Design is the stepchild of the visual arts, with none of the high status of its cousins, painting and sculpture, or its big brother, architecture. This is most likely because of its ubiquitous nature. On the plus side, the ready availability of design — which is all around us —…
East Colfax Avenue as it runs through central Denver is definitely on the way up. From downtown to the Monaco Parkway, storefronts are being spiffed up, shops and restaurants are opening, and people are starting to fill the formerly seedy sidewalks. The part of the street that seems to be…
Berghaus, Douglas and Riverhouse Editions. In the front spaces at Sandy Carson, there’s a whimsical yet intelligent show called Clearing: The Kinetic Sculpture of Marc Berghaus. The pieces are mechanical, with the most clever use of machinery being “Freeway Chase,” in which viewers look through the frame of a TV…
Though Joe Preston is better known for his tenures in the Melvins, Earth and High on Fire, his most musically interesting venture is perhaps his solo project, Thrones. With this act, Preston is free to let his imagination roam free, and the variety of his recorded output under this name…
The Red Balloon was the art-house E.T. of 1956. Flight of the Red Balloon is something far more baffling — a literal-minded movie with an amiably free-floating metaphor. Chinese grandmaster Hou Hsiao-hsien, who only screened The Red Balloon after he was commissioned to remake it by the Musée d’Orsay, has…
Suppose you, living in Denver, had the opportunity to put on a play, a really good play — not here, but in the picturesque and remote town of Baltimore, West County Cork, Ireland. You’d do it, wouldn’t you? You’d toss all caution to the sprightly wind and go. That’s what…
Witness a surreal, layered landscape and alien hybrid animal forms at Unnatural, an exhibition of the works of Lauri Lynnxe Murphy opening tonight at Plus Gallery, 2350 Lawrence Street. The show marks a return to an emphasis on her own art for Murphy, who’s spent the last several years promoting…
Sleuths, grab your magnifying glass and a beer and get ready to solve Denver’s latest murder mystery. At today’s Murder on Broadway: Mystery & Scavenger Hunt, you can bar-crawl on South Broadway while deducing whodunit. The interactive mystery begins with registration from 3 to 3:30 p.m. at 3 Kings Tavern,…
The Horndribbles are the cutest cryptozoological creations you’ll ever see. Looking like the cuddly, mutant offspring of a sock monkey and Cthulu, these monsters are a snuggly synthesis of childhood horrors and dreams. The whole grotesque menagerie is sculpted of felt, fur and googly eyes by Lucas Richards and Sarah…
Everybody can run a mile. The goal for the inaugural Mile High Mile is that participants will actually run — as fast as they can. No jogging, no pacing yourself, no dogs or strollers: This is a race. But don’t feel intimidated, says Cindy Shoemaker of the Greenway Foundation, which…
Even with the Judeo-Christian precedent of Creation in seven days, isn’t it arrogant to expect to “solve many of the world’s problems” in the same time span? That’s what was on the table when the Dalai Lama invited forty Western-thought leaders to the Himalayas for a week-long retreat. The resulting…
“I’m really fascinated with body language and a basic level of movement,” explains Chris Harris, the artistic director and choreographer for Louder Than Words Dancetheatre. “Understanding movements that the general public do, and trying to take body language and make that larger and more expressive through dance.” That fascination will…
Leave it to a town like Lyons to come up with the Lyons Outdoor Games, a multi-sport event that just keeps getting bigger and better each year. “This year, the bike events are going to be a lot larger than they’ve ever been,” notes spokeswoman Jen Booth. “The biggest addition…
From early settlements along the banks of Cherry Creek to present-day enclaves, Denver’s African-American community has grown right alongside the Mile High City, sharing in its history every step of the way. That journey, speckled with tales of businessmen and Buffalo Soldiers, tap dancers, doctors, musicians and entrepreneurs, unfolds in…
I remember piecing together a “newspaper” of family goings-on to distribute to my parents and my brother when I was about nine years old. Maybe it was just the budding writer in me, but I was always fascinated by the printed word; as I got older, I traded in my…
“There are mountains you can climb that are basically just snowy walks, and they can be fine,” concedes Australian climber Lincoln Hall. “But when you get into serious mountains, the places are littered with dangers.” Dead Lucky, Hall’s new book, which he’ll read from and sign tonight, recounts just such…
In today’s digital age, albums, as opposed to singles, are seen as veritable anachronisms in many quarters. But Erykah Badu isn’t going to give up on the format without a fight. “Artists work so hard to create these projects,” she says. “They’re not meant to be 99 cents per track…
In these days of brand-conscious music marketing, it’s no mean feat for an artist to take a left turn and completely reinvent himself. Jamie Lidell, in one of the oddest artistic evolutions ever, took everyone by surprise by successfully transforming himself from IDM whiz kid to neo-soul funkster with 2005’s…
Before being elected the first female president of Liberia, or serving as a World Bank economist, or getting exiled from her home country, or spending time in prison, or having her life threatened by then-Liberian president Charles Taylor, or receiving a Master’s degree in Public Policy from Harvard University, Ellen…
Colfax Avenue may be the longest main street in the world, but the most important stretch today is just a couple of miles long, from east of the State Capitol to Colorado Boulevard. “We’re just getting people out of their houses to play on Colfax — the same old thing,”…
There is no fair description of what goes on at an iron pour. Sure, there are flames and sparks and glowing molten metal, seen through an aura of smoldering heat and acrid smoke, but heck, you’ve really just gotta be there. Even among the esoteric milieu of sculptors working in…
The cover of Dizzying Heights, “the Aspen novel” by Denver attorney/author Bruce Ducker, shows a lovely chocolate cake — an apt illustration, because this book is a completely delicious, acidic-yet-sweet romp through Aspen and all the affectations that plague not just that high-priced town, but modern society. An Aspen reviewer…
