The Front Range offers a plethora of striking vistas, and when you add in a gaggle of bulbous balloons floating in the deep blue skies, it’s a view that’s hard to beat. Unless, of course, you factor in an evening illumination of said balloons — perhaps adding some live music,…
Before Christopher Guest rocked the mockumentary world with Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show and A Mighty Wind, he played lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel in the cult classic This Is Spinal Tap. The plot: Fan/filmmaker Marti DiBergi (Rob Reiner) follows his favorite band through what will prove to be a…
If you’re smart, you probably love books. If you’re not, putting a bunch of them on a shelf might help fool people into thinking you are. Either way, everyone needs books, and this weekend’s Used Book Sale at the Denver Public Library is an excellent opportunity to fill that need…
The Lives of Others (Sony) Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s film, easily the best of last year, exists on many levels: as tragedy, dark comedy, and love story — not between a man and a woman, but between two seemingly opposite men bound by the same damnation. On the one hand…
The first worthwhile online-compatible game for the Wii has finally arrived. And in at least one way, Mario Strikers Charged is just like real soccer: Sometimes it scores, and sometimes it’s just a kick in the balls. The sequel to Super Mario Strikers, Mario Strikers Charged continues the Nintendo tradition…
Broken English (Magnolia) The Ex (Weinstein) Exorcism: Special Edition (BCI) The Far Side of Jericho (First Look) The Films of Michael Haneke (Kino) House of Games: The Criterion Collection (Criterion) House: Season Three (Universal) JAG: The Fourth Season (Paramount) Man About the House: The Complete First and Second Series (BCI)…
If you love making fashion, it’s time to crawl out from behind your sewing machine, because the Denver Public Library and Fabric Lab are teaming up for “Frock Out Denver: Independent Designers Challenge and Runway Show.” Twelve designers will be accepted for this year’s challenge, and the winner will receive…
Don’t forget: The final installment of the Riverfront Park Fashion Series is tonight, Thursday, August 16. It runs from 5:30 to 9 p.m. at the base of the Millennium Bridge, and tickets are $30 for general admission, $40 for a reserved catwalk seat. The clothes are being presented by Garbarini,…
Thank you Fashionista for these amazing images from Italian Vogue. And Cat couldn’t agree with you more: These are “a great example of dry, black humor, spoofing the downfall of blonde Vuittoned junkies, and yanking us back to reality with a good silent smirk.”…
The latest comic meteorite to hurtle forth from the galaxy of producer Judd Apatow, Superbad is about a couple of chronically unpopular best friends who, after four years stuck on the lowest rung of the high-school social ladder, find themselves invited to a legitimately cool party. Goodbye, Friday nights chugging…
It’s impossible to write about David Wain’s The Ten without first making passing reference to Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Dekalog and Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life. The former, originally made for Polish TV twenty years ago and first shown in the United States in 2000, offered a modern-day take on the…
No less than Spider-Man 3, Oren Rudavsky’s The Treatment is an urban fairy tale. It’s an Upper-West-Side story, adapted from publishing powerhouse Daniel Menaker’s well-reviewed 1998 novel, first published in the New Yorker, in which a smart-mouthed, if diffident, hero (Chris Eigeman) wins a wise, beautiful princess (the versatile, sometime…
Before I saw Central City Opera’s The Saint of Bleecker Street, my knowledge of Gian Carlo Menotti was confined to the Christmas classic Amahl and the Night Visitors and his short ballet The Unicorn, the Gorgon and the Manticore, about a poet and the three mythical animals that represent different…
I was so impressed by Next Stage’s Assassins that in Westword’s 2007 Best of Denver issue, it was named Best Production of a Musical. The current revival features most of the same cast members, and Sondheim’s score — which takes on such American idioms as ballads, hymns, rock music and…
All’s Well That Ends Well. This play isn’t Shakespeare’s best: It lacks the usual poetry and insight, and the plot is highly problematic. Helena, one of those smart, resourceful, charming heroines we’ve seen in other Shakespearean comedies, is in love with Bertram, son of the Countess who raised her, but…
What constitutes Western art has been a hot topic among curators over the past twenty years. The answer is obvious when applied to material from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but it gets murkier and murkier after the 1930s. What caused the confusion, of course, was the rise of…
Denver artist Jason Appleton takes the role of the outré bohemian, the perfect pose for a longtime member of Pirate: A Contemporary Art Oasis (3656 Navajo Street, 303-458-6058, www.pirateart.org). Over the years, I’ve come to learn that although he’s always ambitious, he’s also always uneven; a typical Appleton show has…
The American Landscape and Carny. Rule Gallery has typically presented single solos since landing in its new space several months ago, but this time, there are two different shows in that long and narrow sales room. The two work well together, though, as both are made up of photographs about…
Taxi Driver: Collector’s Edition (Sony) “Listen, you fuckers, you screwheads: Here is a man who would not take it anymore.” Martin Scorsese’s 1976 vision of hell as city-of-night New York rips through the reverential treatment on this special edition like a hunter’s blade through deerskin. A second disc of eight…
Ask a random person five years ago what Sudoku was, and you’d be lucky if they mumbled something about Japanese ritual suicide. But go down any supermarket’s magazine aisle today, and you’ll find whole racks stuffed with cheapie newsprint books full of the addictive puzzles. People can’t get enough. They…
All Creatures Great & Small: The Complete Collection (BBC Warner) Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters for DVD (Turner) Back to School: Extra-Curricular Edition (MGM) The Black Widow (First Look) Charlie Chan Collection: Volume 3 (Fox) DangerMouse: The Complete Series (A&E) The Dark Crystal: 25th Anniversary Edition…
When I think of gospel tent shows and ice-cream socials, I think of small-town America, places where community actually means something, where everyone knows your name and is willing to share their hot-fudge sundae with you. Or at least tell you where you can get your own. The downside of…
