Years ago, when Denver sculptor Maureen Hearty (aka Mauxheart) created Lilyanna, she debated whether or not to develop the “awkward, gangly, ugly” skull-headed character into a children’s book. She decided against it, and considering the psychedelic world of “crazy metal plants,” kleptomaniacal jellyfish, Venus flytraps and raunchy blobs where Lilyanna…
Evan Almighty, the followup to Bruce Almighty, is the work of an angry God. At 89 minutes that last a lifetime, it’s a sanctimonious sitcom dolled up as the most expensive comedy ever made — $175 mil, so they say, no doubt choking — and marks an unfortunate low point…
Bamako, the latest by acclaimed African director Abderrahmane Sissako (Waiting for Happiness), arrives heavily lauded by the usual suspects: festival love galore, including a privileged slot at Cannes and placement in the New York Film Festival; lengthy coverage in the highbrow movie magazines; strong reviews on pointy-headed film blogs. Structurally…
A skilled actor vanishes into a role; a movie star appropriates it. As presence trumps character, the star personifies Brecht’s alienation effect and the movie becomes a vehicle — the latest installment in an ongoing career or, in the case of a great star, a public myth. Angelina Jolie is…
Mike Enslin, the travel writer played by John Cusack in 1408, could use a better travel agent. Every hotel room in which he finds himself booked is said to be occupied by the ghost of some suicidal creep or a murderous goon who left behind a pile of bodies in…
In 2005, a Seattle man was anonymously delivered to the Enumclaw Community Hospital and died shortly thereafter. The cause of the death was an internal puncture wound inflicted during anal sex with an Arabian stallion. An investigation led to the discovery of a farm where a community of zoophiles, organized…
The Elitch Theatre opened in 1891 as the first summer-stock company in the country; over the years, it hosted such legendary stars as Sarah Bernhardt, Douglas Fairbanks, Jose Ferrer, Barbara Bel Geddes, Grace Kelly, Lynn Redgrave and Vincent Price. Many years ago, I saw Shelly Winters there in 84 Charing…
The 1950s were anything but fabulous. The figure of Senator Joseph McCarthy loomed over the American landscape, instilling a sense of fear that pervaded every cranny, stifling independent thought and creating a culture so sanitized and asexual that it seemed wrapped in plastic. Men wore their hair militaristically short, and…
Every Secret Thing. Judy GeBauer’s Every Secret Thing deals with the effect of McCarthyism on a group of high-school teachers, and it couldn’t have premiered at a more fitting time. The play is based on GeBauer’s memories of a civics teacher in her high school who was called before HUAC…
The new Frederic C. Hamilton Building may have created a lot of unanticipated problems for the Denver Art Museum, but its opening also kicked up much of the commercial art world a notch or two. I’ve said it several times before, but it’s still worth noting again: There’s never been…
For a while now, Bobbi Walker, owner of Walker Fine Art, has been pairing her main exhibits with selections by artists in her stable. With legendary Denver artist Roland Bernier being the featured attraction (see review), it was delightful to notice that Walker had also chosen to showcase another significant…
Altar Girls. Two very different exhibits roughly collide into one another in the middle of the Museo de las Américas. One part, put together by Museo curator Kristi Martens, is an extravaganza of santos made mostly in Colorado, Mexico and New Mexico, and primarily culled from a recent gift to…
There are few companies in the skateboard industry with as revered a team as Flip, whose current roster is thick with living legends and mind-blowing upstarts from all over the globe. Today’s Zumiez Couch Tour features England’s Geoff Rowley, Finland’s Arto Saari, Brazil’s Bob Burnquist (who recently rode his skateboard…
In June 1947, Don Aymami, a half-Basque, half-Irish Denver native, bought Flanagan’s Club, a joint at 723 East Sixth Avenue, and transformed it into Don’s Club Tavern. He ran the place for more than fifty years before he finally passed away and his family sold the bar two years ago…
I was always so pathetic at sports that going pro didn’t even register as a fantasy. But now, with the rise of pro video-gaming as a phenomenon, I’m thinking it’s time to start a rigorous diet and training regimen and take my shot at being a contender. I’m stocking up…
A pool party with cheap, good beer to benefit charity sounds like a recipe for success — assuming the weather holds out. And Starwood Hotels’ Susan Stiff has to believe it will, because the Buck a Beer Cool Pool Party at the Four Points by Sheraton Denver Southeast has come…
Tonight’s Gay on Santa Fay event, the official PrideFest kick-off party taking place from 5 to 9 p.m. on the 700 block of Santa Fe Drive, is simply part of a natural evolution. “Oh, man, this thing took on a life of its own,” says organizer Rodney Wallace. “The original…
Seventy-plus years since her death, Molly Brown remains one of Denver’s most famous citizens, and Molly Brown: Biography of a Changing Nation, a new documentary by filmmaker Jim Havey that bows today, helps explain why, by “putting her in the context of the time that she lived,” says Molly Brown…
Sure, triathlons are awesome exhibitions of human endurance and strength, but what if you don’t want to swim, then bike, then run, in that specific order? Maybe you’d rather save that cool dip in the water for last, or perhaps you simply hate running and want to leave that part…
I remember taking field trips to Sakura Square in elementary school. I always found it astonishing that a little segment of Japan flourished so beautifully in the center of Denver. The Far East culture there is so thick that it transports you across the globe effortlessly for as long as…
Mastery of a traditional instrument beyond all expectations isn’t a new concept; Béla Fleck’s been shredding up the banjo for years, and Chris Thile reaches for mandolin stratosphere every chance he gets. But the ukulele? Hawaiian whiz kid Jake Shimabukuro — who’s been called “the new Jimi Hendrix” — proves…
Russian investigator Arkady Renko has hunted for many mysterious figures since appearing in the 1982 novel Gorky Park, but none as elusive as the title character in his latest adventure, Stalin’s Ghost. In the beginning, author Martin Cruz Smith plays reports about subway riders spotting the long-dead dictator for black…
