Hey Now!

FRI, 8/26 “It’s really hard to categorize,” says Andenken curator Ryan Riss, who is struggling to come up with a moniker to classify the five nationally recognized artists he’s assembled for MyMyHeyHey, an exhibit that opens tonight and runs until September 23. “I don’t want to say ‘street culture,'” he…

Defying Gravity

FRI, 8/26 The idea for AIResTANGO materialized over a cup of morning coffee three or so years ago, says Boulder aerial dancer Cathy Gauch. While she and her friend, tango whiz Deb Sclar, sipped and discussed their creative lives, the notion of mixing their respective genres suddenly seemed obvious to…

Real World

Robischon Gallery has a pair of solos in its front rooms that look so good, they could be the first shows of the fall season — except that it’s a month early. Installed in the entry space and the one behind it is JAMES COLBERT: The Long View; hung in…

Artbeat

The Space Gallery (765 Santa Fe Drive, 720-904-1088) is presenting a group show, Embody, that features three emerging Denver artists, all of whom do representational paintings based on the figure. The show begins with portraits and self-portraits from two series by Jason Blamey. In the front are four monumental pieces…

Now Showing

2005 Biennial BLOW OUT. This is the third in a series of biennials presented at Denver’s Museum of Contemporary Art. In the past, participation in these biennials was limited to artists from around here; for the 2005 version, it’s been expanded to include artists working in most of the Western…

The Real Deal

Denver Repertory’s Death of a Salesman is one of those low-budget shows that’s held together with chewing gum, string and ferocious determination. Which means it’s uneven. The set and lighting are minimal, because neither the company nor the John Hand Theatre has the resources to create the mix of dream,…

Encore

Impulse Theater. Basements and comedy go together like beer and nuts or toddlers and sandboxes. The basement of the Wynkoop Brewery 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, and…

Southern Discomfort

Like hundreds of creative Southerners before them, Phil Morrison and Angus MacLachlan have Thomas Wolfe in their bones. The media notes for Morrison’s first feature, Junebug, don’t mention Wolfe, and the 37-year-old NYU Film School graduate makes a point of distinguishing between literary inspiration and what he, like Paul Schrader,…

November Mourn

Sure you want to be inside Sophie Jacobs’s head? The poor woman’s cabeza is so stuffed with guilt and fear, so tormented by grief and what might be delusions, that to spend even five minutes in there poses an obvious risk to your own sanity. At least, that’s the way…

Catching Air

Surfers, skateboarders and desert racers have all had their moment at the movies recently. Now the motocross crowd gets its turn. Supercross, which provides a glimpse at what its makers call “the second-fastest-growing motorsport in the U.S., behind only NASCAR,” is anything but a dramatic masterpiece. But it features enough…

Bird Droppings

Even today, British kids grow up listening to stories about life during the London Blitz and the hardships their parents and grandparents endured during the Second World War. American children, by comparison, would be hard-pressed to tell you what nations fought on which side. It’s one of the many weaknesses…

Cherry on Top

Some art-house programmer would be wise to schedule a double bill of The Aristocrats, Paul Provenza’s talkumentary about the dirtiest joke ever told, and The 40-Year-Old Virgin, writer-director Judd Apatow’s near-brilliant movie about a grown-up geek who simply lost interest in trying to get laid. Both offer countless giddy variations…

Flight Risk

Red Eye may not seem to be your typical Wes Craven movie. It’s not really horror, there are no marketable monsters, and unlike Cursed, Scream 3, and other recent Craven offerings, it’s actually an enjoyable time at the movies. But heroine Lisa Reisert (Rachel McAdams) is very much in the…

Smells Like Teen Spirit

Once upon a time, Wheat Ridge was the carnation-growing capital of the planet. Those sweet days have faded like a post-prom corsage, but the city continues to celebrate its floral heritage by throwing a kick-ass Carnation Festival every year. This summer’s festivities will bloom like never before with the Wheat…

This Week’s Day-by-Day Picks

Thursday, August 18 Some people just have to be the first to do everything. If you fit that profile, grab your tickets for tonight’s Historic Denver 35th Anniversary Gala. The swanky fundraiser doubles as a sneak peek at the renovated Quigg Newton Auditorium Theatre — home of the elegant new…

Oil Strike

“This isn’t a Michael Moore movie,” Gary Austin says of his new one-man stage show, Oil. “I’m entertaining an audience in the same way that any theatrical presentation is meant to. But I want to actually inform as well as entertain. That’s how I get my point across.” When it…

Tasting Menu

MON, 8/22 Every year the Colorado Theatre Guild holds a fundraising gala, but this year’s offering, Theatre Night In, is a little different. To begin with, the guild intends to use the proceeds not for administrative purposes — the organization helps theater artists network and promotes the art form’s visibility…

Remote Control

FRI, 8/19 When I was growing up, pretty much every kid I knew received a brand-new remote-control car for Christmas. This was not because of some vast improvement in remote-control-car technology, but because by the end of the year, our old cars were so devastated through use that they were…

Tupac Lives!

SAT, 8/20 Get a hip-hop education tonight at Blackberries Ice Cream & Coffee Lounge, 710 East 26th Avenue. Tupac’s acting debut, Juice, will screen as part of the of the Colorado Hip-Hop Coalition’s every-other-Saturday Hip-Hop Flix Film Series. The show goes on at 7:15 p.m., and admission is free, although…

Kitchen Politics

FRI, 8/19 You can get everything you want except “Alice’s Restaurant.” That’s been songsmith Arlo Guthrie’s refrain for the past ten years or so. For one thing, the silver-haired folkie royal felt the autobiographical, anti-war, marathon story-song that was his signature for decades was simply too long to remember or…

Change of Scenery

I well recall the first time I saw Warren Kelly’s work. It was the summer of 2002, and I had found myself at Pirate: a contemporary art oasis. In the main space was a thoroughly amazing and absolutely unforgettable painting solo. I thought to myself, Whoever did these pieces has…

Artbeat

There are big changes afoot at Pirate: a contemporary art oasis (3659 Navajo Street, 303-458-6058). The most important one is that the co-op’s longtime home has gotten substantially smaller. Landlords Chandler Romeo and Reed Weimer are remodeling the space, putting in new walls, new doors and a new entrance. As…