Who’s who in the Santa Fe Art District? Place your votes now

As First Friday regulars can attest, when the Art District on Santa Fe throws a shindig, it goes all out. That’s especially true in the case of the annual Santa Fe Art District Best Of exhibition, which awards artists who show in the district two ways: first, with awards given…

Deconstruct the films of Lars von Trier at the Thin Man

Currently in the spotlight for his latest film, Melancholia — in which life goes on in a world under the threat of total destruction — Danish director Lars von Trier peppers his movies with avant-garde visuals, misogyny, complex stories and stylized stagings. And since the release of Element of Crime…

Shirt happens…and Viviane Le Courtois wants yours

Vivianne Le Courtois, a Westword MasterMind, uses unusual items to make art: artichokes, gym shoes, junk mail, junk food, potato peels…and now, with any luck, your old T-shirts. For an installation that will debut at Le Courtois’s solo show at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art on February 23, the…

Fairview High School arts programs win Glee Give A Note grant

Even the menacing Sue Sylvester can’t stop the rising art department of Fairview High School in Boulder. The 900 students in the department — including all students in choirs, drama classes, bands and orchestras — collaborated on an entree for Glee Give a Note, a contest sponsored by Fox, Ryan…

Theater openings are off to a fast start in January

If the flurry of excitement and variety we’re being offered in January is any indication, this is going to be an amazing year for theater. The month opens on a light note: a 1930s Noel Coward play set in the big-haired 1980s. This isn’t the kind of interpretation you expect…

Ice, ice, baby: Chill at the Ouray Ice Festival, January 5-8

If “Go ice climbing” is on your New Year’s resolution list, this is your week: The Ouray Ice Park is 100 percent open, and the seventeenth annual Ouray Ice Festival starts on Thursday. Ouray is a serious six-hour drive from Denver — but if you’re serious about learning, this is…

Outrage depicts the yakuza with bemused irony

Takeshi Kitano’s latest finds the actor-director returning to the familiar terrain of the yakuza film after recent farces (Achilles and the Tortoise, Glory to the Filmmaker!) dealing with artistic endeavor. Stark and brutal, Outrage is a litany of startlingly violent set pieces filmed in Kitano’s decorous, aestheticized style, gunshots blooming…

Eleven movies to look forward to in 2012

We know — you’re excited about The Dark Knight Rises. And The Avengers. And The Hunger Games. So are we. We’re also excited about a lot of other movies whose marketing campaigns have not inundated us with white noise (yet). Allow us to suggest a few more films to put…

Happy New Year! Here’s to a very creative 2012!

Happy New Year! Show and Tell scribes are taking the day off — we’re out celebrating the good news that the world is not going to end in 2012, as revealed in 2012: The True Mayan Prophecy, a film made by the folks at PeaceJam. And if the world isn’t…

Top ten Show and Tell posts of 2011

Depending on who you’re listening to, the world is going to end in 2012, or the world will undergo some sort of transformation. Either way it’s spiritual. What’s not spiritual, however, are these cold, hard numbers: The top ten posts on Show and Tell during 2011, which may or may…

One-Man Star Wars Trilogy review: The Force can only do so much.

The road to Alderon was paved with good intentions, as was One-Man Star Wars Trilogy, but unfortunately the Force can’t fix everything. Charlie Ross’s solo adaptation of the first (not the second, thank Emperor Palpatine!) Star Wars trilogy was presented to a packed house at the Lone Tree Arts Center,…

Snowmass nabs most-viewed snowboard video of 2011

It’s no secret that Colorado ski areas have been embracing social media: Vail Resorts’ EpicMix Photo app is the gold standard, and even the tiniest ski areas in the state now have very active Facebook and Twitter feeds. Every “impression” counts, especially when you have skiers and snowboarders sharing photos…