Most people know Henry Rollins as the former frontman of Black Flag and Rollins Band. His 1994 memoir, Get In the Van, should be required reading for anyone coming up as a musician. A writer, spoken-word performer, actor, world traveler, radio-show host, cultural commentator and activist today, Rollins has kept himself impossibly…
Some people complain about sequels to beloved movies, while others welcome the possibility that a part deux might be even better than the first. Jason Moore’s Pitch Perfect, which riffed on the highs and lows of an all-woman college a cappella group, became a surprise hit upon its release in…
This feels like a film that shouldn’t exist. How is George Miller’s bonkers, exhausting, no-future smash-’em-up Mad Max: Fury Road not one of those almost-was boondoggles mourned and dreamed of by fans, a revered director’s impossible vision that, thanks to the un-stout hearts of studio bean counters, never actually vaulted…
Iris Apfel isn’t exactly a household name, unless we’re talking about very stylish households. From 1950 to 1992 Apfel ran Old World Weavers, the business she co-founded with her husband, Carl, which faithfully re-created antique textiles for use in home decorating: From grand Park Avenue drapes to demure White House…
You can find art all over town — not just on gallery walls. In this series, we’ll be looking at some of the local artists who serve up their work in coffeehouses and other non-gallery businesses around town. Longtime children’s illustrator Christian Musselman recently launched a fine arts career with…
Dig into another installment of a tried-and-true mystery series with a Western theme, take off into a homegrown fantasy/sci-fi realm or get lost in the first novel from a multi-talented author. There’s a lot to explore on the local literary scene this week. Craig Johnson, Dry Bones Tattered Cover Colfax…
Hopefully you got to treat mom over the weekend, but now it’s time to treat yourself. This week, treat yourself like a princess and build a beer castle, discuss issues over some coloring books and go behind the scenes of sketch comedy all for free. Check out the Westword calendar…
Westword will publish its third annual comics issue on May 28, 2015 — and you can be a part of it. We’re accepting submissions from any Colorado artist who wants to create a cartoon about life in the Centennial State — whether it focuses on good beer, bad buildings or…
Denver artist Sabin Aell’s airy layered resin pieces look soft and cloud-like as they float across a wall so free and easy, but the process she uses to create them is anything but. In advance of Aell’s solo show The Buoyancy of Nothing, which opens this evening (May 8) at…
The third chapter of the Stanley Film Festival has concluded at the haunting Stanley Hotel in Estes Park and, like its predecessors, it was a thrill-a-minute ride, complete with scares aplenty and an increasing body count (via its glorious horror programming), that finished with a bloody, satisfying conclusion…until the next…
New and old horizons, great masters and comic book art all share the stage this week in Denver galleries. Here’s a sliver of what’s happening on the art scene over the weekend. Craig Robb: Oddities, obscura and other vague visual references Pirate: Contemporary Art May 8 through 24 Opening Reception:…
Sitting on a park bench or in your backyard is something you can do for free, but how about sitting on the back of a motorcycle? This week, that is free, too, and it might be a little more entertaining. You can also peruse flea markets art galleries and even…
When Denver artist Judy Anderson teamed up with Mark Smith of East West Partners to found the PlatteForum artist-in-residence program in 2002, their goal was to provide participatory arts experiences to underserved youth. The concept — which was intended to foster an experiential, rather than strictly educational, platform through artist…
Dennis Pippen, co-president of Edge, makes his Denver gallery debut there with the solo Magically Delicious, in the venue’s recently spiffed up space. The title, which is taken from the Lucky Charms cereal slogan, aptly conveys the idea that Pippen is interested in engaging pop culture with works referring to…
On a scale of one to Mad Max, how prepared are you for the end of the world? Chances are if you’re reading this — i.e. you’re an American who loves pop culture enough to read analysis and commentary about it — you’re as well prepared for humanity’s last hurrah…
#25: Monique Crine Born in Germany, schooled at San Francisco State University and Cornell, and now based in Denver, Monique Crine crosses through layers of media and techniques just to make a painting, first photographing her subjects before committing them in super-real, cinema-inspired detail to canvas. Interested in the study…
It’s tempting to suggest that if you have any interest in Iranian film in general, or in particular Asghar Farhadi — the director and writer of that shred-your-heart masterpiece A Separation — you should simply get yourself to Farhadi’s About Elly without knowing a thing about it besides its title…
One of the most inspired ideas in late-middle Woody Allen pictures comes in Deconstructing Harry, a movie about how Allen loves Bergman, hates Philip Roth, and isn’t quite clear on what “deconstruction” means. Allen stages passages from fiction written by the protagonist, a novelist named Harry; one features Robin Williams…
Sofía Vergara is built like an amphora, a living testament to the form ceramicists throughout the centuries have adored. In the fleet and gloriously ridiculous comedy Hot Pursuit, Vergara plays Daniella Riva, a mobster’s wife who needs to be escorted from San Antonio to Dallas, where she’ll testify against the…
Joan Miró is without a doubt one of the key figures in the development of abstraction in the twentieth century. In fact, aside from Picasso, he is the most important source in developing non-pictorial images. In the 1920s, Miró, a Spanish artist working in Paris, like Picasso, began to develop…
Nepal was recently devastated by the Gorkha earthquake, the largest natural disaster the country has seen in almost a century; it killed more than 7,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands. If you’re one of the many Denverites who wants to help but doesn’t know where to begin, join local…
This week on Denver-area stages, secrets come out of the woodwork as a dynasty of Chinese classical musicians gathers in a villa, California’s Proposition 8 trial is re-examined and local improv actors get down to come serious clowning in pirate suits. Ahoy, matey! Here are the details. Theatre Esprit Asia,…
