Watching period dramas like Mad Men, it’s easy to think that the elaborately costumed women of yesteryear just had an innately sophisticated sense of style. But that’s not the case — the Joan Holloways and Betty Drapers of the era were well-instructed in the art of dress by a group…
Now that we’re in the summer swing of things, you’ll want to save money for those epic road trips. Fortunately, there’s a lot you can do for free in Denver this week, including learning about abstract agricultural art, hearing about fashion and discussing architecture. Don’t forget to check the Westword…
J-Chans Designs are what art looks like when it comes to life. Jessica Rowell, the creative soul behind J-Chans Designs, blends her background as a painter, costumer and DIY aficionado to design some of Denver most unique pieces of art-infused fashion. Some of those pieces will be featured at tonight’s…
The legalization of marijuana has put Colorado at the forefront of social change, and the fashion community is evolving as well. Danica Harcourt and Jason Brown recently founded Imperfect Circle Apparel, a local clothing company that specializes in making more visually pleasing weed-fashion. Smokewear is going mainstream! See also: Menswear…
Kirk Hanna was a cattle rancher, a conservationist and a Colorado legend before his untimely death at age 43. His pursuit of a utopian vision for the ranching way of life, and his impact on open-space preservation and resource management, are just part of the story told in Hanna Ranch,…
Last chance to submit a session suggestion for the third annual Denver Startup Week, which will run from September 15 through September 20. Local community sponsors and entrepreneurs have hosted the event for the past two years, and now they’re looking for ideas for speakers, presentations and workshops. For more…
Art doesn’t go on vacation or take three-day weekends, and this weekend’s bounty proves it. Here are a few shows — big, small, serious and not so serious — to check out while you’re kicking back. See also: Stephen Batura, Stream, Ironton Gallery…
Paying rent in a bloated market isn’t working for you? Have the piles of stuff you’ve hoarded in your closets finally forced you to scream: “I’m ready for a purge”? Maybe you just want to live a simple, green life? If you are ready to start thinking about building a…
Some things are just too good to be true, like a Dune film starring Mick Jagger, Salvador Dalí, Orson Welles and David Carradine, directed by cult-film legend Alejandro Jodorowsky, with effects and art by Mœbius, H.R. Giger and Dan O’Bannon. Such a thing is clearly too awesome to exist, but…
We’ve finally made it to the unofficial start of another summer. Memorial Day weekend kicks off Denver’s hottest season, and we want you to be able to enjoy that extra day off without breaking the bank. To balance out the backyard barbecues and parades, hereare ten festivities that will blow…
#80: Katie Kruger When we think of “creatives,” we often think of “creators” — artists, authors, musicians and actors. But Katie Kruger breaks out of that box. From her vantage point as board co-chair for the Denver Art Museum’s CultureHaus young professionals group, which works to encourage cultural philanthropy in…
On Friday, May 23, the Colorado Symphony Orchestra will take its show on the road – specifically to the new Space gallery, at 400 Santa Fe Drive, for the first installment of “Classically Cannabis: The High Note Series.” But there have been some definite bumps in the road. After the…
Colorado’s reality-defying weather has worked to a benefit this time around. The surge of late-spring snowfall around the state has allowed Aspen Mountain to reopen for the Memorial Day weekend, May 24 tthrough May 26. See also: Take that, groundhog: Colorado resorts extend ski season as spring snow piles up…
If you were born after, say, 1980 and/or you didn’t grow up as a huge geek, you probably have no idea that, for a brief time, RPG hysteria was a very real thing. That’s right, for five or six years in the early to mid-’80s (and probably to this day…
Dave Ross has accomplished a great deal in his comparatively short career. A member of Women, an all-male sketch comedy group comprised of Ross and fellow comedians Jake Weisman, Allen Strickland-Williams and Pat Bishop. On his Nerdist network podcast Terrified, Ross and his guests delve into their fears and insecurities. His monthlong cross-country tour rolls through Denver next wednesday, where Ross will be headline the Fine Gentleman’s Too Much Fun showcase at the Deer Pile as well as Phil’s Radiator Service in Pueblo. Westword caught up with Ross to discuss booking his own tour, storytelling, and appearing on the next season of Comedy Central’s Drunk History.
The graphic novel Wild Ocean dives into the plight of endangered animals by giving readers a glimpse of life in the deep sea. The collection of stories looks at twelve sea creaters that are dangerously close to extinction, from sea turtles to albatrosses.The book, edited by Matt Dembicki, was created…
Amy Metier. The William Havu Gallery is currently showing Amy Metier: Preconceived Notions, a marvelous solo that’s filled with modernist-derived abstractions. The show — Metier’s first in-town solo in two years — fills the gallery’s entire main level, not only with her signature paintings, but also with prints featuring experimental…
The Great Gatsby. The Arvada Center does costume drama very well, and The Great Gatsby, based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel, is no exception. The costumes, by Clare Henkel, are lovely, and the production is filled with beautiful, stylized people, posing and languidly interacting. Central is charming Daisy, who…
Surely, at some point, they thought of casting Michael Cera. Richard Ayoade’s often marvelous The Double, an existential jest set in a bureaucratic dystopia so familiar and lightly comic it may as well be Kafka Fantasy Camp, stars Jesse Eisenberg, the Oscar winner and future Lex Luthor, as a beleaguered…
When it comes to social or political movements, Americans tend to favor hero narratives that focus on or elevate individuals. And if the tale ends in tragedy, we want there to be some sort of blaze-of-glory defiance in play. As outlined in the documentary Hanna Ranch (see Night & Day…
Thundery weather and a voice in the darkness: This is how A Lie of the Mind begins. Jake is on the phone telling his brother Frankie that he’s killed his wife. Previously, he’d only hurt Beth, but this time it’s different. Over his brother’s protests, Frankie insists on visiting his…
Matt O’Neill is the Denver art world’s perennial bad boy: he does things his own way regardless of what anybody thinks, which is why his varied works have such an in-your-face sensibility. Though on the surface, his paintings and drawings seem to be anti-intellectual (as do his explanations of them),…
