Life After Forty

“For me, it’s sort of a personal mission to show the North American culture — in a very entertaining way — how sensual and vibrant and beautiful women over forty are,” explains Nancy Cranbourne, who choreographed and organized Sweet Release, the first-ever full evening of performances by Cranbourne’s 40 Women…

Giving Arts the Business

It used to be that companies thought they’d done their bit for the arts when they slapped a couple of cheesy LeRoy Neiman prints on the wall, piped in Montovani and put an old copy of the New Yorker in the waiting room. But over the years, Colorado companies have…

Kurt’s Mile-High Celebration

Some of you may know that I am neither moralist nor ethicist, nor a particularly good person of any sort. I am a journalist, which means that I have tried to report facts in a way that both advances my self interest and garners me more readers than my professional…

Home on the Range

There’s a new club in town, one with a big name for itself that’s picked Stapleton, a corner of town not yet known for its rockin’ nightlife, as a home. That’s almost comic, but in this case, comic is a good thing: It’s the nation’s 22nd Improv Comedy Club —…

Ride the Line

If you’ve ridden the light rail, you’ve probably noticed the plethora of public art at the stations — unless you were wearing a paper bag over your head. And if you were just passing by one of the amazing sculptures, walls, windscreens or benches, you might have had the desire…

Smart Art

There’ll be more art — way more art — than you can shake a mint Louis XIV walking stick at when you stop by the Gilmore Art Center, 2119 Curtis Street, where the Mile High Bargain Fine Art Fair opened yesterday for nine days of business. Hosted by Gilmore, Gallup…

Cory Branan

All too often, contemporary performers who wave the Americana banner squeeze the juice from the music they venerate, presenting dry, academic variations on rootsy styles as if fearful that having fun with them might appear disrespectful. Fortunately, Mississippi-bred singer-songwriter Cory Branan knows better. On his most recent CD, 2006’s 12…

Awarding Altruism

I haven’t bought anything from Wal-Mart in more than five years. Why? Because I believe in putting my money where my mouth is, and there are many aspects of the retail giant’s practices that I don’t like. It takes a little more time and research to find the same deals…

World of Wonder

When asked about today’s screening of Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, Britta Erickson, director of industry relations for the Starz Denver Film Festival, says, “I can’t think of a more perfect film for ‘Saturday at the Movies,'” a fest event aimed at families. “It’s a film everyone can enjoy seeing —…

Season’s Greetings

Sure, you’ll be snowed by all the deals at the sixteenth annual Colorado Ski & Snowboard Expo, which turns the Colorado Convention Center into a giant temporary ski shop (with 20,000 square feet of inventory, as well as info from all 25 Colorado resorts) today through November 11. But there’s…

The Strike Heard ‘Round the World

It’s déjà vu all over again. In March 1988, Hollywood writers went on strike, and stayed on the picket line until August of that year. The issue then was pretty much the same issue as it is now in 2007, though dressed up in high-tech clothes. In ’88 it was…

New Piece Up at the CIA Wall

View a larger image of the full wall. As always, it’s back to the CIA wall where RTD honcho ACEE, HOME from BTR crew and Double from GuerillaGarden have sprayed down an homage to the Dave Chappelle character Sir Smoke-A-Lot, from the 1998 cult classic, Half Baked. It’s the little…

Get Ready to Frock Out… Just Not Yet

It was a clothes call. On November 5, followers of local fashion were supposed to get a look at what some of Denver’s favorite independent designers are up to. On that day, Frock Out Denver: Independent Designers Challenge, a collaboration between the Denver Public Library and the Fabric Lab, was…

Soldiering Through the WGA Writer’s Strike

The writers’ strike started in Hollywood today. Hasn’t been one since 1988, when a five-month strike kept TV in reruns, and may have eventually brought about the rise of reality television. So what can we, the viewers, do without our favorite shows? Here are real-life ways to still enjoy ten…

Guerilla Furniture Makers Stalk Denver’s Museums

In what has to be the coolest guerilla marketing campaign ever, Denver-based furniture fabricators Double Butter took it upon themselves to install their designs outside two of the most coveted locations the city has available to artists: The Denver Art Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art | Denver. Installation…

American Gangster

American Gangster is a movie with obvious gravitas and a familiar argument: Organized crime is outsider capitalism. As archetypal as its title, Ridley Scott’s would-be epic aspires to enshrine Harlem dope king Frank Lucas in Hollywood heaven, heir to Scarface and the Godfather. Or, as suggested by the Mark Jacobson…

Martian Child

John Cusack, who more or less began his career sneaking a peek at Molly Ringwald’s panties in Sixteen Candles, has finally become an on-screen daddy — only took, what, 23 years? Except he’s not exactly the most fortunate family man on film: First, in Martian Child, he plays a widower…

Wristcutters: A Love Story

Wristcutters: A Love Story, a well-wrought indie written and directed by Goran Dukic, has to be the kewpie doll of current zombie flicks: Its walking dead are a bunch of attractive slackers whose wounds are largely internal. They’ve got attitude. Before the opening credits end, the movie’s glum protagonist has…

Kurt Cobain: About a Son

Pity the fool hired to scribble the DVD-jacket copy for Kurt Cobain: About a Son: The film sounds horrific on paper. It’s a 92-minute experimental documentary about the endlessly lionized “alternative” icon that doesn’t include a guitar lick of his music, a testimonial from anyone personally acquainted with the man,…

Sleuth

Before he snagged the lead in Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s 1972 screen version of Anthony Shaffer’s 1970 stage play Sleuth, Laurence Olivier had, with his customary diplomatic finesse, dismissed the source material as “a piece of piss.” Two movie adaptations later, I’m inclined to agree with that assessment. Still, it’s not…

Fun With Fluids

It must’ve been a scorching summer day when the game developer stared at his thermometer and realized, “Sweet sassy molassey, this would make a helluva game!” How else to explain the existence of the quirky puzzle series Mercury Meltdown? Debuting on the PSP, the original Mercury Meltdown turned Marble Madness…

A Bitter End

No End in Sight(Magnolia)Charles Ferguson’s debut doc, easily the most important in a year full of notable fact-gathering films, assembles some of the key players behind the invasion and occupation of Iraq and seems to ask them but one question: “What went wrong?” In short: everything. But Ferguson’s doc is…