Snap Judgments: The Twenty Best Instagrammers in Denver

Instagram is a cultural touchstone, a way for photographers — pro and amateur alike — to compete, collaborate and share their work with the world. And there’s plenty in Colorado to share — from breathtaking mountain scenery and gritty urban sights to aerial acrobats and adrenaline junkies caught in the…

Playbill: Three New Plays in Denver and Boulder for June 4-7

With the arrival of green grass and pleasant evenings, some Front Range theater groups are moving outdoors, sending out invitations to bring the family and get cultured out under the stars. Here’s where to take in some theater this weekend, indoors or out. Theatre on the Green Series, Chicago Founder’s…

Five Reasons iZombie Is Summer’s Most Underrated Show

iZombie is about as sunny and optimistic as the zombie genre gets, which of course isn’t all that much. Even by supernatural standards, it’s a bloodthirsty canon, demanding regular sacrifices of innocents and grisly feats of skull splitting and cerebellum cannibalizing. The CW’s Seattle neo-noir boasts plenty of both to…

Review: Mary Poppins Is a Not-Too-Sweet Treat at BDT Stage

For Mary Poppins, P.L. Travers created a legendary children’s book about a nanny who descends on the stuffy, upper-class Victorian household of the Banks family and proceeds to tame two unruly children and enlighten their parents with discipline, kindness and magic. The book had a lasting effect on me when…

The Ten Best Comedy Shows in Denver in June

As waterlogged Denverites take their first tenuous steps out into the sun after an unexpectedly soggy May, a bounty of fine comedy shows await. The torrent-quenched giggle gardens are blooming anew with more opportunities than ever to laugh away the balmy evenings. Between the reunion of a cult-favorite sketch comedy…

Seven Best Fashion Events in Denver Through Mid-June

As spring swings into summer, it’s time to put your best-dressed foot forward. There are plenty of fashion events in the first half of June, ranging from trunk shows and workshops to hair shows and fashion parties. Here are the seven best places to look your best, in chronological order. …

Documentary The Nightmare Reveals the Horror in Your Mind

Twenty years back, at the height of the UFO boom, the truest believers in alien abduction scenarios would argue that their most compelling evidence was the commonalities between regular people’s stories of nighttime visitations. Even under hypnosis, “abductees” testified to remarkably consistent waking-dream terrors: an alert immobility, shadowed and mostly…

Entourage Is a Mostly Harmless Romp Through a Hollywood Fantasyland

The first line in Entourage is a good indication of what the next 104 minutes will bring. Peering through a pair of binoculars while a speedboat carries him toward a yacht in the dazzling waters of Ibiza, Johnny Drama (Kevin Dillon), the big brother of megastar Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier),…

Melissa McCarthy Is in Her Element in Spy

The Melissa McCarthy of Spy is different from the one who rose to prominence by shitting in a sink. Bridesmaids scored her an Oscar nomination, and for the ceremony, McCarthy donned a glamorous rose gown with a diamond collar and belt. But in the years since, Hollywood has continued to…

The Mayday Experiment: Seventeen Things I Never Considered

Artist Lauri Lynnxe Murphy started writing about The Mayday Experiment, her project that calls for building a tiny house in which she will tour the country, talking about the dangers of climate change, recently sat down in the midst of another spring rainstorm to think about the seventeen things she…

Marion Street Tattoo Loses Home to Development, Moves to Colfax

After more than five years at their small shop at 1668 Marion Street, Marion Street Tattoo had to move: The city is booming, and the storefront that houses the shop and a photography studio will be torn down when the entire block becomes an apartment complex. Marion Street owner Ryan Willard got…

Chautauqua’s Thirtieth Silent Film Series Ready to Roll

It’s appropriate that when the lights go down on Wednesday for the start of the thirtieth annual Chautauqua Silent Film Series, they’ll do so in an auditorium that’s been screening movies longer than any other venue in Colorado. On July 21, 1898, the Chautauqua Auditorium hosted a traveling exhibitor displaying…

Photos: Music and Merch at RiNo’s Final Friday Street Party

RiNo’s Final Friday, hosted by the MegaFauna boutique, returned on May 29 for another summer season of dancing in the streets to live music, shopping vendor booths and visiting local businesses along Walnut and Blake streets. The event continues every last Friday through August; find more information online. Photographer Danielle…

Diva Watch 2015: Valerie Shearz Is a Cut Above

In Diva Watch, we’ll profile the passionate, diverse and fascinating performers who light up Denver’s drag community. We’re expanding on our Diva Dozen list from earlier this year by asking a series of questions to get a peek underneath the make-up. Meet Valerie Shearz, a Denver native who’s honed her…