Macho meets homo in the laudable but terrible La Mission

Watered-down Jungian analysis meets a GLAAD-approved weepie in Peter Bratt’s second feature, starring brother Benjamin (who also produces) as a swaggering, neck-tattooed macho who will finally realize the damage his rock-hard masculinity has caused during a funeral for a teenage gangbanger, his tears mixing with the rain as he flashes…

Peter Pan soars at Boulder’s Dinner Theatre

Kids’ shows can be tedious. I associate them with low production values, broad acting styles and condescension toward their intended audience. But the folks at Boulder’s Dinner Theatre approach Peter Pan with such imagination, intelligence, respect and — above all — giddy exuberance that you can’t help enjoying yourself. I…

Beyond Corned Beef

The sixteenth annual Boulder Jewish Festival is more than a great excuse to eat authentic, delicious corned beef sandwiches. In a larger sense, it’s an opportunity to reconnect with the community. “A lot of the Boulder Jewish community isn’t actively involved,” says spokeswoman Cheryl Fellows. “It becomes the day that…

Opposing Viewpoints

Bobbi Walker, owner of Walker Fine Art, has put together Altered, an unlikely duet in which she’s paired contemporary-realist paintings by Marie Vlasic with non-objective abstract sculptures by Mark Castator. This exhibit marks the first time either artist has been given a star turn at Walker. For her recent body…

Gone to Pot

Reyna Von Vett (aka Cora Vette) was researching music in preparation for her next show, “a naughty jazz thing,” when the burlesque star stumbled on “a bunch of old pot songs.” Later, she says, “I started digging into my research and found there was a lot more than I realized.”…

Surf’s Up in Vail

Skiers and snowboarders headed to A-Basin this weekend for their last late-season lines will be amused by the roof-rack loads of their fellow adventurers heading farther up I-70 toward Vail: Some of them will be carrying surfboards. Yes, surfboards. Twenty years after the debut of the Vail Valley Foundation’s Memorial…

Bugging Out

In this country, responses to a personal ad stating “Must love bugs” would probably be both strange and rare. But as the documentary Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo reveals, you’d do a lot better with that in Japan, a country with a deep cultural fascination with beetles, crickets and just about…

A Wine Time in Manitou

If the nearly $1,200 Gucci price tag to attend the Food & Wine Magazine Classic in Aspen, which kicks off later this month in Glitter Gulch, is too pricey for your pocketbook, take solace: Today from noon to 6 p.m., nearly thirty wineries from Colorado — and across the globe…

Eye of Truth

In an effort to keep you thinking during the long, hot summer, the Denver Public Library’s Fresh City Life program will present Presence of the Camera: Documentaries, a film series dedicated to — and sometimes mocking — the cutting edge of reality, throughout the month of June. The library’s sixth…

New Digs for the CVA

For nearly twenty years, Metropolitan State College of Denver’s mini-museum, the Center for Visual Art, was located in LoDo. Then this past spring, the CVA made the surprising announcement that it was moving to an old industrial building on Santa Fe Drive. And now, after months of renovations, its new…

Sip Away

The Boulder Outlook Hotel will morph into the inn of bourbon tonight for KGNU Community Radio’s first annual Bourbon Tasting, a drink-till-you-stumble benefit for the Boulder-based independent radio station. The event, which drops at 6 p.m., will cover all the bourbon basics: the history and origins of bourbon, how to…

Get in the Game, Player

Attention, Spartans: Polish your armor, clean your battle rifle and prepare to report to duty. Your skills are needed today at five locations around town for a free Halo 3 Tournament, and nearly $4,500 is at stake. Yes, your Halo 3 skills may be a little rusty since you moved…

Living History

Situated a stone’s throw from La Junta, out on the eastern plains, Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site isn’t what you’d call a famous destination, but its value as a swatch of Western history can’t be denied. That’s why then-president Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the attraction, located on the site…

Food and Shelter

The clan from Vesta Dipping Grill and Steuben’s are renowned for their generosity, hosting shindigs throughout the year to benefit local nonprofits. But Plates for the Peak is their baby — an event, says executive chef Matt Selby, that “was created by us for an organization that we really believe…

Of All the Ruckin’ Luck

Last year, Infinity Park, the metro area’s center of the rugby universe, pulled a major coup when it brought rugby’s touted Churchill Cup to the region, hosting preliminary matches at the Glendale park and farming the final out to Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. Something must have gone incredibly right, because…

Thaw Out in Snowmass

The first ever Spring Weekend Meltdown in Snowmass is a chance to ease the transition from snowboards to pools and flip-flops. The three-day event combines the Snowmass Chili and Brew Fest with acrobats, DJs, dancers, models and an end-of-the-weekend Recovery Pool Party. “The Chili and Brew Fest has been going…

Help in the ’Hood

As a homeowner in a demographically diverse Denver neighborhood, I don’t have to dream up hypothetical scenarios to justify attending today’s Annual Neighborhood Conference, “The Denver Difference — Block by Block.” I need more District 2 patrols in my alley to discourage graffiti, but don’t know how to get them…

Pet Project

Luxe De Vil Salon isn’t a gallery, but the place has managed to thrive and survive on Santa Fe Drive by throwing some of the best First Friday art parties in town. This month, co-owners Jenny and Christy D. and their manager, Cat Stolzenbach, will dedicate their monthly bash to…

The Amazing Chase

The City Chase adventure race begins at 10 a.m. in Skyline Park today and ends six hours later in the same place. The entry fee ($175 per two-person team) helps benefit Sports for a Cause, and organizers promise a wide range of “mind, body and spirit” challenges across the city…

Glam On With Glamazon

DJs Kitchy Ami and Matt Black are avid skaters who have “a ton of glittery, fun dance music that we didn’t really have anyplace to play.” So the duo created Glamazon, a ’70s- and ’80s-style roller-disco dance night at La Rumba that takes place tonight and the first Sunday of…

Beer, Here

Why, you might ask, is Wine Country Network Inc. hosting the inaugural Taste of Elegance Chefs Food and Beer Competition? Simple: Local chefs who participate in the organization’s annual Iron Chef-style Taste of Elegance wine competition in the fall enjoyed themselves so much that they clamored for a summer counterpart…

Summer Guide 2010

2010 Summer Guide “For weirdness to flourish, it has to have the right compost made up of dramatic history, amazing environments, and truly unique, off the grid characters,” writes Charmaine Ortega Getz, author of Weird Colorado. “Colorado is blessed with all three.” She should know, because she’s been exploring the…