Spit Happens!

Open mikes in San Francisco circa 1994 tended to be ruled by male poets emulating Charles Bukowski and Henry Rollins, explains writer and Sister Spit co-founder Michelle Tea. “There was a lot of obnoxious drunk-dude energy at all of them,” she says, laughing. So Tea and writer Sini Anderson started…

Smokin’ Hot!

Austin Weishel is hot stuff. Not only is he a firefighter in Loveland, but he’s also an artist who’s designed a monument to arson dogs that is destined for a fire station in Washington, D.C., as a national salute to these canine crime-fighters. Unlike the dalmatians that were used to…

That Way Madness Lies

America has long had a tumultuous relationship with its mentally ill, and Ralena Gordon has spent the last five years documenting it in a photo collection she’s named The Empty Places. Tonight at the Mercury Cafe, 2199 California Street, she’ll discuss her work at a fundraiser that she hopes will…

Puppet Masters

If you play with the facts a little, Buntport Theater’s Tommy Lee Jones Goes to Opera Alone is based on a true story: Two members of the troupe went to the Santa Fe Opera, where they purportedly saw Tommy Lee Jones, sitting…alone. At the opera. Beyond that, it’s pretty much…

To the Bad Manners Born

Chip Walton, artistic director of Curious Theatre, says he’s having such a blast rehearsing Becky Shaw that he’s almost sorry the play is opening this weekend. “There’s a great, wry sarcasm” to the script, he explains. Playwright Gina Gionfriddo told him she was influenced by the movies of the 1940s…

Building for the Future

Denver is home to a number of historic architectural treasures, and at this weekend’s eighth annual Doors Open Denver, you can tour over eighty of them for free. Want to travel 21 stories to the top of downtown’s D&F tower, which was the country’s third-tallest structure when it was built…

The Yuk Stops Here

It’s easy to poke fun at the differences between Denver and Boulder, but for many people living with disabilities, the distance between the Capitol and the Flatirons — and the hassle of traveling between the two towns — is no joke. Tonight, PHAMALY takes the laughs on the road with…

Brunch on Deck

Everything’s coming up Titanic at the Denver Central Library, where in commemoration of that tragedy a hundred years ago today, guests will gather in the B2 Conference Center for a Titanic Survivors Brunch, reminiscent of one that might have taken place on the RMS Carpathia, the first ship on the…

Budding Artists

Shawn Sheehy has been creating pop-up cards and books for years, and after he moved into his first-ever house (and spent a summer gardening in his new yard), he was inspired to create Pop-Up Wildflowers, a curriculum focusing on everything from accurate, three-dimensional pop-up renderings of flowers to botanical certification…

Casa for a Cause

Dos Casas, a culinary extravaganza that benefits Brent’s Place, a local nonprofit that provides hope and help for kids stricken with cancer, will pack the house with distinguished chefs: Jamey Fader of Big Red F; Goose Sorensen of Solera; Pete Marczyk of both Marczyk Fine Foods stores; Troy Guard of…

The Wheel Thing

The Bicycle Longmont Film Festival gets rolling tonight and continues through Thursday. “The fundamental principle behind this and everything we do is to get more people on bikes more often,” says Scott Conlin, boardmember of Bicycle Longmont. “We want people to connect or reconnect with cycling and have a great…

Kids Like Us

Look out: The punks are coming, and they’re about to flood the town in a big way, beginning with a new MCA Denver satellite show, Richard Peterson and the Art of a Warrior Tribe, opening tonight at Gildar Gallery. Curated by the MCA’s Adam Lerner, it’s one cog in the…

Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

It started in 1984 and is ending with Fahrenheit 451, which almost makes one wonder if it’s just a coincidence or if the last-ever National Theatre Conservatory Repertory 2012 stage offering wasn’t chosen with a touch of irony. Probably not, but it’s hard not to feel sad about what will…

Luis Alberto Urrea: Evil Companion and a man of the people

Luis Alberto Urrea really is the story he writes in so many ways: A reporter, poet and novelist, he’s covered the illegal immigrant story from the front lines, where he once worked as a relief worker, and found pieces of himself in the fictionalized retelling of the history of his…

Accessories transform outfits from mundane to exciting

As April blooms, the occasional snow reminds us that it’s Colorado; we view a daring array of fashion hitting the sidewalks. Some of the latest and greatest combinations are being sported by elegant individuals in the city of Denver. This week, accessories are what made the outfit. Be it smokey…

Metro State’s theater department wins accreditation

Bravo! The theater department at Metropolitan State College of Denver has become the first college theater department in the state to gain accreditation from the National Association of Schools of Theatre. And not for just one of its programs, but all three: the BA in theater, the BFA in musical…

Wicked opens today with a lottery for discount tickets

Wicked opens today at the Buell Theatre, with a wickedly good deal: Two and a half hours before each performance, you can enter your name in a lottery at the Buell box office; thirty minutes later, names will be drawn for a limited number of orchestra seats at $25 each,…

Life is a drag with Viva las Divas at Lannie’s Clocktower Cabaret

If life is a drag, why not play to the hilt? Since this is the second Wednesday of the month, Lannie’s Clocktower Cabaret is presenting the Viva las Divas Art of Illusion Follies, hosted by female illusion artists (drag queens, in shorthand) Alexandra Winters and Harley Quinn and featuring a…

Law school is totally glamorous — at least in this CU musical

Glamorous Law School, a new musical written, directed and performed exclusively by University of Colorado Law School students, opens Thursday at the Dairy Center for the Arts in Boulder. So how glamorous can a musical about law school be? Glamorous enough to provide a brief respite from actual law-school life,…