Karl Christian Krumpholz is a historian of the most seamy, lurid thoroughfare in Denver: Colfax Avenue. His medium is his webcomic, 30 Miles of Crazy! where he trawls the street for stories of drunkenness, depravity, and insanity. Now he’s rolled the archives of the comic into one handy paperback: the…
It might still feel like summer with temperatures in the ’80s, but it’s hard to ignore those crunchy amber Aspen leaves accumulating beneath our feet, or the plump Gala apples brightening up waning famers’ market stands. As the sounds, tastes and colors of fall gradually hit Denver, it is time…
In 1995, after the death of her mother and the dissolution of her marriage, Cheryl Strayed looked for comfort by dabbling in sex and heroin. When that only made her problems worse, Strayed embarked on an ambitious journey to hike 1,100 miles of the Pacific Coast Trail. In 2012 Strayed…
In a week marked by openings both splashy and diverse, from the heartbreakingly beautiful equestrian cirque Odysseo to the marathon Boulder International Fringe Festival, which brings indie performances from around the world, you can also catch an evening of colorful East Indian dance, a naughty night with a choose-your-own-adventure sex…
Screenwriter, actor, podcaster and comedian Brock Wilbur’s outsized ambition matches his mountainous physique. He records at least an hour of standup every year and then starts fresh with new material and he’s coming to Denver for his autumnal joke harvest this year. In addition to touring across the country as a standup as well as writing and producing films, Wilbur co-hosts the podcast with Rob Ondarza and Joe Starr (who will also be recording his set for a standup album of his own). This is the third live album for the industrious Wilbur, this saturday at the Voodoo Comedy Playhouse. He’s also featured on friday night’s Sex Pot Comedy Aerial Menagerie showcase with locals Jay Gillespie and Haley Driscoll along with co-headliners David Hunstberger and Dan St. Germain. Westword caught up with Wilbur before his trip to town to discuss his slash and burn work ethic, balancing screenwriting with comedy, and the motherly guest of honor at his taping.
The world is kind of scary right now. The police and the military are becoming indistinguishable from one another, as they share ever more weapons, gear and tactics. Major American cities, like Detroit, are being allowed to devolve into the kind of post-apocalyptic shitholes we’re used to seeing in war…
Terri Garbarini, owner and fashion curator of Garbarini, has been a pillar of the Denver fashion community for thirty years. Before leaving on a trip to New York, she took a few minutes to talk with us about Garbarini’s larger digs in Cherry Creek North, fall fashion trends and why…
Kevin Smith is a bright guy who over the years has become a little too taken with his own persona — it’s the filmmaker’s equivalent of getting high on your own supply. No matter how awkwardly pontifical or ill-shapen his movies have gotten in the past ten years — including…
They’ve done it at last: made a Liam Neeson-stomps-some-ass flick where, as the credits roll, there’s more stuff to be glad you saw than Neeson himself. Based on one of those Lawrence Block novels that’s pretty smart but also too invested in the mechanics of rape and torture, A Walk…
The beginning of David Mackenzie’s U.K. prison drama, Starred Up, might make you wonder if you’ll survive to the end: We see a kid with a hard-eyed, shut-down face being matriculated at a new jail. Apparently, he’s outgrown his old one, and so he’s been “starred up,” or prematurely transferred…
Animal Farm. Germinal Stage’s new theater — only a few miles from the one the company left last year, and even smaller — is cozy, welcoming and workable. Walking in feels a bit like entering a time warp. The Germinal faithful, along with a few young initiates, throng the lobby,…
At the Mirror. Ron Otsuka, who has overseen the Asian-art department at the Denver Art Museum for more than four decades, is set to step down at the end of the year. His swan-song exhibit, on view now in the cozy Martin and McCormack Gallery on level two in the…
Most action movies barely work as brainless entertainment, so when you come across the rare example that works on multiple levels, it’s important to cherish it. Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 masterpiece, RoboCop, is one such film. “RoboCop is a lot of things,” says Keith Garcia, creative manager for the Alamo Drafthouse…
Terry Gilliam’s career has been marked by films that are both difficult and brilliant. His best work offers glimpses of strange worlds that seem fantastical but upon further inspection are simply twisted reflections of reality. His latest, The Zero Theorem, about a computer programmer searching for the meaning of life…
In a battle of sideshow acts, only one can be crowned the weirdest in the world. And regardless of who that turns out to be, it’s the audience that will really win at tonight’s Oh No Variety Show Vs. Faded Freakshow: A Stunt Show to the Death. No matter how…
Every morning when yoga instructor Jeannene Levinson leaves her Stapleton apartment, she sees the area there known as The Green. “I kept thinking that it would be the perfect place to have a yoga festival. It was in my head every time I saw the space,” she says. So she…
There are many easy reasons to spend an afternoon and evening drinking beer and listening to free music with your neighbors, but Paul Nashak of Mountain Sun says the fourth annual Vine Street Uptown Neighborhood Block Party and Brewer’s Olympics is about more than that. “One thing that’s important to…
In May, the inaugural Denver Flea drew thousands for a flea-market shopping spree in City Park. But for today’s fall installment, the event’s organizers are trying something a little different by teaming up with TheBigWonderful outdoor food market for a shared experience in Curtis Park’s Sustainability Park. “The first Denver…
One of Denver’s smallest but hippest galleries, DATELINE, continues its run of eclectic shows with a summer-ending, mostly local group effort, You Look Like How I Used To, which showcases work riffing on the elusive quality of self-definition and rendered in a variety of mediums by four artists. Personal in…
From hundred-year-old photographs of Colorado’s early beginnings to political materials from elections gone by, the History Colorado Center has a collection of artifacts that chronicle the state’s past from the perspective of those who lived it. During today’s Behind-the-Scenes Collections Tour and companion one-hour program, visitors will get a chance…
Jaws dropped when it was announced that up-and-coming filmmaker Rian Johnson would direct episodes VIII and IX of the Star Wars series. Sure, Johnson has created beloved genre films like The Brothers Bloom, but doesn’t Star Wars warrant a bigger name? Keith Garcia, creative manager for the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema…
David Bowie’s fifty-year career has been full of twists and turns, so for David Bowie Is, a retrospective, the multifaceted musician provided items from his personal archive, including clothing, photographs and writing. To coincide with the traveling exhibition’s opening at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Sie FilmCenter, along…
