Michael Paglia visits MCA Denver and the Denver Botanic Gardens in this week’s review, taking in two separate shows focusing on sculpture. The show at MCA focuses on works by John McEnroe while the exhibit at the DBG is a group show. Continue reading for photos from both exhibits. See…
The eighth annual Reel Rock tour, the traveling climbing film show that has become the gold standard in its field over the past decade, launches in Boulder tonight at the Chautauqua Auditorium. On the menu are four new flicks from Sender Films and Big UP productions, including the controversial and…
Colorado native Courtney Mizel is a lot of things — including the founding director of The Cell (The Counterterrorism Education Learning Lab) in Denver, a small business consultant and former small business owner…and a movie producer. Now based out of Los Angeles, Mizel still does quite a bit of work…
With This American Life, Ira Glass and his band of writers and reporters have been creating radio narratives that spotlight slices of American culture in an original, thought-provoking way, one that captures a worldwide audience. Now with his latest in-person production, Reinventing Radio: An Evening with Ira Glass, the radio…
Things that go bump in the night are some of my very favorite things. My movie collection contains dozens, maybe scores of horror films. A disproportionate percentage of my reading for pleasure is horror fiction, or nonfiction about horror movies or related topics. If you look back at my writing…
#45: Alicia Bailey Alicia Bailey is an exacting artist who works in — but isn’t limited to — the book arts, which are the original focus of her Abecedarian Gallery in Denver’s Art District on Santa Fe. Creator and curator, Bailey displays a rare attention to detail, difficult processes and…
People love talking to their pets — and some even imitate their pets. But how many people can not only imitate their pets, but play a slew of characters at the same time? Somehow, Gemma Wilcox morphs seamlessly from male to female roles, from feline to feathered pets, in her…
For every artist doing three-dimensional pieces in Colorado, there are a hundred more working in two dimensions. That makes a pair of current shows featuring sculpture and installations something special. First up is Catalyst, an enchanting outdoor exhibit at the Denver Botanic Gardens that is chock-full of impressive sculptures. Catalyst…
Lines and Grids. This show, organized by Marks Aardsma, who serves not only as curator, but as participating artist as well, is the fourth in a series of exhibits she’s put together called “Art of the Real.” Aardsma is interested in the nature of painting and has invited eight others…
Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo. There are so many levels to Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo and such a mix of clarity and evocative ambiguity in the way these levels are presented. The play talks about the ugliness and irrationality of war and the dividing lines between cultures…
If five Oscar nominees lose two young girls in the woods, will their wailing make a sound? That’s the key question of Prisoners, Denis Villeneuve’s prestigious puffery about a father (Hugh Jackman) and a cop (Jake Gyllenhaal) trying to catch a kidnapper. Prisoners is a dog whistle for Academy voters…
Forbidden fruit has never seemed as poisonous as it does in Thanks for Sharing, a remarkably sensitive and surprisingly romantic ensemble drama about sex addiction. A winsome mix of funny, harrowing and smart, it is most commendable for making characters who are addicted to bad behavior — and who refuse…
If the movies have taught us anything, it’s this: Don’t expect an easy time of hanging on to satchels of cash you find in the woods. David M. Rosenthal’s A Single Shot — a sturdy, nasty rural noir based on Matthew F. Jones’s novel of the same name — is…
Playwright Amy Herzog enters a very specific world in After the Revolution, now receiving its regional premiere at Curious Theatre: the passionate, close-knit, hyper-idealistic world of Jewish Communism in New York City during the early decades of the twentieth century. In The Romance of American Communism, Vivian Gornick showed this…
Throughout all three hours of Camelot, I was entertaining a single question: Why would anyone decide to stage this thing? I’d been pleased when I first read the show’s title on the Arvada Center’s season announcement: I had never seen Camelot before, and was anxious to make up for it…
“You can see filthy humor anywhere,” says comedian Dave Coulier. “But I think people just a lot of times want to be there with their family and not feel embarrassed.” That’s why Coulier put together Clean Guys of Comedy, an all-ages standup special aimed at creating a lineup of laughs…
When Kristen Ashley began writing her popular Rock Chick book series, she clocked in many hours at the Denver Public Library. Ashley initially self-published her novels, which chronicle the adventures and romances of a group of rock-and-roll heroines. Since then, the books have reached a wider audience, and Grand Central…
Denver artist Dede LaRue can’t help but be noticed for her colorful artwork. The self-taught superstar burst onto the scene years ago as a graffitist who randomly spray-painted pink flamingos on dumpsters. She then took up sculpting, creating increasingly sophisticated papier-mâché creatures. “Some of them are wry, funny and political,…
The consumption of literature is often a solitary endeavor, so people don’t usually associate books with a night out on the town. But the creators of Stories on Stage believe in bringing the rhythm, imagination and drama of classic narratives into the medium of live performance. Tonight’s show — performed…
The tradition of Oktoberfest began in Bavaria in 1810 as a royal festival, but has evolved over the years into a multiweek celebration of beer. And while there are rules regarding which breweries can participate in Munich, U.S. celebrations have typically included any old beer maker who wants to sponsor…
A bunch of friends were hanging together on East Colfax Avenue, “watching ‘Colfax Science Theater 3000’ walk by,” says mean-street habitue Sam Kohlenberg, when, in the midst of the parade of drunks, hipsters, homeless people and working girls, the conversation hit a “what if” moment, and the Miss Colfax Pageant…
As the Aurora Cultural Arts District continues to take strides in its bid to shape a vital city center, ACAD director Tracy Weil and staff find new ways to draw attention to downtown Aurora’s eclectic cultural community. The latest event, tonight’s Poetry@Play, will celebrate wordsmiths and artists alike with two…
