Arts & Culture

Don’t expect a prim-and-proper ode to the Bard of Avon at the free Shakespeare Festival at Skyline Park, 16th and Arapahoe streets, starting tonight at 6 p.m. Soliloquies may get a little lively, and actors may get feisty with off-stage prompters. After all, the players involved haven’t rehearsed the plays…

Dan Witherspoon may have left the dating scene a long time ago (try fourteen years!), but he knows a thing or two about stirring up romance. First, food and wine are sexy. And second, orchestrated meet-and-greets can quickly turn into awkward disasters unless there’s a welcome distraction. That’s why he’s…

In order to understand Not the Same Old Song and Dance, you need to be familiar with Open Dialogue XI: Global Connections to Cultural Democracy. This national multicultural arts conference unites arts organizations, academics, cultural policy-makers and other movers and shakers to discuss global connections and issues affecting communities of…

Amateur filmmakers, students and brothers Steven and Brian Amos last year organized the Door County Student Film Festival in their home town of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, and were blown away by both the quality of submissions from around the world and the sold-out screenings. So this year they turned their…

Bikes are so damn hot right now. It seems like every day, there are two dozen more mad cyclists racing their cut-down single-speeds up and down the avenue. And they are all so sexy, those gear-shifting girls with their big shades and those grungy bike boys with their jeans rolled…

One night maybe a year ago, I saw Ben Kronberg do a comedy set before a midnight movie at the Esquire. He pulled out his little notebook and subtly asked the audience if anyone had ever paid for an abortion with their frequent-flyer credit card: “How many abortions does it…

The Colorado hills are alive with the sound of music every summer, in venues as spectacular as Red Rocks Amphitheatre and as posh as the Aspen Music Festival tent. But the most charming setting of all could be the Cherokee Ranch & Castle, the stunning property in Sedalia that longtime…

It’s hard being a writer. For one thing, your family is always asking you what you’re doing with your life, and your girlfriend just can’t understand why you want to spend more time with your computer than with her. It’s a tough sell on all sides, so anyone who writes…

Whether you make folk art or simply admire it, the inaugural San Luis Valley Folk Arts and Fiber Festival has something for you: A combined artisan networking event and vendor fair, the weekend fest in Monte Vista (at the junction of U.S. highways 285 and 160, near the Great Sand…

Though already in step with the fast-rising local-food movement, Whole Foods Markets is taking its commitment to regional growers and food producers even more seriously this summer by hosting the Farmers and Food Artisans 2007 Road Tour, a moving feast of a farmers’ market that includes some of the best…

Michael Moore’s new film, Sicko, has refocused attention on America’s health-care system, an enormous mess most officials lack the political will to tackle. But a former executive is eager to offer his diagnosis: ex-Colorado governor Dick Lamm, whose new book, Condition Critical: A New Moral Vision for Health Care (co-written…

It’s an age-old lovers’ conundrum: You want to gastronomically spice things up with your significant other, but lately your kitchen creations have been less than romantically inspired. Doing the whole Lady and the Tramp pasta-slurp thing is so passé. Sushi is sexy, but not when you have to make it…

When Urban Peak first opened its doors in 1988 to shelter homeless youth, those doors were to a church and revealed a harbor of cots. Since then, Urban Peak has come to stand solidly and sustainably on its own two feet, offering kids both shelter and access to an array…

Men, I have an unfortunate news flash for you: When my girlfriends and I get together for some one-on-one time, we do not have pillow fights in bras, panties and heels. And we don’t always have time to indulge in a bubble bath while ridding our legs of unwanted hair,…

We can’t all be professional motorcycle adventurers. And even if we could, we wouldn’t be able to compete with the inimitable Dr. Gregory Frazier, who’s circumnavigated the globe — solo, by motorcycle — four times. But that doesn’t mean we should give up entirely. In honor of today (Ride to…

The annual Colorado Irish Festival kicks off tonight, proving once again that practically everybody’s got a little Irish in them — or wishes they had. “It’s going to be kind of like a TGIF party, Irish-style,” explains the fest’s Pat McCullough. Get there early (admission is free from 5 to…

Paul and Pifuka Hardt of RiNo’s so-hip P Design Gallery are in a tizzy. She’s pregnant, they’re in the process of expanding their showroom, and they’re preparing for a new show that’s near and dear to their hearts: an all-Colorado home-furnishings design fest showcasing about ten or so companies —…

Have you ever been driving and just never, ever wanted to stop? Even with gas at three bucks a gallon, the increasingly expensive open road means more to us than just so much distance from point A to point B. In a kind of pointillist fashion, Tales From the Great…