Waking Art: James André Paints His Lucid Dreams

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. James André says he’s one of the twelve or thirteen people in…

Photos: Nan Desu Kan 2014’s Best Costumes on the Contest Runway

Nan Desu Kan 2014’s greatest cosplay moment — the annual costume contest — unfolded onstage at the Denver Marriott Tech Center on Saturday night, with anime-inspired wings and weapons galore. Photographer Marissa Shevins recorded the action with these images and more. See also: Photos: The Cosplayers of Nan Desu Kan…

Three Things to Do for Free in Denver, September 15-18

Last week’s weather gave us a preview of the frigid temperatures to come. So this week, why not check out a free knitting class — so you can make yourself a scarf before the snow really flies. You can also learn the history of a couple of cemeteries and party…

Photos: The Cosplayers of Nan Desu Kan 2014

Step inside the Nan Desu Kan anime convention, the region’s largest, and you walk into a magical universe of gaming, screenings, fan panels, concerts and detailed costumery created in allegiance to favorite characters from the far-fetched world of anime. There’s nothing else like it, as these images by photographer Danielle…

Zombies, Booze and the Pub Crawls of the Dead

Zombies and booze go great together because, well, booze goes great with everything. Besides, when the undead are clawing at your door, doing their best to feast on your entrails and you’re trapped inside with no possible escape, do you want to face that fate sober? No. No, you do…

Gallery Sketches: Four Shows to See in Metro Denver September 12-14

This weekend’s gallery openings include works that reimagine inner and outer landscapes, inspire creativity in youngsters or just plain look good on a wall. Highbrow, lowbrow and everywhere in between, there’s something for everyone in Denver this weekend…. See also: Golden Opportunity: Jenny Morgan at Plus Gallery…

Skanks Documents a Community Drag Musical in Birmingham, Alabama

Even in the most conservative areas, theater provides a home for the misfits, the oddballs, the outcasts and the rebels. In his new documentary, Skanks, David McMahon follows a group of performers as they prepare to perform Billy Ray Brewton’s raunchy drag musical Skanks in a One Horse Town, in…

Relive the Awesome Horror of Phantasm Sunday

I will never forget the first time I saw Phantasm. How could I? It haunted me for years afterward. I was maybe seven or eight years old, surely no older than nine. My dad was watching it, probably on HBO, because I think it was the only movie channel we…

Playbill: Four Plays to See in Denver This Week

The fall theater season is in full swing. This weekend you can send off a local production as it takes to the road, re-view an old stage classic or catch the world premiere of a new play from a local playwright — and there’s an old-fashioned musical, too. Here’s a…

The Five Ugliest Sculptures in Denver

I’m a big fan of public art, and Denver has commissioned some standout pieces over the years that really spiff up the city. But sometimes things go awry when politics and civic bureaucracy meet the art world. While some of the people who serve on selection committees may have artistic…

Tim Heidecker on Bedtime Stories and touring with Dr. Steve Brule

Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim are enfants terrible whose rhythm, aesthetic and sensibilities have informed everything from cinema to sketch comedy and deodorant advertising in the years since Tom Goes to the Mayor debuted on Adult Swim nearly a decade ago. Gallows humor abounds in their new series Bedtime Stories, a hilariously macabre horror-comedy anthology which makes its Adult Swim debut on September 18. The show is a huge step forward for the duo, who’ve mounted their second national live tour in preparation for the premiere. What sets this tour apart from their last is the inclusion of Dr. Steve Brule on the lineup. Played by character actor John C. Reilly, who relishes each awkward syllable in the role of a profoundly unsettling physician with dubious advice, Brule first appeared in interstitial segments on Awesome Show and then spun off into his own series, Check it out with Dr. Steve Brule. Westword caught up with Heidecker before his Paramount theater show for a brief phone interview.

Bill Hader on Digging Deep in The Skeleton Twins

Four years ago, comedian Bill Hader told his agent that he wanted to do a drama. It took a while. “I used to think typecasting wasn’t a thing, and it totally is,” Hader admits. “That’s an industry feeling: ‘How can I take that person seriously when I know they’re capable…

The Future Is Even Stranger Than Terry Gilliam Thought

“I’ll always be anti-authoritarian, as long as I live,” says Terry Gilliam, the comic provocateur who’s been taking aim at the establishment for over four decades. The only thing that changes: his targets. In Life of Brian, it was religion. In Brazil, the government. And in his latest film, The…

Now Showing

Joseph Coniff (in parenthesis). This is only the second presentation to open at the Rule Gallery since the untimely death of Robin Rule late last year. It was important to Rule that the gallery continue, so three longtime associates — Valerie Santerli, Rachel Beitz and Hilary Morris — are carrying…