The isolated community of Gee’s Bend is tucked away in a U-shaped curve of the Alabama River. Its inhabitants descend from slaves, many of whose relatives literally walked from North Carolina with their slave masters in the 1840s. However, from this history of strife, hatred and isolation grew world-famous quilts…
As part of the ongoing effort to build a lasting peace between the jocks and the nerds, the University of Colorado at Boulder presents the latest in its series of weekend science lessons, this time demonstrating the Physics of Baseball at Mile High. The free lecture, which begins today at…
Storyteller Peninnah Schram and musician Gerard Edery are the two main players in The Minstrel and the Storyteller, An Exotic Journey. “Each of them has their own proficiency, their own expertise and their own magic in their own fields,” notes fellow storyteller Cherie Karo Schwartz, a longtime friend of Schram’s…
Comprising 23 acres of farmland along Sand Creek in Stapleton, the Urban Farm is many a young Denverite’s first exposure to cultivation, animal husbandry and riding horses. What began fifteen years ago as a horsemanship-education program has become a full-service agricultural/environmental education facility that serves thousands of urban youths. Although…
It’s one of the most spectacular wildlife migrations left in our ever more industrialized world, and one of the biggest in the Continental United States. If you’ve never seen thousands of Greater Sandhill Cranes take to the air all at once, swooping and crying out, it’s hard to explain. Among…
Eyes Caught Fire percussionist Joel Brown’s bass drum head reads, “Keep Hope Alive.” For any other band, that might come off as a cheap slogan. But from this Colorado Springs quintet, it’s anything but. The act’s collective voice contains a dark, lustrous majesty that whispers like the spectre of buried…
Even though I don’t like beer (and especially not green beer), St. Patrick’s Day is my favorite holiday. First, because I actually am Irish. Second, because green is my favorite color — and incidentally, with my Irish coloring, I look pretty damn good in it. Third, because who couldn’t use…
To the uninitiated viewer, Austrian director Michael Haneke might best be described as modern cinema’s master of the unkind rewind. In the opening scene of his second theatrical feature, Benny’s Video (1992), we see crude camcorder footage of a farm pig being shot with a cattle gun during a family’s…
I have a date with Mike Jones. Actually, it’s a threesome — with Paula Woodward. Tomorrow night, Jones, the gay escort/masseuse who made headlines in November 2006 when he revealed the identity of one of his regulars, will take the stage in Naked Before God: Exposing the Hypocrisy of Ted…
The final production of Colorado Ballet’s 47th season is The Repertory Series, a collection of contemporary works. First up is Anthony Tudor’s “The Leaves Are Fading,” followed by Lar Lubovitch’s “…smile with my heart,” set to Richard Rodgers’s music, and Dwight Rhoden’s high-energy “Straight Line to Never.” The program runs…
Obituaries are the final stories of our lives. And while they vary in length and detail, even the most cut-and-dried provoke questions about their subject. Poet Hilary DePolo based a series of 32 poems on obituaries she researched, then turned them over to artists who created pieces for Character Sketches,…
Every day Westword receptionist Steve Burge gives you the fashionable view from the front desk. Remember Joan Collins’ portrayal of Dynasty’s villainess, Alexis Carrington Colby? I don’t. I wasn’t allowed to watch it as a child. But I have since seen some reruns and she’s fabulous. And what makes her…
On the all-important neighborhood catwalk, that Bugaboo stroller-wear is so 2007. To up your little one’s luxe factor, it’s best to drape him in this season’s hottest look: the Yummsie, crafted by maestro Ray Young Chu of the fashion-forward Denver art collective the Yummies. Here’s an effortlessly chic example from…
Every day Westword receptionist Steve Burge gives you the fashionable view from the front desk. Poor Drew. Like many of us, Mr. Bixby, our “Drunk of the Week” writer, has not yet adjusted to Daylight Saving Time. Here we see him sleeping under his desk, another victim of what I…
Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day, Curious Theatre brings us a show by Martin McDonagh, the dark mastermind who wrote the recently released film In Bruges starring Colin Farrell. In his gruesome black comedy, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, McDonagh explores the life of a ruthless Irish Liberation Army Enforcer…
“Based on a true story,” brags The Bank Job before diving into the clear blue water of the Caribbean, where, in 1970, a topless woman frolics with two swimming mates — just another day in Paradise. The trio retires to a hotel room for a sweaty, breathless afternoon quickie, which…
For an obscure tale of a virginal London governess who discovers her true calling running interference for a giddy night-club singer, the 1938 English novel Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day has enjoyed a pretty lively renaissance. Knocked off in six weeks by Newcastle homemaker Winifred Watson while she washed…
To all the gun-toting video-game bad guys out there: Please stop standing next to exploding barrels. Seriously now. Of the hundreds of places you could squat and shoot, you and your henchman pals always camp beside the neon-orange canister with “Flammable!” painted on the side. Really, we don’t need your…
“Fresh City Life is making a real effort to create programming that doesn’t simply inform and entertain people, but also gives them the space to create something,” says the Denver Public Library’s Audrey Sprenger. That’s the idea behind the EyeBelieve: Independent Filmmakers Competition, which kicks off Saturday, March 8, with…
Into the Wild(Paramount)Sean Penn waited a good decade before adapting Jon Krakauer’s book about Chris McCandless, who graduated college in 1990, then disappeared into the American unknown, re-emerging as Alexander Supertramp before his final, tragic farewell in the Alaskan wilderness in ’92. Penn’s patience is evident in every finely wrought…
Archie’s Funhouse: The Complete Series (Classic Media) Army of the Dead (Maverick) Arranged (Film Movement) Ben 10: The Complete Season 3 (Turner) Billy Wilder Film Collection (MGM) Dead Moon Rising (Anthem) Half Moon (Strand) Lonesome Dove: Season One (Echo Bridge)Magnum P.I.: The Complete Eighth Season (Universal) Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium…
Halfway through her best-selling Nickel and Dimed, a book examining the minimum-wage way of life, author Barbara Ehrenreich stops for a disquisition on cleaning other people’s toilets. “The first time I encountered a shit-stained toilet as a maid, I was shocked by the sense of unwanted intimacy,” she writes. “A…
