Thursday, October 7 Though she was French through and through, many agree that Nadia Boulanger almost single-handedly formed the cornerstone of contemporary American music. When she died 25 years ago, the composer, groundbreaking conductor and antiseptically precise teacher whom Virgil Thomson once called “a one-woman graduate school” left behind a…
Out here in the high country, the harmonica has always been regarded as a solitary instrument. Its pocketable size is perfect for jail-cell solos, prairie ballads or just the lonesome walking blues. But porch-sitters who think the harp is only for lonely outsiders or portly Blues Travelin’ frontmen have obviously…
FRI, 10/8 From Harry Potter to Sabrina, the practice of witchcraft has been ripped off, exploited and corrupted over the past few years. Hmm…kind of like the United States presidency. The Mercury Motley Players will help set straight both injustices tonight during its presentation of The Allied Witches’ Presidential Election…
SAT, 10/9 Anyone itching to launch a pumpkin 4,000 feet might still qualify for the Punkin Chunkin world championship in Delaware next month. But locally, the entry deadline for today’s sixth annual Jack-O-Launch in Aurora has passed, so most fans of pumpkin-projecting must merely watch. Still, the sight of pounds…
FRI, 10/8 I remember spending glorious afternoons at my grandmother’s house as a child, thumbing through yellowing issues of LIFE magazine. The stunning photographs spoke to me, took me to places that a poor, small-town girl could only dream about. LIFE was truly a window on the world. In 2002,…
SAT, 10/9 Centuries ago, minstrels roamed the countryside with lutes and mandolins, trilling ballads of romance, chivalry and the glories of ages past. Today the music of the masses has a little less hindsight. Consider: Legendary British songwriter Richard Thompson was one of dozens of rock dignitaries asked by Playboy…
You’d have to have been living under a rock for the past few weeks not to know that something’s up in Denver’s exhibition world. Everywhere you look, some gallery, museum or art center is hosting a show devoted to photography — photojournalism, fashion, pin-up, fine art, experimental, and lots of…
Though the main spaces at William Havu Gallery (1040 Cherokee Street, 303-893-2360) are dedicated to celebrating Denver’s “Month of Photography” (“Photo Play” ), the intimate areas beneath and on the mezzanine are given over to Painting exhibition: Julia Rymer and Kate Thompson, a show that has nothing to do with…
Ansel Adams Edwin Land and Persistence of Myth and Tragedy. At the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, two legendary figures from the history of photography have been brought together in Ansel Adams Edwin Land: Art, Science, and Invention: Photographs From the Polaroid Collection. In the ’60s, Adams was invited by…
Everything about The Chancellor’s Tale screams Quality Production. Pay Attention. Serious Topic. And, indeed, it’s a timely exploration of some of the issues currently tearing at the fabric of the Church: homosexuality, the Church’s responsibility for the poor, the struggle of priests to contain their own sexual drives. But the…
The auditorium at the University of Colorado is full of students for this performance of Company: The Musical. Not a parent or a professor in sight, no one who appears older than 25. I see a few young men wandering the aisles looking lost, couples seated quietly together, women with…
84, Charing Cross Road. A fascination with the life of old books provides a lot of the charm of this play, which is based on the correspondence between New York writer Helene Hanff and Frank Doel, a London bookseller. In the early letters, she simply inquired about out-of-print books and…
It was only a matter of time before Hollywood capitalized on the sympathy and admiration that have enveloped the nation’s firefighters since 9/11, and here we are. Jay Russell’s action-packed, flame-broiled Ladder 49 is an all-out valentine to the firehouse fraternity; it might never have gotten to the screen were…
Revolutionary idolatry is an odd business. Just ask unruly pop singer Stew, of the unruly pop group the Negro Problem. On his Naked Dutch Painter album, the melodic rebel dares to challenge a very sacred image. “Don’t you wish there was, like, another picture of Ché Guevara?” he inquires. “Like,…
Shark Tale is an animated film, though after you see it you might wonder whether the term is intended as oxymoronic. Put simply, it has no life in it at all. Not even the kids roped into an afternoon preview screening seemed terribly interested. Perhaps they’ve grown tired of computer-made…
It’s the tenth anniversary of John Duigan’s smart, sensual and superb movie Sirens, and I’m reflecting on the comment of a female friend when I asked her how she liked it. At the time, in American pop culture, we were experiencing the last original gasps of the riot-grrrl movement, and…
In case you missed Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind earlier this year — or can’t remember if you saw it or not — the University of Colorado International Film Series stands ready to fix you up. One of the quirkiest romantic comedies of recent years, it features rubber-faced Jim…
“I’m the meanest guy in Denver,” confesses professional stand-up comedian Chuck Roy. “Being known as mean is cutting in on the amount of ass I get, so I have to make someone else out to be the biggest jerk in town.” That ceremonial transfer of power will take place tonight…
Thursday, September 30 In the film A Day Without a Mexican, Californians wake up one morning to find that nearly a third of their state’s population has vanished. As the day goes on, they discover that the only characteristic shared by the 14 million people who mysteriously disappeared is that…
Fledgling authors are generally counseled to write about what they know — but if there’s anyone with an incentive to ignore that advice, it’s Kristen Gore. The second daughter of former veep/failed 2000 presidential candidate Al Gore and his wife Tipper, she bears a lot of baggage simply by virtue…
FRI, 10/1 As a kid, I hated, hated Lakeside Amusement Park. It probably had something to do with the early trauma of riding that godforsaken roller coaster known as the Chipmunk. And even though my grandfather took me on the Cyclone every year on Samsonite Day — promising me that…
FRI, 10/1 Dogs are only as good as their trainers. That’s why the Association of Pet Dog Trainers is unleashing its Rally Obedience Trial today at 2 p.m. in tandem with Educanines, a local canine trainer. Organizers have set up a course that teaches classic obedience skills and lets pet…
