulder Arts and Crafts Cooperative exhibit coordinator Ellen Spiller didn’t have a feminine theme in mind when she asked eight Colorado women to take part in the new metalwork show Women of Steel — but that’s what she got. “It turns out that a lot of women are…
SAT, 5/7 The avant-garde classical music of The Experimental Playground Ensemble saunters somewhere between the grit of punk rock and the order of a traditional orchestra. The Colorado composers clash cellos, electric guitars, accordions and video manipulation on music sheets that look so artistic and abstract they could be hung…
It’s hard to think of James McKinnell, whom everyone called Jim, without also thinking of his wife and artistic collaborator for more than fifty years, Nan McKinnell. Nonetheless, we are going to have to get used to the idea of one without the other, because on April 13, Jim died,…
Currently, there are three shows at Pirate: a contemporary art oasis (3659 Navajo Street, 303-458-6058) that have an after-dark character. In two of them, it’s because the galleries themselves have been shrouded in darkness, but in the third, which is well-lit, the nighttime feel has to do with the adults-only…
Balance. Rarely has Walker Fine Art come up with an exhibit as successful as Balance, which pairs recent abstract paintings by Denver artist Don Quade with abstract sculptures by Colorado Springs-based Bill Burgess. Quade was formerly at Fresh Art Gallery, but Walker picked him up when Fresh Art closed last…
