Considering that the war in Iraq has proven to be Washington’s shot-by-shot remake of Vietnam, it’s only natural that Hollywood has followed suit, giving us a series of Iraq-themed films that can be set neatly alongside their Vietnam-era counterparts. Just as the initial wave of angry anti-Vietnam documentaries (In the…
Ben Mezrich’s 2002 bestseller Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions was a smart narrative about…well, you saw the subtitle, right? Mezrich more or less recounted a fantastic tale spun by an old acquaintance from Boston, an M.I.T. grad named Kevin…
Do we need another look back at the rotten heart of the ’50s nuclear family? Ira Sachs thinks we do, and as one who can’t get enough of sweaty melodramas about rotting families, I’m with him in principle. Mind you, Sachs’s noticeably childless new movie is less about families than…
For local artist Duane Hess, there’s really no better way to introduce a kid to the wonders of art than through the medium of LEGO. “It instills creativity and problem solving in kids. It helps them step through the logical thinking that they need later in life to solve their…
In my misspent youth, I subscribed to the theory that Wednesday, by virtue of being the halfway point to the weekend, was a day to party. The logic may have been spurious, but it did make the week fly by. In that spirit, tonight’s Monolith Madness pre-party is coming to…
Andrea Leigh believes the treatments offered at A New Spirit Wellness Center & Spa, which she owns and manages, can help alleviate the minor tension and strain most of us suffer. But she also likes a challenge, which is why she’s currently staging a contest to find Denver’s Most Stressed-Out…
This past New Year’s Eve, the wind in my neighborhood was so bad that it downed a power line, and the entire area was thrown into darkness for a couple of hours. And though that might sound like the beginning of a “My Worst New Year’s Eve Ever” essay-contest entry,…
CDs, MP3s and satellite radio may have replaced the turntables, vinyl records and radios of decades past, but the stylish vintage appeal and warm sound quality of those old mediums is not forgotten. Today, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., you can relive the past at the Vintage Voltage Expo…
If you’ve ever wanted to walk in an icon’s shoes, a new show at Spark Gallery is certain to have your number. Myselfportraits: ode to icons and other absurdities, a series of self-staged and posed photographs featuring artist and Spark member Sally Stockhold as historical and fictional women of note,…
I’m a country girl at heart. Don’t get me wrong: I like the city, and I particularly like all the cultural events and great music you can only experience while living close to a large metropolitan area. But the noise, the pollution, the hipsters — I can only take those…
You have six minutes and forty seconds. Ready…set…go! Pecha Kucha Night (“chitchat” in Japanese) is a world-wide event that’s finally making its way to Denver. It’s like open-mike night meets variety show for creative folks of all stripes. But instead of just a microphone, you present twenty PowerPoint slides showcasing…
Da Vinci had his canvas. Michelangelo had the Sistine Chapel ceiling. We have snowboards. Yep, that sleek fusion of laminate and fiberglass streaking down the slopes has become the modern canvas for artistic prodigies everywhere. Don’t believe us? Check out an exhibition tonight of submissions for the second annual Design…
Ladies, be honest: When was the last time you gathered together your best gang of gal pals and set out to paint the town red? And I’m talking crimson — bright, blood-colored red — not merely some wishy-washy shade of pink. If the best memory you can dredge up involves…
For the past two years, the Ninth & Lincoln Orchestra has become Dazzle’s monthly house band of sorts. It’s also become something of a musical laboratory for bandleader Tyler Gilmore to try out new pieces he and other band members have written. Whether this modern jazz big band is performing…
The at-risk and special-needs children at Centro Integración de Tapalpa A.C. in Tapalpa, Jalisco, Mexico, are nurtured to bloom in many ways, but in particular as folk artisans who use recycled materials to create beautiful and whimsical papel malecho (papier-mâché) animals and flowers. Through the sale of their handcrafted bounty,…
To the Senegalese, Ceeb u Gin, their national dish, is a strong symbol of home. In that country, most workers are allowed to gather with their families for a midday meal of the intricate and spicy fish-and-rice dish. Tonight at 6 p.m. at the Denver Inner City Parish, 1212 Mariposa…
Poor Felix Gomez. When we first met the paranormal private detective in Denverite Mario Acevedo’s debut novel, The Nymphos of Rocky Flats, he’d returned from a tour of duty in Iraq as a vampire and was attempting to discover what was behind a murderous conspiracy and outbreak of nymphomania at…
David Beckham is less an athlete than a cult of personality. With a reported $250 million-dollar contract with the Los Angeles Galaxy, Becks — as the British tabloid media has dubbed him — was supposed to popularize soccer in a country where games between seven-year-olds draw closer scrutiny than the…
Nerds are great. Not pocket-protector-sporting nerds, but those colorful little candies that are so addictive. Gobstoppers are good, too, but sometimes they require too much investment. When you need a variety of small satisfactions, you should definitely think Nerds. The Aspen ShortsFest took a similar smaller-is-better notion to heart: Beginning…
As you may remember, trusty readers, I recently came upon a mysterious, unsigned letter in the deposit-envelope receptacle of a downtown ATM machine requesting that I draw a picture of my “normal pajamas” and send it back in an included self-addressed stamped envelope. Since, as a rule, I always do…
Inveterate browsers haunting the scruffy book row on Broadway were left out in the cold when Ichabod’s closed, but Fahrenheit’s Books has been making things cozy again. This long-time comer at 52 Broadway, a block south of the Mayan, has blossomed from a cramped, barely navigable hole-in-the-wall to a spacious,…
A friend of mine forwarded me several pictures like the one shown here claiming that theses skirts are all the current rage in Japan. According to my “source,” the skirts are not really see-through, but designed with these prints on the back to make them appear see-through. As we all…
