Denver Life

Earlier this week, for the first time in more than a decade, something novel happened in the world of Denver film: No films were programmed by Keith Garcia. The name may mean nothing to you, or you may not have much idea what it means to be a film programmer,…

L.L Bean will open its 22nd American retail store outside of Maine at Park Meadows Shopping Center (in the former home of Grand Lux Cafe) on Friday, November 21. The company was founded by avid outdoorsman Leon Leonwood (“L.L.”), who in 1912 returned home from a hunting trip with cold,…

Have all your do-it-yourself projects been stymied by a lack of tools? A crowdfunding campaign that starts tomorrow is designed to built a bank account for the Denver Tool Library, a Blockbuster-like facility devoted to home improvement that could soon open on Santa Fe Drive. See also: Five Amazing Zines…

There’s always a lot of fake blood — and spare body parts — at the Denver Zombie Crawl, which runs down the 16th Street Mall every year. But the ninth annual incarnation of the event, which took place on October 18, ended with some real blood and plenty of pepper…

Bright and bold graphic-printed fashion is all the rage these days. Over the past week, we’ve noticed photographic imagery printed on everything from skirts to socks, and everywhere from the streets to the runway. Read on to learn more about these graphics, how to wear them, and why people like…

Back in August, I went to see Dave Chappelle perform at the Boulder Theater with my boyfriend and a gaggle of our best dude friends. A longtime fan of Chappelle’s work, it was the first time I would be seeing his standup live, and I was stoked. But halfway into…

#43: Noah Van Sciver If you read Westword, you’re familiar with Noah Van Sciver — since 2008, when he started inking the 4 Questions feature in Backbeat, the hard-working cartoonist has been making observations about modern society and its many characters in these pages and online at westword.com. But Van…

Curling up in front of a screen on a cold, snowy day is one of winter’s underrated pleasures, and it’s one that wasn’t lost on the crowd at the Denver Indie Games Expo at Clutch Gaming Arena in Arvada on Saturday. Players and creators who had braved the slippery roads…

The start of Dillon Morton’s clothing company, Fake Diamonds, came in 2009, “when I first learned to convert an art piece of mine in photoshop to have screen-printed on a shirt,” he recalls. “After I was able to sell those initial twelve shirts, I went for it and designed about…

The shift happens so fast, it’s nearly imperceptible, but that won’t last for long — Halloween’s over, and the holiday shopping season is on. Shopping handmade and local is the trend, and we’ve made it a little easier for you to navigate the best of the markets, sales and small…

Geeks have a lot of reasons to be excited about this year’s Starz Denver Film Festival. There’s the sweet Stanley Nights program of horror (one of my picks for the top geek events this month). Among the “normal” films, you’ll find a sweet-looking Alan Turing biopic that should be of…

#44: Britta Erickson Britta Erickson, a Denver native who’s the director of the Starz Denver Film Festival, not only builds the fest from the ground up behind the scenes but also serves as its public face. Popular Denver Film Society side projects such as Film on the Rocks and the…

H&M just unveiled its annual designer collection, this time a collaboration with Alexander Wang. In the hours leading up to Thursday’s release, we chatted with some of the diehard fashionistas who were waiting in line by the H&M at Denver Pavilions so that they could shop the collection first. Keep…

When artists and roommates Laura Conway and Anna Winter started talking about curating their own gallery show in their home, it was crucial to challenge the traditional format of a place for art. “While subverting the white wall gallery model isn’t new, we wanted to experiment in our own alternative…

Halloween is over. Boo! And not “boo” like a ghost says, but “booo” like when your team gets buried by an avalanche of scoring from the other team (goddamn Patriots…). Still, just because the calendar says the spooky time of year is over is no reason you have to listen…

#45: Darrin Alfred As associate curator of architecture, design and graphics at the Denver Art Museum, Darrin Alfred — who cut his teeth at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art before landing in Denver — keeps the museum’s design collection up-to-date, while curating such shows as 2009’s popular poster…

Last night, as I sat inside a packed 1STBANK Center with a bunch of ladies who looked like my mom, I waited for Theresa Caputo to appear and wondered what exactly I was going to see. How does someone like Caputo, known to the world as the Long Island Medium,…

With fall in full swing, boots are hitting the streets. This week we spotted Dr. Marten on trend for both guys and girls. Read on to find out about the street styles of Max Jackson and Piper Shepherd, who’re both rocking Dr. Martens. See also: On Trend: Sweater Weather Brings…

So, you’ve got a kid? Whether it’s your own rambunctious preschooler or the bratty nephew you’ve been charged with keeping alive for the next five hours, the most important thing is leaving your house where valuables are liable to be destroyed and seeking refuge on somebody else’s property. In this…

There are many places where you can give thanks for Denver’s growing fashion scene this month. Get an an early start on gift-buying at Fancy Tiger’s employee showcase, Fancy Made, or at the new L.L. Bean outlet. And you can also give back by shopping at Dress for Success Denver’s…

Peter Fatianow first became interested in the possibilities of a retail store focused on sleep while working for an integrated delivery system in the Midwest that was acquiring sleep labs. “I was fascinated about what was going on in that business,” he says, and although he wasn’t working directly with…