Turn on ABC Family’s 25 Days of Christmas programming, and you’ll see a lot of what you might expect; classic TV cartoons, claymation specials, great old movies and an odd lot of newer ones. But here’s something you might not have expected: the whole thing seems to center around the…
There are two momentous performances in the Darwinian horror fable I Am Legend. One is by the movie’s star, Will Smith — but more about him in a minute. The other is by the movie’s visual effects — not the ones that bring to life a nocturnal army of shrieking,…
Juno marks the second film for director Jason Reitman and the first for screenwriter Diablo Cody, author of the Pussy Ranch blog, which, surprisingly, has very little to do with baby kittens. At first Juno threatens to choke on its own catchphrases — like when The Office’s Rainn Wilson, cameoing…
Punk died, the Silver Jews sang, the first time a kid shouted “Punk’s not dead!” The words are never uttered in Julien Temple’s Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten, and maybe that’s why you come away from this epic doc feeling hopeful about the health of punk’s lingering ideals. Piecing…
In Starting Out in the Evening, a new film by Andrew Wagner, a pneumatic graduate student spreads honey over the face of the elderly New York novelist she’s trying to seduce. Later, the two will lie down on his bed with their hands by their sides, and later still, he…
At a Guitar Hero tournament a few months back, one kid complained to me that Expert Mode is “too easy.” Then he demonstrated the game’s secret Hyper Speed mode. My pupils nearly ruptured at the sight of him as he navigated the light-speed stream of colored notes; it looked like…
Beverly Hills 90210: The Third Season (Paramount) Big Love: The Complete Second Season (HBO) Born Killers (Lionsgate) The Boston Red Sox 2007 World Series Collector’s Edition (A&E) The Conscientious Objector (Cinequest) Dave Attell: Captain Miserable (HBO) Dirt: The Complete First Season (Buena Vista) Flight 29 Down: Volume Three (Discovery Kids)…
The Bourne Ultimatum (Universal) The final installment in the Bourne-again trilogy is the one in which the CIA assassin’s true identity is revealed. It’s the origin story in reverse — how brilliant. But solving the mystery (and misery, as Jason Bourne’s among the most tormented action heroes of all time)…
I’ve already seen Buntport Theater’s Titus Andronicus: the Musical twice. But with a few honorable exceptions, theater-going has been pretty dismal this fall, so I figure I’m entitled to a little fun. As we prepare to file in, we see an eccentrically clad woman in the lobby. She’s commenting loudly…
Visiting my daughter and her family after Thanksgiving, I discovered that my two-year-old grandson was entranced by the lights outside of people’s houses. He kept wanting to drive or walk down the street and gaze; he couldn’t figure out why we couldn’t just remove the twinkling strings and take them…
La Cage Aux Folles. This is a big, splashy musical with lots of big, splashy song numbers. But unlike many such musicals, La Cage Aux Folles also has heart, humor and a good story to tell. In a time of intense mean-spiritedness and prejudice, it carries a message of tolerance…
As you might imagine, I see a lot of art shows in the course of doing my job. I figure that since this time last year, I’ve seen something like 250 exhibits — not counting the informal efforts in restaurants and coffee shops that I encounter in everyday life. It…
In 1890, Benjamin F. Woodward, a tycoon who helped bring the telegraph to Colorado, commissioned Denver’s premier architect, Frank Edbrooke, to design a mansion. Edbrooke, who had just completed his masterpiece, the Brown Palace Hotel, worked in the Richardsonian-Romanesque manner, the most important architectural style of the day. Constructed of…
American Art Invitational. Art, like politics, can be divided into liberal and conservative camps, with contemporary art representing the left and traditional art the right. But unlike politics, where the baton can pass back and forth between the two opposites, the art world has been run decisively by the liberals…
First-place Winner Broken-hearted by Chris Burns In the spring, I wasn’t feeling well. I imagined a doctor saying, “Well, you need to start taking better care of yourself. Get some exercise, be more careful with your diet, and let’s slow down on the drinking. Here’s something to help you sleep.”…
Tired of hanging out on the slopes? There are a million things to do in this fine state without suiting up and freezing your tail off! Why bother when you can enjoy a relaxing weekend at a fabulous spa and resort? How about a nice, healing hot spring? Ease those…
Running late is a bitch. It’s worse when you’re under-dressed and a tad sweaty, which was my dilemma last week. There’s a point when late turns from fashionable and sexy to stood-up, and my mark for reasonably behind schedule is 25 minutes. Racing down Larimer, I realized I had a…
The best part about karaoke is pretending to be a rock star for the duration of a song — or an entire evening, depending on how brave you are. And whether you’re getting down to “Billie Jean” for the first or thousandth time, there comes a moment when you’re hitting…
The annual Function as Fashion fundraiser will shine brightly tonight, with cancer survivors illuminating the catwalk in yoga-inspired athletic wear from lululemon athletica. The Boulder boutique is featuring the cancer fighters and their triumphant stories to launch the official countdown to LUNAFEST 2008 (a national short-film festival coming in January)…
With a French name, it’s only fitting that Denver’s Amélie advertising company would have a fondness for food. So when charged with planning a five-year anniversary celebration, Anita Ashfield-Salter thought cupcakes. She wanted to pull together Denver’s best pastry chefs to generate the same kind of trendy cupcake buzz happening…
Take a break from the onslaught of sickly sweet and sentimental Christmas music with Babushka’s Naughty XXXmas Carols tonight at Cricket on the Hill, 1209 East 13th Avenue. Sing along with twisted tunes such as “Hark, Satanic Santas Sing” and “Oh, Drive All Ye Drunkards” while Babushka’s partner in crime,…
I’m that rarity, a native Denverite, and fascinated by my cowtown’s historic layers, many of which I’ve watched overlay the old ones with my very own eyes. Okay, so it’s not really a cowtown anymore, but I’ve been here long enough to remember when it was one — or at…
