“Growing up in Aurora, people used to always say I lived in BFE,” recalls Dave Shirley. That’s “Bum Fuck, Egypt,” for those of you who didn’t grow up in the ‘burbs. Instead of being offended, however, Shirley — of locally based Rattlebrain Entertainment — took the idea and ran with…
The sweet smell of chocolate-chip cookies in the oven always makes me feel like a kid — watching, waiting as my mom moved each soft, buttery batch from cookie sheet to cooling rack. They were always baked for some upcoming holiday or party, and I’d have to wait for one…
If there’s any area in Denver where a posse of clowns roaming the streets could seem remotely commonplace, it would have to be East Colfax Avenue. That’s a big part of the reason RAFT Colorado (Resource Area for Teaching) boardmembers decided to hold their annual Clown Crawl fundraiser on the…
If you’ve been to the Denver Book Mall recently, you may have noticed a miniature Christmas tree festooned with baby books and miniscule wire-rimmed glasses. And if your fingers just itched to take that tiny tree home — or another titchy Tannenbaum with different themed decorations — then you need…
Every year, I have grand plans for all the homemade gifts I’m going to make. You see, my mother was Ms. Crafty when I was growing up, and she always had beautiful baskets overflowing with home-canned peaches and jellies and sourdough starter. Or quilts she’d made, afghans she’d crocheted, scarves…
By all rights, 2002’s Die Another Day should have been the final James Bond film. It was packaged like a cynical best-of concert coughed up by an aging dinosaur and offered no new material of consequence. Yet here we are at the franchise’s very beginning with the third attempt to…
Fast Food Nation, directed by Richard Linklater from Eric Schlosser’s 2001 best-selling exposé of the McDonald’s conspiracy, is an anti-commercial. It’s designed to kill desire and deprogram the viewer’s appetite, but one might wish that his movie had honed its satiric edge. Still, as blunt as Fast Food Nation is,…
When a red-blooded, macho, flag-waving, Bush-voting American country-music fan looks at a gorgeous blonde who also happens to make his kind of music, one doesn’t normally expect him to pay particular attention to the actual substance of her conversation. Dixie Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines didn’t think anyone would either,…
Having animals act like humans on film is a storytelling device as old as time, so maybe it’s a little unfair to get tired of it just now. But back in the day, wise old owls didn’t sing “Boogie Wonderland.” And whereas we used to give animals human souls, now…
For Your Consideration pulls off the neat trick of skewering the movie industry while remaking it in its own image. The latest ensemble comedy by Christopher Guest and company may take place in Los Angeles, but its imaginative provenance lies somewhere between the La La Lands of Entourage and Mulholland…
The Denver International Film Festival continues through this weekend with the much-anticipated screening of Heath Ledger’s new flick, Candy, on Friday, November 17, at 9:30 p.m., and Saturday, November 18, at 9:45 p.m. Ledger and Abbie Cornish play unbelievably gorgeous heroin junkies in this don’t-try-it-at-home melodrama adapted from Australian author…
The morning after I saw tempOdyssey, I was at the Boulder Farmers’ Market buying chicken parts for stock. “These are probably still warm,” said the poultry man, handing me a plastic bag of feet. “The chickens were running around on them yesterday.” This was an image I didn’t particularly want…
The Big Bang. Sometimes it’s nice not to have to think too much, to just settle back and watch a couple of frenetically energetic guys working really hard to earn your good will — and your entertainment dollars. Oh, and to make you laugh. The Big Bang posits the following…
A generation ago, when you said “contemporary art,” it was assumed you were talking about creations from New York City, south of 54th Street — even if you were referring to internationally important material. In the 1980s, everything started to change. First there were the artists from Italy and Germany,…
There’s a charming little group show at Sandra Phillips Gallery (744 Santa Fe Drive, 303-573-5969) with the grammatically challenged title of CONVERSATIONS REFLECTIONS. (Shouldn’t that be CONVERSATIONAL REFLECTIONS or CONVERSATIONS REFLECTED or even CONVERSATIONS /REFLECTIONS?) Anyway, unlike the plodding gait of the title, the show itself flows beautifully, with the…
Breaking the Mold. In 2003, Connecticut collector Virginia Vogel Mattern donated some 300 pieces of contemporary American Indian art to the Denver Art Museum. For one of the special shows inaugurating the new Frederic C. Hamilton Building, Native Arts curator Nancy Blomberg has selected over a hundred works for the…
Forbidden Planet (Warner Bros.) Long available as faded discount product, Fred McLeod Wilcox’s 1956 masterpiece — the movie without which Star Trek, Star Wars, 2001, and, oh, Lost in Space wouldn’t exist — at last gets its proper due; this double-disc collection comes with everything but stardust and rocket fuel…
Final Fantasy is to role-playing games as the Yankees are to baseball. The series — now almost 20 years old — practically redefined the genre with Final Fantasy VII on the original PlayStation, the first console RPG that captured a mainstream audience in the States. But FF was a victim…
Brothers of the Head (IFC) Cary Grant: The Franchise Collection (Universal) CSI: The Complete Sixth Season (Paramount) Cream: Royal Albert Hall (Rhino) 49 Up (First Run) Friends: The Complete Series Collection (Warner Bros.) The Green Mile: Two-Disc Special Edition (Warner Bros.) Hate Crime (Image) He Changed Our World: Steve Irwin…
It has become obvious to me that we need to have a little heart-to-heart about what we put on our feet. Because if there’s anything The Cat’s Pajamas learned from reading Seventeen as kitten, it’s never neglect your shoes. An outfit without the proper footwear is a fate worse than…
Sometimes the art and fashion worlds collide — and they smacked together quite beautifully last Friday night at the Lower Highlands Fashion Show. Without even realizing it, Mona Lucero — namesake of the Mona Lucero boutique at 2544 15th Street and organizer of the show — presented a take on…
Alert: While in search of culottes (see below) be sure to hit Mona Lucero’s fashion show happening tonight, from 6:30 to 11 p.m. at her boutique, Mona Lucero, 2544 15th Street. Cat loves her place and her beautiful-but-accessible pieces. She can’t wait to see what’s going down the catwalk tonight…
