Three Things to Do for Free in Denver This Week, August 3-6

Since you just paid your rent, your pockets are empty: Fortunately, the week is full of free fun. Catch a movie or two, party with canines who need our help as much as we need theirs. Check out the Westword calendar for more events, and if you know of other…

Danica Favorite on What It Takes to Be a Romance Novelist

Denver author Danica Favorite estimates she wrote between 15 and 20 novels before she got the first one published — so many, at any rate, she can’t even recall the exact number. Romance novels tend to draw snickers from the literary crowd, but it’s hard to think of a “literary” writer…

The Ten Best Movie Events in Denver in August

We were just lamenting the hot-hot heat of July and now the dog days of summer are upon us. Though the summer movie blockbuster season is starting to putter out, we found some great ways to spend time in the comfort of your favorite theater’s air conditioning while its silver…

WalkDenver Hopes to Make Colfax a More Pedestrian-Friendly Street

There are many things that make Denver a great city — and Colfax Avenue is definitely one of them. Running through Aurora, Denver, Lakewood and Golden, this 26-mile-long continuous strip carries a rich history of Colorado’s people and transit.  Non-profit organization WalkDenver wants to highlight this thoroughfare while also trying…

Irrational Man Finds Woody Allen Skeeved by Emma Stone’s Older Lover

At the start of Woody Allen’s campus comedy Irrational Man, caddish professor Abe Lucas (Joaquin Phoenix) drives up to a new school that’s already steeled itself for his arrival. “Of course, my reputation — a reputation — preceded me,” admits Abe. Such defensiveness also applies to his tabloid-attacked director, who…

Curious Theatre Company Brings New Voices to the Stage

Curious Theatre Company’s catchphrase is “no guts, no story,” and education director Dee Covington — who also directs and acts — has been helping young writers find and tell their own stories for twelve years through Curious New Voices, a summer playwriting festival. During an intense four-week program, students between…

Affordable (and Rural) Housing for Artists? That’s the Statewide Plan

The night before applications opened for studio apartments at the Artspace Loveland Arts Campus in the remodeled Loveland Feed and Grain building, artists started lining up around the block. “It was midnight and like minus 20 degrees,” recalls Margaret Hunt, director of Colorado Creative Industries in the state’s Office of…

The Ten Best Geek Events in Denver in August

The heat is getting unbearable (finally) – all the more reason to go inside and have some good, geeky fun. August is full of great options to beat the heat while celebrating the geek, from fantasy legends visiting Denver to a whirlwind of sharks. Here are the month’s ten best…

Review: For Phamaly, Cabaret Was a Risky But Successful Choice

Cabaret would not be a risky choice for most theater companies. The musical about life in 1930s Berlin has been performed widely on both professional and community stages since its 1966 Broadway premiere. Based on Christopher Isherwood’s writings about a decadent city and a lost young English singer called Sally…

If You Build A LEGO Brickumentary, They Might Come

How much time would you like to spend in the company of benignly kooky hobbyists? That’s the question to ask before committing to docu-commercial A LEGO Brickumentary, a largely genial but frequently wearying feature-length toy ad. The film’s central conceit is sound enough: LEGO construction kits “unlock [users’] imagination,” in…

You Could Need Time Off After Seeing the Latest Vacation

It’s been 32 years since the release of National Lampoon’s Vacation, in which Chevy Chase, as dad Clark Griswold, packed his Griswold clan into what looked like the Country Squire from hell and sought the family-bonding experience by driving cross-country to a mythical mega-amusement park known as Walley World. If…

The Mayday Experiment: Small Is Beautiful

Like many artists, I’m a bit of a loner. I like being alone in my studio, working — and with the time challenges of this project, I’ve turned into a near-hermit. This condition, of course, will be directly challenged by the Mayday Experiment, since touring with the tiny house will…