Frank Georgianna set the stage for great theater in Boulder

Long before the Denver theater world woke up to his talents, actor-director Frank Georgianna was a significant force in Boulder, where he began his work in the 1970s. His Boulder Repertory company never had a home of its own; he and his wife, Ernestine, rehearsed the actors in the basement…

The Claus Clause

Finding the perfect place to get up-close and personal with Santa Claus becomes a priority as Christmas gets closer. Shopping centers are a convenient option, since Santa is usually available for a photo anytime during mall hours through Christmas Eve. The Cherry Creek mall, 3000 East First Avenue (www.shopcherrycreek.com), has…

Knit Pickers

Bad sweaters. College football games. You know they’re connected somehow, with ties that go back decades, to the days of raccoon coats and the Charleston. Perhaps that’s why the Mile High Bowl Association, an organization dedicated to bringing a college bowl game to Colorado, decided to throw the first annual…

Do You Feel Lucas? Well, Do You, Punk?

George Lucas, father of Star Wars, inspires a strange mix of slavish devotion and irrational hatred. Like the light and dark sides of the Force he mythologized, his partisans maintain a tenuous balance — with the love of Boba Fett on one side and the need to throttle Jar-Jar Binks…

Light My Fire

Being Jewish, I do suffer from a touch of that inevitable holiday-season alienation. But I can always count on the Boulder Arts and Crafts Cooperative’s annual Judaica Show, currently in progress, to make me feel at home in the midst of a sea of Christmas trees and creches. Absolutely the…

Red Light Special

The documentary Born Into Brothels, a portrait of Calcutta’s red light district, will be shown tonight at 7 p.m. at Buntport Theater, 717 Lipan Street. The widely acclaimed film, written and directed by Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman, won a string of accolades, including the Academy Award for Documentary Feature…

Ho-Ho-Holy Shit

A clone army of Santa Clauses is coming to town! Hundreds, maybe even thousands of Denverites will dress up like Santa or sexy Santa’s helpers and hitting LoDo for Denver’s annual Santa Claus Pub Crawl. The crawl starts at 1 p.m. today at Fadó, 1735 19th Street, where a tree…

The Long Runway

The Mona Lucero Design Boutique has brightened 15th Street on the edge of Highland since 2002, and the store’s longevity has a lot to do with being consistent: Lucero herself is the rare entrepreneur who perfectly balances creativity and business sense. Year after year, she’s built her indie retail enterprise…

Holiday Shift

Jimmy Sellars recognizes that it’s tough to run a gallery during the holidays, when everyone’s focus turns to affordable gift shopping rather than high-end art. So in December, many galleries compensate by hosting de rigueur art markets or miniature shows. But not Sellars. At least, not exactly. “I wanted to…

The Light Stuff

Fill your thermos with hot cocoa, bundle up the family and head downtown for the 35th annual Parade of Lights. The well-loved Denver holiday tradition features huge balloon characters, local high-school marching bands and dance troupes, tons of floats, thousands of lights illuminating the night, and this year’s parade grand…

Here Comes Santa Claus

The holiday season would come unwrapped without some tongue-in-cheek striptease fun, which burlesque queens Reyna Von Vett (aka Cora Vette) and Michelle Baldwin (aka Vivienne VaVoom), the power flirts behind Black Box Burlesque, are happy to provide in the form of Naughty Noel. “We’ll have group numbers and stripping Santa…

Art Mart

The relationship between art and commerce is a longstanding one, dating back to ancient times — though artists typically shy away from acknowledging any connection. This hostility to the market has led to another longstanding tradition: the starving artist. But ignorance of the system is not bliss for young Colorado…

Drawing and Draughts

I was first introduced to Jubelale in 2003 by a buddy who loved the beer only slightly more than the artwork, which he collected and framed. The posters were so cool that his wife allowed him to hang them in the living room. Made by the renowned Deschutes Brewery in…

Big Brother Is Watching…

In an age in which bloggers, Tweeters, Facebookers and other amateur cyber-journalists wear their lives and opinions on their sleeves for all to see, the question of “How far do you go?” can lead to a pretty far-ranging discussion. That’s the question that filmmaking phenom Ondi Timoner (the only director…

Fab Fete

Musically, the Beatles were my first love, a launching pad into the reeling ethos of ’60s music and all that followed. As I ventured far from Meet the Beatles and Sgt. Pepper’s into the pop frontier and beyond, I never forgot John, Paul, George and Ringo — but I wasn’t…

Sustainable Shopping

The Mile High City has conscious, sustainable, locally made gifts all wrapped up this holiday season. Today you can stop and shop at two different (and differently minded) gift fairs: the Conscious Boutique and Holistic Expo and the ArgusFest Fair Trade Holiday Bazaar. “We’re a community of people who really…

Singin’ in the Snow

You don’t have to be a flake to enjoy the snow – or Caroling Through the Woods, Theatre-Hikes Colorado’s second production-on-the move in Boulder’s Chautauqua Park, 900 Baseline Road. The hour-long, family-friendly, participatory holiday jaunt across Chautauqua’s main lawn features carols, poems and stories. You’ll want to bundle up, but…

Go Nuts at This Sale

If you love giving homemade gifts but don’t have the time (or talent) to create your own, tonight’s one-time-only, deeply discounted Art for Peanuts sale is just what Santa ordered. “There will be prints and stuff as low as two dollars,” says artist Bob White, who is helping to organize…

A Real Turn-On

Plug in, DIYers: Local designer Lynne Bruning, whose own creations include a sonar garment for the visually impaired, says that wearable computers — “eTextiles” fitted with usable electronics, such as conductive thread, LED lights and microprocessors — not only make in-the-moment fashion statements, but are a boon to science. And…

Sweet Victory

We all know that gingerbread tastes good — but how well would your family recipe support a bucket full of sand? That’s the question behind today’s Gingerbread Bridge Competition, at which engineering and architectural firms battle it out for the title of best (if not most delicious) bridge. Over the…

A Stitch in Time

“A lot of our vendors said it was the best craft fair they’d ever done,” says Fancy Tiger’s Jaime Jennings, reminiscing about 2008’s inaugural Holiday Handmade Alternative Craft Fair. And this year’s fair will be twice as big – literally – because Jennings has changed its location to the South…