There are a few giants who stand at the forefront of downtempo electronic music: Portishead, Massive Attack, Zero 7, and Peter Kruder and Richard Dorfmeister — and, of course, DJ Mark Farina, who’s been steadily releasing house-style mixes and morphs of downtempo, hip-hop, jazz and soul with his Mushroom Jazz…
Next time you try to pull on one of those lightweight, modern-day wonder-fabric girdles over your bulges, just remember this: In Victorian times, women’s undergarments — at least those of self-respecting, well-appointed fine ladies — typically weighed seven to ten pounds, and women often wore up to thirteen layers under…
Kity Ironton of Pandora Jewelry loves her customers. In fact, like many independent retailers, she’s not complaining about hard times. “Even with the economy the way it is, Denver has supported us, so we want to show our support for them,” she says, and that’s why Ironton and her crew…
Not every artist’s work is musical-revue material, but there’s no question that songwriters Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller are more than up to the revue challenge. Their own personal revue, Smokey Joe’s Cafe: The Songs of Leiber and Stoller, won a Tony Award in 1995, and its soundtrack won a…
Denver’s long-lived Chicano theater ensemble, Su Teatro, will step up next week to receive the Mayor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts. But the group is also moving closer each day toward the realization of a dream: a new facility taking shape on Santa Fe Drive. And if every step…
Amazingly enough, in 2004, Russ Gershon’s adventurous Either/Orchestra jazz ensemble became the first American big band to play Addis Ababa since Duke Ellington hit Ethiopia in 1973, spawning a cross-cultural collaboration with some of the East African nation’s top musicians that continues to this day. That includes a partnership with…
Not satisfied with being a sleepy little town, the burg of Lafayette, Colorado, seems to spend an inordinate amount of time looking for ways to distinguish itself by celebrating the ordinary and the unexpected. Oatmeal, peaches, itself: Lafayette’s got an annual paean to each, but nothing quite tops this month’s…
“One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star,” Friedrich Nietzsche wrote. It’s a quote that comes to mind when considering that nature, while chaotic, is also what makes life possible on this small rock. “Natural disasters are manifestations of the earth’s…
At least 25 percent of seasonal gift cards purchased in the United States each year are for Valentine’s Day, according to the Greeting Card Association, while more than 36 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolate will be sold on Cupid’s behalf, says the National Confectioners Association. Necco — manufacturer of Sweethearts…
Nothing But the Truth, the opening-night attraction for the Thursday, February 12, launch of the Boulder International Film Festival, is an old-fashioned Hollywood flick in the best sense of the term. The plot, about a reporter (Kate Beckinsale) who goes to jail à la New York Times lightning rod Judith…
Two years ago, Challenge Aspen ski instructor Chris Bove was in a freak ski accident the night before the annual Buttermilk Uphill Race and Walkathon. He spent seven hours in surgery and died at 1 a.m., just hours before the race was set to begin. So it’s only fitting that…
In his latest work, first generation Cuban-American artist Anthony Giocolea explores his heritage and the sense of loss he feels for family members he’s never met in a number of pointedly fleeting ways. In a new exhibit by Giocolea at the Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver, Related, this self-reflective process is…
What makes an ale a wild ale? Perhaps it’s the barrel you age it in, or the yeast that ferments it into a complex brew. In the case of Avery Brewing Company’s new Brabant Barrel-Aged Wild Ale, one supposes it’s both: Named for a seminal draft horse that spawned what…
If you’re looking for the hippest, most fashion-forward design in Denver, Fancy Tiger’s monthly Denver Made trunk show is a good place to start. Featuring some of the most innovative works in the city, the monthly show is an attempt to get designers and their wares in front of the…
For many years, I’ve abided by a belief — and hit readers over the head with it — that our best local artists represent a collective cultural treasure. They continue to create things that are as interesting and accomplished as anything being done anywhere in the country. I know this…
Damien Hirst. You’d have to be living under a rock — or have absolutely no interest in contemporary art — not to know that Damien Hirst is a superstar, and that everything he makes is worth millions of dollars apiece. The tight solo at MCA Denver (formerly known as the…
Dusty and the Big Bad World. We all know about the Christian right’s attacks on textbooks, teachers, Halloween, the arts, public television and the words “happy holidays.” And we know what happened when these people finally got their very own president. Dusty and the Big Bad World is based on…
Shocking but true: Eden’s title is meant ironically. Director Declan Recks’s film, which opens on Friday, February 6, at the Starz FilmCenter, focuses on Billy (Aidan Kelly) and Breda (Eileen Walsh), a working-class Irish couple whose relationship is frequently described by their friends as ideal even though no evidence of…
If Alice in Wonderland were retold by the Mad Hatter, it might look something like Henry Selick’s 3-D, stop-motion Coraline, in which the bored, blue-haired eleven-year-old of the title (voiced by Dakota Fanning) travels through the looking glass and ends up in a world that strangely resembles her own —…
The smirky, overbearing, and subliminally hostile romantic primer He’s Just Not That Into You — which sold a regrettable two million copies when it was published in 2004 — seizes on some partial truths about the gender wars and blows them up into evolutionary gospel, as follows: Since cave-dwelling times,…
There’s no evidence that Abraham Lincoln ever set foot on the land that would become Colorado while he was alive, but the late president is making plenty of appearances here this week. After a special, one-hour sneak preview of the PBS film Looking for Lincoln, Colorado state historian Bill Convery,…
Okay, not the actual born-in-1935, died-in-1977 King Elvis Presley, but the next best thing: Velvet Elvis, aka Chris Barber. And he lives every Wednesday night at 8 p.m. at Lannie’s Clocktower Cabaret, 1601 Arapahoe Street, where he shakes his pelvis during the “Love Me Tender” show. “Have you ever seen…
