Happy Goo Year

“I predict that a large city in Colorado will be the victim of a strange and terrible pressure from outer space, which will cause all solids to turn into a jelly-like mass. I predict that this pressure will not affect any other part of the world but will be pinpointed…

Just Can’t Get Enough

FRI, 1/2 Steve McQueen loved motorcycles, Nicolas Cage covets comic books, and Bob Barker has a fetish for military men. No, not in that way. We’re talking about collecting, of course, that uncontrollable passion to possess. A multitude of memorabilia will be herded into the Colorado Convention Center, 700 14th…

Anything but Lax

FRI, 1/2 Reports of the Native American sport lacrosse date as far back as the 1630s, when Jesuit missionaries documented the indigenous peoples of this continent engaging in competition using curved sticks with webbed pockets and a small deerskin ball. The game was rooted in legend and surrounded by ceremony;…

Contact!

SAT, 1/3 When Spirit, the first of two new NASA Mars Exploration Rovers, hits the Red Planet’s atmosphere and hurtles toward the surface, local scientists and citizens will be able to witness the historic moment. Beginning tonight at 8:30 p.m., the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, 2001 Colorado Boulevard,…

Stop, Look, and Listen

MON, 1/5 We’ve all heard the term “the fabric of life,” but Santa Fe fiber artist Lauren Camp puts a new twist on the old metaphor by giving life to fabric. A jazz aficionado who’s found a unique way to express her love for music and musicians, Camp debuts The…

Hot Number

TUES, 1/6 Theater-goers, rejoice! The Producers, one of the country’s hottest musicals, will finally take the stage in Denver, beginning with an 8 p.m. preview performance tonight at the Buell Theatre. “I think that because the show has generated such a buzz and has garnered such great reviews, people here…

Holiday Package

The Colorado History Museum rarely presents exhibits that concern the fine and decorative arts. The museum’s philosophy is more attuned to promoting what’s called “material culture” — a broad field that includes things like pickaxes and ski lifts. This is all well and good, but for those of us interested…

Artbeat

Right now there’s a major retrospective that examines the work of Mark Zamantakis, one of the state’s most significant ceramic artists. The exhibit, Zamantakis: From the Earth, is ensconced in the Victoria H. Myhren Gallery (2121 East Asbury Avenue, 303-871-2846) at the University of Denver. It was put together by…

A Mountainous Achievement

Anthony Minghella’s magnificent film version of the Civil War epic Cold Mountain has much more going for it than Hollywood grandeur. Beyond its striking sets and gruesome battle scenes populated with thousands of extras, in addition to its movie-star glamour — Jude Law and Nicole Kidman are like lovely pieces…

Homeland Insecurity

For those who pay no mind to Oprah, the dispute at the heart of House of Sand and Fog concerns the occupancy of a run-down little bungalow just inland from the Northern California coast. It’s not much of a place, really. And to get a glimpse of the Pacific, you’d…

Flick Pick

At first glance, it seems odd that French surrealist filmmaker Georges Franju began as a documentarian. But his non-fiction visit to a slaughterhouse (Le Sang des Betes, 1949) and his grim look at World War I relics (Hotel des Invalides, 1951) set the stage, in their way, for his later…

Happy Hunting

Let’s face facts: We all get presents that we hate. Leather coats three sizes too large? Got it. A honey-baked ham? Why, it’s the perfect gift for a decade-long vegetarian. Every year, I wonder how supposed loved ones can have such bad taste and minimal knowledge of each other’s personality…

This Week’s Day-by-Day Picks

Thursday, December 25 More than 200 volunteers are expected to show up today to help the Salvation Army serve up a piping-hot holiday dinner to hundreds of metro Denver’s homeless people and families in need. The meal will take place from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Exhibit Hall B…

Clothes Call

Now that Santa is finished trudging through chimneys and dropping off toys for good girls and boys, he’s settling in for a long-overdue evening of separating winter whites from his rosy reds. “You caught me doing my laundry,” the right jolly old elf says with a chuckle. Santa suits are…

Soul Food

FRI, 12/26 For many holiday revelers, December 26 marks the first uneventful day after a long string of yuletide festivities. For those who celebrate Kwanzaa, however, it’s the beginning of a week-long celebration of family, community and culture. Started in 1966 by Maulana Karenga, chairman of the University of California…

Thrills and Spills!

SAT, 12/27 Wondering how to fill the weekend lull between Christmas and New Year’s Eve? Pack your bags and head to Winter Park’s Jingle Rails! Jail Ram, a snowboard rail competition featuring 44 amateur and professional athletes from across the state. “This is one of our busiest weekends up here,…

Road to Nowhere

TUES, 12/30 In Chris Mosdell’s world of poetry, all roads lead to Nowhere, and there are suitcases with wings, galactic fried eggs and chewing-gum mud. The author, who goes by “Mozz,” is a modern-day Dr. Seuss or Shel Silverstein, creating worlds that are often nonsensical but always whimsical. And at…

Pure Energy

WED, 12/31 If you’re looking for an alternative to Denver’s drunken bar scene tonight, check out Brave New Year. The independent film screening/art show/ music showcase is a fundraiser for the upcoming production of 2004, which producer Doug Bohm describes as an updated take on the George Orwell classic 1984,…

Spirit in the Sky

WED, 12/31 New Year’s revelers may start 2004 with more than just a hangover if they party the night away at Appaloosa Grill’s first annual Great Gig in the Sky. They’ll probably have kinks in their necks, too, since the night will feature Denver alt-country rockers Oakhurst playing on a…

Depth Perceptions

Cydney Payton, director of Denver’s Museum of Contemporary Art, has been putting a lot of effort into expanding that plucky little institution, which occupies only limited space on a first floor and mezzanine at Sakura Square. Her plan to construct a from-the-ground-up building is unfolding, and the competition to select…

Artbeat

It’s always an inspired idea to do a show that pairs a teacher and a student, because the relationship provides a lot of food for aesthetic thought. But this connection, which is both personal and professional, is only one reason there’s plenty to ponder in the intriguing Luis Eades &…

Fairy Amusing

Speaking as someone who was terrified of the telephone when I was a child because I couldn’t understand how the voices of people I knew could get trapped in this black plastic thing, I am very grateful to Buntport Theater Company for explaining how a television works: Little fairy people…