From Idiocracy to Soylent Green, Five Favorite Film Dystopias

You think things are bad just because we have police murdering people daily, the government spying on us 24/7 and the slowest broadband speeds in the world? Pfft, whatever. Sure, the dystopia-lite that is modern-day America is a giant shitshow, but anyone with a passing familiarity with science fiction film…

Lonnie Hanzon Stirs Up an “Equality Cake” for PrideFest

In her hit cover of “MacArthur Park,” gay icon and disco-music diva Donna Summer famously sang, “Someone left the cake out in the rain/I don’t think that I can take it, because it took so long to bake it/And I’ll never have that recipe again.” Now a local artist is…

“Denver Comedy Exodus” Leaves Plenty of Funny Business Behind

As Denver’s scruff-speckled comedy scene prepares itself for something like a changing of the guard, some of the more hysterical corners of the blogosphere have bewailed and bloviated about a “Denver comedy exodus.” Biblical hyperbole aside — a half-dozen comics departing for Los Angeles is about 600,000 Hebrews short of…

Adult Beginners Crams Kroll Into a Played-Out Arc

I dread explaining man-child dramedies to the ghosts of the dead. “You see, Grandpa, after your time, a generation paralyzed by the economy and indecision stopped growing up, and started churning out indie movies justifying why.” In the ’40s, men fought wars at eighteen. In 1967, Benjamin Braddock faced accusations…

Paula Poundstone on Writing, Public Broadcasting and Denver Audiences

No one deserves success more than Paula Poundstone, who’ll be in town for a special solo benefit for Colorado Public Television on Saturday. A genuinely sweet person with more than thirty years of touring as a comedian under her belt, she has diversified into writing, acting, interviewing and commentating —…

The Ten Best 21st-Century Buildings in Downtown Denver

From its beginnings in the mid-1800s, Denver has been a city of booms and busts, but there’s no doubt that the Mile High City is on one hell of a tear right now. The current economic explosion actually began in the late twentieth century, making the recession of a few…

Playbill: Three New Plays on Denver Stages for April 23-26

This week a pair of respected regional ensembles will present strong work on stages in Boulder and Lakewood, while the Avenue brings back a crowd-pleasing favorite. Hysteria Dairy Center for the Arts April 23 through May 17 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays 4 p.m. Sundays 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April…

Review: The Cherry Orchard Harvests Humor but Isn’t Deeply Rooted

The ghost of Anton Chekhov has been haunting area stages lately, what with last fall’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, an absurdist Christopher Durang comedy-parody at the Denver Center, and the Boulder Ensemble’s recent Stupid Fucking Bird, in which playwright Aaron Posner closely follows the plot of The…

What’s Developing in Denver Isn’t Pretty

As I was driving through Jefferson Park yesterday on a short detour to get to the 20th Street Gym downtown, I finally saw the horror with my own eyes. It’s one thing to see photographs of it, but to actually witness that kind of destruction is overwhelming. I’m talking about…

The Mayday Experiment: Water Finds Its Way

Water always finds a way. In planning the tiny house, there have been so many conversations about water. Not only rainwater as a force of good – providing showers and drinking water – but rainwater as a destructive force, winnowing through every narrow channel and path. This is why there…

Photos: Cosplayers Geek Out at StarFest

StarFest might be the geekiest of all Denver’s pop-culture cons, even just for its sheer variety, which includes Quidditch matches, Ferengi family reunions, a dedicated Dr. Who Fest, tribble hockey and dozens of other sci-fi and fantasy pastimes. And when this year’s model went down over the weekend, the cosplayers…

Another 100 Colorado Creatives: Leah Brenner

#27: Leah Brenner Leah Brenner calls herself a “collector, adventurer and quiet curator with a taste for the witty and rebellious.” She came by her passion for culture and what makes humans tick while studying anthropology at the University of Colorado at Boulder; she’s put that interest to work helping…

Beards and Beatniks: Eric D. Lough on Why Beards Are Here to Stay

Which way does your beard point tonight?  In 1956 Alan Ginsberg made reference to Walt Whitman’s beard in “A Supermarket in California.” Now, almost sixty years later, beards are still a part of popular culture and the Beat Generation is being revived through Famous Beard Oil Company, founded by Eric D…

Five More Fashion Events in Denver in April

Spring fashion events keep popping up, everything from fashion shows to flea markets. Here are five more events to put on your calendar for the end of April.    5. Wine Wednesday at Whorl Shop  5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 22 Whorl Shop  3326 Tejon Street Wine Wednesday at…

In Little Boy, Faith Trumps Everything — Even Rationality

Did you know that there’s a new family-audience feature film that implies that God nuked Japan because one plucky American moppet dared to dream? That’s no exaggeration. In the summer of 1945, the kid stands on a California dock, points his fingers magician-style out at the Pacific horizon and screams…