After many high note-saturated years, the long-in-the-tooth American Idol will sign off after this upcoming fifteenth season (premiering in January 2016). But if your dreams of being America’s next golden throat are still red-hot, fear not: AI will kick off auditions for its epic swan song this Friday in Denver, so pour…
A capacity crowd crammed into Civic Center Park Friday evening for the annual Independence Eve Celebration hosted by the Civic Center Conservancy and Anadarko, with live music by Funkaphino followed by more patriotic fare courtesy of Buckley Air Force Base’s 101st Army Concert Band. It all wrapped up with the…
Hundreds of art-lovers flocked to the cordoned-off streets of Cherry Creek North over the Fourth of July weekend for the 25th annual Cherry Creek Arts Festival, which featured work by 260 artists in thirteen media categories, as well as live music, eats and hands-on art activities for all all ages…
In the current Westword cover story, artist Lauri Lynnxe Murphy (who writes about her Mayday Experiment here every Tuesday) talks about the changing area where she lives, the Whittier neighborhood, and describes how a class of students from Manual High School have been involved with the Gentrification Project, studying the…
The dynamic, successful blend of tradition and innovation continues this summer at Central City Opera, which opens on Saturday, July 11, with its production of Verdi’s La Traviata. “We juggle all these different audiences,” says CCO General/Artistic Director Pelham G. Pearce. “We want to not do something for these folks…
You can find art all over town — not just on gallery walls. In this series, we’ll be looking at some of the local artists who serve up their work in coffeehouses and other non-gallery businesses around town. Pastel painting is enjoying a renaissance, and Coloradan Sandy Marvin’s right there…
The Fourth of July weekend is over, but you can still have a blast checking out all the free entertainment options in Denver, including spy talk, nature and jamming on the plaza. For more events, go to the Westword calendar — and let us know if we missed any bargains by…
Reading Gregory Daurer’s novel A Western Capitol Hill is a bit like taking a long ride on the Number 15 bus — eclectic, disorienting, occasionally appalling, but never dull. Part picaresque, part political spoof, the ebook focuses on unsavory goings-on in the Denver of a decade ago, from the gold…
Emily Griffith’s story deserved a happier ending. After giving so much to so many — she founded the first free adult-learning institution in the country, the Opportunity School — she retired in 1933 and moved to a cabin up in the mountains. And there the founder of the Emily Griffith…
Art is elemental to skateboarding. It’s the only sport where artwork comes as part of the essential equipment. Add the designated art-space on every skateboard deck to a culture with no teams and a bunch of hot-dogging outcasts with a penchant for self-abuse, and you get an aesthetic that tends…
It’s the Fourth of July weekend, which means you can go camping, smoke some weed or do whatever it is that makes you feel free — as long as you’re not infringing on the freedoms of others. Pepper in some fireworks, movies and cultural events, and you can let freedom…
Pirate Contemporary Art will host a closing reception tomorrow, July 3, from 6 to 10 p.m. for Charles Livingston: Spaces Between and Other Anomalies, an ambitious conceptual solo in the main gallery, and for Priscilla Fowler: Biomorphic Abstraction, a tidy abstract show in the associate space. Both shows are worth…
The upcoming Amy Winehouse documentary Amy is one of the best music docs Village Voice film critic Stephanie Zacharek has ever seen, and she explains why to Voice film editor Alan Scherstuhl and LA Weekly film critic Amy Nicholson this week. Also this week: The confusing (yet really, really enjoyable) explanations…
Though First Friday in July will have to compete with fireworks shows and weenie roasts on Fourth of July eve, there’s still plenty to do and see in Denver galleries this summer. Get outside this weekend while the weather’s nice, and participate in the local art-walk tradition. Video Dialogue Series:…
July is here, and fashion is out in full force. This month is packed with everything from boutique launch parties to sidewalk sales; there is even a new Steampunk fashion festival. Here are our ten favorite fashion events for the month (so far), in chronological order. 1) Kismet at Cherry…
Once known as Inspiration Point because of its unparalleled view of the Rocky Mountains, Cranmer Park has long been a sacred green space in the middle of busy Denver. But the park is also well known as the home of a giant sundial, one that rests on a deteriorating flagstone…
I have a confession to make. I am a miniature-golf, um, connoisseur. The lure of the Lilliputian links is strong. Like croquet and badminton, it’s a pursuit that is both genteel and ridiculous. I have played everywhere — atop a cruise ship in the middle of the Caribbean and up and…
The plot of The Spitfire Grill, a small-scale musical now at the Vintage Theatre, is in the tradition of those ubiquitous American dramas in which a stranger comes into a small town that’s stuck in time — tradition-bound or dying — and shakes everything up. It’s a story we’ve seen…
Childhood is terrifying and awesome, and few films capture that dichotomy as well as Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. The candy-colored fantasy of the film grabbed my imagination as a child in a way that few other films did, and my fascination with it didn’t wane as I became…
True Coloradans — and swarms of tourists — head for the hills to recreate each summer, but how do you keep the folks entertained after the sun goes down? Lots of mountain towns celebrate the flipside of playing in the sun with regional theater and fun, family-friendly repertory rosters. Maybe…
Welcome to July, baby, where the heat isn’t only on the pavement and the fireworks aren’t just in the sky, but on the big screen too. Let our chronological list lead you and your Popsicle-stained fingers through an ice cream truck’s worth of movie goodies in Denver this month. 10)…
Nature’s Line, the lyrical group show now at Space Gallery, is a worthy followup to the impressive Pattern, which was presented there earlier this summer. In Pattern, the theme was repeated imagery, as the title suggests. This time, the subject is the organic line, which is also conveyed in the…
