Arts & Culture

The erhu, or Chinese violin, is a strange and ancient-looking instrument, with two strings along a long, narrow neck attached to a sextagonal sound box covered in snakeskin. It’s played with a horsehair bow that slides between the strings, and, like the Western violin, is a squeaky-squawky mess in the…

Nathaniel Adams Coles, better known as Nat “King” Cole, was born in Alabama, the son of a Baptist minister. He learned to play the organ from his mother, who accompanied his father in church. Originally a keyboard phenom, he later studied classical piano, but it was jazz — and the…

The annual Cowboy Poetry Gathering is finally legal this year, having reached the ripe old age of 21. Liz Masterson has been involved since the beginning — and even if you didn’t get tickets to tonight’s sold-out Baxter Black performance, she says there’s still plenty to be excited about. “We…

A quartet of businesses along Curtice Street in Historic Downtown Littleton decided to beat the post-holiday doldrums by hosting tonight’s Progressive Dinner and Haiku Celebration, an event that serves up not just food and wine, but a little literary entertainment, as well. “This is a time of year when there’s…

Best excuse for morphing your bar into a cocktail classroom? Females, according to James Lee, the beverage director of Big Red F Restaurant Group and the mixologist/owner of the Bitter Bar in Boulder. “Over the past few months, I’ve had an overwhelming number of females calling me with questions about…

In 2008, two of the country’s most beloved comedians — not to mention the most beloved stoners of all time — got back together after decades apart for the Light Up America tour. The reunion with Richard “Cheech” Marin was “incredible,” Tommy Chong reveals. “When I’m out there by myself,…

The toughest band to ever take its name from a Counting Crows lyric, Between the Buried and Me snuck into the nascent metalcore scene at the beginning of the ’00s with its raw, self-titled debut from 2002. From that modest beginning, the group has gone everywhere but down — but…

Before he took over as director of the Denver Art Museum, Christoph Heinrich was the curator of modern and contemporary art. In that capacity, he organized Embrace! a blockbuster exhibit that features the work of international art stars along with a handful of Denver’s best, including painter Rick Dula. Dula’s…

I’ve tried my hand at ice climbing a few times before (on East Vail’s frozen waterfalls and Rainier’s Emmons Glacier, most notably), and On The Edge’s Candace Horgan practically has ice tools for hands. That said, Will Gadd has us way beat: Tired of “regular” ice climbs, the Crazy Canuck…

Today’s Time-Wasting Video, courtesy of the intrepid reporters at The Onion News Network: “Are young people ignoring the dangers of being stoked?”…

It’s difficult to tell sometimes at first blush, but some bars are locals’ bars and some bars welcome out-of-towners with open arms. The Pagosa Bar is definitely in the former category.After a day skiing Wolf Creek and a soak across town, we cross the frosty San Juan by footbridge into…