How does the peaceful vision of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. translate in the heart of China? The subject of the documentary Bringing King to China, an American woman teaching in Beijing, decided to find out by jumping the multiple hurdles of interpretation, governmental suppression and fundraising to produce a…
Next month William Morrow will join the Denver Art Museum as the new Polly and Mark Addison Associate Curator of Contemporary Art. He’s coming from Louisville, Kentucky, where he was founding director of the contemporary art space at 21c, a combination boutique hotel and museum. Michael Paglia met with Morrow…
Nan Desu Kan, Colorado’s annual anime convention, took the Marriott Hotel in the Denver Tech Center by storm (and in costume) this past weekend as fans from across the state flocked there to to live out their fantasies. Dreamers representing all walks of fiction made the three-day fest a circus…
I am in no position to call anyone a “nerd.” Coming from me — a mere observer/outsider at this past weekend’s Nan Desu Kan Sweet 16th annual Anime convention — that word would be derogatory…and wrong. Sure, anyone could snag a ticket (or a three-day pass, as I did) to…
Lucha Rama mixes luchadores, Jell-O wrestling, dancing and drinking into some good, old-fasioned debauchery. Which means that on Saturday, minor minor mayhem ruled for several hours at Beauty Bar. Photographer Christopher Morgan captured the night in our full slide show, which raises some serious questions, including this: How does one…
The Romans living in Pompeii in AD 79 were utterly unprepared for the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which buried the city in ash — and preserved it almost untouched for 1,700 years. In A Day at Pompeii, which opened this past weekend at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science,…
Denver-based ski porn purveyors Level 1 Productions won big at the IF3 International Freeski Film Festival over the weekend in Montreal, with director Josh Berman and his team taking the top prize — Best North American Film — for their 2012 film Sunny, as well as Best Editing and Best…
Call it a stampede. This weekend, the Marriott Hotel in the Denver Tech Center was taken over by Colorado’s largest anime convention, Nan Desu Kan 2012, and the fantasy enthusiasts who both populate and propel it. In our full slide show of the weekend’s costumes, you’ll notice well-dressed fans of…
Nan Desu Kan is a world unto itself, and the culture of that world sucks you in. It’s something akin to jumping headlong into a manga book, and you begin to see things in terms of that skewed universe: Pink and blue locks, tails, huge eyes and supernaturally spiky hair…
The Sleeper house, the Colorado home made famous by Woody Allen’s 1973 film Sleeper, is among our state’s most iconic buildings — and, according to a recent Forbes list, one of America’s ugliest mansions. The magazine claims “it’s perfect…for aliens” — but plenty of Coloradans love the place. Thumbnail image…
Legendary folk singer Woody Guthrie was born a hundred years ago, and a century later, he’s left quite a legacy. David Amram, a legend in his own right who met Guthrie in 1956 and was commissioned by the Guthrie family to write a symphony piece based on “This Land Is…
In the 1980s, the Rotary Club of Denver held massive Artists of America auctions, which raised more than $2 million for charitable projects around the world. Those annual events stopped in 2000, but the concept has now been reborn as Artists of the World, an online auction that will raise…
When it comes to home-grown decoration of military aircraft, Matthew Burchette knows it all — from topless cherry-picking pin-ups of the ’40s to the consumer-culture imagery of the present. And the high-flying Wings Over the Rockies air and space museum curator will share his knowledge during a free lecture at…
Keystone hasn’t yet fired up its snow guns in the race to open the first white ribbon of a run for early-season shred, but that’s not stopping the mountain from hosting the first rail jam of the season: The A51 River Run Rail Series kicks off tomorrow, September 15 –…
As owner of Primos Hardcore & Wrestling and the Butcher Shop wrestling gym, Joe “Joey Terrorfyn” McDougal is now gearing up for Primo’s biggest throwdown of the year, Slave to the Deathmatch III this Sunday, September 16. The organization will join with the Juggalo Wrestling League and other fighting federations…
In Rudy Ch. Garcia’s debut novel, The Closet of Discarded Dreams, a man awakens in a strange, surreal world made up of dreams — his own, and everyone else’s. In this bizarre place, Che Guevara and Marilyn Monroe debate philosophy and no one ever dies, but not everything is as…
Cleo Parker Robinson is a Denver institution. Her dance company is now in its fifth decade, and tonight will perform the long-forgotten Southland, which Katherine Dunham had danced more than sixty years ago. This production should be a real revelation, but when we spoke with Cleo about the dance, we…
There are so many ways to spend your money, so why blow it on an expensive night out when there are so many other options? This weekend is full of stellar events that won’t cost more than ten bucks — from a dramatic reading from Fifty Shades of Grey to…
Remember when you turned eighteen? Maybe you felt like you’d seen it all — but more likely, you knew that a grand personal story was about to unfold. You felt excited and afraid. But how about a theater company? What about Brian Freeland and the LIDA Project, a company that’s…
Have pit bulls gotten a bad rap? That’s the premise behind Beyond the Myth, Libby Sherrill’s documentary on the misconceptions about the animals that screened last night at the Mayan, in the heart of a city that bans the breed. And despite all the information that Sherrill lays out in…
Denver is no stranger to pit bull controversy. As one of the pit-bull hotbeds of the country, the city has seen breed-specific legislation prevent the animals from residing within city limits. But tonight, director Libby R. Sherrill hopes to enlighten residents of Denver with a special, one-night-only screening of her…
The annual Westword Music Showcase is always a good time, but in one small but noticeable way, this year’s event has become a permanent street party. During the course of the 2012 musical mayhem, eight local artists shared their time, paint and skills with Westword to completely re-envision our traditional…
