Cheap and Chic Friday September 21

I am all for individual expression, but there comes a point in a fashionista’s life when she must put her well-manicured foot down and say no. No more teeny, tight, stone washed shorts, white tights with lace on the bottom. And please, for the love of Christ, put the Lycra…

Position and Drift and Quasi-Symmetries

Contemporary art is in a strange period right now. Conservative approaches, notably conceptual realism, have taken center stage, while more progressive tactics, such as abstraction, have been pushed to the side. Contemporary German, Japanese and Chinese art, which have played increasingly important roles in the international scene, seem to be…

Now Showing

Clyfford Still Unveiled. A master and pioneer of mid-twentieth-century abstract expressionism, painter Clyfford Still was something of an eccentric in the artist-as-egomaniac stripe. His antisocial behavior led to a situation where 94 percent of his artworks remained together after he died — a staggeringly complete chronicle of his oeuvre that…

Magellan

Mark Brasuell is using his solo, Magellan, at Edge Gallery (3658 Navajo Street, 303-477-7173), as a celebration of his twenty years of exhibition history in Denver; the title refers to a spiritual journey. He began his career in Denver in 1987 after moving from Texas and enrolling in graduate school…

Fever, Greed and Death

Saturday Night Fever: 30th Anniversary Special Collectors Edition (Paramount) For all its camp-classic status as the ultimate disco-fever dream, John Badhams movie truly is remarkable — a foul-mouthed, mean-streets masterpiece that just happens to feature a Bee Gees score that spreads like melted cheese thirty years later. And, of course,…

Now Playing

How I Learned to Drive. “Look at me,” Uncle Peck pleads to his young niece, the narrator-protagonist of How I Learned to Drive. “Listen to me.” And that’s just what she does. Deeply and over a period of years, she ponders her relationship with the uncle who first molested her…

Roid Rage Returns

In space, no one can hear you scream, Jumpin Jesus, this is one of the greatest games ever! But that doesnt mean you wont try during Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. Hard-core gamers know Metroids star, bounty-hunter babe Samus Aran, has been kicking ass since 1986 — back when Lara Croft…

Mid-Life! The Crisis Musical

I still have unhappy memories of Menopause the Musical and the slightly less ghastly Hats! at the New Denver Civic Theatre — shows intended to be cheap to produce and expensive to attend, shows that found instant audiences by playing on the sentimentalities and self-delusions of middle-aged women. So I…

Up and Coming

Beyond the Gates (Fox) Blade: House of Chthon (New Line) The Boss of It All (IFC) Boston Legal: Season Three (Fox) Brothers and Sisters: The Complete First Season (Buena Vista) Catherine Deneuve: Essentials (Wellspring) The Condemned (Lionsgate) Deliverance: Deluxe Edition (Warner Bros.) Family Guy: Volume Five (Fox) Flashdance: Special Collectors…

Anna in the Tropics

I have to admit, I spent almost the entire evening at the Aurora Fox either glancing at my watch or wondering why Nilo Cruz’s Anna in the Tropics had won a Pulitzer. It’s not that the concept isn’t terrific: The play is set at the turn of the last century…

Eastern Promises

I’ve said it before and hope to again: David Cronenberg is the most provocative, original and consistently excellent North American director of his generation. From Videodrome (1983) through A History of Violence (2005), neither Scorsese nor Spielberg nor even David Lynch has enjoyed a comparable run. A rhapsodic movie directed…

The Hunting Party

Until 2005, Richard Shepard’s was a lamentable direct-to-prop-plane filmography populated with such forgettable titles as Cool Blue, Oxygen, Mexico City and The Linguini Incident, the latter of which was a heist film most notable for pairing David Bowie and Buck Henry — and that’s not even a punchline. For a…

Sydney White

Just a guess here, but the majority of Amanda Bynes fans probably didn’t get most of the Shakespeare references in her As You Like It-inspired She’s the Man, so behold: This time she’s gone for something a bit more familiar with Sydney White. Originally titled Sydney White and the Seven…

Fantasy vs. Reality

In the first few minutes of Eastern Promises, the striking new thriller from David Cronenberg, a throat is sliced, a uterus hemorrhages, and a newborn baby, slimy and palpitating, emerges from the womb of its dead mother. None of which comes as much of a surprise from the maker of…

Go for the Gold

Fall in Colorado is solid gold, and with the aspens nearing their peak, this is an ideal day to Rush to the Gold. To help steer people to the most colorful sites, Colorado State Parks has devised eight trips that take drivers through a total of twenty state parks (out…

Fantastic Voyage

If your Dungeons & Dragons sessions just don’t have enough verisimilitude to satisfy your yearnings for the days of yore, head out to Red Rocks Community College, 13300 West Sixth Avenue in Lakewood, for the Fantasy Revel, a free event celebrating times gone by. Today from 10 a.m. to 4…

Back to the Future

It used to be that charities and fundraising organizations would use kickball to appeal to former playground warriors nostalgic for their junior-high glory days. But with at least three respectable kickball leagues co-existing in Denver and fifty teams of ten-plus players signed up for today’s third annual Make-A-Wish Foundation Charity…

The Bulb Botanic

“Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns,” wrote George Eliot. Although Eliot’s childhood remains veiled in mystery, I have seen the house where she was born, and there’s a cheery garden plot…

Veni, Vidi, Vinotok

Summer marks its end this weekend with the autumnal equinox — when the sun lies directly above the equator and, for all practical purposes, the day is the same length as the night. After this, the days become shorter, the air gets a chill, and we begin our preparations for…

Rich with Rumba

Havana-born trumpeter Arturo Sandoval describes his latest release, Rumba Palace, as “Cuban music for today.” The album, which was just nominated for a Latin Grammy in the Best Latin Jazz Album category, is essentially an Afro-Cuban big-band disc with some polished arrangements by fellow Cuban Felipe Lamoglia (who also plays…

Aussie Tale

Many, many years ago, after the waters of the great flood covered the whole land and then receded, there lived a man named Ridjimiraril in the place we now call the Northern Territory in Australia. He lived there with his three wives — one wise, one jealous and one beautiful…

Down South

South Park animation director Eric Stough, who appears tonight as part of the University of Colorado at Boulder’s International Film Series, has known Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the former Coloradans at the heart of the cheerfully profane Comedy Central show, since long before they were Hollywood heavyweights. “Trey and…