Ivar Zeile, the owner of Plus Gallery (2350 Lawrence Street, 303-296-0927) has often described his approach to showing contemporary art as “eclectic,” and in his case, that means embracing competing ideologies at the same time and in the same shows. The problem with this approach is that offerings of this…
Color as Field. It’s no exaggeration to say that Color as Field: American Painting 1950-1975 is one of the best shows presented in Denver in a generation. Filled with a who’s who of American art — Still, Rothko, Frankenthaler, Stella — it’s like a brief vacation into a world where…
Jane Austen is an anomaly. No other author aside from Shakespeare has sustained such modern acclaim and interest. The evidence is abundant: Austen’s success on the big screen includes classic versions, such as the 1996 Gwyneth Paltrow vehicle, Emma, as well as modern takes on Austen’s stories, such as 1995’s…
When a midlife crisis includes searching for an antenna-wearing childhood TV icon named Tamara Tomorrow instead of buying hair plugs and a red sports car, you’re either still living in your parents’ basement or you have an interesting sense of humor. In Music From a Sparkling Planet — a coming-of-age-meets-midlife-crisis…
It’s a good thing that actor Jonathan Bender has had years of experience with character acting: In Bender’s solo performance, In the Belly of the Whale, he plays nine distinct characters to tell an age-old story with a twist. “The main character is a spoken-word poet; his name is J.,”…
Vampires and werewolves have been fodder for fiction since long before Interview With the Vampire and An American Werewolf in London hit the big screen. So authors Lynda Hilburn and Carrie Vaughn will be in good company when they pair up this afternoon at the Denver Book Mall, 32 Broadway,…
once upon a midnight dreary while i pondered eak an dweary over a forgotten volume Wed., Jan. 16, 2008…
From ancient myths of sun gods to the Cheeto-orange tans of today, humans have constantly shown appreciation for the life-giving globe of super-heated plasma we call Sol. That love affair with the source of all life and energy is celebrated in SunWorks, an exhibit of art aimed at showing the…
Escargot and mimes aside, the United States could stand to take a cue from France. Here we boil twelve lovely days of Christmas down to one big blowout and a lame ditty about pipers piping and lords a-leaping. But overseas, the French do it right. The Fête des Rois —…
Everybody loves the underdog, and we can all relate to the misunderstood. It’s those very sentiments that might explain the longevity of Boulder’s cyclical MahlerFest, an annual symposium and concert series dreamed up by artistic director Robert Olson more than twenty years ago. The event — a tribute to that…
When John Harlin III first decided to tackle the Eiger (an Alpine mountain often translated as “the ogre”), he didn’t plan on his journey becoming the focus of the latest IMAX film to hit the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, The Alps. Harlin’s father, a mountaineering legend and pioneer…
What do you get when you combine High School Musical and Bring It On, minus the unhealthy levels of raging teenage hormones? The Rocky Mountain Theatre Association’s Festivention, an annual convention of theater groups from Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Utah. This year’s event, which begins today in Lakewood, will…
A “big beer” is not defined by the size of the mug or bottle, according to the experimental brewers and beer lovers behind the Big Beers, Belgians & Barleywines Festival that kicks off tonight in Vail. The “big” is for the alcohol content — a minimum of 7 percent by…
Guys are jerks — and all too often, the jerkiest guys are the ones girls find irresistible. Every girl knows it, but what to do about it? For the heroine of Fool’s Gold, by up-and-coming Colorado manga artist Amy Reeder Hadley, the traditional “eat ice cream, have a good cry,…
I’m a fiction junkie, and I read anything I can get my hands on. That said, you’ll comprehend the gravity of the following statement: One of my all-time favorite stories is that of Randle Patrick McMurphy, the authority-bucking, prostitute-befriending, lovable felon who turns Nurse Ratched’s ward in the insane asylum…
“We’re embracing our un-Hollywoodness,” says Jonathan Goldman, director of FESTIVUS, a new film festival unspooling tonight. “A lot of festivals get their programming from other festivals. But the only thing that determines if someone is in or out of FESTIVUS is the quality of the films.” According to Goldman, FESTIVUS,…
“My goal this year is to get more men to come and see the films,” notes Colleen Cooke, organizer of LunaFest, a movie festival taking place tonight in Boulder. “A lot of them think all the films will be negative toward men, but they’re not.” Luna, which makes nutrition bars…
The Christmas before last, my significant other bought us a matching set of snowshoes, with visions of snowflakes and canteens filled with hot cocoa dancing in her head. A year later, we’ve resolved to actually use them. Lucky for us, Colorado is part of Winter Trails, a free national winter-sports…
It could have been jazz, ballet or hip-hop, but my all-American daughter is a Chinese dancer, in love with the rustling costumes, blingy props and mannered, graceful steps that form the foundation of the traditional genre. Generally a group effort, the form sports a classically based choreography all its own,…
Kent Thompson’s Denver Center Theatre Company will do things big in the new year: The DCTC hits the ground running this month with three commissioned world premieres in a row, in conjunction with the annual Colorado New Play Summit coming up in mid-February. It’s all part of Thompson’s quest to…
There’s no art more cutting-edge than the astonishing landslide of contemporary works coming from China. Fueled by the nation’s political segue out of the Cultural Revolution and into a contemporary climate of industrialization and free trade, China’s artists are documenting, protesting and commenting on rapid change in unique ways that…
Recently, my pal Danielle convinced me to take a class called Cardio Tease and Tone at Tease Studio (1111 South Pearl Street), which offers pole classes and Pussycat Dolls-style burlesque workshops. “It’s for toning all the parts you tease with,” Danielle explained. As a burlesque dancer, this appealed to me,…
