The Final Days of Denver Arts Week Scavenger Hunt

Denver Arts Week ends tomorrow, but there’s still plenty of time to participate. Especially if your idea of participation in the arts is pantomiming statues while standing in front of them. Worst case, there’s almost certainly free shit in it for you. The Denver Arts Week Scavenger Hunt is pretty…

Skyline is this week’s most ridiculous movie trailer

A little over six months ago, in late April, the celebrated scientist Stephen Hawking made some, well, some kind of weird comments about sending messages out to possible extraterrestrial life in space: “If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed…

Denver Botanic Gardens offers free days all weekend

If you don’t have the $12.50 admission price to cough up, you’re generally SOL on seeing the Denver Botanic Gardens — free days are not particularly common, and those prison-style walls pretty much preclude seeing so much as a shrub at no cost. This weekend, though, from tomorrow all the…

Today In Stoke: Denver Big Air tickets on sale — for a hefty price

The good news? Tickets are on sale this week for the Denver Big Air ski and snowboard competition in Civic Center Park, January 25-26, a two-day event sanctioned by the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Association (USSA) and the International Ski Federation (FIS). The Denver Big Air contests will include the…

Style Local: Mona Lucero

Mona Lucero has a name in this town, but I have a feeling she would have gained one wherever she settled, even in what might be called more cosmopolitan coastal, urban or even global realms. In the eight years since she opened her Mona Lucero Design Boutique, an urban community…

Bossip: Playing up black stereotypes for page views

It wouldn’t be the first time Bossip, a tabloid site devoted to black celebrities and culture, has espoused seemingly racist views about, ahem, black celebrities and culture. Take, for example, the actor and model Djimon Hounsou, who Bossip has consistently mocked for his particularly dark skin — the site has…

U.S. gov gets tough on cigarette labels, but not really

When it comes to advertising that is geared to deter someone from something, the most effective — and most often chosen — tactic is to use images that scare the shit out of any would-be buyers or doers. This is often seen in political ads and AIDS awareness ads, and…

One chapter book reviews: Hooking up with Tila Tequila

Perhaps more than ever in this reality show age we live in, it can be difficult to know what the hell famous people are even famous for — and nobody, besides maybe Paris Hilton, exemplifies that “famous for being famous” phenomenon better than Tila Tequila. In her completely un-clamored-for memoir,…

Steve Katz on mythology, memory and mining

Recently, there have been a slew of ill-advised memoirs from people far too young and inexperienced to share their stories with the world. Steve Katz doesn’t have that problem. The 75-year-old Denver author started writing his memoir five years ago, and it has since become a collection of over 100…

Absurdist Interview: artist Axel Geittmann

Local artist Axel Geittmann’s paintings take viewers into a surrealist world of psychological landscapes, exploring complex emotional territory by combining gestures of realism with an essence of the other-worldy. Mostly painting with acrylic and spray-paint, Geittmann fuses traditions and viewer expectations to create a haunting mythology all his own. We…

A First Time for Everything

It’s an experience that’s memorable for few, yet one that few will ever forget: the first time. Initially a website (www.myfirsttime.com) and then an off-Broadway production based on stories culled from the website, My First Time traffics in tales of virginity lost — and now, for the “first time” (sorry),…

Theater Noir

The Denver Center Theatre Company is opening its 2010/2011 season on a light note: Patrick Barlow’s screwball adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock’s seminal film noir The 39 Steps opened September 10 in the Ricketson Theatre of the Helen Bonfils Theatre Complex, Denver Performing Arts Complex, featuring a monochromatic set that emulates…

Hype, Hype on the Range

Robert Dubac got tired of dicks. The actor, standup comedian and star of Free Range Thinking used to be in television, “but I gave it up, because we all know television is pretty homogenized,” he says. “That’s kind of why I wrote these shows — because people just get tired…

Lights, Camera, Action!

The Starz Denver Film Festival is back — with some groovy new additions. For one, the fest will be split between its longtime home at the Starz FilmCenter on the Auraria Campus and the Denver Film Society’s new spot at Denver FilmCenter/Colfax, 2510 East Colfax Avenue, with three screens, leather…