Sole Survivors

Boys, The Cat’s Pajamas tried. She really, really did. She went to The 400’s Shoe Shine sneaker competition at Andenken on Saturday night in hopes of bringing you a tasty treat of edgy menswear. But Cat was sadly disappointed: The boys did not bring their A-game. Yes, it was a…

Food as Fashion

Here’s the “it” fashion accessory of the season. Available at a convenience store near you. Please pardon Cat while she hacks up a hairball…

Teen Fashion Queen

For a look at a true fashionista, take in Sophia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, which opens next Friday. Sure, all of the reviewers agree that the movie falls apart once Francis Ford’s daughter strays from frippery to history (including our own J. Hoberman, whose review can be found here), but the…

What to Wear Fridays: Brandi Shigley

So you’ve got one hell of a weekend booked. But you don’t know what to wear. The Cat’s Pajamas has you covered with our weekly installment of What to Wear Fridays, where the most styling boys and girls in town show off their favorite party outfits. Whether you’re heading out…

The Fab Four

The Cat’s Pajamas must ask: What in the hell was Heidi Klum wearing last night on the finale of Project Runway? That dress with those boots just made her look stumpy — and if you can make Heidi Klum look stumpy, it doesn’t bode well for normal women everywhere. Egad,…

Magnificent Obsessions: Elyse Burja

Elyse Burja lives with her shoe obsession every day. As the owner of STRUT, at 3877 Tennyson Street, she earns a living making sure that the women of Denver are well-heeled. She’s always seeking something that catches her eye and makes an impression. Cat certainly understands her dedication; she’s got…

For the Record

Grab your favorite music — whether it’s on vinyl, a CD or an MP3 — and head to the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, which opens at noon today and runs through Sunday at the Denver Marriott Tech Center, 4900 South Syracuse Street. The show is the largest independent audio event…

Fiddlers Three

My daughter plays the fiddle, not the violin, and it’s an important distinction: Fiddle music is a whole sunshiny animal unto itself, born of traditional roots and primeval ties to the earth. The very best fiddlers tend to channel the primordial, something I can only hope my daughter learns to…

Home Sweet HomeAid

Every night in Colorado, more than 9,000 people — including whole families, women and children — are out on the street. Laura Brayman worries about them all. As the executive director of HomeAid Colorado, the charitable arm of the Colorado Association of Homebuilders, Brayman has helped build seventeen homes and…

Print the Legend

A single photograph, we’re told early on in Clint Eastwood’s Flags of Our Fathers, can win or lose a war. But sometimes, that photo shows us only part of the story, whether it’s the part we don’t want to see — slaughtered villagers at My Lai, tortured prisoners at Abu…

French Confection

Drop-dead hip or cluelessly clueless? Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, a candy-colored portrait of France’s infamous teen queen, is a graceful, charming and sometimes witty confection — at least in its first hour. The famously shy Coppola may be an inscrutable personality, but her bold exposé of backstage royalty opens with…

Welcome to the Grand Illusion

If the greatest magicians never reveal their tricks, then Christopher Nolan wouldn’t make it past the children’s birthday-party circuit. It’s not that Nolan has anything against the old hocus-pocus, but it’s the practical side of magic that appeals to him most — the nuts-and-bolts explanation behind the seemingly “impossible” feat…

Royal Pains

The Queen is more fun than any movie about the violent death of a 36-year-old woman has a right to be. It’s also as exotic an English-language picture as the season is likely to bring. Directed by Stephen Frears from Peter Morgan’s script, The Queen is set in the peculiar…

It’s a Go

From the moment Daniel Libeskind was tapped to design a freestanding addition to the Denver Art Museum, people began to question whether a building designed by a deconstructionist could possibly function as an art museum. There was even more skepticism when Libeskind’s model for a crystalline concoction of up-ended boxes…

Negotiating Reality

Every other year, the University of Denver’s School of Art and Art History teaches a very interesting class called the Marsico Curatorial Practicum. It’s an outgrowth of the special relationship DU has with Vail mega-collectors Vicki and Kent Logan, who open their collection to the school and allow art students…

Sketches

Emilio Lobato and Martha Daniels. The solos that open the season at William Havu Gallery combine the disparate work of two of the area’s best-known and well-regarded artists. On the walls is Emilio Lobato: Desde Siempre (Since Forever), which comprises the artist’s signature abstractions. The title refers to Lobato’s self-exploration…

Last Call

The Denver Victorian Playhouse production of The Weir is the third I’ve seen in six years, and it’s easily the best and most moving. One reason for this is director Terry Dodd’s strong and nuanced sense of place. The play is set in a rural pub in County Leitrim, Ireland,…

It’s a Blast

Occasionally, it’s really 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 dollars. Oh, and to make you laugh. The Big Bang, now at the Playwright Theatre, posits…

Now Playing

Amadeus. The Denver Center Theatre Company’s glittering, sumptuous version of Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus focuses more on a clean, elegant delivery of the text than on the passion at the play’s core. The central figure, Antonio Salieri, was the best-known composer of eighteenth-century Vienna, an upright man dedicated to serving his…

Cold as Ice

Ice hockey isn’t for the weak of heart. It’s a bruising, fast-paced game, featuring large sticks, razor-sharp blades, and far too many angry Canadians. Of course, hockey’s scrappy style is exactly why people love the blue-collar sport. For chrissakes, Stanley Cup winners chug Labatt’s out of the trophy during the…

Took a Shot

American Dreamz (Universal) Till this, Paul Weitz had a stellar filmography, a career in ascension: American Pie (good), About a Boy (great), In Good Company (absolutely perfect). But this, er, satire about a dumb American president (Dennis Quaid, channeling whassisname) trying to get smart, a cynical wannabe singer trying to…

Westword’s top DVD picks for the week of October 19, 2006.

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Season Two (Universal) Anytown USA (Film Movement/Repnet) Behind Enemy Lines II: Axis of Evil (Fox) The Big Black Comedy Show (Fox) Big Love: The Complete First Season (HBO) The Break-Up (Universal) Clean, Shaven: The Criterion Collection (Criterion) Feast: Unrated (Weinstein) Frankenhooker (Anthem) Charmed: The Complete Sixth Season…