How not to ride: Utah rope tow wedgie

Oh, Utah: A skier at Alta captured footage of a fellow skier in front of him who was vastly unfamiliar with the concept of riding a rope tow. Normally, this might result in just a sloppy fall and a bruised ego, but this guy managed to  straddle the Poma in…

Talking green biz with Aspen Skiing Co. Director of Sustainability

In November we reported that Aspen Mountain, Buttermilk, and Aspen Highlands nabbed the three highest scores in Colorado in the Ski Area Citizens’ Coalition environmental report card rankings, with Aspen Mountain and Buttermilk taking two of the top three spots out of all U.S. resorts (just behind Squaw Valley).This week…

Now Showing

Looking for the Face…. The half-dozen shows at MCA Denver are collectively titled Looking for the Face I Had Before the World Was Made. Adam Lerner, the museum’s director, acted as lead curator for the exhibits with new hire Nora Burnett Abrams acting as his assistant. Michaël Borremans is a…

Now Playing

Chicago. Sort of Brechtian, sort of Cabaretish, Chicago tells a story of injustice and corruption, and tells it in the most seductive way, with witty, memorable songs, elegantly glistening dance sequences and a smart, cynical and grown-up script. Roxie Hart is an evil, self-serving little hoofer. Having murdered a man…

City Island

Everyone in City Island’s Rizzo family has something to hide: Paterfamilias Vince (Andy Garcia) works as a corrections officer but sneaks off for acting lessons; legal-secretary matriarch Joyce (Julianna Margulies) makes out with Tony (Steven Strait), the ex-con Vince has invited to live with them in the Bronx fishing village…

On the road to ruin or fame, the story of The Runaways

There’s an obvious stunt element to the casting of The Runaways: a punked-up, barely legal Kristen Stewart and a still underage, barely-dressed Dakota Fanning begging for street cred by playing dress-up as, respectively, Joan Jett and Cherie Currie, front girls of the oversexed ’70s-era teen proto-punk sensation the Runaways. Watch…

Date Night

We are not these people! We are a boring couple from New Jersey!” complains Claire Foster (Tina Fey) to her husband, Phil (Steve Carell), about halfway through Date Night, the latest high-gloss, middle-to-low-brow would-be blockbuster from director Shawn Levy (Cheaper by the Dozen, Just Married). Phil and Claire are middle-class,…

Mama Hated Diesels celebrates road warriors and country music

I’ve had a soft spot for truckers ever since my hitchhiking hippie days: It was often trucks that stopped at the on-ramps of those teeming California highways, and they’d take you long, helpful distances. I remember a particularly fatherly trucker who wouldn’t let me pay for food when we stopped…

The Clean House is empty of real thought

The Denver Center Theatre Company produced Sarah Ruhl’s The Clean House three years ago, and though there were elements of the play I liked a lot, overall it didn’t work. There was something unfocused, arch and fey about the dialogue, and by the end the whole thing had dissolved into…

Arty Party!

Is Denver the creative capital of the West? That’s the question Create Denver Week aims to answer with seven days of parties, shows, films and discussions. The event has already displayed some creative juice by growing from the single-day expo it’s been for the last four years to a week-long…

Spa-Rama

The folks who throw Spa Week twice a year — once in the spring and once in the fall — couldn’t have chosen a better time for the vernal version of the event: Taxes are due, we haven’t had a public holiday since February 15 (Presidents’ Day), and the tension…

Check Out the Living Library

I’m a true bibliophile, and my collection fills every nook and cranny in my house. But while my books are great travel companions and often help lull me to sleep or stay up all night with me, I can’t have a true back-and-forth discourse with them. Enter The Living Library:…

A Novel Idea

To remind us of libraries’ value to society, the Printed Page Bookshop is celebrating National Library Week with a special Get Carded, Get a Book promotion. “Anyone who shows us a library card, we’ll have a really nice selection of free books. They can pick the one they want,” says…

Building the Future

The Fibonacci sequence is a mathematical series visible in the pattern of an uncurling fern and the arrangement of a pine cone. Using this as a starting point, MOS Architects partners Michael Meredith and Hilary Sample developed the plans for Element House-architecture for a new ecology. The high points of…

Play Ball!

Every baseball team wants to win its home opener, and the Colorado Rockies have been fortunate in that regard, going 10-7, including a victory over the Phillies last year. This year’s opponent is the San Diego Padres, and the game should be a good one, no matter the weather, because…

Skiing to Win

Jack Benedick’s life flashed before his eyes during a 1969 land-mine explosion that claimed his legs. A soldier on his second tour of duty in Vietnam, he tried to imagine what things his future would hold. Being inducted into the U.S. Ski Hall of Fame 41 years later was not…

Blair-Caldwell Is on Deck

The beginning of baseball season is a time for renewed energy and rejuvenated spirit, but it’s also a good time to reflect on the past. To do that this year, the Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library in Five Points is hosting a temporary exhibit called Who’s On First?: The History…

Plaid Sight

“Many people do not realize that Colorado was the second state in the United States to have its own district tartan approved,” notes Cory Waggoner, president of the Colorado Tartan Day Council. In fact, there are many contributions that the Scottish and Celtic people as a whole have made to…

Flick Pick

Everyone in City Island’s Rizzo family has something to hide: Paterfamilias Vince (Andy Garcia) works as a corrections officer but sneaks off for acting lessons; legal-secretary matriarch Joyce (Julianna Margulies) makes out with Tony (Steven Strait), the ex-con Vince has invited to live with them in the Bronx fishing village…

Film, Japanese Style

Take a crash course in Japanese film over the next four days with Focus on Japanese Cinema, a program of twelve diverse movies from the Land of the Rising Sun. “I think, locally, no one’s ever really done a Japanese Cinema 101,” explains Denver Film Society programming manager Keith Garcia…