As a child, I was fascinated by rocks and beads and all things small and shiny. As an adult, I’ve outgrown my old habit of filling my pockets with found stones every time I go for a walk, but I still find handmade artisan beads enchanting. If you, too, delight…
You’ve got to be willing to stick your neck out to be a great talk-show host, and that’s one thing www.elephantjournal.com’s Waylon Lewis has going for him. And, okay, maybe Lewis tries so hard that he’s stretched his into a giraffe’s neck, but his big mouth and big ideas do…
In 1970, Gil Scott-Heron became one of the godfathers of hip-hop with the release of his debut album, Small Talk at 125th & Lenox. His playful wit and incisive rhetoric developed more fully on later releases such as Pieces of a Man and Winter in America, establishing him as a…
Work Options for Women, otherwise known as WOW, deserves the acronym: According to spokeswoman Christian Hawley, the non-profit organization, which gives impoverished women a step up the societal ladder by providing job and life-skills training, places 100 percent of its clients in the restaurant workplace at the end of a…
For 355 area restaurants, today will see more than the average service. From Anthony’s Pizza to Zuni Cafe, eateries all over the metro area will be celebrating Dining Out for Life, an annual event presented by Project Angel Heart. Participating restaurants will donate 25% of their profits to Project Angel…
In the last decade, the green movement has gone from the commune to the halls of Congress, from activist groups to ad agencies. Everywhere you look, there are green building and green businesses and green lifestyles. And while it’s easy enough to buy energy-saving light bulbs or ride your bike…
Embark on a magical mystery tour of the tumultuous ’60s through the music of the Beatles in When We Were FaB, a unique opportunity to see beloved songs — from the early innocence of “I Want to Hold Your Hand” through the complex, heady tunes of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts…
The kids, ages eight to 23, who are good enough to make the prestigious Denver Young Artists Orchestra, are works of art all on their own. But it’s still a fitting tribute to their hard work and big dreams to help bankroll their endeavors through another form of art. That’s…
When Hungarian artist/photographer Agnes Vigil married an American, she struggled with a lot of what came out of his mouth. “Let’s just say he had a colorful vocabulary,” she says. “He would use slang and sexual phrases, and I would think, ‘Now, what does that mean?’” Once explained, a lot…
Maverick author Tom Robbins is known for his whimsical (yet well-researched) forays into little-known crevices of our planet — from peyote trips to Salome’s forbidden Dance of the Seven Veils to the unknown whereabouts of the model for Henri Matisse’s “Blue Nude.” Now, Robbins is boldly going where no psychedelic…
It’s not hard to fall under the spell of that psychedelic poster show currently wrecking the walls at the Denver Art Museum. The Victor Moscosos alone brought me to my knees, they’re so trippy, but let’s not belittle the rest of the artists on display there, including Stanley Mouse who,…
For a slide show of these exhibits, go to slideshow.westword.com. Nationally known San Francisco artist Rex Ray has had a long relationship with Colorado, where he spent part of his youth, and he still has many friends here. I’ve known him since I was in graduate school and have always…
Curiouser. Singer Gallery director Simon Zalkind is one of the top curators in town, and one of the secrets to his success is presenting artists whose efforts are worthwhile but who for some reason rarely exhibit their work. That’s what’s happening now with the unusual show Curiouser: A Dozen Years…
Girls Only. The trouble with Girls Only, a two-woman evening of conversation, skits, singing, improvisation and audience participation, is that it’s so relentlessly nice. Creator-performers Barbara Gehring and Linda Klein have worked together for many years; at some point, they read their early diaries to each other and were transfixed…
The sophistication and cynicism of the typical film-goer these days means that cinematic simplicity is damnably hard to pull off — but Iranian director Majid Majidi manages to do so anyhow with The Song of Sparrows, which opens on Friday, April 24. The tale revolves around Karim (Reza Naji), a…
The Soloist opens with newspapers thudding onto lawns, a quaint sight that makes the movie practically a period piece, even though the events that inspired it took place within the last four years. An old-fashioned tale for a newfangled world, the movie turns on a series of columns begun in…
It’s fascinating to observe the different acting styles in the Germinal Stage production of The Eccentricities of a Nightingale, and to think about the ways they work with Tennessee Williams’s characters and dialogue. When Brian Landis Folkins, who plays John Buchanan, walks on stage, you’re momentarily disappointed, so nondescript and…
The work of three acclaimed international directors comes together in the anthology film Tokyo!, showing tonight as part of the International Film Series. In Boulder Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), Leos Carax (Pola X) and Bong Joon-ho (The Host) each contribute pieces that offer widely divergent and…
Adam Perry used to feel doomed by a speech impediment that left him unable to talk on the phone or even in person — until he discovered writing as a way to communicate. That might be why his poetry is so “unabashedly experiential,” says the 28-year-old Naropa University student and…
Denver takes to the streets at 7 a.m. today as StandUp For Kids kicks off its fourteenth annual 48 Hours on the Streets event. The national nonprofit has a network of more than 5,000 volunteers across the country who reach out to homeless and at-risk youth in more than thirty…
Troy Rarick was on his way to Moab to manage the Poison Spider bike shop when he passed through the town of Fruita, just outside Grand Junction. There he saw a 100-year-old building for sale that had been a honey house, and a furniture store/mortuary before that. “And being the…
The sophistication and cynicism of the typical film-goer these days means that cinematic simplicity is damnably hard to pull off — but Iranian director Majid Majidi manages to do so anyhow with The Song of Sparrows, which opens on Friday, April 24. The tale revolves around Karim (Reza Naji), a…
