The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity is absorbing, funny and smart

The opening moments are pulse-poundingly exciting — music, live wrestling, flashing lights, tons of adrenaline from an already hyped-up audience. But the actual scripted beginning of The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Diety is quiet, as a Puerto Rican kid called Macedonio Guerra — Mace — describes his lifelong fascination with…

Paul W. S. Anderson, game boy

The big movie event of September will be the anticipated latest from a certain filmmaker who signs his films with the surname Anderson and a pair of initials, a prodigious talent who burst onto the scene with a stylish entry in the mid-’90s crime-thriller wave and never left. The master…

Previews in Living Color

Off-Center at the Jones, curated by Emily Tarquin and Charlie Miller, began last year like a beautiful little secret, and, tucked away in the Denver Performing Arts Complex’s well-hidden and intimate Jones Theatre, the kick-off-your-shoes-and-have-fun improv series that always ends in a party can only go up from there. But…

There’s a RIOT! Going On

The fledgling 40 West arts district in Lakewood is off and running, and tonight’s 40 West Arts RIOT! cultural variety show might be considered the next step. “40 West has delivered several community-focused events in 2012, and we look to expand our calendar of events in 2013,” says district boardmember…

A Smoking Pistolera

Every year, the Museo de las Américas paints the town red with a “rojo”-themed fundraiser exploring a different stratum of Latin culture. This year, it’s going for a song: Rojo Canción will revolve around music, but with plenty of partying in between at Su Teatro, 721 Santa Fe Drive, just…

Ride the Rails

Mass-transit advocates will rejoice today as bicycles and trains come together for Tour de FasTracks, a six-mile bike ride along the path of RTD’s West Rail Line expansion. Cyclists will begin at the 13th Avenue and Oak Street station in Lakewood at 9 a.m. and end at the Decatur-Federal station…

Story Time

Listening to stories is something many people have been doing ever since they were kids and Eloise and Goodnight Moon got top billing. Stories on Stage updated the concept for adults, however, bringing in professional actors each year to do the readings. It will kick off its twelfth season around…

Drinking Games

Since so much of Colorado’s identity is wrapped up in craft breweries, it only makes sense to close out the summer with a gathering of the tribes at the Vine Street Pub’s Uptown Block Party and Brewers Olympics. The seven-hour event will pit notables like the Wynkoop, Breckenridge, Odell and…

Express Yourself

“Almost every moment in my life is defined by what Madonna album was out, by what Madonna movie, by something that she performed,” explains artist Alon Paul. “Everybody’s got their crazy, and, ultimately, Madonna is my crazy.” Paul grew up in what he calls “the finest trailer parks in Nebraska…

Do or Die Time

During tonight’s third annual Slave to the Deathmatch tournament, Primos Hardcore & Wrestling will once again set the record straight: This isn’t play-fighting; it’s full-on bloodsport. The highly decorated and world-renowned hardcore-wrestling champion Tommy Dreamer headlines the evening of Japanese-style fighting, along with Necro Butcher (best known for his appearance…

Stay Young at Nan Desu Kan

This year marks sweet sixteen for Nan Desu Kan, the region’s premier anime convention, but as anyone who’s attended any of the previous fifteen years knows, the con is a lot more than just anime: It’s a celebration of a wide swath of Japanese pop culture. The latest addition to…

Not So Sweet Dreams

A man finds himself trapped in a strange netherworld of dreams, where no one ever dies and Che Guevara and Marilyn Monroe wander together through 9/11 memorials talking philosophy. This surreal vision comes to life in Denver writer Rudy Ch. Garcia’s debut novel The Closet of Discarded Dreams, where an…

Out to Lunch

If you’re used to grabbing a quick lunch on the go, today is the day for a change. Denver’s first Pop Up Picnic — sponsored by Grow Local Colorado, Slow Food Denver and Healthy Realities – is inviting everyone to have a picnic anywhere in town between 11:30 a.m. and…

A New Take on an Old Story

Rather than telling the story of the Holocaust during or after its events — a familiar narrative -– a new play by Israeli author and playwright Iddo Netanyahu shows people navigating relationships and life in a Germany that has just elected Adolf Hitler. In A Happy End, the characters consider…

The Reel Deal

Upper-class drug addiction seems to be a Scandinavian thing, and it’s studied to excess in Oslo, August 31, a Norwegian-made flick by Joachim Trier that follows protagonist Anders Danielsen through a single day. That day takes him from a rehab facility to a blow-by-blow showdown in the real world while…

The Ringwald Club

While it might surprise people when they hear that an actor has written literary fiction, Molly Ringwald is surprised that more actors don’t do it. Ringwald, who explores the theme of betrayal in a series of interlinked stories that make up her novel When It Happens to You, says acting…

A Gullah Feast

The fascinating and close-knit Gullah Geechee culture of the Sea Islands of Georgia and South Carolina, which evolved in an almost timeless shell, with its own dialect and way of life, is still a mystery to most Americans. But that hasn’t stopped Dr. Jacquelyne Benton, an African American Studies professor…

Unmasking the Museo

Be prepared to see a lot of unfamiliar faces tonight at the Museo de las Américas. The art museum’s year-long twentieth-anniversary celebration kicks off tonight with Cara a Cara, a show filled with masks from its permanent collection — many of which aren’t often on display. The colorful masks, which…

Speaking Out

People from Boulder can be interesting for all kinds of reasons, and the Boulder History Museum will honor that by hosting the fifth season of its Conversations With Extraordinary People series at Chautauqua. The series features individuals whose work has contributed to the city’s living history. “We present the innovative…

What’s in your bag? Anne Rice novels and Madonna patches

Fall is almost upon us, which means it’s Tori Amos season! As the weather turned, we stumbled upon Eric Garcia, a guy who may have a professional day job, but still has fun with his wardrobe. Continue reading to discover his fashion philosophy, where he shops, and what he keeps…