I’m an enthusiastic believer in the theory that everything is better with monkeys. They’re cute, they’re clever and we can learn a lot from them: They spend their time playing, eating, sleeping and making hot monkey love. No jobs, no schools and no wars; when they get pissed off, they…
Deciding where to land as a “fringer” — a Boulder International Fringe Festival-goer — can be overwhelming, with the seventy-plus local and international artist groups performing in 350 live theater, dance, circus art, media art, cinema, visual art, spoken word, puppetry, workshop and storytelling events over twelve days. That’s why…
A cornerstone of New York City’s bohemian world in the mid-twentieth century, leftist painter and portraitist Alice Neel left behind a scrapbook of her cultural milieu in the form of insightful depictions of the famous (among them, poet Frank O’Hara, theater entrepreneur Joseph Papp, composer Virgil Thompson, New York Mayor…
When Fort Collins’ Solid Art Collective swept into town last spring to produce Femme Fatale 2, they proved they knew how to put on a successful eye-candy-filled event. So executive director dRe Williams and her cohorts immediately started planning their next art-and-performance party: Divine Intervention, happening tonight at the Oriental…
In Kama Sutra, the one-act play showing today at 3 p.m. at the Dangerous Theatre, 2620 West Second Avenue, the show’s two characters are nearly naked the entire time. And most of the action — including “action” of the illicit kind — takes place in bed. Not to mention the…
At last year’s Fringe Festival, Boulder-based TinHouse Experimental Dance Theatre’s site-specific experiential Pick of the Fringe performance in a parking lot, Under the Hood, could’ve been subtitled “Dances with Cars.” This year, the troupe is fixated on Eating and Dreaming. Conceived and choreographed by TinHouse artistic director Joanna Rotkin, the…
The art of Butoh is anything but self-explanatory: A post-war Japanese phenomenon, the discipline is neither traditional in nature nor definable by set rules, although its intent tends to run deep and, sometimes, dark. It’s a constantly morphing, expressionistic dance form that’s often, but not always, performed in whiteface. Butoh…
There is something inherently wrong with putt-putt golf: There is usually no beer involved. Apparently, putt-putt course owners don’t like to serve booze because of the young clientele that frequents their establishments. Once again, my right to being healthily inebriated is infringed upon in the name of family values. But…
The Mesgana Dancers, who’ll star in a benefit performance tonight and tomorrow, consist of Ethiopian girls ages seven to ten. Nonetheless, they’re handling the shock of touring a country totally unlike their own “with great aplomb,” says Jane Kurtz, the board president of Denver-based Ethiopia Reads, which is co-sponsoring the…
I grew up on Palisade peaches. My grandma lives in the area, and every summer we would have to make the excruciating journey out to see her. After five dreary hours on I-70 — being forced to endure Sting and Annie Lennox the entire time — Palisade’s peach groves would…
Participants racing in the Denver Oyster Urban Adventure Race will face an unknown combination of the following potential disciplines: swimming, urban trekking/stair climbing, running, rafting, navigation, in-line skating, scootering or skateboarding and a mystery or two. The course itself is also a secret — so at the very least, racers…
So, You’re a Poet: Open poetry readings. August 20: So You’re a Fringe Poet, special edition with Fringe guests, in conjunction with the Boulder International Fringe Festival, 7 p.m., $3 at the door, www.boulderfringe.com. Mondays, 8-11 p.m., 2006…
Apparently, laissez-faire artistic independence can be far more daunting than it sounds. Sure, everyone says they want to do their own thing, but when something like the Boulder International Fringe Festival comes along and they really get the chance, they freeze up. “The most difficult part is that artists are…
If the Rocky Mountain Folks Festival in Lyons were just a concert, headlined tonight by Ray LaMontagne, it wouldn’t disappoint. But it isn’t just a concert; it’s an event where more than a thousand people camp while others picnic or go tubing or simply plant their folding chairs in the…
Brit-turned-Boulderite Gemma Wilcox takes character morphing to a whole new level in her one-woman shows. Far more than a quick-change artist, or even a Sybil-esque multiple-personalitied solo performance virtuoso, she bleeds seamlessly from male to female, flora to fauna, portraying everything from her main everywoman protagonist, Sandra, to a saxophone…
“A freeway sign at Exit 27 says this spot is the town of Ludlow, but there’s no town here, just a chain-link fence with an unlocked gate surrounding a white-walled meeting hall, a gazebo with picnic tables, and a monument that looks like an oversized Victorian grave marker.” That’s how…
Evergreen author Diane Mott Davidson has offered plenty of entertainment for whodunit fans. But she’s also served up useful lessons about the challenges of contemporary society. Goldy Schulz, the star of the series that Davidson cooked up decades ago, had to battle her way out of an abusive marriage to…
I’ll just say this: After talking with the very (whew!) excited Timothy J. Standring, the Gates Foundation curator of painting and sculpture, any art-illiterate doubts I had about the relevance of Masterpieces on Loan: Caravaggio, Poussin, Lorrain are long, long gone. “Imagine Shakespeare coming to town,” says Standring. “Imagine Mozart’s…
Buntport and Found Magazine host a bi-monthly open mic with changing themes, billed as a “show-and-tell with homework.” Prizes awarded to the top acts. August: On the Road, focusing on travel journals and postcards. Performer sign-up begins at 8 p.m. Mon., Oct. 22, 9 p.m., 2007…
Last week Cat trashed the new SoapNet show Fashionista Diaries. Yet she watched it again this week. What does it say about Cat that she’s compelled to watch an implosion in the making. Yowza. Before we get to the episode though, a shout out to Intern Rachel (pictured above), who…
I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time imagining myself breaking out into a song and dance every time a guy looks at me funny. But that’s what happens in East Indian popular cinema, better known as Bollywood, where the production numbers are one way for the…
Chris Tucker still believes in Michael Jackson. You can tell because in the very first scene of Rush Hour 3, the actor-comedian squeals melodically, grabs his crotch and throws his arms up to the heavens. All that’s missing is a giant off-stage fan to make Tucker’s shirt billow out behind…
