The Hangover

What Fletch was to plaid-clad watercooler wits in the ’80s, what National Lampoon’s Van Wilder was to college-bound douches at the dawn of Dubya, 2003’s Old School was to Gen-X frat rats: a secret-handshake movie. A shaggy, intermittently hilarious wish-fulfillment nightmare about sorta dissatisfied, sorta middle-aged dudesters trying to capture…

Anvil! The Story of Anvil

And now for the story of Lips and the dildo. Back in the late ’70s, before Guitar Hero III or Rock of Love 2 or even VH1, a jolly Canadian guitarist named Steve “Lips” Kudlow formed a thrash band with his high-school best friend, drummer Robb Reiner (no relation to…

Modern Living

They say style goes in cycles, but for fans of mid-century modern design, clean lines and make-a-statement colors will always be fashionable. “People don’t necessarily associate Historic Denver with mid-century modern,” says Historic Denver’s Heather Quiroga, “but in fact, mid-century modern is historic, and more and more mid-century developments are…

Flick Pick

Standards of Ethical Conduct, premiering on Saturday, June 6, is the sort of local production worth rooting for, despite its many imperfections. Written and directed by Roman Hardgrave, the mid-length flick — at just over forty minutes, it’s too long for a short, too brief for a feature — revolves…

The Yuk Stops Here

Christian Finnegan is part of the current wave of indie comedy, a trend that sees comics offering somewhat unconventional comedy in non-traditional comedy venues, such as the “rock clubs, shithole bars, empty conference rooms, real estate seminars, Turkish whorehouses, bat mitzvahs, doggy fashion shows, crackhouses and nursing home key parties”…

Life is a Crabaret

In addition to putting on an off-the-wall performing arts carnival each summer, the Boulder Fringe Festival also hosts a resident performing group — and now that group’s C.R.A.B. (Constantly Risking Absurdity, Baby!) salon has morphed into Crabaret, a monthly show that premieres tonight at 6:30 p.m. at the b.side lounge,…

Vocal Locals

When the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver absorbed Belmar’s Laboratory of Art and Ideas, it added a few twists to the Lab’s uber-popular Mixed Taste: Tag Team Lectures on Unrelated Topics, which mashes together two talks on completely different subjects, in the process uncovering unsuspected links between them. MCA Denver…

Sounding Off on Zionism

When alto saxophonist Gilad Atzmon visited the University of Denver last year, he delivered a powerful performance that combined the intensity of John Coltrane with the speed and dexterity of Charlie Parker. But the Israeli-born Atzmon, who now lives in London, is equally powerful when speaking and writing: He’s one…

The Subterraneans

Denver has a real Beat/underground past, and no one preserves that lore better than poet/actor/artist/character Ed Ward, whose roots in the town’s cultural scene go very, very deep. That makes him a great spokesman for the three-day series of events tied to the June 5 opening of Mile High and…

Mini Makeover

For more than six months, the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art has been shuttered, a move necessitated by the mandated installation of an ADA-compliant elevator. The institution took advantage of the downtime to reconfigure its shop and admissions area and enlarge the theater upstairs — which will now be accessible…

Let the Games Begin

The Teva Mountain Games celebrate the mountain lifestyle — a lifestyle that involves extreme trails, big parties and high-flying dogs. “The beauty of the Mountain Games is amateurs and professionals competing side by side,” says Shelley Woodworth, marketing director for the non-profit Vail Valley Foundation, which puts on the annual…

Family Men

In a culture lacking traditional steps toward adulthood, it’s up to each person to define his own coming of age. Of course, some coming-of-age experiences are naturally more interesting than others — and then there’s Chazz Palminteri’s A Bronx Tale, which is off the charts. “It’s the story of a…

Kids Gone Wild

Every year, the Sheridan Opera House gives back to the Telluride community through the Wild West Fest, which starts June 8 and runs through June 14. “We work with different Boys & Girls Clubs throughout the United States, and within their own club, they choose the kids who have stood…

Cruise News

High handlebars and a laid-back slouch are de rigueur for the increasingly popular cruiser bike rides around town these days. But you can still pedal hard in Denver. Grab three friends and find out just how fast you can make that cruiser go during today’s 24 Minutes of City Park…

High on Highland

With the restaurant scene in northwest Denver growing faster than the list of Nuggets season-ticket holders, it’s high time the Highland neighborhood had its own farmers’ market again. “The neighborhood association has been talking about a market for over a year now,” says HobNob Events’ Nicole Jarman, who is managing…

Ruck the Trend

Ever since Glendale decided to buff up its image by building the first rugby stadium in the nation, the rough-and-tumble sport has gotten new respect in these parts — so much so that the 2009 Churchill Cup, North America’s premier match-up, will take place here this month, with preliminary matches…

Kidding Around

Betsy White and her husband, Bob, are the entrepreneurial brains behind Bad Art for Bad People, a kind of lowbrow road show that chooses to show hipster art in alternative venues. And so far, things have been good for Bad Art. There’s clearly a call for celebrating underground culture in…

Go for the Gold!

The discovery of gold in Colorado inspired the Rush to the Rockies exactly 150 years ago. Although many fortune-hunters who set off on the arduous journey across the plains to Pikes Peak territory never arrived, and still more gave up on ever striking it rich and headed back home, those…

Summer Film Preview

“The cinema is not a slice of life, but a piece of cake,” Alfred Hitchcock once said, and if that’s true — and who are we to dispute the Master? — then summertime is when we gorge (unhealthily, most of the time, on ear-splitting smash-’em-ups and nerd-filled sex comedies). This…

Rent‘s Due

One of the longest running musicals on Broadway, Rent succeeded because it was a true rock opera, based on one of the most beloved classical operas of all time, Puccini’s La Bohème. Fast-forwarded in time to the struggling, AIDS-haunted arts community camped out on New York’s Lower East Side during…

Barnes Storming

Swallow Hill’s Shady Grove Picnic Series at Four Mile Historic Park is surely one of those hidden gems of summer: It’s laid-back and easy, cheap for families and full of great music and musicians, most of them also hidden gems and many of them locals. The music begins at 6:30…

American Muscle revs up at Pirate

In the 1960s, the two biggest contemporary art movements, pop art and minimalism, were ideological opposites — well, except in certain works from Andy Warhol’s “Elvis” series. Pop was content-driven, riffing off everyday subject matter, while minimalism was purely about form. So it’s interesting that today’s post-pop and post-minimalism are…