Let’s Make a Deal

It’s hard to imagine President Dwight D. Eisenhower shackled in a cage at Guantanamo Bay. But if Ike were around today to say what he said in 1961 in his famous farewell speech to the nation, the radical nationalists of the Bush administration would surely not take kindly to it…

Free for All

If you plan to see The Libertine, an artful and brooding period piece about a scandalously debauched earl of the English Restoration, a few words of advice before you go: Take a peek at the sun; drink in some fresh air; consider bidding goodbye to the majority of the color…

Oh, Grow Up

A star who turned into a black hole somewhere between the release of, oh, The Wedding Planner and Sahara (or How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and Two for the Money — really, where to draw the line?), Matthew McConaughey is better known of late for shooting tequila…

Look Away

Anyone who remembers the 1977 Wes Craven film The Hills Have Eyes, which was and remains a piece of Milwaukee-beer shit, remembers it because a) they had a memorable fuck-or-puke night at the aging neighborhood drive-in; b) Michael Berryman’s uniquely hairless mug, which glared from the video-store horror sections for…

Mama Junkie

Those among you who are easily impressionable, be warned: Down to the Bone features irresponsible behavior that should not be duplicated at home. On Halloween night, as she preps her kids for costumed fun, Irene (Vera Farmiga) augments her own witch costume by . . .blacking out one of her…

C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America

Kevin Willmott’s satirical fantasy, C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America, embraces the fictions that the South won the Civil War (better make that “the War of Northern Aggression”), that disgraced Abraham Lincoln fled to Canada (so did Thoreau, Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe), that slavery now exists in all fifty…

Civics Centered

In May 2005, Denver voters approved the financing for a new multi-part Justice Center complex with a municipal courthouse and a jail to be built in the greater Civic Center area. I thought that particular spot, being right next door to the United States Mint, was such an odd choice…

Clyfford Still Museum

The Civic Center area is the cultural hub of Denver, and last week the city announced that the Clyfford Still Museum would join the other attractions there. The Still Museum, which has not yet been designed, will be located south of West 13th Avenue on the east side of Bannock…

Sketches

Abstract Symbols. No sooner had Tracy Felix taken down his show at the William Havu Gallery than Sushe Felix, his wife, put up her own, a major exhibit with some three dozen paintings. The show has an epic-length title — Abstract Symbols From Nature and the Unconscious, new paintings by…

A Shore Bet

Imagine you’re at an unnamed beach, surrounded by sand, salt-laden air and the sound of the sea rolling endlessly in and out, everything around you in muted shades of beige, silver and blue. By the weathered boardwalk, you meet two enchanting sisters. Lucy, a banker, is balanced, grounded, logical and…

Slow Fade

Some time ago, I met Kathleen Widdoes at a writers’ conference in Prague. Most people who recognize the name at all know Widdoes from her role on As the World Turns, but she is a classically trained stage actress; I remembered her as a vital, witty and beautiful Beatrice in…

Now Playing

Impulse Theater. Basements and comedy go together like beer and nuts or toddlers and sandboxes. The basement of the Wynkoop Brewing Co., where Impulse Theater performs, is crowded, loud and energetic. Impulse does no prepared skits, nothing but pure improv — which means that what you see changes every night,…

This Dogg’s Got Bite

The Tenants (Sony> Fifteen seconds into the video for “Nuthin’ but a ‘G’ Thang,” it was obvious that Snoop Dog had charisma to spare. More than a decade later, with his performance as ’70s-era radical author Willie Spearmint, it’s official: The man can act. Snoop’s shambling, searing performance is just…

Our top DVD picks for the week of March 9, 2006.

The Best of the Best of The Electric Company (Shout Factory) Breaking News (Palm) Buster Keaton: 65th-Anniversary Collection (Sony) The Californians (Hart Sharp) Curse Death & Spirit (Asia Vision) The Easter Bunny Is Comin’ to Town (Warner Bros.) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Warner Bros.) The House on…

Ghouls on the Go

Ask gamers of a certain age about Resident Evil, and a vivid memory springs to mind: They’re inching down a long, quiet hallway. Suddenly, a zombie dog crashes through a window. A ghostly howl. Insatiable jaws. Mommy, can you tuck me in tonight? The original Resident Evil pretty much single-handedly…

Hands-On Art

Red Delicious is a printing press, and it’s also a place: The printmaking facility and co-op named after its centerpiece — the candy-apple-red enameled press that gives the space life — offers opportunities and classes for artists, as well as an exhibit area. Even the venue itself, housed in the…

Merry Pranksters

When someone moves, it’s only polite to throw them a going-away party. Since none of you inconsiderate people offered your services to bid Jazz@Jack’s old location farewell, the staff took it upon themselves to make their last week at 1553 Platte Street #202 as memorable as possible. Tonight’s show is…

Hari Situation

Execution by firing squad is probably not as romantic as classic war flicks would lead you to believe. It’s likely that those Tombstone Pizza commercials are pretty inaccurate, too. A gal like Mata Hari could have used that kind of detailed information before she met her own fate on the…

Good Goddess!

If male and female energy were universally balanced, metaphysically speaking, then there would be no sexism, no archaic stereotypes and certainly no “Fix me a sandwich, woman” crap. Sure, meatheads everywhere would mourn the passing of beer on demand, but with International Women’s Day fast approaching, it’s high time everyone…

Gay Caballeros

Tonight’s 78th annual Academy Awards presentation promises to be the gayest in history: Brokeback Mountain, Capote and Transamerica are among the flicks featuring homosexual or transgendered themes to earn major nominations. But no matter who wins, official Hollywood’s version of a coming-out party will have nothing on Cowboys, Capote and…

Red Dusk

If you’re a parent trying to teach your sullen teenage kids that movies with subtitles aren’t all bad, take them to see Night Watch (Nochnoi Dozor). Like Christophe Gans’s The Brotherhood of the Wolf or Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, it’s a foreign-language film that proves that geekdom observes…

Get Down With Dave

The world premiere of Dave Chappelle’s Block Party at the Toronto International Film Festival last September had the vibe of a sold-out concert — all those spotlights beaming to and fro in front of a venerable old theater, all that pushing and shoving for the best seats, all those celebs…