Hollywood’s Endless Superhero Summer rolls on with the arrival of Hellboy II: The Golden Army from Pan’s Labyrinth director Guillermo del Toro, but before this review goes any further, I must confess — head hanging low in shame — that I haven’t read a comic book since I was twelve…
Some say the world will end in fire, some — like Werner Herzog — say ice. Flying in the face of global warming, this profoundly idiosyncratic filmmaker leads an expedition, alternately comic and visionary, to the heart of coldness. Herzog’s Encounters at the End of the World chronicles his trip…
At the top, let’s be clear about one thing: Journey to the Center of the Earth is more a demo reel than a narrative feature. It’s a decent, if overly familiar and yawningly obvious compendium of look-at-me moments intended to show off the latest and greatest in stereo 3-D filmmaking,…
Director Gavin Cameron-Webb has set Love’s Labour’s Lost in a house in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1917, just before America’s entrance into the First World War. The set, by Andrea Bechert, is green and appealing, with topiary trees, two slim stone statues flanking the stage and, in the center, a…
I expected a lot more of Central City Opera’s fiftieth-anniversary production of West Side Story. I’ve been in love with Leonard Bernstein’s music since I first heard it decades ago, and over the past few years, I’ve listened to many gorgeous voices in the intimate and historic Central City Opera…
Honus and Me. Adapted by playwright Steven Dietz from a young adult novel by Dan Gutman, Honus and Me tells the story of Joey, a young boy who’s passionate about baseball but too insecure and distracted to succeed as a player. He’s particularly troubled by his parents’ divorce. At his…
One of the weirdest twists in the art world over the past few decades has been the way artwork with recognizable subjects has gone from being the most traditional aesthetic pose to being at the forefront of experimentation. Of course, I’m not referring to sweet and sappy depictions of animals…
In 2005, Switzerland’s premier photo institution, the Musée de l’Elysée (www.elysee.ch) in Lausanne, celebrated its 20th anniversary by organizing an exhibit called Regeneration: We are all photographers now, which showcased the rise of amateur photography in the digital age and its inevitable mutation into its own full-fledged art form. The…
Bedroom Paintings. Painting is making its umpteenth comeback right now, having been declared “dead” over and over. Of course, the truth is that painting never died since artists refuse to cooperate and won’t let go of the form; neither will collectors and curators. In a way, this is the setup…
I love zombie movies. I’ve seen more than fifty of them — including a recent stint of 31 in thirty days — and one of the best examples of the genre is Lucio Fulci’s 1979 classic, Zombie. The film is famous, or infamous, for its extremely realistic gore, including a…
In the soccer world, the term “friendly” can be a very deceptive one. It refers to a match with no actual implications, no qualifications on the line — just a good-natured gathering between two teams with nothing to lose or gain. In reality, though, friendlies are typically anything but. And…
He’s won accolades from the Comedy Works, which voted him the best new talent of 2006, and earned the respect of his funny-guy peers by getting invited to perform in New York on Eugene Mirman and Michael Showalter’s premier alt-comedy showcase, Tearing the Veil of Maya. Now it’s time for…
If you don’t know who Todd Barry is, you should. The twenty-year comedy vet has performed all over the world, honing a dry, deadpan delivery that has allowed him to say things about himself such as “The U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen said I was the best comic once”…
“A professional football team practices and hones its skills, but when it comes to game time, nobody knows exactly what’s going to happen,” says No Holds Bard player Kate Kissingford. “Our approach to Shakespeare is kind of the same thing. There’s a sense of uncertainty that keeps spontaneity and electricity…
Take some giant puppets, add a group of middle-schoolers, throw in some pyrotechnics and make it all free, and you have a fantastic event on your hands. Tonight at 8 p.m., non-profit arts organization Downtown Aurora Visual Arts presents an original middle-school production of a magical, marvelous puppet show called…
My dog hates children. Their loud cries, sudden moves and strange, short figures freak her out. She will happily lie on her back and beg to have her belly rubbed for any adult human, and she’ll tolerate most dogs — as long as they stay away from her food, property,…
Wandering artist/filmmaker and Stan Brak-hage disciple Eric Waldemar used to live and work here, showing films at the Denver International Film Festival and local galleries until he departed to study at New York University ten years ago. In between, he says, disaster ensued: His personal life fell apart and nothing…
What the heck is a Pet-o-Mat? In Colorado fiber artist Christine Marie Davis’s own words, it’s “a mini museum of tactile art contained within a rotating sandwich vending machine. It is home to 49 curious creatures that live in the remodeled pet condos awaiting visitors to touch and play with…
In the darkest of times, some turn to faith, some turn toward science, and everyone needs a little bit of humor to lighten things up. All of these elements — particularly the humor — come together in a special summer staging of Deborah Zoe Laufer’s End Days, presented by Curious…
There are two basics of summer: sunburn and alcohol. And guests at the Old South Pearl Association and Swallow Hill Music Association’s SummerFest: BrewGrass can indulge in both. The annual outdoor festival celebrates one of those summer fundamentals — beer — alongside its buddy, music. The concert features performances from…
This week’s Poets Party at Naropa University — an offshoot of the school’s summer writing program and a response to the Democratic National Convention — might be inadvertently hilarious. But for a take on the DNC that makes you laugh and think without the transcendental poetry, Avenue Theater’s Convention? might…
Local historian Phil Goodstein has been making history in Denver since 1986 with his walking tours, but he was teaching and writing about the city he loves long before then. The prolific author and orator will sign his new book, The Spirits of South Broadway (the first in a three-part…
