Reader: Derrick Velasquez Should Not Be Neutral on Gentrification

Derrick Velasquez’s new piece for Black Cube, New Brutal 2, will debut today at La Alma Park at a Doors Open Denver event. The original New Brutal was shown last fall at the future Stanley Marketplace, and inspired this response from reader Laura Conway: Derrick Velasquez’s piece New Brutal is set…

Seven Free Arts Events at Doors Open Denver This Weekend

Since stepping in to take over the citywide Doors Open Denver in 2014, the Denver Architectural Foundation has taken great strides toward growing the event and making it more accessible to a diverse audience. This year, the programming will include architecture-inspired urban arts and cultural events bankrolled by the Bonfils-Stanton…

Odd Molly Sets Up Shop in Denver’s Blue Ruby Boutique

Blue Ruby, a boutique located at 1428 Larimer Street, has carried the Swedish-based fashion brand Odd Molly for eight years, and now Odd Molly has an official shop within the shop. “I look for different stuff that is not being sold in other places,” explains Blue Ruby owner Julie Watson. “I hunt for smaller…

The Beauty of Making an Old Building New Again — as Seen at Snarf’s

“An ornate and decorated building on the outside says the people who walk by matter, that the public space matters, right?” That’s what history professor Bryant Simon said during “Going for Broke: Atlantic City Falls On Hard Times,” a conversation broadcast on Fresh Air a few months ago. Though the piece revolved…

100 Colorado Creatives 3.0: Roseanna Frechette

#83: Roseanna Frechette Roseanna Frechette dons more hats than she has fingers to count them on: Writer, poet, publisher, dancer, creative youth programs director and yoga instructor are just a few of the titles she wears with aplomb. Then there are her efforts on behalf of bohemian Denver — as…

Five Mysteries for Season Six of Game of Thrones, Premiering Sunday

The return of everyone’s favorite gritty, blood-soaked fantasy series is imminent, and boy, am I eager to see where things are going on Game of Thrones. This season is particularly intriguing for pre-TV fans of the series, because it’s the first season that covers chronology past what’s found in the…

Tom Hanks Waits for Meaning, Connection and a King

Don’t hold it against Tom Tykwer’s A Hologram for the King that its best scene is also its first. As Alan Clay (Tom Hanks) strides down a suburban street singing a modified version of Talking Heads’ “Once in a Lifetime” (“You may find yourself … without a beautiful house ……

Elvis & Nixon Is as Two-Dimensional as That Famous Photo

Elvis Presley once watched Dr. Strangelove three times in one night at a Memphis movie theater. After that, he made them play the last reel several more times, marveling at it. It’s fascinating to wonder about: Here’s this country’s biggest musical star, the leading man in movies he knew were…

The Denver County Fair Gets Two-Faced and Political in 2016

In its sixth year, the Denver County Fair is still full of surprises — and this week’s 2016 poster reveal offers another one.  The latest masterpiece from fair poster artist and Denver painter Mark Penner Howell is all about politics, with an emphasis on the fair’s newest addition: the Political…

Too Bad Midnight Special‘s Gripping Parental Drama Is on the Run

In Jeff Nichols’ gripping domestic thriller Take Shelter, Michael Shannon played a family man convinced that Armageddon was upon us. But even as the character’s visions compelled him to take more and more extreme precautions, the film remained fixed in the world of the real. It was a portrait of…