It’s a Crime

“It looks as if all of Colorado is burning today,” said then-governor Bill Owens after catching an aerial view of the Hayman arson fire in Southwestern Colorado. Although this wasn’t one of the area’s more notorious crimes, the fact that it was started by a forestry officer burning a letter…

Food for Thought

“We’ve developed these habits that we can have any food at any time,” notes David Bravdica, director of alumni and student services at the Cook Street School of Fine Cooking. Which is all well and good, but what about appreciation for in-season foods — at the peak of their yumminess…

Green Screen

It used to be that if someone called me “green,” he meant I was sick, sad, immature, inexperienced, unsophisticated or naive. Now it means I’m an Al Gore quoting, gum-wrapper-recycling, water-conserving, non-littering, canvas-grocery-bag-carrying, Styrofoam-refusing, wouldn’t-be-caught-dead-with-my-engine-idling pain in everyone else’s ass. And it’s all true, save the Al Gore bit (I…

Entertain Me

In the 1930s and ’40s, screwball comedy was an often-manic remedy to the Depression-era problems surrounding people on a day-to-day basis. With the economy once again in a nosedive, wouldn’t it be great to forget about all the political bickering, government bailouts and rising gas prices for a little while?…

David Byrne

My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, released in 1981 (and recently reissued), was an attempt by David Byrne and Brian Eno to forge new territory via found sounds, samples, and assorted Africanisms that foreshadowed a good many musical trends. In contrast, Everything That Happens represents a retrenchment, albeit an…

Seeking Art’s Funnybone

What do The Daily Show, New Yorker cartoons and standup comics have in common? This weekend, the traveling Colorado Art Ranch comes to Denver to find out. Its Artposium, titled “What’s So Funny About Art?,” will explore the ways that writers, artists and even yoga teachers use laughter to open…

Fisher of Life

Multi-talented local performer Amy Fisher was larger than life, and her death in early August sent a shock wave through the Denver community. “So many people were touched by her and felt that she was this close, close, wonderful friend that they couldn’t imagine living without,” remembers Anne Medina, aka…

Beards On Parade

Ralph Roberts probably thinks he’s seen and heard everything there is to see and hear about beards and body hair. Since he began crossing the country in May on a 38-foot-long mobile barbershop for the WAHL Let It Grow Tour, he’s seen a contender for Most Hirsute Homeless Guy shaved…

Gay Rites

If you were a gay Catholic, what would you do to foster understanding and benevolence between the church and your gay community? If you’re federal prosecutor and gay erotica writer Scott Pomfret, then you live in Boston, and you’re in a perfect position to stalk — er, we mean, find…

Give Paint a Chance

“Most of the peace events today involve marches or holding signs, stuff that I don’t think is fun, even though I love peace,” says Dana Cain, local collector, event planner and child of the ’60s. “Why doesn’t anybody do it like John and Yoko did it?” Such was the inspiration…

Monster Mash

A wise man once said, “There is nothing new under the sun.” And that’s particularly true when it comes to Hollywood, which retells story after story in celluloid form. The question becomes, then, which is better — the old version or the new version? It’s an issue the Denver Film…

Flick Pick

Thankfully for the United States of America, slavery is one aspect of our past that we have struggled with and overcome. Or so most of us think. The fact of the matter is, there are more slaves on the planet today than were taken from Africa in more than 400…

Shock of the New

Though Damien Hirst was on her radar well before he sold a lot of art for nearly $41 million at Sotheby’s in September, departing MCA director and curator Cydney Payton says the time is right to be showing the controversial British artist’s large-scale works in Denver. It’s his moment out…

The Object of Her Affections

University of Colorado at Boulder dance professor Michelle Ellsworth is like the Roz Chast of performance: neurotic, quirky, concerned with the minute. But humor isn’t her intention when she creates a new work, which invariably employs choreography as a vehicle for something much more complex than sheer movement. “People think…

Ab Fab

Sure, you can peruse Vogue’s fall fashion issue to see the latest trends, but a better option awaits you at the third annual Absolute! Fabulous! Gorgeous! drag and fall fashion show presented by the Boulder Country AIDS Project tonight at the Diary Center for the Arts, 2590 Walnut Street in…

Game On

Just as Star Wars wouldn’t have been complete without the music of John Williams, the stirring, grandiose work of Nobuo Uematsu has helped to elevate the Final Fantasy series to a legendary gaming experience. Now gamers and music lovers alike can experience Uematsu’s music live, on stage, performed with a…

Grave Surprises

Every cemetery contains at least a hint of mystery, and Riverside Cemetery is no exception. If you’ve always wanted to know just who is buried there and why they were once significant to our city, then the Riverside Cemetery History & Mystery Night Tour is perfect for you. “It’s a…

Yes We Scan

It was the turn-of-the-century Y2K scare and its threatened “digital apocalypse” that first inspired Omaha-based bar-code artist Scott Blake to develop his oeuvre, along with the dot-screen technique made famous by pop art icon Roy Lichtenstein: His first bar-code image was “Bar Code Jesus,” a pixelated portrait mosaic of Photoshopped…

Choice Words

As a pro-choice feminist, I have some choice words I’d like to share with the multitude of people who think it’s their right to dictate what I do with my body. But most of them are unprintable, and anyway, the people behind the New-York based Words of Choice performance can…

Let There Be Night

There’s something strange and wonderful about capturing the darkness, says Denver Darkroom director Standish Lawder, whether a scene is illuminated by streetlight, moonlight, or — better yet — the thousands of tiny bulbs that make a Ferris wheel glow. Tonight, Denver night photographer emeritus Chris James will lead a Darkroom…

That’s All Folk

“Folk is a bad word, in a way,” says Laura McGaughey of the Swallow Hill Music Association. “When people think of folk music, they think of old music that some white hippie wrote with a guitar.” Swallow Hill’s philosophy is to promote music by the people, for the people, that…

In the Bag

American poet Ellen Rachlin once said, “A woman in her lifetime will spend far more hours hugging a handbag than a man,” which is the only justification needed for Pocketbook Anthropology: A Treasure of Handbags, a traveling exhibition currently on view at the Boulder History Museum, 1206 Euclid Avenue in…